APAC's B2B Growth Podcast

The CMO role has never been harder. Trust from leadership sits at around 30%, average tenure has dropped to 16–18 months, and budgets keep getting cut while pressure mounts to "bolt on AI" without any strategy in place. But is this a people problem, or a playbook problem? Andrei Zinkevich, co-founder of Fullfunnel.io, argues it is firmly the latter. In this episode, he and host Shahin Hoda tear ap...

What happens to all those leads marketing works so hard to generate? More often than not, they go cold. According to Nishi Seth, Industry & Solutions Marketing Lead for Google Cloud APAC, this isn't a niche problem. It's one of the most persistent challenges across B2B, regardless of company size or sophistication. In this episode, Shahin sits down with Nishi to unpack the real reasons leads s...

Too many B2B marketing teams are still talking leads when they should be talking revenue. In this episode, Shahin sits down with David Heyworth, GTM advisor and former Head of Marketing at Vocus, to unpack what it really takes to drive commercial outcomes in the second half of 2025. From ditching MQL vanity metrics to building genuine alignment with sales, finance, and product, David brings hard-w...

What does it actually look like to roll out AI at enterprise scale inside one of the world's most recognisable technology companies? Craig Mills, APAC Head of Demand Generation and AI Marketing Transformation Lead at IBM, shares the real story: the internal lockdowns, the false starts, the springtime of ideas that fizzled, and the hard-won clarity that followed. Craig walks through IBM's shift fro...

AI has made marketing easier to produce - but harder to win. That's the sharp framing Cameron Partridge, Chief Growth Officer at Humanforce, brings to this conversation. Drawing on nearly a decade in the US, including a front-row seat to the AI boom at Invisible Technologies, working directly with OpenAI, Meta, Google, and Microsoft on AI training, Cameron delivers one of the most grounded takes o...

See the results: https://xgrowth.com.au/reports/abm-pulse/ ABM is evolving fast in APAC, and xGrowth has the data to prove it. In this episode, Shahin Hoda and Alexander Hipwell unpack the findings from xGrowth's latest ABM Pulse benchmark , based on responses from 93 B2B marketers actively running ABM programs across the region. From a dramatic shift away from one-to-few programs to AI quietly ex...

Running a global marketing function from APAC sounds like a logistical headache. For Jon Stona, VP of Global Marketing at Airwallex, it's a deliberate competitive advantage. In this episode, Jon unpacks how one of the world's fastest-growing fintechs has architected a marketing org that's globally consistent yet locally authentic - spanning Singapore, San Francisco, London, and regional hubs acros...

Events are one of the highest-effort, highest-impact levers in B2B marketing, but most teams run them on autopilot. In this episode, Shahin sits down with Jannat Dawra, Head of Marketing APAC at Dotdigital, to break down her commercial, revenue-first approach to field marketing and events. Jannat runs 80 to 100 events a year and brings a rare blend of creative instinct and commercial rigour to the...

Getting your buyer's attention has never been harder. In this episode, Shahin sits down with Scott Albro , serial entrepreneur and GTM advisor to early-stage AI founders, to unpack what modern go-to-market actually looks like. Scott reframes the most common answer to "what's changed?" by showing how AI isn't just a trend; it's an accelerant for the three forces already making buyer attention scarc...

What does it take to build a brand from nothing in nine weeks, with no assets, no brand book, and a board breathing down your neck? Penny Elmslie did exactly that as the first Marketing Director Xero hired outside of New Zealand, turning a company most Australians confused with a certain photocopier brand into one of the world's most recognised accounting software businesses. Penny shares the stor...

While everyone panics about ChatGPT stealing traffic and AI replacing jobs, the data tells a different story. For every search on ChatGPT, there are 373 searches on Google. AI's disruption is far less dramatic than media hype suggests. Rand Fishkin challenges this prevailing wisdom about AI's impact on B2B marketing. In this conversation, Rand and Shahin explore why consensus views are usually wro...

In this episode, Udi Ledergor, Chief Evangelist at Gong and author of Courageous Marketing , explains why bold creativity is essential for startups competing in crowded B2B markets. Udi shares the principle behind Gong’s rise from zero to hundreds of millions in revenue: “different is better than better.” From fuchsia branding and a bulldog mascot to running Super Bowl ads as a startup, he shows h...

What if a $28 Facebook ad could generate $20 million? Stu Heinecke , the father of contact marketing, reveals how micro-focused campaigns connect you with virtually anyone. Stu shares stories of a sales rep who used a live pigeon to reach a famous CEO, a startup that landed Walmart with one targeted ad, and how Kris Kristofferson landed a helicopter on Johnny Cash's lawn to deliver a demo tape. Gu...

Caleb Ralston challenges one of the most sacred rules in personal branding: niching down. While it's technically the fastest path to growth, it's also a fast track to burnout and quitting altogether. In this conversation with Shahin Hoda, Caleb shares hard-won insights from working with some of the biggest names in business (Gary Vaynerchuk, Alex and Leila Hormozi) and reveals the sustainable appr...

What if your CEO asked you to double revenue without adding budget or headcount? Robert Chatwani , President and General Manager of Growth at DocuSign, believes not only is it possible - there's never been a better time to make it happen. In this conversation, Robert unpacks the frameworks and organisational changes required to achieve exponential growth with existing resources. From building agil...

In this episode, Jon Lombardo , Co-Founder of Evidenza, unpacks the counterintuitive truth about B2B buying behaviour. Drawing on research from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, Jon reveals why most B2B marketers fundamentally misunderstand their audience. The 95-5 rule shows that 95% of potential buyers aren't in the market right now, which means the traditional focus on short-term lead generation is...

Leandro Perez joins to cut through the AI hype and share what's actually working. With Agentforce handling 850,000 conversations and managing 85% of customer inquiries, Leandro reveals the reality behind the marketing claims and addresses the "SaaS is dead" narrative head-on. From managing 30,000 weekly customer inquiries with AI agents to transforming his entire marketing team's workflows, Leandr...

Marketing at the pace of AI innovation isn't easy, but Rubina Carlson, Head of Marketing at 90 Seconds, has found a way to stay ahead without burning out. In this conversation with host Vinnie Romano, Rubina shares her honest journey from feeling late to the AI party to becoming an AI-first marketer who dedicates one hour per week to systematic experimentation. This episode is packed with practica...

Marcus Sheridan reveals why most businesses are failing to win trust in an AI-disrupted world, and exactly what to do about it. The bestselling author of They Ask You Answer and Endless Customers breaks down the four pillars of becoming the best-known and trusted brand in your market: saying what others won't say, showing what others won't show, selling differently, and being more human than your...

In this insightful conversation, Kitty Zhao, Head of Marketing for Adhesive Technologies at Henkel ANZ, shares her proven strategies for putting Australia and New Zealand on the global marketing map.  Working for a global organisation with headquarters far from the region, Kitty reveals how she's successfully gained executive visibility, built internal advocates, and implemented innovative marketi...

Ever wondered if you might already be a product marketer without knowing it? This episode breaks down one of B2B's most misunderstood roles with someone who literally wrote the book on it. Kayla Medica, Australia's leading product marketing advocate and author of The Mehdeeka Method , sits down with host Vinnie Romano to demystify what product marketers actually do and why they're crucial for prov...

In this episode, we dive deep into the complexities of building growth strategies across APAC with Victoria, who leads marketing for Thomson Reuters across an enormous remit spanning from Africa and the Middle East through to Japan and New Zealand. Victoria shares why expanding into APAC is fundamentally different from other regions, dispels common myths about APAC markets, and reveals how sophist...

In this episode, we delve into the world of Account-Based Marketing (ABM) with Stuart Matthewman, who shares the hard-won lessons from IR’s six-year journey with ABM. From early failures and misalignment issues to achieving an incredible 80X return on marketing spend, Stuart reveals the critical importance of sales and marketing alignment. He provides a detailed blueprint for implementing a succes...

In this episode, Vinnie sits down with ABM marketing expert Melinda Stuart to tackle one of B2B marketing's most misunderstood concepts: go-to-market strategy. What starts as a discussion about business language misuse quickly evolves into a deeper conversation about how marketers can remain strategically relevant in an AI-driven world. Melinda breaks down why go-to-market has become a buzzword th...

Join us for an insightful conversation with Jon Stona, who leads marketing at Airwallex, one of the fastest-growing fintechs in the world. Operating across 130+ markets from their Singapore headquarters, Jon shares how they've built a modern marketing organisation that balances global consistency with local authenticity. From the critical importance of product marketing to bold brand moves like th...