April 24, 2025 • 41 mins
Do you trust the experts you hired?
In this episode of Don't Do That, Kelly Waltrich is joined by Molly McClure, Head of North America Marketing at intelliflo. Molly shares her experience building intelliflo's U.S. marketing presence from the ground up, the importance of balancing creativity with data-driven results, and why events like Future Proof Festival are game-changers for financial services branding.
Molly's "Don't Do That" message: Stop hiring experts and then not trusting them to do what they do best.
Kelly and Molly discuss:
00:56 Molly's background and nearly 20 years in marketing
02:38 An overview of intelliflo and its expansion from the UK to the US market
07:12 The importance of marketing creativity alongside metrics and data
09:00 Molly's experience launching the intelliflo brand at Future Proof Festival
13:46 The unique branding opportunities at outdoor industry events vs. traditional conferences
15:15 intelliflo's creative surfboard simulator booth experience
17:17 The critical balance between brand building and lead generation
21:25 Molly's "Don't Do That": Don't hire experts and then micromanage them 23:00 The organizational imbalances that lead to micromanagement
25:07 How marketing often loses its creative spark when overly managed
27:54 Why marketing is often a thankless position despite driving success
30:30 How job candidates can assess a company's management style before joining
34:10 The importance of earning trust and autonomy as a new team member
36:35 The power of bringing solutions, not just problems, to leadership
Connect with Kelly Waltrich:
Connect with Molly McClure
About Our Guest:
Molly McClure, Head of US Marketing for intelliflo, Invesco's financial advice software division, brings nearly two decades of marketing leadership experience in financial services and technology to her role. With an MBA from Michigan State University and a bachelor's from Wake Forest University, McClure has leveraged her education and expertise to drive remarkable growth.
📩 Stay Informed – Join Our Newsletter!
Stay ahead of industry trends and get exclusive updates straight to your inbox: Sign Up Now https://intention.ly/
💬 Let’s Talk!
Have questions or ready to start your next marketing campaign? Contact us: https://intention.ly/contact-us/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Molly McClure (00:01):
Today's marketing, while it is so
important, attribution,performance, data and analytics,
is so, so critical to thesuccess of any marketing
organization you you have totake a step back sometimes and
like, Okay, well, why are wehere? Why are we doing this? Why
does this matter? And a lot ofit, you know, goes back to, you
(00:23):
know, the advisor that's up at11 o'clock at night, you know,
trying to get some paperworkdone because he was bogged down
in technology issues all day andcouldn't meet with his clients.
And it's just, it's simplemoments like that, like, okay,
that's our why, that's why wethat's why we do what we do
every day.
Kelly Waltrich (00:45):
Welcome to the Don't Do That Podcast. I'm Kelly
Waltrich, CEO and Co-Founder ofIntention.ly, and like me, this
show is no fluff and no BS, justsmart advice to help you learn
from the best and level upfaster. So what are we not doing
today? Let's find out.
Hi everyone, and welcome to theDon't Do That podcast. I am your
(01:07):
host, Kelly Waltrich, and I amhere today with Molly McClure
from intelliflo. And I thinkthat the universe was really
messing with us trying to dothis podcast. Every time we
jumped on we couldn't see eachother's faces, then we couldn't
hear each other. It's one ofthose things where you think
everything goes perfectly, butbehind the scenes, it's a little
wacky. Today was one of thosedays, but we're excited to be
(01:29):
here. Molly, welcome. Oh,
Molly McClure (01:31):
technology, right? Oh my gosh, never fails.
Good thing.
Unknown (01:35):
We're both not in the business of technology, right?
So excited to be here, yeah.
So I'm so glad to have you,especially because you are a
marketer. And I haven't had amarketer on our podcast yet. I
feel like we could probably talkall day. But let's just get
started. Give everybody a littleglimpse into who you are and
(01:55):
into intelliflo. Yeah,Definitely proud to say I'm a
marketer. It's always greatspeaking to other marketers.
We're on that same wavelength,which is really nice, almost
coming up on 20 years inmarketing. So started my career
at a small boutique consultingfirm, and had a great mentor
kind of guide me in a directionI needed to go. And next thing I
(02:17):
knew, I was in an MBA programand then moving to Austin, Texas
to work for Dell in Round RockTexas. Back in 2010 I started my
career at Dell, and I have beenin corporate ever since. So I've
spent almost my entire career inbig, big corporations. Even
intelliflo is owned by Invesco,so we have a big behemoth behind
(02:39):
a mid sized company, which isnice, but I would describe where
I've been in marketing. There'sa lot of different areas that
you can play in. I've alwaysbeen, I would say frontline to
the business, frontline tosales. So that's my sweet spot.
That's where I like to be. Younot only get to be creative and
(02:59):
have a lot of fun, but there'salso that accountability. You
can see the benefit of all thegreat work that you and your
team are doing, you know,obviously, if, if, if
everything's working correctly,and the analytics gods are on
your side, then you candefinitely prove and and just
see, you know, hey, this is thevalue. This is why it works, so
I'm happiest there, but I wouldsay it definitely has its
(03:22):
advantages and disadvantages.
Okay, so tell us a little bitabout about intelliflo, about
how things work, where you're inthe US and they're in the UK. I
wouldn't give everybody aglimpse into this world and the
products that you guys havebrought to market in the US, and
how that's going. Yeah.
So before my time, I joinedintelliflo in 2022 from USAA,
(03:48):
which is insurance and financialservices company for the
military. Love our military.
Give them a little shout out.
And so intelliflo originallystarted though in 2018 Invesco
decided that they wanted to havea software division. So they
went out and inquired fivedifferent companies and
(04:08):
intelliflo. Back then, with acapital I was based out of the
UK, very successful, verydominant player in the UK.
They're basically the salesforce so the financial advisory
software space in the UnitedKingdom, and my role in the US
was to come in and essentiallylaunch the marketing in the
(04:30):
United States region. We werebig player, big name in the UK.
Now it's time to get down tobusiness in the US. So
essentially, me and my team havecome in and built a full fledged
lead generation machine,everything from top of the
funnel, video, social medias,mid funnel, emails, display ads,
(04:52):
retargeting, all the way down tolow funnels. So pay per click
ads, so anything and everythingthat drives. Leads into the
funnel my team is is touchingand driving and making those
strategic decisions for butessentially, we went from
nothing in the US market to to afull, full fledged demand gen
machine, awesome.
(05:13):
And so tell the advisors thatare listening what type of tools
intelliflo provides in the USwhat they can come to you for.
Kelly Waltrich (05:22):
in this market, right? Wild Times, oh, So
the our biggest player in the USmarket is called intelliflo
redblack. That was one red. Itwas originally called original.
Originally called Red Blacksoftware, right? And that was
one of the acquisitions thatInvesco made that turned into
now intelliflo lowercase, i. Sowe have the original uppercase i
(05:43):
in the UK, yeah. Now we'vesunset it. So we had a funeral
for the uppercase i, and nowit's all lowercase to fit with
our approachable down to earth.
Bold brands, yes. So intellifloredblack is rebalancing,
trading, order management. Sohonestly, we make advisors lives
easier every day thanks tointelliflo redblack, it's super
customizable, advanced,powerful, and honestly, our goal
(06:06):
at the end of the day is tofurther advance access to
financial advice, and then ontop of that, let our advisors do
what they do best and be withclients we keep hearing
statistics. You know, advisorsonly spend about 60% of their
time with clients. The rest isthey're bogged down with
administrative tasks, and sointelliflow is here to help with
(06:29):
that side of it. Obviously,technology can't do it all, but
it is a big part of drivingefficiencies and streamlining
tasks so you can get back to towhat you actually want to do.
And that's talk to clients, helpclients, especially
Molly McClure (06:51):
phones have probably been ringing off the
hook this week. So
Kelly Waltrich (06:55):
in a week, that is for sure, to all the advisors
out there slugging through it,we see you, and we're here for
you, that is for sure, it'sbeen, it's been a wild one,
Molly McClure (07:04):
roller coaster ride. You can definitely say
that. So, all
Kelly Waltrich (07:07):
right, Molly, so we're both marketers. What comes
with marketing is somecraziness, but also some fun.
And I know that you love events.
You love what? Who told you thatI don't know. You love branding.
You love experiences. So beforewe get into the don't do that.
(07:28):
Give, give the audience a littlebit of how you and I came to be,
how we work together on some ofthis fun stuff and and why you
love that as as a big part ofyour role,
Molly McClure (07:39):
absolutely. So yeah, one of the best parts
about being in the US market andintelliflo is Intention.ly our
US agency, so we have the best.
And I was blessed to actuallycome in to my role as head of us
marketing and intentionally wasalready on board. So it honestly
made my job so much easier,because I just had a partner
(08:00):
right away that not onlyunderstood marketing, but also
understood financial technology,financial services, wealth
management, and that that's notalways a space that everybody's
dabbled in or understands notyou know, at the end of the day,
good marketing is goodmarketing, but it's still nice
to have somebody on your sideright at the beginning of a role
(08:21):
that just gets it right.
Kelly Waltrich (08:24):
Yeah, we got lucky to work together, and so
we focus with you on events, andwe both love that. So guys,
marketing is stressful. It issometimes thankless, and it's
the type of people who are goodat it love a good challenge,
because they're constantlytossed at us all day long. But
one of the highlights, I think,of our role, Molly, is that we
(08:47):
get to do some fun stuff. We getto be really creative, and I
think that you and your teamhave done a phenomenal job of
that. So tell everybody a littlebit about what that's looked
like over the last couple years.
Molly McClure (08:56):
Yeah, you're too kind. It's I definitely smile
more when the event's overversus leading up to the event.
So, but yeah, I have Erica fromyour team, so she definitely
alleviates a lot of stress forme and my team. But yeah, so
when I started at in intellifloback in July of 2022 which is
(09:16):
crazy to think I'm coming up onmy three year anniversary this
year, Time goes fast when you'rehaving fun. We were about six
weeks, six, seven weeks from thefirst ever Future Proof
festival. That was the inauguralyear for Future Proof, its first
(09:37):
events, first of its kind, and Iremember joining on my first
day, my my boss, our chiefmarketing officer, was like, oh
yeah, we have this event. And,you know, seven weeks, and it's
amazing. It's bold, it'sdifferent. It fits perfectly
with, with the intelliflo brand.
It's in California. You have tocome, you have to be there. And
there's, there's still a lot todo. So. So I didn't really have
(09:59):
any sort of like getting to knowthe company, slowly ramping I
was basically just shot out ofan airplane without a parachute.
But I learned a lot, and it wasactually really nice, career
wise and new job wise, to be outtalking to people, talking to
customers, our target marketprospects, advisors within you
(10:21):
know, seven, eight weeks ofjoining the company, that's that
doesn't always happen. So it wasreally nice to just be boots on
the ground so early. But soFuture Proof Festival, shout out
to Matt Middleton. He's the CEOof it all the masterminds and so
basically, what they decided is,in a nutshell, Wealth Management
(10:44):
Events suck. You know, you're,you're, you started, you're
stuck inside, and, you know,you're in like this gymnasium.
And, yeah, feel free to editthat out if, if that's gonna
Kelly Waltrich (11:00):
be I love it. I think somebody had to say it,
but coffee is hard to find. Yes,
Molly McClure (11:06):
yeah, yes, it's time, yeah. Then, you know the
just the super bright lightingand the hallways and hallways
and the mazes of booths, and sobasically, they sat down, and I
know he had a team behind him,and he had other investors
involved as well, but they satdown and basically like, okay,
(11:26):
let's flip the script. It's timeto do something different. So I
don't know how they did it, butthey went and must have had
hundreds of 1000s of meetingswith the city of Huntington
Beach, California, and theyended up convincing the city
council there that, hey, we wantto have a wealth management
event directly on the boardwalkoutside, literally, like, what,
(11:51):
15 feet from the ocean. I mean20 feet from the ocean. I mean,
it's unheard of, right? So theyjust took over the boardwalk.
You know, you can hear seagullscalling, like in the background
of a speaking session and thewaves crashing. And now the
first year was hot, so youobviously, you can't control the
(12:12):
weather. I remember, like, wewere all like, got a little
chugging water. Yeah, record hottemperatures. You were there
that year, but, um, there'ssomething that, Ha, that
something magical that happens.
I know that's such a cliche wayto describe it, but when you're
you're in this chillenvironment, you're in the
beach, you're in the sun, you'rethe sands nearby, it's almost
(12:35):
like you can, you can relax, andyou can be more authentic, and,
yeah, connect with people. Andyou're not in your suit, you're
you're not in this sort ofstifling environment. And
people, people just connect.
It's, it's just, it's an easyway for a community to come
together.
Kelly Waltrich (12:54):
Yeah. And so what I love best, I mean,
everything that you said is justso true. And this is obviously
not a podcast about futureproof. I'm sure we'll do one of
those in the future. But what Ilove being
Unknown (13:06):
at Middleton help us get a good boost next year.
Kelly Waltrich (13:11):
So what I love best about that event is the
branding. It gives companies anopportunity like, let's let's be
real when you're in a normalconference environment, the
playing field is kind of level,right? Because everybody has the
same 10 by 10 space. Everybodyhas the same table. This, you
know, the scene. It's all lotsof the same stuff. You can put
(13:35):
so much on the table in terms ofswag, you can plan a dinner
that's very vanilla. And thenyou get to future proof, and the
branding opportunities are wild,and I think companies did such a
phenomenal job of takingadvantage of that opportunity.
Don't you think, what aren'tsome of the things we've seen
in, some of the things that yougot to do so cool compared to
(13:55):
what you would do otherwise? Oh,100%
Molly McClure (13:58):
I mean, it's, it's almost like, I described it
as keeping up with the Joneses,beach vibes wise, every year you
know, the marketers, the team,the teams, you know, behind all
the booths and the branding, arealmost like, you know, you're
forced, and you're pressured tocome up with something better.
(14:18):
Yes, even if you knocked it outof the park the year before.
It's like, okay, well, what arewe going to do differently this
year? And, yeah, I have to say,I've had, I've had some
interesting reactions to, Ithink everything that we've done
has been incredibly cool atFuture Proof, because, like you
I love when I get to step away,you know, from funnel conversion
(14:39):
rates and, you know, pipelinereviews, and I actually get to
it brainstorm and come up withsuper creative ideas for a beach
event in California. And so thesecond year that we were there,
the first year was basicallyjust like baptism by fire. We
didn't really know what wasgoing on. Everybody just kind of
showed up and learned. And thegood news is we weren't the only
(15:02):
ones that had a beginning there.
Everybody sort of had to diptheir toes in the water, but the
second year, we're like, okay,how do we combine a beach event
with technology? We knew weneeded some sort of experience
at our booth, because whenyou're outside at a beach event,
nobody's going to come by yourbooth if you're if it's boring.
(15:24):
And so an experience we learnedwas was the number one motivator
to get someone to our booth. Sookay, beach technology, and I
don't remember exactly how ithappened, but I remember seeing
that Billabong the beachclothing brand had an event, and
(15:46):
at the event, they had thissurfboard simulator where you
ride the surfboard, and thenthere was a game on screen where
you could collect coins, And,you know, there was a leader
board, and they gamified thesurfing. And, yeah, I remember
having a discussion with my teamand Eric, I was like, Is that
(16:07):
too much? Can Can we do that? Isthat Is that appropriate, you
know, for a professional, youknow, financial technology
company, to do. And I remembersharing the idea with my my
boss, and she's super bold andcreative and loves to think
differently. She was like,that's perfect. So I of course,
(16:29):
we branded it intelliflo blue,and intelliflo has bright bold
colors, bright yellow, brightblue, and our design team did a
really great job. They createdthis beautiful wave design with
all of our colors and just thethe second year, we finally had
(16:50):
a booth that came alive. Youcould say we still had a lot to
learn about what worked anddifferent and didn't work, but
the experience finally, finallywoke us up, yeah, woke up the
bear in a good way, and and wehad, you know, record traffic
that year because of thesurfboard.
Kelly Waltrich (17:10):
Yeah, that's amazing. I feel like it's funny
that you say, like, get awayfrom the pipelines and the
conversion rates and everything.
It's super interesting. The seatthat I sit in at an agency now,
where people are coming to melike wildfire, trying to build
lead gen engines without a brandbaseline. And, you know, it's
interesting, because I alwaysgrapple with, Okay, do I do this
(17:31):
for them? Do I work with them onthis, or do I make them realize
that they have to startelsewhere? Because it's so true,
it's like all of a sudden weforgot that you have to be
creative. All of a sudden. Weforgot that you have to tell
stories. All of a sudden, weforgot that you have to think
outside the box, and like yourbrand has to resonate with
people. And so I do a lot of Ihave a lot of conversations
(17:52):
Molly about what you just said,like remembering that you have
to step outside of those things,because at the end of the day,
your brand propels all the restof that forward, all of the lead
generation forward. So you haveto have a balance of both, and
it's just wild. I will tell youthe clients in the fintechs that
come to me on a daily basis thatdon't want to put any time,
(18:15):
money, energy or effort into thebranding stuff. They just want
their next lead, and that's notsustainable for long term
success. So I try to be open andhonest about that, you know, in
the conversations, even though,you know, we're an agency and
we're supposed to just helppeople with what they need help
with, I still, at the end of theday, sometimes grapple with
that, and I think we have to, weowe that to future proof in
(18:37):
terms of like you have nochoice, you're not going to show
up and look like a schlep,right? People are doing
airplanes with signs in the skyand putting up hot air balloons
and all the you know, BNY, withtheir massive boardwalk in their
lifeguard booth, like you cannotshow you have to show up at
these things. So I I credit MattMiddleton for reminding people
(18:59):
that like brands matter. Youhave to be creative, and that
truly is the foundation ofeverything else you do, right?
They've definitely
Molly McClure (19:09):
gamified it with the sponsors. It is just like,
who's going to show up best,who's going to win this year?
And I love it. It keeps itexciting and different every
year, versus other events whereyou know exactly what it's going
to look like every time you stepinto that event, but on your
point around the brand, Icouldn't I could not agree more,
(19:30):
the brand is the North Star ofany organization, uniting it,
guiding it forward. And I thinksometimes I've seen in my
career, people struggle with,why is brand consistency
important, or why is our missionor our vision so important, and
without their those, there's noalignment. You just have people
(19:54):
saying different things andspeaking different things, and
that's confusing then, for. Yourtarget market, and stories are
so powerful. I I completelyagree. I think today's
marketing, while it is soimportant, attribution,
performance, data analytics, isso so critical to the success of
(20:16):
any marketing organization youyou have to take a step back
sometimes and like, Okay, well,why are we here? Why are we
doing this? Why does thismatter? And a lot of it, you
know, goes back to, you know,the advisor that's up at 11
o'clock at night, you know,trying to get some paperwork
done because he was bogged downin technology issues all day and
(20:40):
couldn't meet with his clients,and it's just, it's simple
moments like that, like, okay,that's our why. That's why we
that's why we do what we doevery day. And you know, this
week is the perfect example ofrebalancing portfolios is very
important in the oh my gosh,yeah, turbulent market, and
being able to do that aseffectively as possible is
(21:01):
definitely going to set youapart in weeks like this. So
Unknown (21:03):
it's for sure.
Kelly Waltrich (21:13):
Okay, so Molly, Molly, the premise of the show.
We learn better from ourmistakes than from our wins. I
think marketers probably knowthat better than anybody. So
tell me and our audience here.
What are we not doing today?
Molly McClure (21:29):
We are not going to hire experts and then not
trust them to do what they dobest.
Kelly Waltrich (21:36):
Ooh, yeah, I like it all right, tell me more.
Tell me more. That
Molly McClure (21:42):
can go a couple different ways, I think,
especially in marketing. Thefirst way, the most obvious is,
no one wants to work for amicromanager. I love hiring
people that are better at methan certain things. I love it.
It's It's honestly one of themost freeing and success driving
things of being a leader, isfind someone who's better at
(22:06):
something critical than you are,and I can say that about my team
hands down, they all havestrengths that I don't have, and
lean into those strengths andlet them run with those
strengths. And sometimes it'snot always going to look or feel
exactly the way you want. Thatis something that I see leaders
struggle with. But Did it meetthe goals? Did it? Did it meet
(22:29):
or exceed the goals of what youwere trying to do? Maybe it
looked a little bit differentlybecause they're not you. But I
think that there's nothing moredefeating and there's nothing
that's going to drive higherturnover of top talent than
micromanaging someone. And onthe flip side, like, I don't
know if you've had this in yourcareer, but I've seen you know,
(22:53):
being the front line to salesthe business, sometimes
everybody can think they're amarketer. So you don't want to
be micromanaged in that sense,either you want your business
partners to trust you andempower you, and when you show
up at the table with this storyand this data and all these
great recommendations, they'reokay, maybe they disagree about
(23:15):
some things, but they need tocommit because that's why
they've hired You. They've hiredyou to be that marketing expert,
because it's your job tounderstand your your ideal
customer, and connect with thembetter than anyone else.
Kelly Waltrich (23:30):
Yeah, I think that's spot on. And you know
what? I don't I don't know ifthis will resonate with you, but
what I find is that theorganization so keep in mind, I
have a view into 70organizations right now, the
organizations who have a lot ofmicromanagement and have a lot
of people, and it doesn't haveto be marketing, it's any area
(23:50):
of the business, and who have alot of people playing, trying to
play roles that aren't theirs,have imbalances in in different
ways. Like, for example, I seecompanies mostly that are
constantly all over theirmarketing team that clearly
should be focusing on sales, ortheir CEO should be focusing on
(24:13):
business strategy, when theirsales leader should be focusing
on making sure all of theirsalespeople are telling the
right story and using themarketing to their advantage, or
supplementing the marketing withsome Hunter action like I just
find that when the business isin harmony, everybody is busy
enough in their own roles to nothave to weigh in, not not weigh
(24:35):
in. We want collaboration, butnot try to drive other areas.
I've seen that in my own career,and it's interesting going from
that to a balance where, like,everybody's busy enough paying
attention to their own stuffthat it's harder to try to
meddle in in other areas. Doesthat make sense to you?
Molly McClure (24:54):
Absolutely. Yeah, I've seen that throughout my
career, and I think it'simportant to remember. Remember
that marketing is just one pieceof the puzzle. It's, it's not
the whole puzzle. And sometimesyou're like, Oh, wow. You know,
it bumps up your ego a littlebit like, wow, we we're
important. You know, everyone'scoming to us, or everyone has a
thought, but at the end of theday too, those, those
(25:16):
distractions don't allow you toget done with everything you
need to get done that you'vecommitted to strategically,
right? And so that that trusthas to be there, and if it's
not, I've seen it throughout mycareer. Then marketing loses its
flame. We almost kind of lose,like a little bit of our
rebellion, because we're theteam that tests fails fast,
(25:40):
learns, we pivot quick. And I'dalso say, I don't I. I'm sure
you were this way when you wereCMO. But to everybody like that,
every partner we're likelymarketing is harder on ourselves
than anyone could possibly be.
Kelly Waltrich (25:57):
That's the truth. That's the truth. And you
know what? It's funny like, Ithink that being a CMO made me
tougher than maybe I ever wantedto be. Because you almost have
to be like to be good in a CMOrole these days, with all of the
demands and all of theresponsibilities, you have to be
(26:17):
somewhat tough because you haveto, you have to say no to things
that don't help you get to yourgoals, which is hard in that
role, because you're essentiallyin some organizations seen as a
service role. You have to keepaccountable to the metrics that
we talked about. The board wantsto know the connection and to
(26:39):
revenue. Leadership wants toknow the connection to revenue.
So I don't know. I found thatlike I had to just, I had to
tell I had to toughen up becauseyou you want to be creative and
you want to have fun, and you'dgotten to marketing because you
love storytelling and you lovecreativity and you love building
brands. And then you find,really quick, that if you're
(27:02):
gonna be successful and have asuccessful career in marketing,
that you are gonna have to belaser focused on certain things,
and that precludes you frommaybe doing some of the some of
those things that you can'totherwise spend time on. So I
don't know how you feel. I feellike you have a little bit of
that edge to you. I feel like Ilook around and I almost know
(27:25):
immediately, when I talk to amarketer, whether they can lead
a team well or not, justbecause, like, you have to be,
you have to have conviction interms of Yeah, resilience, yeah
for sure, yeah.
Molly McClure (27:36):
And I completely agree with you earlier you said
it's a thankless position, it Icouldn't, I couldn't agree more.
You know, even if marketingplays a part in winning a deal,
you know, we're not the onesthat get the glory. You know,
we'll cheer ourselves on behindthe scenes, because we can see
the lead source and all thesystems, and we can see the
(27:56):
whole lead journey, but it we'reoftentimes not the ones that are
going to be up there, raw rawingwhen that happens. So it's
Kelly Waltrich (28:04):
it's so funny. I had a client yesterday ask me,
like, Hey, is marketing normallythe one the voice of the custom
or the voice of the company? AndI just kind of laughed, and I'm
like, they'd probably be one ofthe best voices of the company,
but no, they're likely behindthe scenes, pulling all the
strings to make all everyoneelse look better. And I think
that's another thing aboutmarketing leaders, is the best
(28:29):
ones don't need all the glorylike I felt. Felt like I always
enjoyed being behind the scenesgetting this stuff done because
it was good enough that I knewwhy success was happening. It's
Molly McClure (28:40):
interesting.
Going from like USAA, a reallybig company, you had to be media
trained to talk to any of themedia there, there were some
very, very strict rules andsteps to ever be on camera or in
front of an audience. And yeah,I've enjoyed intelliflo, having
a little bit more flexibility,because I have been able to get
(29:01):
involved in more of that, justeither interviews on site at
Future Proof, for talking withmedia for an article. So it's
there definitely are someadvantages with a bit of a
smaller organization. But yeah,day to day, even as a leader and
as a CMO, you've, you'vedefinitely seen this. The best
(29:22):
leaders give the accolades totheir team, not to themselves.
So it's I wouldn't be anywhere.
I wouldn't have a career withoutall the teams that I've been
proud to lead throughout theyears and and a lot of that goes
back. I will, I will trustsomeone on my team, and I will
(29:42):
give them full range, you know,unless they give me a reason not
to, right, yeah, and so I alwaysgo in with good intentions on
that, and definitely try tosteer clear of any
micromanaging, but happy tocollaborate or help or talk
through anything. Any time. So
Kelly Waltrich (30:01):
as marketers are looking for their next gig, and
they're trying to figure out,like, is this the right role for
me? Am I going to have, or am Igoing to be hired into a
situation where I have someautonomy, where I can make some
decisions, where I'm hired touse the skills that I have,
like, what are they looking forin a company and in a leader, to
make sure that that those arecharacteristics of the of this
(30:24):
position and of the firm thatthey're joining. I would
encourage
Molly McClure (30:28):
them to ask. Just ask directly. You know what you
could ask if you'reinterviewing, say, with the
person that's going to be yourboss, you can't 100% get a
truthful answer all the time inan interview. But you know, what
is your leadership style? Youknow, how often will we
interact, or how often will wemeet? You know, how much
autonomy will I have around XYZ?
You know, at least you made theeffort to ask the question.
(30:52):
Sometimes you don't know untilyou get into something, but I'd
encourage them, if you'remeeting with people on your team
to definitely ask that question,ask your peers in the interview.
You know what? What's theprocess of rolling out a
campaign here? It's somethingmaybe that doesn't even touch on
somebody's leadership style. Andthen watch and see, you know,
(31:14):
they're like, well, oh, well,first, you know, you have to do
X, Y and Z, and then you have toget these five people sign off,
and that's probably not going tobe a very autonomous environment
for you to work in, and there'sgoing to be a lot of oversight.
So I I think questions like thatthat can can help boil down to
get the right answers, but younever know what a team is going
(31:39):
to be like until you're part ofthe team? And I would say
throughout my career, there's noperfect company team leader.
There's just not. You have tolook at the strengths. You have
to look at what makes them happyand and focus on that and
deliver on that. And that'salways going to be a change
(32:02):
based on where you're at,
Kelly Waltrich (32:05):
yeah. And on the flip side, you have to deserve
the autonomy, right? Like, youhave to earn it to exactly if
you're coming in and you're abull in a china shop from day
one, you might that's, you know,you have to, like, think
through, okay, this is a rolethat I'm in. I want to be able
to do x, y and z in this way,because I think it can be
successful. There are definitelyways of going about earning that
(32:28):
that responsibility and thattrust that I think, that I think
marketers need to remember. Soit's a two way street, right?
Like the boss, the CMO, the headof marketing, or whatever
department you're in has to beopen minded and has to have a
mindset of, I'm going to hiresmart people and I'm going to
let them do their thing. But onthe flip side of that, coming
into new roles, I think you haveto remind yourself that, like,
(32:50):
Hey, I I need to, I need to earnthe right to be able to have
that autonomy as well.
Molly McClure (32:57):
I completely agree your new boss is never
going to immediately trust you,you, you do have to prove that
you deserve that trust andperform and, you know, meet and
exceed those expectations. Imean, definitely you. I think
one of the one of my favoritethings, like of top talent, is
you can give them somethingalmost vague to go do or problem
(33:20):
to solve. They don't really aska lot of questions. They just go
figure it out, right? I mean,that is the biggest blessing to
a busy leader that they couldever have. Yeah,
Kelly Waltrich (33:30):
I think that's so true. I think back to my time
at Orion. So when I started,Eric Clarke was definitely
leading marketing. The CEO wasdefinitely leading marketing. So
they had a marketing team, andthey had marketing stuff going
on, but when I walked in, he wasdefinitely leading. He was
definitely calling the shots.
And I remember thinking tomyself like, oh, man, what did I
get myself into? And then Irealized, okay, how am I gonna
(33:54):
prove to him that he can stepout of this and feel really
confident over time, andobviously by the end of my time
there, like there were barelyany questions asked and we were
just rocking. But I do rememberthat moment so it's, it's it
doesn't matter who you are orwhat role you're walking into,
like you have to sort of gutcheck yourself on the situation.
(34:15):
And how do I go from where weare to to gaining trust, to
taking the reins like and it'sgot to be like a thoughtful, a
thoughtful process, becauseyou're also in my situation, it
was also someone who was verysmart, very good, very creative,
and, you know, hired their firstperson out at first leader out
(34:38):
of state, and who wasn't in theoffice, and all kinds of things.
So I kept reminding myself,like, Okay, this is going to be
he's going to need to let go.
And for me to get him to dothat, I have to, like, you know,
there's steps involved in that.
So I think, I think thinkingthrough some of that is, there's
a little bit of chess playingthat happens to get your. Role,
wherever you are, whatever it isto be, what you want it to be,
(35:03):
you know, before you complainabout it, like, think through
like, what are the steps I cantake to get to make this, to
shape this into somethingthat's, you know, that I really
enjoy and want to continue todo. I
Molly McClure (35:17):
couldn't agree more. Yeah, and yeah, like you
said, you just, you never knowquite what you're going to get
into until you step into itfully. Right? Even interviews,
they're not going to give you100% clear picture of
everything, but, right, yeah, Ilove that. It's, I always tell
my team that too, like, Pleasedon't bring me any complaints.
Bring me solutions, right,right? How do we fix it? How do
(35:40):
we get past, you know, theissues that we're having right
now or the roadblocks in place?
I love that, but I've learnedthat from leaders all along. I
had a leader at USAA and it, Inever brought a problem to him
without, you know, hey, here'sthree things that I recommend we
go do. And you know, he was notnotoriously quick to the draw on
(36:01):
his email. And he'd be like,Okay, I like to go
Kelly Waltrich (36:06):
nice. I know I always say to Intention.ly folks
too, the worst thing that youcould do coming into this role
is do everything the way that weare. We've done it before. Like
you need to come, I love that.
You need to put you need to tellus how you're coming in from the
outside. You have perspectivesthat we don't have. You worked
with people we didn't work with.
There might be better ways, andI want, I want to know what they
(36:27):
are, and that's genuine, becausethis is my first time running an
agency, and we're four yearsinto this, but still, I learn
something new every day. And I Ilike to think that it's because
we hire good people and thenthey bring us great ideas. So I
think that that's like, asleaders, we need to remind
ourselves, like, the worst thingthat a really great person could
do is just do what we tell them.
You know, I
Molly McClure (36:48):
love that. I I think that was, that was one of
the best things I brought fromsome of the bigger organizations
I worked for before, andteleflow is one just how to find
and hire top talent. It's alwaysa little bit easier at a bigger
company, just bigger benefits,you know, better pay structures,
but more career opportunities.
But what is that top talentlooking for? And then just the
(37:11):
strategic thinking and buildinga strategy and a plan and
executing on it. You know, USAAis insurance and financial
services for the military, and alot of the company is run like
the military. So every year andlike September, October, I
remember I had my first one liketwo, three weeks after joining,
(37:35):
because I joined in September of2017, you back in the day when
they, before they moved to anopen office culture, we would
the leaders of the productlines, which I was one the
marketing leaders, had to go infront of the CMO, his name was
Wes Laird at the time, and hisentire leadership team, and
present our entire strategy planchannels we're going to use why
(37:59):
all the rationale down to whatthe results are going to be, and
they would rapid fire questions,and at the end they they would
vote yay or nay if your plan wasapproved and you got your
budget. So that that was thesort of pressure and mentality
now that I'm going to bring toevery single organization that
I'm part of, like, there's noguarantee this money is going to
(38:22):
come and fall in my lap. I needto tell a good story, and I need
to know my
Kelly Waltrich (38:28):
stuff, right? Oh my gosh. You know, isn't it
funny? How, like, we takecertain things with us? So the
thing for me was, in highschool, I know this is like
crazy long ago, and then we'regonna wrap this up, Molly last
year, right? Last year? Yeah,totally. So I had this
communications teacher, and shewould sit in the back of the
classroom. She would make yougive your speeches, and she had
(38:50):
a tin can and pennies and a rollof pennies, and every time you
said, you played with your hair,you fidgeted anything that you
did that was inappropriate andwould take attention away from
what you were saying. She wouldthrow pennies in a can. So I, my
whole life, have this backgroundnoise if I am not speaking
(39:14):
clearly and articulately ofpennies hitting a tin can, and
it snaps me back into shape in aminute, because that, it's so
funny that things that stickwith us. I think we all have
them. There's always a couple ofthem. But for you going in front
of the firing squad with yourplan to get your budget, for me,
it's this woman with thesepennies, and so I've taken it's,
(39:36):
you know, I think it's importantthat we take those those moments
and those lessons with us alongthe way. I think they shape who
we are, for sure. PTSD,
Molly McClure (39:43):
yeah, that kind of reminds me of when my mom
would scream down using my firstand middle name
Unknown (39:50):
exactly. Yeah. That's, I still
Molly McClure (39:53):
shiver a little bit at that thought. So that's
yeah, I can only imagine the thesound of the pennies. Whenever
you hear them. Now that I saidit to you, I bet you you start
hearing pennies. Oh, I will. Iactually love that. It's a good
visual to have when you'respeaking or presenting. So
Kelly Waltrich (40:11):
totally. All right, for those of you
listening, I hope you enjoyed mytalk with Molly today. It's
always nice to connect withother marketers, because we walk
the same walk, and so this isreally nice to have you. And
just as a reminder, what we'renot doing today is we are not
hiring amazing talent and thentelling them how to do their
(40:31):
jobs. I think that that's alesson that goes far beyond
marketing, that goes far beyondwealth management, and is a
reminder to all leaders outthere that we all can learn
something from the people on ourteams, no matter what level they
are. So Molly, I reallyappreciate you. I'm so glad that
the universe Finally let us getthis podcast recorded and
Molly McClure (40:52):
technology, yay.
And I appreciate you too, andthe whole team, Intention.ly,
y'all are amazing, awesome.
Unknown (40:59):
All right. Well, we'll see you soon, Molly, thank you
so much.
Kelly Waltrich (41:03):
Thanks so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed
today's show, subscribe to benotified when new episodes
become available, and pleaseconsider giving us a five star
review on Apple or Spotify. Thispodcast is sponsored by
intentionally a financialservices growth engine design
consultancy and agency. If youwant to learn more, please email
(41:23):
me at Kelly, at growintentionally.com, thank you
again for listening and checkback to hear what we're not
doing next.
The information covered andposted represents the views and
opinions of the guest and doesnot necessarily represent the
views or opinions of KellyWaltrich. The content has been
made available for informationaland educational purposes only
(41:44):
the.
Today's marketing, while it is so
important, attribution,performance, data and analytics,
is so, so critical to thesuccess of any marketing
organization you you have totake a step back sometimes and
like, Okay, well, why are wehere? Why are we doing this? Why
does this matter? And a lot ofit, you know, goes back to, you
(00:23):
know, the advisor that's up at11 o'clock at night, you know,
trying to get some paperworkdone because he was bogged down
in technology issues all day andcouldn't meet with his clients.
And it's just, it's simplemoments like that, like, okay,
that's our why, that's why wethat's why we do what we do
every day.
Kelly Waltrich (00:45):
Welcome to the Don't Do That Podcast. I'm Kelly
Waltrich, CEO and Co-Founder ofIntention.ly, and like me, this
show is no fluff and no BS, justsmart advice to help you learn
from the best and level upfaster. So what are we not doing
today? Let's find out.
Hi everyone, and welcome to theDon't Do That podcast. I am your
(01:07):
host, Kelly Waltrich, and I amhere today with Molly McClure
from intelliflo. And I thinkthat the universe was really
messing with us trying to dothis podcast. Every time we
jumped on we couldn't see eachother's faces, then we couldn't
hear each other. It's one ofthose things where you think
everything goes perfectly, butbehind the scenes, it's a little
wacky. Today was one of thosedays, but we're excited to be
(01:29):
here. Molly, welcome. Oh,
Molly McClure (01:31):
technology, right? Oh my gosh, never fails.
Good thing.
Unknown (01:35):
We're both not in the business of technology, right?
So excited to be here, yeah.
So I'm so glad to have you,especially because you are a
marketer. And I haven't had amarketer on our podcast yet. I
feel like we could probably talkall day. But let's just get
started. Give everybody a littleglimpse into who you are and
(01:55):
into intelliflo. Yeah,Definitely proud to say I'm a
marketer. It's always greatspeaking to other marketers.
We're on that same wavelength,which is really nice, almost
coming up on 20 years inmarketing. So started my career
at a small boutique consultingfirm, and had a great mentor
kind of guide me in a directionI needed to go. And next thing I
(02:17):
knew, I was in an MBA programand then moving to Austin, Texas
to work for Dell in Round RockTexas. Back in 2010 I started my
career at Dell, and I have beenin corporate ever since. So I've
spent almost my entire career inbig, big corporations. Even
intelliflo is owned by Invesco,so we have a big behemoth behind
(02:39):
a mid sized company, which isnice, but I would describe where
I've been in marketing. There'sa lot of different areas that
you can play in. I've alwaysbeen, I would say frontline to
the business, frontline tosales. So that's my sweet spot.
That's where I like to be. Younot only get to be creative and
(02:59):
have a lot of fun, but there'salso that accountability. You
can see the benefit of all thegreat work that you and your
team are doing, you know,obviously, if, if, if
everything's working correctly,and the analytics gods are on
your side, then you candefinitely prove and and just
see, you know, hey, this is thevalue. This is why it works, so
I'm happiest there, but I wouldsay it definitely has its
(03:22):
advantages and disadvantages.
Okay, so tell us a little bitabout about intelliflo, about
how things work, where you're inthe US and they're in the UK. I
wouldn't give everybody aglimpse into this world and the
products that you guys havebrought to market in the US, and
how that's going. Yeah.
So before my time, I joinedintelliflo in 2022 from USAA,
(03:48):
which is insurance and financialservices company for the
military. Love our military.
Give them a little shout out.
And so intelliflo originallystarted though in 2018 Invesco
decided that they wanted to havea software division. So they
went out and inquired fivedifferent companies and
(04:08):
intelliflo. Back then, with acapital I was based out of the
UK, very successful, verydominant player in the UK.
They're basically the salesforce so the financial advisory
software space in the UnitedKingdom, and my role in the US
was to come in and essentiallylaunch the marketing in the
(04:30):
United States region. We werebig player, big name in the UK.
Now it's time to get down tobusiness in the US. So
essentially, me and my team havecome in and built a full fledged
lead generation machine,everything from top of the
funnel, video, social medias,mid funnel, emails, display ads,
(04:52):
retargeting, all the way down tolow funnels. So pay per click
ads, so anything and everythingthat drives. Leads into the
funnel my team is is touchingand driving and making those
strategic decisions for butessentially, we went from
nothing in the US market to to afull, full fledged demand gen
machine, awesome.
(05:13):
And so tell the advisors thatare listening what type of tools
intelliflo provides in the USwhat they can come to you for.
Kelly Waltrich (05:22):
in this market, right? Wild Times, oh, So
the our biggest player in the USmarket is called intelliflo
redblack. That was one red. Itwas originally called original.
Originally called Red Blacksoftware, right? And that was
one of the acquisitions thatInvesco made that turned into
now intelliflo lowercase, i. Sowe have the original uppercase i
(05:43):
in the UK, yeah. Now we'vesunset it. So we had a funeral
for the uppercase i, and nowit's all lowercase to fit with
our approachable down to earth.
Bold brands, yes. So intellifloredblack is rebalancing,
trading, order management. Sohonestly, we make advisors lives
easier every day thanks tointelliflo redblack, it's super
customizable, advanced,powerful, and honestly, our goal
(06:06):
at the end of the day is tofurther advance access to
financial advice, and then ontop of that, let our advisors do
what they do best and be withclients we keep hearing
statistics. You know, advisorsonly spend about 60% of their
time with clients. The rest isthey're bogged down with
administrative tasks, and sointelliflow is here to help with
(06:29):
that side of it. Obviously,technology can't do it all, but
it is a big part of drivingefficiencies and streamlining
tasks so you can get back to towhat you actually want to do.
And that's talk to clients, helpclients, especially
Molly McClure (06:51):
phones have probably been ringing off the
hook this week. So
Kelly Waltrich (06:55):
in a week, that is for sure, to all the advisors
out there slugging through it,we see you, and we're here for
you, that is for sure, it'sbeen, it's been a wild one,
Molly McClure (07:04):
roller coaster ride. You can definitely say
that. So, all
Kelly Waltrich (07:07):
right, Molly, so we're both marketers. What comes
with marketing is somecraziness, but also some fun.
And I know that you love events.
You love what? Who told you thatI don't know. You love branding.
You love experiences. So beforewe get into the don't do that.
(07:28):
Give, give the audience a littlebit of how you and I came to be,
how we work together on some ofthis fun stuff and and why you
love that as as a big part ofyour role,
Molly McClure (07:39):
absolutely. So yeah, one of the best parts
about being in the US market andintelliflo is Intention.ly our
US agency, so we have the best.
And I was blessed to actuallycome in to my role as head of us
marketing and intentionally wasalready on board. So it honestly
made my job so much easier,because I just had a partner
(08:00):
right away that not onlyunderstood marketing, but also
understood financial technology,financial services, wealth
management, and that that's notalways a space that everybody's
dabbled in or understands notyou know, at the end of the day,
good marketing is goodmarketing, but it's still nice
to have somebody on your sideright at the beginning of a role
(08:21):
that just gets it right.
Kelly Waltrich (08:24):
Yeah, we got lucky to work together, and so
we focus with you on events, andwe both love that. So guys,
marketing is stressful. It issometimes thankless, and it's
the type of people who are goodat it love a good challenge,
because they're constantlytossed at us all day long. But
one of the highlights, I think,of our role, Molly, is that we
(08:47):
get to do some fun stuff. We getto be really creative, and I
think that you and your teamhave done a phenomenal job of
that. So tell everybody a littlebit about what that's looked
like over the last couple years.
Molly McClure (08:56):
Yeah, you're too kind. It's I definitely smile
more when the event's overversus leading up to the event.
So, but yeah, I have Erica fromyour team, so she definitely
alleviates a lot of stress forme and my team. But yeah, so
when I started at in intellifloback in July of 2022 which is
(09:16):
crazy to think I'm coming up onmy three year anniversary this
year, Time goes fast when you'rehaving fun. We were about six
weeks, six, seven weeks from thefirst ever Future Proof
festival. That was the inauguralyear for Future Proof, its first
(09:37):
events, first of its kind, and Iremember joining on my first
day, my my boss, our chiefmarketing officer, was like, oh
yeah, we have this event. And,you know, seven weeks, and it's
amazing. It's bold, it'sdifferent. It fits perfectly
with, with the intelliflo brand.
It's in California. You have tocome, you have to be there. And
there's, there's still a lot todo. So. So I didn't really have
(09:59):
any sort of like getting to knowthe company, slowly ramping I
was basically just shot out ofan airplane without a parachute.
But I learned a lot, and it wasactually really nice, career
wise and new job wise, to be outtalking to people, talking to
customers, our target marketprospects, advisors within you
(10:21):
know, seven, eight weeks ofjoining the company, that's that
doesn't always happen. So it wasreally nice to just be boots on
the ground so early. But soFuture Proof Festival, shout out
to Matt Middleton. He's the CEOof it all the masterminds and so
basically, what they decided is,in a nutshell, Wealth Management
(10:44):
Events suck. You know, you're,you're, you started, you're
stuck inside, and, you know,you're in like this gymnasium.
And, yeah, feel free to editthat out if, if that's gonna
Kelly Waltrich (11:00):
be I love it. I think somebody had to say it,
but coffee is hard to find. Yes,
Molly McClure (11:06):
yeah, yes, it's time, yeah. Then, you know the
just the super bright lightingand the hallways and hallways
and the mazes of booths, and sobasically, they sat down, and I
know he had a team behind him,and he had other investors
involved as well, but they satdown and basically like, okay,
(11:26):
let's flip the script. It's timeto do something different. So I
don't know how they did it, butthey went and must have had
hundreds of 1000s of meetingswith the city of Huntington
Beach, California, and theyended up convincing the city
council there that, hey, we wantto have a wealth management
event directly on the boardwalkoutside, literally, like, what,
(11:51):
15 feet from the ocean. I mean20 feet from the ocean. I mean,
it's unheard of, right? So theyjust took over the boardwalk.
You know, you can hear seagullscalling, like in the background
of a speaking session and thewaves crashing. And now the
first year was hot, so youobviously, you can't control the
(12:12):
weather. I remember, like, wewere all like, got a little
chugging water. Yeah, record hottemperatures. You were there
that year, but, um, there'ssomething that, Ha, that
something magical that happens.
I know that's such a cliche wayto describe it, but when you're
you're in this chillenvironment, you're in the
beach, you're in the sun, you'rethe sands nearby, it's almost
(12:35):
like you can, you can relax, andyou can be more authentic, and,
yeah, connect with people. Andyou're not in your suit, you're
you're not in this sort ofstifling environment. And
people, people just connect.
It's, it's just, it's an easyway for a community to come
together.
Kelly Waltrich (12:54):
Yeah. And so what I love best, I mean,
everything that you said is justso true. And this is obviously
not a podcast about futureproof. I'm sure we'll do one of
those in the future. But what Ilove being
Unknown (13:06):
at Middleton help us get a good boost next year.
Kelly Waltrich (13:11):
So what I love best about that event is the
branding. It gives companies anopportunity like, let's let's be
real when you're in a normalconference environment, the
playing field is kind of level,right? Because everybody has the
same 10 by 10 space. Everybodyhas the same table. This, you
know, the scene. It's all lotsof the same stuff. You can put
(13:35):
so much on the table in terms ofswag, you can plan a dinner
that's very vanilla. And thenyou get to future proof, and the
branding opportunities are wild,and I think companies did such a
phenomenal job of takingadvantage of that opportunity.
Don't you think, what aren'tsome of the things we've seen
in, some of the things that yougot to do so cool compared to
(13:55):
what you would do otherwise? Oh,100%
Molly McClure (13:58):
I mean, it's, it's almost like, I described it
as keeping up with the Joneses,beach vibes wise, every year you
know, the marketers, the team,the teams, you know, behind all
the booths and the branding, arealmost like, you know, you're
forced, and you're pressured tocome up with something better.
(14:18):
Yes, even if you knocked it outof the park the year before.
It's like, okay, well, what arewe going to do differently this
year? And, yeah, I have to say,I've had, I've had some
interesting reactions to, Ithink everything that we've done
has been incredibly cool atFuture Proof, because, like you
I love when I get to step away,you know, from funnel conversion
(14:39):
rates and, you know, pipelinereviews, and I actually get to
it brainstorm and come up withsuper creative ideas for a beach
event in California. And so thesecond year that we were there,
the first year was basicallyjust like baptism by fire. We
didn't really know what wasgoing on. Everybody just kind of
showed up and learned. And thegood news is we weren't the only
(15:02):
ones that had a beginning there.
Everybody sort of had to diptheir toes in the water, but the
second year, we're like, okay,how do we combine a beach event
with technology? We knew weneeded some sort of experience
at our booth, because whenyou're outside at a beach event,
nobody's going to come by yourbooth if you're if it's boring.
(15:24):
And so an experience we learnedwas was the number one motivator
to get someone to our booth. Sookay, beach technology, and I
don't remember exactly how ithappened, but I remember seeing
that Billabong the beachclothing brand had an event, and
(15:46):
at the event, they had thissurfboard simulator where you
ride the surfboard, and thenthere was a game on screen where
you could collect coins, And,you know, there was a leader
board, and they gamified thesurfing. And, yeah, I remember
having a discussion with my teamand Eric, I was like, Is that
(16:07):
too much? Can Can we do that? Isthat Is that appropriate, you
know, for a professional, youknow, financial technology
company, to do. And I remembersharing the idea with my my
boss, and she's super bold andcreative and loves to think
differently. She was like,that's perfect. So I of course,
(16:29):
we branded it intelliflo blue,and intelliflo has bright bold
colors, bright yellow, brightblue, and our design team did a
really great job. They createdthis beautiful wave design with
all of our colors and just thethe second year, we finally had
(16:50):
a booth that came alive. Youcould say we still had a lot to
learn about what worked anddifferent and didn't work, but
the experience finally, finallywoke us up, yeah, woke up the
bear in a good way, and and wehad, you know, record traffic
that year because of thesurfboard.
Kelly Waltrich (17:10):
Yeah, that's amazing. I feel like it's funny
that you say, like, get awayfrom the pipelines and the
conversion rates and everything.
It's super interesting. The seatthat I sit in at an agency now,
where people are coming to melike wildfire, trying to build
lead gen engines without a brandbaseline. And, you know, it's
interesting, because I alwaysgrapple with, Okay, do I do this
(17:31):
for them? Do I work with them onthis, or do I make them realize
that they have to startelsewhere? Because it's so true,
it's like all of a sudden weforgot that you have to be
creative. All of a sudden. Weforgot that you have to tell
stories. All of a sudden, weforgot that you have to think
outside the box, and like yourbrand has to resonate with
people. And so I do a lot of Ihave a lot of conversations
(17:52):
Molly about what you just said,like remembering that you have
to step outside of those things,because at the end of the day,
your brand propels all the restof that forward, all of the lead
generation forward. So you haveto have a balance of both, and
it's just wild. I will tell youthe clients in the fintechs that
come to me on a daily basis thatdon't want to put any time,
(18:15):
money, energy or effort into thebranding stuff. They just want
their next lead, and that's notsustainable for long term
success. So I try to be open andhonest about that, you know, in
the conversations, even though,you know, we're an agency and
we're supposed to just helppeople with what they need help
with, I still, at the end of theday, sometimes grapple with
that, and I think we have to, weowe that to future proof in
(18:37):
terms of like you have nochoice, you're not going to show
up and look like a schlep,right? People are doing
airplanes with signs in the skyand putting up hot air balloons
and all the you know, BNY, withtheir massive boardwalk in their
lifeguard booth, like you cannotshow you have to show up at
these things. So I I credit MattMiddleton for reminding people
(18:59):
that like brands matter. Youhave to be creative, and that
truly is the foundation ofeverything else you do, right?
They've definitely
Molly McClure (19:09):
gamified it with the sponsors. It is just like,
who's going to show up best,who's going to win this year?
And I love it. It keeps itexciting and different every
year, versus other events whereyou know exactly what it's going
to look like every time you stepinto that event, but on your
point around the brand, Icouldn't I could not agree more,
(19:30):
the brand is the North Star ofany organization, uniting it,
guiding it forward. And I thinksometimes I've seen in my
career, people struggle with,why is brand consistency
important, or why is our missionor our vision so important, and
without their those, there's noalignment. You just have people
(19:54):
saying different things andspeaking different things, and
that's confusing then, for. Yourtarget market, and stories are
so powerful. I I completelyagree. I think today's
marketing, while it is soimportant, attribution,
performance, data analytics, isso so critical to the success of
(20:16):
any marketing organization youyou have to take a step back
sometimes and like, Okay, well,why are we here? Why are we
doing this? Why does thismatter? And a lot of it, you
know, goes back to, you know,the advisor that's up at 11
o'clock at night, you know,trying to get some paperwork
done because he was bogged downin technology issues all day and
(20:40):
couldn't meet with his clients,and it's just, it's simple
moments like that, like, okay,that's our why. That's why we
that's why we do what we doevery day. And you know, this
week is the perfect example ofrebalancing portfolios is very
important in the oh my gosh,yeah, turbulent market, and
being able to do that aseffectively as possible is
(21:01):
definitely going to set youapart in weeks like this. So
Unknown (21:03):
it's for sure.
Kelly Waltrich (21:13):
Okay, so Molly, Molly, the premise of the show.
We learn better from ourmistakes than from our wins. I
think marketers probably knowthat better than anybody. So
tell me and our audience here.
What are we not doing today?
Molly McClure (21:29):
We are not going to hire experts and then not
trust them to do what they dobest.
Kelly Waltrich (21:36):
Ooh, yeah, I like it all right, tell me more.
Tell me more. That
Molly McClure (21:42):
can go a couple different ways, I think,
especially in marketing. Thefirst way, the most obvious is,
no one wants to work for amicromanager. I love hiring
people that are better at methan certain things. I love it.
It's It's honestly one of themost freeing and success driving
things of being a leader, isfind someone who's better at
(22:06):
something critical than you are,and I can say that about my team
hands down, they all havestrengths that I don't have, and
lean into those strengths andlet them run with those
strengths. And sometimes it'snot always going to look or feel
exactly the way you want. Thatis something that I see leaders
struggle with. But Did it meetthe goals? Did it? Did it meet
(22:29):
or exceed the goals of what youwere trying to do? Maybe it
looked a little bit differentlybecause they're not you. But I
think that there's nothing moredefeating and there's nothing
that's going to drive higherturnover of top talent than
micromanaging someone. And onthe flip side, like, I don't
know if you've had this in yourcareer, but I've seen you know,
(22:53):
being the front line to salesthe business, sometimes
everybody can think they're amarketer. So you don't want to
be micromanaged in that sense,either you want your business
partners to trust you andempower you, and when you show
up at the table with this storyand this data and all these
great recommendations, they'reokay, maybe they disagree about
(23:15):
some things, but they need tocommit because that's why
they've hired You. They've hiredyou to be that marketing expert,
because it's your job tounderstand your your ideal
customer, and connect with thembetter than anyone else.
Kelly Waltrich (23:30):
Yeah, I think that's spot on. And you know
what? I don't I don't know ifthis will resonate with you, but
what I find is that theorganization so keep in mind, I
have a view into 70organizations right now, the
organizations who have a lot ofmicromanagement and have a lot
of people, and it doesn't haveto be marketing, it's any area
(23:50):
of the business, and who have alot of people playing, trying to
play roles that aren't theirs,have imbalances in in different
ways. Like, for example, I seecompanies mostly that are
constantly all over theirmarketing team that clearly
should be focusing on sales, ortheir CEO should be focusing on
(24:13):
business strategy, when theirsales leader should be focusing
on making sure all of theirsalespeople are telling the
right story and using themarketing to their advantage, or
supplementing the marketing withsome Hunter action like I just
find that when the business isin harmony, everybody is busy
enough in their own roles to nothave to weigh in, not not weigh
(24:35):
in. We want collaboration, butnot try to drive other areas.
I've seen that in my own career,and it's interesting going from
that to a balance where, like,everybody's busy enough paying
attention to their own stuffthat it's harder to try to
meddle in in other areas. Doesthat make sense to you?
Molly McClure (24:54):
Absolutely. Yeah, I've seen that throughout my
career, and I think it'simportant to remember. Remember
that marketing is just one pieceof the puzzle. It's, it's not
the whole puzzle. And sometimesyou're like, Oh, wow. You know,
it bumps up your ego a littlebit like, wow, we we're
important. You know, everyone'scoming to us, or everyone has a
thought, but at the end of theday too, those, those
(25:16):
distractions don't allow you toget done with everything you
need to get done that you'vecommitted to strategically,
right? And so that that trusthas to be there, and if it's
not, I've seen it throughout mycareer. Then marketing loses its
flame. We almost kind of lose,like a little bit of our
rebellion, because we're theteam that tests fails fast,
(25:40):
learns, we pivot quick. And I'dalso say, I don't I. I'm sure
you were this way when you wereCMO. But to everybody like that,
every partner we're likelymarketing is harder on ourselves
than anyone could possibly be.
Kelly Waltrich (25:57):
That's the truth. That's the truth. And you
know what? It's funny like, Ithink that being a CMO made me
tougher than maybe I ever wantedto be. Because you almost have
to be like to be good in a CMOrole these days, with all of the
demands and all of theresponsibilities, you have to be
(26:17):
somewhat tough because you haveto, you have to say no to things
that don't help you get to yourgoals, which is hard in that
role, because you're essentiallyin some organizations seen as a
service role. You have to keepaccountable to the metrics that
we talked about. The board wantsto know the connection and to
(26:39):
revenue. Leadership wants toknow the connection to revenue.
So I don't know. I found thatlike I had to just, I had to
tell I had to toughen up becauseyou you want to be creative and
you want to have fun, and you'dgotten to marketing because you
love storytelling and you lovecreativity and you love building
brands. And then you find,really quick, that if you're
(27:02):
gonna be successful and have asuccessful career in marketing,
that you are gonna have to belaser focused on certain things,
and that precludes you frommaybe doing some of the some of
those things that you can'totherwise spend time on. So I
don't know how you feel. I feellike you have a little bit of
that edge to you. I feel like Ilook around and I almost know
(27:25):
immediately, when I talk to amarketer, whether they can lead
a team well or not, justbecause, like, you have to be,
you have to have conviction interms of Yeah, resilience, yeah
for sure, yeah.
Molly McClure (27:36):
And I completely agree with you earlier you said
it's a thankless position, it Icouldn't, I couldn't agree more.
You know, even if marketingplays a part in winning a deal,
you know, we're not the onesthat get the glory. You know,
we'll cheer ourselves on behindthe scenes, because we can see
the lead source and all thesystems, and we can see the
(27:56):
whole lead journey, but it we'reoftentimes not the ones that are
going to be up there, raw rawingwhen that happens. So it's
Kelly Waltrich (28:04):
it's so funny. I had a client yesterday ask me,
like, Hey, is marketing normallythe one the voice of the custom
or the voice of the company? AndI just kind of laughed, and I'm
like, they'd probably be one ofthe best voices of the company,
but no, they're likely behindthe scenes, pulling all the
strings to make all everyoneelse look better. And I think
that's another thing aboutmarketing leaders, is the best
(28:29):
ones don't need all the glorylike I felt. Felt like I always
enjoyed being behind the scenesgetting this stuff done because
it was good enough that I knewwhy success was happening. It's
Molly McClure (28:40):
interesting.
Going from like USAA, a reallybig company, you had to be media
trained to talk to any of themedia there, there were some
very, very strict rules andsteps to ever be on camera or in
front of an audience. And yeah,I've enjoyed intelliflo, having
a little bit more flexibility,because I have been able to get
(29:01):
involved in more of that, justeither interviews on site at
Future Proof, for talking withmedia for an article. So it's
there definitely are someadvantages with a bit of a
smaller organization. But yeah,day to day, even as a leader and
as a CMO, you've, you'vedefinitely seen this. The best
(29:22):
leaders give the accolades totheir team, not to themselves.
So it's I wouldn't be anywhere.
I wouldn't have a career withoutall the teams that I've been
proud to lead throughout theyears and and a lot of that goes
back. I will, I will trustsomeone on my team, and I will
(29:42):
give them full range, you know,unless they give me a reason not
to, right, yeah, and so I alwaysgo in with good intentions on
that, and definitely try tosteer clear of any
micromanaging, but happy tocollaborate or help or talk
through anything. Any time. So
Kelly Waltrich (30:01):
as marketers are looking for their next gig, and
they're trying to figure out,like, is this the right role for
me? Am I going to have, or am Igoing to be hired into a
situation where I have someautonomy, where I can make some
decisions, where I'm hired touse the skills that I have,
like, what are they looking forin a company and in a leader, to
make sure that that those arecharacteristics of the of this
(30:24):
position and of the firm thatthey're joining. I would
encourage
Molly McClure (30:28):
them to ask. Just ask directly. You know what you
could ask if you'reinterviewing, say, with the
person that's going to be yourboss, you can't 100% get a
truthful answer all the time inan interview. But you know, what
is your leadership style? Youknow, how often will we
interact, or how often will wemeet? You know, how much
autonomy will I have around XYZ?
You know, at least you made theeffort to ask the question.
(30:52):
Sometimes you don't know untilyou get into something, but I'd
encourage them, if you'remeeting with people on your team
to definitely ask that question,ask your peers in the interview.
You know what? What's theprocess of rolling out a
campaign here? It's somethingmaybe that doesn't even touch on
somebody's leadership style. Andthen watch and see, you know,
(31:14):
they're like, well, oh, well,first, you know, you have to do
X, Y and Z, and then you have toget these five people sign off,
and that's probably not going tobe a very autonomous environment
for you to work in, and there'sgoing to be a lot of oversight.
So I I think questions like thatthat can can help boil down to
get the right answers, but younever know what a team is going
(31:39):
to be like until you're part ofthe team? And I would say
throughout my career, there's noperfect company team leader.
There's just not. You have tolook at the strengths. You have
to look at what makes them happyand and focus on that and
deliver on that. And that'salways going to be a change
(32:02):
based on where you're at,
Kelly Waltrich (32:05):
yeah. And on the flip side, you have to deserve
the autonomy, right? Like, youhave to earn it to exactly if
you're coming in and you're abull in a china shop from day
one, you might that's, you know,you have to, like, think
through, okay, this is a rolethat I'm in. I want to be able
to do x, y and z in this way,because I think it can be
successful. There are definitelyways of going about earning that
(32:28):
that responsibility and thattrust that I think, that I think
marketers need to remember. Soit's a two way street, right?
Like the boss, the CMO, the headof marketing, or whatever
department you're in has to beopen minded and has to have a
mindset of, I'm going to hiresmart people and I'm going to
let them do their thing. But onthe flip side of that, coming
into new roles, I think you haveto remind yourself that, like,
(32:50):
Hey, I I need to, I need to earnthe right to be able to have
that autonomy as well.
Molly McClure (32:57):
I completely agree your new boss is never
going to immediately trust you,you, you do have to prove that
you deserve that trust andperform and, you know, meet and
exceed those expectations. Imean, definitely you. I think
one of the one of my favoritethings, like of top talent, is
you can give them somethingalmost vague to go do or problem
(33:20):
to solve. They don't really aska lot of questions. They just go
figure it out, right? I mean,that is the biggest blessing to
a busy leader that they couldever have. Yeah,
Kelly Waltrich (33:30):
I think that's so true. I think back to my time
at Orion. So when I started,Eric Clarke was definitely
leading marketing. The CEO wasdefinitely leading marketing. So
they had a marketing team, andthey had marketing stuff going
on, but when I walked in, he wasdefinitely leading. He was
definitely calling the shots.
And I remember thinking tomyself like, oh, man, what did I
get myself into? And then Irealized, okay, how am I gonna
(33:54):
prove to him that he can stepout of this and feel really
confident over time, andobviously by the end of my time
there, like there were barelyany questions asked and we were
just rocking. But I do rememberthat moment so it's, it's it
doesn't matter who you are orwhat role you're walking into,
like you have to sort of gutcheck yourself on the situation.
(34:15):
And how do I go from where weare to to gaining trust, to
taking the reins like and it'sgot to be like a thoughtful, a
thoughtful process, becauseyou're also in my situation, it
was also someone who was verysmart, very good, very creative,
and, you know, hired their firstperson out at first leader out
(34:38):
of state, and who wasn't in theoffice, and all kinds of things.
So I kept reminding myself,like, Okay, this is going to be
he's going to need to let go.
And for me to get him to dothat, I have to, like, you know,
there's steps involved in that.
So I think, I think thinkingthrough some of that is, there's
a little bit of chess playingthat happens to get your. Role,
wherever you are, whatever it isto be, what you want it to be,
(35:03):
you know, before you complainabout it, like, think through
like, what are the steps I cantake to get to make this, to
shape this into somethingthat's, you know, that I really
enjoy and want to continue todo. I
Molly McClure (35:17):
couldn't agree more. Yeah, and yeah, like you
said, you just, you never knowquite what you're going to get
into until you step into itfully. Right? Even interviews,
they're not going to give you100% clear picture of
everything, but, right, yeah, Ilove that. It's, I always tell
my team that too, like, Pleasedon't bring me any complaints.
Bring me solutions, right,right? How do we fix it? How do
(35:40):
we get past, you know, theissues that we're having right
now or the roadblocks in place?
I love that, but I've learnedthat from leaders all along. I
had a leader at USAA and it, Inever brought a problem to him
without, you know, hey, here'sthree things that I recommend we
go do. And you know, he was notnotoriously quick to the draw on
(36:01):
his email. And he'd be like,Okay, I like to go
Kelly Waltrich (36:06):
nice. I know I always say to Intention.ly folks
too, the worst thing that youcould do coming into this role
is do everything the way that weare. We've done it before. Like
you need to come, I love that.
You need to put you need to tellus how you're coming in from the
outside. You have perspectivesthat we don't have. You worked
with people we didn't work with.
There might be better ways, andI want, I want to know what they
(36:27):
are, and that's genuine, becausethis is my first time running an
agency, and we're four yearsinto this, but still, I learn
something new every day. And I Ilike to think that it's because
we hire good people and thenthey bring us great ideas. So I
think that that's like, asleaders, we need to remind
ourselves, like, the worst thingthat a really great person could
do is just do what we tell them.
You know, I
Molly McClure (36:48):
love that. I I think that was, that was one of
the best things I brought fromsome of the bigger organizations
I worked for before, andteleflow is one just how to find
and hire top talent. It's alwaysa little bit easier at a bigger
company, just bigger benefits,you know, better pay structures,
but more career opportunities.
But what is that top talentlooking for? And then just the
(37:11):
strategic thinking and buildinga strategy and a plan and
executing on it. You know, USAAis insurance and financial
services for the military, and alot of the company is run like
the military. So every year andlike September, October, I
remember I had my first one liketwo, three weeks after joining,
(37:35):
because I joined in September of2017, you back in the day when
they, before they moved to anopen office culture, we would
the leaders of the productlines, which I was one the
marketing leaders, had to go infront of the CMO, his name was
Wes Laird at the time, and hisentire leadership team, and
present our entire strategy planchannels we're going to use why
(37:59):
all the rationale down to whatthe results are going to be, and
they would rapid fire questions,and at the end they they would
vote yay or nay if your plan wasapproved and you got your
budget. So that that was thesort of pressure and mentality
now that I'm going to bring toevery single organization that
I'm part of, like, there's noguarantee this money is going to
(38:22):
come and fall in my lap. I needto tell a good story, and I need
to know my
Kelly Waltrich (38:28):
stuff, right? Oh my gosh. You know, isn't it
funny? How, like, we takecertain things with us? So the
thing for me was, in highschool, I know this is like
crazy long ago, and then we'regonna wrap this up, Molly last
year, right? Last year? Yeah,totally. So I had this
communications teacher, and shewould sit in the back of the
classroom. She would make yougive your speeches, and she had
(38:50):
a tin can and pennies and a rollof pennies, and every time you
said, you played with your hair,you fidgeted anything that you
did that was inappropriate andwould take attention away from
what you were saying. She wouldthrow pennies in a can. So I, my
whole life, have this backgroundnoise if I am not speaking
(39:14):
clearly and articulately ofpennies hitting a tin can, and
it snaps me back into shape in aminute, because that, it's so
funny that things that stickwith us. I think we all have
them. There's always a couple ofthem. But for you going in front
of the firing squad with yourplan to get your budget, for me,
it's this woman with thesepennies, and so I've taken it's,
(39:36):
you know, I think it's importantthat we take those those moments
and those lessons with us alongthe way. I think they shape who
we are, for sure. PTSD,
Molly McClure (39:43):
yeah, that kind of reminds me of when my mom
would scream down using my firstand middle name
Unknown (39:50):
exactly. Yeah. That's, I still
Molly McClure (39:53):
shiver a little bit at that thought. So that's
yeah, I can only imagine the thesound of the pennies. Whenever
you hear them. Now that I saidit to you, I bet you you start
hearing pennies. Oh, I will. Iactually love that. It's a good
visual to have when you'respeaking or presenting. So
Kelly Waltrich (40:11):
totally. All right, for those of you
listening, I hope you enjoyed mytalk with Molly today. It's
always nice to connect withother marketers, because we walk
the same walk, and so this isreally nice to have you. And
just as a reminder, what we'renot doing today is we are not
hiring amazing talent and thentelling them how to do their
(40:31):
jobs. I think that that's alesson that goes far beyond
marketing, that goes far beyondwealth management, and is a
reminder to all leaders outthere that we all can learn
something from the people on ourteams, no matter what level they
are. So Molly, I reallyappreciate you. I'm so glad that
the universe Finally let us getthis podcast recorded and
Molly McClure (40:52):
technology, yay.
And I appreciate you too, andthe whole team, Intention.ly,
y'all are amazing, awesome.
Unknown (40:59):
All right. Well, we'll see you soon, Molly, thank you
so much.
Kelly Waltrich (41:03):
Thanks so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed
today's show, subscribe to benotified when new episodes
become available, and pleaseconsider giving us a five star
review on Apple or Spotify. Thispodcast is sponsored by
intentionally a financialservices growth engine design
consultancy and agency. If youwant to learn more, please email
(41:23):
me at Kelly, at growintentionally.com, thank you
again for listening and checkback to hear what we're not
doing next.
The information covered andposted represents the views and
opinions of the guest and doesnot necessarily represent the
views or opinions of KellyWaltrich. The content has been
made available for informationaland educational purposes only
(41:44):
the.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.