2x CMO reveals her inner-game secrets (used by the top 1%)
Ever wonder how top CMOs stay calm when everything’s on fire?
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Right after her presentation, this 2x CMO got the kind of message no leader wants to hear:
“Hey, got a second to chat? I want to share some feedback.”
It was from her HR lead.
Nothing spikes the anxiety like an open-ended message after a high-stakes presentation.
Your stomach drops. Your mind races through a million worst-case scenarios.
(at least mine does)
Even as a daily meditator and student of Buddhism, she wasn’t immune to that sinking feeling when her HR lead shared that an internal presentation about DEI hadn’t landed the way she’d hoped.
The year before, she’d given nearly the same presentation - and it drew praise across the company.
Her heart was in the right place, but this time, something didn’t land.
And as the feedback came in, that familiar wave of self-doubt hit.
She felt embarrassed, a little ashamed, and tempted to defend her team’s intentions - and worried what this moment said about her as a leader.
Instead, Kelly Gillease paused. Then, reached for one of her core principles:
“You can run away from a problem - or you can run toward it.”
She stayed calm, thanked them for the feedback, and resisted the urge to react.
Then she modeled what real leadership looks like - meeting with her team, owning what happened, and putting together a plan to do better in the future.
Because at the executive level, it’s not your tactics or playbooks that help you win - it’s your ability to stay calm, reflect, and lead forward.
In our full convo, we break down how top marketing, product, and growth leaders build that kind of inner game:
how to steady your team when everything feels like it’s on fire
how to give feedback that actually lands (and what to do when it doesn’t)
how to build inner game that separates top performers from everyone else
If you’ve ever found it hard to control what’s happening between your ears - our full conversation will hit home.
Watch on YouTube
Or, listen on Spotify
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