CMO Spotlight | Thomas Winstanley - Edibles.com
The CMO Spotlight offers an inside look into the minds and journeys of high-performing marketing leaders.
Setup CEO + Founder, Joe Koufman, sat down with Thomas Winstanley, the EVP and General Manager at Edible Brands who is more specifically focused on Edibles.com within Edible Brands. Winstanley shared how his failures led to his greatest success, the importance of a strong foundation, his favorite brand is a pencil, and more.
“It’s always really important for any marketers to embrace doing things with uncertainty.”
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Q1 | What advice would you share with marketers?
Winstanley shared that one of the most important things marketers can do is get comfortable operating with uncertainty.
He stated, “It's always really important for any marketers to embrace doing things with uncertainty, and I think it's really important to always challenge ourselves…Go outside of what is comfortable to us. If your instinct is telling you something, but it doesn't maybe feel as safe, it's okay to do that.”
At the same time, he emphasized that taking risks works best when it is built on a strong foundation.
Winstanley explained, “Keep a really high batting average. I am not a big ideas guy, but I try to make sure that my technical infrastructure and marketing infrastructure is really strong because you have to earn taking big shots. You can't come out of the gate swinging. I will take somebody who's got a .400 batting average over somebody who hits a lot of home runs. That's how you win ball games. You don't get them right out of the gate.”
His perspective is a strong reminder that consistency, discipline, and a strong foundation are what give marketers the right to take bigger creative swings over time.
Q2 | What is your superpower?
Winstanley’s superpower is the ability to take in a wide range of ideas and distill them into clarity and action.
He shared, “Being able to distill different ideas. I like to hear a lot of ideas, but then I'm also really confident in making a determination on what ideas go forward. There are no bad ideas in any of my meetings, but I have a good ability to distill all of those and then to come to an outcome.”
He added that this applies well beyond marketing.
Winstanley said, “I like to hear a lot of different inputs and then come to a point of clarity and direction. I try to be very definitive and operate with clarity that distills information into something. And that's not just with marketing, that's also with policy, regulation, everything. I try to distill as much as possible and then come to an actionable outcome.”
He also acknowledged that decision-making is not about always getting it right the first time.
As he put it, “I get stuff wrong all the time, but I also know that even if I get something wrong, I will leverage that input to get it right the next time I'm presented with a similar occasion.”
This leadership mindset is all about learning fast and turning complex situations into outcomes.
Q3 | What brand do you admire?
When asked what brand he admires, Winstanley pointed to a company that reflects his appreciation for quality, design, and utility: a pencil company called Blackwing.
His answer speaks to the lasting power of thoughtful design and craftsmanship. Even in a digital world, brands that create something beautiful, useful, and enduring can still make a deep impression.
Q4 | Tell us about an impactful campaign.
Winstanley shared one of the biggest risks of his career: opening the first beverage-only dispensary. While the concept ultimately did not succeed in the way he had hoped, it still became a meaningful learning experience.
He explained, “This was one of the biggest risks of my career and it ended up failing. But there was so much that was right about it.”
What stood out most to him was the clarity of the original vision.
He was very particular about what he wanted, and even though the place closed, it set him up to create what he says is now the blueprint for retail with edibles.com.
It is a great example of how an idea does not have to be a lasting success in its original form to be impactful. Sometimes the biggest value comes from what it teaches you and how it shapes what you build next.
For more marketing leadership advice and insights into the mindset of marketing executives in various industries, be sure to watch the full interview with Thomas Winstanley, 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, sat down with Thomas Winstanley, the EVP and General Manager at Edible Brands who is more specifically focused on edibles.com within Edible Brands. Winstanley shared how his failures led to his greatest success, the importance of a strong foundation, his favorite brand is a pencil, and more.