Are you just busy working? Or are you adding value?
Marketing has become overloaded with channels, platforms, metrics, and specialized roles. But Seth Matlins believes the job itself is much simpler: create value, drive sustainable growth, and help the business create and keep customers.
In this episode, Seth joins Stephanie Postles to explain why CMO job descriptions are often fundamentally disconnected from business results—and why marketers must see themselves as commercial leaders, not merely brand leaders.
They discuss the danger of optimizing for departmental metrics instead of business outcomes, why short-term pressure can destroy long-term growth, and what Seth learned from one of the biggest strategic mistakes of his career. They also explore why brands must become more humane in an AI-driven world, what separates the world’s most influential CMOs, and why every decision a company makes either creates or destroys value.
Seth Matlins is the founder of The Wisdomous Company, former Managing Director of the Forbes CMO Network, and host of Create or Destroy: Reimagining Marketing.
Follow Seth: LinkedIn — Seth Matlins
Listen to his new show: Create or Destroy: Reimagining Marketing (Vox Media + The Wisdomous Company)
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Chapters
0:00 The CMO Job Description Is Broken
2:32 Marketing Is a Commercial Strategy
4:22 How “Marketing Prefixes” Broke the Function
8:09 Why Your Team Is Punching Growth in the Face
13:22 David Droga: Complexity Is a Tax on Success
16:04 The Worst Work Seth Ever Did
20:22 “You Neither Give Nor Take Direction”
24:05 Stop Trying to Be Human. Be Humane.
29:25 What Separates the World’s Most Influential CMOs
31:43 Why CEOs Struggle to Understand Marketing
34:05 Why Eric Schmidt Was Wrong About Marketing
35:45 Seth’s 10 Rules of Marketing
40:12 Introducing Create or Destroy
45:55 Lightning Round: Harry Potter, Coca-Cola and More
49:42 Are Your Metrics Making You Play the Wrong Game?
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