This week Gianna and Maria are joined by Mitch Mayne, Cybersecurity communicator and incident responder. Mitch talks about his career journey, and his philosophy on storytelling in cybersecurity while weaving in an important conversation about mental health in cybersecurity!

Mitch's Non-Technical Beginnings:

Mitch accidentally entered into cybersecurity while working at IBM. His combination of skills like marketing, writing, and incident response have helped him to succeed. In college, Mitch majored in communication, journalism, and political science. He later joined the tech realm, which led him down the path to cybersecurity.

Philosophy on Storytelling in Cybersecurity:

“Stop thinking that statistics tell your story,”

Storytelling in cybersecurity should go beyond numbers. It's great to have facts but to speak directly to people, you need to tell a story that they understand. This is why Mitch highlights the importance of developing writing skills for cybersecurity professionals.

CyberMindz and Mental Health in Cybersecurity:

The conversation shifts some gears as the hosts and Mitch focus on the introduction to CyberMindz.org and its focus on the mental health of cybersecurity workers. CyberMindz identified 15 factors that contribute to stress for those working in cyber. Mitch also discusses coping mechanisms, including journaling, breathwork, and meditation.

Get to know Mitch:

Bio: 𝗜’𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝘆𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗼’𝘀 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝘆𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀. For the better part of the last decade, I worked directly inside a cyber services organization—not at a distance in a marketing team—alongside hackers, incident responders, and threat intelligence officers. That granted me a level of deep expertise often not accomplished by sitting in a marketing organization alone. I know first-hand what cyber services teams do, how they do it, and why they do it—because I’ve done it, too. That, in turn, allows me to tell their stories in a way clients not only understand but want to hear.

You can catch Mitch on LinkedIn

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Gianna Whitver

Maria Velasquez

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In this episode, Cybersecurity Marketing Leader and Former Security Researcher, Corin Imai, joins Maria and Gianna to discuss the individual contributor vs. head of marketing and influencer marketing relationships.

Corin has been both head of marketing and an individual contributor (IC) throughout her career thus far. She initially joined Tromzo as an IC when the company was very young. From the time Corin joined, she was wearing lots of hats and constantly learning about different facets of marketing. She has found that being head of marketing usually does mean wearing a lot of hats, and that being an IC is her true passion.

The pandemic showcased that the traditional marketing methods were just not working as well as they could be. Corin believes we need to get away from the coldness we treat relationships with if we want an organization to be a true partner to us. Her passion is aligned with how to influence that decision from top to bottom.

Corin shares the successful approaches she has seen recently by organizations taking a softer approach to cybersecurity influencing. She believes that the fundamental shift in how we function as vendors will change how we are thinking about content as an industry. Organizations like the Information Security Content Creators Guild, Cybersecurity Marketing Society, and Indoor Labs are at the forefront of implementing fundamental changes. Building these influencer relationships takes time, advocacy, patience, and faith.

Corin shares that it would be wildly beneficial for marketing teams to allow for times of reflection in the midst of our busy schedules and long to-do lists. She also shares tips for finding successful influencer partnerships. Finally, our guest and hosts engage in a fun guessing game to reveal what career Corin would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.

Links:

Learn more about Corin Imai.

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In this episode, Dean Pe'er, Head of Product Marketing at Entitle, joins Maria and Gianna to discuss his viral meme.

Several months ago, Dean posted a meme on LinkedIn about admin privileges, which promptly went viral. Within four days of the meme being posted, it had acquired over 130,000 reactions, 4,000 LinkedIn page visitors, and two demo requests. The meme was created around the time that King Charles was coronated, so the content was timely. It contains a picture of King Charles in full coronation regalia, and the text reads, “When IT finally approved the admin privileges you asked for 30 years ago.” [view the posted meme here]

During the podcast, Dean shares how he arrived at the idea for the meme. He realized how big of a deal the coronation was for so many people and decided it was an opportunity to do something that might resonate with people in the security industry. It took him about 25 minutes to find the picture, write the copy, and publish the post on social media. Dean discussed the fact that many companies may not allow an employee to post something so impulsively because they feel it is not brand-safe or consistent with their corporate voice. This, Dean identifies, is the largest gap between small startups and large enterprises. At Entitle, he did not encounter any hurdles, politics, opinions, or red tape regarding social media posts, and has been fully supported by the executive team at the early-stage startup.

Dean shares advice for podcast listeners looking to get into the meme game. To make impactful memes, you should first find a topic that many people can relate to. If it’s too “salesy” or overtly focused on your own product or brand, it will likely not resonate with people outside of your organization. Timeliness is also important, as exemplified by Dean taking advantage of the major event of the coronation in his own work. Marketers won’t want to miss this episode, as Dean also sheds light on the best platforms for posting memes if you’re part of a small-scale startup like Entitle. Shifting gears, Dean explains his role of solo-marketer at the company. He finds that not having a team is challenging, but can also be rewarding. His challenges have been lessened by finding the best independent contractors within Israel’s small network. Finally, our guest and hosts engage in a fun guessing game to reveal what career Dean would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.

Learn more about Dean Pe'er.

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