ConnectThe2 Podcast

Maribel Lopez, Founder & Principal Analyst, Lopez Research

Maribel Lopez is the founder and principal analyst at Lopez Research, a market research and strategy consulting firm specializing in technology. Before founding Lopez Research, Maribel began her career working in finance at Motorola and eventually moving into marketing. She joins ConnectThe2 to discuss the intricacies of marketing, the pros and pitfalls of startups, and the wonders of technology. If you like what you’re reading, be sure to listen to the entire episode linked at the bottom of this page. Starting an analyst firm… Maribel did not intend to start her own analyst firm. At first she looked into joining pre-existing startups. However, she did not feel like was a good fit for them. Her clients requested that she go into strategy and research work and Lopez Research was born. Thanks to Maribel’s career with Motorola, she had access to technology education and developed a passion for technology and the growing world of artificial intelligence. Lopez Research provides analysis on a wide range of technology topics for both startups and global firms. Marketing is a lot harder than people realize… People often assume marketing is simple. They mistakenly believe that if they write a press release, they will gain tons of business overnight. Marketing is a lot more nuanced than that, because it requires precision to target the right audience through the noise. Success is gained by using marketing to stand out in your specific category, not by trying to create a whole new category. Startups often have a lot of enthusiasm and great ideas, but don’t have the experience and technical expertise required to really take that idea all the way. There is a difference between being enamored with technology and actually analyzing it and understanding the necessary steps to reach success. More than analysis… In addition to researching the latest innovations in technology and artificial intelligence, Maribel hosts three podcasts. Since moving to Charleston during the pandemic, Maribel has found many opportunities to network with people in technology and similar industries. After the interview, we played two games with Maribel to get to know her better. We played the techie edition This or That, where we learned that Maribel cannot choose between Samsung and Apple, and then we played Never Have I Ever. Hear more... If you've enjoyed these takeaways be sure to listen to our full interview linked below. Also, be sure to listen to, rate and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, iHeartRadio or Soundcloud. Quotes • “Once I learned more about the power of technology, so to speak, I was really intrigued and hooked.” (3:07-3:13) • “When I think of running a business, it's a combination of anxiety and power to choose what you would like to do. And both of those are wonderful, but they're both difficult.” (5:38-5:51) • “I think every individual, regardless if they are business owners or not, should have a personal board of advisors that they can go to and ask questions of and somebody that will help them walk through some of the challenges they might have. And it's important to have that be somebody that is outside of your home, outside of your workplace that can provide perspective.” (7:37-7:58) Links https://www.lopezresearch.com/ Learn more about Connect2 Communications: Website: https://www.connect2comm.com/ Podcast home page: https://www.connect2comm.com/podcast Twitter handle: @Connect2_Comm Instagram handle: @connect2_comm LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/connect2-communications Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/connect2comm/

Storyology, Websites, Digital Oh My

How does a business’ website tell a story? On today’s episode of Storyology, hosts Richard Williams and Taylor O’Brien are joined by special guest Lars Dabney, Founder and Anti-CEO of Lightning Fruit, a web design company. Lars joins ConnectThe2 to talk about how to create an impactful website and get the most out of your digital presence. If you like what you are reading, be sure to listen to the entire episode linked at the bottom of this page. What’s In A Name… Lars tells us two stories about how Lightning Fruit got its name. The first story is a fantastical tale of a retired pirate hunter in Madagascar who has a lemon tree growing on the roof of his house. The second story, the actual truth behind the name, involves positive word associations about the ‘fruit’ of their labor. The Narrative Structure… Crafting a website is a lot like crafting a story. There must be clear goals and a chronological structure that leads site visitors to the answers they are looking for. Each web page contributes to another part of the story. Any ads and follow-up emails should reflect back on the same narrative to maintain consistency. A Living Organism… Once the website is up and running, it’s not just over and done with. To truly maximize the impact of your investment into your company’s digital presence, your website needs to grow and change alongside your business. It requires constant effort to track the flow of traffic and continually tweak the design to ensure it’s working as efficiently as possible for your users. Hear more… If you've enjoyed these takeaways, be sure to listen to the full Storyology episode linked below. Also, be sure to listen to, rate, and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, iHeartRadio, or Soundcloud. Quotes • “The name Lightning Fruit. There is a story version of why Lightning Fruit is called Lightning Fruit and it’s fairly elaborate. It involves a grandfather of mine who was a pirate hunter who retired to Madagascar and a lemon tree that grew on the roof of his house. That story is not true. But I get asked a lot about why Lightning Fruit is called Lightning Fruit and the real answer is boring. So, I often make something up like that just to entertain people.” (7:44-8:17) • “When we start to think about the objectives for the site, we always want to start with the objectives for the organization. What is your mission? As a business, as a nonprofit, as a social entrepreneurship, whatever it might be, the objectives are always going to vary. ” (13:19-14:03) • “Consistency is critical. Without it, you’re going to have a fraction of the impact or the success that you would otherwise have.” (16:47-16:56) • “We want to be able to show the numbers going up in the data and that only happens if you’re constantly working on the messaging and constantly working on the process. In that sense, it’s getting clients to understand that a website is a living organism. It is a living part of your marketing ecosystem and requires constant effort if you really want it to be effective. If you’re going to invest in your digital presence and make it work, we need to be analyzing all the traffic that’s coming in from LinkedIn and from social, and from emails, from external publicity work and looking at where that traffic is landing, looking at what’s happening to it, tweaking the user flows. It’s that constant sharpening of the site that you’re just continuously refining it and refining it and looking at all the different inputs and adjusting it so that it’s making the most of all of them.” (23:03-24:34) Links https://lightningfruit.com/ Learn more about Connect2 Communications: Website: https://www.connect2comm.com/ Podcast home page: https://www.connect2comm.com/podcast Twitter handle: @Connect2_Comm Instagram handle: @connect2_comm LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/connect2-communications Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/connect2comm/

Meet ConnectThe2's New Co-Host, Taylor O'Brien

Welcome to Taylor O’Brien, the newest co-host of ConnectThe2 Podcast! Taylor started out as the Manager of Media Relations and Social Media with Connect2 Communications and looks forward to bringing her expertise and experience to our podcast! She joins ConnectThe2 to introduce herself and talk about what got her interested in joining the podcast team. Quotes • “It’s really interesting using social media to reach different target audiences. I think it depends on what your message is, where you want to reach somebody, and what your outcome and your goals are at the end of it. I would say social media is something to consider if you’re not on it already, but also a part of your communications strategy.” (03:00-03:23) • “I think social media…is interesting because when we’re talking to reporters and thinking about news and things that are coming out, social media has turned into the news source for some of the younger generations. It’s easy, they can click on it, they can see a headline. Sometimes they go off on that headline without clicking on a story, so I think how things are framed in a social media setting for a reporter specifically, how you label an article, how you draw that attention to say, ‘Hey there’s more to the story, and you should read it’ is going to be interesting. It’s definitely been a challenge for media I’ve worked for in the past to take this new setting of social media…and how do you convey the same information in what used to be 140 characters on Twitter? With the podcast…I want to make sure we’re sharing this to a group of followers or people who might be interested, but how do I use the right hashtags to say, ‘Hey, here’s why you should actually click and listen to this entire podcast’…How do I know that you’re actually going to find value in what we’re talking about? I need to convey that when we post that to social.” (4:42-6:15) • “I think about a company and let's look at the key stakeholders at any organization. Because it’s not just your customers. It could be your employees, your community that you’re in, your surrounding area, investors, clients. There’s a whole list of your key stakeholders. So when it comes to Storyology, you’re absolutely right in saying that there is more to the story than what I sell or what I do. There are so many opportunities that can go missed because sometimes you’re looking at it from the side of marketing or PR. Integrating those two is also very important, because there are so many sides to each company and business that should be showcased. It just depends on ‘is it the right time?’ which is what storyology is about. Is it the time and place to tell this story and what makes it important? What makes it valuable?” (10:08-11:06) Learn more about Connect2 Communications: Website: https://www.connect2comm.com/ Podcast home page: https://www.connect2comm.com/podcast Twitter handle: @Connect2_Comm Instagram handle: @connect2_comm LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/connect2-communications Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/connect2comm/

Storyology: Mind the Gap

Lisa Rhodes is the Former VP of Sales and Marketing for Verne Global and has known host Rich Williams for 22 years! On today’s ConnectThe2 Storyology episode, Rich and Lisa discuss Mind the Gap, a program they collaborated on to try and change the conversation about risk as companies decide where to place new high compute applications in a data center. The two talk in detail about the complexities of setting up a data center from scratch, gaps between power consumption and data storage, and the continued impact of their report on green energy efforts. Quotes • “A story is full of chapters and each chapter builds on the previous one. So many companies write a chapter, but they don’t write a story.” (05:54-06:05) • “We need a report that talks about power resourcing, the reliability of power grids in the U.S. and in Europe and what are any latency, resiliency issues around the current power grids because those lead to the risk factors that our customers would take interest in.” (13:41-14:06) • “The early adopters were Bitcoin miners to come to Iceland, because they were having power issues. They were having issues finding data centers that could do dense enough racks for the miners that they wanted to put in those racks, because they were using the highest grade CPUs and they were going all over the globe looking for resilient, low cost and green power frankly.” (14:43-15:16) • “It was like we took the top off a question everybody didn’t know they needed to ask themselves but once they asked themselves it they realized, ‘This is exactly what I’ve been trying to figure out.’” (22:04-22:13) • “I’m proud to say that you and I created the long lasting message that is still being carried forward.” (28:01-28:07) Links https://www.dropbox.com/s/glaulkxbk4g695e/C2C%20Case%20Study_Mind%20The%20Gap.pdf?dl=0 Learn more about Connect2 Communications: Website: https://www.connect2comm.com/ Podcast home page: https://www.connect2comm.com/podcast Twitter handle: @Connect2_Comm Instagram handle: @connect2_comm LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/connect2-communications Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Connect2-Communications

Leveraging the Elevator Pitch with Teresa Mastrangelo, Broadband Trends

Teresa Mastrangelo is the founder and principal analyst for Broadband Trends, an independent market analysis firm specializing in telecommunications. Teresa has 31 years of experience and is one of the leading analysts in her field on Broadband infrastructure and services. She joins ConnectThe2 to discuss what she looks for in a pitch meeting, what she wishes PR firms would do differently, and what she likes best about working as an independent analyst rather than for a large firm. Quotes • “The main thing that I’m looking for in a briefing is why should I care? What am I talking to you about? What is it that you’re offering that nobody else is doing? What’s the wow factor? If you have a new product, what’s different about it? What problems is it going to solve? … For me to care lets me explain this to everybody else and promote it. I’m looking for that opening to something unique and different that I believe is going to solve a problem and is something that the industry needs.” (06:04-06:55) • “There’s always that company that’s ahead of its time, and it sounds really great, but nothing really happens with them.” (30:04-30:09) • "[My proudest moment was] without a doubt it was being on NPR’s All Things Considered, when I got to go to a studio and be interviewed about the emerging voiceover IP market. It was quite exciting because I had people I had not heard from in years – coworkers, friends from high school – who said, ‘Hey I heard you on my commute home on All Things Considered.’ So, that was really cool to have people who honestly didn’t know anything about what I do for my career hearing me on the show. That was one of my highlights for sure.” (33:36-34:20) Links https://www.broadbandtrends.com/blog-1 Learn more about Connect2 Communications: Website: https://www.connect2comm.com/ Podcast home page: https://www.connect2comm.com/podcast Twitter handle: @Connect2_Comm Instagram handle: @connect2_comm LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/connect2-communications Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Connect2-Communications