Category: Show Notes

CMO tenure is a hot topic. Everyone wants to know the secret to staying power. 

One proven path is stepping out of the narrow marketing lane and showing up as more than the title suggests. Call it CMO+.   

The challenge is figuring out what your “plus” will be and how to put it into practice. 

To help you understand what CMO+ looks like in action, Nikhil Chawla (Resilience), Isabelle Papoulias (EliteOps), and Ali McCarthy (Amplify Your Voice Studio) share their own pluses, how they discovered them, and what changed when they leaned in. Each story is different, but the theme is the same: Credibility grows when CMOs contribute in ways that extend beyond marketing.

In this episode: 

• Nikhil on adding customer voice as his plus, linking post-sale and product, and feeding live feedback into roadmap and revenue calls. 

• Isabelle on bringing operations into marketing, using V2MOM to align goals, resources, and execution across sales, enablement, finance, and ops. 

• Ali on leading with emotional intelligence, coaching leaders to read the room, ease friction, and keep teams focused on the customer journey. 

Plus: 

• How to spot the plus that fits both your strengths and your company’s needs 

• Why credibility comes from saying yes to the right opportunities 

• The link between curiosity, influence, and long-term career resilience 

• How CMOs expand their impact without burning out

If you’re ready to grow your role beyond marketing, this one’s for you! 

Every CMO wants alignment with their CEO. But all too frequently, things go sideways. It turns into chasing growth at any cost, drowning in acronyms, or scrambling to justify marketing’s seat at the revenue table. What if the real secret isn’t louder advocacy, but clearer translation, seeing the world the way your CEO does? 

That’s the perspective Rohini Kasturi brings as CEO of HG Insights. Fresh off two bold acquisitions in just a few months, HG Insights is redefining revenue growth intelligence and giving CMOs a new way to frame growth, retention, and efficiency. Rohini’s advice: Stop playing defense on budget lines and start leading with business outcomes.

In this episode: 

• How CMOs can connect their work to the three CEO obsessions: Growth, retention, and efficiency 

• Why spotting churn signals early matters as much as chasing pipeline 

• What it takes to balance efficiency with agility… without cutting corners

Plus: 

• The role of revenue growth intelligence in shaping GTM strategy 

• How acquiring TrustRadius and MadKudu expands HG Insights’ platform 

• Why every marketing move should tie back to revenue, even on a longer timeline 

• What CMOs gain by learning to speak the language of the boardroom 

If you want to know how CEOs really think and how CMOs can match them step for step, this one’s for you!

BONUS: HG Insights is THE Official GTM Partner of CMO Huddles and one of the Founding Sponsors of the 2025’s CMO Super Huddle in Palo Alto. Rohini will join for a panel on The Future of GTM. With sharp strategic insight and deep empathy for the CMO’s ever-evolving role, Rohini offers a rare CEO perspective on what it takes to drive smarter, more connected growth in 2025 and beyond. 

Putting the customer at the center has been preached for years, yet too often, B2B marketers are told to chase net new logos and leave expansion for someone else. That approach leaves growth on the table. Delighted customers are your advocates, your storytellers, your engine for long-term success.

Every company says it listens to customers. In this conversation, Drew and guests Allyson Havener (HG Insights), JD Dillon (Tigo Energy), and Alan Gonsenhauser (Demand Revenue) show how listening turns into concrete action, how feedback becomes a system, and how customer voices drive lasting growth.

In this episode: 

• Allyson on how reviews, surveys, and customer spotlights at TrustRadius feed marketing and influence buying decisions early 

• JD on how Tigo’s Green Glove Program creates loyalty through installer support and a seal of quality 

• Alan on why retention is a financial driver CMOs must track as closely as revenue 

Plus: 

• Why framing churn as retention keeps teams motivated 

• How to bring the customer voice into leadership discussions 

• The metrics that capture customer impact, from adoption to earned growth 

• How to operationalize cross-functional alignment around the customer

Catch this episode to hear how customer voices shape strategy, culture, and growth. 

Adopting AI isn’t about tools. It’s about trust, training, and transformation. And yes, about CMO’s getting their hands on the keyboard. 

In this Huddles Quick Take, GenAI consultants Tahnee Perry and Liza Adams break down the most common mistakes CMOs make when rolling out GenAI—from skipping change management to misunderstanding what “hands-on” really means for leaders. 

They also share practical use cases (like reducing a six-week video workflow to two) and explain why a great AI strategy is rooted in empathy, context, and curiosity—not just efficiency. 

What You’ll Learn: 

• Why productivity gains mean nothing without training and team buy-in 

• The difference between thought partnership and bad prompting 

• What to measure when making the case for GenAI investment

Join us 

Get more insights like these by joining our free Starter program at cmohuddles.com.

Watch the rest: Bonus Huddle: The AI-Powered Marketing Team  

Most marketers still treat all customers like they’re created equal. Spoiler: they’re not. Some will buy once and vanish, others will stick with you for years and fuel your growth. The challenge and opportunity is learning to tell the difference, predicting their future value, and acting accordingly.

That’s where Wharton professor and The Customer Centricity Playbook co-author Peter Fader comes in. He shows why real growth starts with admitting that not every customer is equally valuable, then using lifetime value as the north star for smarter acquisition, retention, and development moves. Forget chasing volume or squeezing acquisition costs. Peter makes the case for putting your chips on the customers who matter most and letting their behaviors guide your strategy.

In this episode: 

• Why chasing “average” customer value hides real growth 

• How lifetime value sharpens acquisition, retention, and upsell 

• The blind spots of treating CPA as a north star 

Plus: 

• What B2B and B2C leaders can borrow from each other’s strengths 

• How sticky offerings reveal your best customers 

• Why performance metrics must connect to customer value 

• How customer-based valuation is “reshaping how finance values companies 

If you want to see how lifetime value separates your best customers from the rest and why that changes everything, this one’s for you. 

Every product launch is a countdown to liftoff. High stakes. High visibility. High chance of failure if systems aren’t in sync. Misaligned messaging, unready sellers, vaporware promises. There are endless ways to completely blow it.

In this episode, Melanie Marcus (Surescripts), Kevin Brooks (Surescripts), and John Hale (Consilio) join Drew to dig into what it takes to pull off a successful launch. They explain why alignment cannot be assumed, how preparation has to be disciplined and ongoing, and why CMOs need to surface tough truths before the market does. Marketing may set the pace, but lasting success only happens when the entire company rallies behind the story and delivers it together.

In this episode: 

• Melanie shares how to stretch a brand into new markets without losing credibility 

• Kevin explains the launch-tiering framework that keeps efforts focused and sales-ready 

• John reveals why the secret weapon is “ours, not mine” and how humble listening drives alignment 

Plus: 

• How to avoid the vaporware trap that kills trust fast 

• Why one sharp value prop beats a laundry list of features 

• What leading indicators to track before revenue shows up 

• Where the real magic happens once a launch hits the market floor

If you want to hear how CMOs line up a launch and deliver when it matters most, this one’s for you.