CMO Journeys

CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin featuring conversations with the marketing leaders behind today’s most recognizable brands, including Princess Cruises, White Castle, and Ruby Tuesday. Hosted by Christian Banach , Founder and Chief Growth Officer of NextBigWin, each episode explores the personal and professional journeys that brought today’s CMOs to the C-suite — from the pivotal career decisions and mentors that shaped them to the lessons learned along the way. The conversation then turns to the realities of leading modern marketing organizations, including the mandates CMOs are driving inside their companies and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners. Through candid discussions, CMO Journeys gives agency leaders, marke

CMO Journeys is a business podcast hosted by Christian Banach, with 36 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Christian Banach hosts CMO Journeys, a business show with 36 episodes published.

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  CMO Journeys

  Sari Winick, CMO of Learning Resources: From Big CPG to Playful Learning Leadership

  Aug 14, 202633 min

  Sari Winick, Chief Marketing Officer of Learning Resources and hand2mind, joins CMO Journeys to discuss how classic CPG training can translate into education, toys, retail, ecommerce, and family decision-making. Her perspective is valuable because she brings deep experience across consumer goods, healthcare, nutrition, sales, analytics, and brand leadership. What the Conversation Covers • Sari’s path from medical sales to marketing leadership, including her early CPG training at Quaker Oats, PepsiCo, SC Johnson, and Mead Johnson Nutrition. • How working closely with sales teams shaped her understanding of customers, field insights, and what marketing needs to deliver. • The evolution of her CMO mandate as consumer behavior, digital media, influencers, content creators, and performance marketing continue to change. • How Learning Resources balances lower-funnel performance marketing with upper-funnel brand building, awareness, and experimentation. • Sari’s approach to agency partnerships, including when specialized partners, media expertise, TikTok knowledge, creative support, and category understanding are most valuable. Guest Bio Sari Winick is Chief Marketing Officer of Learning Resources and hand2mind, where she leads marketing, media, analytics, and design across a portfolio of educational toy and learning brands. Her background includes medical sales, consumer goods, consumer health, infant nutrition, pharma, retail, and B2B education marketing. At Learning Resources, she focuses on brand growth, consumer engagement, educational outcomes, and helping families and educators discover hands-on learning products. About the Podcast CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

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  CMO Journeys

  Susanna Song, CMO of Aeris: From Newsroom Storytelling to Marketing Leadership

  Jul 31, 202634 min

  Susanna Song, CMO of Aeris, joins CMO Journeys to discuss how her background in journalism, communications, podcasting, and executive storytelling shaped her path into marketing leadership. Her perspective is especially valuable for marketers and agency leaders working in complex categories where education, trust, and clear messaging are essential. What the Conversation Covers • Susanna’s early leadership experiences and how her ambition to become a journalist eventually evolved into a marketing career. • What the newsroom taught her about deadlines, audience understanding, and knowing why a story matters before telling it. • How she applies those storytelling instincts to Aeris’ vertical go-to-market strategy across connected IoT use cases. • Why podcasting and thought leadership can help simplify technical categories and build brand equity without directly selling. • How Aeris is educating the market around cellular IoT security, channel enablement, and value-added solutions in a highly specialized category. Guest Bio Susanna Song is Chief Marketing Officer at Aeris, a company helping power large-scale connected IoT programs across industries including automotive, utilities, energy, logistics, healthcare, and manufacturing. She brings a background in journalism, corporate communications, podcasting, executive moderation, and go-to-market leadership. At Aeris, she focuses on market education, vertical messaging, partner enablement, and building thought leadership around cellular IoT. About the Podcast CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

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  CMO Journeys

  Sivan Koenig Galinsky, CMO of Barack Ferrazzano: From Legal Operations to Marketing Leadership

  Jul 24, 202637 min

  Sivan Koenig Galinsky, Chief Marketing Officer at Barack Ferrazzano, joins CMO Journeys to discuss how legal marketing works inside a relationship-driven professional services firm. Her perspective is valuable because her career moved through legal recruitment, client relations, operations, business development, and marketing before she became the firm’s first CMO. What the Conversation Covers • Sivan’s early interest in law, her decision not to attend law school, and how she found a different path inside law firm management. • How her early work across recruitment, client relations, billing, collections, events, websites, pitches, and proposals gave her a 360-degree view of how law firms operate. • Why legal marketing requires understanding what motivates attorneys, how firms make money, and how client relationships are built over time. • How she earned trust as Barack Ferrazzano’s first CMO by repositioning marketing from an administrative function to a strategic business development partner. • Sivan’s perspective on AI, pitch and proposal volume, lawyer training, business development programs, and the future of law firm marketing operations. Guest Bio Sivan Koenig Galinsky is Chief Marketing Officer at Barack Ferrazzano, a Chicago-based general practice law firm advising businesses, entrepreneurs, investors, and financial institutions on complex legal matters. As the firm’s first CMO, she leads marketing, business development, positioning, proposal strategy, and attorney development initiatives. Her background includes legal recruitment, client relations, law firm operations, business development, and marketing leadership across firms of different sizes. About the Podcast CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

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  CMO Journeys

  Sandy Kaup, CMO of Southern Technical College: Why Revenue Alignment Starts With Marketing

  Jul 17, 202634 min

  Sandy Kaup, Chief Marketing Officer at Southern Technical College, joins CMO Journeys to discuss how marketing, admissions, and revenue alignment work together in career-focused education. His perspective is valuable because he built his career from admissions into marketing leadership, giving him a practical view of the full student journey from lead generation to enrollment outcomes. What the Conversation Covers • Sandy’s early path from admissions into marketing, and how the need for better lead flow shaped his approach to growth. • Why he believes marketing and sales must work together around shared revenue goals, not separate departmental priorities. • How Southern Technical College measures performance through cost per lead, appointment, interview, enrollment, and start. • The impact of AI, search behavior, and changing media habits on education marketing and student recruitment. • How Sandy evaluates outside partners, including why specialization, transparency, proof of results, and industry understanding matter. Guest Bio Sandy Kaup is Chief Marketing Officer at Southern Technical College, a career-focused education institution serving students in fields such as healthcare, skilled trades, and other in-demand areas. His role has expanded across several sister colleges, giving him responsibility for marketing, admissions alignment, revenue growth, and process standardization across a broader portfolio. His background includes decades of experience in admissions, lead generation, performance tracking, and career college growth. About the Podcast CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

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  CMO Journeys

  Andrea Schwenk, CMO of Egglife Foods: Scaling a Challenger Brand With Focus and Discipline

  Jul 10, 202634 min

  Andrea Schwenk, Chief Marketing Officer at Egglife Foods, joins CMO Journeys to discuss how she helped shape the brand from an early-stage challenger into a growing CPG platform. Her perspective is valuable for marketers and agency leaders because she brings experience across agencies, restaurants, spirits, retail, hospitality, and better-for-you food innovation. What the Conversation Covers • Andrea’s early interest in architecture, journalism, and advertising, and how those experiences shaped her balance of creativity and business discipline. • Her path from agency roles to brand-side leadership, including what agency experience taught her about building stronger client-agency partnerships. • How Egglife built its brand around one core product line before expanding into pasta, grab-and-go breakfast products, and new retail channels. • Why focus, discipline, and prioritization are essential as a challenger brand balances awareness, innovation, retail velocity, and budget constraints. • Andrea’s approach to agency partnerships, including how specialized partners, clear roles, transparency, and curiosity help support a fast-evolving business. Guest Bio Andrea Schwenk is Chief Marketing Officer at Egglife Foods, a protein-forward food company reimagining flour-based staples with eggs as the foundation. She first joined the company as VP of Marketing and has helped guide its evolution from a focused wrap brand into a broader food platform. Her background includes agency work, restaurant marketing, spirits, hospitality, CPG, and challenger brand growth. About the Podcast CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

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