Karen Speaks at Women Leading in B2B Event
Earlier this month, Armstrong Lloyd’s Director Karen Lloyd, and host of the Spotlight on B2B Marketing podcast joined a room full of inspiring women who are leading in B2B.
Karen was asked to speak at tmp's first in-person UK Women Leading in B2B lunch and panel session, bringing together women working across technology, marketing, product, leadership and innovation to share their experiences, challenges and career journeys. Karen was able to bring her unique insights as a five‑time start‑up founder, a Board Director of 25 years and a trusted advisor and head-hunter to global B2B brands.
A theme of progress over perfection
Reflecting afterwards, Karen highlighted one observation that ran through the day: how few of the careers in that room had followed anything like a straight line. As she put it, "the twists, turns, unexpected opportunities and difficult decisions were the very things that led to growth."
It's a useful reminder for anyone in B2B marketing leadership feeling pressure to have a perfectly mapped-out career path. Karen's takeaway was clear: clarity often comes not from having a fixed plan, but from staying focused on what matters most, even when the market itself feels chaotic.
On AI - learning in public, together
AI featured heavily in the day's conversations. Karen noted that while genuinely creative and exciting use cases were shared, the more reassuring insight was that nobody has fully figured it out yet, everyone is learning, experimenting and adapting as the technology evolves at pace. For marketing leaders navigating AI adoption in their own teams, that's a grounding perspective: experimentation is the strategy, not a sign of being behind.
Confidence over copying
Perhaps Karen's strongest reflection was this: building a successful career isn't about following someone else's blueprint. It's about having the confidence to back yourself, embrace opportunities and keep moving forward, a message that resonates directly with the kind of senior marketing talent Armstrong Lloyd works with every day.
Why this matters
What stood out most to Karen wasn't just the expertise in the room, but the openness, echoing tmp's own framing of the event as a space for honest conversations about leadership, career journeys, challenges and successes, with Q&A that encouraged vulnerability and shared learning.
As Karen put it, "that kind of peer-to-peer connection is so often missing" in the B2B market, and credit, she said, belongs to Eloise Silkstone-Abbey and tmp for investing the time to build it.
