C-Suite Strategies

Stacie Sussman
  • 5.0 (11)
  • Management
  • Updated Monthly

C-Suite Strategies is the podcast for revenue-minded leaders who know that sales and marketing aren't separate functions. They're one engine. No fluff. No theory. Just straight talk from people who've sat in the seat. Hosted by Stacie Sussman, Founder and CRO of RevUp Advisory and named a 2026 Women to Watch by both Thrive Global and Her Agenda — with 17 years leading sales teams in Manhattan, 100+ consulting projects, and a track record of scaling companies to exit — each episode digs into what growth actually looks like for mid-market operators, founders, CMOs, and CROs. Because growth isn't just about data and metrics — it's about mindset, showing up, and surrounding yourself with the right people. This is a space for the conversations that go beyond the dashboard. The ones about alignment, accountability, and what it really takes to build a revenue engine that lasts. If you're ready to stop treating sales and marketing as separate problems and start leading like they're one — this is your podcast. If you want to learn how to turn the chaos of growth into clarity and confidence, subscribe to C-Suite Strategies. Your next breakthrough is just a listen away.

  1. Aug 11

    S2E29: Why Your Data Lake Is Actually a Swamp

    I have friends in corporate who are some of the smartest people I know. We’re talking senior leaders at major financial institutions. People running special projects right now on how to bring AI into organizations with tens of thousands of employees, decades of legacy systems, and more acquired companies than they can count. And when we talk (really talk, not the polished version they give in meetings), here’s what I keep hearing: “Stacie, we don’t even know where our data lives.” That sentence stops me every single time. Because these are not junior employees who got handed a project they don’t understand. These are experienced, brilliant leaders. And they are staring down one of the most complicated technology transformations in business history while sitting on a foundation that was never designed for what they’re being asked to do. Here’s what happened. Over the years, big companies acquired other companies. Those acquisitions came with their own products, their own platforms, their own data structures. And for a long time, the approach was: leave them where they are. Leave that company in Arkansas. Leave that one in Colorado. Leave that one in North Carolina. Band-aid it together well enough to make the deal size bigger, add it as a line item in a bundled package, and move on. It worked. Until now. Because now the mandate is AI. And AI needs a data lake. Not a collection of disconnected puddles sitting in different states: a unified, structured, trustworthy body of data that the whole organization can actually draw from. And when you’ve spent twenty years duct-taping acquisitions together across multiple geographies, building that data lake is not a six-month project. We’re talking five to eight years. Maybe more. Here’s the part that keeps me up at night on their behalf: in the age of AI, the goalpost moves constantly. What you’re building toward today, the vision you’re executing against right now, could be archaic by the time you get there. The technology is moving that fast. You’re building toward a target that is actively shifting underneath you. That is a genuinely hard problem. And I have enormous respect for the people trying to solve it. But here’s why I do the work I do. I don’t work with Fortune 500 companies. I work with mid-market B2B companies in the $30M to $50M range. And the reason I love this space (genuinely love it, not just as a business decision but as a personal conviction) is this: You have the same problem. At a fraction of the scale. Your data is probably siloed too. You’ve probably got systems that don’t talk to each other, fields that nobody fills out, automations that were built for a business model you don’t even run anymore. You’ve got your own version of Arkansas sitting somewhere in your CRM, and you’ve been leaving it alone because it worked well enough. But here’s the difference: you are nimble. You can make changes fast. What takes a Fortune 500 company five to eight years to fix, we can get a mid-market company through in one to two years. Sometimes less, depending on how clean your starting point is. And in the age of AI, that is not a small advantage. That is a massive competitive edge. The companies that fix their data foundation now are the ones that will be able to actually use AI the way it’s meant to be used, not as a tool that makes your garbage faster, but as a system that surfaces real patterns, predicts real outcomes, and gives your leadership team real intelligence to act on. That is the difference between scaling chaos and scaling clarity. This is the personal reason behind the work for me. My whole philosophy comes down to one thing: work smarter, not harder. For years, I watched brilliant marketing and sales leaders, people with decades of experience and genuinely great instincts, grind themselves into the ground trying to compensate for broken systems with sheer effort. More hours. More reports. More meetings. More manual workarounds. They were working so hard. And the system was eating every bit of it. That is not a people problem. That is a foundation problem. And no amount of hard work fixes a broken foundation. You fix the foundation, and then the hard work actually goes somewhere. That’s what the August episode of C-Suite Strategies is about. We go deep on structured data, unstructured data, data lakes, and why AI will make your problems significantly worse if you skip the foundational step. If any of this is landing for you, if you heard yourself in the friends I described, or in the mid-market version of this problem, this episode is for you. Connect With Stacie - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staciesussman - Substack: https://staciesussman.substack.com/ - RevUp Advisory: https://www.revupadvisory.com

  2. Jul 14

    S2E28: The 7-Layer CFO: Why Marketing, Sales, and Finance Need Each Other

    Stacie Sussman sits down with Phil Nahajewski, fractional CFO and founding partner of Florida CFO Group, to expose what most marketing leaders get wrong about financial conversations. Phil brings seven distinct layers of experience across Corporate America, nonprofits, tech startups, and SMB fractional work — and he’s here to prove that brand investment shows up in the exit check. If you’re still fighting for budget in the wrong language, this episode is your wake-up call. The Multiple Is Where Marketing Lives Most marketing leaders walk into budget conversations armed with impressions, clicks, and MQL counts. Phil reframes the whole game. Company valuation is EBITDA x the multiple — and the multiple is driven by brand quality and customer loyaltyMarketing owns both of those drivers. Finance just hasn’t been told that story yetThe CMO who speaks CFO gets the budget. The one who doesn’t keeps fighting for scrapsThe Bright House Story: Brand ROI You Can’t Put on a P&L Phil was inside Bright House Networks when they launched a brand-new name with zero market recognition. Every marketing leader needs this case study. They secured naming rights to the UCF stadium and sponsored the Tampa Bay Lightning’s first-ever Stanley Cup runNone of it was cleanly attributable on a P&L in real timeWhen the company sold to Charter, the exit multiple told the whole story — brand investment showed up in the checkAttribution, Context, and the Danger of Siloed Metrics Phil keeps a running timeline of internal and external factors alongside results — because results never live in a vacuum. A campaign doesn’t succeed or fail in isolation. Context is part of the data“What we have here is a failure to communicate” — when functions silo, everyone looks successful on their own scorecard while the business quietly bleedsVanity metrics let everyone feel good while the foundation cracksAI, Fractional Talent, and the New Operating Model Phil has built a personal AI agent team — each one named, each one with a distinct role. Second Phil (strategic thought partner), Orgy (organizer), Mori (values keeper, inspired by Tuesdays with Morrie), Draper (marketing agent, named for Don Draper)His take: AI doesn’t replace your time — it creates new things worthy of your timeOn fractional talent: small and mid-sized businesses don’t have to wait to access experienced financial leadership. Fractional levels the playing fieldKey Takeaways Valuation language is marketing’s most underused weapon. EBITDA x the multiple — and the multiple is yours to move.Brand investment shows up in the exit check, not always the quarterly report. The Bright House story proves it.Siloed metrics are a slow leak. When every function wins on its own scorecard and the business still struggles, the problem is alignment — not effort.AI reveals character. Those who use it with transparency and generosity build leverage. Those who don’t fall behind.Resources + Links Mentioned Florida CFO Group on LinkedInCFO Coffee Talk Podcast (Season 5, Episode 100)Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch AlbomCool Hand Luke (1967 Movie) — “What we have here is a failure to communicate”About The Guest Phil Nahajewski is a fractional CFO and founding partner of Florida CFO Group, a network of 35 CFO partners across seven Florida markets. He brings seven distinct layers of experience spanning Corporate America (Burroughs, Unisys, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks), nonprofit leadership, tech startups, SMB fractional work, AI integration, and what he calls the Enlightened Fractional layer. Phil also hosts CFO Coffee Talk, now in its fifth season and 100th episode. He helps business owners get the financial clarity and strategic partnership they need to grow — without waiting until they can afford a full-time CFO. About The Host Stacie Sussman is the Founder of RevUp Advisory, a revenue operations consultancy that helps CMOs at $30M-$50M B2B companies fix broken marketing and sales systems from the foundation up. With 17 years in sales management and a front-row seat to what actually breaks inside scaling companies, Stacie brings both strategic vision and hands-on execution. She’s also the creator of StacieSussmanTeachesAI.com — an AI education platform built for experienced business leaders who are ready to stop watching the AI wave and start building with it. Connect With Stacie - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staciesussman - Substack: https://staciesussman.substack.com/ - RevUp Advisory: https://www.revupadvisory.com

  3. Jun 9

    S2E27: You Can't Automate a Room

    You built a whole brand on automating everything. Pipeline analysis, campaign builds, cold outreach that books 20 meetings off a dusty spreadsheet. And then you sit down to dinner with eight people and watch a deal close that no attribution model will ever capture. This episode is about that gap. Stacie sits down with Kelley Troia, founder of Clandestine Events + Experiences, who has spent 14 years engineering the rooms where C-suite relationships and deals actually get built - for the NBA, Formula 1, IndyCar, and the quiet executive dinners nobody posts about. If you have been optimizing every funnel and still feel like the real business is happening somewhere you are not, this is the episode that tells you where that room is - and how it gets built on purpose. --- Events Are Architecture, Not Logistics - Kelley came up through corporate retail - eight-plus years at Walmart and Whole Foods - so she thinks about an event the way a CFO does: what is the outcome, and how do we justify the spend - Why the goal is making both the marketing client AND the CFO happy, so they reinvest in the next one - How a struggling business idea born at a Jazz Fest surprise party turned into 14 years of high-stakes production What Actually Gets Engineered Before Anyone Sits Down - The guest dossier: a guest-by-guest breakdown of pressure points, interests, and how each person connects back to the client's business - Why one person can never carry a table - Kelley puts at least three of the client's people in the room to float, check in, and keep everyone engaged - Sound as the most underrated lever in the room: the loud restaurant that kills the one conversation you came to have - The "red thread" - every element subtly tied back to the business, the client, the guest, and the reason they are there IRL Slop and the Return to the Room - Kelley's term for the flood of badly produced in-person events - and why they do real damage when time is the most valuable thing a guest gives you - The post-COVID, AI-era pendulum swing back to community, and why people are starving for rooms built for serious business minds, not hair-and-makeup filler - The "puppy petting area" pet peeve: things bolted onto an event with no tangible connection to why anyone is there - "I produce events people won't shut up about" - and the trick of changing something every 20 to 30 minutes so nobody leaves early Rooms People Never Forget - The two-weeks-notice Formula 1 Austin build: a graffiti artist creating custom pieces during dinner, private transport to Billy Joel with side-stage access, then front row at the Chainsmokers - The Mardi Gras experience for Bay Area guests: private airport pickup, a Bourbon Street balcony, full costuming, a brass band and Mardi Gras Indians through the French Quarter, IV drips, and their own float in a day parade - Scaled-down moves that still land: a tableside martini cart, the chef telling the story of the meal, an artist who shows up midway through --- Key Takeaways - The venue is about 20% of the value. The real work is who sits next to whom, how the night is paced, and what the host knows walking in. That is the part most people skip. - Design the room around one outcome the client can name. If you cannot say what "success when you walk out the door" looks like, you are throwing spaghetti at the wall with a catering budget. - Time is the most valuable thing a guest gives you. IRL slop does not just waste an evening - it makes people say no to the next invitation. - In-person is not nostalgia, it is leverage. As more business gets automated, the room you build by hand is the thing software cannot replicate. --- Resources + Links Mentioned - Clandestine Events + Experiences: https://clandestine-events.com - Kelley Troia: kelley@clandestine-events.com - Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara (the 11 Madison Park sledding story Stacie references) --- About The Guest Kelley Troia is the founder of Clandestine Events + Experiences, a strategic hospitality firm she has run for 14 years from New Orleans and Austin. After eight-plus years in marketing operations at Walmart and Whole Foods, she builds curated, high-stakes rooms - from intimate executive dinners to NBA All-Star, Formula 1, and IndyCar activations - where the through-line is always the same: every room is a business tool with a purpose. Her contribution to this episode is the operating manual for treating an event as architecture, not logistics. --- About The Host Stacie Sussman is the Founder and CRO of RevUp Advisory, a revenue operations consultancy that helps CMOs at $30M-$50M B2B companies fix broken marketing and sales systems from the foundation up. With 17 years in sales management and a front-row seat to what actually breaks inside scaling companies, Stacie brings both the strategic vision and the hands-on execution that most consultants can't offer. She's also the creator of StacieSussmanTeachesAI.com - an AI education platform built specifically for experienced business leaders who are ready to stop watching the AI wave and start building with it. --- Connect With Stacie - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staciesussman - Website: StacieSussmanTeachesAI.com - RevUp Advisory: https://www.revupadvisory.com --- If You Loved This Episode Subscribe to C-Suite Strategies so you never miss an episode. And if this one hit home, share it with the founder or CMO who keeps pouring budget into events and still can't tell you what they got back - this episode is the blueprint they have been missing. Your next big business breakthrough could be an episode away. Connect With Stacie - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staciesussman - Substack: https://staciesussman.substack.com/ - RevUp Advisory: https://www.revupadvisory.com

  4. May 26

    S2E26: The Thing Nobody Tells You About AI (And Why I Kept It To Myself)

    For two years, Stacie Sussman has been quietly using AI to solve in 20 minutes what was taking her clients weeks. And every time they asked "how did you do that so fast?" she said "I'll teach you." And then she never did. This episode is her coming clean. Stacie breaks down what she calls "AI for good" - not the hype, not the fear, not the generic content at scale. She's talking about AI as a force multiplier for experienced business leaders who already have the judgment, the pattern recognition, and the domain expertise. The ones who just need to learn how to give AI the right direction. If you've been watching the AI wave from the sidelines, this is the episode that will make you stop waiting. --- The Honest Confession - How last week's conversation with Drew Brucker about campaign strategy and measurement connected to something Stacie has been sitting on for two years - Why Stacie kept her AI edge to herself, what shifted, and why she's done hoarding it - The moment she realized teaching this was more valuable than keeping it secret AI for Good: What's Actually Possible - A cold outreach campaign that booked 20+ meetings from a spreadsheet that had been collecting dust for years - A podcast outreach system that identifies shows, drafts personalized pitches, and manages the whole pipeline - running in the background while you focus on what matters - A content system that takes long-form IP and produces on-brand marketing assets across every channel - Real examples of what happens when you build AI systems on a solid foundation The Thing Nobody Tells You - The tools are NOT the hard part - knowing what to build and how to think about your business problems in a way AI can actually solve is the skill - Why this approach is completely learnable for experienced business leaders - How 20 years of business experience gives you everything you need to succeed with AI - The difference between generic input and strategic direction Why Claude Code, Why Now - How Stacie is connecting Claude to the tools you already use (Gmail, Google Calendar, Notion, Gamma) without ripping out your tech stack - The announcement: StacieSussmanTeachesAI.com is live - First workshop details: Thursday, May 28th --- Key Takeaways - The magic is NOT in the AI tool. It's in what you TEACH the tool about your business. Generic input produces generic output. Foundation first, execution second - that's the order that actually works. - If you have 20 years of business experience, you already have the hardest part. You have the judgment. You have the pattern recognition. AI just needs your direction. Once you learn how to give it that direction, it's like having an extra brain that never sleeps and never gets overwhelmed. - The companies that waited on CRM, marketing automation, and account-based marketing spent years playing catch-up. The leaders who learn to build with AI now will have a measurable advantage over the ones who wait. - "Done with you" beats "done for you" every time. Teaching people to build their own AI systems is what creates real, lasting change - not dependency. --- Resources + Links Mentioned - Drew Brucker Guest Episode: [S2E25] - the conversation about campaign strategy and measurement that sparked this episode - StacieSussmanTeachesAI.com - Stacie's AI education hub. Workshop details, registration, and recording options all live here. - Claude Code for Real Business Workshop - Thursday, May 28th, 2026. Live, hands-on, small group. $497 for the beta cohort. - Claude AI - claude.ai (Stacie recommends the $100/month plan for the workshop) --- About The Host Stacie Sussman is the Founder and CRO of RevUp Advisory, a revenue operations consultancy that helps CMOs at $30M-$50M B2B companies fix broken marketing and sales systems from the foundation up. With 17 years in sales management and a front-row seat to what actually breaks inside scaling companies, Stacie brings both the strategic vision and the hands-on execution that most consultants can't offer. She's also the creator of StacieSussmanTeachesAI.com - an AI education platform built specifically for experienced business leaders who are ready to stop watching the AI wave and start building with it. --- Connect With Stacie - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staciesussman - Website: StacieSussmanTeachesAI.com - RevUp Advisory: https://www.revupadvisory.com --- If You Loved This Episode Subscribe to C-Suite Strategies so you never miss an episode. And if this one hit home, share it with the CMO or founder in your life who's been asking "where do I even start with AI?" - this episode was built for them. Your next big business breakthrough could be an episode away. Connect With Stacie - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staciesussman - Substack: https://staciesussman.substack.com/ - RevUp Advisory: https://www.revupadvisory.com

  5. May 12

    S2E25: No Creative, No Data: Why Your Marketing Metrics Are Lying to You

    In this episode, Stacie Sussman — Founder and CRO of RevUp Advisory — sits down with Drew Brucker, AI Creative Consultant and founder of Brain Child, to dig into the layer most CMOs are skipping in their AI strategy: creative. Every CMO is being asked the same question — what's your AI strategy? — and most of them answer with a stack. Attribution platforms. Orchestration tools. Agents. Dashboards. What no one's saying out loud: your data is only as smart as the assets flowing through it. And most teams don't have the assets — or the system to produce them at the speed AI now demands. Drew has been deep in the AI creative trenches since 2022, after spending 11+ years leading marketing at SaaS startups. In this conversation, he breaks down why creative was one of the first functions AI massively disrupted, walks through what an on-demand AI photo shoot actually looks like, and shows how to start building this into your org without a six-figure budget or a 10-person creative team. Why Creative Got Disrupted First Why AI hitting creative this hard surprised even the people building in itThe democratization of creative production — and why specialized skills are getting flatter, fasterWhy photorealism and "AI people" are the most polarizing piece, but creative is so much more than that (icons, illustrations, animations, product shots, environment shots)Building Your Brand's Visual DNA What "visual DNA" actually means — colors, aesthetic, personality, locations, objects, the things that make you, youHow to build a visual library that marketing, sales, CS, and product can all pull fromWhy this works just as well for a Series A startup with no budget as it does for the biggest brands in the marketThe On-Demand AI Photo Shoot (Walked Through Live) How Drew combined three sourced images — a model, an outfit, and a backdrop — into 20 distinct camera angles in minutesWhy generating around the model in 360° prevents AI hallucinations when you turn stills into videoWhy this isn't replacing photo shoots — it's filling the gaps (the angle you forgot, the colorway you didn't shoot, the model you don't want to fly back in)System-Style Thinking Is the Real Unlock Why training your team on prompt engineering is yesterday's playbook — building the infrastructure is the new oneHow brand guidelines + a campaign brief + an LLM = 10 optimized prompts your team can copy-paste straight into any image modelThe Magic Spoon example — synthesizing a brand's entire visual identity from a handful of images and generating social assets in one clickWhy Creative Is the Missing Layer in Your Marketing Metrics Why your data is only as good as the creative flowing through itHow AI creative changes the math on A/B testing — more variants, more learning, less spendThe 80–90% sweet spot — what AI handles, where humans still curate, and why that combo winsWhere to Start When You're Drowning in AI Why X (not LinkedIn) is the upstream channel for creative AI builders, and how to filter the noiseDrew's filter: feed the post into an LLM and ask, "how relevant is this to me, scale 1–10, be objective"Why MD (markdown) files are the single highest-leverage thing you can build for any LLM workflow — and how Stacie uses one for RevUp built off the MKT1 frameworkYou can also connect with our guest, Drew Brucker.  Website: drewcbrucker.comLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/drewbruckerX: @dcbruckPodcast: Fast Hours on YouTube — youtube.com/@FastHoursAI Connect With Stacie - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staciesussman - Substack: https://staciesussman.substack.com/ - RevUp Advisory: https://www.revupadvisory.com

  6. Apr 14

    S2E24: Stop Hiding Behind Jargon: The Art of B2B Brand Storytelling That Wins

    In this episode, Stacie Sussman — Founder and CRO of RevUp Advisory — sits down with Lauryn Warnick, CEO of Villain Branding, to dig into one of the most underestimated levers in B2B growth: brand storytelling. Most B2B leaders think storytelling is a nice-to-have. Lauryn’s here to prove it’s a revenue driver. When your story is murky, your sales cycles stretch. When your messaging is inconsistent, deals go quiet. When your team can’t agree on what you do, neither can your buyers. This is the conversation that changes how you think about brand — from a marketing expense to a business asset with a measurable ROI. Want Stacie’s hot take first? This is Part 2 of a two-part series on B2B brand storytelling. In Part 1, Stacie breaks down brand debt — what it is, why it’s costing you deals, and what to do about it before you ever bring in outside help. Listen to Part 1 here → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s2e23-youve-got-brand-debt-heres-what-its-actually/id1766582344?i=1000758388118 What We Cover Why B2B Leaders Hide Behind Jargon The real cost of a complicated message — and who’s paying it Why complex portfolios make the storytelling problem worse, not better How a confused brand story shows up in your sales cycle before it ever shows up in your pipeline data Verbal Strategy: The Foundation You’re Skipping What a “verbal strategy consultancy” actually does — and why visuals without words first is backwards How to build a message that travels coherently from the CEO’s keynote to the SDR’s cold email The three pillars every B2B brand story needs: differentiation, credibility, and relevancy The Villain Framework in Practice What “raising the bar” actually means when you’re a mid-enterprise B2B company Why category creation is usually a trap — and what to do instead How to close the gap between what your business does and what the market thinks you do Measuring Brand ROI (Yes, You Can) The three levers that define brand value: choice, premium, and loyalty What Interbrand and Kantar actually track — and why your CFO should care Why brand-led organizations capture up to 70% of their value through the brand itself — and what the band-aid companies are leaving on the table Brand Storytelling in the Age of AI Why your buyers are researching in ChatGPT and Perplexity before they ever fill out a form How to make sure bots and humans alike can find you — and understand you Why jumping into AI execution without a clear verbal foundation just scales your confusion faster When Leaders Get It Right — and When They Don’t What Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Coca-Cola are doing that most companies aren’t Why CEOs going rogue on keynotes is a brand debt problem, not a communications problem The moment when you know the work landed — and the moment you know it didn’t 3 Things to Do Before the Next Episode Ask five people at your company what you do — cross-functional, no briefing. Count how many different answers you get. That gap is your brand debt. Look at your last three sales cycles that went dark — was your story clear enough that the buyer could explain your value internally without you in the room? Search your category in ChatGPT or Perplexity — see if your company shows up the way you think it does. If it doesn’t, your verbal foundation needs work. Connect with Lauryn Warnick Website: villainbranding.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/laurynwarnick Email: lauryn@villainbranding.com Connect with Stacie Sussman Subscribe to the RevUp Advisory newsletter on Substack: https://staciesussman.substack.com/subscribe Connect With Stacie - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staciesussman - Substack: https://staciesussman.substack.com/ - RevUp Advisory: https://www.revupadvisory.com

  7. Mar 31

    S2E23: You've Got Brand Debt. Here's What It's Actually Costing You.

    In this solo episode, Stacie Sussman — Founder and CRO of RevUp Advisory — breaks down one of the most expensive problems hiding in plain sight across mid-market B2B companies: brand debt. This isn't just about having weak messaging or a tagline that needs a refresh. Brand debt is what happens when your story doesn't keep up with your business — and your buyers feel the disconnect long before you do. It shows up in longer sales cycles, deals that go dark after the second call, and a pipeline that's colder than it should be. The fix isn't better copy. It's building a system. What We Cover The Brand Debt Diagnosis Why asking five people at your company "what do you do?" will get you six different answers How brand debt compounds over time — just like financial debt The warning signs hiding across your org right now Why This Is a Revenue Problem, Not a Marketing Problem What the Interbrand research actually says about brand value (your CFO will care) Why unclear storytelling is costing you deals you don't even know you're losing How buyers experience the disconnect — even when they can't name it The System Behind the Story Why a great brand story sitting in a Google Doc does nothing for revenue How to build messaging that travels coherently from first touch to signed contract Why every channel has its own funnel logic — and what happens when you measure them all the same way Brand Debt in the Age of AI Your buyers are researching in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude before they ever fill out a form Why a broken brand story doesn't just cost you human attention — it makes you invisible to AI What AI tools actually surface (and what they ignore completely) 3 Things to Do Before the Next Episode Run the five-person experiment — cross-functional, no briefing, just ask Map your content by channel and be honest about what role each one is actually playing AI yourself — search your category and see if your company shows up the way you think it does Up Next Stacie sits down with Lauryn Warnick, CEO of Villain Branding, to go deep on solving the brand story problem at the mid-to-enterprise level. Lauren's working with billion-dollar companies and has a methodology that is equal parts clever and genius. You won't want to miss it. Connect with Stacie Sussman Subscribe to the RevUp Advisory newsletter on Substack: https://staciesussman.substack.com/subscribe Connect With Stacie - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staciesussman - Substack: https://staciesussman.substack.com/ - RevUp Advisory: https://www.revupadvisory.com

  8. Mar 10

    S2E22: From SEO to AEO: The Four Pillars of AI Search Strategy

    In this episode, Stacie sits down with Jenna Hannon—first marketing hire at Uber Eats and founder of GetHatter.ai—to break down the shift from SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), and what it means for your attribution model, your pipeline, and your competitive position. This isn’t just about “showing up in AI search.” It’s about making sure your company, your founders, and your thought leaders are the ones being cited when your buyers are doing that invisible dark funnel research. Guest: Jenna Hannon Founder of GetHatter.ai and former first marketing hire at Uber Eats What We Cover SEO Fundamentals (And Why They’re Not Enough Anymore) How SEO has worked for the past 20 yearsThe constant chase of Google’s algorithm changesWhy keyword strategies and backlink volume dominated the gameThe Rise of AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) What AEO actually is and how it differs from SEOWhy 97% of searches still happen on Google—but summaries are changing everythingHow LLMs decide whose content to cite (spoiler: it’s not about hacks)Why AEO actually rewards good marketing better than Google ever didThe Attribution Blind Spot Your buyers are researching for weeks before filling out formsAI-assisted research makes the dark funnel even darkerHow to influence research you can’t see or measureWhy this is a revenue strategy conversation, not just a marketing tacticThe Four Pillars of AEO Strategy Jenna breaks down the four key areas where you can move the needle in AEO—and why most companies are starting from 1% visibility (or 0%). She explains which pillar matters most, where to start if you’re overwhelmed, and why this isn’t about abandoning your SEO investment. The Truth About “AEO Hacks” There is no magic button (Jenna tried to build one—Google shut it down overnight)LinkedIn influencers selling shortcuts? Jenna’s tested them. They don’t work.What actually works instead (and why it’s better than you think)Why You Shouldn’t Be Intimidated The fundamentals haven’t changed—you’re just extending your strategyAEO rewards strong marketing better than Google’s algorithm ever didThis isn’t a complete rework of your marketing prioritiesWhere to focus your energy for maximum impactKey Takeaways SEO isn’t dead—97% of searches still happen on GoogleBut AI summaries are changing how buyers consume informationMost B2B brands show up 1% of the time (or less) in AI search resultsThere are no shortcuts—AEO rewards good marketing fundamentalsConnect with Jenna Hannon Email: jenna@gethatter.aiLinkedIn: Jenna Hannon (book a 15-minute call directly from her profile and ask about her free AI visibility tracker)Company: https://www.gethatter.ai/Please note: The audio quality in the opening minutes of this episode is not up to our usual standard. Rather than delay sharing this important conversation, we chose to release it as-is because the insights are too valuable to wait. We appreciate your understanding and hope you enjoy the episode! Connect With Stacie - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staciesussman - Substack: https://staciesussman.substack.com/ - RevUp Advisory: https://www.revupadvisory.com

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11 Ratings

About

C-Suite Strategies is the podcast for revenue-minded leaders who know that sales and marketing aren't separate functions. They're one engine. No fluff. No theory. Just straight talk from people who've sat in the seat. Hosted by Stacie Sussman, Founder and CRO of RevUp Advisory and named a 2026 Women to Watch by both Thrive Global and Her Agenda — with 17 years leading sales teams in Manhattan, 100+ consulting projects, and a track record of scaling companies to exit — each episode digs into what growth actually looks like for mid-market operators, founders, CMOs, and CROs. Because growth isn't just about data and metrics — it's about mindset, showing up, and surrounding yourself with the right people. This is a space for the conversations that go beyond the dashboard. The ones about alignment, accountability, and what it really takes to build a revenue engine that lasts. If you're ready to stop treating sales and marketing as separate problems and start leading like they're one — this is your podcast. If you want to learn how to turn the chaos of growth into clarity and confidence, subscribe to C-Suite Strategies. Your next breakthrough is just a listen away.

Information

  • Creator
    Stacie Sussman
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    30
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 C-Suite Strategies
  • Show Website
    C-Suite Strategies