#149: Marketing Leadership | 16 Lessons I Wish I Knew As First Time B2B Marketing Leader

Dave shares the 16 lessons he wishes he knew as a first-time marketing leader, going from marketing manager to CMO in four years. This is a recording from Metadata's DEMAND 2022 virtual event in October 2022. The lessons include:1. Forget acronyms2. The story is the strategy3. Think hard about “offers”4. Push your team past incremental thinking5. Get on the same page as sales6. Don’t “be” finance and ops...partner with them7. Master internal communication8. Articulate the strategy9. Think short-and-long-term10. Understand what the CEO cares about11. Make hiring your job, not a side project12. Create your own momentum13. Your job is to get the job done14. But do the job first, before hiring externally15. Get comfortable making bets without perfect data16. Spend the budget (all of it) Send guest pitches and ideas to [email protected] the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterCheck out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership***Today’s episode is brought to you by Grammarly.Ever have one of those weeks where you spent more time replying to Slack and email than doing actual marketing work?You’re not alone. The average marketing team spends 28+ hours a week just keeping up with comms.That leads to burnout, frustration, and a whole lot of performative productivity that doesn’t actually move the needle.AI-fluent marketing teams are changing that. Grammarly’s 2025 Productivity Shift Report shows how they’re using AI to:– Cut down on back-and-forth– Automate content, research, and reporting– Eliminate busywork– Make space for strategyWe’re marketers because we love crafting campaigns, driving revenue, and proving impact – not spending all day buried in messages.Get the report and see how top teams are making AI actually useful.Visit go.grammarly.com/exitfive to grab it.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more