CMO Therapy

Lucy is joined (again!) by the brilliant Louise Beaumont, who heads up marketing, comms and design at Invela, to talk about selling something that doesn’t quite exist yet. Because marketing a network is a very different beast to marketing a product. On day one there’s nothing to show, just an empty room and your job is to persuade people to turn up anyway.
Louise explains why early marketing is more like casting a movie than running a campaign, how to spot your early believers (they're the ones asking the sharpest questions) and why ruthless honesty is the only way to keep them. She also introduces the “brain worm”, that one vivid idea that, once it’s in someone’s head, changes how they see the world. Plus, they get into why your playbook won’t survive a new market and how to stop the business panicking when year-one metrics look terrible.
As Louise puts it: “Make sure you’ve got great brain worms and give them time to hatch.”
If you’ve ever had to sell a future rather than a product, this one’s for you.

Music clip by Filo Starquez, Divergence

Everyone wants leads yesterday. But what if the real magic is in the "boring" stuff you do today?
In this episode of CMO Therapy, Lucy sits down with Ben Robinson, former CMO at Temenos (where he grew the Temenos Marketplace from something small into one of fintech's biggest marketplaces) and now a VC investing in B2B fintechs. Ben's big idea is that marketing works like compound interest. The work builds and builds until people start saying "wow, you're everywhere."
We get into deal-based marketing and how a tiny team can look far bigger in enterprise sales. We also cover why marketing doesn't stop at the lead and how to keep impatient founders on board while the compounding kicks in. Plus Ben shares a slightly spicy take for a CMO podcast: do you even need to hire a CMO yet?
As Ben puts it: "If you just do activation all the time, you don't have that goodwill to draw on. At some point you have to refill the well."
If your CEO keeps chanting "leads, leads, leads," this one's your therapy session.

Ever get that little pang of rage opening LinkedIn to yet another "Hi Lucy, hope you're well!" message from someone who clearly hasn't looked at your profile? Yeah, us too. In this episode, Lucy is joined by the brilliant Melanie Mills, Chief Growth Officer at Pay Captain (and a career that went from styling footballers' wives to running enterprise sales in fintech, no big deal), to talk about why "relationship first, revenue second" isn't just a nice idea, it's the only thing that actually works anymore.
We get into why cold outreach reply rates have completely tanked, why AI is making the noise problem worse (not better) when it's used lazily and why quality of input always beats quantity of output. Mel drops some brilliant, brutally honest advice on personalisation, multi-channel selling and why voice notes might just be the most underrated tool in your arsenal.
As Mel puts it: "Just dig deep and be real."
If you've ever deleted a cold email without reading past the first line, this one's for you.

Music clip by Filo Starquez, Divergence

Every marketing leader has inherited some flavour of martech chaos. A few platforms bought with the best intentions, a tool or two nobody quite remembers signing up for and now AI getting thrown at the whole mess like fairy dust. In this episode of CMO Therapy, Lucy is joined by the godfather of martech himself, Scott Brinker, and yes, that's a compliment, not a warning.

They get stuck into why more tools has never automatically meant a better marketing engine and why so many CMOs end up doing a lot of shopping and calling it transformation. Scott doesn't hold back on where the industry's gone wrong either, admitting he almost regrets creating the infamous martech landscape because it's become part of the distraction.

The real fix? Stop leading with tools and start leading with strategy.

As Scott puts it, "the marketing and the strategy comes first, and then you're applying the right technology."

If your stack feels more like a tangle than an engine, this one's essential listening.

Music clip by Filo Starquez, Divergence

Some CMOs walk into a new role with a playbook already in hand. Frameworks that worked before, campaigns that grew the last company from five to fifty million. Handy. Except when it isn't.
In this episode of CMO Therapy, Lucy is joined by the brilliant Louise Beaumont to talk about exactly that moment: when the playbook that made you look like a genius somewhere else suddenly doesn't fit, because the category's different, the audience doesn't even know they have the problem yet, and the map you're used to following just... doesn't exist.
So what do you do? Burn it. Literally the title of this episode.
Louise sums up the mindset perfectly: "if you get it right, if you shift enough worldviews, if you create a category that didn't exist before, it's the best feeling in the world."
If you've ever walked into a role and quietly wondered whether what worked before will work again, this one's going to hit home.

Music clip by Filo Starquez, Divergence

AI can spit out a flawless marketing strategy in three seconds flat. What it can't do is tell you when to trust your gut in the room. That's exactly what this episode of CMO Therapy gets into.
Lucy is joined by the brilliant Roopa Ramaiya, who's gone from Canary Wharf banking to Barcelona fintech to construction tech, and never once stuck to one lane. Together they get into the messy, honest stuff: career pivots, moving into industries you know nothing about and why "must have industry expertise" on a job spec might just be code for fear.
Roopa doesn't hold back either. As she puts it, "industry expertise is often a proxy for fear." Ouch, but also... true.
They talk judgement, commercial instinct, reading the room and why the best CMOs aren't the ones who've mastered one industry, they're the ones who can walk into a new one and get credible, fast.
If you've ever felt the fear of jumping ship, this one's your permission slip.
Music clip by Filo Starquez, Divergence

Ever feel like marketing success is just about doing more - more channels, more activity, more noise? In this episode of CMO Therapy, Lucy is joined by the brilliant Lauren Berkemeyer, CMO at YuLife, to unpack why that "boil the ocean" approach is quietly wrecking budgets, trust and focus across marketing teams everywhere.

They get into:

• Why high-volume, low-relevance outreach is actively damaging your funnel (the stats are brutal: 73% of B2B buyers avoid suppliers sending irrelevant outreach and 81% straight-up ignore generic messaging)

• How to use AI for account intelligence without losing the human touch that builds real trust

• Why patience, not speed, might be your most underrated sales and marketing weapon

• And why so few marketers actually know their ICP and what that's costing them

As Lauren puts it: "One in four are your real trailblazers... those are who I want to find."

If you're ready to trade spray-and-pray for precision, relevance and a much healthier funnel, this one's for you.

Music clip by Filo Starquez, Divergence

Hiring marketing talent has always been hard, but right now it feels like a whole new level of chaos.
In this episode of CMO Therapy, Lucy is joined by Conor Coughlan, CMO at Armis, to unpack the slightly painful reality of finding genuinely brilliant marketers in an AI-driven world. Because let’s be honest, everyone looks polished on paper now. CVs are sharper, applications are slicker and AI can make almost anyone sound like they know exactly what they’re doing.
Conor shares what he’s seeing first-hand while rebuilding a SaaS marketing team, including the sheer volume of applications, the rise of AI-polished CVs, and why traditional screening methods are starting to break. He also gets into the practical stuff: how to write clearer job descriptions, why reference checks still matter, how to test for real capability and why grit, curiosity and attitude can be just as important as experience.
As Conor puts it, AI tools are amazing, “but my God, they can put lipstick on a pig.”
If you’re hiring, growing a team, or trying not to make an expensive mistake, this one is absolutely worth a [email protected]. Press tab to insert.Music clip by Filo Starquez, Divergence

AI has well and truly landed in marketing teams, and yes, it can be brilliant. It can speed things up, sharpen ideas and help us get more from the content we already have. But it has also unleashed a wave of bland, samey, beige content that sounds suspiciously like… everyone else.
In this episode of CMO Therapy, Lucy is joined by Wade Coleman, Head of Brand and Content Strategy at Fiserv, to talk about the AI content identity crisis facing marketing leaders right now. They get into why so much AI-generated content feels soulless, where AI is genuinely useful, where it needs a firm “absolutely not” and why strong brand voice, audience understanding and human judgement matter more than ever.
As Wade puts it: “ChatGPT is a shortcut to sounding like everyone else.”
If you’re a CMO or marketing leader trying to use AI without quietly murdering your brand voice, this one’s for you.Music clip by Filo Starquez, Divergence

In this episode of CMO Therapy, Lucy meets with the brilliant Sinead Willis for a very honest conversation about the messy reality of the modern CMO. Because sometimes the role you’re sold in the interview process and the role you actually walk into are two very different things.

Together, they explore why so many senior marketers end up in businesses that say they want strategic marketing leadership, but don’t actually create the conditions for it to work. They get into red flags, due diligence, broken systems, moving goalposts, and the difference between a role that stretches you and one that slowly grinds you down.

They also unpack why communication matters so much at this level, because being good at marketing is one thing, but being able to hold your own in rooms full of strong opinions is another.

As Sinead puts it, “They’re not stretching, they’re basically eroding.”

If that hits a nerve, this episode is for you.

Music clip by Filo Starquez, Divergence