Renegade Marketers Unite

Hosted by Drew Neisser

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646

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Nov 2026

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About the show

Renegade Marketers Unite focuses on marketing innovators, uncovering the how, what and why behind their on-going success. Award-winning marketer, author, and entrepreneur Drew Neisser keeps these conversations interesting and inspiring, wrapping up each episode with on-the-spot analysis and insights for big marketers and those that want to be. For more information visit http://DrewNeisser.com/podcast

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60 recent

November 13, 2026Episode 54648 min

546: A CMO's Strategic Edge in the C-Suite

CMOs see a lot of signals. The real value is knowing which ones should change the business. In this episode, Drew talks with Mandy Dhaliwal ( Nutanix ), Amy King ( Relias ), and Rebecca Stone ( Plume ) about how customer and market insight can shape decisions well beyond marketing. They get into ICP, pricing, product strategy, investment, and go-to-market, plus what it takes for a CMO to earn the credibility to influence those conversations in the first place. And if strategy is part of the mandate, they make a strong case that the team underneath the CMO has to be built to help carry it. In This Episode: Mandy explains how to spot the market signals worth acting on and turn them into a strategy the business can rally around Amy shows how customer data can sharpen ICP, pricing, bundling, and product investment in ways that show up in growth Rebecca walks through how customer listening helped reshape Plume's platform strategy, product roadmap, and go-to-market Plus: Why executive sponsorship gives CMOs a closer read on customers How CABs, discovery calls, and client care fill in the customer picture Where AI can synthesize customer conversations without replacing direct listening Why one good customer story can carry weight in the executive room Tune in to hear how strategy-driving CMOs turn market signals into better business bets and turn those bets into decisions the organization can actually execute.

November 6, 2026Episode 54547 min

545: Heart-Led Leadership: A Better Path to Stronger Teams

Great leadership leaves fingerprints. You can see them in how much stronger the people around that leader become. High-performing teams need room to think out loud , enough trust to say the thing that might be wrong, and enough clarity to know where they stand. A lot rides on what leaders do in the small moments, from who gets heard to how feedback lands to whether autonomy comes with clear responsibility. And with AI changing more of what people do every day, those decidedly human moments are becoming harder to dismiss. In this episode, Drew sits down with Claude Silver , Chief Heart Officer at VaynerX and author of Be Yourself at Work , to look at what helps people grow, contribute, and show up more fully as themselves. They talk about why leaders who take up less oxygen can make the room smarter, what good feedback sounds like when growth is the goal, and how much trust depends on giving people clear ownership. Claude's version of people-first leadership comes with plenty of heart, but nobody gets a hall pass on candor, growth, or accountability. Three Ways Leaders Get in Their Team's Way: Acting like the smartest person in the room Keeping the armor on and giving people nothing human to connect with Leading from "I" when the team needs "we" What You'll Learn: Why the smartest room usually has more than one voice in it How connection changes the way tough feedback lands Where "be yourself at work" ends and oversharing begins How autonomy and accountability can grow side by side Tune in for how leaders can make more room for people to think, grow, and take ownership, and why those human leadership skills matter even more as AI changes the work around them. For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/ To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

October 30, 2026Episode 54447 min

544: Repositioning Nutanix

When everybody has a favorite version of the company story, repositioning becomes an exercise in choosing what survives. Sometimes the company has already changed before the story catches up. At Nutanix, the business was evolving beyond its on-prem roots, so the story had to keep pace without giving up the credibility the company had already earned. Sales, product, and leadership all had good reasons to care about different parts of the answer, so the new story had to do more than please the room. It had to be simple enough to remember, credible enough to hold up, and useful enough for the company to keep carrying forward. In this episode, Mandy Dhaliwal gives Drew the inside story on how Nutanix turned a major business shift into a company-wide repositioning effort. Ellie Victor of Zoom Marketing brings the outside eye that helped test assumptions, challenge the favorites, and keep the work grounded in what customers were actually saying. They share how the research shaped the positioning, how the company brought that story to life across the business, and how "Run Anything Anywhere" gave that broader shift a simple expression. What You'll Learn: Why repositioning has to become a company decision first How to align strong internal voices without watering down the answer Where customer research can challenge assumptions and break ties What makes a new position stick across the company and in the market Tune in for how Nutanix and Zoom Marketing worked through a multi-year repositioning . You'll come away with a clearer way to align opinions, use customer research, and make the new story land.

October 23, 2026Episode 54351 min

543: Marketing's Long Game in Enterprise Deals

One interested buyer can get an enterprise deal moving. Then the buying committee shows up, each with a question, an objection, or a reason to hit the brakes. That first bit of interest only carries the deal so far. Finance wants numbers, technical teams want proof, champions need help making the case, and priorities can take a hard left at the worst possible moment. So where should marketing stay involved, and how do you keep adding value without turning the whole process into one giant group project? Joining Drew are Michael Callahan ( Salt Security ), Brooke Ames ( Q2 ), and Guy Yalif ( Webflow ). In this episode, they follow a B2B deal past the hand raise and into the part where momentum gets fragile. They get into where buying groups get complicated, what happens when interest starts to cool, and how much coordination it takes on the seller side to keep things moving. In enterprise, there's a fine line between staying in step and stepping on each other. In This Episode: Michael breaks down how to build depth of contact across a buying group and give each stakeholder the proof they need to keep moving Brooke walks through the operating model she built to turn strong starts into strong finishes, with five initiatives, clearer ownership, and scorecards tied to what teams can influence Guy digs into what enterprise buyers need to feel safe saying yes, plus how LLMs are reshaping shortlists, reputation, and the story buyers hear before sales gets in the room Plus: How to map a buying group without creating a thousand threads Where marketing should stay involved after the handoff What keeps a stalled deal warm without another hard sell Why the reps and sales engineers closest to the deal often have the best insight Long enterprise deals rarely stall all at once. Tune in to spot where momentum starts slipping and where marketing can step in to keep the deal moving. For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/ To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

October 16, 2026Episode 54254 min

542: Follow the Citations: Where to Place Your AI Visibility Bets

Search visibility has officially outgrown your website. SEO still has a seat at the table, but now it has a lot more company. LLMs can build answers from sources scattered across the web, including places your buyers might never visit themselves. So where does authority live now? Which prompts are worth chasing? And how do you keep "everything everywhere all at once" from becoming your channel plan? Ross Simmonds , founder of Distribution.ai , has spent years obsessing over what happens after you hit publish. In this episode, he and Drew start where the money is , tracing high-intent prompts back to the sources shaping AI answers and showing why off-site authority suddenly matters a whole lot more. From there, the focus widens to something marketers can't automate away . You still have to make something worth finding in the first place, then keep enough brand and humanity in the mix that people care when they find it. AI may be changing where brands get found, but boring the humans was never much of a growth strategy. Three AI Visibility Misunderstandings Marketers Have: GEO is just SEO with a new name Ranking number one is still the finish line Your website is where AI visibility is won What You'll Learn: Why Reddit and YouTube are becoming major sources for AI discovery How to trace high-intent prompts back to the sources AI cites Which on-site SEO fundamentals still matter before you go broader Where human brand preference fits in an agent-driven buying journey The internet got messier. Your channel strategy can still stay focused. Tune in for a smarter way to decide what to create, where to distribute it, and where the citation trail says to place your bets. For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/ To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

October 13, 2026Episode 54145 min

541: What It Takes to Ace a CMO Job Interview

You've got the experience. The interview is where you make it clear, memorable, and unmistakably yours. Years of stories, wins, lessons, and opinions are great raw material. Then an interview asks you to pull the right one out, fast. That's where answers can sprawl, too much context can take over, and too much polish can make you sound less like yourself. So how do you stay specific, answer cleanly, and ask smart questions of your own? A little structure helps you do all three without sounding scripted. Joining Drew for this episode is leadership interview coach Dalena Bradley , who has spent the last nine years focused entirely on leadership interview prep. They get into tightening the stories you want to tell, handling everything from "tell me about yourself" to why the last role ended, and asking what matters most in the job early enough to shape the rest of the interview. Do that well, and the interview gives them a feel for how you think, how you listen, and how you'd actually show up as a leader. Three Interview Mistakes Executives Make: Staying too general instead of giving a specific example Rambling when nerves or context take over Sounding robotic from over-rehearsing or memorizing What You'll Learn: How to interview the company while they interview you Handling layoffs, short tenures, and awkward questions cleanly How midstream questions make interviews more conversational Why mindset, body language, and your setup can work for or against you Tune in for CMO interview advice on telling tighter stories, handling tough questions, and showing up in a way that makes your leadership easy to see. For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/ To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

October 9, 2026Episode 54042 min

540: When AI Rewrites the CMO Playbook

AI is rewriting the CMO playbook fast. And somehow, human judgment is getting more valuable. Start with what the machines do well. They can crank out content, make sense of scattered data, and turn repeatable tasks into workflows at ridiculous speed. That leaves marketers with a better problem to solve. What should they do with the room they get back ? Could the bigger payoff be more time for judgment, creativity, relationships, reputation, and original thinking? If so, a few old-school strengths are looking pretty future-proof . For episode 540, Drew does what any reasonable podcast host would do and interviews himself. He pulls together what he's hearing from CMOs and what CMO Huddles has been testing. From there, he gets into what separates AI experimentation from workflows worth keeping, why AEO is making PR and original research more valuable, and when a homegrown AI tool turns into a software business you never meant to own. He also gets candid about the hidden costs of AI and what happens when adoption outruns organizational discipline. If AI can clear the sludge, terrific . Just don't let it take the humanity with it. What You'll Learn: Why smart AI experiments start with a business problem and a clear baseline Where AI-generated content creates brand risk, and why original inputs matter What separates AI activity from actual AI maturity What a study of 13,000 CMOs reveals about tenure, company type, and career odds Listen in for a clearer sense of where AI earns its keep, where marketers need to slow down, and which parts of the CMO playbook are still worth hanging onto. For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/ To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

October 2, 2026Episode 53950 min

539: Pick Your Battles: Strategic Trade-offs in B2B Marketing

Marketing has no shortage of good ideas . The trouble is, they're all competing for the same budget, people, and attention. When everything looks important, something has to give . A big growth bet may deserve the full weight of the team. A proven motion might be better off with a template and a handoff. And a perfectly good idea might need to sit in the parking lot for a while. Somebody has to decide what gets the team's energy before every good idea starts claiming it. In this episode, Drew is joined by Heather Adkins ( Trimble ), Will Meier , and Betsy Daitch ( Canoe ), three marketing leaders navigating the trade-offs between business impact, time, budget, and team capacity. Together, they wrestle with the judgment calls behind those trade-offs. How long do you let a new idea season? When has a strategy earned its retirement? And if AI gives you more capacity, where should it actually go? In This Episode: Heather explains how velocity, leverage, and time-to-value help decide what deserves marketing horsepower Will shows how tighter constraints across three brands can force better choices, including one low-lift fix that helped opportunities jump 10X Betsy shares how force-multiplier thinking and faster event follow-up helped move MQL-to-opportunity conversion from 30% to 55% Plus: How to park good ideas without losing them Who needs a seat at the table when priorities shift How to push back when conviction is low Whether AI belongs on the org chart Listen in to learn how B2B marketing leaders can make smarter strategic trade-offs, prioritize marketing budget and team capacity, and use AI to create room for higher-impact work. For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/ To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

September 25, 2026Episode 53848 min

538: Need for Speed? Earn It First

Urgency makes shortcuts awfully tempting. Find the problem, make the plan , get moving. But a little more work before the sprint can save a whole lot of fixing later. People, relationships, and processes all have to be ready to carry the speed. Get that setup right, and you can hit the gas with a much better chance of keeping the wheels on. In this episode, Drew talks with Anne Morriss , co-author of Move Fast and Fix Things , about what leaders need in place before they accelerate organizational change. They get into why the first problem you see can send you chasing the wrong fix, why the people you always turn to might be missing something important, and why CMOs have a particularly useful superpower when change gets messy. The same storytelling muscle used to move markets can help people inside the company understand where they are going and why the trip is worth taking. Three Ways Leaders Make Hard Problems Worse: Solving the wrong problem Relying too heavily on familiar networks Under-investing in storytelling and change communication What You'll Learn: How to spot your trust wobble across logic, authenticity, and empathy Why curiosity can reveal what judgment misses How to make clearer people decisions when waiting has a cost Why repetition matters when leading through uncertainty Hear how leaders can earn the right to move fast through organizational change. For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/ To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

September 18, 2026Episode 53752 min

537: When Marketing Leads the AI Migration

Company-wide AI adoption needs a flock leader. Marketing may already have the job. Marketing has a few advantages here. It hears customer friction early, touches nearly every corner of the business, and has gotten pretty good at doing more with less. That makes it a natural proving ground for new ways of working, with a chance to test what works, prove the value, and give the rest of the company something worth scaling. In this episode, Drew talks with Thalía Diedrick ( GoTu ), Allison Breeding ( Direct Travel ), and Lauren Boyman ( KPMG US ) about how marketing can lead company-wide AI adoption. Across three differently sized companies, they compare what sophisticated AI use looks like, how workflows start to change, and where build-versus-buy, governance, and training enter the picture. AI moves fast. Companies have people, processes, budgets, systems, and guardrails that take a little longer to turn. These marketers are figuring out how to bring the whole company along. In This Episode: Thalía shows how GoTu built a bespoke AI project manager into the team's daily workflow, helping marketing model a more AI-native way of working Allison shares how Direct Travel drives adoption through business-problem hackathons, a central owner for new ideas, and regular wins shared with leadership Lauren on how KPMG uses marketing as "client zero," pushing beyond basic adoption to test AI approaches the wider business can learn from Plus: How to make smarter AI build-versus-buy decisions How to scale AI experimentation without creating agent sprawl Why organic traffic can fall while buying intent rises in the AEO/GEO era Listen in for how CMOs can lead company-wide AI adoption and turn experimentation into new ways of working. For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/ To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/