CMO Journeys

About CMO Journeys

CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin (https://thenextbigwin.com/) featuring conversations with the marketing leaders behind today’s most recognizable brands, including Princess Cruises, White Castle, and Ruby Tuesday. Hosted by Christian Banach (https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianbanach/), Founder and Chief Growth Officer of NextBigWin, each episode explores the personal and professional journeys that brought today’s CMOs to the C-suite — from the pivotal career decisions and mentors that shaped them to the lessons learned along the way. The conversation then turns to the realities of leading modern marketing organizations, including the mandates CMOs are driving inside their companies and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners. Through candid discussions, CMO Journeys gives agency leaders, marketers, and industry professionals a behind-the-scenes look at how modern CMOs build teams, shape brands, drive growth, and partner with the organizations helping bring their strategies to life.

Publisher

Christian Banach

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

18 Mar 2026

Latest episode

18 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

46 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   18 Oct 2026

   Dustin Sitar, CMO of BriteCo: Judging the Process Over the Result

   Dustin Sitar is Chief Growth Officer at BriteCo, which helps people protect their jewelry, watches, and weddings through an online insurance experience. He spent years as a professional poker player before working at Zappos, and he brings a clear lesson from the table to his marketing: judge the decision, not only the outcome. What the Conversation Covers How poker taught him to separate a bad process from bad luck, and how he applies that to marketing tests Why BriteCo's first influencer effort failed, and how a more manual, targeted approach made it work Why he treats everyone as a customer, from agencies to coworkers, a lesson he took from Zappos How BriteCo grew from seven employees to around 50, and why he lets roles fit the people who fill them What makes a lasting agency partnership, from sharing internal metrics to in-person offsites Guest Bio Dustin Sitar is Chief Growth Officer at BriteCo, where he joined as employee number seven and previously led growth and marketing. Before BriteCo, he worked at Zappos across business development, operations, merchandising, and strategy, and before that, he played professional poker. About the Podcast CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

2. 

   9 Oct 2026

   Julien McCluney, CMO of Jacuzzi Group: From Finance to the Marketing C-Suite

   Julien McCluney is the Global Chief Marketing Officer of Jacuzzi Group, a company sitting at the intersection of home, wellness, and premium consumer products. The route to that role started with a plan to become a doctor, ran through a finance career in New York, and changed direction after a single branding class in business school. It's a candid look at how a marketing leader gets built out of detours rather than a straight line. What the Conversation Covers The career pivot from finance to brand management, and the rejections that redirected the path Why brand management is described as the intersection of human stories and business numbers The argument over whether marketing is an expense or a growth lever, and how to make the case to leadership A leadership philosophy built on patience, bravery, and being the safety net for a team How agency partners are evaluated, why fit is the hardest thing to judge upfront, and when the work stays in-house instead Guest Bio Julien McCluney serves as Global Chief Marketing Officer of Jacuzzi Group, leading marketing across a house of brands that includes Jacuzzi, Sundance Spas, Hydropool, and Dreammaker. That background combines finance, brand management, product innovation, and P&L leadership, with prior leadership roles across brands including Monopoly, Nerf, Rubbermaid, Oster, and Crockpot. About the Podcast CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

3. 

   2 Oct 2026

   Steve Daheb, CMO of Flexera: The Artist's Path to the Marketing C-Suite

   Steve Daheb leads global marketing at Flexera, a company that helps the world's largest organizations understand and manage what they spend across software, cloud, SaaS, hardware, and AI. The path there ran through comic books, art academy offers, a psychology degree, and law classes taken at night while working full time. It is a useful conversation for anyone trying to understand how a marketing leader's instincts actually get formed. What the Conversation Covers The career journey: an artist's start in the Bay Area, a father's blunt redirection, and a climb that tracked every major technology shift from networking to AI Why law school turned out to be the best marketing training available, and how moot court maps almost exactly onto messaging and competitive positioning The childhood moment that produced a lasting empathy for the customer, and how pattern recognition across past technology waves shapes decision-making How a marketing organization gets aligned from the inside out, and why internal partnerships across product marketing, customer success, and sales come before anything external What Daheb expects from agency partners: how far the work should get in-house first, why inherited agency relationships get kept rather than replaced, and the kind of creative work that earns real enthusiasm Guest Bio Steve Daheb is Chief Marketing Officer at Flexera, where the remit spans global marketing, product marketing, demand generation, and brand strategy. Prior senior roles include Oracle, where Daheb led the platform story behind the company's move to the cloud, as well as Citrix and Tanium. Outside of work, Daheb is a lifelong comic book reader, a Comic Con regular, and has built motorcycles, one of which won a national award. About the Podcast CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.