Modeling New Initiatives and Big Bets

Ever built a plan that looks airtight on paper—until you do the math? Emily Kramer (ex-Asana, Carta) joins the Mostly Growth crew to expose the hilariously painful reality of B2B marketing budgets, broken forecasts, and exec goals that straight-up don't add up. From her viral “Random Acts of Marketing” framework to headcount-vs-program spend debates, Emily breaks down why planning often feels like a farce. The episode also dives into the budgeting tug-of-war between CMOs and CFOs, why LinkedIn marketing is mostly a mess, and how to stop optimizing things that don’t matter. If you’ve ever been told to “hit a number” that makes zero sense, this one’s for you.

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LINKS: 

Mostly Metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com

CJ on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/

Growth Unhinged: https://www.growthunhinged.com/

Kyle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-poyar/

MKT1 Newsletter: https://newsletter.mkt1.co/

Emily on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilykramer/

Slacker Stuff: https://www.slackerstuff.com/

Ben on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/slackerstuff/

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00:00 Preview and Intro

00:00:13 The CMO Budget Dilemma

00:00:33 B2B Brands Trying to Be Cool on LinkedIn

00:01:14 Show Intro – Mostly Growth with CJ and Kyle

00:01:38 Sponsors – Metronome and Pulley

00:03:58 Guest Introduction – Emily Kramer and the Steph Curry / Taylor Swift Analogy

00:06:14 Emily Kramer’s Frameworks: Random Acts of Marketing (RAM)

00:08:47 Fuel and Engine Framework – Balancing Creation and Distribution

00:12:34 CFO vs. Marketing – Goal Planning Tensions

00:13:19 Forecasting and Budgeting – Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up

00:16:44 When the Math Doesn’t Math – Efficiency and Conversion

00:18:30 Big Bets and Budget Planning

00:20:36 Headcount vs. Program Spend Trade-Offs

00:22:57 Biggest Mistakes in Annual Planning

00:24:30 Building a LinkedIn Flywheel and Influencer Strategy

00:26:45 Thought Leader Ads and Boosting Executive Posts

00:29:10 Cringe B2B Content and Random Acts of Marketing

00:32:02 LinkedIn’s Pay-to-Play Shift

00:35:49 Hot or Not: Marketing Channels

00:41:51 Emily’s Market One Supper Club and Community Building

00:44:59 Wrap-Up and Credits

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SPONSORS:

Metronome is real-time billing built for modern software companies. Metronome turns raw usage events into accurate invoices, gives customers bills they actually understand, and keeps finance, product, and engineering perfectly in sync. That’s why category-defining companies like OpenAI and Anthropic trust Metronome to power usage-based pricing and enterprise contracts at scale. Focus on your product — not your billing. Learn more and get started at https://www.metronome.com

Pulley is the cap table management platform built for CFOs and finance leaders who need reliable, audit-ready data and intuitive workflows, without the hidden fees or unreliable support. Switch in as little as 5 days and get 25% off your first year: https://pulley.com/mostlymetrics

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#MostlyGrowthPodcast #TheMathDoesntMath #StartupStruggles #B2BMarketing #BudgetBattle