The CMO Podcast: Diana Haussling (hello Products) | Leadership Lessons from a CMO Turned CEO

Host: Jim Stengel
Guest: Diana Haussling, CEO of hello Products
Date: March 24, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode features a candid, high-energy conversation between host Jim Stengel and Diana Haussling, who recently transitioned from CMO of Colgate North America to CEO of hello Products, a design-forward oral care brand. Diana shares hard-earned leadership lessons, personal principles, and practical advice for marketers contemplating a leap into general management. She dives into the mindset shift from CMO to CEO, the value of leading with intention, the importance of personal branding, and how to build teams and careers around the life you want.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Early Brand Impact and Personal Motivations

• The First Brand Experience: Diana recounts her childhood infatuation with Coach as her "brand love affair", recalling the pride and excitement of owning her first designer bag.
  • Quote: "I still have that bag. I still wear coach shoes to this day because, in my mind, their leather is the best leather." — Diana Haussling [01:16, 56:07]

2. The Evolving Nature of Marketing Leadership

• Change and Opportunity for Brand Builders: Diana describes a recent gathering of brand leaders, emphasizing that while the fundamentals of brand experience persist, seismic industry shifts represent a chance for transformation.

  • Quote: "With this kind of change and disruption typically comes the biggest opportunity to step change... if you're open to it and ready to lean in." — Diana Haussling [04:54]

• Criteria for Industry Events: Value, impact, scale, and exposure to differing viewpoints drive Diana’s decision to attend professional events.

  • Quote: "Getting out of my bubble is the most important thing for me and really being challenged..." — Diana Haussling [07:01]

3. Personal Principles of Leadership

Jim prompts Diana to share her core life and leadership mantras.

Principle 1: Choices, Not Balance

• Diana disputes the myth of "balance" for professional women, urging a focus on deliberate choice and impact over spreading oneself thin.
  • Quote: "You can’t do all the things, but you can do some of the things really, really well... maximize your energy, your impact." — Diana Haussling [10:34]

Principle 2: Seek Discomfort & Growth

• Diana advocates for taking roles that stretch you—even "dumpster fire" projects—because crackling tough problems accelerates growth.
  • Quote: "Take the role that’s a little bit of a dumpster fire... if you crack it, awesome. But if you don't, you learn so much along the way." — Diana Haussling [13:24]
  • Reference to Andrew Robertson's “Run to the Fire” advice—tackling the hard problems to grow as a leader. [15:01]

Principle 3: Get Comfortable Bragging (the Right Way)

• Particularly for women and people of color, Diana stresses the need to state achievements as "facts, not bragging," because self-awareness makes teams and careers stronger.
  • Quote: "We're taught it is not polite to talk about how awesome we are... But I have receipts. I know what I did and it's important for me to share." — Diana Haussling [17:54]
  • She discusses how articulating strengths enables leaders to position team members for maximum impact.
  • Encourages others to “close their gaps with people better than them.”

Principle 4: Design Your Career for the Life You Want

• Inspired by her father’s advice and immigrant family background, Diana encourages intentional lifestyle choices first, then aligning career moves accordingly.
  • Quote: "The title is theirs, but the money is yours, so act accordingly... think about the lifestyle that you want." — Diana Haussling [22:44]

4. The CMO to CEO Transition

• Diana views her CMO experience as foundational, adding CEO is less a leap and more an expansion of orchestration and team alignment.

  • Quote: "You’re a conductor... setting the tone, the tempo... you have to adjust and adapt to the audience, to the pacing, to what’s working, to what’s not in the moment." — Diana Haussling [27:06]
  • Differences: more focus on supply chain, sales, and operations, but the underlying leadership and coordination is similar.

• On seeking the CEO role: "It was definitely something I sought out. I'm extremely ambitious... I raised my hand and said this is a role that I want." — [29:12]

5. Superpowers & Team Building

• Superpowers Now: Removing obstacles, influencing, delivering "therapy lite," and facilitating constructive conflict.
  • Quote: "Getting shit done and moving shit out of the way... Also, being comfortable with conflict in a collaborative way, not debate for debate's sake." — Diana Haussling [31:32]
• On Team Building:
  • Deep partnership with HR as a strategic ally, not just transactional.
  • Invests time in 1:1s across the hierarchy, fosters trust, keeps lifelong connections ("I’m a little bit of a barnacle.").
  • Quote: "My primary role as your leader is to help you get to your next role, whether that's here at hello or someplace else." [38:53]

6. Self-Awareness and Accessibility

• Balances leader visibility with reflection through intentional scheduling and leveraging commuting, conferences, and "hairdresser's chair" time for creative thinking.
  • Quote: "...when you figure it out, let me know and maybe I'll try it." — Diana Haussling [45:23]

7. Practical Advice for Aspiring CEOs

• Inventory your real skillsets (not just titles)
• Close gaps with projects in your current role
• Get clear on what you actually want from the CEO position
• Know and manage your "worst self"
  • Quote: "You need to be able to work around you at your worst self... design your schedule so you build in time." [45:36]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "You don’t try to do everything and spread the peanut butter thin. You’re really able to amplify your impact." — Diana Haussling [10:34]
• "Every marketer is like, 'Of course I think about all those things.' But I think there was a period of time where we wanted to be acceptable for everyone, and that often, waters down your brand." — Diana Haussling on identity-driven brand-building [48:45]
• "I'm a fierce advocate, some would say mama bear, for my team. Sometimes that means letting them send the email, not me, so they get the spotlight." [51:21]
• "We have to fight for every day. Every sale, every point of distribution... we are just the stewards for this moment in time." — Diana Haussling [33:34]
• On her first brand love affair: "I loved it so much that I didn’t even wanna use it. And my mom was like, 'You gotta use it!'" — Diana Haussling [01:16, 56:16]
• On her parents: "I hit the parent lottery. Their focus on uplifting themselves, their children, and their community... makes me a better leader and a better person." [57:05]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–01:16 — Diana's first brand impact (Coach); childhood stories
• 04:54–06:47 — Industry gatherings: Change in marketing, readiness for disruption
• 07:01–08:15 — How Diana chooses industry events to attend
• 10:34–13:11 — Life philosophy: Choices versus balance; making hard decisions
• 13:24–16:22 — Growth through discomfort; taking on challenging roles
• 17:54–20:34 — Bragging as fact-sharing, especially for women of color; communicating strengths
• 22:44–24:05 — Designing career around life goals; immigrant family roots
• 27:06–29:09 — CMO-to-CEO: What changes, similarities in orchestration
• 31:32–33:32 — CEO superpowers, therapy-lite for teams, influencing, conflict management
• 38:53–42:31 — Practical team-building, deep HR partnership, lifelong networks
• 45:36–47:39 — Advice for CMOs aspiring to CEO roles: Self-awareness, skill gaps, ambitions
• 48:45–51:09 — Brand building, design as identity, lessons from Beyoncé on focus and fandom
• 51:21–52:34 — Cheerleading past; advocacy for her team
• 52:38–53:58 — Community, "being a villager" frames Diana's leadership style
• 56:07–57:02 — Brand memories: Coach and Adidas
• 57:05–57:59 — Most inspiring people: Her parents and son

Overall Tone & Style

Diana's tone is candid, self-deprecating, energetic, and advocacy-minded, blending practical leadership wisdom with warmth and humor. She speaks with a strong sense of cultural and personal identity, a focus on community and team empowerment, and is unafraid to challenge industry conventions (from brand positioning to executive career paths).

For Listeners

For marketers eyeing senior leadership, Diana’s story is both blueprint and motivation to:

• Lead with intention and make deliberate choices,
• Run toward challenges, not away,
• Build teams and careers around authenticity and impact,
• Be self-aware and unafraid to articulate your value,
• Remember: "You’re already orchestrating as a CMO. CEO is an expansion, not a leap."

Closing Takeaways (as summarized by Jim Stengel at [58:52])

1. Cross-functional Alignment: CFO, Legal, and HR are key allies for organizational change.
2. CMO to CEO is an Expansion: Not a leap, but an extension of coordination, orchestration, and team leadership.
3. Define Life First, Then Career: “What life do you want to have? Because you could be doing all of this for a life you didn’t even want.”

Useful for

Anyone interested in leadership practices, brand building, the evolving marketing landscape, and the mindset required to grow from CMO to CEO—especially for women and underrepresented leaders.