Leadership Moment: Looking in the (gym) mirror
I spent last week at the Blackhat security conference, walking the vendor floor, taking notes about what booth designs worked (or not). I had the opportunity to chat with a number of folks, and when I commented on the lack of appeal of some of the themed booths, Adam Arellano, Field CTO at Traceable, commented,
Dudes don’t lift weights to look good for women. They left weights to look good for other dudes.
It was a telling comment: some of the booths weren’t designed to draw in security buyers. They were designed to draw in marketers, who might hire the planner or designer for their next gig. In the same way that architects sometimes lay out office buildings (or homes) to get a feature in an architecture magazine, rather than make the space truly usable, many professions might suffer this same conceit: serving not their stakeholders, but their own vanity or their next employer.
Leaders may run afoul of this same challenge: spending too much time making themselves look good for their own bosses, and not enough energy taking care of their team.
New Report: State of the Security Vendors, Blackhat 2025
Just released, a quick look at what’s trending in the vendor marketing world, as seen through the eyes of the Blackhat conference. Take a look at the summary now, or download the full report here.
One Minute Pro Tip: Sometimes, You Can’t Burn It All Down
I had the opportunity to chat with a few of the marketers whose booths wouldn’t make my all-star list. One common theme? All of them were new in their roles. So new that they hadn’t been in charge of the messaging, and were forced to run with a sub-par product. They’d have liked to do something different, but didn’t have the time to do so.
From the outside, that can feel like a cop-out, but in reality, sometimes you just have to execute on someone else’s bad vision. The trick is to do so with grace, but then not let that inertia trap you once you have a chance to try something new.
Workshop: Cultivating CISOs
While I’ve worked with a number of security companies and their sales & marketing teams on the topic of engaging with CISOs, I realized that for SDRs, field marketers, and other front-line staff outside my client base, they haven’t had the same opportunity. So I’m bringing my workshop on Cultivating CISOs direct to the field: 90 minutes, limited to 20 people, sharing how CISOs tend to operate, and the hard-learned “don’t try this at home” to help folks not burn bridges. This introductory class is offered at a discounted rate of $300 for professional development on August 22nd.