Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
OhHello - David Berkowitz
61 Plays2 years ago
Oh, Hello...and welcome to Episode 39 of the OhHello Inc. 🌞☕️ OhHello.io pod/vod!
This 'Hello' was not only one of the first mentors that said "I want in" but he's also been patiently waiting for this pod to drop, while building businesses (plural) of his own!
In the past few mos, this exec has built-up FOAF: Fraction of a Fractional CXOs and is crushing it with his newest venture- the AI Marketers Guild (AIMG). 2 hands...2 irons...let's STEAM!
This 'Hello' is the founder of the Serial Marketers Marketer consultancy and the well respected 3,000-member Serial Marketers community. Previously, he held marketing and strategy leadership roles with omnichannel ad tech platform Mediaocean, video production marketplace Storyhunter, social listening firm Meltwater Social (formerly Sysomos), Publicis Groupe agency MRY, and dentsu agency 360i. He has contributed more than 600 columns to outlets such as Ad Age, MediaPost, VentureBeat, and Adweek, and he has spoken at more than 400 events globally. He lives in midtown Manhattan with one daughter and two cats.
"The hallmark of a great mentor: someone that allows the mentee to feel like themself."
Many informal and formal mentors that have made an impact on this 'Hello':
Mark Naples, Sarah Hofstetter, his senior English teacher, and so many other colleagues (from interns to CEOs) that he's learned from
Thank you, Mr. Serial Marketer - aka David Berkowitz, we're so excited to have you on the OhHello.io platform when we 🚀 this summer!
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Platform Mentions
00:00:17
Speaker
Oh, hello, David.
00:00:23
Speaker
Hello, Jeremy. Oh, hello, Jeremy. I already screwed up the intro. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. We can do it again. Oh, hello, David. Oh, hello, Jeremy. That works. That works, though. That's great. And hello to our listeners.
David Berkowitz's Marketing Background
00:00:40
Speaker
Hello to our guests. Hello to those watching on LinkedIn, on YouTube, on TikTok. And for those tuning in through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts,
00:00:51
Speaker
With us today, we have a serial marketer, if you will, the serial marketer. I know who you are. A lot of people probably in the marketing community know who you are. I would hope so.
00:01:07
Speaker
Before we even have you introduce yourself, this goes complete full circle because 14, 15 years ago, David, you were so kind and wrote up a piece about kosherham.com and you put it into MediaPost and you and I did this, the two of us together. We did a multivariate or AB test to see how East Coast versus West Coast would relate to
00:01:33
Speaker
punny, sarcastic, Jewish-themed t-shirts on Facebook. So we were some of the earliest Facebook testers together with that stuff. Yeah, it's great to actually just be talking to someone who, you know, when you meet folks who like to learn by doing and just throwing stuff out there, like, this is great. That alone is a tribe.
00:01:55
Speaker
Who
Introduction and Mentoring Excitement
00:01:56
Speaker
are you? Why are you here? Oh, God. I don't know if we get these tough questions, but hi. David Berkowitz, not that David Berkowitz. Legal reasons need to clarify that. Well, I'm here because I'm psyched about what you're doing with this whole mentoring model with Oh, Hello.
00:02:19
Speaker
long time marketer on the agency and tech side and done my own consulting and had my own messy path to wherever the heck I am now. And so great to get to converse with you and be in your orbit to learn from you and your people.
00:02:36
Speaker
Thank you, David. Well, we're so excited to have you David Berkowitz as a mentor and part of our community of Oh, hello.io. How would you characterize your skill set that you're going to be sharing with the Oh, hello community? You have, you've been around the block, you know, a lot of people, you've helped a lot of people and you are absolutely a top tier connector.
00:02:58
Speaker
Tell us a little bit more about what you're going to be bringing to the community.
Career-defining Moments and Connections
00:03:01
Speaker
Well, a lot of it comes down to a handful of C's. I used to work with Matt Wurst at 360i and he always has like four C's or 12 P's or something. Some of that rubbed off on me, but a lot of it is content. I mean, I got into this industry really cutting my teeth at eMarketer in early days and as a way to create content out there and be a content marketer before
00:03:28
Speaker
People were even using that term or at least before anyone told me about it I then Communications and even in those formative years, right? Like my my first marketing related job interview was Jeff Ramsey the longtime CEO of a marketer coming to me and saying David you like talking to people would you like to do our PR and
00:03:52
Speaker
a marketers career was without that conversation, I might not be where I am today, probably wouldn't actually. And then, and then connections where it's like very much about connecting people with each other. That relates to another C word that's near and dear to me community. But it's also connecting ideas and connecting things from some disparate places like oh, like this tech works well with this one, like what we did something like that together, right? Like, like how does a B testing and e commerce and Facebook work and
00:04:23
Speaker
and comedy, right? And we like just hash this out. And then let's see if I can get away with covering this like, kind of like wacky company in what was supposed to be a respectable trade publication and still they let me publish it. Amazing. Great time. Great time. And I love the C's, the P's, the P's, the C's. What excites you about mentorship?
Impact of Mentors and Learning
00:04:47
Speaker
What excites you about looking back
00:04:50
Speaker
You're a Binghamton alum. You live in New York City. You have been in the marketing ecosystem for 25 years. What would you tell your younger self?
00:05:01
Speaker
Well, what's exciting is that getting access to mentors can be really tough. It can be really daunting. I've been blessed by a lot of accidental mentors out there. And so there are people who I call my mentors who never, I didn't like, you know, sign an agreement with them. I didn't like sit down with them an hour a week. And some of them were people who I worked closely with, like,
00:05:31
Speaker
Mark Naples with strategy helped me transition from, from the marketer over to I crossing in my first official marketing role to someone like Sarah Hofstetter at 360 I who I worked, I've worked for, for seven plus years. And, and so she's someone who she mentors folks in her, in her orbit. It just is part of what she does. Like you can't not learn from her in that way. And so.
00:05:58
Speaker
And I've also always appreciated being in that role. Even at 360i, for instance, my desk when they had this very open office plan, my desk was literally right next to the intern pit. And so I got to be this kind of unofficial mentor for them and stay connected with them. But also one of the things I love about it is
00:06:20
Speaker
I learned from them, right? Like I knew, I got to know what they were working on, what they were hungry to do more of, what skills they could bring. And so, so having that insight and a lot of them today are doing amazing, amazing work, right? And so, so, so this is stuff that just like having that, that openness and like, you know, so many people say they've got like that open door policy and like, you're appreciative of those who mean it.
00:06:48
Speaker
Well said. Well said. Who are some people that have had really lasting impacts on you from a mentorship level? You mentioned a few people during the conversation. Are there any other old colleagues, any other professors, parents, friends, people that have made a profound impact?
00:07:09
Speaker
Uh, yeah. Uh, so, so there are, uh, so there, I mean, there, there are a ton like dating back ages, right? Like, uh, Mrs. Gottesfeld of American high school, uh, uh, where my senior English class, like she,
00:07:26
Speaker
she introduced one of my stories that when it was time to read a creative writer piece of the class as the most disgusting piece anyone had ever submitted to her was about a gastroenterologist quest to end flatulence and but she she encouraged this right like like so so I think that
00:07:47
Speaker
Actually one of the things that i'd really characterize as a hallmark of a great mentor is someone who doesn't necessarily direct you down a certain path but who allows you to feel like yourself.
00:08:01
Speaker
And that's been true in great professional relationships, great teachers, great personal and romantic relationships. So it's like when your friends tell you like, you're so much like yourself these days, right? It's like you're probably being surrounded by the right people. I really appreciate you saying it in that way.
00:08:25
Speaker
being yourself, being true, being your actual character of who people think you are and that being truly transparent, communicative self. I think it's a level of confidence, self-worth and self-esteem all coming together and also acknowledging your vulnerability and having a sense of humor too, if you're gonna be able to just,
00:08:52
Speaker
think about who you are and other people explain who you are like that, just being able to connect the two. I really liked hearing that.
Commitment to Charitable Causes
00:09:00
Speaker
As a hello, you're going to be able to choose over, choose amongst 40 plus different charities built into ohello.io, where after each different ohello session that you have with fellow mentees and other people within the community, you're going to be able to donate and give back. What is a charity within our ecosystem that's near and dear to your heart, Mr. Berkowitz?
00:09:24
Speaker
Um, well, I mean, for, you know, for me, so much of it is just like, you look at the Maslow hierarchy of needs and, uh, and, uh, and like what, you know, one charity that's been especially important to me over the years to support is food bank for New York city. Um, and the broader feeding America, uh, uh, organization, it's just like, uh, and, and you see us all the time right now. It's just food insecurity, uh, is, is so high. And it's like, yeah.
00:09:54
Speaker
with kids in school, right? Like for kids to show up to school and just aren't getting enough to eat, then it's like the best teachers in the world can't fix that, right? They can't overcome that at least and allow those people to be their selves. And so causes like that just mean a ton to me.
Serial Marketers Community Plug
00:10:20
Speaker
David, in about 20 seconds or less, give us the skinny on serial marketers. We wanna make sure that you're able to plug something that's near and dear to you. Well, quick bit is that it's a community I started almost five years ago, and it's just been a great way to bring marketers together. Markers need marketers too. And yeah, welcome your audience to join us at serialmarketers.net.
00:10:46
Speaker
Awesome. David, you are so kind to do this. We appreciate you being on our platform. You're a great person. You're a mensch. Thank you, sir. Thank you, everybody, for listening. Bye, David. Thank you. Thank you.