Are you ready to dive deep into the world of marketing, leadership, and storytelling? This week, we have something truly exceptional for all you marketing enthusiasts out there on the Surge Forward podcast!

I had the distinct pleasure of sitting down with two phenomenal marketers for this two-part episode, Inside the Marketing Machine. Alex Dalgliesh Pardue and Kimberly Cox, who have a unique lens into marketing teams across industries, cultures, and dynamics through their work at Braithwaite Communications.

In part one of this series, Alex and Kim discuss with me how they empower marketers and leaders to use storytelling not just to win over clients, but get alignment and buy-in from internal stakeholders. They dive into how important it is to have a pulse on what the c-suite is focused on for growth so you can develop KPIs that resonate and gain your teams trust and a seat at the table. 

I have something very special for you this week. I sat down with Alex Dalgliesh Pardue and Kimberly Cox two amazing women in marketing that I was privileged to work alongside to launch a new brand. As the client, we had a lot of challenges… executives who truly didn’t understand what a mature marketing team could accomplish, much less how digital marketing worked and to top it off, we had no real growth goals given to us aside from “let’s see what happens.”

Having Alex and Kim by my side and backing up what I brought to the table, was invaluable. As I reflected back on who I could bring to my audience of Surge Forward, who better to help give us a glimpse into a wide array of how marketing teams work and influence than a power-pair who get to work alongside marketing teams, executives, and leaders every day. Kim and Alex work with my favorite agency, Braithwaite Communications, where storytelling is at the center of their culture and their service offerings.  

Alex has been with Braithwaite for more than 13 years, rising through the ranks and is currently serving as an Executive Vice President where she describes herself as a Curious thinker. Word wrangler. Strategic communications manager. Client counselor. News hound. Master project juggler. Organization fiend. Story lover. Alex’s experience spans across marking and she has worked with global brands such as Cigna, Evernorth, FMC, and James Hardie. 

Her partner in crime, Kim Cox, has more than a decade of marketing experience across numerous agencies, she landed at Braithwaite in 2020 quickly growing from Account Supervisor to Vice President, where she has been inspired by how their culture embraces storytelling at its core. Her extensive background has exposed her to marketing teams across various industries… think manufacturing to technology to pharmaceutical to retail and hospitality to education and healthcare, not to mention real estate and finance. Kim describes herself as someone who challenges the tried-and-true, who finds new ways to connect and communicate, building reputations and driving growth for businesses.

These two bring a depth of commitment and experience to the companies they work with that focus on quality and results back by marketing strategy and storytelling that they leverage not just to land their clients through the pitch process and create results for their clients, but to help influence leaders and stakeholders to buy into new initiatives and marketing programs in alignment with what is important to them- increased revenue, increased market share, increased awareness, -- moving the needle towards their growth KPIs.