Videos · Ben Baker
In this episode of Meet the Expletives, we sit down with Senior Communications Manager, Brooke McClary. Brooke shares her unconventional career journey, the value of hiring for traits over degrees, and what makes Expel’s company culture so unique. She also offers an inside look at her role, which involves amplifying the voices of Expel’s talented threat intelligence and threat analyst teams.
Here are some key topics from the discussion:
- Hiring for an “interesting story”: How Expel’s unique hiring philosophy prioritizes curiosity and a desire to learn over traditional credentials.
- The importance of a human-centric brand: Why Expel’s conversational and authentic voice resonates with both customers and employees.
- The day-to-day of a communications manager: A look at how Brooke’s team manages global PR, responds to rapid cybersecurity news cycles, and amplifies the expertise of Expel’s analysts.
- Amplifying threat intelligence: Why Brooke is so excited about the growth of Expel’s threat intelligence team and the opportunity to showcase their diverse expertise.
- Rising star in PR: What it means to be recognized as a rising star among other talented women in the communications industry.
Introduction
Ben Baker: All right, everyone, welcome back to another episode of Meet the Expletives. I’m here with Brooke McClary, Senior Communications Manager here at Expel, who’s going to be talking to us about her career journey, her day-to-day, and all that jazz. Brooke, glad that you’re on with us. Welcome.
Brooke McClary: It’s a pleasure to be here, Ben. Thanks for having me.
Ben Baker: Oh, the pleasure is all mine.
My career journey
Ben Baker: First off, just a super simple one here. Introduce yourself and give us a brief overview of your career journey and how you got here to Expel.
Brooke McClary: Absolutely. I have been at Expel for about three and a half years now. But before that, I attended Elon University—no relation to Musk, I promise—and I studied communications. Fresh out of school, I found myself at a PR agency. They specialized in B2B technology, and I went straight into the cybersecurity practice group there. For anyone who’s worked at an agency, you know that’s a great way to cut your teeth. You learn a lot really fast, it’s pretty exhausting, but that was my first foray into security.
From there, I did a bit of a 180 and went to work for my local government’s business improvement district. I was still doing a lot of the same communications and marketing, but learning a lot about the consumer side, which is a really interesting juxtaposition because there are a lot of similarities, but obviously a whole lot of differences.
A people-first approach
Ben Baker: So what kind of drew you to Expel, and what’s your favorite part about working here?
Brooke McClary: Well, as someone who came from a communications and marketing background, I’ve always loved to write, and so the messaging was a big factor for me. The first thing you see when you look at a website for any job is how they talk about themselves. If you’ve looked at any other cybersecurity company, it’s a whole lot different from the way Expel’s voice sounds. It’s a lot more human. You can tell that there are people on the other side generating that content, and it feels a lot more real.
I think that really rings true, from everything in the job postings to now, on the other side, what we say internally. The way they communicated about treating their employees and how important the human aspect of the job was just a shock to my system. I was pleasantly surprised to see it and happy to know firsthand that it still rings true.
Ben Baker: That’s so true about the humanity of the brand. In a lot of ways, our people are our product, and so being able to put their stories front and center is kind of implicitly plugging our brand. One of the things that drew me to Expel—I remember when I first applied for the job that I’m currently sitting in, the requirement was “a four-year degree or an interesting story.” I just love that. I love the line “or an interesting story.” And obviously, there are some more technical roles where you need more, but that’s what it says in a lot of our job descriptions for our go-to-market functions and even some of our SOC analyst roles. Show us your credentials or tell us your story. And I love that. It goes back to humanizing the brand.
Brooke McClary: Yeah, it’s super cool. It also goes back to how Expel is so big on hiring for traits and curiosity. We’re looking for people who are willing to learn and put in the effort and are excited by the space. To be in cybersecurity, you have to be a lifelong learner because there’s something new every single day. If you’re not the kind of person who’s excited by that, it’s probably not for you. But it’s such a cool place to be where they recognize that you don’t have to come to the table with every single certification to know that you can learn those things if you’re motivated to do so.
A day in the life
Ben Baker: So we know your title. How would you describe a day in the life of your role as a Senior Communications Manager?
Brooke McClary: I would say my day typically starts with a check-in on our London-based team, since I oversee the day-to-day management of both our US and UK-based PR teams. I have to make sure nothing broke in the middle of the night or if there’s anything we need to react to quickly. It also has a lot to do with the news cycle, which, as we all know, is pretty rapid within cybersecurity. I will do a news scan first thing in the morning to see if there’s anything featuring Expel, what our competitors are up to, and if there’s anything breaking that we might be able to insert Expel into the conversation.
We avoid “ambulance chasing” at all costs. We are not commenting just to comment. We’re really interested in inserting actionable, helpful insights into the conversation, which is a big difference. I haven’t really experienced that at a lot of other companies where your biggest priority is just to get your name out there. We really are doing so in the interest of helping the operator community, which is a really cool thing. I don’t know that that’s true at a lot of places.
I also get a lot of opportunities to check in with our threat analyst team, our threat intel team, and our SMEs and leadership. That’s kind of the best part and the fun part where we get to pick their brains on what’s going on, what they’re seeing out in the wild, and then develop any proactive angles or outreach that we can go with that is affecting people right now.
Excitement for the threat intel team
Ben Baker: You mentioned threat intel and how you have a hand in sort of helping get their voices out there. That is an area at Expel that we’re looking to build out and grow. What excites you about where we are in terms of our threat intelligence arm, and what do you enjoy about working specifically in that area?
Brooke McClary: I love that question because I am so amped about our threat intel team. It’s never been in a better place because we’re finally growing it. It’s in a strong position where our analysts have the support—and hopefully growing support—that they need to thrive and do the work that they enjoy. As a PR person, my job is to amplify the voices of the people who know what they’re talking about, the people who are in the weeds day-to-day. We are so lucky to have some truly interesting folks with not only on-the-ground experience, but they have such varied backgrounds. They come from all walks of life doing all kinds of different jobs. So to help them also build their personal brands and get their voice out there, I think we’re in a really strong position.
Ben Baker: It is a cool time. I agree. The thing about varied backgrounds and people coming to the table with different life experiences is that it’s obviously important for having different perspectives and trying to get into the head of the attackers. It’s important to have these diverse backgrounds.
A rising star in PR
Ben Baker: So, congratulations! You’ve recently been named a Rising Star Woman in PR. Can you tell us more about that and what it means to you personally and professionally?
Brooke McClary: Yeah, it means the world to me. I was nominated in secret for the PR News Rising Star award by my manager, our Director of Comms, Andy Roger, and our Senior Director of Comms, Amanda Todd. Just the nomination itself is the award, but winning is the icing on the cake, to be sure. It’s really cool to be up there with a lot of amazing women in the industry. I happen to know a few other winners personally, so it’s truly an honor to be honored alongside other women who I know are doing such amazing work, no matter the industry, size of the company, or whatever. It’s a tough space that we’re in. It’s competitive. So I’m very excited by this.
Just for fun: The very important question
Ben Baker: All right, so we usually round out these interviews with something that we like to call the very important question. We have a lot of weird traditions here, and one of them is we start or end some of our meetings with these very important questions, which are obviously very, very important. I have said question here in my trusty Expel mug. It’s a great mug. I love fancy mugs like this. So I have a question right here. I’m going to unfold this question and ask you this very important question. Here we go. Brooke McClary, what ridiculous thing would you add to the Olympic Games if you had absolute power over the committee?
Brooke McClary: What ridiculous thing? Hmm. That’s a great question. Solo sport or team?
Ben Baker: It’s up to you. Interpret however you would like.
Brooke McClary: Then I’m going to go with, I moved to the beach a couple of years ago and haven’t looked back, so I’m going to go with sandcastle construction.
Ben Baker: Sandcastle construction! Yes. Can you imagine the masterpieces that we would see?
Brooke McClary: I know. It’s kind of beautiful. It’s fleeting, you know, it’s not going to last forever, but it’s a moment in time and that’s a metaphor in and of itself.
Ben Baker: There’s something so poetic about this. That is fantastic. Maybe it could be time-bound. You could do a lot of interesting things with that.
Brooke McClary: Team, individual, it’s truly an untapped market that no one has asked me about, but they should.
Ben Baker: It’s an excellent answer. All right, Brooke, I appreciate you coming on and talking to us. Always great to hear the stories of fellow Expletives. Until next time, folks, we’ll talk to you later.
