Nov 4, 2025
What if 84% of small businesses needed your platform to survive? Joshua Bloom, GM, Head of US Enterprise Sales and Canada at TikTok, has been working in social media expansion in Canada for over 26 years. His journey led him to become the first employee at MySpace, Facebook, and TikTok Canada. Alison Simpson, CEO of the CMA, explores Joshua's journey from Wall Street to social media pioneer, why some platforms thrive while others fail, and how he's leading through unprecedented regulatory uncertainty.
Presenter 0:01
Welcome to CMA Connect, Canada's marketing podcast where industry
experts discuss how marketers must manage the tectonic shifts that
will change how brands and businesses are built for tomorrow while
also delivering on today's business needs. With your host, CMA CEO,
Alison Simpson.
Alison 0:20
In today's episode, we're exploring the fascinating intersection of
digital innovation, economic impact and entrepreneurial resilience
with someone who has an absolutely extraordinary track record of
being first. So I'm super excited to welcome Joshua Bloom. He has
served as the GM of global business solutions for TikTok Canada,
and remarkably, has also been the first employee of not one but
three major social platforms in Canada, going as far back as
MySpace, then Facebook and TikTok. Josh's exceptional leadership
was just recognized with a promotion and North American role. So he
is now the GM Head of U.S. Enterprise Sales, as well as maintaining
Canada at TikTok. Josh's career journey is anything but
traditional. From Wall Street to becoming a key architect of social
media expansion in Canada over the past 26 years. Since joining on
as an instrumental team member in starting TikTok Canada in 2019,
he's witnessed the platform grow from a startup operation to an
economic powerhouse. Through the combined total of its operations
and SMB activities on the platform, TikTok has contributed 2.3
billion to Canada's GDP in 2024 alone. They also support over
613,000 small businesses, 84% of which now consider the platform
essential to their survival. This conversation comes at an
absolutely critical juncture. With economic uncertainty, we are all
managing through dramatic change. With recent regulatory challenges
forcing TikTok Canada to pause major cultural investments and face
an uncertain future, t hat reality is even more true for Josh and
his experience can provide super valuable learning for all of us.
So whether you're curious about building social platforms from the
ground up, the economic impact of TikTok on Canadian businesses, or
how leaders navigate extreme uncertainty, today's conversation
promises insights that you won't find anywhere else. So welcome
Josh and congratulations on your new role.
Joshua 2:21
Thank you so much, Alison, it's great to talk with you
again.
Alison 2:24
Now, Josh, you have this incredibly unique distinction of being
employee number one for three major social platforms in Canada.
That's a 26 year front row seat to the evolution of social media
here, and I'd love you to take us back to the transition from Wall
Street to digital, including what was the pivotal moment that
convinced you to pursue a career in marketing?
Joshua 2:45
It's funny, I graduated university in 1995, not to age myself, but
I graduated a finance degree, and I've always had this vision of
working on Wall Street. And so about the end of 1998, after having
worked in finance about three years. My cousin Lee Nadler,
called a digital pioneer, he was a number 17 employee at
DoubleClick. And DoubleClick was first ad serving technology. And
DoubleClick also created the very first ad network. So back in the
mid to late 90s, they used to represent all the big websites,
including Alta Vista, if you remember that search engine before,
before Google, sort of like had its, you know, its reign. So he
introduced me to the company, and used to tell me stories about how
digital was going to be the big thing in advertising. I was not a
fan of computers. Still to this day, I'm not great at them, but he
mentioned that they were opening up this media team and that I
should come and check it out. He finally convinced me, and it was
sort of a match made in heaven. And, you know, ended up spending
three fantastic years at DoubleClick to which, one, I really
learned internet and the potential of the internet, and two, I was
really able to understand what working in a really positive culture
looked like. DoubleClick, I think was one of the early great
digital cultures, and I think that helped me to sort of create sort
of what I wanted to see when I led teams later on down the
road.
Alison 4:14
Well, a huge thank you on behalf of Canadian marketers for your
cousin giving you that push, because clearly we have benefited. And
I also like the cultural learning. So being an early adopter to
digital and social media is great, but the learning you took on the
importance of a culture, regardless of what sector or industry
you're in, the culture can be such a competitive advantage, and
that's clearly something that you've lived and brought to life in
your different roles in Canada,
Joshua 4:38
Absolutely, it was such an empowering and engaging culture. The
fantastic leaders that really were people leaders, and it gave
everyone an opportunity to to be successful and to be the best
versions of themselves. And it was funny because back in that, in
that period of time, we were selling digital against all other
forms of media. We would literally have packets of 50 to 100 pieces
of paper stacked on top of each other with leads that we would call
one at a time, and basically try to sell digital media against the
other traditional media formats that they were using. It was a
really wild time.
Alison 5:18
Now, you were brave to take a leap early in your careers, but
you've also built a number of platforms from scratch in the
Canadian market. So walk us through what it's like and the approach
that you took for building something from scratch.
Joshua 5:31
It's really interesting. So, you know, that started with, you know,
my being the first employee in Canada for MySpace. What caught my
eye is that, you know, MySpace was a platform that not only was I
using, but I was such a fan of music, and I used the platform
basically to connect with bands that I adored. And came to a
realization very quickly that it really was an amazing platform to
discover new music. And when I think about the steps that I took
myself in terms of that first platform that I worked with, and then
to Facebook, and then to TikTok, it really started with sort of
building a vision and then inspiring a narrative that really turned
heads.
Joshua 6:11
So when you think about MySpace like it was revolutionary, and you
know, combined massive scale with unprecedented self expression,
allowing brands like tap into like these rich audience data and
target consumers through the culture that they were actively
creating. It gave your advertisers an opportunity to like tap, you
know, right into that, you know, sort of evolving culture that was,
that was being created on the internet. You know, then Facebook was
sort of captivating advertisers, you know, for uniting like what
was real identity with social connectivity and then enabling very
precise targeting at scale. You know, Facebook bought Instagram,
and you know that totally transformed advertising by merging, like
the visual storytelling with aspirational lifestyle. And yeah, that
gave brands a seamless way to inspire and influence and
connect.
Joshua 6:59
And now you fast forward to today with TikTok, which has social
components to it, but it's really, you know, entertainment-based.
It's really just a playground for, like, infinite discovery and
driving culture and allowing brands not to just participate, but to
actually help to shape culture. And if you do it right, you know,
brands have an opportunity to drive, not only the most important
business KPIs, but really disrupt the way that we are perceiving
marketing today. Second to that, I would probably just say
that, like hiring the right folks early, because, like, they're
going to set the tone and who you are as an organization in the
market, and you need to make sure that the conversations that
they're having within the market are ones that are going to sort of
ease that barrier entry for testing, so that when that first dollar
is spent, it's done in a way that is meaningful, they're learning
something, and they're able to then move up from sort of that
experiences.
Joshua 7:53
A lot of times, I think you have, you have these sort of call it,
shiny objects in markets, and marketers always have testing
dollars, but if you don't really get anything out of that test,
they flop. And that's why you really only see, like, a handful of
platforms that are really are getting, you know, significant
dollars and having, like, meaningful partnerships with brands
today.
Alison 8:16
It's great advice, and with the three platforms that you've built
in Canada, you've been on the ground floor, but you've also seen
some that have gone into phenomenal success and some that failed.
So MySpace certainly dominated early but ultimately lost market
share. Facebook's become a global giant, and Tiktok has been
exploding in recent years. So it's great learning and from a
strategic perspective, what were the key differentiators between
the platforms succeeding longer term, versus those that didn't.
Joshua 8:43
I think MySpace had a really hard time defining itself. If you if
you put MySpace and Facebook next to each other, we'll see that
MySpace is very much like a, was very much like a social portal,
very similar to like a Yahoo, where it was very content-based. You
had MySpace Music and MySpace Sports and MySpace News, and there
really wasn't much of a focal point, even though music really was
its centre. MySpace lost its way, and a lot of that could have also
done with the fact that, you know, Rupert Murdoch and News Corp
bought, bought the company, and really made it just like a, yeah, a
money-making machine, where you then look at Facebook.
Joshua 9:23
And when I joined Facebook, it was a fraction of the size of
MySpace. People were telling me it was career suicide at that time.
But you could see the difference in the platforms, where, in that
Facebook was more of a social utility. It was more, much more
similar to Google, you know, where, basically the the news feed
that was created really was the bread and butter of Facebook became
sort of this, this news source, this personalized newspaper for
individuals, where that content was the things that were happening
with all the people and entities that they care, they care most
about. And Facebook stuck to that you n ever saw Facebook try to
build content and be competitive with MySpace. They just got better
and better and better at creating a more impactful and a more
empowering social utility.
Alison 10:11
Now I want to pivot to the small business community in Canada.
Clearly, being a small business in Canada has been really hard work
for the last five years. We've had that pandemic, now we have
tariffs, we've had a challenging economy, and small businesses are
in many ways, are the cornerstone of Canada's economy. Now I know
that Nordicity recently completed an economic impact study that
Tiktok Canada commissioned that was really illuminating, and before
we dive into the specific numbers, I really think it's important to
contextualize these findings within the broader reality that's
facing Canadian SMEs.
Alison 10:50
So we've seen the business closure rate increase by almost 5% in
2024, 65% of Canadian SMEs are still managing pandemic related debt
to average over $100,000 and now they're dealing with the tariff
uncertainty and what experts are calling the silver tsunami, where
nearly two thirds of Canadian businesses lack succession planning
as their baby boomer owners are nearing retirement. So against this
backdrop, how do you interpret TikTok's role as an economic
lifeline?
Joshua 11:21
The finding that you mentioned before about about 84% of small
businesses that consider TikTok essential to their survival is such
a profound statement, but also something that has become very real
to us because, you know, it's a it's both a testament to the
platform's transformative power and it's almost like a clarion call
to our responsibility now as a tech company. In this level of
dependency, underscores how deeply integrated Tiktok has become in
this entrepreneurial ecosystem, especially for small businesses
that often lack these extensive resources of large corporations and
have also had to deal with things like the pandemic, which I think
really shocked like, you know, the entire ecosystem.
Joshua 12:03
This dependency really indicates that, like, that we're not just a
platform for entertainment, but we're a vital lifeline for
innovation, creativity, economic resilience. I guess it creates
this sort of dual responsibility that we have. So I think there's
like, there's, there's empowerment support, where I think we just,
we have to continue to build and enhance our tools, you know, with
features that are going to help small businesses thrive and
providing educational resources, access to analytics, promotional
opportunities that cater to specifically to their needs. And I
think by offering, you know, guidance on best practices, we can
really help these businesses to leverage, you know, this unique
storytelling capability that we have to help them to, you know,
really build authentic connections with their audiences.
Joshua 12:05
I think the second one would be community, and this, this notion of
inclusivity, we really do have a responsibility to to foster
supportive community where diverse voices can be heard and
supported, and this means actively working towards reducing
barriers to entry, probably offering financial resources or
partnerships that can aid in the visibility of these
underrepresented businesses and communities, and promoting
initiatives that really celebrate cultural diversity. You see that
in a lot of the work it is you know, that we've done, and some of
the ones that we've had to unfortunately shut down in the near
term, that hopefully we'll be able to bring back up once we can
overcome this, this shutdown hurdle.
Joshua 13:24
But really, you know, it's, it's, it's our role to, like, not just
like, facilitate growth, but it's got to be something that's
sustainable long term, you know, for these, these small businesses.
I think it's important that we, you know, we're listening to
their needs. You know, we're adapting. We're creating an
environment where, where they can, they can thrive. We're, really,
are, you know, sort of these, these partners to their journey, and
hopefully, you know, a platform that creates economic viability for
these businesses. And really, what we're seeing is an
ever-evolving, you know, digital world.
Alison 13:53
I know you and your team have done a lot of different initiatives.
Is there one that you're particularly proud of, or that the results
really surprised you?
Joshua 13:53
So yes, one of the ones that I find most interesting is a company
called Edison motors out in BC. Chase Barber, who is the CEO of the
company, he's a, he's a trucker, a logger, and he, through TikTok,
built basically a hybrid diesel engine, electric and diesel engine.
This is something that's never been done before, and something you
know that he built from scratch and patented, but used TikTok and
its community as a sounding board, and then as he understood the
capabilities of this engine and what it could provide, terms of
power and efficiencies, you know, for for trucks, he began to
basically build his first truck, and got all of his suppliers, also
through his relationships in the TikTok community.
Joshua 14:49
You fast forward to today, that company has now been valued at over
$200 million, and the use of that hybrid engine, there, there are
so many different cases. And this is something that's being built
out of Canada. So not only am I proud in sort of that patriotic
piece of like something that's completely new, never been done
before, and has so many different applications, but to see the
platform play such an integral role in helping not only the
development of the product itself, but actually to build the
infrastructure for for the business, and hopefully help them to
continue to thrive.
Alison 15:24
That's an amazing story. Way to go Chase, too. And to see how the
community played a mission critical role in the business that he's
now built. I can't wait to see where Edison goes next. Now let's
turn to TikTok's economic impact study. It shows some remarkable
numbers that you and I have both highlighted. One that jumps out to
me is 613,000 small Canadian businesses using the platform. And I'd
love to hear what from this economic impact study really surprised
you about the findings?
Joshua 15:54
Well, I mean, we keep talking about this, the fact that 613,000
small businesses were using the platform last year. You know, when
I started at the company six years ago, we were maybe a couple of
million individuals using the platform in Canada, and to see how
far it's come in that short window of time, it really does blow my
mind that not only are they on our platform, but to say that we are
essential to their survival, is to say it's a really bold
statement.
Joshua 16:23
This isn't, hey, we're a great part of their marketing mix, or hey,
like, we're an engaging platform, or drive, you know, some of their
their needed business KPIs, but that, like, if we didn't exist,
they wouldn't be around. Just tells a lot about how important it is
to not only have this platform, but for us to be here. And, you
know, to see how the business has grown from from zero now to, you
know, $1.4 billion that you know, the TikTok office has created,
paying all of our taxes, you know, and being good corporate
citizens, and the community work, and the millions of dollars of
investment that we've brought back into the community, and all
these things, you know, are, some of them surprising, but some of
them I'm incredibly proud of, and really is the reason why I'm so
passionate about keeping this story going,
Alison 17:14
That really is an incredibly high dependency rate and creates quite
a bit of responsibility for the platform as well. So building on
that, what responsibility does it create for TikTok as a platform,
when these businesses are so reliant on you for their economic
visibility and viability as well as their long term
success?
Joshua 17:32
Yeah, no. I mean, as I mentioned earlier, there's that sort of
empowerment and support piece, you know, where there's the tools
and the features and analytics that we need to continuously provide
to show that the efforts that they're making, whether they are in
an organic nature or in a paid nature, that they truly understand
the power of the platform and where they can scale and be able to
build business.
Joshua 17:56
And then the second piece is really making sure that we are, we're
supporting them, is that community and inclusivity fashion, that
they really are becoming a part of something bigger than
themselves, that we drive visibility around those underrepresented
businesses, that those you know, culturally diverse businesses are
being seen. We've done a number of different projects, you know,
where we've done in real life, you know, type of activations where,
you know, we've brought small businesses, created these these
markets so that we can introduce, you know, their products and
offerings, you know, to the world.
Joshua 18:35
That maybe gives them that small example of what it might mean to
actually open up a brick and mortar store for themselves. I just
think at the end of the day, it's just, it's just really important
that we just stay on top of these, tools, these best practices,
these analytics, and we make it super easy for for them to digest
and for them to use and reuse, but also be able to give us input
and feedback as to what's working what's not, and how we can
continue to better ourselves.
Alison 19:05
I remember your Christmas pop up last year where you celebrated and
gave a number of TikTok SMEs the opportunity to be in person
selling their products. And I went and had a great experience, and
ended up being introduced to new brands, and they became a big part
of my holiday shopping. So to see how you are bringing it off the
platform and really positively impacting Canadian businesses, a
huge credit to you and your team.
Joshua 19:31
Well, thank you, and I hope we can continue to do that, and not
just in major markets like Toronto, but build opportunities and
these showcases all around the country, you know, so that we can
make sure that there are, there are these small businesses, you
know, they have the opportunity to be exposed and discovered as
well, not just like in major markets.
Alison 19:51
I also remember Erin on your team sharing when we were at the pop
up that this was a test market for the concept that Canada came up
with the idea, was leading it, and then with the success, with
being rolled out in other countries. And I'm always as a very proud
Canadian, thrilled when we are able to take our great ideas, prove
them in Canada, and then have them rolled out internationally.
Another big accomplishment that makes all the marketers in Canada
proud. So most businesses and marketers today are navigating
through uncertainty, whether it's the economy, tariffs, just the
unknown. You are navigating significant uncertainty. So from a
leadership perspective, how are you maintaining team morale and
business continuity as you manage for the regulatory
challenges?
Joshua 20:36
I can tell you, it's not easy. I think it really comes from, one
from the resilience that I've built up from working at so many
other organizations, and especially Facebook. Facebook went through
a number of different challenges, you know, big public challenges
that the company had to face, and you had to build a strong
backbone. I've always realized that it's really just about focusing
on the things that you can control. And so what I've always
promised to my team is transparency, and you know, the fact that I
will do as much as I possibly can to protect them from as much
noise as possible. And that all I can ask of them is to just really
focus on what they can control and to continue the conversations
and the relationships you know that they're that they're building
in market.
Joshua 21:21
We also try to as a team, we try to celebrate each other as much as
we possibly can in making sure that, you know, we we identify all
the great wins that we cheer each other on. It's very much a family
dynamic is, I think, what's been created here at TikTok. And I
think that dynamic in itself builds a resilience as well. It, you
know, creates almost like a bubble. So that you know, when you do
get hit by some of these negative news cycles, you know, or someone
senior in the in the company left, or some big issues happen, you
know, within the organization, sort of become a little bit more
resilient to it. And, you know, not that it doesn't, it doesn't
affect folks, but I think it bounces off a little easier than
typically if you have an environment where, you know, like, people
are just not working all that closely together, it's not much of a
as much of a group dynamic.
Joshua 22:07
And you know, everyone's sort of an individual contributor looking
after themselves. So it really is just sort of that, that focus of
control. And if you can be consistent with that, and make sure that
people know that, you know, you are, you are optimistic about, you
know, the future of the organization, and that you are continuous
in your communications about updates of things that are happening.
I think people feel a lot more comfortable, and that is that has
really helped us to sort of continue to keep this business going.
And mind you, like I said, it hasn't been easy. We've lost a lot of
folks, and understandably so, because there's just always going to
be that inherent fear that suddenly, you know, tomorrow, the
Canadian government is going to shut our offices down. I don't see
that particularly happening, but you know, that's a fear that
people, that people have.
Alison 22:59
Great advice,, the transparency, the authenticity, the reality is,
we never have all of the answers in any role we're in, you're in a
position where you can't possibly have some pretty important
answers. So being open and honest about that and transparent is the
only way through it. Have you learned any lessons the hard way?
Because again, none of us are perfect. If you had a do over, is
there anything it would change about your approach.
Joshua 23:21
What I will say is this is great leaders. I think fight for their
teams. But sometimes you have to represent the company. There are
things that you may not necessarily agree with or like in terms of
actions that companies are going to take, or changes to the way the
company is doing business, or how employees are being taken care
of. Sometimes you fight, and sometimes you just have to deliver
that message. And it's hard, it's hard as a leader to do that. And
I think mistakes that I have made in the past is sometimes I have
fought too hard for the team, where there were just some instances
where I just didn't really need to, and, you know, I probably
pushed too hard, and rather than sort of taking a step back and
really looking at the big picture and be like, is this, you know,
is this the sort of the hill I want to, I want to stand on, you
know, or die on. So I've had a really big learning just about
finding that balance between representing your team and
representing the company.
Alison 24:19
That makes a ton of sense, and thanks for your candour. That's very
great self awareness, and it also reinforces what we talked about
earlier. We are always, regardless of any level we're at in our
career, we're always learning, we're always making mistakes, we're
always finding ways to improve. So thank you. Now you've positioned
TikTok as moving beyond traditional social media to more of an
entertainment platform and really a discovery destination with the
launch of the new insight tools for brands, expansion into some
strategic business intelligence. Can you share how this evolution
is changing the conversation that you're having with Canadian
marketers and agencies?
Joshua 24:54
I think in these six years, the platform has matured significantly.
Not only do we have a scaled platform, but we have so many tools
and analytics now and proven results that I think it sort of breaks
itself down into we'll call it three and a half, sort of like four
opportunities that are really driving the future of the business.
The first one is, is if we just think about video, and just how
important video has become with marketing, and specifically on
TikTok, when you have the For You feed, you know, which is sort of
this serendipitous experience of infinite discovery, and the amount
of attention that people pay in that feed is more so than anywhere
else. I mean, people spend, you know, a movie's worth the time on
our platform every single day.
Joshua 25:46
It's really not just a first screen. It's the only screen. If you
use a platform like, you know, like when you're on TikTok, you
can't do anything else. You can't watch TV, you can't type, you
can't do like, you just, literally, you're just, like, so absorbed,
you know, in the content. And we've built, as I mentioned, enough
tools now and proven analytics that we can drive, you know, KPIs,
you know, everywhere through the funnel, whether it's everything
from just brand activity to, you know, conversion and
loyalty.
Joshua 26:17
The second one is, is really sort of the next place where people
spend a lot of time on a platform, and that is in Search. As a
brand, you want to be present when people are proactively looking
for you or something similar to you. And so our platform has become
one of the biggest search platforms now, you know, on the on the
planet, and anything that you could possibly want to learn or
create, you know, you just type that into into our search box, and
you will get so many results and be able to deep dive into the
these communities of of content around any subject matter you could
possibly imagine.
Joshua 26:54
It's become this incredible global educational tool. And so, as an
advertiser, you want to think about what your approach should be
around search on TikTok. And as a marketer, if you can go back to
2000, would you think differently about how you approached Google
when it comes to search engine optimization and search engine
marketing? So you have this mix of organic and paid media that can
complement one another. And the reality is, is that the more
content that you produce for TikTok, you know, around your brand,
you know, the more that you're going to show up, you know, through
the algorithm when people are looking at search terms.
Joshua 27:28
And so I think people are just starting to realize that, and there
is an opportunity for for brands to really own search on our
platform, if they really start creating, you know, the right
content that will fit well within that specific behaviour. The
third one is, you know, we talked about this a little bit, is sort
of our commercial partnerships, and really extending TikTok off of
mobile and all the opportunities, and, you know, the 2 billion plus
screens in real life experiences, partnerships that we can do, you
know, building, you know, different medias together to triangulate
around a specific message is really starting to reshape the way
that we think about marketing. TikTok has an amazing capability of
being a remarkable distribution partner for so many different
platforms, you know, as well as for brands to bring visibility and
engagement, you know, to whatever the idea or activation
is.
Joshua 28:20
Because you know, as you know, as you know, in our platform, our
algorithm is very different than what you have with Facebook and
with Instagram. It's not built off social graph. It's built off
content graph. So rather than, you know, seeing content from the
people or entities that you care most about, with TikTok, we
celebrate great content. So a great piece of content is going to
move far within, you know, within our algorithm, to where you can
literally go from zero to hero overnight. Zero followers, zero
content, you know, to hundreds of 1000s of followers and millions
of engagements. And that can have substantial impact, you know, on
everything from musicians, small businesses, entrepreneurs, I could
go on million different tangents of like, different categories that
this can that this can support. And so I really think we have a
unique ability to really change a lot of these, these marketing
dynamics that we currently play in.
Joshua 29:14
And then the fourth one, which is really interesting is Insights.
We've started to build some tools now that are allowing brands to
really understand how their brand is being talked about or exposed
on our platform through user generated content. We have a platform
called Content Suite that allows a brand to go in and basically see
all the posts that are being created with their brand around it,
whether their brand is being talked about, whether their brand is
being worn on a shirt in the background. If their brand or logo is
present, that will show up. And then you'll be able to see all the
keywords that are represented around your particular brand, so you
can see what context people are talking about, and then obviously,
the demographics, the timeframe, etc. And what you can do is you
can look at some of the most popular posts that are being created
by these users, request you know their their approval, and be able
to put media behind those posts and let them represent your
voice.
Joshua 30:11
And this creates a really unique opportunity for brands to be able
to allow creators to represent their brands, in a really cool,
authentic and fun way, without them having to sort of push, you
know, their their agenda as a brand themselves. And what I find
really interesting is that as they do that you can start to look at
whether or not, you know, call the chatter, or whether the amount
of engagement that's happening on the platform around your brand is
changing, or even when you run a paid a paid marketing campaign
around a specific product or service or master brand campaign, you
can actually see over time whether or not it's actually impacting
the way people are talking about your brand, or the amount of
conversation that's happening around your brand organically in the
platform. That's super interesting stuff. And then the other one
you know that we that we have is is really about being able to
create clusters of people around your brand, and in what sort of
stage of the relationship they are with you. Like, are these
people? Basically, they just, like, understand your brand, and you
want to show them media that kind of helps them to, you know, sort
of consider, you know, you as as a brand that they might use, and
you kind of get them further down the funnel, or, you know, a
cluster of people that are actually considering your brand, or a
cluster of people that are already customers of your brands, you
know, or they're loyalists. And so when you think about how you
communicate to those individual clusters, there's, they're very
different in terms of what you're going to actually say to them and
and what you're trying to accomplish and in those communications.
And so we have the ability for brands to not only see that
information, but be able to build those clusters and then put paid
media behind it and see the results of those actions.
Joshua 31:52
So really interesting, interesting stuff, and we take a step back,
you go, okay, TikTok, you know, not so long ago, you know, you were
basically musically, you're young teenagers, you know, dancing and
lip syncing to, you know, today, you know where, you know, not only
have you become this, you know culture of a sort of discovery
platform, you know, globally, with over a billion users, but you
know you are now being able to drive real business impact in a way
that you know, other platforms just just haven't been able to yet,
with an opportunity to go so much further and extend the way that,
again, that we think about marketing as a whole.
Alison 32:28
Great examples, Josh, thank you very much. Now you've been super
generous with your time. I really appreciate it. And I have one
more question before I let you go. Now you have built three major
social platforms from the ground up. You've navigated the digital
marketing landscape for almost three decades. What is one piece of
career advice that you would give our listeners who aspire to
follow in your footsteps?
Joshua 32:50
I talked about pivoting already, and, you know, I think that's
really important to know, to know when you're wrong, and being able
to pivot. And again, like even just in my career, going from
finance to digital. It just, it felt right. And that kind of goes
along with this idea of trusting your gut. You're not going to
always be right, but it's, but it's like, you know, your spidey
senses are telling you should be doing something, give it a go. You
know, it kind of goes along these lines of this new opportunity for
my expansion of my purview, with now being able to be also GM and
Head of the U.S. Enterprise Sales Team, along with Canada.
Originally, you know, I wasn't necessarily interested in the
opportunity, but the more that I thought about it, and I realized,
like, you know, this is a way for me, obviously, you know, expose
myself further, take some of the learnings that I've gotten from
from Canada, and bring it to a bigger market. It's not so often
that a Canadian leader has an opportunity to move into the U.S. and
have this size of business to manage. And so yeah, when you when
your gut tells you like this is the right move, just kind of, you
got to, you got to take a chance and be willing to to make those,
those necessary pivots.
Joshua 33:57
When I moved from MySpace to Facebook, again, Facebook was maybe
one quarter the size of MySpace, and people told me it was career
suicide. To me, it just felt like the right move. I could see the
amount of energy and engagement that was happening on Facebook and
how it was growing super fast at least in Toronto, comparatively to
MySpace, where everything just looked like it was slowing down and
people were just less engaged. Because it just wasn't that
authenticity, that TikTok has a communication utility.
Joshua 34:26
To where I've gone to TikTok now it's like, okay, this isn't just
another social media platform, like, this is a entertainment
platform, and that opens the doors to so many other opportunities
and conversations that I'm going to be able to have, not just with
brands, but with musicians and labels and sports figures and other
areas of interest that can all be facilitated on this platform
where we can drive meaningful impact, let alone the community
nature of the platform, and where that has gone to in terms of
where we've been able to drive that success. So your gut tells you,
like, it feels like the right thing to do? A lot of times it is.
And you know, just realize it quickly, if it wasn't the right
decision, you have to pivot. So trust your gut and then pivot when
necessary.
Alison 35:14
Absolutely outstanding advice. The other word that I would add that
is linked to that is bravery. Like there's bravery and trusting
your gut in making the decisions, especially when people are
telling you that it's career suicide. So you're giving credit to
yourself for knowing what's right for you, and sort of blocking out
the naysayers who really don't have that inside view on what is
right for you.
Joshua 35:36
We used to have a sign in Facebook. We had all these mantras all
over the offices around the world, and Facebook and one of them
was, what would you do if you weren't afraid?
Alison 35:44
Thanks so much, Josh and again, huge congratulations on your new
role. Very excited for you.
Joshua 35:49
Thank you. This has been a lot of fun.
Presenter 35:57
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