The Values of a Marketing Leader Podcast

It's been a while but as life gets busy with work and family, the Values of a Marketing Leader podcast took a back seat. To remind you I'm still here and alive, here's a different type of episode to get listening to.

This one's different in another way too. For once, I'm not the one asking the questions.

This is a conversation I had with my CEO, Dr Phil Squire, the man who gave me the opportunity to do the master's in the first place. He invited me onto his Sales Transformation Mastercast after I finished my dissertation, and sat me down to tell the whole story properly. Which, sitting across from the person who started all of this for me, felt a little nerve-wracking if I'm honest.

We go right back to the beginning. The uncomfortable admission that I'd never had a marketing leader I truly aspired to be. How CrossFit, of all things, kept teaching me more about leadership than any marketing job ever had and ended up becoming the foundation of a framework. The best part of a year spent interviewing 40+ senior marketing leaders, and the slow, messy process of making sense of what they actually told me.

It's also where I first talked through the IIOE framework out loud: Integrity at the centre, with Impact, Originality and Empowerment around it, and the three or four weeks I spent staring at a whiteboard before it clicked how those values connected to what our customers said they wanted in return.

If Episode 1 was me telling you the story, this is me being asked to defend it. And in many ways, it's where the podcast you're listening to right now was born. You can read more about the research project and some of my thoughts here: https://medium.com/@eddieguevarra.mktg

What is The Values of a Marketing Leader Podcast?

I've never had a marketing leader I truly looked up to.

Let that sink in.

I spent years climbing the ladder. Learning the tools. Mastering the tactics. But nobody ever taught me the values that make a leader worth following.

So I went looking for answers.

The Values of a Marketing Leader was born from one question I couldn't shake: What does it actually take to become a high-performing marketing leader?

Not the skills. Not the tech stack. The values.

This podcast is based on original research from my MSc dissertation as part of the MSc in Leading Sales Transformation. Through conversations with CMOs, VPs, and senior marketers across the globe, I uncovered four values that matter most: Integrity. Impact. Originality. Empowerment. Together, they form the IIOE framework. A values-driven approach to marketing leadership built from real stories, real struggles, and real breakthroughs.

Each episode, I pull back the curtain on the pivotal moments that shaped how today's best marketing leaders think, decide, and lead. The career-defining failures. The quiet choices that built trust, or broke it. The beliefs they hold when nobody's watching.

I've already spoken to 40+ senior marketing professionals. And I'm just getting started. Every new conversation adds to the research and keeps this framework alive.

If you're tired of leadership advice that sounds good but means nothing, join me.

Subscribe. Reflect. Lead differently.