In this episode of CMO Journeys, Christian Banach speaks with Esi Eggleston Bracey, former Chief Growth and Marketing Officer at Unilever, about the mindset, leadership principles, and brand-building lessons behind a global marketing career. Drawing on leadership roles across Procter & Gamble, Coty, and Unilever, Esi shares how curiosity, courage, and a deep understanding of people shaped her approach to growth at every stage.

What the Conversation Covers
• Esi’s path from an early interest in math and science into a career in brand building, growth, and general management
• The career moments that shaped her perspective, from launching new products at Procter & Gamble to leading global businesses across markets and cultures
• Why she sees marketing as the work of understanding people, creating desire, and turning that demand into sustainable business growth
• The leadership principles that have guided her career, including embracing discomfort, protecting energy, and saying yes to growth opportunities even when they feel scary
• How she thinks about the future role of agencies, creativity, AI, and what brands need most to drive sustained growth

Guest Bio
Esi Eggleston Bracey is a longtime growth and marketing executive with leadership experience across Procter & Gamble, Coty, and Unilever, where she most recently served as Chief Growth and Marketing Officer. Over the course of her career, she has helped shape global brands, drive business transformation, and lead growth strategies grounded in consumer insight, creativity, and commercial impact.

About the Podcast
CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners

In this episode of CMO Journeys, Christian Banach speaks with Eric Gillin, Chief Brand Officer of Trusted Media Brands, about leading through one of the most complex moments in media. With a background spanning editorial, product, and sales, Eric shares how he is helping iconic brands reconnect with audiences by focusing less on scale for its own sake and more on brand clarity, community, and meaningful engagement.

What the Conversation Covers
• Eric’s career path across writing, editing, product leadership, and ad sales, and how those chapters shaped his approach to brand leadership
• Why he believes media companies can no longer rely on old traffic and distribution models in a world shaped by platform shifts and AI
• How Trusted Media Brands is refocusing around brand identity, audience connection, and community-led growth across titles like Reader’s Digest and Taste of Home
• What changes when the goal shifts from chasing broad reach to building deeper audience relationships and fandom
• How Eric thinks about leadership, AI, agency relationships, and making strategic decisions in a market with no fixed playbook

Guest Bio
Eric Gillin is Chief Brand Officer at Trusted Media Brands, where he helps lead brand strategy across a portfolio that includes Reader’s Digest, Taste of Home, Family Handyman, and other well-known media properties. His career has spanned editorial, product, and revenue leadership, giving him a broad perspective on content creation, audience development, business strategy, and what it takes to build durable brands in a changing media environment.

About the Podcast
CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

In this episode of CMO Journeys, Christian Banach speaks with Sarah Cascone, Chief Marketing Officer of Appriss Retail, about building a marketing engine that turns trust, executive engagement, and events into enterprise pipeline. As the company’s first CMO, Sarah shares how she is helping reframe the category, sharpen the story, and align marketing tightly with revenue in a complex retail technology environment.

What the Conversation Covers
• Sarah’s path from conference production into SaaS marketing leadership and how those early event experiences still shape her strategy today
• What changed when she moved from managing individual functions to leading marketing as one integrated go-to-market engine
• Why she believes events are a core enterprise growth lever when they create memorable, human connections with executive buyers
• How Appriss Retail is using account-based marketing, executive communities, and thought leadership to drive qualified pipeline
• How Sarah thinks about prioritization, team design, agency partnerships, and measuring marketing through real business impact

Guest Bio
Sarah Cascone is Chief Marketing Officer at Appriss Retail, where she leads product marketing and growth marketing for a company serving enterprise retailers focused on fraud, returns, and profit protection. Before joining Appriss Retail, she spent a decade at Bluecore, where she helped scale the business through multiple stages of growth and built a broad foundation across events, PR, content, design, demand generation, product marketing, and pipeline strategy.

About the Podcast
CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

In this episode of CMO Journeys, Christian Banach speaks with Josh Churnick, Chief Marketing Officer of Vertex Service Partners, about building marketing systems that are accountable, measurable, and built to scale. Drawing on a career that spans entertainment, consumer brands, insurance, and home services, Josh shares why he was drawn to categories where marketing performance can be clearly proven through results.

What the Conversation Covers
• Josh’s path from early digital audience building in music and media into performance-driven leadership roles in home services
• Why he believes great marketing should be judged by what works for the customer, not by internal opinions or creative preferences
• What changes when marketing moves from supporting a single brand to helping scale a growing platform of regional brands
• Why data quality, reporting infrastructure, and alignment with contact center operations are essential to marketing performance
• How Josh evaluates agency partners, including the importance of transparency, attribution, and real operating knowledge of the home services category.

Guest Bio
Josh Churnick is Chief Marketing Officer at Vertex Service Partners, where he leads marketing for a growing platform of residential exterior service brands. His background spans digital media, consumer products, insurance, and home services, giving him a practical perspective on brand building, performance marketing, and the operational systems required to drive measurable growth.|

About the Podcast
CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

In this episode of CMO Journeys, Christian Banach speaks with Chris Pilsner, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Oakland University, about his path from agency life into higher education leadership. Chris shares how agency training shaped his approach to brand strategy, market research, digital experience, and enrollment-focused marketing at a pivotal moment for a growing public university.

What the Conversation Covers
• Chris’s career journey from agency roles at firms like J. Walter Thompson and Deutsch into senior higher education marketing leadership
• What it means to bring agency-style strategic thinking, brand discipline, and consumer insight into a university setting
• How Oakland University is working to unify brand, communications, and marketing under a more coordinated strategy
• Why enrollment marketing, audience segmentation, and digital experience are becoming more critical in higher education
• How Chris evaluates agency partners, including the value of strong points of view, peer recommendations, case studies, and specialized expertise

Guest Bio
Chris Pilsner is Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Oakland University, where he leads the institution’s brand, marketing, and communications efforts. He previously held senior marketing leadership roles in higher education, including at UMass Amherst’s Isenberg School of Management, and brings a background in agency strategy, brand development, and digital transformation.

About the Podcast
CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

In this episode of CMO Journeys, Christian Banach speaks with Nav Singh, Chief Marketing Officer of Eightfold AI, about his path from product leadership into modern marketing. Nav brings a rare combination of technical depth and storytelling discipline, and he shares how that perspective is shaping Eightfold’s approach to AI, talent intelligence, and the future of marketing teams.|

What the Conversation Covers
• Nav’s career journey from consulting and product management into senior marketing leadership at enterprise technology companies
• What he learned from listening first in a new CMO role and why direct customer and employee insight still matters in an AI-driven world
• How Eightfold AI helps organizations hire, retain, and develop talent through AI-powered talent intelligence and skills-based decision-making
• Why Nav believes the future of work will be built around humans and agents working together, and how that changes marketing and HR
• How he is thinking about building an AI-native marketing team, including the kinds of talent, tools, and agency partners needed for the future

Guest Bio
Nav Singh is Chief Marketing Officer at Eightfold AI, where he leads the company’s global marketing strategy and brand narrative around AI, talent intelligence, and the future of work. Before moving into marketing, he spent more than a decade in product leadership roles at companies including Oracle, Cisco, and Palo Alto Networks, building a strong foundation in technology, customer insight, and product storytelling.

About the Podcast
CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

In this episode of CMO Journeys, Christian Banach speaks with Ethan Chernofsky, CMO of Placer.ai, about his path from agency work into senior in-house marketing leadership. Ethan shares a practical view of how storytelling, market narrative, and data can work together to shape brand strategy, support growth, and help marketing teams make better decisions.

What the Conversation Covers
• Ethan’s career path from PR and agency work into in-house marketing leadership at tech companies like Similarweb and Placer.ai
• Why storytelling and brand building can create an operating advantage when they are tied to business outcomes
• How Placer.ai uses data to help brands, retailers, and partners interpret consumer behavior and market shifts
• How Ethan thinks about AI, automation, and building a more product-minded marketing organization
• How he evaluates agencies and external partners, including what stands out in outreach, personalization, and long-term relationship building

Guest Bio
Ethan Chernofsky is Chief Marketing Officer at Placer.ai, a location analytics company that helps brands, retailers, real estate players, and investors understand real-world consumer behavior. His background spans agency work, public relations, and in-house marketing leadership, giving him a broad perspective on storytelling, brand strategy, and how marketing connects to business growth.

About the Podcast
CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.

In this episode of CMO Journeys, Christian Banach speaks with Adriana Gil Miner, Chief Marketing Officer of Pindrop, about leading marketing in a category shaped by AI, fraud, and digital trust. Drawing on a career that spans digital marketing, brand storytelling, and high-growth B2B leadership, Adriana shares how she is helping define a new market while scaling awareness around one of today’s most urgent security challenges.

What the Conversation Covers
• Adriana’s career journey across agency work, financial services, brand leadership, and high-growth B2B technology companies
• How digital marketing, storytelling, and data have converged to shape her leadership approach as a modern CMO
• Why deepfakes and AI-driven fraud are no longer abstract risks, but immediate threats affecting enterprises and consumers
• How Pindrop is building awareness in a new category where the first job is helping the market understand the problem
• How Adriana thinks about team design, agency partnerships, and the role of AI in reshaping marketing execution and strategy

Guest Bio
Adriana Gil Miner is Chief Marketing Officer at Pindrop, where she leads marketing for a company focused on securing digital communications and helping enterprises detect deepfakes, prevent fraud, and restore trust. She brings more than two decades of experience building and scaling B2B technology brands, with leadership roles spanning companies including Tableau and Iterable, and a background that blends digital marketing, brand strategy, and high-growth leadership.

About the Podcast
CMO Journeys is a podcast from NextBigWin hosted by Christian Banach. The series features conversations with marketing leaders about the path to the C-suite, the challenges they are tackling inside their organizations, and how they evaluate agencies and strategic partners.