Pod Insights The Chad & Cheese Podcast Marketing's Blind Spot with Zoom's CMO Kim Storin About this episode Chad & Cheese go full rebel mode with Kim Storin, the marathon-running, transformation-junkie CMO at Zoom, who just unleashed the company's biggest brand campaign ever: "Zoom Ahead." Featuring SNL's Bowen Yang in a hilarious workplace uprising (written and produced by Colin Jost's No Notes agency), the spot is a love letter to frustrated users everywhere—lampooning clunky competitors while reminding the world why people actually love Zoom.
Kim dishes on reigniting that pandemic-era passion, pivoting from IT buyers to everyday users, embedding groundbreaking AI into workflows, expanding beyond meetings (hello, contact centers, events, and the fresh Bright Hire acquisition for recruiting), and fighting the short-term "coin-operated" mindset with real long-term brand building.
She talks partnering with the C-suite for true ROI, the rise of "human-in-the-loop" over AI slop, empowering employees as brand evangelists, and why trust and customer-centric stories trump CEO monologues every time.
Raw, strategic, and packed with insights for anyone in HR tech or marketing—this episode is a masterclass in keeping an iconic brand human in an AI world.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Dude, it turns out that Winston Smart Recruiter's first AI hiring sidekick is taking all the grunt work out of Recruiter's Day. Things like candidate screening, scheduling, all the admin garbage no one actually wants to touch. Winston can do it all.
0:17 Speaker 01 Man, you know I'm a fan of using new tech that takes the boring repetitive crap out of a Recruiter's Day and allows them to have more time to connect with hiring managers and candidates.
0:29 Speaker 00 Yep, Winston is doing the heavy lifting while recruiters kick back and do the actual hiring stuff. You know, like talking to people.
0:37 Speaker 01 I really dig that Smart Recruiters is evolving out of the legacy ATS model and embracing cleaner processes using AI. With most ATS providers, it's like, hey, 2003 called and it wants its 30-minute application process back.
0:53 Speaker 00 No doubt. It sounds like Rebecca and the team are using Winston to push Smart Recruiters into the future while the ATS vendors are basically on an AOL dial-up modem with a dashboard.
1:05 Speaker 01 With Smart Recruiters, Winston does the grind and the recruiters get the glory.
1:11 Speaker 00 For more information on superhuman hiring with Winston, visit smartrecruiters.com. That's smartrecruiters.com.
1:19 Speaker 01 Start using Winston today, or I guess you can stick with...
1:25 Speaker 02 Now we return you to our regular scheduled program in progress.
1:31 Speaker 03 Hide your kids, lock the doors. You're listening to HR's most dangerous podcast. Chad Soash and Joel Cheeseman are here to punch the recruiting industry right where it hurts. Complete with breaking news, brash opinion, and loads of snark. Buckle up, boys and girls. It's time for the Chad and Cheeseman Podcast.
1:53 Speaker 00 Oh, yeah. Old enough to know better, still too young to care. What's up everybody? It's the Chad and Cheese Podcast. I'm your co-host Joel Cheeseman. Joined as always, Chad So washes writing shotgun as we welcome Kim Storin, CMO at Zoom, a little company you might have heard of. Kim, welcome to HR's most dangerous podcast.
2:20 Speaker 04 Thank you. I'm excited to be here.
2:22 Speaker 00 Glad to have you here. Quick side note, we had some trouble logging into our platform of choice and Kim was really quick to go, you should be using Zoom, boys. You should be using Zoom.
2:32 Speaker 04 So that's right.
2:33 Speaker 00 So Kim, a lot of our, our listeners watchers won't know you. Let's get to know what makes Kim tick.
2:39 Speaker 04 Yeah, absolutely. So I'm Kim Storin. I do marketing and communications. So a little bit of, of the, the corporate reputation as well as all of the go to market, which I find is, is pretty unique. We're seeing more, more and more marketing and comms, but it's something that, that I really love about having, having my role. I'm based in Austin, Texas. I've been here for most of my life minus about 11 years on, on either coast. And I am a long distance runner, although I think I can't call myself that anymore. If the last marathon I did was 2019, but you'll still find me running out and, and out on the lake every morning.
3:21 Speaker 00 How many marathons in the books?
3:24 Speaker 04 14.
3:25 Speaker 00 Wow.
3:27 Speaker 04 I really need one more. Really need one more.
3:29 Speaker 00 The biggest one you've done? Have you done like a Boston, New York?
3:32 Speaker 04 No, I've done, I've done New York. I've done New York. I've done Chicago, DC, LA, San Francisco.
3:41 Speaker 00 Nice. Well done.
3:43 Speaker 04 But not ever have like qualified for anything. We'll put it that way.
3:47 Speaker 00 I occasionally run to Arby's.
3:51 Speaker 01 He says run, he means get in the car and drive. There's no running.
3:56 Speaker 00 Kind of like a Weeble thing. Weeble's wobble, but they don't fall down.
3:59 Speaker 04 Right.
4:00 Speaker 01 And that's from the parking lot into order and back. Yeah. So, so we're really leaving out a lot here. So first and foremost, let's talk about some of the experience and the history. Deloitte, manager of M and A. Dell, director of comms for M and A. AMD, director of worldwide brand. IBM, so many acronyms. VP of worldwide marketing. And then obviously the CMO Zoom. There's a lot that I love seeing around M and A because there's a lot of go to market that has to happen there. And there aren't a lot of marketing professionals that really have a go to market background. Why do you think that is?
4:40 Speaker 04 You know, I, I'm not sure. I think part of the challenges, especially in the SaaS world, you know, the SaaSification of marketing, I think was a real detriment to the function and the discipline of marketing and led to this over indexing on performance marketing, digital marketing, MQL, SQL, death spiral. And, and so you really lost focus on the overall go to market strategy, the, the brand and communication strategy that goes along with that. And, and I think we're finally, like AI is forcing us to, to revisit and get us back
5:18 Speaker 04 to basics. But it's, um, you know, I think the over indexing on metrics and trying to demonstrate ROI in a very short time period versus taking a longer view has, has hurt the discipline.
5:34 Speaker 01 Well, we're going to talk about that. But before we get to the strategic and the technical things, I want to start digging into a little of the lighter stuff with your newest ad featuring Saturday Night Live cast member Bowen Yang. So Joel, go ahead and roll that beautiful bean footage. I choose which platform we use for virtual meetings. It will prompt you to download a weird app.
5:57 Speaker 05 New clients will be actively upset if you send them a link. I use Zoom. Sit down, Mr. Thompson. I use Zoom AI companion. You will have no companion of any kind. I use Zoom contact center. No, you will not start a movement. I use Zoom in this coffee shop. Use Zoom para traducir.
6:15 Speaker 01 Be part of the movement. Zoom ahead.
6:17 Speaker 05 Technology should confuse us, not help us.
6:19 Speaker 01 That's amazing from the standpoint of Bowen Yang. A great production. Before we hopped on, didn't even know Colin Jost was a part of this whole process. So just give us a little story behind this. You obviously were there moving the pieces along with Colin, right? Talk a little bit about getting something this high production value in play.
6:40 Speaker 04 So it really started with some research that I did before I even started at Zoom. And I talked to about 50 customers in the month leading up to my start date. And what I found, I got into some internet rabbit holes as well on Reddit and what have you. And I kept seeing and hearing over and over again, people love Zoom. And you would go onto Reddit and you'd have people that would just like, I mean, the threads around how much people love Zoom and how they hate our competitors. And so I walked in the room on that first day with a hypothesis that I wanted to test, which was, do we have an opportunity to reignite the love for Zoom through the users versus going after the IT buyer?
7:24 Speaker 04 And so the more that we looked at our NPS scores, the more that we talked to customers over the course of those first six weeks, I realized that there was something to that hypothesis. And, and our board gave us permission to be iconic. They, they really said, like, let's do this, like, be iconic. And so I wanted to find this intersection of heart and product truth and the humor as probably the best way to facilitate that intersection. And so while I think I'm pretty funny, most people don't necessarily. And so I wanted to tap into people that were truly part of the cultural zeitgeist. Zoom is very much part of the cultural.
8:07 Speaker 04 Like guys, right? You you watch Amy Poehler's Good Hang podcast and and Zoom is front and center. You watch the Sex and the City reboot this past season and Charlotte's on Zoom. You listen to Alex Cooper and she's talking about how she met her partner for the first time in a business meeting on Zoom. And so you realize how much Zoom is part of the culture of how you work and how you live your life. And so we really wanted to capture that. And who better than somebody who is writing about culture and on the tip of the cultural like guys every single week for Weekend Update?
8:47 Speaker 04 So that's why we we wanted to work with Colin and his production team, which is his agency is called No Notes. And they were fantastic. They partnered with us. They were very collaborative. This was really Zoom's first time doing a brand campaign of this magnitude. And so it was really critical that we brought the organization along with us and that people believed in what we were doing. And my executive peers understood the value of what we were attempting to do. And so getting that product truth right was really important because that was going to be the thread that brought them along with us. And Colin was very much open to that.
9:25 Speaker 01 Here's the thing, though. You guys are the market leader. Okay? In watching this, it felt like you were a challenger brand, which I find that to me is exciting because most leaders, they don't see themselves and they're not aggressive and innovative. They they just want to try to hold the mountaintop. In this case, the commercial to me was that you were a challenger brand. You were challenging all of those other platforms that are out there. Webex, the ones that make you download stupid shit to be able to actually use that you hate using every single day. So you but you position yourself as a challenger brand. Did you think about that in in writing this?
10:05 Speaker 04 Absolutely. And and in some ways, we are a challenger brand. We have a really unique, you know, business value proposition in the fact that we are ubiquitous, right? And my mom uses Zoom and So does my business, right? And and whether my business is for an SMB or my business is for an enterprise, there's a lot of like gray area in between those things. So yes, like on the, you know, personal side and the freemium side, we're absolutely the market leader. On the SMB side, we we compete pretty hard. And then on the enterprise side, we're competing pretty hard, too, with the likes of Microsoft and others. So so in some ways, like while we
10:47 Speaker 04 have this ubiquity, we are still a challenger and we can't forget that, right? We came in as a challenger and and disrupted the space by bringing a platform to market that is easier to use, more reliable, and and people just like using it. And our NPS scores show that, you know, 100% of the time in direct comparison, people choose Zoom. And so that really, you know, means something, but we do have to challenge that. We can't just, you know, assume that, you know, IT leaders who are day in and day out fighting for total cost of ownership, which is so important.
11:22 Speaker 00 Yes.
11:23 Speaker 04 But they have to change what TCO and what value of collaboration, like how it's defined. And meeting friction is real and lost productivity because of friction is real. And and so we we did want to take that challenger position.
11:38 Speaker 00 Yeah. And I think, you know, you you've been called a quote unquote transformational junkie.
11:44 Speaker 04 I do love it. Part of my M and A background, I can't help it.
11:47 Speaker 00 Yeah, there are a lot of smaller initiatives in your in your profile that Chad didn't mention with all the big brands that are in there. And when you look at big brands, that's not necessarily always 100% good thing. A lot of people know Zoom as the COVID meeting thing where I can put a background in that's kind of fun and easy to use. You guys are clearly trying to expand beyond that. And I think the commercial touches on that is people say, I use Zoom for this, I use Zoom for this, et cetera. So you've only been on the job since April. Obviously, you did some homework before that. But what did you walk into? And what do you hope the brand becomes if something different? In the next, call it six to 12 months, that this ad kind of supports.
12:31 Speaker 04 Yeah, well, I think, you know, we walked into the truth of the platform, which is people love Zoom. And that Zoom loves the people, right? We build the platform for simplicity, for reliability, to, to give the people what they want in terms of how to collaborate and, and be more productive. Now, where we're going as we look at our growth is, is way beyond meetings. We have AI embedded into the meeting workflow in a really unique way. We got some press over the last few days because of our federated AI model. And it's a really unique model that takes the best of all of the models out there. And, and as a result, we're able to like, smoke them.
13:14 Speaker 04 And yes, like, you know, it's a federated is a very different approach to AI. But what it allows us to do is to help you reduce meeting friction, whether it's before a meeting, during a meeting, or after a meeting. And, and that's really unique. And people don't like, realize that we have such a groundbreaking AI platform embedded into our workflows. People don't realize that we have a contact center platform for customer support. They don't realize that we have an events and webinar platform that as of today, we are award winning. We won an award for the, the Zoomtopia event, which we ran, of course, on Zoom events. And, and people don't realize that.
13:54 Speaker 04 So my goal is to, to share with the world how we have evolved this business and how all these things are connecting. And so for y'all in, in, you know, an HR recruiting space, we just acquired Bright Hire. And, and we're bringing a, you know, recruiting platform now into, to the Zoom fold and the Zoom family. And so it's really important that we get that message out.
14:18 Speaker 00 Yeah, and I think it, it's interesting in that I assume all of your interviews are on the Zoom platform. I assume everyone sort of gets acquainted with it before they interview. How do you look at, from a branding perspective, that, what you just, what you just encapsulated, coming into the hiring process, making? Make sure that your your new employees love Zoom as much as your users do. What's the bridge between the product and the interviewing process and the hiring? And when they come on board, like, how do you think about employment brand from that perspective?
14:51 Speaker 04 Well, I think it's, you know, a little bit of a no brainer because I think the people that come to Zoom do love Zoom. Right? And and that's how I felt, right? Zoom was my preferred platform, both. I'm using it in three areas. I used it in my personal life. All my my nonprofit granting work was done via Zoom. I use it. I have an SMB. I have a small manufacturing business as a family business. We use Zoom to to work with, you know, our our clients and teams. And then, of course, I was a Zoom enterprise user and customer as well. And so I think a lot of people who come to this company are passionate about the fact that Zoom just works. And so from an employment brand, it's kind of self selecting, right?
15:34 Speaker 04 They're applying and they're they're very clearly engaged with the brand, with the the platform. And that's exciting. I think, you know, the other piece, when I think about how we how we ensure that employees are bought into the platform, especially as we evolve and transform, is that everything that we launch to the public, we first eat our own dog food. So we're beta users of of everything. You know, we get to play in the AI platform and workflow before anybody else does. We get to, you know, to demo everything and and use it as part of our day to day before we roll it out. And so that helps build employee love and satisfaction for the product.
16:18 Speaker 04 And it also enables us to to test and and make that product ready for, you know, for prime time.
16:24 Speaker 01 Meet Dave. Dave's resume says he's customer centric, a point of sale systems expert and a people leader. Reality check, Dave's resume was written by AI and AI applied to thousands of jobs while Dave was on his couch binging episodes of Jackass all day.
16:45 Speaker 01 How can you insert trust back into your hiring process? One word, Tatio. Tatio cuts through the BS by using real world job simulations, testing candidates so you can actually see how they perform the job before you waste a single minute interviewing or onboarding a fake. Insert trust back into your hiring process with Tatio. Check out Tatio today at T A T I O dot I O. That's T A T I O dot I O. So we're going to get into the strategic and tactical pieces of it. So talking more landscape aside from Zoom and your experience. You're a big advocate in building strong brands that can decrease customer acquisition costs and boost long-term value.
17:30 Speaker 01 But in an age of instant gratification and only looking as far as next quarter, as you'd said earlier, how can companies institute a long-term value philosophy when it's pressing up against today's instant gratification business philosophy that every single organization seems to be pushing for?
17:49 Speaker 04 So I think it starts with partnership and collaboration, education across the C-suite. And, and that is my job as the chief marketing officer is to make sure that, that my peers understand the value of marketing. Because it's really easy to get up, like get caught up in the coin operated world of sales. And, and marketing and sales complement each other, right? Sales' job is to hit quota in quarter. That is their job. Marketing's job is to make sure that there is pipeline and revenue the next quarter, the quarter after that, the year after that, the five years after that. And so just by nature, yes, of course, like there are some products
18:33 Speaker 04 that have a shorter sales cycle that might be more transactional. That is, you know, part of Zoom's business is a very transactional online PLG model as well. But when you talk about enterprise sales and, and sales, you know, both through the channel and through a direct sales force, it is a longer sales cycle. It does require removing roadblocks. It does require building relationships and, and that's what marketing can deliver.
19:03 Speaker 04 But you've got to be partnered with the CFO and understand what you can measure, how you can measure and ensure that the definition of ROI is cohesive across the C suite. It's when marketing, you know, tries to lead the way and, and measure things that nobody cares about. And so it's, it's really critical that we're sitting in a room with our CFO, with our ops team, with our sales team and, and building that view of metrics and bringing them along on the journey with us. Because when marketing is done right, brand is your most valuable asset, point blank.
19:43 Speaker 01 Yeah.
19:43 Speaker 04 If you screw something up, brand gives you the air cover. If you bring something great to market, brand accelerates and exponentially improves that launch. And so it really is truly a different way to view the value of marketing. But it takes that collaboration and just being lockstep with your CFO to, to ensure that those definitions are congruent across the business.
20:12 Speaker 00 It's funny to me how much her statements sound like recruiting statements. We have to prove ourself. We have to go to the CFO, like
20:20 Speaker 01 Yeah, yeah.
20:21 Speaker 00 They're a cost center that is always fighting
20:24 Speaker 04 Yeah.
20:24 Speaker 00 for justification to be in existence. And it's just funny that we're talking to a CMO and you sound so much like a CHRO.
20:31 Speaker 01 It's aligned.
20:31 Speaker 04 Of course, of course. And I will say, like, my dad's a CFO, so I have been justifying expenses since I was 10.
20:41 Speaker 04 I know the way to their hearts.
20:43 Speaker 01 So, I mean, Joel and I, we, we both advise startups. Joel actually was an advisor to, to Bright Hire. We advise startups. We've been in this game for a while. And what we try to get most companies in our space to understand is that we're not selling Blue Apron meal kits or Tommy John underwear, right? This is not a transactional kind of scenario. This takes the one word that we haven't talked about yet, it's trust. And many enterprise brands out there are racing to beat their Competitors to the lead like that next the demand gen thing drives me crazy because they're forgetting to build trust first, which I've always taught have been taught that that's the
21:24 Speaker 01 cornerstone of every brand. And for some reason, we're putting demand gen in front of the trust machine. And it seems to be getting out of whack. So can you talk a little bit about that? Is that because the CMOs aren't doing what you're doing? And they're not trying to get the CFOs and CEOs and the rest of the C suite in lockstep? And they're literally just kind of like order takers? Hey, we need leads. So go get us leads now. We don't need this trust thing.
21:51 Speaker 04 I don't necessarily think that I think, you know, what has happened is that lead gen is more measurable and therefore easier to justify the spend. Yeah. But what's happening, right? There was a time when people wanted to give you their contact information to download a white paper. Those days are gone. We're moving into a no click world as like LLMs are now, you know, the primary form of discovery. And, and people are tired of AI slop. And so they're looking to get back to those basics to have an authentic connection. Experiential events are back. PR is
22:32 Speaker 04 back. Customer references are more important than ever, because they are ways that you can build trust. Yeah. And no one wants to give you their contact information to download a white paper anymore. Yeah. So that changes the game. And so whereas before, you know, it was easier to be able to show a dollar in gets me $2 out. Now, we can't necessarily show that anymore because we may not have visibility into, you know, the AI LLM journey of discovery, or because people are, you know, effectively making their decision before they get to a shortlist. And that decision
23:17 Speaker 04 is made on trust.
23:18 Speaker 01 Yes.
23:19 Speaker 00 Talk about balancing that because we just talked about CFO, Chad and I talked. Talk about the year of efficiency. I think we're in year four of the year of efficiency. And marketing departments are getting squeezed, do more with less. And of course, that means they're falling back. For a lot of them, it's, it's AI. How do we, how to create efficiencies in AI? But then to your point, there's a pushback to the slop. Recently announced, iHeart Radio is now launching a quote unquote guaranteed human marketing and branding campaigns where they pledge to use only real humans in their advertising. So how are you balancing the, the desire to be efficient and cut costs? But also now there's a need to be more human.
23:59 Speaker 04 I call it human in the loop, right? Which is like, it is going to be a combination of AI and humans that enable us to be the best marketers that we can be, right? And when you use AI as a thought partner and a strategic partner, and you use it to help as part of the content process, yes, it absolutely plays a role. But the algorithms ding you, ding you for using AI, right? So there's, there's a problem if you don't have humans in the loop. The world dings you, right? I'm sure you guys saw the recent, like, you know, Coke backlash on, on some of their AI generated images. So the world is, is not ready for inauthentic marketing.
24:42 Speaker 04 They want to build a connection. And so I think the companies that do human in the loop the right ways are going to be the ones that, that win. And so there's absolutely a superpower and an efficiency and a productivity benefit. But humans play a pretty important role, but it's probably not the role that they used to play. So maybe you're not a content marketer anymore. Maybe you're a content orchestrator. You are managing five different AI agents because you want to be using different models, keeping it fresh, not, you know, you're, you're editing work. You have a different role than you did before.
25:22 Speaker 04 And so I think those things are, you know, what that human in the loop process will look like down the road. And, and we have an opportunity to get that right.
25:32 Speaker 00 It's commercial time. Let's be honest, half the people applying to your job.
25:37 Speaker 01 Haven't even read the damn job description. They're just smashing the easy apply button like it's a slot machine. A real job application should be a candidate's actual intent to do the work. Not a reflex. That's why Talru built Smart Qualify. Before a candidate can even hit submit, Smart Qualify puts the critical stuff right in their face. Pay, schedule, location, certifications, and then requires that applicant to confirm they actually understand the role. No surprises, just real intent. Companies running Smart Qualify are seeing up to 75% more interviews with qualified candidates while slashing their cost per qualified applicant. More qualified applicants, less cash.
26:21 Speaker 01 So if you're hiring in the high-volume space like logistics, healthcare, retail, hospitality, warehouse, manufacturing, you get the idea. Stop wasting your time on resume spam. Check out Smart Qualify at talru.com. That's T-A-L-R-O-O dot com. Talru, clarity in job advertising. It's showtime.
26:47 Speaker 00 Closeted AI.
26:48 Speaker 01 To your Coke point, though, literally just did some research on this. They were able to, in a month, do what they used to do in a year. So they had 100 people, same amount of people, right? But they weren't paying them for a year, they were paying them for a month. They got to be able to push this through. So I think it's so appetizing that we're going to have to find a happy medium to some extent. You know, I think Coke is addictive, so they don't care.
27:18 Speaker 00 Kim, you have, according to data I saw, around 7,000-plus employees at Zoom. These are all human beings. These are all opportunities to expand the brand, to put a megaphone on on human beings to talk about what you're doing. Obviously, brand influencers are huge right now. How are you looking at your employee, your workforce, as a potential lever to get the word out? How are you empowering them, engaging them? Or do you even think about the workforce as a potential tool for marketing?
27:51 Speaker 04 Yeah, so talk about that. We absolutely do. We really see them as an extension of the brand. And obviously, you know, there is a social element to that. But there's also a, you know, event element. And there's also just an out in the world element. And because Zoom is so ubiquitous, right? You can be at a dinner party and in one table, you can talk to an enterprise leader who is using Zoom. You can talk to an SMB business owner that's using Zoom. And you can talk to a family member who uses Zoom for personal reasons.
28:26 Speaker 00 Yeah.
28:26 Speaker 04 And so there's always an opportunity for evangelism. And, and making sure we, you know, Zoom does all hands every two weeks, which, you know, was very new for me, right? I was used to kind of a quarterly cadence of all hands. But what I've found is that that transparency and culture of clarity really does make sure that your employees know what's going on. We'll talk product releases, we talk technology, we talk, you know, business updates. We talk Zoom cares updates, we talk employee updates. And so they're walking out of those all hands with an understanding of what's happening across the organization.
29:10 Speaker 04 And, and they're able to go be those evangelists, whether it's, you know, from a social platform, attending events and representing Zoom as, you know, as a speaker or on the floor at an event, or, you know, representing us as an evangelist around that, that dinner table.
29:27 Speaker 01 I also think, and we want to go back to one of your earlier comments with regard to clients and really the center of where the narrative should be. We're starting to see a renaissance in moving away from what I like to call the me, me, me marketing, where the CEO makes themselves the main character in the company's narrative all the time. And instead, moving toward more of a customer centric narrative, where the customer is the main character. And the rest of the C suite become literally supporting experts. Literally just people that are there for just in case, you know, I need a technical answer or something of that nature, integration answer, something of that nature. But until then,
30:07 Speaker 01 are CEOs finally getting the, the, the understanding, or at least they're, they're starting to buy in that nobody wants to hear from them. We want to hear from the customers. We want to hear from the people that have the problems, that have gone through the integrations, that know what the solution looks like, because they're my peer, right? That you're, the people that are buying Zoom. I want to look at my peers and I will look at them because they know what my daily hassle is, my problems. And they're the people that generally are going to help me find the solution faster, not the CEO. Are we moving away from the kind of like Steve Jobs way of doing marketing and moving more toward customer centric?
30:48 Speaker 04 So yes, but I'll push back on that a little bit, right? Because I think it is important that, you know, the CEO is in the trenches with the customers. And, and I think that people do want to hear from the CEO, assuming it's not about me, me, me, but instead that it's about thought leadership in the industry, understanding where the industry is heading, being a technical expert on the product, being a customer expert on, you know, the things that are keeping customers up at night. And, and so I don't think that it's, that people don't want to hear from CEOs. I think that they want to hear different things from CEOs. And so they want the CEOs to be relatable.
31:31 Speaker 04 They want the CEOs to, to have a personality and to have a viewpoint and perspective on things that matter to them. And so of course, like customer centricity is part of that, but, but there's a lot more wrapped into that, that I think is really critical for the CEO to have a voice on. And, and, you know, yes, we absolutely want the customers to be the center of the story. I mean, our, our new ad is a love letter to our users, basically, right? And so we do, we want to keep that front and center. But I also don't think it's, it's fair to say that the CEO doesn't Role in in that, you know, customer centricity or industry perspective.
32:13 Speaker 04 And so I do want Eric, you know, our CEO, front and center with a perspective and a point of view. I want his, you know, he is very accessible to customers and and that customer centricity comes through every time you hear him speak. And so I want him out there. I want him, you know, talking about the future of the industry because it is so authentic. And and our customers can feel that when they see him speaking.
32:41 Speaker 00 But does he have a cool leather jacket like Jensen Wong?
32:45 Speaker 04 No, but on Zoomtopia, he did, he did get a free throw shot with Chris Paul and it was real like.
32:52 Speaker 00 There you go.
32:53 Speaker 04 It was a one, one shot in the, in the, in the basket.
32:57 Speaker 00 There you go.
32:57 Speaker 04 So he had some cool, cool points for that.
33:00 Speaker 00 Some cool points for that. Nice. We talked to a lot of HR managers and executives about the need to build a bridge to marketing. Because so many parts of, you know, the first experience someone has with a company is when they apply to a job. And that's kind of the first point of marketing for a lot of people. How do you work out or how do you look at working with the recruitment side? And again, Zoom is a part of all your, your interviews. Are you face to face with, with recruiting on a regular basis? Are there, just how do you work with TA in your role as CMO?
33:33 Speaker 04 I mean, we, we work across the board. They are one of, because I'm hiring so much, they are, they're one of my best partners right now. Because they're helping me build, build my marketing team. But what we try to do is ensure that, you know, the content that we're producing and, you know, the work that we're doing, whether it's on the website or specifically, you know, for things like Zoom Cares, right, which is our philanthropic arm, that we want all of that collateral to, to be cohesive with our overall brand strategy and narrative. And, and so we work very closely with all of them on, on making sure that we put our best foot forward from a, you know, recruitment and also employment.
34:17 Speaker 04 Brand standpoint and and that we're making sure that the good work that we're doing through Zoom cares is seen in the world. So, you know, we we announced some big grants during Zoom Topia for data.org and code.org and we just continue to make, you know, pretty substantial investments in in philanthropy and we want that to to get out in the world because we still believe that people want to work for companies that do good.
34:42 Speaker 01 Well, that's amazing, Kim. I definitely like for all the TA professionals, CMOs, marketing professionals, just to see the parallels that you were running with both organizations because a lot of times it feels like you're running in silos, right? When you're really not. So, again, partner with each other, focus on that long-term value, build that trust. And, Kim, if somebody wants to connect with you, they maybe want to continue the conversation, where can they find you?
35:12 Speaker 04 LinkedIn is probably the best, the best spot.
35:15 Speaker 01 Excellent, Kim. That's Kim Storin. She is the CMO over a little company you might know called Zoom. Thanks. Thanks again for coming in.
35:22 Speaker 04 Thank you for having me. It's been fun.
35:24 Speaker 00 Keep it human, everybody. Chad, that's another one in the can. We out.
35:29 Speaker 06 Thank you for listening to what's it called? A podcast. The Chad, the cheese. Brilliant. They talk about recruiting. They talk about technology, but most of all, they talk about nothing. Just a lot of shout outs of people you don't even know. And yet you're listening. It's incredible. And not one word about cheese. Not one. Cheddar, blue, nacho, pepper jack, Swiss. So many cheeses and not one word. So weird. Anywho, be sure to subscribe today on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. That way you
36:12 Speaker 06 won't miss an episode. And while you're at it, visit www.chadcheese.com. Just don't expect to find any recipes for grilled cheese. So weird. We out.
Previous 2025 Wrap-Up Show Next Shredded: Hyundai, Boston Dynamics, ChatGPT, Accenture, Faculty, ZipRecruiter & More Page updated November 11, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
