20+ Valuable Marketing Quotes and Insights From Experts (1 of 2)

Curious to learn what the latest valuable marketing quotes and insights are?

Marketing never stops spinning and marketers never stop learning. To help you update your knowledge and show you new directions, I put together a list of 20+ marketing quotes and insights from 20 marketing experts.

This article includes insights and quotes from Ann Handley, Jay Baer, Chris Brogan, Rand Fishkin, Tara Hunt, Seth Godin, Mark Schaefer, Martin Lindstrom, Mari Smith and Gary Vaynerchuk.

20+ Valuable Marketing Quotes and Insights From Experts

1. Ann Handley – Go Smaller & Slay the Ignosaurus

We’ve all heard of the Go big or go home saying. Writer, speaker and digital marketing pioneer Ann Handley makes a 180 turn and goes in the opposite direction. She invites marketers to thing bigger, but go smaller. Why?

Small stories are specific. Small stories are human-scale.

Ann Handley

Making the story smaller and more specific is the best way for products, services or B2B solutions to break through the noise of social media and get listened to by their customers.

Big and bold stories are often best told in small and specific ways. Find the specific details—and use them to engage the heart, not just appeal to the head.

Ann Handley

But in order to be able to tell these stories, we need to slay the Ignosaurus, the beast that we thought had disappeared together with the other dinosaurs.

Ignosaurus is lazy, bored, and goes through the motions with no engagement on the job.

Ann says a vast majority of marketers today are Ignosaurus in disguise.

annhandley.com

She wants marketers to slay the Ignosaurus within and start experimenting, making changes.

In order for the industry to evolve marketers need to be curious and stay alert.

Study after study has shown that Marketing has one of the most pronounced skills gap of any industry. Many of us feel that we don’t have the skills we need to produce our best work.

Ann Handley

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2. Jay Baer – Relevancy is a Value Exchange

Is your marketing failing?

Author, speaker and founder of Convince & Convert Consulting Jay Baer believes the reason your marketing is failing is the lack of relevancy.

Customers and prospects are trading their attention for your information. If they refuse to do so, it’s because your information does not matter to them enough sufficiently for them to trade attention for that information.

The key to being more relevant isn’t hard-it just takes time. The key to being more relevant is to understand your customers better.

The truth is that most modern marketers don’t actually interact with customers very much anymore, and that robs us of a really important success ingredient: insights.

Jay Baer

How do you get insights?

Not from reading spreadsheets or reports.

Jay says most marketers today have never seen their customers which is really sad.

How can you design marketing strategies and campaigns if you don’t know who are you talking to?

You need to change that today.

Leave the office and make contact. Spend time with your customer service and your sales team to learn what your customers’ problems are, what questions they ask, how they talk etc.

Almost no great marketing happens behind your desk. Great marketing occurs when you actually take the time to spend time with your customers and learn what they really need and what they’re really all about.

Jay Baer

Source

3. Chris Brogan – Invite People to Your Picnic

I think even the biggest companies have to get a bit more “picnic-sized” in their looking at outreach, attraction, sales, and conversion. If you speak to everyone, you’re heard by no one. Sure, make your big ads say whatever they’re saying, but use your other resources to reach and engage with specific groups at a time.

Chris Brogan

How can a company reach people and serve those who would benefit from their services and products?

Speaker, author and marketing expert Chris Brogan says marketers need to make their customers feel seen and understood. Only then will they be ready to buy.

How do you make your customers feel seen and understood?

You need to split your customers into several communities of personas. Make groups for every community of people you think you can best serve. And then invite them to a picnic, online or offline and make them feel they belong. That’s how revenue is generated – by earning the attention and trust of all those people out there who feel invisible.

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4. Rand Fishkin – The True Marketing Trends for 2019

Former founder of Moz and current founder of SparkToro Rand Fishkin believes marketing trends like video content, turning to the human side of marketing and data-driven creativity are completely non-actionable and can hardly be called trends for 2019.

Instead, he made a list of the trends he believes will have an impact on marketing in 2019.

Here they are:

• In the next few years, the US and other parts of the world will experience an economic recession which is already changing customers’ behaviour;
• The undue influence of big businesses and monopolies which resulted in bad news for citizens: GDPR, the loss of Net Neutrality, Articles 11 and 13;
• A recent analysis showed a dramatic slowdown in the global growth of internet access. To keep making the same revenue as in past years, most internet giants compete with publishers, limit organic reach, cannibalize clicks and make channels pay-to-play;
• Voice Answers have the potential to disrupt any competitive opportunity to appear in results and earn traffic and value;
• The emerging, broad societal belief that overuse of social networks and heavy web content consumption do more harm than good. Many people today are limiting their screen time and their children’s.

What steps is your company taking to adapt to the future?

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5. Mark Schaefer – The Belonging Crisis

Author, speaker and marketing expert Mark Schaefer says

Most of our marketing is occurring without us because today the customers are the marketing department. The new challenge for a company is to be invited to those organic conversations.

We live in an era when hyper-empowered consumers control the brand narrative.

In the past, a “brand” is what we told our consumers. Today, a brand is what our customers are telling each other.

Mark believes there is a belonging crisis today in the world.

Here is what marketers should do to help companies overcome this trend according to Mark:

• Align with the values of your young customers, empowering their voices, and creating deep emotional attachments with customers that result in loyalty;
• Help your customers feel connected;
• Provide personal attention to your customers. “It’s not “personalized” — it’s personal!”
• Nurture like-minded customer “islands” on Facebook and other spaces;
• Use true personal connections instead of automated messages and spammy responses;
• Traditional ads that lead to “awareness, trial and loyalty” don’t work so well any more. Build a brand from a place of empathy and personal pain;
• Assemble a tribe, united in their belief in how the product or service connects them to their individual lives and to their communities.

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6. Mari Smith – Use Stickers in your Facebook Video Ads

Often referred to as the Queen of Facebook, Mari Smith provides marketers with many valuable and useful insights on Facebook and Instagram marketing.

Stickers on videos can significantly improve the performance of your Facebook ads.

Mari Smith

Mari and her team performed a test to see how stickers influence the results of Facebook video ads.

Here’s what she found:

• Cost per result for ads with stickers was almost 33% lower;
• Both Conversion rate and CTR were higher;
• Stickers don’t impact interest in the ad copy so much as generate interest in the advertised product;
• If you are looking to use stickers in your Facebook video ads pay attention to the number of stickers you add, don’t overdo it!

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7. Gary Vaynerchuk – The $1.80 Instagram Strategy

Gary Vaynerchuk spent the last 10 years of his career trying to understand user psychology and reverse engineer attention into an engaged community online.

The truth is, the way to win on social media is to actually be social. The number of Instagram followers you have means nothing if you can’t build a community of like-minded people who care and engage. The only real way to do this from scratch is to become part of the conversation.

Gary Vaynerchuk

That’s how he came up with the $1.80 Instagram strategy.

garyvaynerchuk.com

What is the $1.80 Instagram strategy?

It’s leaving your personal .02 cents on the top 9 trending Instagram posts for 10 different hashtags that are relevant to your brand or business every single day.

All you need to do is provide value where you can and it only takes 2 minutes a day. He says it’s exactly the strategy that always worked for him – becoming part of the community. The result is you will have meaningful connections, not bots. And this kind of connections is the most valuable.

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8. Tara Hunt – No, that’s not marketing

Executive-level digital marketing professional Tara Hunt makes it clear on what marketing is not.

Contrary to popular believe, advertising isn’t the same as marketing. PR is not the same as marketing. Communications isn’t the same as marketing and Branding isn’t the same as marketing either. Even Sales is often completely separate from marketing. Brand and advertising and PR and content and digital and consumer insights and pricing and social and events and product and positioning and communications and a whole bunch of other stuff are all part of the marketing toolkit, but they aren’t “marketing.”

Tara Hunt

Videos, podcasts and content, in general, are great tactics for the right audience but they’re not marketing. They won’t automatically open the floodgates of customers.

Here’s what marketers should do according to Tara:

• Understand their market;
• Understand if they have the right product for that market (if not, let their client know they are focusing on the wrong market or need to change the product);
• Identify the right channels of distribution for both product and message;
• Put it all together in a measurable plan.

Anything less is not marketing.

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9. Seth Godin – 10 words per page

Seth Godin is the only person to have been inducted in the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame and the Marketing Hall of Fame. His blog is one of the most successful blogs in the world with 7000 published articles and millions of readers.

We are also proud that Seth Godin was one of the keynote speakers at BRAND MINDS 2017.

Here are 4 insightful quotes:

Any metric you can buy your way out of is probably not a useful metric to measure yourself by.

Every interaction you have with a customer either strengthens your relationship (because it’s mutually beneficial) or weakens it. Weaken it enough time and you break it.

Ten words per page
That’s how many words get scanned the first time through. Perhaps five on a billboard.
Which means that your memo, your ad, your announcement, your post–you get ten words.
If you can begin with the ten words and write around them, you have the foundation for an effective message.

When in doubt, when your marketing isn’t working, the answer is easy: go one circle in.

seths.blog

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10. Martin Lindstrom – Build Anticipation

Neuromarketing and branding expert Martin Lindstrom draws attention to the concept of anticipation.

Anticipation is the feeling of excitement about something that is going to happen in the near future. It is a powerful feeling and it is directly linked to connectedness and engagement over a longer period of time.

In our world of on-the-spot gratification, how are brands leveraging anticipation to keep their customers close and engaged? Technology has taken anticipation away.

From a rational point of view, anticipation is nothing more than an illusion, a myth, a chimaera; but from a subconscious, storytelling, and emotional point-of-view, anticipation makes all the difference. It is the bride’s months-long excitement as she chooses her gown, the anxious lead-up to graduation day, the indescribable feeling as the newborn baby finally arrives home and settles into its beautifully decorated bedroom.

Martin Lindstrom

If your brand offers experience, anticipation plays an important role in your customers’ perception of it. Anticipation has the power to make the wait much more rewarding and it makes all the difference. It sets your brand apart from your competitors and influences the bottom line.

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Stay tuned for part 2!

What is Marketing About in 2019? Insights From 10 Marketing Professionals

One thing every marketer can never have too much of is information. Industry insights, customer data, sales trends, customer reviews etc – successful marketers are always searching for that one particular data or sets of data that will give them the opportunity to establish a connection with their customers’ minds or hearts.

The best way to identify valuable trends and insights is by tapping into the knowledge of seasoned and savvy marketing professionals.

To this purpose, I invited 10 marketing professionals to share their insights. Together they have a combined experience of 140 years in the marketing trenches.

What is marketing about in 2019?

10 marketing professionals share their insights.

1. Nina Bratfalean – Marketing Manager, BMW Group

Triple E (EEE) and EWY. Engagement and Exclusive Experiences. Everything With You.

Nina Bratfalean

“Money can’t buy” experiences and customers engagement; those will be the highlights of the year, together with “everything you need with you” because BMW will be connected with the life of every person who chose the brand. Choosing to drive a BMW will bring joy in every moment they will be spending with their BMW while also making each journey easier.

Starting with 2019 BMW will introduce the highly anticipated Connected Drive to Romania. Internationally, BMW is designing new mobility concepts. Everything will be direct, integrated and transparent, which is opposite to the moderation you are used to. From now on, you will hear us saying “no guts, no glory”, you will also see that our communication will be more selective and interconnected with each and every step our customers take towards a completely digital CDJ (customer decision journey).

2. Andreas Elsner – Chief Officer, Residential Marketing and National Sales, Telekom Romania

Marketing in 2019 will entirely revolve around the customer.

Andreas Elsner

Companies will have to produce more personalized marketing content and be able to offer customers amazing, unique experiences.

And this will be possible by getting to know the customers better.

It will be crucial for marketers to find out customers’ communication preferences and deliver them creative, meaningful and valuable content.

Brands will no more be vendors, but trusted partners.

3. Calin Biris – Partner, Loopa Marketing Agency

Visual & audio content + Automation.

Calin Biris

For a small to medium company, this year can be about investing in visual and audio content that will be used in a smart and integrated way with the other marketing channels like e-mail, messaging, social media and ads. For example, a start-up could become well known if it will create a podcast or a YouTube channel about its niche or domain that will get traction (many subscribers and listeners). But this is only the tip of the iceberg, or let’s call it the cool part of marketing. For the start-up to get sales it will need to do advertising and have a good sales funnel, because content marketing it’s a long-term investment.

If we are talking about big companies that already have a working sales funnel and marketing action plan, what will be cool to do more this year is looking for ways to use automation in Social Media or in an Inbound marketing strategy.

4. Tara Hunt – CEO, Truly Inc.

The year of the reckoning for advertising.

Tara Hunt

I’m calling 2019 the year of reckoning for advertising – especially the practice of social platform ads – because of the growing revelations around click fraud and the realization that the metrics the industry has long relied on (impressions, reach and even engagement) are pretty useless.

Many brands are going to continue to see a decline in real results, which will leave them wondering what to do next.

My hope is that this will open up the long overdue conversation around accountability and goals in marketing that leads to a resetting of what we measure and how we approach the practice.

And my dream outcome of this will be for brands and marketers to stop chasing millions and billions of impressions and get back to the core definition of marketing: connecting companies with customers through understanding the market, development of the right product, finding the right channels to distribute, and creating the right strategy.

5. Ann Handley – Digital Marketing and Content Expert

In 2019, the email newsletter will re-emerge as an important nurturing tool.

Ann Handley

Companies will treat their email newsletter programs like the rare and precious flowers they are, in need of regular tending and attention. That means they will water newsletter audiences with a sprinkler, not a firehose.

“Hold up,” you’re thinking. “EMAIL? Is this 1999 or 2019? Isn’t this the age of AI and Facebook Live and video?”

Here’s why I believe in the power of email newsletters even more strongly today, in 2019:

1) An email newsletter is the only place where individuals—not algorithms—are in control. So what if marketing leaned into that inherently personal space?

2) Most companies today use their email newsletter as a distribution strategy. What if we focused not on the news but on the letter?

In January I relaunched my personal newsletter (annhandley.com/newsletter) as a way to talk directly to my audience. It’s taught me a lot about what works and what doesn’t in content and in marketing. Because I think the best email newsletters are also a kind of proxy for the best marketing in 2019, period.

6. Andrada Borda – Marketing Manager, BRAND MINDS & Digitalium

Less about mass audiences and more about niche targeting.

Andrada Borda

I believe that brands are starting to value the role their audiences play in the way they communicate on a deeper level. And when I say audiences, I mean the diverse and unique user profiles we are targeting because these days few things are about mass audiences and many are about niche targeting.

A brand’s communication strategy that once was prepared for a collective audience will now be split in two, three or more individual approaches, depending on the profile types that consume the brand’s product or service.

And that’s where you find the real challenge: to find and create ways to communicate for different types of audiences while maintaining your brand archetype, personality and values.

How would you speak in their language while keeping yours?

7. Chris ‘Kubby’ Kubbernus – Chief Executive Officer & Founder, Kubb&co

Marketing in 2019 is really what it has always been about. Relevance.

Chris ‘Kubby’ Kubbernus

How relevant is your brand and how relevant are your communications/content/marketing in today’s culture. And that’s not to say that you need to be famous.

But you need to be relevant to your customers, their needs and what’s on their minds. And often this changes very fast, so being agile, understanding your customers and then being able to act on that is key.

8. Antoine Dupont – Co-owner & CEO, Katapult Marketing

2019 is the year where the control of the narrative has shifted from the marketer to the people.

Antoine Dupont

The consumer has become increasingly vocal by how they engage and share their feelings about a company or a brand. More than half of the conversation about a brand is happening without the brand itself. Think about it for a minute. The brand used to have 100% control of the narrative about their brand. This is no longer the case.

To that end, brands and companies, now more than ever, need to nurture and respect the audience. They are sophisticated and expect to be treated with respect & dignity.

The brands that will win in 2019 will be the one who spends more time asking & listening rather than pitching & selling. Here is what people are saying: stop robocalling me, stop spamming me and stop funnelling me. Treat me like a HUMAN.

9. Nicole Yale – Global Account Director, Client Services – VaynerMedia

2019 is about bottom-up marketing at scale.

Nicole Yale

Digital can’t be ignored- we’ll see continued integration with other channels, but content marketing will also drive activity across touchpoints.

Marketers are realising the power of online data, near-instant access to consumer feedback, and the impact to be had in leveraging audience insights. It’s bottom-up marketing at scale- test, learn, amplify- to create work that’s more relevant and effective.

10. Ana Maria Bajan – Marketing Director, Caroli Foods Group

Marketing in 2019 will be FANTASTIC.

Ana Maria Bajan

2019 will be: FANTASTIC

Fan for bringing added value in the life of the consumers;

Assurance for your brand – make sure your brand is the first who conquers the heart of the consumers;

Nurture your communication channels with personalized messages;

To be easy to access & easy to use;

Automation is the key to effective marketing;

Stay relevant to your consumers;

Target your consumers effectively and efficiently;

Ignite your brand/category/business with a purpose;

Communicate transparently and instantly if possible with your consumers.

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10 Marketing Blogs Every Successful Marketer Should Follow (1 of 2)

A successful marketer is a marketer who never stops learning. Apart from books, marketing blogs are the next best thing: marketing experts and trendsetters write down their ideas and insights in easy to read articles.

Here are 10 marketing blogs every successful marketer should follow:

1. Ann Handley’s Blog

Ann Handley / marketingprofs.com

Ann Handley is a writer, a speaker, a digital marketing pioneer and Wall Street Journal best-selling author.

She is the world’s first Chief Content Officer, heading up all professional education and training content at MarketingProfs. In her professional capacity, she leads companies internationally to rethink the way they market to achieve lasting business success.

She is also a LinkedIn Influencer.

On her blog, she writes about how businesses can escape marketing mediocrity to achieve tangible results: the link between empathy and marketing, why marketers and brands should take it slow, how marketers should challenge marketing assumptions etc.

Even when you are marketing to your entire audience or customer base, you are still simply speaking to a single human at any given time.

Ann Handley

2. Jay Baer’s Blog

Jay Baer / seoforgrowth.com

Jay Baer is the founder of Convince & Convert Consulting, a digital marketing and customer experience advisory firm that helps companies (like The United Nations, 3M, Oracle, Cisco, Nike, Hilton, Caterpillar) gain and keep more customers. During his 25-years of experience as a digital marketer, Jay has written six books.

In his latest book, Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers w/ Word of Mouth, Jay talks about how brands should create and use the word-of-mouth strategy to influence purchases.

On his blog, Jay writes about innovative ways for marketers to get more customers and improve their experience, how to upgrade their content marketing, how to manage a social media crisis etc.

Branding is the art of aligning what you want people to think about your company with what people actually do think about your company. And vice-versa.

Jay Baer

3. Chris Brogan’ Blog

Chris Brogan / chrisbrogan.com

For the past ten years, Chris Brogan has been working with big companies like Google, Disney, Twitter and IBM to help them improve their content marketing and digital media efforts to acquire and/or retain customers (either B2B or B2C).

He is a speaker and co-author of Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust (2009), a New York Times bestseller.

On his blog, he writes about subjects like how to be more effective with LinkedIn, what customers expect from brands, content marketing, how brands should make their customers feel smart etc.

The key is, no matter what story you tell, make your buyer the hero.

Chris Brogan

4. Rand Fishkin – Rand’s Blog

Rand Fishkin@Twitter

Rand Fishkin is the co-founder of Moz.org and Inbound.org.

In February 2018, Rand left Moz and began a new adventure: SparkToro, a technology platform in the influencer and audience intelligence marketing space.

Speaker and author of Lost and Founder, Rand shares on the company’s blog valuable insights on influencer marketing, the future of SEO, marketing fit etc.

Tell a story. Make it true. Make it compelling. And make it relevant.

Rand Fishkin

5. Andy Crestodina – Orbit Media Studios Blog

Andy Crestodina@Twitter

Andy Crestodina is the co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Orbit Media Studios.

He is a fervent advocate for content marketing and ethical digital marketing with 19 years of experience in the trenches.

He is a top-rated speaker and a marketing teacher.

In 2015, Andy was named one of Forbes Top 10 Online Marketing Experts to Watch and in 2016 Entrepreneur Magazine named him one of 2016’s Top 50 Marketing Influencers.

He is the author of Content Chemistry: The Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing.

On the Orbit Media Blog, Andy shares his insights on how to improve email marketing engagement, e-commerce marketing tips, how to launch a social media advocacy program etc.

“Data-Driven Empathy.” That’s the idea I want people to understand. Marketing has always been about empathy, but digital marketing is about using data to make better decisions that align with our audience’s needs.

Andy Crestodina

Join the Conversation

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Top 20 business people to watch for in 2017

source: wisecareers

Each one of us needs to be inspired, to meet and read about inspirational people and success stories that truly show us that the sky is the limit. We compiled of list of great entrepreneurs, social media influencers, both men and women, that we believe deserve a look over their careers so far and that will still be a great inspiration in the years to come.

Neil Patel – an internet marketer and conversion expert, best known as the founder of Crazy Egg, Quick Sprout, and KISSMetrics. Recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama, Patel is also a regular, respected contributor for publications such as Inc., Fast Company, Forbes, Entrepreneur.com and TechCrunch. He helps companies like Amazon, NBC, GM, HP and Viacom grow their revenue.

John Rampton is a serial entrepreneur, connector, and the founder of Due.com. Rampton has hailed as No. 3 of the Top 50 Global Online Influencers and one of the Top 10 Most Influential PPC Experts in the World for 3 years running. Time Magazine recognized John as a motivations speaker that helps people find a “Sense of Meaning” in their lives. He currently advises several companies in the bay area. John loves helping others succeed online. It’s all about helping and giving back. It brings me joy in my life.

Chris Stoikos is best known for his hilarious viral videos, which generated 130M views and $10.5M in sales in the past year alone as part of his venture Dollar Beard Club. Stoikos has also appeared on NBC’s Shark Tank and generated millions in revenue for various product launches. is a highly regarded serial entrepreneur with two successful exits under his belt. He is an expert at creating and organizing dynamic teams that can execute business ideas quickly and effectively, and set them up to be self-sustaining organizations.

Ann Handley has been named by “Forbes” as the “Most Influential Woman in Social Media” and one of the Top 20 Women Bloggers. She is the chief content officer of MarketingProfs, a training company that empowers marketers internationally with the skills they need to drive success at their companies, and her book “Everybody Writes” is a Wall Street Journal bestseller. She is also the co-author of the best-selling book on content marketing, “Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business.”
Moreover, a pioneer in digital marketing, Ann is the co-founder of ClickZ.com, which was one of the first sources of digital marketing news and commentary.

Shradha Agarwal co-started  Context Media with a goal to help patients with chronic diseases better manage their health. She is now reaching more that 6+ million patients a month. Shradha co-founded JumpStart Ventures in 2011 to fund other passionate entrepreneurs who are executing ambitious solutions in healthcare, education and media communications, and has since backed more than 40 companies with over $10 million in venture investments. She mentors entrepreneurs at Techstars, Impact Engine & Blueprint Health, but is equally invested in the venture philanthropy model for scaling nonprofit solutions through SVP Chicago and The Chicago Public Education Fund. She serves on the boards of OneGoal and Chicago Children’s Choir and spiritedly supports youth education, women leadership, and civic engagement. The CEC recently honored the two ContextMedia co-founders with the “2015 Chicagoness Award” for their deep commitment to developing the city’s ecosystem. Agarwal was honored as a Champion of Change by the White House, recognized as Best Female Founder at the United Nations, and won a Moxie Award as “Tech Woman of the Year” in Chicago.

Anthony Smith is Founder and CEO of  Insightly, a San Francisco-based company that provides customer relationship management (CRM) cloud-based software to more than 1.2 million customers in 200 countries. After identifying a market need for a CRM solution for small businesses, Anthony built the first version of Insightly himself, using his previous experience of designing, constructing, and implementing CRM software for enterprises.

Julia Taylor Cheek isn’t new to business, but the Harvard Business grad’s new company is literally changing the way we live. Cheek’s company,  EverlyWell (of which she is both co-founder and CEO) is simplifying health testing and putting it into words and charts that everybody can understand.

Branden Hampton is the king of social media, having built over 33M followers across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. He’s also the CEO of the social media marketing company One Penny Ad Agency and co-author of “ How to Set Up Your Business for Under $1000”.

Brian D. Evans is an Inc 500 entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Influencive, an online publication read by millions of young entrepreneurs. His company, BDE Ventures had 2,388% growth in 3 years and was the 25th fastest growing advertising and marketing agency in America.

Ekta Sahasi is the vice president of the  U.S .Business Innovation Center (BIC) for Konica Minolta, where her team seeks out new places to invest in disruptive technology that can advance the company’s competitive advantage. When not investing in startups and overseeing innovation at Konica Minolta, Sahasi helps startups understand how they can enter Asian markets and work within those cultural parameters. Prior to joining Konica Minolta, Ekta spent 10 years at eBay Inc. where she co-founded and led both eBay and PayPal’s Research and Innovation Labs. She successfully developed one of the largest corporate innovation programs, and experimented with emerging technologies for enhancing existing technology stack and M&A. As Director of Innovation Products and Research at PayPal she built and scaled a global cross-functional team and led the strategic vision and execution of high-impact projects.

Russ Ruffino: Founder and CEO of  Clients on Demand, the most reliable client attraction system in the world, Ruffino has helped coaches and thought leaders all over the world build six-figure monthly businesses from scratch. His massive success in marketing and as a business owner has allowed him to become one of the most respected business coaches in the industry.

Pejman Ghadimi is a self-made multi-millionaire, serial entrepreneur, best-selling book author and currently the CEO and Founder of  Secret Entourage. The platform was started in 2009 to help bring together some of today’s greatest and brightest CEO’s, business owners and innovators in an attempt to help bridge the gap between formal and self-education by providing current, relevant, as well as affordable coaching and mentorship. Secret Entourage presently is home to over 280 accredited entrepreneurs covering more than 100 industries, over 30,000 students and reaches millions through social media. Since its launch, Secret Entourage has expanded its reach to over 1,200,000 new individuals each month and has grown as an accepted brand in the business and lifestyle community. The organization has to date aided tens of thousands of individuals and organizations in reaching their full potential. Secret Entourage has also helped unify accredited Entrepreneurs with the mission of bringing back the true meaning of entrepreneurship, and to be an inspiration to all. In 2012, Pejman authored Third Circle Theory, Gen Y’s blueprint to Entrepreneurship which had sold over 50,000 copies by mid 2013.

Pejman is also the owner and founder of VIPMotoring.net, a unique luxury lifestyle concierge service which currently was said to be “one of the best sources of education for today’s modern millionaires” by Forbes in 2012.

Roger Bryan is a serial entrepreneur with two successful exits: a marketing agency and an ecommerce business. His current venture,  Enfusen, named a Top 10 Tool Entrepreneurs Can Use to Automate Their Business by Inc., is a machine-learning analytics platform that helps digital marketing agencies drive increased traffic and conversion for their clients.

Sam Ovens: Ovens has told the story how he started completely broke, working out of his parents’ garage in New Zealand, and in five short years, started a  consulting business, moved to New York and made over $20 million. Ovens helps everyday people quit their jobs and “job-like” businesses to start their own highly leveraged consulting business. His methods are shaking up the consulting industry. Since 2011 he has created 14 millionaires and 340 six-figure earners with his training programs.

John Sculley and David Steinberg, ZetaGlobal – Former Apple and Pepsi CEO John Sculley and David Steinberg have become darlings of the marketing tech world, creating a business that provides analytics-driven platform that can also both see the customer’s life-cycle, measure ROI and understand your audience for intelligent marketing across the board. The company remains profitable, and made over $300 million in revenue the last year. Considering the cutthroat nature of the business, marketing tech leaders should pay real attention to Sculley and Steinberg as Zeta continues to grow.

Raviv Turner, CaliberMind, is a serial tech entrepreneur and former Israeli intelligence of CaliberMind, stands out. The company plugs into your CRM and content pipeline and uses psychographic ( a huge secret weapon in marketing) profiling of your sales and marketing calls, emails and customers’ social feeds to intelligently inform you both how to communicate with them and what content to feed them, such as security content for a security-minded person.

Amanda Signorelli, CEO of Techweek, is building tech-based entrepreneurial communities in major cities across North America, helping local business break through.

Danielle Morrill, CEO and co-founder of  Mattermark, is improving the way that businesses find and connect with the ideal customers, simplifying the process of finding leads for businesses of all sizes. Small businesses will want to keep Morrill’s company on their radar in 2017.

Natalya Brikner – Founder and CEO of Accion Systems Inc., brings her MIT rocket science knowledge and experience to help push space-travel forward – all before the age of 30.