Episode Summary This episode of Sunny Side Up features an interview with Jill Canada, VP of Commercial at Mendaera, about her experience creating new markets and implementing disruptive technology. Jill discusses the challenges of market creation, especially in healthcare, and emphasizes the importance of change management. She also shares insights into building effective teams, lessons from both startups and large companies, and recommendations for books and guests.

About the guest

Jill Canada currently serves as the Vice President of Commercial at Mendaera Inc., a Silicon Valley-based healthcare technology company developing a platform that combines robotics, real-time imaging, artificial intelligence, and connectivity. Before Mendaera, Jill served as the Vice President of Corporate and Enterprise Sales and as a key member of the Executive team at Avail Medsystems where she led a dynamic team dedicated to supporting some of the healthcare sector’s largest and most influential entities.

Connect with Jill Canada

Key takeaways
- Creating new markets takes longer and more money than expected, especially in healthcare with its regulatory complexities

- Finding the right product-market fit and beachhead is critical for startups

- Building a diverse, multidisciplinary team with empowerment and a culture of experimentation is important for disruptive technology

- Change management is essential but often overlooked, especially in communicating with and guiding clients through workflow changes

- Experience from both startups and large companies is valuable; leadership qualities like accountability translate between environments

- Aligning with investors and boards that understand your sector and market creation is important for startup success

Quotes

"Sometimes, success is defined by what you say no to as much as what you say yes to" -Jill Canada

Recommended Resource

Podcast
-DeviceTalks Podcast Network (MedtechWOMEN Talks, DeviceTalks Weekly)

-Fast Five Medtech News

-Huberman Lab

-WorkLife with Adam Grant

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Episode Summary
This episode discusses Google's new email policies that will classify companies as bulk senders if they send over 5,000 emails per day. Guests Liam Moroney and Graceanne MacDonald provide best practices for staying under the threshold, including database audits, custom tracking domains, and adding unsubscribe links to all emails.

About the guest

Graceanne (Domino) MacDonald

Graceanne began her startup career in the sales world, first leading SDR/BDR teams, followed by a side-step into RevOps before formally landing in demand gen. And she brings that dual sales/marketing perspective into all of the programs she builds.

Connect with Graceanne (Domino) MacDonald

Liam Moroney

Liam may be in the marketing minority; in that, he went to school for marketing. He has grown his career as a demand generation leader in the startup space and developed unique perspectives coming up through marketing ops and content marketing.

Connect with Liam Moroney

Key takeaways
- Google will classify companies as bulk senders if they send over 5,000 emails per day from their domain

- Bulk senders must keep their spam rate below 0.3% or risk having their entire domain blocked from sending emails

- Companies should audit their marketing databases and purge or suppress unengaged Gmail addresses

- Implement SPF, DKIM, and custom tracking domains to improve email deliverability

- Add unsubscribe links to all marketing and sales emails, including sales outreach emails

- Challenge teams to truly understand their audiences through research and send more personalized content

Quotes
"It's not even a technical problem. It is not a design problem. It's philosophical, did they ask for this email? Is this email valuable?" -Liam Moroney

"I fought a number of uphill battles on email deliverability, I was constantly beating the drum against bulk sending." -Graceanne MacDonald

Recommended Resource

Books

Liam recommended books on marketing fundamentals like "Ogilvy on Advertising" and "Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This" which provide timeless principles

Newsletters

Graceanne recommended, ‘The Spark Toro’ and ‘Exit Five’ newsletters for great content on audience research and understanding.

Episode Summary
Brian Finnerty of Udacity discusses effective strategies for aligning content to different stages of the buyer's journey. He stresses the importance of investing in lower funnel proof points like customer success stories and third-party reports. Finnerty also provides tips for validating content assumptions directly with customers. Additionally, he emphasizes optimizing the content mix based on performance data and attribution to opportunities. Throughout the conversation, Finnerty reinforces the importance of tying content marketing efforts directly to pipeline and sales goals.

About the guest

Brian is a senior marketing executive with deep experience leading successful marketing teams. He believes that marketing can deliver extraordinary results when it harnesses the right blend of full-funnel demand, sales alignment, and rich customer insights. Brian's expertise includes brand strategy, B2B demand generation, and global customer acquisition from mid-market to Fortune 500.

Connect with Brian Finnerty

Key takeaways
- Map content assets to stages of the buyer's journey, including top-of-funnel awareness content and bottom-of-funnel proof points

- Invest in lower-funnel customer success stories and third-party validation reports

- Validate content assumptions directly with customers through feedback

- Optimize the content mix regularly based on performance data and attribution to opportunities

- Track pipeline as the primary metric for measuring content marketing success

Quotes

"If you're able to track all of those touchpoints, and make sure that they're associated with opportunities in your CRM, then I think you've got a fairly consistent way of assessing how your content engine is performing." -Brian Finnerty

Recommended Resource

Books
Brian suggests "No Rules Rules" by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer about Netflix's approach to talent and culture.

Podcast

Professor Galloway's podcast, ‘The Prof G Pod’ for marketing and sales insights.

⁠Connect with Brian Finnerty⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow us on LinkedIn ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠