AI is making marketing faster, but it is also exposing where strategy was missing. In this edition of The CMO Marketing Mindset, Julie Fisher looks at why positioning, brand clarity, and leadership still have to come before AI execution.

Your marketing may not be underperforming because the tactics are bad. The problem may be that they are not aimed at the same buyer. I have been in marketing for a good minute, and one pattern has followed me throughout my career: marketing problems are usually evaluated one tactic at a time. If a digital campaign underperforms, we look at targeting or creative. If an event does not generate enough leads, we question the sponsorship. If the website is not converting, we look

One year ago I launched The CMO Marketing Mindset with a simple goal: create a space for real conversations about marketing strategy and business growth. Now, 1,059 subscribers later, I'm sharing the biggest lesson from year one, the new direction for the newsletter, and where this next chapter is headed.

This small business week belongs to us: the builders, the risk-takers, and the ones who bet on themselves. created with ChatGPT by Fisher Marketing Services National Small Business Week 2026 runs May 3–9, and this year's theme hits close to home: the comeback of Main Street. Not a corporate rebound. Not a Wall Street rally. The return of the small business owner — the person who chose vision over a steady paycheck and built something from scratch. That's me. That's probably y

SMART goals were never meant to be a percentage and a deadline dressed up as a management plan. When businesses turn KPIs into goals without defining the strategy, activities, ownership and resources behind them, employees are left chasing numbers instead of business results. This article looks at how SMART goals evolved—and how law firms and businesses can bring them back to their management roots.