How much are you investing in customer experience initiatives next year? Where does your current CxP program fall short?

As the rapid shift to customer-centricity continues, aligning with the customer journey trumps business as usual. What can you do to make every stage of the customer journey meaningful and memorable? How will you balance offline and online customer messages and interactions?

Trigger events such as the U.S. election season give many of us permission to express our anger. Sometimes, that anger spills over into the workplace and permanently damages our work culture.

As a leader, how do we respond to these bursts of anger? Do we ignore these behaviors, and hope they’re just temporary? Is political upheaval truly the cause of this wave of anger, or an excuse?

The answer isn’t obvious. However, if we choose to ignore these behaviors, it’s just a matter of time until it decimates an otherwise productive and healthy workplace….

Have you ever worked on a triage team? I have. Today’s seismic mobile strategy shifts remind me of the lessons I learned under pressure.

Here’s the story…

It takes a leap of faith to unplug and stop moving from crisis to crisis. Yet the rewards are many, especially when you bring that mindset to work. Yes, work.
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Many senior marketing leaders and CEOs whom I’ve met think of their lives as an “either/or” proposition. They are either relaxed and unplugged OR overworked and hyper-connected.…

It’s finally summer here in the Washington, DC region. Now is the time to schedule “innovation vacations” to unplug, reflect, and savor the great outdoors.

Instead of asking you “what’s on your reading list?,” I’m curious to know “What’s on your watch list?”

You will find some cool videos below that we just released. Check out the three complimentary marketing innovation videos below from our annual CMOs Leading Innovation Conference. …

We just hosted the Atlanta CMO Innovation Breakfast.

The purpose of the interactive session was threefold: to outline the fundamentals of marketing innovation, assess the participants’ readiness to foster an innovative culture, and deliver fresh insights to kick-start innovation in their organizations. For four consecutive years, our CMO community has asked “How will we make the shift from order taker to innovator?” We helped participants take away specific action steps to address this persistent issue….

Marketing leaders often ask me “how do you stay centered and focused? What can I do to create more “white space” on my calendar? My schedule is very hectic, and I seldom make time to reflect.” Mindful marketing techniques have really helped me in this area.

I recently sat down with “Shareology” author and Purematter CEO, Bryan Kramer to further explore this topic. We had both discovered that we are mindfulness practitioners.

Check out this 19 minute podcast to hear:

The importance of daily white space
The 3 main sources of my creativity
How removing yourself from your normal routine and surroundings leads to a more creative life
Bryan’s favorite sources of creativity
How over-reliance on technology leads to missed cues and muted intuition
Why pets are one of my favorite mindfulness reminders
The number one question every marketing leader needs to ask to increase their efficacy

Four quotable moments from this discussion include (and feel free to tweet):

“That is what wealth is about… creating discretionary time to do the things you love with the people you enjoy.” —@lisa_nirell #mindfulmarketer

 “You’ve only got now so live and love fully.” —@lisa_nirell #mindfulmarketer

 “When I rely only on technology and data, I seem to always get myself in trouble or miss some important cues.” —#mindfulmarketer @lisa_nirell

 “Create and design the life you really want….

In our 3rd annual CMO Innovation Trends study, participants told us their two biggest challenges are 1) a lack of talent to address business imperatives and 2) effectively building a strong brand across online and offline touch points. What’s a CMO to do when resources are this scarce, yet growth is an imperative? Many turn to partnering.

Today, partnering is often the first strategy CMOs evaluate to help their organization reach new audiences, test new products, accelerate domain knowledge or IP, expand geographically, access capital sources, and close revenue shortfalls….

If you are a CMO or VP of Marketing in the Atlanta area, please join our Atlanta CMO breakfast at The Commerce Club of Atlanta on Wednesday, May 11 from 8:00-9:45 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….