Most marketing isn’t failing because of bad ideas — it’s failing because marketing and leadership aren’t speaking the same language. Mari-Liis Vaher learned that the hard way, standing in front of a bank CEO with a polished digital report and no answer to the question: “How does any of this help me grow my business?” That moment changed the direction of her career.

In this episode, Mari-Liis breaks down the Marketing-Leadership Gap, why 70% of CEOs don’t trust marketing to deliver growth, and why 75% of marketers are burning out — and explains why those two numbers are two sides of the same problem. She’s the founder of Powerful Marketers, author of The Greatest Marketer, and the creator of a five-step framework that starts somewhere most marketing books don’t: with your mindset.

We also got into the orchestra analogy, why the first person she talks to in any new business is on the sales team, and the question every listener should ask themselves: what are you still doing today simply because you’ve always done it?

In This Episode:

• The bank CEO moment that changed everything — and what Mari-Liis did next

• Why 70% of CEOs don’t trust marketing — and why marketers nod when they hear it

• Why marketing itself has a branding problem

• The five-step framework: Mindset, Strategy, Marketing, Communication, Leadership

• Why mindset comes first — the oxygen mask analogy

• The road trip analogy: what happens when teams drive without a destination

• What she asks the sales team before she ever looks at a campaign

• What you should probably stop doing (and why stopping won’t hurt your results)

• The companion tools inside thegreatestmarketer.com — and why they’re free

Connect with Mari-Liis:

• Website: powerful-marketers.com

• Amazon: search ‘The Greatest Marketer’ — available globally

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/vahermariliis

• Powerful Marketers on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/powerful-marketers

This episode is brought to you by Flodesk. Get 25% off your first year: flodesk.com/c/LYONCREATIVES

Not sure if your brand is working as hard as you are? Grab the free Brand Audit Scorecard at lyoncreatives.com/brand-audit-scorecard — ten questions, five minutes, and you’ll know exactly where to focus.

Howard Rudin spent 13 years cooking in New York City kitchens before trading his chef's knife for a tape measure and walking into the family conveyor belting business. Thirty years later, he's keeping production lines running for commercial bakeries, pharmaceutical companies, cosmetic manufacturers, and a snack chip brand that went viral on TikTok. In this episode, Howard talks about what it actually takes to build relationships in a business nobody knows they need, why Thursday is his most productive day of the week, and how a giver-first mindset has shaped everything about how he operates.

What you'll hear in this episode:

• How 13 years in professional kitchens translated directly into a career in industrial supply

• What conveyor belting actually has to do with bison tracking tags in Banff National Park

• Why Howard believes referral networking is the only advertising that works for B2B

• The "giver's gain" philosophy he lives by — and why he doesn't want to convince anyone to join BNI

• What it takes to rank above the fold on Google without spending a dollar on ads

• His pitch for getting people to a 7am networking meeting — and why it works

Connect with Howard

Email: beltman@acebelting.com

Social: @madeonabelt on Instagram and Facebook

LinkedIn: Howard Rudin

This episode is brought to you by Flodesk. Get 25% off your first year: flodesk.com/c/LYONCREATIVES

Julia DeWolfe is a CBT-informed business coach and founder of Off The Record, a 1:1 coaching program for women in service and expertise-based businesses. She works with clients through Voxer — in real time, not waiting for the next scheduled call — to help them untangle the beliefs running their decisions and build a business that fits their brain. In this episode, Julia walks through how cognitive behavioral therapy maps onto business thinking, how an ADHD diagnosis at 30 reshaped how she runs her practice, why cycle syncing is more useful than most people give it credit for, and why she thinks reading fiction is one of the most underrated tools a founder has.

In This Episode

• What CBT is and how your core beliefs quietly run your business decisions

• The luteal crisis — why there’s a predictable window each month when everything feels like it’s on fire (and it’s not a sign to quit)

• How Julia rebuilt her coaching model entirely around how she does her best work

• Her ADHD diagnosis at 30 and what it clarified about structure, consequence, and business design

• Why anti-hustle is not the same as anti-ambition

• The case for reading fiction as a business owner — empathy, imagination, and ideal client avatars

• What happens when you stop trying to fit your business into someone else’s model

Connect with Julia

• Instagram: @juliadewolfecoaching

• TikTok: @juliadewolfecoaching

• Off The Record (1:1 coaching): juliadewolfecoaching.com

• The Hotline (1-day Voxer intensive): juliadewolfecoaching.com

Not sure where your brand stands right now? The free Brand Audit Scorecard at lyoncreatives.com/brand-audit-scorecard takes five minutes and shows you exactly where to focus.

This episode is brought to you by Flodesk. Get 25% off your first year: flodesk.com/c/LYONCREATIVES