Seeking Wisdom

We've got some exciting news for you! If you're looking for the Growth and Operations podcasts, you can now find them in their very own feeds everywhere you listen to podcasts. Simply search Growth by Drift and Operations by Drift or follow the links in our show notes to subscribe everywhere. Remember six stars only ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Happy listening!

On this episode of #Operations, host Sean Lane talks with Auvik Network's CMO, Jacqui Murphy. Jacqui and Sean talk about how she's scaled from a marketing team of one to now oversee marketing and business development teams totaling more than 50 people. Plus, why she's banished vanity metrics for good, her belief that the magic comes from the people on her teams – not just the data and much more. Tune in for their in depth conversation now.

On this episode of #Growth, host Matt Bilotti sits down with Greg Skloot, President & COO of Crystal, to discuss a whole new level of personalization. We all know we're targeted online based on past browsing history and offers are often personalized with our name and sometimes location. But are we on the cusp of a whole new level of personalization? One that takes into account personality type and how we might want to be interacted with? Greg and Matt discuss the future of personalization on this episode. Be sure to tune in.

On this episode of #Operations, host Sean Lane sits down with VC and former Salesforce EVP and GM, Brett Queener. Queener joined the company when it was at $11 million in revenue. Today, Salesforce's market cap stands at $123 billion. This monumental growth is due in large part to Queener's focus on specialization and segmentation – essential for the success of any ops pro.

Today's episode of Growth is all about testing. Matt Bilotti is joined by Drift's growth tech lead Vignesh Mohankumar. Together Matt and Vig discuss the ins and outs of testing products. How should you test the products you're building? When should you test? And equally important – when shouldn't you test? Matt and Vig dig into the considerations you need to keep in mind when testing products and they share real-life examples from building and testing products at Drift. Don't miss out.

On this episode of Seeking Wisdom, DC and DG talk about the power of keeping a beginner's mindset. Yes, even if you're an expert. Plus they break down a single tweet that teaches more about marketing and copywriting in two minutes than you can get from reading 30 copywriting books. It's a gold mine. Seriously. And make sure you listen to the end – DC drops a bombshell about the future of Seeking Wisdom that you don't want to miss.

Today on #Operations, host Sean Lane sits down with Okta's VP of Business Operations, Jake Randall. Okta's market cap is now $9 billion...not a bad company to learn from. Together Sean and Jake discuss how to actually measure your ops team's performance, scaling through hypergrowth, Jake's career path at Okta, what he's reading now and much more.

On today's episode of #Growth, host Matt Bilotti is talking all about testing – A/B testing to be exact. He breaks down the best ways to test, teaches us all about Bayesian Statistics and chats through this and more with Guy Yalif, co-founder and CEO of Intellimize.

Want to start reading more business and leadership books but aren't sure where to begin? This special episode of Seeking Wisdom is all about DC and DG’s favorite subject – books! Tune into to hear which books have a permanent place on DC’s bookshelf.

“Show me your friends, and I’ll show you your future.” In this episode of Seeking Wisdom, DC and DG are talking about the five people closest to you – and how the people you surround yourself with in everyday life and on social media have a bigger impact on you than you think.

On the very first official episode of #Operations, host Sean Lane sits down with Will Collins, VP of Operations at Drift. Together they look inward to focus on operations at Drift – Will was employee number 13. So what exactly does it mean to work in ops at a hypergrowth company? You'll find out in this episode.

Today on #Growth, Matt is talking all about experimentation. Specifically how to approach changes you might make to your site or product – bite-sized or incremental changes vs. going all out with big swings. Matt breaks this down with a real-world example you've probably faced yourself – updating your homepage. There are pros and cons to both and Matt lays it all out here.

In this episode of Seeking Wisdom, DG is taking you back in time...to 2015. He had just joined the marketing team at Drift. There was no content. There was no blog. And he had a busy CEO who was full of ideas – but who had no time to spend turning them into content. Tune into to learn how DG was able get more content from his CEO – and create the world’s first six star podcast in the process.

Data can only get you so far. On this episode of Seeking Wisdom, DC and DG are talking about the limitations of data, and why the most important thing you can do to scale your business is to get in the mud. Because getting in the mud means getting closer to your customers. It means getting your hands dirty and talking to them openly about their pain points. That’s where you’ll find all the answers you’re looking for.

To all the marketing and sales ops pros out there deep in the trenches, we know automation work isn’t glamorous. And maybe it seems like no one cares about your Salesforce hack or that Marketo lead routing program you built from scratch at 2 in the morning. But we're here to change all that. Because without you, there would be no hypergrowth companies. Which is why we're introducing something brand new. #Operations – a podcast just for you. Every other Friday, you'll hear from Sean Lane, aka SAL, Director of Operations at Drift. We'll go under the hood of companies including Salesforce, Amazon and Okta to find out what it truly takes to scale through hypergrowth. Finally. A show about ops. See you back here soon for the first official episode of #Operations.

This week on #Growth, host Matt Bilotti is talking all about data – space data, agriculture data, data science – with the self-proclaimed "data queen" herself, Lauren Moores, VP Data Strategy and Data Sciences at Indigo. Lauren has spent her whole career chasing data and finding answers to the toughest questions for industries that have undergone significant transformation. Matt and Lauren talk about the evolution of data science and how much it's all changed in just 20 years. Lauren also shares her pro tips on how to structure data teams through periods of massive growth.

What happens when you flip a problem on its head? Today on Seeking Wisdom, DC and DG are talking about inversion: a beloved mental model of Warren Buffett’s billionaire business partner, Charlie Munger. Inverting a problem or challenge has endless practical applications in business and everyday life. Be sure to tune in to hear how you too can use inversion to overcome some of your biggest obstacles.

Results matter, but how do you create a performance-based culture from scratch? Today on Seeking Wisdom, DC and DG talk about meritocracies – and why they think every high-performing business should be one. In a meritocracy, the best ideas rise to the top based on merit alone. DC shares his three-part framework for how to create a meritocracy and evaluate team members based on loyalty, harmony, and results.

On today's episode of #Growth, host Matt Bilotti and Drift's VP of Growth, Guillaume Cabane, answer the million dollar question – when to make your first growth hire (and how). Here are a few hints: Make sure you've found product-market fit, a proven way for people to buy your product and a true customer base. Growth teams are the most effective when they're able to reduce friction in your acquisition funnel. If there's no funnel...you don't need a growth person. So before even making your first hire, be sure to establish demand and educate the market about your offering. Also in this episode – how growth teams should communicate with other areas of the business, setting up feedback loops, goal sharing and more.

In this episode of Seeking Wisdom, DC, DG and special guest Maggie Crowley are talking about one of their all-time favorite topics – books – about leadership. We’ll give you an inside look at the books that have made a difference to us – from experts like Christina Wodtke, Kim Scott, Bernadette Jiwa, and Patty McCord. So, if you’re looking to up your leadership game in 2019, this episode is for you!