A vision must be a tangible, visual artifact—like a diagram on the wall—that paints a clear picture of the future. True alignment only occurs when the leader repeats this vision so relentlessly that the team can make fun of them for it. If they can't mimic your vision pitch, you haven't said it enough.

A CMO's primary job is not just external promotion but also internal marketing. This involves consistently communicating marketing's vision, progress, and wins to other departments to secure buy-in, resources, and cross-functional collaboration.

Creating a product vision is only half the battle; its impact comes from relentless distribution. Proactively schedule presentations at all-hands, design reviews, and team meetings. If you don't actively share the work, it's as if it never happened.

Instead of starting with a sales deck or homepage design, write the core company story in a simple Google Doc or script. This forces leadership to align on the narrative itself, separate from the distractions of format, ensuring consistency across all future assets.

Former Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger's heuristic for leadership communication is to repeat the company's vision until you are personally "absolutely sick and tired of it." He argues that this point of personal boredom is when the message is just beginning to truly permeate the organization.

A common pitfall for new CPOs is using product-specific jargon with executives and the board. To be effective, they must communicate as business leaders, focusing on financials, succinct points, and simple customer stories that the entire organization can understand.

To keep the wider company engaged with marketing's progress, use highly visual weekly updates that act as a 'highlight reel.' Focus on screenshots of shipped work (blog posts, ads) and positive customer comments rather than complex frameworks or dense metrics, which tend to lose people's attention.

Marketers can feel frustrated by the constant need to educate the company on their work. However, effective leaders reframe this perspective, understanding that internal communication and building trust are not distractions from the 'real work'. Instead, they are a core, essential part of the leadership role itself.

Don't just hand your champion a perfectly polished soundbite or business case. The act of creating it together—getting their feedback, edits, and "red lines"—is what builds their ownership and conviction. This process ensures they internalize the message and can confidently sell it on your behalf.