July 26, 2024 • 16 mins
This week's show is entitled, "8 Jobs for Modern B2B CMOs" and my guest is Cristine Kao, Chief Marketing Officer at ABC Fitness Solutions.
Tune in to:
- Discover the 8-10 multifaceted roles a CMO must embody today, from being a Revenue Accountable leader to a Strategic Growth Driver and everything in between.
- Gain Insights on how to adapt and pivot in a dynamic marketing environment without losing sight of your North Star.
- Understand the importance of maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle and how Cristine integrates this into her role at ABC Fitness.
Read the transcript on our blog (search Kao)
Matt interviews the best and brightest minds in sales and Marketing. If you would like to be a guest on Sales Pipeline Radio send an email to Sheena@heinzmarketing.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:16):
Welcome everybody to anotherepisode of Sales Pipeline Radio.
I'm your host, Matt Heinz.
Very excited to have you all hereas we get close to the end of July,
hitting the dog days of summer.
Hope y'all are enjoying a littlebit of the season and wrapping up
the month successfully as well.
If you are watching us live todayon LinkedIn, thank you so much
for joining us on LinkedIn Live.
(00:36):
You have a chance to be on theshow to be part of the show.
If you give us a comment,we'll be able to see that.
We can react to it.
We can put it up on screen.
Love it when we get interactionwith people that are able to watch
live in the middle of their workday.
So thank you so much for that.
If you're watching, listening on demand,thank you so much for downloading,
for listening, for subscribingevery episode of Sales Pipeline
Radio, past, present, future, alwaysavailable at salespipelineradio.com.
(01:00):
Today, very excited to have withus the chief marketing officer
of ABC fitness and we're going toget to this also the head coach.
of the I want to get thisright, Dallas United Crew.
We're gonna get into that a little later.
Cristine Kao.
Cristine, thanks for joining us today.
Cristine (01:14):
Hey Matt, how are you doing?
Matt (01:16):
I am good, I am good.
Well, I mean there's so many things wecould talk about on a lot of fronts,
and we'll get to a few of them, butthe one thing I wanted to start with
is just The role of the modern CMO inan organization and a lot of hats to
wear and you shared with me somethingthat you found, actually, I think your
CEO forwarded to you recently aroundthe eight roles, the modern CMO has.
(01:37):
So maybe just quick for people that don'tknow you introduce yourself and then let
me intro this concept of the eight jobs.
Cristine (01:43):
Yeah.
Well, thank you for having me, by theway, Matt, I've been a long time listener.
So very excited to be participatinglive for the first time.
So.
Amazing to be here.
Yes.
First of all, I want to givea shout out to my CEO, Bill
Davis of ABC Fitness Solutions.
He was the one who forwarded methis article written by, Ravi Rupre
and it's a very much of a PE backednewsletter and I've been in the PE
(02:06):
world for the last three rounds now.
So I thought this was somethingfun for us to talk about the modern
CMO needs to be eight things.
Again, not three, not four, eight.
Revenue Accountable, a Sales Leader,a Customer Journey Designer, a
Brand Builder, Pricing CommitteeMember, Strategic Growth Driver
(02:27):
Corporate Development Officer,as well as a Financial Steward.
Just a few things, right?
Matt (02:32):
A couple, just a couple.
Yeah.
Cristine (02:34):
Just a couple.
I'm sure other folks will have a few more.
I personally have two more to addas well, but boy, what a List of
eight things to get started with.
Matt (02:42):
Well, it's interesting because I think you can get, I mean, you can
get tired just thinking about allthose different things you have to do.
But my reaction to that is like, okay,like some of these seem a little more
tactical, but I like the idea that we wanta CMO to be a strategic growth driver.
We want them to be a financial steward,a corporate development officer.
Like this is not something the arts andcrafts person does in an organization.
(03:04):
So as you expand those jobs andelevate the responsibility there.
I think that's a good thingfor the CMO role in general.
What do you think?
Cristine (03:13):
Absolutely.
I would add that this is not uniqueto a PE environment, this is very
much applicable to any modern marketerthat you have to be adaptive, right?
And agile to the various thingsthat the business needs and you
modulate between these eight roles.
You know, I suspect in the PE (privateequity) environment, revenue accountable
(03:34):
will always probably be number one, right?
How do you get to the rule of 40 versus,you know maybe some of more consumer
brands or other brands are more aboutbrand and storytelling, product marketing.
And so so yeah, I, I really do think it'snot you have to do it all at the same
time, but rather how do you prioritizeaccordingly to the business need?
Matt (03:55):
You said you wanted to add two more things to the list.
What were your additions?
Cristine (03:59):
Okay.
So again, I'm a big believer in moreof a mission led type of company and
so I'd be remiss not to add culturalchampion as a CMO, as well as I'm a fan
of also alliteration is a product pundit.
You have to know, especially in theworld of product led growth now,
which is we're seeing more and moreof, you have to really be obsessed
(04:23):
with the customer and buyer journey.
Matt (04:24):
Absolutely.
It's, honestly, a buyer journey.
It's a user journey as a Brent Adamsonsometimes talks about it as a, like,
don't screw things up journey, right?
Like, as we go about our day, justtrying not to, like, disrupt things.
It's a mindset, right?
If you take that imposter syndromewith the protecting the status quo,
keeping those things come together, it'simportant to keep those in mind as well.
We're talking today on SalesPipeline Radio with Cristine Kao.
(04:47):
She is the Chief MarketingOfficer of ABC Fitness.
And you mentioned, having done afew tours of duty in private equity
land, which is unique, right?
This is not startup land, venturecapital, private equity is somewhat
of a different thing, but you cut yourteeth in a lot of healthcare space.
She's been over eight years atGE Healthcare, not a startup.
(05:08):
Talk a little bit about going froma global enterprise megacorp like GE
and getting into private equity land.
What were you able to bring fromyour experience that was a benefit?
And what were some of the newlessons that you had to learn or
new skills to build to be successfulwith a earlier stage company?
Cristine (05:23):
Oh, wow.
Man, that's a throwback.
It's GE healthcare for mewas more than a decade ago.
You know, the one thing that I reallyappreciated about GE as a whole,
at least in the late 90s, early2000s was the obsession around Six
Sigma and operational efficiency.
This is where I really got a firsthandexperience into operational design and
(05:47):
using data and system and process todesign-- whether that's change management
to any discipline for that matter.
And so I still find myself todayapplying a lot of that Six Sigma
lean thinking into everything I do.
And I think that has helped me in thePE environment where, you know, very
technical, very process driven, right?
(06:09):
Oftentimes you have to buildthings from the startup, right?
So People Process and Technologyis your three pillars always
when you effectuate any change.
And so I find myself applying a lotof that still in the world today.
And again, being comfortablewith data and processes has,
I think, helped me a long way.
Matt (06:29):
So you're kind of in a unique position to be able to speak from direct
first hand experience about Six Sigma,pragmatic marketing, agile, right?
Are those overlapped or do they buildon each other or how do you think
about and how do you in your own,way you operate combine elements of
the three that work best for you?
Cristine (06:48):
And we're getting philosophical now, Matt.
I love it.
But that's the funny part, isn't it?
That modern marketing now is notjust your traditional marketing.
In fact, in that newsletter that wewere just talking about from, from
Ravi, he opened that with, it's ashift from a role focused on building
brand awareness and vanity metrics.
Again, his words, not mine, to more ofa revenue powerhouse responsible for
(07:12):
direct revenue impact and the bottom line.
And so when I think about all the thingsthat I've had exposure to, whether
that's Six Sigma, to Pragmatic, toAgile it all contributed to appreciation
for a couple of things in my mind,one is this idea of being able to
adapt to rate the mix of the businessand the maturity of different things.
(07:33):
Second, I would say Ireally got comfortable with
iterative learning, right?
You, fail fast, learn fast andgetting into more of a sprint
cycle and be comfortable testingalways for anything you do.
And then I would say, the onething that I took away from Agile,
especially, I applied some ofthe Agile design and team design.
We now have squads in marketing and inthat concept of squad, you know, having
(07:58):
always obviously a business partnerto kind of help develop initiatives
and programs, but bringing the bestof different expertise within the
team at a moment in time as a squadhas helped us very much along the
way of how we scale over time, aswell as being efficient because we're
always strapped for resources, right?
So with the few resources thatwe have, how do we bring a squad
(08:20):
together to be very concentrated andvery impactful a quarter at a time.
So again, most of all, I think, again,marketing is bringing view of technology
and process, I think has been a greataddition to the arsenal, if you will.
Matt (08:34):
Yeah, I agree with that especially if you've got eight to 10 jobs as a CMO,
and if you have those jobs and your team'strying to execute on some of that strategy
and vision as well I think knowing whatyou need to get done, being disciplined
enough to get that work done efficiently,but also be open to new ideas, right?
And some of those ideas, some ofthose new things are pivots, right?
(08:56):
You start the year with a plan.
Here's what we're going to go do.
Some of it works.
Some of it doesn't; you can't juststick with the plan if it's suboptimal.
So you make pivots, butthen new ideas come in.
You weren't so clairvoyant at thebeginning of the year you knew
everything that was going to happen.
So how do you lead and then manage itand encourage a team when things are
always kind of changing, and you kindof need to adapt to that over time?
Cristine (09:18):
We often joke that we all should have, that friend's
shirt with the couch pivot.
I feel like at least in the PE worldand especially now in marketing, we all
should be wearing that shirt on a daily.
You know, I'm a big fan of longrange planning and I'm sure a
lot, all the companies do it.
And reason why I start withthat is because you have to
(09:41):
have a plan with an end in mind.
And in my mind, the pivotsand the priorities may change.
The input of these things may change.
For example, like what you did lastmonth may not work again this month.
Matt (09:54):
Right.
Cristine (09:54):
And it happens a lot.
And so how do you pivot from there?
But directionally, you should neversteer away from your North Star.
And if you find yourself departingfrom that path, boy, that's a immediate
conversation with your executiveleadership team, your CEO and your
board to, course-correct, to validate.
(10:15):
And that's where I think folks can maybeget stuck or get caught up in the pivot.
Meaning constantly changing what feelslike direction, but when in reality is in
my mind, it's more about course correctto the same North Star that the rest
of your team is also running towards.
Matt (10:32):
Yeah.
And I think context on that isimportant because if people don't
understand the context of why you'remaking this pivot, they're like,
this is a rudderless ship, right?
Like we don't know where we're goingand we're just making things up and
trying to find a new way of doing it.
So I think sometimes over communicating...
someone told me once they said,every one of your employees
has an enormous bowl, right?
And your job is to fill that bowlwith information and context.
(10:53):
And if you don't provide that, ifyou don't over communicate, they're
going to fill that bowl on their own.
And you may not like what theyput in it and what they put in
other people's bowls as well.
So sometimes the truth is not alwayslike a fun story to tell, but if the
truth is the truth, I think the peopleyou want on the boat, in the boat with
you, in the bus, whatever transportationanalogy you want to use, they're
(11:16):
going to appreciate the openness.
They're going to appreciatethat yeah, things do change.
And let's just start rowingin the same direction.
Cristine (11:22):
Yeah, I know it's cheesy, but it's true.
If, people understand the why behindit they will move along with you
in the same direction for sure.
And I think you're trying to segueto my dragon boating experience.
Matt (11:34):
You think you're trying to like talk about rowing the boat in one
direction and going to talk about this...
I'm looking at LinkedIn, this longhistory of boat clubs, and I'm always
impressed by like smart, successfulpeople that also have an investment
in significant things outside and thisis clearly a through line for you.
(11:55):
So can you talk a little bit aboutwhere your passion for, I don't
want to call it boating becausethat's not fair because it's not
like, this is not yacht club, right?
Cristine (12:01):
No it's a boating club.
Matt (12:04):
Where did that come from and why is it so important to you?
Cristine (12:06):
You know as we were just talking about the why one of the things
I've really enjoyed over the yearswas actually coaching people, helping
them find their passion and, andachieve what was thought impossible.
I have worked withbreast cancer survivors.
I've worked with teenagers.
I've worked with senior adults as old as80, who never thought they could compete
(12:28):
in a team as an adult and they did.
The best feeling in the world, really.
they look at you with with that justa pure satisfaction of knowing that
they've done something that theycouldn't do a year ago or two years ago.
It's pure joy for me.
And and so as an athlete alsoin transitioning to coach.
That's something I really enjoyedoutside of work and I tell you
(12:50):
though, Matt, if you've never beenon water in a kayak or a canoe or
whatever, I encourage you to do so.
There's something about thesea life, the salt the water is
pure pure meditational for me.
it's cleansing and it's calming.
It's the best way tohonestly to distress as well.
Matt (13:05):
I've done that, but only recreationally, right?
Not when I'm trying to getsomewhere as fast as possible.
I was a big fan of The Boys in the Boat.
It was a super interestingstory when it first came out.
I went to University Washington,that boat house is still there.
It's in fact, they're doing a wholefundraising around trying to get it
renovated and keep it there forever.
And I got a friend who we, worked at astartup and he was an alternate in the
Olympic rowing team back in the day.
(13:26):
And he just talks about what itmeans just in terms of tenacity
and mental acuity throughout life.
And honestly, he came to us as asales rep with zero experience.
But we're like, I think themental makeup of an Olympic
alternate is going to be okay.
And he became a sales leader.
Surprise, surprise, very quickly.
Sine the pandemic, it's a lot easierfor people just to like sit in our
(13:47):
basements and work from home andstill have these insular lives.
Can you talk about the importanceof like getting out, not only
getting on the water, but doingwith other people that are trying to
pursue a similar sort of challenge?
Cristine (13:58):
Yeah, and the fact that I could do that with my company now as
well, which is A jelling, an interlockof best life and interests, if you will.
You know, the one thing that I am a firmbeliever of is that, health and family
always comes first for that reason.
I'm a breast cancer survivor.
I've had health scares.
My family has gone through a lot of thingsand I'm really a fan of active lifestyle
(14:22):
as a preventative way to living longer,living healthier, enjoying your life.
And you're right.
It is easy nowadays,especially after COVID, right?
to simply stay home and do nothing.
And this is why I think a team sporthas been transformational for me is that
when you have a human connection; whetheryou're at the gym or you're on the water
with your team, that sense of connectionand community is so important nowadays.
(14:45):
And that's not something you could replacewith watching TikTok or Instagram or
being on screen or even just a virtualinteraction, I suppose, like this.
And in ABC Fitness Solutions and notto plug for the company, we help 40
million people around the world doingexactly that-- finding healthier habits
and, and exercise that makes them happy.
And so I can't encourage everybody enoughto, even if it's just 10 minutes walking.
(15:12):
One step more is then what you hadyesterday, so start small and next thing,
you know, you will be running marathons.
Matt (15:18):
We've all got to pay bills and there's a lot of places we can go to
work to do that, but there's a lot tobe said for places you can do that,
that are purpose mission driven, right?
That are trying to, do somethingdifferent in the world.
You don't have to change theworld entirely, but if you
have an impact on a few otherpeople, that's meaningful, right?
You still take your money home, butyou also know, that you're doing
something good for the world overall.
Christine, thank you somuch for joining us today.
(15:40):
Really appreciate it.
Glad you are open to us veering offinto a little bit of philosophical as
well as talk about paddling as well.
So thanks again for doing this.
Cristine (15:48):
Absolutely.
Thank you for having me again.
Look forward to connecting withfolks online and as a CMO community,
I look forward to hearing fromfolks what else you think we should
add to the list of the eight?
Matt (15:58):
Absolutely.
Awesome.
Well thanks everyone.
We're gonna be on hiatusfor the next couple weeks.
I'm on vacation with thefamily for a couple weeks.
We'll be back mid Augustwith more episodes.
Until then, thank you so much.
Enjoy your summer.
We'll see you next timeon Sales Pipeline Radio.
Welcome everybody to anotherepisode of Sales Pipeline Radio.
I'm your host, Matt Heinz.
Very excited to have you all hereas we get close to the end of July,
hitting the dog days of summer.
Hope y'all are enjoying a littlebit of the season and wrapping up
the month successfully as well.
If you are watching us live todayon LinkedIn, thank you so much
for joining us on LinkedIn Live.
(00:36):
You have a chance to be on theshow to be part of the show.
If you give us a comment,we'll be able to see that.
We can react to it.
We can put it up on screen.
Love it when we get interactionwith people that are able to watch
live in the middle of their workday.
So thank you so much for that.
If you're watching, listening on demand,thank you so much for downloading,
for listening, for subscribingevery episode of Sales Pipeline
Radio, past, present, future, alwaysavailable at salespipelineradio.com.
(01:00):
Today, very excited to have withus the chief marketing officer
of ABC fitness and we're going toget to this also the head coach.
of the I want to get thisright, Dallas United Crew.
We're gonna get into that a little later.
Cristine Kao.
Cristine, thanks for joining us today.
Cristine (01:14):
Hey Matt, how are you doing?
Matt (01:16):
I am good, I am good.
Well, I mean there's so many things wecould talk about on a lot of fronts,
and we'll get to a few of them, butthe one thing I wanted to start with
is just The role of the modern CMO inan organization and a lot of hats to
wear and you shared with me somethingthat you found, actually, I think your
CEO forwarded to you recently aroundthe eight roles, the modern CMO has.
(01:37):
So maybe just quick for people that don'tknow you introduce yourself and then let
me intro this concept of the eight jobs.
Cristine (01:43):
Yeah.
Well, thank you for having me, by theway, Matt, I've been a long time listener.
So very excited to be participatinglive for the first time.
So.
Amazing to be here.
Yes.
First of all, I want to givea shout out to my CEO, Bill
Davis of ABC Fitness Solutions.
He was the one who forwarded methis article written by, Ravi Rupre
and it's a very much of a PE backednewsletter and I've been in the PE
(02:06):
world for the last three rounds now.
So I thought this was somethingfun for us to talk about the modern
CMO needs to be eight things.
Again, not three, not four, eight.
Revenue Accountable, a Sales Leader,a Customer Journey Designer, a
Brand Builder, Pricing CommitteeMember, Strategic Growth Driver
(02:27):
Corporate Development Officer,as well as a Financial Steward.
Just a few things, right?
Matt (02:32):
A couple, just a couple.
Yeah.
Cristine (02:34):
Just a couple.
I'm sure other folks will have a few more.
I personally have two more to addas well, but boy, what a List of
eight things to get started with.
Matt (02:42):
Well, it's interesting because I think you can get, I mean, you can
get tired just thinking about allthose different things you have to do.
But my reaction to that is like, okay,like some of these seem a little more
tactical, but I like the idea that we wanta CMO to be a strategic growth driver.
We want them to be a financial steward,a corporate development officer.
Like this is not something the arts andcrafts person does in an organization.
(03:04):
So as you expand those jobs andelevate the responsibility there.
I think that's a good thingfor the CMO role in general.
What do you think?
Cristine (03:13):
Absolutely.
I would add that this is not uniqueto a PE environment, this is very
much applicable to any modern marketerthat you have to be adaptive, right?
And agile to the various thingsthat the business needs and you
modulate between these eight roles.
You know, I suspect in the PE (privateequity) environment, revenue accountable
(03:34):
will always probably be number one, right?
How do you get to the rule of 40 versus,you know maybe some of more consumer
brands or other brands are more aboutbrand and storytelling, product marketing.
And so so yeah, I, I really do think it'snot you have to do it all at the same
time, but rather how do you prioritizeaccordingly to the business need?
Matt (03:55):
You said you wanted to add two more things to the list.
What were your additions?
Cristine (03:59):
Okay.
So again, I'm a big believer in moreof a mission led type of company and
so I'd be remiss not to add culturalchampion as a CMO, as well as I'm a fan
of also alliteration is a product pundit.
You have to know, especially in theworld of product led growth now,
which is we're seeing more and moreof, you have to really be obsessed
(04:23):
with the customer and buyer journey.
Matt (04:24):
Absolutely.
It's, honestly, a buyer journey.
It's a user journey as a Brent Adamsonsometimes talks about it as a, like,
don't screw things up journey, right?
Like, as we go about our day, justtrying not to, like, disrupt things.
It's a mindset, right?
If you take that imposter syndromewith the protecting the status quo,
keeping those things come together, it'simportant to keep those in mind as well.
We're talking today on SalesPipeline Radio with Cristine Kao.
(04:47):
She is the Chief MarketingOfficer of ABC Fitness.
And you mentioned, having done afew tours of duty in private equity
land, which is unique, right?
This is not startup land, venturecapital, private equity is somewhat
of a different thing, but you cut yourteeth in a lot of healthcare space.
She's been over eight years atGE Healthcare, not a startup.
(05:08):
Talk a little bit about going froma global enterprise megacorp like GE
and getting into private equity land.
What were you able to bring fromyour experience that was a benefit?
And what were some of the newlessons that you had to learn or
new skills to build to be successfulwith a earlier stage company?
Cristine (05:23):
Oh, wow.
Man, that's a throwback.
It's GE healthcare for mewas more than a decade ago.
You know, the one thing that I reallyappreciated about GE as a whole,
at least in the late 90s, early2000s was the obsession around Six
Sigma and operational efficiency.
This is where I really got a firsthandexperience into operational design and
(05:47):
using data and system and process todesign-- whether that's change management
to any discipline for that matter.
And so I still find myself todayapplying a lot of that Six Sigma
lean thinking into everything I do.
And I think that has helped me in thePE environment where, you know, very
technical, very process driven, right?
(06:09):
Oftentimes you have to buildthings from the startup, right?
So People Process and Technologyis your three pillars always
when you effectuate any change.
And so I find myself applying a lotof that still in the world today.
And again, being comfortablewith data and processes has,
I think, helped me a long way.
Matt (06:29):
So you're kind of in a unique position to be able to speak from direct
first hand experience about Six Sigma,pragmatic marketing, agile, right?
Are those overlapped or do they buildon each other or how do you think
about and how do you in your own,way you operate combine elements of
the three that work best for you?
Cristine (06:48):
And we're getting philosophical now, Matt.
I love it.
But that's the funny part, isn't it?
That modern marketing now is notjust your traditional marketing.
In fact, in that newsletter that wewere just talking about from, from
Ravi, he opened that with, it's ashift from a role focused on building
brand awareness and vanity metrics.
Again, his words, not mine, to more ofa revenue powerhouse responsible for
(07:12):
direct revenue impact and the bottom line.
And so when I think about all the thingsthat I've had exposure to, whether
that's Six Sigma, to Pragmatic, toAgile it all contributed to appreciation
for a couple of things in my mind,one is this idea of being able to
adapt to rate the mix of the businessand the maturity of different things.
(07:33):
Second, I would say Ireally got comfortable with
iterative learning, right?
You, fail fast, learn fast andgetting into more of a sprint
cycle and be comfortable testingalways for anything you do.
And then I would say, the onething that I took away from Agile,
especially, I applied some ofthe Agile design and team design.
We now have squads in marketing and inthat concept of squad, you know, having
(07:58):
always obviously a business partnerto kind of help develop initiatives
and programs, but bringing the bestof different expertise within the
team at a moment in time as a squadhas helped us very much along the
way of how we scale over time, aswell as being efficient because we're
always strapped for resources, right?
So with the few resources thatwe have, how do we bring a squad
(08:20):
together to be very concentrated andvery impactful a quarter at a time.
So again, most of all, I think, again,marketing is bringing view of technology
and process, I think has been a greataddition to the arsenal, if you will.
Matt (08:34):
Yeah, I agree with that especially if you've got eight to 10 jobs as a CMO,
and if you have those jobs and your team'strying to execute on some of that strategy
and vision as well I think knowing whatyou need to get done, being disciplined
enough to get that work done efficiently,but also be open to new ideas, right?
And some of those ideas, some ofthose new things are pivots, right?
(08:56):
You start the year with a plan.
Here's what we're going to go do.
Some of it works.
Some of it doesn't; you can't juststick with the plan if it's suboptimal.
So you make pivots, butthen new ideas come in.
You weren't so clairvoyant at thebeginning of the year you knew
everything that was going to happen.
So how do you lead and then manage itand encourage a team when things are
always kind of changing, and you kindof need to adapt to that over time?
Cristine (09:18):
We often joke that we all should have, that friend's
shirt with the couch pivot.
I feel like at least in the PE worldand especially now in marketing, we all
should be wearing that shirt on a daily.
You know, I'm a big fan of longrange planning and I'm sure a
lot, all the companies do it.
And reason why I start withthat is because you have to
(09:41):
have a plan with an end in mind.
And in my mind, the pivotsand the priorities may change.
The input of these things may change.
For example, like what you did lastmonth may not work again this month.
Matt (09:54):
Right.
Cristine (09:54):
And it happens a lot.
And so how do you pivot from there?
But directionally, you should neversteer away from your North Star.
And if you find yourself departingfrom that path, boy, that's a immediate
conversation with your executiveleadership team, your CEO and your
board to, course-correct, to validate.
(10:15):
And that's where I think folks can maybeget stuck or get caught up in the pivot.
Meaning constantly changing what feelslike direction, but when in reality is in
my mind, it's more about course correctto the same North Star that the rest
of your team is also running towards.
Matt (10:32):
Yeah.
And I think context on that isimportant because if people don't
understand the context of why you'remaking this pivot, they're like,
this is a rudderless ship, right?
Like we don't know where we're goingand we're just making things up and
trying to find a new way of doing it.
So I think sometimes over communicating...
someone told me once they said,every one of your employees
has an enormous bowl, right?
And your job is to fill that bowlwith information and context.
(10:53):
And if you don't provide that, ifyou don't over communicate, they're
going to fill that bowl on their own.
And you may not like what theyput in it and what they put in
other people's bowls as well.
So sometimes the truth is not alwayslike a fun story to tell, but if the
truth is the truth, I think the peopleyou want on the boat, in the boat with
you, in the bus, whatever transportationanalogy you want to use, they're
(11:16):
going to appreciate the openness.
They're going to appreciatethat yeah, things do change.
And let's just start rowingin the same direction.
Cristine (11:22):
Yeah, I know it's cheesy, but it's true.
If, people understand the why behindit they will move along with you
in the same direction for sure.
And I think you're trying to segueto my dragon boating experience.
Matt (11:34):
You think you're trying to like talk about rowing the boat in one
direction and going to talk about this...
I'm looking at LinkedIn, this longhistory of boat clubs, and I'm always
impressed by like smart, successfulpeople that also have an investment
in significant things outside and thisis clearly a through line for you.
(11:55):
So can you talk a little bit aboutwhere your passion for, I don't
want to call it boating becausethat's not fair because it's not
like, this is not yacht club, right?
Cristine (12:01):
No it's a boating club.
Matt (12:04):
Where did that come from and why is it so important to you?
Cristine (12:06):
You know as we were just talking about the why one of the things
I've really enjoyed over the yearswas actually coaching people, helping
them find their passion and, andachieve what was thought impossible.
I have worked withbreast cancer survivors.
I've worked with teenagers.
I've worked with senior adults as old as80, who never thought they could compete
(12:28):
in a team as an adult and they did.
The best feeling in the world, really.
they look at you with with that justa pure satisfaction of knowing that
they've done something that theycouldn't do a year ago or two years ago.
It's pure joy for me.
And and so as an athlete alsoin transitioning to coach.
That's something I really enjoyedoutside of work and I tell you
(12:50):
though, Matt, if you've never beenon water in a kayak or a canoe or
whatever, I encourage you to do so.
There's something about thesea life, the salt the water is
pure pure meditational for me.
it's cleansing and it's calming.
It's the best way tohonestly to distress as well.
Matt (13:05):
I've done that, but only recreationally, right?
Not when I'm trying to getsomewhere as fast as possible.
I was a big fan of The Boys in the Boat.
It was a super interestingstory when it first came out.
I went to University Washington,that boat house is still there.
It's in fact, they're doing a wholefundraising around trying to get it
renovated and keep it there forever.
And I got a friend who we, worked at astartup and he was an alternate in the
Olympic rowing team back in the day.
(13:26):
And he just talks about what itmeans just in terms of tenacity
and mental acuity throughout life.
And honestly, he came to us as asales rep with zero experience.
But we're like, I think themental makeup of an Olympic
alternate is going to be okay.
And he became a sales leader.
Surprise, surprise, very quickly.
Sine the pandemic, it's a lot easierfor people just to like sit in our
(13:47):
basements and work from home andstill have these insular lives.
Can you talk about the importanceof like getting out, not only
getting on the water, but doingwith other people that are trying to
pursue a similar sort of challenge?
Cristine (13:58):
Yeah, and the fact that I could do that with my company now as
well, which is A jelling, an interlockof best life and interests, if you will.
You know, the one thing that I am a firmbeliever of is that, health and family
always comes first for that reason.
I'm a breast cancer survivor.
I've had health scares.
My family has gone through a lot of thingsand I'm really a fan of active lifestyle
(14:22):
as a preventative way to living longer,living healthier, enjoying your life.
And you're right.
It is easy nowadays,especially after COVID, right?
to simply stay home and do nothing.
And this is why I think a team sporthas been transformational for me is that
when you have a human connection; whetheryou're at the gym or you're on the water
with your team, that sense of connectionand community is so important nowadays.
(14:45):
And that's not something you could replacewith watching TikTok or Instagram or
being on screen or even just a virtualinteraction, I suppose, like this.
And in ABC Fitness Solutions and notto plug for the company, we help 40
million people around the world doingexactly that-- finding healthier habits
and, and exercise that makes them happy.
And so I can't encourage everybody enoughto, even if it's just 10 minutes walking.
(15:12):
One step more is then what you hadyesterday, so start small and next thing,
you know, you will be running marathons.
Matt (15:18):
We've all got to pay bills and there's a lot of places we can go to
work to do that, but there's a lot tobe said for places you can do that,
that are purpose mission driven, right?
That are trying to, do somethingdifferent in the world.
You don't have to change theworld entirely, but if you
have an impact on a few otherpeople, that's meaningful, right?
You still take your money home, butyou also know, that you're doing
something good for the world overall.
Christine, thank you somuch for joining us today.
(15:40):
Really appreciate it.
Glad you are open to us veering offinto a little bit of philosophical as
well as talk about paddling as well.
So thanks again for doing this.
Cristine (15:48):
Absolutely.
Thank you for having me again.
Look forward to connecting withfolks online and as a CMO community,
I look forward to hearing fromfolks what else you think we should
add to the list of the eight?
Matt (15:58):
Absolutely.
Awesome.
Well thanks everyone.
We're gonna be on hiatusfor the next couple weeks.
I'm on vacation with thefamily for a couple weeks.
We'll be back mid Augustwith more episodes.
Until then, thank you so much.
Enjoy your summer.
We'll see you next timeon Sales Pipeline Radio.
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