My guest on the pod this week, Jeff Jenkins, is CMO of Carter’s. He has one of those serendipitous career journeys that started when he was a 16-year-old tennis player coming home from a trip to Europe obsessed with this band, Ace of Base. As a young actor in New York, appearing on “Star Trek '' and in soap operas, he tempted in between at MTV and this sync with popular culture led to a stellar career at Taco Bell, where he learned to love the life of a 16-year-old audience to sell a lot of tacos. Wholly understanding the customer drives what he does at Carter’s, a brand that means everything to new parents, then fades away. Jeff keeps Carter’s present in an era of DTC and influencer brands, walking the tightrope between heritage and current culture.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• It's often the smarter decision to stay in your core demographic lane

• New parents are scrolling through TikTok at 3 a.m.

• Partnerships are a great way to keep a classic brand current

• Every retailer wants to feel special, so build a bespoke line extension

• The formula for career satisfaction: fun + learning + great people.

Brought to you by Mekanism

Water with a hint of flavor but not of sugar was the simple but genius concept behind Hint Water. Founder Kara Goldin joins the pod today to tell us about a 17-year entrepreneur’s journey that has had her staring down category captains at retail, telling DTC brand stories and making the correlation between larger bottle openings and sales. Her acumen has brought accolades from Fortune–she’s both a Most Powerful Entrepreneur and Most Innovative Woman in Food and Drink–and a Huffington Post Disruptor in Business. Kara took a career hiatus from big tech to raise her children. During her three children’s toddler years, she noticed how apple juice jacked them up, but there were no flavorful, healthy alternatives in her grocery store. Hence, Hint Water was born in her garage and a classic business success story ensued.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Once you find your mission, act decisively
• How to keep scaling mini mountains
• Why you need to embrace competition to grow
• Leaders have their outside, clear brand voice and their inside brand debates
• How complex it is to create and simplify

Brought to you by Mekanism

As a former senior executive at Starbucks, Aimee Johnson knows a thing or two about customer experience. While waiting in line was part of the community experience for some, the Starbucks’ app was also a critical timesaver for others. Aimee had to convince leaders at the democratized brand that tech could also have heart. In her most recent role as CMO of the Zillow Group, Aimee juggled how to build an online brand that showcased the dream of real estate with the realities of qualifying for a mortgage. With more than 30 years of high-level marketing experience, including years at Campbell Soup Company, Aimee joins the pod to share insights about product development and digital transformation at Starbucks and brand differentiation at Zillow, when the rest of the industry starts to copy you. Maybe her best advice came from her father: "Don’t listen to anyone’s bullshit."

In this episode you’ll learn:

• That sometimes waiting is part of the community experience
• How to align internal groups by leaning into customers habits
• Why this Brené Brown fan agrees that vulnerability and values are your strengths
• Sustaining a consumer relationship that could take years to actual point of sale
• Why her mantra on digital transformation comes from Einstein: ”The true science of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination.”

Brought to you by Mekanism.

GE CMO Linda Boff joins the pod this week to tell us about achieving success through reinvention. Through her career, including 18 years at GE, Linda has continually revitalized both career and company through practicing a restart mindset, knowing the difference between being recognized and being relevant and tapping into the innovation and marketing chops of Thomas Edison. Linda has one of the biggest jobs in marketing, overseeing global marketing, brand content, digital and sponsorships. Linda is also GE’s Vice President, Learning and Culture, meaning she manages the company’s legendary GE Crotonville center, and she is President of GE Foundation.

In this episode you'll learn:

• How to climb the corporate career ladder when there’s no ladder in sight
• The re-start mindset
• What reinvention looks like at a global corporation
• The difference between being recognized and being relevant
• How to combine the fresh with the familiar
• A new take on Edison’s classic 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration formula
• How believing in people and living strong values pays off
• Why to always assume “good intent”

Brought to you by Mekanism

World 50 CEO David Wilkie joins the pod this week to share insights on his exclusive company, discuss the power of peer networks, and how alignment of purpose, trust, curiosity, and diversity of thought promote growth.


As CEO of World 50, David is responsible for the strategic direction, growth and development of the company. David joined the company 17 years ago, and has been CEO of World 50 for the last 11 years.


Founded in 2004, World 50 consists of private peer communities that enable board directors, CEOs and C-level executives at globally respected organizations to discover better ideas, share valuable experiences and build relationships that make a lasting impact. The executive network has grown to incorporate G100, a peer learning, development and networking community for the world’s top-performing companies and their leaders. Working with more than 3,000 leaders globally, World 50 serves more than 1,100 companies across more than 30 countries on six continents.


Prior to joining World 50, Wilkie held several roles at Hess Corporation, including president of Hess Microgen and vice president of marketing and business development. He earned his Master in Management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida.


Brought to you by Mekanism

LendingTree Chief Marketing & Customer Experience Officer Shiv Singh joins Jason this week to discuss how he's harnessing the power of trust in our post-trust world.

Shiv joined LendingTree in January 2022 from The Expedia Group, where he served as SVP and General Manager for the world-class travel brand, charged with driving brand loyalty and long-term customer value amid the coronavirus pandemic. Previously, Singh worked as CMO for med-tech startup Eargo, successfully repositioning the brand during a crucial high-growth period for the business. Singh's impressive career also includes senior leadership positions at Visa, PepsiCo and Razorfish. As an entrepreneur Shiv also had his own consultancy as well. Shiv has been inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement. He has been recognized by Forbes as a Forbes Next CMO, Ad Age as a Media Maven, Business Insider as a Payments Industry Game Changer, Adweek as a Top 50 Marketer (twice), and The Internationalist as a Top 100 Influential Leader. He is also the the author of two award-winning social media and marketing books, Savvy - Navigating Fake Companies, Fake Leaders and Fake News and Social Media Marketing for Dummies.

Brought to you by Mekanism

Comic Relief CEO Alison Moore joins Jason this week to discuss how she moved from a profession to a purpose, how she effectively markets a mission, and how Comic Relief is using entertainment to make positive change in the world.

Alison Moore is a media and tech industry veteran who is bridging the worlds of entertainment, social change, storytelling, and fundraising to break the cycles that perpetuate intergenerational poverty. Alison joined Comic Relief US in 2019 to build upon the organization’s ambitious mission to drive positive change through entertainment. Under Alison’s leadership, Comic Relief US is leveraging its unique blend of humor and entertainment to address complex and entrenched social and economic issues. Since 2015, Comic Relief US has partnered closely with Walgreens, NBC, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on its year-round Red Nose Day campaign to end child poverty. In the past 7 years Red Nose Day has raised over $275 million and positively impacted over 30 million children in the U.S. and around the world.

Brought to you by Mekanism.

eos CMO Soyoung Kang joins Jason this week to discuss how taking calculated risks can increase ROI.

Soyoung Kang is the Chief Marketing Officer at eos Products, the iconic beauty brand that has sold nearly a billion lip balms worldwide. Since joining eos as CMO, Soyoung has completed a total reboot of the brand identity, from resetting creative and strategic vision, to dramatically expanding the category footprint and product pipeline, to launching experiential marketing initiatives like the influencer collaboration FlavorLab and #eosmicrobatch DTC fashion drops. Under her leadership, eos has garnered dozens of honors, including product awards from Allure, Cosmopolitan, and SELF, and media recognition from the Shortys, Webbys, and Digiday. Before her time at eos, she had a decade-long career in specialty retail, leading brand development of the successful beauty segment at Bath & Body Works. She was also a strategy consultant to Fortune 100 clients at The Boston Consulting Group.

Brought to you by Mekanism.

Indeed CMO Jessica Jensen comes on the pod to discuss the future of work, the importance of change and adaptation, and how Indeed is reframing "The Great Resignation" as "The Great Realization."

As the Chief Marketing Officer at Indeed, Jessica Jensen is responsible for Brand, Communication, Product, Acquisition, and Experience Marketing globally. Jessica has led high-performance teams at the world's leading technology companies like Yahoo!, Apple, and Facebook. She has built high-impact B2B and product-marketing organizations, as well as had full P&L responsibility for internet media businesses. As former Chief Marketing Officer at OpenTable and Head of Products, Platforms & Insights for Business Marketing at Facebook, Jessica has built strong revenue growth for consumer internet brands via her deep experience in strategic planning and business model development. As Chief Marketing Officer at Indeed.com, the #1 job site in the world, she is passionate about coaching and motivating diverse, high-performing global teams and is a champion of women’s advancement.

Brought to you by Mekanism.

Foot Locker Global CMO Jed Berger joins Jason on the pod to discuss how omni retail is future-proofing Foot Locker.

Jed Berger currently serves as the Chief Marketing Officer for the Foot Locker family of brands in North America. During his nine-year tenure at Foot Locker, Jed also served as Vice President of Marketing for Foot Locker. Prior to joining Foot Locker, Jed’s professional experience has deep roots in youth culture. After co-founding Dime Magazine and building the agency 94x50, he moved on to serve as the Senior Vice President of Marketing for Modell’s Sporting Goods for two years. His marketing acumen has been acknowledged regularly throughout his career, including being named to SBG 40 Under 40 in 2011, and Footwear News 40 Under 40 in 2018.

Brought to you by Mekanism