The Executive's Marketing Playbook

I’ve spent much of my career helping companies figure out how they should position themselves, where they can differentiate and what customers need to hear. Then I had to do it for my own business. And I realized I wasn’t always taking my own advice. I wanted to talk about everything I could do. Every industry I’d worked in. Every problem I could solve. All the experience that made me qualified. I hadn’t clearly defined who I was trying to reach. I wasn’t articulating why som

Most companies don’t lose their competitive edge overnight. It happens gradually when the business stops evolving at the same pace as its customers, competitors and market. The business grows. What made the company successful becomes established. Processes get built around it. Teams focus on delivering it. And over time, the organization can become more focused on running the business than questioning whether the business is continuing to evolve. Meanwhile, customers keep cha

In the early stages of a company, it often makes sense for the CEO or founder to be deeply involved in marketing. They know the customer, the product and the vision for the company. And when the organization is small, being involved in decisions across the business can help keep things moving. But as the company grows, the CEO’s role has to grow with it. The marketing model often needs to evolve as well. At some point, being involved in everything stops being an advantage an

The marketing that gets a company to one stage of growth isn't always the marketing that gets it to the next. Early on, a lot can work. A great product creates buzz. Founders open doors. Word of mouth drives customers. A few strong channels generate demand. Then growth gets harder. Customer acquisition slows. Competition increases. The company moves into new markets or targets larger customers. Sales needs more support. Marketing costs rise. The natural response is often to a

I’ve seen this pattern repeatedly in growth-stage companies. Marketing worked well enough to help the business get where it is. Then the company grows. The team expands. More money goes into marketing. More campaigns and channels are added. Yet growth gets harder, not easier. The CEO starts asking reasonable questions: Why aren’t we seeing more from our marketing investment? Are we spending in the right places? Do we have the right team? Often, none of those is the real probl

I recently wrote about a dangerous phrase "we've always done it that way," used when nobody has the will to change. Eric Shoars shared another dangerous phrase "We can't do that, it'll set a precedent." Why Leaders Resist Change Here's what "we can't do that, it'll set a precedent" actually means when a leader says it. It's not about the one decision in front of them. It's the fear of what happens after. If we make this exception once, we'll have to make it again. For everyo

Every growth-stage company has one. The thing you did early that nobody else was doing. The reason customers picked you in the first place. At some point, that same thing starts to cost you. Not because it stopped working. Because it capped what you can charge, who you can reach, or how fast you can grow. Southwest ended 54 years of open seating this year. Not because it failed. Because it had become the ceiling on their revenue. When Brand Differentiation Becomes a Barrier t

A new CMO survey found something worth sitting with. 90% or organizations increased their AI marketing investment over the past two years. Only 12% can actually prove it worked. Most people will read that as a tools problem. It's not. It's a people problem wearing a tools disguise. Why AI Marketing Tools Aren’t Enough Here's what I mean. AI can produce marketing output fast now. Copy, creative directions, audience segments, campaign ideas. All of it, in seconds. But output is

Everyone in marketing is using AI now. Blog posts in minutes. Ad copy in seconds. Social content for the whole month drafted before lunch. The output has never been higher. So why doesn't growth feel different? Why AI Can’t Fix a Weak Marketing Strategy AI can't fix a weak marketing strategy because it accelerates execution, not strategic decision-making. Without clear growth goals, target audiences, positioning, priorities, and measures of success, AI simply helps a marketin

A few years back, CPK sent a delivery order to a customer's house. Mac and cheese. Except they forgot the mac. Just cheese. Melted. In a container. The customer was an influencer. She posted it. It went viral, way beyond what a melted cheese mistake should ever warrant. Because people love a good disaster. They lean in. They wait to see what happens next. What CPK did next is why I'm writing this. Within 24 hours, they showed up at her door with a care package: a year of free

There's a version of marketing support that feels really good. Every recommendation gets a nod. Every campaign gets approved. Every concern gets smoothed over with "we'll figure it out." No friction. No hard conversations. Just forward motion. And then six months later, you're wondering why nothing changed. I've been in rooms where everyone around the table is agreeing with the CEO. Not because they agree, but because disagreeing feels risky. So the uncomfortable truth sits t

There's a pattern I see in a lot of growing companies. The sales team is putting in the hours. They're making calls, sending follow-ups, working their contacts. And yet the pipeline feels thin. Deals are slow. New opportunities aren't coming in fast enough. Leadership looks at sales. Sales looks at marketing. Marketing isn't sure what they're supposed to be doing. And nobody wants to say the quiet part out loud: the pipeline problem isn't a sales problem. It's a marketing pro