At Valimail, we take our work seriously but try not to take ourselves too seriously. This value inspires us to get to the heart of what makes people unique and how it affects their careers to provide valuable advice, inspiration, and insights to people working with email daily.

In this lighthearted interview series, we connect with experts from the email, IT, security, ISP, and authentication spaces to learn more about them and their experiences.

Listen to the full interview here or keep scrolling for the highlights:

About Tony Parrillo

Tony Parrillo has been with Schneider Electric for seven years and is responsible for the cybersecurity for all their industrial activities and R&D facilities. He helps support the product and how the products are manufactured and delivered. 

He started his career as a naval aviator and made over 600 arrested landings on aircraft carriers during his service time in the Navy. 

What’s an email security myth you wish more people would stop believing?

The biggest one that kills me doesn’t pertain just to email, but definitely in phishing, is that there’s a perfect system out there. That if we buy the right tool, it will ensure a phishing email will never make it to a person. 

I try to explain that there are really, really smart people on the other side who are finding ways around everything to get that email into your inbox. Even if there was a magic solution, down the line they’ll find a way around it. 

And they’ve refined their techniques of making it seem urgent and getting you when you’re not thinking clearly on Monday morning before your coffee. So you’re going to click on that before you actually think about it, and they’re great at it, and no matter what step we take, they take another step.

But everybody believes, from executives down to the factory workers, that there is a magic bullet that is going to block them all.  

I usually talk a lot about the human firewall. And I tell people, you’re a smart person. You’re here for a reason. You’ve succeeded in your career due to critical thinking and other reasons. So you need to apply that to every email in your inbox; don’t just zip through. So it’s training, awareness, and getting the message across. 

What’s the smallest hill you are willing to die on?

So that’s a tough one, because I’ve been doing this for twenty-five years, and I’ve seen all kinds of ups and downs, and I’ve seen a lot of executives who have high-risk or low-risk tolerance. 

And I work with teams with specific business reasons for why we need to do things. So even when you’re up against the best practice, there may be a reason not to use that best practice. 

So much is case-by-case. There have been times when I’ve said absolutely no, we cannot do this, but I haven’t said that in a while. I will say, in general, long, nuanced discussions about the risks usually come to some sort of compromise. 

Early in my career, we were the department of no, and I had bosses who were super tough and said no to everything. And I watched that happen, and I watched how it wasn’t always productive. 

So I try to never just be the office of no. I try to be the yes, but. Or we could do that, but why don’t we do it this way? I think everybody is more willing to have a measured discussion about the risks and what we should do to move ahead. 

How did you get started in IT/Security? What do you love about it?

I love that it’s so dynamic, and it’s so exciting. It’s so interesting and changes so rapidly that you have to keep up with your professional education. You have to keep up on what’s happening in the environment, both on the threat and defender sides. I think that came from when I started in naval aviation.

I flew EA-6B Prowlers, which were electronic warfare. That was my gateway into cybersecurity because electronic warfare involved jamming, deception, and all kinds of things like that against air defense systems. Then, at some point in my career, the Navy transitioned me to the wired cybersecurity industry.

You always have to be engaged. I tell people it’s like playing tennis and chess at the same time. So you’re playing tennis, and you have to keep hitting those incidents and stop them. But at the same time, you have to be very strategic and plan how you’re going to use your resources and things like that. 

If you could instantly fix one major security flaw in the email ecosystem, what would it be?

The whole IT ecosystem was designed to be completely open, all the way back to ARPANET. And it’s the same with email. So it’s designed to be very easy breezy, so anybody can really impersonate anybody. 

We’ve been cracking down on that, but obviously the thing is trying to get to levels of authentication and find out who sent the email. We’ve done the PKI signatures and stuff like that. So the non-repudiation of who the email came from is the toughest part. 

And the inventors of email were very optimistic. They didn’t run it through a threat model because there was no reason to in those days, and everybody thought it was going to just be used for good. And of course, everything that’s used for good can be used for bad as well. 

What’s the funniest or most bizarre phishing email you’ve ever received?

I’ve gotten some phone calls from some people with some emails, and some were definitely very entertaining. 

I will say the biggest type of those calls was back when ransomware was much more individual, where they would lock up people’s computers, and they want you to pay a hundred dollars or in Bitcoin. Now that it’s a bigger business, the bad actors target big businesses because that’s where the money is. 

What’s a non-technical skill that has made you a better security leader?

A sense of humor. 

Cybersecurity tends to be a pretty boring and negative practice. You never get to tell someone that you have great news. The best news you could have is that nothing happened. 

It can get a little dark. So you need a sense of humor to lighten things up and keep people motivated. 

There are times that you’re going to be working long, crazy hours. There will be other times that something’s going to happen, and it’s going to be demoralizing, and you need to keep a fresh face and be optimistic and keep your team optimistic that everything’s going to work out in the end. 

It also helps when you’re teaching new people. I can tell when people start zoning out when you talk about cybersecurity. I’ll throw a joke or two in, and it snaps them back in, and they pay attention a little bit longer. 

Sometimes working in cybersecurity feels like a death march. We’re going to keep going forever, because every time we do something, the bad guys respond, and it’ll keep going forever. But I also point out that that’s job security. That’s not the case for many other areas of IT that have waxed and waned over the years. 

How would you explain DMARC to your grandparents, friends, or relatives?

I would explain Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) as a stamp you get at the Post Office. You bring a letter to the Post Office, and the Post Office says it was definitely sent from someone in your home. It can’t be down to the individual, but at least they know it came from your house. 

So it’s much more secure than any other previous systems where you can just throw an anonymous letter in the mailbox, and it just shows up. And you’re never really sure who it’s from. There may be a postmark or something like that, but you don’t get a lot of information. 

DMARC is a big step forward in determining who the actual sender is, and if you couple it with good practices on the sending side, you can have pretty strong assurance that a human being sent that email. And that’s important for business deals or for any agreements.

Hopefully we’re going to be using it more and more. And that way, we have better assurance of the emails that are flowing around the Internet. And there’s still so much spam, so much garbage emails out there that are generated and just sent out hoping you know the spray and pray attach technique. 

I think the Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft DMARC requirements are a step forward in the right direction. They’re probably three of the biggest providers, and almost everyone I know has a personal Gmail. So the fact they’re all pushing in that direction is definitely a big step forward for us and having the ability to know who’s sending you what. 

Liked this interview? We have a whole collection of Authenticated Answers guests to read.

The post Valimail Authenticated Answers with Tony Parrillo first appeared on Valimail.

At Valimail, we take our work seriously but try not to take ourselves too seriously. This value inspires us to get to the heart of what makes people unique and how it affects their careers to provide valuable advice, inspiration, and insights to people working with email daily.

In this lighthearted interview series, we connect with experts from the email, IT, security, ISP, and authentication spaces to learn more about them and their experiences.

Listen to the full interview here or keep scrolling for the highlights:

About Karl Mattson

Karl Mattson is the CISO of Endor Labs, marking his fourth time in a CISO role. He began his journey in the financial services industry, serving at City National Bank and Penny Mac Mortgage before moving on to NonameSecurity.

His connection with Valimail dates back a decade to the early days of his first CISO role at City National Bank. It was then that he met Alexander García-Tobar and the Valimail team, forging a relationship that has spanned years.

Beyond his professional life, Karl is a dedicated father to three young children. During the COVID lockdown, he crunched the numbers and realized he had changed about 10,000 diapers while working from home—a testament to his ability to juggle security leadership and parenthood.

What’s an email security myth you wish more people would stop believing?

The myth is that there is a high success rate in managing DMARC on your own. The do-it-yourself mentality  is honorable, but in this case misguided.  

But in this particular area of security, managing SPF and DKIM records, companies very rarely achieve a high degree of success. So, I think the myth is that this is a do-it-yourself problem. 

Managing this on your own may be doable in the startup time frame when you’re a small company with only twenty employees. But it gets complicated quickly when you start adding different technology stacks and a larger employee base. It’s just one of those things that, as a security team, you probably need to outsource to a company like Valimail, which can handle it with a white glove and error-free.

What’s the smallest hill you are willing to die on?

So, I have a very small hill that I am very committed to, and that is on LinkedIn, when I see one vendor talking trash about another. I will never, ever do business with that company ever again. 

I won’t even talk to them. That’s a death sentence.

I work for a security vendor, and I’m very conscious of how companies talk about their competition. I go out of my way to be a gentleman to my competitors; I think that’s the right thing to do. 

How did you get started in IT/Security? What do you love about it?

My entry to IT/security was entirely accidental. I was an analyst in the military with a non-technical role and received my assignment to South Korea. When I got there, it turned out that the NCO in charge of a data center was leaving the country at the same time. 

So, I was assigned a data center to manage. They gave me the keys, and overnight, I was assigned the role of managing this IT organization. I spent the next two years learning the basics of server and network technologies, and leading an IT team—all the things that I needed to do to be a useful leader. 

Being thrown into a leadership role forced me to learn things very quickly. For example, if it was something related to encryption in a network, I had to find somebody to teach me on the spot, go to the library, get a book, or Google something. I had to self-teach in the moment very quickly. It forced me to be resourceful and self-learner, and these habits have served me well. 

If you could instantly fix one major security flaw in the email ecosystem, what would it be?

I think the original sin of email is that some email service providers do not make multi-factor authentication (MFA) mandatory. Still today, that just seems outlandish and irresponsible. 

For many years the largest providers resisted it. Gmail is a remarkably secure platform, and it has really set the standard for the best in email security on the user side. I just can’t believe it’s still not a requirement universally.

What’s the funniest or most bizarre phishing email you’ve ever received?

I received a series of emails from someone with a creative way of incentivizing me to look at the emails. The email subject line was: “I can lick my own elbow.” 

Okay, that’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen. So I opened the email.

This person proceeded to sell software services for some company, but they also described how only one in a hundred people in the world can lick their own elbow. They offered to show me if I clicked the link or had a meeting with them. 

That’s the strangest way to get me to click a link. I went to LinkedIn to find out if this person was real. I was just fascinated by the oddity of this. Even though I knew it was a bot, darn it, I wanted to click it.

What’s a non-technical skill that has made you a better security leader?

I think the non-technical skill that is the most important of all skills as a security leader is the ability to identify and retain talent. Talent management is a part of my career, which has been a strength. A CISO’s survival skill is to surround oneself with a diverse set of skills and people who have abilities I don’t.

Identifying talent requires enlisting the current team to help identify a person of a certain caliber. If we bring this person into the team, do they bring skills that we don’t have? Are they of a talented level that is going to raise everyone else’s skill level? It takes the other members of the team to identify that. 

To keep them there, I think the key is to not let the organization be defined by the organizational chart. I think it is important to give talented people a little bit of autonomy to design the boundaries of their role, giving them some latitude to build a role with new boundaries.

How would you explain DMARC to your grandparents, friends, or relatives?

I would compare DMARC to the username and password that they use on a website.

Even my grandparents know that there’s a username and a password. But when emails are sent around the world, DMARC is the way that we use usernames and passwords to authenticate emails behind the scenes. 

So I’d say that it’s comparable to that authentication process that you use online. But it’s the emails. And it’s how they talk to each other behind the scenes.

Liked this interview? We have a whole collection of Authenticated Answers guests to read.

Check out our previous guests! 

The post Valimail Authenticated Answers with Karl Mattson first appeared on Valimail.

At Valimail, we take our work seriously but try not to take ourselves too seriously. This value inspires us to get to the heart of what makes people unique and how it affects their careers to provide valuable advice, inspiration, and insights to people working with email daily.

In this lighthearted interview series, we connect with experts from the email, IT, security, ISP, and authentication spaces to learn more about them and their experiences.

About MV Braverman

MV Braverman started in tech support and sysadmin, and her favorite role to this day is internal helpdesk at a small company. After having kids, she started her own business doing everything from WordPress support to automation to digital decluttering and picked up a Google Workspace administrator certification along the way. 

A couple of years ago, a new Workspace client asked her why her proposal emails were not being received, and a new obsession was born. MV always loved email for its ubiquity and how democratic it is (which can also be a downside), and the challenge of figuring out just what was going on and why was irresistible. She dove in and learned a lot from very generous Email Geeks and other resources along with her own experiences. These days, her business (Inbox Welcome) focuses on email deliverability and automation for small businesses, who have the same challenges as larger companies in getting their emails to their customers and for whom the impact of a tanked sender reputation is much stronger. 

MV is still pretty new to the space, but it combines her favorite parts of tech, and she can see herself doing this for a long time and hopes to someday fully earn her self-styled moniker of Email Deliverability Detective. 

MV lives in Sunnyvale, which is a city between Cupertino and Mountain View and much larger than both of them. No one seems to know about it, so she has to tell people that she lives between the Apple and Google headquarters. She’s also near the border with Mountain View, which, yes, also abbreviates to MV. And when someone asks what her initials stand for, she utilizes her rusty improv skills to say with a great deal of confidence: “Most Valuable.”

How do you stay motivated when learning something challenging or frustrating?

There’s chocolate (if you’re near the Bay Area, check out Bisou Chocolates; the orange nuggets are amazing. I’m not beyond bribing myself—if it works, it works!), and there’s knowing myself—the best hours, don’t learn hangry, and so on. I look for multiple viewpoints and approaches to help me round out my knowledge and see that no one is perfect or knows everything. 

It really helps to have someone to talk to or ask questions; not having that support is one downside of being a solopreneur. I remind myself that there are no stupid questions unless you don’t bother with the search bar, so having the Email Geeks Slack has been invaluable, even if I worry my questions are too basic. 

What’s your favorite way to show gratitude?

Specific (and kind) feedback. As a solo business owner, I often feel like I’m shouting into the wind. It’s the best gift when someone tells me exactly what they appreciated about something I created. I’m running an experiment this month, and please join me! I write down 

• What worked for me
• What didn’t quite connect
• What action I took as a result
• What questions still linger in my mind

It’s the specificity that really matters. Yes, I will glow a bit if you gush that something I created is amazing, but if you say, “I set up Google Postmaster Tools and am checking it regularly because I heard you talk about it on the Smart Passive Income podcast,” that fires me up even if you’re not throwing money at me. 

I have seen many talks and given a few myself. While it’s wonderful to have a lively Q&A and people lining up to speak with me after the talk, it’s nearly impossible to get feedback later. If someone emails me with their takeaways, especially their actions, I will absolutely remember them and do my best to help out. 

What’s the funniest mistake you’ve made, and how’d you handle it?

Most of my funny mistakes are linguistic. Sometimes, it’s a Freudian slip, and sometimes, it’s a “lost in translation” thing. I speak several languages, including French. One day, I was motoring along, basically translating my stream of consciousness from English to French, and only paused at an extremely perplexed look on my conversation partner’s face, followed by enlightenment. 

Instead of using the proper expression for it, I directly translated “used to” and basically said “I used myself to do a thing.” Not quite the famous preservatif joke but still.  

These days, even English is hard! I double-check the Urban Dictionary and one of my favorite Facebook groups (Explain this to me, as I’m over 30 and therefore obviously a dinosaur) and still sometimes wonder if I just said something completely unintended. 

What’s the smallest hill you are willing to die on?

Emojis in emails and social posts should be like garnish – a little goes a long way! Don’t use them to replace text; don’t assume everyone understands your intended meaning. 

And I’m sorry to tell you, but that rocket emoji is forever ruined. Just don’t. 

How important is email authentication for deliverability?

Both are more and less important than people think. It doesn’t guarantee that you’ll make it into the inbox, but these days, it’s the price of admission, and I’m really glad to see that. For most of my circle, R is the most important letter in DMARC, and sadly, it is underappreciated. Setting up reporting and reading your reports regularly is one of the best things you can do for your deliverability. 

What’s your biggest email pet peeve?

My biggest pet peeve is senders who think I’m going to remember who they are when they waltz into my inbox three years later. I’m suddenly getting avalanches of emails from senders that sound vaguely familiar. When I searched, I saw that the last time I heard from them was 2021. 

They don’t even say, “Hey, remember me?” They just launch into whatever it is they’re promoting. And I get it; I’ve struggled with sending consistently myself, and many others do as well. But I never assume people remember me from a month ago, never mind years. My best email tip is think of how you would do something with a real human. I wouldn’t just approach someone I haven’t seen in years and start telling them about my new course. At least throw in a “Remember me? How’s life been treating you?” 

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone just starting out in the email authentication or deliverability space?

Size isn’t everything, people! So many of my clients and small business owners are focused exclusively on list growth. When I encounter them, their lists resemble a garden overgrown with weeds. Outdated email addresses, innumerable tags, “just send it and don’t worry about anything else” mentality… 

A healthy list needs pruning and weeding, just like a healthy garden. I know almost nothing about gardening, but I’m pretty firm on this. 

How would you explain DMARC to your grandparents, friends, or relatives?

Sending email is like trying to get into a popular nightclub, and mailbox providers are the ones controlling the door. The right authentication shows you belong, but it’s just the start.

Here’s how it works:

• SPF is the guest list—are you authorized to send from this domain?
• DKIM is your ID—does your email prove it’s really from you?
• DMARC is your instructions to the bouncer: “Here’s what I want you to do if the guest list or ID don’t check out”. 

But here’s the thing: just passing these checks is like showing your ID and paying the cover to get through the door. It doesn’t guarantee you a spot in the VIP section. The bouncer (mailbox provider) makes the final call based on how well you dress and behave. If sophisticated spammers could pass authentication alone, they’d be ruling the VIP lounge! 

Authentication protects your domain reputation and keeps impersonators out. But clean lists, engaging content, and good email habits are what actually get you the prime spot in the VIP lounge (inbox). Otherwise, you’ll be stuck at the coat check or hanging out by the dumpsters all night.

The post Valimail Authenticated Answers with MV Braverman first appeared on Valimail.

At Valimail, we take our work seriously but try not to take ourselves too seriously. This value inspires us to get to the heart of what makes people unique and how it affects their careers to provide valuable advice, inspiration, and insights to people working with email daily.

In this lighthearted interview series, we connect with experts from the email, IT, security, ISP, and authentication spaces to learn more about them and their experiences.

About LoriBeth Blair

LB was a weird little kid who thought tests were toys, not much has changed. LB has worked for a variety of different businesses, including restaurants, comic shops, and even a firearms retailer, before finding her way into the email ecosystem. LB’s academic background in IT audit, information security, and computer forensics has lent itself well to email deliverability and root cause analysis. At Email Industries, LB has helped to grow the world’s best deliverability team and its data-driven approach to putting definitive solutions around email reputation and monitoring. 

Fun fact: LB speaks Spanish fluently and dropped out of chef school to work in IT.

How do you stay motivated when learning something challenging or frustrating?

Well, I’m neurodivergent, so these are the easy things for me to remain motivated to learn. If something is challenging, if everyone says it’s hard or impossible, that is more likely to make me charge after trying to fix it. I struggle much more with things that are not challenging, as my manager at IBM once said, “How are you so bad at watching training videos?” 

What was the last wall you crashed through?

Being promoted to Chief Strategy Officer at a tech company was a pretty big wall to crash through for someone who grew up rural and low-income. There were certainly a lot of dead ends, pivots, and redirects prior to getting where I am now, but it has taught me the importance of never giving up. I think that’s the number one differentiator for individual success; if you give up, you have a 0% chance of success. 

What’s your favorite way to show gratitude?

Words of affirmation are super important, especially when someone has done an exceptional job, but in the workplace, employers should also attach financial rewards to these kudos when appropriate. I’m also a big fan of paying attention to what is going on with folks and their preferences. Remembering small details about folks, like their favorite foods, drinks, places, and key dates really does a lot to make folks feel seen.

What’s the funniest mistake you’ve made, and how’d you handle it?

So we gotta go back to high school for this one. I was the student council president, and I was responsible several days a week for leading the moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance. Our sponsor let me know that I’d been saying the pledge wrong, it’s not “one nation, under god”; it’s “one nation under god” with no comma, no pause. She said the last time they pointed this out, things went crazy wrong. As a member of the varsity debate team and award-willing mock trial competitor, I told them never to fear, I am a professional public speaker.

I then got on the mic and asked everyone to “Please pause for a moment of flag.” I then went straight from the moment of silence into the pledge without asking everyone to first “please rise for the pledge of allegiance,” so I had an entire school full of 1500 students and teachers jumping out of their seats. I did, however, nail the change to the pledge, and when I stepped down from the mic, I didn’t even realize the other two mistakes.

Lesson learned: If you’re going to make a big mistake, at least do it with confidence. 

What’s the smallest hill you are willing to die on?

People need to stop stealing Colombia’s country code! Are you a Colombian business? No? Then, you have zero business using a .co domain. I don’t care that it’s only one letter away from being .com. That’s frankly even more reason you shouldn’t use it. It’s probably a cousin of the actual .com, which means it’s a terrible decision to brand your business after it if someone else has the .com. 

How important is email authentication for deliverability? 

Very! 

In the age of AI, deepfakes, spoofing, and the sea of infinite content on the Internet, the real challenge is proving a message’s providence, veracity, and sender’s or publisher’s identity. 

Security threats are one of the primary risks that spam filters try to manage for individuals and organizations. According to Verizon’s annual DBIR, 90% of all compromises begin with an email, including phishing, spear phishing, malicious documents, and links, and this has been true for years. 

Authentication is essential for messages your organization actually wants to send to protect your recipients against man-in-the-middle attacks and other threats. This is also how you prove to the receiving mail servers that the messages are something your organization legitimately intended to send, assuming authentication passes. 

Recently, Google and Yahoo have mandated that senders must be SPF, DKIM, and DMARC compliant to ensure reliable message delivery, and we have already started to see bounce rates rise for non-authenticated mail streams. I think it is necessary to try to shut down one avenue for spoofers by setting a policy on all bulk domains. 

How would you explain DMARC to your grandparents, friends, or relatives?

Joke answer: I wouldn’t.

The real answer: I’d say it’s a way of securing a business’s digital assets, such as its domain. DMARC protects a company’s domain against being hijacked for malicious purposes within email. 

Do you have any other security tips for readers? 

Yes, 

• Please use MFA
• Install the operating system and browser updates in a timely fashion
• And always increase your logging
• And be skeptical about every email you receive. 

Liked this interview? 

The post Valimail Authenticated Answers with LoriBeth Blair first appeared on Valimail.

At Valimail, we take our work seriously but try not to take ourselves too seriously. This value inspires us to get to the heart of what makes people unique and how it affects their careers to provide valuable advice, inspiration, and insights to people working with email daily.

In this lighthearted interview series, we connect with experts from the email, IT, security, ISP, and authentication spaces to learn more about them and their experiences.

About Kenneth Schwartzman

Kenneth Schwartzman is originally from San Antonio but has lived in San Francisco for a very long time. 

He’s worked in the email authentication space for over ten years and currently leads the Sales Engineering team at Valimail. When he’s not working, he’s usually cooking or riding his bike. 

How do you stay motivated when learning something challenging or frustrating?

I try to step back and look at the bigger picture when I encounter challenges. It’s hard for me to do this, but I’m working on it. I tend to fixate on the small things so zooming out helps.

What was the last wall you crashed through?

I’m not sure I crashed through it but I borrowed a ladder and I had a boost from some mentors who helped me be a better people manager. I’m more of a do-it-myself type of person, so delegating was hard for me. I’ve learned to let go more and get the right people around me.

What’s your favorite way to show gratitude?

Usually by cooking for someone or opening some wine for someone (or both). Or simply saying thank you – which I can forget to do as often as I should.

What’s the funniest mistake you’ve made, and how’d you handle it?

Sometimes I mispronounce words if I’m nervous. I usually don’t know when I’ve done it but sometimes I catch myself and chuckle, take a deep breath and move on.

What’s the smallest hill you are willing to die on?

Hawk Hill is just north of San Francisco in Marin County. I can max out my heart rate on it, and it’s 923 feet up and has a beautiful view. Anything smaller would be sad. Or did you mean something funny? If so – white chocolate is hot garbage. 

What’s your favorite part about working in the email space? 

Actually protecting domains – and seeing things happen live!

How would you explain DMARC to your grandparents, friends, or relatives?

DMARC is like the TSA at the airport. They check your ID (SPF) and your ticket/boarding pass (DKIM), and if they match to who you are, you can walk on in. They’ll still X-ray your carry-on, but they authenticate who you are. 

Liked this interview? 

The post Valimail Authenticated Answers with Kenneth Schwartzman first appeared on Valimail.

At Valimail, we take our work seriously but try not to take ourselves too seriously. This value inspires us to get to the heart of what makes people unique and how it affects their careers to provide valuable advice, inspiration, and insights to people working with email daily.

In this lighthearted interview series, we connect with experts from the email, IT, security, ISP, and authentication spaces to learn more about them and their experiences.

About Lauren Del Vecchio

Lauren is the Email Deliverability Manager at Yotpo, a retention marketing platform. With experience managing deliverability at HubSpot and Klaviyo, Lauren loves diving deep into email infrastructure and untangling complicated sending issues. 

When she’s not in the email deliverability trenches or fighting spam, you’ll find her hiking with her dogs and husband, rewatching early 2000s TV shows (currently watching Gilmore Girls), going to the beach, or running.

How do you stay motivated when learning something challenging or frustrating?

I’m big on breaking complicated things into smaller pieces and celebrating the wins along the way. It kind of feels like a fun puzzle this way.

Last year, I learned how to play tennis, which was fun and very challenging for me. The sport is really different from my usual strengths, so the learning curve was pretty steep. One of the toughest things for me was learning how to serve. I had to break down each part of the serve into small, manageable steps and really focus on each tiny motion. 

Eventually, I got the hang of it. And even though it’s just one part of the game, I celebrated every time I nailed a good serve—lots of high-fives included.

What’s your favorite way to show gratitude?

I love a good, old-fashioned handwritten thank-you note. There is something special about the ritual of finding the perfect stationery, a good pen, and sitting down at a desk to express thanks.

If I can’t send a physical note, a thoughtfully written email works. I usually spend a few minutes every Friday to show gratitude or share positive feedback to a coworker or friend. It’s a habit I picked up from a wonderful teammate at HubSpot, and it’s stuck with me.

What’s the funniest mistake you’ve made, and how’d you handle it?

Early in my career, during an internship, I was given the task of faxing a document. I’m part of a generation where fax machines were mostly obsolete by the time I started working. I had heard about them and seen them in movies but never actually used one. It was early in the morning, and the office was almost empty, so I didn’t feel comfortable asking anyone for help. Wanting to impress my boss, I decided to figure it out on my own.

After about an hour of fighting with the fax machine, my boss called me over. Apparently, the recipient had called him to say they’d received a blank document…. several times. It turns out I loaded the paper wrong, and since I wasn’t sure if it worked, I just kept re-dialing the number and sending it again. I finally had to fess up that I was just guessing and truly had no idea what I was doing. I was mortified, but we both had a good laugh about it.

Lesson learned: you’ll never know everything – especially if it’s about ancient technology – just ask for help, even if it’s awkward!

What’s the smallest hill you are willing to die on?

Vanilla ice cream is the elite ice cream flavor. I don’t understand when people say it has no flavor.

How would you explain DMARC to your grandparents, friends, or relatives?

DMARC is like a security bouncer at a swanky nightclub. They are responsible for checking everyone’s identification to make sure they are who they say they are and they are supposed to be allowed inside. DMARC does this with email to decide if emails should be allowed in your inbox.

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The post Valimail Authenticated Answers with Lauren Del Vecchio first appeared on Valimail.

At Valimail, we take our work seriously but try not to take ourselves too seriously. This value inspires us to get to the heart of what makes people unique and how it affects their careers to provide valuable advice, inspiration, and insights to people working with email daily.

In this lighthearted interview series, we connect with experts from the email, IT, security, ISP, and authentication spaces to learn more about them and their experiences.

About Scott Cohen

Though he began life as a copywriter, Scott has been a stalwart in the email marketing industry since his boss came to him and said, “Hey, you write the newsletters. Why don’t you do them?” Now serving as CEO of InboxArmy, the full-service email marketing agency, Scott brings his clients his unique combination of brand-side and agency-side email marketing experience.

Scott knows enough “to be dangerous” about email marketing, SMS, and all things CRM and retention marketing. He’s pressed the “Send” button a few thousand too many times and has the battle scars (and an award or two) to show for it.

Outside of the email world, Scott spends his limited spare time on the golf course, falling woefully behind on movies and TV shows due to children running around the house, and adding to a TBR pile of books with each passing week. His lone “claim to fame” is the brief time he spent on national TV when, as part of his college marching band (Go JMU Dukes!), he marched in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade right after 9/11.

How do you stay motivated when learning something challenging or frustrating?

I repeat to myself what I tell my children all the time: Everything in life that’s worth doing will be hard, especially at first.

Then I focus on micro-progressions. What are the small wins? What is my initial goal? In some cases, the initial win is getting to parity with my current processes. Then I say, “There’s got to be a better way.” And I work on that.

And if worse comes to worse, there’s coping with a nice Philly cheesesteak or a delicious dessert.

What was the last wall you crashed through?

“The skills that got you here are not the skills that get you there.”

One of the hardest transitions you have to make as a professional, if you indeed want to make this transition, is the transition from a Doer to a Manager. That quote above is what a previous boss told me when I was trying to get promoted. (For the record, this boss backed me 100%, but wanted me to realize what I was signing myself up for.)

Specifically for me, learning to delegate the day-to-day responsibilities to those who should be doing the work was a huge wall for me to crash through. The trust that’s involved with that isn’t just lip service. And the ability to not have to jump into those weeds every day, once I got comfortable, was actually freeing.

I wouldn’t say I’m an expert at it. My first instinct is to jump in. But now I have enough reps to know to curtail that instinct and ask questions and simply empower my people to do their jobs.

What’s your favorite way to show gratitude?

I say the words, “Thank you” or “Thanks” a lot. It’s a big deal to me. Even if it may seem like a throwaway to others, it just feels right. It’s important enough to me that I’m the parent that says “What do you say?” to my kids when the time is appropriate to say thanks.

Gratitude extends to credit given, too. I like to say, “When it’s good, it’s you – when it’s bad, it’s us.”

But otherwise, I’m not a “big gesture” kind of person. The closest I’ve gotten to that is that in years past, I’ve bought my team members DoorDash gift cards or the like during the holidays. A small token of appreciation for their hard work out of my own pocket.

What’s the funniest mistake you’ve made, and how’d you handle it?

It’s hard to pick one. I generally handle mistakes by:

1. Owning up to them
2. Fixing as soon as possible, whatever the issue might be
3. Trying to laugh about it as soon as possible

I wouldn’t call this a mistake, but in the early days of the Covid lockdown, I don’t think companies had a good idea of how to handle employees who were home with their kids.

I was on a call with my team, videos on. My back was to the door to my home office. My then-5-year-old decided to sneak up on me while I was holding the meeting and talking very passionately about some topic. She then popped up and yelled something… causing me to literally jump out of my chair.

My team, thankfully, thought it was hilarious. (They saw her creep in behind me and said nothing, of course). But from then on, I adopted a “Hey, we’re all humans, we all have kids, dogs, cats, whatever – bring them on camera” mindset. After all, we’re remote. We can still be professional and personal at the same time.

What’s the smallest hill you are willing to die on?

Kindness towards others shouldn’t be hard. Neither should returning your shopping cart to the designated areas.

But the smallest hill I’m willing to die on is a sports-related hill. I’m a big (American) football fan. It drives me crazy when, especially in college football, where the hash marks are closer to the sidelines, a team runs a wide running play, like a toss sweep, to the “short side” of the field. I’ve almost never seen it actually work, and teams run to that side of the field all of the time.

As a data guy, it drives me crazy. As a football fan who sees this constant failure… yeah… I need to settle down.

What tips would you give to a new email marketer on deliverability?

You don’t have to turn into a deliverability expert to have the proper respect for this vital component of email marketing. After all, you can have the most beautiful, more conversion-focused email in the world, and it doesn’t amount to anything if it doesn’t get delivered.

So, get a general level of understanding of the following:

• The authentication protocols – SPF, DKIM, and DMARC
• Sender reputation and all of the factors that play into it
• Proper list-building practices (DON’T BUY LISTS!)
• Unsubscribe requirements
• Deliverability monitoring and the tools that can help you with it
• What responsibilities are yours as a program owner versus owned by your email service provider

And this: Respect the unsubscribe. If someone is going to leave your program, get them to unsubscribe. Do not rely on customers marking your emails as spam. In their mind, it acts the same way, but unsubscribes will not hurt your program in the same way spam complaints do.

How would you explain DMARC to your grandparents, friends, or relatives?

May not be the best analogy here, but I like to use bouncers as the visual. They’re trained to look for fake IDs for folks pretending to be the right age.

In the case of DMARC, the bouncers are looking at an email’s “ID” to try to determine if it’s actually you or someone pretending to be you. With DMARC in place, you are telling the bouncers what IDs to look for, and, depending on the level of setup you have, telling the bouncers whether these not-so-proper ID-carrying emails are allowed into the club.

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The post Valimail Authenticated Answers with Scott Cohen first appeared on Valimail.

At Valimail, we take our work seriously but try not to take ourselves too seriously. This value inspires us to get to the heart of what makes people unique and how it affects their careers to provide valuable advice, inspiration, and insights to people working with email daily.

In this lighthearted interview series, we connect with experts from the email, IT, security, ISP, and authentication spaces to learn more about them and their experiences.

About Tracey Crawford

Tracey has been in the email industry for over 11 years. Her experience ranges from the more technical side of managing MTA servers to the customer-facing side of compliance and deliverability. She has been working at SparkPost (now Bird) for almost nine years, and as Director of Compliance and Deliverability, her focus is on protecting SparkPost’s cloud platform and helping customers with their deliverability issues.  

Tracey lives in Maryland and is an empty-nester after raising a family of four boys. When she is not working, she is usually on the tennis courts playing a friendly yet competitive match with her friends.

How do you stay motivated when learning something challenging or frustrating?

Honestly, I really like a good challenge, but when it becomes frustrating, I take a break from the issue and concentrate on something else. I also look at the issue from a different perspective, or I try to break it down into smaller pieces to be solved.  

What was the last wall you crashed through?

These last several years have been like a roller coaster with many ups and downs. During the Covid pandemic I started working remotely, then our company had several layoffs, and we also pivoted our company focus to a new product.  I would say that having to adapt quickly was the last wall that I crashed through.

What’s your favorite way to show gratitude?

I like to show gratitude by helping people. I know how much it means when someone takes the time to help me with an issue, so I like to pay it forward.

What’s the funniest mistake you’ve made, and how’d you handle it?

Many years ago, I applied for a job at a small company. One of the owners interviewed me, and at the end of the interview, he asked me if I wanted to talk with any of the employees to hear what it was like to work for the company.  

He put a list of names in front of me, and I pointed to a name. He replied, “That’s me.” I laughed. There was really no recovery from that. Oddly enough, I got the job.

What’s the smallest hill you are willing to die on?

It really depends on my mood at the moment. But, one time, at an intersection where two lanes were merging into one, I rolled down my car window and yelled to the driver of the car who just cut in front of me, “Do you know how to zipper?”  Actually, I might have done that more than one time.

What’s your favorite part about working in the email space? 

I think the email space has a very strong community where people are willing and enjoy helping each other. I really like that we can all work together even though our companies are competing against each other.

How would you explain DMARC to your grandparents, friends, or relatives?

DMARC is like the lock and deadbolt on your front door. Both need to be unlocked before you can get in, and when both are locked, you are safer.

The post Valimail Authenticated Answers with Tracey Crawford first appeared on Valimail.

At Valimail, we take our work seriously but try not to take ourselves too seriously. This value inspires us to get to the heart of what makes people unique and how it affects their careers to provide valuable advice, inspiration, and insights to people working with email daily.

In this lighthearted interview series, we connect with experts from the email, IT, security, ISP, and authentication spaces to learn more about them and their experiences.

About Sebastian Kluth

Sebastion is the CSA Tech Team Lead at the Certified Senders Alliance (CSA). He oversees both operational and human aspects of the technical department, focusing on software development, administration, and data management. He represents CSA at various conferences, collaborating with mailbox providers to enhance email deliverability and certification. 

Previously, he worked at Return Path, specializing in global brands’ email deliverability and migration initiatives, along with OTTO GmbH & Co. KG and Emailvision GmbH, netnomics GmbH, and Gruner + Jahr. 

In addition to his dedication to email, he is an old-timer tractor fan passionate about firewood and chainsaws. He enjoys the camper van life and driving his motorbike. 

How do you stay motivated when learning something challenging or frustrating?

I break it down into small pieces and take it one step at a time. Throughout my life, I’ve used the “teamwork makes the dream work” principle – I usually ask for help, support, and, most importantly, intermediate feedback.

What was the last wall you crashed through?

I’m not a mechanic, but with the help of YouTube videos and a Facebook group, I restored my old-timer tractor and had it approved by the German TÜV to be used on public roads for the first time in 20 years. Imagine an email geek with a tablet and oil-smeared hands repairing a 60-year-old tractor, swearing at a large piece of iron at irregular intervals. 

What’s your favorite way to show gratitude?

It depends, but most people are often happy to receive a simple and sincere THANK YOU. I never forget the people who have helped me. And being a true North German, saying thank you explicitly and formally is already an act of exuberance. Normally, a smiling, affirmative nod and a brief, direct glance is an expression of deep gratitude.

What’s the funniest mistake you’ve made, and how’d you handle it?

I can’t remember a funny mistake. I’ve certainly made mistakes and will continue to do so; I’m only human. I’ve never had a problem admitting mistakes and accepting feedback. If anyone can remember a funny mistake I’ve made, I’d love to hear about it and share a laugh.

What’s the smallest hill you are willing to die on?

Email marketing requires a dedicated subdomain from the brand. This dedicated subdomain of choice has to be set for 5322.domain, 5321.domain, and DKIM in strict alignment. DMARC has to be set on p=reject.

A marketing email with no-reply@ in the reply-to header is spam.

A bag of crisps must be eaten after the first opening. No bag of crisps is resealable, so it must be eaten completely.

What tips would you give to a new email marketer?

In email marketing, trial and error doesn’t work for long. Best practices are not just for entertainment; they are made for use. Be creative but not experimental or criminal. 

Don’t build your knowledge at trade shows. Look for dedicated training on specific topics such as deliverability, data management, email marketing tools, and reporting and analytics. It is easy to damage email marketing but hard to rebuild it.

How would you explain DMARC to your grandparents, friends, or relatives?

I won’t. They don’t even understand my passion for email marketing or email in general or what it’s all about! And why should I explain something to them that they will never use? Sometimes, it is easier not to know everything but to know someone who does and who you can trust when you need to use it.

What do you expect from the future of email?

We have entered an evolutionary phase in the email ecosystem where I believe we need to demand and implement a differentiated approach to adapting and implementing best practices. The freedom and independence of email is our most valuable asset and must be protected. But the spammers (and I’m not just talking about the really illegal stuff) have demanded a lot of us over the last 20 years in terms of standards development, shamelessly exploiting the leniency in protecting email freedom. Spammers are always the first to implement new technical standards. In my opinion, the fundamentally liberal approach must, therefore, be adapted to the respective use cases.

An email service provider can be much more rigorous in implementing best practices to quickly address major security vulnerabilities in bulk email. However, this liberal approach leads to a mismatch between what is maximally possible and what is minimally implemented. The result is that mailbox providers are too afraid of collateral damage if they demand standards more rigorously, but email service providers and advertisers are looking for the path with the least effort out of pure commercial interest.

However, the collaboration between Google and Yahoo has shown that this is the only way to make a real difference. Therefore, there is a need for more solidarity among all the MBPs to give the ESPs a clear direction and justification in the tough battle to convince the brands to implement the necessary changes.

Mailing lists or sending emails between mailbox providers (the whole issue of forwarding) should be considered separately to move from endless discussions to concrete solutions.

I believe that, for all the liberality worth protecting, there is no “one fits all,” but rather a “few fits all.”

Email is 50 years old and not the email it used to be. Its enormous success, particularly in commercial use, is a powerful illustration of this change – most email is commercial. The commercial use of email should, therefore, include the requirement that the revenue be reinvested in the technical implementation of standards and not just in achieving good marketing results.

In my view, the return on investment is in the continued viability of the email ecosystem and the certainty that we will all be able to make a living from email for the next 50 years.

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If you’d like to share your thoughts with us or nominate a leader in the email space to be featured, don’t hesitate to reach out to content-marketing@valimail.com! 

Liked this interview? Check out our previous guests! 

The post Valimail Authenticated Answers with Sebastian Kluth first appeared on Valimail.

At Valimail, we take our work seriously but try not to take ourselves too seriously. This value inspires us to get to the heart of what makes people unique and how it affects their careers to provide valuable advice, inspiration, and insights to people working with email daily.

In this lighthearted interview series, we connect with experts from the email, IT, security, ISP, and authentication spaces to learn more about them and their experiences.

About Alison Gootee

After several disparate career choices, including dog walking, waitressing, and freight forwarding, Alison Gootee found email and has only briefly regretted it (right around November every year). Currently a member of Braze’s Deliverability Services team and a proud former employee of both MailChimp and Emma, a CM Group company, she is nearing completion of her tenth year as a professional spam wrangler. 

Alison resides in Vancouver, Washington state (which is a real place in the USA, not Canada, not DC, and not technically Portland, Oregon, but close) with her husband and three canine offspring. In addition to her vast collection of dogs, Alison is known to take her other interests to similar extremes, evidenced by her array of shoes, dresses, candles, and earrings. A diehard proponent of sunset policies, her motto is, “Too much is never enough, except when it comes to email.” 

Her interest in roller derby took her to the extremes when she broke her ankle at 24 during tryouts. If not for the injury, she likely would’ve made the team. If she had been selected, her roller derby name would’ve been Aretha Spankin’. 

How do you stay motivated when learning something challenging or frustrating?

One word: treats. 

My motivation is all thanks to a schedule of tasks and rewards. A challenging day might include a jumbo iced latte in exchange for a meeting, a walk earned for completing a writing assignment, or a quick Beat Saber session to celebrate crossing something off my to-do list.

What was the last wall you crashed through?

I am clumsy and large, so I very closely resemble the Kool-Aid man, bellowing “OH YEAAAH!” and bursting forth, drywall be damned. Literally and figuratively! I walked through our screen door the other day, completely forgetting I’d closed it, and my plaintive “Oh yeah” was bashfully discreet. 

Professionally, email is so complex that I crash into different walls every day with a different sender. The “Oh YEAH!” moment comes when I learn something new or understand something I previously didn’t, or even better–when I successfully explain something to a customer, and they do their own little “Oh yeah!” as everything finally clicks.

What’s your favorite way to show gratitude?

I’m big on verbal thanking, but I turn to more tangible tokens of appreciation when words seem insufficient. I love to surprise coworkers, friends, and family with a food or flower delivery or a gift card to one of their favorite places. 

I work remotely and have stayed in touch with a lot of friends from former jobs that I have never met in person, and I hope that a Starbucks card in their inbox or some soup delivered to their doorstep lets them know that they’re more than just a face on Zoom to me!

What’s the funniest mistake you’ve made, and how’d you handle it?

I make many mistakes, most of them funny, so I’ll go with a recent one. I was in San Francisco for a conference, and a colleague and I were both assigned rooms on the second floor. He mentioned that he wanted to find the stairs because waiting for the elevator would probably take longer than it would to just walk down to the lobby (and come on, everyone judges the people waiting to be conveyed for just one measly floor). 

As we roamed the hallways, I saw a door that indicated it led to the stairwell. Confidently proceeding despite the “no re-entry” sign (because we were leaving and didn’t need to re-enter), I directed him to follow me down the stairs. We headed down, and down….and down. Way, way more down than it should be to get to the first floor. The only doors we saw appeared to be bolted closed, emergency exits with alarms, or inaccessible without the proper authorization. We turned around and climbed back up the stairs, knowing our options were limited since we definitely couldn’t re-enter on the 2nd floor (thanks, past Alison). 

After several minutes of panicking and finally accepting that we would likely end up sleeping on the stairs, wandering up and down potentially forever, like ghosts, my coworker decided to just start trying every available door. Finally, one that appeared to be impenetrable swung open, granting us entry to the hotel’s kitchen. The staff were stunned to see us emerge from the bowels of the hotel and quickly ushered us to safety. We took the elevator for the rest of the week, and I moved to a room on the 7th floor to avoid accusations of laziness.

What’s the smallest hill you are willing to die on?

As I said when Lauren Meyer posed this question after her interview: I’ll die on any hill, any size, any time. I’ll die right now–no hill required. 

I have very strong opinions on everything, including insignificant topics such as food (chicken thighs are awful), books (audiobooks count as reading, who cares if your eyeballs were involved), dish soap (Dawn ‘til I die), and of course, email (confirmed opt-in for everything and an unsub link in all email, amen). 

What’s your biggest email pet peeve?

I have even more peeves than I do dogs, but I get particularly frothed up about “mandatory” “transactional” emails. As a recipient and a deliverability consultant, I just need to say: STOP SENDING EMAILS ABOUT YOUR TERMS & CONDITIONS; NO ONE CARES. 

I get it; your legal team said you need to notify everyone! But you can notify users on your website, your social media accounts, within your app, and all over the place without ever needing to send an email, let alone one you don’t let people unsubscribe from. Setting aside the philosophical and logical aspects (did you really notify someone if the email bounced or went to a spam trap? I say no.), these messages can and do result in deliverability damage, no matter how lawful they are. The law has no bearing on delivery, email is not a public utility.

How would you explain DMARC to your grandparents, friends, or relatives?

If my grandparents asked me about DMARC, I’d be like, “Where did you hear that word? Who have you been hanging out with?” and redirect their attention to something productive like gardening.

If they insisted, I’d stand within earshot of someone else in the industry, say, “It’s just a way to help make sure that emails are more trustworthy,” and wait to be corrected.  

Read More Interviews

If you’d like to share your thoughts with us or nominate a leader in the email space to be featured, don’t hesitate to reach out to content-marketing@valimail.com! 

Liked this interview?

The post Valimail Authenticated Answers with Alison Gootee first appeared on Valimail.

At Valimail, we take our work seriously but try not to take ourselves too seriously. This value inspires us to get to the heart of what makes people unique and how it affects their careers to provide valuable advice, inspiration, and insights to people working with email daily.

In this lighthearted interview series, we connect with experts from the email, IT, security, ISP, and authentication spaces to learn more about them and their experiences.

About Dean Coclin

Dean has been working at DigiCert for the past seven years, but he has over forty years of experience in the tech industry. He’s excited about the future challenges and opportunities technology and AI will bring to the industry that he’s excited to explore and solve.

In his spare time, he studied wine for three levels at Boston University’s School of Wine Studies. He hated visiting restaurants and seeing a wine list and not knowing what bottle to choose. Now, he knows enough about wine that he even gets late-night texts from his friends asking for wine bottle recommendations. 

How do you stay motivated when learning something challenging or frustrating?

I look towards the end goal. Why am I learning it? Why am I doing this research? What’s it for? Maybe I need more context to help the person properly, so focusing my efforts on it is the goal I’m trying to get to and putting away any distractions, especially when under a deadline. Focusing on the endgame is very important. 

Sometimes when I work remotely, I’ll grab my laptop, hop on the train, and go to the library in Boston to work someplace where I know I’m not going to get any distractions and see something interesting. 

If I focus on all that, then I’ll stay motivated. 

What was the last wall you crashed through?

Probably my garage door after I got my driver’s license! I didn’t crash through it, but I made a significant dent in it. You know when the car should be in drive, and it’s in reverse, or vice versa. That’s what happens. And you know, when you’re young, and you just got your license…oops. 

But I don’t think that’s what you mean. 

There are barriers all around us: at work, home, school, and volunteer groups. I think the last one is probably most relevant to answering this question. I once volunteered on a board where people split into two camps. It became very divisive for no good reason. I had to break through those barriers to get everyone to put those walls behind them and focus on the end goal.

What’s your favorite way to show gratitude?

Giving people a bottle of wine that I’ve curated specially for them!

What’s the funniest mistake you’ve made, and how’d you handle it?

I’m sure I’ve embarrassed myself many times in my career and personal life. I remember that at my first job out of college, I had to use a copy machine, and it was new and unfamiliar to me. There was a line of people waiting behind me to use it. 

I had a stack of maybe ten pages, and I tried to use the automatic feeder. Well, it turned out I was putting the papers on the wrong side of the machine. The woman behind me started giggling, and the whole line of people came up to see what was happening. Needless to say, I was completely embarrassed and walked away without copying. I came back after work hours to figure it out (with no one watching).

Early in your career, you do a lot of embarrassing things that end up being funny now. A few years ago, when I was in an office, I saw a reflection of that event when I saw an intern come up to a printer. I said, “Do you need some help?” I think these embarrassments help us understand others better, too. 

What’s the smallest hill you are willing to die on?

Family and friends come first, so whatever I have to do to keep those relationships front and center is very important to me. I actually have a list near my computer screen with all the priorities, so I never forget.

Losing someone to an illness is devastating, and recently, I lost someone close to me. I tried very hard to help her, but it was out of my hands. 

It necessitated putting other priorities aside for a while, but it was worth spending her final moments together. The bottom line is to make sure you have your priorities straight, which will help guide you in life.    

What’s one thing you wish more people knew about BIMI?

That they knew what BIMI stands for and what a great benefit it is, not only for marketers but also for IT professionals. Having your logo on every email you send, plus now with a security checkmark, has tremendous opportunities for your customers.

Having your logo on every sent message, especially with Gmail, which has over 1.8 billion email inboxes, and having that logo and branding associated with your company for a relatively small price per year is gold. 

You can’t buy adwords at the price we’re talking about, that would get that kind of coverage and having that consistent trademark which is associated with your brand, your website, and your collateral. And now, since Gmail introduced the Blue Check Mark, we’ve got a security benefit here for your IT folks. 

I also wish more people were aware of both the branding benefits. and benefits not just from the checkmark but also the fact they need to have DMARC on their domain. And that’s something that DigiCert and Valimail do a great job helping people with so you can get your logo on all your emails along with the blue checkmark. It’s just a nice and easy way for consumers to identify that your mail is legit. 

How would you explain DMARC to your grandparents, friends, or relatives?

You know those emails that you get that pretend to be from your boss but it’s not really them? DMARC stops that by not allowing fraudsters to send emails using your boss’ email address. This is a great security benefit whose time has come and hasn’t been implemented enough yet. Let’s convince more companies to adopt it by showing them how appealing it is.

Read More Interviews

If you’d like to share your thoughts with us or nominate a leader in the email space to be featured, don’t hesitate to reach out to content-marketing@valimail.com! 

Liked this interview?

The post Valimail Authenticated Answers With Dean Coclin first appeared on Valimail.

At Valimail, we take our work seriously but try not to take ourselves too seriously. This value inspires us to get to the heart of what makes people unique and how it affects their careers to provide valuable advice, inspiration, and insights to people working with email daily.

In this lighthearted interview series, we connect with experts from the email, IT, security, ISP, and authentication spaces to learn more about them and their experiences.

About Travis Hazlewood

Travis has been the Head of Email Deliverability at Ortto for two years, utilizing five years of multi-platform deliverability and compliance experience to maintain both platform-wide and customer-specific experiences.

From resolving deliverability issues to writing his monthly deliverability blog, Travis focuses on humanizing a very technical and theoretical field while encouraging best practices that honor and respect subscribers as people.

In his free time, Travis enjoys discovering local Nashville eateries with his wife, scouring used bookstores for unexpected treasures, and writing poetry to explore the slower parts of life (when he can find them). Fun fact: Travis actually owns a book signed by Ray Bradbury (his favorite author), which he found at a used bookstore for around six bucks.

“I believe creativity is one of the hardest things to retain as a career-focused adult and one of the most important things in order to live a satisfied life.

My advice for a happier/healthier life is to find a way to be creative in a way that allows you to express yourself honestly. Then, do it at least once or twice a week, if not daily. You deserve to find yourself, which often only comes through “wasteful” times of self-expression. 

It’s actually one of the most rewarding and productive things you could do for yourself and your life.”

How do you stay motivated when learning something challenging or frustrating?

My superpower is ADHD hyper-fixation. If I know something is within the realm of reach/possibility, it drives me crazy, like a puzzle almost solved. Have you ever worked on a puzzle, got to the end, and then had a mini heart attack when you couldn’t find that last satisfying piece? You start frantically moving things around, almost destroying the puzzle in your desperation, until you find it and, with a sigh of relief, snap that last piece in place. I live for that resolution. 

Everyone has their own motivators, so finding what works naturally and spinning up every new challenge through that lens is the ideal way to go at it, in my opinion.

What was the last wall you crashed through?

I’ve not crashed through many walls but have fallen through a ceiling before. Outside of that, my most recent hardcore challenge was hiring a backfill while providing coverage and planning a wedding.

I was brought into the company to create the official deliverability and compliance team, so when it came time to hire a backfill, it was up to me to establish what that process would look like.

After receiving the few necessary limitations around the process from HR and finance, I utilized internal resources to see how other teams approached the problem. Then I took what I loved best, added my own pieces from other research I’d done, and then had at it full throttle.

It was a rewarding, though humbling, experience as I met so many wonderfully talented humans whom I wish I could have given good news at the end.

On the other side of it all, I now have a tested and established process, new connections with peers in the industry, and a wedding that went off without a hitch, though the latter is mostly due to having one of the greatest teammates to work a project with, my wife.

What’s your favorite way to show gratitude?

In the famous words of Mona Lisa Ralphio, “Money, please!”

No, I find direct action/consequence feedback most impactful, which I learned while working for Apple many years ago.

Don’t just tell someone they did a good job; speak about exactly what they did well and the positive consequences that directly occurred because of it. Also, doing it in group settings, especially related to workplace successes, is ideal because we all deserve the attention and celebration for our hard work (since most of it goes unseen otherwise).

What’s the funniest mistake you’ve made, and how’d you handle it?

Well, speaking of falling through ceilings, I was staying at my sister’s house many years ago when it happened. 

I was in the partially-floored attic around Christmas time, digging through a box, when I distractedly stepped one step in the wrong direction. That’s all it took. My sister and brother-in-law ran into the kitchen and were greeted by the sight of my dangling legs and the sound of more drywall clattering on the kitchen tile.

Thankfully, I’d caught myself on the ceiling joist, but not before I bruised my tailbone (and my pride) on it first.

I was deeply embarrassed, of course. I mean, I’ve done contracting work and know how to walk joist-to-joist like a professional.

I owned up to my failure though, by letting them pick the professional I would hire to fix it rather than simply fixing it myself (though I could have).

Now, we have a hilarious story to bond over, although I’m not allowed in the attic anymore.

What’s the smallest hill you are willing to die on?

The Oxford comma is necessary. We live in a society, people. SOCIETY.

What’s one thing you wish people knew about deliverability? 

C’mon, people, it’s not that hard to have good deliverability. All you have to do is authenticate your traffic, secure signup forms with CAPTCHA, create personal and timely content, regularly audit engagement metrics, compensate for server opens and clicks, regularly clean out the unengaged from your lists, deny demands from your overlords to email every single email address your company has ever acquired, and don’t wear white after labor day…

Actually, that does sound complicated. 

Instead, maybe do your best, check out the free resources here and provided by other deliverability professionals featured in this series (my work blog included wink, wink), and be nice to yourself. It’s a marathon, not a race. Keep growing, and you’ll do better.

How would you explain DMARC to your grandparents, friends, or relatives?

Okay, you know how credit card companies will block suspicious transactions and contact you to protect your available credit and credit score. Well, DMARC works similarly for a company’s sending reputation, as there is a sort of “credit score” for gaining the inbox with marketing mail.

Is it a perfect 1:1 analogy? No. Would it work? Enough to not have to watch the life drain from their eyes as I tried to explain rua tags and email authentication.

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If you’d like to share your thoughts with us or nominate a leader in the email space to be featured, don’t hesitate to contact us at content-marketing@valimail.com! 

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