Leap Ahead
Julie Zadow
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Welcome to the Leap Ahead podcast with your host Julie Zadow. Julie interviews real marketing leaders, with decades of experience, who share their candid leadership insights—all in 30 minutes or less.
Available episodes
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Aug 19, 2021
Chris Blose — How to Bring Internal Alignment to Your Content Strategy
Blose is a Demand Spring Leap Advisor and has over 20 years of content marketing experience. Chris is a storyteller at heart and spent a decade-plus honing his skills at leading independent content marketing firms and served as a client-facing VP of Content for the latter two. Chris brings his extensive experience to today’s episode to talk about marketing strategy, B2B storytelling, and the different types of content strategies available to the everyday CMO today.
Key Takeaways:
[2:15] Why is Chris so passionate about content marketing?
[6:40] Is there a formula to storytelling in B2B marketing?
[8:55] What are your objectives when you’re trying to tell a B2B story?
[10:40] Chris shares some of the most important aspects of a content marketing strategy.
[12:55] Chris talks about the difference between content pillars, content types, and content topics, and how to tie this all together through metrics.
[18:10] Respond to the data. What worked last month might not be relevant this month.
[18:55] How do you bridge the gap between buyer persona and content marketing success?
[22:45] How do marketers go beyond writing content for content’s sake?
[26:00] What do we really need to do to get better content marketing results?
[29:15] It’s critical for a CMO to see the entire ecosystem and not be siloed in the metrics, the numbers, and the data.
[32:05] Podcasts are not a good lead generation tool. It’s the perfect platform for building an audience, though.
[34:25] Where does Chris plan to travel to after COVID-19?
Mentioned in This Episode:
_Demandspring.com_
_Chris on Demand Spring_
_Chris on LinkedIn_
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Aug 5, 2021
Tessa May Marr — How to generate a positive ROI with Social Media
Tessa May Marr is the CEO of Marr Media, a social media marketing agency that works with both B2B and B2C brands to build custom social strategies and offers a fully outsourced social media management plan. Tessa shares her expertise in social media marketing and offers tips on what CMOs need to be thinking about when it comes to social media in this episode.
Key Takeaways:
[2:05] How has the pandemic affected social media marketing?
[4:30] The pandemic was a good opportunity to really nurture the relationships of your customers. Don’t let yourself be forgotten.
[7:30] It’s always better to experiment with a smaller budget, test things out, and then go big when the concept has been proved.
[10:35] Influencer marketing is on a big incline, but it’s not readily tracked.
[11:45] What are some of the best ways to build trust on social media?
[15:40] How has the social media marketing landscape changed over the last five years?
[18:35] If you have the right tracking in place, you can really see the financial impacts of your company’s tweets and how they are driving marketing growth.
[20:35] How can brands get a positive ROI on their social media?
[21:50] Radio and billboard ads are still untrackable to this day.
[22:30] It’s important to have realistic expectations during the first few months.
[24:50] Tessa shares a little bit about her entrepreneurial journey.
[27:50] Tessa’s number one priority has always been her team.
[30:35] What’s the next destination Tessa plans to travel to when we’re out of lockdown?
Mentioned in This Episode:
_Demandspring.com_
_Tessa on Demand Spring_
_Tessa on LinkedIn_
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Jul 20, 2021
Patricia Waldron — Being Late to Market Just Isn’t an Option in Today’s Environment
Patricia Waldron’s 20-plus-year track record is filled with stories of companies who have, with her help, differentiated themselves through innovative strategies, solutions, and marketing initiatives. The fact is, technology never sleeps, competition is endless, and only companies that are willing to stay ahead of trends will rise to the top. In this week’s episode, Patricia paints a rich picture of what the retail marketing landscape looks like today, and how CMOs can get smarter with the unknowns that they’re faced with.
Key Takeaways:
[1:50] How did Patricia get into marketing?
[5:35] How has retail marketing changed over the last few years?
[8:00] How do you create an authentic brand that actually stands for something today?
[10:25] Marketing teams are burned out. How can CMO’s reengage their team without overburdening them?
[11:35] As a leader, a bit of humanity and compassion goes a long way with your team.
[13:35] There are so many different places where you can get information. Take advantage of the “reverse mentorship” opportunities in your corner.
[15:15] Patricia shares the types of challenges she’s overcome through her career.
[16:55] Done is better than perfect.
[18:00] What makes a good CMO and leader in today’s climate?
[19:55] Be fearlessly curious, ask good questions, and then be a problem solver.
[22:00] Every CMO today needs to have a growth mindset.
[22:40] Patricia shares where she plans to travel next when the world opens up.
Mentioned in This Episode:
_Demandspring.com_
_Patricia on Demand Spring_
_Visionfirst.biz_
_Patricia on LinkedIn_
_ Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used,_ _ by Peter Block_
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Jun 30, 2021
Carla Johnson — How to Develop Creative Thinkers
Carla Johnson is a world-renowned Storyteller, Creative Explorer, and the author of Re:Think Innovation. Over the last two decades, Carla has helped architects, actuaries, executives, volunteers, innovators, and visionaries leverage the art of storytelling to inspire action. Carla is passionate about helping organizations create a culture of innovative and original thinkers. As we get older, we have a harder time connecting with our creative side, but this side is a critical part of what creates disruption in industries. Find out more about Carla and how CMOs can get the best out of their team in this week’s episode!
Key Takeaways:
[1:50] Does Carla consider herself a marketer or an innovator?
[6:35] What can CMOs do to cultivate an innovation mindset for themselves?
[7:25] We have to look beyond just innovating the technology and also cultivate our people.
[8:20] We might promote someone into a new role, but we do not take into consideration how people show up in the world.
[9:15] Want to drive innovation? Focus on the people.
[13:35] A lot of people, which is a good thing, believe their product is different, but this blind faith is almost used as a crutch and it leaves companies open to being disrupted by others.
[17:35] What inspired Carla to write her book, Re:Think Innovation?
[19:00] Have you ever felt that you have a really creative team on staff, but you just can’t figure out who they are?
[20:35] Carla wanted to help people take inspiration from the world around them and connect the dots with what they do.
[23:00] Not a lot of executives want to “herd cats” and that’s what it can often sound like if they have a large team of creative thinkers on staff.
[25:45] Sometimes CMOs miss the importance of content. That’s an area of expertise you must be well-versed on.
[29:15] Carla is excited to head to Montana in a few weeks for a much-needed break!
Mentioned in This Episode:
_Demandspring.com_
_Carla on Demand Spring_
_Carlajohnson.co_
_Carla on LinkedIn_
Carla’s book: _Re:Think Innovation_
_Content Inc.,_ _by Joe Pulizzi_
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Jun 9, 2021
Joe Cordo — Are You Focused on the Customer?
Joe Cordo is a Marketing Executive that specializes in SaaS technology. He is an expert in scaling brand, demand, and the management of innovative market-leading products. With so many changes that have happened in the SaaS industry, CMOs are faced with new challenges every day to make their products relevant, useful, and engaging to their ideal buyer. Joe shares some of the important factors CMOs need to consider when they are getting ready to scale their product offering, and how to do it without sacrificing quality, in this week’s podcast.
Key Takeaways:
[1:50] How did Joe get his start in marketing?
[3:10] How has SaaS marketing changed and grown over the last 10 years?
[4:20] SaaS products today are much more sophisticated than there were 10 years ago, which means there are some unique challenges CMOs have to face.
[5:55] What is “brand” and how do you successfully scale it without losing quality?
[9:25] Who should have ownership over messaging?
[12:25] CMOs need to be customer-obsessed, but how well are they doing when it comes to exploiting their competitive advantage?
[14:55] Why are sales and marketing alignment still so hard?
[16:45] As a new CMO on the job, you need to get proactive and connected with your sales teams within the first 90 days.
[19:20] Empowering your people with your vision is absolutely critical as a CMO.
[23:00] Joe shares some of the business leaders he likes and admires.
[25:00] When the world opens up, what’s the first place Joe would like to travel to?
Mentioned in This Episode:
_Demandspring.com_
_Joe on Demand Spring_
_Joe on LinkedIn_
_ Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant__, by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim_
_ Hardball Selling: How to Turn the Pressure on, without Turning Your Customer Off,_ _ by Robert Shook_
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