Honoured to be the first guest to appear twice on "How to Grow a CMO" (if you missed Part 1 - the personal part - you missed my stories of electrocution and lunch-skipping 😂).

In Part 2, we talk more business. But here's what struck me during the conversation:

A year ago at VMware, we were "playing" with AI. Running hackathons. Experimenting behind firewalls. Nothing went live.

Today? CEOs are demanding: "How do we implement AI NOW?"

This shift isn't just about technology. It's reshaping everything:

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗥𝗢 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗽. Half the companies I talk to have moved marketing under a CRO. Sounds strategic, right? Wrong. A proper cross-GTM CRO is a gift, but I’m worried most CROs are just elevated salespeople. We're back to "Sales and marketing" (note the capital S, lowercase m).

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗽𝘀𝗲. One CEO told me his peer runs a $100M ARR business with 6 marketers. He has 40. "Why do I need 40?" he asked. The AI efficiency FOMO is real.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀-𝗢𝗻 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲. Forget the ivory tower CMO. If you're not personally using AI tools, diving into data, and rolling up sleeves on campaigns, you're done. Teams are smaller. Expectations are bigger. Senior leaders need to DO, not just direct.

My three non-negotiables for thriving:

𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 "𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱". Three CEOs recently told me brand is either "stuff that doesn't work" or "mugs and T-shirts." We created this problem. Speak business language, not marketing speak.
𝗕𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿. Marketing is too important to be left to marketing. Orchestrate across functions. Throw Gong transcripts into ChatGPT. Surface customer insights. Connect the dots others miss.
𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄. This has guided me for 20 years. Leadership isn't about having answers. It's about having a perspective you can articulate and defend.

Anyway, all this and more in the pod! Listen to the full conversation (warning: I still sound like I'm on helium) here: https://okt.to/UGi163