Growth Activated | The B2B Marketing Leadership Podcast

#50 - AI promised marketing leaders more time. So why do so many of us feel busier — and more stretched — than ever? That’s the honest question at the center of this conversation. Two experienced CMOs sit down, peer to peer, to make sense of what marketing leadership really looks like in the AI era — past the hype, the hot takes, and the tidy frameworks. It’s less playbook, more candid conversatio...

In this conversation, Mandy sits down with Liza Adams — former CMO, Human+AI org advisor, and one of the clearest voices on AI transformation in marketing — to unpack the four mindset shifts every marketing leader needs before AI can actually move the business. They go deep on what real AI transformation looks like inside a marketing org: how to scale beyond Q&A into orchestrated workflows, ho...

#48 - Most ABM programs don't fail because of tactics. They fail before a single campaign runs — because the accounts were wrong, the structure wasn't there, and nobody agreed on what success actually looked like. Brandon Redlinger has spent his career inside account-based marketing — from building ABM strategy at Engagio and Demandbase to running it across a portfolio of companies today...

#47 - Most B2B marketing leaders know YouTube is the second-largest search engine on the planet. Almost none are actually using it well — and that gap is still wide open. Samu Kovacs, founder of KS Media, has built a YouTube-first agency that works with over 40 B2B clients — including Adam Robinson of RB2B — to turn YouTube into one of their top pipeline channels. In this conversation, he breaks d...

#46 - The CMO has the shortest tenure in the C-suite. The most scrutiny. And right now, more opportunity than ever — if you can see it clearly enough to seize it. Matt Heinz has spent 18 years helping B2B companies build more predictable revenue, and he talks to more CMOs on a weekly basis than almost anyone. In this conversation, he lays out exactly how the CMO role is evolving — from chief MQL o...

#45 - LinkedIn would have you believe your competitors are running fully autonomous AI teams. They're not. The real picture of AI adoption in B2B marketing is far more varied — and far more instructive. Most marketing organizations are somewhere in the middle: using AI through a chat interface daily, but nowhere near the agentic workflows the feed suggests are already table stakes. Understand...

#44 - You're feeling the pressure. Every board meeting, every LinkedIn scroll, every all-hands - AI is the expectation. But here's what the data actually shows: as of mid-2025, only 7% of companies had truly operationalized AI. Not just handed out a ChatGPT license. Actually embedded it into how their teams work. So if you've been wondering whether everyone else is further ahead tha...

#43 - What if one person could run your entire go-to-market motion — marketing, sales, and customer success — backed by a system of AI agents? That's exactly what Amos Bar-Joseph is building at Swan AI — and in this episode, he pulls back the curtain on the AI-powered GTM model that generated over $1.5 million in pipeline in a single month. As CEO and sole go-to-market operator, Amos runs eve...

# 42 - Most B2B podcasts plateau or quietly fade out. The difference between shows that stall and shows that build pipeline often comes down to three strategic decisions made before you ever hit record. Tom Hunt, CEO of Fame and one of the most experienced B2B podcast strategists in the space, joins the show to break down what actually separates the top-performing B2B podcasts from everyone else....

#41 - Your team is producing more content than ever, but pipeline isn’t reflecting it. That gap between output and impact usually isn’t a volume problem — it’s a strategy problem. And it’s exactly what this conversation is built to solve. Brendan Hufford, founder of Growth Sprints, helps B2B SaaS companies scale from $10 million to $100 million — largely through content. He’s a former high school...

#40 - The landscape isn't just shifting — it's splitting. Buyers are choosing vendors before they ever talk to sales. AI is rewriting the rules faster than most of us can keep up. And budgets? Still flat. So instead of adding more to the list, I asked myself: if I could only make four strategic bets this year — four investments of my time, energy, and resources — what would they be? In t...

#39 - You've been using AI every day. You know there's a whole other level you haven't tapped into. And that gap between where you are and where the industry is headed? It's widening faster than most marketing leaders want to admit. This solo episode is the honest version of my AI journey — where I was, what I was getting right, what I was missing, and the moment a single conve...

#38 - Community-led growth keeps showing up on every B2B growth roadmap — but most teams either confuse it with audience building or give up before it has a chance to work. If you've wondered whether community is actually a GTM strategy or just a feel-good initiative, this episode answers that. Ridhi Singh, founder of 91 Ninjas and a GTM strategist who has worked with 94 B2B SaaS and AI compa...

#37 - What if 45% of your new revenue came from LinkedIn content — and your team of 200 generated 1.2 million followers without a single automation tool or paid promotion? That's not a hypothetical. That's exactly what Gabe Lullo, CEO of Alleyoop, built. Gabe joins Mandy Hornaday to pull back the curtain on Alleyoop's employee advocacy program — how they went from 20,000 collective...

#36 - Most CMOs are asking how AI can make their teams more efficient. The CMOs who are thriving — and in some cases getting elevated to Chief Business Officer or CRO — are asking a much bigger question: how is AI changing our customers, our markets, and our competitive landscape? Carol Meyers joins Mandy Hornaday for a conversation that reframes how marketing leaders should be thinking about AI....

#35 - Agency, in-house, fractional — or some combination of all three? If you've been trying to figure out the right mix for your marketing team, this episode gives you a grounded, real-world framework from someone who has worked in all three models. In this special rerun episode, Mandy Hornaday switches seats — joining Kayla Bryant, General Manager at Two Trees PPC and host of The Marketing...

#34 - Your team is running tests. But are they running the right ones — and do they actually know what they're trying to learn? Most B2B marketing teams test without a clear hypothesis, report on campaigns without asking why results were what they were, and scale pilots that were never designed to produce conclusive reads. Sarah Renner, VP of Marketing Strategy and Analytics at MarketBridge,...

#33 - A full brand relaunch and website rebuild in six weeks — with a small team, no agency, and AI doing roughly 60% of the heavy lifting. Dana Gagnon didn't just pull it off. She built a repeatable workflow that other marketing leaders can actually use. Dana Gagnon is CMO at Every, a fintech payroll platform, and a former Pluralsight marketing leader who helped scale the company from 50 emp...

#32 - It’s been a full season - from wedding planning and family celebrations to prepping new episodes for the podcast. In this short update, Mandy shares what’s been happening behind the scenes, why the feed’s been quieter, and what listeners can look forward to when Growth Activated returns in mid-November. Thanks for hanging out with us today! Come build with us: The CMO Operating System is a s...

#31 – Your pipeline is down. Your team is hitting MQL targets. Your attribution tool isn't giving you answers. And marketing and sales are pointing fingers at each other. The problem isn't your team — it's that you're measuring the wrong thing. Carolyn Dilks is a 4x marketing leader turned Co-Founder and CEO of Passetto, a company built to expose what she calls the pipeline bla...

#30 - In this episode of Growth Activated, Mandy Walker sits down with Bryna Dilman—a seasoned Growth & Demand Gen leader—for our very first live coaching session on the show. We tackle four questions many B2B marketing leader are wrestling with right now - and break down practical, real-world strategies you can take straight back to your team. Inside, we cover: Evolving roles in the AI era -...

#29 - AI is reshaping B2B marketing - but what does that actually look like inside a CMO’s org, plan, and P&L? Four-time CMO Ruth Zive (Voices; ex-Ada, LivePerson) joins host Mandy Walker to share practical plays marketing leaders can use right now across customer experience, brand, content, and go-to-market - without losing the human edge. You’ll learn: AI in CX & Brand: Why voice is the...

#28 - Few conversations are more high-stakes for a B2B marketing leader than proving ROI to the C-Suite. Nail it, and you win trust, credibility, and budget. Miss the mark, and you risk being seen as a cost center instead of a growth driver. In this episode of Growth Activated , host Mandy Walker shares seven mistakes marketing leaders make when proving marketing ROI to executives — and exactly ho...

#27 – The first 90 days in a new marketing leadership role can make or break your long-term success. You’re learning a new company, navigating personalities and politics, absorbing new systems—and all eyes are on you to make an impact fast. In this solo episode of Growth Activated , Mandy Walker is sharing the 3 priorities she focuses on in every new CMO role—priorities that help her align with th...

#26 -  In this episode of Growth Activated , Mandy Walker sits down with Morgan J. Ingram — LinkedIn strategist, content creator, and founder of AMP Creative — to talk all things LinkedIn marketing, social selling, and building a personal and brand presence that actually drives results. Morgan breaks down the five key components of a high-impact social selling strategy, the role of marketing leade...