CMO Spotlight | Joshua Sims Sr. - Noble Food and Pursuits
The CMO Spotlight offers an inside look into the minds and journeys of high-performing marketing leaders.
Setup CEO + Founder, Joe Koufman, spoke with Joshua Sims Sr., the Chief Marketing Officer at Noble Food and Pursuits about how he prioritizes relationships and embodies the humanization of marketing.
“I don’t believe that anything is a challenge; I look at it as an opportunity.”
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Q1 | What advice would you share with marketers?
Sims’ three biggest pieces of advice to other marketers are:
How you do anything is how you'll do everything. The amount of hard work that you're going to have to apply in your formative years can't be duplicated with other things.
Relationships are everything – Build organic relationships.
When you enter these rooms, be your most genuine self. What you genuinely bring to an organization, to a department, or to a team is what's going to create results. It's the humanization of marketing.
Sims prides himself on being an authentic, human-oriented leader and encourages others to focus on relationships and being their truest selves.
Q2 | What is your superpower?
“My superpower is that I don't meet a stranger.”
Every single person, no matter where they come from, who they are, or what they look like, is someone Sims can connect with. He connects with people on a human level–really seeing them for their uniqueness and not just the business or service they provide. After engaging with people, he makes sure to make them feel appreciated and seen by ending with, "Hey, I appreciate the time that I've had with you."
“The humanization of marketing is really my superpower. It’s my ability to connect with any person on any level about anything.”
Q3 | What values are important to you?
Sims really practices what he preaches by living out the advice he gives and behavior he expects from others.
“I mirror what I would tell anybody. I would tell everybody, I'm going to focus on the details. For me, the opportunity is in the details. I don't believe that anything is a challenge; I look at it as an opportunity.”
This mindset focused on details leads to well-detailed briefs to know where the team is going and where they see they’re going. He asks his team, “What do you think we can accomplish? How do you see us getting there?” to understand their perspective. And then he does everything he can to support what they are doing from that process.
His leadership style is leading by example because he hopes, when he is gone, that the thoroughness, room for expression, and focus will remain.
“The opportunity is in the details, so I’m an extremely detail-oriented leader. I expect for people who are on my team to be extremely detail-oriented people as well, because there's a time when that's going to flip. I’m going to move out of their way, stop being their leader, and then they’re going to be the leader in a department or inside of a company of their own. For me, it's about preparing them for the spot when they get there, and that can only happen by being extremely detailed and having forethought—having the ability to see down the periscope, having the ability to see down the tunnel, and see what the results can be. Then, it's the willingness to leave a little bit of room for some flexibility. There are expectations, and all of those things fall into place, but they all deal with detail. They deal with leaving a little bit of room for swag and being able to see down the periscope of what our results can possibly be.”
Q4 | What Brand inspires you?
Nike is Sims’ favorite brand. “Nike for me is the gold standard when it comes to marketing,” he shared. Sims described Nike’s ability to create superfans and relationships that transform their fans is aspirational for a marketer. Being a part of Nike is being a part of something bigger.
“The Nike brand is something that I would say is one that's aspirational for me. I've always described Nike as a sports brand that sells apparel. As a person who absolutely loves sports and not so much a fan of apparel as much as I am a humongous fan of sports, all of my favorite athletes, all of the athletes that I've always thought about—all of my favorite brands, from just an integration and brand congruence standpoint and just having relationships in some way, shape, or form, man, they have Nike involved. And so for me, you know, that's why I say it's Nike’s ability to move human beings to that place of affinity. They stay there, man, for life. There are people who are Nike lifers, who, no matter what country they’re in, or where they are, or what their setting is, they will stand in line for Nike—for anything—for just the basketball, for their athletes signing things. That's why I love the brand Nike.”
Q5 | Tell us about an impactful marketing campaign.
When Joshua Sims was at Bojangles, he shared a personal story with the new CMO, Tom Bolan, about a dish called the "bird dog," which is a chicken tender in a hot dog bun—a creation he learned about from his father. Tom quickly took the idea and pushed it into A/B testing, resulting in the bird dog becoming the highest-selling LTO of the year at Bojangles. Sims reflects, "Your genuine experiences, who you really truly are, and what you’ve done are things that people love to know about." The story highlights the power of authentic ideas and rapid execution in driving success.
For more marketing leadership advice and a view into the mindset of marketing executives in various industries, be sure to watch the full interview with Joshua Sims Sr., and keep an eye out for more thought leadership from our CMO Spotlights.
If you know an impactful marketing leader who would be a good candidate for the #CMOSpotlight series, nominate them here.
Watch the Full Interview to the right.
Setup CEO + Founder, Joe Koufman, spoke with Joshua Sims Sr., the Chief Marketing Officer at Noble Food and Pursuits about how he prioritizes relationships and embodies the humanization of marketing.