440: Entering the Consumer Market while Driving Sustainability with Elyse Winer CMO & GM of Consumer at GenPhoenix

Elyse Winer, CMO and GM of Consumer at GenPhoenix, began her career at Merrill Lynch before transitioning to healthcare consulting at Vynamic, where she gained branding and sales experience. She then moved into startups, leading marketing for Boston-based companies and collaborating with Reebok at MC10. Before joining GenPhoenix full-time, Elyse became a partner at Material Impact, a venture capital fund, where she served as interim CMO for GenPhoenix, overseeing a rebrand and their expansion into the consumer market. Her success in both startups and large companies has earned her numerous accolades, including Forbes' "30 Under 30" in Marketing & Advertising.

GenPhoenix, founded in 2007 for the aviation industry, is a market leader in the mass transportation seating category, with over 250 airlines using their material. Their technology breaks down waste leather to the fiber level and uses recycled water to rebuild the fibers, creating a product even stronger than before. This recycled leather has an 86% lower carbon footprint compared to traditional leather. GenPhoenix has since expanded into the leather goods and footwear industries, collaborating with brands like Coach and Dr. Martens. To date, they have diverted more than 10,000 tons of waste from landfills.

On today's show, Alan and Elyse discuss the sustainability of the fashion industry and its future direction. They explore how GenPhoenix is adapting, shifting from a predominantly B2B model to expanding into the consumer market. They also highlight partnerships with brands like Coachtopia and Dr. Martens, among others, and discuss strategies for promoting and protecting your brand in collaborations. Additionally, they discuss what early-stage companies and scale-ups, like GenPhoenix, should prioritize when allocating their marketing budgets.

In this episode, you'll learn: 

• Strategies when expanding into the consumer market
• How to protect and promote your brand in a collaboration
• What to prioritize when allocating marketing budgets, on a budget

Key Highlights: 

• [01:37] What Snoop Dogg is like 
• [04:36] Career path to GenPhoenix
• [11:00] What is GenPhoenix 
• [14:25] What combined role of CMO and GM of Consumer looks like
• [18:05] Sustainability in the fashion industry
• [23:45] Expanding into the consumer market
• [27:49] How to protect your brand in a collaboration
• [35:22] How being budget constrained can drive creativity
• [40:47] Experience of your past that defines you
• [43:40] Advice to younger self
• [45:19] A topic that you and other marketers need to learn more about
• [47:35] Trends or subcultures others should follow
• [50:00] Largest opportunity or threat to marketers today

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Larry Weber is the Founder and Chairman of Racepoint Global and the founder of The Weber Group. He also engineered the merger of Weber Shandwick, making it the world’s largest public relations firm. With a career spanning over 45 years, Larry co-founded the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange (MITX). His impressive client list includes industry giants such as AT&T, Boston Scientific, John Deere, General Electric, General Motors, Panasonic, and Verizon, among others. Larry is the author of six books on marketing, technology, and leadership. His seventh book, A New Age of Reason: Harnessing the Power of Tech for Good, was released on August 6.

Racepoint Global is an independent public relations agency based in Boston, Massachusetts. They specialize in providing integrated communications services to a wide range of clients, from startups to Fortune 500 companies. Their focus is on helping B2B and consumer technology brands engage their audiences in meaningful ways.

On today's show, Alan and Larry discuss the valuable insight Larry has learned from working with industry titans. They delve into the key themes of his new book, A New Age of Reason: Harnessing the Power of Tech for Good, examining the intersection of technology and humanity and the complementary forces they create. Exploring the concept of "tech for good", they discuss how traditional marketing has disappeared in today's world. They also talk about the evolving roles of earned, owned, and paid media in modern marketing.

In this episode, you'll learn: 

• How to build long-term customer loyalty
• The future of earned, owned and paid media
• How to harness tech for good and drive innovation

Key Highlights: 

• [01:40] What is it like to have worked with industry titans 
• [07:40] Career path to PR and Communications
• [13:10] Why this book and why now
• [20:40] Are tech and humanity competing or complementary forces
• [24:15] Tech for good
• [27:17] Has marketing disappeared
• [31:03] Earned, owned and paid media
• [36:12] Experience of your past that defines you
• [38:00] Advice to younger self
• [39:09] A topic that you and other marketers need to learn more about
• [40:35] Largest opportunity or threat to marketers today

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Pam Morrisroe is the CMO of Breakthrough T1D, formerly JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). She holds a Bachelor of Science in Consumer Studies from the University of Vermont and an MBA in Marketing and Media Communication from Fordham University. With over 20 years of marketing experience, Pam has led award-winning campaigns for clients like Ford, American Express, and Volkswagen across multiple channels, including digital activation, experiential, branding, consumer, business-to-business, CRM and omnichannel commerce. As Managing Director at VMLY&R, she spearheaded innovative virtual programming during the pandemic, driving significant growth. Now at Breakthrough T1D, Pam leads campaigns to raise awareness of type 1 diabetes and support the organization's mission to create a world without T1D.

Breakthrough T1D, formerly JDRF, is a nonprofit organization founded in 1970 by families affected by type 1 diabetes (T1D). It is now the leading global research and advocacy organization for T1D. Its mission is to accelerate life changing breakthroughs to prevent, cure, and treat T1D and its complications by connecting the brightest minds to advance treatments, influence policy, and improve access to care.

On today's show, Alan and Pam discuss what sparked the rebranding from JDRF to Breakthrough T1D. They delve into the research behind the rebrand, the careful selection of the new name, and how it has been seamlessly integrated into their marketing strategy. They also highlight the progress made, what’s working well, and other critical milestones essential for rebranding success. Additionally, Pam highlights the importance of diversifying knowledge across various marketing categories, explaining how this approach has contributed to her expertise and success in the field. 

In this episode, you'll learn: 

• Why research is critical to a successful rebrand
• How to effectively integrate a rebrand into every aspect of your company
• The strategic, intentional steps behind a successful rebranding campaign, and how it expands consumer reach

Key Highlights: 

• [02:14] Experience of dropping your oldest son off at college
• [03:15] Living the only child life
• [04:10] Pam’s career path
• [06:50] What is Breakthrough T1D
• [08:22] What sparked the rebrand
• [10:30] Critical milestones to rebranding
• [13:51] How you knew you had the right name
• [16:40] Why simplicity was so important in the pitch process
• [18:00] How does the rebrand manifest in the marketing
• [22:03] Lessons learned
• [25:42] Experience of your past that defines you
• [27:13] Advice to younger self
• [29:05] A topic that you and other marketers need to learn more about
• [30:05] Trends or subcultures others should follow
• [32:36] Largest opportunity or threat to marketers today

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Jennifer (Jen) McAdams is a seasoned marketing veteran with more than 25 years of experience within the software industry. Jen went to Northeastern where she graduated with a resume and a business suite, and hit the ground running in her career. She worked closely with Xactly in an advisory CMO role initially as part of Vista Equity Partners’ Value Creation Team – and her partnership and execution of a comprehensive marketing plan that generated increased pipeline and higher quality leads led her to permanently join Xactly as a member of the senior leadership team and CMO. Before Xactly and Vista Equity Partners, she’s previously held senior roles with SAP, Cisco, Progress, Ixia, and Kaseya. 

Xactly is a platform “for sales leaders founded by a sales leader”. Their main legacy product is for automating sales compensation and commissions. However, over the years, they have made acquisitions that have allowed them to extend their offerings into sales planning and forecasting tools that live in a single platform and are available as modular pieces that grow with their clients. 

On the show today, Alan and Jen talk about how she is bridging the gap between marketing and sales at Xactly and what she has seen work across the different types of companies that she's worked for. Jen gives us practical tips to align around a common goal, how she thinks about organizing teams, and the importance of leading by example. Alan and Jen also discuss how marketing is organized within her group, how that relates to customer marketing as she builds that new function and how AI can be a resource for marketers. 

In this episode, you'll learn: 

• The importance of bridging the gap between marking and sales 
• Tips on how to collaborate, align, and operationalize around a common goals 
• How Jen organizes her team for a focus on customer marketing

Key Highlights: 

• [01:58] Life with a rescue Chihuahua (Biscuit)   
• [03:20] Jennifer’s career path 
• [08:06] What Xactly does and who they serve 
• [09:13] The gap between B2B marketing and sales
• [11:22] Aligning goals with compensation
• [12:15] How to operationalize
• [15:15] Getting the rest of the team on the same page
• [16:42] What does marketing look like at Xactly
• [17:58] What customer marketing looks like
• [20:38] Experience of your past that defines you
• [22:39] Advice to younger self
• [24:37] A topic that you and other marketers need to learn more about - AI
• [25:47] Trends or subcultures others should follow
• [27:08] Largest opportunity or threat to marketers today

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Patrick Buchanan is from Lexington, Kentucky, and went to Western Kentucky University, where he studied journalism broadcasting with the dream of being a VJ. After graduation, Patrick moved to LA to pursue those dreams, but instead fell into marketing through a side hustle as an assistant at Creative Recreation. He found he had a knack for it, embraced his new path, and over the next 7 years, worked his way up to become Marketing Director at Creative Recreation before he moved on to Global Marketing Director at K-Swiss Global Brands, then Senior Director of Brand Marketing for Bravado at Universal Music Group. In 2021, Patrick became Vice President Marketing at GOOD AMERICAN, and today, he serves as Senior Vice President of Marketing at Lulu's, a women's fashion business with a mission to make women feel special and beautiful for all of their life's moments. 

On the show today, Alan and Patrick talk about what Lulus does, who they serve, and the kinds of altruistic disruptive campaigns they are implementing to get organic attention. Patrick also tells us how brands should be thinking about the types of partners and influencers they invest in to most effectively and authentically speak to their target audience, as well as his lived experience being a young black head of marketing and what he hopes to do with his platform. 

I

n this episode, you'll learn:

• Examples of disruptive campaigns to get organic attention 
• How to pick and leverage the right influence partners
• Patrick’s experience as a young black man and head of marketing 

Key Highlights:

• [01:40] A brush with fame alongside Kelly Clarkson 
• [03:10] Patrick’s career path
• [08:30] What Lulus does and who they serve
• [10:00] How to get your brand noticed 
• [12:30] Leveraging partnerships to bring brand missions to life
• [17:35] How to engage with influencer marketing as it evolves 
• [20:10] Patrick’s experience as a young black man and head of marketing 
• [23:30] Learning to maneuver creatively and never accepting no as an answer 
• [25:20] Advice to his younger self 
• [26:55] Always be learning more about your customers and what they like. 
• [28:50] Trends and subcultures to watch 
• [30:30] Opportunities and challenges with AI

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Ryan Bonnici is Chief Marketing Officer, Wellhub, previously known as Gympass. Ryan brings over 15 years of experience at places like Salesforce, HubSpot, G2, and Microsoft and was named one of the 2020 World’s Most Influential CMOs by Forbes. Ryan now leads a team of over 300 professionals at Wellhub, where his main goal is to make wellbeing a priority for employees globally. 

Wellhub is the world's leading corporate wellness platform. They have over 15,000 clients globally who rely on Wellhub to provide their employees with access to the best wellness partners around the world across fitness, mindfulness, therapy, nutrition, and sleep. Their goal is to make every company a wellness company.

On the show today, Alan and Ryan talk about the reason behind the rebrand from Gympass to Wellhub, the logistics of making such a significant change, and differences in their B2B, B2C, and B2P marketing strategies. They also discussed the benefits of entertainment marketing tactics, why Ryan and his team ultimately settled on a fictional podcast called Murder in HR, and the impact it has had on their core businesses.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The reasoning and logistics behind rebranding from Gympass to Wellhub
• The differences in B2B, B2C, and B2P marketing strategies 
• Why and how to leverage branded entertainment 

Key Highlights:

• [01:40] How Ryan gets wellness into his week 
• [05:55] Ryan’s career path
• [10:45] Wellhub’s goal and mission 
• [12:15] Their product is their network.
• [14:30] From Gympass to Wellhub
• [19:10] What B2B, B2C, and B2P marketing looks like at Wellhub
• [21:20] Leveraging branded entertainment 
• [30:00] How self-low esteem as a kid impacted Ryan as an adult
• [32:10] Advice to his younger self 
• [33:15] Don’t write off social selling in B2B and follow your own behaviors.
• [35:45] Trends and subcultures to watch 
• [37:15] Threats facing marketers today

Looking for more?

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On the show today, Alan and Jen talk about how John Deere is staying relevant as a 187-year-old brand in today's market and what strategies they are using to help people, specifically the younger generation, more fully appreciate the pivotal role that farmers, construction workers, and maintenance crews play in our everyday lives. Jen also tells us about their recent hunt for a Chief Tractor Officer, how they ran the campaign on a budget by leveraging values-aligned celebrity relationships, and what qualifications made Rex perfect for the CTO job.

Jen Hartmann has over 25 years of experience in public relations, communications, and marketing. However, after high school, she originally wanted to be a teacher, but discovered PR when she was in college and immediately knew she wanted to head public relations at John Deere. After a number of various marketing roles at companies like the Illinois Soybean Association, Advanced Technology Services, and United Way, she eventually landed at John Deere about 16 years ago. Today, she serves as their Global Director of Strategic Public Relations and Enterprise Social Media. In this role, Jen is responsible for managing the image and reputation of the company, leading media relations and social media community building, and handling crisis events and issues that could have an impact on the brand. 

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How the 187-year-old brand is staying relevant with innovative PR strategies and their new Chief Tractor Officer, Rex
• The key to organic social media success
• Advice for working with values-aligned celebrities 

Key Highlights:

• [01:30] Royal Ball Run, an autism non-profit Jen founded 
• [03:25] Jen’s career path
• [05:05] What John Deere (is outside of green tractors)
• [07:00] How a 187-year-old brand is staying relevant in today's market
• [08:00] The hunt for a Chief Tractor Officer 
• [12:00] The Chief Tractor Officer hunt campaign on a budget
• [13:55] What made Rex perfect for the job?
• [17:25] The key to organic social media success
• [19:25] Advice on working with celebrities 
• [23:10] Lessons learned from her daughter 
• [25:15] Advice to her younger self
• [26:20] The AI portion of the show
• [27:55] Catching a vibe from X and Reddit
• [31:40] The biggest threat facing marketers today

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Simmy Kustanowitz has built a reputation as an idea generator and "creative fixer" by utilizing two easy steps—Simplify and Gamify—to solve any company's toughest challenges. As an Emmy-nominated TV producer, Simmy has held high-level positions across multiple genres, ranging from live events and high-budget scripted sitcoms to reality docu-series and studio game shows. He started his career as a writer in the MTV and VH1 worlds on shows like TRL and Silent Library. He eventually was promoted to the producer role before moving into showrunning, then became a development executive, where he found his love for marketing. Simmy worked on the network side at WarnerMedia for about 8 years before he left to become Chief Creative Officer for Bad Woods Entertainment, the production company founded by the stars of Impractical Jokers and took over as their showrunner as well. Simmy took the problem-solving skills he learned in the entertainment business into the wider business world, where he now works with CMOs to help them streamline their internal communications and external messaging.

On the show today, Alan and Simmy talk about the lessons he has learned over 20+ years in the entertainment industry and how he has translated those lessons into his creative workshop, “Rethink the Way You Think,” that helps corporate teams think more efficiently and problem solve more productively. Simmy also shares tips to overcome the most common pitfalls he sees teams face during brainstorming sessions.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How Simmy helps CMO’s think more efficiently and problem solve more productively 
• What elevates thinking to creative thinking 
• The biggest pitfalls teams face in creative solving problems and how to overcome them

Key Highlights:

• [02:00] Death threats are not a joke.
• [05:00] Simmy entertainment career path
• [07:40] Lessons learned throughout his career 
• [09:40] How lessons learned in entertainment help CMO’s
• [11:55] Defining creativity and creative thinking 
• [15:10] How to stretch time
• [16:15] The biggest pitfalls teams face when it comes to thinking more creatively to solve problems?
• [17:10] The 10-3 brainstorm
• [21:25] How to improve brainstorm sessions 
• [23:25] Simmy’s origin story for his creativity 
• [25:30] Advice to his younger self
• [26:15] Learning from your competition 
• [27:10] Reading Reddit
• [29:45] Battling against attention spans

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Sun Lee is a seasoned marketing leader with over a decade of proven business success. She started her career on the agency side, working with small start-ups as a brand and digital designer in Silicon Valley during the e-commerce boom. She went on to get her Masters Degree, then reenter the workforce on the client side, heading up marketing and communications for big-name companies like Sisu Data, SurveyMonkey, and Pure Storage, before joining BigPanda as the CMO in April 2023. 

BigPanda brings AI to IT operations in order to proactively identify and resolve incidents before they become costly problems. They work with large brands like Autodesk and Zayo, as well as large banks and airlines, to ensure seamless technology operations. BigPanda is a start-up and challenger brand competing with giants in the industry, meaning Sun and her team are operating with a relatively small budget, allowing them to move faster and position themselves as an innovator in the sector.

On the show today, Alan and Sun talk about her experience of coming to the US alone at 15, learning to speak English, and how being a nonnative speaker has given her one of her marketing superpowers. They also talk about how she navigated career transitions from specialized roles in design to broader roles in marketing and how that varied experience has contributed to her success as a CMO. Sun outlines with us her approach to digital marketing, the importance of understanding content journeys, and the marketing benefits of being a startup challenger brand. She also tells how she and her team have been implementing AI and how she foresees it shifting the ways marketing teams work as well as the characteristics of who she is looking to hire. 

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How and why to drive alignment between marketing and sales 
• Marketing benefits and strategies for startup challenger brands
• How AI is causing a shift in expectations of marketers hires

Key Highlights:

• [01:50] Coming to the US alone at 15
• [03:30] Benefits of English as a Second Language in Marketing
• [04:15] Sun’s career path
• [07:20] How her experience shapes her approach to marketing 
• [12:00] Finding alignment between marketing and sales 
• [13:00] BigPanda: what they do and who they serve
• [15:05] Marketing benefits of being a startup challenger brand
• [17:10] Thoughts on digital marketing 
• [19:45] Starting with the content journey 
• [20:35] How AI is shifting Sun’s thoughts on marketing and productivity 
• [22:35] From specialization marketing to the CMO role
• [25:30] The most embarrassing professional moment of Sun’s career 
• [28:20] No dumb questions, only dumb questions. 
• [29:00] Soft skills are the way of the future. 
• [30:25] The evolution of word-of-mouth marketing 
• [31:50] The biggest opportunity facing marketers today 

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April Moh immigrated from Singapore to the US for love in her 20s and restarted her life and career from scratch. The first third of her career in the US was spent in PR agencies, learning the importance of impactful storytelling. She started to develop a curiosity about how the different parts of a company work together to fuel growth and decided to take her career in-house at Microsoft, then SAP, where she eventually became chief of staff. She went on to become CMO at SUSE before moving into the CMO role at Kyriba in October 2023, the same year she was named as one of Campaign Magazine’s “Most Inspiring Women." 

Kyriba is a fully unified SAS performance platform with over 80,000 users. They serve treasury needs, risk, payment, connectivity, and working capital to help their clients gain real-time visibility into their cash balances and break out of the liquidity gridlock that many finance teams get stuck in. With Kyriba, finance teams get an aggregated, reliable, and comprehensive view of their cash and liquidity, as well as actionable insights that empower them to make decisions on liquidity performance. 

On the show today, Alan and April talk about the rebrand Kyriba has gone through and why branding in B2B industries can be uniquely challenging and more susceptible to scrutiny. April tells what she has learned from her life experience as a female Asian immigrant in tech, including being told she was “not American enough," the maternity discrimination she has faced, and the advice she has for other people who may be told they do not belong. Alan and April also talk about the evolution of marketing, what marketers should be thinking about in terms of being successful in their careers, and tips on how to get ahead.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How Kyriba empowers clients with an actionable understanding of liquidity performance.
• When to rebrand and the unique challenges of branding B2B
• How April has overcome discrimination as an Asian immigrant and mother, and her advice to others

Key Highlights:

• [02:00] Immigrating to the US in her 20s 
• [05:55] From RP to CMO
• [09:16] Kyriba: What they do and who they serve
• [11:10] Which CFO’s have the most success?
• [13:15] Why a rebrand was needed
• [18:00] What she has learned through discrimination 
• [24:20] “There’s always tomorrow.”
• [25:25] Advice to her younger self (and her two children)
• [26:45] Get out of the marketing silo.
• [29:00] Misperceptions of marketers 
• [30:40] The evolution of the CMO role
• [33:30] Threats and opportunities facing marketers today 

Looking for more?

Visit our website for the full show notes, links to resources mentioned in this episode, and ways to connect with the guest!

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