The Executive's Marketing Playbook

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

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

You're generating leads. Your marketing is running. Campaigns are going out. And somehow, growth is still stalling. I see this constantly in healthcare organizations, and the diagnosis is almost always the same: the marketing worked. The handoff didn't. Here's what it looks like in practice. Marketing sends a campaign. Interested prospects respond — they call, fill out a form, or request more information. And then the experience they get doesn't match the one they were promis

What's The Difference Between Marketing Activity and a Strong Marketing Foundation A CEO I work with recently told me his marketing wasn't working. He'd tried two agencies. Hired a marketing manager. Run paid ads. Built out a content calendar. Nothing was moving. When I asked him to walk me through his customer acquisition process from first touch to closed deal, he paused, "I'm not sure we actually track that." That's not a marketing problem. That's a foundation problem. And

I walked into a company sitting on a product that should have been pulled from the shelves a year earlier. It had been repackaged as a white label to try to move it. That didn't work either. And yet, resources kept being thrown at it - promotions, tactics, energy - all trying to solve a problem that had only one real solution. Delete it. But that decision took months longer than it should have. Why? Because sales and marketing were operating in silos. Each team was doing its

"Clarity in priorities saved more time and money than any optimization effort." I see this play out every time I walk into a company. It's almost always the same pattern, just different symptoms. The executive team wants to do too much. They lack focus and clear prioritization on what it will actually take to hit their growth goals. So what happens? When a Team Problem Is Really a Leadership Problem The teams below them are scattered. Some are burned out, working hard but cri

For over a decade, performance had been sliding. Leadership was divided. And the company I was working with hadn't evolved its brand in over 20 years. They'd tried tactics. New campaigns. Different agencies. Nothing worked. Because the problem wasn't marketing execution. It was that no one was connecting the dots between strategy, execution, and outcomes. Why Marketing Execution Wasn’t the Problem This organization had all the right pieces: Strong legacy and founding story Ta