The CMO Whisperer

Hosted by Steve Olenski

Business Marketing

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Episodes

156

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Aug 2026

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About the show

The CMO Whisperer, hosted by former Forbes writer Steve Olenski, is a curated executive platform and marketing leadership podcast where CMOs, brand leaders, and senior operators share candid insights on leadership, brand strategy, and growth. Spanning business, sports, and media, it goes beyond marketing to reveal how top leaders make decisions and perform at the highest levels.

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60 recent

August 21, 2026Episode 15732 min

Why Smart Leaders Struggle - Alma Derricks & Eliza VanCort

Today, I welcome two guests to the show, Alma Derricks and Eliza VanCort, the co-creators of Ignite, a leadership experience built around a simple but incredibly timely idea. As technology and AI continue to reshape the workplace, the human skills that drive great leadership have never been more important. These two came to this work from very different directions. Alma has spent more than three decades building businesses, launching brands, and leading commercial strategy for organizations including Deloitte, HBO, Paramount, and Cirque du Soleil. Today she's the founder and managing partner of REV, where she helps organizations navigate moments of growth, reinvention, and transformation. On the other hand, Eliza is a best-selling author, communication strategist, Cornell University Fellow, TED speaker and former acting instructor whose work has helped executives and leadership teams become more confident, influential communicators in the moments that matter most. What started as a conversation became a collaboration, and that collaboration became Ignite. We spend less time talking about the program itself and spend more time talking about why it exists. What are they seeing inside executive teams? Why do communication and influence seem harder than ever? And most importantly, what human skills are becoming more valuable because of AI, not despite it?

August 14, 2026Episode 15626 min

B2B Is Still Human - Jake Nishimura

My guest today is Jake Nishimura, Vice President of Marketing at Kiswe, a company that's quietly changing the way some of the biggest names in sports, music, and entertainment connect with fans around the world. Jake's career started on the live event side of the business, promoting concerts for artists like Tara Swift and Ed Sheeran before making the jump into streaming, where he's helped bring live experiences to audiences for everyone from Queen and the Rolling Stones to Jack Harlow. He's also been instrumental in helping Kiswe expand into the creator economy, working with bands like Smosh, Rhett and Link, and the Try Guys. Today, his role goes beyond partner marketing as he now leads Kiswe's broader B2B marketing efforts, giving him a unique perspective on where technology, content, community, and brand are all headed.

August 7, 2026Episode 15530 min

Marketing Has Lost Control - Marie Bahl

My guest today is Marie Bahl, Chief Marketing Officer at Uptempo. A few weeks ago, Marie published an article called Martech Built Empires—Now It Needs Bridges. More recently, she shared a manifesto with me that expanded on many of those ideas. Marie argues that marketers have spent years becoming data janitors, spreadsheet detectives, and professional explainers of their own value. Instead of building brands, driving growth, and shaping business strategy, too many marketing teams are trapped by trying to prove they deserve a seat at the table. She also believes that AI won't fix that problem. In fact, if we don't address the underlying issues first, AI may simply help us fail faster. We're going to talk about why marketing finds itself in that position, what leaders are getting wrong about AI, and what it'll take for marketing to reclaim its role as a true growth engine.

July 31, 2026Episode 15424 min

Stop The Finger Pointing - Andrea Eaton

My guest today is Andrea Eaton, Chief Revenue Officer at Ataccama. Andrea is a growth-focused executive with more than 20 years of experience helping tech companies scale revenue, transform go-to-market strategies, and navigate periods of rapid growth. Her career spans leadership roles across sales, marketing, revenue operations, and product marketing, giving her a truly unique perspective on what it takes to drive sustainable business results. Now, before joining Ataccama, Andrea led global marketing at OutSystems, where she helped advance the company's AI-powered vision and integrated AI into marketing and sales development workflows. She's also served as Chief Revenue Officer at Bluefin Payment Systems and held senior leadership roles at several high-growth software and fintech companies.

July 24, 2026Episode 15324 min

Escape The AI Paralysis - Mike Lane

My guest today is Mike Lane, CEO and co-founder of Fluency, the digital advertising operating system helping agencies scale paid media campaigns across every major digital ad channel. Fluency manages more than 250,000 campaigns monthly and nearly $3 billion in annual media spend, giving Mike a unique lens into where advertising, automation, and AI are all headed. The company recently raised a $40 million Series A to accelerate its growing agentic AI capabilities. And today we're going to dig into what all that actually means for CMOs, marketing teams, and the future of advertising operations. Before Fluency, Mike was COO and co-founder of Dealer.com, which became the automotive retail industry's largest marketing and advertising platform. And finally, he's also an active angel investor, board advisor, and serves on several nonprofit boards.

July 17, 2026Episode 15221 min

AI Won't Replace Marketers - Christine Buck

This episode is recorded live at BrandSmart, the longest-running brand marketing conference in the U.S. BrandSmart brings together noteworthy speakers and future-forward marketers — a who’s who of decision-makers and influencers — to share proven tools, smart ideas and inspiring stories. Joining the CMO Whisperer today is Christine Buck, CMO of MiniTab and AMA board member, as well as the 2024 AMA Chicago Marketer of the Year. Christine brings deep global experience and a sharp data-driven perspective to the table. She is a global advisor and thought leader supporting the transformation of the health ecosystem through information and technology. Christine leads the planning and development of global marketing strategy across all products, channels and regions. Christine’s experience is broad and uniquely global with almost 27 years of B2B sales and marketing expertise from roles held in financial services, software and consulting industries. Christine has built and led teams globally across brand management, creative, product marketing, research, pricing and analyst relations for leading firms Hootsuite, Morningstar, Huron Consulting, Accenture, Bank of America and Microsoft.

July 14, 2026Episode 15125 min

Every Child Needs Someone - Kathryn Fernandez

My guest today is Kathryn Fernandez, Chief Executive Officer of Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence. Kathryn has spent her career helping people reach their full potential, first as a teacher, then as a Peace Corps Youth Development Volunteer, and later through leadership roles across Philadelphia's nonprofit community. Today, she leads one of the region's most impactful organizations, working every day to create life-changing mentoring relationships for young people across the Philadelphia region and southern New Jersey. Before joining Big Brothers Big Sisters Independence, Kathryn served as Chief Development Officer at Habitat for Humanity, Philadelphia, where she helped lead a period of significant growth, strengthened fundraising efforts, and spearheaded the organisation's first multi-year campaign, raising a whopping 5.75 million to expand its impact. And throughout her career, Kathryn has built a reputation for combining strategic leadership with authentic relationship building and a deep belief that every young person deserves someone in their corner.

July 10, 2026Episode 15028 min

Advertising Can Save Lives - Kris Johns

My guest today is Kris Johns, founder and CEO of AdGood, and somebody whose career sits right at the intersection of innovation, media, and impact. Kris has spent more than 15 years helping shape the streaming and ad tech world, building platforms and businesses that transformed how audiences discover content and how companies create growth. He helped scale AdPool into one of the world's largest CTV marketplaces, played a major role at World before its acquisition by AppLovin, and was part of the growth story at Maker Studios before Disney came calling. But what really grabbed my attention was what Kris decided to do next. After helping build businesses and scale technology, he looked at something most people barely noticed: unused advertising inventory and saw something entirely different. He saw potential, he saw opportunity, and he saw a way to turn empty ad space into something that could actually help change lives. Today, through AdGood, Kris is helping nonprofits across the power of connected TV and giving organizations that normally wouldn't have a seat at the table a much bigger voice.

July 7, 2026Episode 14932 min

Why Rebrands Actually Fail - James Maddison

My guest today is James Maddison, CMO at blockchain.com, and this is one of those stories where the path to the top doesn't exactly follow the neat little roadmap that career counselors hand you in school. James has worn a lot of hats on the way. Journalism, entrepreneurship, brand building, marketing leadership, and figuring out how to connect storytelling with growth in industries that move fast and rarely come with instruction manuals. Before blockchain.com, he helped shape growth and marketing at TradingView and played a key role at Resi, as the company expanded its presence in a crowded market. Now he's leading global marketing at blockchain.com, operating at the intersection of finance, technology, culture, and consumer trust. And if you've spent any time around crypto, you know that isn't exactly marketing on easy mode by any means.

July 3, 2026Episode 14831 min

AI Won't Replace Leaders - Barry O’Reilly

My guest today is Barry O'Reilly, an entrepreneur, executive advisor, and bestselling author who spends his time helping leaders rethink how organizations actually work in a world that seems to reinvent itself every five minutes. He's the co-founder of Nobody Studios, a global top 10 AI venture studio with a pretty ambitious goal of building 100 companies in five years. He's also the author of Lean Enterprise, Unlearn and Artificial Organizations, where he explores what it takes for companies and leaders to adapt, evolve and avoid getting trapped. Barry advises boards and executive teams around the world on enterprise transformation in the age of AI. And today we're going to get into what leadership looks like when the rules are changing in real time.