{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"Marketing Cybersecurity","description":"In 2009, Yoel Israel, founder at WadiDigital, Israel\u2019s leading full service digital agency, was pursuing his MBA at Bar-Ilan University in Tel Aviv, Israel. A friend sat down with him for a cup of coffee and said, \u201cDude, you\u2019ve got to get on Twitter.\u201d Yoel fell in love with it, set his university up on Twitter (which brought in some international students), and got a scholarship for the effort He graduated and returned to his job at Xerox in his hometown \u2013 Philadelphia \u2013 and ran a social media management side gig (Facebook and Twitter) for small businesses. When he discovered the Facebook dashboard, this finance major found that he not only got to look at data . . . he could manipulate it. He was hooked. He learned Google Ads, started his own company, and moved back to Israel where English is the \u201cB2B tech language. When LinkedIn rolled out lead generation in 2017, the agency took off \u2013 a \u201cfirst mover advantage\u201d payoff. Yoel explains: LinkedIn ads may be expensive, but they are powerful because of the discrete targeting capability the platform provides. Today, WadiDigital focuses on LinkedIn advertising, SEO, and lead generation for B2B technology startups, who, most likely, have already gone through Round A, Round B funding. After 3 customers asked for cybersecurity marketing and cybersecurity influencer marketing. WadiDigital decided to build a platform. Currently, a dozen cybersecurity companies are using an affiliate cybersecurity influencer distribution platform where influencer affiliates \u201ccan manage and track their own clicks.\u201d WadiDigital\u2019s new platform launches in January and will consist of two parts: Cybersecurity clients and other cybersecurity companies can share and distribute blogs and non-gated content. Influencer CISOs (Chief Information Security Officers) can retrieve these links, share them, and get compensated based on clicks. WadiDigital cohosts and curates webinars where cybersecurity company experts present content for different groups of influencers. Cybersecurity companies get to showcase their expertise. Well-vetted cybersecurity influencers (who get up-to-date information at a fraction of the cost of what they would pay Gartner or SANS), can post the information and get paid. Yoel says, \u201d We bring them good content and they get compensated for it.\u201d In this interview, Yoel discusses some of the security risks individuals and companies take, when to hire and the questions to ask when you hire, and the importance of processes in keeping things going. Yoel recommends that people follow him on WadiDigital.com, Yoel Israel on LinkedIn, (send a connection request and tell him you heard him on the podcast), and eventually cyfluencer.com, the distribution platform (again, January launch). The company will soon be hosting a cyber intelligence magazine: Cyber Intel Mag, details on all the \u201cnew stuff\u201d to follow on LinkedIn and the agency website.  ROB: Welcome to the Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast. I\u2019m your host, Rob Kischuk, and I\u2019m excited to be joined today by Yoel Israel, founder at WadiDigital based in Israel. Welcome to the podcast, Yoel. YOEL: Thanks, Rob. Thanks for having me. ROB: Why don\u2019t you start off by running down for us what WadiDigital is excellent in?  YOEL: Actually, our focus is LinkedIn advertising and SEO. We\u2019re very focused on lead generation, and all of our clients are B2B technology startups. They usually have at least Round A, Round B funding. A large majority of them are cybersecurity, especially because we\u2019re in Israel. It\u2019s like the cybersecurity hub of the world. So, we do a lot with cybersecurity there. We also now do cybersecurity influencer marketing. We have a cybersecurity influencer distribution platform that we\u2019re still building, and we\u2019re currently using but we\u2019re building a new one right now. We do a lot of influencer marketing in the cyber space. So, we do a lot, but our focus is B2B LinkedIn, SEO, lead gen, and influencer marketing for cybersecurity. ROB: That\u2019s probably an underappreciated and unknown aspect of Israel for people who don\u2019t know. In the technology space you get a flavor for that deep security knowledge and that expertise in the venture funded companies in Israel, but a lot of people may not necessarily make that association, so I\u2019m glad we get to dig into that a little bit. I want to pull on the thread a little bit \u2013 when you mentioned cybersecurity influencers, that\u2019s interesting. I\u2019m sure it looks a little bit different than what people may commonly think of as influencer marketing. What does influencer marketing look like in cybersecurity? YOEL: We have two parts. How we got into it was a few years ago, a cybersecurity client of ours asked us if we do cybersecurity marketing. We just said no. Then two months later, a different cyber client asked us the same question. We looked around online like, \u201cAll right, let\u2019s help them,\u201d and we didn\u2019t find anything. There\u2019s nothing really for B2B for influencer marketing, and if there was one, it was more like an Upwork where they come in and make the connection and there\u2019s nothing special about it. It\u2019s definitely not cybersecurity focused. When a third client asked us, we decided to build it. So, the influencer marketing, right now we\u2019re actually developing our own that will be ready in January. We spent over $60,000 on it. It\u2019s going to be epic. But what we\u2019re doing right now is using an affiliate network to manage and track clicks, where basically every affiliate, which is influencers, can log in and have their own unique tracking. We have about a dozen cybersecurity companies on our platform. There are two parts to our influencer distribution platform. One is where our cybersecurity clients and other cybersecurity companies want to share and distribute their blogs and their non-gated content, and then influencer CISOs and such, mostly in America, get to go grab these links, share it, and they get compensated based on the clicks. That\u2019s one. The second part that we\u2019re doing is now we\u2019re offering, within our pool of dozens of cybersecurity influencers, some of them are writers and they\u2019re real experts within their space, within cybersecurity, so we\u2019re not just writing content, but we\u2019re also co-hosting webinars. If you were to do a webinar with SANS or Gartner, it might cost you 15 grand. However, there\u2019s no reason to do it twice because they send it to the same audience. What we do is set up our cybersecurity clients with different influencers every single time, and those influencers promote their content in the webinar. They each bring a different and important audience to each webinar, not to mention it\u2019s a fraction of the price if they were to pay SANS or Gartner. ROB: Got it. In one case you\u2019re providing them a platform to showcase expertise alongside people they\u2019d want to be appearing alongside, and on the other side it sounds almost like you are helping the influencer solve a problem. It\u2019s often not really the case in influencer marketing. The problem you\u2019re helping them solve is they want money. But in this case, it sounds like part of the problem somebody who would be sharing one of these links would have is actually that they want to talk about the industry. They want a source of good, credible content, and you\u2019re able to connect content with people who want to share good content. YOEL: That\u2019s correct. We\u2019re curating. These people are already sharing and engaging with excellent cybersecurity content that they\u2019re sharing, but now in addition to what they\u2019re sharing, we\u2019re curating that content from about a dozen companies, and more are joining, that are able to then go and grab your content, and they can share it. It\u2019s really fantastic that we make it so easy for the influencers. We bring them good content and they get compensated for it. ROB: That\u2019s a really interesting model I haven\u2019t heard very much about before. YOEL: That\u2019s why we had to make it. ROB: [laughs] That\u2019s why you had to build it. Especially considering, from a product perspective, how do you think about elevating towards quality? Because that is one of the problems in the affiliate and link sharing world; it kind of has a bad reputation. How do you evaluate that experience? YOEL: We don\u2019t let anyone who wants to come and share links. We review anyone that wants to share a link. We go to their profile, we see all of their posts, make sure the overwhelming majority of their posts are cybersecurity related. We look at their engagement, their follower count, their work experience. So, you have to apply to be an influencer and we manually choose who can and cannot be influencers. That\u2019s how we get rid of the junk, and then the companies, especially when our platform will be ready in January, get to choose what companies they want influencers from, if they only want to pay for clicks from what countries. So even though you might have gotten clicks hypothetically from Pakistan, you don\u2019t want to pay for those, so we\u2019re not going to charge them and we\u2019re not going to pay out our influencers that way either. We have a lot of control over it. It\u2019s not just like \u201cset it up and do whatever you want.\u201d Especially the cybersecurity audience, they\u2019re very conservative. They\u2019re professionals. They do things by the book. By definition, they kind of need to. That\u2019s just how they are and who they are, so we need to make sure everything is very clean and kosher. ROB: Excellent. I love the clean and kosher. Yoel, if we rewind this business a little bit, how did WadiDigital come into existence? What led you to start the business and how did you arrive at that point? YOEL: It was weird. In 2009 I was getting my MBA at Bar-Ilan University here in Tel Aviv in Israel, and I met with a friend of mine who\u2019s a huge tech influencer in Israel. I wasn\u2019t friends with him at the moment; it was in 2009, and he took me out for some coffee and he goes, \u201cDude, you\u2019ve got to get on Twitter.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cWhat\u2019s Twitter?\u201d This is 2009, right? I really got into it and I loved it. It was a real intro to social media. I\u2019d been on Facebook a little bit, especially from college for my undergrad when that was up and coming. But I got on and I set up my university on Twitter and they were able to get some international students. They actually gave me a scholarship, so I knew I was good at something here.  I went back to Philly, where I\u2019m originally from, and went back to work for Xerox. On the side I was doing social media management organically on Facebook and Twitter for small businesses. Then I had a client ask me to take out ads on Facebook, and then I saw the whole dashboard and I kind of fell in love. Originally, I have a finance background, so I do love numbers and I love looking at tables of data. But once I understood that I could actually manipulate that data, I knew this was what I wanted to do for a living. Then I got trained up in Google Ads from a friend of mine and then started my own business and started selling Google Ads. I moved back to Israel after two and a half years in Philly. That was 7 years ago, and then naturally, because everything here in English is B2B tech, I started getting more into B2B and Google Ads and then getting all-in on LinkedIn ads, and we grew from there. Once LinkedIn rolled out lead generation forms on April 1st, 2017, we went all-in and we skyrocketed, bringing in enterprise leads and business because we were first mover advantage. ROB: That\u2019s a good wave to catch. For a while, a long time, you would hear that LinkedIn ads were expensive and that\u2019s all you would really hear about them. Then I think there started to be a transition at some point \u2013 I don\u2019t know whether it was an evolution of the platform or in strategy, but you started to hear instead that LinkedIn ads were expensive but effective. What do you think fed that transition, and what was your experience in that? YOEL: It\u2019s definitely expensive relative to other platforms, but it\u2019s totally worth the money. You can target whomever you want professionally on LinkedIn. You can\u2019t do that on any other platform. It\u2019s extremely powerful. ROB: Talk more about that target. What\u2019s that look like in practice to be really effective? YOEL: In practice, if I want to target CISOs (Chief Information Security Officers) at Fortune 500 companies only within the United States and who have just switched jobs in the last 90 days so they might be looking for new security opportunities for them to secure their companies, we can do that targeting. ROB: Got it. Does it line up a little bit with that enterprise hunting, account-based marketing mindset? YOEL: You could also do account-based marketing. You can upload a list of companies that you directly want to target and do that too. But then they also have different target options that you can choose, like the industry and the company size within that industry that you want to target. There\u2019s a lot of different ways \u2013 not just choosing what companies, but there\u2019s all kinds of different ways that you can target by company and you can target by the individual based on their experience. ROB: Got it. To justify the expense, do you look more at something that\u2019s in a lead capture mode? Is there any place for just pure brand and awareness marketing in LinkedIn? YOEL: Oh yeah, for sure. If you\u2019re a startup or you\u2019re a disruptor, people don\u2019t know that you\u2019re solving an issue that they don\u2019t know they have. They\u2019re not searching for that solution. Therefore, you can\u2019t use Google, but you can put in front of them the solution that you provide. So, awareness is fantastic. Video is very good. It\u2019s not necessarily good for lead generation but creating awareness videos and then remarketing people that viewed 50% or 75% of the video and then hit them up with a lead capture, you\u2019ll do very well. ROB: Wow, that\u2019s an interesting direction to take things. You started this and you got this thing moving; at what point did you realize that you were going to have to grow the team and this was really going to have to be something bigger than yourself? YOEL: When I stopped getting enough sleep. [laughs] I was working wire to wire, and then you get this really hot client. It was like, \u201cUgh, I\u2019m totally full with time. I shouldn\u2019t take them,\u201d but it was someone you really wanted. You\u2019re like, \u201cOkay, now I need to hire.\u201d That\u2019s how it happened. ROB: Got it. So, you just basically got to full capacity and then you said, \u201cWell, I\u2019ve got to do something that is beyond me.\u201d YOEL: Right. ROB: Are you still in that sort of mode, or have you shifted in terms of capacity planning and hiring to some different metrics? Or do you still think about getting a little bit too busy? YOEL: I always try to make sure we\u2019re stretching before I do my hires. We\u2019re already 11 people full time, and I just signed last Thursday night a huge senior, the only other person that\u2019s worth \u2013 let\u2019s say it\u2019s someone else in Israel that\u2019s got perfect English, has LinkedIn ads, Google Ads experience, worked in an agency, built a team. So, I just made a big hire, a very expensive hire, who will be starting in January. I\u2019m continuing to grow and I\u2019m all-in, and I\u2019m putting up a few more job postings now. To really build up a perfect team obviously will cost us a lot of money in the short term, but I think the medium and long term will be happy. But in general, as a rule of thumb for others that have agencies, do as much as you can, learn as much as you can, save up as much as you can, work wire to wire until you absolutely need to hire. Then hire. Too many people try to apply the 4-hour workweek before \u2013 the whole point of the 4-hour workweek is to escape the wire-to-wire working. First, you\u2019ve got to build the business, build the revenue, and get all that. Then you can learn how to step back. Don\u2019t step back and start outsourcing things until you\u2019re really working like crazy. ROB: I know I\u2019ve certainly had that experience of hiring for the business I wish I had instead of what\u2019s right in front of me. Have you had any either fractional or full-time hires that you\u2019ve learned you may have made prematurely and had to pull back from it? YOEL: I used to say I hire on personality and then I learned that\u2019s not nearly as important. I think having a good work ethic is more important than anything. That\u2019s what I really learned. You need people to have a good work ethic. If they have a good work ethic, they\u2019re competent, and they really care about the quality of their work, I think that\u2019s the number one most important thing. ROB: How do you think about screening for a good work ethic and evaluating that before someone\u2019s on board? YOEL: Make sure they have a full year of working somewhere. If you\u2019re in marketing, digital marketing, maybe a 1 year of white collar, making sure that they haven\u2019t been fired, and calling the references \u2013 were they on time? I really think speaking to the references and making sure they actually have some full-time employment. You should be able to get it from the references. Make sure to ask difficult questions to the references. A lot of people try to be nice to references because they\u2019re being kind with their time, but that\u2019s really the way to know. ROB: Not only that, but people will often give you the good references. It\u2019s hard to get to sometimes the references you really need to understand the full picture of the person. YOEL: Right, but you need to ask the hard questions. You\u2019ve got to pivot it and do it like this. Let\u2019s say Peter. \u201cIs Peter more of an introvert or an extrovert? Does Peter excel better working alone or excel better working on a team?\u201d Don\u2019t say \u201cHas Peter ever been late?\u201d They\u2019ll say no. You frame it as, \u201cHow many times a month has Peter been late?\u201d Then you hear if they think or not. You get an idea. So when you frame it that way, you get a better idea. It\u2019s how you frame the question, you\u2019ll be able to get an honest answer. Also, ideally, when you do these reference calls, if you can schedule a video call because then you can see their reaction. If you can avoid the telephone and do a video call, which everyone now knows how to do because of the pandemic, you\u2019ll be better off. ROB: That\u2019s definitely an opportunity I\u2019ve seen in this time. People are much less weirded out by a video call because we\u2019re all used to it. If you had told someone you wanted to do your first screen on a video call two years ago, I don\u2019t know if you would\u2019ve had the level of adoption that I\u2019m seeing with candidates now. YOEL: Right. It\u2019s a hiring market. Employers have a lot of leverage in a difficult economy. If someone asks for a video interview, I couldn\u2019t imagine anyone saying no. If you really want to weed people out, find out those that aren\u2019t willing to do a video interview. ROB: People find a lot of ways to weed themselves out. It constantly surprises me. Someone will spend the time on a video call, but then they won\u2019t follow up timely on the next step you ask them to do. It\u2019s a real tell. YOEL: It is, yeah. For those looking for employment, just a little tip: don\u2019t forget to send a thank you email after the interview. ROB: Man, it\u2019s such a way to stand out. YOEL: It\u2019s sad. I studied finance and they taught us a lot about business. We used to send handwritten letters. I\u2019m not that old, man. I\u2019m turning 35 next month. [laughs] I don\u2019t write in cursive and all that, but there\u2019s something to it. You want to stand out, you send a handwritten letter. You\u2019ll get that job. ROB: I think it\u2019s also interesting to recognize that one of the ways that I think you\u2019re really able to make those good premium hires you\u2019re talking about is in your choice of market. You\u2019re not talking to somebody who\u2019s selling a widget for $5 bucks a month. The cybersecurity market \u2013 the threats continue to grow. There\u2019s a lot of money on the line. What are you seeing when it comes to categories of cybersecurity that\u2019s emerging, trending? What should people be scared of that they don\u2019t know about yet? YOEL: Don\u2019t worry, all our clients are B2B. We\u2019re not selling VPNs like B2C to end users or anything like that. But everything and anything can be hacked. If you really want to be scared, to be honest, under no circumstances should you have TikTok or WeChat on your phone. They\u2019re stealing your texts. Anything you copy in your clipboard, even when you\u2019re not using the app, it\u2019s sending it to the Communist Chinese Party. That\u2019s the simplest and easiest thing you can do. I could really scare you, but I\u2019m not going to do that. You wanted an easy answer. [laughs] ROB: I wonder if maybe there\u2019s a novel category of solution that you\u2019ve worked with, a client you\u2019ve worked with that people wouldn\u2019t even realize was a problem or a solution. YOEL: I don\u2019t use Zoom. Most people do, but we use Google Meet because Zoom is hosted in China, so it\u2019s not secure. And most of our clients are cybersecurity. A few of our clients don\u2019t care; most of them do. There\u2019s a lot. You have no idea. People know everything about you. They\u2019ve watched you do everything on your phone through your camera, heard every conversation. They\u2019re recording everything. Everything you think Google\u2019s recording, which it\u2019s doing legally and with your permission, imagine what foreign governments are doing and getting information on you. I don\u2019t think anyone can run for office in a free country in the future with foreign adversaries knowing everything about you. ROB: Right, or they can and then it becomes a security risk. YOEL: Right. You can see that right now. ROB: Exposing the information is actually \u2013 you do that, you can never use it again. But if you hold it over someone\u2019s head, you can influence them for a long period of time. YOEL: Correct. That\u2019s what\u2019s happening right now maybe in America with Hunter Biden, with everything that he has on him and on Biden. It\u2019s a little worrying. But we\u2019ll see. ROB: You really do have to wonder. I hadn\u2019t thought about it too much. If someone has the dirt on you \u2013  YOEL: People don\u2019t think about it. And they have the dirt on you. That\u2019s the thing. They have it on me. They have it on you. ROB: So turning over the dirt is the nuclear option. YOEL: You don\u2019t turn it over. It\u2019s taken from you. ROB: Yeah. But them releasing the information is the last play. There\u2019s a lot in between. It\u2019s really interesting. Some interesting trends I have seen in this world \u2013 I don\u2019t know what you\u2019ve seen here \u2013 is an increase \u2013 we have one client who is moving to virtualized desktops. It was an S&P 500 company and they got ransomwared, and they\u2019re just over it. So they are deploying \u2013 all of their developers are going to be developing on virtual Windows boxes, I think on Amazon\u2019s cloud. Virtual desktops. YOEL: Yep, not surprising. You hear a lot more than that. I give examples of what people can do as individuals, but my clients are B2B, so it\u2019s more like how they present a ransomware, patching solutions, things like that. Having different keys in order to access different information, using cryptocurrency and things like that. All kinds of different technologies in order to be able to prevent different kinds of penetration for IT and OT and industrial and ICS. It\u2019s amazing. Think about it; if they take down the energy supply, you\u2019re screwed. You have no food. Nothing gets to you. They can\u2019t even pump the water that comes out of your faucet. Everyone\u2019s out in the street killing each other. ROB: We got a scary sneak preview. I don\u2019t know what the immediate COVID-lockdown experience was for you, but you realize how overoptimized and how fragile our supply chain is. What was your experience? YOEL: Yep, yep, yep. A lot. ROB: What could you not get and what can you still not get? YOEL: I have a couple old B2C clients from back in the day back in the States, and they\u2019re ecommerce. Ecommerce was through the roof when people couldn\u2019t go to the store. I was like, \u201cYo, we\u2019ve got to up our budgets. This is amazing. Our ROI is like 5x the previous month. This will only last as long as the pandemic or until things open up.\u201d He goes, \u201cI can\u2019t. My supply chain is screwed.\u201d We had to cut budgets, and it was time to rake it in. He couldn\u2019t supply. We had to go through and start removing products on their website. They sell beads for arts and crafts, high end beads and all that, like African beads. Just to get an idea. And that\u2019s not even important stuff. Then you talk about all of your medication and all that. I know we\u2019re totally off topic, but that\u2019s fine. All of your medication ingredients that go into medication and all of your technology and everything is made overseas, not to mention your master PPE equipment and everything. Nothing was made here at the time. Big changes have been made in the last 6 months, thankfully, for America to be able to centralize and other countries to start bringing their manufacturing back home. It\u2019s become a national security risk. ROB: Yeah. I was going to say, that\u2019s a good security story as well. We talked a little bit about some things you\u2019d learned along the way. What are some other lessons you have learned from building WadiDigital that you might do a little bit differently if you were starting from scratch? YOEL: Starting from scratch? It\u2019s such a simple question but I never thought of it that way. I would\u2019ve maybe hired a little bit earlier. I would have taken processes more seriously. I never worked at another agency, so I would\u2019ve hired a consultant that worked at another agency to give me some tips on how to do and build things, processes, streamline, and save time. Oh, another thing I did, if you own an agency: get a personal assistant. I learned between me and let\u2019s say one junior when it was just the two of us, only one person working under me, all my time was client-facing, and then I would assign tasks on Monday.com and she would do them. But then my other time went a lot of times to stuff in my personal life. So you can hire someone pretty cheap either locally, in my case \u2013 I hired someone on my block \u2013 or you can hire someone virtually to do a lot of the stuff you need to do in your personal life. I freed up almost an hour and a half of my time a day. That\u2019s three client calls a day. That\u2019s a lot more work and business that I can take on. I only started that a couple months ago. After I got used to the personal assistant, I was like, \u201cWhy didn\u2019t I do this years ago?\u201d ROB: [laughs] Right. What I have found is you start off thinking of a few things you could delegate and hand off, and then you just keep on realizing things you can hand off. There\u2019s a freedom that starts to come when you start to think about the additional things you can take off your plate instead of having the mindset that you have to do it. YOEL: It\u2019s a shift. It doesn\u2019t make any sense to people that don\u2019t. Once you start delegating and handing things off, your life changes. ROB: I think to some people it sounds very indulgent. It sounds like one of those first world problems of whether or not you have an assistant. But when you\u2019re trying to build a first class business, it\u2019s hard to imagine how you can go without it. After a time. Maybe not when it\u2019s just you. YOEL: But it\u2019s not even that. I know a lot of people, they\u2019re employees themselves, but they hire some help at home to help with the kids and dishes and cleaning and things like that, and it makes a huge difference. Then they can stay later at work, maybe earn more. And these aren\u2019t people building a business; they\u2019re employees. They just need some help so they can mentally recharge, so they\u2019re not up all night cleaning up after the house and the kids or whatever or helping with tutoring with children. In a sense, it\u2019s all a personal assistant in a way. ROB: Right, especially now, probably, to have someone who is in your inner circle, who you know and trust their habits. In the middle of the pandemic, I\u2019m not scared, but I am careful. The list of people I\u2019m going to call to babysit my kids has gotten a lot shorter right now because I want to know how you\u2019re living your life. YOEL: Yeah, I feel you, man. My wife and I went through the same thing. There\u2019s less babysitting. ROB: For sure. You mentioned processes. I think a lot of us, especially the creative class, \u201cI\u2019m going to go start a business,\u201d bucks at the idea of structure and process. It almost feels like rules, but it\u2019s also kind of like having a bionic exoskeleton sometimes that can help you be a lot stronger than you would be on your own. What was it that helped you realize \u2013 was there a particular process that you realized needed to be tightened up or some experience that made you turn the corner on processes? YOEL: I found out that one of my competitors had some processes that I wasn\u2019t doing, and then I really looked into it and I figured out, \u201cI need to get it together.\u201d [laughs] I went all-in on these processes. I started making processes and spreadsheets, processes in Monday.com, processes on what I do before and after a call and everything. It\u2019s almost automatic. I don\u2019t think about it. It\u2019s become a habit, and everything\u2019s documented, and no work ever gets forgotten or unchecked by doing things a certain way. Processes are important. But you don\u2019t notice you need it until you either hear complaints from a client or you find out what other people are doing in the industry and you\u2019re like, \u201cOh, I should be doing that. Why aren\u2019t I doing that?\u201d Which is why I recommended earlier to bring in a consultant, because you don\u2019t know what you don\u2019t know. ROB: Right. Those experiences beyond yourself, certainly. YOEL: Correct. Especially because I haven\u2019t worked at an agency, so I haven\u2019t really learned how to do that. I don\u2019t have that experience of \u201cHere\u2019s how we do things, here\u2019s how we do training, here\u2019s how we do keyword research,\u201d and the processes of hiring. You need other help sometimes to see things differently if you don\u2019t have that experience. ROB: We\u2019ve had a couple of those sorts of folks on. There\u2019s a couple of gentlemen, David C. Baker and Blair Enns, who co-host the 2 Bobs podcast. They\u2019ve both been on here, and they are both consultants to agencies that just have that longitudinal visibility. Even right now, if you want to say, \u201cHey, what are people doing? How are people\u2019s bookings? What categories are hot, what categories are not hot? What are people doing about office space?\u201d, these are all things where you need some perspective. YOEL: Right. But get more specific. I don\u2019t follow what people do; I try to do the exact opposite of what everyone does. But when it comes to processes, you need to get specific. Don\u2019t follow the crowd per se, unless you want to enter a rat race, but sometimes you\u2019re straight-up missing the obvious, which you don\u2019t even know. ROB: Very solid. Yoel, when you think of what\u2019s ahead for WadiDigital and marketing and maybe cybersecurity, what are you excited about that\u2019s coming up? YOEL: We\u2019re trying to transition from a cybersecurity marketing agency to a cybersecurity marketing and media agency, so in addition to influencer marketing and doing those things, we\u2019re building some reading resources, websites, cybersecurity news websites, cybersecurity TV show. We\u2019re trying to do \u2013 that\u2019s for a few years from now. We\u2019re really trying to make the destination for everything cybersecurity marketing and media so if you\u2019re in cybersecurity, you\u2019re a fool not to work with us. ROB: Where\u2019s that going to live? Do we have a future parking spot domain for that, or some digital properties? Or just follow WadiDigital? YOEL: You can follow WadiDigital on LinkedIn, but right now, cyfluencer.com. \u201cCy\u201d like cyber. That\u2019s our distribution platform. That\u2019s going to be launched January. There\u2019s a LinkedIn page we literally just made, and then Cyber Intel Mag is going to be where we do our cyber news and all of that. It\u2019s a cyber intelligence magazine. And then there\u2019s some other things I can\u2019t really share just yet. Just follow me or WadiDigital on LinkedIn to learn more. ROB: Got it. Is it WadiDigital.com? Where do we go to find you? We can find you on LinkedIn. YOEL: Yep, wadidigital.com, but the best is search \u201cYoel Israel\u201d in LinkedIn. Send me a connection request, tell me you heard me from here, and I look forward to following and engaging. I\u2019m very active there. ROB: Awesome. If we google your name, there\u2019s a nice Google ad that runs right up top too. It\u2019s pretty sweet. YOEL: As it should. [laughs] Control your name. ROB: Very good. Yoel, thank you for taking the time to share your experience. It\u2019s great to learn about what you\u2019re doing both within cybersecurity marketing, but also that goal and the thought and the distilled knowledge going into the platform and the media side. It\u2019s really, really instructive. YOEL: Awesome. Thanks. My pleasure, and I appreciate you having me on. ROB: Thank you so much. Be well. Bye. YOEL: Cheers. ROB: Thank you for listening. The Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast is presented by Converge. Converge helps digital marketing agencies and brands automate their reporting so they can be more profitable, accurate, and responsive. To learn more about how Converge can automate your marketing reporting, email info@convergehq.com, or visit us on the web at convergehq.com. ","author_name":"The Marketing Agency Leadership Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/spinutech.com","html":"