Renegade Marketers Unite

Drew Neisser
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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 insights for big marketers and those that want to be. For more information visit http://DrewNeisser.com/podcast

  1. 9 HR AGO

    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:  Why humor can make leaders more human and approachable  Why humor makes leaders more approachable   How humor can acknowledge tension without derailing the moment   When humor helps, and when it can backfire   How small moments of levity can improve communication across teams  The takeaway: Humor isn't about being funny. It's about being human.  If your meetings feel a little too stiff—or your communication isn't landing the way it should—this episode offers a simple place to start.  For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/ To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

    47 min

  2. 3 APR

    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 front-row seat to how CMO hiring is working right now. In her conversation with Drew, she gets into what CEOs say they want versus what they are really hiring for, how to frame your story when growth is hard to prove, and how to spot the signals that a role may be shakier than it first appears.  What You'll Take Away:  Why every hire is a set of tradeoffs and how to position yourself  What CEOs mean when they ask for a "growth partner"  Why business context matters as much as headline results  How AI fluency is showing up in CMO hiring  How to shape your story before others define your narrative  Signals to Read:  If the role is built for growth or cleanup  What a CEO's reaction to pushback reveals  If the job spec reflects reality or an "11 out of 10" wish list  If the company can make tradeoffs  How culture and pace show up before day one  If your CMO job search has you questioning your story, your fit, or your instincts, this episode will help you get more confident on all three.  For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/ To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

    48 min

  3. 27 MAR

    511: Failing Well Beats Playing It Safe

    Too many companies treat every failure the same. That makes people more cautious, more guarded, and less willing to take the smart risks innovation requires.   Amy Edmondson argues that not all failures deserve the same label. Some are preventable. Some come with complexity. Then there is intelligent failure, the kind that comes with thoughtful experimentation in new territory and produces the learning that moves innovation forward.  In this episode, Drew Neisser brings in Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, author of Right Kind of Wrong, to look at what leaders need to do if they want teams experimenting and learning in unfamiliar territory. For Amy, that starts with a clear goal, a bet no bigger than necessary, and the kind of questions that create enough psychological safety for people to share what they're seeing early. So even when the result falls short, the learning is still useful.  What You'll Take Away:  The difference between preventable, complex, and intelligent failure  Why intelligent failure belongs in new territory  What makes an experiment smart, small, and worth running  Why high achievers often need a better frame for failure  How playing not to lose distorts innovation  What This Asks of Leaders:  Stop treating every miss as proof someone messed up  Make the goal clear before the experiment starts  Keep the bet no bigger than necessary  Ask questions that invite candor instead of caution  If your team needs a smarter way to think about failure, risk, and learning, this one is worth a listen.  For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/ To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

    51 min

  4. 20 MAR

    AEO, SEO, and the New Fight to Shape the Answer

    Search is starting to behave differently. More buyers are asking AI tools direct questions, getting synthesized answers, and making decisions without following the old click path. That creates a new challenge for marketers. Content now has to be structured to show up in the answer.  In this "Drew-on-Drew" episode, host Drew Neisser pulls together what surfaced in recent CMO Huddles Strategy Labs around Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and focuses on the questions marketing teams are already starting to wrestle with. Which buyer questions should be turned into structured Q&A first? Which strong existing pages are worth updating before you create anything new? And does this sit with SEO, or is AEO becoming part of a broader content conversation? If you've been hearing more about AEO and trying to figure out what deserves attention now, give this one a listen. Drew lays out what's changing, what teams should look at first, and how to get moving!  Where To Start:  Identify the buyer questions already shaping search behavior  Turn those questions into structured Q&A on pages that already perform  Add schema before you spend on anything more elaborate  Let SEO lead the first pass, then expand if the test shows promise  What You'll Take Away:  Which questions belong on your site first, including comparisons, "best tool for X," and "how does this work?"  Why this is still early, and why benchmarking now matters  Why your SEO team can likely own AEO too  How to start with strong existing pages instead of building from scratch  For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/ To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

    28 min

  5. 13 MAR

    The Real Work of Customer Obsession

    Most companies say they put customers at the center of their business. Few actually operate that way.  In this episode of Renegade Marketers Unite, Drew Neisser talks with JD Dillon (Tigo Energy), Carlos Carvajal (Anaqua), and Nikhil Chawla (Resilience) about what it takes to turn customer voice into real organizational change. Together, they unpack what customer-centric leadership looks like in practice—from retention programs and executive briefings to listening to real sales calls and turning customer signals into action across the business.  The result is a more operational view of customer obsession, one where the voice of the customer shows up not just in dashboards, but in meetings, decisions, and everyday habits. The big idea: Customer centricity becomes powerful only when it shows up in everyday habits—meetings, messaging, and decisions. If you want to move from customer-aware to customer-obsessed, this episode delivers practical strategies you can apply immediately.  What You'll Learn:  Why customer obsession must show up in company habits, not just strategy decks  How marketing leaders are using customer voice to shape planning and priorities  Why stories and quotes from customers often move teams faster than dashboards  How narrowing customer centricity to a clear job-to-be-done makes it actionable  Why customers should appear in all-hands meetings, planning sessions, and executive briefings  How marketing teams can turn customer conversations into a repeatable growth engine    This Episode Is For  B2B CMOs and marketing leaders who want to move beyond talking about customer centricity and start embedding customer insight into how their organizations actually operate.  For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/ To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

    49 min

  6. 6 MAR

    Autonomous Transformation: The Strategy Shift for AI

    AI is forcing a leadership choice. You can treat it like a stack of use cases and end up with a lot of motion and a little progress. Or you can start with a clear vision of the future you want, make strategy visible, and use that to align decisions across the business.  In this episode, Drew Neisser talks with Brian Evergreen, author of Autonomous Transformation, about why the AI conversation so often collapses into tools and use cases, and how leaders can pull it back to vision, outcomes, and the kind of alignment that drives transformation. What you'll take away:  Why optimization can keep you busy while you stay stuck  How to make a future vision concrete enough to act on  What "no strategy without vision" means, and how to spot fake strategy  Why leaders default to scorecards, and how it stalls transformation  How Brian's "nindrant" separates "we can do" from "we need alignment"  Why use case first AI limits gains, and how to shift to value creation Plus:  A simple workshop to surface visions before projects  A clean split between what marketing can do now and what needs CRO and CFO alignment  How to move AI from tool talk to a value creation leadership conversation If you are tired of AI conversations that start with tools and end with small wins, listen to this episode for a vision first approach that changes what you do next.  For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/ To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

    52 min

  7. 27 FEB

    When Org Design Shapes Strategy

    Marketing org design isn't an HR exercise. It determines whether your team spends the year reacting… or actually executing.  In this episode of Renegade Marketers Unite, Drew sits down with Charles Groome (Insightful) and Heather Adkins (Trimble) to unpack what a 2026-ready marketing organization really looks like.  Spoiler: It's not built around functional silos.  Instead, they explore campaign-led team structures, mindset-driven hiring, and operating systems designed for speed, adaptability, and accountability.  You'll hear:  How Insightful uses an effort + outcomes framework to evaluate performance  Why Trimble reorganized around nine global initiatives instead of functional silos  The rise of integrated campaign units to tighten alignment  How to hire T-shaped marketers who blend storytelling and data  Ways to give teams more autonomy without sacrificing accountability  How better org design can reduce burnout and increase clarity  If your team structure hasn't changed in years, your team may struggle to adapt when the market shifts.  This conversation will challenge how you think about structure, talent, and what it takes to build a marketing team that can pivot with confidence.  For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/ To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

    52 min

  8. 20 FEB

    Positioning as a Growth Lever

    Feature-and-function decks aren't winning anymore. In this episode of Renegade Marketers Unite, Drew sits down with Bob Wright (Firebrick) to break down how B2B CMOs can use positioning to drive growth, shorten sales cycles, and stand out in crowded markets.  They unpack why product-first stories fail, how to get to "one voice" across the company, and what it really means to own a key business problem that buyers care about. In this episode:  The three biggest positioning mistakes: product-first thinking, misalignment, and no owned problem  Creating urgency when "do nothing" is the real competitor  Why "why you, why now" matters more than "how it works"  When and how to rethink positioning after PLG, acquisitions, or expansion  How to stand out in a world of AI sameness  Building positions that sales actually uses If your messaging is drifting into "blah blah blah" territory, this episode will help you reset around problems, not products.  For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/ To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

    51 min
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About

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 insights for big marketers and those that want to be. For more information visit http://DrewNeisser.com/podcast

Information

  • Creator
    Drew Neisser
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    614
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © CMO Huddles, LLC 2026
  • Show Website
    Renegade Marketers Unite

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