Scalable Acts of Marketing: Building a Repeatable Growth Engine

Most marketing books promise tips. Scalable Acts of Marketing shows you how to build a system that scales. 

Written after thirteen years of helping grow Service Express from $30 million to $350 million in ARR, Joshua Leatherman’s field-tested guide blends a business fable with a hands-on playbook.

In this episode, Joshua Leatherman (Cyderes) joins Drew to walk through how durable growth happens when marketing speaks in outcomes, earns executive trust, and runs one motion across brand, demand, sales, and success. He connects the fable’s lessons to real-world moves inside growth-stage companies, laying out a playbook any marketing leader can use to build momentum that lasts. 

In this episode: 

• How to shift from activities to outcomes that a CFO and CRO will back 

• How to own pipeline with clear SQO definitions, shared attribution, and consistent follow-up 

• How to stand up RevOps as “Switzerland,” with shared KPIs, fast handoffs, and five-minute speed-to-lead targets

Plus: 

• Why marketing must stay on the field after the first meeting 

• How to use R&D (“rip off and duplicate”) to accelerate playbooks 

• What to hire for right now: Curiosity, learning velocity, and accountability 

• How authoritative content fuels discovery in an AI-led world 

If you’re ready to build a marketing system that earns trust, investment, and results, this episode shows where to start!

Renegade Marketers Unite, Episode 485 on YouTube

Resources Mentioned 

• CMO Huddles 
• CMO Super Huddle 
• Scalable Acts of Marketing 
• Tools mentioned 
  • N8N 
  • Clay 
  • Gong 

 Highlights 

• [2:31] Inside Scalable Acts of Marketing 

• [4:14] Writing the playbook for predictable growth 

• [5:36] Turning business strategy into a fable 

• [7:55] Outcomes over activity: The new marketing mindset 

• [16:48] Partnering your way to c-suite power 

• [21:16] Revenue ops: The bridge that fixes friction 

• [23:44] How marketing turns leads into revenue 

• [27:50] Where should Rev Ops sit? 

• [30:47] The AI shift in content strategy 

• [33:50] Learning velocity beats yesterday’s playbook 

• [37:58] Rip off, duplicate, and win 

• [40:01] Why Joshua made the move to Cyderes 

• [41:59] The twin pillars: Talent & data 

• [46:09] How to spot random acts of marketing 

• [48:57] Brand fuels the performance engine 

• [49:39] How long does it take to scale marketing?

Highlighted Quotes  

“It's so important if you want to be a scalable marketer and one who produces value and is long-term for the organization to talk about outcomes, not activities."— Joshua Leatherman, Cyderes  

“One A player will run circles around four to five B players and one A player will outdo a hundred C players. You've gotta have the right person on the team."— Joshua Leatherman, Cyderes 

“I attribute so much of my success to my ability to get in front of other CMOs who are ahead of me. I didn't have to create the wheel. I was able to rip off and duplicate that and bring it back to our company."— Joshua Leatherman, Cyderes 

Full Transcript: Drew Neisser in conversation with Joshua Leatherman