Many promising marketing innovations never see the light of day because we do not fully understand the importance and timing of the idea incubation process. Naming your idea, then allowing ample time for testing and idea sharing, are essential steps in any innovation cycle.

Marketing innovation is about applying creativity to improve your stakeholders’ condition. It requires us to challenge our established beliefs and assumptions. It often also demands that we learn from our past as a way to inform our future.  We often need to set aside the past, and begin with a clean slate. This process helps us design an empowering narrative to guide us forward. It bolsters our resilience.

That’s the underlying theme of our 6th annual CMOs Leading Innovation Conference (CLIC ’22): “Growth Curves Ahead: The Resilient CMO.”
We’re gathering in historic Charleston, South Carolina at the International African American Museum….

I’m thrilled to announce that we are headed to Charleston SC for our 6th annual CMOs Leading Innovation Conference–CLIC ’22— November 3-4, 2022. We are gathering in a historic city that embodies rebirth, recognition, and reinvention.

If you are a marketing leader or CEO, we would love for you to join us.

CLIC ’22 offers an intimate forum to help you:

  • Reinvigorate your personal and organization growth strategy
  • Leverage resources to accelerate company growth
  • Build personal and team resilience

Collaborate with bright minds from diverse backgrounds

Did you encounter a silver lining from the past pandemic era?

I certainly did. I witnessed an extraordinary number of people who paused, and confronted their existential crisis head-on.

In The Earned Life, Marshall Goldsmith and co-author Mark Reiter meticulously capture the existential moments that we endured. In Section One, Marshall describes how CEO clients become goal-obsessed. It leaves them feeling empty and deflated. He has witnessed these behaviors at the highest levels;…

Hiring an executive coach is a personal choice. Use time to build the right set of screening questions during your vetting process.

  1. Does this coach have a track record of ensuring that my actions, ambitions and aspirations are aligned with my company’s key goals, vision, and values?
  2. Can she point to measurable results from her coaching engagements (versus smile sheets)?
  3. Can I rely on her to help me dramatically grow my external and internal networks, or is she isolated from business communities?

Relationships trump hands-on skills as I climb the career ladder. Will she show me a way to reach beyond the “do good work” model, and help me build a dedicated team of stakeholders?

Jason just saw five years of hard work go down the tubes.

As a CMO of a public company, he has invested five years of emotional capital and energy into team development and recognition.

Yet his team wasn’t immune to the spoils of The Great Resignation.

He just reported 47% turnover within the marketing team. Other departments weren’t proud of their turnover rates, either.

That’s turmoil in a nutshell.

How can we tame turmoil when world events swirl around us?…

We’re living in a time of marketing liminality.  Some leaders feel as if they have one hand clinging to their Zoom rooms and one hand clinging to a dusty office HQ desk.

This messy middle moment is fueled by ever-changing customer expectations, dynamic workplace configurations, and  high team turnover. (I started to see these challenges emerge in 2018 and published 3 posts about them here.)

There is a silver lining to this liminal marketing moment….

DEI is a topic whose time has come, yet it’s rife with complexity for marketers, communicators, and leadership teams. During our quarterly Marketing Growth Leaders™ gathering, we discussed the common obstacles CMOs need to avoid with DEI efforts.

The role of marketing leaders in shaping and implementing DEI strategy requires us to be transparent, vulnerable, and open to solutions.

We welcomed special guest Rohit Bhargava, the CEO of The Non-Obvious Company and co-author of Beyond Diversity….

Whether you work for a museum or MarTech company, one thing remains constant: too many marketers still believe that a poor digital or physical experience won’t hurt their brand. 

Just think about how many retailers you recently visited, and how deeply disappointed you felt by the experience. If you’re like me, you probably walked out empty-handed, grabbed your phone, and chose to order online. The online experience was less painful and annoying.

Don’t let this happen to your brand….

Looking back at 2021, career shifting became the norm. Marketing leadership roles are abundant right now.

I’m not surprised–PwC’s 2021 Future of Work survey revealed that 65% of employees are looking for a new job. Also, in 2021, over half of my clients were either promoted or changed jobs.

Landing that new role or promotion can be very energizing. You typically have just 90 days to make your mark as an innovator, not just a doer….