Teresa Barreira | Publicis Sapient | The Case For & Against CMO's - Do Companies Really Need One?

Summary

CMO Confidential Podcast Summary Episode: Teresa Barreira | Publicis Sapient | The Case For & Against CMO's - Do Companies Really Need One?
Release Date: June 3, 2025
Host: Mike Linton
Guest: Teresa Barrera, CMO and CCO of Publicis Sapient

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Introduction to the Episode

In this insightful episode of CMO Confidential, host Mike Linton welcomes Teresa Barrera, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of Publicis Sapient. The discussion centers around the evolving role of CMOs in today's dynamic business environment and explores whether companies truly need a traditional CMO.

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Teresa Barrera’s Role at Publicis Sapient

Teresa Barrera brings a wealth of experience to the table, having served as CMO of Deloitte Consulting and held senior marketing roles at Accenture and IBM. At Publicis Sapient, a leading digital consultancy aiding enterprises like Goldman Sachs and Walmart in digital transformation, Teresa emphasizes the importance of impactful work. She states, “I really believe that the work we do, it was really making impact, the impact that matters...” (02:10).

Her role has evolved over seven years, focusing on foundational transformation and company growth, including doubling the company’s size. Teresa highlights the company's mission to help enterprises reinvent their business models for the digital age, distinguishing their approach by emphasizing “digital business transformation” rather than just digital transformation (04:04).

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Current Sentiments Among CMOs: Embracing Uncertainty

Teresa observes a prevailing sense of uncertainty among marketing leaders today. “If I was to summarize it, Mike, I think in one word I would say uncertainty” (05:45). This uncertainty spans the future of the marketing function, economic conditions, and rapidly evolving technology. She warns that such uncertainty can lead to paralysis, where companies wait too long to adapt, hindering progress (06:21).

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The Evolution of the CMO Role

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around the transformation of the CMO role. Teresa argues that the traditional CMO, focused solely on marketing functions like brand campaigns and communications, is becoming obsolete. “I think the days are numbered. I think that cmo, those days have passed” (08:24). Instead, CMOs are now expected to be business transformational leaders who influence various aspects of the company beyond marketing, such as customer experience, product development, and cross-functional partnerships (10:26).

Teresa elaborates, “It's not the marketing that you just focus on running, it's the business of the company” (10:34), underscoring the shift from a narrow marketing focus to a broader business strategy role.

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Convergence of B2B and B2C Marketing Approaches

The conversation highlights how B2B and B2C marketing strategies are increasingly converging. Teresa notes that B2B has adopted a customer-centric approach from B2C, while B2C has shifted from a product-focused to a problem-solving mindset (16:48). This blending of strategies reflects the fundamental goal of marketing across both domains: to extract and deliver value.

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Future of the CMO: The Emergence of the Chief Value Officer

Looking ahead, Teresa envisions the CMO role evolving into what she calls a Chief Value Officer. This future role prioritizes delivering value over mere growth, encompassing value for customers, the company, employees, and shareholders. “We want to drive value for the customer, the company, employees, shareholders” (19:09). This shift ensures sustainable, long-term growth aligned with comprehensive value creation.

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Impact of AI and the Hybrid Workforce

Artificial Intelligence (AI) stands out as the most transformative technology influencing the marketing landscape. Teresa predicts the rise of a hybrid workforce, combining human talents with digital agents. “By next year we all are going to start managing digital agents” (25:11). This integration will redefine job roles, enhance creativity, and enable more efficient operations. Teresa emphasizes that leveraging AI to break down silos and drive business transformation is crucial for future success.

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Advice for Aspiring Marketing Leaders

Teresa offers valuable advice for young professionals aiming to thrive in this evolving landscape:

1. Continuous Learning: “Study something that teaches you how to learn and become constant learners” (21:01).
2. Gain Practical Experience: Prioritize internships and on-the-job training to build real-world skills (22:37).
3. Cultivate Curiosity: Develop the habit of questioning assumptions and seeking deeper understanding. “Curiosity is so important… the questions you ask define your intelligence” (24:12).

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A Funny Story: AI Assistance Gone Awry

Adding a personal touch, Teresa shares a humorous anecdote about relying on ChatGPT to write a Christmas card. Despite the beautiful message, her teenage son quickly identified it as AI-generated, highlighting both the convenience and limitations of AI in personal contexts (28:59). This story underscores the delicate balance between leveraging technology and maintaining authenticity.

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Conclusion

This episode of CMO Confidential delves deep into the shifting landscape of the CMO role, driven by technological advancements and changing business needs. Teresa Barrera provides a compelling case for redefining the CMO as a central figure in business transformation and value creation. As companies navigate uncertainty and embrace AI, the role of the CMO continues to evolve, reflecting the dynamic interplay between marketing and overall business strategy.

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Notable Quotes:

• “Uncertainty about the future of the function… uncertainty about technology.” – Teresa Barrera (05:45)
• “CMOs are no longer functionally bound” – Teresa Barrera (11:54)
• “We want to drive value for the customer, the company, employees, shareholders.” – Teresa Barrera (19:09)
• “Curiosity is so important… the questions you ask define your intelligence.” – Teresa Barrera (24:12)

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For more insightful discussions, listen to CMO Confidential on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

Transcript

[Mike Linton]

The CMO Confidential Podcast is a proud member of the I Hear Everything podcast network. Looking to launch or scale your podcast, I Hear Everything delivers podcast production, growth and monetization solutions that transform your words into profit. Ready to give your brand a voice then visit iheareverything.com welcome to CMO Confidential, the podcast that takes you inside the drama, decisions and choices that go with being the head of marketing. Hosted by five time CMO Mike Linton.

Welcome marketers, advertisers and those who love them, the Chief Marketing Officer, Confidential. CMO Confidential is a program that takes you inside the drama, the decisions and the politics that go with being the head of marketing at any company in what is one of the most scrutinized jobs in the executive suite. I'm Mike Linton, the former Chief Marketing Officer of Best Buy, ebay, Farmers Insurance and Ancestry.com here today with my guest, Teresa Barrera. Today's topic, the case for and against CMOs. Do companies really need one now? Teresa is the CMO and CCO of Publicis Sapient. That's a lot of seeds in there. She was previously CMO of Deloitte Consulting and held senior marketing roles at Accenture and IBM Publicist. Sapient is a digital consultancy that helps large enterprises like Goldman Sachs, Walmart and Marriott transform digitally and leverage AI. Welcome, Teresa.

[Teresa Barrera]

Thank you. Super happy to be here and thank you for having me, Mike.

[Mike Linton]

Of course. All right, well, let's just start and ground everybody in your role at Publesis Sapiens, you know, and then we'll talk about what you're hearing from from marketing leaders all over the country. But tell us what as CMO and CCO you do and then we'll talk about what you're seeing from marketers.

[Teresa Barrera]

I was laughing about you saying there's a lot of Cs in there. It's just like every job now wants.

[Mike Linton]

To have a C. Yeah, a lot of Cs. Well, you got, you got, you got. Three out of your six letters are Cs. CMO and CCO. So that's a lot.

[Teresa Barrera]

I think I maxed out all my C's, but I. So just. I joined Sapien about seven years ago and the reason I joined because I was really inspired by the opportunity to reinvent and rebuild the company, a brand and a business. But, but most importantly, one of the reasons I came here is because I really believe that the work we do, it was really making impact, the impact that matters and not just the impact that matters in our customers business, but most importantly our customers Our customers. Customers. And I think that's one of the main reasons. So I've been here, like I said, for seven years. And if I look at my focus over the time that I've been here, I really believe, I think has evolved. And in some ways my job, my role has evolved as well. And when I look about the past three years for me was really about foundational transformation and growth with doubling the company size.

[Mike Linton]

And this is where you, you all come in and you help companies, particularly big companies, catch up with, with all the stuff that they are behind on. Right?

[Teresa Barrera]

Yes. So what do we do? We help companies, really help them. How did you reinvent your business for the digital world? That's fundamental what we do. And we use digital technologies to do that. But the difference what we do is that when we think about digital transformation, which many, many companies focus on that actually it's a very saturated market.

[Mike Linton]

If, you know, if you're not focused on some kind of transformation, you're probably losing.

[Teresa Barrera]

So, yeah, a lot of companies, like the word transformation is very watered down in digital transformation. But one of the things I think for us, it's always been important. That's why we call it digital business transformation. And I fundamentally actually agree with that. You can't have the D without the B, because having just doing digital without focusing on changing your business, it's just what I call random acts of digital.

[Mike Linton]

Well, you're also building a digital thing around the old model, which is like.

[Teresa Barrera]

Absolutely.

[Mike Linton]

You should, you should build the model around the new technology.

[Teresa Barrera]

Yes. And it's incrementalism and it's not transformation because you're just adding more technology to make, like you said, to an existing model. They really change your ways of doing business.

[Mike Linton]

Right. It's. We had a, we had a guy on the show a while ago that said, yeah, it's like when electricity was invented, if you put electricity to all the machines, they went a lot faster. But when you built the plant around electricity, you could actually reframe all the machines. Yeah, that was his thing. You got to build around the technology. So as you build this technology and you talk to your customers, you get to interface with the companies and all the people doing this. And also a lot of marketing leaders because they're usually at the front end of whatever the model is doing with customer. What are you hearing from marketing leaders as you, you know, do your job?

[Teresa Barrera]

So as I go around and talk some of my, you know, talk about CMOs or, you know, colleagues, I hear a lot of mixed feelings. But If I was to summarize it, Mike, I think in one word I would say uncertainty.

[Mike Linton]

All right, uncertainty. Well, I'm certain that that's a good word to expound on. So let's talk about uncertainty and take it apart a little bit.

[Teresa Barrera]

I think people just feel very uncertain right now. Uncertainty about, mostly about uncertainty about the future of the function, uncertainty about the environment, what's going on in the economy, but mostly uncertainty about technology. And I think that would be what I would say. Now, the problem with, I think that uncertainty, at times, it does lead to paralysis.

[Mike Linton]

And I think because you're waiting to figure it out, is that we're waiting to figure it out, even though no one has actually even figured most of it out. And the longer you wait, the less practice you get.

[Teresa Barrera]

Absolutely. And I talk to some of my colleagues and they. Oh, I'll talk to them. What do you think? Like, you know, I believe personally that we go into the most profound transformation. I think that anything I've experienced in my career. And I talked to some people, they said, well, yes, but they don't sit. They don't see it the same way. And I believe that. I think the magnitude of change and the impact is going to make. I think it's something we've never seen before because I tell you, like any other technology wave that we've gone through, this one is led by the enterprise, not by the consumer.

[Mike Linton]

Well, the other thing about this, the AI thing is it doesn't require, like when you look at mobile and you look at digital, everyone had to have a computer, everyone had to have a mobile phone, everyone had to do this. AI is, is going forward, whether you are paying attention to it or not. And it is. I mean, this is why I, I think it's so different.

[Teresa Barrera]

Yes. I mean the genie is at the bottom. And the difference is to you know what the other revolutions we've seen, because sometimes people say, well, we've been through this, we see this is that actually the mobile was information in our fingertips. Now is a skills at our fingertips. That's what. They're very different. And this is why it's like impacts the knowledge work in the enterprise more so than I think anything we've seen before and does impact everybody's jobs.

[Mike Linton]

So. So let's now shift to you. You believe the days of companies needing a traditional CMO in this kind of uncertain environment may be numbered. Tell us what you think is a traditional CMO and is a species endangered or is it just evolving like Darwin's finches?

[Teresa Barrera]

Well, that's an interesting question. First of all, I do think the days are numbered. I think that cmo, those days have passed. I think they're behind us. And what a traditional CMO to me means is a CMO that was just focused on marketing. Brand campaigns, performance, communications, all aspects of marketing which is very linear and very functional driven and really focus on feeding the marketing machine. I think the expectation of the CMO has changed, you know, and if you look at, I mean we can go through all these evolutions from custodians of the brand to growth drivers to voice of the customer to, you know, cross functional influencer. So I think we have evolved. So I would back to your analogy. I wouldn't say that, that we gone extinct. I think in the country we have transformed and evolved. So maybe that the analogy we like more like a butterfly.

[Mike Linton]

Oh, I'm sticking, I'm sticking with Darwin and the, you know, the beak of the finch and how that is evolving over time to, to deal with stuff. But I agree with you. I think there's, there's tons of evolution going on, but it's also very inconsistent. Evolution depending on company, industry, person, you know, board management. When, when you look at this, tell us about the transformation of the job you're seeing and the types of roles that you are now looking at in the, in the marketplace. We'll talk about all the different finches.

[Teresa Barrera]

Yeah. So if you look at cmos today. Right. What I think that, that's why I think it's a transformation and an evolution. Right. And it's not superficial, it's very structured. Right. That's why I actually the butterfly works because you go from a caterpillar to a butterfly. It's a very structured change. And you know, you now have wings. You're not just crawling.

[Mike Linton]

I've always wanted wings.

[Teresa Barrera]

Well, you've been a cmo. You had your wings.

[Mike Linton]

There you go.

[Teresa Barrera]

But I think to your question, what CMOs? I say this all the time to my team, where we no longer have to just do the business of marketing. You got to do the business of the company. And that's mindset change. That means, what that means to me is shaping customer experience, influencing. Influencing product, partnering across sales, operations, strategy, HR and guiding vision of the company. And so it's not just the marketing. I always say to my team, it's not the marketing that you just focus on running, it's the, the business of the company. So I believe that is really important. And that's why I think CMOs in, in that in that if you think that way, in some ways is a really good place to be.

[Mike Linton]

I, I agree with that. We've had folks on the show that have said the name marketing is a bad name. It should be market that you are looking at the market. You're helping your company manage the market and figure out the market and that your job is in service to the market and the company, not to marketing. So as you look at this evolution, how are companies actually, how are they metamorphosizing if that's a word, the role because you get to see a lot of them.

[Teresa Barrera]

I think like I said, the role has become more impactful and more influential. And I see, I think about it maybe three things. One, CMOs are no longer functional bond meaning they're not just like said focus on the marketing. They influence lots of things across the company and I think that what that means now is they need to build ally new allies. They need to build new partnerships and they need to lead with influence and lead from the side. So they need to learn how to bring others along and become that glue that connector across multiple functions. So they have and I think they're in a position, I see that with my job you're in the position to break down silos across the company which is a fantastic position to be. So you have to become not marketing transformation but a business transformational leader. I think this. And you have to not just look at brand but translate like market signals into company strategy, not just into marketing messages. And you got. I think that means you have to be kind of more like a system thinker, a growth architect and an orchestrated. So these are very different skills but these are leadership skills, not just.

[Mike Linton]

Yeah. And you have to bring real data to the company. You can't just say I'm a marketing person so I know what consumers want. You have to, you have to. The company has to join your story and they're not going to join your story because you're the marketing person. They're going to join your story because you convinced them 100%.

[Teresa Barrera]

But I think that's why I didn't really the reason I even brought up marketing data and tech Mike because to me those now have become a table stakes. No matter what kind of marketing leader. Cmo, non cmo. You can be a marketing leader without having being data informed and having tech. They just couldn't do your job today to me those will become actually like table stakes.

[Mike Linton]

Yes, I agree. I think they have been and I think the proportion of data and analytics is growing super Fast. But let me, let me flip, flip around and go a little deeper. We have all these new titles. Fractional CMOs, VPs of acquisition, heads of brand, customer officers, growth officers. Tell us kind of when you look at all these titles, are they really different titles for the same relative thing or are companies actually splintering? You know how they think about marketing?

[Teresa Barrera]

I think, I think a bit of both. I think somebody is titles doing the same thing sometimes is expanding the function and sometimes is I think some of these like fractional CMO addressing a specific company need. But I think sometimes I think companies need to be right. Forget the title. What I think we're still missing a lot of companies and when they hire is what type of transformation they want to do it. If. Then, if any right away. Because I talk to a lot of sometimes companies that they think they wanted to transform, but they actually they don't.

[Mike Linton]

They want to say they're transforming but they don't want to do any of the work. Is that do the work they want to transform in place.

[Teresa Barrera]

Absolutely. And then say what expectations you have. And then after that you have to know, okay, based on that, what do I want? Do I want it a lead gen person or do I really want a cmo? Because a lot of the times they don't need a cmo. A lot of great you could do a VP of marketing could do that job. Right. And, and I think sometimes people, they like to call it cmos because they think they want to attract a more talented group of people. But then when you look at the role to say look, that's not a CMO role. Think of the CMR just described that not every company, depending the size of the company needs that. Right. So I think that's why I think it's very clear and I feel like that sometimes the role of the CMO is the shorter tenure because the expectation is wrong. You have an expectation and when you get to the job it doesn't match. And then people love to blame marketing for everything.

[Mike Linton]

Well, yeah, it's the easiest thing to change it off in a big line. Adam, is there a difference you see here in. Well, one, I know there is a big difference between size of company because smaller companies you don't need a big time cmo. A lot of times you need head of acquisition. But when you look across B2B and B2C, are those two coming closer together or further apart? And any trends you see across those two types of businesses, I think they.

[Teresa Barrera]

Come in closer together. I actually they both have learned from each other. I think what B2C brought to B2B is the focus on the customer, the focus on the end user. That's I think what B2B has learned from B2C. I think what B2C has learned from B2B is less focus on the product and focus on the issue. B2C loves to start with the product. And I think B2C because a lot of times they don't have products focus more on the problem. What are the problem I'm trying to solve. And so I actually think those two have in some ways I think they have merged. And that's why you see a lot of now folks, marketing folks or CMOs that work in B2C go to work in B2B. And likewise because at the end of the day, the fundamentals are the same. Yeah, right. What we don't to do excrete value. That's what I actually believe Mike, that you asked the question early. He's this p in danger. I don't think it is. I think the title is and we started this conversation talking about the titles. Yeah, hard the titles. I actually think the in my opinion that what it needs to the function has evolved, but the title hasn't evolved. The scope has increased, but the title's still the same. And so I think that's what it is. You know, I like. I think like feels like think about an iPhone and you would never call an iPhone a telephone today, would you? No, but it still make you make calls, but you never call it that because it does much more than that. And I feel like it's a little bit of where we are with marketing.

[Mike Linton]

Hear that out there. Cmos, you're more than a CMO. You're like an iPhone CMO. I want to. I want to. I can't put the Darwin analogy down. So if you go out like 10 years after AI has become electricity and everything else, what is your prediction on what the CMO job will have evolved into?

[Teresa Barrera]

I like to call will become more like what I call a cheap value officer.

[Mike Linton]

Okay, tell us more.

[Teresa Barrera]

And I like that actually I was thinking about that yesterday because if you think about we really focus on growth, but at the end of the day, all we want to drive is value. Value for the customer, value for the company, value for the employees, and value for the shareholders. And if you drive growth, you're driving value now, I feel, I think that's what I think will probably will evolve and focus because that's more encompassing and it's not like growth sometimes can be short term, where value can be short term and long term. And I also think value applies to different size of a company. If you're a small company or a large company, we all wanted to drive value, right?

[Mike Linton]

And you could, you could put growth under a subset of value, but maybe absolutely the other way.

[Teresa Barrera]

Because sometimes growth like you say, like, like you start the conversation, say there's different types, Chief customer officer, chief growth officer. But those things are still a bit narrow. Right? Because when growth, when we think about growth, we're thinking about sales and a customer. Everybody should own the customer, just like everybody should own the brand. It shouldn't just be the marketing lead.

[Mike Linton]

That is, I totally agree with that. Like the idea that all the functions stay in their lanes is crazy in a marketplace like this. Hey, I want to shift over to, if I am sitting there as a young person, I'm looking at AI wiping out a lot of jobs. I want to be a Chief Value Officer 10 or 15 years from now. What should I be doing with my career to make sure I am ready? And I know, yes, you have to be working with AI, so that's a given. But what should I be doing on the job front to be ready to get promoted in the long run?

[Teresa Barrera]

So I, I got asked actually this question a lot. Young people, what should I be studying? What should I be doing? Right. First of all, I, I tell people you should study the things you like. Because I think what you should love is go to school to learn how to learn and become constant learners. And I know we say this is like, oh, it's something cool to say, but it's actually in the world that we live in. Like I learn every day, every day I gotta get up and learn. And I think that's a muscle it you gotta use. You can never go away. So study something that teaches you how to do that. Most importantly, I would think I tell people like, do internships even for free. Learn on the job. Experience is everything. Because I mean, I don't know what they teach in, in business school now. I, I was there many years ago, probably they still teach in the 4Ps, but the theory, at the end of the day it's like, you know, it's nice, but it really doesn't, when you come to the job, it doesn't really, you don't know much. I built this internship, now hire student. I, I have an internship for first generation college students. And then we offer roles to two to three at the end of the summer. And then when they come back, I put them to an 18 month training program. Every six months they work in a different function of marketing. And then after the 18 months we said okay, what would you like to do now?

[Mike Linton]

Because that's a gift to a lot of people because a lot of companies have stopped doing that. And but when I you saying is look, you got to get the ex. The experience is the differentiator in the long run. And however you can get it, you should get it and you should never waste a chance to get it.

[Teresa Barrera]

Oh, and you should learn on your own too. Like if you're not be giving that experience right. Like, like you talked about AI I tell people like become like take, take courses if your school, if you're studying marketing or whatever you're studying at school and you're not doing that and not studying that, take a course, take a certification, take initiative. I, I find also too when I hire young people is, is there like attitude is everything their mindset.

[Mike Linton]

I agree. I am teaching at a local business school and that mindset of I want to learn or I want to get through this is very different. And the kids that want to learn are taking a lot more out of the class 100%.

[Teresa Barrera]

Can I just say one more thing? Because the other thing I tell people about is the curiosity. Curiosity is so important. And when I say look, curiosity is not coming to a meeting and ask a lot of questions, unnecessary questions. That's not what it is. It's to questioning things like the assumptions question the way we are doing things, ask why five times. I always say to my team why? When you get to the five fifth.

[Mike Linton]

Why, the five whys.

[Teresa Barrera]

The why.

[Mike Linton]

That's.

[Teresa Barrera]

That's what I mean by curiosity. You know, a long time ago I read this book and it was, and I paraphrase it now but it was a quote here to say, and this was about 10 years ago, that in the age of AI what's going to determine an intelligence is not the things you know, it's the questions you ask. And that is so truth.

[Mike Linton]

I like that. So before we get to our traditional last question, we know AI is going to have a massive impact on marketing. Is there a second trend or technology that you, you know it could be a marketplace trend, a consumer trend or a tech that is not AI that you think will be the biggest impact on marketing going forward in addition to AI?

[Teresa Barrera]

Oh, I cannot think anything. In addition, I think AI is it. Is that it? I. That's fundamentally I think that's what's going to change us. But what I'm I'm going to slightly revise it's AI but it's what is going to be the most impact is as building a hybrid workforce. I see that happening next year. I'm already doing that with my team. That it is. So it's the technology, but it's not the technology itself, it's what the technology does. So the technology itself is an enable. But what's the biggest change is how you're going to use the technology. And I predict by next year we all going to start managing digital agents. We're going to have workers and also that are agents. So we're going to have a hybrid workforce. There is humans and there's agents. I think that is upon us. And what I learned the last two years with my team, we are using AI the first two years as a co pilot and assistant and that great. But that is not when we started the conversation about talking, we talked about digital transformation and transform transfer and being really transformative. Not incrementalism is again changing the process, changing the business and the operating model. And what I learned is that to do that you have to start with an agent first approach. And that sounds counterintuitive, but if you do that, you actually leads you to a human first approach. And I'll explain what I mean by that. Most people today we started with human first approach, meaning here's how I do my job. I use AI is my assistant, my co pilot, right Helps me do my job. And I realized that you get probably 10% incremental efficiencies. But if I say I am going to break down my job into subtasks and then I'm going to start what are the tasks that than an agent can do. And then I start with that. And then I said what I left for a human to do. And if we do that, you're going to realize that what the human is going to do are the things that only humans can do, which is actually elevating creativity and elevating humanity.

[Mike Linton]

I agree with that. I think creativity will be in great demand because everyone will have agentic AI. Which. Which brings us to our last question. It's a two parter. You can take one or both, but you have to take at least one part. Practical advice we haven't discussed yet that you want to share with the audience and or the funniest story you can share on the air, you can take one or both of those. You just have to take at least one.

[Teresa Barrera]

Well, I can maybe do both. Let's start with mice. You know, let's okay. So you asked me about what you tell young people. I'll continue with that. What I the advice I tell people is have a strong point of view, have an opinion. Your podcast is a great example. Come in with an opinion, have be your own opinion, be authentic. Because the world we live in with AI is going to democratize access information, content, even inspiration, believe it or not. But the only thing that's going to set us apart is how we see the world from our unique lens. So I always tell people, my team, have an opinion. Stick by your opinion form one. So that's what I always that's one advice I give you I to people.

[Mike Linton]

Okay, funniest story.

[Teresa Barrera]

Funniest story. Because I'm obsessed with AI. I'll tell you that. A funny story. Um, I, you know, I use like, I really use ChatGPT, like every single day in my life. So this Christmas, I, my sister was over to spend Christmas with us. And I'd known for a long time what I was going to get, which was an experience. I was going to take her for a weekend. We were going to go to New York City for the weekend, see a play and that would be my Christmas gift to her.

[Mike Linton]

Great gift.

[Teresa Barrera]

Yes, thank you. But you know, time goes by because it's an experience. All I have to do is write it down, give it to her. I, you know, I ran out of time and now it's Christmas morning. I didn't write it down. So what did I do? I go to chat GBT and I said, okay, help me. I have this card. Help me write this in a really nice, a beautiful way for my sister. So ChatGPT did. I'm running out of time. I write it down. I gave it to her at Christmas. We're sitting around the table the the Christmas tree of my I have two teenage boys and I give it to my sister's reading it out loud and she's like, really? Like, oh my God, this is so beautiful. And she's very emotion. And then my 19 year old turns to me, he goes, mom, that is so chat gbt. So yes, I was totally found out.

[Mike Linton]

I like it. Well, I think that's a great way to end the show. Thank you, Teresa. And thanks to everyone for listening to CMO Confidential. Look for our other shows on Spotify, Apple and YouTube, which include the top five mistakes CEOs and boards make when hiring CMOs. A rapid evolution in the marketplace. The Spencer Stewart 2025 CMO study lessons learned from the 2024 presidential election parts one and two and the Omnicom IPG merger. What it means and what's next. Hey, all you marketers, stay safe out there. This is Mike Linton signing off for CMO Confidential.