Uncensored CMO

Steve Beckett, CMO who joined Zwift as employee five and helped build it into a global fitness unicorn. He recounts inventing the indoor training category, using gamification and behavioral design to boost engagement. He talks about scaling through COVID, launching Zwift Ride hardware, and making bold brand bets like sponsoring the women’s Tour de France Femmes to drive growth.

They explore the idea of creating a personal board to spot blind spots and guide big career moves. Short, practical rules for choosing advisors and balancing community, network and advisory layers come up. Stories show how networks open unexpected doors and when to call on trusted advisors for negotiations or career pivots.

Carly Natalizia, Chief Commercial Officer at Gymshark and former chief digital officer with a finance-to-retail background. She recounts Gymshark’s rise as a challenger brand and working alongside founder Ben Francis. Conversation covers balancing brand and commercial priorities, staying close to community, omnichannel growth and the bold moves behind flagship stores and campaigns.

Kory Marchisotto, leader behind e.l.f.’s purpose-driven, inclusive beauty mission. He explains why kindness fuels bold disruption. Short takes on kindness versus niceness. Stories about vulnerability as leadership, partnering even with competitors, and small gestures that create lasting loyalty.

Zach Kitschke, Canva’s CMO and employee #5 who helped scale the company globally. He recounts early scrappy marketing, the freemium play that drove massive adoption, and the cheeky “Make the Logo Bigger” campaign. Zach also covers localization into 100 languages, product-first vs brand investment, and how AI and community programs are shaping Canva’s next chapter.

Two marketers share raw stories of humiliating bosses, public blame, and impossible targets. They recount de-escalation tactics, owning mistakes, and using humor to defuse tense meetings. Crisis decisions, pandemic survival choices, and learning from burned bridges also come up.

Jessica Jensen, LinkedIn CMO with a background in strategy and tech, discusses B2B marketing, personal branding and talent strategy. She covers which skills employers prize, how to grow your profile with short video and engagement, the nuances of LinkedIn’s algorithm, and new features creators and brands should use. The conversation is energetic and practical, with a focus on making professional marketing more human and creative.

Kory Marchisotto, a beauty and marketing leader who built community-led hits like e.l.f.’s Power Grip Primer, shares stories of rapid product creation. They discuss building a culture that permits risk. They explore proving concepts fast, co-creating with communities on TikTok, and how constraint and customer closeness spark standout products.

Jim Cregan, founder of Jimmy’s Iced Coffee who built the brand to a £25m exit, tells the origin story and his BottleCan packaging idea. He discusses breaking into Selfridges and Tesco, grassroots in-store hustle, retail and DTC strategy, and why treating suppliers and customers as humans mattered.

Kory Marchisotto, a marketing leader and creative storyteller who blends data with poetic flair, performs a pattern‑disrupting poem that reframes marketing as poetry. Short reflections follow on vulnerability, surprise, and how poetry distills complexity. Conversations touch on ownership, mental fortitude, and seeking what you do not yet know.