The Marketing Share
Running a marketing department requires expertise in many domains, from branding, media and positioning to demand generation, sales enablement, and much more. As a business leader or a new department head, you may be an expert in one or more marketing areas but usually not all of them. The Marketing Share aims to close this gap.
Co-hosts Barb VanSomeren and Alec Cheung are experienced marketing leaders who have been down the path of learning on the fly while managing a marketing team. They interview domain experts and ask the right questions so business leaders can learn what they need to know to run marketing.
The Marketing Share
AI, Outsourcing, and Modern Marketing Leadership with CMO Lisa Cole (Ep 62)
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What happens when marketing becomes responsible for everything, but doesn’t have the systems, workflows, or structure to keep up?
In this episode of The Marketing Share, Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren talk with Lisa Cole, CMO of 2X, about what modern marketing leadership actually looks like inside today’s B2B organizations.
Lisa has spent her career helping marketing teams transform from overwhelmed “order takers” into revenue-driving functions. After advising CMOs for more than 16 years and leading multiple marketing transformations herself, she now helps companies rethink how marketing work gets done in the age of AI.
The conversation explores why many marketing teams are still stuck in outdated operating models, how AI is changing both the buyer journey and the way campaigns are executed, and why workflows, not just tools, are becoming the real competitive advantage.
Lisa also shares practical frameworks for deciding what marketing teams should own internally, what can be outsourced, and where AI can actually create meaningful impact without creating more chaos.
If you’re leading marketing, building a team, or trying to figure out how AI fits into your organization beyond the hype, this episode is for you!
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
02:55 Lisa’s path from sales to CMO leadership
05:45 Why marketers struggle with outsourcing
08:00 The growing complexity of modern marketing
11:10 From “order taking” to revenue-driving marketing
15:00 The hidden work consuming marketing teams
18:35 Why workflows matter more than org charts
21:15 How AI is reshaping marketing operations
24:05 The problem with “random acts of AI”
26:20 Lisa’s “Own, Outsource, Automate” framework
28:00 How AI is changing buyer behavior and search
30:45 The new importance of community and credibility
32:10 Why PR and thought leadership matter again
37:10 What companies misunderstand about AI costs
42:15 Where outsourcing and AI work best together
45:10 What 2X actually does for marketing teams
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Want to be a guest on The Marketing Share Podcast? Send us your bio and proposed interview topic to marketingsharepodcast@gmail.com, and our Podcast Manager will get back to you.
Want to connect with Alec and Barb to talk all things marketing and how they can help you leverage the marketing wing of your organization?
Connect with Alec here
Connect with Barb here
Connect with Cinthya, Podcast Manager, here
Cheers.