James is our Website Manager and dynamic SEO strategist! He creates an excellent online user experience by meticulously optimizing our website with various techniques that both improve runZero’s online visibility and user engagement metrics. James is originally from the UK, and his love for travel has taken him to many places, but his love for American culture - particularly the music, sunshine, and BBQ - led him to make Texas his home, where he now enjoys family life.
Read on to learn about James' journey on the Marketing team at runZero!
Q&A #
► What’s been your biggest accomplishment on our team?
I mean, it has to be the website. That’s probably one of the biggest accomplishments in my career as a whole. We managed a complete rebranding and overhaul, in a little over 3 months, and all things considered, it was a pretty flawless launch.
I took charge of developing the pages for the new website, and actively collaborated with the team to ensure a solid foundation was established, prioritizing SEO fundamentals. I helped curate resources from across the web to transform runzero.com into a comprehensive resource center, gathering all articles, videos, and podcasts related to runZero and consolidating them into pages for our website. Now, instead of being scattered across the web, anyone can visit the company website to learn everything about us. I organized myself by tackling the biggest tasks at the beginning of the day and working my way down the priority list. When I first came to the US I worked at a bookstore, so I find joy in organization, and that mindset influenced how I structured myself during the website re-launch project.
Getting the colors and the font figured out first was kind of paramount to guiding the rest of the website. So that took a lot of time in the beginning but once we got those details ironed out, everything started to fall into place. As a lean Marketing team, I'm really proud of everything we did - it's a quality turnout! And, as a side note, I ended up being the one to introduce the new font.
► What do you think is the most important skill that a successful professional needs to have?
Communication. It's important to know how to communicate to different types of people that you work with and I think that's good for any role whatsoever. In my role, I need to be able to explain SEO strategy to engineers but also translate that into ROI results when communicating with leadership.
I’ve refined my communication through the years and learned to explain the impacts rather than just pointing out the problems. It has provided me with meaningful work results and also collaborative partnerships.
► Which work benefit or perk is your favorite and why?
Everyone loves remote work, but the more I think about it, the real gem has to be Bonusly. It's something entirely new for me, and positive feedback and affirmations happen to be my love language. So whenever I see Bonusly come through, especially for something I've done like the website, it's gratifying to know that your efforts are appreciated! Plus, you can redeem your Bonusly points for Amazon, Target, or other gift cards. It's convenient; we use it for groceries, or often for my daughter, Penelope, who gets to choose a special treat at Target. We can't go in there without her wanting something, so it's handy to have Bonusly points to use.
It's a fantastic benefit that runZero provides, though it's not necessarily a must-have because we already have a lot of other great benefits. But again, it's nice that we do it because it allows people to express their gratitude for the work you do.
► What was the last show/movie you watched?
I don’t watch TV. I watch really boring podcasts and it's how I became enamored with the cybersecurity world. You get to hear about all these James Bond or Jason Bourne-type things that happen in real life. It's kind of wild. So I gravitated toward the industry because of its depth and then I saw that runZero was hiring. I looked into the product and HD’s story, and I was like, oh wow, I want to be a part of this journey. HD is the brains behind it all but, I have to give praise to Julie, our CMO. She started what, like 7, 8 months ago? She took a lot under her wing and she's managed to get all these new operations in place. It's inspiring to watch Julie as a marketer myself. I think we’ve taken leaps from, you know, 8 months ago. So yeah, it's cool to see. We have a great leadership team and a bunch of smart people working here.
The last movie I watched though was actually Fools Gold with Matthew McConaughey. I love a good Rom-Com. But I watched it over 20 min increments across several evenings; anyone with a toddler at home will totally understand.
