He Said, She Said: Razor Branding™ Podcast

Hosted by Jaci Russo

Business Marketing Arts EducationInterviews guests

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Episodes

281

Latest episode

Oct 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

The He Said, She Said, Razor Branding™ Podcast is hosted by Jaci and Michael Russo, covering topics like entrepreneurship, B2B marketing, messaging for your target audience, and of course, building your brand. Together, they provide branding insight, tips, and best practices from their combined 40+ years of experience. Special guests from various industries are welcomed to the podcast regularly to share their stories and how branding played a pivotal role in their success.

Listen to episodes

60 recent

October 7, 202656 min

Marketing the Machines w/ Jon Star

What does it take to convince a room full of salespeople who love their paper brochures that marketing can actually drive revenue? For Jon Star , Director of Marketing at Methods Machine Tools , it took hard-won proof points, a five-year plan, and a willingness to speak the sales team’s language: dollars and cents. In this episode of He Said, She Said: Razor Branding™ , Jaci and Michael sit down with Jon Star of Methods Machine Tools, a family-owned importer of premium CNC machinery from Japan, celebrating nearly 70 years in business. Jon walks us through what it took to build a digital marketing engine almost from scratch, how Methods approaches trade shows as a year-long strategic investment rather than a single event, and why earned media and authentic relationships still outperform paid placements in a tight-knit, trust-driven industry. They also dig into the unique brand architecture challenge of representing global manufacturing partners like Fanuc and Nakamura-Tome under the Methods name, how Jon turns marketing spend into revenue-impact conversations the C-suite actually cares about, and why leaving room for experimentation matters even inside a disciplined, metrics-driven marketing function. In this conversation, you’ll hear: How Jon built a digital marketing engine at Methods almost from the ground up over a five-year plan What it actually takes to prep, run, and follow up on a massive trade show like IMTS – a 12-month project that touches half the company Why earned media and authentic industry relationships outperform paid placements in manufacturing How Methods balances being a “branded house” while representing premium international partners like Fanuc and Nakamura-Tome How Jon turned marketing metrics into revenue-impact language that finally got sales team buy-in Why leaving 20% of the marketing calendar open for experimentation matters, even in a metrics-driven culture Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at razorbranding.org

September 30, 202651 min

Betting on Yourself: Building a Fractional CMO Practice w/ Michelle Krier

In February, her role was eliminated. By March, she’d filed her LLC. By the end of May, she’d landed her first client. That’s the timeline Michelle Krier walks us through in this episode – and it’s a masterclass in what it actually looks like to bet on yourself when the decision gets made for you. In this episode of He Said, She Said: Razor Branding™ , Jaci and Michael sit down with Michelle Krier , founder and fractional CMO of Foxbridge Consulting . With a career spanning nonprofit, agency, and in-house marketing roles – including IT companies, architecture and engineering firms, and nearly 20 years in workforce solutions – Michelle had every reason to stay in her lane when she went out on her own. Instead, she built a client base almost entirely outside the industry she knew best, because that’s where the market was actually heading. They get into what it takes to go from job seeker to business owner overnight, how to build a business development habit instead of a panic cycle, why sitting in agency, in-house, and fractional seats all builds empathy you can’t get any other way, and how AI is reshaping marketing without replacing the strategic judgment that still has to come from a person. In this conversation, you’ll hear: How Michelle went from a February layoff to her first client by May – and what made her ready to take the leap Why she chose her niche based on where the market was heading, not just where her experience was The difference between staying “in your lane” as a true fractional CMO and scope creep Why sitting in agency, in-house, and fractional roles builds empathy that makes you better at all three How AI is changing the day-to-day of marketing – and why the strategist in the room still matters more than ever The business development discipline it takes to keep a pipeline full without panicking Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at razorbranding.org .

September 23, 202651 min

One Name. Five Banks. A State to Win. W/ Stan Sorensen

Most banks say they’re community-focused. Altabank had to prove it by tearing down the names people trusted most. In this episode of He Said, She Said: Razor Branding™ , Jaci and Michael sit down with Stan Sorensen , Chief Marketing Officer at Altabank , a Utah-based community bank with over a century of history and a footprint that spans the entire state. Stan came to banking from tech and healthcare, joined the bank to lead a rebrand, and — eight years later — hasn’t left. He gets into what it actually took to consolidate five operating names into one, why the hardest part wasn’t the rebrand itself but managing the emotional fallout in the communities that felt the loss, and how his lean team of five runs national-caliber marketing by knowing exactly where their lane starts and stops. Stan also breaks down how a fresh set of outside eyes unlocked a campaign idea they’d been sitting on for three years — and why that’s the real argument for never letting your agency get too comfortable. If you’re a B2B marketer navigating a rebrand, fighting for budget with a board that wants data, or trying to prove that community involvement is a brand strategy, not a PR stunt, this one’s for you.

September 16, 202644 min

How Senior Marketers Actually Land Their Next Job w/ Elda Macias

The average tenure for an in-house marketer is 18 months. That means nearly everyone in this profession will face a job search — probably more than once. The question is whether you’ll be ready when it comes. In this episode of He Said, She Said: Razor Branding™ , Jaci and Michael sit down with Elda Macias , a senior marketing leader with over 20 years in financial services. Elda has built marketing organizations from scratch, modernized legacy brands, and helped drive an acquisition at 166% of tangible book value — and now she’s sharing what the job search actually looks like at the senior level in today’s market. The conversation covers why submitting a resume online is table stakes and nothing more, how to build a referral pipeline that gets your resume in front of a human, why a one-page highlight sheet beats a five-page CV, and what to do with your time — and your network — while you wait for the right opportunity. If you’re a senior marketer in transition, about to be, or mentoring someone who is — this one’s for you.

September 9, 202652 min

Marketing a Brand Nobody Can See w/ Loree Faucett

Kicking Off Year 10 In IT services, everyone says the same thing. We’ll handle your tech. We’ll keep you safe. We’ll be there when you need us. So how do you build a brand that actually means something when your product is invisible and your buyer never wants to think about you? We’re kicking off Year 10 of He Said, She Said: Razor Branding™ with exactly that question. Ten years in, we’re still asking the same core thing this podcast has always been built on – what makes a brand actually work – and Loree Faucett gives us one of the sharpest answers we’ve heard in a while. In this episode, Jaci and Michael sit down with Loree, VP of Marketing at ITS (Intelligent Technical Solutions) , a national managed IT and cybersecurity services provider. Loree came up through Apple and HubSpot, has marketed everything from interior design to oil and gas software to winches, and now leads a 13-person global team navigating one of the most crowded, undifferentiated industries in B2B. They get into what it looks like to walk into a company as a regime change – replacing a founder-led marketing function without breaking what’s already working. Loree talks about building regional presence for a national brand, why trust and referrals are beating digital campaigns right now, and how LLM-driven search is changing the way qualified buyers show up – and why you can’t always see them coming. If you’re a B2B marketer trying to differentiate a service nobody wants to think about, make the case for human-led creative in an AI-first world, or lead through organizational change without losing your team – this one’s for you. And if you’ve been with us since year one, thank you for ten years of conversations – here’s to the next one.

July 16, 2026

B2C Thinking in a B2B World. It Works. W/ Erik Koenig

Most B2B marketers think branding is a logo and a tagline. Erik Koenig thinks it’s a line on the floor left by a robot. And that instinct is exactly what separates a trusted brand from another systems integrator in a sea of sameness. In this episode of He Said, She Said: Razor Branding™ , Jaci and Michael sit down with Erik Koenig, Vice President of Business Development at Hy-Tek Intralogistics — a warehouse automation and systems integration firm helping companies connect products to customers faster through robotics, conveyors, software, and engineering-driven design. Erik came up in B2C agencies working with Colgate-Palmolive, Butterball, and Walmart before making the jump to the client side, and he has spent the last decade proving that the fundamentals of brand strategy translate everywhere. They get into how Erik builds a lean internal team that operates like an agency, how a 50×50 multi-story trade show booth lives or dies by its content schedule, why AI is both the biggest threat and the best intelligence tool in his toolkit, and how he’s fighting to keep the human voice at the center of everything before answer engines rewrite the rules. If you’re a B2B marketer trying to build a real brand inside a complex, engineering-driven company without losing what makes you different — this one’s for you.

July 8, 202643 min

Serve First, Sell Never: Relationship Marketing w/ Chelsea Vonder Haar

Most mortgage companies compete on rate. Chelsea Vonder Haar competes on relationship. In this episode of He Said, She Said: Razor Branding™, Jaci and Michael talk with Chelsea Vonder Haar, the first-ever Chief Marketing Officer at USA Mortgage, about building a national marketing engine for 200+ loan officers — without stadium naming rights or a massive ad budget. Chelsea breaks down how her team uses direct mail, video, and local partnerships to make individual loan officers more valuable to their referral partners, not to promote the corporate brand. She covers EDDM, QR tracking, first-time homebuyer seminars, and why she treats her internal loan officers like clients — plus her path from marketing coordinator to CMO in an industry that too often treats marketing as a cost to cut. If you’re a B2B marketer building a referral engine in a commodity-driven industry, this one’s for you.

June 25, 202643 min

Breaking Through the B2B Noise w/ Joya Scarlata

In B2B marketing, the biggest challenge isn’t always budget or bandwidth – it’s standing out in a market where every competitor looks, sounds, and says the same thing. In this episode, Jaci and Michael sit down with Joya Scarlata , Director of Marketing at InterraIT , a B2B IT services firm serving clients across industries from automotive to retail to manufacturing. With over a decade of marketing experience, Joya knows firsthand how difficult it is to differentiate a service-based business in a crowded, fast-moving industry. The conversation covers what it really takes to build a recognizable B2B brand when your product is invisible – a service that’s hard to explain and even harder to make exciting. From navigating the “sea of sameness” in the IT space, to aligning marketing and sales, to knowing when your messaging has stopped working, Joya shares honest, practical insight from the trenches. If you’re a B2B marketer struggling to cut through the noise, make the case for branding internally, or get your messaging to actually resonate – this one’s for you. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at razorbranding.org

June 18, 202651 min

From First to Five Nine: Rebranding with Purpose w/ Jeff McCarthy

What does it take to walk away from a name your organization has carried for over 160 years – and replace it with something no one has ever heard? For Jeff McCarthy , SVP and Marketing Director at Bank Five Nine , it took research, courage, a tight-knit team, and an unwavering commitment to standing out in one of the most crowded markets in the world. In this episode of the He Said, She Said: Razor Branding™ Podcast , Jaci and Michael sit down with Jeff to walk through one of the most complete and compelling rebrand stories we’ve heard – from First Bank Financial Centre to Bank Five Nine. It’s a story of competitive audits, internal discovery, board presentations, and a brand launch that landed right in the middle of a global pandemic. Jeff shares how his team did it all in-house, why they chose red in a sea of blue and green, and how a three-word mission statement – make lives better – became the culture north star that unified an entire organization. Whether you’re considering a rebrand, trying to justify one to your leadership team, or simply trying to understand why clarity and differentiation matter, Jeff’s story makes the case better than any textbook could. In this conversation, you’ll hear: How a name change gave Bank Five Nine permission to tell a 160-plus-year story Why internal buy-in is just as important as external launch strategy The risk Jeff took by keeping the rebrand in-house – and why it paid off How the Wisconsin State Fair became the bank’s biggest brand megaphone What “make lives better” really means when it’s more than words on a wall Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at razorbranding.org

June 11, 202652 min

Thought Leadership as a Growth Strategy W/ Wendy Gugora

In this episode of the He Said, She Said: Razor Branding™ Podcast , Jaci and Michael sit down with Wendy Gugora , Director of Marketing at Prairie Capital Advisors , to talk about what it really takes to market a boutique investment banking firm in a space where the service is deeply personal, the sales cycle is long, and most business owners do not fully understand what they are being sold. Wendy shares how Prairie has built its brand around thought leadership and education rather than traditional sales tactics, using more than 20 webinars a year, books, client storytelling, and conference speaking to help business owners understand their ownership transition options long before they are ready to act. She also talks about growing her marketing team from a team of one to a team of six, navigating a brand name challenge in a crowded Chicago market, and how a recent logo refresh energized the entire firm right in time for their 30th anniversary. From maximizing conference ROI to measuring what is actually working and cutting what is not, this is a smart and practical conversation about doing professional services marketing the right way. Key Takeaways Thought leadership and education are more powerful than sales tactics when the service is complex, high-stakes, and once-in-a-career for most clients Telling client stories in their own words builds far more trust than any promotional content a firm could create about itself Maximizing conference ROI requires a clear pre-event, during-event, and post-event strategy – not just a booth and a hope Evaluating every marketing initiative against clear goals ensures resources are spent on what is actually working and dropped when they are not A logo refresh done right energizes internal teams just as much as it strengthens external brand perception LinkedIn is the right platform for a B2B professional services audience – knowing where your audience lives and focusing there beats being everywhere at once Listen wherever you get your podcasts or at razorbranding.org