Combining the personal and professional in business | John and Kathleen Troyer — EP015

How did we get here? A talk with the hosts of the Influence Marketing Podcast

On this very special episode of the Influence Marketing Podcast, we recount the origin story of both this podcast and the Influence Marketing Council. We’re a husband and wife who have operated on two parallel tracks — one in personal growth and leadership development, and the other in fostering communities of technologists. The Influence Marketing Council connects people in both of those area — it’s a group of marketing peers who bring the practice of developing deeply human relationships and connectivity to companies, and it’s a group of professionals who are both innovators and business leaders.

Both the IMC and our consulting practice combine John’s bent towards the academic and Kat’s client-centric attitude together with our shared values around empathy with others and making the world a better place. We hope that comes though in this podcast as well! Thank you again to our listeners, and our amazing team for all your help in these projects! We love meeting people at conferences and events, so if you see us, please say hi!

-John and Kat

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Links: Episode 015 mp3 file, Influence Marketing Podcast RSS feed

Main Points:

• Many people struggle with the idea of how to approach influence or relationship-based marketing. This is why the Influence Marketing Council was created; it’s a peer-based network to help companies and individuals know where to share their strategies, successes, and challenges with one another.
• It’s “Influence” Marketing — meaning working with relationships, such as advocacy, community, and influencer marketing. Not Influencer Marketing only. (It’s not really “Marketing” either but that works for now.)
• On the podcast so far, we’ve dug deep into advocacy programs. Although each one has a different size and focus, they all have common themes of how success is defined as well as the qualities of sharing and value that the program managers have brought to the participants.
• As IMC grows we are looking forward to curating and facilitating even more research, meetings, events, and retreats.
• Kathleen enjoys working with a 360 degree feedback and development tool called the Life Styles Inventory. This helps people see their own blind spots and sometimes provides the needed shift in perspective to get to the next level of success.
• Kat is launching a new e-book called 8 Sparks to Igniting your Inner Wisdom.
• We discuss John’s time at VMware, and organic vs. forced growth with unrealistic expectations within a startup, and the PhD he doesn’t like to talk about.
• During our lightning round, Kathleen discloses that she thinks she should say “no” more often and guard her rest better. John would chase more meaningful long-term projects, although we’ve had loads of fun partnering with all our clients.
• Married people can work well together!

About Kat and John Troyer:

John & Kat Troyer are co-founders of the Influence Marketing Council.

John developed and led many of VMware’s community and advocacy programs. He developed many of VMware’s first social media, content marketing, and blogging programs. He also founded the VMware vExpert Program, an advocacy program that now includes over 1500 technology professionals. John has been hosting podcasts since 2009, most recently as co-host of the Geek Whisperers. Previously, he was a co-founder and CEO of a venture-backed enterprise software company and received a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry.

Kat is a consultant, coach, and retreat leader with 20 years experience in human resources, recruiting, and consulting for technology and financial services companies such as Cloudera, Spirent, Barclays Global Investors, and Charles Schwab. She also has extensive community and social media marketing experience.

Mentioned In This Episode:

• John on Twitter: @jtroyer
• Kathleen on Twitter: @dailykat
• Geek Whisperers Podcast
• Human Synergistics Life Styles Inventory
• Kathleen’s site: kathleennelsontroyer.com

The Influence Marketing Podcast, a podcast brought to you by the Influence Marketing Council, an industry council for B2B brands who innovate in influencer, advocacy, and community marketing. Podcast co-hosts John Mark Troyer and Kathleen Nelson Troyer are the co-founders of the IMC. For more information, go to influencemarketingcouncil.com.

Photo credits: Kong Yang at the IMC Reception at VMworld 2017, selfie by John