Beyond the content machine

Announcer:
Ready to explore the extraordinary world of tech. Welcome to the XTech Podcast where we connect you with the sharpest minds and leading voices in the global tech community. Join us as we cut through the complexity to give you a clear picture of the ideas, innovations and insight that are shaping our future. 

Debbie Forster MBE:
Hello and welcome to XTech Podcast by Fox Agency. I’m your host, Debbie Forster MBE. I’m a tech portfolio consultant and an advocate and campaigner for diversity, inclusion and innovation in the tech industry. I’m delighted to be working with Fox Agency as the host for the XTech podcast and as a curator for the XTech community. Now today we have a good one. I am delighted that we are joined by Marcos Colon. He is the director of Content and Brand at Immuta. Welcome Marcos.  

Marcos Colón:
Thanks so much for having me.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
Right now, I love to get to know people as humans before I explore the world of tech with them. So how did you find yourself in the world of tech? You know, if you’re like me, I accidentally woke up and found myself here. Other people are born with the keyboard in hand, tapping away. How about you?  

Marcos Colón:
Actually pen and paper was involved a lot more than keyword since I started my days in print journalism, but I actually began my career in music and entertainment. I was always inspired by long form storytelling. A huge Rolling Stone fan from back in the day. I’m a big music fan, right. So the long form storytelling from Rolling Stone back In the late 90s, early 2000s was what really hooked me in and got me interested in journalism. So that’s really where I started. Straight out of college working for a company called Track Entertainment. There was a website I worked for called cooljunkie.com like what a great name, right? Yeah.  

I got the opportunity to really leverage that to talk to some of the bands that I loved and a lot of really great DJs at the time and that sort of evolved and I, you know, ended up in New York City. And I think there came a point in time where I kind of wanted to write about something a little bit more impactful. You know, I still have a really strong passion and love for music and entertainment, definitely more so music. But honestly at the time, this is when Apple was really sort of, you know, the iPad was just released. There were a lot, there was a lot of activity around app development. So I thought it was really cool and interesting and there’s a lot of innovation there.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
Apple made tech cool, didn’t it? Apologies to all the other tech manufacturers out there, but let’s be honest. Apple made it cool.  

Marcos Colón:
It made it cool. I was already, like, into cool stuff, or at least I thought I was. So that sort of piqued my interest. And honestly, on a whim, I decided to apply for this digital content coordinator role. Now, what. What is that, Debbie? Like, what does that mean? Right?  

Debbie Forster MBE:
That’s not a lot of pen and paper, I don’t think, Marcos.  

Marcos Colón:
Exactly. Right. So, thankfully, you know, I was given an opportunity by, you know, the great leaders at SC magazine at the time, which are, you known as SC Media now, run by Cyber Risk Alliance. Thankfully, you know, shout out tony Keefe and Dan Kaplan, Eileena Armstrong, for giving me an opportunity to say, hey, you know, he’s got a portfolio, printed portfolio, let’s give him a shot. And really, that’s how I got started in the world of tech cybersecurity. At the time, my first full week was at the RSA conference. Can you imagine that? I couldn’t even grasp.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
Jumping off the cliff quickly, isn’t it really and hope you fly.  

Marcos Colón:
I didn’t even know what, like, malware meant. I would, you know, I would think virus, right? Like, so I still remember there was a moment for me, you know, covering the keynote speech at the RSA conference and the director of the FBI at the time, Bob Mueller, right, back then he probably wasn’t much of a name. Fast forward became a little bit more, you know, recognisable for folks. But I remember him saying, you know, everybody in this room is going to have a job for a really long time. And I didn’t get it at the time. But fast forward to today, it makes complete sense. Right? Like, cybersecurity is everywhere. Technology is everywhere. It continues to evolve and, you know, I feel really lucky and blessed that it’s been a hell of a journey since.  

So I, you know, at the time, I was really about telling, you know, these journalistic, editorially grounded stories. And really, you know, I didn’t really leave storytelling at all. You know, I feel like it just shifted from, you know, bands to breaches at the moment. Right. But a lot of what I learned at the time still applies to, you know, what I do today, which is kind of, you know, what a lot of journalists would say is, like, you went to the dark side. Right? Content marketing for B2B. Right. So yeah.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
From rock and roll to the dark side. But, you know, you’ve seen so much change. Because I’m even thinking about when you were starting cyber was this other thing. I mean, I remember cyber as things that happened in films when they wanted to make something exciting happening in tech. And then cyber was the thing that the guys over there dealt with and it was usually guys. It’s now everywhere, isn’t it? It’s on everybody’s desk, it’s on everybody’s mind in that piece. And through that marketing, you know, you used to be able to carry around your portfolio and then it’s digital content and marketing keeps changing. With all that’s changing, what do you think are the biggest challenges you’re facing right now?  

Marcos Colón:
That’s a good question. So, you know, I, I don’t like to see them as challenges really. It’s more so, they’re two sort of key inflection points, right? And so first we’ll talk about, you know, there’s this aspect of volume. So the hardest part isn’t creating content, it’s really clarity, right? I think organisations especially like in earlier stages always have a volume problem. Do we have enough, right? Are we saying enough? You know, sales is certainly going to be in your ear. So if any content marketers are listening to this right now, they can certainly, you know, we’re on the same wavelength there. But you know, the shift I’m seeing isn’t about creating more content, it’s about really the narrative alignment in a changing market, right? And if you’re in tech, it’s constantly evolving, right? Technology evolves, categories evolve, right?  

If you stay tuned with all the analysts, the Gartners, the Foresters, and then that means that the problems that your audience faces, they evolve too, right? So as a former journalist, I feel like I do more editing and revising not only internal documents and narratives, but externally facing content too. So you have to have that editor hat on all the time. So you’re in this constant state of subtle adjustment, right? All the time. And you’re not only learning and refining your story, you’re learning publicly as well from everything that’s occurring, from trends, from the news. And you have to make sure that your content reflects that all the time, right? So I feel like that means that your messaging is, again, the first point is that means your messaging has to evolve with precision, right?  

You have to have the fine tuned ear to what’s occurring in the space and also be forward thinking about things so you’re not being reactive all the time because that’s, you don’t want to glom onto the latest headline because that’s only going to last one to two days. So again, it’s not a problem of volume, it’s really clarity. And the visible work that you do as a content marketer is content creation. I think the real high leverage work is more so, and I’ll talk about this, you know, later as well, but it’s more so structural, right? Building your narrative consistency, content systems that you implement. And those two things aren’t going to happen if you don’t have internal alignment, right?  

Do you have a seat at the proverbial table with upstream management or do they agree with the narrative you have in place and only then can you really implement A, your system and B, the consistency that you want to sort of amplify through all your channels. Right? So I think, like I said, the real work is building the system that makes a good content, you know, repeatable and scalable. And then, you know, the second piece, and this is a tough one, is, you know, we’re operating today in platforms that are really optimised by fast reactions, right? Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok. Oh my God. But the problem is, as a B2B marketer, you know, we’re influencing decisions that require kind of slow, deliberate thinking. Right. Closing that gap, I feel like, is a monumental challenge that we face on a daily basis.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
And I think what I’m hearing that I think is really valuable is, it’s stepping back from the noise and definitely making sure you’re not part of the noise. Say more, say it louder, say it more times. It’s that listening and I like that, refining and cutting down and thinking and being clear what you’re saying. Not just chasing the latest algorithm, the latest headline, the latest hashtag. I want to come back to that because I think the marketing piece is such a fast moving one, I want to, before I let you out of my clutches, I’ll want to come back to that. But you’re also completely looking at security and what I realised looking through your bio, you covered that target breach as a journalist in 2014. Okay, that feels like a lot more than 11 years ago. Yeah. When I did the numbers, because like, oh, that’s 2014. Okay, so that’s not very long. Fast forward to 2026. Are we better at security or are we better at PR now that you’ve gone to the dark side? Tell me honestly, just between you and me, no one else has to know what’s going on?  

Marcos Colón:
No, honestly it’s both. You know, I feel like securities, you know, obviously matured, right. There have been incredible technological advancements and there’s innovation taking place both with large and small companies. Although, you know, we’re seeing a lot of acquisitions, so. But at the same time the threat landscape has evolved. You know, I’m sure that’s a phrase you hear constantly in stories that the constant evolving threat landscape. Right. But you know, like I said, security technology and detection capabilities have improved significantly. I think platforms are a lot more mature, but also response playbooks, right, that’s where it really comes in, are a lot more defined. Right.  

So while, you know, and I always think about a subject matter expert that I worked with at my last company at Bitdefender, who’s a great researcher and he would always say like, you know, these attacks really, they’re not like net new, right? Sure, there are more and they’re faster, but if you really look at it, and they’re obviously, you know, being enhanced by, you know, generative AI now. Right. So. But they’re really not new. I think one of the biggest improvements that I think I’ve seen is it’s not, it’s even, it’s beyond the technical and I think it’s really the organisational readiness. Right. I think now it’s pretty commonly understood that, you know, disaster can strike at any moment, that while you may be in complete lockdown as an organisation, there may be a third party you’re doing business with that isn’t there? Right.  

So it’s really that organisational ready piece that I think has evolved quite a bit and that includes, you know, things like response planning, cross functional coordination and internal comms discipline. You know, I was really blessed to be with a great internal comms team at my last company, at Bitdefender, and really got to see like how important that aspect, that department, that function is. And I, like I said, I think companies now understand that incidents aren’t hypothetical and that’s how you communicate, you know, internally and externally in the first 24, 48 hours matters just as much as that technical containment, right. We tend to hear more about that than sort of the response and readiness. So there’s always an aspect of spin, right, that’s involved when it comes to that from a comm standpoint.  

But I really think it’s less about spin and more about operational composure and how that’s really kind of improved over the years.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
I love that, the composure, because that is, and that is part of that readiness is getting everything ready, as you said, on the internal coms, but also then how you’re going to communicate that. And that’s a beautiful idea of this isn’t about spin, it’s how to keep it together, be professional and show that professional part.  

Marcos Colón:
We’re a lot better at responding, whereas before it was a lot about reacting. Right. So that response aspect is definitely a lot better.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
Fantastic. Okay, well then let’s think about how you market security. What’s the biggest gap in your opinion of how it’s marketed and how it actually works?  

Marcos Colón:
So I think if you’re in B2B tech, I think it’s pretty common that marketing tends to oversimplify what you know, the technical department or operations know is complex. Right. So I think there’s still, I think it’s gotten better, but I think there’s still an issue when it comes to a gap being between sort of fear and function. Right. So how some companies still leverage, you know, fud that fear, uncertainty and doubt and a lot of their marketing. Right. There’s still too much. I, you know, I feel like I said, it’s gotten better, but there’s an over reliance on fear driven narratives. You know, the sort of.  

And, and I’m sure you can remember, you know, just thinking back to like even like the target breach days, but you know, talking about the worst case scenarios, talking about the, you know, and this applies again, this is beyond, I’m in the data access governance space right now. This, this goes beyond security. I think it’s whenever you’re speaking to kind of that C level professional, it’s always like, you know, what’s the worst case scenario? Right? What’s the, what’s the breach headline? What’s the, what’s keeping you up at night? Right. Like how many ebooks have you seen when it comes to that. But most practitioners and you know, this, these audiences, they don’t need to be convinced that risks exist. They live it. They’re in it every day. Right?  

Debbie Forster MBE:
It’s their day job, it is their bread and butter, they know that.  

Marcos Colón:
Exactly, right. They’re already accountable for it. Right. And like I said, they live it every day. But like the real work of, you know, be it a CISO or you know, a chief data officer. Honestly, in my opinion, I don’t think it’s dramatic. It’s operational, right. It’s policy tuning, it’s access reviews, it’s you know, security hygiene, it’s constant adjustment, right. As, as their environments change, as their tools change. So I think sometimes marketing often presents protection as a destination and in reality, it’s an ongoing process that’s shaped by context. Right. Who’s accessing what, why, under what conditions. So I think the gap exists in traditional cybersecurity and in data governance. In both cases, it really isn’t about completely eliminating risk, it’s about how you can kind of measurably reduce it.  

And I think you’re starting to see companies do a lot better of a job of kind of backing away from that fear, uncertainty, doubt, and really just focusing in on, okay, how can we help our audience? What are the questions that they have? Like, how can I help them immediately with any content that I create today? And I think that’s one for me, a huge foundational aspect is I don’t work on any content or any content driven initiative if it’s not inherently answering a question that’s going to help our audience from day one. Even if it’s a small takeaway, there should always be a question that you’re aiming to answer because that’s how you start building trust.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
And I think it is, it’s understanding. As you were saying, the sector is growing up, it has that composure. It doesn’t need to be scared of what might happen. It knows that it’s built that in, it’s done that. It’s meeting them at that level and solving the problems. That’s where the really impactful marketing can be. Because that’s where your best clients are going to be and your best sales relationships are going to happen.  

Marcos Colón:
Yeah. Fear always gets attention, right? It’s always going to get attention. But I think operational, like communicating that operational clarity through storytelling, I feel like that’s really what’s going to earn trust.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
Okay, then as somebody who’s been in this space, cyber security media for 10 plus years, in your opinion, what threat did we overreact to and what did we miss?  

Marcos Colón:
Oh, gosh, I don’t think there are going to be a lot of opinions on this. I’m going to kind of, I feel like, you know, I wouldn’t call it overreaction. Right. Because there are a lot of variables at play here. First of all, most all threats are very much real. Right. I think it’s a matter of visibility and when you. And I’ll tell you why, but because when you lack visibility, everything kind of feels like an emergency. Right. So if, let’s think back to some of the, I guess more again, kind of. I’ve been in this space for a long time, now. I’m tangentially in the space, I’m still very much, you know, attuned to what’s occurring.  

But like think about events like solar winds log 4J, you know, large scale ransomware attacks, all of them deserved a lot of attention and they all certainly had technical implications that were serious, right. Now, did they carry the same weight for every organisation across the board? Probably not. Right. So what happened though was with stories like that is, you know, you get this universal amplification and at the time, no matter the size of the company organisation, they felt the pressure to respond immediately. Right. Even when the actual exposure, like I said, could vary significantly.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
Yeah.  

Marcos Colón:
So the deeper issue really wasn’t panic, it was visibility. Right. So a lot of these companies didn’t have a clear inventory of assets, you know, identities or data flow. So when you don’t know exactly what’s going on or what’s exposed or who has access, you know, the safest move is to kind of treat everything as important. Right. Critical, everything’s a crown jewel all of a sudden. So I think that’s where you know, that lack of clarity forces a sort of reactive behaviour instead of a response that’s a little bit more prioritised. But even then, like to what we discussed a little bit earlier, I think the it’s situations like that, it’s threats that, that a lot of these companies are learning from and adapting to because hey, this could totally happen again.  

So, you know, I don’t know if it’s what we missed that wasn’t, I don’t think we missed a specific threat. I think it’s kind of the importance of sort of visibility in the context before like this next big headline hits because it’s going to happen again.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
And I think it’s also, I think what you were saying was really interesting. However much we might say, oh that’s over egged for someone, it was that serious. But also that importance has that trickle down effect, that awareness, as you said, of visibility that goes down through the supply chain, that goes. And we’re only as strong as this weakest link in our supply chain, we’re only as strong as our weakest user. And so sometimes those really scary stories are useful in terms of that teaching the learning what we do. If not for the grace of God, there go I sort of mindset that we need to make sure everyone keeps on top of.  

Marcos Colón:
Exactly.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
Okay, but I want to go back to content because I think you’ve got some interesting ideas. When I was looking into the work that you’ve been done, et cetera. I saw somebody talked about, you’re famous for having a camera in one hand and a content plan in the other at conferences. Now that’s a really interesting approach because conferences, you know, it’s a bit like what we would say over in the UK is Marmite. You love it or hate it, but you’re coming at it from a different angle. Talk to me about what’s driving that approach.  

Marcos Colón:
I mean, this is an aspect of my job that I genuinely love. Now, I’m by no means a professional photographer, videographer or anything. Yeah, it’s just, I just, I don’t like just writing or telling stories, you know, I like to capture them and I’m always of the mindset that, you know, if you’re already in the room with a story, I think it makes sense to capture it. Right. Physical, I feel like a lot of times that physical involvement tends to create authenticity. So, you know, and again, you know, live moments, and I’m not like a TV reporters as in live live, but I feel like, you know, when we’re talking about conferences, right. Be it at like an RSA or black hat or anything like that, a big snowflake or data brick summit, I think live moments tend to produce high trust content.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
There you go.  

Marcos Colón:
That’s why video is so infectious, Right. If you think about, I think, I’m pretty sure it’s a LinkedIn stat, but the report, they did, but, you know, video receives five times more engagement than any other content format. Is that surprising? Absolutely not. Right. So you really have to sort of meet audiences where they consume that information. And for me, I just, I love being able to do it myself. Do you know, in certain organisations I’ve had the luxury of having a team and some, I’ve worked with some really talented videographers and video editors. But a lot of times, hey, I like to, you know, I roll up my sleeves, I like to do it myself. I’m more of behind the camera, although I’m sure you can find some stuff with me in front of the camera.  

On YouTube, I looked a little bit younger, but it’s something that I really enjoy. And I think, you know, there’s also speaking about, you know, thinking about trade shows specifically, but there’s a difference between sort of the staged content and then kind of contextual content. And I think audiences can feel that when you finally end up running it, when someone’s speaking from the environment that they actually operate in. And again, I’m talking about, you know, not an actual soccer, even a sock, because we’ve done some filming in socks, especially my previous company. But the insight feels a little bit more grounded. Right?  

Debbie Forster MBE:
And that, I think that’s the edge. And you know, you said at first, oh, I’m not a professional photographer. That’s not a liability because again t. hat slightly rough edge, you’re not gonna know what you’re doing. But that slightly rough edge gives that immediacy, gives that sense, it grounds it in a reality that we do intrinsically trust more. So if that’s true and if we get five times more engagement in video than writing, does that mean the written content’s dead? I can throw that out of my tool bag?  

Marcos Colón:
No, no, definitely not. I mean, certainly right now I would say no. But I will say that format, discipline matters now more than ever, right? Written content, especially long form, it does three things for you, right? It builds depth, authority and long term credibility. Right? And if you put all those together, that’s trust, right? So written content, that’s where nuance lives. That’s what makes brands searchable, referenceable, it supports that slower, more deliberate, you know, evaluation from the audience. That requires, I think, you know, for anybody listening and who’s a B2B content marketer, your sales cycle’s probably pretty long, right? So you need to start building that trust. Now, Video, right? If you, granted, we just talked about video, it’s five times more engaging. So should that mean it makes sense for somebody to be like, we’re just going to do video.  

And some companies, I’ve seen some great examples where they primarily focus on that, but I can guarantee you they didn’t throw written content completely out of the window. Right? Video earns attention. You know, I think it humanises ideas and it lowers the barrier to entry for topics, especially very complex topics, right? Depending on what field you’re in. But, you know, that’s why I think written content isn’t going anywhere. I think it’s also really important to consider your format. So whenever I focus on written content, you have to consider how people are consuming that content, right? So I always consider the three different classifications of these readers, right? The walkers, the joggers and the runners. That’s sort of the framework that I, I always keep in the back of my mind when working on content. Right?  

You have your walkers that will read the headline all the way to the CTA after the last sentence of the article. Right. Your joggers, that may a little bit, you know, they might focus a little bit more on the subheads and the different sections and kind of find something that interests them the most. And then you have, you know, your runners. Right. There’s, if you have chapters in a video, and this applies to video too, if you have chapters in the video, they might skip to the chapter that they’re most interested in based off of the sound bite that they saw on Instagram or LinkedIn. Right. If you’re writing a listicle that’s on a long form piece of content, they might skip to number one.  

If it’s an inverted pyramid style of writing, they’re probably not going to get past the second or third graph. Right. So if you keep that in the back of your mind, I think it’s going to make your content a lot more engaging and also appeal to those different types of content consumers.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
And so you/re going to start – are you already building video content for those three different audiences? Because I would say I’m already now becoming slightly more jaded even in my video content. I’m a runner or jogger. Again, just quick, give me the bits. I’ll see you. Is that coming or is it already here?  

Marcos Colón:
Yeah, look. So I think different for video, it’s interesting, right. So depending on what platform you’re working with, if you have the ability to leverage chapters, I think that’s one way to do it. However, I think it’s important that format should reinforce one another. Right. And what do I mean by that? If you have a long form demo that might be for a particular point in the journey for a prospect or an audience member, but how do you reinforce that? Well, you could probably take a piece of that and do kind of a trailer style demo to really highlight the major points from said demo that can drive people to a longer piece of content. Right. So it doesn’t automatically have to be part of the, of it’s almost derivative content. Right. For you to kind of pull apart a little bit and use your advantage. So it kind of plays into your sort of volume aspect and also channel, you know, how you’re distributing it via the different channels that you’re working with. But it’s still keeping in mind those walkers, those joggers, those runners.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
Fantastic. I’m going to always use that. And I think I’m also going to find myself asking how am I consuming the content that’s in front of me? Am I walking, am I running, am I jogging? Just to even see. Because it’s.  

Marcos Colón:
I think that’s a great exercise that everybody should do. Because I think you’ll start realising, like, okay, now, how does this apply to, you know, the persona that we’re after? Right. Always. Always. You always got to go back to that. Who is it that I’m speaking to? Because at the end of the day, we’re all consumers, right? Yeah. We’re B2B marketers, but at the end of the day, when we’re at home, we’re consumers. So I think there’s this. I’ve always been a big proponent of taking cues from B2C content and applying it to B2B content.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
And I think if there was a real gap between those two different audiences, Covid and Lockdown put it together. And we now have to remember a B is made up of Cs. And you have to be using that kind of. And they come with the expectations of that consumer. They’re not going to be dragged through long documents without guideposts.  

Marcos Colón:
A B is made up of Cs. I’m going to take that from you and put in my back pocket for my next marketing meeting.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
I’m taking the runner, jogger, etc. So we’re going to do that, right? We’ll quote each other.  

Marcos Colón:
Deal.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
All right. Last thing, because I love asking this of people who are in this space. You always talk about being data driven. What are the metrics that actually matter for B2B content marketing?  

Marcos Colón:
I feel like you tend to get a lot of responses when it, mixed responses when it comes to this. And it also. It depends on the company you’re in. I think the most important metrics actually start upstream. Right. So meaning before you ever look at clicks, conversions, engagement, if your content isn’t structured intentionally, I think your metrics won’t tell you anything that’s actually meaningful. Right. You’ll see numbers, but what you’re not going to see is a story. You’re not going to see patterns. You know, that’s where I feel really strongly about having a really sound and strict taxonomy and kind of content architecture in place. So when you consistently. And again, we’re talking about tags here, right? So when you consistently tag content by audience, topic, intent, funnel, stage, whatever it may be, then you start implementing that system that allows for, like, comparison.  

Right. That allows you to start telling a better story. So I don’t. Without that structure in place, I think you’re reacting to isolated wins and losses. Right. And with structure, that’s where it gets fun. Right. You can identify themes, gaps, true influence across many different channels. So, you know, it’s always going to be important to have those foundational vanity metrics in place. Right. Reach, engagement, time spent, you know, those things tell you if something resonated, right. You’re always going to have to report on that. That’s always going to be in place. But I think those more advanced signals, you know, the depth of consumption, the repeat interaction, some of that assisted influence, right, that’s going to help you understand the why. So you need a couple of them together.  

But before you even get to those kind of vanity metrics, you need to have a sound architecture in place. So, you know, the goal isn’t proving that content was published or that number’s moved. You’re always going to be asked that. But that shouldn’t be your goal as a content marketer. I think it’s really understanding what’s influencing the buyer behaviour. Right. And using that insight to shape a smarter strategy moving forward. Right.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
And I, and I think this is it. And I think on both sides of the desk, because a lot of times in marketing you’re only pushed for those vanity. Or sometimes if we are not in marketing, we can let ourselves be blinded by those. So it’s having those smart questions because in the end it is data. Data is only valuable from the questions you can ask, the patterns and relationships that you can make. Otherwise it’s just some random numbers. It’s how that comes together that is impactful.  

Okay, now, before we let you go, I love to ask my guests to look at the horizon. It might be something that comes right off in your sector or it might be something different. What’s grabbing your attention in a good or a bad way?  

Marcos Colón:
I think the notion of short form content definitely has my attention. This goes back to what we discussed earlier is, you know, regarding video and also that gap. Right. Like these optimised platforms for quick reactions when we’re really speaking to an audience that needs deliberate, thoughtful explanations to make sound decisions. I think as B2B marketers, we need to look at the content consumption behaviours of the up and coming C Suite. Right?  

Debbie Forster MBE:
Yeah, absolutely.  

Marcos Colón:
You know, I think about these. They might not be at the top of your list to reach out to. Right. Because they’re not signing the cheque at the end of the day, but soon enough it’s going to be 5, 10 years and who knows, one of them might skyrocket into the C Suite and their content consumption behaviour is going to be a lot different than folks that are there now.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
Wow.  

Marcos Colón:
So thinking about, and they’re probably consuming a lot more, I’m thinking about a younger generation that loves their TikTok, that loves Instagram. Hell, I love it too. But.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
And the double screens, looking at everything is not just one screen. You’re double screening everything.  

Marcos Colón:
Exactly. Like, how is that going to have an impact on the buyer’s journey? How is that going to have an impact on the storytelling that we do as marketers to really influence, build trust and, you know, communicate those complex stories? So that really has my attention right now because I feel like, things are going to evolve and evolve pretty quickly. I think now companies are doing a good job of creating short form content to create awareness. But it’s okay now when you have them there, what’s going to work next? Because a long form white paper probably isn’t going to resonate in the future like it did, like it’s sort of doing today. But how it definitely did in the past.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
Genuinely I’m going to play with that. That’s interesting to think about because the need for the depth will not go away, for the right decisions, for the strategic decisions, et cetera. But we have to be ready for being able to close that gap in very different ways.  

Marcos Colón:
Nobody’s going to make a six figure decision based off of a 30 second clip.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
Damn. There goes my strategy for making my million tomorrow. And then before I let you go, I love to hear from my guests to fill the list of what should I be reading, listening, watching, what are you going to put on my list?  

Marcos Colón:
If there’s one book you had to buy today or this year, it’s Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act. I don’t know if you’re familiar, Rick Rubin, he’s a world renowned music producer. He’s done everything.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
We’re going back to your Rolling Stone aspirations. Yeah, keep telling me.  

Marcos Colón:
I mean he’s worked with all major artists across genres. And you know what’s really interesting about Rick Rubin is he did this interview with Anderson Cooper where he basically said like he’s not proficient in any instrument whatsoever. Right. He’s just essentially, he said it in a much more grounded and philosophical way, but he basically just has good taste. And he wrote this book called The Creative Act. And it’s, I mean I, the chapters are very short. It’s really sort of a creative person’s bible because you can kind of before bed read a few chapters and it really has you think about your creative process and how you approach things and how you should be present. And it’s, I mean, read it. Trust me, it’s excellent.  

For anybody that’s a content creator, I feel like it’s an excellent read that you should definitely have on your bookshelf.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
Fantastic. Okay. And we’ve come full circle from your Rolling Stones, rock and roll long fiction.  

Marcos Colón:
I guess we did.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
Yeah. Back down to here and in short form. So fantastic journey. I have really enjoyed today. And thank you so much for joining me.  

Marcos Colón:
Thank you so much for having me Debbie.  

Debbie Forster MBE:
And thank you to all of you for joining us on this episode of XTech. If you’d like to appear as a guest on the show, don’t waste a minute. Email us now at [email protected]. I’d like to thank our whole team of tech experts at Fox Agency for making this podcast possible. I’m Debbie Forster and you’ve been listening to XTech.  

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