Colette Dill-Lerner, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at Growth Channel, joins CMO Journeys to discuss how marketing leaders are navigating pressure, complexity, and financial accountability. Her perspective is shaped by a career across direct response marketing, consulting, private equity-backed companies, and ad tech.

What the Conversation Covers
• Colette’s unconventional path into marketing, from political science and early startup exposure to senior marketing leadership.
• How her direct response background shaped her focus on customer acquisition, revenue, LTV, CAC, and business fundamentals.
• Why today’s marketing environment is increasingly shaped by CFO scrutiny, tighter budgets, and the need to prove financial impact.
• How Growth Channel is approaching go-to-market through relationships, in-person events, useful content, and strategic client support.
• Colette’s perspective on agencies, including why they may become more valuable as companies face smaller teams, more pressure, and growing complexity.

Guest Bio
Colette Dill-Lerner is Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at Growth Channel, a platform helping agencies and in-house teams simplify programmatic advertising across channels including CTV, audio, display, and retail media. In her role, she leads marketing, strategy, client success, and client advisory work, helping brands and agencies connect campaign execution to broader business goals. Her background includes direct response marketing, consulting, healthcare, private equity-backed companies, and ad tech.

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.

In this episode of CMO Journeys, Christian Banach speaks with Linda Bethea, former Chief Marketing Officer of Danone North America, about what it takes to balance long-term brand building with the short-term business pressures facing modern CMOs. Drawing on leadership roles at PepsiCo, Diageo, and Danone, Linda shares a practical perspective on portfolio strategy, creative risk, consumer insight, and why marketing needs a real seat at the business table.

What the Conversation Covers
• Linda’s path from studying psychology into a marketing career shaped by curiosity about consumer behavior and brand growth
• The leadership lessons she learned across PepsiCo, Diageo, and Danone, including how to move from being a doer to leading through teams
• How to manage a large and complex portfolio by clarifying the role of each brand and aligning resources to long-term strategy
• Why strong brand building can come under pressure in short-term, financially driven environments and how CMOs can defend marketing investment
• How Linda thinks about agency partnerships, bold creative ideas, media fragmentation, AI, and measuring marketing’s impact more effectively

Guest Bio
Linda Bethea is a former Chief Marketing Officer of Danone North America and has held senior marketing leadership roles at companies including PepsiCo and Diageo. Her career has focused on brand building, portfolio strategy, media and marketing effectiveness, and leading teams across some of the world’s most complex consumer organizations.

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.

In this episode of CMO Journeys, Christian Banach speaks with Mike Bell, Chief Marketing Officer of Everspring, about building marketing around strategy, systems, and measurable outcomes rather than disconnected tactics. Drawing on a career that spans the Air Force, consulting, consumer brands, SaaS, and higher education, Mike shares how that broad experience shapes the way he leads full-funnel marketing in a rapidly changing environment.

What the Conversation Covers
• Mike’s unconventional path from the Air Force and consulting into marketing leadership, and how each chapter built a different part of his leadership style
• Why he believes strong marketing starts with strategy, clear priorities, and the discipline to stay focused on outcomes
• How AI is changing the way prospective students discover, compare, and choose educational programs before they ever visit a website
• What Everspring is doing to improve visibility, strengthen full-funnel performance, and adapt to a world where influence happens earlier in the journey
• How Mike thinks about team structure, agency partnerships, and using AI as a force multiplier rather than a substitute for strategic thinking

Guest Bio
Mike Bell is Chief Marketing Officer at Everspring, where he leads full-funnel marketing across more than 45 higher education partners. His career spans the Air Force, consulting, consumer brands, SaaS, and education, giving him a systems-driven perspective on leadership, strategy, demand generation, and marketing transformation.

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.