Episode 113: From Sell, Sell, Sell to Save and Regenerate - A Marketer’s Journey to Purpose - with Glen McDermott, CEO Red Rock Branding

In this final episode of 2025, we talk to Glen McDermott, CEO of Red Rock Branding and a leader in the conscious business movement. Glen shares his personal journey from retail marketing to founding a purpose-driven agency focused on "healthy people and planet," driven by experiences with public health and Australia’s devastating bushfires.

We delve into a subject close to our hearts, the critical role of language and leadership in shifting business paradigms. Glen talks us through the important work and mission of the Conscious Business Collaborative, which educates future leaders by putting students "shoulder to shoulder" with pioneering CEOs. He argues that while sustainability has “suffered tremendously in the greenwashing movement,” forward-thinking communicators are now leaning into more proactive terms and framing actions around what makes solid business sense.

A core theme which we’ve been exploring for years is Marketer's or marketing’s evolving identity and role from being seen, as Glen explains, “marketing in its old sense, traditional sense, you could argue is a dirty word” to becoming essential "change agents" and educators. We explore how strategic marketing, when aligned with a genuine purpose, can build "brands with backbone," influence consumer behaviour positively, and prove that doing good is a viable business model. On the shift in marketing's role, Glen shares how “when talking at a conference in Berlin, I reframed it to be more education. And that was a really interesting flip to the audience who were all incredibly bright researchers and professors. One of the messages I left was asking them to spend more time in public facing operations rather than internal facing.”

On finding purpose in work we don’t need to overhaul everything at once. Glen's advice is, “do lots of micro experiments until you find what it is, that number one, you're good at and number two, that you can demonstrate some impact in - impact being in terms of improving people's lives (And that's the sticky bit, vs. sell, sell, sell)." It’s about finding what we’re good at that creates tangible impact, and from there we can build momentum.

Tune in as we talk to Glen about:

• Language being a critical lever and moving beyond jargon and tired terms.

• Bridging the generational leadership gap.

• Marketing’s evolving role from driving mindless consumption to becoming strategic change agents who use creativity to solve human and ecological challenges.

• Measuring impact beyond profit, like whether your team feels "jazzed" by their work and social impact, such as improved public health outcomes.

For more information:

Visit: www.redrockbranding.com

The Conscious Business Collaborative

Enjoy - and if you love the podcast, share with your friends, family and colleagues.

That’s a wrap for 2025 - but rest assured plenty of great conversations will continue through 2026.

Stay tuned…

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About us…

We help Marketers save the planet. 🌍

Join the Marketers and organisations who have signed our manifesto, engage with our newsletter and training and, work with us to communicate sustainability more effectively. Sign our Sustainable Marketer Manifesto, and join us on our mission. Get in touch to chat.

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