Loved this anecdote (and early career learning) from Ashling Kearns of Celonis at the Dawn Capital Marketing Summit in sunny Soho:

“Early in my career, I watched a marketing leader present a wildly optimistic dashboard to an exec team - right after we'd seen slides showing the business was in real trouble. I just wanted the ground to swallow me up.”

The disconnect is painful and embarrassing.

I’ve been there and it taught me a lasting truth early on: marketing only earns its seat at the table when it’s rooted in reality and business impact.

And the rush to attribution results in siloed protectionism.

Prelini of Wagestream & Lena of Brite Payments reinforced that the best marketing leaders bridge departments and challenge attribution vanity metrics.

Basically take a company view, not a marketing “swim lane” view.

Whether you're 90 days in or nine years in, the advice is the same:
→ Be the glue.
→ Chase the biggest challenge.
→ Leave your swim lane.