In this episode of Women in B2B Marketing, host Jane Serra chats with Kim Tran, a full stack marketing leader who helped take Gimmal to a successful exit as Head of Marketing and Business Development.

Kim's path into marketing was anything but linear. She started in First Amendment law before building a career focused on growth, brand transformation, and operational rigor across fintech, edtech, and data governance. With a background in psychology and a clear-eyed view of how teams and businesses scale, Kim shares the mindset shifts and tactical lessons that shaped her journey.

Jane and Kim explore:

• Why marketers need to become financial and data stewards to earn trust and influence
• How to market marketing internally and build advocates across the org
• What it really takes to modernize a legacy brand without losing its core
• How to approach marketing during an acquisition and speak to buyers, not just customers
• The importance of protecting your team’s emotional and mental bandwidth
• How to pitch yourself and take up space, especially as a woman in leadership
• Why failing safely is more realistic than failing fast

Key Links:

Guest: Kim Tran: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimtrandc/

Host: Jane Serra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janeserra/

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In this episode of "Women in B2B Marketing," host Jane Serra is joined by Chaenara O’Brien - a sharp strategist who splits her time between leading digital GTM at vFunction and consulting with startups via Thought Bakery.

Chaenara brings a refreshingly grounded, systems-first lens to modern marketing, shaped by a background in energy trading, operations, and engineering services. The conversation unpacks what it really takes to build future-ready go-to-market teams, avoid burnout, and lead with both curiosity and clarity in a time of constant change.

Jane and Chaenara dig into:

• How her career in ops + energy trading led to B2B marketing leadership
• What “scenario planning” actually means - and how to make it actionable
• Why marketers need to stop reacting and start building systems
• How AI is reshaping what it means to “do more with less”
• Creating space for failure and curiosity on high-performing teams
• Why outdated ideas of brand control and executive presence need to go
• What GTM leadership should look like - and where it’s headed
• Outgrowing tech and how to protect your spark

Key Links:

Guest: Chaenara O'Brien: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chaenara/

Host: Jane Serra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janeserra/

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** Originally published on January 18, 2023 **

This episode is a favorite for anyone who's ever argued about buttons vs hyperlinks, wondered if open rates still matter, or just wants to get better at email without sounding like a spam bot.

Kestrel Lemen is an email powerhouse: part strategist, part storyteller, and hands down one of the most insightful voices in email marketing. Her take on what actually drives conversions, how to balance plain text with visuals, and what marketers still get wrong about newsletters is full of gold.

It’s one I still reference, and if email is even remotely in your job description, you’ll want to give this one a listen.

Want a part two with Kestrel? Leave a review, drop a DM, or just say the word.

— Jane

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In this episode of Women in B2B Marketing, host Jane Serra sits down with Kestrel Lemen, email marketing expert and former Senior Strategist at Seguno Software (now Senior Manager Lifecycle Marketing at Zillow!) From her start in the art world to building Bronto’s London office and becoming an email force in both B2B and B2C, Kestrel’s journey is as fascinating as it is full of lessons.

They get into:

• The difference (and surprising similarities) between B2B and B2C email strategies
• Visual vs. plain text emails - and when each actually performs best
• What’s still true about email above the fold (and what’s totally changed)
• The metrics you should be tracking now - and which ones are just vanity
• Spam triggers, button design, and real talk on segmentation
• How privacy laws like GDPR and Apple MPP are reshaping email as we know it
• Why your “free Yeti cooler” giveaway is probably not the move
• Building emails that convert and don’t annoy
• Plus: how to keep your resume “conversion-optimized” for your future self

If email is part of your job - or just gives you heartburn - this episode is a goldmine.

Key Links:

Guest: Kestrel Lemen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kestrellemen/

Host: Jane Serra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janeserra/

Community: Women of Email - https://womenofemail.org/