The Rockstar CMO F'in' Marketing Podcast

This week, former Forrester Research Director Jeff Clark is in the studio with our host Ian Truscott to return to their One Hit Wonder or Wonderwall treatment, when they decide if something in marketing will fade away or stand the test of time. Getting this scrutiny this week is the role Head of AI role that is being talked about. The idea that we need someone in the leadership teams responsible f...

This week, Ian and Cathy McKnight, Chief Problem Solver at Seventh Bear discuss a recent post from her Bear Essentials series on the Seventh Bear blog - You're Not Scaling Content. You're Scaling Chaos.  They discuss:  Difference between scale and volume in content creation Impact metrics vs. production metrics Organizational governance and foundational systems The risks of scaling content without...

This week, former Forrester Research Director Jeff Clark is in the studio with our host Ian Truscott, to discuss a mid-year review from Matt Heinz called The State of the B2B CMO (almost) Halfway Through 2026.  They share 5 f’in’ things they take from his research are: Financial literacy is a required skill The role of the CMO is changing Where the buyer is versus where we pretend they are The org...

This week, former Forrester Research Director Jeff Clark is back in the studio with our host Ian Truscott, and they discuss the impact of folklore within a business, which can be positive or it can hold your business back.  Their conversation is inspired by some work by Kerry Cunningham at 6Sense: Folklore Debt: The Stories That Build B2B Companies — and the Ones That Hold Them Back | 6sense They...

This week, former Forrester Research Director Jeff Clark is back in the studio with our host Ian Truscott, and they discuss the impact of LLMs on the big analyst firms and the general advisory around B2B buying decisions.  They share 5 f’in’ tips for buyers, analysts, and vendors in this new buying environment LLMs only work on publicly available information Vendors need to broaden the scope of AR...

This week, Ian and Cathy McKnight, Chief Problem Solver at Seventh Bear discuss a recent post from her Bear Essentials series on the Seventh Bear blog - AI Isn't Your Content Problem. Your Content Is Your Content Problem.  They discuss:  The value of Content Operations and AI The challenge of context in unstructured content for the LLMs Governance and ownership with AI Recommendations for effectiv...

This week, former Forrester Research Director Jeff Clark, is back in the studio with our host Ian Truscott to discuss 5 tips for getting your content into the LLMs, pulling at a thread that has come up a couple of times in previous episodes. They discuss: Leading with a clear, structured need definition. Publishing useful things for the audience and the robots Maintain consistent naming and termin...

This week, former Forrester Research Director, Jeff Clark, is back in the studio with our host Ian Truscott to discuss an article from Anthony McPartlin, Principal Analyst at Forrester, Agentic Prospecting: Seven Reasons The Hype Falls Short. Demand generation and prospecting have changed, with sales teams now armed with tools that allow them to run lead generation campaigns across LinkedIn and em...

This week, with his guests away, our host Ian Truscott takes a turn in the studio, going solo, and shares 5 f’in’ things that have caught his eye this week.  Those things were: Email has become earned, not owned - inspired by an issue of Ann Handley’s newsletter - Email Is Dead, Long Live Email Building a campfire - inspired by Joe Pulizzi’s newsletter - Stop Trying to Build a Community AI disrupt...

This week, former Forrester Research Director, Jeff Clark, is back in the studio with our host Ian Truscott to discuss a predictions post from Jon Miller on the ChiefMartec blog, from back in January.  Jon Miller is described as a legend in our industry, the co-founder and original CMO of Marketo, and the former CMO of DemandBase; his opinion is well worth watching.  The extensive article that ins...

This week, Ian and Cathy McKnight discuss a recent piece of research from Cathy on her Bear Essentials series on the Seventh Bear blog - Bear Essentials: You Can’t Personalize What You Don't Understand  They discuss:  Audience segmentation beyond job titles Building and operationalizing personas The role of AI and content in marketing Customer journey mapping and needs analysis Ian then joins Robe...

This week, former Forrester Research Director, Jeff Clark, is back in the studio for a discussion with our host Ian Truscott, to discuss how marketing can help sales defeat the biggest competitor in many B2B deals - do nothing.  They discuss:  Quantify the cost of inaction Understand persona needs Lower risk of change Bring proof Build internal consensus Ian then joins Robert Rose in the virtual b...

This week, former Forrester Research Director, Jeff Clark, is back in the studio for a discussion with our host Ian Truscott about buyer education, inspired by an article by Kerry Cunningham, of 6Sense: “Buyers are not blank slates”, and give it the 5 f’in’ things treatment.  They discuss:  Some categories still need basic education Keep the education grounded Present your unique POV on how to sol...

This week, Ian and Cathy McKnight discuss a recent piece of research from Cathy on her Bear Essentials series on the Seventh Bear blog - The Funnel Isn’t Dead, Your Version of It Is.  They discuss:  The funnel is not dead, but it needs a refresh  The impact on marketing when this foundational work is broken. What a modern funnel looks like (and it’s not about attribution) Mapping to the customer j...

A slightly different episode this week, as our host Ian Truscott has two guests in the studio sharing their marketing street knowledge. Catherine Nichols and Jeremy Laight, two successful fractional CMOs who founded The Slice in July 2025, a community for fractional marketers that has expanded rapidly to over a thousand members from across the globe.  They discuss: The Slice community and what ins...

This week, Jeff Clark, former Forrester Research Director, has been reading  Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It by Cory Doctorow, and rather than host a pity party, he dug into some research and shares 5 f’in’ tips for marketers dealing with enshitification with our host Ian Truscott. The five tips: Have a clear strategy Provide expertise and education Nurt...

This week, Cathy McKnight, Chief Problem Solver at Seventh Bear, is back to share her latest Bear Essentials research. This week, she and our host Ian Truscott dig into her post, "Your KPIs Are Measuring Activity, Not Impact." Highlights from their chat: The “Data Barf Binder”-  where marketing teams measure activity, not impact. Investing in employee communications leads to better outcomes. Aware...

This week, Simon Daniels, now Principal Consultant, B2B Customer Growth at Accenture Song, is in the studio to share 5 f’in’ tips for getting your Revenue Operations rocking, which include: Making the business case Aligning with business goals, outcomes, and stakeholders Customer focus Building on 4 key foundations Proving value and scaling what works Ian then joins Robert Rose in the virtual bar,...

This week, former Forrester Research Director, and now champion of clean technology, Jeff Clark, and our host Ian Truscott discuss a fun research paper from one of Ian’s favourite podcasts, Uncensored CMO and agency network Worldwide Partner titled “Confessions of a CMO”.  As is the editorial policy of the show, they pick 5 f’in’ things that jumped out of this work: The CMO needs to be the voice o...

This week, our host Ian Truscott chats with B2B marketing leader Lisa Bonnano, and then he and Robert tackle the topic of vibe coding killing SaaS software over a cocktail.   Lisa Bonanno is a revenue and customer-focused marketing executive with 20+ years of experience optimizing and scaling global pipeline engines from inquiry to advocacy for B2B SaaS businesses. Ian dives into Lisa’s marketing...

This week, Cathy McKnight is back in the studio to discuss changes content marketers need to make in 2026, and as Robert Rose couldn’t make it to our virtual bar this week, our host Ian Truscott shares his 3 D’s of product content marketing.    Ian and Cathy discuss: Marketing teams are often organized around outdated models The pandemic accelerated the need for digital transformation Organization...

This week, our host Ian Truscott welcomes back former Forerster Research Director Jeff Clark after his holiday. Jeff turns the tables on Ian and quizzes him on the 5 F’in’ fails for the Story, one of our 5 F’in’ Marketing Fundamentals.   They discuss: Sales stops trusting marketing when the story is fractured. A distinctive story helps avoid the B2B beige trap. Buyers make decisions based on emoti...

This week, our host Ian Truscott welcomes back Dennis Shiao to celebrate 10 years of the Bay Area Content Meetup, before he slips off to our virtual pub for a mix of marketing and mixology with the Chief Trouble Maker at Seventh Bear, Robert Rose.  In the studio, Dennis shares his experience of growing a content marketing community from a few like-minded bloggers at a local restaurant to an intern...

This week, we go back to the old weekly format, with Ian Truscott hosting a guest in the studio before we slip off to our virtual pub for a mix of marketing and mixology with the Chief Trouble Maker at Seventh Bear, Robert Rose.  In the studio this week, Cathy McKnight makes her monthly visit to chat about all things content, asking the question: Do CMOs still care about a CMS when defining their...

Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails, while our Rockstar CMO host Ian Truscott picks his brain on a marketing topic.  This week, we dive back into the obsession marketing commentators seem to have with declaring things as dead. Recently, it seems PR has been getting the “it’s dead” treatmen...