Teams Built for Growth and Grit | Renegade Marketers Unite

Описание: Recruiting great marketers is tough work. Sustaining performance, growth, and energy over time demands deliberate choices. Those choices shape the culture, the pace, and the results your team can sustain through whatever comes next.

To see how this plays out across very different orgs, Drew talks with Dan Lowden (Blackbird.AI), Marni Puente (SAIC), and Amy King (Relias) about the teams they’ve built and the systems that keep them performing. They break down who they hire first, how they set structure and expectations, and how coaching, intelligent failure, and AI-supported workflows help people grow and stay motivated.

In this episode:
• Dan builds a lean, senior, hands-on startup team and fosters a test-and-learn culture where people move fast, try new things, and learn together.
• Marni reshapes a communications-heavy function into a modern marketing org, adding commercial and demand capabilities and aligning work to OKRs and transparent dashboards.
• Amy leads a marketing reset at Relias, rebuilding leadership and structure, positioning marketing with sales and client care, and modeling vulnerability and continuous learning through change.

Plus:
Why AI committees, battle buddies, and shared learning loops turn hesitation into confident adoption
How OKRs, scorecards, and focused dashboards clarify priorities and tie marketing to revenue outcomes
Where intelligent failure helps teams stop low-value work, share lessons, and build trust
How competency assessments, surveys, and development plans nurture top performers and future leaders

If you’re building, inheriting, or leveling up a marketing team, this episode gives you a ton of moves to help it perform, grow, and stay together.

Chapters
0:00 – Introduction
1:38 – Dan Lowden: Hire for culture & coach for impact
6:09 – Meaningful work and growth keep stars
8:24 – Startup marketing baseline: content, demand, events
10:40 – Marni Puente: Startup marketing inside a Fortune 500
12:44 – Market marketing to win buy-in
18:19 – Lead by example: learn with your team
21:01 – Amy King: Build the team your strategy needs
24:06 – Make intelligent failure a team practice
27:34 – Employee surveys, manager feedback, clear fixes
30:00 – CMO Huddles: Community that accelerates outcomes
33:27 – Battle buddies to AI-first culture
40:58 – OKRs, KPIs, and clear timelines
44:21 – Grow stars with stretch roles
48:31 – Final words of wisdom on growing high-performing teams

Connect with us on LinkedIn:   / renegade-llc  

Connect with Drew on LinkedIn:   / drewneisser  
Connect with Dan on LinkedIn:   / danlowden  
Connect with Marni on LinkedIn:   / marni-puente  
Connect with Amy on LinkedIn:   / amy-king-022461a  

To find the transcripts of all episodes, suggest future guests, or learn more about quite possibly the best B2B marketing agency in New York City, visit https://renegademarketing.com/

To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit: https://cmohuddles.com/

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