CMO Journeys

Christian Banach
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Marketing

CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin featuring conversations with the marketing leaders behind today’s most recognizable brands, including Princess Cruises, White Castle, and Ruby Tuesday. Hosted by Christian Banach, Founder and Chief Growth Officer of NextBigWin, each episode explores the personal and professional journeys that brought today’s CMOs to the C-suite — from the pivotal career decisions and mentors that shaped them to the lessons learned along the way. The conversation then turns to the realities of leading modern marketing organizations, including the mandates CMOs are driving inside their companies and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners. Through candid discussions, CMO Journeys gives agency leaders, marketers, and industry professionals a behind-the-scenes look at how modern CMOs build teams, shape brands, drive growth, and partner with the organizations helping bring their strategies to life.

  1. 2d ago

    Katy Bunn, CMO of Paychex: Why Every Marketer Should Work Both Sides

    Katy Bunn is Chief Marketing Officer at Paychex, which helps businesses manage payroll, HR, benefits, insurance and workforce management. She started her career at an ad agency and later moved client side, so she knows what each side sees and what each side misses. She believes more marketers should start at an agency, go client side, then come back. What the Conversation Covers How a few senior-year electives and a professor who believed in networking led to a postgraduate internship in word-of-mouth marketingPitching her agency CEO on new work, from a pro bono social media test for Long John Silver's to the agency's first word-of-mouth strategist roleWhat moving client side at Paycor taught her about measurement, demand generation and reportingHow she weighs capability, capacity and her team's passion before bringing in an agency, and where AI fits in that decisionWhy agency discovery phases often miss the mark, and how agencies can meet clients halfway by asking what research already existsGuest Bio Katy Bunn is Chief Marketing Officer at Paychex. She began in word-of-mouth marketing at a Cincinnati ad agency, where she later led a team. At Paycor, she led brand and communications, worked on the company's IPO and became the first person in its strategy role. About the Podcast CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

  2. Oct 18

    Dustin Sitar, CMO of BriteCo: Judging the Process Over the Result

    Dustin Sitar is Chief Growth Officer at BriteCo, which helps people protect their jewelry, watches, and weddings through an online insurance experience. He spent years as a professional poker player before working at Zappos, and he brings a clear lesson from the table to his marketing: judge the decision, not only the outcome. What the Conversation Covers How poker taught him to separate a bad process from bad luck, and how he applies that to marketing testsWhy BriteCo's first influencer effort failed, and how a more manual, targeted approach made it workWhy he treats everyone as a customer, from agencies to coworkers, a lesson he took from ZapposHow BriteCo grew from seven employees to around 50, and why he lets roles fit the people who fill themWhat makes a lasting agency partnership, from sharing internal metrics to in-person offsitesGuest Bio Dustin Sitar is Chief Growth Officer at BriteCo, where he joined as employee number seven and previously led growth and marketing. Before BriteCo, he worked at Zappos across business development, operations, merchandising, and strategy, and before that, he played professional poker. About the Podcast CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

  3. Oct 9

    Julien McCluney, CMO of Jacuzzi Group: From Finance to the Marketing C-Suite

    Julien McCluney is the Global Chief Marketing Officer of Jacuzzi Group, a company sitting at the intersection of home, wellness, and premium consumer products. The route to that role started with a plan to become a doctor, ran through a finance career in New York, and changed direction after a single branding class in business school. It's a candid look at how a marketing leader gets built out of detours rather than a straight line. What the Conversation Covers The career pivot from finance to brand management, and the rejections that redirected the pathWhy brand management is described as the intersection of human stories and business numbersThe argument over whether marketing is an expense or a growth lever, and how to make the case to leadershipA leadership philosophy built on patience, bravery, and being the safety net for a teamHow agency partners are evaluated, why fit is the hardest thing to judge upfront, and when the work stays in-house insteadGuest Bio Julien McCluney serves as Global Chief Marketing Officer of Jacuzzi Group, leading marketing across a house of brands that includes Jacuzzi, Sundance Spas, Hydropool, and Dreammaker. That background combines finance, brand management, product innovation, and P&L leadership, with prior leadership roles across brands including Monopoly, Nerf, Rubbermaid, Oster, and Crockpot. About the Podcast CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

  4. Oct 2

    Steve Daheb, CMO of Flexera: The Artist's Path to the Marketing C-Suite

    Steve Daheb leads global marketing at Flexera, a company that helps the world's largest organizations understand and manage what they spend across software, cloud, SaaS, hardware, and AI. The path there ran through comic books, art academy offers, a psychology degree, and law classes taken at night while working full time. It is a useful conversation for anyone trying to understand how a marketing leader's instincts actually get formed. What the Conversation Covers The career journey: an artist's start in the Bay Area, a father's blunt redirection, and a climb that tracked every major technology shift from networking to AIWhy law school turned out to be the best marketing training available, and how moot court maps almost exactly onto messaging and competitive positioningThe childhood moment that produced a lasting empathy for the customer, and how pattern recognition across past technology waves shapes decision-makingHow a marketing organization gets aligned from the inside out, and why internal partnerships across product marketing, customer success, and sales come before anything externalWhat Daheb expects from agency partners: how far the work should get in-house first, why inherited agency relationships get kept rather than replaced, and the kind of creative work that earns real enthusiasmGuest Bio Steve Daheb is Chief Marketing Officer at Flexera, where the remit spans global marketing, product marketing, demand generation, and brand strategy. Prior senior roles include Oracle, where Daheb led the platform story behind the company's move to the cloud, as well as Citrix and Tanium. Outside of work, Daheb is a lifelong comic book reader, a Comic Con regular, and has built motorcycles, one of which won a national award. About the Podcast CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

  5. Sep 24

    Neville Billimoria, CMO of Mission Fed: Brand as Culture, Not Just Marketing

    Neville Billimoria is Chief Marketing Officer of Mission Fed Credit Union, a member-owned, not-for-profit financial cooperative serving San Diego County. He built and sold his own agency before joining Mission Fed, so he sees marketing from both sides of the table. He also holds a firm belief that culture is the one advantage competitors can't copy. What the Conversation Covers How he talked his way into an agency that had turned him down, created a biotech marketing category, and later sold his own agency to Saatchi & SaatchiWhy the first half of his career was brand as marketing, and the second half has been brand as cultureHow Mission Fed competes with fintechs and challenger brands by using technology to personalize while keeping people at the center, and why it put its brand behind a persona named EdHow martial arts shaped his view that leaders should coach, not manage, and why he makes room for well-meant risks that failHow he ran a nationwide agency search, what "show me you know me" means in a pitch, and why he respects agencies that skip an RFPGuest Bio Neville Billimoria is Chief Marketing Officer at Mission Fed Credit Union. He leads marketing and works with a roster of media, print and digital, PR, and creative agency partners. At Mission Fed he has led many of the credit union's outward-facing functions. Before that, he founded and ran his own agency, which he sold to Saatchi & Saatchi. About the Podcast CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

  6. Sep 21

    Yama Habibzai, CMO of Aptean: Why He Markets Like an Engineer

    Yama Habibzai is the Chief Marketing Officer of Aptean, a global provider of industry-specific enterprise software for manufacturers and distributors. He joined a company built from more than 70 acquisitions and 135-plus products, and he treats that complexity the way an engineer treats a hard problem: something to be taken apart and solved. His perspective is valuable because he has spent a career turning highly technical products into clear growth stories. What the Conversation Covers His path from Kabul to Maine to the marketing C-suite, and how an accidental start pulled him into marketingWhat engineering taught him about breaking a complex, multi-brand business into solvable partsWhy he defaults to building marketing capability in-house, and when he will actually bring in an agencyWhat he learned in an operator's seat as president and COO, and why he chose to return to marketingHow customer empathy shapes his work, from reading a cold email to deciding which problems are worth his time Guest Bio Yama Habibzai is Chief Marketing Officer at Aptean. He studied engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and began his career in technical marketing at MathWorks, the makers of MATLAB. He has since held marketing and operating roles at technology companies, including NetCordia, Infoblox, ScienceLogic, HiveIO, and Device42, where he led marketing through the company's acquisition by Freshworks, often helping smaller companies grow toward an acquisition or a public offering. About the Podcast CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

  7. Sep 11

    Jack Markham, CMO of Inside Real Estate: Running Marketing Like a Revenue Team

    Jack Markham is Chief Marketing Officer of Inside Real Estate, the technology company behind the platform that agents, teams, brokerages, and major real estate brands use to manage leads, marketing, transactions, recruiting, and growth. He arrived at the CMO role from sales and general management rather than brand, and it shapes almost everything about how he runs the function. For anyone thinking about what a marketing organization should actually be accountable for, his perspective is a useful one. What the Conversation Covers The path from leading sales teams to running marketing, and the event where he bombed a speech in front of 500 people and decided to learn the industry from the insideWhat it means to run marketing as a revenue function rather than a reactive, process-driven one, and how the mandate changed when he took the roleHow he builds accountability without micromanaging, including why he tells his team that three of every five things they try will be wrongWhere AI and automation fit in his organization, and why he uses them to expand what a team can do instead of cutting headcountWhat he screens for in an agency partner, and why an industry sitting between B2C and B2B breaks demand generation playbooks that work everywhere else| Guest Bio Jack Markham is Chief Marketing Officer of Inside Real Estate. His background spans sales, customer success, product strategy, acquisitions, general management, and revenue growth, and he previously served as the company's Executive Vice President of Strategic Growth. He has spent most of his career in the real estate industry, including an earlier chapter building a recurring revenue business from the ground up. About the Podcast CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

  8. Sep 4

    Ahmed Iqbal, CMO of Cadillac Formula 1 Team: His Journey From Finance to the Fastest Sport on Earth

    Ahmed Iqbal leads marketing for the Cadillac Formula 1 Team, General Motors' new entry into the world's fastest-growing sport. He joined after an unusual path through investment banking, automotive, and the social platforms Twitter and TikTok — and he's now building a brand, a fan base, and a commercial business from the ground up. His perspective is a rare look at how a modern marketing leader thinks and operates. What the Conversation Covers The winding career journey from investment banking to Audi to Twitter, TikTok, and Formula 1 How storytelling and carrying a revenue number shaped his marketing leadership Building an American team's brand on a global stage without becoming polarizing Building a marketing organization from zero to one across sports, tech, and automotive cultures How he evaluates agencies — and what too many of them miss about Cadillac F1 Guest Bio Ahmed Iqbal is the Chief Marketing Officer of the Cadillac Formula 1 Team, working within TWG in partnership with General Motors. His background spans automotive, media, technology, partnerships, and revenue growth, including leadership roles at Audi, Twitter, and TikTok. At Cadillac F1, he oversees brand, campaigns, digital, and the team's ambition to grow into a media business. About the Podcast CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

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About

CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin featuring conversations with the marketing leaders behind today’s most recognizable brands, including Princess Cruises, White Castle, and Ruby Tuesday. Hosted by Christian Banach, Founder and Chief Growth Officer of NextBigWin, each episode explores the personal and professional journeys that brought today’s CMOs to the C-suite — from the pivotal career decisions and mentors that shaped them to the lessons learned along the way. The conversation then turns to the realities of leading modern marketing organizations, including the mandates CMOs are driving inside their companies and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners. Through candid discussions, CMO Journeys gives agency leaders, marketers, and industry professionals a behind-the-scenes look at how modern CMOs build teams, shape brands, drive growth, and partner with the organizations helping bring their strategies to life.

Information

  • Creator
    Christian Banach
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    47
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Christian Banach
  • Show Website
    CMO Journeys