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#159 Human-Centered Growth Marketing with Sherry Grote and Mariam Nusrat

Today we’re speaking with Sherry Grote and Mariam Nusrat. Sherry is an international marketing executive, speaker, and fractional CMO who has spent over two decades driving growth and alignment across global B2B SaaS companies. She’s also the founder of The Harmony Hero Initiative, where she helps leaders and caregivers transform overwhelm into opportunity through purpose-driven coaching and development. Mariam is a Forbes Next 1K Entrepreneur, Clinton Global Honoree, and TEDx speaker who founded Breshna.io—a no-code AI platform empowering people to create and share purposeful video games, with over 160,000 games published worldwide. In this episode, we explore how marketing, leadership, and technology can work together to empower creativity, elevate human potential, and drive meaningful impact at scale.
“When you bring the human approach… people bring business to you.” -Sherry Grote
“Games are a really powerful tool for marketing, engagement, and fan engagement.” -Mariam Nusrat

About the Episode

Welcome to our in-depth exploration of the NTM Growth Marketing Podcast, featuring two powerhouse founders shaking up the future of marketing: Sherry Grote of Harmony Hero Initiative and Mariam Nusrat of Breshna IO. This is a story about blending leadership skills, technology, emotional intelligence, and innovative strategies that make brands stand out in a crowded digital age.

Whether you’re a CEO, a marketing leader, a caregiver balancing career and home, or someone intrigued by the intersection of tech and humanity, this post will deliver practical insights, real-life stories, and actionable takeaways.

So grab your coffee, lean in, and let’s dive into the new ways marketing is evolving—towards harmony, empathy, and unmissable value.

Introduction: Growth Marketing Isn’t Just Numbers

Marketing is evolving. It’s not just about blasting ads and collecting leads anymore—it’s about storytelling, empathy, and connecting with real people. On NTM’s Growth Marketing Podcast, founders Sherry Grote and Mariam Nusrat share their journeys and open up about how marketing can be strategic, personal, and deeply impactful when you blend technology, emotional intelligence, and a little bold innovation.

Get ready to see marketing through a new lens—less about noise, more about meaningful presence.

Meet Sherry Grote: Building Harmony Between Leadership and Caregiving

Personal Experience Drives Innovation

Sherry Grote’s career is a masterclass in balancing demanding professional life with caring for family. As CEO and Founder of the Harmony Hero Initiative, her mission is bold:

“Help caregivers who have demanding go-to-market careers balance the caregiving required—whether for children, a disabled spouse, elder parents—with the leadership they need at work.”

After 25 years in marketing and building demand generation playbooks, Sherry’s path became highly personal. Her husband’s health journey, combined with raising two young kids, ran in parallel with a rise from marketing manager to the head of global marketing.

Her story isn’t just about managing chaos—it’s about channeling leadership skills learned from both boardroom and bedside and combining them to make organizations stronger.

Harmony Hero Initiative: Elevating Caregiver-Leaders

Sherry saw a gap: the skills and strengths honed as a caregiver are rarely recognized as leadership assets in business. The Harmony Hero Initiative exists to bridge that gap—empowering those who manage both worlds to thrive.

It’s not about competing priorities; it’s about complementary strengths. Sherry says clearly:

“They should actually be complementary, and I want to help leaders do that.”

The Harmony Go-to-Market Playbook

Harmony isn’t just an ideal—it’s a strategy. Sherry created the “Harmony go-to-market approach,” fusing two decades of marketing and a decade of caregiving wisdom.

She observes:

  • Traditional B2B strategies push aggressive outbound techniques and fixate on volume.
  • But, in complex B2B sales, “calm authority actually wins over the chaos and the noise.”

Sherry’s playbook puts collaboration first—between marketing, sales, product, channel, and customer support. This deep partnership lets marketing tap insider knowledge, driving results for sales and product alike.

She puts special emphasis on emotional intelligence and “reading the room,” knowing when to push, pause, and build trust—through genuine presence, not pressure.

Human-Centered Marketing: The Power of Emotional Intelligence

Collaboration Beyond Departments

Emotional intelligence is not a buzzword in Sherry’s approach—it’s foundational. Harmony is the mnemonic, and “heightened EQ” leads the way. She notes that leaders must:

  • Understand the goals of their colleagues in sales, product, and customer success.
  • Help teammates reach those goals, so collaboration becomes a force multiplier.

“Working with them, helping them achieve their goals, they helped me be more successful in how I marketed for the organization and the product.”

Marketing becomes truly effective when it’s tuned to the customer’s state, context, and readiness. The right message at the right time—not just pushing for the sale.

Building Trust Through Presence

Trust doesn’t come from spammy tactics or relentless outbound. It grows by being present, authentic, and understanding pain points that matter.

Whether collaborating across functions or connecting with buyers who are inundated by AI-written content, marketers must be real, relatable, and human.

Channel Mix: Where Is Marketing Most Effective Today?

Despite the rise of digital tools, Sherry is adamant: there’s no single “magic mix.” Success comes from blending online and offline. Her recommendations:

  • Digital Media: Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, targeted online campaigns.
  • Social Platforms: LinkedIn works not simply as a broadcast tool but for building authentic community.
  • In-Person Events: Trade shows and coffee meetings are invaluable. Often they’re less expensive and yield higher ROI in connection and trust.
  • Traditional Tactics: Don’t ignore old-school approaches like mailers for the right audience.

She adds:

“When you bring the human approach… people bring business to you.”

Innovation in B2B: Dual Identity Marketing

Addressing the Caregiver Decision-Maker

Sherry’s latest innovation is “Dual Identity Marketing.” She’s pioneering a category that acknowledges leaders who juggle complex professional decisions and intense personal responsibilities.

The facts:

  • There are 73 million Americans who are both caregivers and professionals.
  • Many reside in the C-suite, influencing big business decisions.

Most B2B marketing wrongly assumes decision-makers have unlimited bandwidth. Reality is starkly different. Sherry’s systematic approach treats caregiving experiences as executive training—not a career constraint.

This market is underserved and often overlooked, and it’s time to recognize the dual strengths these leaders bring:

“This dual identity is not something that should be competitive. It should actually be very complementary and it should help the organization and the person as well.”

Standing Out in a Spam-Filled World

The business owner’s inbox is a battlefield—flooded with auto-messages and generic spam. How do you make a human connection?

Sherry’s answer: build relationships, not just send pitches.

  • Artificial Intelligence is everywhere—writing content, automating outreach.
  • But AI can’t connect, relate, or understand like a human.

The secret: Authenticity and understanding your customer’s real pain points. Speak their language and connect at the right moment, not just push random messages.

“Then it’s not spam—it means something at the right point.”

AI’s Role in Modern Marketing Strategy

Operational Efficiencies With AI

AI has become a “game changer,” especially for technical tasks:

  • Data Analysis: Making sense of vast metrics and reports.
  • Personalization at Scale: Tailoring content to individual users.
  • Content Optimization: Improving messaging and engagement rapidly.

Sherry’s teams use AI for drip campaigns, nurturing, and operational streamlining.

Balance AI with Human Presence

Even with all these tools, Sherry insists:

  • AI can’t close an enterprise deal. It excels at infrastructure, but not at reading the room or building executive presence.
  • Real success means staying calm under pressure and building trust—in high-stakes conversations.

Her advice: be a good human, and let AI do what it does best.

Essential Tech Stack for Marketers

Sherry shouts out useful tools:

Peaceful Productivity Test: Every AI tool needs to “free up mental space, not overwhelm teams or create complexity.”

Marketers in 2025: What Skills Will Matter Most?

What will define thriving marketers as the tech landscape races ahead?

Ingredients for success:

  • Know how to use AI for reporting, analysis, ideation, and efficiency.
  • Experiment freely with new tools—test, iterate, don’t fear mistakes.
  • Stay strategic and human—bring your own voice to decisions, and don’t let AI define everything.
  • Listen to real sales calls (with tools like Gong) and mine them for genuine buyer needs.
  • Make sure tech supports peaceful productivity, not more noise and stress.

Sherry is clear:

“Don’t rely on it [AI] to do your job. You’re still a strategic part of the go-to-market team.”

Meet Mariam Nusrat: Revolutionizing Game Creation for Brands

Breshna IO: The Canva for Video Games

Mariam brings boundless creative energy to this episode. Her company, Breshna IO, is reshaping branded engagement with a no-code game maker. Think: Canva meets video games. The platform lets anyone whip up bite-sized, branded games with lightning speed—no coding required, no months-long timelines or six-figure budgets.

Fun fact: “Breshna” means lightning in Pashto, Mariam’s mother tongue.

From Menstrual Myths to Branded CPG Games

Mariam’s path started with a student project—catching pads with undies in a game to bust menstrual myths. For 11 years, she and her brother ran a side gig as a social impact gaming studio tackling themes from reproductive health to climate action.

But the real need surfaced: fast, low-cost, fully-branded games for marketing.

Her platform now boasts:

  • 180,000+ registered game makers
  • 3 million+ gameplays
  • Games in countless languages
  • Biggest markets: edtech and marketing

Favorite Games Growing Up?

Mariam can’t pick a favorite child but admits Sonic holds a special place:

“I’d play with my brother and end up frustrated when he picked me up… but I really enjoyed Sonic.”

Breshna’s Go-To-Market: Show And Tell

Branded Games as a Love Language

Breshna IO empowers CPG, cosmetics, and F&B brands to make games for marketing. But convincing a marketer to try a video game isn’t easy—the concept is new for most.

Their breakthrough? Show, don’t just tell.

Every day, Mariam’s team develops and publishes a free branded game for a featured company. The “love language” of bite-sized games means:

  1. Pick a brand—admired or discovered
  2. Rapidly build a game tailored to them (think: catch the lip glosses, dodge obstacles)
  3. Share the game on Instagram, tag the brand
  4. Offer upfront value, before any sales pitch

Mariam’s favorite moments? Cold outreach games for Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine and John Legend & Chrissy Teigen’s pet brand, Kismut—both earned responses from the teams.

“Our love language is bite-sized video games… we literally turn their whole brand into a game, share it on Instagram, and tag them. The conversion is really interesting because you’re offering value upfront before any pitch.”

Impactful Social Media Outreach

Social platforms are Breshna’s stage. Brands see themselves animated, interacting, and it changes the conversation—now they’re picturing games as part of their marketing mix.

It’s a unique approach that’s shifted how both large and small brands think about digital engagement.

Games for Marketing: Why Now?

Innovative Engagement Across Verticals

Games aren’t just for fun—they’re powerful for fan engagement, lead generation, and local business support.

Breshna’s verticals include:

  • Sports: Partnerships brewing with Paris Saint-Germain, the Steelers, Visit Pittsburgh
  • Tourism: Digital treasure hunts with local perks
  • Events: Jumbotron halftime games, QR codes leading to rewards
  • CPG: Lightning-fast game creation for product launches and social campaigns

Imagine: Halftime at a football game, a QR code flashes. Fans play a custom Steelers game. Score high, win a discount at the concession stand. Everyone wins.

Mariam explains:

“Games are a really powerful tool for marketing, engagement, and fan engagement.”

AI in Game Creation and Marketing

Leveraging AI Tools

On both the product and marketing side, AI drives Breshna’s business:

  • Asset Generation: Avatars, backgrounds, music—created with AI.
  • Text-to-Game Engine: Let users prompt a scenario (e.g., “Unicorn catching apples in a run-and-catch game”)—the engine does the rest, instantly building the game.
  • Lead Generation: AI helps identify which brands to target, which games to craft.

For AI tools, Mariam’s stack includes:

  • ChatGPT: Primary LLM for all gaming content and prompt ideation.
  • Scenario: Used for specific game asset creation.
  • Amazon Bedrock: Infrastructure for scaling the product.

“When I reach out, I’m not like: ‘Oh, we have this no-code AI platform.’ I say ‘I’ll make you a video game. How I get there, that’s it.’”

Advice for Marketers Embracing AI

Mariam is frank—most marketers and agencies get distracted by the technology, not the outcome.

Her advice:

  1. Be Outcome-Focused, Not Tech-First.
    • Clients care about the results—speed, cost-efficiency, creativity.
    • They don’t care if “blockchain” or “AI” powers the solution, only what it delivers.
  2. Talk Value, Not Acronyms.
    • Instead of pitching “our LLM,” pitch the video game, the interactive campaign, the efficiency gains.
  3. Show What AI Makes Possible:
    • “I’ll make you 20 video games, in 45 minutes, for $1,500.” Now they’re listening.
  4. Speak to Pain Points.
    • Identify what can’t be achieved without AI: rapid asset creation, instant personalization, new forms of engagement.
  5. Benefit-Focused Communication.
    • When the conversation is about outcomes and what’s now possible, interest skyrockets.

“A lot of times we get really fascinated by technology and the conversation ends up being like, ‘here’s blockchain, here’s web3, here’s NFTs.’ That’s when you lose your audience. Be benefit focused, figure out their pain points, and speak to those.”

Key Takeaways

From Sherry Grote:

  • Leadership is evolving to put human experience and caregiving at the center.
  • Emotional intelligence is vital—read the room, build trust, foster collaboration.
  • AI is essential for operational efficiency but must pass the “peaceful productivity” test.

From Mariam Nusrat:

  • Game-based marketing is accessible, fast, affordable, and engaging.
  • Outcomes trump underlying tech—clients buy into value, not the buzzwords.
  • Creativity, speed, and cost-effectiveness made possible by AI are revolutionizing marketing, especially in B2B2C.

For All Marketers:

  • Blend digital outreach with authentic face-to-face interactions.
  • Use AI for efficiency, but don’t lose the human touch.
  • Invest in both the strategy and the tools that make marketing meaningful.
  • Be bold, experiment, and focus on what genuinely helps clients and brands stand out.

Join the Marketing Mastermind Community

If you’re a marketing executive thirsting for advanced strategies, honest advice, and peer community, don’t miss the NTM Marketing Mastermind cohort:

  • Monthly roundtable meetings
  • Application-only membership
  • Real-world AI strategy, troubleshooting, and collaboration

Apply to join the Marketing Mastermind

Final Thoughts

In today’s hyper-connected, AI-propelled marketing landscape, true standout brands blend empathy and innovation. Sherry Grote and Mariam Nusrat make it clear: put people first, embrace new technology, and always stay connected to the value your work delivers.

Whether your next move is implementing a peaceful productivity test for your tech stack, building a bite-sized branded game, or simply upping your collaboration across departments—let harmony guide your growth.

“Marketing in 2025 isn’t about being everywhere—it’s about being present where it matters, with the right message, at the right time, in the right way.”

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