Name: Branden Cobb

Title: Fractional Chief Marketing Officer

Organisation: MarketingExec.us

Meet Branden Cobb, a dynamic Marketing Executive with 15+ years of experience. Known for driving companies forward with innovative, profitable, and data-backed marketing decisions. A visionary leader who thrives on embracing cutting-edge technologies and fostering high-performing teams. With a track record of success in diverse industries, Branden continues to make a profound impact on the marketing landscape, ready to take on new challenges and deliver exceptional results.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Branden's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

I tend to have success generating and finding enthusiasm within the team members I manage and receive support from above within organizations, though with peers at the same level I need to do better building rapport and strong relationships.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

I have become and am still becoming a better and better leader by putting myself in situations and positions that stretch myself. Always learning both by doing and by consuming information. I was once told it is more difficult to learn how to succeed than it is to learn how to fail. I may agree with that. I have figured out how to learn from both and believe every experience works towards creating something better.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I have to shower and grab a coffee every morning. These are the things that get me going. Then I do a sweep through my computer, all the platforms and websites I use, review all emails, and start off the day with getting any pesky to do's off my list. From there I start diving into consultations with clients or more of the deeper thought or more difficult work that I have to do. Throughout the days I am consuming business knowledge by audio simultaneously or reading. By the end of the day I try to wind down with something that doesn't require as much thinking.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

Both being factually or financially correct with decisions and the way information is presented matters. Sometimes I am so results driven that I find that more important than the presentation, but am often reminded the presentation and relationships are required to get the results done as well.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

The entire Harvard Business Review Must Reads series has had the greatest impact on me most recently. There are a wide ranging scope of books in one set, that is almost a mini-MBA, and then there are more specialty sets that get into deeper details on a theme.

Empowering employees and productivity through people -I have been always favour of this especially to women in organisation. Tehir independant thinking is amazing and can contribute to foster lot of out of box thinking. I fact all employees when they are given free hand, they do own the things , problems and bring out solutions which are off ground level.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

All experiences matter and learning compounds. Find the good in everything but also keep shaping the experiences and knowledge consumption to guide you towards achieving your ultimate goals.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far?

I wouldn't say any one specific story is more memorable than a general theme I have found true time and time again, which is you may never realize how good a situation is till it passes and at the same time you may think a situation is worse than it really is till it passes. I would encourage leaders, and seasoned leaders probably know this, that change is constant, times come and go, there is always more ahead, and to make the most of everyday. Small habits also build up to big results.