Originally published on August 26, 2024

This replay features the wonderful Surbhi Agarwal, 25+ year industry vet and former CMO at Applied Intuition. We talked about her path from engineering to product marketing to the CMO seat, what really changes when you leave companies like Intel and Google for a fast moving startup, and why she builds marketing around trust, clarity, and collaboration.

Surbhi’s story as an immigrant navigating visa setbacks, rebuilding her career across three countries, and eventually helping grow a business to 10M ARR is powerful. Her honesty about leadership, resilience, and finding your voice as a woman in B2B has stuck with me ever since.

- Jane

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In this episode of Women in B2B Marketing, host Jane Serra sits down with Surbhi Agarwal, 25+ year tech exec. Surbhi shares how she went from engineering and sales into product, then product marketing, and into the CMO role, and why she still thinks like a product marketer every single day.

This episode covers:

• Surbhi’s path from electrical engineer in India to CMO in Silicon Valley
• What she learned moving from Intel and Google to a messy, fast paced startup
• Why she believes product marketing is the strategic core of marketing, not a “support” function
• Her “golden triangle” model connecting product marketing, demand generation, and brand
• How she reorganized a 70 person global marketing team, broke down silos, and cut spend while improving performance
• The difference between running marketing in a hardware world where failure is not an option and in a software world where shipping at 80 percent is the norm
• How she uses OKRs, RACI, and skip level conversations to create clarity and psychological safety
• The early career visa setback that forced her to move back to India, then to London, Taiwan, and France, and how that built resilience and a deep customer mindset
• Her “full glass of trust” philosophy and how she builds collaborative, high trust teams across cultures and time zones
• Why she tells younger women to stop assuming men and women are treated the same at work, and to find their voice and negotiate earlier

Surbhi also shares the kind of honest advice we do not hear enough in leadership circles, including why waiting quietly to be rewarded rarely works, and how women can navigate ambition inside systems that are still far from equal.

Key Links

Guest: Surbhi Agarwal, 25+ year Tech Executive/ CMO: https://www.linkedin.com/in/surbhiagarwal/

Host: Jane Serra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janeserra/

Kim Winter has spent nearly a decade building and scaling product marketing across Yotpo and multi product orgs. In this episode of Women in B2B Marketing, we unpack how true product marketing starts with market context and the voice of the customer, then fuels everything from positioning to pipeline.

Kim shares how to operationalize VOC with CS, why PMM should own recurring deliverables like quarterly competitive reviews and persona refreshes, and what changes when PMM reports into product, the CMO, or directly to the CEO. We also dig into the rising path from PMM to CMO, and how to keep marketing intentional instead of turning into a production shop.

Here’s what we cover:

• The “bottom of the pyramid” for PMM: market context, competitive landscape, and VOC
• How PMM focus shifts by product stage, from finding fit to scaling mature lines
• Design partners vs customer advisory boards, and when to use each
• Recurring PMM deliverables that create visibility and influence across the org
• Where PMM should sit and how KPIs shift under Product vs CMO vs CEO
• Why PMM fuels customer marketing and tight alignment with Sales and CS
• Debunking the “PMM = messaging at the end” misconception
• Making marketing intentional: tie every output to a clear goal and buyer need
• Practical ways to gather customer insight fast without boiling the ocean
• The PMM to CMO trend and what makes product marketers strong marketing leaders

Key Links:

Guest: Kim Winter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-winter/

Host: Jane Serra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janeserra/

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Sidney Waterfall has led agencies, advised high-growth teams, and now runs marketing in-house at OpenBrand. In this episode of Women in B2B Marketing, we unpack how focusing on process, not outcomes, builds momentum, clarity, and GTM efficiency that actually lasts.

Sidney shares how her team runs PR without an agency, uses proprietary data to earn credibility, and measures what truly moves the business forward. From pipeline coverage to process discipline, she offers a refreshingly honest take on what modern marketing leadership really looks like.

Here’s what we cover:

• Why “process over outcomes” is the mindset every marketing leader needs
• How OpenBrand built long-term PR credibility through data, not hype
• Obsessing over inputs instead of chasing metrics
• Partnering with finance to tie marketing to business outcomes
• The frameworks Sidney uses to track rolling pipeline coverage and GTM efficiency
• Redefining pipeline sources to align sales and marketing around shared success
• How to build a team culture that learns from what doesn’t work
• What Sidney learned moving from consulting to in-house leadership

Key Links:

• Guest: Sidney Waterfall: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sidneywaterfall/
• Host: Jane Serra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janeserra/

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Molly George has spent her career inside B2B tech and on the agency side. Today she is the CEO and founder of Kickstand, a PR and research firm helping brands win in an AI-shaped search world.

In this episode of Women in B2B Marketing, we unpack why PR is having a comeback in B2B, how AI search is changing the playbook, and what modern comms leaders are doing to show up in the consideration set. We also get into Molly’s founder story, the power of setbacks, and practical ways to make PR work alongside demand, content, and product marketing.

Here’s what we cover:

• PR’s real job in B2B and why quick wins are the wrong expectation
• AI search and brand visibility: how citations shape consideration
• Owned vs earned in 2025: your site, plus offsite owned profiles like G2, AWS, Wikipedia
• Press releases today: when they help train models and when wires waste budget
• Formatting for LLMs: structure, subheads, and consistent boilerplates across properties
• Using query data to guide narratives, pitches, and thought leadership
• Reddit for B2B: participate with value, not a megaphone
• Budget shifts: why teams are moving dollars from classic SEO to brand and PR
• Starting an agency while employed, finding the tipping point, and trusting your gut

Key Links:

• Guest: Molly George: https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-george-kickstand/
• Host: Jane Serra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janeserra/
• Kickstand: https://meetkickstand.com/
• Kickstand Research Report on AI and GTM: https://meetkickstand.com/landing/the-zero-click-era-is-here-are-you-ready-to-show-up/

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Ruta Sudmantaite and Emma Davies have built their careers across marketing, consulting, and now tech entrepreneurship. After meeting as teammates at a B2B SaaS company, they went on to become fractional CMOs, podcast co-hosts of Blame It On Marketing, and founders of their own startups - Lava Metrics, a marketing analytics platform, and Thesmia AI, a low-cost AI assistant for HR teams.

In this episode, we talk about building while bootstrapping, the realities of fractional consulting, what it’s like to start companies with your friends (and partners), and how they bring kindness, candor, and community into every room they enter.

Here’s what we cover:

• How Ruta and Emma went from coworkers to fractional CMOs and co-founders
• The differences between starting a consulting practice and a tech company
• Why they believe “two heads are better than one” in fractional work
• Building products without outside funding - patience, scrappiness, and first customers
• How to disagree kindly, give feedback, and earn trust with in-house teams
• Why executive presence doesn’t have to look like a suit or a script
• Creating community through honesty: confessions walls, career couches, and real talk
• The power of female allies, industry besties, and personal boards of directors
• And yes, Ruta’s side business selling sourdough starter - and what it taught her about SEO

Key Links:

Guests:

Ruta Sudmantaite: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rutasudmantaite/

Emma Davies: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmadavies1989/

Host: Jane Serra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janeserra/

Thesmia AI: https://www.thesmia.ai/

Lava Metrics: https://lavametrics.com/

Blame it on Marketing Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/3X0IiwUIupVa4tCNg8AMpR?si=5d01dceb2c6d4c86

Ruta's Epic UK Sourdough co: https://getsourdough.co.uk/

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Recorded IRL at Pavilion’s GTM2025, Washington DC!

Amanda McGuckin Hager has worn many hats in her career—sales, marketing, fractional consulting—and today she holds two big ones: CMO and CRO at TrueDialog. After starting out in sales and quickly realizing her heart was in marketing, Amanda built a path through Austin’s B2B tech community, leading teams, experimenting with growth plays, and eventually taking on dual leadership of sales and marketing.

In this episode, we unpack Amanda’s journey, her approach to building strong cultures without “duds,” why she’s protective of her CMO title, and how she’s testing AI and search in practical, creative ways.

Here’s what we cover:

• Amanda’s early pivot from sales into marketing (and why it stuck)
• What it really looks like to be both CMO and CRO at the same time
• Resetting a sales org from comp plans to quotas to team structure
• Why fewer silos and more shared accountability reduce finger pointing
• How to spot (and avoid) “duds” when building teams
• The role of fun and positivity in high-performing leadership
• Fractional marketing lessons: variety, freedom, and choosing clients
• Why Amanda protects the CMO title (even while running sales)
• Experiments with LLM optimization, long-tail queries, and AI tools
• Guarding deep work time with “no meeting” blocks and shitty first drafts

Key Links:

Guest: Amanda McGuckin Hager: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda/

Host: Jane Serra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janeserra/

Recorded live from Pavilion's GTM2025: https://attendgtm.com/

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**Originally published on October 16, 2024**

This replay features the brilliant Liza Adams - AI advisor, fractional CMO, and one of the top 50 CMOs to watch in 2024. We talked about her journey from Manila to Michigan, why gratitude fuels her leadership, and how she’s spent 20+ years helping B2B tech companies elevate marketing from “tactical” to truly strategic.

Liza’s perspective on AI, trust, and building defensible moats is refreshing and practical - I left this convo inspired and with about ten new quotes for my wall.

- Jane

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In this episode of Women in B2B Marketing, host Jane Serra sits down with Liza Adams, AI advisor and fractional CMO. Liza shares how her engineering roots shaped her early entry into AI, and why she’s passionate about marketing’s role as a strategic driver of business growth (not just the “campaigns and events team”).

This episode covers:

• Liza’s journey from immigrant roots in the Philippines to tech executive in the U.S.
• Why marketing must reclaim its North Star: deep customer understanding
• The three passions guiding her career: elevating marketing’s strategic value, championing diverse voices, and using business as a force for good
• Practical frameworks for evaluating product-market fit and building defensible moats
• How AI can shrink research cycles, spark alignment, and elevate marketers from tacticians to strategists
• Trust as the ultimate differentiator - why “brand building” is really “trust building”
• Examples of how teams are using custom GPTs to boost productivity and decision-making
• Her advice to CMOs in today’s “pressure cooker” environment

Liza also shares the golden rule of modern marketing: be an amazing human first, then an amazing marketer. (yesssssss!!)

Key Links:

Guest: Liza Adams: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizaadams/

Host: Jane Serra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janeserra/

Discussed in Episode:

Disrupt or Be Disrupted: AI's Verdict on Your Product's Defensibility

Competitive Defensibility Analyzer GPT

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Paige Tills didn’t set out to be a marketer. After starting in international relations and higher ed, she pivoted into business development at #samsales - where she built her way into marketing and ultimately grew into the role of VP of Marketing. Paige has built her role from the ground up, shaping the company’s content engine, experimenting with paid and organic channels, and scaling what started as one newsletter into a multi-channel brand presence.

In this conversation, we dive into Paige’s journey, her lessons learned on newsletters, social, ads, webinars, YouTube, and AI, and what it takes to market with personality, precision, and scrappiness.

Here’s what we cover:

• Saying yes to pivots and building a career in unexpected places
• How #samsales scaled from one newsletter to a full content ecosystem
• Zero-click content and why click-through isn’t always the goal
• LinkedIn ads, thought-leader campaigns, and what not to do with targeting
• YouTube lessons: shorts, long-form, and CTAs that actually work
• Why founder-led brands win - and what to do if you don’t have one
• Making webinars engaging without the slide deck snoozefest
• Early AI + LLM experiments: traffic, Wikipedia, and Reddit potential
• The role of personal storytelling and motherhood moments on LinkedIn

Key Links:

Guest: Paige Tills: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paige-tills/

Host: Jane Serra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janeserra/

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Michelle Denogean has one of those careers that makes you stop and take notes. From dreaming of Super Bowl ads to running marketing at eHarmony and Edmunds, advising dozens of startups, writing a book, and now leading as CMO at Mindtrip—she’s lived the full spectrum of B2B and B2C.

In this conversation, we dig into what’s working in B2B marketing today, how to scale reputation and relationships, and the career lessons Michelle learned the hard way (and turned into her leadership superpower).

Here’s what we cover:

• Why “reputation” resonates more than “brand” with startup founders
• Customer-as-hero marketing and the power of relationships in B2B
• Scrappy (not crappy!) ways to build brand without big budgets
• How to “punch above your weight” as a startup and look bigger than you are
• The decline of email as a pure demand channel (and what to do instead)
• Why culture is your frontline brand asset
• How tough feedback reshaped Michelle’s leadership style
• Breaking out of the box: taking on projects beyond your role
• Networking early and outside your company to open career doors

This one is packed with practical takeaways and some real talk about the realities of leading teams, advising founders, and building reputation in 2025.

Key Links:

Guest: Michelle Denogean: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelledenogean/

Host: Jane Serra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janeserra/

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**Originally published on April 12, 2023**

This episode features the one and only Thao Ngo - SVP of Marketing at Uptempo and a total gem of a leader. We talked about building team culture across time zones, leading through three back-to-back acquisitions, and why she ditched PR and the company podcast (and what’s actually working instead).

Thao’s smart, hilarious, and brutally honest in the best way. One of my fave convos.

- Jane

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In this episode of Women in B2B Marketing, host Jane Serra interviews Thao Ngo, SVP of Marketing at Uptempo. Thao shares her unique journey from early-career marketing student to global marketing leader - and the lessons she’s learned from decades in high tech, M&A chaos, and building high-performing, human-first teams.

This episode covers:

• Leading through three acquisitions (and merging tools, teams, and time zones)
• The chaos and lessons of combining CRMs, MAPs, websites, and work cultures
• How to actually build team culture on Zoom (hint: not forced virtual lunches)
• Why they paused their podcast, PR, and newsletter, and what’s working better
• The live, no-recording MOPs huddles that build real community
• Her onboarding playbook, including a slide on "how to work with the CMO"
• Burnout prevention tips like calendar audits, Slack boundaries, and no-meeting blocks
• How Thao uses Slack photos and custom statuses to lead with personality
• What it's like to lead as an Asian woman in tech, and how she speaks up when it counts

Thao also shares why building trust and being yourself is the most powerful tool a marketer can have.

Key Links:

Guest: Thao Ngo: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thaongo/

Host: Jane Serra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janeserra/

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