The Marketing Share

Picture this: your CEO says, “We need to do more on social media.” But what does “more” actually mean? More posts? More followers? More video? More engagement? And most importantly, what is any of it supposed to accomplish for the business? In this episode of The Marketing Share, Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren talk with Kat O'Leary, founder of Knockout Creative and former social media leader...

When someone asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or another LLM for the best solution in your category, does your company show up in the answer? And if it doesn't, how do you figure out why? In this episode of The Marketing Share, Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren welcome back marketing consultant David Kirkdorffer for a deep dive into how LLMs are changing brand discoverability and what marketing le...

Sales and marketing alignment sounds like an intuitive thing to have in place in a business, but in practice, it can be one of the hardest things for a growing company to get right. In this episode of The Marketing Share, Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren talk with Paul Huffman, Chief Revenue Officer at EMP Claims, about what happens when sales and marketing stop working as separate functions and st...

CMOs spend a lot of time talking about marketing performance, but what happens when it’s time to present those results to the board? In this episode of The Marketing Share, Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren talk with Casey Carey about what CMOs need to keep in mind before they walk into a board meeting. Casey shares the lessons, the mistakes, and his best approach to presenting marketing results and...

How do you know where to put your budget, which channels are actually working, and whether you're measuring the right things in the first place? In this episode of The Marketing Share, Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren talk with Matthew Simpson, founder of Pitch Blend, about what it really takes to build a performance marketing strategy that connects to the bigger picture of the business. Matth...

Sooner or later, every marketing leader will have to guide their organization through a major change. Whether it's repositioning a brand, launching a new product, or helping a company navigate growth, those moments require much more than a solid marketing strategy. They demand alignment, trust, and the ability to bring the entire organization along for the journey. In this episode of The Mark...

The million-dollar question right now is this: what separates memorable content from the growing flood of AI-generated marketing? That's exactly what this episode explores. In this episode of The Marketing Share, Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren talk with David J. Ebner, founder of Content Workshop, about why human-led content is more important than ever in today's marketing landscape. Th...

What does it actually take for marketing to earn influence inside a business? In this episode of The Marketing Share, Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren talk with Saurabh Kothari about one of the biggest challenges modern marketing leaders face: proving impact while building alignment across sales, product, and leadership teams. Drawing from his experience leading marketing across enterprise organiza...

What happens when marketing becomes responsible for everything, but doesn’t have the systems, workflows, or structure to keep up? In this episode of The Marketing Share, Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren talk with Lisa Cole, CMO of 2X, about what modern marketing leadership actually looks like inside today’s B2B organizations. Lisa has spent her career helping marketing teams transform from overwhel...

What does it actually take to succeed as a CMO today? In this episode of The Marketing Share, Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren continue with the Marketing Leader Series, and this time they are joined by Karl Van Den Bergh, CMO at Illumio, about the reality behind one of the most complex roles in the C-suite. Karl’s path into marketing wasn’t traditional. From physics and computer science to product...

To all marketers leading GEO SEO: What if we told you that reviews are actually one of the most powerful marketing and conversion channels out there?  In this episode of The Marketing Share Podcast, Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren talk with George Swetlitz, co-founder of Right Response AI and former CEO of a multi-location healthcare business, about how reviews really influence buying decisions, e...

AI is reshaping marketing as we know it, and its impact is reaching the CMO role. In this episode of The Marketing Share, our co-hosts Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren talk with Kate Johnson, CMO at Dscout, about her transition from VP of Marketing to CMO, and why that shift looks very different today than it did even a year ago. Kate dives into her experience as a first-time CMO in the era of AI,...

What happens when a company has great technology but struggles to explain why it matters? In this episode of The Marketing Share, our co-hosts Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren explore, in a conversation with Virtual CMO Mark Donnigan, what tends to break down when technical companies try to scale their marketing. In this interview, they unpack the reality many founder-led companies face: they know...

Welcome back to The Marketing Share Podcast. In this kickoff interview episode of 2026, hosts Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren are joined by Michael Barber, CMO at StarTech, to talk about what it’s really like stepping into a CMO role for the first time. Michael brings a unique perspective shaped by an entire career on the agency side, with experience across creative, media, and account strategy. A...

As we kick off 2026, co-hosts Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren take the stage to reflect on the biggest lessons from 2025 and what those lessons are telling us about the year ahead. This episode has been shaped by dozens of interviews with CMOs, business founders, marketing experts, strategists, and growth leaders over the past year. In this half an hour of value-packed content, Alec and Barb share...

In this episode of The Marketing Share, Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren have a conversation with returning guest Noah Goldfarb, Head of SEO at Fire and Spark, to unpack what’s actually happening to SEO in an AI-driven world, especially in digital health and B2C-heavy industries. Noah shares insights from two recent studies: The Telehealth 20 and Fire and Spark’s AI Search in Digital Health report....

Welcome back to The Marketing Share Podcast.  This week, we're excited to present Part 2 of our conversation with Alan Gonsenhauser, where we dig into what it takes to move from VP of Marketing to an effective, indispensable CMO.  Alan lays out practical advice on speaking the language of business, aligning with the CFO, and leading cross-functional teams for measurable impact. What you’ll le...

In this episode of The Marketing Share Podcast, Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren have an exciting conversation with Alan Gonsenhauser, interim CMO, advisor, and trusted voice in the CMO Coffee Talk community. Alan has decades of experience guiding marketing leaders and stepping into complex growth environments, and he brings his expertise to the show to explore why fractional and interim CMOs have...

In this episode of The Marketing Share Podcast, hosts Barb VanSomeren and Alec Cheung sit down with Brian McHale, CEO of Brandience, a full-service marketing agency based in Cincinnati that helps national and franchise brands grow while staying true to their identity. Brian brings decades of experience in media, production, and brand strategy, including helping leading franchise and retail brands...

In this episode of The Marketing Share, our co-hosts Barb VanSomeren and Alec Chung sit down with Chae O’Brien, GTM specialist and principal strategist at Thought Bakery, for a grounded conversation about what it really takes to build a modern go-to-market strategy. Chae has worked with leading SaaS brands like Bombora, G2, and Simulogic, helping them refine how they connect with customers and sca...

What if we told you that your copy isn't the problem, but your messaging is?  In this episode of The Marketing Share Podcast, our co-hosts Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren have an insightful conversation with message market fit expert Chris Silvestri, founder of Conversion Alchemy. With a background that spans software engineering, UX design, and behavioral psychology, Chris brings a unique pe...

How do you go from corporate law to leading one of the most innovative social media management platforms? In this episode, Emeric Ernoult, CEO of Agorapulse, shares his entrepreneurial journey, the lessons learned from pivots and challenges, and the evolution of social media strategies over the years. Emeric dives into how Agorapulse transformed from running Facebook contests to pioneering the soc...

How do you scale healthcare marketing without losing patient trust? In this episode of The Marketing Share Podcast , hosts Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren sit with Alex Membrillo, CEO of Cardinal Digital Marketing, to unpack the fast-changing world of healthcare marketing. From the influence of private equity on multi-site practices to the evolving rules of digital advertising, Alex shares the cha...

In this episode of The Marketing Share Podcast, marketing experts Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren are joined by Stephanie Brooks, a seasoned marketing leader with a wealth of experience in website development. Together, they dive into the work it takes to build and maintain effective websites. Stephanie shares her journey from journalism to marketing, highlighting her expertise in website projects...

In this episode of The Marketing Share Podcast , co-hosts Alec and Barb welcome a dynamic marketing duo—Tanya and Tony Thorson, co-authors of the refreshingly bold book, Get Off Your (M)ass .  Together, they unpack how marketing must evolve in the age of automation, AI, and customer overload. Drawing from their combined B2C, B2B, and B2A (Business to Anyone) experiences, the Thorsons break down ho...