495: Teams Built for Growth and Grit

Recruiting great marketers is tough work. Sustaining performance, growth, and energy over time demands deliberate choices. Those choices shape the culture, the pace, and the results your team can sustain through whatever comes next.

To see how this plays out across very different orgs, Drew talks with Dan Lowden (Blackbird.AI), Marni Puente (SAIC), and Amy King (Relias) about the teams they've built and the systems that keep them performing. They break down who they hire first, how they set structure and expectations, and how coaching, intelligent failure, and AI-supported workflows help people grow and stay motivated.

In this episode:

• Dan builds a lean, senior, hands-on startup team and fosters a test-and-learn culture where people move fast, try new things, and learn together.

• Marni reshapes a communications-heavy function into a modern marketing org, adding commercial and demand capabilities and aligning work to OKRs and transparent dashboards.

• Amy leads a marketing reset at Relias, rebuilding leadership and structure, positioning marketing with sales and client care, and modeling vulnerability and continuous learning through change.

Plus:

• Why AI committees, battle buddies, and shared learning loops turn hesitation into confident adoption

• How OKRs, scorecards, and focused dashboards clarify priorities and tie marketing to revenue outcomes

• Where intelligent failure helps teams stop low-value work, share lessons, and build trust

• How competency assessments, surveys, and development plans nurture top performers and future leaders

If you're building, inheriting, or leveling up a marketing team, this episode gives you a ton of moves to help it perform, grow, and stay together.

For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/

To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/