Small But Mighty: Balancing Your Day-to-Day Workload as a Small Industrial Marketing Team

Curt Anderson  00:00

Alright, here we are. So Damon, happy Monday, dude, it’s like post birthday. How are you? I’m doing great. Curt, ready to go? Alright, let’s dive in. Man, are you? I know you had a wonderful weekend with family birthday all the things. So hey, we wish you a Happy Happy Birthday. Hope you had a great weekend. Happy man. Do we have two amazing, incredible guest today. So first off, we have a repeat offender. Karlaa Gregory, my goodness gracious. Karlaa, how are you today?

Karlaa Gregory  00:28

I’m doing great. Happy

Curt Anderson  00:30

Monday. Happy Monday. Back for more. Yeah, I thought you’re a better judge of character. You know that you would hang out with us, but this is you know, you guys are fun. You guys are alright. We’re fine. So anyway, so now you’re bringing in a friend of yours, and we’re just catching a little history. So Brittany McCall, Brittany, happy Monday. How are you today? Good. How are you? Oh, my goodness gracious. I’m doing phenomenal. Just super fired up. So now I had the honor privilege. I met Karlaa a year ago at the Industrial Marketing Summit. Caught her session. She was just a rock star. She was a panelist on a I think you were talking AI last year, Karlaa. Karlaa, right. So she was so popular, in such high demand, they brought her back this year. And Karlaa, you brought your dear friend, Brittany. So now, now, Brittany, we kicked things off with a question. Karlaa, I don’t if you remember I asked you this question last year. I don’t know if you remember your answer, but I’m going to start with Brittany. You are a superstar marketer for Sumitomo, and you’re the international marketing manager and so Karlaa, you’re the digital marketing manager. Brittany, I’m going to go back in time now, ironically, coincidentally, you both went to college together at the same time. Is that correct?

Brittany McCall  01:36

Yes, yep, we did. Now,

Curt Anderson  01:39

Brittany, pre college, I’m going to go back in time, okay? Pre college, I’m going to go so far back when you were a little girl, Brittany McCall, when you were a little girl, who was your hero? Who did you look up to? Who admired you, who, like just showered you with unconditional love, who was your hero when you’re a little girl growing up, huh?

Brittany McCall  02:01

Who is my hero? Wow, this is a long time ago. I’m actually

02:07

quite old.

Brittany McCall  02:10

Oh, I would probably have to say, like parental figures in my house, I was like my mom and my grandparents, just seeing them, seeing how hard they worked. They were always like true inspiration, like my granddad. He was always he was electrician, always tinkering, making me stuff. Grandma always creating stuff, sewing. My mom was in marketing. So, you know, just a room full of creators. Your

Curt Anderson  02:38

mom was in marketing? Yes, yes, wow. So the Apple didn’t fall fire. What? What’s mom’s name, Lisa, Lisa. So tell us a little bit about Lisa. What was so wonderful and amazing about your incredible mom?

Brittany McCall  02:49

Yeah, so I grew up single mom. So I grew up with my grandparents, single mom. She just did everything. She started her career off at Old Dominion, which is actually the school that we met. So we’re going even more full circle. And ironically enough, when I first was like, in high school, I thought I was going to be medicine, like, that was my go to I was going to be medicine. I talked biology degree, and then I took a marketing class, because I switched my major to business, because they were like, Hey, you don’t need a bio degree. So I was like, Okay, switch to business. And business. And I ended up really liking marketing and just, you know, my mom always being like, the one that I can talk to, and just hearing her stories, and she’s really more into the branding side of things. But I think the thing that it still relates to in my, like, scientific brain, is like, you know, the reason, or the why? Why do people do this? Why do people react a certain way? And it is, I believe, the most powerful arm in business that you can have. So, yeah, it’s just, you know, just lights me up and

Karlaa Gregory  03:51

fun stories. You worked your life in it right? Where my no Octa farm, she worked at a place where my husband worked and really worked together. Either, wait, say that again. My husband, well, he used to work at this place called octapharma, and Brittany worked there too, around, oh, wow, yeah. So, you know, all sorts of connections,

Curt Anderson  04:11

connections, and so, man, I love how this, it’s like a tangled web between you two. And, you know, there’s another group of guys this weekend. They were saying, how, like in life, there are no accidents, right? There’s no coincidence. Things that happen for a reason. So Brittany, looking at your LinkedIn profile now you’re and I’m going to butcher this phlebotomist, right? Were you a phlebotomist? Which

Brittany McCall  04:31

is funny, because when I get my blood taken, they’re like, are you okay? And I’m like,

Curt Anderson  04:41

What a perfect Pat. Like, who doesn’t go from being a phlebotomist to a marketer, right? Like, it’s a perfect combination, right? It’s, it’s exactly perfect.

Karlaa Gregory  04:49

Okay, she’s definitely, she’s my manager. She’s gonna be mad that I highlight her. She’s actually my boss. She’s the boss, Lady of the department. She’s the boss, all right, so,

Curt Anderson  04:57

well, I have So big shout out to. Lisa. Lots of love to her. And I just love how Apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Yeah. Kind of followed in mom’s footsteps. And now the two of you go to Old Dominion. Now, Carla, I asked you the same question a year ago. Do you have any recollection of what your answer was?

Karlaa Gregory  05:13

Uh, Xena, the warrior princess. I love that show as a kid,

Curt Anderson  05:20

I asked her that. I asked Karlaa, go, Karlaa, hero and, like, without blinking an eye, she goes, Oh, Xenia the warrior princess. You said

Karlaa Gregory  05:28

your mom’s like, Oh, was it supposed to be? That was a really good show, though, I used to watch that on Sundays.

Curt Anderson  05:35

Of course, you know, of course, it was the hero right now, Karlaa, you went out with you got together with mom yesterday for Mother’s Day. What’s your mom’s name? Laverne? How was, what was, what was her influence on your your career, uh,

Karlaa Gregory  05:47

just being independent and, like, never giving up. So she was, you know, blue collar single mom. Well, it’s, she’s my grandma, but she adopted me so, like, single mom, and just always doing her best no matter what, and never quit. And so that’s something that’s instilled in me, like, you know, even when doing marketing, like, you know, sometimes I’m tired and I want to quit, but I don’t quit, you know, I’m always moving on. Keep going, very

Curt Anderson  06:10

resilient. So okay, so let’s go here. So, Brittany, I’m going to come back over to you. So now you’ve been at Sumitomo for quite some time. Share a little bit on, like, how, like, what attracted you to the company? You know, I caught both views I mentioned at the industrial marketing Summit. So you guys are great marketers for manufacturers. That’s really who what this show was for is like helping manufacturers figuring out this whole marketing thing. What attracted you to Sumitomo when you first started there? So when

Brittany McCall  06:36

I started, I was fresh out of college, so what attracted me having a job that actually paid real money. That was the first attraction. Paycheck is always a nice little perk, right? Paycheck was number one. But no, I remember, like, just applying to a bunch of stuff. At the time, I still worked at the place that Karlaa’s husband worked at, and I was like, oh, I want to get into marketing. And so I remember seeing the job post, and I was really interested in the fact that it was a international organization. Because before I made marketing my major, my first major in business was international business. I switched to marketing because I liked it, and also because I could graduate on time with limited amount of debt. So I was like, I can get out. I like marketing. This is perfect. So the fact that it was international attracted me also, like, I was really interested in the digital aspect. So the first job I did was the global web administrator. So I was in charge of, um, helping everyone out for this big global website project. And I love that. And then I remember when I came to the interview after I, like, talked myself down from a ledge, my friend talked to me while I was in the car. He was like, you can do this. I was like, I could do this. He’s like, You can do this. I was like, Okay. And I remember walking through the factory, because afterwards they gave me a factory tour. So then I actually learned more about what the job actually did. Because, oddly enough, and like a fun fact that I tell sometimes when I speak is I looked up this company as any good like normal person would do when they’re going to interview, and I found the completely wrong information. I think Karlaa did too, as well, where it’s like, there’s a million tomos. So I was completely off basis with what this this portion of the company did. So I really had no idea. I thought I did. And I remember, after they told me what they did and they were explaining the products, we walked in the factory, and I left there, and I was like, Oh, my God, this place is so cool. So seeing, like, the manufacturing side of things, um, I thought it was really cool. I still, when I, you know, walk back there, because the factory is just on the other side of our office, it’s still really cool. Um, so, yeah, that that’s, that’s what attracted me. Well,

Curt Anderson  08:37

I love it. All the cool kids are going into manufacturing these days. You guys are ahead of the curve, right? Dana, yeah, ahead of the curve. Hey, we’ve got a friend. Diane Byer says, Happy Monday. So alright, happy Monday too. And so everybody out there drop us a note, let us know where you are. We’ve got two incredible marketers here. If you have questions, love to have your questions. Please connect with Brittany and Karlaa on LinkedIn, you’ll thank us later. There are two amazing folks, Karlaa, share a little bit on so you guys go to college together. Your husband works at the same place as Brittany’s. I’m like, You guys are like, just kind of following each other. Talk about, like, your path on how you started. You had a funny little story there. Talk about how you started at Sumitomo. Okay,

Karlaa Gregory  09:18

so my degree is actually in public relations. And there was not much money in PR around in this area, unless you do news. And so I moved. I went from a non profit to Liberty Tax. So that’s people with the waivers, if you I don’t know if they still do that with during the corners and get your taxes done. And I manage the social media for like the whole country. So like all the franchisees, the national one, the person that’s answering your question when you’re like, Where’s My Refund? Someone’s like, such a shame that you don’t that was me on my phone at two in the morning answering everybody’s complaints. So eventually I was trying to do be better and grow and I went on LinkedIn, I saw that Brittany. Add a certification, like, some letters behind her name. And I was like, Oh, I didn’t know those existed for marketing. What is the OM? CP, yeah, what’s that? And you’re and, you know, she messaged me back. Was like, Oh, it’s this, and are you looking for a job? Like, actually, I am. And so she, like, she, she sent me the link, and I was scared to apply, because it was like, You must be 100% fluent in another language. I’m like, I speak a little Spanish. I might be able to, you know, because I studied abroad and go all the hard. So I’m like, you know, I might, I might fit the bill. So I applied anyway, got the job, and Liberty had ended up moving. So they relocated from Virginia Beach to Dallas, and so they laid off everybody, but had already gotten my offer, so they kept me, and when I went back, you know, to an empty office, I’m like, oh, it’s me also putting in my two weeks. I appreciate you for, like, keeping me on, but it’s my time. So I came to Sumitomo and the other funny part is that, like, I was supposed to go to Vietnam with the marketing team, and they all left me behind because I didn’t get hired in time. So that’s been my first day just sitting here

Brittany McCall  11:16

like that wasn’t my fault. I wasn’t here at that

Karlaa Gregory  11:19

time, either way it was. You know, it’s been a great learning experience here. I’ve grown like the digital marketing manager Brittany, left big shoes to feel. And, you know, there’s so much in digital marketing that we could do. So she took SEO and PPC and ran with it. I took other things, or, you know, more, like on page SEO, and ran with it. And, you know, we went from advertising budget to proving that, you know, proving that we want 10 grand, to proving that we want 100 grand. So now we just do a lot more, and the position is basically what we make it and I feel like we’re a DI not a dynamic duo of just great people, and we have other people on our team video, and we just incorporated PR to in our marketing and thought leadership. Well,

Curt Anderson  12:01

you’re, you’re the Xena of marketing, if I can say so myself, how’s that So, Brittany, on your on your profile, you’ve got in the chess game of business marketing, is your queen. So I guess you know Queen Xena princes, like it’s all crying together, isn’t

Karlaa Gregory  12:15

it? Yep, and she’s the boss, so she’s the

Brittany McCall  12:18

queen, yeah, so the Queen, because the Queen’s the most powerful chess piece. So, yeah, I definitely think that that it is, and that’s actually from a book that I read. I can’t think of the name. I think it’s millionaire fast lane. But they compare the different like departments, right? Product, customer service, into chess pieces. And when they get to marketing, they talk about how powerful it is, right? About how you can really leverage that. And I truly, truly believe that

Curt Anderson  12:43

I love it. So alright, let’s go here. Brittany, if you could share with folks that are not familiar with Sumitomo, who is Sumitomo, and how do you and your incredible team make the world a better place? What’s going on there?

Brittany McCall  12:55

Yeah, okay, so Sumitomo. So Sumitomo is a big conglomerate, like, think of it as, like, saying, I work at GE, and it’s like, well, which part of GE? So Sumitomo was a big group in Japan. It’s really known there here, maybe not as much, maybe certain divisions. And there’s a million different divisions, from chemical to real estate. The division that we work under is Sumitomo heavy industries. And then we even work at a division within that, which is our Mechatronics division. So we’re under power transmission control. So what specifically our company does is we manufacture gear reducers, right? So we make speed speed reducers, gear motors. We recently expanded to where we’ve acquired other companies. So now we do inverters. We make industrial control panels, actuators, so power transmission products for our customers that help the world move. Right? We are really like we like to call ourselves, and we’ve done campaigns where we talk about how we’re the unsung heroes, right? We’re behind the scenes in manufacturing. We are opponent, but we help keep things moving, conveyors, you know, different kind of machinery and equipment that move everything from water to your bags at an airport to life saving medical device equipment. So, like, all that stuff is is connected. And so really, our main and our aim is like, hey, how do we connect with those other companies? Right? We’re behind the scenes to make the world a better place. That’s what we’re doing here. We’re powering those companies up.

Curt Anderson  14:17

Well, absolutely love it. So Karlaa, let me go here. So you go from Liberty Tax. And, you know, I’m thinking of those people that would dress as the Statue of Liberty, right? And what was your transition like, going from, you know, retail, you know, tax, service, business, to this, this conglomerate. What like? Learning Curve, learning the new products. What was, what was that transition like for you? It was

Karlaa Gregory  14:39

a learning curve. And I actually didn’t think I would make it my first 90 days. The reason why I went to school for PR and not marketing is because I’m not that good at math. And a lot of the a lot of the marketing classes were like, I don’t know, like, statistics, yeah. So, you know, just making that transition, when I got here, I was I was. In a T shaped marketer. So I was, I was social. That’s all I did. I did paid and organic, you know, I did a little ghost writing, acting like I was John Hewitt, who’s the founder, and I did some blog writing, but that was, you know, that was my lane, because we had, we had a really big team. We had a email person. We had people who did every little facet of email marketing. So when I got here, is, like, I know how to do the, you know, the foundations of, like, social media. I’m just learning SEO and other things, but I don’t know what I’m saying, because I don’t know what the difference between a cyclo is. I don’t know what a speed reducer is. I didn’t know that a gearbox is a gear motor, but there’s gear drives, like all these things. I just, I, I took, it took a while, but, you know, we our marketing team. We actually have posters around the office. And so I will, like, quiz myself, like, okay, that square thing, that’s a BBB. Is that a pair? I just asked a guy in the shop, like, is that a paramax? What’s that called? And you’re like, yeah. So, you know, I learned more, and then I just started doing more. So I started doing more with like LinkedIn, start doing more with our SEO, helping our website kind of grow that and improve that some. And then my hands were full, and I was like, I need help. I need to be a manager. I need to manage, because this is a lot now

Brittany McCall  16:19

we’ve definitely grown a lot. You can just look at our social channels even since, you know, since I’ve started, and then you since Karlaa taken over, right? Our social channels have grown. And I think that’s the cool thing about small teams and being in manufacturing, you’re often in small teams. So it’s like, for me and my career, it’s like, I started off, like, not knowing any of this, and then it’s like, when you’re taught myself social, then I taught myself email marketing, then you taught yourself see and so you kind of grow over time, and so getting to evolve. And then also to Karlaa coming in from that outside perspective, right? Because B to C is often ahead of us, right? So we, we were, we’re, we’re missing, like, the content side of things, you know, we got a lot more creative, right? So she’s really good at that, so she was able to bring that over. So, you know, she’s learning stuff from our side and about our industry, and we’re also taking things in as well. And one blog,

Karlaa Gregory  17:09

I think I mentioned this last time I was here, the blog that, like people, the team, was like, we like her, is that I compare the Avengers to, like their tax returns. And we were like, That’s so cool. Because, you know, like, you know, Captain America is probably going to retirement check, uh, retirement. Check Tony Stark home office deduction for that big lab. Like, let’s try. So here I did something similar with May the fourth and Christmas. Oh yeah, the Christmas one, yeah, yeah. Make

Curt Anderson  17:37

it fun. Well, I actually love this. You guys are so inspiring. Damon and I are big girl dads, and it’s just, it’s awesome to see. Like, you know, we need a big push in the manufacturing, and you guys are just so successful, just doing such wonderful work. So Brittany, I again, I mentioned a couple times I had the honor and privilege of catching both of you to workshop. It was like standing room, only that room was completely packed. I’m going to say there was probably a couple 100 people in the room, or, I don’t know how many it was, it was jammed, but you guys did a I took tons of notes that day. Let’s go back to it was in Austin, Texas, at the Industrial Marketing Summit. Let’s go there. You guys did a great program on, like, hacks, tips, strategies for lean, mean marketing teams, like yourselves. Can you share? I’m kind of, I don’t put you on the spot, but just share, like, what are some of the things that you recall, or anything that you want to share with our crowd that may relate to you? They’re like, Hey, I’m a team of one. I’m a team of one and a half, or whatever it might be. What are, let’s go there. What are some of the tips that you’d like to share with folks today? Yeah,

Brittany McCall  18:36

so I would say definitely having, like, your systems in place. And it’s funny, because I’m actually starting a new book, atomic habits. It’s, you know, it’s a book that I’ve seen. It’s really popular, right? But, yeah, he talks about how he was like, Really, goals are not the key, right? He was like, You need goals, right? Goals give you direction. But he’s like, focus on the system, right? Because the system is what’s going to get you result. A lot of people want to win the Super Bowl, but who has the best system for doing that? And so I would say, as a small marketing team, getting really key on how you do do things, being able to, like, automate some of those repetitious tasks that you’re doing, or in being able to have a system in place of how you do things. So every single time, you’re not reinventing the wheel, you’re not starting over again. So we talked at a conference about a lot of tools we use, use Monday to kind of write down our tasks. We have templates for different things we do, like trade shows. So we have, you know, 60 different things that need to get done before a trade show. We meet with stakeholders, and we really align on those and work around those. And the other thing that having those systems also does is it also helps to bring some kind of like teeth into what you do. Because I think as industrial marketers, we’re also working with all these other people who are very technical, who don’t always understand what we do, right? So when we say, like, Hey, we’re going to create something, we’re going to create this campaign, it kind of looks like, oh, just this pretty frilly thing that we did. Like, that’s why frustration as a marketer. And so it’s like, no to put together this, this thing. Thing that you saw here are all the things that went into this, right? And so now you’re having conversations around like support and like timing and what you need. And it’s not just the output. It’s like people actually understand what needs to go into this to make a good output or product, and the time and the effort and the energy that that takes, and that, you know, can help you in terms of timing conversations, if you’re planning out for the year, or in terms of, like, head count, or just even bringing understanding. So I would say that was one big thing that we talked about a lot at that conference. Well,

Curt Anderson  20:32

I love I just caught James clear on a podcast the other day, and he was talking about atomic habits, and just we could geek out about that for the next hour that that there’s tons of great examples in that book. So I’m glad you’re I’m glad you brought that up. Damon, what

Damon Pistulka  20:46

do you think? Well? And it is, the systems have to be the backbone, because as you need to go faster, you like, we know people that do automation and do process improvements, right? And the first thing you’re going to you’re going to delegate, automate or eliminate, right? Those are the three things that that you want to get rid of. And those systems really help you to automate the things that you can and as you’re looking at the overall process, you’re getting rid of the junk. Because we we start out, we might do something one way, and especially now with Karlaa, you’re an AI and things, we just don’t even know what we can do anymore, until we actually get into it and it can change the way we do and pretty soon, you’re leveraging what one person was doing before, and now they’re doing the work of one and a half or two people before, or the content or the stuff you’re doing is more effective. It’s so cool. It’s just that system behind it and continuing to refine it and make it better. So it’s a lot of fun.

Curt Anderson  21:42

Yeah, so let’s go here. So Karlaa, I’m going to, oh, the Dominion days, and you’re thinking about going to in the PR because you’re not, you know, math wasn’t your jam. Did you ever see yourself like being on a stage being a public speaker? Like, was that an aspiration or a goal of yours to be a public speaker in front of hundreds of

Karlaa Gregory  21:59

people? No, but someone saw something in me, and it was like, you should, you know, you know a lot about marketing, you should come on. It was like a small local Summit, and I was on a panel, and then people like, that’s really good. Can you come back? And from there, you know, I started getting the emails about different trade shows, not trade shows, uh, conferences like, why not toss is, you know,

Curt Anderson  22:24

nice ever since, yeah, well, you you’re very modest, and I’ll tell you, you do a great job. And again, it says, it says a lot about you, your character, that not only did you do such a great job last year, they brought you back for this year. Talk a little bit for our man, our marketing friends out there, maybe they’ve been a little, you know, tepid or, like, you know, Damon and I are Gen Xers. So for any Gen Xers out there, any baby boomers or digital immigrants, they’re kind of new to this AI thing. You’ve really completely embraced AI, any tips or advice you’d have for somebody that’s just starting with AI to motivate them, or, like, what’s a good starting point for these folks. Good

Karlaa Gregory  23:02

starting point is to give it a chance. So don’t think it’s going to replace your job. It should make your job easier. It should help you, you know, be more efficient and improve your output. Like no one can replace you. So remember that another one is so you never really take things as they are. So I look at when I first used chat GPT, and I wrote, like, I was like, right? Write a landing page for this company. That was the problem. I did, had no idea. And garbage was so like, you know, the precipice of superior Japanese engineering. And I was like, Yeah, this. People love this. This is so un obviously, like, they got landing pages. Just feel like somewhere I keep looking at like, This is really bad, but, you know, like, kind of know what your tone is, or even my little hack is just to always include, keep it natural and conversational, and that will really cut off a lot of the big words and the fluff. One thing that kind of makes me mad is that, like, I love writing, and I use M dashes a lot, so that’s the, I call it double dash, no space. But now that’s like, the telltale side of AI. And I’m like, No, I love, I love a good M dash because the comma is just too short, like, but now it’s really, you can tell who uses, like, AI, yeah,

Curt Anderson  24:19

yeah, yeah, right, that, you know, they took away your M dash. You know, that’s so Brittany. Let’s go here. Same thing to you. I’m good. You’re thinking medicine, phlebotomist, you’re thinking blood, all these fun things. Did you ever see yourself, you know, like radon. Again, I’m coming back to your LinkedIn profile, digital marketing instructor. Did you ever see yourself on stage, you know, teaching hundreds of people how to some visual marketing. What are your thoughts? Sir, no,

Brittany McCall  24:47

absolutely not as I feel like, as was life like, just takes you places, and you’re like, all right? This is, this is where we’re going, right? So mine, I think, too, was a little bit like, kind of by accident, so similar to Karlaa. Yeah, I was actually, I freelance. I was freelancing, working with someone, helping him actually create digital marketing courses for people in the medical field, right? So it kind of correlated to my background, because I’m familiar, so teaching them how to do small business owners. How do you do SEO? How do you do social media marketing? What are some things you need to do? And then that translated into me like, hey, doing kind of things like this, where I would be on live, kind of like a marketing structure. People pop on, ask me different questions. So then I started speaking very regularly on a Monday night to whoever joined right. And that just kind of evolved with that situation. I no longer do that now, but for me, like Karlaa said it was a good opportunity to learn to also get my brain used to thinking quickly. Because my personality type, I like to sit and, like, marinate with stuff. I like to, you know, kind of think, formulate my answer. And so that was not this, that these were people popping on, like, throwing marketing questions at me left and right, like, Hey, this is going on my business. What do I do with this? So it was a good chance for me to grow. And since then, speaking a couple different times. You know, get a little nervous, but I truly enjoy it. I think when the topic is about something that you know about, it makes it a lot easier to do as well, too, and enjoy. And

Karlaa Gregory  26:17

I was excited to ask you, I was like, Brittany, you want to submit this, you know, proposal to speak together, yeah, put your name on it. So

Curt Anderson  26:28

that’s how that went down. So, yeah, twist her arm a little bit. Is that what happened? Carla, yeah, well, I absolutely love it. So, Brittany, I just, I asked Karlaa about AI. She did a phenomenal we’re going to do a little example here in a minute. Your thoughts on AI, what it’s, what it’s doing for you, your team, and I guess I’m throwing several questions at you, what is AI doing for you, your team? And then any advice that you have for someone that’s new to AI, what would you share there?

Brittany McCall  26:55

Yeah, so it’s definitely been a game changer. I think it’s helped, like, even myself. So I know Karla, she’s naturally a writer. I’m on more on, like, the analytical side. So that’s where my nature leans to. I don’t want to write anything. And so for me, I will say, personally, it’s enabled me to do things like press releases, things that would take me a long time, because I get blank page syndrome, like I can edit, but to create, and it’s taking that barrier. So I think similar to the way that we’ve seen the internet right took away a huge barrier. I think AI is going to be the next game changer, and it is right now. So I use it daily. I’m starting, I’m even I learned about another software that you can create apps with called replan. So I’m going to start tinkering with that. So I would say for everyone out there, there’s a ton out there that you can use, definitely identifying those use cases about, hey, what am I doing right now? Like, what’s repetitive? What am I, you know, struggling with, and then taking those use cases and seeing where can AI take you with that is probably the most key thing. And like Karlaa said, just trying it out. I tried out daily. And then, as a leader, I’m also thinking about, like, what does this mean for my team? Right? I’m, I’m constantly in like, state of AI reports. There is a big AI debate on diary with CEO that I’m listening to, that I’m really as looking at, how is this going to affect us moving forward, right? What are some things that I need to work on, skilling my team to do next? Because I think the one thing about AI that’s kind of scaring people, right, when it’s like a is not going to replace me, is how the the speed, at the rate in which AI is changing and evolving is very fast compared to anything you’ve ever seen. Yeah, right. So is there a place for humans? Yes, but at the speed at which we’re going, right? How do we manage that? And so that’s been a key question that’s been, you know, like, as I’m driving, you know, I’m talking AI, trying to figure this out. That’s been a key question on my mind as I look at our team in general. Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  28:53

it’s huge what you’re saying. It’s just how it the one thing you said, literally, how do we keep up with the pace of change due to AI so that we can get those things back to our team that would be valuable for them to use. Because it’s just, it’s just like a fire hose coming at you consistently.

Karlaa Gregory  29:11

Oh yeah, I think you just give them access and let them I mean, there’s, there’s been times where I’ll, I’ve, may have spent, like, a lot of time, sorry, but like, you know, do, like, hey, the thing I was telling you guys earlier about like Looker Studio, you know, she didn’t tell me to do, but I’m like, it would be really good if I could use like Gemini conversational Analytics, you know, to talk about like, certain data sets, because I, I have been trying to do it with chatgpt. I use Looker studio. So I’m like, well, Gemini is the Google version of that. They you know, they talk, they play nice. Why not just move that over here and integrate it so I just kind of find something I play on Zapier. I have so many unused apps that don’t exist. I’m making an agent. Things have to be curious, for sure, I want the agent to go live. We’re going to try the agent one day. Be

Brittany McCall  29:59

curious, my friend. And stay curious. Yeah, there you go,

Curt Anderson  30:03

Dude, this is, I’m telling you, is, this is what it was like in the live. It’s just, when you hang out with these two, it’s just a masterclass. Like, I’m taking tons of notes right now. And like, you know, blank page syndrome is, is basically going to become obsolete, right? Like, because thanks to AI, you know, you know, see where AI can take you, if you just have, I love what you’re saying, Brittany, just that fierce curiosity and just like, hey, you’ve got nothing to lose. Just see where, you know, if you’re new to it, just see where it can take you. Karlaa, you did a wonderful, incredible, powerful, mind blowing example last year for the little presentation for Damon and myself in our crowd. Do you? Do you have anything that you want to show us this year? Sure,

Karlaa Gregory  30:44

so I just made a OEE calculator, so that stands for overall equipment effectiveness. So it kind of measures like your downtime, like, how much scrap Do you have? Is your machine going down? So I’m trying to make more interactive tools on our website to improve like time on page and just be relevant. Because, again, with all the all the AI, you know, everyone using AI to write blogs and stuff, what’s really keeping people, you know on your website, and what’s really pushing the rankings along with SEO is how you know, how helpful, how genuine it is. So I made this calculator. Let me share my screen. Please let her window

Curt Anderson  31:31

while she’s pulling that up last year, you have to go back and check the last year’s example. It

Damon Pistulka  31:36

was, it was, yeah, well, it inspired me after listening to you last year I did at this just a simple CSS code for a table that I wanted to display on a website. And it was like, you know, I get the prompt somewhat right. And it was so cool.

Karlaa Gregory  31:50

So this is part of the prompt for this thing, for this calculator, I wanted it to also give like results. So now, like, you know, if your OE is above 85% you’ll see, like, these numbers. And I just kind of helped it, like, tweak it a little bit to make it even more better and more branded as well. Yeah, here is the final version of the page, and then here it is. Here, I’m not good at what to put in, so I’ll just kind of use the prompts that are already here.

Curt Anderson  32:33

We’ve got.

Karlaa Gregory  32:38

It’s really, yeah, you know, then you can see. And then also I wanted to add, like, what did it mean? So, you know, poor, yep, is what’s going on. And then the CTA is for one of our services that we offer.

Brittany McCall  32:50

And I feel like this is so effective, too, right? Like, she’s been able to leverage AI to do this and create content like this. Because I think one thing as industrial marketers, and this was something that we suffered with previously that I’ve been really trying to get us away from, is like content like this. Like she said, how do you engage and keep people on screen right? Like, it’s not just about your products, but it’s about talking to these people who have problems, right? And how do you position that problem right? They don’t just want to talk about the product that you’re selling. These are real people that have problems in their industries. And how can you connect and help them solve that problem? Because if you can do that, you remain top of mind. That’s the important stuff, right? And so I think that this is a really good example of that, and leveraging AI to create something like that,

Karlaa Gregory  33:33

and that goes along what we talked about at the Industrial Marketing Summit is that, like, you know, we all have busy jobs. You know, of course, I, like, I learned about what OEE was while making this, you know, I could have went to an engineer. And, you know, they’re busy doing the actual, you know, CAD drawings and everything we need. Like, Hey, could you please give me, like, a day and help me? You know, they’re, they got stuff to do. So, like, having this tool increases my output. So I, I use the chat you cheese Deep Search to make a whole like, white paper slash brief just on, like, how much down, like the effects of downtime on, like, your operation and stuff. And it has sources. But, you know, like being able to kind of do all that stuff on my own and sending it over to the people like, Hey, can you look at this? And they can glance and be like, This is good. Go with it. So that kind of increases your output, whereas we may have been waiting like, two weeks to have this one thing approved, which is kind of holding up my campaign. Yeah. And it also allows us to make better content for the funnel. Like, I can make a top of funnel content, what is a gearbox? I can do that all day. But when you want to get, like, you know, down to the nitty gritty, like, what, what’s your, you know, your OEE, or what’s your ri based off of your output, like all these things, you need that expertise. And sometimes it’s just really hard to, you know, mingle with other people who are in way different departments, who have busy days. And it’s really helpful. So this, this campaign I created, was. Of the two briefs, which we made, infographics, this calculator, landing page, we made a bunch of really technical assets for this campaign. Order, right?

Damon Pistulka  35:11

Nice, nice. Okay, it’s a great point too, because you’re taking it as Brittany says you’re taking it and you’re you’re getting the interactive, helpful content that’s that. So there’s they’re going to that page, they’re interacting, working with and getting some valuable information from it. And as you were saying, Karlaa, you can do that now using AI and some help with the technical people, whereas before, you have to come up with it, and then you have to have somebody else that’s going to program this on the code and the website get it done, and then you have to have everybody review it all after it’s done. And it takes so many of those steps and and cuts the time down to next to nothing. Mm, hmm. So you is the idea, from idea to execution has to have gone up. The speed has has has increased significantly, I’m sure.

Brittany McCall  36:03

I mean, even just for organic content, we start to see, we’re starting to see more conversions from Ai, so that’s a report that you can kind of set up on GA four. And like looking at it, we’ve had more like, find my reps and find my rep phone calls. We have a directory, or contact us forms, or just other like key events, and you can track that. So like chat, GBT is our number one visitor after that’s propensity, and I think then there’s Gemini. But that’s interesting to see that we’re getting more conversion and traffic from those. Yep.

Damon Pistulka  36:36

Wow, that’s very cool. Speed

Curt Anderson  36:39

Brittany being the first time on the show we call like, we have dropped the mic moments. Then we have, like, moments of silence where, like, we just need to, kind of, like, just sit and savor, like, like, there’s so many Karlaa, like, you’re checking so many boxes, yeah. Thing like, first off, you know, Brittany, you mentioned it, like the SEO portion, like, get a helpful tool on your website that’s going to keep you, know, and again, not, not it’s, it’s, uh, it’s an added bonus that they stay in your website, but you’re giving them of it’s like free value, like, I’m thinking of you, ideal customer. I know you have this challenge today. Here’s a tool that you can use your benefit internally. Is that now they’re seeing on the site. We love talking about that digital self serve, and now what you’re doing is that, like, I don’t have to pick up the phone, I don’t have to wait for an email, I don’t have to wait for a response. I can go here and get information right from that tool. Karlaa on that tool, is there? Um, I have so many questions on that tool, but we won’t go too deep in the weeds. You like, at Are you on? What’s your what platform is your website

Speaker 1  37:41

on a custom Drupal build? It’s a Drupal build.

Curt Anderson  37:45

And so like your custom coding that that calculator tool, right? Yeah,

Karlaa Gregory  37:51

yeah. Actually, back loaded well, back imported it from a Pardot form so I can get better tracking, right? So it’s a part iframe that’s on the website,

Curt Anderson  38:01

right, right? And, you know, and then you also mentioned, you know, the top of funnel where, like, Hey, what is a gearbox? Compared to, like, no, what is your ROI for this solution? So Brittany as a leader, you know, kind of leading the pack. Talk a little bit about your I really admire what you’re doing at Sumitomo at such a young age. And again, especially for somebody that was had no intention of going into marketing. How? How do you describe your leadership skills? Kind of firing up the team, getting given Karlaa the independence of like these projects?

Brittany McCall  38:33

Yeah. So I would say just giving people space, room to experiment and grow right like I think I really love when people or I thrive right with people on my team, people in general, who just want to try things be, you know, create something and just go for it, right? Like, not always waiting for a direction, but taking the Reign, taking that ownership, and saying, like, Hey, you got this, you can run with this. Before, I was working with Karlaa’s, working with another gentleman named Timone, who’s absolutely brilliant as well. We worked on the website. He would say, hey, you know, I think I’m gonna do this and like, Timon, go run. Like, run, go do it. So I think for me, that’s how I grew up, personally, too. So like, a little bit about my background and my history, like, my mom would not really check report cards. She’s just like, I know you’re gonna do what you’re supposed to do. So I think giving people those parameters. Were like, Hey, here’s what I expect. Here are your parameters. But then outside of that, like not being so micro and letting people run, and especially, you know, going with the age of AI, and what’s happening, right? Like, when you had said, Damon, you know, the going from idea to creating, like, that time is shortening, right? And so in the past, it used to be the skill of creating, was that thing that you were solving for, like, how can we create, and what skills and what assets? Now you’re having all this technology that comes in, right? So what we’re now really solving for and looking for in the future are those people who are able to ideate right, like, that’s going to be a core and key. So I think if you can continue to leverage that, and continue to encourage that, that is what you’re going to see grow companies, right, that ability to ideate and then also execute on that, but that AI is making that pathway a lot easier, so that that’s something that I definitely look for, and definitely, you know, like within my team,

Karlaa Gregory  40:20

core foundations of anything using AI won’t again, it won’t take your job, because you know the core foundations. But now you can, like, say you can ideate something that I was taught by one of my old mentors at Liberty, name Ocasio. He’s gonna be great. That I said his name, he said, Don’t be afraid to break things. So, like, in marketing, yeah, always do something better. So like, right now we have content and it has like, a 28% engagement rate. That’s great, but, like, okay, break it. Let’s what? What can we do to make it 35 okay? This, this post kind of sucked, or this, this landing page isn’t performing. How can we break it to make it better? Because you, we’re not gonna let you fail. There’s no, there’s no real such thing to me as failure marketing, because you’re always trying to do better. Like, what can you do to make like, this landing page I made, maybe it doesn’t convert, but now I know that a blue background with white con, you know, white font, and looking at the the visitor analytics, that’s not working. So how can I break this and make it better? Like, you’re always growing, you’re always changing, and you know when you kind of become stagnant, that’s where that that’s where that passion might die. Sometimes, always, just keep that passion and just keep moving. That’s why I said my grandma, resilience, keep moving. Keep moving.

Curt Anderson  41:31

My goodness, you guys are so inspiring. So Kyle and let me come back to the presentation you guys gave in Austin. Was there anything else that you want to share, any tips, hacks that you felt were like mission critical for our marketing friends out there today,

Karlaa Gregory  41:47

be able to prove your point. And don’t be afraid to say no, no is a sentence. You know, say no nicely, but be able to, you know, be able to prove your point. If somebody wants to make sure that all the chairs and event are yellow like, be able to prove that’s a really bad example. Bad example, but be be able to prove your point, or just be able to just say no, not yet, because you know, you know your load. You know what’s making money, or you know what’s the most impact, impactful thing that you can do. So if that doesn’t fit in, just give them a no or No, not yet. But be able to explain that, that why? And keep going.

Curt Anderson  42:24

Keep going. I love it. Alright, we’re going to start winding down. I know you both are super busy. It’s such an honor and privilege for Dame and I to have you on the show today. Thank you, Brittany, what are you super excited about moving forward in the future? At Sumitomo, with AI, with your marketing, what’s, what’s the future look like for you,

Brittany McCall  42:41

I am just super excited about all of the different tools that I’m seeing and all of the different possibilities. Like, it’s amazing. Like I told you, I found out I was listening to another podcast, Diary of a CEO. Found out about reply, and I’m like, you know, free time, lunch time, after work. I know Carly is too. It’s like agents, like, all of this stuff is just so cool. And also, if I’m perfectly honest, slightly scary, right? It’s like, what does this mean for the career of myself, and, you know, those under me, like, you know, making sure that that all is in tandem. But I’m very excited about how that moves. I think that as a corporation, even just being in marketing and industrial marketing, sometimes we can be a little bit behind. So I think it’s an opportunity for us to grow and experiment and really see where this this can take us. I think the AI aspect, because marketing, especially digital marketing, has always changed really fast, which is why I love it. But with this AI aspect, it’s like you can never get that good. So it’s also like you’re also constantly learning and experimenting and breaking things, like Karla said, and so I’m excited to just do even more of that even faster in the future.

Curt Anderson  43:51

Yeah, I love it. You know, when you think about, like, social media, you know, or over the course of time, like things always it was years, you know, like the telephone came out, that was, like decades TV came out was that, you know, like, even when social internet came out, or social media, you know, a lot of the the strategies pay per click, SEO, you know, was, it took a long time, and like, you know, you could figure it out over, over the course of time with AI, like you’re saying, like it’s changing literally daily. Like, things we’re talking about today are probably going to be like, you know, old news tomorrow, right?

Brittany McCall  44:21

Exactly?

Karlaa Gregory  44:23

Released a update. So I’m like, Oh, this is great.

Curt Anderson  44:26

Okay. Karla, same question to you, what are you super excited about? What’s the future look like? For you? What’s going on there? I’m

Karlaa Gregory  44:33

just super excited about always trying new things we’re trying. ABM, so you know, being able to create like, a 10 piece content campaign in like a month or two. That’s really exciting. We just launched that. And just everything, you know, I’m doing more public speaking, I’m excited for just life. Life is life excited

Curt Anderson  44:56

for life? Man, what a great answer. That is. All right. Curt, last question. For you best business advice. I always love asking maybe, or maybe a mentor, so maybe Lisa, maybe somebody shared with you a professor. What would you say is the best business advice that you’ve ever received?

Brittany McCall  45:12

Um, I would say that the best business advice I’ve ever received is about endurance, right? Like a lot of people started things, but having that endurance is key. Having that endurance to keep, continue, keep with those small habits, until you see change endurance and just learning from everyone, like I heard the other day, like everyone on Earth, is your competition right there a chance to learn. You’re now starting to see spaces just meld together that you never would have thought well together before. So I think having that endurance and just kind of looking at things in a unique way, or trying to look at it in a different perspective, will probably be some of the best things that I’ve heard of

Curt Anderson  45:54

dropped the mic there. Brittany, thank you. That was phenomenal advice. I love it. Karlaa, your thoughts. I know you earlier you’re saying, like, you know, don’t be afraid to say, no, what any what’s best business advice that you’ve received or that you’d like to pass along,

Karlaa Gregory  46:08

um, minor is just to stay authentic and never quit learning. So, you know, always be yourself. Like, what you get here on this podcast is what you know the this is the car you’re going to get on stage with my side comments and my jokes. Is the same person you’re going to see when I comment on LinkedIn or make posts like i i stay authentic throughout so always kind of keeping that as your like personal brand, or as people know you just Yeah, always do that, and then just never quit learning again. AI is changing every day. Things are changing every day. Like SEO is changing every like, now SEO is more, you know, AI based, so things are changing. So don’t, don’t get left behind, but don’t stress out too much. Just do your best to keep up.

Curt Anderson  46:49

Don’t be left behind, and do your best to keep up. Drop the mic. My friend Carla so Damon, thoughts, takeaways, as we close out, what are your What are your what was the highlight for you today? Too many. Well, I just

Damon Pistulka  46:58

say thank you for being here this. I mean, I’ve got so many notes from this, so many ideas, because I can tell the two of you are running through things ahead of so many people, and it’s awesome to be able to learn from you. And just thank you so much. I just excited. And like Karlaa said, Never stop learning. I mean, this is such an exciting time, exciting time for me, exciting time for the world, exciting time for people, because we can come together in different ways that we never even thought about before, and do so much great stuff. It’s just incredible, right?

Curt Anderson  47:29

Absolutely love it. So Brittany, Karlaa, hey, Damon, how about everybody out there, if you’ve been hanging out with us, how about we’ve been going for 47 minutes? Give us a give Karlaa and Brittany a huge round of applause. Thank you for just absolutely crushing it. What an absolute masterclass. I have tons of notes I want to thank you both from by my heart, for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us. Brittany, we can find you on LinkedIn, anywhere else that we can find you or anywhere else folks should be looking for you absolutely

Speaker 2  47:57

um, LinkedIn is my main point of contact. Yeah. So if you guys have any questions or need anything, make sure to reach out.

Curt Anderson  48:02

Yep, Sumitomo website and Karla, same for you. You’re hanging out on you’re all over the place on LinkedIn. Is that? Right? Yeah,

48:10

Karlaa, double A

Curt Anderson  48:10

battery. Gregory is what

48:12

we like to call her, right? I like that. That’s

Curt Anderson  48:16

double a price. So guys, we’re hang out with us for one second. I want to thank you both so much. We appreciate it. This was just such an incredible opportunity. Talk about, always be learning. That’s why we do this. It’s just shamelessly for Dave and I just to learn from two rock stars like the two of you. So thank you. We’re going to close out, Damon, I will be back here on Friday. I don’t, Damon, I don’t know if we can top this one, but we’re going to do our we’re going to try. We’re we’re going to do it. We have endurance and resilience, right? Carlos, those are her right? Yeah, so we’re going to do our best, but do me a favor, go out and just be someone’s inspiration, just like these two amazing, wonderful, lovely women and you too will make the world a better place. We will catch you guys next time, and God bless. We’ll see you soon.

Brittany McCall  48:56

Alright, thanks. Thank you. Bye.