Podcast · Business

Renegade Marketers Unite

by Drew Neisser · English · Business

Renegade Marketers Unite focuses on marketing innovators, uncovering the how, what and why behind their on-going success. Award-winning marketer, author, and entrepreneur Drew Neisser keeps these conversations interesting and inspiring, wrapping up each episode with on-the-spot analysis and insight

New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 50 min
Latest: 13 Oct 2026
Language: English

Latest episode

13 Oct 2026 · 45 minNew

541: What It Takes to Ace a CMO Job Interview

You've got the experience. The interview is where you make it clear, memorable, and unmistakably yours. Years of stories, wins, lessons, and opinions are great raw material. Then an interview asks you to pull the right one out, fast. That's where answers can sprawl, too much context can take over, and too much polish can make you sound less like yourself. So how do you stay specific, answer cleanly, and ask smart questions of your own? A little structure helps you do all three without sounding scripted. Joining Drew for this episode is leadership interview coach Dalena Bradley , who has…

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Earlier episodes 29 most recent

E540 · 9 Oct 2026 · 42 min
540: When AI Rewrites the CMO Playbook
AI is rewriting the CMO playbook fast. And somehow, human judgment is getting more valuable. Start with what the machines do well. They can crank out content, make sense of scattered data, and turn repeatable tasks into workflows at ridiculous speed. That leaves marketers with a better problem to solve. What should they do with the room they get back ? Could the bigger payoff be more time for judgment, creativity, relationships, reputation, and original thinking? If so, a few old-school strengths are looking pretty future-proof . For episode 540, Drew does what any reasonable podcast host…
E539 · 2 Oct 2026 · 51 min
539: Pick Your Battles: Strategic Trade-offs in B2B Marketing
Marketing has no shortage of good ideas . The trouble is, they're all competing for the same budget, people, and attention. When everything looks important, something has to give . A big growth bet may deserve the full weight of the team. A proven motion might be better off with a template and a handoff. And a perfectly good idea might need to sit in the parking lot for a while. Somebody has to decide what gets the team's energy before every good idea starts claiming it. In this episode, Drew is joined by Heather Adkins ( Trimble ), Will Meier , and Betsy Daitch ( Canoe ), three marketing…
E538 · 25 Sep 2026 · 48 min
538: Need for Speed? Earn It First
Urgency makes shortcuts awfully tempting. Find the problem, make the plan , get moving. But a little more work before the sprint can save a whole lot of fixing later. People, relationships, and processes all have to be ready to carry the speed. Get that setup right, and you can hit the gas with a much better chance of keeping the wheels on. In this episode, Drew talks with Anne Morriss , co-author of Move Fast and Fix Things , about what leaders need in place before they accelerate organizational change. They get into why the first problem you see can send you chasing the wrong fix, why the…
E537 · 18 Sep 2026 · 52 min
537: When Marketing Leads the AI Migration
Company-wide AI adoption needs a flock leader. Marketing may already have the job. Marketing has a few advantages here. It hears customer friction early, touches nearly every corner of the business, and has gotten pretty good at doing more with less. That makes it a natural proving ground for new ways of working, with a chance to test what works, prove the value, and give the rest of the company something worth scaling. In this episode, Drew talks with Thalía Diedrick ( GoTu ), Allison Breeding ( Direct Travel ), and Lauren Boyman ( KPMG US ) about how marketing can lead company-wide AI…
E536 · 11 Sep 2026 · 55 min
536: Stop Paying the B2B Trust Tax
Some of the most expensive friction in B2B marketing starts with one question. Can I trust this? The buying process already comes with enough hesitation. Add a message that burns extra brain calories, a brand promise that shifts depending on where you meet it, or outreach that feels suspiciously automated, and the trust tax starts piling up. Every extra layer gives buyers another reason to pause. In this episode, Drew talks with David Horsager , author of Trust Matters More Than Ever , about how trust gets built into the message and the experience around it. David puts clarity and…
E535 · 4 Sep 2026 · 53 min
535: Building the Brave Habit
How do you know whether the brave move is to go for it or plant your feet? CMOs are making that call with short runways, incomplete information, and teams being asked to adapt fast. Comfort can delay the hard decision . Pressure can push leaders toward false certainty or speed for speed's sake. Brave leadership is more measured, and it gets stronger with practice. In this episode, Drew talks with Todd Henry , author of The Brave Habit , about building that practice into leadership. Todd shows how clarity and agency help teams move when the path ahead is still taking shape. The superhero cape…
E534 · 2 Sep 2026 · 9 min
534: The Leadership Move You're Avoiding
Before you ask for another leadership tip, check the glasses you're already wearing. Ty Hammond doesn't do tips anymore, which slightly complicates Drew's plan to grab a few quick leadership nuggets. Good thing. When leaders already know the move they need to make and still keep avoiding it, the blocker is often the assumption coloring how they see the moment. If the glasses say "nice guy," accountability can start to look like becoming the bad guy. That's the kind of lens Ty wants leaders to notice first. In this episode, Drew talks with leadership coach Ty Hammond about the hard moments…
E533 · 28 Aug 2026 · 52 min
533: PE-Backed CMOs
PE-backed CMOs have to make marketing make sense at board speed. The questions come faster. The comparisons come from portfolio companies that look nothing like yours. And no budget line stays "just marketing" for long. In this episode, Drew talks with Kevin Ruane ( Precisely ), Julie Kaplan ( Higher Logic ), and Alan Gonsenhauser ( Demand Revenue ) about what it takes to succeed as a PE-backed CMO. They explain how to learn the investment thesis, build CFO trust early, use customer success as a signal source, and make growth more predictable, explainable, and easier for the business to…
E532 · 21 Aug 2026 · 53 min
532: Seeing Around Corners: The Signals CMOs Can't Afford to Miss
Change only looks sudden when you missed the signals. Rita McGrath gives that idea teeth for CMOs leading through AI, org design changes, and markets that refuse to sit still. The signals are usually there. But in businesses wired to confirm what already happened, they get drowned out by revenue, pipeline, CAC, and other lagging indicators. Those numbers still earn their seat, but left alone, they can keep everyone staring backward while customers and competitors move ahead. In this episode, Drew talks with Rita McGrath , Columbia Business School professor and author of Seeing Around Corners…
E531 · 14 Aug 2026 · 52 min
531: Marketing and Communications as One Growth System
Marketing and comms lose leverage when the story, the proof, and the teams carrying them run in separate lanes. That's how strong work gets less mileage than it should. Recognition stays in PR when demand could use it . Analyst proof misses the sales motion. Internal messaging sounds adjacent to the market story instead of connected to it. Bring the right lenses together early, and the narrative gets sharper, the proof works harder, and the brand voice becomes unmistakable wherever the business shows up. In this episode, Drew talks with Clay Helm ( At the Helm Consulting ) , Julia Goebel (…
E530 · 7 Aug 2026 · 26 min
530: Stop the Sales Enablement Scavenger Hunt
A stuffed content library can still leave a salesperson empty-handed. Somewhere along the way, sales enablement got mistaken for asset production. Sales asks, marketing makes, the asset goes somewhere, and the next thing you know, a seller is five minutes from a call wondering which deck, battle card, proof point, or customer story actually helps . If the seller has to stop selling to find the enablement, the enablement has not enabled . In this Drew-on-Drew solo episode, Drew plays both host and guest to take on the request-fulfillment loop. Drawing on conversations in the CMO Huddles…
E529 · 31 Jul 2026 · 53 min
529: What 2026's CMO Survey Reveals About Marketing Under Pressure
When every marketing decision has to pay off this quarter, growth starts losing its owner . That's the uncomfortable read from the latest CMO Survey . Under pressure, CMOs are making perfectly rational moves. Safer bets, tighter proof, more focus on the customers already in hand. The danger is what those choices start to signal. If every case for marketing comes back to pipeline now and near-term ROI, the function that should be finding growth can get managed into something much smaller. In this episode, Drew sits down with Christine Moorman , founder of The CMO Survey and professor at Duke…
E528 · 24 Jul 2026 · 50 min
528: Marketing Inside the Sales Rhythm
Sales has one clean tell for whether it trusts marketing. Timing. Bring marketing in late, and partnership turns into a very polite scramble. The field has moved, the campaign needs context, and sales is working leads without the story that made them worth chasing in the first place. Trust grows when marketing stays close enough to hear the objections, spot the stalls, and change the work while there's still time to help. In this episode, Drew is joined by Ellina Shinnick ( HUB ), Joan Jenkins ( Fastly ), and Sara Braun ( FORTA ) to look at where marketing belongs inside the sales rhythm.…
E527 · 17 Jul 2026 · 48 min
527: The CMO-CRO Partnership That Made It Snow
The fastest way to break trust between sales and marketing is to let each team bring its own scoreboard. Marketing can point to MQLs. Sales can point to missed revenue. Everyone can be technically right, and the business still loses. No wonder Denise Persson and Chris Degnan have little patience for functional victory laps. At Snowflake , the question was never, "Did marketing look good?" It was, "Are reps productive, is new business moving, and are we working from the same plan?" In this episode, Drew sits down with Denise and Chris, co-authors of Make It Snow , whose sales-marketing…
E526 · 10 Jul 2026 · 51 min
526: AI Velocity vs. Human Creativity
AI just handed every marketing team a bigger gas pedal. Now CMOs have to decide what deserves the speed . Teams can now publish, prototype, adapt, and distribute at a pace that felt impossible a few years ago. The advantage comes from knowing where to accelerate, where human judgment matters most, and how to keep the creative spark intact. A strong idea can travel further than ever. A weak one can flood the market before anyone asks whether it was worth making. In this episode, Drew brings together Jakki Geiger ( Arango ), Dave Steer ( Webflow ), and Sandy Ono to sort out one of marketing's…
E525 · 3 Jul 2026 · 51 min
525: The AI-Augmented CMO: Architecting Teamwide Adoption
AI is moving fast enough to make even the savviest CMO feel one tool, one workflow, and one "wait, you can do that now?" behind. The easy move is to delegate it. Let the eager people experiment. Let the technical folks wire things together. Let the team come back with something impressive enough to call progress. If that sounds like a plan, François Dufour would like a word. In this episode, we replay a conversation with Drew and François from April 2026 about what it takes to become an AI-augmented CMO. François makes the case that leaders need enough hands-on fluency to build, test, learn,…
E524 · 26 Jun 2026 · 50 min
524: The First 90 Days Just Got Faster
The first 90 days have always mattered. Now AI is making them faster, sharper, and a lot less forgiving. In this episode, Drew talks with Paige O'Neill ( Culture Amp ), Scott Gordon ( HG Insights ), and Ali McCarthy ( Asset-Map ) about what it takes to start strong in a new CMO role. They explore how to pressure-test what you heard in the interview process, align quickly with the executive team, assess the team you inherited, and decide where marketing can create the most meaningful impact. The conversation also digs into how AI is changing the first-90-days playbook, from accelerating…
E523 · 19 Jun 2026 · 45 min
523: The CMO Job Search Is a Two-Way Street
Some CMO opportunities look promising right up until you stop asking, "Can I land this?" and start asking, "Can I actually win at this company ?" In a market that is warmer than it was a year ago but still unforgiving , Hugh Marshall of Heidrick & Struggles argues that CMOs need to approach the search with two-way diligence. The offer matters, but so does knowing whether the company, CEO, board, investors, and growth expectations are aligned enough to support real success. With that recruiter 's-eye view, Hugh joins Drew to get inside today's CMO search, from PE-backed pressure and…
E522 · 12 Jun 2026 · 44 min
522: AI, SDRs, and the New GTM Engine
The go-to-market model most teams are optimizing may be the very thing AI is making obsolete. Too often, the buyer experience feels like a relay race nobody asked to run. AI is already proving there's a faster, straighter path to answers, value, and outcomes, making the old model a lot harder to defend. In this episode, Drew talks with Amanda Kahlow , founder of 1mind , about why many of today's go-to-market assumptions deserve a fresh look. Using the rise of AI SDRs as a starting point, they explore human handoffs, pipeline thinking, speed to lead, and why buyer momentum matters more than…
E521 · 5 Jun 2026 · 49 min
521: Chiefs of Marketing
The title is Chief Marketing Officer. The CMOs who earn the most influence put Chief first. They're not in the room just to deliver a marketing update. They're there to help the executive team make sense of what matters most, navigate tough decisions, and shape where the company goes next. In this episode, Drew talks with Kathie Johnson ( Nintex ) , Lorie Coulombe ( Equity Shift ), and Allyson Havener about peer leadership inside the executive team. They explore how CMOs build trust, surface business issues, and strengthen credibility across the C-suite . In this episode : Kathie shares why…
E520 · 29 May 2026 · 28 min
520: AI Beyond the Sandbox
AI experimentation created momentum. But for CMOs, it's time to move out of the sandbox and into repeatable systems. In this Drew-on-Drew episode, the conversation shifts from AI experimentation to operational discipline. Drawing on recent conversations inside CMO Huddles and insights from the Imaginarium Summit, Drew explores what it takes to turn scattered AI experiments into a scalable operating model. Along the way, Drew tackles some of the biggest questions facing marketing leaders right now: When should you buy versus build? How do you manage agent risk and governance? What should CMOs…
E519 · 22 May 2026 · 49 min
519: The ICP Blueprint
If your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) is still built on broad categories, instinct, and a little wishful thinking , it may be more aspirational than operational. An ICP like that leaves too much room for interpretation. Marketing, sales, and ops start working from different definitions of the right account, and the business keeps chasing customers that look right on paper but don't behave like winners. In this episode, Drew talks with Drake Lenhan , Sitecore's Sr. Director, Global Market Intelligence & Portfolio Strategy, about what it takes to turn ICP into a source of focus that the whole…
E518 · 15 May 2026 · 55 min
518: The True AI-Driven Leader
The AI conversation gets tactical fast. Tools. Prompts. Speed. Output. Helpful, yes. But that barely scratches the surface. Geoff Woods is looking past the tool and straight at the leader holding it. In the right hands, AI becomes a force multiplier for strategic thinking, stronger decision-making, and a completely different idea of what's possible at the top. In this episode, Drew sits down with Geoff, the author of The AI-Driven Leader to talk about what it actually means to own this moment as a leader. The best ones are using AI to think bigger, move their organizations faster, and build…
E517 · 8 May 2026 · 50 min
517: The New CMO Superpower: System Design
We've spent a long time glorifying the "hero leader." The sharpest thinker. The one with all the answers. The person everyone turns to when it's time to make the call. But constant change is pushing a different kind of leader to the fore front. The system designer. A leader who puts more energy into workflows, decision paths, and team rhythm so fewer hard calls boomerang back to them. In this episode, Drew talks with Dan Lowden ( Blackbird.AI ), Katrina Klier ( Sage Strategy Group ), and Chris Pieper ( ADP ) about why this new model of leadership matters now. With AI reshaping marketing and…
E516 · 1 May 2026 · 53 min
516: From AI Curiosity to Capability
Marketing teams don't need more AI tools. They need better habits around the ones they already have. Experimentation got marketing teams started , but i t won't take them very far on its own. The payoff starts when teams stop treating AI like a side experiment and start using it in ways they can repeat and build on. In this episode, Drew Neisser talks with Nicole Leffer , one of the most practical voices in B2B AI adoption, about what it takes to make AI use more consistent and scalable . After working with more than 100 companies, Nicole has a clear view of what separates teams that stay…
E515 · 24 Apr 2026 · 49 min
515: Differentiate or Die: Winning in a Sea of Sameness
If your brand sounds like everyone else's, you 're not competing. You 're interchangeable. Claims like "customer-centric," "trusted partner," and "AI-powered" don't do much when buyers hear them everywhere. True differentiation is bold, precise, and hard to confuse with the rest of the category. In this episode, Drew Neisser brings together Scott Morris ( Sprout Social ), Gary Sevounts ( Netris ), and Lesley Davis to explore what real differentiation requires in B2B. They get into how companies clarify their story, align internally, and carry that differentiation from product to pitch to…
E514 · 17 Apr 2026 · 49 min
514: The Business of Expertise: Why Positioning Beats Talent Every Time
Most marketers believe great work leads to great business. David C. Baker would disagree. In this episode, Drew Neisser sits down with The Business of Expertise author to unpack what really separates thriving expert firms from struggling ones. From positioning and pricing power to the myths of growth and creativity, this is a candid, no-BS look at what it actually takes to build a successful expertise-based business. If you're a B2B CMO trying to sharpen your company's positioning (and prove marketing's impact on the business), this one will hit home. Key Mistakes : Staying a generalist…
E513 · 10 Apr 2026 · 47 min
513: Humor as a Leadership Tool
Do humor and serious leadership belong in the same room? Most leaders default to staying "professional" and miss one of the simplest ways to build connection and improve communication. In this episode of Renegade Marketers Unite, Drew Neisser talks with Jan McInnis about how leaders can use humor effectively—without telling jokes or trying to be someone they're not. The conversation reframes humor from something perceived as risky to something practical: A tool leaders can use to make teams more comfortable, conversations more effective, and workplaces a little more human. What You'll Learn…
E512 · 3 Apr 2026 · 48 min
512: Finding and Winning Your Next CMO Role
A tough CMO job search can mess with your confidence fast. The search runs longer than expected. A role looks right on paper, then gets murkier as the conversations unfold. The company says it wants growth, but the real issue may be churn, product, or a CEO still figuring out what kind of marketing leader the business needs. That ' s what makes this market hard. You are not only trying to tell a strong story about yourself. You are also trying to judge whether the opportunity in front of you is one you can win in. Executive recruiter Erica Seidel , founder of The Connective Good , has a…

About Renegade Marketers Unite

Renegade Marketers Unite is a English business podcast from Drew Neisser. Melo plays each episode straight from the publisher's own feed — no ads added, no account needed — and remembers where you stopped, in this browser only.

Publisher: Drew Neisser
Language: English
Category: Business
New episodes: Weekly
Typical length: 50 min
Latest episode: 13 Oct 2026
Feed: RSS — paste into any podcast app
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1206998957

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