This episode features a wide-ranging conversation between host Stuart P. Turner and Ashton Tuckerman, focusing on Ashton's career journey in marketing, her current pursuit of an MBA, and broader discussions about the marketing industry, particularly in the context of startups and the current economic climate.

Key themes include the in-house versus agency debate, the challenges of attributing marketing ROI, the value of continued education, and the fundamental role and challenges of marketing within a business.

Stu and Ashton also covered:

This was a big, broad conversation - hope you enjoy it!

Guest: Ashton Tuckerman

Ashton is now GM of TwentyTwo Digital. Her career has encompassed working both in-house and agency side, including for big companies like Flight Center and Havas (the fourth largest communications company globally), as well as smaller companies, with a particular focus on startups.

Ashton began her career as a content specialist, and has gone on to hold senior positions, notably serving as Chief Marketing Officer and General Manager at the startup Gather, a private chef market place.

Ashton enjoys the process of building and growing businesses. She shares her insights through a LinkedIn newsletter titled The startup CMO (now Growth Mode - link below).

Host: Stuart P. Turner

Stu has over 20 years of experience in digital strategy and product development across the UK and APAC. He's always been at the competitive edge of digital, serving brands both large and small in agencies, as well as building his own businesses.

He's currently pretending to work while actually recording this show at Flow State (https://theflowstate.io) and co-founding next-generation B2B technology business Cataylsi (https://catalysi.com/).

In this episode host Stuart P. Turner speaks with guest Alex Boyd, the co-founder of Aware. They discuss the challenges and benefits of using LinkedIn for business, focusing on strategic approaches beyond simply using the platform and addressing common complaints about its evolving nature.

Alex introduces Aware as a tool to improve LinkedIn usage, born from his personal need while growing his previous service business and generating significant revenue through the platform.

The conversation also touches on the transition from running a service-based business to a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, the differing dynamics of those business models, and the importance of understanding the human element and cutting through jargon in the business-to-business (B2B) world.

Guest: Alex Boyd

Alex is the co-founder of Aware, with many years experience in both digital agencies and growing his own businesses. His career has spanned a number of different industries, all leading to his current focus on startups and Wildfront: "A unique hybrid of SaaS and B2B cash flow generation, investment, and capital allocation."

Host: Stuart P. Turner

Stu has over 20 years of experience in digital strategy and product development across the UK and APAC. He's always been at the competitive edge of digital, serving brands both large and small in agencies, as well as building his own businesses.

He's currently pretending to work while actually recording this show at Flow State (https://theflowstate.io) and co-founding next-generation B2B technology business Cataylsi (https://catalysi.com/).

Stu and Amanda Behre discuss the challenges and opportunities faced by mid-career marketers. Amanda, who recently launched a business called Dear Thrive, explains that her platform connects mid-career professionals with coaches and advisors to address various work-related issues, from soft skills like communications and leadership to technical expertise like navigating new technologies.

They explore the pressures of this career stage, the changing landscape of marketing due to technology and economic factors, and the importance of soft skills and networking for professional growth.

The discussion also touches on the concept of a "marketing ceiling" in APAC and the challenges and possibilities of switching industry categories.

Guest: Amanda Behre

Amanda Behre leads with curiosity, empathy, and intuition; qualities shaped by her experiences across 20+ countries and professional roles in Australia, the US, and UK.

Her executive career spans comprehensive marketing and communications leadership, from consumer and B2B marketing to digital strategy and corporate communications.

At Wotif, Amanda transformed commercial partnerships into strategic relationships that doubled revenue growth, while her acquisition experience with CarsGuide, Autotrader, and Expedia Inc. strengthened her change management expertise.

Having navigated multiple sectors from travel to ecommerce and automotive, Amanda combines data-driven decision making with technology scalability.

A respected media spokesperson and industry contributor, her greatest passion remains building high-performing teams where individuals thrive and deliver measurable business impact.

Host: Stuart P. Turner

Stu has over 20 years of experience in digital strategy and product development across the UK and APAC. He's always been at the competitive edge of digital, serving brands both large and small in agencies, as well as building his own businesses.

He's currently pretending to work while actually recording this show at Flow State (https://theflowstate.io) and co-founding next-generation B2B technology business Cataylsi (https://catalysi.com/).

In the third of three conversations on the importance of brand, Brooke and Stu get into the practicalities of bringing your brand to life with intent and meaning.

Listen in to hear how the pair have come at this challenge and how to avoid some of the common pitfalls that working across multiple teams and agencies can create in the process.

The most important thing? Just get started! You have to start from somewhere, once you have that point of origin, you'll very quickly see where you can go next and how to start the journey.

Guest: Brooke Hill

Brooke is the Founder and Director of Wonderthink, a team of Australia’s most talented content strategists and writers, helping brands unlock wonder in their brands, layer it with strategic thinking, and bring it to life through beautifully crafted stories.

Brooke believe that the power of imagination can change the world, and she's on a mission to help everyone – kids, grown-ups and businesses – nourish their imaginations so they can build empathy, resilience and connection.

Host: Stuart P. Turner

Stu has over 20 years of experience in digital strategy across the UK and APAC. He's always been at the competitive edge of digital, serving brands both large and small in agencies, as well as building his own businesses. He's currently pretending to work while actually recording this show at Flow State (https://theflowstate.io) and co-founding next-generation B2B technology business Cataylsi (https://catalysi.com/).

References

Brooke and Stu are back! This time the duo are talking having fun at work, and why it's so important to hit the brakes and just stop sometimes.

It can feel like you're constantly under pressure juggling plates, getting deliverables out and managing stakeholders with little time for contemplation or creativity. This is somewhat ironic in an industry (marketing) that is stereotypically populated by extra creatives full of wild ideas.

So what's happened? And how do we rediscover the joy in our jobs and avoid the nightmare of enforced fun?

Listen in to find out...

Guest: Brooke Hill

Brooke is the Founder and Director of Wonderthink, a team of Australia’s most talented content strategists and writers, helping brands unlock wonder in their brands, layer it with strategic thinking, and bring it to life through beautifully crafted stories.

Brooke believe that the power of imagination can change the world, and she's on a mission to help everyone – kids, grown-ups and businesses – nourish their imaginations so they can build empathy, resilience and connection.

Host: Stuart P. Turner

Stu has over 20 years of experience in digital strategy across the UK and APAC. He's always been at the competitive edge of digital, serving brands both large and small in agencies, as well as building his own businesses. He's currently pretending to work while actually recording this show at Flow State (https://theflowstate.io) and co-founding next-generation B2B technology business Cataylsi (https://catalysi.com/).

References

Brooke rejoins Stu 18 months on from their predictions in The Implications of AI series last year, to discuss how they are both using (and thinking about) AI technology.

Thankfully the creative arts; specifically branding and copywriting, have survived the AI explosion. While adoption has been rapid, a lot of people and brands are still feeling their way through the what, how and why of AI for their specific use cases.

Flow State and Wonderthink are both advocates of the technology. In this episode Brooke and Stu cover the headlines for creating a relevant AI strategy to support your marcomms, how the current array of tools can help you tap in more deeply to your uniquely human skills, and where the opportunities (and risks) are right now.

Guest: Brooke Hill

Brooke is the Founder and Director of Wonderthink, a team of Australia’s most talented content strategists and writers, helping brands unlock wonder in their brands, layer it with strategic thinking, and bring it to life through beautifully crafted stories.

Brooke believe that the power of imagination can change the world, and she's on a mission to help everyone – kids, grown-ups and businesses – nourish their imaginations so they can build empathy, resilience and connection.

Host: Stuart P. Turner

Stu has over 20 years of experience in digital strategy across the UK and APAC. He's always been at the competitive edge of digital, serving brands both large and small in agencies, as well as building his own businesses. He's currently pretending to work while actually recording this show at Flow State (https://theflowstate.io) and co-founding next-generation B2B technology business Cataylsi (https://catalysi.com/).

References

Stu is joined by ex-colleague / fellow B2B professional Tino Ho to discuss the current state of play in SaaS product marketing.

In the second part of the conversation, Stu and Tino discuss how your mentality around growth can have significant implications across the business beyond just marketing or sales. Looking at things like Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) and going beyond the classic marketing funnel help shift us to a more holistic way of thinking. At the early stages of a business, that can help to avoid creating future issues like the sales-marketing gap, and in more established bigger enterprises it can help build bridges between siloed functions or teams to improve collective results.

Ultimately a focus on the brilliant basics (or fantastic foundations if you prefer) is a great way to make sure you are moving in the right direction and building a go to market strategy that remains aligned with your customers and products.

Guest: Tino Ho

Tino is a commercial leader with 19 years of experience in fast-growing SaaS challenger brands, bringing vertical expertise in financial and ESG technology for product-led and sales-led go-to-market (GTM) motions.

Host: Stuart P. Turner

Stu has over 20 years of experience in digital strategy across the UK and APAC. He's always been at the competitive edge of digital, serving brands both large and small in agencies, as well as building his own businesses. He's currently pretending to work while actually recording this show at Flow State (https://theflowstate.io) and co-founding next-generation B2B technology business Cataylsi (https://catalysi.com/).

References

Stu is joined by ex-colleague / fellow B2B professional Tino Ho to discuss the current state of play in SaaS product marketing.

Since the shift from "growth at any costs" to "wait, we need you to make a profit" driven by market conditions and, let's be honest, investors, the SaaS and tech world as a whole has seen some massive cuts and shifts in team structure. Tino and Stu dig into what this means for marketers or growth professionals in these businesses and how often tension arises because the go-to-market strategy is at odds with the actual product direction and the customers the business can serve (as opposed to those they would like to).

It's an interesting conversation given that B2B marketing is often in the back seat with product and sales driving/riding shotgun - but should that be the case? Or is that just another classic case of the status quo taking priority despite the changing times?

Guest: Tino Ho

Tino is a commercial leader with 19 years of experience in fast-growing SaaS challenger brands, bringing vertical expertise in financial and ESG technology for product-led and sales-led go-to-market (GTM) motions.

Host: Stuart P. Turner

Stu has over 20 years of experience in digital strategy across the UK and APAC. He's always been at the competitive edge of digital, serving brands both large and small in agencies, as well as building his own businesses. He's currently pretending to work while actually recording this show at Flow State (https://theflowstate.io) and co-founding next-generation B2B technology business Cataylsi (https://catalysi.com/).

References

Join Jen and Stu for the final part of the trilogy on customer relations. What started out as a genuine quest for data that could improve our lives has become an unchecked obsession that often results in data hoarding, processes or KPIs at odds with business strategy and a whole lot of very futile feeling interactions in our daily lives.

Jen and Stu walk through how digital permeates almost every layer of customer thinking in a business and how it can lead to some very poor outcomes or, at worst, damage growth and have some pretty nasty repercussions for your brand.

If it seems like your marketing or sales reality is at odds with the real world - you're probably right!

Guest: Jennifer Arnold

Jen has more than 30 years of experience working in senior regional and global marketing, sales, and CX roles, mainly with leading IT companies. She now consults around customer advisory boards and communities and works with the Public Sector Network to help companies build their government sales and marketing programs.

Host: Stuart P. Turner

Stu has over 20 years of experience in digital strategy across the UK and APAC. He's always been at the competitive edge of digital, serving brands both large and small in agencies, as well as building his own businesses. He's currently pretending to work while actually recording this show at Flow State (https://theflowstate.io) and co-founding next-generation B2B technology business Cataylsi (https://catalysi.com/).

References

Jen and Stu are back for the second of three conversations on customer experience. Much like three kids in a trenchcoat, the various parts of a large company are often poorly balanced and easy to spot despite their best efforts to appear like one functioning person. Is this simply due to process misalignment, or is the bottomless hunger for data points and obsession with technology getting in the way of simple, human touchpoints that make or break a relationship?

Listen in as Jen and Stu dig into these questions, discuss the importance of customer journey mapping, financial literacy for the youth of today and how some of the most boring (seeming) industries are in fact, fostering some of the most exciting and meaningful innovations in our day to day lives that we are already taking for granted...

Guest: Jennifer Arnold

Jen has more than 30 years of experience working in senior regional and global marketing, sales, and CX roles, mainly with leading IT companies. She now consults around customer advisory boards and communities and works with the Public Sector Network to help companies build their government sales and marketing programs.

Host: Stuart P. Turner

Stu has over 20 years of experience in digital strategy across the UK and APAC. He's always been at the competitive edge of digital, serving brands both large and small in agencies, as well as building his own businesses. He's currently pretending to work while actually recording this show at Flow State (https://theflowstate.io) and co-founding next-generation B2B technology business Cataylsi (https://catalysi.com/).

References