There’s a saying I love: “A good idea executed poorly will fail every time.”

And nowhere is that more true than in marketing.

In early 2025, I worked briefly with a so-called “non-profit organization” focused on Chief Product Officers — a professional group that, at least on the surface, seemed to have everything going for it.

Their mission sounded noble: to elevate the world’s top CPOs through education, community, and recognition.

Their social channels were full of interviews, announcements, and award photos.

They even had a podcast series and an annual awards program to highlight exceptional leaders in the product space.

From the outside, you’d probably think: “Wow, they’re doing all the right things.”

But here’s the thing — they weren’t.

Because while they had the right ideas, they had the wrong execution.

And that’s worse than having no ideas at all.


When the Strategy Looks Good but Feels Off

Before I dive into what went wrong, let me be clear: I actually believed in the mission.

I wanted this to work.

I’ve spent my life designing and launching products — both physical and digital — and I love seeing product leaders get the recognition they deserve.

But within a month of working with this organization, I could tell something was off. Way off.

They weren’t a true non-profit. Their priorities were misaligned.
They talked about “community” and “education,” but behind the curtain, everything revolved around short-term revenue.

They had podcasts that didn’t drive traffic. Awards that didn’t inspire growth. Events that didn’t lead anywhere.

And when I asked about their metrics — audience reach, subscriber retention, engagement rates — they didn’t have them. They were huge on metrics and KPI's, but weren’t tracking anything that mattered to anyone other than their "board".

They were simply doing the activity of marketing, not the strategy of marketing.

Which, if you’ve read my previous CMO Armchair Expert articles, you already know — that’s a huge red flag.


The Podcasting Problem: A Masterclass in Missed Potential

Now, let’s start with their podcast.

They had the right concept: interview Chief Product Officers about their experiences, insights, and leadership philosophies.

That’s a good idea.

But they had no clue how podcasting actually works.

They were treating their podcast like a box they had to check, rather than a vehicle for storytelling, connection, and visibility.

Here’s what they misunderstood — and what many companies still don’t get:
1. A Podcast Is Not About You. It’s About the Guest - If you want to see what podcasting done right looks like, watch The Joe Rogan Experience.
Love him or hate him, the man understands format.

Joe rarely dominates the conversation.
He creates space. He listens. He pulls stories out of his guests.

That’s what makes people tune in — not Joe himself, but the people he hosts.

This “non-profit” made the opposite mistake. Their interviews felt like self-promotion disguised as discussion.

Every episode started with the same tone: “Here’s who we are. Here’s what we do.” By the time they got around to the guest, the energy was gone.

They were trying to be the star of their own podcast — which completely defeats the purpose.

2. Your Guests Are Your Marketing Team — If You Let Them Be - Here’s the reality: most guests agree to appear on a podcast for one reason — self-promotion.

They want visibility. They want credibility. They want content they can share.

But this organization didn’t give them that.

They recorded the podcast, posted the full episode to Spotify, and that was it.

No clips. No social cutdowns. No shareable assets.

If you want your guests to share, make it easy for them.

Give them five to ten short, branded clips of themselves speaking. Send them ready-to-post graphics with quotes from the episode. Give them the content they can’t wait to post on LinkedIn or Twitter.

That’s how you turn a single interview into dozens of impressions — across hundreds of networks.

Instead, this team uploaded everything to Spotify and walked away.

They had no idea that they were sitting on a goldmine of user-generated marketing — and they buried it.

3. Stop Treating Spotify Like Your Marketing Channel - Let’s be real: Spotify is not your friend.

It’s great for distribution, but it’s a terrible place to build a community.

You can’t track who listened.
You can’t capture leads.
You can’t retarget your audience.
And you definitely can’t customize the viewer experience.

So why do brands keep sending their traffic there?

Ego.

They like the feeling of saying: “Available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.”

But let’s be honest — that line helps your credibility more than your conversions.

If your goal is to grow your brand, your episodes should live on your own website. Your guests should share your links, not Spotify’s.

Because every click to Spotify benefits Spotify. Every click to your site benefits you.

When people listen to your podcast on your own site, they’re now inside your ecosystem. They can read your articles. Join your mailing list. Attend your next event.

That’s Customer-Centric Marketing — you control the funnel, the experience, and the data.

4. Serve the Guest — and You’ll Serve Yourself - Every episode should be designed as a win-win. If your guests leave feeling like you made them look great, they’ll promote you relentlessly.

That’s the ultimate growth loop.
When your audience wins, you win.

That’s the law of reciprocity — and it’s the foundation of modern marketing.


The Awards Program: Great Concept, Bad Execution

Next, let’s talk about their awards.

Industry awards can be incredible when done right. They can create community pride, brand credibility, and momentum that lasts long after the event.

But they can also be a colossal waste of time and money if you don’t know why you’re doing them.

Here’s how this organization handled theirs:
1. Open a limited nomination window.
2. Close nominations.
3. Invite as many nominees as possible onto their podcast.
4. Host an awards ceremony.

On the surface, that sounds like a standard process. But the flaws are baked right in. Let's break it down...

1. A Limited Nomination Period Limits Growth - They opened nominations for only a few weeks.
That’s it.

So, instead of letting the process build awareness over time, they compressed all their energy into one short marketing sprint.

That’s not community building — that’s chaos.

2. Closing Nominations Cuts Off Momentum - The moment you close nominations, you stop collecting stories. You stop expanding your audience. You stop learning.

What if the next great nominee comes along tomorrow? You’ll never know — because your system is closed.

Recognition should be ongoing.
That’s why on my platform, Only Fans Insider Magazine, we don’t have nomination deadlines.

We collect engagement data 24/7.
We celebrate great behavior when it happens.
We let the community determine who stands out — naturally, not artificially.

That’s how you build organic visibility and credibility.

3. The Nominee Podcast Funnel — Good Intentions, Wrong Method - Their plan to feature nominees on their podcast wasn’t bad. It was just poorly thought out.

They tried to cram weeks of podcast production into a single nomination cycle.

That’s not sustainable.
It’s not scalable.
And it’s not strategic.

Instead of producing one-off content bursts, I believe in evergreen storytelling.

Highlight great stories year-round.
Repurpose the best episodes.
Feature past winners in new ways.

This keeps your content pipeline full and your audience engaged continuously — not seasonally.

4. The “Why” Behind Awards - The most dangerous mistake they made was never answering one simple question: Why are we doing this?

If your awards program doesn’t produce measurable results — traffic, engagement, conversions, community growth — it’s just vanity.

And vanity projects die quickly.


The Armchair Expert Fix: How to Do It Right

Let’s break down how I’d fix their entire approach — through Customer-Centric Marketing.

1. Data Over Deadlines - Stop setting arbitrary nomination periods.
Instead, collect data constantly — web traffic, engagement, social shares, mentions. Recognize excellence as it happens.

This keeps momentum flowing and makes your recognition meaningful.

2. Reward Behavior That Builds the Brand - On my platforms, I don’t give out awards based on votes or forms.
I reward behaviors that help the ecosystem grow — like driving readership, building engagement, or creating valuable content.

This turns every participant into a partner — and every award into a marketing event.

3. Create Evergreen Value - Don’t produce content that expires.
Record interviews and turn them into a continuous content cycle. Repost them. Clip them. Use them to spark new campaigns.

A single good story can live forever if you design it that way.

4. Make Awards Part of the Platform - Stop treating awards as one-off events. They should be integrated into your digital ecosystem.

Winners should have permanent profiles on your site. They should be searchable, linkable, and shareable.

This turns recognition into a marketing loop — one that grows stronger over time.


The Bigger Lesson: Tools Don’t Create Strategy

Here’s the real takeaway:
This organization wasn’t evil or incompetent.

They simply didn’t understand the why behind the what.

They had all the right tools — podcasts, awards, community — but no unifying strategy to connect them.

They were chasing optics, not outcomes. They were copying tactics from other industries without understanding their purpose.

That’s what happens when you have a sales led strategy, not a marketing led strategy.

And if you’ve ever run a business, you’ve probably seen this too.


The CMO Armchair Expert Takeaway

Execution is everything.

A podcast isn’t valuable because it exists — it’s valuable because of how it’s used.

An award isn’t powerful because it’s shiny — it’s powerful because of what it represents.

Marketing isn’t about doing more things. It’s about doing the right things for the right reasons in the right way.

That’s Customer-Centric Marketing — aligning your tools with your customers’ motivations, giving them reasons to share, and rewarding the behaviors that grow your brand.

So, if your company is hosting awards, running podcasts, or building communities but not seeing results — it’s not your ideas that are broken. It’s your execution.

Let’s fix that.

Connect with me on my Open To Work Social profile. Let’s make sure your next big idea doesn’t die from poor execution — because the difference between being seen and being remembered is always in the strategy.