Shift & Thrive Podcast:
CEO Insights on Driving Change

What does it actually take to build trust when AI has made it easier than ever to produce mediocre content? In this special compilation episode of Shift & Thrive, host Natalie Nathanson pulls together candid insights from a range of go-to-market leaders and CEOs on what is really driving attention and credibility in B2B today. The conversation moves through personal branding, employee advocacy, the brand versus demand debate, and the growing premium on authenticity as AI content floods every channel. Together, these voices make the case that the future of go-to-market is not less human, it is more human, powered by technology but proven by real people.

How are shifting buyer behaviors and AI reshaping B2B go-to-market strategies? What happens when companies fail to adapt? In this Go-to-Market Spotlight episode of Shift & Thrive, host Natalie Nathanson talks with Kerry Cunningham, Head of Research and Thought Leadership at 6Sense, about the realities of modern B2B buying. With decades of experience, Kerry breaks down how outdated outbound tactics give way to smarter, signal-driven approaches, why "intent data" is often misunderstood as mere interest signals, and how AI is prompting buyers to engage sellers earlier without extending overall cycles. They explore alignment pitfalls, the dangers of "folklore debt" in scaling, and practical ways for CEOs to drive buyer-focused transformations that boost efficiency and trust between teams.

If you can no longer draw a clean line from marketing activity to revenue, does that mean marketing isn't working, or does it mean you're measuring it wrong? In this episode of Shift & Thrive, host Natalie Nathanson sits down with Michele Johnston, Director of Digital Delivery and AI Lead at Magnetude Consulting, for a special internal conversation on how AI and shifting search behavior are upending buyer journeys. Michele explains why chasing the technology behind search and AI distracts marketers from the person on the other end of it, why attribution is becoming less reliable as buying gets less linear, and why brand and demand should be treated as a spectrum rather than a rivalry. The conversation closes with an unexpected parallel: what nearly two decades of endurance racing has taught Michele about consistency, patience, and trusting a process you can't always measure in real time.

What does a reduction in force actually cost you once the client relationships start to unravel? In this episode of Shift & Thrive, host Natalie Nathanson sits down with Kelley Hippler, Chief Revenue Officer at Thought Industries and former Global Chief Sales Officer at Forrester, where she led a team of over 800 and grew revenue by 51 percent. Kelley draws on decades of go-to-market transformation experience, from modernizing sales motions inside a traditional legal services firm to building AI-powered enablement into her sales org today. She and Natalie dig into how CEOs chronically underestimate the downstream cost of layoffs on customer trust, why leaning on early adopters beats trying to win everyone over at once, and how AI is reshaping seller productivity in ways that finally feel like a genuine unlock rather than another management tool.

What happens when a new CEO and board walk into a company at an inflection point, and the old playbook no longer applies? In this Go-to-Market Deep Dive episode of Shift & Thrive, host Natalie Nathanson sits down with Amit Pande, an experienced AI GTM and Product advisor, who has held roles at Google, Oracle, Yahoo, HP, and multiple AI startups. Amit walks through the three forces that carried his last company through reinvention: subtracting before adding, out-innovating on product, and integrating teams around the customer. The conversation turns to leadership identity in moments of change, what it means to hire (or wait to hire) during a transformation, and why Amit believes CEOs should soon be asking for AI and token budgets the same way they ask for headcount.