Table of Contents
- What is the course about and how is it presented?
- Cost
- Who is the course for?
- When would I take it?
- My biggest takeaways
- Would I advise doing the Marketing Masterclass?
I feel the marketing industry is in a good place in terms of knowledge sharing. But if I could identify a common area for improvement – it’s not competence, it’s confidence.
I say this because Mark Ritson’s Mini MBA is as close to creating a common language in our industry as I’ve seen. There are bountiful opportunities to learn from the best from more general communities such as The Marketing Meetup through to more specialised communities such as Pretty Little Marketer.
But inevitably when the rubber hits the road and we have to take the knowledge we’ve gained into our jobs – there is a gap. Often, that’s a people-shaped gap – one where we have to interact and take marketers and non-marketers alike on a journey – both up, down, and across the hierarchy. That’s where confidence is required – easy to say, hard to embody.
And that’s also where the Marketing Leadership Masterclass, headed up by Thomas Barta (former McKinsey Partner) and Syl Seller (former Chief Marketing and Innovation officer of Diageo) comes in. I recently completed the course – and here, my friends, are my honest thoughts.
TL;DR; I’d recommend it if your marketing theory knowledge is in place, and you’re working in a medium/large company.
What is the course about and how is it presented?
Sections
The Marketing Leadership Masterclass is a management class for marketers (obvs). It teaches you what you need to know about leading and navigating all kinds of people in organisations.
The course splits Leadership into four sections – up, team, yourself and sideways. ‘Up’ is about leading up, ‘team’ (surprisingly) is about your team, ‘you’ is ‘you’ and ‘sideways’ is a combination of peers and self-development. The modules are:
- Upwards: Expand your value creation zone
- Upwards: Join the revenue camp
- Upwards: Become irresistible
- Sideways: Align the silos
- Sideways: Grab the ball
- Team: Get the mix right
- Team: Give them wings
- Team: Let the outcomes speak
- Yourself: Know how you inspire
- Yourself: Do it your way
- Yourself: Aim higher
Over the weeks, the course releases modules one by one in the sections explained above allowing you to work through each. I’ve heard other courses have found this useful for not overwhelming folks with information all at once, and I gratefully received the same effect here!
I personally gained the most from the ‘up’ and ‘yourself’ modules. The up modules I thought were bang on for our community in the sense that so many marketers have to speak with leadership and justify their actions to managers and leaders. While I don’t have this myself, I sat at my computer screen nodding along thinking how much folks from the community would have taken from the lessons shared.
The ‘yourself’ modules hit differently for me at an individual level, and an interesting time in my life. I’m dead into self-development exercises anyway, but I thought it an interesting and useful mindset of ‘leading yourself’ so you have the ability to lead others.
Videos
The videos each week are very short (no longer than 15 but often closer to five minutes) – meaning the workload is small. There are short supplementary write-ups of each video which help, too.
As a business owner and parent, I found this way more accessible than other courses I’ve taken in the past. The course also happened to intersect with a really busy time in my life, so when I missed a week, I was grateful to actually be able to catch up. There is no fluff on this course – and that’s appreciated.
Cohort
Something I found really interesting and impressive was the comments section. Each week there were lively and interesting conversations going on under each module, which is something I hadn’t seen elsewhere.
This bred a sense that you’re not just buying the course – you’re also sharing the experience and learning from your fellow cohort members. As a community person – I know this isn’t an easy thing to pull off, so major props need to be given to the team at the masterclass.
Challenges
Throughout the course, there are small (optional) challenges to be completed which reinforce your learning. Interestingly, these aren’t graded. The team behind the Masterclass suggest this is because “Our challenges serve a different purpose than traditional exams. They help you apply your learnings to your current role. It’s about what you choose to take forward, not what a professor believes is “right in general.” I can understand this decision and it certainly is in keeping with the spirit of the course. It’s about self improvement – not showing off to others.
That being said, when learning something for the first time I actually quite like the sense that I’m getting something ‘right’. Possibly that’s a character flaw of mine but ultimately – I decided to not opt into the challenges through a combination of time and (maybe on a subconscious level) missing out on some sort of grading.
Q&As
Undeniably one of the stars of the show is having access to Thomas and Syl through their regular Q&As. Here are two humans who are endlessly impressive, and I can’t begin to imagine would cost if one tried to hire them as consultants! Having them breathe further life into their lessons was useful.
The Q&As are generally held live but then made available afterwards. Personally, I found myself catching up afterwards rather than joining the live sessions so I could skip ahead when required, as the Q&As are not immune to a few of the more clunky quirks of Zoom we’ve all gotten used to these past few years.
Cost
The course at the time of writing is £1280, and lasts 12 weeks.
Who is the course for?
The course is targeted primarily at:
- Marketers in organisations (small, mid, large almost evenly split)
- Marketers in agencies, who work with marketers
Syl and Thomas’ mastery within organisations of this size is on display – with both clearly speaking from experience.
Both Syl and Thomas combine storytelling and practical advice beyond superbly. One of my biggest takeaways from the course was simply how each spoke and presented. There is learning from words, but then there is learning from actions – and both spoke with incredible confidence and competence. Throughout the course it was striking how practical and hard-won the knowledge shared clearly was.
I work in a small team with relatively few people to interact with on a daily basis, and so I feel I got less from the course than I imagine others did working in larger companies. This is worth noting because if you are in a similar situation to me – you’ll either find yourself having to take a mental jump to apply to your context, or some things just won’t be relevant in the same way. That’s not a criticism, it’s just something to be aware of.
When would I take it?
I refer to the below graphic again.
If I had an unlimited budget as a marketer looking to level up, I’d start with the Mini MBA in marketing or similar to gain a baseline knowledge of marketing theory.
I’d then move to take the Marketing Leadership Masterclass to supplement the marketing theory with practical ‘here’s how to make it happen in the real world’.
The lessons in both courses are timeless, but directed in different ways.
Finally I’d look to communities like ours to keep you on top of the latest developments and current challenges.
A different approach would be to ask yourself ‘am I experiencing a marketing knowledge problem or a people problem?’. Your answer would determine where you start.
Ultimately I can feel that the folks who will get the absolute most from this are those in a marketing manager/senior marketing manager position – as the content is catered for those in the tricky middle!
My biggest takeaways
My takeaways from the course were bountiful, despite the course not being made for me.
Rather than point to one specific thing, therefore, let me comment on one thing.
Too often in courses and lectures you leave with the problem described, but the solution is missing.
What Syl and Thomas have created here is a practical course that not only describes relatable problems – but then tells you how to solve them.
I’m naturally wary of advice – but the thoughts shared in the course felt genuinely useful.
Too often at TMM we get questions about ‘my boss doesn’t believe in marketing’ or ‘how do I prove the value of marketing?’. This course addresses those questions and more. For folks looking to navigate the world of marketing within organisations – being able to answer questions is invaluable and career-defining. The course isn’t cheap – but being able to sensibly hold those conversations make the lifetime value of this course, in my opinion, worth it.
Would I advise doing the Marketing Masterclass?
Hopefully throughout this piece, there is an obvious answer. I would absolutely recommend this course. There is a touch of nuance, in that I think those who will specifically get the most from the Marketing Leadership Masterclass are who already have got a baseline understanding of marketing and are operating in an environment where they will have demands on their leadership skills – for good reasons and more challenging.