Growth Activated | The B2B Marketing Leadership Podcast

#25 - If your team keeps waiting on you to move forward, the problem might not be them. Being the bottleneck is one of the most common — and most costly — leadership patterns for marketing leaders managing fast-moving teams. In this episode, Mandy Hornaday shares a leadership framework she returns to again and again: the four things every marketing team needs their leader to provide, and five prac...

#24 - Welcome to a special summer mini-series on Growth Activated , where we’re keeping things short, actionable, and full of value for marketing leaders looking to elevate their impact. In this kickoff episode, Mandy Walker shares one of the most memorable leadership lessons she’s ever received - something that changed the way she thinks about empathy, accountability, and what it really means to...

#23 - What does it take to build a content strategy that actually drives brand, trust, and pipeline in today’s B2B landscape? In this episode of Growth Activated , I’m joined by Erik Jacobson—founder of Hatch.fm , host of the 95% Content podcast, and content partner to B2B leaders like Chris Walker and Dave Gerhardt. We break down what Content Strategy 2.0 really looks like—and how top B2B brands...

#22: The rules of SEO are changing—and if you’re a B2B marketing leader still focused only on Google, it’s time to expand your playbook. In this episode of Growth Activated , I’m joined by Mark Goloboy, a fractional CMO and AI marketing strategist helping teams adapt to the new world of LLM Optimization—where tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity now shape how your brand shows up in search. W...

#21: What does the 2025 marketing job market really look like—and how do you stay in demand as AI transforms the way B2B teams hire, operate, and grow? In this solo episode of Growth Activated , host Mandy Walker breaks down two must-read reports—the Taligence Q1 2025 Jobs Report and the Exit Five Salary Report—to uncover what’s happening beneath the surface of the B2B marketing world. We’ll cover...

#20: Ever wonder how your B2B marketing team stacks up against others?  Not just in headcount or budget—but in actual maturity, strategy, and execution? In this episode of Growth Activated , we’re diving into the Sales and Marketing Maturity Matrix—a powerful assessment designed to help marketing leaders benchmark their teams across 9 essential pillars of go-to-market success. Whether you're...

#19: In a time when brand silence speaks volumes, how should B2B marketers show up? In this powerful episode of Growth Activated , host Mandy Walker sits down with Katie Martell—LinkedIn Top Voice, keynote speaker, and unapologetic marketing truth-teller—for a timely conversation on brand authenticity, performative allyship, and what it really means to lead with integrity as a B2B marketing leader...

#18: In today's B2B world, the traditional divide between sales and marketing is holding companies back—and "growth at all costs" tactics are losing their edge. In this episode of Growth Activated, I’m joined by Kelli Schutrop, a sales and marketing leader who’s built her own playbook for modern B2B growth—rooted in strategic alignment, thought leadership, and expert visibility. We’...

#17 - If your demand gen is underperforming, the problem might not be your campaigns — it might be what was never built before them. Product marketing is one of the most critical and most misunderstood functions in B2B marketing. It's the foundation behind your messaging, your ICP clarity, your sales enablement, and your go-to-market strategy. And most marketing teams bring it in too late — i...

#16: AI is moving faster than most marketing teams can keep up—and the gap between early adopters and laggards is only getting wider. In this episode of Growth Activated, I sit down with AI strategist Nicole Leffer to break down what B2B marketing leaders must know right now to stay competitive, scale smarter, and lead with confidence in the AI era. We’ll cover: How the best B2B marketing teams ar...

#15: Fractional leadership is rapidly reshaping the B2B marketing landscape, offering ambitious marketing leaders a powerful path to scale their impact, revenue, and influence—without burning out. But what separates a thriving Fractional CMO from those who struggle to gain traction? In this episode of Growth Activated , I’m revealing game-changing insights and hard-earned lessons from successful F...

#14 - CMOs have the shortest tenure of any C-suite role. Mandy Hornaday believes she knows exactly why — and what to do about it. This is a special rerun of Mandy’s appearance on the Tech Success Stories podcast, where she shared the journey that shaped her entire approach to B2B marketing leadership: scaling a professional services company from $50M to $750M, burning out, joining a $1M ARR startu...

#13: As marketing leaders, one of our biggest challenges is understanding how all marketing functions—content strategy, SEO, paid media, events and more—contribute to the bigger picture of B2B marketing success. Too often, we evaluate these functions in isolation, missing their interconnected impact on growth and marketing ROI. Today, we’re diving into content strategy with Zoe Hawkins, Director o...

#12 - If your CFO is asking you to justify marketing spend and you don’t know where to start, this episode is for you. The CMO–CFO relationship is one of the most undervalued partnerships in the C-suite — and one of the most powerful when it works. CMOs who understand how their CFO thinks about enterprise value, predictable returns, and bottoms-up planning don’t just get more budget. They lead lik...

#11: What does a CTO really care about—and how can B2B marketing leaders build the kind of executive alignment that earns a lasting seat at the table? In this episode of Growth Activated , we continue our C-Suite Series with Milenko Beslic—a multi-time CTO, founder, and startup builder with 20+ years of experience leading product and engineering teams across high-growth companies. I’ve had the opp...

#10 - Your CRO doesn’t think about MQLs the way you do. Here’s what they’re actually measuring — and what it means for how marketing needs to show up. Sales and marketing alignment breaks down in the same place almost every time: the MQL definition. In this episode, Mandy sits down with Sloane Barbour — a career sales leader who went from VP of Sales to CRO to CEO and co-founder of Engine, an AI-d...

#9 - If your CEO is asking for marketing ROI and you’re not sure how to answer, this episode will change how you think about measurement entirely. Most marketing leaders are being held to a single attribution model and a handful of demand gen metrics — and missing the bigger picture entirely. Jeff Ignacio, a 10-year revenue operations leader with a background in FP&A at Intel and Google, bring...

#8 - What does your CEO actually think when marketing brings in twice the leads but conversions don’t move? What does ‘grow at all costs’ really cost? And when is the business actually ready to scale GTM? In this episode, Mandy Hornaday sits down with Mark Feldman — CEO and founder of RevenueBase, former VP of Marketing, and one of the most analytically rigorous operators in B2B — for a candid con...

#7 - You’re leading a world-class marketing function, delivering real results — and somehow you’re still not in the room where strategy gets made. If you’ve ever been left out of revenue planning, watched your marketing strategy stop short of the boardroom, or wondered how to shift from being seen as a tactical executor to a true business leader — this episode is the one to bookmark. Mandy Hornada...

#6 - What does it actually take to build a marketing agency from scratch — no business plan, no budget, no agency experience — and turn it into an 18-year industry institution? In this episode, Mandy Hornaday sits down with Leslie Vickrey, founder and CEO of ClearEdge, to unpack the decisions, pivots, and leadership lessons behind one of the most respected marketing agencies in the B2B talent and...

#5 - Most CMOs take the job before they’ve asked the hard questions. Scott Todaro has spent 30 years asking them — and it’s led to five successful exits, four acquisitions, and one IPO. In this episode, Mandy Hornaday sits down with Scott Todaro — author of The Next CMO and one of the most respected voices in marketing leadership — to unpack the frameworks, mindsets, and hard-won lessons behind hi...

#4 - If you’ve ever stayed in a role too long, taken an opportunity that felt off, or struggled to articulate what you actually want next — this episode is for you. Mandy Hornaday shares the four-part career framework she developed through her own career transitions: a layoff, a sabbatical, a pivot into fractional CMO work, and a return to B2B marketing leadership. It’s the framework she wishes sh...

#3 - Only 8% of companies have achieved strong sales and marketing alignment. That means 92% of go-to-market teams are leaving pipeline, revenue, and efficiency on the table — every single day. In this episode, Mandy Hornaday breaks down the five pillars she uses to build real sales and marketing alignment from the ground up: a practical, sequenced framework for creating a unified growth team that...

#2 - Most marketing plans don’t fail because of bad ideas. They fail because they’re disconnected from the business goals that actually matter — or they get abandoned by February. In this episode, Mandy Hornaday walks through the six-step strategic marketing plan framework she uses with every client: a proven process for building a plan that earns executive buy-in, aligns tightly with business goa...

#1 - 80% of CEOs don’t trust or are unimpressed with their CMO. The CMO role has the shortest tenure in the C-suite. And marketing leaders are burning out at record rates. This is the CMO crisis — and it’s what Growth Activated exists to solve. In this inaugural episode, Mandy Hornaday breaks down why marketing leadership is broken, how we got here, and the four leadership characteristics she beli...