The reason that this book exists can be tracked to a specific time and date, and a single person. At 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 28, 2014, I entered a conference room at the Hong Kong offices of Nexusguard, an online security company. I'm a partner at MWI, a digital marketing agency, and we had already negotiated a contract for our services. I was there to get the contract signed and have a kickoff meeting to get things started.
I was introduced to various members of the marketing team, including Hope Frank, who informed me that as of the previous day, she was the company's new CMO. She said she was interested in talking to me about my agency's services, but no contracts would be signed that day. I walked out of that meeting wishing it had been scheduled a week before.
Several months later, my management team and I had a meeting to discuss creating client personas for our agency. I recalled the meeting with Hope and said, "CMOs can make or break deals with agencies like ours. We need to understand them better."Soon thereafter, I decided to write a book on the topic of "What CMOs need to know about digital marketing." But as I started doing research, I realized that while I knew plenty about digital marketing, I didn't know enough about CMOs. But I thought I knew where to learn more. A few years previously, my friend Peter Harris suggested I read Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston of Y Combinator. That was the first book by Apress in the "At Work" series. I was also in the middle of succeeding volumes Venture Capitalists at Work and CTOs at Work and knew there were several other books.
I went to Amazon to buy "CMOs at Work," but I couldn't find it. I found it hard to believe the book didn't exist, so I kept searching, and that led me to the Apress website, where I verified that there was no such book. However, as I was looking over the Apress website, I stumbled onto a page inviting authors to propose and write additional titles for the "At Work" series. The thought struck me that I could write the "At Work" book on chief marketing officers and that this would be excellent preparation for writing the book on digital marketing. I sent a message to Apress, explained that I was a contributor to Forbes and I felt I had the network and means to contact CMOs and other top marketers to be part of this book; and I secured a contract.
In hindsight, I'm thankful that the meeting with Nexusguard happened when it did. Were it not for the impression losing that deal made on me, I would not have had the opportunity to interview 30 of the top marketing minds of our day, and this book would not exist.
And so my first thanks goes to Hope, who I kept in contact with, even after she killed our deal, and whom today I count as a friend. She was the first person I reached out to for help when I began writing this book. She has been influential in making introductions and providing input. In more ways than one, this book would not exist without her.
This book would also not exist were it not for the support and encouragement of many others. My thanks go to my wife, Brynn, who not only encouraged me in this endeavor but also assisted with editing and proofreading. To my mother, who taught me how to read and more importantly taught me to love reading by reading to me by my bedside at night when I was a small child. To my father, who kept up that tradition as I grew a bit older, reading Shakespeare and The Book of Mormon to me before I fell asleep. To my children, who had to bear with busy evenings and weekends that were the only time I could find to finish this book. To my siblings, who have always been interested and supportive. To my fourth grade teacher, Ms. Kuchinksi at the Anoakia school in Arcadia, California, who is the first person I recall, other than my parents, who enjoyed my writing.
My gratitude to my friend Cheryl Snapp Conner, without whose introduction to Forbes I would not have embarked on the writing career that gave me the confidence to write a book. Thanks also to Tom Post, my former editor at Forbes, Stephen Bronner at Entrepreneur, Gayle Kesten at CMO.com, and the many other editors and writers I've had the pleasure of working with.
A sincere "thank you" to the MWI team for their cheerleading and support, and especially my business partner, Corey Blake, for his leadership and management, which gave me peace of mind while working on this project.
I'd like to thank my transcriptionist Kristen Cassereau Ng, editor Megan Van Dyke, research assistant Cynthia de Jesus, and the entire Apress team, especially Robert Hutchinson and Rita Fernando.
Thanks also to those who provided endorsements for this work, and others who were an inspiration to start it and see it through including Michael Hyatt, Gary Vaynerchuk, Joe Pulizzi, Ann Handley, Ryan Holiday, Tim Ferriss, Stephen King, Jay Baer, Shane Snow, and many others. Thanks especially to all my friends who supported this and to all those I forgot to thank by name and will be mortified to have left out after this has already gone to print.
Finally, thanks to those who provided the content for this book. I didn't write this book, I merely had the pleasure of handling logistics. The real authors are those whose interviews are contained in these pages, who took time from their busy schedules to speak with me. I am forever grateful for your generosity. And thank you to the assistants and PR reps I worked with, many of whom went to great lengths to arrange these interviews.
![]({"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51KLgXLcUeL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg":[229,346],"https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51KLgXLcUeL._SX328_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg":[330,499]})
