Ashley Faus

Kogan Page Publishing

My book, "Human-Centered Marketing: How to Connect with Audiences in the Age of AI" features three frameworks to help marketers build trust and attract, convert, and retain customers.

Key messages:

-	Trust is the key: People buy from people they trust, and people trust people like themselves. As marketers, we need to build trust with our audience to win and re-win their hearts, minds, and wallets.

-	The human connection becomes more important in the age of AI, because more technology makes it harder to find people you can trust and make authentic connections.

-	The Playground mindset shift: Marketing needs to evolve to match the modern journey. It’s no longer about rushing people to a purchase, it’s about building trust and rapport for long-term value exchange.

-	The Social Media Spectrum (communication, conversation, community): Social media continues to evolve, but too many brands are still focused on driving and participating in conversation about the brand, instead of meeting the audience where they are and fostering community.

-	4 Pillars of Thought Leadership (credibility, profile, prolific, depth of ideas): Thought leadership helps build trust, but it’s not the only type of content or creator that you need in the marketing mix.

Author, "Human-Centered Marketing: How to Connect with Audiences in the Age of AI"

Atlassian

Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Portfolio

Director of Integrated Product Marketing

Product Marketing Lead, Software Teams Content 

Sr. Manager, Integrated Media

Sr. Corporate Communications Manager

Skyport Systems

Skyport Systems, acquired by Cisco, provides secure, hyperconverged infrastructure to modernize the DMZ, protect Active Directory, and secure legacy applications and remote branch operations.

Sr. Product Marketing Manager and Content Strategist

Palerra

Palerra, acquired by Oracle, pioneered the API-based Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB).

Sr. Manager, Content Strategy and Marketing Communications

Duarte, Inc.

Strategy and execution for all things marketing.

In addition to previous duties, manage budget, forecast, and annual planning for marketing strategy.

Sr. Marketing Manager

Manage a team of creative experts
Marketo integration, strategy, and execution
Analytics/KPI reporting and analysis
IP launches - Resonate multimedia, Slidedocs, Persuasive Presentations eCourse
Email campaigns, social media, and ad campaigns
Website branding and content updates
Editorial content strategy and execution
Executive presentations

Marketing Manager

Killick Aerospace

Killick Aerospace encompasses several companies that provide engine maintenance, accessory maintenance, airframe support, and parts and engine sales to the aviation industry. I oversaw the marketing activities for all companies in the Killick Aerospace portfolio. My duties include, but are not limited to:

Work with management and IT department for requirements gathering, implementation and documentation of CRM strategy 

Manage 3rd party programmer to update company websites, content manager for company websites

Manage relationships with outside vendors including designers and promotional representatives 

Coordinate all aspects of trade show exhibits, including marketing collateral, shipments, promotional items, and travel logistics

Co-creator and co-manager for print advertising budget

Track and measure success of marketing activities, including website traffic/SEO, referral lead source, and email campaigns

Marketing Coordinator

UserTesting.com

I helped research and implement a social media strategy, including Twitter and reaching out to bloggers. I also helped with customer service.

Independent Contractor

Solar Designs, Inc

Account manager for the company’s largest project, a commercial solar installation, worth $150,000

Improved profit margin by 5% through bulk-price negotiations with supplier

Grew affiliate partnerships from 2 to over 50 within 8 months, used direct Marketing to offer qualified leads and guaranteed revenue to new partners

Increased revenue opportunity by creating a training package for installers

Strategic analysis of customer and installer needs, led to over-hauling information-gathering form and presentation of final customer proposal

Wrote proposals with details about solar system design, environmental impact, and financial implications including up-front costs, rebates, ROI, and payback

OpenTech Media, Inc.

Research, layout, and copy for corporate brochure and website to present a more cohesive message to customers

Virion Interactive Agency

Competitive analysis, post-project analysis, client invoicing and work order processing

Account Management Intern

Director of Integrated Product Marketing, Atlassian

Marketer, writer, speaker by day... singer, actor, fitness fiend by night!

I've handled all aspects of marketing strategy and execution, from product marketing, to demand-gen, to content and events. I love telling the high-level stories that resonate with an audience and connecting the dots between types of assets and distribution channels.

My writing has been published on TIME, Forbes, The Journal of Brand Strategy, and The Muse, and I've spoken on various marketing topics for INBOUND, Harvard Business Review, and MarketingProfs.

Visit https://ashleyfaus.com/ for more information about my book, "Human-Centered Marketing: How to Connect with Audiences in the Age of AI".

(Views are my own)

When you're friends with smart marketers, you feature each other as an example when you write a book 😀

Devin Bramhall released her book recently, and she featured my Playground framework.

I released my book in May, and I featured her community work from her time at Help Scout.

Per usual, there's a blooper pic if you swipe through 😂

Buy "Human-Centered Marketing": https://amzn.to/480QQLI

Buy "B2B Content Marketing Strategy": https://amzn.to/4i3SLne

(Thanks to MarketingProfs B2B Forum for the cozy background and in-person photo opp 😊)

Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Portfolio at Atlassian

I don't have many rituals before I step onstage to speak.

But I DO love my glitter face mask tradition 😀

Excited to speak about building trust in the buyer's journey MarketingProfs B2B Forum this morning, 10:20am EST!

Grateful for another award for my book, "Human-Centered Marketing: How to Connect with Audiences in the Age of AI" 🎉

Need a gift for yourself or a marketer you love? Get 40% through December 1st!

Grab a copy: https://lnkd.in/eJWZHRF8

Need some light reading en route to allllll the Thanksgiving dinners?

Free sneak peeks:

Thought leadership: https://lnkd.in/eXCZ2qPf

Buyer's journey playground: https://lnkd.in/esQDz9EK

Congrats to all the winners: https://lnkd.in/emxkNFZ2

When I was VERY early in my career, I had to make an expensive decision on behalf of the business.

I was SO worried about it!

Tons of money.
Literally minutes to make the choice.
No time to call my boss for approval.

I decided to spend the money, and trusted that my boss would be ok with it once I finally talked with her.

Y'all... It was paying $50 for valet parking.

But at that time in my life, $50 for parking seemed absurd.

At that time in my career, I wasn't well-versed in how businesses expenses and vendor agreements worked.

And I was genuinely worried about confirming with a vendor that they could pay $50 for valet parking because they were running late to film a customer testimonial during a big conference.

My boss was thrilled that I made the decision to spend the $50 on faster parking vs. potentially losing the filming slot with the customer.

Now as a seasoned marketer, I cringe at my younger self, thinking how silly it was for me to even worry about $50 valet parking. 

OF COURSE that is a no-brainer call!

But... does your team know when it's a no-brainer decision? 

Do they trust that their leaders will back them up when they need to make real-time "expensive" choices?

Do they have a framework for when to escalate?

If you're rolling your eyes at folks making bad calls, it's worth taking a step back to understand whether they have context and trust to make good calls.

Because it's ACTUALLY expensive to do things cheap.

"Which bakery did this come from?"

"Wait, YOU made these!?!"

"You should open a bakery..."

People say this to me frequently when I bring treats to the office, the theater, birthdays, etc.

There's some AMAZING commercial-scale bakeries out there, AMAZING home bakers out there, and everything in between (including my amateur baker status).

After baking treats and buying treats over the years, I've started applying my marketing nerdery to the questions of perception, compliments, trust, etc. in this space.

And so, I'm curious...

In the comparison below, which option would you pay more for?

How much would you pay for a dozen of the cupcakes shown in the picture?

Assume that each option has comparable cost of goods sold, etc. to not bias the results too much, and you can make whatever assumptions you want about where the cupcakes came from, who took the pictures, if they're AI-generated vs. human, etc.

Please nerd out with me about the intersection of my baking hobby and my marketing brain 😋

"When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." - Goodhart's Law

I've been on a bit of a metrics and attribution kick lately, and I talked a bit about Goodhart's Law in my conversation with 🍁 Glenn Schmelzle on the Funnel Reboot podcast.

The heart of it is something that marketers continually struggle with...

We know we gotta measure.
But we know we can't measure everything.
And without everything, it kinda feels like we have nothing.

The problem is that we're so focused on capturing every. little. detail. in a way that we can easily show in a dashboard, but we miss the big opportunities that actually help people move through a buying process.

We talked about the core frameworks in my book that help you do just that: create a journey that helps the HUMANS make decisions, take action, and solve their problems (and yep, drive revenue for your business)!

Hear the full episode: https://lnkd.in/emxHSDgk

Grab a copy of the book: https://amzn.to/480QQLI

HR Geckos™

Copilot for HR operations. 
HR Helpdesk and smart chatbot. 
HR Workflow Automation. 

We automate HR processes & connect all HR systems to focus on what matters most — people. We are the only HR help desk made for HR by HR. 

🏡Home of #HRGeckoBot. 

Our motto — Making HR as agile as a gecko!🦎

Ready to Transform Your HR Team and Business?

Our goal is to provide small to medium businesses (SMBs) with the right tools to simplify HR processes. HR Geckos™ allows employees to query, create, and track requests anytime, anywhere, and on any device with customizable HR workflows and data management.

For HR Teams, our biggest product draws are the data insights provided by our #dashboard and our automated HR workflows/processes. And for employees, our intelligent #chatbot, HRGeckobot, responds to queries fast using a curated FAQ & Knowledge Center. Our intelligent ticketing system assigns queries to the right individual after our chatbot triages employee queries as the first point of contact. We believe the human is an essential part of the digital transformation in the HR function and follow a people-centric design philosophy in engineering all our customized HR workflows.

We simplify your HR operations from Day Zero Onboarding to Off-boarding and beyond.  

Connect with us today to learn how we can help you magnify the core of your business – your people. 

Get started with our free trial at https://hrgeckos.com 

We transform HR Ops. 

We are HR Geckos.

CEO / Founder

HRBytes™ Podcast & Video Series

HRBytes™ is a podcast and video series to bring you stories of HR professionals who bring a “think globally and act locally” digital HR agenda to their work. Everyday people who are driving digital transformations in their organizations - data-driven & future-fit digital HR leaders. 
Follow us on Social: 
📲  Twitter: https://twitter.com/hr_bytes
📲  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HRBytesPodcast
📲  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hrbytes
📲  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hr_bytes 
📲  YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV5vswNgdg8zGDH1vqTkJBJ21XHseZJHf 
Podbean: https://hrbytes.podbean.com 
📲  Visit #HRBytes' Web Home at https://hrgeckos.com

Podcast / VODcast

Global Indian Professional Network™ (GIPN)

Founder of the Global Indian Professional Network, a 501(c)3 non-profit.
❇️  Our mission is to facilitate discussion, foster collaboration, and be a professional development resource for all career professionals of Indian origin. 
❇️  GIPN provides a powerful forum and supportive environment for early and mid-career professionals. We provide our members and our broader community with a comprehensive portfolio of workshops and panels that include advice regarding career advancement, alternate career options, leadership skill building, and exposure to entrepreneurship. GIPN programs are designed to enhance skills, develop professional networks, provide inspiration, and empower individuals to achieve their full potential.
❇️  Join us and build a tribe around you!

Founder/President

Career Acers™

Career Acers (an HR Geckos company) is a professional career counseling and coaching firm that focuses on genuine career challenges with real impact. 
📲  Career Acers will help you craft and ace your career success story! We bring our experience and involvement in various industries and professional associations to work for our clients. Our expertise and professional collaborations open a plethora of resources and reference points for our clients. 
📲  Come, Ace Your Career, Ace Your Life™ with us!

Founder/CEO

CareerBytes™ Podcast & Video Series

Welcome to Career Bytes™, a podcast and video series where I bring the best resources, guidance, and real-life advice to help you Ace Your Career and Ace Your Life.

Forbes Human Resources Council

Forbes HR Council Member

Community College of Baltimore County

The Community College of Baltimore County transforms lives by providing an accessible, affordable, and high-quality education that prepares students for transfer and career success, strengthens the regional workforce, and enriches our community. 
- Oversaw policies, procedures, and operations related to HRIS, ATS, HR web pages, Compensation, Onboarding, Employment, and Recruitment programs.
- Collaborated with the Executive Director of Human Resources and Vice-President of Administrative Services in creating, planning, directing, and implementing a broad range of personnel activities and compliance with regulatory concerns (AAP, EEOC, USCIS).
- Served in the capacity of Executive Director in the Executive Director’s absence.

Director, HR, Talent Management, Compensation, HRIS & Workforce Analytics

- Oversaw policies, procedures, and operations related to Employment, On-Boarding, HRIS, ATS, HR WebPages, and Recruitment programs.
- Collaborated with the Executive Director of Human Resources and Vice-President of Administrative Services in creating, planning, directing and implementing a broad range of personnel activities and compliance with regulatory concerns (AAP, EEOC, USCIS).
- Served in the capacity of Executive Director in the Executive Director’s absence.

Director, HR, Talent Management & Workforce Analytics

Maryland Department of Transportation

The Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) is an organization comprised of five business units and one Authority. They are: The Secretary's Office, State Highway Administration, Maryland Transit Administration, Motor Vehicle Administration, Maryland Port Administration, Maryland Aviation Administration and the Maryland Transportation Authority. This unique approach provides the state’s leadership with the ability to develop a coordinated and balanced approach to transportation.

Responsible for the development of employee selection and assessment instruments (including MDTA Police Promotional Processes and Assessment Centers) and recruitment of all employees for the MDTA.

Personnel Administrator I,  Selection & Assessment, Talent Management, Workforce Analytics

Cigna Health Benefits

Bravo Health Insurance, now Cigna-HealthSpring, is a part of Cigna Corporation and a global provider of health service solutions.

Oversaw the employee life-cycle (recruitment, selection, benefits administration, compensation assignment and negotiation, conflict management, regulatory recordkeeping and reporting, termination) for all levels of the firm during the merger and acquisition process and after the acquisition of Senior Partners (based in PA).

Senior Human Resources Generalist

Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO)

Human Performance Systems Inc. (now acquired by HumRRO) is the industry leader in Test Development and Evaluation Services for a wide range of jobs. 
Custom projects for:
- Pacific Maritime Association (PMA)
- Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (LASD)
- LAPD SWAT
- Southern California Gas (SoCal Gas)
- BNSF
- Cheniere Energy
- Chicago Fire and EMS Department
- Philadelphia Fire Department

Responsible for developing custom assessments for selection and promotion. Projects included selection and assessment instrument development (on-site job evaluation, job analysis, validation, statistical analyses), administering, validating, evaluating promotional assessment centers, physical performance test development and validation, and cognitive ability test development and administration.

Human Resources Management Consultant, Assessment & Workforce Analytics

Hi, I am Jay Polaki, the Chief Gecko a.k.a CEO and Co-Founder of HR Geckos - a copilot for HR Ops (or POps as some are calling it now)! We are the only HR Help Desk built by HR for HR and our AI-powered dashboards and chatbot can’t wait to be your copilot!

I bring over two decades of rich experience spearheading transformative HR functions across various industries. 

In my role at HR Geckos, our mission is clear—to revolutionize HR processes through automation while preserving the essential human touch. Leveraging my extensive background, I have directed HR Geckos to address contemporary challenges faced by HR departments. From cultivating a consumer-grade employee experience to providing data-driven insights and streamlining workflows, we stand at the forefront of HR technology. Our flagship creation is not just an HR help desk; it's a testament to our commitment—crafted for HR by HR. We are committed to connecting all facets of HR systems, centering our efforts on what matters most: people.

I host HRBytes, a compelling podcast and video series that unravels the narratives of digital HR leaders.

Holding both the SPHR and SHRM-SCP credentials, I bring expertise and a profound dedication to advancing the HR profession.

Passionate about empowering businesses to elevate their core— their people, I invite you to join us on a journey where HR becomes as agile as a gecko. At HR Geckos, we don't just embrace change; we lead it. Together, let's make HR innovation a reality. Join us, and let's make HR as agile as a gecko!

Let’s connect on Social: 
X/Twitter: https://twitter.com/jaypolaki
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JayPolaki/ 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jay.polaki/  
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@jay.polaki

taplio

The Battle

Ashley Faus

Jay Polaki⚡️ SHRM-SCP/SPHR

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreAshley Faus's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Ashley Faus

Jay Polaki⚡️ SHRM-SCP/SPHR

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Ashley Faus's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreAshley Faus's LinkedIn Performance