C-Suite Strategies
Stacie Sussman
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S2E23: You've Got Brand Debt. Here's What It's Actually Costing You.
In this solo episode, Stacie Sussman — Founder and CRO of RevUp Advisory — breaks down one of the most expensive problems hiding in plain sight across mid-market B2B companies: brand debt. This isn't just about having weak messaging or a tagline that needs a refresh. Brand debt is what happens when your story doesn't keep up with your business — and your buyers feel the disconnect long before you do. It shows up in longer sales cycles, deals that go dark after the second call, and a pipeline that's colder than it should be. The fix isn't better copy. It's building a system. What We Cover The Brand Debt Diagnosis Why asking five people at your company "what do you do?" will get you six different answers How brand debt compounds over time — just like financial debt The warning signs hiding across your org right now Why This Is a Revenue Problem, Not a Marketing Problem What the Interbrand research actually says about brand value (your CFO will care) Why unclear storytelling is costing you deals you don't even know you're losing How buyers experience the disconnect — even when they can't name it The System Behind the Story Why a great brand story sitting in a Google Doc does nothing for revenue How to build messaging that travels coherently from first touch to signed contract Why every channel has its own funnel logic — and what happens when you measure them all the same way Brand Debt in the Age of AI Your buyers are researching in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude before they ever fill out a form Why a broken brand story doesn't just cost you human attention — it makes you invisible to AI What AI tools actually surface (and what they ignore completely) 3 Things to Do Before the Next Episode Run the five-person experiment — cross-functional, no briefing, just ask Map your content by channel and be honest about what role each one is actually playing AI yourself — search your category and see if your company shows up the way you think it does Up Next Stacie sits down with Lauryn Warnick, CEO of Villain Branding, to go deep on solving the brand story problem at the mid-to-enterprise level. Lauren's working with billion-dollar companies and has a methodology that is equal parts clever and genius. You won't want to miss it. Connect with Stacie Sussman Subscribe to the RevUp Advisory newsletter on Substack: https://staciesussman.substack.com/subscribe Connect with Stacie: Book a free growth consult LinkedIn Website
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