Podcasts about CMO

What if the biggest barrier to your AI-powered future isn't the algorithm, but the state of your data from five years ago? Agility requires more than just fast decision-making; it demands a foundational trust in the data that fuels those decisions. It's about having the right information, accessible and reliable, to pivot not just your campaigns, but your entire strategy. Today, we're going to talk about the often-overlooked foundation of marketing agility and AI innovation: the data infrastructure itself. We'll explore how the role of the CMO is shifting from a master of messaging to a master of data strategy, and what it takes to lead a marketing organization when the quality of your data directly determines the success of your most ambitious technology investments. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Jim Kruger, CMO at Informatica. About Jim Kruger Jim currently serves as the Executive Vice President/Chief Marketing Officer at Informatica. He has 20+ years of B2B and B2C marketing experience in the areas of cloud, SaaS, services, and hardware solutions. Jim is a results-oriented, high-integrity leader with strong business acumen and an inclusive team-building vision. His top focus as a leader is to drive accountability and make every team member feel valued for their contribution.At Informatica, he leads the global marketing organization with the charter to accelerate cloud growth, expand into new markets and industry verticals, and lead the company's brand momentum. Jim Kruger on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimkruger1/ Resources Informatica: https://www.informatica.com Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code AGILE at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://aglbrnd.co/r/c43e68ce5cfb321e The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703 Drive your customers to new horizons at the premier retail event of the year for Retail and Brand marketers. Learn more at CRMC 2026, June 1-3. https://aglbrnd.co/r/d15ec37a537c0d74 Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3 Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

What does it take to revitalize a 150-year-old company? Jim's guest this week, Conny Kalcher, has done it twice. First at LEGO during its historic turnaround, and now at Zurich Insurance as their Group Chief Customer Officer, where she's proving that empathy is not a soft skill but a strategic advantage. Conny spent 33 years at LEGO, where she helped navigate one of the most dramatic brand turnarounds in modern business history. Then in 2019, she joined Zurich Insurance, a company with over 200-country reach and a $100 billion market capitalization, to lead global customer loyalty and advocacy at a time when trust and humanity matter more than ever. And since joining, Conny has helped drive millions of new customers, a 35% increase in brand value, and measurable improvements in satisfaction and retention.This is a conversation about renewing legacy brands, leading cultural transformation, and proving that empathy is not just good for people, it's good for business.—Learn more, request a free pass, and register at iab.com/newfrontsPromo Code for free access: CMOPODNEW26*Note: promo code is exclusive for brand and agency, brand marketers and media buyers. IAB reserves the right to cancel any registrations that don't meet this criterion. —This week's episode is brought to you by Deloitte and IAB.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ashley Grace is the Founding CMO of Igniton, a groundbreaking quantum wellness company merging subatomic particle science with integrative health. With a background spanning finance, marketing ROI modeling, ad tech, and big pharma—and as the former founding CMO of Charlotte's Web—Ashley brings decades of experience at the intersection of innovation and persuasion. On this episode, he breaks down how to market complex, cutting-edge products, why message beats media every time, and what skills will actually make you money in the future of advertising. On this episode we talk about: How Igniton is pioneering “quantum supplementation” and validating it through university studies The challenge of marketing complex or unfamiliar innovations Why your message is 4x more important than your media buying strategy Emotional differentiation vs. feature-based marketing The future of AI in ad creative and what skills marketers should focus on now Top 3 Takeaways What you say matters more than how you say it. The creative message is significantly more impactful than targeting, delivery, or frequency. Emotional resonance wins. Emotional differentiation beats feature differentiation. Customers buy based on emotional outcomes first—then justify with logic. Creative skills will outlast media buying. As AI automates targeting and ad delivery, persuasive messaging and human psychology will become even more valuable. Notable Quotes "What you say is four times more important than how you say it or how often you say it." "Persuasion is real—and there are tools and techniques to use language and visuals to make it more powerful." "Focus on the emotional benefit. The feature just explains why you can deliver it." Connect with Ashley Grace: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleygrace Website: https://igniton.com Podcast: https://ashleyon.com Discount Code: Use code ASHLEY for 15% off your first order  Travis Makes Money is made possible by High Level – the All-In-One Sales & Marketing Platform built for agencies, by an agency.  Capture leads, nurture them, and close more deals—all from one powerful platform.  Get an extended free trial at gohighlevel.com/travis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Cohen, CMO of Onyx Global Group (Pure Daily Care & Aquasonic), joins Phillip and Alicia to trace the arc from Amazon-first launches to TikTok Shop dominance. This week, we unpack the unmeasurable and explore what it actually means to cede your marketing playbook to a creator economy that doesn't need your permission. Control Is Overrated, Anyway Key Takeaways Creators are the new CMOs. Brands don't cascade strategy; creators build their own. Amazon reviews are still currency. Early investment in social proof compounds over the years. Sampling is a long game. Expect results two to three months out, not just the week of Black Friday. TikTok Live provides free focus groups. Real-time customer feedback can greenlight a new product line and unlock new growth opportunities. You can't dashboard everything. The brands with staying power are building habits, not just conversions. "The creators are our mini CMOs. They build their own marketing plans, their own talking points, their own strategies to sell our products." — Jonathan Cohen [00:22:08] "We have cut checks for tens of thousands of dollars to creators we've never spoken to before." — Jonathan Cohen [00:22:07] "If you brush your teeth, you're an Aquasonic potential customer." — Jonathan Cohen [00:45:28] "You're building habits. And there's no better investment in brand than that — because those habits stick with them a lot longer than the ad dollar you spent to get them there." — Phillip Jackson [00:47:50] Associated Links: Check out Future Commerce on YouTube Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For episode 680 of the BlockHash Podcast, host Brandon Zemp is joined by Jay Kurahashi-Sofue, CMO of Eco at ETHDenver.Eco is a blockchain-based, full-stack infrastructure protocol designed to unify stablecoin liquidity across different blockchains and make onchain payments, transfers, and app interactions as fast, cheap, and simple as possible. It is not a new stablecoin itself, but rather a "Stablecoin Economy" layer—often referred to as a "stablelayer"—that helps developers and users move, manage, and spend stablecoins (like USDC or USDT) across various chains without dealing with fragmented networks, manual bridging, or gas fees in native tokens. 

 In this episode, Katherine Turnoff talks with Dipti Kachru, CMO, Broadridge Financial Solutions, about the shift from marketing to millions in B2C to marketing to hundreds or thousands in highly targeted B2B, which requires finding senior operations and technology leaders in the right context for complex, high-consideration purchases. Guest Quote: “And what's interesting about the world of B2B is you're no longer selling to one person. You're actually selling to buying groups. And so we've got to think about the personas in the buying group in terms of are they actual decision makers? Are they users? Are they influencers? And what role are they actually playing in that sales process that we often are helping support, enable, or make faster.” Episode Breakdown: [01:34] Alchemy Unveiled From scale to precision: Dipti shares how moving from millions of consumers to hundreds of B2B buyers reshapes targeting, messaging, and channel strategy — and why context and timing matter more than reach. [18:03] From Nuggets to Campaign Gold Look past the dashboard: Dipti explains why vanity metrics can hide the real story, how psychographic insight changes campaigns, and what happens when marketers follow engagement signals instead of impressions. [23:27] Gold Rush Round What data can't replace: Dipti reflects on the limits of impressions and CTRs, the role of empathy in marketing, and why understanding the business is the modern marketer's real edge. Links & Resources: Connect with Katherine: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathrynturnoff/  Connect with Dipti: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kachru/  Learn more about Broadband Financial Solutions: https://www.linkedin.com/company/broadridge-financial-solutions/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Send a textIn this episode of the WTR Healthcare Happenings podcast, Tim Gerdeman, Vice Chair, Co-Founder, and CMO of Water Tower Research, and Robert Sassoon, WTR's Healthcare Research Analyst, speak with Rick Pierce, CEO of Decoy Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DCOY). The conversation explores Decoy's innovative business model for developing peptide‑conjugate antivirals designed to target multiple respiratory viruses. Pierce explains how Decoy is navigating the modern era of drug development with a cost‑effective, highly efficient strategy that positions the company as a disruptive force in biotech. Central to this approach is Decoy' proprietary peptide‑synthesis technology and rapid design‑build‑test cycle, powered by machine learning. He also underscores the importance of Decoy's strategic partnerships with the Gates Foundation, Google, and NVIDIA in advancing its platform and accelerating development.

What if the biggest barrier to your AI-powered future isn't the algorithm, but the state of your data from five years ago? Agility requires more than just fast decision-making; it demands a foundational trust in the data that fuels those decisions. It's about having the right information, accessible and reliable, to pivot not just your campaigns, but your entire strategy. Today, we're going to talk about the often-overlooked foundation of marketing agility and AI innovation: the data infrastructure itself. We'll explore how the role of the CMO is shifting from a master of messaging to a master of data strategy, and what it takes to lead a marketing organization when the quality of your data directly determines the success of your most ambitious technology investments. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Jim Kruger, CMO at Informatica. About Jim Kruger Jim currently serves as the Executive Vice President/Chief Marketing Officer at Informatica. He has 20+ years of B2B and B2C marketing experience in the areas of cloud, SaaS, services, and hardware solutions. Jim is a results-oriented, high-integrity leader with strong business acumen and an inclusive team-building vision. His top focus as a leader is to drive accountability and make every team member feel valued for their contribution.At Informatica, he leads the global marketing organization with the charter to accelerate cloud growth, expand into new markets and industry verticals, and lead the company's brand momentum. Jim Kruger on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimkruger1/ Resources Informatica: https://www.informatica.com Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code AGILE at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://aglbrnd.co/r/c43e68ce5cfb321e The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703 Drive your customers to new horizons at the premier retail event of the year for Retail and Brand marketers. Learn more at CRMC 2026, June 1-3. https://aglbrnd.co/r/d15ec37a537c0d74 Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3 Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

In this episode of Next in Media, Mike Shields sits down with Leanne Perice, founder and CEO of Made by All, one of the creator economy's most distinctive talent management firms. Leanne shares how she built the company from the ground up over nine years, starting with a single $1,000 deal in 2014 and growing it into a global powerhouse that doubles revenue year over year. She explains how her early career at a celebrity endorsement agency gave her the blueprint for what great talent management looks like, and how she applied those lessons to an entirely new generation of digital creators. From signing Vine stars before the term 'creator economy' even existed, to opening a new office in Dubai, Leanne has built Made by All on the belief that creators deserve the same strategic investment as Hollywood's biggest names. Leanne also introduces her framework DASI (Distribution, Attention, Storytelling, and Impact) to explain what creators truly offer brands, and why so many marketers are still only tapping into the first letter. She opens up about the CMO turnover crisis slowing momentum in the creator space, why she launched Made by Us as a social storytelling studio, and why she believes YouTube's long-form monetization is the best opportunity in the market right now. She also gives her take on platforms like YouTube and TikTok brokering brand deals directly, the collision of Hollywood and Silicon Valley financial models, and what brands still get wrong about building a presence on social media. This episode is a must-listen for anyone at the intersection of media, marketing, and the creator economy.   Key Highlights

A CMO Confidential Interview with Bill Zengel, B2B Practice Leader and SVP of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). Bill explains how there's nearly $2 trillion in hidden brand value in the B2B space, how to become one of the 39% of B2B marketers who are confident, why marketers should focus on contribution versus attribution, and why measurement is more complicated in the B2B space. Key discussion topics include: why one of the main emotions in B2B buyers can be fear of failure; the importance of being on the "Day One List;" and how to avoid the forces that drive conservative creative in a time where breakthrough matters. Tune in to hear if you suffer from "lead addiction" and how many fries are in a Burger King serving. The Confident B2B Marketer: The 8 Markers That Separate Winners (with ANA's Bill Zengel)Only 39% of B2B marketers describe themselves as “confident.” In this episode of CMO Confidential, Mike Linton sits down with Bill Zengel (SVP, B2B Practice Leader at the Association of National Advertisers) to break down what the top performers do differently—and why “confidence” is really a proxy for measurable commercial contribution.Bill shares the research behind ANA's Confident B2B Marketer study (built from a survey of 200 senior marketers) and the operating system it points to: measurement first, then AI readiness built on a real data foundation, modern ABM, buyer-group/channel strategy, brand and creativity, and the martech stack that makes it all work. The conversation also gets into the leadership tension that keeps teams stuck—lead addiction, short-term performance thinking, and the core emotion that drives B2B buying: fear.What you'll learn:- Why B2B marketing is still unevenly managed—and why that's changing- The 8 “markers” that correlate with B2B marketing success- Why AI readiness is mostly a data foundation problem- The shift from attribution arguments to contribution language- Why lead addiction and “performance marketing” create short-term traps- How fear shapes B2B creativity (and how winners still take smart risks)- Why customer reviews and existing customers matter more than most teams admitResources mentioned:- ANA B2B Practice: https://www.ana.net/b2bChapters:00:00 Welcome + today's topic (The Confident B2B Marketer) + Bill Zengel01:38 Why so many B2B studies (measurement, accountability, contribution)03:01 Is B2B marketing worse managed than B2C?04:35 From “Marcom” to buyer groups + younger self-serve buyers06:00 What “confident” means + how ANA designed the study06:23 Why Bill fielded the study + surveying 200 senior marketers07:42 The “biomarkers” story: how to identify what actually matters09:18 The 8 markers (measurement, AI readiness, ABM, buyer-group/channel, brand/creativity, data foundation, martech)11:22 AI readiness explained: why data foundations are the real constraint16:05 Measurement reframed: contribution vs. attribution17:53 Brand as a moat (and why major “B2B brands” dominate value)19:56 Lead addiction + the short-term performance marketing trap22:16 The core B2B buying emotion is fear—and why that blocks creativity25:14 The B2B brand opportunity (and why solving it extends careers)26:08 What boards/CEOs should test now to avoid getting passed27:55 The “Day One List” + how peer/customer reviews shape growth28:52 Two great stories: the missing Trojan horse + Burger King fry-counting31:28 Where to find more episodes + sign-offNew shows drop every Tuesday. Subscribe for more interviews on marketing leadership, measurement, brand-to-demand, and modern B2B growth.#B2BMarketing #MarketingMeasurement #CMO #ABM #BrandStrategySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if your best-performing content didn't start with a blog post—but with a question no one else thought to ask?In this episode of Content Amplified, Benjamin Ard sits down with Donna Parent, CMO at Dynamo Software, to unpack how quarterly first-party research became the backbone of their content strategy—and a serious competitive edge.Donna doesn't treat research like a one-off campaign. She runs it like a product: structured, repeatable, defensible, and built for distribution. With a lean team of fewer than 10 marketers, she has led the creation of 14 in-depth industry research reports—each designed to spark conversation, earn media coverage, and fuel an entire ecosystem of content.The result? Authoritative insights that drive press, power webinars, support sales conversations, and strengthen visibility across AI-powered search.This isn't about volume. It's about credibility at scale.What you'll learn in this episode:How to build a quarterly first-party research program—even with a small marketing teamWhy consistency (not frequency) unlocks meaningful comparative insightsHow to design surveys that balance foundational benchmarks with fresh industry trendsA practical framework for collaborating across marketing, product, sales, and PRHow to turn one research report into press coverage, webinars, social campaigns, and executive thought leadershipThe right—and wrong—ways to use AI when analyzing primary dataWhy third-party credibility matters more than ever for AI-driven search and discoverabilityHow to protect data integrity while moving fast enough to meet market demandAbout Donna ParentDonna Parent is the Chief Marketing Officer at Dynamo Software, a leading provider of software solutions for the private investment community.With more than 25 years of experience in B2B and B2C marketing, Donna has built revenue-generating teams across enterprise software companies ranging from 50-person startups to global organizations with thousands of employees. Her sweet spot lies in entrepreneurial environments where agility, experimentation, and disciplined execution drive results.At Dynamo, Donna spearheaded a quarterly first-party research initiative serving general partners, limited partners, hedge funds, and fund accountants. She personally oversees survey design, data validation, and report development—ensuring every published insight is accurate, defensible, and actionable.Her work has fueled media placements, executive editorials in outlets like Forbes Tech Council, and a scalable content engine built on credibility.Connect with Donna:Donna's LinkedIn ProfileDynamo Software's websiteLatest Research ReportText us what you think about this episode!

El director de Marketing (CMO) ya no solo ejecuta campañas: hoy se sienta en la mesa directiva junto al CEO y el CFO. Su rol estratégico —potenciado por la IA, la hiperpersonalización y nuevas estructuras organizacionales— se vuelve clave para el crecimiento empresarial. En este episodio, Juan Carlos Bustamante, director de la Maestría en Mercadotecnia de EGADE Business School, y Georgina Rodríguez, CMO de Creditea en México, comparten estrategias para integrar la analítica avanzada con el indispensable criterio humano.

In this episode of OFFBounds, Paula Macaggi sits down with Emily Ketchen, SVP and CMO of Lenovo's Intelligent Devices Group and International Markets, to explore what it really takes to modernize marketing inside one of the world's largest technology companies. From building global centers of excellence and putting insights and first-party data at the core of transformation, to leading what she calls a once-in-30-years opportunity to create the AI PC category, Emily shares how Lenovo is shaping the future of compute, brand, and storytelling across 180 markets. The conversation also dives into measuring real marketing impact, turning global partnerships like Formula One and FIFA into business value, and why curiosity, conviction, and simplicity are essential for leaders navigating constant disruption.

Episode #245 features a rare public interview with Jodie Auster, Global Head of Airports & Travel at Uber, and recently the Strategic Advisor to Uber's CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi. In conversation with Vidit Agarwal, Jodie reflects on her journey from a risk-embracing Melbourne upbringing and early career in emergency medicine to leadership roles across Bain, Scoopon, Thumbtack and Uber, where she scaled Uber Eats through bold marketing bets and later worked directly with CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. She speaks candidly about burnout during COVID,  the craft of executive facilitation, influence without authority, risk as a two-way door, stepping away from a high-profile Regional GM role, and the questions she asks new team members to create the best team culture. Please enjoy exploring your curiosity! ________ This episode is part of a special limited series showcasing Innovation supported by the City of Sydney. Visit the City's website here: cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au To support this podcast, check out our some of our sponsors & get discounts: → $1,000 off Vanta: Your compliance superpower — vanta.com/high If you're keen to discuss sponsorship and partnering with us or recommend future guests, email us at contact@curiositycentre.com today! Join our stable of commercial partners including the Australian Government, Google, KPMG, Vanta, Allens, Notion and more. ________ Show notes and more episodes here Follow us on Instagram, LinkedIn or Twitter Get in touch with our Founder and Host, Vidit Agarwal directly here Contact us via our website ________ The High Flyers Podcast features in-depth interviews with the world's most influential figures in business, tech, finance, government and sport. Launched in 2020, it has ranked in the global top ten for past three years, with listeners in 27 countries and over 200+ episodes released, and featured in Forbes, Daily Telegraph, and at SXSW. Our guests include -- Malcolm Turnbull (Prime Minister of Australia), Anil Sabharwal (Global VP, Product at Google), Jason Collins (Head of BlackRock, Asia Pacific), Jodie Auster (Global Head of Travel, Uber), Stevie Case (Chief Revenue Officer, Vanta), Brad Banducci (CEO, Woolworths), Jean-Michel Lemieux (CTO, Shopify + Atlassian), Sweta Mehra (EGM, NAB; ex CMO, ANZ), Bowen Pan (Creator, Facebook Marketplace), Sam Sicilia (Chief Investment Officer, Hostplus), Craig Tiley (CEO, Tennis Australia), John Haddock (CBO, Harvey), Niki Scevak (Co-Founder, Blackbird Ventures), Mike Schneider (CEO, Bunnings), Trent Cotchin (3x Premiership Winning Captain, Richmond FC), Peter Varghese (Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Australian Government), Jack Zhang (CEO, Airwallex), Matteo Franceschetti (CEO, Eight Sleep) and more.

When your corporate job feels "secure" until it suddenly isn't, real estate can become the Plan B that turns into your best move…  In this episode of the #DoorGrowShow, DoorGrow founder Jason Hull sits down with John Casmon (multifamily syndicator, host of Multifamily Insights, and co-creator of the Midwest Real Estate Networking Summit) to break down how corporate professionals can transition into multifamily investing without becoming a stressed-out landlord. They dive into how John went from corporate bankruptcies to building a multifamily portfolio, what passive investors actually need to know before putting money into a deal, and why trust + clear expectations matter just as much as the numbers.  Jason and John also unpack what this means for property managers: how to align with investor goals, why the best operators project calm control (even in chaos), where syndicators hang out, and how PMs can position themselves to win more multifamily doors.    You'll Learn (00:00) Transforming Property Management: An Introduction  (00:59) John Casmon's Entrepreneurial Journey  (02:56) Transitioning to Multifamily Investing  (04:33) Understanding Investor Types and Property Management  (05:48) The Role of Property Managers  (07:49) Investor Control vs. Trust in Management  (09:33) Challenges in Property Management  (11:17) Aligning Goals with Property Managers  (14:19) The Real Product of Property Management  (17:14) Managing Investor Expectations  (19:50) Syndication: A New Avenue for Property Managers  (23:44) Legal Considerations in Syndication  (26:41) Calmness in Chaos: The Key to Success  (31:40) Partnering with Syndications  (33:54 The Role of Property Management in Syndication  (38:29) Finding Syndicators and Building Relationships  (42:24) Understanding Passive Investment in Syndication  (47:45) Identifying Your Investment Goals  (51:54) Assessing Risk in Real Estate Investments  (55:15) Choosing the Right Market for Investment  (01:00:12) The Three C's of Raising Capital Quotables "The first C is confidence. Confidence comes from preparation." "The investment itself, we got to go out there and execute. But that investor psyche is a completely different game."  "It is not your job to hope. Your job is to analyze the information in front of you and make an informed decision." Resources DoorGrow and Scale Mastermind DoorGrow Academy DoorGrow on YouTube DoorGrowClub DoorGrowLive Transcript Jason Hull (00:01) All right, five, four, three, two, one. All right, I'm Jason Hull, the founder and CEO of DoorGrow, the world's leading and most comprehensive coaching and consulting firm for long-term residential property management entrepreneurs. And for over a decade and a half, we have brought innovative strategies and optimization to the property management industry. At DoorGrow, we are on a mission to transform property management business owners and their businesses.   We want to transform the industry, eliminate the BS, build awareness, change perception, expand the market and help the best property management entrepreneurs win. Now let's get into the show. So my guest today, I'm hanging out here with John Casman, a multifamily syndicator, host of the multifamily insights podcast and the co-creator of the Midwest real estate networking summit. And in today's episode, John's going to break down how corporate professionals can transition.   into multifamily investing, how to find the best markets, how to raise capital effectively, and what separates successful operators from everyone else. John, welcome to the DoorGrowth Show.   John Casmon (01:10) Yeah, Jason, thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here. Love the intro, your intro, not my intro, ⁓ but excited to be here and share as much as we can on our journey to help all of your listeners reach their goals.   Jason Hull (01:22) Cool. So John, ⁓ it's great to have you. I would love for people to hear about your entrepreneurial journey. How did you get to where you are now? And then we can get into your business.   John Casmon (01:34) Well, the short answer is bankruptcy, right? I worked for a couple of different companies that went through bankruptcy and that really made me consider my other options. You know, I was at General Motors back in 2007, 2008, 2009 when we went through bankruptcy and I was there and I watched what that did to a lot of my peers. I one day in particular when we were going to have a lot of layoffs, I went to work as late as I could. But when I got there, I had a red message, a little red dial on your phone.   for anybody who's worked in corporate and remember voicemails. So I had a red dot on my phone, picked it up, pushed the play button and my heart skipped a beat because I thought maybe I was getting to the can, right? And it was actually a colleague of mine who sat kind of kitty corner in front of me and he had been let go. He, you know, was diabetic. He didn't know I was going to pay for his medication. He just was venting in his voicemail. And I just remember feeling empathy for him, but also   a sense of I just never wanted to be in that situation. So it made me really start to think about Plan B. Eventually I moved to Chicago, realized real estate was going to be that path and learned everything I could about investing. So it kind of took me down that pathway to say, you know what, I need a Plan B because no matter what you do, when you work in corporate America, you do not control your future. You know, there's politics, there's policy, there's a lot of different things involved that you do not control.   And sometimes it does just come down to someone not liking you for whatever reason, or they think you're a threat. And I didn't want to spend the rest of my career navigating those issues. So I figured I had to take more into my own hands.   Jason Hull (03:16) got it. And so you start taking things in your own hands and what was the result?   John Casmon (03:20) Yes. So we landed on multifamily investing, started with small multifamily. My first investment was a two unit building. We house hacked it, which is a common popular phrase now. But back then it wasn't quite as common. But we lived upstairs. We rented out the first floor unit and it worked great. You know, it worked so great that we went to refinance and we had created enough equity in that first investment to pull out a six figure line of credit and go out and buy another property. So.   Jason Hull (03:45) Nice.   John Casmon (03:47) That really got the ball rolling. bought a three unit building, we bought an eight unit building, and at this time I'm still working in advertising, still working in corporate America, and I enjoyed what I was doing, and I just had my second child, but the agency I was working for also went through bankruptcy right at this time. We had expanded, we were growing, and we had kind of combined with a few other agencies and kind of became this little conglomerate, and it just eroded just as quickly as it grew.   I remember again, just sitting there and I've got some real estate. I've got a little bit of cashflow, but not enough to pay all my bills. New baby. And I just realized this real estate thing is working, but the exact strategy I'm employing doesn't allow me to insulate myself from these economic changes and shifts. So I had to change my strategy and that led me to syndication. Since then, we've acquired over $150 million worth of apartments.   We've partnered with busy professionals to buy these properties and give them some passive income. And that's what we've been doing ever since.   Jason Hull (04:50) Got it. So your area of genius really is helping these people that were similar to you, they're in the corporate environment transition into being an investor in real estate.   John Casmon (05:01) Yeah, exactly. And I would say too, it doesn't have to be you're going to quit your job and do this full time. And in fact, most people don't, you know, but most people do want a little bit more control over their life. You want a little bit more flexibility. You want to earn and start building up, you know, your net worth. You want to have a little bit more liquidity. You have to look at your investments to say, what should you be doing? I think most people know that their 401k, their, you know, company issued life insurance.   probably not enough to really get you on the fast track to retirement. So what else could you do? Certainly you can invest in the stock market. Lots of folks do that. But real estate is a proven vehicle. The challenge is, I don't know anyone who really wants to be a landlord, right? ⁓ Certainly you want the benefits of real estate investing, but very few of us want to get those 2 a.m. phone calls. So the shortcut there is, ⁓ hire a property manager. Great solution. But now you have to be able to manage   property managers, right, which is this whole other business. And if you don't have enough scale, then it's hard to get that person really focused on your business. So we offer an alternative, right? You get all the benefits of real estate investing, all the ownership perks without any of the headaches of being the landlord yourself. So it really is a great marriage of being in real estate without having to do the heavy lifting yourself.   Jason Hull (06:15) Okay.   Okay, so ⁓ the target audience of this show are property managers. So if they're not gonna use property managers, then what's the alternative? How does this work?   John Casmon (06:29) Well,   first of all, what we do is not always for that individual. So I think that's the key, right? You've got to understand who you are from a psychological standpoint. So when it comes to investors, there's two types of investors. One wants control, right? They're not willing to be passive. And some people think they want to be passive until they're in a passive situation and then they're calling and they want to know why you did this and why you did that and how come you did do that. That's not a passive investor. And that's fun.   Jason Hull (06:45) Yeah.   Yeah, they're anxious. Yeah. Yeah.   John Casmon (06:58) And   if that's you, you should be active, right? And you should work with a property manager, but you also want to work with the property manager who is going to be right for you, right? Because sometimes that is not how they operate. So you want to understand that. And that's a process to understand who you are as an investor, what kind of investment strategy fits you and what's going to be right there. When it comes to property managers, though, I think there are a couple of things. And as a matter of fact, we just left out of meeting with   property management company yesterday. They have 2000 units. We talked about some other services that we offer. And one of things that stood out to me was just understanding some of the challenges that property managers face. And one of them is property managers are really in a position to think like everyone. They're supposed to think like an investor. They're supposed to understand maintenance and kind of the construction arm enough to understand what needs to happen at a property. But they are really little CEOs, right? Because for   Our stuff, the large apartment stuff, those are typically million dollar annual revenue businesses. And this person is in charge of that asset of that business. They are making the day to day decisions. They are the face for the residents, aka the customers of that business. They are the face and their experience with that individual is how they view that business. So it really is an important role. And if you're working with property managers, it's really important to understand how to find the right people.   to connect with them and have them represent your business, your brand, company in the right light.   Jason Hull (08:30) So now you left an open loop that I want to close. So you said there's two types of investors, those that want control and maybe should go find a property manager, you said. And then what's the other type?   John Casmon (08:34) Yeah.   The other type is those who don't want control and they trust someone else to handle that. And for them, there are a couple of different ways of investing. One is investing passively with a group like ours. The other is turnkey investing where again, you hire a property manager, but you really entrust them to manage the property. The only thing I would say for either one of those groups, myself included, is you want to trust but verify. Okay. You've got to do a lot of your due diligence upfront. You want to understand how they operate. You want to talk to   some of their other clients, some of their other investors, because you need to get a really good sense of what to expect. And a lot of people are great at selling themselves upfront, right? I can tell you everything you want to hear upfront. You want to know what is it like once you sign the paperwork? How often are we going to talk? How frequently am I going to get updates? And at what point am I able to weigh in and make decisions? Because if, if you are someone who wants to be more active or be heard, or you've got thoughts and opinions,   Jason Hull (09:18) yeah.   John Casmon (09:35) You want to make sure you have a voice in your investment. Otherwise you may get really disappointed or you may bring on someone who has a different perspective of what that relationship looks like and that never is going to work out.   Jason Hull (09:47) Yeah, there's a big challenge in the industry and that's that most property management companies suck. so most investors that have dealt with property management to some degree are they have some scar tissue, they've been burned a little bit. They've a lot of property managers that started their businesses that come to me for help to grow their business. They started because they were investor and they couldn't find anyone else to manage the property good enough. And that's why they started their business, but it can be a difficult business to run. so none of them start their business saying, I want to suck.   But that's kind of the default unless they get some really good support or figure some things out through a lot of trial and error. And so that's where DoorGrow comes in. We help them with that. But one of the things I coach my clients on a lot is that they need to shift into being daddy over these rental properties. They need to like tell the owner, hey, you need to trust me. And they need to be able to have a really effective business so that they can lean into that trust.   because a lot of people are anxious. They'll come to them with concerns, but generally if a property manager is good, they're much better at this investing stuff than most investors. And they're much better at coordinating maintenance. They're much better at handling leasing. And so when an owner tries to micromanage a property manager, it kind of doesn't make sense to hire somebody to manage your asset just so you can manage them to do the job. And so I think the secret is finding a really good property manager that you can   let go of control because you can trust them. And but yes, you need to verify that they can do the job that you need them to do. And so a good property manager will take ownership of it and they'll take control and they will, they'll display a lot of certainty and confidence in how they communicate and they won't allow you to micromanage them is what I've seen. So.   John Casmon (11:37) Yeah, Jason, and I'll add to it. There's a two way street there. And I think it's easy for people to say, ⁓ most property managers suck or they're not good or whatever. And listen, there's certainly a lot of challenges there. A lot of folks who are not living up to par to the standards. But I will go back to this. We ask property managers to do the work of generally like a CEO. Right. I mean, again, they're managing million dollar businesses in many cases, yet they don't have that training. They don't have that experience. They don't have the ability to navigate.   all of these various things. So part of what owners and investors need to also understand is that you play the role of asset manager. And that means giving clear direction of what success looks like so that that property manager has a framework to make decisions. It's not to micromanage those decisions, but to help them understand how their decisions impact the greater good. And part of that is like, again, just sitting down with annual goals. What are revenue goals? What are our goals on?   Occupancy, what are our goals on in a lot? And this may seem simple, but I promise you a lot of folks don't do this. And if you don't do that, then that property manager is going to default to, for instance, I'll give you a great example. I've got a property manager. She's awesome rock star. But she always gets nervous when occupancy is not at like 96 or 97 percent of this property. So she is, you she starts apologizing profusely and all I did this or done that and like.   Jason Hull (12:58) Yeah.   John Casmon (13:04) Occupancy is one of our KPIs for sure. It's important, but that is not the KPI. I am focused on my net operating income. And if we're going to push rents, the impact of that is you're going to have higher vacancy and she is not comfortable with that. And that's probably because she's used to working with owners who want that thing fully rented and they are comfortable having 100 % occupancy.   Jason Hull (13:13) Yeah.   Hmm.   Yeah.   John Casmon (13:33) if they're leaving 50 bucks, 75 bucks, whatever it is of rent on the table. And that's the part where you've got to really align with your vision versus their vision, because what they have in the back of their mind may not completely align with what you have. Or they have residents in their face who are coming into the office. They want something fixed. They want it done quickly. They want it done right. They want it done yesterday.   Jason Hull (13:49) Right.   .   John Casmon (13:59) So they've got that pressure of this person in their face. So they may go out there and spend the money or authorize the money to get spent. And maybe they're not picking the most cost effective measure. So you have that. And I'll give you one third one. A lot of times when you run into the flip side of that is maybe occupancy is low. They say, hey, we need to increase our marketing spend, right? We got to increase our marketing budget. know, ox is down to 88 or 90%. We got to spend more money. And we're not necessarily.   really zeroing in on what the specific issue or challenge is at that property. So for an owner, your job as an asset manager is to partner with them and to help them see what the options are, help them work through with some of those challenges and solutions are and partner with them to find success. It's not to micromanage them and tell them what to do, but it's really to understand the situation better and give them that perspective.   Jason Hull (14:49) Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. think, you know, one of the things I've seen is that I've noticed a lot of property managers, they make the mistake of thinking that the goal or the product that people want to buy from them is property management. But investors don't wake up in the morning and go, man, I'm so excited to get property management today. The thing that they want. And so the way I describe it to them as they say, property management is like the flight to Hawaii. It's not Hawaii.   and you're trying to sell the flight. That's not the exciting part. You need to figure out what the investor wants, what their goal is. Where do they want to go? What's Hawaii for them, right? What's paradise? And then how do we optimize for that? And how do we help them create a path for that? Because the actual product that a property manager is selling is not what they do. It's not property management. The actual product is them. It's them and their values and their belief system and how they create trust and the team they build and the system and mechanism they build around them.   That's the actual product the property manager is selling. so a lot of property managers make that mistake. They sit there and talk to you about maintenance coordination and leasing and inspections. And meanwhile, you're just wondering as an investor, can I even trust this person? Like do our values align? Yeah. So I don't know what your thoughts are on that, but.   John Casmon (16:11) I think you're spot on, right? Because, I mean, ultimately, as an investor, you are only as good as the team you can build. And that property manager is in charge of the day-to-day aspects of the business. especially when you, you know, I've heard horror stories of folks who have done like turnkey investing, right? Where the property manager, someone owns it, they buy it, they fix it up, and then they rent it back to...   an investor. And I've heard horror stories where that property was not being well managed. And that's the fear. If you're not in that marketing, you can't come and see it. So if you got an out of town investor, you really are trusting that property manager. So that is the most important thing, right? Everything else are tactical, daily situational things that can change. But it comes down to do I have the right people, people that I can trust, people who are going to make the right decision based on the information they have.   because they may not know what I know or maybe something shifted and changed where they would have made a different decision. We can't, you know, ache on that. It really comes down to are they doing their best? Are they making good decisions? If they're not making good decisions, is it because they didn't have the correct information, which again, could fall back on you as the investor to say, hey, are they aware of what your goals are? Are they aware of maybe this situation, these tools, these resources, whatever it is? And that's on you to sit and collaborate.   But trust is absolutely paramount because at end of the day, the thing that I think most of us are concerned with is who we partner with. And there's a great book I'm reading right now. And it gets into decision making and the fear of decision making for most of us and why deals stall. Why didn't you hire somebody? Why didn't you, you know, go with the vendor or go with the contractor or with the company? And the biggest thing is we are scared of making the wrong choice. All of us in decision and no action.   Jason Hull (17:43) Absolutely.   John Casmon (18:04) is better than the wrong action for many people because they once they take action. Well, now they're blaming themselves because you didn't pick the right person. Why did you hire that guy? You should have like now this starts to go on in their head versus doing nothing. Well, at least it's you know, it's not going to get worse, you know, it will in lot of cases get worse. So for a lot of people, that is the scariest thing. So if you can take that fear off the table as far as being the right person or being someone who is trustworthy.   Jason Hull (18:07) Right, yeah.   John Casmon (18:32) everything else gets easier. So if you can do that, that's, you know, the best thing you can do as an investor or as a property manager.   Jason Hull (18:38) Yeah, I agree. think one of things that I talk about a lot is that clarity has to come before action because if you don't have clarity and you start taking a bunch of action, doing stuff, every action you take is a little bit wrong. Sometimes it's a lot wrong. so, yeah, we need to get that clarity first before we start ⁓ making moves. And you talked about, I love the example of your property manager that is trying to   optimize maybe for the wrong thing. They're like, want to optimize to the, making sure their vacancy is super low. But that might not be the goal. That's not the primary goal. The goal is money, you know, and there's a really good book is by Elihu Goldratt. It's a good book for operations people, but it's called The Goal. And spoiler alert, the guy's trying to figure out the goal through this whole book, the story and it's money. That's the secret. The goal is the of the business, should be making making money.   And what happens in this book is that people are over optimizing individual pieces in this flow at this warehouse. And it's actually not helping to make money. It's causing more constraint. And so if we over optimize at one stage, it actually creates waste, bloat, inventory, additional work for the next stage. And so sometimes the best thing certain departments can do is slow down and do less in order to get the outcome to be maximized outcome.   And there's some really great examples in that that I think are really powerful. But I think the if you're optimizing for the wrong thing, then you're not making it effective. So you want to make sure you're optimizing for the right thing. Otherwise. ensues. You get mad at somebody, but nobody understood what the goal was. And so I think, yeah, getting a greed upon set of criteria of what what the outcome is and asking the property manager, can you help me achieve this?   And they know, they know if they know what the problem is, usually they can, they know how to help you get whatever goal that you have. And they know whether your goal is probably realistic or not, because they've helped probably a lot of people do this similarly. And so, but yeah, I think it's very important. Make sure you know, where's Hawaii and maybe property management is the vehicle. Now you had mentioned like, I'm really curious about this idea of, you know, maybe creating syndications.   Some property managers are now starting to think, maybe I should create a syndication. What's your criteria for, what's a good syndication and what are some of the, I'd be really curious to get into if some of the property managers listening were wanting to do kind of a little bit of what you do, how they might be able to get started in that. Like what are the beginning steps to make sure they don't make the mistakes you probably already figured out in the beginning?   John Casmon (21:27) Well, I think the first thing is, you really want to get into it? Right. Because for a lot of people, you got to understand it's a different business. Now you're not talking about real estate investing. You're not talking about property management. You're really talking more about, you know, investment management. You're talking about bringing on private investors who are looking for a return. That is communication skills. That's building up a network and a database of   Jason Hull (21:35) Mm-hmm.   Right, returns.   John Casmon (21:54) prospective investors, it's understanding the return projections that they're looking for. And it's really kind of managing the investor expectations, not necessarily the investment. And to give you a great example here, I had a deal where the investment went great, but it was slightly lower than what we initially projected. And I had an investor who was upset.   Jason Hull (22:07) Yeah.   Yeah.   John Casmon (22:23) about that. And we had communicated all throughout the entire process where things sat and he wasn't too upset, but he still made it a point to let me know, hey, well, this is less than what you initially thought. And that's challenging because the market shifts, right? Anybody who's bought properties in 2022 and beyond knows the market has shifted drastically over the last three or four years. So those projections made in a 2021-22 environment   Have a hard time standing up in a 25 26 environment We still make good money on that deals double-digit returns for investors ⁓ But you know there was that that was that feedback I got from one of the investors conversely We just exited deal a couple months ago, and we completely exceeded our return projections You know we delivered on a almost a 2.7 equity multiple Hit all you know mid 20s on the IRR completely unheard of stuff in this environment   And I have one investor call me and say, hey, John, I just checked my account. Is this right? And I'm like, yeah, it's it's right, man. He's like, my gosh, you guys killed it, man. my. Like, this is amazing. And it's great to hear. But again, that is separate from the investment. Right. Happy to manage the investor expectations and concerns. But that was an up and down investment where we had, you know, a moment where we actually had to put some of our general partner capital into the deal to keep it going.   Jason Hull (23:27) Yeah.   Yeah.   John Casmon (23:48) We have floating rate debt. had to refinance out of that. And we had to kind of rush to do that before rates started to go crazy. We had moments where our construction or renovation costs were much higher than we anticipated. So there are a lot of things that we had to navigate. And I think what happens for a lot of operators, a lot of people who get into syndication, they know the real estate and want to do the real estate, but they do not understand the perspective of the investor. And when you don't communicate to investors on a frequent basis and a clear, transparent nature,   Jason Hull (24:19) Yeah. Yeah.   John Casmon (24:19) They fill in the blanks and   the first concern every investor has and they won't say it. Most of time they don't say it, but I promise you they're thinking it after they make that investment. my gosh, did I make a mistake? Am I going to lose money? Is this person going to run off? Is this going to be some sort of fraudulent thing? Is this deal going to fail? These are all that we're wired like that. This is caveman stuff, right? We're wired to protect ourselves.   Jason Hull (24:36) Hmm.   Right.   John Casmon (24:45) And when you make an investment, and by the way, our investments are typically $50,000 and up, right? So these are not small investments. So when you make that investment, people start to second guess that decision. So my job when it comes to this side of the business is to keep them grounded that, hey, you've done your research, you've made an informed decision, you've picked a good partner, we've done this before. ⁓   Jason Hull (24:50) Yeah. Right.   John Casmon (25:13) And it's really to make sure that they feel comfortable with that decision. It has nothing to do with the investment, right? The investment itself, we got to go out there and execute. But that investor psyche is a completely different game. So first thing I would tell any of your property managers when they get into this business is understand, do you actually like people? Do you want to manage investors? Are you comfortable managing people's money? ⁓ And then beyond that, you have to do it the legal way. There are a lot of regulations around accepting capital from other people.   Jason Hull (25:31) you   John Casmon (25:42) So you can do it as a joint venture. The more common way of doing it, the more accepted way of doing this is by doing a formal syndication, which requires you to file SEC documentations. ⁓ know, there's regulation D and regulation A and there's some couple others, but typically it's going to be reg D 506 B or 506 C filing, which basically is the the structure that allows you to offer ⁓ passive investment opportunity or a security to investors. So again, for some people,   It's overwhelming. they're like, nope, never mind. But for some people, they love it. They want to get into it and they can learn more about that process.   Jason Hull (26:19) Got it. Yeah. I think I love your idea that it's more about managing expectations rather than the investments. And I think, I think that's good advice for all the property managers listing. This is something we spend a lot of time coaching clients on because they think their job is to manage properties. But really, if they're not strong in managing expectations and managing the relationship, it's 10 times to 100 times harder to manage the properties.   their operational costs go through the roof because owners are getting anxious. They're asking more questions. They're getting all these interruptions and calls, tenants, owners constantly. And if they had just managed the relationship and expectations and set strong boundaries at the outset, everybody would feel calmer. And I think really for business owners, I think the thing that really stood out to me that I've been focused on, and this is I've done some personal coaching and this is just nervous system regulation.   If you can, and John, seem like you're pretty chill and pretty calm and I'm sure the investor feel safe with you, which is why you've had success. If you are a person that is anxious and you're running around like a chicken with your head cut off, you're going to have, you're going to struggle in leading anybody, especially in relationships to your spouse and like everybody else. so having a calm, regulated nervous system allows your investors.   to entrain to your nervous system and to feel safer and to calm down. And that's not something you can pretend or you can just fake. You have to be that and they can sense and they can feel that it'll come across in your tone and in your body language and how you communicate. But if you can make sure that you're in that space and that you're able to regulate your own system, you're able to stay calm when other people are coming at you.   and other people are angry and other people are emotionally heightened. And you recognize this isn't really you. It's just that's them. And you can maintain that calm. You will be able to create a lot more safety. And that's really what people want to buy. Most people out there, their primary basic need is safety and security. Most people. That's why they aren't entrepreneurs. That's why they don't go start jobs. That's why they aren't like you and me. And if you're a property management business owner listening to this,   Most people are not like you. They want safety and security. That's why they get a property manager. They want peace of mind. And so, and I'm sure investors in a syndication, they also want some peace of mind because this is a big chunk of change.   John Casmon (28:55) They do. And I will say to most of the property managers I come across thrive in chaos. Right. They're used to stuff getting thrown at them. Right. And when you talk to them and get to know them, you learn very quickly. They like it. They do. They like the fact that they don't know what the day is going to bring. It could be a. Yeah, yeah. Could be a tenant coming with some crazy issue. It could be something from it's never boring and they thrive in it. However.   Jason Hull (29:00) Yeah.   Yeah.   They like the variety and unique challenges that property management brings, for sure.   It's never boring.   John Casmon (29:25) What happens then if you if they're going to look to work with investors and particularly raise capital and kind of do their own syndications, they have to understand that while they may thrive in chaos and uncertainty, most other people want organization. You want everything you said right. You want to have the calmness. You are looking for a captain to steer the ship. And for that part of the personality, they're going to have to tap into a different side of it to demonstrate how they handle chaos.   Jason Hull (29:37) Hmm.   Yeah.   Yeah.   John Casmon (29:54) not that they are chaotic. And I think what happens a lot of times when you're working with property managers is that they don't project that level of control. It just feels like they're reacting. So part of it is that, and they're really, really good ones. The ones who make it to that next level who are the regional managers and get those promotions, well, that's what they do. They manage the chaos and they manage up. They do a great job of telling the owners,   Jason Hull (30:06) Yeah.   Mm.   John Casmon (30:23) the leadership, whoever they need to talk to, they're telling them, hey, here's how here's our process. Here's how we're managing the situation. Here's what's going on. Here's what we're into. Hey, we had a water main burst here. Here's we bought. call three companies. We've got three quotes, but it's calm, right? It can be the worst. I'll give you a real example, right? At a fire, one of my properties and I was going to meet a property manager and I just happened to have a meeting with her that day at the property. She called me.   I was literally about to get in the car. She called me and said, Hey, I just want to let you know we've got a fire going on at the property. I'm not sure if you still want to meet. You're happy to come. We already have, you know, the fire department's here. They're they're putting the fire out right now. We already have another company that's coming in. They're going to walk through the damages once this is kind of settled. And I've already talked to the residents. Residents are good. We've got them hotels for the evening. We've checked with insurance. This is covered in your policy. So they're good to go. So you're happy to come down and talk and all of that if you want to.   Or we can let things settle down and maybe we can meet next week. This is a fire, right? This is like a scary situation. She called me.   Jason Hull (31:26) Right. A literal fire. Yeah. And there's plenty of fires   in managing properties. The literal ones.   John Casmon (31:33) Her calmness, she was so calm. Not only was   she calm, she had handled 90 % of it, right? It was the stuff you could handle in the moment. She handled it. So was like, hey, I don't think it makes sense for me to because I'm probably just going to add more anxiety to the situation at this point, right? It seems like you've got it under control. Why don't we let things settle, literally let the dust settle? And then once it's there, I'll come down. We can assess the damages, figure out what else needs to happen, what other next steps need to take place, right?   Jason Hull (31:41) Yeah? huh.   question. Yeah.   John Casmon (32:03) but had it handled like a rock star. Now, a lot of other folks would have saw the flames, called immediately, my God, there's a fire. ⁓ my God, what are we gonna do? So now you freaking out, everyone's freaking out, no one's controlling the situation, right? So now everyone's mind is just spinning and going. it does really take, kind of go back to where we started the conversation, that mindset of someone who was the boss, who was leading.   Jason Hull (32:05) Yeah, I love that.   Yeah. Freaking out. Yeah.   Hmm. Yeah.   John Casmon (32:32) who is going to take charge, even though it's not their property, they're going to take charge. Here's what needs to happen next. Maybe you have an emergency response plan already put in place, but you have these things already scheduled and ready to go. So when they happen, you're not shocked. You're not surprised. You're not asking questions that maybe you should have figured out upfront. And that's what a great property manager does. And if you convey that to owners, you're going to stand out above and beyond your competition because most people cannot convey that level of control, the level of   planning and the level of expertise that it takes to truly and effectively manage properties from the front, being proactive as opposed to just reacting to whatever the issue of the day is.   Jason Hull (33:13) Got it, okay. So ⁓ I'm reading, I just read, well, I didn't just read. I read in the past a really great book called Extreme Ownership. Really good book. Yeah, phenomenal book. ⁓ I'm going through their newer book, which I think is even better, called The Dichotomy of Leadership. leadership is what we're talking about right now, is that that,   John Casmon (33:23) Yeah, I think I got it like right here. It is right there.   Absolutely.   Jason Hull (33:38) creates a huge impact and there's a lot of misunderstandings of what leadership is, like it's control or it's being aggressive or, but yeah, it's really that calm presence of letting people know I've got it. Like we can take care of this. We've got a plan and staying regulated and calm. So I love that. ⁓ have a, so another question I have is how can the property managers listen to this? How could they maybe target or partner   with, if possible, syndications like you, like people that are doing what you're doing. Is there a chance that they could be a resource or do most syndications just in-house and do, they are a property management business?   John Casmon (34:19) No, no, most ⁓ most that I know work with third party manager companies. So I would say first and foremost, if you and syndications, I mean, it sounds like a big, huge, fancy word. But I mean, honestly, anytime you work with passive investors is technically a syndication. So it really comes down to figuring out who is looking for third party management and whether or not it's technically a syndication or not is really irrelevant. You want someone who is going to be managing or owning the property.   Jason Hull (34:24) Okay.   Yeah.   John Casmon (34:49) They want third party, but you have to understand their plan, going back to understanding the goals, right? Most syndications are looking to sell in a three to seven year timeframe, typically five to seven years. Most buy and hold owners have not decided or have not identified their exit strategy. So that's probably the biggest difference is when you have, let's just call it an individual investor or maybe it's a   Jason Hull (35:01) Okay.   Right.   John Casmon (35:17) a family or whatever that's buying and they want a third party manager, they don't know the exit. They haven't predetermined that they're going to sell in five years. So they are buying and holding it. And that goes back to the the I think the separation of understanding the objective, because for that person, having a full property is great. It means they're maximizing the revenue potential today. When you are syndicating.   most syndicators already assume 5 % vacancy. That's that's in everyone's underwriting. So you being at 100, they won't even give you credit banks don't even give you credit for it. So all of these things are already assumed. So for us to be above that is actually a miss, because it means we're not being as aggressive on the rent. So just understanding the mindset of a syndicator, which is they are looking to sell typically they're looking to double their money over a five or six year period. So how can you create value?   And that's something most property managers don't fully understand. But I would sit and I would talk to that syndicator. And if you want to be a syndicator or partners, not just be a third party vendor, but you actually want a partner, which we have seen a lot of folks look to do. You want to figure out how you can bring value to the table, because now we are aligning your interest with that syndicators interest. And now you've got a great partnership.   because every syndicator is going to need property management and they're going to need construction management to drive value. So if they can bring those people in as partners, that's a great opportunity for you. And if you're a property manager, you may have phenomenal relationships. You may already have contractor or the vendor partners that you trust in that marketplace. And if you could then take that and get a slice of the equity, that makes you very valuable for both sides.   Jason Hull (37:08) Do syndications, do they also need investors in capital or do most of them have that, are they really good at that? Okay.   John Casmon (37:15) Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.   mean, I mean, syndication at its core really just comes down to the need of capital. If someone had the capital themselves, they would probably just buy it directly and not go through the process of syndication. Because the syndication is literally just raising the money from passive investors. And in that scenario, again, being able to manage that, manage the communication, ⁓ that's really what a syndication truly is.   Jason Hull (37:42) So a really good property management partner could bring property management, some of the construction elements and investors and capital to the table. So it could be a nice little.   John Casmon (37:51) That would be amazing.   I'll be honest, man. That's because I don't want your listeners sitting here like, oh, I don't have one of those. I don't know if I've ever met one that had all of those. If you do have all of them, yes, you should consider syndicating yourself because you got all the pieces to the puzzle. Typically, what happens is a property manager has the property managers. I'll give you a great example. I got a 54 unit down in North Carolina. OK, so I came in as a key principal. I've got a.   Jason Hull (38:03) Okay.   Okay.   John Casmon (38:20) to my coaching clients. It's his property that he found. He asked me to come help him with the loan, which I did. One of the members, one of the partners is the property manager. So that's kind of their role to the table is they're managing the property. That's what they kind of came on. They had a couple of relationships, but their main role is the asset and property management side of it. So that's a great way to come to the table. But. Just like anything else in business.   Jason Hull (38:33) Mm-hmm.   John Casmon (38:49) It's very hard to find someone who checks every single box. I mean, that's like finding the marketer who's a CMO, who's also the CFO, who's also the COO, who's also the chief of human resource. very like no one, people don't really have like top notch excellent skills at every single one of those, right? Like you might be great at business, great at sales, great at marketing. You're probably terrible at finance, right? Like you just, you just forget to do your expense report type person, right? So it's hard to find someone who's   checks all those boxes. And I think typically when comes to property management, you want someone who's great with people, can resolve issues, but also has to be somewhat, you know, sufficient when it comes to the numbers, tracking all the data, tracking all the, you know, the rent roll, the leases, the income and expense statements, things like that. So usually they're not going to do every single box. But again, if you can find someone or that's where partnerships make sense.   Jason Hull (39:24) Mm-hmm.   John Casmon (39:43) If you've got that awesome. And again, I'm not saying a company doesn't have that. I'm just saying a single individual doesn't, which is why it's great to partner. If you can find someone who maybe brings a set of skills that you don't have, whether they're joining you in your property management business or they're partnering up where you're bringing your property management skills to the table with their investing or their networking skills, that makes for a good partnership.   Jason Hull (39:43) Mm-hmm.   Yeah, I got it. Well, we've got several clients, you know, all over the U S that are really good at property management. They're really good at handling the maintenance stuff and they obviously have a pool of investors as clients and, and, know, and they know that they can't do everything. So we coach them in making sure that they would do time studies. They figure out which, what their purpose is. We start to align them towards more fulfillment, more freedom, more contribution and more support in their business.   John Casmon (40:32) Yeah.   Jason Hull (40:38) And they start to build the right team. So they're getting operators, they're getting BDMs, they're getting the things they're not like strong in. And so we just make healthier businesses. So for those of maybe my clients listening that have healthy property management companies. And, but they don't want to do syndication. They're just like, man, that's a whole nother business. If I stay in my lane, I can grow that faster. How do they find syndicates? Like, how do they find people like you? Cause you've got a lot of properties connected to you.   and they would probably love to chat with somebody like you. Where do you syndicate people hang out? What's the title? Who runs a syndicate? What are they called? Do they have a specific title?   John Casmon (41:15) You   Yeah.   Yeah, great. Great question. Multifamily syndicator is is kind of the name just syndicator. We're all over. So I've got a podcast called Multifamily Insights. I interview like minded individuals. I've been doing that for a long time. We've done our seven hundred and seventy plus episode. So lots of people, lots of syndicators there. Definitely conferences. So if you look up any multifamily conference in your city.   Jason Hull (41:25) Okay.   Nice.   Okay.   John Casmon (41:46) meetups, lot of meetups in different cities as well. Those are great places to find syndicators. I think the biggest thing though is this.   Figure out who your avatar is. Because while we're talking about syndicators, ultimately, if you want to scale your property management business, I presume you're trying to scale with folks who are looking for third party management and the best option for that. OK, and let me back up. had one of the guests out of a podcast some years back, ⁓ Ashley Wilson. Love Ashley. As you said, something really changed when I thought about the business.   And she said the best way to find any vendor, any vendor is to figure out who relies on that vendor next and ask them for referral. So if you think about it, if you want a great drywall person, ask a painter. A painter is going to know who's great at drywall because they're going to know who makes their job easy and they can come in and just start painting versus a drywall guy who maybe doesn't, you know, you know.   Jason Hull (42:38) I like it.   John Casmon (42:55) mud the drywall properly or doesn't sand it down. So they got to do all this extra work before they start their process. Right. So a painter is going to know a great drywall guy. And in this case, it's really hard on ⁓ the property manager because you guys are the ones who do the work. But if you are looking for syndicators, OK, well syndicators, person who buys the deal. Well, who sells the deal? A broker. Find brokers. Go to a broker, commercial multifamily broker and ask them, hey,   Jason Hull (43:01) I love this.   Yeah.   John Casmon (43:25) Do you know some groups or you have properties that you're going to list? Here are the kind of deals we want to do now on the flip side of that. You got to be good at your job, right? You got to sell yourself and share what you do. So if you've got a great track record, a great resume, showcase that, bring that broker through and let them know, hey, we're looking to scale our property management business here. Here are the kind of assets that we want to manage. If you come across any of these that you're going to list, would you mind keeping our main name out there or referring us or giving us introductions to any of those buyers?   Jason Hull (43:53) Yeah.   John Casmon (43:54) so that we can throw our hat in the running to manage these properties. That's a phenomenal way to do that. And it allows you to shine and expand your relationships in your core networks and in your core markets.   Jason Hull (44:06) Brilliant. think I love the, I love Ashley's idea that you shared, you know, the drywall. Yeah. The painters, like they don't want to be painting over a crappy drywall. They're like, this is a mess. Like this doesn't even look good in my job. Now I'm going to look bad. Yeah. So the brokers know who maybe those best syndicators are. And so they could just go to the brokers and say, Hey, who's, who's doing deals like this? Who who's got things going on? Like who could you connect me with?   And I avoid maybe.   John Casmon (44:36) And on top of that, keep in mind, too, like what   are the times when? Yeah, but think about to like when is a property hiring or bringing on a new property manager? Right. So it's either a current owners firing the existing property manager or the property is being sold. Right. So, I mean, if you can get in during that transition phase, that's going to help you tremendously. And if even if they're firing their existing property manager, you can think through, OK, how do I?   Jason Hull (44:51) Yeah. Yeah.   John Casmon (45:06) work myself and get my name out there. And a lot of times, again, you're going to ask, right? You're going to ask other investors. If I were going through that process, I'm going to call my buddies into space, right? And say, hey, man, having a hard time, my current PM is not working out or we're not hitting our objectives, looking at some other options. Do you have any experience with these guys? What do you know about these guys? Or do you have anybody you could recommend? It's word of mouth, right? So that's what's going to start happening as well. So you kind of have to get out there and network and let folks know who you are, what you do. But you want to be someone who   people can say, yeah, these guys are amazing. You know, they, they only had an eight unit, but they crushed my eight unit for me. I'm sure they kill your 25 unit or your 50 unit. And you've got to start building that rapport and building your reputation in your market.   Jason Hull (45:44) Yeah.   Nice. This is good advice, my friend. So, cool. For those that maybe are investors listening to this show, ⁓ I'd love to hear a little bit about what you do, how you do run your syndication, and how they can ⁓ make things more passive, if that's what they're looking   John Casmon (46:08) Yeah, man. So there are lots of different ways to get in. If you are looking to be more passive, ⁓ high level, here's how it works. OK, so first and foremost, me and my team would go out. We look for the deals. We focus on a really tight radius. So we're in Cincinnati. We like Cincinnati, Columbus, Louisville, Kentucky. Really a two hour radius of the Cincinnati market is where we focus. And right now we actually think there's more opportunities locally. So we're really honed in on Cincinnati right now. But we focus on that once we find a deal.   We reach out to folks in our network. So we have folks in our investor list. ⁓ Once they're on our list, we kind of have a quick vetting process and then we can share opportunities with them. Once they see that opportunity, they get a chance to review it. We like to have a webinar where we answer any questions about the deal. I think for new investors, it's a great way to learn because we have a lot of experienced investors who ask very intelligent, thoughtful questions that   Many first time investors probably would not even think of. And that's a great way to learn, right? And ultimately when it comes to this space, it's really about education. know, it's educating yourself, understanding how you think about risk, how you mitigate risk in your investment choices. And those webinars are a great chance for you to learn about that the first time. Once you've done that, you can go ahead and fill out our official paperwork with our SEC documents.   Jason Hull (47:30) Mm-hmm.   John Casmon (47:30) And then   once you're through there, you can make the investment. But the first thing is just to get on our list, you can have access to the deals. And before you do that, we've actually put together a guide that can help people because I found that when I have these calls, people don't ask great questions. Sometimes they do. But I want to make sure that you are informed and well educated because this is a big investment. You know, this is not a 599 thing. And if it doesn't work out, OK, well, I just wasted six bucks. No.   Jason Hull (47:54) .   John Casmon (47:59) We're asking you to make a pretty large investment, whether it's with us or with others. If that's what you're looking to do, I want to make sure you're well informed. So we put together a guide. It's seven questions you must ask before investing in apartments. You can get that on our website. It's casmancapital.com slash seven questions, but it gets into questions around the market itself, the operating team, what you should be looking for, the deal. What is the story of this property? What's the business plan? And it helps you identify different levels of risk because the reality is   Anything can work, but you want to mitigate risk as much as possible, particularly when you're a passive investor, because you are basically saying, I'm trusting these people to find the right deal and execute. And you want to make sure that you are finding and identifying the right individuals who have a proven track record doing the thing that they are asking to do. When I hear about people losing money in real estate. At least 50, if not 70 % of the time.   Jason Hull (48:35) Hmm.   John Casmon (48:57) It is someone doing something for the first time. It is the first time in the market, first time doing this kind of deal, first time doing this kind of business plan. And. I can't tell you how frustrating it is because it's a big red flag, and it's not to say they can't do it and can't have success. But if it's your first time, I want to see how you're mitigating that right. You want to partner with someone who does have the experience you want. Like there are lot of things that you can do to put the odds in your favor. And when you're a passive investor.   Jason Hull (48:59) Mm, yeah.   John Casmon (49:26) It is not your job to hope. Your job is to analyze the information in front of you and make an informed decision. So this guide can help you do that.   Jason Hull (49:34) Yeah, love it. I'm going to run a quick word from our sponsor real quick. Our sponsor for this episode is Vendero. And many of you tell me that property management maintenance is probably the least enjoyable part of being a property manager and definitely the most time consuming. But what if you could cut that workload by up to 85 percent? That's exactly what Vendero has achieved. So they leverage cutting edge AI technology to handle nearly all your maintenance tasks from initiating work orders.   Troubleshooting, coordinating with vendors and reporting. This AI doesn't just automate, it becomes your ideal employee. Learning your preferences, executing tasks flawlessly and never needing a day off and never quitting. This frees you up to focus on the critical tasks that really move the needle for your business, whether that's refining operations, expanding your portfolio or even just taking a well-deserved break. Don't let maintenance drag you down. Step up your property management game with Vendero. Visit vendero.ai slash door grow today and make this the last maintenance hire you'll ever need.   All right, so John, this is super helpful. love you've got your list. ⁓ You got your webinar, you've got your guide. I would recommend property managers listening to this. If they're curious about the world of syndication, that they start getting into your stuff and seeing how an expert like you is doing this and maybe even get involved in some of the deals with you or something might be a good idea. And they can kind of get a feel for how this works. And then maybe they'll say, I don't want to do what John does.   And I'll just find people that do, but they'll at least understand how they could partner with people like that. then, or they may decide, you know what? John's clever, but I'm clever too. I might be able to figure out how to do this too. And maybe they'll do it too. And, but I think there's a solid opportunity for property managers that want to be in the multifamily space and do multifamily management to find third party people that are doing these syndication deals. They need good property managers and property managers want more doors and they want to grow.   And if you don't, because your business sucks and it's uncomfortable, then reach out to me. I'll help you out. We'll get you dialed in. But ⁓ John, what else would you say to the investors that are maybe they're familiar with this and they've done some real estate investing and they've worked with some syndications ⁓ and they get on your list to do the webinar. What would you say to them next?   John Casmon (51:56) Yeah, I think the biggest thing is understand what you're looking for. You know, I think one of the biggest challenges for investors is when you can't pull the trigger, it's typically because you haven't figured out what you're solving for. Are you looking for passive income? So you're just looking for a cash flow? Are you looking for long term wealth appreciation? Are you looking for tax benefits and to reduce kind of your tax liability? Do just want to diversify? Maybe you got feel like you have too much in a stock market, just like we put something somewhere else. So.   Figure out what you're actually solving for. Understand your risk tolerance, you know, because every deal is different. In our case, we do value add B class deals. That's a fancy way of just saying we like properties that already making money that are solid, solid tenant based. Think of when I say B class, I'm thinking of all stuff that was built maybe 30 years ago, maybe 40, maybe 20 years ago. Stuff that.   your teachers, your firefighters, your police officers, places where they might rent. So desirable locations, not luxury, not super high end, not, you know, super courts, everything. ⁓ But, you know, places that you would want your kid, your kid was in college, places you would be fine with your kid living, right? So you're thinking about that stuff. That's, you know, I don't say affordable stuff. That's not crazy price. So that's kind of what we focus on.   Jason Hull (53:15) So would   that be like, is that how you find the best markets then?   John Casmon (53:21) That's part of it. That's our strategy. There are different strategies that people utilize. I have found for us that is a sweet spot where we can take those kind of assets, modernize them and create value for potential renters. Some people like to focus only on they call it core plus right where they're buying newer stuff, stuff built five years ago or three years ago. And maybe it was, you know, leased up and they're just going to go in and hold it longer. You'll find other ways to add more money through amenities.   Jason Hull (53:35) Okay.   John Casmon (53:50) So some people do that strategy. Some people like older properties where they're buying more distressed or much older properties and are trying to fully renovate them and bring them up. There are strategies out there, something like new construction, stuff that doesn't exist. They want to build from the ground up. So it really comes down to you. Every investing strategy has a different level of risk. This has nothing to with real estate, right? This is investing in general. you're buying, you know, know, value stocks versus growth stocks versus Internet, it's the same stuff, right?   So you just have to figure out your level of risk. We like value at B-class multifamily deals. Once you understand your level of risk and balance that with your return expectations or projections, that's when you can figure out which investments actually make sense. You know, I have some folks who they like to invest in what we call trophy assets. And...   They may not know that right away, but when you send them a couple of deals and they look at the property like, ⁓ it's okay. They want something. They want something they can brag about. They want to drive you by like, see that building over there? That's me. And if that's fine, if that's what you want, understand what comes with that, right? That's going to be a lower term, right? Because these are, there's not much value to create, right? You've got a brand new property. It's A class, rents are $2,500. There's not a whole lot you can do there. And because of that,   Jason Hull (54:49) Yeah, they don't want to show that off. Look what I'm connecting.   OK, right.   Thank   Yeah.   John Casmon (55:13) There's not as much risk. So you're going to get less return because there's less risk. That's fun. Some people want to maximize their return, right? Hey, I don't need this money. I want to let it ride for 20 years. So they might want to do new construction or they might want to do a deep discount, highly distressed vacant property that needs, you know, $50,000 per unit to renovate it and turn around because the upside is there. So it just depends on that investor and your level of risk. Right. And most of us fall somewhere in the middle.   Jason Hull (55:27) Thank   John Casmon (55:43) which is kind of our strategy. figure out your level of risk tolerance, what you're looking for. And sometimes you don't know until you start looking at a Because you might think you're a cashflow person until I show you what cash flows. And you're like, oh, no, I don't want to be in that de

Ski area leaders juggle two demanding roles: developing people and delivering projects. This session with the Class of 2025-26 Summit Series cohort dives into how mentors strike that balance — keeping teams motivated while hitting deadlines, shaping culture while driving results, and navigating the constant pull between personalities and priorities.  Mentors: John Melcher, CEO, Crystal Mountain, Mich. Jean Mikulas, President and GM, Red Lodge Mountain, Mont. Lori Phillips, GM, Ski Big Bear, Pa. Hugh Reynolds, Partner and CMO, SNOW Partners, N.J. Ryan Schramm, GM, Powderhorn Mountain Resort, Colo. Mentees:  Chris Adams, VP of Mountain Experience, Boyne Mountain Resort, Mich.  Beck Badger, Lead Marketing Coordinator, Gunstock Mountain Resort, N.H Drew Brewer, Director of Mountain Experience, Alyeska Resort, Alaska Sam Burns, Snowmaking Supervisor, Arizona Snowbowl, Ariz.  Julie Bush, Marketing Specialist, Wisp Resort, Md.  Teagan Knudson, Front Desk & Guest Services and Ski Patrol Manager, Snowriver Mountain Resort, Mich. Ryan Leclerc, Location Manager, Adult & Private Lesson Programs, Beaver Creek, Colo. Rebecca Repp, Director of Food & Beverage, Brundage Mountain Resort, Idaho Shayna Silverman, Communications Manager, Arapahoe Basin, Colo. Gabriel Sudermann, Manager of Mountain Operations, Camp Fortune, Que.  Leadership Coach: Lex Curtis, Founder, Field of Play Consulting Thank you to our sponsor, MountainGuard, for their support of this program. 

Episode 416 of The VentureFizz Podcast features Colin Raney, Co-Founder & CEO of Ray. Here's a "did you know - fun fact” for you. Studies show that 90 minutes of strength training a week adds four years to your lifespan! Who knew??? At least I didn't, until I was doing research for this podcast. I have to admit, I have a pretty good workout routine while I'm home between cardio and lifting dumbbells, but when I'm traveling… forget about it. For whatever reason, I just have a mental block where I'm just not motivated to work out. This is just one of the many great use cases for how Ray helps. It is an AI native fitness app that behaves more like a personal trainer as it changes and adapts based on what the consumer needs by continuously learning from your feedback, preferences, and performance. Ray's co-founders are Colin and Rich Miner, who is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and co-founder of the Android operating system. The company is backed by Founder Collective, True Ventures, and other angel investors. In this episode of our podcast, we cover: * Colin's background story growing up in Texas and how he got his career started in software engineering and then product management. * Going back to business school at Carnegie Mellon and how he fell in love with design. * How he landed at IDEO and later ran the firm's Cambridge studio. * Joining Formlabs as CMO in the early days of the company and the story of the launch of the Form 2 printer. * Meeting TJ Parker and Elliot Cohen, the founders of PillPack and later joining as the company's CMO… plus the full story to their acquisition by Amazon for a reported $1B. * All the details about Ray and a demo of the product. * His thoughts around branding and consumer marketing in the era of AI. * And so much more!

After a decade in private practice, Dr. Claudia Emami transitioned from pediatric surgeon to Chief Medical Officer—driven by burnout and a deep curiosity about how healthcare systems function. In this episode, she shares the behind-the-scenes structure of hospital operations that every surgeon should know but rarely learns in training. We cover: The difference between medical staff and hospital administration Why bylaws are your protection How credentialing and peer review actually work Who sits in the C-suite—and what they control Why surgeons should proactively build relationships with their CMO and chief of staff How committee participation builds influence and opportunity Healthcare is becoming increasingly complex. Mergers, acquisitions, and system growth mean that physicians who don't understand governance risk losing their voice. This episode is a practical roadmap for surgeons who want to protect their autonomy, navigate hospital politics wisely, and possibly even explore leadership beyond the OR.

What a banger! This one is going to be homework the next time I teach a brand management class.  My guest today is Micaela Piccolo.  Micaela runs an agency called Pony Social and is a fractional CMO with Dano's Dangerous Tequila.  Which is amazing stuff.  We had a deep dive conversation about Dano's, Pony Social, and marketing.  In our conversation, we hit on things such as: Building brand awareness around the term agave Being a disrupter in a market segment Picking an enemy in your branding TikTok and social media Loyalty Market Research ...and, a lot more.   

"AI should be a tool, not a replacement...I've seen some very terrible ads." -Nicole Ramirez   Nicole Ramirez is a journalist-turned-marketer with deep experience leading growth marketing across CPG, financial services, B2B SaaS, media, and healthcare. She specializes in translating complex marketing challenges into measurable growth by blending performance marketing with customer-centric storytelling. As Co-Founder of BrandME and a LinkedIn Personal Brand Strategist, Nicole helps executives and professionals build thought leadership, visibility, and opportunity through strategic content, coaching, and fractional CMO consulting. She is also the host of the Talk Digital To Me podcast, a published Forbes and Entrepreneur contributor, and a featured speaker at events including TEDx and SXSW. Website: https://www.brandmelabs.com/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolerayeramirez/    Alison Daley is an entrepreneur, product designer, and international trainer passionate about using authentic storytelling and purpose-driven marketing to create meaningful impact. She's the creator of the Ernestine McClendon Talent Grant, a scholarship initiative that turned goodwill into real-world brand engagement. Through her work, Alison helps leaders and teams align who they are with what they create. Website: https://recruitinginnovation.com/  LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/alisonldaley   In this episode, we explore expert insights on digital marketing, AI strategies, personal branding, and recruiting innovation for growth-driven professionals.   Apply to join our marketing mastermind group: https://notypicalmoments.typeform.com/to/hWLDNgjz   Follow No Typical Moments at: Website: https://notypicalmoments.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/no-typical-moments-llc/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4G7csw9j7zpjdASvpMzqUA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notypicalmoments Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NTMoments  

#332 | Dave is joined by Domi de Saint-Exupéry, CMO at Lemlist, a bootstrapped $40M ARR sales engagement platform, to break down exactly how she turned $1.2M in marketing spend into $31M in new ARR in 2025. Domi shares the full breakdown of every channel, agency, influencer strategy, and partnership play that drove results. This includes how they went from $0 to $500K in paid ads, why partnerships are the most underrated B2B growth channel, how they built a micro-influencer program, and what AI use cases are actually working (and which are overrated). If you want real numbers and real playbooks, this one's for you.Timestamps(00:00) - Introduction: $1.2M in spend, $31M in new ARR (03:36) - What Lemlist does and how the company got to $40M ARR (06:51) - Going from $0 to $500K in paid ads: what triggered the shift (11:06) - How to execute paid ads well: outsourcing vs. in-house, and scaling by channel (17:21) - LinkedIn ads creative: why "on-brand and safe" was the wrong approach (21:51) - Mistakes made in paid: Snapchat, Spotify, and channels that didn't work (25:21) - The micro-influencer playbook: how to find, brief, and measure creators (35:59) - How influencer content compounds with paid ads and outbound (the Julio story) (41:29) - Partnerships: why $450K went here and why it's the most underrated B2B channel (49:59) - AI in marketing: what's overrated (content generation) and what's actually working Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Knak - A no-code, campaign creation platform that lets you go from idea to on-brand email and landing pages in minutes, using AI where it actually matters. Learn more at knak.com/exitfive.Optimizely - An AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Get a free, personalized 45-minute AI workshop to help you identify the best AI use cases for your marketing team and map out where agents can save you time at optimizely.com/exitfive (PS - you'll get a FREE pair of Meta Ray Bans if you do). Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.  ***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more

Et si on segmentait notre cible autrement qu'avec une simple description? Et si on mettait le comportement et le moment au cœur du sujet? Avec cet épisode je vous propose de revoir totalement votre façon de segmenter, et vous allez voir que ça en vaut la peine.Pour nous en parler, j'ai invité Grégory Blay-Desforges le Directeur d'Uber Advertising.Pour en savoir plus sur Grégory, vous pouvez le suivre sur LinkedIn. Autres épisodes qui pourraient vous plaire : *La stratégie d'Heineken expliquée par son Directeur Marketing Antoine SusiniC'est quoi le job d'un CEO ? avec Franck Denglos le PDG d'Adidas Italie---------------

"AI should be a tool, not a replacement...I've seen some very terrible ads." -Nicole Ramirez   Nicole Ramirez is a journalist-turned-marketer with deep experience leading growth marketing across CPG, financial services, B2B SaaS, media, and healthcare. She specializes in translating complex marketing challenges into measurable growth by blending performance marketing with customer-centric storytelling. As Co-Founder of BrandME and a LinkedIn Personal Brand Strategist, Nicole helps executives and professionals build thought leadership, visibility, and opportunity through strategic content, coaching, and fractional CMO consulting. She is also the host of the Talk Digital To Me podcast, a published Forbes and Entrepreneur contributor, and a featured speaker at events including TEDx and SXSW. Website: https://www.brandmelabs.com/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolerayeramirez/    Alison Daley is an entrepreneur, product designer, and international trainer passionate about using authentic storytelling and purpose-driven marketing to create meaningful impact. She's the creator of the Ernestine McClendon Talent Grant, a scholarship initiative that turned goodwill into real-world brand engagement. Through her work, Alison helps leaders and teams align who they are with what they create. Website: https://recruitinginnovation.com/  LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/alisonldaley   In this episode, we explore expert insights on digital marketing, AI strategies, personal branding, and recruiting innovation for growth-driven professionals.   Apply to join our marketing mastermind group: https://notypicalmoments.typeform.com/to/hWLDNgjz   Follow No Typical Moments at: Website: https://notypicalmoments.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/no-typical-moments-llc/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4G7csw9j7zpjdASvpMzqUA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notypicalmoments Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NTMoments  

How do you distil something as complex as marketing into something simple?In this special episode of Uncensored Renegades, Kory delivers a powerful seven-minute poem (originally written as a pattern-disrupting acceptance speech) that captures the emotional weight, pressure, and responsibility of modern marketing leadership.Born from a flash of inspiration at an AC/DC concert, the poem explores the trials of being a CMO, the burden of accountability, and the mental fortitude required to lead.After the performance, Jon reacts candidly, unpacking the themes of ownership, bravery, and the uncomfortable truth that in leadership, pretty much everything is down to you.Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/uncensored-renegades/id1868870960Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7qnkqq0XSpgif9A5ZNgSpX?si=f181c3a0e9af480cTimestamps00:00 - Start00:28 - Why marketing is poetry to Kory02:25 - Where did Kory's love for poetry start?03:58 - How poetry makes complex things simple04:56 - Why Kory wrote a poem and not an acceptance speech12:29 - Kory Marchisotto's marketing poem19:43 - Jon reacts to Kory's poem21:04 - The power of mental fortitude24:34 - Pretty much everything is down to you, and you alone26:45 - You don't have to have all the answers28:05 - Seek out what you don't know

Ever wonder what actually happens after someone makes a big backend decision?In this episode, I'm giving you a real update on two announcements I made last month:• Hiring a professional Notion strategist to build my marketing team dashboard• Bringing Chelsea on as my fractional CMO for 2026Spoiler: I am not abandoning Airtable. But I did need a better way to coordinate a growing team without becoming the bottleneck.I'm sharing what's working, what surprised me, and how it actually feels to wake up and not have marketing on my to-do list — while everything still moves forward.If you love behind-the-scenes updates, this one's for you.Also Mentioned:Systems in Session (Now Booking for Q2)Email Like You Mean It (next live sprint: April 6-10)Ania my Notion ExpertChelsea my Fractional CMO

This week on ASUG Talks, we talk with PepsiCo, as the organization is set to begin leveraging SAP Business Data Cloud. Prasad Suram and Venkat Nalabothu, two of the organization's IT leaders who are involved with the implementation, join the podcast to discuss their learnings, advice, and insights. Key InsightsThe importance of SAP BDC to PepsiCo's IT goals How the organization is working to leverage the solution alongside its large SAP HANA database instance Advice for enterprises about to begin leveraging SAP BDCRelated InsightsRead ASUG's conversation with Hagen Heubach, CMO of Supply Chain at SAP, about how SAP solutions can help enterprises overcome disruptions like tariffsRegister for an ASUG Community Conversation on Feb. 24 featuring customer perspectives on ERP transformation

Most AI implementations fail because companies lack proper data foundations and context integration. Ariel Kelman, President and CMO at Salesforce, explains how their Agentforce platform addresses these fundamental challenges through trusted enterprise data connections. The conversation covers Salesforce's trust-first approach to AI agents, practical deployment strategies for marketing teams, and measurable results including $27 million in incremental pipeline from automated lead follow-up and 77% customer support case resolution rates.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Most AI implementations fail because companies lack proper data foundations and context integration. Ariel Kelman, President and CMO at Salesforce, explains how their Agentforce platform addresses these fundamental challenges through trusted enterprise data connections. The conversation covers Salesforce's trust-first approach to AI agents, practical deployment strategies for marketing teams, and measurable results including $27 million in incremental pipeline from automated lead follow-up and 77% customer support case resolution rates.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When we talk about hormones and women's sexual health, the focus is almost always on estrogen. But testosterone also plays a key role in desire, arousal, and overall sexual well-being. Despite being labeled a “male hormone,” women produce (and need) it too. In this episode, we separate myth from fact about testosterone in women and why it remains one of the most overlooked topics in sexual medicine. I am joined once again by Dr. Maria Sophocles, a board-certified OB/GYN and Menopause Society Certified Practitioner. She is the CMO of EMBR Labs, a Boston-based wellness device company. Maria is also author of the new book, The Bedroom Gap, which is all about sex at midlife. Some of the specific topics we explore in this episode include: What testosterone does in women's bodies and sex lives How levels change across the lifespan When testosterone may help menopausal symptoms Potential risks and side effects Why there's still no FDA-approved testosterone treatment for women To learn more about Maria’s work, you can check out her website. Got a sex question? Send me a podcast voicemail to have it answered on a future episode at speakpipe.com/sexandpsychology. *** Thank you to our sponsors!  Soaking Wet from VB Health is the world’s first probiotic specifically designed for vaginal and vulva health and wellness. It’s a doctor formulated blend of prebiotics, probiotics, and vitamins specifically designed to restore balance and increase lubrication. Visit vb.health and use code JUSTIN for 10% off. The Kinsey Institute is where the world turns to understand sex and relationships. You can help continue its expert-led research by donating to the Kinsey Institute Research Fund. Learn more and make a donation here: https://give.myiu.org/centers-institutes/I380010749.html  *** Want to learn more about Sex and Psychology? Click here for previous articles or follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, or Bluesky to receive updates. You can also follow Dr. Lehmiller on YouTube and Instagram. Listen and stream all episodes on Apple, Spotify, or Amazon. Subscribe to automatically receive new episodes and please rate and review the podcast! Credits: Precision Podcasting (Podcast editing) and Shutterstock/Florian (Music). Image created with Canva; photos used with permission of guest.

AI-powered video production is replacing traditional filmed advertising. Ariel Kelman, President and CMO at Salesforce, explains how marketers will abandon manual video creation within five years. His team built a complete animated flythrough of four event spaces in six hours using AI video tools, a project that previously would have required massive crews and budgets. Salesforce now chains together AI production tools that transform stills and short clips into high-quality 30-second spots without traditional film crews.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Connor MacDonald is the CMO at Ridge. Follow him on X at https://x.com/couuor and listen to him on the Marketing Operators Podcast.FOLLOW UP WITH ANDREW X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/andrewjfaris⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast@ajfgrowth.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Work with Andrew: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://ajfgrowth.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠INTELLIGEMSIntelligems brings A/B testing to business decisions beyond copy and design. Test your pricing, shipping charges, free shipping thresholds, offers, SaaS tools, and more by clicking here: ⁠https://bit.ly/42DcmFl⁠. Get 20% off the first 3 months with code FARIS20.RICHPANELCut your support costs by 30% and reduce tickets by 30%—guaranteed—with Richpanel's AI-first Customer Service Platform that will reduce costs, improve agent productivity & delight customers at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.richpanel.com/partners/ajf?utm_source=spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

AI-powered video production is replacing traditional filmed advertising. Ariel Kelman, President and CMO at Salesforce, explains how marketers will abandon manual video creation within five years. His team built a complete animated flythrough of four event spaces in six hours using AI video tools, a project that previously would have required massive crews and budgets. Salesforce now chains together AI production tools that transform stills and short clips into high-quality 30-second spots without traditional film crews.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Is your marketing data actually lying to you? In this episode, attribution expert Jeff Greenfield, founder of Provalytics and former CEO of C3 Metrics, breaks down why last-click attribution is costing brands millions, what really changed when cookies disappeared, and how to measure channels like CTV and podcasts where nobody clicks.We cover GA4's biggest blind spots, the truth behind Facebook and Google's walled garden data, and why pharma marketers face the hardest measurement challenges in the industry. Whether you're a CMO, performance marketer, or analytics lead , this is the conversation that will change how you think about measurement.Jeff is an entrepreneur, advisor, and disrupter with three decades of strategy, growth and marketing leadership. Jeff is currently building the next generation of AI-Driven Attribution as the co-founder and CEO of Provalytics which is a 'cookie-less' attribution & measurement solution which enables marketers to prove the impact from upper funnel channels like CTV and grow their budgets.

Nate Elliott, Principal Analyst at eMarketer, joins Ari Paparo and Eric Franchi to talk through what's actually happening with AI adoption in marketing and commerce. He shares a practical view on how many consumers actively use AI tools, why usage stats are often misleading, and why most AI influence on shopping still happens outside chatbots. The group also digs into GEO and AEO, agency and CMO priorities, and the growing debate over content licensing and the health of the open web. Takeaways Only about 15–20% of US online consumers use AI tools weekly, despite AI touching nearly every digital experience. Most AI-influenced commerce happens through research and discovery, not direct purchases inside chatbots. GEO feels like SEO in 1998, full of experimentation, aggressive tactics, and unclear measurement. CMOs are focused more on internal AI productivity gains than flashy external AI activations. Agencies may reach near-universal AI usage internally, but that does not mean AI replaces 95% of marketing output. The health of the open web is critical to AI platforms, making content licensing a long-term strategic issue. Chapters 00:00 Nate Elliott's background and role leading AI research at eMarketer 07:30 How many consumers are actually active AI users 11:50 AI and commerce: direct transactions vs influence 14:40 GEO and the Wild West phase of AI search optimization 18:30 What CMOs are prioritizing in their AI strategy 23:20 Agencies, AI adoption, and the 95% marketing debate 26:00 AI disclosure, creative production, and labeling concerns 32:00 Content marketplaces and whether Google will pay publishers 38:00 Reddit, AI optimization, and measurement challenges 44:00 Agency rebates and media transparency 47:30 Amazon becomes Fortune's number one company Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if your growth problem isn't performance — it's relevance? In this episode, I break down what Dense Bean Salad Girl's rise to 3 million followers and 125,000 subscribers reveals about how growth marketing actually works in 2026. No paid ads. No massive media budget. No interruptive campaigns. Instead, Violet Witchell entered a conversation already happening — about protein, fiber, affordability, and meal prep — and made herself genuinely useful. Her story reveals four shifts reshaping brand growth and customer acquisition today: • Enter the conversation already happening in your customer's mind • Build trust in the margins — not just through campaigns • Design for identity without othering anyone • Recognize that your best marketers aren't on your payroll If you're a CMO or brand leader wondering why: – Customer acquisition costs are rising – Campaign performance feels harder to sustain – Discovery has fragmented – “General market” messaging isn't landing This episode explains what's changed — and what the new growth marketing playbook requires. Because in 2026, growth doesn't come from being louder. It comes from being more relevant. What's slowing your brand's growth? www.frictionlessgrowthlab.com/quiz Violet's substack: https://violetcooks.substack.com/ Violet's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@violetwitchel Violet's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/violetwitchel/?hl=en

AI agent implementations fail when companies lack proper data foundations and change management. Ariel Kelman, President and CMO at Salesforce, explains how his company achieved measurable results with AgentForce across customer service and marketing operations. The discussion covers Salesforce's trust-first approach to AI context, their $100 million cost savings from automated customer support, and the 20% increase in sales pipeline from website AI agents.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Brand transformation, loyalty, and partnerships sound “big brand”… until you realize the fundamentals are very human: be clear on strategy, make people feel seen, and test/learn/optimize with data.In this week's episode, I sit down with Sheila Butler, CMO and founder of Butler Marketing Group (and host of Marketing Over Bourbon) to unpack what she's learned shaping brands and loyalty programs across Disney, JP Morgan Chase/Bank One, Choice Hotels, and Axiom Bank.From launching the Disney Visa (and building a loyalty program from scratch) to reframing loyalty for small businesses, Sheila shares the behind-the-scenes moves that actually drive behavior and why “start by starting” might be the most underrated marketing strategy of all.We cover:Why most teams skip strategy (and why that's where performance breaks)The Disney Visa “Day One / Charter Card Member” idea and how emotional recognition creates sticky loyaltyWhat brand transformation looks like in practice (and why change management is the missing piece)How AI speeds up messaging and strategy work without replacing human judgmentLoyalty without a Disney-sized budget: recognition, personalization, and high perceived value at low costPartnership marketing done right: customer overlap, channel expansion, and the consumer “win” at the intersectionThe candid topic we avoid: where to cut when marketing budgets get slashedThe myth Sheila would bust: influencer marketing doesn't replace strategyKey Takeaways:Gorgeous creative won't save a campaign without a clear strategy.Loyalty is less about discounts and more about feeling valued.Partnerships work when they're built on data + mutual value, not gut feelings.AI is an accelerant but only if the strategy foundation is already there.“Start by starting.” Progress beats perfection every time.Connect with Sheila:Butler Marketing Group - https://www.butlermg.com/Linkedin  : https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheilabutler/Follow Us:

AI agent implementations fail when companies lack proper data foundations and change management. Ariel Kelman, President and CMO at Salesforce, explains how his company achieved measurable results with AgentForce across customer service and marketing operations. The discussion covers Salesforce's trust-first approach to AI context, their $100 million cost savings from automated customer support, and the 20% increase in sales pipeline from website AI agents.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

With the Olympics bringing the world together once again through sport, we're sharing an episode worth revisiting that feels especially timely.This week, join us as we reach into the vault to share an episode captured live at the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas in March 2025. Jim was joined on stage by Emily Silver, SVP, Chief Marketing, eCommerce & Athlete Experience Officer at Dick's Sporting Goods, the $13 billion revenue retailer. Dick's was founded by Dick Stack in 1948 with his first product line, bait and tackle. Today, Pittsburgh based Dick's Sporting Goods has more than 850 stores and a variety of other experience centers and platforms, all focused on sports, and is a major partner of Team USA and the official sporting goods retail provider for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.Emily has worked at Dick's for about 18 months after spending over 16 years at PepsiCo in about nine different roles. Her CEO, Lauren Hobart, was appointed Dick's CMO in 2011 and previously held that role for several years.Tune in for a personal conversation that speaks to the positive influence of sports, something we as a community have been reminded of through watching the Olympic and Paralympic Games this year.—This week's episode is brought to you by Deloitte.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Most AI agents fail because companies lack proper data context and foundations. Ariel Kelman, President and CMO at Salesforce, explains why 95% of generative AI pilots don't deliver measurable business impact. He discusses Salesforce's trust-first approach with AgentForce, which has generated over $27 million in incremental pipeline and saved $100 million through automated customer support handling 77% of cases.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Episode Description In this episode, host Cole Heilborn sits down with Ryan Watson, CMO and COO at MTNTOUGH Fitness Labs, to unpack a hot take that should make every outdoor marketer pause: brand marketing for the sake of impressions is dead. Ryan breaks down why measurement has changed the game, why "one big campaign, one big message" is an outdated operating system, and how the best brands are blending performance rigor with brand-level creativity. We also go deep on community as the next frontier of differentiation.   About: This podcast is produced by Port Side, a creative production studio creating content strategy + production for active brands, rooted in emotion.  Enjoy this episode and discover other resources below: Slack Community | Tired of brainstorming with ChatGPT? Join us! Insight Deck | Want 20 of our favorite insights shared on the show?  Booklist | Here's our curated list of recommended books over the years. LinkedIn | Join the conversation and share ideas with other industry peers. Apple Podcast | Want to help us out? Leave us a review on Apple. Guest List | Have a Guest in Mind?  Share them with us here.  

Most AI agents fail because companies lack proper data context and foundations. Ariel Kelman, President and CMO at Salesforce, explains why 95% of generative AI pilots don't deliver measurable business impact. He discusses Salesforce's trust-first approach with AgentForce, which has generated over $27 million in incremental pipeline and saved $100 million through automated customer support handling 77% of cases.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A CMO Confidential Interview with Tom Goodwin, author, speaker, and former innovation head at Publicis, Zenith, and Havas. Tom discusses why he believes much of the thinking around AI is wrong, how social media is becoming even more shallow, and why agentic commerce will be a challenge. Key discussion topics include the difference between selling more and being able to charge more; how consumers often enjoy the shopping experience in a way that resists algorithmic understanding; and why AI adoption will follow the adoption path of electricity. Tune in to hear why 90% of people in advertising don't know how it really works and how to think of your job as making your brand exceptional. Marketing leaders are getting pulled in two directions at once: “AI will change everything” and “AI is overhyped.” In this episode of *CMO Confidential*, Mike Linton (former CMO of Best Buy, eBay, Farmers Insurance, and Ancestry) sits down with Tom Goodwin to sort through the contradictions—what's real, what's performative, and what executives should do next.Tom has spent his career studying innovation and change, and he brings a clear-eyed view on how AI is reshaping marketing work: where it genuinely compresses time and effort, where it increases noise and sameness, and how organizations can avoid chasing tools instead of outcomes. The conversation also touches on the hidden second-order effects—how incentives shift, how decision-making changes, and why “doing more” isn't the same as “doing better.”If you're a CMO, CEO, or growth leader trying to separate signal from hype, this is a practical, grounded listen.Subscribe for weekly episodes of CMO Confidential.cmo confidential, mike linton, tom goodwin, ai marketing, marketing leadership, chief marketing officer, marketing strategy, generative ai, artificial intelligence, martech, brand strategy, performance marketing, marketing effectiveness, measurement, incrementality, go to market, innovation, digital transformation, marketing operations, agency management, marketing trends 2026, executive leadership, growth strategy, content strategy, customer experience, personalization, automation, creative strategy00:00 Intro: CMO Confidential + today's topic with Tom Goodwin01:20 Why AI creates contradictory truths in marketing05:10 The biggest misconception leaders have about “AI transformation”09:30 What AI actually compresses (and what it doesn't)14:25 When “more content” makes marketing worse18:40 Differentiation in an AI-saturated landscape23:05 What changes inside teams: roles, incentives, accountability28:10 Measurement, trust, and the executive narrative problem33:20 Where CMOs should place bets vs. run experiments38:15 Practical questions to ask vendors, agencies, and internal teams43:10 Closing reflections + what to do nextSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Une campagne LinkedIn, un webinar, un emailing, un article sponsorisé.Individuellement, chaque action peut être pertinente. Ensemble, elles ressemblent parfois à un patchwork sans véritable logique.Dans cet épisode, nous parlons de campagnes intégrées. Une approche qui dépasse l'omnicanal pour construire un véritable parcours stratégique, où chaque canal nourrit le suivant et accompagne le prospect de la découverte à la conversion.Ce que vous allez découvrir dans cet épisode• La différence entre campagne omnicanale et campagne intégrée• Pourquoi l'alignement des messages ne suffit plus• Comment construire un parcours marketing logique et progressif• Le rôle précis de chaque canal dans une stratégie intégrée• Comment éviter de tomber dans la complexité excessive du tracking• Les clés pour structurer sans complexifierVous pouvez retrouver Julien Rio sur son site ou sur Linkedin.---------------Pensez à vous abonner au Podcast du MarketingÀ rejoindre ma  newsletterEt à me laisser un  avis 5 étoiles sur iTunes ou Spotify---------------Vous pouvez aussiVous rendre visible en sponsorisant le Podcast du Marketing ou sa newsletterGagner en clarté avec mes accompagnements marketingMe faire intervenir sur une conférenceMe suivre sur LinkedinHébergé par Ausha. Visitez ausha.co/politique-de-confidentialite pour plus d'informations.

What if the water you drink could do more than hydrate and actually help support your body at the deepest cellular level? Join us for an insightful conversation with Josh Carr, CEO of ECHO Water, and the groundbreaking approach to wellness.  Moments with Marianne airs in the Southern California area on KMET1490AM & 98.1 FM, an ABC Talk News Radio Affiliate!  https://www.kmet1490am.comJosh Carr is a seasoned entrepreneur and marketing expert with over a decade of experience turning ideas into thriving businesses. Since February 2023, he has served as CEO of Echo, leading the manufacturing and sales of hydrogen water machines for home and business use, driven by his passion for innovation and world-changing products. Previously, he was Chief Marketing Officer at Pillow Cube, where he boosted brand visibility and growth, and co-founder and CMO of Zulu Marketing, helping bootstrap its revenue to $40 million annually. He also founded Buzzio, a consultancy specializing in influencer marketing, and began his career as Web Marketing Director at Sprout Marketing, mastering online sales and marketing strategies. Known for his creativity, claiming “50 good ideas a day” with the occasional stroke of genius, Josh brings expertise in branding, marketing, and idea cultivation, leveraging his network and resources to launch groundbreaking ventures. https://echowater.com/ Learn more about self-publishing your book, publicity services, and show opportunities at: https://www.mariannepestana.com 

Joe Salome, co-founder of The Georgia Hemp Company and Simple Leaf Wellness, and former CMO of Halcyon Organics, is a respected figure in medical cannabis policy, instrumental in the passage of Georgia's landmark Haleigh's Hope Act (2014) and the 2019 Georgia's Hope Act.The discussion centers on Salome's personal advocacy, which was ignited after witnessing the therapeutic benefits of cannabis in treating his mother's ovarian cancer, fueling his mission to champion natural alternatives. His legislative work was pivotal in incrementally legalizing low-THC oil access and establishing in-state production and distribution in Georgia.Key topics addressed include the ongoing struggles with federal regulatory clarity regarding hemp, the threat posed by potential bans on hemp extract products to small businesses and the legal market, and the critical need for federal reclassification of cannabis. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Feeling the pressure to scale but terrified of losing your best people, or watching team morale dissolve as your business grows?This episode, guest host Sivana Brewer gets real with Isaac Tobelen, current CMO at Springs Rejuvenation and seasoned COO, on the inside challenges of recruiting, retaining, and motivating talent in rapid-growth settings. Isaac shares proven systems for hiring culture-aligned operators, the brutal mistakes that cost him top performers, and how “Innovation Day” became a surprising game-changer for agency culture.If you want actionable tactics to build a resilient team and avoid silent exits, listen now, not later. Your next big hire, retention strategy, or culture upgrade may hinge on these lessons. Tune in for exclusive, hard-won insights that most COOs only learn the hard way.Timestamped Highlights[00:00] – The “quiet risk” that nearly cratered Isaac's agency and why losing one key player can trigger a domino effect[03:08] – Rewiring direct response marketing for an unexpected industry and scaling it to $1.2M/month[08:59] – Why competitors keep stealing Isaac's ads, but can't touch his team's execution[11:08] – The secret overlap of visionary CEO and practical COO—why it worked for Isaac and Ashton[13:49] – How teaching people “how to think” crushed micromanagement and burnout[15:02] – The counterintuitive hiring process that filters for real values (not just resume skills)[24:29] – Unconventional interview tactics, homework, and the non-negotiables that reveal true fit[32:00] – “Innovation Day” revealed – How letting teams fail forward built trust and inspired breakthrough creativity[38:11] – Isaac's 2 biggest mistakes: concentrated risk and a disastrous acquisition—what he'd do differently[52:44] – Is AI really changing everything? Isaac's blunt take on what's hype, what actually matters, and why talent must upskill nowAbout the GuestIsaac Tobelen is the Chief Marketing Officer at Springs Rejuvenation, a leader in stem cell and exosome therapy. Previously, he was COO at Hemon Media, where he scaled the agency to $500K/month in 18 months, managed $36M+ ad budgets, and built high-performing teams from scratch. Isaac is known for his systems thinking, rapid operational scale, and real-world people development.

For many women, the menopause transition brings painful sex and low libido—issues that have long been endured in silence. Meanwhile, men have had access to highly effective sexual performance treatments for decades. The result is what my guest calls the bedroom gap: the widening divide in sexual expectations and capabilities between men and women in midlife. I am joined by Dr. Maria Sophocles, a board-certified OB/GYN and Menopause Society Certified Practitioner. She is the CMO of EMBR Labs, a Boston-based wellness device company. Maria is also author of the new book, The Bedroom Gap, which is all about sex at midlife. Some of the specific topics we explore in this episode include: Defining the bedroom gap The often overlooked sexual effects of menopause How Viagra widened the divide at midlife Barriers to treatment for women’s sexual health How to close the bedroom gap To learn more about Maria’s work, you can check out her website. Got a sex question? Send me a podcast voicemail to have it answered on a future episode at speakpipe.com/sexandpsychology. *** Thank you to our sponsors!  Wrap the ones you love in luxury with Cozy Earth. Share a little extra love this February and wrap yourself—or someone you care about—in comfort that truly feels special. Head to cozyearth.com and use my code JUSTIN for up to 20% off. Soaking Wet from VB Health is the world’s first probiotic specifically designed for vaginal and vulva health and wellness. It’s a doctor formulated blend of prebiotics, probiotics, and vitamins specifically designed to restore balance and increase lubrication. Visit vb.health and use code JUSTIN for 10% off. Passionate about building a career in sexuality? Check out the Sexual Health Alliance. With SHA, you’ll connect with world-class experts and join an engaged community of sexuality professionals from around the world. Visit SexualHealthAlliance.com and start building the sexuality career of your dreams today. *** Want to learn more about Sex and Psychology? Click here for previous articles or follow the blog on Facebook, Twitter, or Bluesky to receive updates. You can also follow Dr. Lehmiller on YouTube and Instagram. Listen and stream all episodes on Apple, Spotify, or Amazon. Subscribe to automatically receive new episodes and please rate and review the podcast! Credits: Precision Podcasting (Podcast editing) and Shutterstock/Florian (Music). Image created with Canva; photos used with permission of guest.

In this episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, Daniel Rowles sits down with Kipp Bodnar, CMO of HubSpot, to discuss what may be the most disruptive year in marketing history. Kipp believes that 2026 could represent the biggest single wave of change our industry has ever seen. Weeks feel like months. Channels are fragmenting. Discovery is shifting. AI agents are entering workflows. And traditional attribution models are starting to break down. From Answer Engine Optimisation to AI agents, rising ad costs to workflow automation, this conversation explores how marketers can stay ahead when the pace of change is accelerating. In This Episode: Why 2026 may be the biggest year of change in marketing history Kipp explains why discovery, personalisation and team workflows are being reshaped simultaneously. Answer Engine Optimisation vs traditional SEO The shift from short keyword queries to ultra long-tail, conversational prompts of 40 to 60 words changes everything. Mentions vs citations in AI search Why brand visibility in ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude is more complex than link-based SEO ever was. The first mover advantage in AI discovery Early adopters can make exponential gains because competition is still low and optimisation is immature. Why AI agents are thriving in customer service but lagging in marketing Marketing problems are less formulaic and more complex, making agent adoption slower but highly promising. The practical AI workflow hack every marketer should try Record yourself completing a repetitive task, upload it to Google Gemini, and ask how to automate it. A simple but powerful shortcut to AI adoption Why attribution is becoming harder again The "golden age" of clean click-to-conversion tracking is fading as AI intermediates discovery. Rising ad costs and the need for new growth channels With paid media inflation increasing, marketers must adopt emerging channels such as AEO and AI-enabled creative optimisation. The importance of strategic conviction AEO cannot be treated as a side project. It must be embedded as a core capability. HubSpot's approach to AI and context Positioning HubSpot as the context layer for AI, enabling agents and assistants to work from real customer data. Key Takeaways: Discovery is changing faster than most organisations are adapting. Answer Engine Optimisation requires different content structures, including FAQs and machine-friendly formatting. Early adoption in AI search offers outsized returns. AI-assisted workflows are often more impactful than fully autonomous agents in marketing today. Marketing teams must bake experimentation and innovation into daily operations. The biggest risk is not AI itself, but failing to evolve working practices alongside it.

Did your brand just spend $7 million on a 30-second ad that alienated or ignored half its potential audience? Agility requires a willingness to challenge long-held assumptions—like the idea that a celebrity and a massive budget are all you need for a winning Super Bowl ad. It demands that brands move from gut feelings to data-driven insights to understand what truly resonates with their audience. Today, we're going to talk about the biggest advertising event of the year: the Super Bowl. Millions of dollars are spent, careers are made, and brands have one 30-second shot to capture the zeitgeist. But beyond the spectacle and the morning-after buzz, what actually drives results? We'll dig into the data behind the ads, exploring which brands successfully connected with key audiences, what the data says about using celebrities, and how the smartest brands think about the Super Bowl not as a single event, but as a strategic play in a much larger game.To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Nataly Kelly, CMO at Zappi. About Nataly Kelly Nataly Kelly is Chief Marketing Officer at Zappi, based in Boston, MA. Previously she served at HubSpot as Vice President of Marketing, Vice President of International Operations and Strategy, and Vice President of Localization. Nataly Kelly on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalykelly/ Resources Zappi: https://www.zappi.io Take your personal data back with Incogni! Use code AGILE at the link below and get 60% off an annual plan: https://incogni.com/agile The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow Get the Zappi Lessons in Advertising: Super Bowl LX report: https://www.zappi.io/web/learnings-from-super-bowl-ads-2026/Drive your customers to new horizons at the premier retail event of the year for Retail and Brand marketers. Learn more at CRMC 2026, June 1-3. https://www.thecrmc.com/ Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://advertalize.com/r/faaed112fc9887f3 Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.showCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company