In this episode of The Get, host Erica Seidel talks with Debbie Umbach, CMO of M-Files, about landing – and fulfilling – a CMO role in the age of AI. Debbie describes building AI capability inside a 50-person global team, from hiring to designing new roles to leading change.
You will learn about:
- Differentiating yourself in a CMO job search, and the role of AI in that
- Key things to share with boards about your AI journey: not just what you're doing but what is working well, what isn't, and how you are building AI fluency on your team
- Scaling AI fluency and transformation across a 50+ person marketing team
- Carving out a new role: The AI GTM Transformation Leader
- The persistent importance of context and taste in the CMO role
- A framework for speedily building trust as a new CMO (Hint: balance authenticity, data, and empathy)
- Change management tips for leading AI transformations, whether your team is big or small
Some quotes:
- “Marketing is an ing. We're always doing things. But WHY are we doing them, and what are the outcomes we're looking for? I always am trying to get the team to think about, ‘okay, we've got these things to do, but why?’”
- "You can't just change for change's sake. You can't just say, 'We want to use AI to be more productive.’ Instead, it's: 'Why are we changing? How are we going to get better? How is this going to make your job better and more fun? How are you going to get to do the things that are more interesting?’"
00:00 Welcome and Season Theme
01:20 Debbie’s Origin Story
03:30 Confidence and Speaking Up
04:40 Systems Thinking for AI
06:07 Winning the CMO Search
08:27 Showing AI in Interviews
09:12 AI Training and Org Design
12:43 AI SDR Teammate Mia
14:11 GTM Transformation Lead
19:43 New Roles and Knowledge Ops
21:10 Avoiding AI Slop
24:17 Context and Positioning
29:04 Hiring Questions That Reveal
31:53 Change Management and Trust
37:00 Future of the CMO Role
38:34 Wrap Up and Credits
The Get is here to drive smart decisions around recruiting and leadership in B2B SaaS marketing. We explore the trends, tribulations, and triumphs of today’s top marketing leaders in B2B SaaS.
This season’s theme is focused on how AI is reshaping the CMO role: how you lead, how you hire, and how you get hired."
The Get’s host is Erica Seidel, who runs The Connective Good, an executive search practice with a hyper-focus on recruiting CMOs and VPs of Marketing, especially in B2B SaaS.
If you are looking to hire a CMO or VP of Marketing of the ‘make money’ variety, rather than the ‘make it pretty’ variety, contact Erica at erica@theconnectivegood.com. You can also follow Erica on LinkedIn or sign up for her newsletter at TheConnectiveGood.com.
The Get is produced by the team at Simpler Media Productions.
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
