Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing

AI Readiness, Microsoft MISA, and the Punk Rock Museum with JP Bourget of Blue Cycle

JP Bourget sold a SOAR company, named his next one after cycling and blue teaming, got Fat Mike from NOFX to show up at his RSAC event, then took him to DEFCON, where he ended up in a DJ booth at Caesars Palace with Steve Aoki. Somewhere in between all of that, he built Blue Cycle into one of roughly 130 security service providers recognized by Microsoft out of 400,000 partners worldwide. He joins Gianna to talk about AI readiness, what happens when companies turn on Copilot before cleaning up years of data permission sprawl, and how he gamed the Microsoft partner ecosystem in under a year.

How Madalina Petrea Runs Marketing for 27+ Cybersecurity Franchise Owners Across 4 Continents

CyberGlobal is the world's first cybersecurity franchise, with Madalina Petrea heading up marketing there. What does it mean to run marketing at a cyber franchise? Supporting 27+ franchise owners across the US, Europe, Africa, and Asia who sell cybersecurity services to small businesses in their local markets. She joins Gianna to talk about what it takes to build that from the ground up. Her team handles everything for new franchisees in the first 90 days, including websites, LinkedIn profiles, content, and templates, so they can focus on learning the business. Her biggest challenge right now? Designing a system at 27 locations that still works at 200. They also get into why paid ads worked in Dubai and Italy but not in Boston, and why SEO has become one of their most important growth channels, including showing up in AI search tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity.

How to Run a Content Syndication Program That Works with Steve Piper of CyberEdge Group

Content syndication has earned a mixed reputation among cybersecurity marketers. Too often, programs generate large volumes of leads but little measurable pipeline. Sales teams question lead quality, marketing teams question whether the right buyers are being reached, and both sides wonder whether the investment was worth it. Steve Piper has been in cybersecurity marketing for over 30 years and has heard every version of "we tried content syndication and it didn't work." His response is always the same: you need to set clear expectations on what content syndication programs do, and make sure to On this episode, Steve sat down with Gianna to talk about what content syndication is, what a good program looks like, and what to get into your contract before signing to make sure that you have success!

From First Talk to 89 Episodes a Year: The Cyber Creator Journey with Phillip Wylie

Phillip Wylie has been in cybersecurity for over 28 years and is now one of the most recognized names in offensive security as a speaker, podcaster, and evangelist. What most people don't know is that he started as a pro wrestler and powerlifter before finding his way into IT and eventually pentesting. How cool is that? This episode is a replay of our Behind the Cyber Creator webinar series, where Gianna sits down with some of cybersecurity's most influential voices to hear how they built their presence, what it looks like behind the scenes, and what brands should know about working with them. Phillip's path from shy powerlifter to someone who recorded 89 podcast episodes in a single year is worth hearing in full. He gets into the reps it took (heh, see our weightlifting humor?), how he thinks about working with brands, and why learning to say no was one of the hardest lessons.

Hiring Hot Takes from a Three-Time Exit CMO, Mary Yang

Mary Yang has been a CMO in cybersecurity for 6 years, helped 3 companies exit, and now works on a fractional basis with founders and teams she wants to work with. On this CyberCMO Confidential episode, the three of them get into a discussion on hiring. Mary skips the job description entirely. She puts out feelers, has a dozen conversations, and figures out who she wants before she ever writes the role. What she is really screening for is curiosity and drive, the stuff that is hard to fake and harder to teach. She also tells the story of the one time she ignored her gut and what it cost her.