#147 Caitlin Clark-Zigmond on Scaling Brands, Cleaning Data, Leading With Nerve

What if the fastest way to grow your career is to reinvent how you work before the market forces you to? In this episode, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Caitlin Clark-Zigmond, a two-time entrepreneur and former CMO for Intel’s global software and SaaS portfolio, to map the leap from hands-on operator to AI-powered brand builder, and why clear value translation beats clever slogans every time.

Caitlin takes us from scaling a catering business to shipping Comcast Digital Voice, to leading massive B2B portfolios at Verizon and Intel. We dig into how Intel Tiber emerged to make software visible inside a hardware giant, uniting trust and security, AI and ML, edge and cloud, performance optimization, and developer workflows under a narrative customers could navigate. The result: sharper messaging, analyst clarity, and real pipeline acceleration. If your portfolio feels like a maze, her brand framework shows you how to draw a clean map.

Then we get practical with AI go-to-market. Forget tool-chasing—start with painful use cases, build on clean, connected data, and let AI amplify what already moves the needle. Caitlin explains why a CDP or an MCP layer unlocks CRM, marketing automation, analytics, billing, and customer success, enabling them to communicate effectively with each other. We cover intent data for account prioritization, conversation intelligence for coaching, predictive scoring for pipeline, and agents that handle repetitive data pulls and weekly reporting so teams can focus on thinking, not tab-hopping.

For leaders and modern marketers, the upskilling path is clear: achieve 30% fluency in core AI concepts, measurement, and understanding how your stack—HubSpot, Salesforce, GA, CDPs, and chat systems —actually works. You don’t need to code; you need to understand revenue mechanics. We also share Caitlin’s strategic networking system—the 5–5–5 method—that turns coffee chats into an operating system for your career, with value-first follow-ups that work even for introverts.

We conclude with candid insights on the value of progress over perfection, investing in relationships before you need them, and redefining success in terms of client transformation, sustainable growth, and work-life integration. Subscribe, share with a friend, and tell us: what’s the scary move you’re finally ready to make?

Resources: 

• Website: www.clarkgp.com  
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlinclarkzigmond 
• Upcoming LILive GTM Event: https://www.linkedin.com/events/2026gtmrealitycheck-makemisalig7393722093324107776/
• Monthly Blog: https://gtmmaven.substack.com/p/why-the-c-suite-must-work-together

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Big-Picture Question
• 0:33 Caitlin’s Career Origin Story
• 3:20 From Startups To Comcast Scale
• 6:05 Verizon To Intel: Building Tiber
• 9:00 Why Create A Software Brand At Intel
• 12:10 AI GTM: Start With Use Cases
• 15:15 Data Foundations And CDPs Explained
• 18:20 Agents, Chatbots, And Real Workflow Wins
• 21:05 The AI Hype Cycle And What’s Next
• 22:30 Practical AI Advice For Leaders
• 24:35 Skills Modern Marketers Need
• 27:15 Strategic Networking That Moves Work
• 30:05 Quiet Confidence On LinkedIn
• 32:00 Best Advice: Progress Over Perfection
• 34:05 Redefining Success And Balance
• 36:05 To Be Bolder And How To Connect
• 38:05 Closing And Listener Call-To-Action