Digital Surfing Daryn Smith

This week’s guest is Gideon Thomas, the Chief Marketing and Sales Officer at DealHub.io, a market-leading revenue platform, that offers an integrated suite of services including CPQ, CLM, DealRoom, subscription management, and billing solutions.


In his role at DealHub, he orchestrates the company's go-to-market strategy, utilising his extensive expertise in marketing and sales to drive growth and innovation. 


Aside from his executive responsibilities, Gideon is an active contributing member of the Forbes Communications Council and Pavilion, and is the host of the acclaimed RevAmp Podcast by DealHub, showcasing his industry thought leadership.


In this episode, Daryn and Gideon discuss how he built DealHub’s demand generation from scratch, the difficulties in modern marketing, especially in attribution, and the importance of customer experience in marketing and the ongoing potential for growth in this area.


It’s Gideon Thomas!


Follow Daryn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darynsmith

This week’s guests are Julia Pilkes, HubSpot’s Senior Director of Marketing for EMEA, and Crevan O'Malley, the Director of Corporate Sales at HubSpot.


Julia is a seasoned marketing professional based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, where she lives with her two children and her fiancé. With a rich career spanning various roles in marketing, Julia has honed her skills in both corporate and startup environments. She embarked on a new journey at HubSpot three months ago, with the primary responsibility of fostering a collaborative working relationship with the sales team to drive growth.


Crevan is a Dublin-based tech sales veteran who balances his professional life with a love for sports, albeit more as a spectator these days. He shares his life with his wife and their two boys. Despite being a college dropout who once enjoyed a fulfilling stint as a professional barman, he transitioned into the tech sales domain, accruing 24 years of experience thus far. He’s been at HubSpot for the past four years but has extensive experience from startups to big corporations, with a keen focus on CRM.


In this episode, Daryn, Julia and Crevan chat all things sales and marketing alignment, discussing common pain points that arise when the two aren’t aligned, challenges associated with trying to create this alignment, some of the approaches they’ve taken to align their teams, and advice for other leaders that are looking to create more alignment between their sales and marketing teams.


It’s Julia Pilkes and Crevan O'Malley!


Follow Daryn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darynsmith

This week’s guests are Amy Dwyer, Huble’s Chief Strategy Officer, and Anthony O’Connor, the Chief Creative Officer here at Huble.


Amy was the founder and managing director of a digital marketing agency for over 10 years before it was acquired by Huble in 2022. With more than 20 years experience in international marketing and CRM, Amy is passionate about combining innovative technologies with clever minds and creative ideas to truly make for a more efficient, fun and successful work environment – both for her teams and for her customers.


Anthony has over 20 years of experience in marketing from design, programming, and multimedia, leading him to become part of the senior management team at the biggest B2B agencies in Germany. Later he was founder and managing director of a digital marketing agency for over 10 years, which merged with Huble in 2022. Anthony is passionate about innovation and how one can use technology and great creative to develop amazing solutions and results.


In this episode, Daryn, Amy, and Anthony explore strategic planning for the year 2024. They discuss the influential trends that defined 2023, the emerging trends anticipated to shape 2024, changes in consumer behaviour and the rise of conscious consumption. They also explore the growing shift towards self-service among businesses with complex purchasing cycles, as well as share insights on how to effectively plan your marketing activities for the upcoming year while addressing the challenges you may encounter along the way. 


It’s Amy Dwyer and Anthony O’Connor!
Follow Daryn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darynsmith

This week’s guest is Ryan Spalding, the Director of Marketing at Garage Living, a home services company that focuses on garage renovations.


With over 20 years in marketing, Ryan has experienced the shift in consumer behaviour first-hand. He is navigating change through the pandemic, economic headwinds, and the introduction of AI to marketing.


Ryan is a massive sports fan and has been on every continent except Australia and Antarctica.


In this episode, Daryn and Ryan chat about the similarities and differences in music industry marketing and doing so for Garage Living, how he’s structured the Garage Living marketing team and the importance of team dynamics, the role of AI in marketing cookieless advertising, and how he’s ensuring a successful migration to HubSpot by focusing on change management.


It’s Ryan Spalding!



Follow Daryn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darynsmith

This week’s guest is Romka Walkowiak, the Sales Director for South-East Asia at HubSpot, the easy-to-use CRM to scale your business.


Romka has been in the sales industry for almost 15 years, with 10 of those spent in leadership positions. She started her career in a BPO organisation before she moved to the vendor side, joining Red Hat. She then moved on to LinkedIn, before joining HubSpot to lead their South East Asia region. 


Romka is a citizen of the world. Born and raised in Poland, she spent 6 years in Ireland where she met her French husband. Together they moved to Singapore where they have been for the past 12 years. She loves travelling and has visited roughly 30 countries, but as a mom to a 12-month-old baby girl, travelling is on pause for now.


In this episode, Daryn and Romka chat about her podcast, "Asia Growth Forecasts," which focuses on launching and developing businesses in Asia. They also discuss leadership and hiring strategies, talent shortages in the APAC region and the potential for companies to tap into emerging economies, considerations for companies expanding into APAC markets, and the future of CRM and AI.


It’s Romka Walkowiak!



Follow Daryn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darynsmith

This week’s guest is Chris Hemingway, the Vice President of Sales & Business Development for Europe at Atlas HXM, which guides companies on their growth journeys with software and solutions that enable streamlined global talent management and retention. 


A seasoned IT industry professional with over 30 years of experience, Chris drives business growth in Europe, applying his leadership and visionary approach to develop sales strategies across diverse industries and tech start-ups/scale-ups. 


Beyond his professional achievements, Chris leads an active life, coaching junior rugby teams and engaging in various outdoor activities, including sailing, skiing, and water sports. He has also taken on personal challenges such as the IronMan Swim leg and Arctic Circle trekking, all in support of charitable causes.


In this episode, Daryn and Chris chat about his transition from a technical role to a sales position and finding his passion for CRM to manage sales teams, remote work, the IT considerations relating to it, and how CRM is impacted by it, as well as the importance of establishing frameworks to ensure the responsible use of AI.


It’s Chris Hemingway


Follow Daryn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darynsmith
Follow Daryn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darynsmith