The Anonymous Marketer is supported by:
Episode Summary
In the new episode of The Anonymous Marketer, we explore questions about career growth and the challenges of moving from a small organization to a larger one.
Our host is Ryan Narod, the VP of Marketing at Mutiny. Ryan first explains the differences between a marketing manager and a marketing director and the skills that qualify a marketing manager for a higher role.
Ryan also shares his operating cadence from Monday through Friday and how such a structure affects productivity and efficiency across the organization. Finally, Ryan and our host Nick Bennett discuss the importance of community and how to build meaningful long-term relationships with people from your professional sphere.
Guest Profile
- Name: Ryan Narod
- What he does: Ryan is the VP of Marketing at Mutiny.
- Company: Mutiny
- Noteworthy: Ryan is a marketing leader with deep expertise in B2B growth, acquisition, and product marketing. Before he joined Mutiny, Ryan worked at Google.
Key Insights
- Moving from a marketing manager to a marketing director requires a mindset shift. That means you no longer focus on your success but on the success of a team reporting to you, says Ryan. You are no longer expected to play the instrument but to conduct an orchestra. So if we were to define what it takes to transition to a director's role, the required skills would be: ''Number one, building a team, understanding how to hire and recruit, designing an org that's effective and productive, coaching folks, and giving feedback. Number two is setting a strategy. So that's defining the goals and projects for your team that ladder up to the big picture. And number three is looking outwards, bringing external thought leadership and big ideas into the org. And lastly, being a master conductor. So being able to work cross-functionally to unblock your team, making them successful, and being good at communication and influence.''
- Communities, and all the channels they are active on, are inexhaustible sources of knowledge. Therefore, anyone interested in professional growth should ditch the fear of being rejected (because you will not be), fight insecurities, build a network, and connect with people on as many platforms as possible. ''The channels are all the same that everyone has access to, like LinkedIn. If you're able to filter it down, there are some nuggets of real gold that you can get between all the vendor pitches. Communities are super helpful, specifically the ones that host roundtables. We have our M2 community, where we host biweekly roundtables that are persona-based. We get together with mark
- Be respectful of your and other people's time. But that's easier said than done, especially in larger organizations with intensive cross-departmental collaboration. However, despite one's willingness to help in a given situation, setting priorities is critical for efficiency. Sometimes you must say no, but in companies with a healthy culture, this doesn’t cause any disruptions in relationships. ''We're running a lean team, and historically, we're focused on customer acquisition; that's where I've devoted 90% of my time and resources. And now we have asks from across the company that don't necessarily align neatly with our targets. Sales is asking for more enablement, and product is asking for launches. Our customer success team is asking for help with onboarding. And so, you need to balance all of these things. And so the question I always ask is, ‘What can we tie to a metric that we're already signed up for?’ [...] So that's one factor. The second one is what's important to the company. If you listen to your CEO and the board, what they say is most important, even if it's outside your core metric.''
Episode Highlights
Differences Between a Marketing Manager and Marketing Director
”Marketing manager doesn’t imply people management because marketing is so amorphous. It typically means you’re managing a marketing program or a channel. Whereas director implies that you own a function, which includes setting the strategic direction of the function and then building up the ideal team to execute on that direction.”
Ryan’s Operating Cadence From Monday Through Friday
”On Monday, I have each team under me meet with each other and prepare for the week. And while they’re doing that, I’m focused on looking backward at the previous week.
Tuesday, every team meets with me and shares what they’re focused on this week and in the longer term. Tuesday is productive. […] I provide feedback for them, and I also help them connect the dots cross-functionally. […]
Wednesday is heads-down time for everyone, myself included. It’s like Wednesday’s the sacred no-meeting day. And then, Thursday is a one-on-one day. And because Tuesday was tactical and Wednesday was a heads-down day, this is where I could focus on career development, feedback, and coaching.
Friday is when folks wrap up the week. So we have everyone post the Slack up, which is the best summary of your week in Slack, and so you share wins from the week. You’re focused for next week. It’s a nice celebration. There are a lot of emojis and comments on people’s Slack ups, and it opens up doors for, ‘Let’s work together on this project next week.’”
Challenges of Transitioning from a Smaller Organization to a Larger One
”I’ve gone from having my own business to Google to startups. […] So having my own business, it was like the least structure I was exposed to because there was nobody expecting structure from me. A lot of the insight and knowledge and direction were in my head.
And so going to a company like Google was the first time in my career that I was exposed to the need for intense structure. I remember having my first one-on-one, and my manager was like, ‘Okay, what’s your agenda?’ And I said, ‘I didn’t know I was supposed to have an agenda.’
And then, when I went to a startup, I was the only one who had an agenda. So when I see people go from a startup to a big company and not have that muscle, I understand where it comes from; we’re never exposed to it.
So what is that muscle, and how do you flex it when you’ve never been exposed to it? I think it’s about over-documentation and communication. It’s like when you have a thought, start a doc. […] And that may seem highly formal or overdone. But people will appreciate it, especially in a larger company.”
