This week's episode of Automation Unplugged we’re switching things up to bring you a special Tech Women Takeover episode in celebration of International Women’s Day.

About this episode:

Kat Wheeler, long-time industry veteran and Account Executive here at One Firefly, is continuing her annual tradition of hosting this episode with a fantastic panel of leading women in our industry.

Today, Kat is joined by:

• Heather Sidorowicz, President & Owner of Southtown Audio Video
• Danielle Karr, VP of Marketing at Nice North America
• Michelle Guss, VP of Hospitality at Crestron Electronics

The three women are each representing a critical component of any successful business: executive leadership, marketing, and sales. The interesting, and sometimes challenging, dynamic between these departments is the primary focus of today’s episode.

During the show, the conversation covered:

• Challenges and disconnects between sales, marketing, and leadership, and how to bridge the gap with better communication and collaboration.
• The value of trade shows for business growth, and each department’s unique perspective on their primary goals: from sales looking to close deals, marketing looking to increase brand presence, and leadership looking to build strategic partnerships.
• How AI and emerging technologies are shaping the AV industry, and how businesses should adapt to stay competitive.

SEE ALSO: AU #262: The Leading Ladies in Tech Take Over AU for International Women’s Day

Transcript

Kat:

Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Automation Unplugged. You may have noticed that I am not Ron Callis. I am Catherine Wheeler. And today Ron has graciously turned over the reins of his show for me to do a special episode. So I'd like to welcome you all to the International Women's Day episode of Automation Unplugged podcast.

Kat:

It's a perfect occasion for us to highlight some of the top female voices in our industry. Today, we're bringing you a dynamic conversation focused on bridging the gap between sales. Marketing and leadership, three essential pillars of any successful business. Our goal is to explore how these departments can work together more effectively to improve communication and collaboration in the A.

Kat:

V. industry. First of all, I want to say a huge thank you to One Firefly for putting this all together. This conversation wouldn't be happening without their support. Special thanks to Rebecca and Allison for all the behind the scenes efforts. There's a great quote I want to share from Grace Hopper. She was a pioneering computer scientist and

Kat:

US. Navy Rear Admiral. She helped to develop the first compiler for programming languages, and she played a major role in the creation of COBOL. She said, the most dangerous phrase in any language is, we've always done it this way. And with that inspiration, I'd like to bring in our panelists.

Kat:

Three incredible industry leaders who bring a unique perspective from sales, marketing, and leadership.

Kat:

. So to represent sales today for us on the team, we've got Michelle Guss. She is the VP of hospitality at Crestron. , Since joining Crestron in 2007, Michelle has been the go to guru for hoteliers, designers.

Kat:

She seamlessly blends luxury with technology and she is a proud recipient of the Women in Consumer Technology Legacy Award.

Kat:

And she's also on the board of the International Luxury Hotel Association. So welcome, Michelle. Thanks for coming. Thank you so much. All

Kat:

right. And representing marketing today for us, we have Danielle Carr.

Kat:

Danielle is the VP of marketing at Nice. With a career spanning Vivint, Control 4, and Snap 1, Danielle now leads marketing at Nice North America. She's crafting strategies that make smart living even smarter, and her partner first approach ensures that everyone gets a taste of innovation. Welcome Michelle, or Danielle.

Kat:

Hi. Hi. I'm so glad you're here. , And last up, but certainly not least, representing leadership, , is Heather Sidorowicz. Heather is the owner of Southtown Audio Video. , she is, , which is the largest AV company in western New York. Since taking over in 2014, Heather has grown the company nearly eight fold, earning many industry recognitions, including Commercial Integrator Hall of Fame induction and multiple Fast Growth Business Awards.

Heather:

Hi, Heather. Hello, it is an honor to be here with you ladies.

Kat:

It's an honor to have you all and I thought today as a little bit of an icebreaker we might go around the room and talk about what our first jobs were. So, Heather, let's start with you. You kept it a secret. You wouldn't tell before the, before the call.

Kat:

So, I did, I did. So,

Heather:

, my actual under the table first job is I got paid cash to wash cars. Someone like had a power washer, but that's not the one we'll talk about because I had to do that in a bikini and that was inappropriate and that wouldn't fly today. So, my actual first job on paper is I worked for the original cookie.

Heather:

And, , you know, besides eating the frozen brownies, , and, you know, and 20 cookies if you could, the thing that I learned there is that counting pennies does not always make sense. So I was like, I don't know, 16 years old, and you were off by a penny. You had to stay there with the manager until they found That kind of, you know, like if the till, like if the till was off at the end of the day and if we think about that now from a leadership perspective, I think about when you're around a conference table, the money that you're spending on, you know, the people who are in the room, you know, I think about that with video conferencing of like, we're not, if you can't hear each other, see each other, is it really, you know, is it really more productive?

Heather:

And, , yeah, counting the pennies doesn't always make sense.

Kat:

I, yeah, I just have this image of little Heather counting pennies in her drawer, trying to make it match the count and being stuck in the

Heather:

middle of like, here's 10 cents, can I please just go home and watch Friends, like, you know, it's the 90s.

Kat:

I love it.

Kat:

Eating cookies. What a great first job. Michelle, what was your first job?

Michelle:

Well, my first job was a hostess at Chili's and, , you know, I started working when I was 15. So I had my little work permit and, , you know, it was very, very good for me to learn from that, that particular role at Chili's to just. Be very welcoming to people and we had to hit our sizzle steps if anyone else worked at Chili's, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Michelle:

I didn't know anybody

Michelle:

later on. There's a sizzle step, is that like flair? It's like your flair, like you've got to smile, you have to ask the guests what they're doing, I don't really remember them all, but something along those lines. And , so you know, I guess if I, if I had to apply any of that to a role later in my career.

Michelle:

Would have been when I was leading our, , design showrooms and just making every guest that came there feel very welcome. I guess I carried that, that training from my first job into, into my career in that way, but it was a fun, fun job to start out with.

Kat:

Oh, I love that. I'm, I'm happy that you, you know, exceeded your flair.

Kat:

You just didn't hit all the sizzle steps, hit all your sizzle steps. That, that sounds on brand for you, Michelle. I appreciate that. , What was your first gig? Did you have sizzle steps?

Danielle:

I did not have sizzle stuff, but my first job was not as, , not as sizzly. It was, I was a receptionist at a law firm and I'd say I learned a lot there.

Danielle:

, One of the biggest things I learned kind of in line with. Almost what Michelle's talking about is a bit about going the extra mile for customers and that making a difference. One of the tasks I had was to go hand out our annual grapefruits at Christmas time. And one year I decided to sing when I handed them out.

Danielle:

And I had people call the office. Saying how delightful it was that like this girl had come to their front door and saying and gave them grapefruit and it just kind of, what did you know? I didn't do it well, but it was that it kind of internalized what I mean, really you carry forward in a marketing career, especially of going the little extra mile, doing the little light and surprise.

Danielle:

Like that's what marketing's all about when you're doing it right. And so I learned that there, , it was some good positive feedback and then. I mean, I carry it through to this day.

Kat:

I love this. I think, I think I've all, I've learned a little bit of a lesson from you guys is that I'm going to

Heather:

get drunk and have her sing the song.

Kat:

Yeah, but also as I know you guys now and you and your careers and how you work, it makes total sense because I, you all always do go the extra mile. And now that I know that you did it at your first jobs as well, it all, it all tracks. This is all tracking for me. I can see how all this shaped out. , Okay.

Kat:

Well, I think to start today's, , little convo of, you know, sales, marketing, and leadership, , to not get in a fight or anything, but I thought we could play a little bit of a game. So we sent you guys all whiteboards prior to today's call, and I would love for you guys to get those whiteboards out. And I am going to run through a series of questions.

Kat:

And I want you to write sales, marketing, or leadership, or SML, if that is easier for you all. Not small, medium, large, but sales, marketing, leadership. And, , we're going to keep a little tally and we'll see who wins at the end of this thing. So first question, sales, marketing, or leadership, who drives, who thrives the most on competition and hold your answers up.

Kat:

It is sales. Sales is correct. That is right. Congratulations. There was a right answer to this one. That was the right answer. That is correct. All of you get a point. Next, who has the hardest time turning work mode off? I gotta erase my thing. Hold on. Oh, you could just cross it out right underneath it. Oh, okay.

Kat:

We can do that. Whatever you need to do. We're not going to hold you back. Okay, I'll say the question again. Who has the, who has the hardest time turning work mode off?

Kat:

Hold it up. All right. Heather says leadership. Danielle says marketing. Michelle says leadership. I'm sorry, you guys. The correct answer was sales.

Kat:

I'm so so sorry. Okay, who has to pivot the most in their role?

Kat:

All right Hold them up. We have a leadership, a marketing and sales. Oh, it is sales. Sales gets another point. Congratulations

Danielle:

for the marketing people. If you know, you know.

Kat:

All right. , What we're going to, we're going to skip a couple of these. , Who would survive the longest on survivor? Hmm. Hold on.

Kat:

Wait. Okay. Okay. Come on, Danielle. No, no. Okay.

Kat:

All right. Hold them up. Marketing sales and sales. It was sales. Sales is correct. Leadership gets a point. And okay. Who has the hardest time explaining their job to their friends and family?

Kat:

Everybody knew this one immediately. We saw the writing go. All right, hold them up. Marketing, marketing, marketing. Everyone gets a point. Everyone gets a point. All right. And the last question. Who would be the best at talking their way out of a speeding ticket?

Kat:

What do we got? And, hold on, Michelle, open it up. Yeah, sorry, I had to rewrite it. And everyone

Kat:

said sales, you are correct. The correct answer was sales. And, it should come as no surprise, , Michelle is the winner today, sales. Woo hoo! I was not biased in scoring. Not at all. Not at all. Not at all. Not at all.

Kat:

So I thought that would be a little fun. I didn't realize there were right answers. I didn't realize that. I just, , you know, quick note for anybody who's watching this later who needs to know the, the correct answer to all of those questions is sales, sales, sales. I love it because

Kat:

anybody was curious, who has the hardest job sales like.

Kat:

Sales. Sales is the correct answer. But, you know, with that in mind, because I know that we're all a little biased towards our own, own departments, and we have a little bit of, , yeah, a little bias coming into it, a little, a little integrity for our own departments. Let's talk about that silo effect, because you know, we talked about this a little bit before we started the call today, but we all have a unique perspective of what our jobs are, and while we all may, may work for the same company, we're doing different things for that company, and each department may not understand that.

Kat:

So We'll start with you, Heather, because you're the leader on the call, so you can lead us off here. What causes those silos and that disconnect between sales, marketing, and leadership?

Heather:

Would it be inappropriate for me to say technology? No, I'm

Heather:

absolutely not. How much easier is it for us to be behind our desk, you know, on our teams, you know, versus get off, walk over to marketing and Danielle and say like, Hey, like I have a question about this because if I, then I, then I don't have to see what.

Heather:

Daniel's face will look like that. I didn't like this. So I think that sometimes we do hide behind that technology. We have to get in front of each other. You have to like radical candor.

Kat:

So you're saying instead of this meeting should have been an email, the email may sometimes should have been a meeting or at least I think that there is huge value in that.

Kat:

I can, I can believe that. I can believe that. Michelle, I know that you've kind of dealt with this a little bit sometimes, you know, your department is a little bit siloed from everybody else because you're in sales. And so everybody's really spread out and communication with leadership and with marketing may not be as frequent, you know, because of that, you know, geographic problem.

Kat:

, So how do you, how do you have any strategies that work towards breaking those down? Is there anything you can do to kind of try to get those departments closer together? Yeah,

Michelle:

I mean, we really, Why, I mean, we rely on the technology, the virtual call aspect of it, just because everyone is so spread out geographically, especially for a company like Crestron, where we have our headquarters, which is where a lot of those other departments are based, our marketing department, engineering, product management for the most part.

Michelle:

Um, so we really rely on the virtual aspect of being able to meet, but. Trying to do that, have at least a conversation over. Just keeping everything to chat and email is huge. And then also, you know, obviously getting trips back to headquarters to have some of those critical meetings in person is really key as well.

Michelle:

So you mind

Heather:

face to face virtually, right? We're face to face now. Exactly. So there, there's, you know, there's science behind. What you see is actually more than what you hear. How do you interpret? And I think that we can get so caught on that email. And I, I'm just guilty as charged. I'd much rather email someone than call them.

Heather:

Oh, I don't know.

Kat:

Well, and I, I think too, you're, you're not wrong. Because you can't, you can't read tone over a chat or a Slack or, you know, a Teams message. Sometimes you can interpret them in a different tone than maybe they were intended and it can cause a little bit of shenanigans, if, if you will. Um,

Michelle:

there's assumption in tone.

Michelle:

There's assumption what they're trying to say. And I think also as we start to work, you know, more and more as a younger generation enters the workforce and they really shy away from picking up the phone or, you know, having more of a conversation, they rely so heavily on text and email. It's so critical to be able to have that connection in other ways.

Kat:

No, I agree. Um, Danielle, I think this is something that kind of factors into marketing maybe a little bit more than the other departments. But what is something that you guys do that the other teams may not realize, but it's critical to the company's success?

Danielle:

Oh, yeah, that is such a great question because I do feel like It's, it's like that meme where it's like what people think I do versus what I actually do, because marketing is seen by sales, I feel often as the production house for what they need, but what they don't understand is that we're trying to also create the long term strategy of how are we going to get where the company roadmap is for product launches over the next 10 years.

Danielle:

Five years. How are we trying to make sure that the communication strategies that we're setting up today, or the channel communications that we're setting up today are going to sustain us and carry us forward where we need to go. And I think it gets a little tricky sometimes when people are saying, we'll just do this now.

Danielle:

And it's like, we are, we are trying to do that now, but we are also trying to build out these larger things that are going to create larger impact. And it's that balance that I feel like with sales. And, and leadership, but leadership is normally set on that, you know, that, , forward thinking lens. And so it's sometimes getting sales to understand that the reason why we're doing something or we're not doing something is part of that longer term strategy versus the immediate need today, which I know that is 110 percent what sales is focused on.

Danielle:

So, so you're telling me

Kat:

it's not personal. I'm pretty sure it's personal and that marketing, I'm pretty sure it's personal. Yeah.

Danielle:

No. And that's how I feel. Sales feels like I, that's why I always try to have a really close relationship with sales because I think some of the sadly going back to the question on silos, right?

Danielle:

One of the biggest things that I think creates silos is when everyone doesn't understand how we're all trying to win together. And when we all understand how we're all trying to win together, then we can start saying like, the reason why I'm not doing this is because this is how I think. This is how we think that this is going to win.

Danielle:

Is that not the case? Is that, and then there's a lot of conceding. There's a lot of negotiating. It's one of those things. That's when it starts turning into that. We're all at the table negotiating. We don't get everything we want, but we all get what we ultimately want, which is to win with a product launch, win in a channel, win at a show and make sure that, you know, the partners are having the best experience they can have.

Danielle:

And when we align on those high level goals, it kind of helps making the. Um, so I'd say not having that unified vision is normally the cause of silos and it starts with, it can start at the leadership team. You know, I hold myself accountable in that way.

Kat:

Well, I love, I love that you kind of brought up shows in there because that's kind of going to be our next topic because shows are a big part of our industry.

Kat:

It's what we do a lot of. And, and again, I think sales, marketing, and leadership all have different opinions on why we go to these shows and what we hope to get out of them. And maybe if we all just communicate it a little bit better, , ultimately these shows would be a greater success to all of us. And Heather, you're going to take a different view on this too because you're a dealer.

Kat:

So us on the vendor side, you know, I gotta, I gotta say, I don't think we all communicate enough about what we're all hoping to get out of all of this money and all of this effort that we put into these shows. Yeah, we're just all around. Um, so Michelle, well, let's everybody go around the room. We'll start with Michelle.

Kat:

Um, cause I called on you, but what is your primary goal from, from a sales perspective of what you hope to get out of a trade show? Sales. Primary goal.

Michelle:

Sales. Honestly, I mean. Sales. I want to make a deal. I want, yeah, I mean the whole, I understand the concept of a lot of trade shows and events you're not getting in.

Michelle:

Immediate sale there, but in reality If if you can reach that objective and and get a sale at that show That's the whole The whole mission that we're trying to do Danielle nailed it. We're all about, we need that sale today, but we can't take our eyes off of the big picture in the long run. And I know there is so much, you know, business development that goes into a show too, that you can win long term, but you know, sales is the core of what we want.

Michelle:

And then obviously developing the relationship with the customer we're in front of whoever that might be, whether it's a dealer or, you know, at some of the shows that I go to for hospitality. That might be a hotelier or an end user brand, but, um, we want to develop that relationship

Kat:

and make a sale. Okay.

Kat:

Danielle marketing. It's not just to put up a pretty booth, right? Like what is your goal from a trade show?

Danielle:

I mean, I feel like Michelle and Kat, I'm going to, I'm going to give you a win here because I always quote, I always say when we're setting up a show is at the end of the day, we're all in sales. And so the booth needs to do the right job.

Danielle:

Like we can't go with a pretty booth that people don't understand what we do or don't understand how our products are going to help them. And we always have a way of thinking where we're like, when they're done with the show back at the hotel bar, talking about what they saw today, are they going, wow, that was really cool.

Danielle:

That, you know, nice. You know, developed this new product or that they have this offering or this service that can help me do my job better, run my business better. And I think that then, then trickles into that drives the sale. But if, if the messaging isn't clear and the why isn't there there, I feel like we can all say, like, we've been to pretty booths before and we're like, what do you sell?

Danielle:

So that's always the, what marketing should be trying to achieve and striving for.

Kat:

And Heather, we'll go to you, since I know that this is important to all of us. Because you spend a lot of money bringing your team to these shows, right? Like it's a big investment for you as a business to get them out of the field, to fly them to a location and to have them for three days.

Kat:

What is your primary, primary goal in as a leader? How does it benefit your company?

Heather:

Um, I think there's twofold. So I think from an employee standpoint, what we're trying to get, part of that is just really. The wow factor. So I think that you may do this day in and day out and you hang TVs and being from your microphones and you do these all things.

Heather:

And then you, but you don't see how cool our industry is until you walk. I mean, the first time you walk into Infocom, you cannot not be wild. Like you just can't, it's just. Um, a what? I always think like, man, poor accountants, like they don't get to see this and it's visually stunning. Um, that's what, you know, so I think that's a huge point of reason to bring in employees just to get them super interested in the industry, see what's possible.

Heather:

Um, obviously there's a bunch of education pieces. And then I think from, , forward thinking, both sales and then leadership side, it's the story that people are telling and it's the what's next. Um, so it's, it's The ones that are doing it well, it's more than a magic black box. I mean, we, we, really what our entire industry is, is magic black boxes.

Heather:

I would say Crestron was one of the very first to tell the greatest story. I mean, I remember the, the year that they released NVX, IP, and the way that they did it, and the way that told the story. And, I mean, it just was something that just didn't exist before that. And they just told a great story. Um, and you still see that now.

Heather:

There's, there's other ones on the block that are telling a great story. Um, because what we do as dealers is we hear that and we bring that story back and then we start saying that same story to our clients and it trickles down and trickles down. Um, InfoComm, I think that what they've lost a little bit along the way is there used to be more forward thinking.

Heather:

I remember seeing, um, like refrigerators that had, , transparent OLED and it would change as you walked up to it. I'm not, post COVID, I haven't seen that piece of it come back so far, or, I remember like you'd go in and there was somebody else's and I should remember that booth. That's good marketing, but I don't um you ordered a coffee and it was about digital signage and that you could say heather and it would say like a Flat white it would float around on the digital sign and then they gave me the coffee I was like, this is the greatest thing i've ever seen and you remember that forever, right?

Heather:

So it's experiential and it's a story and I think that that all ties really everything that we do together between marketing leadership sales is What are we trying to do at the end of the day? What's our why for either our business or our job? And we have to be connected to be able to do that.

Kat:

I love that.

Kat:

I love, I love what you said about the trickle down story because that to me sums up all of our different departments because leadership, you know, sets a strategy marketing develops that story sales goes out and tells that story and then our customers go out and tell that story to their customers and that's how we all win.

Kat:

But it is. It involves every piece of that puzzle. Um, I will tell you what I think is the most important thing at trade shows and everybody listen up because you'll take this back with you, Michelle, Danielle. Um, every time I take a dealer to dinner at a trade show at Cedia or Infocom or ProSource or wherever, um, I always ask them what they saw that day that they, I go around the table and I make everybody say what they thought was really cool that day.

Kat:

And I pay attention because the booths that they think are great or the things that they saw that are interesting, I want to go check out too. And I want to see who's winning those battles. So I love, I love what you said about having something stay with somebody. Okay. So you said a little bit about this, Heather.

Kat:

So let's delve into new products. So look, we talked about innovation. We are all in technology. The benefit we have over those accountants or insurance salesman is is we need to do something new almost every week, right? It never stops. Innovation never does, especially, you know, with the companies you guys work for.

Kat:

So when we're developing products and strategies that work out over long term, there becomes. Serious consternation in a on occasion between different departments and how we launch those products, how we go to market with those products, how we all work together to do that. So Heather, from your perspective, because again, you're a dealer, so you have a unique vision on this when manufacturers come out with new stuff, what's most important to you?

Kat:

Is it the sales aspect, the coming, the training, the talking to your team, telling you how to use it with the existing stuff, why you need it, or is it the marketing stuff, that story? That, or is it all?

Heather:

Well, it's a bit, yeah, it's a bit of all because I'm not, it could be the greatest product ever for the best amount of money.

Heather:

If it's not a brand we're comfortable with, like, so I think you have to know who you are as a company. Um, so we know that, well, you know, we want solid state equipment that we can stand behind and we have no interest in going in and being the cheapest price just to be the cheapest price. And that's where we stand and we stand there really well and so far so good because we've grown a lot.

Heather:

But that's not what everyone's looking for and it's okay to say, you know, I remember someone early in my career said Sometimes the most profitable job you have is the one you said no to You

Heather:

know, so you have to you have to know who you are and what who you stand for either the Company you work for the company you are.

Heather:

Um So yeah, for me, it's, it's, is this a brand that I can stand behind? Um, have I had service issues with this brand before? Um, it's, I think a lot of come into me like, oh, I can get you this HDMI for like a dollar cheaper. I'm like, I don't care. Like, you know, I, I went up to Jabra last year and said like, or two years ago and said like, I'm pissed.

Heather:

And they're like, why? I'm like, because I could sell your product for three times as much money. It's, you know, cause it was a really good, they were, the, the, their original like Panacast 50s. Like, they were making a great product. So it wasn't about how cheap you could get it for, it was about how good the product was.

Heather:

So I think that it has to, it has to solve a problem that's in the industry, really is what it comes down to. Are you solving a problem for my clients? Are you making their meetings better, more productive? No, then I really don't have a lot of time to talk.

Kat:

Oh, I love it. Okay. Michelle, from a sales perspective, how's, how's product launches going for your team?

Kat:

Stressy? Not at all? No pressure? No stress at all.

Michelle:

Um, well, I mean, with product launches, the product itself, I mean, Heather nailed this is with what she just said, it, we're really selling a solution, right? So you have to have identified some problem or something that's on the market that we can improve and make better.

Michelle:

And I, I, I've been a customer for a very long time since 2007. And I'll say that was one of the things that I fell in love with about the company was that. We never really entered into a new product unless we thought either it was innovative and brand new, or it was, there was something on the market already that we felt like we could improve upon and make better and create a better solution.

Michelle:

So, um, you know, I think when those, those things are aligned, we absolutely nail it. I, I will say that, that having that product engineering team. In touch with the actual end user customers is so key to making sure that when we bring a new product to market and we launch it, that it's actually meeting a real need of the industry and of the end user.

Michelle:

Because I feel like, you know, to the first point about the silos, sometimes, you know, engineering can get in that silo and not really realize what does the actual customer want. It's cool to have this feature, but do they use it? Is it necessary? So those are just some

Kat:

of the things that yes, you said something that really resonates.

Kat:

It's can they install it? I've had guys, you know, there's a new product. It's great. Everybody loves it. We want to sell it. We want to do it. And they get out and they're like, did anybody actually try to put this in? This is the most difficult thing in the world. Did engineering ask, you know, sorry, sorry, engineers.

Kat:

I love you all. You're great.

Heather:

A quick side tangent, the engineer. Um, so I played on both the residential and the commercial world. We're all commercial today, but When I was, um, I was writing for someone on the residential side, and they were the engineers, and I was at KBiz, and they talked about how washers and dryers, and they would email you, or send you a text message when it was done, and I said, but that doesn't help me at all.

Heather:

You know, I don't give me, you're not helping me as the mom in that instance. I, I know the way the laundry is, like make it go from wash to dry. I think that would help me, you know, do these. So I think that they get lost or they could create like a Olaf or something on the front. I'm like that, you're not, you're not even talking to the people who are washing and drying these clothes at this point.

Heather:

You're just doing it to do it. You know, I mean, how many programmers have we seen out there in the wild? Who will just put 27 buttons on a touch screen. Just because you can doesn't mean you should, right? Intuitive. It should be less buttons. It should be easier to use. All right, we're not gonna

Kat:

kill the engineers.

Kat:

Let's let's give them a break. They try very hard. They do a lot of things we can't do. Let's, let's not for sure. For sure. I mean, don't To the panel,

Danielle:

not upset the smart guys. They're not here. To that point, I just want to chime in and say like, Michelle, Heather, what you both said is this idea of like, it's, it's about Working with the customers all through like the product development, but then through the marketing as well, because I end into sales.

Danielle:

And I think that having that customer front and center and what problem we're trying to solve helps bring that, that to life. Cause what we said earlier. We're selling solutions. And that's one of the things I love most about this business. Like it's so fun to solve problems for people and make their lives better.

Danielle:

And I know that's why every dealer in this industry does what they do. You know, they love doing that and they love installing. And I think from a marketing perspective, taking that story, if the product team, like we've said, the engineers have done it right. And they've solved a problem, taking that, carrying that through.

Danielle:

And then when a launch happens, bringing that out and then kind of Michelle, I think you hit on this a bit of. of educating the dealers of, Hey, this is going to solve this problem for your customer. You're going to be able to trust it. It's going to do install in half the time and focus in on those things.

Danielle:

It's, everybody gets excited and then the homeowners are excited because it's solving their problems. And then everybody's just having this wonderful technology love fest.

Kat:

I was going to go into Danielle and say poor Danielle, because she probably thinks when product releases happen, she's like, we've been doing this for years and marketing. Do you know how long it took us to get to this point? And sales is like, but we didn't get the PowerPoint. Where's my PowerPoint? And you're like, it's

Danielle:

like,

Kat:

do

Danielle:

you realize all the effort that it took to get what we have?

Danielle:

Please just take this. No, but, but I do actually also feel that that's an important part cat of. I, I emphasize this a ton with my team of we're going to have a sales representative at the table when we're developing the launch, because if we put together a bunch of stuff that won't help sales sell, you know, and, and I sell, sell sales, selling sounds cold.

Danielle:

It doesn't help the end customer, the dealer understand how this is going to benefit them. Then what did we spend our time doing? Right. And so I think good marketing is understanding the full vision, but then being able to give sales the tools that they need to go, you know, sell the magic of what we've done, what we've all put our, you know, sweat and tears into.

Kat:

I love it. And I love it because I think I think what we've hit on a lot today and what the most important parts are is that everybody has a unique perspective and a different experience with our end user from our different departments and all of those getting at the same table produces a much better product, a much better story and a much better experience for all of our customers together.

Kat:

And if we leave out one of those little pieces, things go off the rails pretty solidly. Okay, now I feel like we should have brought engineering in today because I feel I feel bad. I feel like we piled on them guys. I feel That's okay. We'll blame them for everything. And because they're not here, we love you.

Kat:

Engineering, but

Kat:

kind of pulling on that thread a little bit, Danielle, because I think this affects marketing and leadership a little more than sales, but Michelle will tell us how I was wrong there. Um, short term and long term thinking, you know, there's, there's different things that are due today and there's different things that affect us five years from now.

Kat:

So from a marketing perspective, how far out are you thinking and how does that cause problems? Thank you. As you know, we're all trying to get on the same page and deliver.

Danielle:

Yeah, that's such a, it's such a tough question because marketing is thinking as far forward as we can, as far forward as leadership is thinking.

Danielle:

And we are trying to think same day as sales is thinking, and that can be such a challenge to, to balance all those spinning plates because. Sales is at a point where I need the, I need the deal. It's the end of the month. We've got to get this done. And, and I hear that and I understand that, but at the same time, marketing's job is to protect the brand and make sure that we are doing things that are going to set everyone up for success.

Danielle:

Most importantly, our partners, no matter whether we're selling today or we're building the story to, you know, support things that we're doing a year from now. And I think that can be the challenge is. Not giving sales, maybe everything that they want, but giving them enough of what they want to get things done and, and that give and take, like I said earlier in the, in the conversation, I think is easier when everyone understands why, why we're saying no, why we're saying yes.

Danielle:

You know, maybe there's another solution that will get to the end goal and, um, yeah, I mean, the amount of same day requests from sales that can come in can be overwhelming. So it's, it's, it's marketing's job to sort that out though. It's just, it's our job to be a good partner while protecting the brand and protecting, you know, the.

Danielle:

The vision of where we're trying to go for our partners to protect them at the end of the day. I feel very attacked. You're

Kat:

seen and attacked. Both of those things right now. So we'll let, we'll let Michelle handle that from, from our sales team. Go ahead, Michelle. , Short and long term thinking, cause it is both for sales too.

Kat:

It is get the deal, close the month, but it is also build a relationship that lasts long term. Yeah,

Michelle:

absolutely. I think that, you know. If you, if you focus too much on the short term thinking, then you take your eye off of the future, and things can very quickly, um, be neglected in the future, and then You know, 6, 12, 24 months comes along and you're in a terrible immediate sales situation.

Michelle:

So I think it's always a challenge to find the balance. And, um, you know, with marketing, we want to be able to get customers excited about the future and to know, Hey. We are innovating. We are a great company and to also keep the sales team invigorated. But it's also one of those things that, , we don't want them to necessarily focus so much on those future products that are coming because we have to sell what's available today for that short term too.

Michelle:

It's a constant balance of the two and it's very, very, , very important that we're able to address both and working closely. With the marketing team, as Danielle said, I absolutely love that you have a salesperson present in those meetings when you're coming up with your launch strategy because it is so, so important to be able to address the needs of the short term and the long

Kat:

term.

Kat:

Great. And Heather, did we lose you? I'm here. Can you hear me still? I can hear you. That's all we need. We're okay. I wanted to do this with you, even though we don't have you on video anymore, because you have another unique side to this and leadership, all leadership does, um, which is the people part of it, too.

Kat:

So we're talking short term and long term thinking. We're not just talking about sales and products and events and shows. We're talking about your company and your culture and how you're gonna grow and all of the things that play into that. So how does that all factor?

Heather:

Not easily.

Kat:

Yeah.

Heather:

Well, it's exhausting.

Heather:

Um, it's exhausting because, you know, I, I think that I'm always thinking one year, three year, maybe I think with technology land, you kind of really can't go too much further than three years. So you, you're thinking that way, but at the same time you think, okay, this is the thing I have to do today. And then maybe someone comes to you and they're having an interpersonal issue or two employees or something or.

Heather:

And it just like, it's like yanking your hair and like, okay, we're going in this direction now. And it's really hard to continue to self adjust while keeping your story alive. And that's where marketing of course comes in, but you have to keep that story alive so that you're. You know what? So instead of having, um, I'm like, I'm even on my website.

Heather:

It says like what we believe. And so we talk about that. We try to talk about that almost weekly. Like, we believe in fixing a wire, even if it's not ours, as in, like, if you're walking through that bar and that wire is hanging, you know, you'll, you might actually see one of my people in the wild, like. Tuck that wire because that's something that we believe as a company, you know, that, that doesn't keep it easy, but then culture plays into it.

Heather:

So, you know, we try at least four times a year to go out and do something fun and then a holiday party, but then you have to balance that with, you know, are we doing enough sales? What I'm saying is it's a lot. It's a lot. Um, but I, I just want to believe that at the end of the day, you know, on your deathbed, like, did you tell that good story?

Heather:

Did you do what you could? You know, we all go to bed sometimes and like, it wasn't the greatest day, but did you do the best you could with what you had today? It was a win.

Kat:

I love that because I think what you've hit on. And I think what today kind of lets us believe is that everyone is so integral to the success of the company.

Kat:

And if any leader, you know, the CEO leader, the individual, you know, department leaders, if anybody takes it all on themselves, you couldn't, you'd go crazy. There's just too much to do. So separating it out into all our different departments and having us all have individual responsibilities is the only way to make it work.

Kat:

And so we should all give each other a little bit of grace as we go and learn to love each department and communicate better. And I think that would, you know, help align us all down the road. Um, and since we're kind of going to talk about down the road, I would love to lean in a little bit to what we're doing in the future.

Kat:

So Danielle, , since this is kind of a heavy marketing topic, I get, I get in this one a lot too. , What do you think about AI? Going forward in your future.

Danielle:

Ooh, AI. Okay. We're pulling out the good topics here. So AI I've, I've shared this with my team and I feel this deeply is, is an, an amazing tool that we can leverage.

Danielle:

And it's one of those things where we collectively, I mean, as an industry, as. humanity, leverage it in the right way. It can lead us to an amazing utopia of technology, helping us be better and work smarter and work more collaboratively. And I hope it doesn't go dystopian. I go, you know, technology doesn't take over, but I truly do have, I mean, I'm going to say I have the Star Trek utopia future in mind where.

Danielle:

The computer is helping us, you know, you know, explore strange new worlds and go out into the galaxy. And I truly do believe that we can get there with the direction that AI is going now. Um, and so I always, I always try to tell my team, use it as a tool, use it as a tool to make something better to, you know, brainstorm with, to, you know, bring, bring something to, to it and have it, you know, help you make it better.

Danielle:

And so I hope, , I hope we get to the Star Trek utopia future where we're. We have a computer and we're flying in space. So I think we will. Michelle

Kat:

from from a sales team perspective. Are there tools that you guys have used AI for that have helped you, you know, do your job a little more seamlessly or help you save a little time out there?

Kat:

I think that

Michelle:

we're kind of walking a fine line there of use of AI tools. I know that. The company does use AI in some ways, but, you know, they, they really limit its use. And that's just because it's not being regulated right now, the information that comes out. So there are some tools, , that are starting to, right?

Michelle:

I know, I know. And so it is, it's just, it's, it's something that I know is going to change and shape the world. I haven't seen a huge change yet. Obviously it's. , A big buzz in our industry and pretty much every industry out there. I am specifically focused on hospitality. So hotels, so we're seeing more and more AI in that space.

Michelle:

So we have to stay educated on what those solutions are. How do we integrate with that? How do we take the tech that we have and make it better? And we're also, we're seeing a lot of that, but less like day to day use, I guess.

Kat:

Heather, are you, she's so excited to talk to you. Calm down. What are you doing with AI?

Kat:

You can

Heather:

tell us. There's two things. One is, um, one of my favorite lines, which is not my original, not my line, but I will repeat it. , Chat TPT won't replace you. People who use it will replace you. So that's a huge line that I like really abide by. The secondary thing is that my husband says that, um, if Chat TBT ever becomes like a robot or, or a droid, I will leave him for, for the AI.

Heather:

Because I am all in, ladies. I am all in. I am taking a class about, like an advanced AI class of just, you know, trying this stuff out. I think that it helps us be, um, way more productive. I talk to my kids about it. We have, I'm old enough to remember when calculators were not allowed in schools and, you know, that we thought there was talk that when calculators came out, it would just dumb us down, but really we could solve more complex problems.

Heather:

And so I think that like this big data, we finally have somebody, well, yes, it's not being manned, but the ability out there to scrape the internet to find all the information about a subject and give you an answer. And the more you put into it, the more it gets out and that it learns you and it can talk like you.

Heather:

I use it. All day, every day, as much as I can. It helped me read a very long, over 400 page contract, um, not as my lawyer, I had my lawyer too, but I could direct my lawyer to where to look in that contract. So, that would have taken me, it would have cost me so much more money, um, and I could say, can you look at these pages or these things.

Heather:

Um, I, I, just, if I can give any advice to anyone here or listening, it's keep it open and anytime you think you would Google something or, Go to a search engine, put it into, and it doesn't have to be chat, there's a few of them out there, but put it in there and just see what it can do. It's unbelievably amazing.

Heather:

It's my favorite assistant. It's, it's saved me, it's saving me hours of time and I'm looking smarter doing that.

Kat:

Oh, Heather, I'm going to burst your bubble. Okay. So to be fair, I use AI all the time, all day in my job, all the time. I use it for a number of different things. We do all of our meetings virtually.

Kat:

And so I use a chat agent to record all of the meetings that we have virtually, but then also that chat agent will summarize our meetings and write a follow up email for me. And he can also use those meetings to. Create the beginnings of a scope of work for me to do a presentation or proposal for and then I can turn that into a PowerPoint if I need to.

Kat:

So there's a lot of beginnings of a lot of things that are wonderful, but it does need you to go in and, you know, correct it. But here's where I'm going to burst your bubble, Heather. I was, I'm not even going to lie to you, I wasn't reading an article, I was watching a Reel. And a guy was giving, you know, You're totally true, by the way.

Kat:

I was reading an article, and , And the guy was on there, he was , One of the, you know, big internet people. And it was talking about how the only issue with it is critical thinking, loss of critical thinking, because when we were, I'll age myself with you, Heather, when I was young, you had to get out the Encyclopedia Britannica to pick up information, and you would get it from multiple sources, so you would go to the library, and you would do research, and you would get different answers to your questions.

Kat:

If you ask why, you know, a war started, you would find out Five different ways that it did and you would have to only find out what's on those pages, but if you stretch it, they're going to tell you the answer and there's no critical thinking involved. Whatever they think that answer is. There's no, I think that

Heather:

it gets you partway there.

Heather:

And yes, I agree that you, you, but there are like perplexities, a deep thinking piece and yes, yes, but we're not going to go down the rabbit hole. We're going to

Kat:

shift it back to Adrian. We'll talk and what, yeah, this is going to be a, it's gonna be a fun night. Um, What do you think is the way that our industry has shifted?

Kat:

And I know, Heather, you talked about it a little bit after COVID. We saw some shifts. I know we all saw a big boom, you know, when COVID happened, mostly in residential with outdoor living and things like that. And now that commercial is coming back, I think we see a little bit of a shift in what consumers are buying and how they're engaging with technology.

Kat:

What do you got, Heather? Anything changing over there?

Heather:

Um, I mean, video conferences never going away after that. I mean, it changed so much, but I think that, you know, so there's conversations I have in the wild with people that they, you know, about, you know, there's this big back to work push, but it will never, even with the back to work push, you'll still have people who broke their leg and can't come in, or there will still be a need to have that piece of it.

Heather:

So that, that will still continue to be there. I think that that next round in the commercial world, I think that there's just this consistent push for simplicity. The. Um, I'll give Crush on a shout out that their dongle that plugs into a laptop or bring your own device and now my video conference with my peripherals in the room is my engineer, my most ones and zeros engineer called it magic the other day.

Heather:

I mean, the simplicity of how easy things are getting and, and maybe it's bad to us sometimes because we need less products or less, you know, less, you know, racks of equipment anymore. But like the fact that I'm going to be able to continue to walk into a room and I think like with AI and the next steps, it's going to start to be about your health or, um, not just my own personal life.

Heather:

I would love to see that more on the residential side, but, but your, your business health about, you know, maybe shouldn't be three hours long. It should never be three hours long. About getting up or about knowing, starting to learn who you are and what you like. Um, I think that there's a lot that we can start to pull on.

Heather:

I can't wait to go to InfoCon to see what somebody else has thought of. So, I can't wait to think. Oh, God.

Michelle:

I'm seeing now when I set a meeting, it'll say, you know, most meetings can be even shorter. Can this meeting be 45 minutes? If I'm trying to set an hour long meeting, yes, it's doing it. And then I go, oh, okay.

Michelle:

And I just click the button and it changes everything. Yeah. To your point, it is, it is making the day to day a lot.

Kat:

easier. It's starting to simpler. Michelle, tell us all the secrets. What can we expect? What's coming next in the industry? Oh my goodness.

Michelle:

Well, I will say that even though AI has not changed my role, I mean, there's a little bit to it, like what I just described and other tools that we're using and things like that.

Michelle:

But as far as that, Industry goes, and I'm speaking really on that collaboration piece that Crush Run is strong on in the commercial space, um, primarily with our 1B on cameras, our Automate VX technology, just being able to have AI become a true tool to the business to Heather's point to continue to simplify.

Michelle:

By the day to day. That's where we're seeing a lot of innovation right now. We have a whole AI readiness checklist and some really cool things that marketing has created around the topic because it is something that I think, you know, people are grasping the concept. And so the marketing is so important to be able to communicate that.

Kat:

Okay, well that's set up Danielle nicely. Danielle, what's happening next in marketing in our industry? What's, what's going on over there?

Danielle:

I mean, following the trend, I feel like marketing for sure with nice, um, but I'm sure across the industry is that simplicity message. How can we take the tech that is, the tech is focused on making things more simple, making the day to day life more simple.

Danielle:

Okay, marketing needs to help communicate that. We need to help communicate that. Yeah, we need to tell that story of how this is, how this is simplifying daily life, not just simplifying, but just, I feel like there's a big push. Um, especially at nice to make technology that is easier on the dealer, easier for the dealer to install.

Danielle:

It helps them do their jobs better. It helps them do their jobs quick, quicker. And I think that the technology. Focus on that, the development focus on that paired with this kind of simplicity and reliability message. I think that's where the technology is going. And that's also where marketing is trying to go.

Danielle:

We're trying to support, how do we tell that story? It's funny because telling a simple story isn't simple. I mean, I think we, we have all been around enough trade shows to know that it is hard to do it, to do it well. And so that's the perpetual challenge and struggle in marketing is how do we tell the story?

Danielle:

Simply, clearly and concisely to help better support our dealers to where they know what, why, you know, what our products doing for them and why they need it. I love it.

Kat:

Well guys, I just want to say thank you again for, for being here today, but before we go, I want to go around the room one more time and have you guys give one piece of advice.

Kat:

from your department. So from sales, marketing leadership, if you could give one piece of advice to the other teams to better work with you, what would that be? Well, we'll start with Michelle. Well, Michelle's got some thoughts. I know I do.

Michelle:

Honestly, I, I preached this earlier and I'm going to say it again.

Michelle:

Um, focus on, on the solution for the end user. All right. And how it's going to help their life. Okay. Whether that's in the workplace or in a residential application or a hotel. Any, anything. Focusing

Kat:

on that end user is so key. And Danielle, how do, how do people, how do the other departments make marketing love them?

Danielle:

I'd say the advice that I'd give, , to build, to build off of Michelle's, I don't want to say the same thing, but just, you know, it's about tell us what, what is going to make the partner or the end customer love this? Like, why are they going to love it? That helps marketing out the gate. And then help share with us your goals.

Danielle:

I feel like a lot of times people come to marketing and they say, I need this. And I have to, I have to pause and be like, what are you trying to do? What are you trying to achieve? So if you can shift the thinking and come and say, here's what I'm trying to achieve. And here's what the, here's what's going to delight the partner, delight the customer, why they're going to be excited about this.

Danielle:

That's what marketing needs to go get, get to work and give you something great.

Kat:

I love it. And Heather, , don't unload at all. Cause, cause you guys got a lot going on in leadership. I know that to make leadership love you, what could sales and marketing do to just delight leadership?

Heather:

Um, I'm gonna go with radical candor.

Heather:

So the idea of just tell me what you mean. Like it is leadership. We tend to be busy and in 17 places at the same time and then not sleeping at night. So, you know, let's be honest and stop. You know, I don't need you don't need the fuzz like just and I'm by radical candor. I mean, I don't mean it's about being mean or tough.

Heather:

I mean, it's about being like, what do you need? What do you need for success? What do you need for me to help you be successful? What do you want? What are you missing? Um, So I think radical candor is a huge thing. It's so much easier to turn around and be like, oh, he might be cranky today, or she might be cranky today, so I don't want to, but like, by putting yourself out there and saying like, no, let's meet face to face, or let's get, you know, let's talk about this, let's talk this through, there's so much more valuable for everybody involved.

Kat:

I love it. I think, I think we've discovered some things today. Number one, honesty is key. Number two, just tell me why, and if we could all understand each other just a little bit better, we would probably have more quick and better solutions. Truth. Yes, yes, yes. I love it. Well, again, thank you guys for being here today.

Kat:

, I'm going to let you all go and say goodbye to our audience. Bye. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Kat:

Okay. Well, thank you guys again for being here today. And that brings us to the end of our conversation. So thanks for sharing your insights and experience. It's been really great to hear perspectives from all the different teams. We'd love to keep the conversation going. So if you've ever experienced challenges with interdepartmental disconnects or found ways to bridge that gap in your own business, please let us know, reach out, share your thoughts, and we'll continue to work better as a group to a better collaboration in the avi industry.

Kat:

Thanks again to One Firefly for putting this together. And of course, you all for listening. We'll see you next time.

---

Ron Callis is the CEO of One Firefly, LLC, a digital marketing agency based out of South Florida and creator of Automation Unplugged. Founded in 2007, One Firefly has quickly became the leading marketing firm specializing in the integrated technology and security space. The One Firefly team work hard to create innovative solutions to help Integrators boost their online presence, such as the elite website solution, Mercury Pro.

Resources and links from the interview:

• Kat Wheeler LinkedIn Profile page
• Heather Sidorowicz LinkedIn Profile
• Danielle Karr LinkedIn Profile
• Michelle Guss LinkedIn Profile