Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing

Episode Summary: When David Politis sits down with Gianna and Charles on CyberCMO Confidential, you’re getting something rare: A CEO who loves marketing telling you exactly what he thinks when he watches CMOs operate. Why the CRO wins if you let them, why he stops listening the moment someone says they have a playbook, why the best CMOs he ever wanted to hire became CEOs. And what one engineer just built for 2,000 accounts that made him realize most companies are nowhere near what is now possible. About David: David Politis is the Multi-time Founder, Current CEO Coach, Founder, Not Another CEO Podcast. He founded and led BetterCloud, sold it to Vista Equity Partners for about $750 million, and was part of the early team at Cloud Sherpas, which Accenture acquired. He now advises founders and executives on go-to-market, fundraising, and company building. Links & Resources: David Politis on LinkedIn Not Another CEO Podcast Not Another CEO Substack BetterCloud Clay: go-to-market automation tool mentioned Lovable: AI app builder mentioned Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review; it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Charles Gold on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: Yael Grauer won a Pulitzer and got laid off in the same year. She is a freelance investigative reporter covering cybersecurity, privacy, and surveillance. She sat down with Gianna to talk about what companies get wrong when journalists come knocking, why lying in that moment makes everything worse, and what it looks like from the other side of every pitch, every breach response, and every "no comment" that ends up in a story anyway. About Yael: Yael Grauer is a freelance investigative reporter covering cybersecurity, privacy, surveillance, and tech accountability. She has written for Wired, Ars Technica, The Atlantic, The Intercept, The Verge, and others. She previously worked at Consumer Reports as Program Manager for Cybersecurity Research, where she managed Security Planner, a free digital safety guide. She is part of the team behind a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into global surveillance technology conducted with The Associated Press. Links & Resources: Yael Grauer on LinkedIn YaelWrites Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation - AP global surveillance investigation Yael contributed to Consumer Reports Security Planner This Week in Security - Yael's favorite weekly newsletter 404 Media Privacy Guides Tate's Online Safety Substack Law Dork Discernible EFF Blog ProPublica MIT Technology Review No Starch Press - publisher of the investigative skills book Yael is writing Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review; it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: Brian Reed has been a CMO six times. He's also watched AI flatten marketing for the past two years and has said so out loud, including in a manifesto he published called AI is Flattening Marketing: Cue the Return of Mad Men. On this CyberCMO Confidential episode, Brian, Gianna, and Charles Gold get into why storytelling and community are the two things AI cannot commoditize. Brian also talks about how he built a “crusty OT guy” persona to validate messaging authenticity, and what community-driven marketing looks like when your buyers wear steel-toe boots and aren’t online very often. About Brian: Brian Reed is the Chief Marketing Officer at Corsha, an early-stage OT security company focused on securing machine-to-machine communications in industrial environments. He is a six-time CMO and CPO with over 30 years of experience in enterprise software and cybersecurity, with a background spanning mobile security, DevSecOps, and now operational technology. Before Corsha, Brian served as CMO at Appdome and NowSecure. Links & Resources: Brian Reed on LinkedIn Brian’s LinkedIn article: AI is Flattening Marketing. Cue the Return of Mad Men. Corsha Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review; it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Charles Gold on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: Gemma Goldstein had a quiet Thursday in the office, a domain someone spotted for sale, and an idea. A few short weeks later, Check Point's Exposure Management team had a browser-based arcade game live at exposuremanagement.ai with 11,000 players and a leaderboard. The game launched as part of a broader campaign, and MQLs went up 100% that month. Gemma is careful not to credit the game alone. She and Gianna cover how the campaign came together across multiple channels, what she would do differently now, and how vibe coding an ROI calculator in an hour replaced a project quoted as taking weeks. About Gemma: Gemma Goldstein is Head of Growth for Exposure Management at Check Point, a role she carried over from Cyberint after they were acquired in 2024. Before Cyberint, she spent three years at Envy, a B2B digital marketing agency focused on cybersecurity. Her background spans SEO, paid media, content, and creative strategy. Links & Resources: Gemma Goldstein on LinkedIn Check Point Exposure Management exposuremanagement.ai - the game Sprout Social -  employee advocacy tool mentioned Tom Orbach on LinkedIn - mentioned as an inspiration for fun B2B marketing Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review; it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: Patrick Gorman started making YouTube videos during COVID to study for a certification with friends. He now has over 100,000 subscribers and runs a pentesting firm called ISP Security. This is a replay of our Behind the Cyber Creator AMA series. Patrick and Gianna talk about how he built his audience, why having followers doesn’t automatically mean having clients, and what he learned the hard way about being a public figure in cybersecurity. About Patrick: Patrick Gorman is the founder of ISP Security and the creator behind Infosec Pat, a YouTube channel with over 100,000 subscribers. He has over 15 years of experience in IT and offensive security, with a background in penetration testing, network security, and digital forensics. Links & Resources: Patrick Gorman on LinkedIn ISP Security Infosec Pat Infosec Pat on YouTube Hack The Box Keith Barker on YouTube - mentioned by Patrick as a big influence CBT Nuggets - where Patrick first found Keith Barker Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review; it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: Kelly O'Dwyer Manuel has been building analyst relations (AR) programs for a long time, and her first question is always the same when starting from scratch: what are you actually trying to accomplish? She joins Gianna and Andy T to talk through what AR looks like for a small team with a small budget, why most companies pay for analyst relationships before they are ready, and what a first year program should realistically look like.  About Kelly: Kelly O'Dwyer Manuel is a communications and analyst relations leader with experience across cybersecurity, semiconductors, and enterprise software. She currently leads AR at NXP Semiconductors and has built programs at companies of all sizes, from startups to large public companies. Her background spans PR, AR, and corporate communications, with deep expertise in identity and access management and security. Links & Resources: Kelly O'Dwyer Manuel on LinkedIn NXP Semiconductors The Futurum Group Moor Insights & Strategy The Knowledge Capital Group Venture in Security by Ross Haleliuk Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: Jake Milstein ran newsrooms at CBS, NBC, Fox, and ABC affiliates for 25 years. He has five Emmys and strong feelings about the phrase "in today's evolving threat landscape." It turns out 25 years of writing for people with a remote in their hand is excellent training for cybersecurity marketing. He sits down with Gianna and Charles on CyberCMO Confidential to talk about why "learn more" is a moron tease, what writing a broadcast tease has to do with your website copy, and why he now writes two versions of every press release. One for journalists. One for the LLMs that are doing the reading anyway. Gianna finally presents Jake with his very own handmade Cybersecurity Marketing Society award, which he has been lobbying for throughout the episode. About Jake: Jake Milstein is the VP of Growth and Corporate Marketing at Contrast Security. Before cybersecurity, he spent 25 years running newsrooms and newscasts at CBS, NBC, Fox, and ABC affiliates across the US. He previously served as CMO and Chief Revenue Officer at Critical Insight, an MDR and cybersecurity services company. Links & Resources: Jake Milstein on LinkedIn Contrast Security Latio: the analyst firm whose Runtime Innovator award Jake mentioned Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review; it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Charles Gold on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: Jason Rebholz read a blog post about MCPs and saw the whole trajectory of AI security play out in front of him. Twenty years of incident response experience told him we were about to make the same mistakes…just faster. He started Evoke Security the same way he has approached every problem since: get ahead of the issues before the damage is done! He joins Gianna to talk about what a real CISO and marketing partnership looks like, how he built a threat research publication program at Corvus Insurance that helped brokers sell policies and kept policyholders safer, and what he has carried over from that into building Evoke Security. About Jason: Jason Rebholz is the founder and CEO of Evoke Security. Before starting Evoke, he spent over 20 years in cybersecurity, including time as CISO at Corvus Insurance, where he built a threat research and marketing program to help brokers and policyholders stay ahead of attacks. His background is in incident response. Links & Resources: Jason Rebholz on LinkedIn Evoke Security Evoke Security Blog Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: Shahar Bahat is the CEO and co-founder of Pluto Security. With every employee now building things using tools like Cursor, Claude Code, Lovable, and n8n, security teams have no visibility into any of those layers. That is the problem Pluto is solving. She sat down with Gianna to talk about what she saw at RSAC 2026, the shift from shadow AI to mandated AI, and how to build a security product when the tools your customers use change every four months. About Shahar: Shahar Bahat is the CEO and co-founder of Pluto Security, a company focused on securing the new ways employees build and create using AI tools. Before Pluto, she built experience across startups and enterprise security, and Pluto Security was part of the AWS-CrowdStrike-NVIDIA Cyber Accelerator program. Links & Resources: Shahar Bahat on LinkedIn Pluto Security Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: Most CMOs come up through marketing. Ash Parikh came up through engineering and sales, and he thinks that is exactly why he does the job differently. He joins Gianna and Charles on CyberCMO Confidential as the CMO of Absolute Security to talk about what 25 years of carrying a bag, presenting to boards, and running marketing at some of the biggest names in cybersecurity taught him. He’s banned MQLs, replaced them with handraisers built on real intent signals, and has strong opinions on why most marketers are not ready for a buying process that is growing harder to see every year. About Ash: Ash Parikh is the Chief Marketing Officer at Absolute Security. He has held CMO roles at Trellix, Druva, and Informatica, where he was part of the company's IPO. He started his career in engineering and sales before moving into marketing, and has spent over 25 years building go-to-market engines across cybersecurity, data, and enterprise software. Links & Resources: Ash Parikh on LinkedIn Absolute Security Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: JP Bourget sold a SOAR company, named his next one after cycling and blue teaming, got Fat Mike from NOFX to show up at his RSAC event, then took him to DEFCON, where he ended up in a DJ booth at Caesars Palace with Steve Aoki. Somewhere in between all of that, he built Blue Cycle into one of roughly 130 security service providers recognized by Microsoft out of 400,000 partners worldwide. He joins Gianna to talk about AI readiness, what happens when companies turn on Copilot before cleaning up years of data permission sprawl, and how he gamed the Microsoft partner ecosystem in under a year. About JP: JP Bourget is the CEO of Blue Cycle, a cybersecurity firm specializing in AI readiness, Microsoft security, security data pipelines, and API integrations. He is also an entrepreneur-in-residence at Lytical Ventures and a mentor at Upstate Venture Connect. Before Blue Cycle, he co-founded Syncurity, an early SOAR company that was acquired by Swimlane. Links & Resources: JP Bourget on⁠ LinkedIn⁠ ⁠Blue Cycle⁠ ⁠Lytical Ventures⁠ ⁠The Punk Rock Museum⁠ ⁠Upstate Venture Connect⁠ ⁠Cribl⁠ ⁠Swimlane Polaris Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: CyberGlobal is the world's first cybersecurity franchise, with Madalina Petrea heading up marketing there. What does it mean to run marketing at a cyber franchise? Supporting 27+ franchise owners across the US, Europe, Africa, and Asia who sell cybersecurity services to small businesses in their local markets. She joins Gianna to talk about what it takes to build that from the ground up. Her team handles everything for new franchisees in the first 90 days, including websites, LinkedIn profiles, content, and templates, so they can focus on learning the business. Her biggest challenge right now? Designing a system at 27 locations that still works at 200. They also get into why paid ads worked in Dubai and Italy but not in Boston, and why SEO has become one of their most important growth channels, including showing up in AI search tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. About Madalina:  Madalina Petrea is the Head of Marketing at CyberGlobal, the world's first cybersecurity franchise. She leads a centralized marketing team that functions as an internal agency for franchise owners across the US, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Her background spans marketing for SaaS and software development companies, and she has been building CyberGlobal's marketing infrastructure from the ground up since mid-2024.  Links & Resources: Madalina Petrea on LinkedIn CyberGlobal HubSpot Jira Screaming Frog Semrush Subscribe & Review:  👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com  Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page.  See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: Content syndication has earned a mixed reputation among cybersecurity marketers. Too often, programs generate large volumes of leads but little measurable pipeline. Sales teams question lead quality, marketing teams question whether the right buyers are being reached, and both sides wonder whether the investment was worth it. Steve Piper has been in cybersecurity marketing for over 30 years and has heard every version of "we tried content syndication and it didn't work." His response is always the same: you need to set clear expectations on what content syndication programs do internally, ask content syndication vendors the right questions and build protections into your contract, and build nurture programs for the leads created from content syndication. On this episode, Steve sat down with Gianna to talk about what content syndication is, what a good program looks like, and what to get into your contract before signing to make sure that you have success! New to CyberEdge? They have a summer promotion running through August 31st. First-time customers get 25% off their first campaign with a minimum of 300 leads, and every campaign gets 10% bonus leads. Visit cyberedgegroup.com to get started. About Steve: Steve Piper is the Founder and CEO of CyberEdge Group, the largest marketing and research firm dedicated to serving cybersecurity marketing teams. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Security Buzz, a leading cybersecurity news website. Steve is a CISSP-certified analyst, author, and speaker with more than 30 years of experience. When he's not helping cybersecurity marketers drive growth, Steve enjoys playing poker and boating along the Intracoastal Waterway in Fort Lauderdale. Links & Resources: Steve Piper on LinkedIn CyberEdge Group Security Buzz CyberEdge Pricing Guide Subscribe & Review:👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page. See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: Phillip Wylie has been in cybersecurity for over 28 years and is now one of the most recognized names in offensive security as a speaker, podcaster, and evangelist. What most people don't know is that he started as a pro wrestler and powerlifter before finding his way into IT and eventually pentesting. How cool is that? This episode is a replay of our Behind the Cyber Creator webinar series, where Gianna sits down with some of cybersecurity's most influential voices to hear how they built their presence, what it looks like behind the scenes, and what brands should know about working with them. Phillip's path from shy powerlifter to someone who recorded 89 podcast episodes in a single year is worth hearing in full. He gets into the reps it took (heh, see our weightlifting humor?), how he thinks about working with brands, and why learning to say no was one of the hardest lessons. About Phillip: Phillip Wylie is a penetration tester, keynote speaker, podcast host, and cybersecurity evangelist with over 28 years of experience in IT and cybersecurity. He is the founder of The Pwn School Project, a free ethical hacking education initiative, and the co-author of The Pentester Blueprint: Starting a Career as an Ethical Hacker. He hosts the Phillip Wylie Show and is currently Chief Security Evangelist at Suzu Labs. Links & Resources: Phillip Wylie on LinkedIn The Phillip Wylie Show Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page. See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: Mary Yang has been a CMO in cybersecurity for 6 years, helped 3 companies exit, and now works on a fractional basis with founders and teams she wants to work with. On this CyberCMO Confidential episode, the three of them get into a discussion on hiring. Mary skips the job description entirely. She puts out feelers, has a dozen conversations, and figures out who she wants before she ever writes the role. What she is really screening for is curiosity and drive, the stuff that is hard to fake and harder to teach. She also tells the story of the one time she ignored her gut and what it cost her. Chapters: [02:50] Meet Mary Yang: A CMO's Journey [06:05] Hiring Philosophy: The Importance of Fit [08:34] Vibe Coding: A Unique Approach to Recruiting [11:13] Lessons Learned from Hiring Mistakes [13:49] Interview Techniques: Drawing Out Candidates' Stories [16:35] Navigating AI in Hiring Practices [19:15] Curiosity and Continuous Learning in Candidates [21:49] Fun and Games About Mary: Mary Yang is a fractional CMO with over 20 years of marketing experience, most recently in cybersecurity. She has led marketing at LookingGlass Cyber Solutions, Syxsense, and SquareX, helping each company through strategic exits and acquisitions to ZeroFOX, Absolute Security, and Zscaler, respectively. She now works with high-growth SaaS and cybersecurity startups in a fractional and advisory capacity. Links & Resources: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, recommended by Mary A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens is mentioned by Mary as a personal favorite Follow Mary Yang on LinkedIn Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page. See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: John Zenick started his cybersecurity journey modding a Nintendo Wii in middle school. He is now an AI Security Researcher at Harmonic Security and a Teaching Fellow at Harvard, and joins our show to discuss everything AI! Even though we're a marketing podcast, of course we love to talk to the people doing the work in AI security today. John explains what shadow AI looks like inside organizations, why blocking it rarely works, and where the real data risk sits. He also brings out a pocket-sized device he built that runs a local LLM with no internet connection, and makes a case for why your process may be just as worth protecting as your data. Chapters: [00:00] Introduction to Cybersecurity Marketing and AI Research [01:10] John Zenick's Journey into Cybersecurity [02:57] From Hacking to Home Networking [04:15] Academic Pursuits and Teaching Cybersecurity [07:09] Current Role at Harmonic Security [09:52] AI Security Research and Its Challenges [11:49] Understanding Shadow AI and Its Implications [13:41] The Future of AI Tools and Data Privacy [15:40] Exploring Open Source AI Models [18:12] Building Private AI Models for Enhanced Privacy [24:50] Innovative AI Devices and Their Applications [31:19] Resources for Building Your Own AI Models [32:46] Personal Insights and Future Aspirations About John: John Zenick is an AI Security Researcher at Harmonic Security and a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University, where he has taught Software Engineering with Generative AI and supports applied computation capstone projects. His background spans incident response, security research, and detection engineering. He has also built local AI infrastructure from scratch, including private LLM systems designed to run fully offline. Links & Resources: John Zenick on LinkedIn Harmonic Security Ollama - for getting started with local open source models Hugging Face - open source models and datasets John's Hugging Face profile - quantization scripts and models for edge devices Andrej Karpathy on YouTube - recommended for learning how LLMs work Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page. See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: Internal comms is one of those marketing functions that doesn't always get its own seat at the table, but probably should. Thereasa Roy, formerly Director of Technical Solutions Marketing at Trail of Bits, now Director of Product Marketing at Oversight joins Gianna to talk through what it looks like in practice. Trail of Bits is a fully remote cybersecurity services company of about 130 people, and when this episode was recorded, they were in the middle of a brand refresh. Thereasa talks about how to get alignment across leadership before anything gets deployed, why repeating yourself is the job, and how sales and dev teams need to hear very different things. There's also a practical thread on how to track whether any of it is landing. Chapters: [04:18] Understanding Internal Communications [09:16] Aligning Marketing with Strategic Goals [12:02] Enabling Other Teams for Effective Communication [16:22] Communicating Brand Refresh Across Teams [21:46] Measuring Success in Internal Communications About Thereasa: Thereasa Roy is the Director of Product Marketing at Oversight and formerly Director of Technical Solutions Marketing at Trail of Bits, a cybersecurity services firm specializing in security audits, blockchain, cryptography, and application security. She has a background in product marketing and has held senior marketing roles at companies including OffSec. Her work focuses on brand, messaging, positioning, and the cross-functional coordination that makes it all stick internally. Links & Resources: Turn the Ship Around by David Marquet: recommended by Gianna during the episode Thereasa Roy on LinkedIn Trail of Bits Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page. See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: David Ebner has been building content for security and tech brands for 13 years, and the work has changed significantly with the dawn of the AI content era. He comes back on the show to talk about what AI systems look like inside a marketing team, how they get built, and what steps you can’t skip in the process. A lot of it starts before AI even enters the picture! That said, on this episode, we’ll still talk about: agents, knowledge bases, where automation ends and AI begins, how to decide which content still needs a person, and how to track where your brand shows up in AI search. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction and Background 01:03 The Evolution of AI in Content Creation 04:08 Building AI Systems and Processes 06:59 Real-World Applications of AI in Marketing 11:27 Streamlining Client Processes with Automation 12:17 Integrating AI Agents and Knowledge Bases 18:03 Optimizing Agent Efficiency and Task Management 22:49 Quality Assurance in AI Outputs 25:28 Content Strategy and Human Involvement 26:49 Long-Form Content and Data Reports 29:26 Workflow Platforms and Client Collaboration 34:52 Working with Content Workshop About David: David Ebner is the Founder and President of Content Workshop, a content and AI systems agency for security and technology brands, and the Founder of Chatter, a content intelligence platform. He has been building brand stories for over 13 years and speaks regularly on content, AI, and ethical marketing. Links & Resources: David J. Ebner on LinkedIn Content Workshop Chatter n8n Looker Studio Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page. See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: This episode is a little different. We're sharing a session from Behind the Cyber Creator, a live AMA series we run at the Cybersecurity Marketing Society, and Tyler Ramsbey was our first guest. Tyler went from pastor to pentester, built a study group into a community of 15,000 people, and walked away from a six-figure job to run his own businesses. He's been doing it all in the open, which makes the conversation worth having. We talk about building an audience without a big budget or a polished setup, why he says no to most brand deals, what it's like to be the bottleneck in your own business, and how he thinks about family alongside all of it. There's also a good thread on AI and pentesting that doesn't require a technical background to follow. About Tyler: Tyler Ramsbey is the founder of Kairos Sec, a boutique pen testing firm, and Hack Smarter, a training platform for people learning ethical hacking. Before cybersecurity, he spent 10 years as a pastor. He has over 66,000 followers on LinkedIn and a Discord community of 15,000 people, and he shares everything publicly, including revenue numbers. Links & Resources: Follow Tyler Ramsbey on LinkedIn Kairos Sec Hack Smarter Hack Smarter Discord Team OSH In partnership with: Mischka Agency Simply Cyber - Gerald Auger, Director of Strategy at Kairos Sec CourseStack - where Tyler published his community-building blog Recommended book: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page. See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary: Most cybersecurity marketing advice doesn’t apply when you’re selling to small businesses, and Ranbir Bhutani, CEO and vCISO of Cyber Culture, learned that the hard way. After spending on ads that didn’t lead to results, he shifted his approach toward LinkedIn, referrals, and in-person relationships. Instead of leading with solutions, he focuses on helping buyers understand the problem first, especially when they don’t come from a security background. Ranbir also talks about common marketing approaches that don’t land the same with smaller organizations, how trust and word of mouth drive most of his deals, and what it looks like to build a cybersecurity business without a large budget. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to Cyber Culture LLC 01:44 Ranbir's Journey into Cybersecurity 04:57 Transitioning from Technical to Sales and Marketing 07:33 Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses 10:04 Building Relationships and Networking 12:49 Quality Assurance in Customer Experience 15:31 The Importance of Community in Cybersecurity 18:23 Advice for Selling to SMBs 21:06 Future Aspirations and Personal Insights About Ranbir: Ranbir Bhutani is the CEO and Founder of CyberCulture, LLC, where he provides vCISO and cybersecurity advisory services to small and mid-sized organizations. His work focuses on helping non-technical leaders understand security risks and make practical decisions, particularly in government contracting, finance, and healthcare. Links & Resources: Ranbir Bhutani on LinkedInCyberCulture, LLC Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review, it helps more cyber marketers find the show. 📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: podcast@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com Follow the Host: Gianna Whitver on LinkedIn Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page. See you on the next episode!