Michael Baker-Mosley: being great at marketing won't make you a great marketing leader

“We promote people who are good at their job. And actually it's so wrong for so many people, because you lose somebody who's good at their job and you might get a shit manager as well.”

“The best hire I made in my marketing team was a risk manager from Amazon. Outside the industry. Had about nine months of event management experience.”

“Two-thirds of marketers have never had any formal training. I've hired a risk manager from Amazon, but it's true.”

“I wasn't asking for people's opinions of whether or not I should be calm. It was too late. My mistake was to go ballistic.”

“You as a leader always have to remember: it's not about you. It's about them.”

“If you're looking to enter a market, picking a nemesis is a great way to do it. One of our competitors had 45 people in their B2B marketing team, ten to one outspending us. We would find ways to subtly mock them at any opportunity.”

“To build long-term value for a business, marketing needs to be building brand, building its own audience, owning the audience itself. Everything else is rented.”

The promotion trap

Promoting the best performer into management is one of the most costly mistakes in iGaming. You lose a high performer and risk gaining a poor manager — the skills rarely transfer.

Hire for your weaknesses

Michael's best hire was a risk manager from Amazon with nine months of events experience. Hiring outside the industry builds the depth that frees a leader to operate strategically.

Rented audience vs. owned brand

Paid media, affiliates, SEO, and editorial are all rented. When the algorithm or spend stops, the audience disappears. Only an owned brand is durable.

Picking a nemesis

Entering a competitive B2B market without positioning is invisible. Building your identity in contrast to a well-funded competitor is a legitimate go-to-market strategy.

It is never just business

The hardest part of leadership is telling someone you hired and believed in that it's over, for reasons that aren't their fault. Treating that as purely transactional costs something you don't get back.

Stamp your vision early

Michael's biggest regret was waiting a year to bring his vision to board level. A CMO who waits to be invited into strategy is seen as a cost, not a driver of growth.