The CMO Alliance community is a two-way street: just as we love to produce content for you, we also want to work with you to produce bigger and better content! If you’re enjoying our content, we want to hear about it and start a discussion about how we can work with you!
Andrea Linehan is a great example of this - she discovered the CMO Convo podcast, got in touch to share feedback, joined us on an episode, and is now a regular guest on our CMO Diaries show and speaker at our events.
We caught up with Andrea to find out how she’s benefitted from being involved with the CMO Alliance at so many different levels.
As a podcast listener
How did you discover our podcasts? What was it about them that piqued your interest?
I was specifically looking for a go-to podcast when I came across the CMO Convo. Listening to my peers talk about their challenges and successes means I’m getting real-time insights that I can consider and apply in my own company. Direct experience is invaluable but learning from others’ experiences is equally important.
Is there a particular episode/guest/piece of advice that you’ve utilized in your own career?
I really resonated with the episode with Eric Fulwiler, Survival of the most t-shaped? Evolving your role as CMO. I look at the CMO’s primary objective as being a business builder first and doing so as part of the C-Suite team. My role within that team is to bring marketing as my area of expertise, but is not my sole contribution to the business’s mission and vision. And I think Eric articulated that same sentiment very well in his episode.
Are there any particular topics you’re looking forward to us exploring further in our podcasts?
I would love to hear from a CMO who has transitioned into the CEO role.
As a podcast speaker
Why was it important for you to speak about your topic on this particular show?
I spoke with Will on the topic of Marketing and our relationship with Finance, the episode is called: How marketers can stop worrying and learn to love Finance. I am a Finance undergrad and a Chartered Management Accountant but my career has been primarily in Marketing, and I love it! I have been fortunate to be able to navigate the marketing/finance relationship with ease because of my academic underpinning and I want to be able to encourage and support other marketers to have that same relationship. When the trust and understanding barriers are dropped, it becomes an incredibly collaborative and powerful partnership and one that can give any marketer the edge in their career.
Has the experience encouraged you to get further involved with the CMO Alliance and its content?
Yes! I’ve had the pleasure of joining Will for conversations on the CMO Diaries covering different topics, from merger branding to in-market B2B buyers. I am a big fan of the other regular contributors, Yoni Solomon and Aidan Casey, I never miss their episodes!
Do you have any advice or recommendations for CMOs and marketers considering appearing on one of our podcasts?
There’s no perfect campaign or fail-proof strategy so don’t be afraid to share the hard stuff, especially the things that went wrong. It is a fabulous way to pay it forward by sharing your challenges and learnings with your marketing peers. You will be pleasantly surprised by the warm and appreciative support that you will receive as a result.
As an event speaker
Why did you choose to be a speaker at our CMO Summit? Was there anything special about it that set it apart from others that made it the right choice?
Getting to know the CMO Alliance team and experiencing their commitment to sharing knowledge and expertise is what attracted me to their summit. They are very passionate about what they do and I felt compelled to support their mission because of that. I’m excited to watch all their superb ideas come to life.
What kind of feedback have you received on your appearance at the Summit? Has appearing on it been beneficial to your career?
It is relatively easy to evaluate a company before you apply for a job, it is harder to get a full picture of the individual that you'll be working with/for unless you interview with them. As a CMO, being able to transfer knowledge and expose my team to learning opportunities is a core competency that candidates are seeking in a leader.
Participating at the summit means that candidates can get visibility over how I operate as a leader and more importantly get a sense of what they can potentially learn if they were to join my team.
About Andrea
Andrea came to marketing through a fairly circuitous path, with an academic background in finance and accounting. After university, she worked in several different companies in the Middle East in various finance and business management roles, until she sort of stumbled into a marketing position by accident.
It was an eye-opening experience, and she quickly fell in love with the industry, and she's been a marketer ever since. Her background in finance has given her unique skills in managing marketing budgets and insights into that industry, and when she had the opportunity to apply those skills to fintech marketing, she jumped at the chance. She's been in the fintech industry in various CMO roles for the last 7 years, with her current role at Zai, the new brand that's resulted from the merger of CurrencyFair and Assembly Payments.
Do you want to be part of a community filled with fantastic CMOs and marketing leaders like Andrea? Join the CMO Alliance Community Slack channel today!
Want to contribute to the community? Find out how you can get involved.
