Ellie Mirman

Substack publication 'The Free Press,' a blog started in 2022, has grown to around 15M a year in revenue, and is now in talks to be acquired by Paramount for $200M (and founder Bari Weiss given an exec role at CBS News). I've predicted blogging is back for several years - thanks mostly to email and the fact that Substack and Beehiiv got distribution right. It turns out independent media can thrive in an environment even when social platforms like this one, Meta and Twitter/X throttle our hyperlinks. I honestly think it's a loss for these products to not show them as often as they do. As many users here are simply less informed, less educated and stuck in algo-generated filter bubbles. Of course, this isn't everyone. The smartest internet users are looking to things like email where there's less algo interference. You hope the big tech platforms catch on and remember hyperlinks are important again, at some point this will be a liability for them jamming the plumbing of the web. Anyway - if you want to start a blog, it's never been a better time. We have so much validation all around us. You can even be well-compensated for your work this time. The internet is great if you play the right games.

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Here are 4 leadership tenets from my experience as a CMO, CGO, CRO at scaling companies, and as a VP of Marketing, VP of International Ops, and a VP of Localization at a multi-billion-dollar public tech company. 1. Don’t skimp on talent Your success is directly correlated with the talent of your team. One mega power player might actually triple performance for your entire function. This is especially true for GTM roles, where performance is easy to measure. Hiring A players raises the team average while hiring weaker players lowers the bar for all and hurts morale too. Lower the talent level — and watch your team and company regress to the mean. (Not all great talent costs more, by the way. Some does.) 2. Set standards that seem almost impossibly high Your team will amaze you with what they can do — IF you continually convey that you believe in their ability to not only hit extremely ambitious targets but exceed them. This is how you drive outsized impact on a business. Not by setting meager goals. If you lower your standards, or infuse negativity, you will not convey full confidence in your team. People can easily see hesitation from a leader who doubts what they are capable of, and that can be demoralizing. Offer them unwavering support. Do what it takes to help them. They will shock you with their creativity! Show them that you actually believe they can do it. They’ll rise to it! 3. Rebrand your team as winners I’ve been in the position multiple times of inheriting a team that was broken, traumatized from loss, and feeling down and demoralized — or even told they were adding zero value to a business. Those scars and pain are very real. If you’re ever in this position as a leader, it’s not easy to rebuild team culture and morale… but that’s 99% of turning the numbers around! Your team cannot perform well if their morale is broken. The art is in helping them first see *themselves* as winners — which in turn enables them to crush their goals and accomplish bigger and better things as time goes on! 4. Never take your eye off of execution It’s easy to create plans. It’s much harder to follow through. As a leader, your job is to set targets and goals for the team — and HIT them. Not just talk about how nice that would be. Not to point fingers when teams don’t. You have to actively lead your team toward achieving the vision you set out for them. And if you don’t? No finger pointing. No shoulder shrugs. The number one place to look = the mirror! But you also must give credit when your team knocks it our of the park too. 🏆Make sure they get their moment in the sun. Execution takes maturity and stability. That may be boring, but it’s how you build faith, trust, and confidence over time as a leader. — 👆🏻Do these four things as a leader, and watch your numbers go up and to the right. No matter your title or company.

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Are VoiceAI companies launching great demos or production-ready Conversational AI APIs? Check out the VAQI benchmark and how it helps answer that question...

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Growth in 2026 isn’t just demand gen. It’s Growth × Product Marketing alignment. The strongest revenue engines I’m seeing right now are built on tight partnership between Growth and PMM. Growth drives pipeline efficiency. Product Marketing drives positioning, differentiation, and sales clarity. When aligned, you get: • Faster sales cycles • Higher ACV • Clearer competitive wins • More predictable revenue AI accelerates execution but positioning still drives conversion. Revenue architecture only works when the story, the market, and the funnel move together. Excited to be leaning deeper into that intersection this year. #GrowthMarketing #ProductMarketing #RevenueMarketing

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Pipeline isn’t just a sales problem. It’s a messaging, positioning, and enablement opportunity. Over the years, I’ve seen Product Marketing consistently accelerate pipeline velocity by: * Equipping sales with differentiated messaging and persona-driven storytelling * Mapping content to each stage of the buyer journey to reduce friction * Arming teams with competitive intelligence that builds confidence and urgency * Aligning go-to-market teams around value, not just features The takeaway? Product Marketing is a force multiplier. When done well, it doesn’t just support the business, it accelerates it. How is your team using Product Marketing to drive revenue right now? #ProductMarketing #PipelineVelocity #SalesEnablement #GoToMarket #RevenueGrowth #MarketingLeadership

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This Martechvibe report put words to a lot of conversations I’m having with CMOs right now. Most teams are not trying to chase the next shiny tool. They’re trying to make what they already have actually work together. Too many platforms, too many handoffs, and not enough shared data. When marketing shifts from experimentation to execution, those gaps show up fast. Progress depends less on adding technology and more on simplifying how it’s run and measured. I highly recommend reading! https://lnkd.in/eZTES875

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A high-performing content engine isn’t built on luck. It’s built on layers. (Think onions and Shrek…) At Cognism, we’ve designed our content system to do more than drive clicks. It’s built to create trust, serve real buyer needs, and support demand, across every stage of the journey. Here’s how we think about it: 🧠 Thought leadership → What do we want to be known for? This is big-idea content that earns trust before intent. 📢 Tactical content → How do you actually do it? Playbooks, cheat codes, regional GTM guides. Actionable content that connects the dots between the problem and the solution, without a hard sell. ⚙️ Product content → How does Cognism help? Bottom-funnel, self-serve, high-value. Not just feature dumps, but real enablement content built for modern B2B buyers.Each layer feeds the next. Each topic is informed by what’s working across blog, podcast, social, events, and sales calls. And above all—it’s persona-first.We don’t want to talk to everyone. We want to resonate with the people who matter most: marketers, sales leaders, and RevOps teams trying to do hard things better. → What do you want to be known for? → Who are you building for? → And does every piece of content ladder up? *** Have you joined one of our Marketing Dilemmas Live Events yet? Don’t worry - you can catch up on demand here: https://lnkd.in/eSHydnvP.

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The evolving B2B tech landscape makes competitive displacement the default path for GTM teams. Simultaneously, it adds new layers of organizational risk, internal scrutiny, and emotional complexity for buyers. We created The Definitive Guide for Competitive Displacement to give GTM teams a smarter way forward—rooted in precise intelligence, not spray-and-pray ABM. Inside, you’ll discover: ▪️ Why traditional competitive intelligence leaves Sales, Marketing, CS, and Product flying blind ▪️ The exact data signals that show which accounts are truly ready to switch — and which never will ▪️ A step-by-step campaign framework for turning competitor intelligence into pipeline ▪️ GTM best practices from strategy to execution ▪️ How to fuse data, content, and activation into a single displacement play The switching window opens for buyers when the cost of staying exceeds the risk of moving. This guide helps you locate that window and act before it closes:

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