gettin’ that money 💸
with executive buy-in
It’s budget season—not exactly as fun as fashion season, but maybe more crucial. As you begin pulling together your 2025 marketing plan, there’s no better time to ensure your leadership team sees the value of your most exciting projects (like that podcast you've been dying to launch or up-level).
—Rachel Elsts Downey, Founder & CEO, Share Your Genius
We sat down with Devin Bramhall, a powerhouse in content marketing, former CEO of Animalz, and co-host of the B2B podcast, Don’t Say Content. With over 15 years of experience in marketing and leadership, she’s helped companies scale 3x and has built thriving communities around killer content strategies. In short, Devin gets it. Here are her tips for nailing executive buy-in for your next marketing initiative.
🔑 The Challenge: Navigating Stakeholder Dynamics
The truth? Many of your key decision-makers likely know very little about marketing. This often leads to confusion, back-channeling, and requests that derail your strategy. McKinsey found that while 90% of CEOs think they understand marketing’s value, only 50% of CMOs feel the same. That gap turns marketing leaders into glorified taskmasters, focused more on tactics than big-picture goals.
So, how do you overcome that? By focusing on one golden rule. (keep reading)
🏆 The One Rule for Winning Buy-In
Forget getting lost in the weeds. Devin’s biggest takeaway: focus on the big picture.
Your leadership team doesn’t want to get bogged down in the nitty-gritty of your plan. What they care about are outcomes. You need to connect your strategy to business goals—how will your plan affect revenue, growth, and the company's overall success? It’s not just about outlining tactics; it’s about demonstrating how your plan drives long-term value.
🎙 The Business Case for Your Podcast
Don't focus on it as just another content program when pitching your podcast (or "show," as we call it because it’s never just a podcast™). Shift the narrative to position it as a strategic tool for building trust, driving engagement, and supporting your broader business goals.
Here’s how:
Create efficiency: A single podcast episode can fuel multiple content streams—blogs, social posts, videos—you name it—efficiency at its best.
Build trust: People connect with people, not faceless brands. Your podcast allows internal and external folks to share their voices—humanizing your brand.
Drive awareness and engagement: Podcasts can turn listeners into fans and fans into customers, all with a human touch. Your content? That’s what keeps you top of mind for when they’re ready to buy.
📈 The Bottom Line
Getting leadership buy-in isn’t just about crafting the perfect strategy—it’s about showing how your vision aligns with company goals. By addressing their broader concerns (like cost, growth potential, and positioning) and presenting your podcast as a solution that drives real impact, you’ll shift from being seen as just a “marketing plan” to a trusted, strategic voice.
It may feel like an uphill battle, but with the right mindset—focused on outcomes, confidence, and trust—you can get the green light on the projects that will drive the most value. It’s all about leading the charge and aligning everyone to chase that vision together (and who said that couldn’t be hella fun?).
✨ Genius Musings
A collection of helpful resources, events, and other content highlighting what we’re paying attention to currently.
📱 YouTube Shorts are getting an upgrade! Starting on October 15th, you can post Shorts up to 3 minutes long. (Next up, Meta needs to get on board.)
📆 Invite Alert: A Genius Call exclusive to our clients and newsletter subscribers is happening on Oct. 31st at 1pm ET with Steve Pratt (author and co-founder of Pacific Content, and mentor of our own, Rachel Elsts Downey). He will drop some insights on deploying creativity and earning attention on a budget. If you'd like to attend, just respond to this email, and we’ll add you to the invite.
🥇 Got an award-worthy show? The 29th Webby Awards are open! Their early entry deadline ends on October 25th.
🧟 Caught in the cycle of never-ending content creation? Enter Goldcast’s event, The Content Resurrection. Our own Rachel Elsts Downey and other marketing experts will teach you how to use AI best to help you resurrect and repurpose your video content to keep fueling your marketing efforts (with a ghoulish twist). It’s on October 23rd - we hope to see you there!
🎧 Need a content marketing bff? Compose.ly just launched their new show, Content Matters—where they are cutting through the marketing chaos with industry leaders to bring you the content that actually matters. It’s a can’t miss. Their first episode drops next week!
🔦 Content Spotlight: Make It Punchy
Need a lil’ boost when it comes to messaging?
Check out Emma Stratton’s new book, Make It Punchy. She’s one of the best at writing tech messaging to win hearts, minds, and markets.
