The Marketing Marriage

"An Oscar-winning producer" is quite the click bait descriptor of this episode's guest, but we would be remiss to leave it at that. Michael Sugar, an American film and television producer and principal at Sugar23, is first and foremost a good human being with a powerful message to all of us often running the rat race of life and career growth. Find and embrace what makes us happy now! After winnin...

It was theater and Broadway where she initially hoped to pave her professional path. Instead, she fell in love with the process of writing and her very first novel became an instant success. Liesl Shurtliff is the New York Times bestselling author of 'Rump: The (Fairly) True Tale of Rumpelstiltskin' and other books in the (Fairly) True Tales series and the Time Castaways trilogy. Her books have be...

If you think geeking out on a seemingly mundane pantry item like ketchup isn't possible, join us for an intriguing conversation with former Kraft Heinz Chief Growth Officer Sanjiv Gajiwala. He is a consumer-first brand builder and storyteller with a track record of strategic repositioning to drive growth - having worked on iconic brands like Heinz, Oscar Mayer and Pabst Blue Ribbon as well as cate...

In this captivating podcast episode, we sit down with Daniel Bulteel, the marketing executive who has conquered the worlds of agency, brand, platform, and start-up. With his extensive background at renowned companies like WPP, adidas, TikTok, ByteDance, and now Build A Rocket Boy, Dan brings a wealth of expertise in social media, creator, and community marketing. Join us as Dan shares his insights...

A self-proclaimed amateur gardener and often dubbed CMO whisperer Lindsey Slaby is the founder of Sunday Dinner, a brand strategy consultancy that helps marketers re-imagine their marketing organization, agency models, and overall comms strategy. Recognized by Ad Age as 40 under 40, executives at Fortune 100 companies seek her out to stay closely connected to new ways of innovative collaboration a...

From his first job at a flower stand when he was 13 to leadership roles within the discipline of innovation, Barry McGeough has been on an incredible career journey at Fortune 500 companies in the footwear, apparel, and tech sectors. He loves to think on his feet and connect ideas to practical solutions. Growing up in a humble environment equipped him with resilience and skills to solve for the un...

A passionate and driven human who is excelling both in her career and in her personal life - Singleton Beato has graced us with her presence for this episode. At work, she's relentlessly driving all dimensions of diversity in her role as a global EVP, Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at McCann Worldgroup. At home, she is a rare aspiration for us in her three decades of happily married...

Davide Grasso makes top level leadership seem effortless. His mindset is to work with people on something great every day and to end each day in a better shape than it started. It's no surprise he's been on a remarkable international career journey at some of the world's most recognized and loved brands. Starting out as a product line manager for Nike, and progressing to the CMO role at the Swoosh...

Growing up with a famous radio dad, Scott Fitzgerald has spent a big chunk of his life wearing headphones and gracing the world of the broadcast radio with his memorable voice. He hosted shows in markets like Charlotte, Raleigh, Cincinnati,  Dayton, Louisville and Birmingham  before switching to podcast production a few years ago. Moving from his producer seat for this episode, Scott joins us as a...

Born and raised in New York to Brazilian parents, Andre Borges lived the American dream as a D1 soccer player for Clemson University and as a professional post-college. Soccer took him to many interesting places in Europe and ultimately back to his family origins - Brasil. While he considers himself very fortunate for that destiny, he lightheartedly adds it may have been the worst pro-athlete care...

His childhood dream was to be part of the sports world. Thus, it comes as no surprise that he had spent the majority of his career at one of the sports industry's giants - adidas. Michael Kraphol is a German native with emotional ties to Spain's Barcelona. Humble and passionate about people, Micha calls himself a regular guy in the marketing world. He believes in the old-fashioned Shakespearean st...

We're bringing you the other half of the sibling duo behind the NYC digital creative agency The Charles Group - Aaron Edwards. While his sister Sam (Ep 28) is known as a "right brain" person, Aaron complements the relationship with his self-proclaimed "left brain" approach. Originally hailing from Manchester, England - Aaron spent his early career working as a financial analyst at Barclays Capital...

Continuing our mini-series with recruitment and job search experts, we are joined for an episode with the head of talent acquisition and employer branding at one of Europe's largest digital banks, N26, Chris Hunter. Chris traded his initial career ambition of becoming an international human rights advocate for building relationships and understanding people. Whether it's helping individuals achiev...

If you ever contemplated working at the tech giant Amazon, you would have heard of their rigorous "loop" recruitment process. Even if you haven't, this episode is a worthwhile listen for any jobseeker today. An executive coach and talent acquisition director, Eric Hudson joined us for an insightful chat about his journey, in which he has coached, managed and placed thousands of individuals for six...

Known for his "thinking human" approach to leadership and to building brands, Doug Zarkin is a modern marketing leader who has earned placement on several "Top Marketers" lists, multiple North American Effie Awards, a Clio award, and was twice recognized as Innovative Marketer of The Year by The CMO Club. His professional portfolio includes leadership positions at global brands such as Avon, Victo...

Matchmaking runs in her veins. Thus, it comes as no surprise that she's been successfully climbing the professional ladder in the business of connections. Melissa Hobley - a ball of endless energy, a mom of two and the global CMO of the biggest dating app in the world Tinder - loves being the wing(wo)man. While switching between Cocomelon (baby parents will understand), Tik Tok and the Wall Street...

Sport and entertainment are a few of the most powerful tools left in the marketing arsenal that have the ability to make people stop what they're doing and care about your brand. Needless to say, they're also some of the coolest areas in which marketers dream to work. According to Ricardo Fort, they represent a bridge and a shorcut to brand relevance in people's lives. Ricardo has been fortunate t...

Robin Daniels oozes optimism and positive energy, despite struggles and valleys on his personal and professional journey. Growing up poor collecting deposit bottles and working three jobs while studying at the age of 15, he still managed to be a happy and an optimistic kid. It is that energy and mindset that ultimately brought him to the Silicon Valley with a one-way ticket, two suitcase and no wo...

Warning: there's a lot of laughter in this episode and we love it! Joining us for an unplugged conversation, Samantha Edwards - the Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder at The Charles Group, a digital focused creative agency based in NYC - pulls the curtain on her journey often guided by intuition. When Sam converted her brother from the world of finance to the mesmerizing space of creative, they...

This episode is genuine good fun. It's not often that one sees the words "fun" and "data analytics" in the same context. Yet, Tiankai Feng - a data leader by day, and a passionate musician by night - manages to demystify the world of data while making this space more inclusive and less scary. How? He sings about it. Tiankai strikes a unique combination of his musical talents as a pianist and a sig...

Desire to be in charge of her own destiny while still creating iconic brand marketing with some of the greatest companies in the world led Sanja Komljenovic to start ONA Creative - a boutique, female-driven brand strategy and creative agency based in Los Angeles. Having spent a good chunk of her career leading digital marketing for men's basketball - first at LA Clippers then at Nike - she tried t...

"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." This famous line and the story behind it from Dr. Seuss children's book Lorax became an inspiration for one of the hottest startup brand names in streetwear. Unless Collective is the world's first regenerative fashion platform that makes 100% plant-and-mineral-based clothing and footwear. The mastermind be...

Let's start by stating that our guest was recently inducted into the American Marketing Association Hall of Fame, held multiple C-level roles at head-turning brands like Facebook, HP, Visa and Pepsico, and graced several ranks of the Forbes Most Influential CMOs. We warned him that our podcast wasn't going to make him famous. Then again, he IS already famous. Yet, despite all the accolades and mea...

In case you haven't noticed, the job market is in a turmoil. Significant layoffs are sweeping the country (and continents). What to do in these trying times? How not to despair and instead move forward with confidence? Jeff Altman - no BS professional coach and career advisor - got the mic in this episode to tackle those questions. You'll appreciate Jeff's candor as he unpacks the importance of pr...

Two words that perfectly define her - gratitude and humility. Two characteristic traits that aren't so common these days for someone of her influence and professional achievement. Jenny Rooney - the first Chief Experience Officer of Adweek - has had a front-row seat leading initiatives for marketing decision-makers and spent 25 years covering the industry and its leadership as a business journalis...