You can have the best plan in the world, but if the environment is a mess, you’re just decorating a sinking ship.

When things don’t go to plan, it’s not always because the work was bad. From unclear decisions to conflicting priorities, the stuff that sits above the work often determines whether your strategy ever actually lands or just ends up as a footnote in a slide deck.

Heather Hurd has seen this from every angle - starting as a copywriter, moving into brand strategy, and now as a consultant helping organisations assess their "marketing readiness." She spends her time asking the deeper questions that most teams skip, diagnosing the structural roadblocks that keep marketing functions from ever reaching their full potential.

Drawing on what she’s learned inside fast-moving startups and corporate giants, we discuss:

The 6 factors of marketing readiness: A diagnostic toolkit for looking under the hood of any organisation.

The template trap: Why "bespoke" strategy so often defaults to recycled busy-work when pressure hits.

The sidelined marketer: What happens to the mission when marketing loses its seat at the top table.

The silent kkill: How to use active listening to build high-level influence, regardless of your job title.

The aspiration gap: Why a "moonshot" mission might be the very thing eroding your team's trust.