The Get: Finding And Keeping The Best Marketing Leaders in B2B SaaS

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

Host Erica Seidel interviews Corey McCarthy, who has held CMO roles at Axonify, Unifocus, and Webex Events, about how AI is changing CMO hiring, leadership, and team building in B2B SaaS.
You'll learn about:
How AI is showing up in searches for CMOs -- on both sides of the table
A simple, repeatable idea for breaking up your professional networking into bite-sized chunks that accelerate the speed of trust
Ways to demonstrate your AI prowess as a CMO
How someone 'in search' may actually be more up to date on AI than someone who's 'in seat'
How the strongest GTM teams are going from single-player AI motions to multi-player motions – with positive impacts not just on overall GTM strategy, but on efficiency of AI spend
How a CMO's value lies in orchestrating processes, systems, tools, data, and executive alignment with strong AI governance to avoid brand dilution, duplicated work, and runaway token costs
How CMOs should approach team-building now that AI agents have joined the org

00:00 Welcome and AI focus
00:57 52 coffees networking
03:07 Career path and fun fact
04:53 In seat vs in search
06:05 AI job search system
08:07 Network plus dashboards
11:24 Proving AI leadership
14:19 Governance and token costs
16:39 Team building with AI
19:28 Recruiter advice for CMOs
21:13 Future of the CMO
22:54 Favorite interview question
24:51 How to answer AI questions
28:44 Wrap up and outro

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

Joe Sawyer, CMO of Flashpoint, joins Erica to share his experience and advice for how CMOs can talk with their Boards about their AI initiatives and their ROI.
You'll hear about:
How getting the AI dialogue right with your Board can help you overcome some of the problematic ways that CMOs have communicated with Boards in the past
Anticipating the questions your Board will ask about your AI initiatives
How Joe narrowed down from 20+ potential AI use cases to the few to differentially invest in that would have profound value
Why CMOs should avoid name-dropping consultants and tools, since that reinforces the perception of marketing as a function focused on activity rather than outcomes
How Joe approached a presentation on AI in GTM to a group of PE portfolio company CEOs
How to embrace "productive disappointment"
What actually moves a team from AI-curious to AI-operational
A maturity model for assessing a potential new hire's fluency with AI

Some quotes:
"We tried to look at things through a different view, which was not just what are all the things we could be doing, but what would our board value most?"
"Take a step back and say, 'What are boards talking about with respect to AI when the CMO is not in the room?' Generally, I would argue they're talking about enterprise value and what's the impact of AI on the company's enterprise value. When you show up as the CMO, they're looking at the levers you control that positively impact the way AI can influence the company's enterprise value."
" CMOs can be high-fiving each other over their use cases, but boards are worried about enterprise value… and survival."

Bonus Playlist:
Joe is not only a seasoned CMO, he's a seasoned DJ! He's created a companion playlist on Spotify.
CMO's Essential Summer Playlist
AI disruption and board expectations getting you down? Ten songs to restore perspective, lower your blood pressure, and remind you that not every problem requires a framework

00:00 Show Intro and Theme
00:37 Meet Joe Sawyer
01:25 Fun Fact DJ Dreams
03:07 AI Journey to CEO Summit
05:21 Inbound Conversion Win
06:28 MQL Experiment Lessons
08:15 What CEOs Asked
09:08 What Boards Want
10:20 Inside vs Outside Voice
13:18 Board Perceptions and Budget
15:26 AI as CMO Opportunity
16:36 Driving Team Adoption
19:23 AI Maturity Framework
21:00 Hiring and AI Work Samples
23:07 Best Day Interview Question
24:33 Wrap Up and Outro

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

When you look at the CMO role across hundreds of B2B tech companies, what themes emerge these days? In this episode of The Get podcast, host Erica Seidel talks with Matt Selheimer, VP and Research Director for B2B Marketing Executives at Forrester.
You'll hear about the top themes that have emerged in The Get this season. And you'll get a sneak peek at new Forrester research dedicated to CMOs.
Learn about:
How to classify marketing leadership roles: is the CEO looking for a supporter, a promoter, a partner, or a driver?
How changes in tech and buying behavior can be a catalyst for marketing leaders to claim a broader role and bigger budget
Advice to CEOs who have failed at hiring CMOs
How CMOs who create a continuous learning organization are the ones who will be the most successful
Why marketing leaders need to get beyond "polishing the pebbles on in-market intent signals" and instead invest to be the preferred vendor earlier on, to avoid being used as negotiating leverage against the preferred vendor
How increasingly, "your understanding of your buyers, your customers, and the markets you're operating in is your competitive differentiator"
Why so few CMOs are at the point of firing whole teams in favor of AI
How to avoid 're-org fatigue' while still responding to changing buyer behaviors

Memorable Quote:
"What I tell our clients, and CMOs in transition, is: make sure there's a really good fit here for the purpose of marketing. That what you see as the purpose of marketing and what your CEO and the board see as the purpose of marketing is aligned. If you need to do education, that's the time to do the education… and expand the aperture of how they think about marketing. If you don't get the CEO resonating with that, then that may not be the place that you want to go join, as an example. But if you are already in a function, already in a company as a CMO, what we're telling all of our clients is, now's a great time to recalibrate the purpose of marketing."

00:00 Introduction to The Get Podcast
00:17 Guest Introduction: Matt Selheimer from Forrester
01:32 High-Level Themes in SaaS Marketing
01:46 AI's Role in B2B Buying
02:16 Disciplined Experimentation in Marketing
03:03 Resurgence of Brand and PR Roles
03:32 Matt Selheimer's Background and Fun Fact
06:33 In-Depth Discussion on AI and Generational Shifts
10:05 The Importance of Testing and Experimentation
13:25 The Role of Brand in Modern Marketing
17:22 Advice for CEOs on Hiring CMOs
27:29 Marketing Organizational Design
36:09 Favorite Interview Question
37:25 Conclusion and Closing Remarks

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 how SaaS marketing organizations are changing — in both seismic and subtle ways.
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

In this episode of The Get, host Erica Seidel explores how AI-native marketing orgs are shaping up with guest Kady Srinivasan. Kady is CMO of You.com, the enterprise AI productivity platform that powers agentic workflows that deliver measurable business results. She previously held top marketing leadership roles at Lightspeed Commerce, Klaviyo, and Dropbox. She has been part of three IPOs. From her vantage point, running marketing in an AI-native environment, Kady shares her experiences, observations, and hypotheses for how the marketing org is changing – and will change – to enable using AI at warp speed.
You'll hear about:
How GTM leadership in an AI-native company is different from GTM leadership in a typical SaaS company
The org structures that enable using AI at warp speed
How the new marketing org has both humans and agents on the marketing team
The rise of new roles on the marketing team, like prompt marketers and influence engineers, and AI agent builders
Navigating the delicate CMO balance of "feeling you need to know it all" versus respecting your CEO's intuition
Sussing out, when talking to candidates, whether a company was successful BECAUSE of a candidate's contributions versus DESPITE the candidate's contributions
How to hire for "common sense"

Memorable Quotes:
"In an AI-native company, at least the one that I'm at, we have a lot to do to educate the market about the potential solutions that they can unlock with a technology or a platform like ours. So I came up with this idea… of a forward-deployed marketer, which is similar to a forward-deployed engineer, where you're basically coming up with use cases, coming up with solutions, coming up with things that you can tell people, look, this is the art of the possible…I think that's very different from SaaS, in that SaaS is a defined set of features and platform things that you can take to market."

"It used to be that we used to have these silos - product, marketing, demand, gen, and brand. Those were the big pillars in marketing. What I've found is that with AI, you don't actually need those silos anymore. What you need instead is people who are very outcome-focused. So I have a team that's only focused on inbound. I have a team that's focused on outbound. I have a team that's focused on storytelling, brand comms, that kind of stuff. The reason I've turned it that way is in this new world, every marketer needs to become like a T-shaped marketer, which is they have a spike, but they scaffold themselves with all the other functions, and that's easy to do because of agents, because you have AI."

00:00 Introduction to The Get Podcast
00:20 Meet Kady Srinivasan: CMO of You.com
00:43 The Unique Role of a CMO in an AI Native Company
02:36 Kady's Career Insights and Advice
04:22 Organizational Structure and AI Impact
12:03 Hiring the Right Marketers for the Future
25:57 Challenges and Strategies in Modern Marketing
34:56 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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 how SaaS marketing organizations are changing — in both seismic and subtle ways.
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