In this episode of The Marketer’s Journey, I interview Randi Barshack, CMO of RollWorks, a division of NextRoll, an account-based marketing platform for B2B marketing and sales, and one of Uberflip’s partners. Randi runs a team that is all about meeting the buyers where they are, prioritizing authenticity, and understanding what you need to continue progressing along your own career trajectory. Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer’s Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts!Key takeaways from this episode:Optimize for personal happiness. When it comes to choosing your next gig as a marketing professional, it’s important to take a strategic approach that considers the role from a variety of diverse perspectives. For Randi, prioritizing her own personal happiness is a must when making career moves, because it can be next to impossible to predict what the market will do next or how the financial situation will look in a few years’ time.Believe in your product. For any marketer, it’s an essential part of the role to have a solid understanding of the product you’re selling, and truly believe in its value. To really get on board with the product you’ll be marketing, Randi recommends taking the time to understand it inside and out so you can ignite your own passion and ultimately influence others to do the same.Meet the buyer where they are. When it comes to relating to your buyer, their needs and their unique perspective on your product, Randi believes it’s important to learn how to meet the buyer where they are so they can visualize exactly where it will fit into their lives and add value. By taking this approach, marketers will have a better chance at forming an authentic relationship with the buyer and therefore, influencing their decisions. Learn more about RollWorks here: https://www.rollworks.com/ Learn more about Randi here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randi-barshack-431a72/

On this episode of The Marketer’s Journey, I interview Nicole Milstead, CMO at FinancialForce—a company that’s a true force in the world of B2B marketing. During our conversation, Nicole explains why she prefers to make her decisions both with a purposeful yet open intent, tending to stick to a carefully designed plan while remaining flexible and adaptable to change. She also explains her unique approach to understanding data across the entire buyer journey, and how to create content that resonates with consumers.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer’s Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts!Key takeaways from this episode:A varied background will take you far. Throughout her career, Nicole has carved her own unique path, veering away from the traditional stepping stones along the way to the coveted CMO role. By using all of her varied experiences—from social work to sales—as learning opportunities on the way to her next role, Nicole has been able to offer a nuanced perspective while creating alignment among teams.Prioritize relationships and culture. When making the decision to make the leap to FinancialForce from Oracle, Nicole used her positive working relationships and the company culture as her guiding light. By using these elements as guideposts, she was better able to determine whether the company would be a good fit for her particular skills, working style and personality.Be disciplined when it comes to data. For Nicole, analyzing data to determine the best course of action is an everyday pursuit. By using quantifiable metrics to track their progress, Nicole and the team at FinancialForce have a better sense of where they need to focus their efforts, while also having a chance to find better alignment with the sales team.Learn more about FinancialForce here: https://www.financialforce.com/ Learn more about Nicole here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nmilstead/

On this episode of The Marketer’s Journey, I interview Deena Bahri, the CMO of StockX, an online destination where you can buy and sell trendy sneakers, streetwear, trading cards, collectibles, designer handbags and other luxury items. We chat about the concept of disruption including why content plays such a key role in the process, how to build a culture around your brand and the importance of being intentional every step of the way.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer’s Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts!Key takeaways from this episode:Listen and learn. For any leaders who hope to cause disruption in their industry, it’s essential that they keep their finger on the pulse of what’s happening around them. As a CMO, Deena believes that one of the qualities that serves her best is having a willingness to learn, and a keen awareness of upcoming trends before they hit the mainstream market.Balance emotion with data. Marketing as a discipline requires us to keep both the left and right sides of our brain active. Deena’s approach to marketing integrates creative, emotive and brand-forward ideas with facts, figures and data to keep things grounded.Get clear on your content DNA. From the beginning, StockX has placed a high value on storytelling and great content that paints a picture about the brand. Deena believes brands should be creating content across all channels that can meet the customer where they are along their own journey, and help them make shopping decisions that fit their personal style.Learn more about StockX here: https://stockx.com/ Learn more about Deena here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deenabahri/

On this episode of The Marketer’s Journey, I interview Janet Matsuda, CMO of Sysdig. We discuss the benefits of adopting a messaging-first mindset for product marketers, why cross-collaboration is essential, and how to develop a messaging framework that will spread throughout your organization. Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer’s Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts!Key takeaways from this episode:Start a dialogue. Janet believes that as marketing teams develop key messaging documents, they need to be talking to customers, salespeople, and engineers to ensure they fully understand the product and its impact. If you’re looking for information that will help you develop the perfect messaging framework, it only makes sense to go straight to the source—the people who were part of the creation process. Go back to basics. When building out a messaging framework, Janet suggests that product marketers drill down on the company’s overall vision, mission and the pain points it’s addressing. From there, you’ll be in a better position to communicate the product’s benefits to customers in a way that’s clear, precise and succinct. Understand the market. According to Janet’s product marketing playbook, another key component of great messaging is industry context. In other words, product marketers need to have a solid understanding of the current status of the market they’re operating in, where their product fits into the landscape, and how it can provide immediate value to customers. Learn more about Sysdig here: ​​https://sysdig.com/  Learn more about Janet here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janetmatsuda/ 

On this episode of The Marketer’s Journey, I interview Shawn Ahmed, the CMO of CloudBees, a platform which provides the leading DevOps solutions for large and compliance-first organizations. We discuss how Shawn has helped to scale the company from 18 to 60 employees, the concept of using a “pod” when organizing your go-to market strategy, and the need for segmentation at different parts of the sales funnel.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer’s Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts!Key takeaways from this episode:Take risks. Shawn mentioned that throughout his career, he’s learned the most by taking big risks, such as moving from a CEO role to come on as CloudBees CMO. He believes that to really understand a business, you need to experience all elements of it rather than pigeonholing yourself to one area or specialty.Focus on segmentation. As a marketer, Shawn understands the value of really knowing your audience and what motivates them. This is why he places a strong emphasis on segmentation and identifying different strategies for different parts of the sales funnel.Personalization is key. Any good marketing strategy should be tailored to its audience, but Shawn reminds us that this is especially important at the top of the funnel because capturing initial interest is the most difficult aspect of the journey. As you move further down the funnel, personalization is not always as vital.Learn more about CloudBees here: https://www.cloudbees.com/ Learn more about Shawn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnahmed/

On this episode of The Marketer’s Journey, I interview Jon Miller, CMO of Demandbase. Jon has had an incredible career so far, having held some impressive roles including as the Co-Founder and CMO of Marketo, which was later acquired by Adobe. During our discussion, Jon shares his perspective on account-based marketing, including why it’s not just about finding the right accounts and sending them the right message, but understanding exactly where they are in their journey.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer’s Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts! Key takeaways from this episode:Every customer journey is completely unique. Jon made some interesting points about the customer journey, including the idea that so much of it is invisible when it comes to traditional tracking methods. This is why it’s important to meet every customer exactly where they are in their journey and tailor each step of the process to their specific position along the path.Know your ABX. According to Jon, it’s important to approach your go-to-market strategy in terms of the ABX, or “account-based experience.” Part of this strategy includes placing different people in different “tiers” so you can allocate resources effectively.Learn to be a T-shaped marketer. When it comes to specialties, Jon believes in becoming a T-shaped marketer, which means choosing one area to specialize in while dabbling in a few others to ensure you have a well-rounded skill set. Think of it as choosing a major and a minor like you might have in school, but for the big leagues.Learn more about Demandbase here: https://www.demandbase.com/ Learn more about Jon here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonmiller2/ 

On this episode of The Marketer’s Journey, I interview Fred Studer, CMO at TIBCO. As a four-time CMO who has been at the helm of marketing teams at companies like Microsoft and Oracle, Fred had plenty of fascinating experiences to share during this episode. We chatted about everything from mindset to storytelling, including key strategies for elevating your brand and customer voice.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer’s Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts! Key takeaways from this episode:Focus on demand gen. As Fred mentioned, every CMO has at least one area of their role that they tend to favor—in his case, that’s branding. However, he believes all CMOs should build demand generation skills into their repertoire because you’ll rarely come across a sales team that’s asking for fewer leads.Use large companies as a training ground. Fred mentioned that his roles at tech giants like Microsoft and Oracle served as massive opportunities for growth, development and education. Before you make the switch from a large company to a small startup, make sure you’re taking full advantage of the opportunity to act as an entrepreneur within the organization and learn as much as you can through your role.Engage the entire company in telling customer stories. During the pandemic, it became even more important for brands to amplify the voice of their customers. This is why Fred and the marketing team at TIBCO have pivoted to engage the entire company in customer storytelling, encouraging everyone to make it their responsibility, no matter their role or department. Learn more about TIBCO here: https://www.tibco.com/ Learn more about Fred here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-studer-87036/ 

On this episode of The Marketer’s Journey, I interview John Zissimos, the CMO at Okta, an identity management service that connects any person with any application on any device. Having held previous roles at Salesforce and Google, John shares his experience of finding the right marketing role, how to be a great people leader and how your customer’s stories can strategically position your brand.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer’s Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts!Key takeaways from this episode:Know your weaknesses to be a great people leader. As CMO, John has expertise in the marketing side of the role but there are new responsibilities that he identified as knowledge gaps like overseeing PR and Communications. By identifying his weaknesses and hiring the right people to help him, he knows when to step back and when he can step in to help his team. By capitalizing on his strengths and not micromanaging his team, John is becoming a better leader of people, not just a marketer.Tell the story of how your product is used. Talking to customers is the most important thing that John does. He wants to learn how his customers are successfully using a product especially in new and innovative ways. John believes a great customer story is the best selling tool you’ve got. Whether you produce a multi-camera video with high production value or a zoom interview recording, sharing great stories can elevate your market position.Prioritize what matters most in life. The most important goal in John’s life is to be a good father. He wants his team to follow his example and make sure that they’re prioritizing their life outside of work so that they can enjoy work more. Work will always have challenges but you’ll be better able to overcome them if the needs of your family, health, and life outside the office are met. Learn more about Okta here: https://www.okta.com/Learn more about John here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnzissimos/

On this episode of The Marketer’s Journey, I interview Armen Najarian, CMO and Chief Identity Officer at Outseer, a shared, global network of fraud and transaction data. As a spin-off company of RSA, a major network security company, Outseer has presented Armen with a unique opportunity to rebrand a company with already well-established roots. During our conversation, we discuss Armen’s extensive career background, leadership advice, strategies for taking a business to the next level and more.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer’s Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!Key takeaways from this episode:A great leadership team is like a symphony. As CMO, Armen believes that everyone on the team has their own unique melody to play, and even a slight shift within one person’s role can shift the dynamic dramatically. This is why gaining a clearer understanding of everyone’s specific role within the team can help everyone create better music together. Everyone is a consumer. In Armen’s view, all consumers share the same fundamental human qualities, even when it comes to B2B marketing. At the end of the day, we’re all motivated by emotions, fears, hopes and dreams, and as marketers, it’s our job to tap into this understanding to develop an emotional connection with our audience.Get involved with the product. In addition to his role as CMO, Armen holds the title of Chief Identity Officer at Outseer, which means he holds responsibilities for one of the company’s three products. He noted that the strategic decision to stake his claim on the product side has enabled him to gain a deeper appreciation for the business and a unique edge as CMO. Learn more about Outseer here: https://www.outseer.com/ Learn more about Armen here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/najarian/ 

On this episode of The Marketer’s Journey, I interview Allison Lowrie, CMO at Vacasa, an international vacation rental management company based in Portland, Oregon. Having also previously held roles at Angi, HomeAdvisor and Cars.com, Allison shares her perspective on navigating marketing leadership, building a solid team and the challenges of two-sided marketplaces.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer’s Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Podcasts!Key takeaways from this episode:Make it personal. In the home and car industry, every purchase is an inherently emotional one, so marketers are tasked with tapping into that emotional element to connect with buyers. This lesson can be applied to marketing in any industry because at the end of the day, every purchase involves an emotional element that can be leveraged to make a positive impact.Get in the right mindset. Another of Allison’s tips involves diving deep into the mindset of the marketplace you’re tapping into. She and the team at Vacasa engage in plenty of research and outreach to understand their customers’ core thoughts, needs and desires, while remaining nimble and flexible so they can switch gears as needed.Focus on your NPS. At Vacasa, a key metric the team uses to track success is the NPS or net promoter score. The company tracks NPS across guests, owners and internal employees to get a sense of overall satisfaction of both customers and employees.Learn more about Vacasa here: https://www.vacasa.ca/Learn more about Allison here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-lowrie-51b0a21/