In this episode of #Exceptions, a revelation about leadership and team happiness and retention in B2B. Indianapolis startup Lessonly teaches us about the communication principle most needed but often overlooked across the corporate world. It's one that explains why customers send Lessonly unsolicited letters praising them, and why the company's VP of Marketing spent a recent evening alone in his garage, spray painting 700 toy llamas gold.

The Most Crucial Leadership Principle Most B2B Brands Miss

Exceptions from the Drift Podcast Network is a docuseries exploring how and why a handful of B2B companies have built brands to experience breakout success. For years, "brand" was a dirty word in B2B. But today, in an era full of choice and noise, brand has become THE go-to strategy for differentiating your company. Join Drift and your host, author and keynote speaker Jay Acunzo, as we journey around the B2B world to understand what makes these companies tick and experience for ourselves the power of brand. Learn what it takes to become an exception.

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In the series finale of Exceptions, we go inside the mind (and schedule) of one of the world's top CMOs, Sarah Kennedy Ellis of Marketo. We discuss the acquisition by Adobe, how brand affects her team's work and her own, and why the Exceptions exploration is the most important journey for modern marketers to make today.

To our listeners: Thanks for your support of this series! Keep in touch with Drift at drift.com and host Jay Acunzo at marketingshowrunners.com.

Inside the Mind of a Global CMO (Sarah Kennedy Ellis, Marketo/Adobe)

In the penultimate episode of Exceptions, we try to move storytelling back from buzzword to core component of our jobs as marketers. What does it take to tell a gripping story? What does a brand story do for a business, and how do we vet and tell stories nobody else is telling? We talk to Contently’s Editor-in-Chief Jordan Teicher to find out.

Contently on What We Really Mean When We Say Brand Story

We've talked to lots of marketers marketing to marketers in this series, but how can we as marketers build a beloved brand in an industry that isn't our own? Today, we talk to the SVP of Marketing at Toast, Kevin Hamilton, to explore what it takes to earn trust in a new community, as they've done with restaurant owners. We touch on hiring, partnerships, events, and other approaches, and we reflect on how to grow an exceptional brand given these unique challenges.

Earning Trust in a New Community with Toast

Over the course of this series, we've profiled plenty of companies whose products make sense to most of us in business (not to mention the few companies who have the enviable task of marketing to other marketers -- ahh, the dream, right?). But what if your product is highly technical in nature? How do you market to technical people when your marketers are definitely not? And how do you balance the need to target enterprise decision-makers and frontline developers and technical team leads? All that and more in this episode, featuring the CMO of tech giant Twilio, Sara Varni.

Building a Brand for Technical Products with Twilio

It feels like we say it every day: Marketing is changing. Fast. In this episode, we talk to Workfront's CMO Heidi Melin about what the future of work entails, why we're ill-prepared at most organizations, and what to do about it.

The Most Crucial Leadership Principle Most B2B Brands Miss

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