Proof of Life #3: 6+ months, 2 events, 1 research report.

Another little personal-work update from me. It’s been 6ish months since I rejoined B2B agency Green Hat, focusing on building out our brand and winning clients in this region. Maybe it’s still the new (old) job halo, but things have been going gangbusters. #blessed

Some things that happened these past three months:

• Researched, co-wrote and launched our APAC B2B Buyer Journey research report with 6sense .
• Attended the B2B Marketing Leaders Forum | 21-22 May 2025 | Sydney in Singapore where we launched the report and hosted a dinner with marketers. Thanks Emma Roborgh - Founder B2B Marketing Leaders Forum and Kristy Kelly for doing such a wonderful job bringing together B2B marketers from the region together.
• Completed another two-week high-key reservist cycle for the Singapore military.
• Melbourne-bound for an agency off-site (writing this on a plane to Australia) where I am currently spending a couple of weeks with the teams here.

• Client work: continuing to be strategic partners with key clients. Delivered a refreshed messaging framework, and a variety of eBooks for a client. Made progress on a Demand Waterfall Forecast dashboard with our digital experience team, and much more.
• New biz: don’t want to jinx it, but something’s coming!?

These LinkedIn articles are opportunities for me to take a step back from the daily grind and reflect on some key learnings. There’s plenty but I’ll focus on one key area:

If you’re an agency, your own marketing matters.

Your own agency marketing often gets neglected.

I get it.

We’re all too busy in the hamster wheel of pitches and client work. Marketing activities aren’t billable right? True, but sometimes you gotta give to get.

Green Hat’s been investing time and effort into things such as creating research reports, SEO optimisation of our website, writing social posts, blogs, running SEM campaigns, and our own ABM programs, webinars, developing relationships with journalists… whew.

Some little tips to help make things a little easier.

1. We treat our own marketing like our clients. This means having a marketing lead and account servicing on it. We have a marketing calendar, weekly WIPs, and we write briefs for tasks - no brief, no work.
2. Commit your resources. The leadership are committed to allocating budgets for media and events, and allowing time for creative, content, data team mates to work on our marketing. But try to share the load (e.g.: assign blogs to different staff members, not just the content team etc.)!
3. Work just that little bit extra. Not gonna lie – it’s not always easy trying to find time to shoot a video for social or prep to host a webinar, but it pays off. Psst: I’ll confess that we aren’t perfect – sometimes things go right DOWN TO THE WIRE! This year, we finished our final proof of our APAC B2B Buyer Journey research report 5 minutes before the printer’s deadlines.
4. Find partners to work with. ON24 are our webinar partners, we’ve worked with HubSpot in the past and we recently worked with 6sense and INFUSE . Partners can help fill the gaps in skills, they have their own list of contacts, and can even share some of the marketing costs (e.g.: committed budgets for paid, media, printing of reports etc).

The results? Worth it.?

Super proud of the team that worked on the B2B APAC Buyer Journey Research Report. From 6sense Kerry Cunningham and Sara Boostani (Frazier), M.S. At Green Hat, Andrew Haussegger , Malte Weyhe , Stuart Jaffray . Our amazing content, creative and digital team members – Alison Ma , Megan Carter , Clydie Matruglio , Nisha Patel and many more.

We launched the report at the B2B Marketing Leaders Forum in Singapore on the 21-22 August. It was presented twice – once as part of a Transformation and AI stream and once as a closing keynote.?

Since then, these are some of the wins:

• There were queues at the Green Hat booth to pick up the report and invitations for us to share the research.
• I was invited to present the findings to an international bank’s senior regional B2B marketing and strategy leads– it was 20 people on a Zoom call and questions ran for 30 minutes! We’ve also presented it to several of our clients.
• Presented the findings at a Brandwatch Boot Camp – thanks Martin Kelly , Mabel Chua for the invitation – feedback from people who connected with me on LinkedIn such as “It was very nice presentation from you. Very insightful.” Worth it!
• We’ve got research to present to our clients – to spark some innovation, inspiration and action!
• Webinar on the Buyer Journey incoming. Sign up here> https://green-hat.com.au/webinar-understanding-b2b-buyer-journeys
• There has been more external requests to slice the data for reports customised to various industries and solutions.

It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

People love research and insights.

I said this at the Brandwatch Boot Camp, “Marketers love this shit!” Especially when they don’t have the time, expertise or budgets to conduct research. Reports like these arm marketers with data and insights for planning and budgeting – and helps ratify thinking and assumptions.?

Ok, waxing off now.? I had another whole topic planned (sneak peek, it’s about client-agency relationships) but may save that for the next Proof of Life update.

In the meantime, all the best with your work-life. May you find fulfilment, balance and success with your own marketing. Till the next Proof of Life. Shawn, signing off.