If one more career guide says to “follow your passion,” I’m going to scream. Nobody is passionate about time tracking, Patrice, but I gotta do it anyway!
Yet, the internet is chock-full of the same regurgitated, lukewarm career takes.
So, Laura, Caroline, and I reached out to all of our past interviewees and asked them what actually made a difference in their careers.
The result is four playbooks for each step of your career — from early contributors all the way up to aspiring CMOs — full of real stories and advice you haven’t heard a thousand times before.
In today’s email:
The modern marketer's career guide
Guest blogging? In 2025? Yup!
20 lead magnet ideas [with examples]
| Inside Scoop
This week, past interviewees and current leaders share the best advice that helped to advance their careers.
Lesson 1: Make your work tell a story
“I had to stop chasing peak moments and start building a narrative.” Katie Parkes - Director, Social, Community, and Customer Marketing, Apollo.io
Parkes built a monthly report card that highlighted what worked, what
didn’t, and what to try next. This shifted her team’s reputation internally —
from busy to strategic. It also made budget conversations easier, because
the story was already being told.
Lesson 2: Build processes, not just one-offs
“I built a system to test and scale conversion plays as a team of one — and then made the case to bring on my first hire to multiply it.”
Carly Williams, Director of Media Monetization, HubSpot
Build systems, not just campaigns; your goal is repeatability, not volume. Design processes your team will need next quarter, not just this one. Create shared tools, templates, and frameworks that others can use without you.
Lesson 3: Make visibility a KPI
"The biggest shift wasn’t in my work — it was in how I communicated. I had to show up like a VP long before I got the title.”
Maya Grossman - Former Head of Global Product Marketing, Microsoft
Grossman learned that leadership isn’t just about what you do — it’s about how you’re perceived. She cut 20% of her to-dos to make space for strategic work, built visibility through high-impact projects, and reshaped how she spoke in rooms with execs.
“Once I started showing up as the future version of myself, the perception shifted — and not long after, the title did too.”
Lesson 4: Be a teacher
“The single biggest accelerator for my career has been an unrelenting commitment to teaching first and selling second.”
Kipp Bodnar, CMO, HubSpot
Build trust by making your audience (whether internal or external) smarter. Anchor every campaign, pitch, or product strategy in value, not volume. Create marketing systems that compound — like content, not just campaigns.
“The companies that win trust are the ones that educate better than anyone else.”
Find the guide that's right for your career level, plus promotion-readiness checklists for each step, inside.
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