Growth Activated | The B2B Marketing Leadership Podcast

Mandy Walker
  • 5.0 (11)
  • MARKETING
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Growth Activated is a podcast for B2B marketing leaders who want to elevate their marketing strategies, lead confidently, and drive real business results. Each episode offers actionable insights and proven frameworks to help you activate growth for your team, your company, and your career.

  1. 3D AGO

    Content Strategy That Builds Pipeline: Discovery, Virality, and Relationship Loops (with Brendan Hufford)

    #41 - Your team is producing more content than ever, but pipeline isn’t reflecting it. That gap between output and impact usually isn’t a volume problem — it’s a strategy problem. And it’s exactly what this conversation is built to solve. Brendan Hufford, founder of Growth Sprints, helps B2B SaaS companies scale from $10 million to $100 million — largely through content. He’s a former high school teacher turned SEO director turned founder, and he brings a refreshingly direct take on what it actually takes to make content drive revenue. In this conversation, Brendan breaks down his four-part growth framework and gets tactical about what’s working right now across search, social, and newsletters in B2B. What we cover: Why naming the problem you solve builds more trust than any product page — and how to workshop your own Content IP using the 3S strategy (sales, success, support)Discovery loops: how to get found in Google and LLMs, starting closest to the money with competitor and product pagesVirality loops: why your executives need to be posting (even when they’re resistant) and how to overcome the objectionsRelationship loops: what the best B2B newsletters actually look like, with specific examples to studyHow to quantify content’s impact so your CFO stops questioning the spendWhat “checkbox marketing” looks like and how to break out of it for goodWhy smaller marketing teams with strong strategy are outperforming larger ones stuck in channel silosAbout Brendan Hufford: Brendan is the founder of Growth Sprints, where he helps B2B SaaS companies scale from 10 to 100 million primarily through content. He previously served as SEO Director at a web design agency, helped scale a B2B SaaS marketing agency from 10 to 25 million, and worked in-house at ActiveCampaign. His background as a 10-year high school teacher gives him a unique perspective on communication, structure, and cutting through complexity. Connect with Brendan on LinkedIn. Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction(02:19) Brendan’s journey from teacher to SEO director to founder(07:19) The 4-part growth framework: Content IP, discovery, virality, and relationship loops(10:10) Content IP: why naming the problem beats naming the category(14:00) The 3S interview method for workshopping your Content IP(20:09) Why AI analysis can’t replace real customer conversations(23:30) Discovery, virality, and relationship loops in practice(29:57) The best B2B newsletters to study right now(32:46) How to bring the loops together without silos killing your strategy(37:56) Quantifying content’s impact and proving ROI to the CFOIf this episode gave you a framework to rethink your content strategy, share it with a fellow marketing leader who’s tired of checkbox marketing. And if you haven’t yet, follow Growth Activated wherever you listen so you never miss an episode. Lead Like a CMO - Group Coaching Lab: Join the Waitlist Let’s Keep the Conversation Going! Loved this episode? Connect with me for more insights on B2B marketing leadership and strategies to grow your business. 🌐 Visit my website: growthactivated.com 🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn: Mandy Walker 🔗 Get Your Free Marketing Planning Guide Today! Don’t forget to subscribe to Growth Activated and share this episode with fellow marketing leaders. Let’s activate growth—together!

    43 min

  2. FEB 17

    4 Strategic Bets Every CMO Should Make in 2026

    #40 - The landscape isn't just shifting — it's splitting. Buyers are choosing vendors before they ever talk to sales. AI is rewriting the rules faster than most of us can keep up. And budgets? Still flat. So instead of adding more to the list, I asked myself: if I could only make four strategic bets this year — four investments of my time, energy, and resources — what would they be? In this solo episode, I'm walking you through the 4 bets I'm making in 2026 as both a fractional CMO and the founder of Growth Activated. Each one is backed by data, grounded in what I'm seeing with clients, and designed to compound — where one investment feeds the next. What you'll walk away with:  A visibility + trust filter to pressure-test your own channel strategy Why I'm shifting from audio-first to YouTube-first podcasting The operational readiness gap that's causing 60% of AI projects to fail Why your personal learning speed may be your biggest leadership advantage right now The thread that ties all four bets into a system (and why it matters more than any single bet)Chapters:  (00:00) Why Strategic Bets Over Trend Chasing (03:23) Bet 1: The Visibility + Trust Filter (15:13) Bet 2: Optimize for the Human Experience (19:21) Bet 3: Invest in Operational Readiness (26:17) Bet 4: Speed as a Leadership Advantage (30:21) The Thread That Ties It All TogetherIf this episode resonated, I'd love to hear which bet landed most — send me a message on LinkedIn. 🎯 Join the CMO Operating System waitlist → growthactivated.com Related episodes mentioned:  AI Hackathon in Wales: Episode 39Community-Led Strategy with Ridhi Singh: Episode 38 Employee Advocacy with Gabe Lullo: Episode 37LLM Optimization & Search Everywhere: Episode 22Growth Activated is hosted by Mandy Walker — a fractional CMO with 15 years of marketing leadership experience helping B2B marketing leaders elevate their strategies, lead with confidence, and build careers they love. Lead Like a CMO - Group Coaching Lab: Join the Waitlist Let’s Keep the Conversation Going! Loved this episode? Connect with me for more insights on B2B marketing leadership and strategies to grow your business. 🌐 Visit my website: growthactivated.com 🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn: Mandy Walker 🔗 Get Your Free Marketing Planning Guide Today! Don’t forget to subscribe to Growth Activated and share this episode with fellow marketing leaders. Let’s activate growth—together!

    33 min

  3. FEB 11

    AI Agents and the Future of Marketing Teams - My Weekend Hackathon Wake-Up Call

    #39 - If you've been using AI every day but still feel like you're falling behind, you're not alone — and this episode is the honest conversation about what it actually takes to close that gap. I've been a daily ChatGPT user for over a year. I know what AI agents and agentic teams are. I keep up with what's happening on LinkedIn. And yet, when I saw someone demo an entire AI marketing team — brand voice agents, campaign strategists, content creators, all working together in coordinated workflows — I realized the way I was using AI wasn't keeping pace with where the industry is headed. So I treated my weekend in Snowdonia, Wales like a hackathon and went all in. In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on my real AI journey — what I built, what surprised me, and what I'm still figuring out. You'll hear about the three workflows I created using Claude Code and Visual Studio Code, including a guest research automation that replaced hours of manual work and a full post-production podcast workflow built on deep platform research. I also share the mistakes, the learning curve, and why I think this moment is more accessible than most of us realize. This one is personal. And if you've been telling yourself you'll go deeper with AI "eventually," I hope it's the nudge you need. What you'll learn:  (00:00) Why daily AI use wasn't enough — and the moment everything shifted (02:53) Where I was in my AI journey before this weekend (06:13) The catalyst: Opus 4.6, agentic teams, and a conversation that changed my perspective (13:16) My hackathon setup: Claude Code, Visual Studio Code, and getting started as a non-developer (18:18) The three workflows I built — guest research, podcast production, and a Webflow agent (37:53) Why this matters for women in marketing leadershipJoin the CMO Operating System waitlist → growthactivated.com Lead Like a CMO - Group Coaching Lab: Join the Waitlist Let’s Keep the Conversation Going! Loved this episode? Connect with me for more insights on B2B marketing leadership and strategies to grow your business. 🌐 Visit my website: growthactivated.com 🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn: Mandy Walker 🔗 Get Your Free Marketing Planning Guide Today! Don’t forget to subscribe to Growth Activated and share this episode with fellow marketing leaders. Let’s activate growth—together!

    39 min

  4. JAN 27

    Community-Led Growth in B2B: How CMOs Build a Trust Moat (and Drive Pipeline) - with Ridhi Singh

    #38 - Community-led growth is becoming one of the most powerful (and most underused) moats in B2B marketing—especially as AI-generated content floods the market and buyers rely more heavily on trust, peer validation, and real human connection to make decisions. In this episode of Growth Activated, host Mandy Walker sits down with Ridhi Singh, Founder of 91 Ninjas, to break down what community-led growth actually means (beyond the buzzword), why it’s surging right now, and how marketing leaders and CMOs can use community marketing and event marketing to build a durable GTM engine competitors can’t copy overnight. You’ll learn the difference between building an audience vs. building a true community, why a Slack group isn’t the strategy, and how to design community programs that create real value, drive engagement, and influence the full funnel—from discovery to advocacy. In this episode, we cover: Why community-led growth is rising now: AI, trust, and modern B2B buyer behaviorCommunity marketing vs. audience building (and why the distinction matters for CMOs)When community-led growth is the right GTM strategy (product complexity, skeptical ICPs, long-term culture)How to start without overbuilding: power users, leadership involvement, and “unscalable” early playsHow community impacts pipeline velocity, conversion rates, retention, and AI/LLM visibilityWhy events and offline moments are back—and how fun + connection drive community stickinessHow best-in-class brands (like Clay) build communities that become self-sustaining growth enginesIf you’re a B2B marketing leader looking to strengthen your go-to-market strategy, earn buyer trust faster, and build a scalable engine that performs in an AI-first world, this conversation will give you a clear framework and practical starting point. Listen now and keep activating growth for yourself and your company. Lead Like a CMO - Group Coaching Lab: Join the Waitlist Let’s Keep the Conversation Going! Loved this episode? Connect with me for more insights on B2B marketing leadership and strategies to grow your business. 🌐 Visit my website: growthactivated.com 🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn: Mandy Walker 🔗 Get Your Free Marketing Planning Guide Today! Don’t forget to subscribe to Growth Activated and share this episode with fellow marketing leaders. Let’s activate growth—together!

    46 min

  5. JAN 21

    Employee Advocacy That Drives 45% of Revenue: How to Build an Employee-Led Content Engine (with Gabe Lullo)

    #37 - Employee advocacy programs are hard. They’re hard to launch - because you’re asking busy people to show up publicly, consistently, and with confidence. And even if you get it going? They’re even harder to keep going without losing momentum, burning people out, or turning into a short-lived push that fades after a few weeks. In this episode of Growth Activated, I’m joined by Gabe Lullo, CEO of Alleyoop, to break down one of the most impressive employee-led marketing programs I’ve seen in B2B. Over the last 4 years, Gabe and his team have scaled their employee follower base from 20,000 to 1.2 million, built a consistent LinkedIn content engine across the company, and turned employee advocacy into a core growth strategy—driving 45% of revenue alongside outbound demand generation. If you’re a CMO or B2B marketing leader looking to strengthen your marketing strategy, build a scalable content creation engine, and create demand in a market where attention is harder than ever to earn, this conversation is packed with actionable takeaways. What we cover: Why most employee advocacy programs fail (and how to keep yours alive)How to build a sustainable employee-led content engine without forcing participationThe “small influencer bench” approach: why 10–20 consistent employees beats 200 inconsistent onesHow to batch monthly content and repurpose one recording into weeks of LinkedIn postsHow Alleyoop time-blocks daily LinkedIn engagement to create consistency without losing productivityHow to connect employee-led content + outbound into one unified demand generation system🎧 Listen now to learn how to create an employee advocacy program that actually drives pipeline, builds brand trust, and becomes a repeatable growth lever for your B2B marketing team. Lead Like a CMO - Group Coaching Lab: Join the Waitlist Let’s Keep the Conversation Going! Loved this episode? Connect with me for more insights on B2B marketing leadership and strategies to grow your business. 🌐 Visit my website: growthactivated.com 🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn: Mandy Walker 🔗 Get Your Free Marketing Planning Guide Today! Don’t forget to subscribe to Growth Activated and share this episode with fellow marketing leaders. Let’s activate growth—together!

    34 min

  6. JAN 13

    The CMO’s Role in an AI-Driven Market: Customers, Competition, and Change with Carol Meyers

    #36 - AI is transforming B2B marketing - but for today’s CMOs, the real challenge isn’t just adopting new tools. It’s leading marketing strategy, marketing planning, and go-to-market decisions in a rapidly changing market. In this episode of Growth Activated, Mandy Walker sits down with Carol Meyers—former Chief Marketing Officer and VP of Sales, now venture advisor and operating partner—to unpack what marketing leadership looks like in an AI-driven world. Drawing on decades of experience building and scaling venture-backed B2B companies, Carol shares how CMOs can elevate their role from tactical execution to strategic business leadership. This conversation is designed for B2B marketing leaders who want to move beyond AI experimentation and step fully into CMO-level ownership—shaping customer strategy, influencing executive decisions, and guiding their organizations through meaningful change. In this episode, you’ll learn: How AI is reshaping the B2B buyer journey and what that means for modern marketing strategyWhy marketing leadership must shift from internal efficiency to external market impactHow CMOs can assess customer behavior, competition, and industry shifts through an AI lensWhat strategic questions should inform marketing planning and go-to-market strategyHow marketing leaders can help their organizations navigate AI-driven change without losing focus, trust, or momentumIf you’re a CMO, VP of Marketing, or senior B2B marketing leader responsible for marketing strategy, planning, and executive alignment, this episode will help you clarify what you own, how you lead, and how marketing drives long-term business growth in an AI-driven market. Lead Like a CMO - Group Coaching Lab: Join the Waitlist Let’s Keep the Conversation Going! Loved this episode? Connect with me for more insights on B2B marketing leadership and strategies to grow your business. 🌐 Visit my website: growthactivated.com 🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn: Mandy Walker 🔗 Get Your Free Marketing Planning Guide Today! Don’t forget to subscribe to Growth Activated and share this episode with fellow marketing leaders. Let’s activate growth—together!

    34 min

  7. 12/09/2025

    How B2B Marketing Leaders Decide What to Keep In-House, What to Outsource, and When to Go Fractional

    #35 - Struggling to decide whether to hire a marketing agency, add in-house headcount, or bring in fractional support? You’re not alone — and the answer is changing fast in 2025. In this special episode, Mandy switches seats and joins Kayla Bryant, General Manager at Two Trees PPC and host of The Marketing Chatroom, for a candid and practical conversation about how to resource your marketing team in an AI-driven world. You’ll hear Mandy’s perspective from 15+ years leading marketing inside large service orgs, startups, and agencies — plus her experience today as a fractional CMO supporting multiple companies. In this episode, you’ll learn: How to evaluate whether an agency or in-house hire is the better move — and the signals leaders often miss.The real differences between agencies, contractors, and fractional roles — including the hidden trade-offs that impact speed and outcomes.How to avoid mismatched expectations with agencies — especially for small marketing teams with limited budgets.The impact of AI on marketing resourcing — and why marketers and agencies need to evolve their value fast.Whether you lead a small marketing team, run an agency, or oversee GTM strategy, this episode will help you make smarter, more modern resourcing decisions in a landscape that’s shifting by the month. Lead Like a CMO - Group Coaching Lab: Join the Waitlist Let’s Keep the Conversation Going! Loved this episode? Connect with me for more insights on B2B marketing leadership and strategies to grow your business. 🌐 Visit my website: growthactivated.com 🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn: Mandy Walker 🔗 Get Your Free Marketing Planning Guide Today! Don’t forget to subscribe to Growth Activated and share this episode with fellow marketing leaders. Let’s activate growth—together!

    29 min

  8. 12/02/2025

    Go-to-Market Science: How Sarah Renner Turns B2B Marketing into an Experimentation Engine

    #34 - What if your marketing org operated like a science lab—with clear hypotheses, clean data, and experiments that actually change how you invest your budget? In this episode of Growth Activated, I’m joined by Sarah Renner, VP of Marketing Strategy & Analytics at MarketBridge and one of the sharpest go-to-market “truth seekers” in B2B. Sarah has spent 20+ years at the intersection of strategy, analytics, and experimentation, helping companies move from opinion-driven decisions to evidence-based growth models that scale. Sarah breaks down what she calls Go-To-Market Science—a data-backed, hypothesis-driven, reproducible approach to marketing—and shows how any B2B team can start building an experimentation factory (even if your data is messy or your volumes are small). In this episode, you’ll learn: The 3 pillars of Go-To-Market Science—data-backed, hypothesis-driven, and reproducible—and why most B2B reporting never gets past the first one.How to turn your team into an experimentation engine: picking the right tests, avoiding inconclusive results, and focusing on experiments that can actually move the business.What to do if you “don’t have good data” yet—and how to start stitching together channel, CRM, and web data while you use qualitative buyer research in parallel.How to partner with analytics, RevOps, finance, or external data science teams to design tests, size budgets, and avoid the “we tested it but learned nothing” trap.Why the winners in 2026 B2B marketing will have sharper audience definitions, human-first messaging, and data-driven media buys that outperform platform algorithms.Practical ideas for experimenting with channels (like paid media, events, and podcasts) without blowing your budget—or starving sales.If you’ve ever felt like your tests are random, your reports are too surface-level, or your budget decisions still rely on gut feel, this conversation will completely reframe how you think about measurement, experimentation, and GTM planning as a marketing leader. Lead Like a CMO - Group Coaching Lab: Join the Waitlist Let’s Keep the Conversation Going! Loved this episode? Connect with me for more insights on B2B marketing leadership and strategies to grow your business. 🌐 Visit my website: growthactivated.com 🔗 Connect with me on LinkedIn: Mandy Walker 🔗 Get Your Free Marketing Planning Guide Today! Don’t forget to subscribe to Growth Activated and share this episode with fellow marketing leaders. Let’s activate growth—together!

    51 min
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5
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

Growth Activated is a podcast for B2B marketing leaders who want to elevate their marketing strategies, lead confidently, and drive real business results. Each episode offers actionable insights and proven frameworks to help you activate growth for your team, your company, and your career.

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