This week, Ian and Jeff finalize their discussion about a CMO’s first 90 days, coming to the last of the 5 F’in’ Marketing Fundamentals - The Campaign. The Machine, roughly equates to Marketing Operations a role that Jeff knows well, having created several marketing operations teams before going on to advise enterprises through his work at Sirius Decisions and Forrester. In this episode, Ian and Jeff step through the five cylinders of the machine and what the new CMO needs to pay attention to in...
May 01, 2025•35 min•Season 1Ep. 269
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, fractional marketing leader and author Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, Ian and Robert discuss an idea Robert shared in his Content Marketing Institute column about slowing down marketing. The main points from the bar this week: The idea of vibe marketing Speed in marketing often co...
Apr 26, 2025•25 min•Season 3Ep. 15
This week, Ian and Jeff continue to discuss the CMO’s first 90 days, focusing on the fourth of their 5 F’in’ Marketing Fundamentals - The Campaign. The first three fundamentals are primary inputs to when and how you communicate to your customers and prospects, and this fundamental is where the rubber hits the road as you use that insight and content to engage with relevant, customer-centric campaigns. Clearly, in the first 90 days, this is primarily about listening and understanding what is work...
Apr 23, 2025•33 min•Season 1Ep. 268
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, fractional marketing leader and author Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, Robert feels that the dude does not abide, inspiring his cocktail choice, and he and Ian discuss the AI-dominated Google search experience and how this impacts our content marketing. The main points from the bar...
Apr 19, 2025•23 min•Season 3Ep. 14
This week, Ian and Jeff continue to discuss the CMO’s first 90 days, focusing on the third of their 5 F’in’ Marketing Fundamentals - The Story, which is developing a content marketing strategy. The five steps they discuss this week Know why you are creating a content strategy Doing the knowledge Being useful Understanding why you Launch it like a product As always, we welcome your feedback. If you have a suggestion for a topic that is hot for you, please get in touch using the links below. Enjoy...
Apr 16, 2025•31 min•Season 1Ep. 267
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, fractional marketing leader and author Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, Robert reaches for a classic cocktail that is appropriate for this week’s topic as he and Ian discuss the marketing classics as an antidote to today’s apparent obsession with reinventing marketing. The main poin...
Apr 12, 2025•22 min•Season 3Ep. 13
This week, Ian and Jeff continue to discuss a CMO’s first 90 days, focusing on the third of their 5 F’in’ Marketing Fundamentals - The Masterplan, plus a bonus conversation about nuts. Some talking points from this week: Aligning marketing with business objectives and defining measurable goals and OKRs Assessing dependencies and evaluating the tech stack Balancing short-term wins with long-term strategy Adapting your master plan As always, we welcome your feedback. If you have a suggestion for a...
Apr 09, 2025•35 min•Season 1Ep. 266
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, fractional marketing leader and author Robert Rose, behind the bar serving one of his splendid cocktails while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, Robert has a fabulous cocktail for the Californian sunshine, and him and Ian discuss a LinkedIn post by author, keynote speaker, and business transformation consultant Tom Goodwin that starts with the line “The ...
Apr 05, 2025•22 min•Season 3Ep. 12
This week, Cathy McKnight, Chief Problem Solver at Seventh Bear, makes her monthly visit to the studio. This week, she and Ian discuss localization, which remains a hot topic when publishing content, and she shares her experience working with international clients. Some talking points from this week: Companies often confuse translation and localization The stats that show the benefits of good localization Local knowledge is vital for cultural awareness Content strategies often fall apart when tr...
Apr 03, 2025•36 min•Season 1Ep. 265
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, fractional marketing leader and author, Robert Rose, behind the bar serving a fabulous weekend cocktail while our host Ian Truscott, a CMO but not a rockstar, picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, ignoring the advice of Mark Twain to never discuss politics or religion in polite company, the chaps tackle brands navigating the politicization of everything. They discuss: Brands must navigate the politicizatio...
Mar 29, 2025•22 min•Season 3Ep. 11
This week, Jeff Clark is back to kick off a new series about a CMO’s first 90 days, and this week, he and our host, Ian Truscott, focus on the first of their 5 F’in’ marketing fundamentals - The Knowledge - and the first steps of figuring out the current situation. In this discussion, they cover: Recap on the 5 B2B F’in’ Marketing Fundamentals The STARS model and market and category analysis Customer insights and understanding the ideal customer profile Effective communication Assessing success ...
Mar 26, 2025•38 min•Season 1Ep. 264
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, fractional marketing leader and author, Robert Rose, behind the bar serving a wonderful weekend cocktail while our host Ian Truscott picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week in The Rose and Rockstar, over a cachaça cocktail, Ian and Robert discuss the future (or not) of corporate websites. They discuss: What is cachaça? How corporate websites need to evolve, not die How technology and SEO have driven the web e...
Mar 22, 2025•27 min•Season 3Ep. 10
This week, marketing and revenue operations expert Simon Daniels joins Ian after a two-year break working with Forrester to discuss how we define the discipline of revenue operations, how this sits with sales operations and marketing operations, and how we should implement this function. In this discussion, they cover: Revenue operations, marketing, sales, and customer success operations. The organizational structure for RevOps varies by business context. Collaboration between sales and marketin...
Mar 19, 2025•44 min•Season 1Ep. 263
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, fractional marketing leader and author, Robert Rose behind the bar serving a wonderful weekend cocktail while our host Ian Truscott picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, over a luxurious cocktail, Ian and Robert discuss thought leadership in the AI age and the importance of charisma and community. They discuss: The evolution of thought leadership as AI makes research a commodity Storytelling and the charis...
Mar 15, 2025•22 min•Season 3Ep. 9
This week, Cathy and Ian discuss communication, inspired by some evergreen advice on email best practices that spills into a chat about general management training, personality types, and how employees are expected to figure it all out on their own. Communication tools best uses The need for communication skills training Evolving communication practices Working on the communication culture in your organization Understanding personality types Management skills and how to reward individual contrib...
Mar 12, 2025•28 min•Season 1Ep. 262
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, fractional marketing leader and author, Robert Rose behind the bar serving a wonderful weekend cocktail while our host Ian Truscott picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, Ian and Robert discuss creating communities as an extension of gating content. Once they got past the weather and politics, the key points in the discussion were: The Shift to Gated Communities Building and Marketing Exclusive Communities ...
Mar 08, 2025•29 min•Season 3Ep. 8
This week, former Forrester Research Director Jeff Clark and Ian Truscott, a CMO and not a rockstar, dive into their AMPED B2B buyers' journey to explore 5 SNAFUs a buyer might discover when they are in that phase and what we as marketers can do about it. The 5 SNAFUs they discuss: #1 Lack of understanding the problem or potential solution #2 Does any other business have this problem? #3 Who else (internally) feels this pain? #4 Unable to invest the time #5 Can I get executive buy-in that we hav...
Mar 06, 2025•37 min•Season 1Ep. 261
Welcome to The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, fractional marketing leader and author, Robert Rose behind the bar serving a wonderful weekend cocktail while our host Ian Truscott picks his brain on a marketing topic. This week, Ian challenges Robert on his claim in the Content Marketing Institute newsletter that saying “no” is a marketer's superpower. It sounds easy, but in reality, it can make you very uncomfortable - so how do you really say no, and why is it i...
Mar 01, 2025•24 min•Season 3Ep. 7
This week, experienced B2B CMO Thomas Peham is back for a chat with Ian about how generative AI affects search and a new project he is working on - Otterly.ai - and how he is finding life as a founder and start-up marketer. They discuss: The rise of generative AI is reshaping marketing strategies SEO is evolving with the introduction of AI search engines Marketers must adapt to the declining organic traffic due to AI Content management systems need to evolve to meet new demands Creative marketin...
Feb 27, 2025•38 min•Season 1Ep. 260
Our sixth visit to the officially renamed virtual bar - The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, fractional marketing leader and author Robert Rose. Over one of his fabulous cocktails this week, our host, Ian Truscott, asks the big B2B question - to gate or not to gate? They discuss: The classic tension between marketing and sales How to create urgency and scarcity to improve engagement Creating communities can serve as a new form of gating Sneaky gating tactics that ...
Feb 22, 2025•29 min•Season 3Ep. 6
This week, Jeff Clark, former Forrester Research Director and CMO, not a Rockstar, Ian Truscott discuss some practical advice on how to measure brand, and in this week’s chat, they cover: The Value of Brand in B2B Measurement Understanding Brand Awareness Perception: What Do Customers Think? Preference: Measuring Customer Loyalty Operationalizing Brand Metrics The Cumulative Effect of Marketing Strategies As always, we welcome your feedback. If you have a suggestion for a topic that is hot for y...
Feb 19, 2025•33 min•Season 1Ep. 259
Our fifth visit to the officially renamed virtual bar - The Rose and Rockstar - with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear, fractional marketing leader and author, Robert Rose. Over one of his fabulous cocktails this week, our host, Ian Truscott, asks the big question - is marketing getting harder? They discuss: The marketing as a large shallow ocean - it’s getting wider, not deeper Understanding marketing requires both art and science Measurement in marketing has always been challenging The in...
Feb 15, 2025•27 min•Season 3Ep. 5
This week, Jeff Clark, former Forrester Research Director, was inspired by one of his old Forrester chums to discuss what’s wrong with B2B measurement. So, in this episode, he and Ian cover the following 5 points: #1 - Buying complexity obscures so much #2 - Technology sprawl gives us fractured data #3 - AI-inflated hope drives an expectation gap #4 - Measurement can’t keep up with a renewed emphasis on reputation investment #5 - Exec Team is Not Onboard with What You’re Reporting As always, we ...
Feb 12, 2025•42 min•Season 1Ep. 258
In our fourth visit to the officially renamed virtual bar - The Rose and Rockstar - we continue to dive into the book writing process with the Chief Troublemaker at Seventh Bear and author of several books, Robert Rose, over one of his fabulous cocktails, as our host, Ian Truscott, continues to struggle to complete his first book. They discuss: Cocktail of the week - Grapefruit Negroni The writing process and editing Self-publishing vs. traditional publishing Setting writing goals and deadlines ...
Feb 08, 2025•23 min•Season 3Ep. 4
This week, Cathy McKnight, Chief Problem Solver at Seventh Bear joins Ian in the Rockstar CMO studio to chat about teamwork. They cover: The Importance of teamwork in marketing Understanding team dynamics and collaboration The concept of “the collaboration edge” Measuring success and shared purpose The dreaded “breaking the silos” Understanding organizational goals and OKRs Diagnosing and addressing organizational challenges The 3 C’s - Clarity, Connection, and Cadence As always, we welcome your...
Feb 05, 2025•36 min•Season 1Ep. 257
In our third visit to the officially renamed virtual bar - The Rose and Rockstar - this week, Robert Rose, the Chief Troublemaker at the newly launched Seventh Bear, shares one of his fabulous cocktails and as our host, Ian Truscott, struggles to complete his first book, he picks Robert’s brains on his process as an author of a series of marketing books. They discuss: Cocktail of the week: The Mayan Michelada Robert’s writing process Answering big questions and having a hypothesis The importance...
Feb 01, 2025•29 min•Season 3Ep. 3
This week, Jeff Clark and Ian Truscott dig into the Muse stage of the Rockstar CMO buyer's journey, called AMPED (Awareness, Muse, Purchase, Engage and Develop), and leverage Jeff’s expertise in advising B2B buyers to explore five challenges they face at this early inspiration stage of the buyer’s journey and how vendor marketers can help. They list five potential SNAFUs: #1 – Unable to collaborate with key internal decision-makers #2 - Overcoming FOFU (Fear of F’in’ Up) #3 – Not knowing the ful...
Jan 29, 2025•39 min•Season 1Ep. 256
Due to a loss of internet for his virtual bar buddy Robert, instead of his scheduled visit to the Rose and Rockstar, Ian goes solo and shares some thoughts planned for his book about tuning into the business when you first get a marketing leadership gig, discovering the market and the ideal customer profile for your B2B product or service. In this solo performance, he shares: The Five B2B Marketing Fundamentals Understanding Business Objectives Evaluating Company Status with the STARS Model Mark...
Jan 25, 2025•38 min•Season 1Ep. 255
This week, Jeff Clark and Ian Truscott get amped about buyers journey models, unveiling the Rockstar CMO buyers journey, called AMPED, riffing off the greatest hits of their favorite models from AIDA, Gartner, Forrester, and Pedowitz Group. The model they discuss: Awareness - The buyer becomes aware they have a problem that can be solved Muse - The buyer is looking for inspiration and finding the solution Purchase - The buyer is now evaluating the solutions and making a decision Engage - The buy...
Jan 22, 2025•37 min•Season 1Ep. 254
In our second visit to the officially renamed virtual bar - The Rose and Rockstar - this week, Robert Rose, the Chief Troublemaker at the newly launched Seventh Bear, shares a simple but classy cocktail, and Ian Truscott picks his brains on pivoting on the B2B gumball machine of MQLs and the hope and aspiration that maybe we’ll recognize the value of brand in B2B in 2025 - and rebuts the view that if we can’t attribute something directly to revenue it’s not worth doing. They discuss: Can we shif...
Jan 19, 2025•26 min•Season 3Ep. 2
