From Growth Marketer to CMO: How Kelly Cheng Leads Marketing at Goldcast
Timestamps are as accurate as they can be but may be slightly off. We encourage you to listen to the full context.
Podcast Summary
In this compelling episode, Kelly Cheng, CMO at Goldcast, shares her four-year journey from growth marketer to leading a 30-person marketing organization at a company that's evolved from a webinar platform to an AI video content platform. (06:08) The conversation explores Goldcast's strategic pivot from product-led growth to sales-led, Kelly's approach to building mindshare over short-term metrics, and her innovative decision to move the BDR team under marketing. (20:08) Kelly also discusses the importance of long-term brand investments, her marketing operating system, and provides candid insights about balancing career growth with parenthood.
• Main themes: Leadership evolution from individual contributor to CMO, building sustainable marketing systems in a competitive market, and the strategic shift from PLG to enterprise sales-led motionSpeakers
Kelly Cheng
Kelly is the CMO at Goldcast, where she's led marketing for over four years while growing from a growth marketing role to managing a team of 30 people. Originally from Hong Kong, she moved to the U.S. at 14 for boarding school, graduated from Boston College, and gained valuable experience in growth marketing at PagerDuty in San Francisco before joining Goldcast. She specializes in performance marketing, demand generation, and building scalable marketing organizations in the B2B SaaS space.
Key Takeaways
Vet for Long-Term vs. Short-Term Investment Appetite
When interviewing for marketing leadership roles, Kelly emphasizes the critical importance of understanding a company's appetite for long-term brand investments versus immediate pipeline generation. (20:56) She learned this lesson after joining Goldcast without asking these crucial questions. Companies under intense quarterly pressure often hire marketing leaders expecting immediate results, while sustainable growth requires building mindshare over time. Ask founders directly about their perspective on brand building and whether they understand that 95% of your target audience isn't actively buying, but you still need to engage them for future conversions.
Build Mindshare Before You Need It
Kelly distinguishes between brand and mindshare, explaining that mindshare is about engaging the 95% of your audience who aren't currently in-market to buy. (33:57) In B2B's cluttered landscape, you must create content and touchpoints that may not convert for 2-5 years, but build the runway for when prospects do enter the buying cycle. This approach requires executive buy-in because there's no immediate ROI, but it's essential for long-term success. Companies that only focus on immediate opportunity generation miss the bigger picture of sustainable growth.
Combine Outbound with Brand for Maximum Impact
Cold outbound becomes significantly more effective when prospects already have some awareness of your brand. (43:09) Kelly moved the BDR team under marketing specifically to leverage this synergy - having outbound activities follow marketing campaigns, webinars, and brand-building initiatives creates much higher conversion rates than pure cold calling. The key is ensuring your BDR team understands your marketing reach and campaigns, using tools like Qualified to track website intent signals, and timing outbound touches to coincide with marketing engagement.
Structure Your Leadership Calendar Strategically
Kelly learned that "if you don't own your calendar, your calendar owns you." (35:47) She structures her week with specific focuses: Mondays for planning and cross-functional alignment, Tuesdays for team leadership meetings and pipeline calls, and Wednesdays dedicated entirely to one-on-ones with direct reports. She also conducts monthly skip-level meetings with all non-direct reports to stay connected to ground-level insights. This systematic approach prevents reactive scheduling and ensures consistent leadership touchpoints across her 30-person organization.
Lead with Vulnerability and Play the Long Game
After becoming a parent, Kelly discovered the power of authentic leadership over trying to have all the answers. (53:07) She shifted from feeling like she needed to maintain a perfect facade to being more vulnerable with her team about challenges and uncertainties. This approach has strengthened her leadership effectiveness and team relationships. She emphasizes that great CMOs play the long game - building sustainable systems and preparing teams to operate independently, especially important as she prepares for maternity leave while maintaining organizational momentum.
Statistics & Facts
- Only 5% of your target audience is ever in the market to buy at any given time, while 95% are not actively looking for solutions. (34:14) Kelly uses this statistic to justify long-term mindshare building over short-term conversion tactics.
- Goldcast's sales deck showcases 80 different point solution logos that their platform can replace, demonstrating the consolidation value they provide to enterprise customers. (31:18)
- Kelly manages a team of 30 full-time employees and freelance contractors globally, showing the scale of marketing operations needed for their enterprise sales-led motion. (10:59)
