How I Made it in Marketing

Daniel Burstein

Marketers are the artisans of commerce. Our palette is ideas. We ply our craft to facilitate choice. To empower every person creating value in the world – sharing their inventions, their service, their good works. And ultimately, to keep a society built on choice functioning.But also...This is one of the most fun, wildly creative, never-grow-up, 99% boring meetings followed by 1% of sheer creative brilliance, funny-yet-frustrating-yet-fruitful career choices you can make.Let’s explore the dichotomy.In this podcast, Daniel Burstein of MarketingSherpa dives deep into marketers’ and entrepreneurs’ careers to inspire your next great campaign, give you strategies for winning approval on your ideas, and help you navigate the trickiest decisions in your career. The curious, comprehensive style of these interviews allows marketing and business leaders to do what they do best – express themselves to communicate a key lesson.Listen in as we probe marketing leaders about how they crafted campaigns, built their careers, and what they learned along the way. We’ll get deep, we’ll wring insights form our guests to help you, and we’ll have fun doing it.This podcast is not about marketing – it is about the marketer. It draws its inspiration from the Flint McGlaughlin quote, “The key to transformative marketing is a transformed marketer” from the Become a Marketer-Philosopher online course (https://meclabs.com/course/).

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Top 10 How I Made it in Marketing Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best How I Made it in Marketing episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to How I Made it in Marketing for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite How I Made it in Marketing episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Journalistic Content Marketing: Storytelling has magic and beauty (podcast episode #87)

How I Made it in Marketing

02/15/24 • 69 min

Think about the last time you read a piece of content that truly resonated with you. It could have been a news article, a blog post, or even a social media update. Now, consider what made that content impactful. Was it the way it was written, the story it told, or how it connected with your experiences? This brings me to a crucial aspect of marketing – the art of storytelling and the responsibility that comes with it.

In my career, I've seen how powerful content can shape perceptions and influence decisions. It's not just about putting words on a page and filling your site with content to hopefully appease Google’s relentless algorithm; it's about crafting narratives that engage, inform, inspire...and truly serve an audience.

And who better to learn this from than someone who has practiced the art of storytelling in both journalism and marketing?

So I sat down with Nohar Zmora, SVP of Brand and Strategic Marketing, Kaltura (https://kaltura.com/).

Kaltura is a public company with 750 employees that trades on NASDAQ and had $168.8 million in revenue in 2022.

Zmora manages a team of 25 in the company’s 40-person marketing department, and works “super, super closely” with her “better half,” Roi Kaufman, VP Growth, Kaltura.

Stories (with lessons) about what she made in marketing

Here are some lessons from Zmora that emerged in our discussion.

Don’t just make ‘content,’ take a journalistic perspective and produce impactful material
Balance long-term brand vision with short-term performance
Learn how a team ‘breathes,’ evolves, and adapts
Storytelling has magic and beauty
Actively listen while collaborating with the business and Sales to create effective marketing strategies
Have continuous and profound dialogues with stakeholders to achieve success

Related content discussed in this episode

MECLABS AI (https://meclabsai.com/) now has expert assistants – copywriter, project planner, marketing professor, and social media pro. It’s totally FREE to use, you don’t even have to register (for now).

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This podcast is not about marketing – it is about the marketer. It draws its inspiration from the Flint McGlaughlin quote, “The key to transformative marketing is a transformed marketer” from the Become a Marketer-Philosopher: Create and optimize high-converting webpages (https://meclabs.com/course/) free digital marketing course.

Apply to be a guest
If you would like to apply to be a guest on How I Made It In Marketing, here is the podcast guest application – https://www.marketingsherpa.com/page/podcast-guest-application

Financial Services Marketing: Don’t fall for Wile E. Coyote marketing (episode #57)

How I Made it in Marketing

05/01/23 • 48 min

The How I Made It In Marketing podcast is underwritten by MECLABS Institute, the parent organization of MarketingSherpa. To learn how MECLABS Services can help you get better business results from deeper customer understanding, visit MECLABS.com/results.

Hold a newspaper or magazine or other reading material right up to your face. I mean touching your nose close. Way too close.

What do you read? Nothing. It’s all a blur, right?

Now hold it at a comfortable distance. Everything comes into focus.

This is the perfect analogy for a challenge many marketers face. When it comes to an audience at arm’s length – namely, our current and potential customers – we are practiced at using our communication skills to help them understand the perceived value of our products and overcome any possible anxiety.

But the group of people we are closest to – the ones working inside the very same walls as us, so to speak – our colleagues. We can overlook the necessity of understanding their possible anxieties, the non-monetary costs they face, and help them understand the process-level value proposition for actions they need to take.

We can be so focused on doing the thing, we overlook communicating why others should join us in getting it done.

Or as our next guest puts it, “change agents need broad support.”

I talked to Christina Martin, Executive Director of Marketing for Chase Auto, JP Morgan Chase and Company (https://www.jpmorganchase.com/), on the latest episode of the How I Made It In Marketing podcast to hear the story behind that lesson, along with many more lesson-filled stories.

Martin manages a team of six engaged in B2C marketing for Chase Auto.

JP Morgan Chase has $3.7 trillion in assets and $292 billion in stockholders’ equity as of December 31, 2022. One out of every two households in America have a relationship with JP Morgan Chase.

Stories (with lessons) about what she made in marketing

Some lessons from Martin that emerged in our discussion:

Don’t fall for Wile E. Coyote marketing.
Change agents need broad support.
Great brands consistently tell their story.
Stay close to the well head.
Observation is a powerful research technique.
A problem isn’t a problem if it can be solved with money.

Related content mentioned in this episode

Content and Communications: Tenacity, keep it simple, authenticity works (podcast episode #33) (https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/content)

MarketingSherpa (https://www.marketingsherpa.com/)

How I Made It In Marketing podcast (https://www.marketingsherpa.com/podcast)

Product Management & Marketing: Surround yourself with the right people (podcast episode #38) (https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/product)

The Psychology of Blue Jeans: What marketers can learn from 150 years of Levi Strauss customer letters (podcast episode #4) (https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/customer-psychology)

Marketing Leadership: Get insights from some of our best conversations with marketing VPs and CMOs (podcast episode #62)

How I Made it in Marketing

06/12/23 • 35 min

How I Made It In Marketing is underwritten by MECLABS, the parent org of MarketingSherpa. Learn how MECLABS Services can help you get better business results from deeper customer understanding at MECLABS.com/results

In this week's episode of How I Made It In Marketing, we’re going to listen to some of the top insights I’ve heard on the podcast.

And let me tell you why. In marketing, we can be so focused on action. We’ve got campaigns that need to go out, products we need to launch, numbers we need to meet.

But to create marketing that is truly powerful, and to chart our overall career journey, sometimes we need to step back from that action for a little reflection.

Summer is the perfect time to reflect. If you’re headed to the beach or the mountains or the city this summer, you’ll probably find yourself in a train, plane, or automobile for an extended amount of time.

It’s a great opportunity to pop in some of your favorite podcasts and fill your brain with ideas, before spending some quality time staring at the lake for a few days and reflecting on your work life, among other things.

Our normal episodes are about an hour long. CMOs and other marketing leaders share the lessons they’ve learned in their careers, and the stories behind how they learned those lessons. A lot of lessons sound good in theory, but how did you put it into practice?

We’ve recorded about 60 hours of those lesson-filled stories so far. Here are a few of the takeaways that most hit home with me.

Stories (with lessons) about what they made in marketing

All great creative begins with a strong consumer insight. via Aron North, CMO & Commercial Owner, Mint Mobile, from Not Enough Lobster In The Ocean: Trusting their gut leads to 90,000% revenue growth at Mint Mobile (Podcast Episode #11)(https://marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/revenue-growth-podcast)

Tenaciously focus on a few things until you solve them. via Dhiraj Kumar, CMO, Dashlane, from SaaS Marketing: Serendipity’s role in Facebook Ads surprising pivot, focusing (and failing) at PayPal, selling like an engineer, & more (podcast episode #23)(https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/saas)

Look in people’s closets.via Lindsey Lindemulder, Brand Marketing Director, Merrell, from Brand Marketing: Look in people’s closets (Podcast Episode #18)(https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/brand-marketing)

Don’t just focus on your direct competitors. via Derek Detenber, Chief Marketing & Merchandising Officer, Batteries Plus, from World-Class Consumer & Retail Brands: What right do we have as a brand to be in that business? (Podcast Episode #15)(https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/consumer-retail-brands)

It’s not about you, and when you make it about you, you are never going to succeed. via Onaisa Landis, VP of Marketing, Octane, from Marketing: It’s not about you, and when you make it about you, you are never going to succeed (podcast episode #53)(https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/marketing-not-about-you)

B2B Marketing Leadership: The higher you get in the organization, the more details you need to know (episode #115)

How I Made it in Marketing

10/17/24 • 61 min

Think branding and demand generation are separate functions? Jim Kruger, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Informatica [https://www.informatica.com/], discusses why they shouldn’t be on this episode of How I Made It In Marketing.

Informatica is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange. It reported total annual recurring revenue of $1.63 billion for 2023. And Kruger manages a team of 140 people.

Stories (with lessons) about what he made in marketing

Understand your customers' needs and build personalized strategies
Combine your branding and demand generation
Eliminate silos and cultivate trusting relationships
People want to feel part of a team and without empathy, that is very difficult to do
Branding is much more than a campaign and it must be connected to your strategy and messaging hierarchy
Test messaging and usability
The higher you get in the organization, the more details you need to know

Discussed in this episode

Customer-first Objective (CFO) Builder: In this episode, Kruger discusses customer strategy. If you need help, try the CFO Builder app in MeclabsAI [https://meclabsai.com/share/8ZiYRidqZbqPvEg]. It’s free to try, you don’t even have to register to get started (from MarketingSherpa’s parent organization, MeclabsAI).

Empathy Marketing: 3 examples of empathetic marketing in action (with results) [https://marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/empathy-marketing]

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Subscribe to the MarketingSherpa email newsletter [https://www.marketingsherpa.com/newsletters] to get more insights from your fellow marketers. Sign up for free if you’d like to get more episodes like this one.

For more insights, check out...

This podcast is not about marketing – it is about the marketer. It draws its inspiration from the Flint McGlaughlin quote, “The key to transformative marketing is a transformed marketer” from the Become a Marketer-Philosopher: Create and optimize high-converting webpages [https://meclabs.com/course/] free digital marketing course.

Leadership Development: Network every day (episode #72)

How I Made it in Marketing

10/02/23 • 69 min

Get the power of 10,000 marketing experiments. Play with MECLABS AI at MECLABS.com/AI (MECLABS is the parent organization of MarketingSherpa).

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

That quote is from George Bernard Shaw, and hopefully is inspiration for anyone trying to make positive change in their organization.

I thought of that quote while reading a lesson in the podcast guest application for this episode’s guest – ‘change starts here.’

Different words, same sentiment. The status quo is tenacious. If you want change to happen, you need to be unreasonable. It needs to start with you.

To discuss the story behind that lesson, along with many more lesson-filled stories, I talked to Dan Garzia, Chief Marketing Officer, Provenance Blockchain Foundation (https://provenance.io/).

Provenance Blockchain Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports a public, open-source blockchain, used by 70 financial institutions, including fintechs, banks, and credit unions. More than $15 billion in financial asset transactions have been supported by Provenance Blockchain.

In his career, Garzia has managed teams as large as 80, up to 12 partners, and budgets as large as $110 million.

Stories (with lessons) about what he made in marketing

Some lessons from Garzia that emerged in our discussion:

Progress beats perfection
Make up for areas where you're not as strong
Celebrate the win
Network every day
Change starts here
Words matter

Related content discussed in this episode

Marketing Chart: How important customer-first marketing is to consumers (https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/chart/customer-first-marketing-importance)

The Low-Hanging Fruit: 11 specific examples of small marketing and communication changes that drove big results (https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/chart/customer-first-marketing-importance)

Optimization and A/B Testing: Why words matter (for more than just SEO) (https://marketingexperiments.com/conversion-marketing/optimization-and-testing-why-words-matter)

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SaaS Marketing and Demand Generation: Harness technology to enhance customer experience (episode #70)

How I Made it in Marketing

09/12/23 • 52 min

Get the power of 10,000 marketing experiments. Play with MECLABS AI at MECLABS.com/AI (MECLABS is the parent organization of MarketingSherpa).

I wish I could just tell people what they should do. Whether it was people on my team who reported to me, potential customers, or even my own kids.

But that approach has a major flaw – they will resist. Heck, I would resist, too. It reminds me of a lyric from Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, “The wisdom that the old can’t give away.”

So what can you do? I love how this episode’s guest put it in his podcast guest application, “It's not just about having the right answer, but about leading people along the journey to understand why that answer is the right one.”

Joining us in our latest episode to share the story behind that lesson, along with many more lesson-filled stories, is Michael Freeman, VP of Marketing, Airbase (https://www.airbase.com/).

Airbase recently raised $60 million in mid-2021 in a Series B round of financing led by Menlo Ventures.

Freeman leads a team of 28 marketers, sales development reps, and revenue operations professionals.

Stories (with lessons) about what he made in marketing

Some lessons from Freeman that emerged in our discussion:

Continuous improvement/ABT (always be testing) over one-off campaigns
Harness technology to enhance customer experience
Never forget that we are all people
The "how" of execution is just as important as the "what"
It's not just about having the right answer, but about leading people along the journey to understand why that answer is the right one.
If something is worth doing, do it well.

Related content discussed in this episode

How I Made It In Marketing podcast (https://marketingsherpa.com/podcast)

MarTech Chart: Biggest technology innovation challenges (https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/chart/biggest-technology-innovation-challenges)

Corporate Marketing: Feedback is respect (podcast episode #44) (https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/corporate-marketing)

About this podcast

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Global Technology Leadership: Adapt your marketing to reflect cultural nuances (podcast episode #113)

How I Made it in Marketing

10/01/24 • 47 min

"One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight, for a very long time, of the shore."

That quote is from Nobel Prize winning novelist André Gide. And I think there is a great lesson for marketers here.

For 25 years, MarketingSherpa has published case study articles. And sometimes when I talk to marketers, they are so myopically focused on just the case studies from their industry.

We’re an ideas profession. And sometimes to get the best ideas you have to step away from the familiar...including your industry.

Which is why I was intrigued by a story in a recent podcast guest application, about a tech industry leader who learned the transformative power of digital marketing by pivoting away from the tech world for a bit to run a charity.

To hear that story, along with many more lesson-filled stories, I sat down with Tim Peters, the CMO of Enghouse Systems [https://www.enghouse.com/].

Enghouse Systems is a public company, founded in 1984, that trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange. It reported $454 million in revenue for fiscal year 2023. Peters manages a team of 52 marketing professionals at Enghouse.

Stories (with lessons) about what he made in marketing

Leverage digital platforms to build strong communities and amplify your message
Adapt your marketing to reflect cultural nuances for global success
Foster trust and cooperation through transparent communication in M&A
Embrace strategic thinking and creativity to drive measurable marketing outcomes
Invest in people to foster talent growth and a collaborative team environment
Align marketing strategies with financial accountability for strategic success

Discussed in this episode

Resume and Cover Letter Writer – Some marketing professionals listen to How I Made It In Marketing to get ideas for managing their career. If you’re ready to take the next step in your career, here’s a shared chat I made in MeclabsAI that can help – the resume and cover letter writer [https://meclabsai.com/share/NUB98Ta7PdfdhA8] (MeclabsAI is the parent company of MarketingSherpa).
Customer-First Marketing: Every click is a wish (podcast episode #85) [https://marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/customer-first]

CMO-CPO Collaboration: Bridge Marketing and Product for collaborative growth (podcast episode #95) [https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/CMO]

Marketing: It’s not about you, and when you make it about you, you are never going to succeed (podcast episode #53) [https://marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/marketing-not-about-you]

Marketing: High growth can be excruciating (podcast episode #64) [https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/marketing-growth]

Marketing, Communications, and Pricing Leadership: Business must have a relentless focus on ROI, which includes marketing (podcast episode #35) [https://marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/marketing-communications]

Marketing Experimentation Strategy: Define and differentiate between experimentation and execution in marketing activities (episode #93)

How I Made it in Marketing

04/03/24 • 58 min

Coders are rewarded for writing new features, not for making their code as efficient as possible, Chirstopher Mims recently reported in The Wall Street Journal. According to the article, bloated software raises many risks, and costs the US alone $2.41 trillion due to cybersecurity issues, operational failures, and other problems.

It would be easy for me to sit here and point the finger at software developers, but are marketers any better? As we focus on getting campaigns out the door, new websites up, and hitting our numbers, what do we sacrifice?

Which is why I love this lesson from a recent podcast guest application – ‘Streamline processes to enable efficiency, smooth operations and get rapid results.’ Not shiny and exciting like new marketing tactics perhaps, but essential for a well-run organization.

So I invited that applicant – Tom Amitay, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer, Entail (https://entail.ai/) – on How I Made It In Marketing to share the story behind that lesson, along with many more lesson-filled stories.

Stories (with lessons) about what he made in marketing

Here are some lessons from Amitay that emerged in our discussion.

Define and differentiate between experimentation and execution in marketing activities
Prioritize talent over experience when recruiting
Provide talented yet inexperienced people with frequent, short training sessions and support as they tackle new challenges
Capitalize on opportunities when they present themselves, even if you don't fully understand their potential value at first
Streamline processes to enable efficiency, smooth operations and get rapid results
Combine platform expertise with consultative service that builds client trust

Discussed in this episode

Get even more ideas from this episode by using the Transcript Tutor expert assistant in MECLABS AI (https://meclabsai.com/). It’s totally FREE to use (for now). MECLABS is the parent organization of MarketingSherpa.
Leadership Development: Network every day (podcast episode #72) (https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/leadership-development)

The Invisible $1.52 Trillion Problem: Clunky Old Software Everwhere (https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/the-invisible-1-52-trillion-problem-clunky-old-software-f5cbba27)

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This article is distributed through the MarketingSherpa email newsletter (https://www.marketingsherpa.com/newsletters). Sign up for free if you’d like to get more episodes like this one.

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World-Class Consumer & Retail Brands: What right do we have as a brand to be in that business? (Episode #15)

How I Made it in Marketing

05/02/22 • 49 min

“Replace the claim with the reason” – that lesson comes courtesy of Website Wireframes: See real webpages optimized for marketing conversion (https://meclabs.com/course/lessons/website-wireframes-application-session/).

It’s far easier to make empty claims than provide true reasons for customers to buy. Especially if you’re a copywriter, designer, or junior-level brand marketer who doesn’t know a compelling reason the customer should buy.

But customers are far more likely to act if you provide them compelling reasons instead of empty claims.

So, our latest podcast discussion did my heart some good, as Derek Detenber, Chief Marketing & Merchandising Officer, Batteries Plus (https://www.batteriesplus.com/), discussed specific stories of how he helped shape brand positioning and define the purpose of a business – leadership that can help the marketing team and supporting agencies clearly communicate a reason for customers to buy.

You can listen using the embedded player below or click through to your preferred audio streaming service.

First, a little background... Batteries Plus is a consumer electronic retailer with more than 700 locations.

Stories (with lessons) about what he made in marketing

Some lessons from Detenber that emerged in our discussion:

A quality product isn’t enough, you need to craft experiences.
Understand the economics of the business.
Don’t just focus on your direct competitors.
Sweat the details.
Be strategically consistent and tactically agile
Understand the purpose of the business.
Leadership requires talent and passion.

Related content mentioned in this episode

Marketing Budget Charts: B2B customer experience investments (plus 4 budgeting tips) (https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/chart/marketing-budget-charts-b2b-customer-experience-investments)

Market Competition 101: The 3 types of competitors to keep an eye on (https://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/marketing/competition-types-to-watch/)

My Five Greatest Mistakes as A Leader: 30 years of painful data (that might help you) (https://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/leadership/5-leadership-mistakes/)
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About this podcast

This podcast is not about marketing – it is about the marketer. It draws its inspiration from the Flint McGlaughlin quote, “The key to transformative marketing is a transformed marketer” from the Become a Marketer-Philosopher: Create and optimize high-converting webpages free digital marketing course (https://meclabs.com/course/).

Strategic Advertising and Marketing: It’s not what you make, it’s what you make possible (episode #117)

How I Made it in Marketing

11/12/24 • 48 min

I would never read so much text. This is long and boring to me.

Versions of this have been said to me throughout my career from designers. And not to pick on designers, but I really don’t care. Because they weren’t the ideal customer for the product. So of course they weren’t interested in the copy.

Like my old boss Mike Morgan used to tell me – you never read the refrigerator ad on page 3 of the newspaper...until your fridge breaks.

So when I came across this lesson in a podcast guest application, it grabbed my attention – ‘You don’t have to like it. You aren’t the target.’

To hear the story behind that lesson, and many more lesson-filled stories, I invited on Renee Miller, Founder and Executive Creative Director, The Miller Group [https://www.millergroup.com/].

Tune in to the full episode using this embedded player or by clicking through to your preferred audio streaming service using the links below it.

Stories (with lessons) about what she made in marketing

To mine own self be true.
Say YES then figure out how to get it done
Provide an exceptional experience
Be modest
You don’t have to like it. You aren’t the target.
The more you value yourself, the more likely you are to take calculated risks

Discussed in this episode

Get Productive With AI – November 20th at noon EST: Join Flint McGlaughlin, CEO, MeclabsAI, for an accelerated version of the AI Guild MEC050 course. There is no cost. See the 7 principles you can learn in this session and register to join us at MeclabsAI.com/GetProductive (from MarketingSherpa’s parent organization, MeclabsAI).
Customer-First Marketing: A conversation with Wharton, MarketingSherpa, and MECLABS Institute [https://sherpablog.marketingsherpa.com/consumer-marketing/wharton-interview-customer-first-marketing/]

Creative Marketing and Advertising Campaigns: Hold the line & get a door kicker (podcast episode #84) [https://marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/creative-marketing]

Value Proposition Articulation: Examples of helping customers understand and believe your business’ marketing messages [https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/value-proposition]

Strategy: Don’t think of your customers as a ‘target’ to acquire (podcast episode #65) [https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/strategy]

Enterprise Solutions Marketing: You can make a big career, and still stay human (podcast episode #99) [https://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/interview/enterprise]

Special Report: How to Market to the Super Rich -- 4 Challenges and 8 Must-Know Strategies [https://marketingsherpa.com/article/how-to/how-to-market-to-super]

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