#DateWiththeDans Marketing Winner!

First question I often get asked is, "What do you do?" After I tell them, there is an immediate follow-up:"What do you write about?" 

I go into explanation about my dual writing personality. On one side, I write commentary on nearly every subject imaginable including but not limited to movies, books, travel, food and fashion. On the other side, I write for businesses in both the content and social media marketing realms.

And then whenever I get a chance, I write creatively for what will one day, hopefully in the near future, be a book.

But back to marketing. I kind of fell into SEO/SEM/social media life when I first moved to San Diego and it's amazing how much I've learned and how much I enjoy it!

Recently, the San Diego Hubspot User Group or HUG for short hosted a contest to win a #DateWiththeDans. I was one of the three winners! 

Side note: I'm not competitive, but I do like to win. 

The Dans are Dan Tyre and Dan Zarrella of Hubspot who had excellent insight and funny stories to share about their time in the sales and marketing world. I mean, Dan Tyre is an OG. Seriously, he is -- he was the 6th employee at Hubspot. Dan Zarrella gets to have the word 'scientist' in this title, so that's pretty dang cool. In short, it was a prize well worth it.

Breakfast #DateWiththeDans. Me = bad hair

My "date" consisted of a breakfast meeting, a signed copy of Dan Zarrella's newest book, and just an overall good time. They then spoke later at a co-hosted SD Hug and SEM San Diego meetup group which drew in quite the crowd at Karl Strauss Brewery. There was free pizza and a free beer - hey, hey now!

A few things I ran by the Dans is the question of sales versus marketing and why it's such a battle between teams rather than a nice coming together of those involved. Fortunately, they validated what I had thought regarding the value of marketers. Dan Tyre said that marketers take potential clients through the sales funnel nearly three-quarters of the way! 

Numbers don't lie. Sales can't even dispute that.

Have you been to this Karl Strauss location before?

Even better, they both agreed that a SEO person is not actually necessary in today's marketing world. Who IS important? WRITERS! 

Let me pause for a dance.

I half-jokingly asked Dan Tyre if he'd let me record a video of him on my phone and add that as a testimonial on my website. He said he would oblige. I have not cashed in. Yet.

San Diego has a tuned-in community of marketers who are eager to learn more and be ahead of what's to come in the age of online marketing. This Monday is Social Media Day where there will be a day long conference all about, you guessed it, social media marketing.

SEM San Diego has had powerhouses David Mihm and Wil Reynolds as recent speakers. And there are several other groups throughout the city that all have different benefits, so take a look around and see who you want to network with and how you can benefit.

Who knows maybe you, too, will win a breakfast date that involves the biggest pig in a blanket breakfast you've ever seen. 

Pig in a blanket at Great Maple