Scale Smarter Under Pressure: How CMOs Win With Peer Collaboration

It’s never been harder to be a CMO—and never more important to get it right. Budgets are shrinking, burnout is rising, and the pressure to deliver pipeline and prove impact hasn’t let up. If you're still trying to lead through this alone, you're already behind.

Hey there, I'm Kerry Curran, B2B Chief Revenue Officer, Industry Analyst, and host of Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast.

In Scale Smarter Under Pressure: How CMOs Win with Peer Collaboration, I'm joined by Kathleen Booth, SVP of Marketing and Growth at Pavilion. We talk about how today's most effective CMOs are navigating change, pressure, and AI disruption—without losing their edge. Kathleen shares what she’s seeing across Pavilion’s global network of go-to-market leaders and why the ones still winning are focused on three essential pillars:

• Profitable, efficient growth
  
   
• AI for go-to-market
  
   
• Personal transformation
  
   

Because resilience isn't a luxury anymore—it’s a leadership requirement.

We also dive into what makes GTM25, Pavilion’s flagship event, different from any other conference out there—and why it’s a must-attend for marketing and revenue leaders looking to scale smarter in 2026 and beyond.

Be sure to stay tuned to the end, where Kathleen shares a powerful mindset shift that redefines what it means to be a modern CMO—and how to become the strategic growth architect your business needs now.

If you get value from this episode, hit follow, drop a quick rating, and send it to someone in marketing, sales, or the C-suite who needs to hear it. Let’s go.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:01.417)

Welcome, Kathleen. Please introduce yourself and share your background and expertise.

Kathleen Booth | Pavilion (00:06.382)

Hey Kerry, thanks for having me on the show. My name is Kathleen Booth. I am the SVP of Marketing and Growth at Pavilion, a global private membership community for go-to-market executives. Our mission is to help go-to-market leaders succeed in their careers at a time when tenures are notoriously short and the pressure is extremely high.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:33.417)

Excellent. Thank you so much for joining today, Kathleen. As we've discussed, I'm a bit obsessed with Pavilion right now. There are so many smart examples, learnings, coursework—just tons of content to up-level executives. But what I love is that it emphasizes that marketing, sales, and customer success must work together to drive revenue and business growth. I know you're talking to a lot of CMOs, CROs, and customer success executives. What are you really hearing today? What are the challenges or what does the marketplace look like for them?

Kathleen Booth | Pavilion (01:19.086)

The theme word of the year is “uncertainty.” We get a lot of feedback from our members and more broadly. We’re living through a time of tremendous pressure on go-to-market leaders in general—and CMOs in particular. It wouldn’t be a podcast if we didn’t mention AI.

Artificial intelligence is transforming everything so quickly, it’s difficult to find solid ground. As soon as you think you understand something, it changes again. Data shows buying complexity is increasing. Leadership turnover is high. Legal, regulatory, and geopolitical instability make it hard to predict even six months out.

Recent data from G2 shows vendor shortlists are shrinking—from four to seven options previously, to just one to three now. That makes it harder to even get considered. Marketers have to step up brand awareness and demand, but budgets are under pressure.

According to Gartner, only 24% of CMOs say they have enough budget to execute their strategy. Marketing budgets as a percent of total revenue are down 11% from 2020. The challenges are growing, but our toolset is shrinking. Then there's AI. It brings promise—but also complexity.

Salesforce found that marketers see AI as both the top opportunity and the top challenge. One person called it a “proble-tunity.” Around 75% of marketers have experimented with AI, and marketing is seen as the most advanced department when it comes to adoption. But only 32% say they're using it adequately.

And the result of all of this? Burnout.

Gartner’s CMO Leadership Vision report shows that marketers facing high levels of change are twice as likely to experience burnout. We’re all feeling it. To make it worse, only 14% of CMOs are viewed as effective at shaping markets—a skill that’s crucial for hitting revenue targets.

All of this suggests the modern CMO must be commercial, cre