Growth Talks: Growth Marketing Strategies & Insights

As you look ahead to 2026, what’s rising to the top of your marketing priorities?

In this special episode of Growth Talks with Krystina Rubino, we highlight our favorite CMO insights on building brands that customers trust and love. 

It's packed with insights on subjects all CMOs should be thinking about today, such as brand versus performance marketing, incorporating AI into your marketing strategy, and how to build and enable your team.

🗝️Key Takeaways:

Tamara Mendelsohn, COO at Overstory and former CMO at Eventbrite, shares why brand and performance aren’t competing priorities and how real growth comes from bringing both teams together.

Jaleh Bisharat, former fractional CMO at Skillshare, argues that the best CMOs think like CEOs, focusing on what the business truly needs, even if that means reallocating budget away from marketing.

Katelyn Watson, CMO at Talkspace, recommends that leaders step into an AI-native mindset and rethink how teams create, connect, and scale brands.

Aaron Magness, CMO at Full Glass Wine Co., highlights why effective marketing leaders should stop obsessing over tactics and instead focus on hiring great talent, setting clear expectations, and deeply understanding the business and its narrative.

Cate Lochead, CMO at Bentley Systems, shares how leading with empathy creates more authentic campaigns and builds deeper connections with customers.

Matt Gehring, CMO & Advisor, details how clear data definitions such as clarity around LTR versus LTV keep teams aligned and focused on the metrics that matter.

⏰  Timestamps

00:42: Tamara Mendehlson

04:21: Jaleh Bisharat

06:09: Katelyn Watson

08:41: Aaron Magness

10:30: Cate Lochead

13:09: Matt Gehring

🔗  Mentioned in this episode:

Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/

Skillshare: https://www.skillshare.com

Talkspace: https://www.talkspace.com/

Full Glass Co: https://www.fullglass.wine/

Bentley Systems: https://www.bentley.com/

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🤝 Connect with Right Side Up

Right Side Up is a premium growth marketing agency that has helped more than 1,000+ companies hit their growth goals. 

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The fastest-growing brands treat customer insight like a strategy—not just a survey.

In this week’s episode of Growth Talks, CMO & Advisor, Matt Gehring joins host Tyler Elliston, founder and CEO of Right Side Up, to unpack what it takes to succeed in your first 90 days as a marketing leader.

Drawing from his leadership roles at Dutch Pet, Everlane, and Rothy’s, Matt shares how to map the customer journey, turn post-purchase insights into smart segmentation strategies, and use real-time data to drive repeat purchases.

Find out why acting on customer insights early is key to refining your product, aligning your team, and making informed decisions before you scale.

🗝️ Key Takeaways:

Start with listening. In your first 90 days as CMO, forget quick wins and shiny tactics. Your real job? Uncover the real issues, gain your team’s trust, and align the org around a shared understanding of success.

Smart teams adjust early. When customer insights tell a different story about your product, don’t rush to scale. Hit pause, review feedback, and pivot. Sometimes the smartest move is starting over.

Don’t confuse revenue with value. Always calculate LTV using gross margin—not top-line revenue. It’s the only way to get a true LTV:CAC ratio and avoid scaling based on a false signal.

Personalization is about context. It’s not about crafting the perfect one-to-one offer—it’s about using what you already know, like ad intent or entry point, to create the customer experience at every touchpoint.

Post-purchase is a powerful growth lever. Use customer data to track what they bought and when they bought it to inform segmentation. Then test upsells, cross-sells, and timing to drive repeat purchases and increase lifetime value.

Insights drive action. When Rothy’s opened its first store, it created a direct feedback loop. Store associates captured what drew customers in, offering real-time insights that led to smarter product decisions and more effective marketing.

Start with why. Focus groups, surveys, and AI all have value—but only when used intentionally. As you scale, tools like AI and surveys can help synthesize insights, but they’re no replacement for talking to real users.

⏰  Timestamps

02:52 Navigating the First 90 Days

05:45 Building Trust with Teams

08:59 Understanding Customer Dynamics

11:57 The Importance of Data Definitions

18:01 Defining the Customer Journey

21:12 Personalization in Marketing

27:02 Segmentation and Post-Purchase Strategies

32:59 Understanding LTV and CAC Calculations

40:32 DefiningCustomer Acquisition Costs

44:44 The Importance of Consumer Insights

🔗  Mentioned in this episode:

Lifeforce: https://www.mylifeforce.com/

Dutch Pet: https://www.dutch.com/

Everlane: https://www.everlane.com/

Rothy’s: https://rothys.com/

Hims: https://www.hims.com/

👍 Did you enjoy this video? Don’t forget to click the like button! And find more episodes of Growth Talks here: https://bit.ly/3xXGJJc

🤝 Connect with Right Side Up

Right Side Up is a premium growth marketing agency that has helped more than 1,000+ companies hit their growth goals. 

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Every marketing leader should give their team an AI framework for rethinking how they work.

In this week’s episode of Growth Talks, Vanessa Hope Schneider, Head of Marketing at Decript, joins host Tyler Elliston, Founder and CEO of Right Side Up, to break down how AI is becoming core to every marketer’s role and what that shift means for how modern teams operate.

Drawing on her leadership experience from Airbnb, Eventbrite, and Descript, Vanessa outlines a framework for helping teams adopt AI while preserving the human element that defines great marketing. 

Find out why learning AI tools and experimenting with real workflows is key to understanding where AI adds value and setting your team up for success.

🗝️ Key Takeaways:

Lead with identity. Every disruptive brand starts by tapping into something deeper than function—it connects to pride, purpose, and self-expression. When people see themselves in what you’re building, adoption follows.

Try out this AI framework. 1) Use AI to research and synthesize insights, 2) automate repeatable workflows, and 3) connect your tools to create smarter systems that improve efficiency and decision-making.

Turn personas into prompts. Build GPTs trained on real customer research to test messaging and ad creatives to sharpen your GTM strategy. One setup can boost speed and alignment across every campaign.

Expand your creative options. From early brand concepts to visual patterns, use AI to help your design team explore ideas faster, gather feedback, and make more confident creative decisions.

From prompt to production. Turn a single video concept into a first draft with scripted scenes and multilingual voiceovers. Use AI in creative ideation so your team spends less time setting up and more time storytelling.

New AI-native marketing teams need two key roles. AI-native builders who design the workflows, and people with taste who choose the strongest creative direction. Together, they’ll set your team up for future success.

Take an AI vacation. Block off a week to immerse yourself in the tools. Upload strategy docs, test workflows, and explore new use cases. The best way to lead your team into AI is to experience it yourself.

  Timestamps

02:51 Balancing Culture and Performance

05:09 Disruption and Identity in Marketing

08:07 Expanding the Customer Base with AI

11.22 User Profiles and Market Education

16:51 Practical Frameworks for AI Marketing

22.54 AI's Impact on Video and Storytelling

31.43 Navigating the Future of Synthetic Media

34.28 Inside Airbnb’s Superhost Success

43.31 Building AI Marketing Teams

🔗  Mentioned in this episode:

Descript: https://www.descript.com/

Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com/

Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/

Replit: https://replit.com/ai

Lindy: https://www.lindy.ai/

Bolt: https://bolt.new/

ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/

Claude: https://claude.ai/

Zapier: https://zapier.com/

Relay: https://www.relay.app/

👍 Did you enjoy this video? Don’t forget to click the like button! And find more episodes of Growth Talks here: https://bit.ly/3xXGJJc

🤝 Connect with Right Side Up

Right Side Up is a premium growth marketing agency that has helped more than 1,000+ companies hit their growth goals. 

‣ Check us out and send us a note at: https://bit.ly/4bfaBQt

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When everyone can generate AI content, taste and storytelling are the new performance metrics.

In this week’s episode of Growth Talks, Everett Butler, Head of Marketing at Lindy, joins host Krystina Rubino to unpack what it takes to bring a brand-new product category to market when there is no roadmap, no search volume, and no shared language.

With over fifteen years of experience scaling teams at Tesla, Uber, and Affirm, Everett shares how to apply first principles thinking to build a go-to-market strategy grounded in fundamentals, aligned with real customer needs, and focused on clarity over complexity.

Tune in to learn the key traits Everett looks for in modern AI marketers — and why taste, product-led storytelling, and genuine curiosity are more valuable than ever.

🗝️Key Takeaways:

Vision shapes strategy. When you’re launching a product, don’t copy a playbook. Create one. Start from first principles: know who needs you, what problem you solve, and tell that story clearly.

Ship, Test, Learn. When you’re defining a new category, don’t get stuck on semantics. Use real language in campaigns and see what engages your audience. Go-to-market is part marketing and part anthropology.

Embrace the Uncertainty. In the age of AI, no one has all the answers. The best marketers balance curiosity for new tools with a steady focus on timeless principles and solid fundamentals.

Scale What Sticks. Sustainable growth starts with retention. The best teams track activation quality, prioritize lifetime value, and reward customer loyalty.

Lead with Storytelling. As AI handles more of the mechanics of marketing, the edge belongs to those who can curate taste, tell meaningful stories, and create emotional connections that last.

Build for Tomorrow. The teams that scale best invest early in process, shared language, and cross-functional alignment. Those foundations create leverage that lasts well beyond the next campaign.

Use AI to Elevate. AI can handle the tasks, but it can’t replace your creativity or intuition. The next generation of marketers will use that freedom to think strategically and lead the next wave of innovation.

⏰  Timestamps

02:12 Defining New Product Categories

05:34 How New AI Marketing Shift

10:38 Channel Selection and Sequencing 

15:45 Retention in Growth Marketing

21:13 Marketing Clarity Comes From Context

30:47 Common Mistakes in Scaling Teams

35:56 Storytelling in the AI World

42:03 Challenging the Status Quo

45:31 The Quintessential Growth Non-Hack

 Mentioned in this episode:

Lindy: https://www.lindy.ai/

Uber: https://www.uber.com/

Affirm: https://www.affirm.com/

Tesla: https://www.tesla.com/

Thumbtack: https://www.thumbtack.com/

Elena Verna: https://www.elenaverna.com/

Rick Rubin: https://www.thewayofcode.com/

👍 Did you enjoy this video? Don’t forget to click the like button! And find more episodes of Growth Talks here: https://bit.ly/3xXGJJc

🤝 Connect with Right Side Up

Right Side Up is a premium growth marketing agency that has helped more than 1,000+ companies hit their growth goals.

‣ Check us out and send us a note at: https://bit.ly/4bfaBQt

‣ Subscribe to our channel: https://bit.ly/3HWiJYD

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If your messaging isn’t aligned with your product experience, you’re just buying churn.

In this week’s episode of Growth Talks, Jordan Hwang, VP of Marketing at OpenPhone (now Quo) joins host Krystina Rubino to unpack how B2B marketers can adopt a smarter growth mindset; one that prioritizes product alignment, experimentation, and trust.

With over 15 years of experience at fast-moving startups like Gusto andEvernote, Jordan shares how to translate product value into messaging that resonates, build buy-in for bold bets, and design experiments that create impactful insight, not just short-term results.

Find out how today’s most effective teams connect brand, product, and performance across every stage of the funnel.

🗝️Key Takeaways:

Build small. Test often. Smart marketers experiment frequently and explore new channels with low lift and low risk. They set expectations early and invest in learning, not just outcomes.

Transparency builds trust. Senior leaders don’t need perfection. They need clarity. When you’re upfront about the risks, you create space for real alignment and stronger team support.

Change starts with alignment. Before refining product messaging, get clear on what’s working, what’s not, and why. Keep what resonates with customers and be willing to change what doesn’t.

Start with your customer. Business buyers don’t want complexity; they want to know your product will work, won’t waste their time, and won’t put them at risk.

Test to learn. A healthy experimentation culture starts with consistency and strong design. When tests are built around clear hypotheses, you generate repeatable insight, not just lucky wins.

Speed beats perfection. The cost of waiting often outweighs the risk of being wrong. A test-and-roll mindset helps you outlearn the competition while they’re still calculating.

⏰  Timestamps

01.42 Building Gusto’s Growth Engine

05:42 Importance of Trust in Growth Strategies

08:47 Balancing Risk and Reward in Growth

11:32 Navigating Change Management 

18.28 Positioning Product Marketing and Messaging

23.02 Understanding Buyers Needs and Outcomes

41.12 Lessons Learned from Scaling Growth

44.15 How to Speak Your Audiences Language

🔗  Mentioned in this episode:

Quo (formerly OpenPhone): https://www.openphone.com/

Gusto: https://gusto.com/

Test & Roll Methodology: https://ron-berman.com/2020/01/26/test-and-roll/

👍 Did you enjoy this video? Don’t forget to click the like button! And find more episodes of Growth Talks here: https://bit.ly/3xXGJJc

 

🤝 Connect with Right Side Up

Right Side Up is a premium growth marketing agency that has helped more than 1,000+ companies hit their growth goals. 

‣ Check us out and send us a note at: https://bit.ly/4bfaBQt

‣ Subscribe to our channel: https://bit.ly/3HWiJYD

‣ Subscribe to our marketing newsletter: http://bit.ly/44SEjbu

‣ Follow us on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rightsideup/

‣ Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RightSideUpCo/

‣ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rightsideupco