Jess Alpert’s Unconventional Path to Modern Marketing Leadership
Executive: Jessica “Jess” Alpert, Chief Marketing Officer Company: EPM (Equity Prime Mortgage), Atlanta Industry: Wholesale B2B mortgage lending Company Snapshot: Mid-sized U.S. lender serving independent brokers nationwide Format: CMO Journeys Interview In This Article Why It Matters Their Path, in Short Big Themes From the Conversation How They Choose the Right Agency Partners What Stood Out The Inside Scoop Why It Matters Jessica “Jess” Alpert has taken one of the most unconventional routes into a CMO role you’ll ever hear. She built a fashion brand, ran a creative agency, helped steer major tech marketing, and rebuilt her entire skill set to master data-driven marketing. Her journey is a reminder that high-impact leaders aren’t always shaped by traditional paths. They’re shaped by curiosity, grit, and the willingness to reinvent. For agencies, her perspective offers rare clarity on what truly earns a CMO’s attention. Their Path, in Short Jess began her career by watching people — literally sitting in Nordstrom and observing what customers bought, what they ignored, and how they behaved. That curiosity led her to create an accessories brand built around functional, one-size-fits-all pieces. The business grew fast, expanding into a New York showroom and gaining traction through word of mouth and smart positioning. When she eventually shifted out of fashion, she didn’t go looking for stability. She built her own creative agency, helping brands identify their real pain points and crafting activations that turned heads. One of her most memorable projects was for Faber-Castell, where she created a trade show experience so engaging that attendees clogged the aisle to get a closer look. Her agency work put her on Samsung’s radar, and she soon found herself inside a global tech operation where creativity met data. That’s where she noticed a shift happening. The marketing world wasn’t running on “I feel” anymore. It was running on dashboards and analytics. Instead of resisting it, Jess made one of the boldest moves of her career: she stepped backward in title so she could learn modern marketing from the inside out. She embraced CRM systems, segmentation techniques, analytics, lifecycle thinking — everything that would make her a hybrid leader who could blend creative instinct with measurable results. That hybrid mindset now guides her leadership approach. Big Themes From the Conversation Creativity as a mindset, not a department. Jess doesn’t see creativity as something reserved for copywriters or designers. To her, it shows up in segmentation, user journeys, and every interaction that shapes the customer experience. Curiosity drives everything. She’s always scanning the market, listening for pain points, and asking what people actually need. That instinct powered her early fashion success and still guides her marketing decisions today. Leadership means listening and then moving. Jess listens to her teams, absorbs ideas quickly, and then chooses a direction. She categorizes ideas fast: run with this, refine this, parking lot that. It gives people clarity and builds momentum. She values authenticity over polish. Whether she’s talking about brand tone, internal culture, or agency relationships, she wants work that feels real, not overproduced or overly safe. Execution beats theory. One of her core beliefs: “A brainstorm without execution is just fluff.” It summarizes her entire career philosophy. Watch CMO Journey Interview How They Choose the Right Agency Partners When I asked Jess how she finds and evaluates agency partners, she didn’t hesitate. She values energy, preparation, and genuine connection above everything else. She often discovers agencies at events, where she can meet people face-to-face and get a feel for how they think. She pays attention to the ones who show enthusiasm, bring smart ideas to the table, and genuinely care about the work. If someone lights up when talking about a concept, she notices. If they nitpick retainers and nickel-and-dime hours, she notices that too — and not in a good way. Jess gravitates toward partners who “grow tentacles,” as she put it. Those are the agencies that take a project and expand it with creativity, fresh thinking, and a proactive mindset. They don’t wait to be told what to do. They come with ideas that stretch beyond the assignment. Over time, they integrate so naturally into the team that at an event someone might mistake them for internal staff. Thought leadership also plays a role, but not in the way most agencies expect. Jess doesn’t spend time scanning trade publications. She’s not combing through Ad Age or Adweek looking for clues about agencies. What actually catches her attention is useful, recurring, educational content. She shared an example of an agency that hosts a weekly AI webinar. It was so relevant and so timely that she immediately asked to be added to the list. She loved the idea of a certification tied to it, even envisioning badges people could list on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is her primary discovery platform. Not for resume scanning, but for seeing how agencies talk about their work. She’s drawn to people inside agencies: creative directors, strategists, and team leads who show the process behind a project. She wants to see what the initial pain point was, how the team solved it, and what changed along the way. That transparency tells her more about an agency’s capabilities than any award submission ever could. Awards, for her, are nice, but not persuasive. They give a stamp of approval, sure, but she wants to know what the award was for and whether the thinking behind it was truly fresh. She’s unimpressed by cookie-cutter agencies that do the same work for every client. She wants partners who take risks, think tactically, and deliver ideas no one else is bringing. And when it comes to outreach, she has a clear preference: show up prepared. She dislikes it when agencies use the first meeting to learn about the company. She wants partners who walk in already understanding the business, its customers, and the challenges it faces — not as an agency, but as a consumer. That level of preparation instantly separates the people she wants to work
Inside EPM’s Re-Messaging Mandate Under New CMO Leadership
An analysis of the executive conversation and our research, surfacing the priorities and opportunity lanes agencies can leverage to win new business. At A Glance Interviewee: Jessica “Jess” Alpert, Chief Marketing Officer Company: EPM (Equity Prime Mortgage) Estimated Revenue: $39.8 Million Location: Atlanta, Georgia Website: www.epmwholesale.com Industry: Wholesale B2B mortgage lending and financial services Company Notes: Mid-sized wholesale lender serving independent mortgage brokers nationwide. Best-Fit Agencies: B2B fintech specialists; mortgage and financial services experts; performance and lifecycle shops; content and brand strategy firms; event and community marketing partners. Source: CMO Journeys Interview The Big Picture EPM is navigating a tougher mortgage market while doubling down on the wholesale broker channel. Jess is refreshing the story so brokers clearly see EPM’s value and growth focus. She is focused on pairing empowerment messaging with sharper, more consistent positioning across channels. At the same time, she wants a more data-informed demand engine that feels human, not purely transactional. This moment matters because EPM is reshaping its brand while rivals battle hard for broker loyalty. Top Stated Priorities Re-messaging EPM so brokers clearly understand who the company serves and why it is different. This matters now because wholesale competition is intense, and EPM must stand out beyond rates or turn times. Elevating broker empowerment with better content, tools, and education that help partners win more deals. This is critical because EPM grows only when brokers feel supported and can explain its value clearly. Modernizing digital demand generation and lifecycle programs across email, social, and web. She wants digital to carry more of the load so teams are not restarting from scratch. Building a more data-informed marketing engine that connects campaign performance, broker behavior, and business results. This matters because leadership expects clear proof that marketing spend is driving volume and profitable relationships. Protecting and evolving EPM’s TAG conference and thought leadership platform as a community growth lever. It is a key asset for reinforcing the empowerment story and deepening loyalty with top brokers and partners. Under-the-Surface Signals Cleaning up the marketing tech and data foundation so campaigns are easier to execute, measure, and scale. This is implied because she frequently links digital growth, automation, and reporting to sustainable performance. Refreshing EPM’s creative so the brand feels modern while still warm, human, and mission-driven. This is implied because she returns often to storytelling, authenticity, and making complex products feel simple and approachable. Clarifying when to keep work in-house versus bringing in specialist agency partners. This is implied because she notes bandwidth limits and a need for specialist digital and broker programs. Your Next Big Wins Brand and narrative refresh for the wholesale broker audience that sharpens EPM’s positioning and story. This is a fit for brand and messaging agencies that understand financial services and B2B2C dynamics. Broker enablement programs that package EPM’s story into plug-and-play campaigns, playbooks, and borrower-ready content. Content and lifecycle marketing partners can help translate the empowerment theme into daily sales tools. Digital demand generation sprints that test targeted campaigns for brokers and their local markets. Performance and lifecycle agencies with strong CRM and marketing automation chops can help prove what moves funded loans. Marketing analytics and reporting support that ties campaigns to broker engagement and pipeline health. Data and martech consultancies can help define the right dashboards and decision rhythms for leadership. Event and community extensions around TAG that turn the conference into a year-round engagement platform. Experiential and community-focused agencies can help design programs that keep brokers connected between major events. How I’d Break In I would lead outreach around helping EPM turn its empowerment story into broker-focused growth programs. The theme would center on “making brokers the hero” through better content, journeys, and local campaigns. I would bring proof from similar wholesale, fintech, or financial clients where narrative and lifecycle work moved revenue. My first step would be a fast discovery and pilot with one broker segment and one clear metric.
