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How I Made it in Marketing

Hands-on Leadership: Stay a ‘Player-Coach’ as long as you can (episode #124)

Jan 23, 2025
47:14

In marketing, it’s easy to become a manager and lose touch with the craft. Val Riley, VP of Marketing & Strategy at Unbounce [https://unbounce.com/], has embraced the ‘Player-Coach’ mindset, blending leadership with hands-on execution to stay relevant and drive results.

I sat down with her to discuss how she learned that lesson, along with many more lesson-filled stories from her career.

Stories (with lessons) about what she made in marketing

  • Take risks to propel your career
  • Stay a ‘Player-Coach’ as long as you can
  • M & A = Opportunity
  • Marketing is like a soccer team
  • Reflect on the day
  • Why kindness is a competitive advantage in leadership

Discussed in this episode

Join us for How to take a conversion marketing approach to Agentic AI and RAG (with zero tech skills) [https://MeclabsAI.com/Conversion] on February 12th at 2 pm EST

Entertainment Industry Marketing: Never forget the independence of your imagination (podcast episode #121) [https://marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/entertainment]

Customer Engagement: Marketing case studies from Coors Light, a professional soccer team, and a private jet charter [https://marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/customer-engagement]

Copywriting Contest: Write the best-performing subject line and win [https://marketingexperiments.com/copywriting/subject-line-reader-contest]

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This podcast is not about marketing – it is about the marketer. It draws its inspiration from the Flint McGlaughlin quote, “The key to transformative marketing is a transformed marketer” from the Become a Marketer-Philosopher: Create and optimize high-converting webpages [https://meclabs.com/course/] free digital marketing course.

 

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