4 Strategic Bets Every CMO Should Make in 2026

Episode notes

#40 - The landscape isn't just shifting — it's splitting. Buyers are choosing vendors before they ever talk to sales. AI is rewriting the rules faster than most of us can keep up. And budgets? Still flat. So instead of adding more to the list, I asked myself: if I could only make four strategic bets this year — four investments of my time, energy, and resources — what would they be? In this solo episode, I'm walking you through the 4 bets I'm making in 2026 as both a fractional CMO and the founder of Growth Activated. Each one is backed by data, grounded in what I'm seeing with clients, and designed to compound — where one investment feeds the next.