Ashley Faus

Director of Integrated Product Marketing, Atlassian

Marketer, writer, speaker by day... singer, actor, fitness fiend by night!

I've handled all aspects of marketing strategy and execution, from product marketing, to demand-gen, to content and events. I love telling the high-level stories that resonate with an audience and connecting the dots between types of assets and distribution channels.

My writing has been published on TIME, Forbes, The Journal of Brand Strategy, and The Muse, and I've spoken on various marketing topics for INBOUND, Harvard Business Review, and MarketingProfs.

Visit https://ashleyfaus.com/ for more information about my book, "Human-Centered Marketing: How to Connect with Audiences in the Age of AI".

(Views are my own)

Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Portfolio

"A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one."

Funny how we only ever hear the first part of that^^ quote, often said with a derisive tone.

Nobody wants the "master of none" 😬

And yet... I proudly claim the moniker of "marketing generalist"!

My superpower is connecting the dots, working across multiple teams, and integrating across channels.

If you need someone who sits at the intersection, I gotchu.

And this is why I'm always slightly surprised but delighted when I'm recognized in a specific marketing discipline.

My current title is "Lifecycle Marketing", but I contributed enough PMM-related content to earn a spot on the 2025 Product Marketing Influencer list.

And Alt Marketing School offers courses across allllll the marketing disciplines, including trendier topics, like the creator economy.

Personally, I think we're in a generalists' economy right now.

With teams running lean, leaders looking to bring in more AI and automation, and the rise of the fractional or solopreneur, generalists are making a comeback!

So cheers to all the folks who are making their mark in each (or every) discipline 🎉 

See the Alt Marketing School list: https://amschool.click/top

See the Product Marketing Alliance list: https://lnkd.in/dTmpNtJ5

Buy my book, "Human-Centered Marketing: How to Connect with Audiences in the Age of AI": https://amzn.to/4jqaKDW

Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Portfolio at Atlassian

I almost ended up naked onstage 😳

I was playing a bride, wearing this ridiculous '80s-style dress (pictured below), with a dropped waist, heavy beading, and a ridiculous train.

And on opening night, the zipper down the back of the dress started coming undone...

Inching.
Down.
My. 
Back.

And no one could help me 😬

I felt the sleeves start to slide towards the edge of my shoulders.

I felt an unpleasant breeze on my lower back.

And I realized that I'm just hoping I don't end up naked in front of the audience.

So... when I tell you that I've had things go wrong onstage, I'm not talking about a momentary hiccup with the slides or stuttering over a few words or going blank on my next sentence 😅

What this means for you, as a professional sharing your knowledge at a conference or Town Hall or QBR: it's gonna be ok.

YOU CAN DO IT!

At minimum, you won't end up naked onstage.
And the audience probably won't even notice a flub!

I get a lot of questions about how to overcome the fear, swallow the nerves, and feel confident stepping onstage.

One of my counterintuitive exercises is to catastrophize.

What's the WORST thing that could happen?

How would you react (and recover) if it happens?

Thinking through the worst-case scenario takes the surprise and sting out of it, because usually, it's not that bad.

And now you know how to react 😎

I said I ALMOST ended up naked onstage... handily, I've had a lot of practice reacting to things going wrong.

I straightened my posture to widen my shoulders, put my hands on my hips and across my chest to keep the dress from slipping off completely, and angled my back away from the audience to maintain a little dignity.

And then I asked the costumer to secure the zipper before the next performance, 'cuz we're not trying to have things go wrong twice 💃

Wanna be on a podcast? 

Drop your name and topics in the comments 👇👇

What hosts want to know:

💡 What's your expertise and unique angle?
🎤 Can you speak in an engaging way?
📣 Will you help bring in listeners?

Don't have prior appearances? 

I gotchu:

--> Go live on LinkedIn or post a short clip to share your advice

--> Confirm that you'll share about your episode on LinkedIn (and any other channels where you are active, like a newsletter, website, etc.)

Let's connect some hosts and guests!

(Full disclosure: I'm trying to streamline my inbox a bit, so my goal is to make this an easy place for folks to connect without a middleman 😀)

AI can be the epitome of a productivity mirage.

It FEELS productive to craft the perfect prompt, thinking of all the details that an LLM might need to tailor its response to your specific use case.

It FEELS like progress to refine and refine again and refine just once more for perfection.

It FEELS like insight to ask, "But what about _____?" over and over again.

And. Yet.

Blathering on with the chatbot is not, in fact, DOING anything.

Did you actually use all that research that it pumped out for you to take action?

Did you make the updates to the slide deck or blog post, based on the recommendations?

Did you go to the event and see for yourself whether your ICP actually attends?

I've been struggling with this mirage over the last few weeks 😳

In particular, I'm sparring with Claude to improve my talk track and slides, based on session scores and audience comments from my fall speaking engagements.

I feel like I've been so productive!
I spent so much time typing!
I considered so many angles!

My slide deck has not changed.
My speaker notes are not updated.

And as I go back through the chat history, I'm left feeling a bit overwhelmed, annoyed, and generally unmotivated to take the necessary action to ACTUALLY IMPROVE.

AI is only as good as the action it enables.

You can "doom scroll" and "water cooler chat" and "push pixels" around in an LLM just as easily as any other tool (maybe more so 😅).

Don't fall prey to the productivity mirage.

There are MANY smart marketers in the world.

They have great ideas, they've executed impactful programs, and they've written useful books.

The difference between what they share and what I share is literally THEM and ME.

It's not just about the idea.
It's about the person sharing the idea.

WHO says it is just as important as WHAT they say.

People trust people like themselves.
People resonate with different people.

So using your authentic voice, talking about your lived experience, and sharing your unique expertise is the reason someone trusts you, follows you, and listens to you.

If you're looking to be more visible, get more opportunities, and accelerate your success in 2026, you gotta listen to this episode 😀

Thanks for hosting a great conversation Wednesday Women!

Hear the full conversation: https://lnkd.in/e-BwQmxb

Join my Stanford class, starting on Jan. 26: https://lnkd.in/eCe697Zx

Buy "Human-Centered Marketing: How to Connect with Audiences in the Age of AI": https://amzn.to/4jqaKDW

Got big goals in 2026? 

I joined Erica Anderson Rooney to talk about my career journey, and I gave some SPICY takes:

♟️Chess vs. Checkers promotion advice

☑️ Minimum Viable Action (MVA)

💡The trouble with "bright" girls

✨ The real pitfalls of perfection

This episode tackles a few more personal issues than my usual fare, so if you want a candid conversation to kick off the New Year, I gotchu 😎

Listen to the full episode: https://lnkd.in/eMp-UCs5

Exercises to help you speak confidently: https://lnkd.in/e8wvrZpD

Grab my book, "Human-Centered Marketing: How to Connect with Audiences in the Age of AI": https://amzn.to/3YjquAk

"But what if they build a personal brand and then leave!?!"

🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

This is common pushback on not only allowing employees to share their insights, speak on podcasts, build a following on LinkedIn, etc., but encouraging and enabling them to do this.

The ironic part is that these statements are usually sitting alongside a mandate to "get the employees sharing company content on social media"!

Here's the thing: NOBODY wants the soulless company content 😬

Not the employee you're nagging to share it.
Not the viewer scrolling the feed.
And frankly, not even most of your users.

People want to hear from people, which means helping your employees share in their unique voice is a much better approach, all the way around.

And yes, some employees will attract recruiters and brand collabs and advisor offers, such that they might just decide to leave your company.

But the valley is small, and careers are long!

These former employees might become customers, partners, investors, or brand champions... there's so many ways to exchange value 🙌

And in the age of AI?
HUMANS are even MORE important!

I covered several related topics in my conversation with Finn Thormeier on The Executive Brand podcast, tune in for more details on:

- Why and how to build internal influencers
- The 4 pillars of thought leadership
- Choosing the "best" B2B creator

Rant: Freakin' LinkedIn, you are BUGGY!! Pull yourself together!!

I've noticed that when I schedule posts, they often show up wonky.

It un-tags accounts that I at-mention.

It replaces images and videos with link previews.

The formatting in generally is just not what it looks like in the preview.

But apparently, now it's DOUBLE POSTING content?!?!

I schedule a post, went to "post now" and fixed the issues noted above, and then published... only to find that it apparently posted the same content, but with the mistakes, later in the day.

WHHHHYYYY!?!?

I didn't catch it in time to delete the rogue post, so I figured I'd ask if anyone else is seeing this janky behavior.

It's VERY frustrating.

I'm using native features and trying to follow whatever stupid rules the algorithm randomly enforces.

But good grief.

FIX THE BUGS.

/rant

"All effective marketing is human-centered. While we're busy being distracted with shortcuts, Faus helps us refocus on what matters." ― Seth Godin, Author “This is Marketing”

"Trust is under siege from nearly every angle. Yet marketers like you and me want (need!) to build trust with our audiences. The question is... How? Ashley draws you a map." ― Ann Handley, best-selling author and Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs

"Most of the go-to playbooks are outdated, but it's hard to find a replacement for stale marketing practices. Ashley constructed a powerful new set of frameworks, along with practical advice and real-world examples. "Human-Centered Marketing" brings us back to what actually matters: the people behind the screen." ― Nancy Duarte, best-selling author and CEO of Duarte, Inc.

If you've been on the fence about grabbing a copy of my award-winning book, "Human-Centered Marketing: How to Connect with Audiences in the Age of AI", this is the perfect time to buy 😀

On Wednesdays, we keynote 💃

Honored to present keynote session at B2B Marketing Exchange with ADWEEK, talking about human-centered marketing!

Grab your tickets with special pricing through Feb. 16, and yes, you CAN sit with us 😎

"Don't panic, bring a towel."

We're going on an adventure!

Join me on January 14 to talk about the B2B creators you need in your galaxy this year.

I'm talking with Nadia Davis, MBA from CaliberMind about how to:

👩‍🚀 Find the RIGHT voices for your marketing mix

🚀 Build a thought leadership program that delivers the RIGHT outcomes

💫 Measure the RIGHT metrics across B2B creators

Register for free: https://lnkd.in/eYsKtvYN

Juliana Casale

Building a Beverage Brand

Hi! I’m the founder of Balloon, a Toronto-based sparkling water brand that I launched in October of 2023.

I’m having a blast figuring out how the CPG space works. Even if the brand flops, I am learning so much along the way.

One day I would love to work on the fizz biz full time, but I have a ways to go before I can give myself a paycheck so I’m a copywriter/content marketer by day 😁.

Okay, back to the career stuff:

Once upon a time in Arlington, Massachusetts, a little girl dreamed of becoming a marketing thought leader.

Hahaha. Can you imagine? No, I wanted to be a bridal shop owner.

Like many people, I stumbled into marketing early in my career. It’s a hard gig for many reasons, but I keep doing it because it’s about people - who they are, what they think, what they need and how to give it to them. 

Marketing is also about words, and as an English major I am really into those. 

If you’re looking for someone who can growth hack, eat spreadsheets for breakfast and gain your business thousands of followers in a month, you are reading the wrong profile. 

I have 13+ years of experience working across a variety of marketing platforms with a focus on boosting site traffic organically, leading visitors down the sales funnel in a thoughtful way, creating optimized (but human-friendly) content, and maximizing retention opportunities through product marketing. 

I'm laser focused on the customer experience, dedicated to building mutually beneficial relationships between sales, product, partnerships and customer success - and I know how to get shit done. 

Skills: 

- Marketing strategy
- Copywriting (case studies, newsletters, blog posts, interviews)
- Content promotion (social media, email)
- Sales enablement (acquisition and retention/upselling)
- Co-marketing + business development
- Building customer communities
- Event management
- Social media
- Video production
- Creative direction
- Website design 
- CRO

Public speaking:

- Guest speaker at Woodbury University's Coms 360 Media Professions class, September 2021 

- Member of Shine Speaker Bootcamp class of September 2019; see attached video

- “Customer-Centric Marketing Campaign Design” MBA guest speaker at Babson and social media/content marketing at Fisher College, both in October 2018

- Guest speaker on digital media at Emerson, April 2018 

- Guest speaker on adtech at Northeastern, October 2016

Freelance Writer

My business made 5 figures last year. I didn't make a profit, and I couldn't pay myself. If you look at my 12-month sales revenue, it's not super exciting. 

BUT what I'm starting to see, that IS getting me excited, is repeat wholesale orders. 

- Nutraviva in the West End is on their 4th order

- Vincenzo's in Waterloo just placed a 3rd order

- Shopify's Toronto office just ordered *75 cases* (my 1st pallet order!!), up from 50 last time

I was expecting the year to start off slow (January isn't typically peak sparkling water season), but the momentum is already building. 

2026 is going to be a big one for Balloon 🎈, I can feel it ❤️ .

So much can happen in 24 hours. 

This all went down on Friday: 

- My dream retailer saying no for the second time (rrrrrrghhhhhh)
- Another retailer dropping Balloon 🎈due to slow sales (they had the old branded cans and didn't ever try the new flavours so I don't feel AS bad as I could about this one, but the store is in an excellent location that I am super bummed to lose)
- Found out from the warehouse we're sold out of 2 SKUs (this should never, ever be a surprise and something I will be working hard to remedy ASAP)

BUT ALSO ON THE VERY SAME DAY:

- Balloon got into its first gas station. In the United States. Making my brand multi-national. 

I spent the morning/afternoon feeling frustrated, stressed (and frankly a bit incompetent), but seeing these photos that evening put THE biggest smile on my face. 

It's like the old saying about New England, "Don't like the weather? Just wait 5 minutes." The highs and lows of being a founder are truly wild. 

(Note: If you ever find yourself inside the Mini Mart at the Cloverleaf BP in Southfield, Michigan, please go in and send me a pic!).

On Wednesday I booked a last-minute booth at Canadian Health Food Association’s trade show in Vancouver, which is taking place 4 weeks from now. 

Cue the scramble to:

- Buy plane tickets & secure a place to stay
- Submit the food sampling form
- Get booth insurance 
- Order marketing materials
- Get cases of Balloon 🎈 to my distributor’s Markham warehouse so they can freight them to the show for me
- Start retailer outreach

I spent this morning at brunch with friends and this afternoon in my Toronto warehouse, making sure I have enough inventory. 

TBH, I love this kind of stuff. 

I did a whole talk at Fuckup Nights Toronto last year about how I was a startup addict; the adrenaline that comes from hustling under deadline is hard to beat, especially when it’s the success of YOUR business on the line. 

I can’t wait to hit the show floor in February ✌️.

No alternative text description for this image

Since I launched Balloon 🎈 I've felt pressure from incubator/accelerators, retailers, investor groups and grant givers to position it as 
"innovative."

Here was the formula for being an innovative beverage brand in 2025:

1. Add a functional element like probiotics, energy, fiber, adoptogens, etc to fizzy water
2. Reinforce that it's "better for you" by using alternative sweeteners like stevia, monk fruit or erythritol instead of sugar

There's obviously a big consumer demand for this, and I know many amazing founders who are building and kicking ass in this space. 

But here's where things get interesting: 

- LaCroix/Bubly/Perrier/Polar own zero sugar/zero calorie
- Coke/Dr. Pepper/Sprite own high calorie/high sugar
- Who's owning the non-functional (or what I like to call "dysfunctional" 😁) middle ground?

Everyone and their grandmother comments on how saturated the beverage category is, but I think there's a ton of room for innovating in the blank space between no sugar and tons of it. 

It's a super simple idea that doesn't attract VCs and probably won't land me on Dragons' Den, but it's a hill I'm willing to die on as I build my brand.

I just got a no from my dream retailer - the same one I got a no from two Falls ago when Balloon 🎈 was just getting started. 

I was so optimistic with the rebrand and new flavors that they’d say yes this time 😕.

Wanna try Balloon 🎈 IRL?

I’ll be slinging sparkling water at the following places, starting tomorrow:

Saturday, Jan 17
Vincenzo’s (Waterloo)
11 am - 4 pm

Wednesday, Jan 21
CommerceTO
5:30 - 8:30 pm

Thursday, Feb 12
East Room (Claremont Location)
5 - 8 pm

Demos are one of my favorite founder activities, I love seeing peoples’ reaction after the first sip and getting real time feedback. 

Hope to see some of you out there! 

#toronto #demo #dohashtagsactuallyworkonlinkedin

Okay, LinkedIn. I’m facing a big decision and I need all of you to weigh in.

When I launched Balloon 🎈 in 2023, I rolled out three flavours:

- Fruit punch
- Green apple
- Mango

And last year, I added two more as a small batch test:

- Pink lemonade
- Lychee 

5 SKUs cost a LOT to produce and store, plus the odd number makes sample packs/boxes awkward. 

This year I want to return to three flagship flavours and leave a fourth spot open for a limited edition seasonal (summer/winter).

Green apple and Lychee are clear bestsellers, and Pink lemonade is on tap as the summer seasonal, which leaves one last spot open in the core lineup. 

So here’s the big question: 

👉Do I keep Mango or Fruit punch??👈

They both drive the same amount of sales, so it’s going to come down to a popular vote. 

Please comment and let me know which one you prefer!

I may or may not have snorted aloud when I read the cost of “earning” recognition in a Canadian business magazine. 

$7,000???

taplio

The Battle

Ashley Faus

Juliana Casale

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreAshley Faus's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJuliana Casale's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Ashley Faus

Juliana Casale

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Ashley Faus's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJuliana Casale's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreAshley Faus's LinkedIn Performance