The Path to CMO: Insights and Advice with Aaron Ballew

Stories of ascent and success don't get more compelling than those penned in the high-stakes environment of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). We’re taking an honest look at the path to becoming a B2B CMO, followed by a deep discussion about what it takes to be successful as you enter the role and make the right impact.
This episode is tailor made for 3 types of folks:
1. You want to become a CMO
2. You’re currently a CMO and feeling some version of imposter syndrome
3. You’re a head of sales or a CEO who’s ready to uplevel alignment at your company
If you fit into any of those categories, grab a cup of coffee and a pencil-consider this episode your map to navigating the tempests of leadership, strategy, and success as a marketing leader in a B2B context.
Key Moments in this Episode:
2:34 - Advice for new CMOs
13:49 - The different kinds of CMOs
22:02 - Changes to expect going from VP to CMO
33:23 - Be wary of artificial conviction as a new leader
39:36 - Marketers must do more than try to make sales happy all the time
49:23 - Not all captured demand is demand you generated yourself
53:24 - The reason so many companies over-index on demand capture
59:27 - How to adapt to the new mandate for efficient growth as a new CMO
1:05:03 - ⚡️ Lightning round!
We’re diving into the gravity-of becoming a CMO with Aaron Ballew, PhD engineer turned marketer and CMO at Split.io. Aaron has been the CMO at Split.Io for just over 2 years. He came to Split from Ping Identity where he was VP of Demand. Before that, he held senior roles in demand gen, portfolio marketing, segment strategy. Interestingly, Aaron started out in engineering-with a PhD. He has the shortest LinkedIn about section we’ve ever seen: Real data with a human touch.
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