The Whole Marketer podcast

Episode #150. We're celebrating our milestone 150th episode with a technical skill that, if it hasn't already, will impact and shape the way we work and live our lives, and the lives of our consumers.  We're discussing AI and how to utilise the tools available today, to help you to grow the brands and businesses of tomorrow.  Returning guest and friend of the podcast joining Abby is Jeremy Connell-Waite. As IBM's Global Communications Designer, Jeremy is a seasoned storyteller, strategist and communications leader, bringing a wealth of experience from his work at the intersection of technology, purpose and human connection.  In this episode, Jeremy shares how he uses AI to become his IA – intelligent assistant – conversing with his AI personas to collaborate; not only to provide answers but get to the root causes to help him ask the right questions too.   Jeremy also reveals why you should use voice prompt when training your AI, plus he gives many great examples of how it can be used day-to-day, with different AI platforms and resources to help you get started.    00:00:00 Welcome and Introduction to Brand Purpose  00:02:16 Jeremy's Background & Approach to AI   00:03:33 Defining AI: Intelligent Assistant, Not Artificial Intelligence   00:05:20 How Marketers Are Using AI   00:08:49 Building Rapport with AI & Humanizing the Experience   00:15:11 How to Build Your Own AI Assistant   00:22:29 Building Custom GPTs   00:25:38 Experimenting with Different Platforms  00:27:30 The Future of AI: Adoption Not Anxiety   00:31:51 Top Five Actions for Marketers   00:38:03 AI as a Time-Saving Tool to Free You Up For What You Enjoy  00:39:25 Final Advice For Marketers     Host: Abigail Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Jeremy Connell-Waite | LinkedIn   The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #149. Today's topic is an area of personal understanding, enabling you to take the reins of your career so that it's happening for you, not to you. We're discussing purpose driven careers, packed with advice for how to make choices that enable you to be successful and fulfilled in your career and life as a whole.  Joining Abby is her guest and experienced marketing leader, Megan Harrison. Having worked on many iconic brands such as Huggies, Durex, Warburtons and Carex, Megan's is now CMO at Grocery Aid, a charity with a long history of helping grocery workers through tough times, providing financial, emotional and practical support.  In this episode, Megan shares her definition of a purpose driven career, the choices she's made in her personal career journey and why, and the questions to ask yourself when choosing your next role.  Plus, her career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.    00:00:00 Welcome and Introduction to Brand Purpose  00:03:41 Definition of Purpose   00:04:40 Megan's Personal Journey to Identify Purpose   00:05:54 Career Choices and Purpose Alignment   00:09:13 Career Transitions   00:12:25 Advice for Early Career Professionals   00:15:40 Looking For Your Next Role   00:20:13 Red Flags   00:23:07 Connection to Brand Challenges   00:25:05 Cultural Values in Organisations   00:27:14 Career Highs and Lows   00:30:57 Advice for Future Marketers   Host: Abigail Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Megan Harrison FCIM | LinkedIn   The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #148. The technical skill in this episode is brand purpose, providing marketers with the clarity on why their brand exists internally and externally, motivation for the whole organisation to get behind and creating a north star to focus on - whether that's strategic or tactical choices or how to bring this to life.   Joining Abby is her guest Helen Jeremiah, Global Vice President for Croda, a company that makes specialised ingredients for beauty, personal care, and home care products. Having previously worked at Boots and Walgreen's Alliance Group, Helen is an experienced marketing leader who has worked across multiple disciplines including marketing, customer strategy, global marketing, global brand marketing, product development, insight and inclusivity.  In this episode, Helen shares her definition of brand purpose and its significance beyond profit, authenticity, the importance of internal engagement, and agency partnerships to bring to life.  Plus, her career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.    00:00:00 Welcome and Introduction to Brand Purpose  00:03:03 Importance of Internal Engagement   00:04:48 Advice for Redefining Brand Purpose   00:07:08 Aligning Brand Purpose with Values   00:09:22 Multifaceted Nature of Brand Purpose   00:10:21 Stakeholder Engagement for Alignment   00:13:49 Measuring Brand Purpose Impact   00:16:43 Internal Perception of Brand Purpose   00:18:28 Helen's Personal Drive for Purpose   00:23:43 Agency Collaboration for Fresh Perspectives   00:25:49 Career Highs and Lows  00:31:51 Advice for Future Marketers    Host: Abigail Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Helen Jeremiah | LinkedIn   The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com   

Episode #147. Social Proof is the technical topic featured in this episode as we delve into the benefits of collaborating, trialling and testing with consumers and influencers in real-time and how to get started with social proof to help build communication ideas, propositions, campaigns and products. And the all-important internal buy-in and confidence for concepts and much more…    Abby's guest in this episode is Michael Goldstein, founder of Fragment, a comms strategy led agency that drives growth through helping brands capitalise on the chaos of modern marketing. Previously he was global head of communications strategy at DDB, and before that held leadership roles at Mccann, R/GA and The &Partnership.    In this episode, Michael shares his definition of Social Proof, why marketers should build ideas out in the world and how to get started with testing. Plus examples of integrating social proof to shape creative campaigns and working with influencers.    Plus his career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.    00:00:00 Welcome and Introduction to Social Proof  00:02:58 Defining Social Proof  00:04:03 Traditional vs Collaborative Process  00:06:32 The Rapid Nature of Cultural Changes  00:08:07 Testing and Iteration in Marketing  00:09:40 Challenger Brands and Flexibility  00:10:26 Consumer Product Brands and Creators  00:12:18 Building a Feedback Loop  00:17:30 Using Social Proof in Agency Work  00:19:11 Case study: Repositioning a Brand  00:21:35 Cultural and Emotional Impact  00:24:16 Community-Built Brands  00:25:43 Embracing Chaos in Marketing  00:27:11 Career Highs and Lows  00:31:21 Advice for Future Marketers    Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Michael Goldstein | LinkedIn   The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #146. Today's episode discusses the necessity of DEI and how as marketers we have a responsibility to reflect and shape the world around us – particularly as research* shows younger generations trust brands more than governments for being ethical and competent.  Abby's guest is Ali Hanan, founder and CEO of Creative Equals, an award winning organisation driving the new ROI - Return on Inclusion - for people, businesses and the planet. Ali set up Creative Equals after finding she was one of the few women in creative leadership through most of her 20 year career and the company works with clients such as PepsiCo, Reckitt, Abi InBev, H&M Group, McDonald's, Mars, Wrigley and more for inclusion-first marketing strategy and creative.  In this episode, Ali shares her definition of DEI, the business case for DEI (supported by stats & facts), 5Rs for positive impact of DEI, navigating backlash and confronting unconscious biases and stereotypes.  Plus her career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.  *Edelman Trust Barometer surveyed over 32,000 respondents in 28 countries.    00:00:00 Welcome and Introduction Defining DEI  00:04:25 Marketing as a Force for Good  00:09:00 Representation in Advertising  00:11:44 Inclusive Insights   00:14:04 Navigating Backlash in Marketing   00:19:12 Co-creation with Communities  00:21:05 Understanding Personal Biases  00:24:36 Identifying Bias in Teams   00:27:23 Researching Campaign Ideas   00:28:49 Benefits of Inclusive Marketing  00:30:07 The Impact of Trust in Brands   00:33:37 Career Highs and Lows   00:35:15 Challenges Facing DEI Initiatives   00:39:26 Advice for Future Marketers     Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Ali Hanan | LinkedIn   The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #145. Marketing Culture is the holistic topic discussed in this episode, the what, how and why your marketing function works day-to-day.   Defining your marketing culture is the key to unlocking not only the fulfilment and motivation of your team but its thinking and work, which often includes your company values, behaviours, beliefs, routines and rituals, philosophy and approach, processes and ways of working, org structure and how your people bring this to life through their skills, behaviours and mindset.  Joining Abby to discuss marketing culture is her guest Abi Willstead, Head of Brand and Marketing Excellence at Specsavers, where she focuses on helping strengthen the brand and empowering their global marketing team to thrive in their roles, supporting brilliant outcomes for customers and increasing the number of lives they can change through better sight and hearing.  In this episode, Abi shares her definition of marketing culture, the 5Cs of Specsavers culture, empowering teams, creating space for innovation, and involving the entire team in defining and evolving the marketing culture  Plus her career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.    00:00:00 Welcome and Introduction to ‘Marketing Culture'  00:03:44 Key Ingredients of Marketing Culture   00:06:59 Five Cs of Specsavers' Culture   00:08:03 Importance of Psychological Safety   00:10:05 Embedding Values in Daily Work   00:16:11 Continuous Improvement and Learning   00:19:55 Core Skills Driving Specsavers' Marketing Approach   00:24:21 Empowerment in Marketing Culture   00:24:57 Evolving Marketing Practices   00:27:51 Involving Teams in Change   00:30:13 Career Highs and Lows   00:35:47 Advice for Future Marketers     Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Abi Willstead | LinkedIn   The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #144. The personal understanding topic explored in this episode is Growth Mindset - a belief system that people adopt where they believe that their qualities, skills, abilities and situation can change and grow, and through hard work, it's possible for these to develop and improve.  Discussing Growth Mindset with Abby is her guest Charlotte Langley, Chief Marketing Officer at Bloom & Wild. Having previously worked at L'Oreal, Charlotte joined Bloom & Wild at the start of 2020 to head up the evolution of Bloom & Wild's brand and communications, including the development of their ‘Care Wildly' creative platform.  In this episode, Charlotte shares her definition of Growth Mindset, pushing through fear, creating a network for support, how growth mindset impacts her leadership style, energy for growth mode and her tip when worries and anxiety creeps in.  Plus her career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.    00:00:00 Welcome and Introduction to ‘Growth Mindset'  00:03:10 Embracing Fear and Asking for Help  00:05:06 Leadership and Growth Mindset   00:07:47 Navigating Change in Marketing  00:09:42 Building a Knowledge Bank and Networking  00:13:32 Adapting to Changes  00:18:44 Growth Mode  00:22:41 Confidence and Imposter Syndrome  00:25:40 Learning from Others  00:27:03 Reflecting on Personal Growth  00:30:13 Acknowledging Anxiety and Organising Thoughts  00:36:13 Career Highs and Lows   00:39:06 Advice for Future Marketers   Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Charlotte Langley | LinkedIn   The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com   

Episode #143. Today's topic is a technical and leadership skill exploring building and leading brands with soul, which doesn't just arise from the company strategy or tactical execution but from the passion, love, and responsibility of the leaders and people in the business.   Abby's guest who is passionate about this topic and author of ‘Building Brands With Soul' is Siew Ting Foo. An impactful and influential marketing leader, Siew Ting is named consecutively, six times as Asia's most purposeful and influential CMO, and named Asia and China's top woman leader, having worked on brands including Unilever, Mars, Diageo, Fonterra and most recently, HP.   In this episode, Siew Ting shares her definition and characteristics of brands with soul and why it's important, the five pillars, human-centric leadership, global brands to local markets and how she connects to her team through ‘Friday emails'.  Plus Siew Ting's career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.    00:00:00 Welcome and introduction to ‘building brands with soul'  00:03:45 The Five Pillars of Brands with Soul   00:05:13 Writing the Book for future leaders   00:06:29 Why is Human Centricity important   00:09:15 Siew Ting's Personal Discovery and Purpose  00:11:00 First 100 Days Framework   00:15:21 How to Create Global Brands with Local Soul   00:19:49 Building Internal Belief  00:22:27 Authentic Leadership through Friday Emails   00:25:51 Personal Career Highs and Lows  00:27:36 Advice for Future Marketers     Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Siew Ting Foo | LinkedIn    The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com   

Episode #142. Connecting with your Consumer is the focus of today's episode, an evolving technical and soft/human skill for marketers to develop as our human understanding continues to deepen and evolve through societal and technological advancements.  Abby's guest to discuss is Toby Horry, Global Brand and Content Director at Tui, responsible to Tui's re-brand and the recently much talked about first Tui Christmas ad. Prior to Tui, Toby worked at Tesco's as Digital Marketing Director, part of the Brand Turnaround team, tasked with rebuilding trust in the Tesco brand and in the agency world as planner for AMV BBDO and MD of Dare.   In this episode, Toby shares his definition of what it means to connect with your consumer, the challenges of mass targeting, skills and behaviours marketers need to connect with audiences, marketing to global audiences, and lots of examples of connecting from brands such as Tui, Nicorette, Tesco and Fiat.   Plus Toby's career highs and lows and advice for marketers.    00:00:00 Welcome and Introduction to ‘Connecting with consumers'  00:02:23 The Importance of Understanding Customers  00:03:40 Changes in Marketing Communication  00:05:56 Consumer Expectations  00:07:25 Skills Marketers Need in Order to Connect  00:09:59 Insights from Nicorette Campaign  00:11:46 The Role of Concise Marketing Briefs 00:14:09 Global Marketing Considerations  00:20:03 Customer-Centric Ideas  00:23:23 Insights from TUI  00:27:32 Creativity and Agility  00:29:10 Toby's Career Highs and Lows  00:31:29 Advice for Future Marketers    Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest:  Toby Horry | LinkedIn   The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #141. Today's personal understanding topic is about owning your marketing career so that it is fulfilling to you, and the steps you can take to be proactive and intentional to move towards your ideal role.  Abby's guest to discuss this is David Brewerton, Growth Marketing Director of Monzo. Initially starting his marketing career in digital marketing, David broadened his marketing roles to have more strategic impact and has worked with brands such as Tesco Mobile, Metro Bank and now Monzo.   In this episode, David shares his definition of owning your marketing career, perception as reality, the art of giving and receiving feedback, his story of finding an ideal role after redundancy and the value of building your profile and making connections.   Plus David's career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.    00:00:00 Welcome and Introduction to ‘Owning your Career'  00:02:12 Defining Career Ownership  00:03:55 Perception as Reality  00:06:11 Why Personal Branding is Valuable  00:08:52 The Importance of Authenticity  00:14:27 Feedback as a Tool for Growth  00:17:52 David's Approach to Securing a New Role Following Redundancy   00:22:35 Building a Profile Online  00:27:24 Proactive Career Ownership  00:37:13 Mapping Career Goals and Vision  00:39:15 Finding Your Tribe  00:41:27 Learning from Experience  00:41:40 Advice for Marketers of Tomorrow    Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest:  David Brewerton | LinkedIn   The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #140. We're starting the new year with a technical topic on Marketing Excellence, to inspire and empower high performance for all marketing leaders and those in their care who are growing the brands and businesses of tomorrow.   Joining Abby is her guest Sue Warren, Head of Marketing Capability at Sky. Sue worked on brands such as Unilever, Telewest and Virgin Media before joining Sky and after a decade in various marketing, strategy and planning roles, is now developing structured marketing excellence programmes to upskill and energise the entire marketing function in Sky.  In this episode, Sue shares her definition of marketing excellence, the development and implementation of Sky's marketing excellence programme, it's impact on the output and creativity of the marketing function and the importance of embedding marketing excellence long-term, not just delivering training.   Plus Sue's career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.    00:00:00 Welcome and introduction to Marketing Excellence   00:03:25 What is Marketing Excellence?   00:05:36 Benefits of a Structured Marketing Excellence Programme   00:06:35 Beyond Marketing Training – Empowerment and Investment   00:10:08 Creation and Drivers Behind Sky's Marketing Excellence Program   00:17:26 Methods, Processes and Behaviours of Marketing Excellence  00:23:35 Leadership and Accountability   00:25:42 Impact on Marketing Performance and Engagement   00:28:55 Lessons from the Journey   00:32:09 Sue's Personal Career Highs and Lows (00:32:09)  00:38:21 Advice for Future Marketers    Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Sue Warren | LinkedIn   The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #139. Today's focus is on Personal Understanding, which is a fundamental pillar of the Whole Marketer philosophy and what we believe is the key to having a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole.  Abby's guest to discuss the benefits of developing your personal understanding is Kirsten McPherson. As Marketing Director at Mondelez, Kirsten is responsible for heading up two of the UK's top brands, Philadelphia and Dairylea. Her previous experience includes Procter and Gamble, where she spent more than a decade working on an array of billion-dollar brands, driving global change initiatives such as Always ‘end period poverty'.  In this episode, Kirsten shares her definition of personal development and its importance for leadership development, her formula for personal energy, implementing ‘prison Fridays' and the role of community and mentoring in developing your personal understanding.  Plus Kirsten shares her advice for career highs and learnings, and advice for marketers.    00:00:00 Welcome and Introduction to Personal Understanding   00:02:07 What is Personal Development?  00:05:03 Personal and Professional Growth and Leadership  00:07:56 Kirsten's Formula for Personal Energy  00:08:19 Purpose, Motivation and Confronting Limiting Beliefs   00:13:17 The Importance of Coaching  00:15:33 3 Key Areas for Marketers   00:16:14 The Concept of "Prison Fridays"   00:21:59 The Role of Community in Personal Development   00:25:19 Creating Community Initiatives at Mondelez   00:29:23 Advice for Starting Community Initiatives  00:30:46 Kirsten's Career Highs and Learnings   00:34:24 Advice for Future Marketers   Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Kirsten McPherson | LinkedIn   The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #138. Creativity is the skill featured in this episode, however being creative is not a department or a job title; it's a skill and mindset that every marketer can harness to keep evolving in pursuit of new, innovative ways to solve problems.  Joining Abby is Kevin Chesters, a marketing strategist with over 25 years of experience both agency and client-side, including being the former Head of Strategy at BT and CSO of W+K London, plus Dentsu, McGarryBowen and Ogilvy. Kevin's first book, 'The Creative Nudge' was an Amazon best-seller and he shares the concepts from his book in this podcast.  In this episode, Kevin shares his definition of creativity, ‘nudge theory' where small changes can lead to significant impacts, 9 behaviours to rediscover your creativity and how marketing leaders can create an environment for creativity.  Plus Kevin shares his advice for reviewing creative respectfully and his career highs and lows.    00:00:00 Welcome and Creativity in Marketing  00:02:00 Defining Creativity  00:03:32 Why is Creativity vital to stand out?  00:06:09 Kevin's Nudge Theory Explained  00:08:12 Nine Behaviours to Rediscover Creativity  00:15:12 How to Create Conditions for Creativity?   00:17:56 Being Willing to Challenge the Status Quo  00:21:56 Creativity and Human Evolution  00:24:51 How to Review Creative Ideas?  00:33:12 Reviewing Creativity and Giving Feedback   00:37:29 Kevin's career Highs and Lows   00:48:18 Advice for Marketers   Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Kevin Chesters | LinkedIn   The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #137. Today's episode is a holistic topic on how the breadth and depth of marketer's roles are continuing to evolve as we move towards leading the long-term commercial agenda, understanding the advancements in science and neuromarketing for how consumers make decisions and adopting AI into our everyday lives.  Abby's guest is legendary marketing leader, Margaret Jobling, Group Chief Marketing Officer at NatWest Group. Before joining Natwest in 2020 and implementing agile ways of working, “Tomorrow Begins Today” brand platform and the NatWest partnership with team GB for the Paris Olympics in 2024, Marg has spent the majority of her marketing career in FMCG categories, working on some iconic brands such as Lynx, Dove, Radox, Cadbury, Dairy Milk and Birds Eye, as well as Director of Marketing for British Gas.  In this episode, Margaret shares her definition of the role of marketing today and how it has evolved, the art and science of marketing, learnings as a CMO, marketing in the age of AI and building trust and authenticity with consumers in a digital environment.  Plus Margaret's career highs and howlers, and advice for marketers of tomorrow.    00:00:00 Welcome and why we need evolving skills in marketing today  00:03:13 Defining of the role of Marketing  00:05:40 Key shifts in marketing  00:06:42 Impact of technology on customer interactions  00:10:05 What are the skills required for modern marketers  00:11:27 The future of marketing with AI and building trust  00:20:53 Skills Margaret looks for when hiring marketers  00:24:56 Building relationships with stakeholders  00:28:14 Experimentation, Curiosity and Continuous Learning  00:31:16 Margaret's Career Highs and Howlers  00:36:31 Advice for marketers of tomorrow    Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Margaret Jobling | LinkedIn   The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #136. This episode is a personal understanding topic for working parents to help you gain fulfilment in your life as a whole - navigating the reality of being both a marketer and a parent and what you can do to balance both worlds when work and home life collide.  Joining Abby is her guest Rachel Morris, an Exec business coach, co-founder of Motion Learning and best-selling author of ‘Working Mother', a book inspired by Rachel's decades of expertise and practice coaching new parents as they leave and return to work.   In this episode, Rachel shares her definition of working parents, challenges faced particularly by mothers, insights on setting boundaries, self-care, and the emotional struggles during transitions like maternity leave.  Plus Rachel's advice for working parents.    00:00:00 Welcome and challenges faced by Working Parents.  00:02:21 What is a Working Parent?   00:04:01 Rachel's motivation for writing ‘Working Mother' book.  00:09:46 Common emotional patterns experienced by working parents.  00:10:41 Overwhelm during maternity leave preparation.  00:12:40 Fear and anxiety in new parenthood.   00:16:58 Challenges of returning to work.  00:20:21 Why you should set boundaries.   00:25:54 Understanding what gives you energy.  00:32:53 Empowerment to gain clarity and direction.  00:37:17 Finding fulfilment to gain balance.    Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: - Rachel Morris MNCIP, PCC - | LinkedIn   The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com

Episode #135. Today's topic is a technical skill on copywriting and its critical role in driving action and building brand trust.  Joining Abby to discuss is seasoned copywriter Dave Harland aka the Word Man. A naturally entertaining storyteller, over the past two decades Dave has built a notable career in persuasive writing that captures attention for brands such as Google, Jaguar, Tesco and Castor. He is a regular speaker at industry events and also has a LinkedIn following of almost 100k people who enjoy his witty stories - particularly leading scammers down rabbit holes and challenging bad actors on the internet.  In this episode Dave shares his definition of copywriting, 3 effective copywriting principles, when brands get it wrong, empathy for your audience, copywriting tips and brand success stories.   Plus Dave's career highs and lows and advice for marketers.    00:00 Welcome and why the art of copywriting is so important for marketers.  05:44 How being entertaining converts consumers into loyal fans.  07:52 Ryanair excels at self-deprecating, entertaining branding.  13:16 Brands misuse clichés and jargon which impacts consumer engagement.  18:56 Empathy is crucial for effective copywriting skills.  22:20 Knowing what is interesting to your audience.  26:50 How to improve your writing skills.  31:37 How Dave turned a career low into university writing opportunity.  36:46 Dave's career high and advice for marketers.    Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Dave Harland | LinkedIn   The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #134. Today's topic is Agency Partnerships – what makes a great client-agency relationship and perspective from both sides of the fence.  Joining Abby to discuss is Richard Robinson, awarded "One of the ten most influential Leaders in Digital & Tech" (BIMA) and Campaign A-List 2024. Richard is highly experienced in the client (McDonalds, Coca-Cola) and agency (Publicis Worldwide) world and as an intermediary for both at Xeim Engage and Oystercatchers. In his latest role as Executive Director of Ingenuity+ and Exco member of The Ingenuity Group, UK's largest connector of brands with agencies, Richard specialises in connecting the Marketing World.  In this episode Richard shares the two fundamentals of a great agency partner, the role of account handling, all agency ‘rules of engagement', quality of briefing, plus insight from Ingenuity+ ‘Redefining the pitch' report and why Richard is excited about the future of his new role.  Read a copy of Ingenuity+ report mentioned in this episode: Ingenuity + Redefining The Pitch (ingenuitylondon.com) Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest:  Richard Robinson

Episode #133. Strategy is the technical skill explored in this episode, with a lens on simplifying the process to ensure marketers have not only the vision and clarity for where you want to take your brand or business, but also ensuring you have the actionable plan to get you there.  Discussing simplified strategy is Abby's guest, Alice Benham - entrepreneur, business & marketing strategist and fellow podcaster as host of ‘Starting the conversation' podcast. Alice works with small businesses to grow their brands online and recently published her book ‘The Digital Marketing playbook'.  In this episode Alice shares her definition of strategy, ensuring strategy is actionable, simplifying the process in 3 steps, the buyer's journey, content as value, push and pull, urgency & scarcity and examples of small businesses successfully building their brand online.  Plus Alice shares her career highs and lows and advice for marketers.    Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Alice Benham | LinkedIn   This episode is sponsored by House of Performance  Need to up your game in PPC, Paid Social or Display?  House of Performance are a team of passionate marketeers growing ambitious brands through paid media.  For a free mini audit, get in touch with the team at https://houseofperformance.co.uk/wholemarketer    The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #132. The focus of this episode is wellness for marketers, and the importance of prioritising your wellbeing not only for your health but to also ensure you have the energy to thrive in our fast-paced and challenging – yet rewarding - profession.  Abby's guest to discuss wellness is EY's Chief Marketing Officer, Rebecca Hirst. Rebecca is an award-winning marketer who has worked on some of the biggest global brands including Samsung, Coca-Cola and Kimberly-Clark. This topic of ‘wellness' is a particular passion point for Rebecca as, alongside her marketing career, she has a post grad in Nutrition and historically even set up a health coaching business to help other marketers and highflyers to incorporate wellness into their day-to-day.  In this episode, Rebecca shares her definition of wellness, rest and restore for marketers, her own journey to setting up ‘Glorious Wellness' and practical tips for real world wellness and how you can role model this for others.  Plus her career highs and lows and advice for marketers.    Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Rebecca Hirst | LinkedIn   This episode is sponsored by House of Performance  Need to up your game in PPC, Paid Social or Display?  House of Performance are a team of passionate marketeers growing ambitious brands through paid media.  For a free mini audit, get in touch with the team at https://houseofperformance.co.uk/wholemarketer    The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #131. Today's episode is a personal understanding topic on finding your ideal role; looking beyond the job title for a role that plays to your strengths and values and is fulfilling for you.  Joining Abby to discuss ideal roles and shining a light on hiring practices in the marketing is profession is Lauren Spearman. Lauren is a seasoned marketing professional with over 17 years of experience with brands such as Sky, Benefit Cosmetics and MADE.com. Now thriving as a freelance Brand Consultant, Lauren uses her growing platform on TikTok to champion pay transparency and improved recruitment practices in the marketing industry through her candid insights and advocacy efforts.  In this episode, Lauren shares her definition of an ideal role, green and red flags hiring practices, salary transparency, interview tasks, advice for hiring managers, giving and receiving feedback when job searching. Plus career highs and lows.    Download your free workbook on how to find your ideal role here Resources and free support - The Whole Marketer    Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Lauren Spearman | LinkedIn   This episode is sponsored by House of Performance  Need to up your game in PPC, Paid Social or Display?  House of Performance are a team of passionate marketeers growing ambitious brands through paid media.  For a free mini audit, get in touch with the team at https://houseofperformance.co.uk/wholemarketer 

Episode #130. Season 8 begins with a soft skill on being human and the importance of ‘humanness' particularly for marketing leaders - being authentic, honest and open in order to build relationships with your team and connect more deeply with your customers and consumers.  Joining Abby is Dom Dwight, former Marketing Director and now Director of strategy, insight, product innovation and diversification for Taylors of Harrogate – best known for Yorkshire Tea, the UK's number one tea brand.  In this episode, Dom shares his marketer's definition of being human, humanness for brands and marketers, the role of AI to free up space for marketers to be more human, vulnerability and imperfections, leadership learnings and psychological safety for marketing teams and agencies. Plus Dom's career highs and lows.    Host:  Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Dom Dwight | LinkedIn   This episode is sponsored by House of Performance  Need to up your game in PPC, Paid Social or Display?  House of Performance are a team of passionate marketeers growing ambitious brands through paid media.  For a free mini audit, get in touch with the team at https://houseofperformance.co.uk/wholemarketer    The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #129. Understanding grief is the topic of this episode, an area of personal understanding to support ourselves but also others in our care that may be experiencing grief.  *Trigger warning: This episode contains discussion around bereavement and loss of a child.  A complex and personal process, grief is the intense feeling of loss of someone or something which can manifest physically, mentally and emotionally.    Abby's guest is Lucy Hudson, Managing Director of McCaan Birmingham which is part of McCaan Central, the UK's largest marketing communications integrated agency. Lucy is a WACL Talent Award Winner, mentor and founding member of The Margot Collective, McCaan World group's first female-led consulting collective.   After losing her daughter Poppy to a brain tumour, Lucy is dedicated to talking and writing about the effects of grief, particularly in the workplace.  In this episode, Lucy shares her definition of grief and how it becomes a part of you, the impact bereavement has in the workplace, companies making admin and return to work easier, ‘pre-grief' and understanding all the elements of loss (finance, identity, career, your own health). Plus practical advice for employers to support colleagues.   Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest:  Lucy Hudson | LinkedIn   The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #128. The Burnout Miniseries ep5 – The last episode in our mini-series on burnout shares the story of an agency marketer who, following her experience of extreme burnout, uses the power of breathwork, meditation and wellbeing to help and prevent burnout in others.  Abby's guest is Briony Gunson, mindset coach, wellbeing trainer, meditation teacher and breathworker. Passionate about supporting people in managing stress, anxiety and burnout, some of Briony's corporate clients include NHS, EY, Santander, Lloyds bank, We Work and Freemasons.  In this episode, Briony shares her definition and experience of burnout, listening to your mind and body system, processing trauma, safe spaces, slowing down feeling uncomfortable and power of breathing and techniques.  Plus her advice for marketers of tomorrow.  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest:  Briony Gunson | LinkedIn   The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #127. The Burnout Miniseries ep4 – We're continuing our focus on burnout and how together, we can raise awareness to prevent it and support each other in our challenging yet rewarding marketing profession.  Abby's guest is Senior Reporter for Marketing Week, Molly Innes. Molly has been researching burnout for the past two years having written many articles about it and is passionate about marketers' careers, ways of working and recruitment.  In this episode, Molly shares how she began highlighting burnout, factors that her research identified can led to burnout, being ‘addicted' to high performance and recognition, stories of unhealthy culture and burnout effecting women.  Plus her advice for marketers of tomorrow.  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest:  Molly Innes | LinkedIn   The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #126. The Burnout Miniseries ep3 – The third episode in our burnout series, raising awareness to the physical, mental and emotional exhaustion that prolonged stress in our profession that cause – and what we can do about it.  This episode highlights burnout from a leadership perspective and the pressure to become other people's version of a leader, not your authentic self. Sharing their first-hand experience is Abby's guest, Rowan Morrison.  An experienced agency-side leader, Rowan is co-founder and co-MD of Rationale, a strategic marketing communications agency. Alongside her role she coaches women in innovation-led businesses.  In this episode, Rowan shares her definition of burnout, her story of burnout accumulating over a year, target-driven stress, the effect of stress on her health, conflict in leadership expectations, boundaries and her processes to empower those in her agency to prevent burnout.  Plus her advice for marketers of tomorrow.  Host:  Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest:  Rowan Morrison | LinkedIn   This episode is sponsored by Tracksuit  This episode is brought to you by Tracksuit, the beautiful, affordable, and always-on-brand tracking dashboard that helps marketers answer - is what we're doing working?  Making brand tracking accessible and easy to understand, Tracksuit data gives you full visibility on your brand health metrics.  Visit  www.gotracksuit.com to start your always-on brand tracking journey.    The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #125. The Burnout Miniseries ep2 – Continuing our focus on burnout, this episode discusses the experience of a high-achieving marketer who went through burnout and their reflections on preventing it again - for themselves and others in the future.  Abby's guest is Alan Trice, an experienced and passionate senior marketer, having held Head of and Director-level roles within retail, entertainment, sports, lifestyle and fashion organisations such as Puma, Diesel, Coach, IMG, Screwfix and Clarks. Alan currently holds a NED position at the prestigious Mount Kelly school and is a Marketing Society member.   In this episode, Alan shares his analogy of burnout, his experience of how burnout manifested, the lead up over 18months, spotting the signs and how he looks after his wellbeing to prevent in the future.  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest:  Alan Trice | LinkedIn   This episode is sponsored by Tracksuit  This episode is brought to you by Tracksuit, the beautiful, affordable, and always-on-brand tracking dashboard that helps marketers answer - is what we're doing working?  Making brand tracking accessible and easy to understand, Tracksuit data gives you full visibility on your brand health metrics.  Visit gotracksuit.com to start your always-on brand tracking journey.    The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #124. The Burnout Miniseries ep1 – Understanding burnout through a scientific lens is the focus of this episode, shining a light on the signs of burnout and how it physically and mentally manifests, as we see a rise in unsustainable stress amongst our profession.  Burnout is a topic that Abby is passionate about addressing and a fundamental part of burnout prevention is linked to the ‘personal understanding' pillar or the whole marketer philosophy – the greater we know and understand ourselves, the better we can spot the signs in ourselves and others when we're starting to burnout.  Discussing the science behind burnout is Abby's guest expert Dr Fiona Crichton, VP of behavioural science at Groov, the workplace science platform on a mission to help 100 million people feel and perform better.  In this episode, Dr Fiona shares her definition of true burnout, measuring burnout through cortisol, predictors of burnout, 5 Bs for burnout prevention, burnout vs depression and how leaders can support teams.  Plus her advice for marketers of tomorrow.  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Dr Fiona Crichton | LinkedIn   This episode is sponsored by Tracksuit  This episode is brought to you by Tracksuit, the beautiful, affordable, and always-on-brand tracking dashboard that helps marketers answer - is what we're doing working?  Making brand tracking accessible and easy to understand, Tracksuit data gives you full visibility on your brand health metrics.  Visit gotracksuit.com to start your always-on brand tracking journey.    The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #123. This episode is leadership skill on empowerment – a fundamental pillar of the Whole Marketer approach in order to create a wave of successful and fulfilled marketers.  Adopting empowerment as a leadership style means building the belief and confidence in the marketers in your care; giving them the clarity, control and confidence to make decisions independently, so they can contribute to and achieve goals.  Abby's guest expert is Ellie Norman, a trailblazing marketing leader and Chief Communication Officer at Manchester United. Prior to this, Ellie's roles included Virgin Media and Formula 1, where she was part of the exec team who grew it's fanbase and share price. She is also NED at The Marketing Society and a Marketing Academy Fellow.  In this episode, Ellie shares her definition of empowerment, clear communications for your team, her reflections on her own leadership style, coaching skills, benefits of empowerment and how to set the culture in a new role.  Plus her career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest:  Ellie (Tory) Norman | LinkedIn   This episode is sponsored by Tracksuit  This episode is brought to you by Tracksuit, the beautiful, affordable, and always-on-brand tracking dashboard that helps marketers answer - is what we're doing working?  Making brand tracking accessible and easy to understand, Tracksuit data gives you full visibility on your brand health metrics.  Visit gotracksuit.com to start your always-on brand tracking journey.    The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #122. Representation is the topic discussed in this episode, a skill for all marketers to ensure we are connecting and communicating with different people, groups and communities to truly reflect the world around us.  Joining Abby is her guest Nishma Patel Robb, Founder of Glittersphere, ex Senior Director of Brand and Reputation Marketing at Google UK. As a Founder, Speaker, Podcaster, President of WACL and fellowships with IPA and The Marketing Society, Nishma is on a mission to make our world as representative as it can be so all different types of people can be seen and accepted.  In this episode, Nishma shares her definition of representation, why it's important, commercial benefits, social responsibility for marketers, curiosity, culture fit vs culture add, tips for discovering different people and cultures and going against the algorithm.  Plus her career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest:  Nishma Patel Robb | LinkedIn   This episode is sponsored by Tracksuit  This episode is brought to you by Tracksuit, the beautiful, affordable, and always-on-brand tracking dashboard that helps marketers answer - is what we're doing working?  Making brand tracking accessible and easy to understand, Tracksuit data gives you full visibility on your brand health metrics.  Visit gotracksuit.com to start your always-on brand tracking journey.    The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #121. Today's episode is a technical skill on psychological biases, where we'll discuss the patterns found in decision-making that marketers can use to better understand their customers and consumers biases and how we can address them and work with them.  Abby's guest expert is Richard Shotton, author of bestselling and award-winning book The Choice Factory and founder of Astroten, a consultancy that applies findings from behavioural science to improve marketing, working with brands such as Google, Mondelez and Meta. In Richard's latest book ‘The Illusion of Choice' he highlights 16 and ½ key biases that influence the way we buy.  In this episode, Richard shares his definition of psychological biases, 3 reasons why knowing this helps marketers, test and control experiments with examples, and frameworks to help marketers get started.   Plus his career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.  Host:  Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest:  Richard Shotton | LinkedIn   This episode is sponsored by Stickybeak  It's time to put the consumer back at the heart of every decision, and thanks to Stickybeak, consumer feedback is at your fingertips. The self-service, affordable, consumer testing platform delivers actionable insights in hours, not weeks! So to find out what your consumers think before you go to market    Visit Stickybeak.co/wholemarketer and use code WHOLEMARKETER for $100 USD off your first test, so you can see how Stickybeak are changing the way marketers work.     The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #120. This episode is a leadership topic on Impact and the methodology of an impactful leader.  Creating impact is an important skill for marketers as so much of our role is about creating a positive effect and influence i.e. impact, both internally with stakeholders and externally with our markets, customers and consumers.   Abby is joined by Scott Morrison, Founder, Speaker, Author and NED. Scott is an experienced client-side and agency-side marketer at businesses including Diesel, Levi's, Activision, W&K and Saatchi & Saatchi. As founder of The Boom, Scott works with ambitious leaders who want to create impact with pace with his Unblock, Unlock and Unleash approach to create movement and “business unusual”.  In this episode, Scott shares his definition of impactful leadership, positive disruption, boom and bust mindset, leadership fundamentals and barriers that prevent impactful leadership. Plus his career highs and lows (including an experience with Nelson Mandela) and advice for marketers of tomorrow.  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Scott Morrison FRSA | LinkedIn    This episode is sponsored by Stickybeak  It's time to put the consumer back at the heart of every decision, and thanks to Stickybeak, consumer feedback is at your fingertips. The self-service, affordable, consumer testing platform delivers actionable insights in hours, not weeks! So to find out what your consumers think before you go to market    Visit Stickybeak.co/wholemarketer and use code WHOLEMARKETER for $100 USD off your first test, so you can see how Stickybeak are changing the way marketers work.     The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com

Episode #119. Gaining buy-in is the soft skill, leadership and personal understanding topic of today's podcast.  Gaining buy-in is a critical skill for marketers, particularly as marketing moves from a support function to one leading the long-term commercial agenda – gaining buy-in and alignment on our strategy and vision is imperative to gain support, investment and resource from the Board to bring these plans to life.  Joining Abby to discuss how marketers approach gaining buy-in is Rachael Wheatley, MD of Watertight Business Thinking. As a strategist, planner, trainer, mentor and coach with 35 years in the marketing profession, Rachael is passionate about marketing-centred business transformation.  In this episode, Rachael shares her definition of buy-in (both for the marketing function and for individuals), the 2 key challenges marketers need to overcome and finding allies. Plus Rachael's career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Rachael Wheatley | LinkedIn   This episode is sponsored by Stickybeak  It's time to put the consumer back at the heart of every decision, and thanks to Stickybeak, consumer feedback is at your fingertips. The self-service, affordable, consumer testing platform delivers actionable insights in hours, not weeks! So to find out what your consumers think before you go to market    Visit Stickybeak.co/wholemarketer and use code WHOLEMARKETER for $100 USD off your first test, so you can see how Stickybeak are changing the way marketers work.     The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #118. Today's episode is on challenger brands and the skills, behaviours and mindset marketers of challenger brands need to succeed.  Challenger brands – whether created by a corporate or a start-up – aims to disrupt an existing category by satisfying a consumer need that's not currently being met. Commonly challenger brands seen as the ‘underdog' have greater constraints like budgets and resources meaning marketers need to be harness their strengths, creativity, agility and risk adversity to thrive.  Abby's guest expert to discuss is Lucky Saint's Marketing and eCommerce Director, Kerttu Inkeroinen, awarded Marketing Week's Top 100 Most Effective Marketers 2023 and recently won Brand of the Year at the Marketing Society awards.  In this episode Kerttu shares the differences in culture and marketing skills between established vs challenger brands, insight into where her brand focuses and how they play to their strengths. Plus Kerttu's career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Kerttu Inkeroinen | LinkedIn This episode is sponsored by Stickybeak  It's time to put the consumer back at the heart of every decision, and thanks to Stickybeak, consumer feedback is at your fingertips. The self-service, affordable, consumer testing platform delivers actionable insights in hours, not weeks! So to find out what your consumers think before you go to market    Visit Stickybeak.co/wholemarketer and use code WHOLEMARKETER for $100 USD off your first test, so you can see how Stickybeak are changing the way marketers work.  

Episode #117. Inclusive leadership is the topic of this episode, featuring returning guest David McQueen who has recently released his book Brave Leadership: Better Decisions for Inclusive Leadership.   David is a respected international speaker, executive coach, board facilitator and podcaster, passionate about helping others to explore how best leadership can work for them and their organisations.  In this episode, David discusses important issues for inclusive leadership, awareness of who is impacted and influenced by your decisions, systemic leadership, cultural shifts and his advice for marketers.  Plus the principle of his book, written through the lens of a coach giving the reader the tools and models in order to make leadership choices.  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: david mcqueen | LinkedIn  This episode is sponsored by Stickybeak  It's time to put the consumer back at the heart of every decision, and thanks to Stickybeak, consumer feedback is at your fingertips. The self-service, affordable, consumer testing platform delivers actionable insights in hours, not weeks! So to find out what your consumers think before you go to market   Visit Stickybeak.co/wholemarketer and use code WHOLEMARKETER for $100 USD off your first test, so you can see how Stickybeak are changing the way marketers work.    The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #116. Season 7 returns with a new topic – responsiveness AKA acting with pace. A key skill for marketers in our ever-changing industry, being able to act quickly and positively enables brands and businesses to capitalise on trends, relevancy and react to customer needs.  Abby's guest expert is Anna Henwood, who has previously led global marketing as CMO of Les Mills International and now as CEO of Stickybeak, is passionate about giving marketers a platform for affordable, real-time feedback on their marketing activity so they can act with pace.  In this episode, Anna shares her definition of responsiveness, getting information quickly to make decisions, benefits of a responsive culture, growth mindset, and curiosity and safety to speak up.  Plus, Anna shares her experience of responding to lockdown whilst at Les Mills, her career highs and lows and her advice for marketers.  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Anna Henwood | LinkedIn Stickybeak: Overview | LinkedIn Stickybeak (@stickybeak__) • Instagram photos and videos   This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk    The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #115. Marketing Effectiveness is the technical skill in this episode, exploring the importance and ability to demonstrate the impact of your marketing activity to the business.  Joining Abby – to discuss one of her favourite topics – is Dr Grace Kite, award-winning founder of data analytic consultants, Magic Numbers. Dr Grace is a speaker, Marketing Week columnist and business economist who supports and coaches marketers on what works in marketing, to help their businesses grow.  In this episode, Dr Grace shares her definition of marketing effectiveness, misunderstanding metrics and digital dashboards, categories and targeting, and research findings on what makes a great effectiveness programme. She also shares her career highs and lows and advice for marketers.  Plus, Abby and Dr Grace discuss training on marketing effectiveness and the merits of group training so that marketing teams are all speaking the same language. For further information on Whole Marketer training programmes, visit Whole Marketer Training Courses Programmes - The Whole Marketer     This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Dr Grace Kite | LinkedIn The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #114. The personal understanding topic discussed in this episode is work/life balance, which can significantly impact our wellbeing and our sense of fulfilment in our career and lives as a whole.  A good work/life balance means having the clarity on all the things that are important in your life, then actively making the time for them, especially for the things that energise you – or fill up your cup - both inside and outside of work.   Joining Abby to discuss how you can work towards a work/life balance is Katie Martin, Head of Marketing Excellence at Innocent drinks, who has a passion for what makes people tick and is a mentor, certified with Insights Discovery and a mental health first aider.  In this episode, Katie shares how she visualises the work-life balance, harmony when things are out of your control, self-compassion, open communication in the workplace and being willing to ask for help.  Plus the work/life culture at Innocent and career highs and lows.  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Katie (White) Martin | LinkedIn This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk  The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #113. The focus of this episode is self-identity, an area of personal understanding that can help you lead a more fulfilling life when you have greater awareness of who you are and your place in the world.  In the workplace, gaining clarity on your self identity can be a journey of discovery as you understand your personality, leadership style, how you show up and also develop a sense of belonging within a team or organisation.  Joining Abby to discuss self-identity is Bronwen Foster-Butler, who is passionate about personal development and is Chief Marketing Officer for British B-CORP outdoor surf brand Finisterre - having previously worked at Burberry, Lulu Lemon and PANGAIA.  In this episode, Bronwen shares what is a sense of self, why it's important in the workplace for you and your teams, and fixed and flexible values. Plus, as well as career highs and lows, Bronwen shares her past experiences and the effect her return from maternity leave and leadership style had on her journey of self-identity.  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Bronwen Foster-Butler | LinkedIn This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk  The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #112. Brand Partnerships is the technical skill discussed in this episode – specifically the power of brand partnerships to drive societal change.  Joining Abby to discuss this topic is Beth Reeve, Senior Group Brand Manager Northern Europe for Colgate, who leads the hugely impactful brand partnership between Colgate and Change Please (a social enterprise coffee brand helping people living with homelessness.)   Both brands share an authentic purpose to create a healthier future for people, which has led this campaign to not only deservedly win a Cannes Lions Bronze award, but more importantly, the campaign tangibly affects the lives of people every day.   In this episode, Beth shares how the partnership was created, the steps involved to craft the marketing campaign, the ways the brand and its resources could help others, and her 3 key tips for using your brand to help address societal issues.  Plus Beth's career highs and lows and her insightful advice for marketers of tomorrow.  Watch the campaign video here Driving For Change (colgate.com)  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Beth Reeve | LinkedIn This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk  The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com

Episode #111. Our first episode of 2024 is Strengths – a key area of personal understanding, which we can use to increase your fulfilment and energise you as a marketer.   When we know our strengths, we can be intentional in taking ownership of our strengths, to ensure we are using our strengths (that we also enjoy) inside and outside of work, to continue to build our confidence, motivate and energise us, which will lead to greater fulfilment.  Joining Abby to discuss strengths is Sean Hall, CEO Energx and a leadership researcher, TedX speaker and Global Marketing Academy lecturer. Sean partners with brands such as Meta, Unilever, Diageo, Google, Wall Street Journal and more, to help leaders to enhance the wellbeing of their employees, “leaving them more well than when they found them”.  In this episode, Sean discusses strengths, curiosity for your wellbeing, comparing yourself to others, assessing your strengths and why it's so important for you and others around you to have this self-awareness.   Plus Sean shares his experience of burnout and his advice for marketers of tomorrow.  You can take the assessment mentioned in this episode here http://thewholemarketer.pro.viasurvey.org Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Sean Hall | LinkedIn This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk  The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #110. This episode explores a technical area of latest thinking for marketers - 3 Dimensional marketing.  3D marketing is a fast moving, integrated communication approach that encompasses agile, test and learn ways of working in order to maximise a big idea or marketing assets. The 3 dimensional aspect comes from all marketing comms channels working cohesively to deepen and enrichen a brand story – and continue to build momentum afterwards – rather than working in silos.  To discuss, Abby is joined by Ben Carter, Global Chief Customer and Marketing Officer of CarWow, whose previous role included BetFair, Not On The High Street and Just Eat. Ben also has Chair and Non-exec NFP roles with the Lily Foundation and Women in Football.  In this episode, Ben explains his definition of 3D marketing, when it doesn't and doesn't work, the role of agency partners is 3D integrated campaigns and his advice to get started. Plus Ben's career journey from journalist to marketer and advice for marketers.  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Ben Carter | LinkedIn   This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk    The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #109. Business-to-Business marketing and the B2B customer journey is the technical skill explored in this episode.   B2B customer journeys can often been perceived as a Sales funnel. However, this approach is evolving as marketers begin to lead the commercial agenda and understand that today's journey is series of buyer conversations that are not predictable and require a longer-term relationship.  A leading voice in this area and Abby's guest expert is Antonia Wade, Global Chief Marketing Officer at PwC. Antonia is one of Marketing Week's top100 marketers and author of ‘Transforming the B2B Buyer Journey: Maximize brand value, improve conversion rates and build loyalty'.  In this episode, Antonia shares what today's B2B journey is (and what it isn't) and how the B2B buying journey has changed, which she has outlined in her book. She discusses the different phases, measuring success and clues you can look for that a buyer is moving from one stage to another. Plus, what inspired Antonia to write her book and career highs and lows Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Antonia Wade | LinkedIn This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk  The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #108. Marketing Effectiveness is the focus of this episode and a key technical skill for marketers to define, set, track and review KPIs in order to measure our performance vs our targets but also demonstrate how marketing has contributed to the wider business growth.  As marketing is increasingly leading the commercial agenda, it's key that we are able to demonstrate the effectiveness of our marketing investment at a strategic, tactical and campaign level and speak the language of finance and the Board, in order to bring key stakeholders with us on our marketing journey.   Abby's guest to discuss Marketing Effectiveness is Rachel Moss, Head of Marketing Strategy & Media at Camelot, who has played a significant role over the past decade to grow the National Lottery to its best ever brand health.  In this episode, Rachel shares her definition of what makes marketing successful in an organisation, understanding metrics and choosing KPIs – and why you shouldn't choose a KPI you don't know how to shift – and the importance of agency partners and inspirational briefing to get better outputs. Plus career highs and lows and advice for marketers  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest:  Rachel Moss | LinkedIn This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk  The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #107. This episode discusses a technical skill on strategic insight, which is fundamental in building a long-term strategy that drives the commercial agenda.  Strategic insights form the basis of our strategic thinking – as marketers building the brands and businesses of tomorrow, we want to develop a long-term strategy that has the customer wants and needs at its heart. To do this we need access to data and actionable insight that can fuel our choices on markets, consumer needs, macro and micro trends, opportunities and threats, influences and how well we are placed to deliver against those.  To discuss Strategic Insight, Abby is joined by Strategic Insight Director, Febronia Ruocco, a passionate Insights consultant, mentor and Exec Coach who has worked with brands such as Twinings, GSK, Heineken and more.  In this episode Febronia discusses the role of strategic insight, how to get started, objectivity and biases, and working with strategic insight partners. Plus her career highs and lows and advice for marketers of tomorrow.  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Febronia Ruocco | LinkedIn This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk  The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #106. The technical skill explored in this episode is Strategic Thinking -a fundamental skill for marketers to gain clarity on long-term choices and strategic direction in order to unlock the future growth of brands and businesses.  Joining Abby to explore this topic is Zoe Scaman, founder of strategy studio Bodacious, whose career spans across client-side, agency-side and consultancy for brands and businesses such as Nike, Netflix, EA Games, Unilever, Oatly and Mediacom.   In this episode, Zoe defines strategic thinking and some critical questions she asks during the strategic process (but why it's not a concrete framework). Zoe also shares her views on the marketing industry, why she champions optimism and generalists vs specialists. Plus career highs and lows and advice for marketers.  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Zoe Scaman | LinkedIn This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk  The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #105. The technical topic in this episode is Decision Science and the role it plays in today's consumer buying behaviour. Decision Science combines the learnings from neuromarketing, behavioural economics and cognitive, social & evolutionary psychology. It helps us to understand how our brains make our decisions and how marketers can practically apply this to grow the brands and businesses of tomorrow. Abby is joined by her guest expert, Phil Barden, MD of DECODE marketing ltd and author of 'Decoded. The Science Behind Why We Buy'. Phil started his career client-side for global brands such as Unilever, Diageo and T-Mobile before setting up the UK arm of Decode to leverage decision science to increase marketing effectiveness and brand growth. In this episode he explains what we now understand about the process for making decisions, busts myths about subconscious purchase behaviour and how to get started if you're a marketer new to decision science. Plus career highs and lows and advice for marketers. This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Phil Barden | LinkedIn The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #104. Season 6 returns with a leadership topic to support marketers to identify and develop their authentic leadership style.   Abby's guest in this episode is Gareth Helm, award-winning marketer and author of the Marketing Leader's Code: unlock your potential - learn the secrets of successful marketing leadership. His previous roles include Unilever, Innocent Drinks, Bear snacks, Tails.com, Zoopla, as well as Global Chief Marketing Officer for HomeServe. Today Gareth is a NED and Board Advisor for brands such as for Purple Bricks and Higgidy.  In this episode Gareth shares the principles and inspiration behind his new book, the 4 types of marketing leaders, the value of assessment and capability and why you should spend time building relationships. Plus Gareth shares his career highs and lows.  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Gareth Helm | LinkedIn The Marketing Leader's Code: Unlock your potential - Learn the secrets of successful marketing leadership: Amazon.co.uk: Helm, Gareth, Helm, Sophie: 9781908770318: Books This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk  The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #103. This topic is both a leadership skill and area of personal understanding – it's high stakes, high performance leadership.  High performing teams go hand-in-hand with high performing leaders, so in order to get the best out of others, you should start with your own holistic skills – particularly personal understanding – to understand your own drivers, beliefs and definition of success, to increase your effectiveness and fulfilment.  Discussing this with Abby is Sally Henderson, a high stakes leadership mentor. With over 23 years of experience, Sally works with senior C-suite executives from brands like Nestlé, NatWest, and Coca Cola and her structured leadership programme “The Real Method” makes the best better so individuals can achieve meaningful leadership impact and legacy.  In this episode, Sally shares her definition of high performance, what gets in the way of being a great high-performance leader and understanding your personal and professional identity and boundaries. Plus her career highs and lows.  This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: Sally Henderson | LinkedIn The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Episode #102. ‘Brave leadership' is the topic discussed in this episode, exploring the practicalities and challenges of developing a leadership style to become the authentic leader that you want/need to be.  Joining Abby in this episode is Abby's friend and mentor, David McQueen; Executive coach, international speaker, founder and multiple non-exec advisory roles, some of his clients include Facebook, Lloyds, Sky, HSBC, BMW and Barnados. As host of the ‘Brave Leadership' podcast, David is passionate about developing leaders to embrace responsibility and make brave decisions.  In this episode, David shares his definition of leadership, how to navigate key leadership challenges like conflict, his ‘BRAVE' model for great leadership and how to realistically get started. Plus career highs and lows and advice for marketers.    This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk  Host: Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn Guest: david mcqueen | LinkedIn The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

Host Takeover Special - Episode #101. Continuing our milestone celebrations of recording 100 episodes, this special episode turns the tables and features a guest HOST to ask Abby the questions.  Joining Abby in this episode is Jon Evans, fellow marketing podcaster and host of the popular ‘Uncensored CMO' podcast. As well as a columnist and speaker, Jon is Chief Customer Officer at System 1, the world leading advertising effectiveness agency.  In this episode, Jon asks Abby to reflect on the past 100 episodes, the inspiration behind the Whole Marketer and what the future holds for the next 100. Plus Abby's career highs and lows and her one piece of advice for marketers to grow the brands and businesses of tomorrow.  This podcast is sponsored by Labyrinth Marketing  www.labyrinthmarketing.co.uk  Abigail (Abby) Dixon FCIM/ICF | LinkedIn  Jon Evans | LinkedIn The Whole Marketer podcast is here to support and empower the people behind brands and businesses with the latest technical tools, soft and leadership skills and personal understanding for a fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole. For more info go to www.thewholemarketer.com 

SPECIAL LIVE Episode #100. This episode is also available as a video recording, please visit https://thewholemarketer.com/free-resources/ We're celebrating our milestone 100th episode with a very special podcast that was recorded in front of a live audience at The Whole Marketer Live Event.  Joining Abby on stage is legendary marketer and returning guest Daryl Fielding, who has worked on some of the biggest brands and campaigns in client-side and agency roles; now an author and speaker with Board and Trustee roles, including Chair of Marketing Academy Foundation.   In this episode, Daryl shared her thinking behind Dove's iconic 'Real Beauty' campaign, the skills she believes marketers today need to possess and her lessons learned throughout her marketing career.  We hope you enjoy this episode. Thank you to everyone who has listened, liked and shared over the past 100 episodes. Our aim when creating them is always with you in mind... to support and empower marketers to develop holistically for a successful and fulfilling marketing career and life as a whole.  For more resources and information on Abby's keynote speaking, training and coaching programmes, visit www.thewholemarketer.com