Episode #136. This episode is a personal understanding topic for working parents to help you gain fulfilment in your life as a whole - navigating the reality of being both a marketer and a parent and what you can do to balance both worlds when work and home life collide.  Joining Abby is her guest Rachel Morris, an Exec business coach, co-founder of Motion Learning and best-selling author of ‘Working Mother’, a book inspired by Rachel’s decades of expertise and practice coaching new...

Episode #135. Today’s topic is a technical skill on copywriting and its critical role in driving action and building brand trust.  Joining Abby to discuss is seasoned copywriter Dave Harland aka the Word Man. A naturally entertaining storyteller, over the past two decades Dave has built a notable career in persuasive writing that captures attention for brands such as Google, Jaguar, Tesco and Castor. He is a regular speaker at industry events and also has a LinkedIn following of almost...

Episode #134. Today’s topic is Agency Partnerships – what makes a great client-agency relationship and perspective from both sides of the fence.  Joining Abby to discuss is Richard Robinson, awarded "One of the ten most influential Leaders in Digital & Tech" (BIMA) and Campaign A-List 2024. Richard is highly experienced in the client (McDonalds, Coca-Cola) and agency (Publicis Worldwide) world and as an intermediary for both at Xeim Engage and Oystercatchers. In his latest role as...

Episode #133. Strategy is the technical skill explored in this episode, with a lens on simplifying the process to ensure marketers have not only the vision and clarity for where you want to take your brand or business, but also ensuring you have the actionable plan to get you there.  Discussing simplified strategy is Abby’s guest, Alice Benham - entrepreneur, business & marketing strategist and fellow podcaster as host of ‘Starting the conversation’ podcast. Alice works with small...

Episode #132. The focus of this episode is wellness for marketers, and the importance of prioritising your wellbeing not only for your health but to also ensure you have the energy to thrive in our fast-paced and challenging – yet rewarding - profession.  Abby’s guest to discuss wellness is EY’s Chief Marketing Officer, Rebecca Hirst. Rebecca is an award-winning marketer who has worked on some of the biggest global brands including Samsung, Coca-Cola and Kimberly-Clark. This topic of...

Episode #131. Today’s episode is a personal understanding topic on finding your ideal role; looking beyond the job title for a role that plays to your strengths and values and is fulfilling for you.  Joining Abby to discuss ideal roles and shining a light on hiring practices in the marketing is profession is Lauren Spearman. Lauren is a seasoned marketing professional with over 17 years of experience with brands such as Sky, Benefit Cosmetics and MADE.com. Now thriving as a freelance...

Episode #130. Season 8 begins with a soft skill on being human and the importance of ‘humanness’ particularly for marketing leaders - being authentic, honest and open in order to build relationships with your team and connect more deeply with your customers and consumers.  Joining Abby is Dom Dwight, former Marketing Director and now Director of strategy, insight, product innovation and diversification for Taylors of Harrogate – best known for Yorkshire Tea, the UK’s number one tea...

Episode #129. Understanding grief is the topic of this episode, an area of personal understanding to support ourselves but also others in our care that may be experiencing grief.  *Trigger warning: This episode contains discussion around bereavement and loss of a child.  A complex and personal process, grief is the intense feeling of loss of someone or something which can manifest physically, mentally and emotionally.    Abby’s guest is Lucy Hudson, Managing Director of McCann...

Episode #128. The Burnout Miniseries ep5 – The last episode in our mini-series on burnout shares the story of an agency marketer who, following her experience of extreme burnout, uses the power of breathwork, meditation and wellbeing to help and prevent burnout in others.  Abby’s guest is Briony Gunson, mindset coach, wellbeing trainer, meditation teacher and breathworker. Passionate about supporting people in managing stress, anxiety and burnout, some of Briony’s corporate clients...

Episode #127. The Burnout Miniseries ep4 – We’re continuing our focus on burnout and how together, we can raise awareness to prevent it and support each other in our challenging yet rewarding marketing profession.  Abby’s guest is Senior Reporter for Marketing Week, Molly Innes. Molly has been researching burnout for the past two years having written many articles about it and is passionate about marketers’ careers, ways of working and recruitment.  In this episode, Molly shares how...

Episode #126. The Burnout Miniseries ep3 – The third episode in our burnout series, raising awareness to the physical, mental and emotional exhaustion that prolonged stress in our profession that cause – and what we can do about it.  This episode highlights burnout from a leadership perspective and the pressure to become other people’s version of a leader, not your authentic self. Sharing their first-hand experience is Abby’s guest, Rowan Morrison.  An experienced agency-side leader,...

Episode #125. The Burnout Miniseries ep2 – Continuing our focus on burnout, this episode discusses the experience of a high-achieving marketer who went through burnout and their reflections on preventing it again - for themselves and others in the future.  Abby’s guest is Alan Trice, an experienced and passionate senior marketer, having held Head of and Director-level roles within retail, entertainment, sports, lifestyle and fashion organisations such as Puma, Diesel, Coach, IMG,...

Episode #124. The Burnout Miniseries ep1 – Understanding burnout through a scientific lens is the focus of this episode, shining a light on the signs of burnout and how it physically and mentally manifests, as we see a rise in unsustainable stress amongst our profession.  Burnout is a topic that Abby is passionate about addressing and a fundamental part of burnout prevention is linked to the ‘personal understanding’ pillar or the whole marketer philosophy – the greater we know and...

Episode #123. This episode is leadership skill on empowerment – a fundamental pillar of the Whole Marketer approach in order to create a wave of successful and fulfilled marketers.  Adopting empowerment as a leadership style means building the belief and confidence in the marketers in your care; giving them the clarity, control and confidence to make decisions independently, so they can contribute to and achieve goals.  Abby’s guest expert is Ellie Norman, a trailblazing marketing...

Episode #122. Representation is the topic discussed in this episode, a skill for all marketers to ensure we are connecting and communicating with different people, groups and communities to truly reflect the world around us.  Joining Abby is her guest Nishma Patel Robb, Founder of Glittersphere, ex Senior Director of Brand and Reputation Marketing at Google UK. As a Founder, Speaker, Podcaster, President of WACL and fellowships with IPA and The Marketing Society, Nishma is on a mission...

Episode #121. Today’s episode is a technical skill on psychological biases, where we’ll discuss the patterns found in decision-making that marketers can use to better understand their customers and consumers biases and how we can address them and work with them.  Abby’s guest expert is Richard Shotton, author of bestselling and award-winning book The Choice Factory and founder of Astroten, a consultancy that applies findings from behavioural science to improve marketing, working with...

Episode #120. This episode is a leadership topic on Impact and the methodology of an impactful leader.  Creating impact is an important skill for marketers as so much of our role is about creating a positive effect and influence i.e. impact, both internally with stakeholders and externally with our markets, customers and consumers.   Abby is joined by Scott Morrison, Founder, Speaker, Author and NED. Scott is an experienced client-side and agency-side marketer at businesses including...

Episode #119. Gaining buy-in is the soft skill, leadership and personal understanding topic of today’s podcast.  Gaining buy-in is a critical skill for marketers, particularly as marketing moves from a support function to one leading the long-term commercial agenda – gaining buy-in and alignment on our strategy and vision is imperative to gain support, investment and resource from the Board to bring these plans to life.  Joining Abby to discuss how marketers approach gaining buy-in is...

Episode #118. Today’s episode is on challenger brands and the skills, behaviours and mindset marketers of challenger brands need to succeed.  Challenger brands – whether created by a corporate or a start-up – aims to disrupt an existing category by satisfying a consumer need that’s not currently being met. Commonly challenger brands seen as the ‘underdog’ have greater constraints like budgets and resources meaning marketers need to be harness their strengths, creativity, agility and risk...

Episode #117. Inclusive leadership is the topic of this episode, featuring returning guest David McQueen who has recently released his book Brave Leadership: Better Decisions for Inclusive Leadership.   David is a respected international speaker, executive coach, board facilitator and podcaster, passionate about helping others to explore how best leadership can work for them and their organisations.  In this episode, David discusses important issues for inclusive leadership,...

Episode #116. Season 7 returns with a new topic – responsiveness AKA acting with pace. A key skill for marketers in our ever-changing industry, being able to act quickly and positively enables brands and businesses to capitalise on trends, relevancy and react to customer needs.  Abby’s guest expert is Anna Henwood, who has previously led global marketing as CMO of Les Mills International and now as CEO of Stickybeak, is passionate about giving marketers a platform for affordable,...

Episode #115. Marketing Effectiveness is the technical skill in this episode, exploring the importance and ability to demonstrate the impact of your marketing activity to the business.  Joining Abby – to discuss one of her favourite topics – is Dr Grace Kite, award-winning founder of data analytic consultants, Magic Numbers. Dr Grace is a speaker, Marketing Week columnist and business economist who supports and coaches marketers on what works in marketing, to help their businesses grow.  ...

Episode #114. The personal understanding topic discussed in this episode is work/life balance, which can significantly impact our wellbeing and our sense of fulfilment in our career and lives as a whole.  A good work/life balance means having the clarity on all the things that are important in your life, then actively making the time for them, especially for the things that energise you – or fill up your cup - both inside and outside of work.   Joining Abby to discuss how you can work...