Marketing Careers Uncovered

Hosted by Dave Heywood

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Jun 2026

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About the show

A podcast about building a career in marketing, without the clichés. Each episode explores the real lessons marketers learn over time, from early roles through to senior leadership. We talk about decision-making, credibility, confidence, and the trade-offs that shape how marketing careers actually progress. It’s for marketers who want clearer judgement, practical perspective, and a more honest view of what it takes to grow and stay relevant in the profession.

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53 recent

June 9, 2026Episode 142 min

Something new from me - Introducing Scale: An OX7 Partners podcast

Over the last couple of years, the best advice I’ve given and the most impactful work I’ve done has hit a very specific area. It’s the point where an ambitious B2B firm wants to scale up, but realise what got them here won't get them there.Scale isn't a show about corporate theory or academic marketing fluff. It’s short, practical, accessible advice for B2B leaders and business directors on how to build repeatable growth engines, clarify market logic, and set up commercial infrastructure your team actually wants to run off.The first few of episodes are already live. Subscribe below at:🍏 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/scale-an-ox7-partners-podcast/id1896498959🎧 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4Np0A1ZuyKVl4zJva5XmBv📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2UONiyb_yg&list=PL5VPpiVIp4hslteAQakp_H5eJXNjJsH13

May 19, 2026Episode 1353 min

Is the linear career path a trap? – with Meg Gowell, Head of Marketing at Elly.ai

We’re conditioned to believe that success means moving up. One promotion at a time, a bigger job title title, and more people working under you.But for Meg Gowell, reaching Director level at Typeform meant spending thirty hours a week in meetings, managing a team of eleven, and watching her own technical skills start to rot. On paper, she’d made it. In reality, she was becoming so far removed from the craft that she was losing her edge just as AI began rewriting the industry rules.In this episode, Meg explains how the linear career path wasn't right for her, and why she did the unthinkable: walking away from the status of a big leadership role to get her hands back on a keyboard as a solo operator.We discuss:The identity crisis of management: Why the traditional ladder inevitably turns you into a professional meeting-attendee.The challenges of breaking into SaaS: How Meg used her background as a luxury wedding planner to bypass traditional tech gatekeepers and get into the room with hiring managers.The value of staying dangerous: Why staying close to the plumbing of your tools is the only real safety net left in marketing.The reality of the modern job hunt: Why 'Easy Apply' is a black hole, and how to build a public presence so companies source you instead.

April 21, 2026Episode 1248 min

Better tools, worse decisions? - with László Aszalós, Founder and Web Performance Consultant at Pixel & Prompt

We’ve never had more tools to help us make decisions. And yet, decision-making doesn’t feel any better.We're joined by László Aszalós, a website optimisation specialist with two decades of experience, to discuss how frameworks, templates, and AI are shaping the way decisions get made inside marketing teams, and what happens when tools start doing more of the thinking than the people using them.We explore:Why teams are still driven towards vanity metricsHow frameworks can easily become constraintsWhy even senior leaders get pulled into 'confident but wrong' AI outputsThe growing risk of decision-making without real understanding underneath the toolsWhy education and context matter more than ever in a tool-heavy worldAre your tools improving your thinking, or replacing it?Subscribe for the Extended Cut – Where we go further into how AI systems mislead depending on context, why localisation breaks most assumptions, and what businesses keep getting wrong when scaling approaches across markets.

April 7, 2026Episode 1140 min

There is no average customer: Why ease of use breaks so often - with Sharon Flaherty, CEO at Folk

We talk a good game about making things easy to use. But most organisations are still designing for an average customer who doesn’t really exist.Sharon Flaherty, CEO of Folk, shares the moment that caused her to view the world differently, where she sees customer journeys breaking down in the real world and where can start to change the conversation.We discuss:- Why “vulnerable customers” quickly becomes… most of your customer base- The hidden assumption that’s breaking your journeys before they even go live- Why bolting on accessibility at the end almost guarantees failure- The culture problem: why some organisations will never prioritise this- AI as a double-edged sword, and how it can just scale bad thinking faster

March 24, 2026Episode 1032 min

Why formulaic thinking fails us - with Lottie Unwin, Founder of Up World, Brand Hackers and Up Talent

Is your marketing approach a roadmap or a straightjacket?We’ve all been there. You spend weeks (and way too much mental energy) on a shiny strategy deck, following the textbooks approaches to the letter, only to find the business has moved on or the budget simply doesn't exist. In this episode, I’m joined by Lottie Unwin. She’s a self-confessed marketing geek who did the P&G rounds and took all the notes. But then she had to sell popcorn at a startup and the formulas fell apart.We talk about:The formula failure: Why 'Reach and Frequency' is a luxury many of us can't afford, and what to do instead.Climbing the mountain: Why focusing on 'Pitch One' is more important than the summit when you’re just trying to stay alive.Following the money: Why being 'best mates with the CFO' and knowing your runway is the only way to earn a seat at the table.The levers to understand: My own reflection on why two 'identical' businesses on paper require completely different playbooks.We also get into managing leadership friction, how to interrogate a P&L, and my Day 1 networking playbook for spotting whether a culture is actually worth your time. And why your next campaign might actually need to be a hiring drive.

March 10, 2026Episode 949 min

Is your marketing set up to fail? with Heather Hurd, Head of Marketing & Consultant

You can have the best plan in the world, but if the environment is a mess, you’re just decorating a sinking ship.When things don’t go to plan, it’s not always because the work was bad. From unclear decisions to conflicting priorities, the stuff that sits above the work often determines whether your strategy ever actually lands or just ends up as a footnote in a slide deck.Heather Hurd has seen this from every angle - starting as a copywriter, moving into brand strategy, and now as a consultant helping organisations assess their "marketing readiness." She spends her time asking the deeper questions that most teams skip, diagnosing the structural roadblocks that keep marketing functions from ever reaching their full potential.Drawing on what she’s learned inside fast-moving startups and corporate giants, we discuss:The 6 factors of marketing readiness: A diagnostic toolkit for looking under the hood of any organisation.The template trap: Why "bespoke" strategy so often defaults to recycled busy-work when pressure hits.The sidelined marketer: What happens to the mission when marketing loses its seat at the top table.The silent kkill: How to use active listening to build high-level influence, regardless of your job title.The aspiration gap: Why a "moonshot" mission might be the very thing eroding your team's trust.

February 24, 2026Episode 81 hr 4 min

It's time for social to grow up - with Beth Thomas, Co-Founder at Slice

If we stopped posting tomorrow, would anyone care?Social isn’t the new kid on the block anymore. But too many teams are still stuck in the churn - posting constantly without being clear what job social is actually doing for the business.Beth Thomas has seen this from every angle. Platform-side at TikTok. Brand-side at Deliveroo. Now as Co-Founder of Slice, working with teams trying to bring clarity and intent back into social.Drawing on what she’s learned inside fast-moving brands and from sitting at the platform level, she breaks down:Why content pillars aren’t a strategyHow Ryanair used social to shift brand perceptionWhat “grown up” social actually looks liWhy most reporting is measuring the wrong thingsAnd what it really means to earn respect at the top table

February 10, 2026Episode 724 min

Rejecting rejection and building real resilience - with Charley Brennand, Paid Media Consultant and Founder of The Performance Academy

Confidence doesn’t come from reading the right materials or waiting until you feel ready.It comes from showing up, asking better questions, and staying in the room when it’s uncomfortable.PPC practitioner and community builder Charley Brennand shares how she broke into marketing without a traditional route, ran head-first into gatekeeping, got fired early on, and kept going anyway.We talk about:- why “soft skills” aren’t soft at all- what actually builds confidence over time- learning by proximity rather than permission- why being turned away can become fuel rather than a stop signSubscribe to get the Extended Cut, where we go deeper on how Charley reframed rejection, built credibility without the traditional track record, and learned to find her voice by showing up when it would have been easier not to.

January 27, 2026Episode 619 min

Why go-to-market is more than campaigns - with Luis Clark, EMEA GTM lead at Monday.com

Too many marketers still think GTM means picking channels and launching campaigns. But that’s just the end of the process.Luis Clark, EMEA go-to-market lead at Monday.com breaks down what GTM actually means inside a complex, multi-product, global business. We talk about how sales, product and marketing should pull together, why storytelling alone won’t land your proposition, and how to stop mistaking marketing execution for commercial strategy.You’ll hear:- how Luis reinvented himself from radio DJ to SaaS GTM lead- what really causes GTM confusion (and how to fix it)- why standing still is the riskiest option of all- and how to build confidence in a job you feel underqualified forSome smart, straight-talking advice for anyone trying to connect marketing to business impact - or make their own leap into a more strategic role.

January 13, 2026Episode 520 min

Becoming strategic and holding your nerve - with Bethan Vincent, Founder at Open Velocity

What does it actually mean to become more strategic as a marketer? And how do you hold your nerve when the numbers dip and everyone wants a quick fix?We discuss why so many capable marketers get stuck in the operator role, how commercial context changes how your work is judged, and what to do when performance wobbles without throwing the strategy in the bin.We cover:why activity is often mistaken for strategyhow marketers build strategic credibility over timewhat KPI dips are really telling youhow to slow the room down when pressure ramps upthe difference between fixing tactics and fixing the real problemSubscribe to get the Extended Cut, where we go deeper on how Bethan built her strategic viewpoint, how marketers develop commercial judgement over time, and how to navigate KPI wobbles without losing credibility or binning the strategy.