Podcasts about b2c

What if your next customer isn't a person, but an AI agent acting on their behalf? And what if that agent is evaluating your brand on a purely logical, data-driven basis, completely devoid of the emotional hooks your marketing has always relied on?Agility requires not just adapting to changing customer behaviors, but also redefining who—or what—our customer even is. It demands that we build operational and strategic frameworks that can cater to both human emotional drivers and the cold, hard logic of machines.Today, we are at Forrester CX in New York City, and we're going to talk about a fundamental shift in the customer journey: the rise of the AI agent as an influential, and in some cases, decision-making persona. This isn't just about using AI in our marketing; it's about marketing to AI. We'll explore what it means when our brand's message needs to be optimized not just for human perception, but for machine interpretation and evaluation.To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Chuck Gahun, Principal Analyst at Forrester. About Chuck Gahun Chuck is a leader in Forrester's Digital Business & Strategy practice serving business and digital executives. His research coverage includes content management systems (CMSes), product information management (PIM) systems, and commerce services and strategy for B2B and B2C companies. Chuck helps executives design strategies that deliver customer and business value by partnering with technology vendors and services providers. Chuck has 20 years of experience in content and commerce. He specializes in digital strategy, experience design, and technology initiatives in CMSes, e-commerce systems, digital asset management (DAM) systems, PIM systems, digital experience platforms (DXPs), and several others. He has led strategy and implementations for brands like Goldman Sachs, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Hilti, Marriott, AARP, and the Centers for Disease Control. Prior to joining Forrester, Chuck was a managing director and partner at Shift7 Digital (a Merkle company) and held senior management positions at ZS Medullan and Publicis Sapient. Chuck holds a BA in government and international politics and an MS in technology management from George Mason University. Chuck Gahun on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckgahun/ ---------- Resources ---------- Forrester: https://www.forrester.com We're proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! https://aglbrnd.co/r/7fe458ced0f04658Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/r/491818c79fb1873fThe most influential minds in software, AI, and engineering leadership will be at WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America, September 23-25 in San Jose. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/60a7299222a7bcf1 Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3 Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We're breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use. In this episode, Elena and Rob explore whether humor belongs in B2B advertising. They dig into new research that challenges the assumption that business buyers only respond to rational, no-nonsense messaging. Topics covered:[02:44] "To Humor or Not Humor: Buyers Evaluating the Effective Use of Humor in B2B Advertisements"[03:06] How often is humor used in B2B vs. B2C ads?[04:55] What four experiments with 305 B2B buyers revealed[05:45] Three conditions that determine when humor helps or hurts[06:47] Why humor is a door opener, not a deal closerTo learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast Resources: Swani, K., Gulas, C. S., & Dinsmore, J. (2025). To humor or not humor buyers? Evaluating the effective use of humor in B2B advertisements. Journal of Business Research, 200, 115632. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115632 Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Today on Leader Generation, Tessa Burg welcomes back Linda Owens, Global Vice President of Digital Customer Experience at Sherwin-Williams. Six years after becoming the podcast's very first guest, Linda returns to discuss how B2B leaders can navigate rapid changes in technology, AI and buyer behavior while staying focused on what matters most: the customer. Linda shares practical advice for separating meaningful trends from hype, creating trust earlier in the buying journey and designing customer experiences that reduce friction across every touchpoint. She also explains why customer obsession should drive every decision, how to use experimentation without losing sight of scale and what leaders need to do to successfully manage change across their organizations. Whether you're leading digital transformation, evaluating AI initiatives or looking for ways to create more value for customers, this conversation offers actionable insights you can apply immediately. Tune in to learn how today's most effective B2B leaders are building customer experiences that drive both business growth and long-term loyalty. Leader Generation is hosted by Tessa Burg and brought to you by Mod Op. About Linda Owens: Linda Owens is the Global Vice President of Digital Customer Experience at Sherwin-Williams, where she leads initiatives that advance digital customer experiences, scale eBusiness capabilities and drive enterprise transformation. With more than 20 years of experience spanning marketing, sales, ecommerce and digital customer experience, she has helped organizations modernize customer engagement and accelerate growth across B2B and B2C markets. Throughout her career, Linda has led cross-functional teams and developed digital strategies that improve customer experiences across channels and global regions. Her expertise includes ecommerce strategy, digital marketing, customer journey optimization, CRM lifecycle programs, Martech and digital innovation. She is passionate about simplifying complexity, empowering high-performing teams and creating customer-centric solutions that deliver measurable business impact. Linda can be reached on LinkedIn. About Tessa Burg: Tessa is the Chief Technology Officer at Mod Op and Host of the Leader Generation podcast. She has led both technology and marketing teams for 15+ years. Tessa initiated and now leads Mod Op's AI/ML Pilot Team, AI Council and Innovation Pipeline. She started her career in IT and development before following her love for data and strategy into digital marketing. Tessa has held roles on both the consulting and client sides of the business for domestic and international brands, including American Greetings, Amazon, Nestlé, Anlene, Moen and many more. Tessa can be reached on LinkedIn or at Tessa.Burg@ModOp.com.

What's up folks, welcome to our 4 part series of Crawling THROUGH THE DUNGEON OF MARTECH ARCHITECTUREYou've arrived at Part1 : The Fall of CRM Gravity (00:00) - Intro (00:57) - In This Episode (01:31) - Sponsor: MoEngage (02:28) - Sponsor: Knak (04:53) - FLOOR 1: Why the CRM Lost Its Authority (06:09) - Why Every Team Moved Into the CRM (And How It Lost Its Authority) (13:57) - Why Sharing CRM Data Always Breaks It (18:02) - Why CRM Gravity Outlasts the Technical Argument (24:04) - BOSS BATTLE: The False Truth King (25:44) - Sponsor: GrowthLoop (26:48) - Sponsor: GrowthBench (34:56) - Why Centralizing Data Only to Copy It Out Defeats the Purpose (39:31) - BOSS BATTLE: The Export Hydra (40:53) - How to Move to a Warehouse-Native Architecture (46:36) - How to Achieve Portable Audiences (56:52) - How CLI/MCP Servers Are Changing Marketing Stack Integration ---------------------------------------------------------------------------OPENING---------------------------------------------------------------------------Welcome to the descent into the Dungeon of Martech Architecture, a 4-part journey through the unhinged and constantly expanding world of marketing technology.As a massive sci-fi fan currently reading the Dungeon Crawler Carl books, I have used their level-by-level progression as the direct inspiration for this 'dungeon crawl' analogy, and while you don't need to know the books to enjoy the journey, those who do will recognize some of the gaming lore and achievement-style rewards woven into our descent. This will be educational and helpful for anyone that works and builds martech, and hopefully it's also a bit fun. Without a doubt though, it will be weird. Here is your quick guide to the floors ahead:Episode 1: CRM GravityYou'll conquer the source of truth and discover that the data warehouse replaces the CRM with portable audiences.Episode 2: The Eye of ContextYou'll learn why AI fails without shared meaning, why context engineering is the layer between data and agent authority, and why the industry built the wrong kind of meaning infrastructure in 2012.Episode 3: The Correlation MasqueradeYou'll escape the correlation trap and build the causal memory layer that separates agents that optimize correctly from agents that confidently scale the wrong behavior.Episode 4: The Dispatch TowerYou'll tackle the governance chaos of 30 vendors all claiming authority, and confront the interface decision that most organizations already made without realizing it.Let's start our descent.---Be honest: when was the last time you pulled up a number in your CRM and actually trusted it? like… no second-guessing, no “that feels a bit off”… just total confidence?Maybe you didn't really have time to double check the logic behind the number and you were too excited to share the positive results. So you forwarded it to a peer. Or maybe you've been in that meeting… 2 people arguing over a number, both pull it up in the same CRM, and somehow get 2 completely different answers… and no one can explain which one's actually right.We've all been there, we've felt it. That dark, creeping dread. When “which number is right?” gets answered with “well… it depends who built the report,”. They know it. You know it. The CRM admin knows it. Everyone in the room knows it. You don't have a source of truth… just a CRM that's turned into a dumping ground of lost updates that have slowly compounded into competing versions of reality.Call it counterfeit truth or data mirage… I call it bad data. Data that has the appearance of authority without the actual authority behind it. It's everywhere in the modern marketing stack. And the CRM is often where it starts.That's where our first boss is hiding. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------FLOOR 1: Why the CRM Lost Its Authority---------------------------------------------------------------------------If you're in B2B or B2C the first floor looks a bit different but only because of terminology. In B2B the 2 cornerstone platforms are the CRM and the MAP: the Customer Relationship Management software and the Marketing Automation Platform. Sales works in the former, marketing works in the latter, ops is stuck making the two talk to each other.In B2C though, for some reason you all decided that the MAP is actually called a CRM and the B2B version of the CRM isn't really needed because there's often no sales team, instead it's a customer support or product led motion.In both scenarios though the same thing happens to that central platform. It gets inherited by teams that weren't its original audience. It accumulates data it wasn't designed to hold. And it becomes the unofficial source of truth for the whole business without anyone explicitly deciding that was a good idea.Why Every Team Moved Into the CRM (And How It Lost Its Authority)So how did we get here? CRMs were built for one job: tracking the sales motion. Contacts, deals, stages, activity logs. They were good at that job. Then marketing moved in. Marketers ruin everything. But leadership is worse. Leadership started pulling board metrics from the CRM. Then the product team added usage data. Then we added ABM and account signals, and we had to push that data somewhere. Then AI interactions needed a home.What a mess.Everyone needed a record of the customer, and the CRM was already there. It's literally called the Customer Relationship Manager. So it became the shared folder everyone saved their customer work into, even though it was designed for a very specific kind of work.The problem is that once data is stored in a CRM, it starts reflecting the team that works there. Sales edits the contact. Marketing overwrites a field. Customer success adds a note. Each edit is local logic applied to what everyone assumes is shared truth. The data looks official but you know deep down that the authority behind it belongs to whoever edited it last.Meg Gowell, Head of Marketing at Elly.ai and former Head of Marketing at Typeform  crossed over from a Salesforce-first organization to one where the warehouse had already taken over:MEG GOWELL, Episode 155“The tricky part of our tech stack is that I'm used to Salesforce or HubSpot being the single source of truth. Here, our core business is represented more in the data warehouse than anywhere else, and Salesforce supports the sales-led part of the business.Understanding how those data pieces come together is something I'm still working through. I've only been here three and a half or four months, and it's tricky. The biggest challenge is figuring out how the self-serve and sales-led motions fit together. In PLG, they have to serve one another. If your tech stack doesn't support that, it becomes really hard.We run into questions like: do we have all the right data points in the right places for people to act on them? Do we know everything we need to know? I've really experienced how important the underlying data structure is, and how important consistency across tools is.In the past, there was this wide spectrum. In one area, we had a very advanced multi-touch attribution system. In another area, it was very basic reporting. So there was this weird mix of super deep and super surface-level, but without an underlying structure that fully worked.I think that happens to a lot of companies when they're growing fast. You take opportunities where you see them, and you move quickly. Now we're taking a step back and saying: we really ...

In this episode of the Harvest Growth Podcast, Jon LaClare sits down with Paul O'Brien, co-founder of AirPhysio, to break down how a respiratory health product grew from a competitive medical device category into a global brand sold in 118 countries.Paul shares how AirPhysio approached product development by studying competitors, identifying gaps, working with medical professionals, and prioritizing safety, testing, and education. He explains why cheaper alternatives can create serious trust and safety concerns, especially in the medical device space, and how strong educational marketing helps customers understand why quality matters.The conversation also dives deep into international expansion, distributor relationships, and the realities of selling across cultures, languages, regulatory environments, and sales channels. Paul explains why global growth can reduce risk by preventing dependence on one country, but also creates major challenges around compliance, documentation, local market strategy, and distributor performance.Paul also shares why AirPhysio shifted from the traditional doctor-referral model to a more direct B2C education strategy, helping customers discover the product first and then bring that awareness back to healthcare professionals. From Amazon growth to pharmacy support, localized marketing, social media targeting, and choosing the right distributors, this episode offers a practical look at what it really takes to scale internationally.In today's episode of the Harvest Growth Podcast, we cover:Why product safety and testing matter when competing against cheaper alternativesHow customer education helps build trust in medical device marketingWhy understanding competitors can improve product design and messagingThe benefits and challenges of selling in 118 countriesHow global expansion helps reduce dependence on one marketWhy local distributors are critical for understanding culture, language, and buying behaviorHow to evaluate distributors based on channel strengths and follow-throughWhy B2C marketing can outperform traditional doctor-referral strategiesHow social media can support retail, pharmacy, and distributor growthWhy science, track record, and vision are essential when pitching distributorsIf you're building a product brand, entering a regulated category, or trying to expand internationally, this episode offers valuable lessons on trust, education, distributor strategy, and global growth from a company that has successfully scaled around the world.To learn more about AirPhysio, visit AirPhysio.com or search for AirPhysio on Amazon.Do you have a brand you'd like to launch or scale?Visit HarvestGrowth.com to book a free consultation and learn how our team has helped generate over $2 billion in product sales.

Jamie Domenici, CMO of Klaviyo, joins us to discuss why customer experience has become one of the most powerful drivers of growth. Drawing on lessons from nearly a decade at Salesforce and her experience joining Klaviyo just months before its IPO, Jamie shares how great brands create loyalty by obsessing over the customer.We explore what marketers can learn from customer success teams, why events like Dreamforce are so memorable, and how Klaviyo has repositioned itself while building a competitive moat in an increasingly crowded market.Jamie also shares her views on AI, the future workforce, the skills tomorrow's CMOs will need, and the difference between good marketing leaders and truly great ones.Timestamps00:00 - Start01:05 - Jamie's strange first job02:26 - Best and worst customer experiences05:56 - The power of a good customer experience08:45 - Marketing lessons from customer success11:48 - Marketing lessons from 10 years at Salesforce13:05 - Why Dreamforce was a great example of good customer experience14:46 - The key to a great keynote21:56 - Joining Klaviyo just months before an IPO24:28 - Repositioning a company25:45 - How does B2C differ to B2B when it comes to CRM?28:41 - How Klaviyo are building their moat30:51 - Where is AI going to have the biggest impact?32:19 - How are Klaviyo using AI in their product?34:14 - How AI is going to change the workforce35:42 - What skills will future CMOs be hiring for?37:31 - The difference between a good CMO and a great CMO39:17 - Why Klaviyo invest a lot in events40:52 - The best advice Jamie has ever received

Nos sentamos con Álvaro Latorre, Ecommerce Manager de Ysabel Mora, para adentrarnos en una realidad del marketing y el ecommerce que casi nadie cuenta sin filtros: cómo una marca con décadas de historia, nacida en los 80 vendiendo medias, se transforma desde dentro para pasar del B2B al B2C, abrir tiendas propias y construir un canal digital que hoy pesa entre el 13% y el 15% de las ventas de la compañía.Hablamos de la trastienda real del negocio: gestionar más de 6.000 referencias por temporada, asumir las compras propias y la planificación, y montar una "Oficina de Transformación" con proyectos trimestrales para mover una empresa entera sin romper lo que ya funciona. Álvaro nos cuenta cómo han abierto canales nuevos (Amazon y un TikTok Shop que les ha sorprendido con su audiencia), cómo un reductor se hizo viral debajo de un vestido de gitana, y cómo el relanzamiento de la línea de lencería con Paula Echevarría disparó el branding.Y entramos en el músculo de growth: el A/B testing continuo, "el gran olvidado" del funnel (todo lo que pasa DESPUÉS de la compra: cuenta de cliente, devoluciones, recurrencia), el club de fidelización, la internacionalización con Shopify Plus y su sistema de Markets, el papel real de la IA para ganar productividad, y un truco que adoramos: leer el buscador interno para descubrir cómo te busca de verdad la gente. Todo desde la mentalidad de quien gestiona el ecommerce como una unidad de negocio con su propia cuenta de resultados.Si te interesa el ecommerce de moda, la transformación digital de marcas tradicionales y el growth aplicado a negocio real, esta entrevista te va a aportar muchísimo valor. Gracias Álvaro por compartir tu visión y experiencia con tanta transparencia. Y a ti, que nos escuchas… ¡Esperamos que lo disfrutes tanto como nosotros!Enlaces de interés:

Nos visita desde España, Álvaro Ovejas escofundador y CEO de Lead Motiv, consultora digital especializada en ayudar aempresas de servicios a construir sistemas de crecimiento más sólidos, mediblesy orientados a negocio. Desde hace más de 14 años trabaja en la intersecciónentre marketing, ventas y tecnología, acompañando a compañías B2B y B2C en eldiseño de estrategias de captación, conversión y gestión de leads, con unavisión muy enfocada en resultados: generar más oportunidades cualificadas,mejorar la eficiencia comercial y tomar decisiones basadas en datos.Desde Lead Motiv, Álvaro impulsa unenfoque de trabajo que va más allá de la ejecución de canales aislados. Suvisión parte de entender al detalle las bases estratégicas: modelo de negocio,ICP, Propuesta de valor y objetivos, para definir sistemas de adquisición,automatización y conversión que conecten marketing y ventas. Como CEO yconsultor estratégico, combina experiencia práctica, visión de crecimiento ycercanía con los equipos directivos para ayudar a las empresas a vender más ymejor, con mayor control sobre métricas clave como SQL, CAC, LTV y retorno dela inversión. Links :De la empresa (Lead Motiv)https://leadmotiv.com/https://www.linkedin.com/company/leadmotiv/https://www.instagram.com/leadmotiv/ De los socioshttps://www.linkedin.com/in/alvaro-ovejas/https://www.linkedin.com/in/josemariafrancomartinez/

Robson Silva Junior is Co-Founder of Pods.He joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss how DeFi's mixed retail adoption led Pods to build modular yield infrastructure for Latin America's neobanks.Recorded live at the Token Nation event in São Paulo, the conversation traces Silva's path from naval engineering to early AMM research during Singapore's ICO era.Silva explains why Pods abandoned its B2C options protocol once it became clear retail users weren't going to interact with MetaMask directly.He also discusses Pods' work building a zero-knowledge privacy pilot for Brazil's central bank digital currency, and why programmable privacy for composable DeFi remains unsolved.The episode closes on how neobanks now use Pods' API to offer insured, cross-chain yield without building that infrastructure in-house.You can connect with Rob on Linkedin

L’IA va-t-elle révolutionner la conception de sites web, ou les promesses dépassent-elles la réalité ? Olivier Sauvage, consultant et stratège du web, invité du live Visionary Marketing du 18 juin 2026, a apporté une réponse nuancée, documentée et parfois à contre-courant des discours dominants. Tour d’horizon des promesses réelles, des limites concrètes et des impacts sur les métiers. Sites Web, l’IA à toutes les étapes mais pas (encore) de miracles Sites Web conçus avec l’IA : Si Olivier Sauvage confirme que l’IA est présente à tous les instants, il pense néanmoins elle n’est cependant pas magique. Image d’Olivier Sauvage réalisée par lui-même sur son générateur d’images (oliviersauvage.com) La première question méritait d’être posée franchement : allons-nous continuer à faire des sites web ? La réponse d’Olivier Sauvage est catégorique : oui, et même davantage qu’avant. Les sites web ne disparaissent pas. Ils changent de rôle. L’IA est aujourd’hui présente à tous les stades de la chaîne de production web : outils de design (Figma intègre l’IA depuis longtemps), outils de prototypage, outils de retouche graphique (Photoshop), outils de test, outils de réflexion et de génération de contenu. On ne peut plus y échapper. La question n’est plus de savoir si l’on va intégrer l’IA, mais comment, à quel moment, et à quelles fins. En trois minutes, Stitch va te sortir des pages web là où il faudrait une journée ou deux pour un UX designer. Très impressionnant. Mais en réalité, ce n’est pas un outil qui a cette compréhension des choses que peut avoir un être humain quand il crée des maquettes. — Olivier Sauvage L’IA est un outil qui ouvre des horizons, explore des pistes qu’on n’aurait pas eu le temps d’explorer, accélère certaines phases de production. Ce n’est pas un substitut au métier. IA pour les sites web : les usages les plus solides aujourd’hui Le prototypage : un vrai gain C’est probablement l’usage le plus solide identifié par Olivier Sauvage. Le prototypage, notamment sur des applications mobiles ou des fonctionnalités complexes, était autrefois laborieux. Aujourd’hui, un outil comme Google Stitch permet de générer en quelques minutes des maquettes multi-supports (desktop, tablette, mobile) d’un niveau de réalisation crédible. L’avantage n’est pas seulement la vitesse : c’est la capacité à tester 4 ou 5 variantes là où l’on n’en produisait qu’une seule. On peut explorer des parcours utilisateurs différents, tester des architectures de navigation, obtenir un premier retour client sur quelque chose de visuellement représentatif, et ce bien avant d’engager un budget de développement. La génération d’arborescences et de tree-testing (test de tri de cartes) Autre usage robuste : la définition d’arborescences et le card sorting (tri de cartes, technique qui consiste à demander aux utilisateurs de classer des contenus pour identifier la structure de navigation la plus intuitive). L’IA fait gagner un temps considérable sur ces tâches de structuration de l’information, à condition d’alimenter l’outil avec des données suffisamment riches et spécifiques. Des personas génériques, sortis de nulle part, n’ont que peu de valeur. Des personas connectés à de vraies données de terrain, c’est une autre affaire. Avec l’IA, la conception des sites web n’a jamais été aussi rapide ni gratifiante, mais les itérations et les tests humains restent nécessaires nous dit Olivier Sauvage.Il ne faut pas rêver aux miracles et les web designers ne seront pas remplacés par Merlin l’enchanteur. Image réalisée avec Midjourney. La production d’interfaces : utile, avec supervision La production et la création d’interfaces bénéficient clairement de l’IA. Générer des composants, des variantes graphiques, des systèmes de design : tout cela est désormais accessible plus rapidement. Mais la supervision humaine reste indispensable pour valider que ce qui est produit correspond à la réalité de l’expérience utilisateur attendue. Ce qui ne fonctionne pas (encore) Simuler un comportement humain : une limite fondamentale Olivier Sauvage est catégorique sur un point : l’IA ne peut pas simuler un comportement utilisateur réel. Des personnages artificiels censés tester un site web à la place d’utilisateurs humains ? Je pense que ça ne marchera vraiment jamais. Il y a trop d’inconnues, trop de paramètres. Une IA se nourrit de ce qui existe. Elle ne sait pas ce qui est bon ou pas bon. Elle définit statistiquement ce qui est majoritaire, ce qui n’est pas un gage suffisant de qualité. — Olivier Sauvage Ce point est crucial : le web regorge d’interfaces médiocres. Une IA entraînée sur ce corpus va reproduire ces médiocrités avec une belle régularité statistique. Les sites 100 % IA : pour quels usages ? La question des sites entièrement générés par IA a été soulevée par un participant au live. Le verdict d’Olivier Sauvage est mesuré. Pour un site vitrine informatif d’une TPE locale, un site e-commerce B2C classique, c’est jouable, à condition d’une vérification humaine minimale. Pour un site B2B avec de la vente complexe, des parcours privés, une expérience riche, des animations : la limite est atteinte rapidement. « Les données nécessaires pour recréer des parcours UX valables sur du B2B complexe n’existent tout simplement pas en quantité suffisante. » Et le contenu ? C’est là que le bât blesse le plus. Le « slop » (contenu IA générique, interchangeable et sans valeur ajoutée) est déjà un problème visible. Générer des milliers d’articles en quelques minutes ne crée pas de valeur. Les moteurs de recherche et les utilisateurs s’en aperçoivent. Ce mouvement a un temps limité. La maintenabilité : le problème qu’on ne voit pas tout de suite J’ai cité un exemple vécu : un site d’association refait en 4 heures avec Claude, fonctionnellement supérieur à l’ancien, design convenable. Mais « le jour où la personne qui a développé ça s’en va, on fait quoi ? Qui va le retoucher ? Où est la base de données ? Quels sont les mots de passe ? » La dette technique invisible est l’un des vrais risques du vibe-coding (développement par description en langage naturel, sans écrire de code ligne par ligne) appliqué à des projets réels. Olivier Sauvage va plus loin en suggérant que les solutions no-code (outils permettant de créer des applications sans programmer, via des interfaces visuelles), moins spectaculaires mais structurellement plus solides, méritent d’être reconsidérées dans ce contexte. Des outils comme Airtable, Bubble ou TimeTonic offrent des garanties de maintenabilité que le code généré par IA ne peut pas toujours assurer. L’agent IA et l’avenir du e-commerce Un échange particulièrement intéressant a porté sur le protocole MCP (Model Context Protocol) et l’IA agentique appliquée au e-commerce. L’hypothèse est la suivante : demain, un agent IA pourra conduire une recherche produit, comparer des offres, poser des questions complémentaires, et passer à la transaction en ne donnant la main à l’utilisateur humain qu’au moment du paiement. Cela existe déjà partiellement : Shopify a adopté MCP, et ChatGPT intègre des fonctions marchandes dans certaines géographies. Ce qui change, c’est le rôle du site web : il reste indispensable, non plus comme destination première de navigation humaine, mais comme source de données structurées pour les agents IA. « Le site web va avoir encore une grande fonction : alimenter les IA par ses contenus. » Et Olivier Sauvage ajoute un point prospectif important : les marchands ont de plus en plus intérêt à produire des contenus spécifiques, propriétaires, qu’on ne peut trouver que sur leur site, et qui constituent une vraie barrière à l’imitation par l’IA générique. Premier signal concret de cette évolution : lors de ce live, j’ai mentionné la réservation d’une session photo dans mon studio par un client dont la recommandation initiale provenait de ChatGPT. Le trafic issu des LLM reste marginal, mais sa qualité est notable. Selon le rapport Adobe Digital Insights d’avril 2026, basé sur plus d’un milliard de visites e-commerce, le trafic provenant des LLMs convertit 42 % mieux que le trafic non-IA chez les retailers américains. Semrush va plus loin et mesure un ratio de 4,4× sur certains segments B2B logiciel, avec des taux de conversion de 15,9 % pour ChatGPT contre 1,76 % pour Google organique. Ces chiffres restent toutefois à nuancer : une étude Amsive portant sur 54 sites (septembre 2025) indique que 41 % des sites de l’échantillon convertissaient moins bien via LLM que via l’organique classique. Le résultat dépend du secteur et de la maturité du site. Impacts sur les métiers du design web Une transformation plus qu’une accélération Olivier Sauvage formule ici une thèse importante : l’IA transforme le métier de designer plus qu’elle ne l’accélère. Les gains de productivité purs ne sont pas aussi évidents qu’annoncés. On fait un prompt, on voit le résultat, on se dit c’est révolutionnaire. Puis en réalité, avant d’arriver à quelque chose de vraiment utilisable, on a fait 50 prompts, ce n’est jamais parfait, il faut mettre les mains dans le cambouis. — Olivier Sauvage La comparaison avec le développement est éclairante. Côté demande globale, les données TalentNeuron montrent que les offres d’emploi pour développeurs de logiciels ont progressé de 22 % entre 2023 et 2024, éclipsées toutefois par une hausse de 148 % sur les profils ingénieurs IA et machine learning. Mais côté marché français, la note de conjoncture de l’INSEE de mars 2026 dresse un tableau plus nuancé : l’emploi des moins de 30 ans dans l’informatique et les services d’information a reculé de 3 % entre 2023 et 2025, avec ‑7,4 % d’emploi des 15‑29 ans sur un an au T4 2025. Les entreprises produisent davantage, mais avec moins de juniors, remplacés en partie par l’IA sur les tâches répétitives. Les seniors, eux, passent plus de temps à corriger, structurer et documenter le code généré automatiquement. Ce n’est pas forcément moins de travail : c’est un travail différent. Une étude METR de juillet 2025 a même mesuré que des développeurs expérimentés étaient en réalité ralentis de 19 % avec Cursor Pro et Claude, alors qu’ils estimaient avoir gagné 20 % de productivité. L’écart entre la perception et la réalité est significatif. Olivier Sauvage : même avec l’IA, pour concevoir des sites web, un mauvais ouvrier aura toujours de mauvais outils. Image réalisée avec Midjourney. Conception de sites web, la valeur reste chez les humains, pas dans l’IA Si n’importe qui peut générer des contenus ou des maquettes avec des prompts basiques, et que tout le monde peut le faire, ça n’a aucune valeur puisqu’il n’y a plus de rareté. — Olivier Sauvage La valeur se déplace, elle ne disparaît pas. Elle se concentre chez ceux qui savent poser les bonnes questions, orienter la machine, valider les résultats, et comprendre ce qu’un utilisateur humain ressent vraiment face à une interface. La métaphore du pont en métal du XIXe siècle, évoquée par Olivier Sauvage, est saisissante : les premiers ingénieurs qui ont travaillé avec ce matériau ont simplement reproduit ce qu’ils savaient faire en bois. Ils ont manqué l’essentiel. Beaucoup font de même avec l’IA aujourd’hui. Ce n’est pas sans rappeler le paradoxe de productivité de Solow, formulé en 1987 : « on voit l’ère informatique partout, sauf dans les statistiques de productivité. » La récente étude du NBER (Working Paper n° 34836, février 2026), conduite auprès de près de 6 000 dirigeants aux États-Unis, au Royaume-Uni, en Allemagne et en Australie, confirme que ce paradoxe se répète avec l’IA générative : neuf entreprises sur dix n’ont constaté aucun impact mesurable de l’IA sur leur emploi ou leur productivité au cours des trois dernières années. L’innovation, seul horizon vraiment nouveau Ce qui change fondamentalement, c’est la capacité à innover : tester des concepts qu’on n’aurait pas osé prototyper faute de temps et de budget, explorer plus de pistes, itérer plus vite. « C’est là qu’il faut aller chercher la valeur de ce métier. » Un mauvais ouvrier aura toujours de mauvais outils La conclusion de cet échange est peut-être celle que les formations et les discours sur « l’IA pour tous » négligent le plus : la qualité de l’utilisation d’un outil dépend de la maîtrise du métier sous-jacent. Ce qui fait la différence, c’est la connaissance du métier, l’intuition, la capacité à orienter la machine et surtout le travail de préparation des processus. Un prompt répété à l’identique à chaque session, c’est réinventer l’eau tiède. Un workflow (flux de travail structuré et documenté) efficace, c’est une vraie pratique professionnelle. Ce n’est pas parce que tu as Claude ou un outil de design IA entre les mains que tu vas faire un super site avec une super UX. Tu y arrives parce que tu as les compétences pour comprendre ce qui se passe, pour tester, pour valider, pour te rendre compte que tes utilisateurs comprennent bien ce que tu as fait. — Olivier Sauvage En conclusion sur la conception de sites web avec l’IA Les sites web ne disparaissent pas. L’IA ne remplace pas le designer UX. Les outils IA offrent des gains réels dans le prototypage, la génération d’interfaces et l’exploration créative. Mais la valeur reste chez les professionnels qui savent s’en servir, et non dans les prompts magiques qui génèrent un site en trois minutes. Comme nous l’observons régulièrement sur Visionary Marketing, la réalité de terrain est toujours plus nuancée que les discours à l’emporte-pièce, en bien comme en mal. Pour aller plus loin, retrouvez le blog d’Olivier Sauvage oliviersauvage.com Voir le live en intégralité sur YouTube ▶ Voir le live sur YouTube The post Sites Web, l’IA est omniprésente, mais pas magique appeared first on Marketing and Innovation.

Dos empresarios. *Mercados completamente diferentes.* Uno vende zapatos B2C en Mercado Libre y está en el peor momento de su vida. El otro tiene Cometa Supplies (B2B) y está en el pico de su éxito. Pero Arturo debe $17 millones y ocultó la quiebra hasta que no pudo más.Arturo (zapatos B2C) se hunde en silencio. No revisaba los números. Ocultaba costos. No veía el error que lo llevaría a la bancarota. Cristóbal (Cometa Supplies B2B) alcanzó su mejor año. Números claros. Crecimiento. Éxito visible.Carlos analiza cómo dos empresarios en industrias completamente distintas toman decisiones opuestas. No es sobre el mercado. No es sobre el producto. Es sobre decisiones silenciosas que te quiebran sin que lo veas venir.

Most B2B influencer programs fail for the same reason: no defined success metrics before the first post goes live. Brianna Doe, founder of influencer marketing agency Verbatim, breaks down how to actually build an influencer program that maps to pipeline — not just impressions. She covers her "Creator Engine" framework, how to tier creators by authority and reach, and why 90 days is the absolute minimum for a meaningful pilot. If you're trying to convince leadership this channel works, this is the playbook.Timestamps(00:00) - - Intro (01:00) - - Why influencer marketing is no longer optional in B2B (03:00) - - What most companies get wrong about influencer marketing (07:00) - - Lessons B2B can borrow from B2C influencer campaigns (08:00) - - The creator engine: how to actually structure an influencer program (13:00) - - How to choose the right creators for your goals (15:00) - - How to align your team on what success actually looks like (22:00) - - The 90-day influencer pilot framework (25:00) - - How to coach leadership on offers, ROI, and longer B2B sales cycles (34:00) - - How to discuss risk with clients before handing over creative control to influencers Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Join the next cohort of Opal U, a live 5-day course designed for senior marketing leaders who are ready to ship more with AI, at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.Join us in Stowe, Vermont for Drive 2026 - three days away from your desk to learn what's working in B2B marketing from the people who are actually doing it. Grab your ticket at exitfive.com/drive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more

The branded voice is losing its grip, and the people inside your company are about to replace it. In this episode of Content Amplified, Nicole Gates, VP of Global Growth at Varonis, makes the case that user-generated content is where B2B marketing is headed. She explains why what works in B2C tends to land in B2B two to three years later, and why AI is accelerating the shift by making buyers more skeptical of brand messaging and hungry for the human element. Nicole shares how she leans into employee advocacy and industry influencers without prescribing the script, pointing to her own sales reps who film videos in their cars talking about the product. She gets practical on AEO and GEO, where LLMs increasingly pull from Reddit, LinkedIn, and YouTube instead of pay-to-play search. And she lays out where to start: know your story first, build a unique point of view, and find the people already willing to share it. As she puts it, it always comes down to the story. If you are trying to figure out how to stay trusted in an AI-flooded landscape, tune in.About NicoleNicole Gates is the VP of Global Growth at Varonis, a cybersecurity company, where she has spent about four years. Her background spans content marketing, social media, and demand gen across various industries and roles, all of which now roll up into what her team calls growth. She believes the trends shaping B2C marketing reach B2B a couple of years later, and that the next wave belongs to human, user-generated content over the branded voice. Nicole also writes a Substack called Perspective and Pipeline, where she shares her thoughts on marketing, growing a team, and working in growth marketing and B2B.Show NotesConnect with Nicole on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolepgates/Nicole's Substack, Perspective and PipelineText us what you think about this episode!

In dieser Episode wird Olaf Hartmann von Joubin Rahimi, CMO der Time to Act Group, interviewt. Sie sprechen über die Psychologie der Markenkraft und warum Brand Experience das unsichtbare Betriebssystem vieler erfolgreicher Unternehmen ist. Sie tauchen ein in die Psychologie hinter Markenbildung, den Unterschied zwischen Marketing und Marke und wie Leuchtturmerlebnisse Präferenzen erzeugen – im B2B wie im B2C. Anhand von Beispielen wie Amazon, IKEA und Hilti zeigt Olaf, wie starke Signale, konsistente Touchpoints und einzigartige Erlebnisse Marken unvergesslich machen. Sie diskutieren, warum Mitarbeiter das Leistungsversprechen leben müssen und wie Unternehmen ihre Markenkraft gezielt messen und stärken können. Freut euch auf praktische Modelle, Denkanstöße und inspirierende Geschichten rund um erfolgreiche Markenführung in BtoB und BtoC.

Today on the show, we have Dr. Nesrine Changuel, founder of Product Excellence and Product Management Career Lab Director at ESSEC Business School. Prior to Product Excellence, Nesrine held senior product roles at Google, Spotify, and Microsoft. In this episode, we dig into why the technical barrier to building products has dropped so dramatically that functional quality alone can no longer differentiate — and what that means for teams that haven't yet learned to design for emotion. We explore the concept of product delight, what it actually means beyond confetti and Easter eggs, and how Nesrine's Delight Model Framework gives teams a step-by-step path to building emotional connection into any product — B2C or B2B. We discuss the real difference between discovery and delivery, why Nesrine spent her first 18 months as a PM doing the wrong job, and what shifted when she stopped babysitting engineers and started owning the why. Finally, we get into the AI feature psychosis sweeping the market right now — why shipping velocity without emotional intentionality produces Frankenstein products, and why the companies that were great before AI will be great after it, for the same reasons they always were.As always, I'd love to hear from you. You can email me directly at andrew@churn.fm, and don't forget to follow us on X.

Salesforce renamed Commerce Cloud to Agentforce Commerce and calls this its biggest release in years. Rebrand, or substance? Nitin Mangtani makes the case.Every enterprise vendor is bolting "agentic" onto its roadmap this year. Salesforce went further and renamed the whole product. Nitin Mangtani, who runs Commerce and Retail Cloud, came on to defend the release line by line.We get into Storefront Next, the new storefront meant to serve both the merchant who wants clicks and prompts out of the box and the developer writing code with AI-native tools. The agentic layer: a search engine built on shopper intent instead of keywords, native chat, a ChatGPT catalog integration going live in June, and a shopper agent that's supposed to behave like the associate you'd get in a good store. The B2B story the B2C headlines tend to bury, including round-trip quoting, multicart, and a buying flow that runs on WhatsApp. And modern POS, where the bet is that systems nobody has rethought in twenty years are finally worth rebuilding.Nitin came in through the PredictSpring acquisition two years ago and ran Google's shopping team back in the early 2000s, so he's watched the discovery layer move before. His line throughout: technology for its own sake is worthless. Tie it to ROI and a better customer experience, or don't ship it.So I pushed on the question every merchant on the platform is actually asking. Hear Agentforce Commerce, Storefront Next, and a ChatGPT integration in the same week, and what changes for you, and how soon? Listen and decide whether the rebrand earns the airtime.The Watson Weekly interview is sponsored by Avalara - the agentic AI platform automating global tax and compliance for leading eCommerce brands. For more details: https://avalaratax.watsonweekly.com.

Maitri Sheth is Senior PMM at Hubspot, previously PMM at Gong. We discuss:From B2C to B2B marketing, me too! How has b2c shaped your approach to b2b product marketing;Previously Gong, now Hubspot. What did you do in your first 90 days;One PMM workflow that you're excited about;Do you feel like you have a good grasp on how AI workflows tap into meaningful business results;Marketing is using creativity to solve business problems. Share how you infuse creativity into your work;Hubspot is 12k+ ppl! How do you get the rest of the org to adopt the same story;How do you approach writing with AI in your role.Jump in:03:04 The Importance of Listening in PMM06:06 B2C thinking in B2B09:06 First 90 Days at HubSpot12:00 Understanding Customer Needs14:46 Pattern Recognition & Beyond Patterns17:59 The Value of Direct Customer Engagement21:08 Streamlining PMM Workflows with AI24:03 Navigating Rapid Product Engineering Releases26:45 Evaluating AI Tools and Their Impact on Business Results32:56 the problems with "Blank Slate"35:13 The Role of AI in Productivity38:43 Creativity in Marketing41:30 Balancing AI and Human Creativity51:19 Effective Messaging Across 12,000 people Subscribe to Building With Buyers on Apple or Spotify or wherever you like to listen, tell me what you're listening to, and don't forget to leave a review if you're lovin' the show.Maitri on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/maitri5Hubspot: www.hubspot.comAnna on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠furmanovmarketing.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠One Insight⁠⁠

In this episode of Tank Talks, Matt Cohen sits down with Michael Arbus, CEO of moomoo Canada, for a wide-ranging conversation on Wall Street trading floors, Canadian fintech, crypto regulation, AI-powered investing, and what it really takes to build and scale financial technology companies. Michael's career has taken him from the chaos of Bay Street and Wall Street desks at firms like RBC Capital Markets, TD, UBS, and Merrill Lynch to operating industrial businesses, helping scale Bitbuy into a regulated Canadian crypto marketplace, and now leading moomoo Canada as it pushes into self-directed retail trading, AI tools, options education, and investor communities.Michael shares the lessons he learned from covering major hedge funds, why one trade during the financial crisis made him rethink his role as an advisor, how spreadsheet-driven decision-making helped him turn around operating businesses, and why retail investors in Canada are ready for better tools than the legacy banking platforms have historically offered. They also dive into moomoo's AI-native product strategy, agentic investing, algorithmic trading in natural language, Canada's loyalty to big banks, the rise of retail options trading, and the founder advice Michael wishes more entrepreneurs would hear before wasting years on a business that cannot support them.Whether you're a fintech founder, startup operator, retail investor, trader, or Canadian tech ecosystem builder, this episode is packed with sharp, practical insights on the future of investing, AI, and financial platforms.From Trading Floor Chaos to Wall Street Scar Tissue (03:30)Michael describes life on massive institutional trading floors as a “casino with pumped oxygen and insanity.” The early mornings, morning meetings, nonstop client calls, and constant pressure to be relevant. Why the trading desk taught him how to process information quickly and turn noise into action.Investing in Businesses vs. Investing in Stocks (12:12)Matt and Michael break down the difference between knowing a ticker and understanding the actual company underneath it. Why some good businesses can be bad stocks, and some bad businesses can still become great trades.Scaling Bitbuy and Learning the Reality of Regulation (22:33)Michael shares how he joined Bitbuy when the business was growing but still needed operational structure. The shift from institutional finance to B2C financial services. Why serving retail customers creates a much deeper sense of accountability, especially when people are trusting a platform with their hard-earned money.What moomoo Actually Is and Why Canada Matters (27:41)Michael explains moomoo's global footprint across markets like Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, the U.S., and Canada. The scale of Futu Holdings, the role of product and R&D, and why joining a 4,000-person global fintech machine was very different from building Bitbuy from a smaller startup team.Canada's Loyalty Problem With Big Banks (29:44)Why Canadian retail investors are deeply loyal to legacy banking brands. Michael explains how trust, safety, and brand recognition are baked into Canadian financial behavior, and why moomoo believes a regulated challenger brand can win by offering a product Canadian investors have not seen before.AI Trading Inside the moomoo App (35:55)How moomoo became one of Canada's first AI brokerage platforms. Why its AI tools are different from generic public LLMs because they are connected to paid, live market data behind the platform's firewall. How this changes the quality of answers retail investors can access.Can moomoo Challenge Canada's Banking Giants? (41:24)Michael explains who moomoo is built for and who it is not built for. Why the next generation of investors may care more about control, education, and outperformance than branch loyalty. How AI, job market uncertainty, and personal financial pressure could make self-directed investing more important.Canada's Top Trader and the Nasdaq Partnership (43:20)Michael shares moomoo Canada's trading competition, including real prize money, a $100,000 top prize, and partnership with Nasdaq. Why the initiative is designed to bring retail investors into the market in a more systematic, educated way.Can Your Startup Actually Pay for Your Life? (47:42)Michael explains why founders need to calculate their personal take-home pay before committing years to a venture. The danger of getting caught in a self-fulfilling story that feels exciting but cannot support the builder behind it.The Leadership Lesson That Still Matters Most (51:32)Michael closes with a simple but powerful lesson: kindness goes a long way. After scaling multiple teams from small groups to dozens or more than 100 people, he explains why intelligence is common, but kindness is what compounds in leadership, hiring, and company building.About Michael ArbusMichael Arbus is the CEO of moomoo Canada, a global self-directed investing and trading platform under Futu Holdings focused on retail investors, trading tools, market data, options education, and AI-powered investing experiences. Before joining moomoo, Michael built a diverse career across institutional finance, entrepreneurship, industrial operations, crypto, and fintech. He spent years on Bay Street and Wall Street trading desks at firms including RBC Capital Markets, TD, UBS, and Merrill Lynch, working with global hedge funds and covering M&A event-driven situations, mining, and energy stocks. He later moved into operating businesses, including oil, scrap metal, industrial recycling, and crypto mining, before helping scale Bitbuy into one of Canada's leading regulated crypto marketplaces. Today, Michael is focused on expanding moomoo Canada, bringing institutional-grade tools to retail traders, and helping Canadian investors understand the future of AI, options trading, and self-directed financial platforms.Connect with Michael Arbus on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-arbus-cfa-mba-299a49/Visit the moomoo Canada website: https://www.moomoo.com/caConnect with Matt Cohen on LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/matt-cohen1Visit the Ripple Ventures website: https://www.rippleventures.com/ This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

Matthieu Burin a une intuition au démarrage de Hemea : "quand tu as besoin de faire des travaux de rénovation, c'est un enfer. Tu sais pas à qui t'adresser, tu sais pas combien ça coûte, et tu as l'impression que tu vas te faire avoir."10 ans plus tard, Hemea est devenue une marketplace de travaux qui a réalisé plus de 5000 chantiers, levé 15M€ et structuré un réseau national de courtiers en architecture et rénovation.Ingénieur de formation, passé par les grands projets du BTP et un court passage en cabinet de conseil, Matthieu lance Hemea en septembre 2015 avec 473€ de RSA et une conviction simple : digitaliser un secteur que personne dans l'écosystème startup ne voulait toucher.Ce qui suit, c'est 10 ans de construction patiente.Dans cet épisode de La Galère, Matthieu revient sans filtre sur l'envers du décor d'une marketplace dans un marché à 70 milliards où personne ne fait confiance à personne : un premier MVP bricolé sur Typeform et Excel, une liste de 97 problèmes clients établie sur un tableau blanc, une décision radicale sur la gestion du cash, et un pivot stratégique en pleine restructuration du marché VC en 2023.

Growing your own machinists and orchestrating robots across four continents, is this what the future of manufacturing looks like? This live episode from Hapa's Brewing in the Bay Area features two panels of people who have built careers at the intersection of mechatronics, automation, and industrial innovation. First up, Vinod, Kevin, and Adam get into what it takes to build a skilled workforce from the ground up, talking about apprenticeships, college partnerships, and growing your own talent in-house. Then we get into the bigger picture with our founder panel Kim, Glenn, Nick, and Florian on what Silicon Valley gets wrong about manufacturing, and what manufacturers are missing by not paying closer attention to what's being built there. In this episode, find out: How Vinod bootstrapped an automation company in the Bay Area while raising a family and why his wife had something to do with it What Kevin learned from a 3-year German apprenticeship that he thinks more US manufacturers should be paying attention to How Adam solved his machinist shortage by bringing the training programme in-house and partnering with a local college How Kim thinks about leading companies through inflection points when there are no guardrails or safety nets Why Glenn believes manufacturers who aren't paying attention to what's being built around them won't even know when it's too late How Nick's B2C background completely changed the way he thinks about building software for frontline manufacturing workers Why Florian ignored his investors and opened a public-facing robotics storefront on the main street of Mountain View Enjoying the show? Please leave us a review here. Even one sentence helps. It's feedback from Manufacturing All-Stars like you that keeps us going! Tweetable Quotes: “You don't have that mechanical job anymore that's done by one person. You need support, whether it's software support or you need a robot at your side.” – Kevin Toomer, Product Manager at Sumitomo Drive Technologies “In automation, you don't need a master's or a PhD to be successful. Just getting creative and having that experience in mechanical engineering really helped me in my career.” – Vinod Anandarajah, Co-Founder and CEO at Kanavu Automation ”In Silicon Valley, we tend to love disruption because to us it represents something new and something better. But when you get on a manufacturing floor, they tend to want predictability.” - Kim Losey, Founder and CEO at NextLine Group Links & mentions: Kanavu Automation, bringing value to manufacturing clients via a strategic focus on machine automation and robotics MaintainX, empowering maintenance professionals to reduce unplanned equipment downtime and boost production capacity NextLine Group, architecting what is next in robotics engineering Sumitomo Drive Technologies, providing engineered solutions to industrial power transmission customers Beluga Navigation Systems, building deep tech navigation solutions for vehicle and vessel navigation InOrbit.AI, leading AI-powered robot orchestration platform, driving software-defined operations at scale Hapa's Brewing Company, craft brewery and taproom located in San Jose, CA Make sure to visit http://manufacturinghappyhour.com for detailed show notes and a full list of resources mentioned in this episode. Stay Innovative, Stay Thirsty.

Priya has 20 years of experience in PR, Corporate Communications and Marketing with an emphasis in B2B technology (real estate, telecom, security, finance, manufacturing, power and energy, medtech, biotech, digital health and more) and experience in B2C (mobile, interior design, entertainment, sports, philanthropy, and fashion).  Her work spans Fortune 500 corporations to niche boutique agencies, with strong capabilities in external and internal communications, full-circle strategic planning, campaign development and execution, and content development.   Tune in to hear how Priya took the leap from Corporate and leveraged her thought leadership and talents to build a PR firm that's wrestling its way to the top!  Connect with Priya https://arkivepr.com/

Enterprise marketing teams struggle with AI implementation at scale. Patrick Brown, Vice President of Growth Marketing & Insights at Adobe, explains how AI transforms marketing operations across global B2B and B2C segments. He outlines Adobe's three-pillar framework for AI adoption: delivering personalized experiences, measuring performance with advanced analytics, and building foundational marketing technology tools. Brown also identifies the limitations of AI in forward-looking projections and emphasizes the importance of human judgment in strategic decision-making.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Enterprise marketing teams struggle with AI implementation at scale. Patrick Brown, Vice President of Growth Marketing & Insights at Adobe, explains how AI transforms marketing operations across global B2B and B2C segments. He outlines Adobe's three-pillar framework for AI adoption: delivering personalized experiences, measuring performance with advanced analytics, and building foundational marketing technology tools. Brown also identifies the limitations of AI in forward-looking projections and emphasizes the importance of human judgment in strategic decision-making.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

RJ Talyor is the Founder and CEO of Backstroke a AI for eCommerce generative content platform for email marketers. Instantly create on-brand, high-performing email subject lines, preview text, mobile push notifications, and SMS messages.Summary of PodcastPodcast introduction and guest backgroundGraham and Kevin introduce the Next 100 Days Podcast and welcome RJ Talyor from Indianapolis. RJ describes Indianapolis as offering the best of a big city with a small-city feel, with about a million people, great sports, culture, food, and good cost of living. He has traveled extensively but always enjoys returning home.Backstroke's AI email generation platformRJ introduces Backstroke.com, which generates performant email campaigns for e-commerce retailers selling clothes, pet food, furniture, and other products online and in-store. E-commerce brands typically expect 20-50% of revenue from email marketing while sending 3-5+ emails weekly, with customers spending 8-12 hours per campaign. Backstroke reduces this to approximately 15 minutes while personalising content so each customer receives a different message tailored to their interests and behaviour.Personalisation through data and engagement Backstroke personalises emails using multiple data layers: subscriber status, past engagement (opens, clicks, conversions), and appended third-party data revealing demographics like age, location, and gender. When additional data is unavailable, the platform uses progressive profiling—analysing engagement patterns to infer preferences. For example, if a customer consistently clicks on men's content over women's content, or prefers dark-coloured shirts over light ones, AI identifies these patterns to drive personalisation, which is more effective than manual analysis.Real-world personalisation: from negative to advocateGraham shares a personal story about Son of a Tailor, a Portuguese apparel brand, where his initial experience was poor—they sent him a shirt too short for his frame. However, the company responded exceptionally well, ultimately creating a monogrammed, high-quality shirt that transformed him into an advocate. RJ explains this is valuable data: AI can flag customers who experienced negative-to-positive journeys as potential super-fans or loyalty advocates, a pattern most marketers miss because they lack time to identify such nuanced customer experiences.AI pattern recognition beyond traditional metricsTraditional RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary) models reduce customers to transactional data, but AI can extract signal from unstructured data to identify complex patterns. For instance, AI can recognize when a customer buys different sizes (suggesting purchases for others) or when multiple preferences exist within one account—like RJ's Spotify feed where his children's music preferences mix with his own. AI discerns these overlapping patterns that aren't immediately obvious to humans, enabling more sophisticated segmentation.Team expertise and company historyRJ co-founded Backstroke with his wife Allison, who holds a PhD in deep data analysis and chemical reagents, bringing statistical rigour and predictive modelling expertise. RJ's background includes starting Pattern89 in 2016, an AI company predicting Instagram and Facebook clicks using computer vision and natural language processing, which he sold to Shutterstock. Many Pattern89 team members joined Backstroke, bringing 10 years of AI-based marketing experience, while the team continuously innovates with new foundational models from Anthropic and OpenAI.Implementation results and Surge featureBackstroke achieves an average 30% uplift in conversion rates for new clients. Implementation typically takes about a month for full transformation, but recognising customer demand for faster results, the company launched "Surge," enabling campaigns to launch in 48 hours. This rapid-deployment feature demonstrates predictive capabilities quickly, satisfying customers who want immediate proof before committing to full onboarding.Email variants and human approval at scaleWhile technically capable of generating 10,000+ unique email variants, Backstroke has found that customers require human review of every variant version. Current implementations range from 60-100 variants, with combinations of hero images, subject lines, and templates creating exponential possibilities. The company is building QA agents to enable scaling to millions of variants while maintaining human oversight, recognizing that creative teams ultimately bear responsibility for brand representation.Brand guidelines versus performance metricsA fundamental tension exists between brand teams (who enforce guidelines like "models must face forward" or "only use this colour") and performance marketers (who know "shirts perform better laid on a bed than on a human"). RJ explains this is often gut-feel decision-making based on outdated tests—teams cite tests from a year ago by employees who've since left, creating stale guidelines. AI enables rapid testing of creative variations to identify incremental opportunities, but requires organisational willingness to experiment beyond established brand rules.Customer selection philosophyRather than trying to convince resistant customers to embrace AI, RJ focuses on the "one in 10" truly innovative marketers willing to change. He learned from his previous business that most prospects claim interest but quickly reveal organizational barriers requiring approvals. His strategy is to identify customers genuinely committed to transformation and willing to pay, directing others to resources instead. This approach conserves energy for high-potential partnerships where AI can deliver real impact.Backstroke's core value propositionBackstroke solves the "what" problem: what content, subject line, preview, template, hero image, product display, and offer to send to each person. The platform knows that 46% of clicks occur in the first 400 pixels, so it optimizes that space differently for men versus women, loyal customers versus new ones, and geographic regions. This focused specialization on content optimization is Backstroke's primary value, distinct from solving "when" (send time) or "who" (segmentation) problems.Practical tips for email marketersFor marketers using standard LLMs without specialised platforms, RJ recommends uploading all previous email data and creative assets, then asking the machine to identify winning creative dimensions. This approach reveals patterns in subject lines, imagery, copy length, and offers without requiring subscriber-level analysis, enabling better-than-average results for those without access to specialised tools.Email frequency paradox and engagementKevin raises frustration with receiving excessive emails from companies he likes, asking if AI can enable sending less email while achieving better results. RJ explains that higher engagement with personalised content could theoretically reduce frequency, but email is fundamentally a frequency game—brands send multiple emails weekly to stay top-of-inbox when customers are ready to buy. However, deliverability depends on engagement (opens, clicks), so sending irrelevant content backfires. Backstroke solves the "what" problem, but send-time optimisation and segmentation (the "when" and "who") remain separate challenges.Market focus and customer examples Backstroke focuses exclusively on B2C e-commerce in North America due to language complexity and GDPR privacy requirements in Europe. The platform serves impulse-purchase categories (apparel, furniture, bedding) differently than considered purchases (mattresses, cars), with separate trained models for each. Notable customers include Third Love (women's intimates), Cozy Earth (bedding), Helix (mattresses), and Emile Henry (cookware), representing the apparel and home goods verticals where Backstroke has developed deep expertise.Future roadmap: predictive marketing agentsRJ's 18-month roadmap focuses on building predictive marketing agents that complete marketing tasks generatively while humans serve as brand stewards and strategists. This vision extends beyond email to SMS, apps, and landing pages, with personalisation as a core feature. Graham notes the challenge of making such systems intuitive enough for non-technical users, reflecting the broader industry shift toward AI-augmented rather than AI-replaced marketing roles.European expansion and compliance strategyWhile Backstroke is currently North America-focused, RJ is open to European partnerships but wants to be proactive about compliance. GDPR itself isn't a blocker, but European customers require security documentation and certifications that Backstroke hasn't yet obtained. The company recently achieved SOC 2 compliance (required by enterprise businesses) and plans to secure necessary privacy certifications before entering European markets, avoiding disqualification during sales cycles.Podcast analysis and key takeawaysIn the wrap-up, RJ praises the podcast for getting past fluff into real marketing challenges, appreciating the nitty-gritty discussion of how marketers actually work. Graham and Kevin reflect that the conversation revealed AI's potential to solve the "what" problem while highlighting remaining challenges in "when" and "who" decisions. They note that Kevin's observation about sending less email...

When most people think of Land O'Lakes, they think of the butter in their fridge. But the reality is a $17 billion agribusiness powerhouse that feeds 100 million animals a day and touches every single point of the food value chain. In this episode, Heather Malenshek, SVP and CMO of Land O'Lakes, sits down to look beyond the dairy aisle. She dives deep into the company's unique cooperative model, the delicate balance of marketing across both B2B and B2C landscapes and why legacy brands hold a unique kind of cultural power. Malenshek also breaks down the Modern Rural Collective and Repicturing Rural initiative — a partnership with Getty Images born out of the stunning stat that two-thirds of rural Americans feel entirely misunderstood by mainstream advertisers. From busting myths about rural entrepreneurship to changing how the media portrays modern agriculture, Malenshek shares how Land O'Lakes is rewriting the narrative of America's heartland. campaignlive.com Music - Take you Out by Lucid Tides, courtesy of Triple Scoop. What we know about advertising, you should know about advertising. Start your 1-month FREE trial to Campaign US. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A lot of teams hit January with energy and end Q2 running on fumes. In this Office Hours episode, Danny opens the doors to Optidge's internal playbook with Operations Director Kelly A. Garcia and Head of People Operations Lauren Friedman. Together, they break down how the agency prevents midyear drift, what it actually looks like to build a culture of transparency in a remote-first environment, and the frameworks Optidge uses to keep teams unified and accountable year-round.An Optidge "Office Hours" EpisodeOur Office Hours episodes are your go-to for details, case studies, how-to's, and advice on specific marketing topics. Join our fellow Optidge team members, partners, and sometimes even 1:1 teachings from Danny himself, in these shorter, marketing-focused episodes. Get ready to get marketing!Episode Highlights:This discussion unpacks why momentum fades mid-quarter, not mid-year, and how Optidge builds intentional reset points four times a year to reignite it.Lauren details the “Share the Legos” concept: why giving away knowledge and process is the only real way to scale, and how to shift the team mindset to embrace it.Kelly shares the two key KPIs she watches every day, and what they tell her about when a mid-year pivot is actually necessary.The pair reveals how and why Optidge uses letter grades, single quarterly rocks, and clearly defined "done" criteria to keep goals from becoming noise.This episode emphasizes why context is non-negotiable in a remote agency, and what happens when leaders fill the silence instead of leaving teams to fill it themselves.Episode Links: Digital Marketing Mentor Podcast: Optidge.com/tdmmConnect with Kelly A. Garcia on LinkedIn: Kelly A. GarciaConnect with Lauren Friedman on LinkedIn: Lauren FriedmanSend us Fan MailFollow The Digital Marketing Mentor:Website and Blog: thedmmentor.comInstagram: @thedmmentorLinkedin: @thedmmentorYouTube: @thedmmentorInterested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family:Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations.ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business's digital marketing strategy.

In this episode, Krista sits down with Janelle Hardy, a memoir writer and somatic healing practitioner, to break down how she used virtual summits in a creative, B2C niche to grow her email list and turn that growth into six-figure course sales. Janelle shares her journey from hosting her very first summit to running repeatable events that now fuel premium course launches year after year. You'll hear what changed over time, how she built momentum without sponsorships, why list growth mattered more than conversion rates early on, and how she aligned her summits with high-touch, higher-ticket offers without pressure-based marketing. If you've ever wondered whether summits could work for a non-traditional audience or support a more values-driven business model, this conversation will expand what you think is possible. For show notes, head to https://summithosthangout.com/324

This week, Sarah Segal, Jaci Russo, and Lena McGuire tackle a question many service business owners face: Which is the bigger risk—an employee who feels overburdened or a client who feels neglected? The discussion begins with Sarah explaining why she's had to reestablish boundaries with some clients who were texting and calling her employees after hours and bypassing the systems her agency has put in place. Sarah wants her team to be able to disconnect at the end of the day, and she wants clients communicating with the entire team assigned to their account—not developing overly close relationships with individual employees. In her view, protecting employees from burnout ultimately leads to better service for clients.Jaci approaches the challenge very differently. Her creative staff rarely communicate directly with clients. Instead, account managers serve as the sole point of contact, much like restaurant servers relaying orders between diners and the kitchen. The goal is to protect specialists from interruptions, keep them focused on their work, and ensure that client communication remains clear and consistent. The result is a lively conversation about competing priorities, client expectations, employee well-being, and the hidden risks that can emerge when clients become too dependent on individual employees. Plus: Have you ever had an employee leave and take clients with them?

This week, Dave speaks with Dean McElwee, ecommerce and digital transformation leader and author of Ecommerce for CEOs.Dean shares what he's learned working across global brands, complex categories, and digital shelf transformation — including why DIY and home improvement require a very different ecommerce content playbook.In this episode, Dean breaks down the challenges of managing SKU complexity, spec data, mobile legibility, B2B and B2C shopper needs, and content workflows across retailers. He also shares his perspective on It'sRapid Optix, and why analytics should help teams understand not just what needs to be fixed, but why those fixes matter in the shopper decision process.The conversation also explores how AI and creative automation are helping ecommerce teams refresh content more efficiently, reduce manual work, and focus on doing the digital shelf basics brilliantly.Connect with Dean on LinkedInFollow Beyond the Shelf on LinkedInLearn More about It'sRapidGet the It'sRapid Creative Automation PlaybookTake It'sRapid's Creative Workflow Automation with AI surveyEmail us at sales@itsrapid.io to find out how to get your free AI Image AuditTheme music: "Happy" by Mixaud - https://mixaund.bandcamp.comProducer: Jake Musiker

Did you know that 92% of B2B buyers enter a formal evaluation with a vendor already in mind?   In this episode of Digital Marketing From The Coalface, Julie and Dave dive deep into the hidden realities of the modern B2B buyer journey. With 70% to 80% of the purchase process completed before a prospect even speaks to a vendor, your website needs to do much more than simply capture leads.   We explore why obsessing over B2C-style Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) and button colours is a trap for B2B marketers. Instead, learn why your focus must be on building credibility, offering case studies for social proof, and making the 6 to 10 decision-makers involved in a deal feel completely "safe".   The conversation then unpacks a 2024 Forrester Report that proves B2B buyers are making up their minds about your business before you even know they exist. To help you adapt, Julie and Dave explain how to use Google and LinkedIn ads as a rapid "fishing exercise" to test product demand and search volume before committing six months to an organic SEO strategy.   We also cover the latest in digital visibility, specifically Google's rollout of separate AI impressions in the UK Search Console. You will learn how to use AI content graders to ensure your writing is specific and "non-commodity," which forces AI search engines to link back to your website rather than just regurgitating your hard work.   Finally, Dave and Julie share their own successes and frustrating hallucination failures using tools like Claude to automate tedious daily tasks.   Tune in to learn how to adapt your digital strategy for the highly-researched, AI-assisted B2B buyer!

Enterprise marketing teams struggle with AI implementation beyond basic automation. Patrick Brown, SVP of Global Marketing at Adobe, shares his perspective on scaling AI across complex B2B and B2C marketing operations. Brown discusses why AI excels at content summarization and synthesis but falls short on predictive forecasting, and outlines Adobe's three-pillar framework for integrating AI into experience delivery, measurement systems, and foundational marketing tools.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Enterprise marketing teams struggle with AI implementation beyond basic automation. Patrick Brown, SVP of Global Marketing at Adobe, shares his perspective on scaling AI across complex B2B and B2C marketing operations. Brown discusses why AI excels at content summarization and synthesis but falls short on predictive forecasting, and outlines Adobe's three-pillar framework for integrating AI into experience delivery, measurement systems, and foundational marketing tools.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

 EPISODE DESCRIPTION I sat down with Brian Gerrard, founder of PaySlice, who spent seven years living across Latin America before building one of the most human-centered fintech startups I have come across. Brian started by connecting friends in emerging markets with remote jobs, then realized they were losing massive chunks of their income to inflation and bad exchange rates. That led him to build PaySlice , a platform that lets workers access their earned wages daily and get paid in stablecoins instead of a depreciating local currency. We talk about how he grew to nearly 10,000 users mostly through word of mouth, why he chose payroll over remittances, how he is embedding PaySlice into gaming and credit apps with zero customer acquisition cost, and where he sees this going as one point two billion people receive a paycheck every month. This is a real conversation about real problems, real traction, and what it actually takes to build something that matters. DISCLAIMERNothing mentioned in this podcast is investment advice and please do your own research. It would mean a lot if you can leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share this podcast with a friend. Be a guest on the podcast or contact us - https://www.web3pod.xyz/ CONNECT PaySlice Website: https://www.payslice.comBrian Gerrard LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianjgerrard/Brian Gerrard Email: mailto:brian@payslice.comWeb3 with Sam Kamani: https://www.web3pod.xyz/ KEY POINTS WITH TIMESTAMPS • [00:01] Sam introduces Brian Gerrard from PaySlice and the show's focus on payment infrastructure innovation• [01:36] Brian shares his background , leaving San Francisco to explore Latin America, which turned into a seven-year journey• [02:59] How Brian's staffing agency workers in Argentina, Colombia, and Jamaica asked to be paid daily and in USD, sparking the PaySlice idea• [03:58] PaySlice launches and grows to nearly 10,000 employees on the platform• [05:04] Why stablecoins have real product-market fit , stablecoin transaction volumes now surpassing Visa and Mastercard combined• [07:18] The B2C and B2B sides of PaySlice and which industries are gaining traction, including staffing agencies and payroll companies• [09:30] How traditional payroll tools force-convert currencies and silently take 3.5% from employees without employers knowing• [12:08] How PaySlice acquired most of its users through word-of-mouth and a referral boost mechanic• [13:21] Plans for a physical card launch in 18 countries in Q3 or Q4• [16:34] Brian's growth marketing background at Twitch, where he scaled to 25 million monthly active users• [17:44] Using paid advertising in English and Spanish to target the US-Latin America remittance corridor• [19:08] How analyzing user transaction data via Plaid led to zero-CAC distribution deals with credit repair and mobile gaming companies• [21:03] Companies Brian admires , Revolut and Wise for solving currency frustration at scale• [22:22] The most misunderstood part of crypto-powered payroll and why employers need more empathy toward employees in unstable currencies• [23:05] Founder advice: listen to the market, hold beliefs loosely, and recognize the difference between good struggle and the wrong fit• [30:29] Brian's 10-year vision , getting 1.2 billion monthly paycheck recipients paid every day instead of once a month• [31:27] PaySlice's current seed raise, embedded finance partnership opportunities, and revenue share model

Trae Sterling is a seasoned executive with more than three decades of experience spanning real estate, home warranty,  and insurance. Known for driving revenue growth, building high-performing teams, and executing strategic expansion initiatives, Trae has consistently delivered results across both B2B and B2C organizations. Currently serving as Executive Vice President and National Sales Director for Real Estate at Choice Home Warranty, Trae leads the company's national growth strategy within the real estate sector, leveraging a strong consumer foundation to expand market share and deepen industry partnerships. Throughout his career, Trae has held senior leadership roles with organizations including Home Warranty of America, Entitle Direct Group, First American Home Warranty, and American Home Shield. He has successfully led multi-state operations, managed large sales organizations, and implemented scalable growth strategies—earning recognition such as "Manager of the Year" and delivering consistent year-over-year performance gains. Trae's core strengths include integrated sales strategy, leadership development, performance management, and business expansion. He is widely respected for his ability to motivate teams, build strong partnerships, and translate complex business objectives into actionable results. A licensed real estate broker in Tennessee, Trae remains deeply connected to the industry that shaped his career. He is also actively involved in community service, supporting organizations such as Youth Villages and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.    In this episode, Karen and Trae discuss: Success Story of Trae Commit to Get Leads The fundamentals will still work. Use the technology and tools that are now available, like CRMs and automations, but you still have to go to the people who are producing to make contacts.  Consult to Sell Teach your consumers how you can solve their problems, even the ones they don't realize are a problem yet.  Connect to Build and Grow Utilize your database. Drip on your database every single month with information of value.  Success Thinking, Activities, and Vision Empower your team by asking what they want and putting them in the best spot to be able to do that.  Sweet Spot of Success   "I think one component that sometimes gets lost is if you're not having fun, you shouldn't do it." - Trae Sterling   Connect with Trae Sterling: Website: https://chwpro.com/  Email: tsterling@chwpro.com  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trae-sterling-2448709  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/silvertrae/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trae.sterling    About the Podcast Join host Karen Briscoe each month to learn how you can achieve success at a higher level by investing just 5 minutes a day! Tune in to hear powerful, inspirational success stories and expert insights from entrepreneurs, business owners, industry leaders, and real estate agents that will transform your business and life. Karen shares a-ha moments that have shaped her career and discusses key concepts from her book Real Estate Success in 5 Minutes a Day: Secrets of a Top Agent Revealed. Here's to your success in business and in life!   Connect with Karen Briscoe: Facebook: 5MinuteSuccess Website: 5MinuteSuccess.com Email: Karen@5MinuteSuccess.com   5 Minute Success Links Learn more about Karen's book, Real Estate Success in 5 Minutes a Day Karen also recommends Moira Lethbridge's book "Savvy Woman in 5 Minutes a Day." Subscribe to the 5 Minute Success Podcast   Spread the love and share the secrets of 5 Minute Success with your friends and colleagues!     Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.

Your blog will never earn an audience. Ever. That's not me — that's Melissa Rosenthal, who ran the SEO content engine at ClickUp, built media at BuzzFeed and Cheddar, and is now co-founder of Outlever building the playbook that replaces it. In this episode, Melissa makes the case that the SEO blog era is collapsing in real time, that one strategic LinkedIn poster will out-perform 150 employees doing employee advocacy, and that while every other B2B operator is betting on AI, she's betting on humans — and using AI to do it. She's also dogfooding the entire thesis with her new publication, The State of Brand, which hit a million unique views in three weeks.   What you'll learn • Why the SEO blog was a 'slot machine' — and what survives the AI search collapse • The two-month consistency rule that separates real owned media from content theater • Why one strategic LinkedIn poster beats 150 employees doing employee advocacy • The one-to-one distribution playbook replacing mass organic traffic • How Melissa's State of Brand publication converts at ~40% to demo on banner ads (yes, banner ads) • Why product parity is now enough to beat 15-year incumbents — if your brand, service, and POV are sharper   Connect Melissa Rosenthal on LinkedIn The State of Brand Outlever Marketing Trends   Chapters • 0:00   The SEO blog era is over • 1:30   What's lighting Melissa up: State of Brand hits 1M views in 3 weeks • 4:30   BuzzFeed → Cheddar → ClickUp: why B2B needs B2C instincts • 7:33   Why Outlever built its own publication (and dogfooded the thesis) • 13:00  How to make B2B content go viral without AI slop • 18:50  Quality vs quantity: the false binary killing content teams • 22:14  Why one strategic poster beats 150 employees • 25:37  The two-month consistency rule • 26:33  'Your blog will never earn an audience' • 30:17  Everyone says video-first. She's going text-first. • 32:24  Melissa is excited about banner ads (yes, really) • 37:00  'Figma should be a little worried' • 40:04  You don't need a better product to beat a 15-year incumbent • 43:14  Betting on humans while everyone else bets on AI • 53:44  $50B incumbents can be beaten in 18 months   ----Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Snap Inc.'s Sid Malhotra makes the case that the platform most brands wrote off as "babies and teens" has quietly grown up. Now, commerce is migrating into these private, conversational spaces where nearly one billion users actually spend their time. We dig into why the traditional funnel no longer holds consumers' nuanced behaviors, how creators and chat shape decisions long before the last click, and what AI Sponsored Snaps mean for brands willing to be the answer rather than just another link. Where Are Your Next New Customers? Key takeaways: Snapchat's earliest users grew up; nearly one in four Snapchatters is now aged 35+. Purchase decisions increasingly occur in private chat, not on public feeds or in search. "Last-click jail" hides where customers actually decide. It's imperative that brands measure the full journey. AI Sponsored Snaps let brands run their own agents inside the chat feed. This is conversational commerce, in context. Authentic, creator-led, low-fi content beats polished commercials on the platform. Key quotes: [03:57] "We've come into the age where people are loving a few services and are hanging onto them and are creating their own personal community within those… And that brings me to the final question that Snapchat is trying to answer for businesses and brands worldwide: Where are your next first customers? Where are your next new customers?" — Sid Malhotra [16:27] "Last-click measurement systems are great at telling [you] where the purchase took place. But it doesn't tell you much more than that. It's kind of like trying to watch a movie by just watching the last scene…Sure, you know how the movie ended, but you have no idea what the main characters were doing, what the plot line was, and what got them here." — Sid Malhotra [19:55] "Working with influencers and community is closer to B2B commerce than B2C commerce…B2B has done a really good job of building real relationships, engaging with people where they're at, and finding the things that they care about in the process of selling to them." — Brian Lange Associated Links: Check out Future Commerce on YouTube Check out Future Commerce Plus for exclusive content and save on merch and print Subscribe to Insiders and The Senses to read more about what we are witnessing in the commerce world Listen to our other episodes of Future Commerce Have any questions or comments about the show? Let us know on futurecommerce.com, or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. We love hearing from our listeners! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

IN CLEAR FOCUS: June's Bigeye Book Club selection is "Neuromarketing: Practical Insights for Improving Customer Engagement." Author Katie Hart explains why, when 95 percent of purchase decisions are non-conscious, traditional research often asks the wrong questions. Learn how neuromarketing reveals real consumer behavior, why the brain processes images faster than text, and the physiological impact of 2D screens. We also discuss Katie's practical framework for transforming B2B and B2C strategies.

Send us Fan MailOne of Gorilla's franchisees runs his entire business from a cruise ship in Greece — nine vans, all from his phone. That's not a gimmick. It's the model. This week the team sits down with Andrew Edwards, owner of Gorilla Property Services,  to break down what might be the most overlooked home services franchise in the market: a high-tech, 100% mobile exterior cleaning and maintenance brand built on B2C and B2B recurring revenue. Gorilla bundles eight essential services — pressure washing, window and gutter cleaning, roof cleaning, dryer vent cleaning, graffiti and snow removal — into a single "one call" relationship, much of it required by insurance carriers and local bylaws. That's demand that doesn't disappear in a downturn. Andrew is the rare franchisor who's actually been a franchisee — he built and sold a business before reshaping Gorilla into a system designed to make owners better operators, not buy them a job. In this episode: The proprietary, AI-powered CRM (Gorilla Pro) that runs the whole business from a phoneWhy recurring revenue made Jack & Jill's Pinks exit sell for ~10x netThe B2B vs. B2C cash-flow balance every home services owner needs to understandWhy this model is largely insulated from AI disruptionRealistic numbers: per Gorilla's Item 19, Canadian franchisees averaged $666,233 in revenue and $162,388 in net income (Jan–Dec 2024) at a 49% gross margin. U.S. results may differ — see the FDD.Low investment, highly scalable, home-based, and VetFran-approved. If you've been waiting on BizBuySell for the "perfect business," this is the conversation that reframes the math. Some markets are already gone — Chicago, Tampa, Boca Raton. Check if yours is still open:

If you're running a B2C business and you're not on LinkedIn - you're leaving serious money on the table. And I'm not just talking about a few missed connections. I'm talking about referrals, speaking gigs, media features, and high-ticket clients who found you, vetted you, and said YES - all because of one thing: your LinkedIn presence. In this episode, I'm breaking the myth that LinkedIn is only for corporate types or B2B brands. Whether you're a coach, consultant, service provider, or creative - if relationships and trust drive your business, LinkedIn is your secret weapon. Here's what you'll learn: Why affluent buyers vet you on LinkedIn before they ever reach out How LinkedIn referrals compound over time - even while you're at the beach The difference between attention (Instagram) and authority (LinkedIn) Why your content works harder and longer on LinkedIn than anywhere else 5 simple action steps you can take this week to start building your LinkedIn presence Ready to stop being invisible online? Grab a pen - your homework is at the end.   Resources Mentioned In The Episode: Monetize Your Magic Karen's FREE weekly training on LinkedIn strategy https://www.thelinkedupcollective.com/masterclass  Visibility SalonKaren's signature program for building LinkedIn visibility and authority https://www.thelinkedupcollective.com/visibilitysalon/ Good Girls Get Rich Podcast Weekly podcast hosted by Karen Yankovich www.KarenYankovich.com/podcast  BSchool by Maria Forleo Business training program for online entrepreneurs https://www.marieforleo.com/bschool Karen Yankovich on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/karenyankovich   Magical Quotes From The Episode: "The women who win in the next decade aren't necessarily the ones posting the most content. They're the ones becoming known, trusted, referenced, and recommended." "Visibility without credibility just creates more noise. Visibility with positioning - that's where the real opportunities happen." "Your goal isn't to become internet famous. Your goal is to become professionally unforgettable."   Help Us Spread The Word! It would be awesome if you shared the Good Girls Get Rich Podcast with your fellow entrepreneurs on Twitter. Click here to tweet some love! If this episode has taught you just one thing, I would love if you could head on over to Apple Podcasts and SUBSCRIBE TO THE SHOW! And if you're moved to, kindly leave us a rating and review. Maybe you'll get a shout out on the show!   Ways to Subscribe to Good Girls Get Rich: Click here to subscribe via Apple Podcasts Click here to subscribe via PlayerFM Good Girls Get Rich is also on Spotify Take a listen on Podcast Addict

Bob Verlaat and Nick Nijhof are Amsterdam-based entrepreneurs and Co-Founders of Hears, the fast-growing hearing protection brand redefining earplugs through premium design and industry-leading sound clarity. Prior to Hears, the duo successfully scaled luxury sleep wellness brand Dore & Rose to $30M in revenue, building deep expertise in branding, Ecommerce, and consumer behavior. Their entrepreneurial journey has been shaped by creating products that solve real consumer problems while building emotionally resonant brands. After Bob experienced hearing damage and persistent tinnitus from loud music, the pair became increasingly aware of the global problem of noise-induced hearing loss and the lack of earplugs people actually wanted to wear. Existing products compromised sound quality, looked unattractive, and failed to fit seamlessly into modern lifestyles. Driven by that personal frustration, Bob and Nick spent 1.5 years researching and developing Hears from scratch, investing in patented filter technology and an award-winning heart-shaped design focused on preserving natural sound while protecting hearing. Since launching in 2024, Hears has generated $7M in first-year revenue, won the Red Dot Design Award, and partnered with globally recognized brands and venues including Yves Saint Laurent and Pacha Ibiza. In This Conversation We Discuss: [00:32] Intro [00:58] Launching products with clear positioning  [01:31] Solving everyday problems through Ecommerce  [03:14] Leveraging past mistakes to scale faster  [06:33] Episode Sponsor: Klaviyo [08:32] Finding product ideas through personal pain  [09:49] Testing creatives to accelerate growth  [11:01] Balancing brand building with direct sales  [11:57] Leveraging organic content before paid scaling  [13:51] Episode Sponsor: Intelligems [15:52] Optimizing products for global scalability  [19:14] Episode Sponsor: Electric Eye [20:23] Designing products customers instantly notice  [22:20] Protecting products through patented innovation  [23:25] Callout [23:34] Using social proof to increase conversions  Resources: Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube Engineered for maximum sound blocking, reduce disruptive noise, helping you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer and wake up fully rested hears.com/ Follow Bob Verlaat linkedin.com/in/bobverlaat/ Follow Nick Nijhof https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicknijhof/ Book a demo today at intelligems.io/ Migrate and grow more klaviyo.com/honest  Schedule an intro call with one of our experts electriceye.io/connect If you're enjoying the show, we'd love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!

In this episode of Medsider Radio, we sat down with Karthik Ganesh, CEO of OnMed.OnMed is the healthcare technology company behind OnMed CareStation, a “Clinic-in-a-Box” designed to expand access to primary and urgent care. Before OnMed, Karthik served as CEO of EmpiRx Health, leading the company through rapid growth and a successful private equity transaction in 2021. Throughout his career, he's held leadership roles at QualCare, CareAllies, and Aetna, and advised healthcare organizations through Deloitte and EY.In this interview, Karthik discusses why hybrid care models still require a human touch, how enterprise healthcare buyers evaluate value propositions differently, why brand and culture should shape execution early, and how operating under constraints can sharpen innovation.Before we dive into the discussion, I wanted to mention a few things:First, if you're into learning from medical device founders and CEOs and want to know when new interviews are live, head over to Medsider.com and sign up for our free newsletter.And if you're ready to level up your medtech game, you should check out Medsider Courses — 8-week masterclasses covering topics like fundraising, M&A and exit planning, design and development, clinical and regulatory strategy, and commercialization.These courses, featuring hard-earned lessons from elite medtech CEOs, can be purchased individually or come free with our All-Access Pass.If you'd rather read than listen, here's a link to the full interview with Karthik Ganesh, which includes a link to ScottBot — an AI version of host Scott Nelson trained on every Medsider interview and playbook. Feel free to ask ScottBot any questions you'd like!KEY MOMENTS FROM THE INTERVIEW(03:04) - Karthik's obsession with healthcare access, and the “broken doorway” problem behind OnMed (05:51) - How OnMed combines telemedicine and brick-and-mortar care into a “Clinic in a Box” (09:04) - The OnMed metrics that surprised Karthik most, including a 37% patient return rate, and the reasons behind the company's success (09:22) - What OnMed designed differently after realizing that patients approach healthcare with their guard up (15:27) - The pitfalls of B2C healthcare and how OnMed was built as a B2B company by intention (22:01) - How Karthik reshaped OnMed around clarity, structure, and high performers (30:23) - What “brand” actually means to Karthik (39:37) - How OnMed tailored its value proposition for payers, providers, employers, and universities (45:45) - Karthik's fundraising philosophy: constraints keep companies inventive

Most scaled independents looked at Grapevine.ai during the sale process and didn't get it. They couldn't process the economic model. They didn't know how to assess the technology. Justin Hayashi leaned in and won.Recorded at Possible 2026 in the Unplugged Collective pavilion, Christian Hassold and Ayelet Shipley sat down with Justin Hayashi, CEO of NewEngen, one of the most tech-forward independents in the market to break down how he thinks about acquisitions, what makes NewEngen genuinely different from its peers, and what he's looking for next.NewEngen started in 2016 as a tech company trying to dethrone Marin Software, among others. It evolved into the agency their clients always said they were and built a platform around content, creator marketing, and measurement that most of their competitors can't replicate.What we cover: The origin story; from Zulily's IPO to trying to build a bidding algorithm to accidentally building an agency, how three acquisitions in the content and creator space shaped NewEngen's differentiated positioning, the Grapevine.ai deal thesis and why beating an aggressive forecast during diligence was the final proof of conviction, how NewEngen handles integration with a "do no harm" philosophy while keeping brands like Donut Studios intentionally separate, and the buy box for what comes next: social, content, measurement, and commerce.⏱️ TIMESTAMPS00:12: Cold open: does the YC target on agency backs keep you up at night?1:08: Welcome and guest intro: Justin Hayashi, CEO of NewEngen, at Possible 20261:19: The backstory: from Zulily IPO and billion-dollar sale to Qurate, to founding NewEngen2:25: The original thesis: dethrone Marin Software and Kenshoo — and why it didn't work3:58: The pivot: from SaaS company (that clients kept calling an agency) to what NewEngen is today4:28: Tech-enabled DNA: what survived the pivot and what defines NewEngen now5:54: What scaled independents are getting wrong — and where NewEngen differentiates6:45: Three acquisitions in the content and creator space: why content was always the bet7:23: The Grapevine.ai deal: why most scaled independents walked away and NewEngen stepped up8:04: Why Caroline's conviction and operator mindset won the first filter9:00: 900 vetted, high-performing creators vs. seven million claims — the quality argument10:29: Two lenses: founder CEO conviction vs. PE underwriting — how Justin navigated both11:06: The aggressive forecast, the bottoms-up conviction, and what actually happened11:30: Zuckerberg's earnings calls as diligence data: short-form video growth 20% → 30% YoY12:43: What made Grapevine.ai hard for strategic buyers: long-tail revenue and small contracts13:37: How Caroline's client migration story played out in real time during diligence15:19: Donut Digital acquisition: "do no harm" integration and why they kept the brand16:45: LT Partners vs. Acorn Influence vs. Donut Studios: three different integration approaches17:57: The hardest integration lesson: get alignment on goalposts before you close18:59: Buy box: social/content, measurement, commerce, B2C only, $3-12M revenue sweet spot21:02: Closing take: NewEngen is the software-led agency ready to take on Silicon Valley

What if the resume — that document we've built our entire hiring process around — is the wrong place to start? Jason P. Carroll makes a compelling case that it is. Drawing on research from the 1980s and 90s, he points out that prior skills, experience, and formal education have almost zero predictive value for success in a new role. Add AI-generated resumes to that picture, and the traditional hiring process starts to look like a relic. Jason's company, Aptive Index, approaches the problem differently. Rather than measuring what someone has done, it measures what drives them — motivators, emotional resonance, internal activation, cognitive style. The platform pairs that psychometric data with Aria, a behavioral AI that knows your team's profiles and can guide everything from hiring decisions to conflict resolution to job description writing. The conversation takes some unexpected turns. Jason shares stories of clients using Aria as a personal growth tool — including two CEOs who credited it with saving their marriages. He talks about a CEO forum where Aria identified, in real time, that one member felt like an outsider in the group — and was right. And he opens up about a B2C mental health companion product he's developing but hasn't launched yet, and why he's looking for the right co-founder to help bring it to life. Running through all of it is a theme that fits squarely in the Coffee and Change ethos: self-awareness as the foundation for change — in how we hire, how we lead, how we relate to the people around us, and ultimately how we understand ourselves. Curious what Aptive Index would reveal about you? Jason has set up a dedicated link for Coffee and Change listeners to take the assessment and get a preview of Aria: https://assessment.aptiveindex.com/s/sH5bgSZVQVy0 The assessment takes about ten minutes. At the end, you'll get a preview of Aria and the chance to ask her a few questions based on your results. Connect with Jason Aptive Index: aptiveindex.com B2C / Mental Health Companion (coming soon): aria.com — Jason is actively looking for a co-founder with B2C experience. If that's you, reach out.

Sign Up For Relay through My Referral Link: ⁠https://join.relayfi.com/partner/?referralcode=temporaryhousingmeetup&utm_source=events&utm_medium=…⁠In this eye-opening episode of In The Lab, Ruben breaks down one of the biggest misconceptions in entrepreneurship and real estate investing: confusing an asset class vs. building an actual business. Too many people say they want to “quit their W2 through real estate,” but never stop to ask the deeper question… are they trying to become an investor or build a business machine that produces cash flow at scale?Throughout the episode, Ruben unpacks the difference between long-term investing, operating a real estate business, and using business income to fund wealth-building assets. He explains why most successful entrepreneurs didn't get wealthy from the asset class itself first, but from the business engine behind it. From wholesalers and flippers to coaches, syndicators, and short-term rental operators, Ruben challenges listeners to study how people actually made their money instead of blindly copying the final product.He also dives deep into the importance of context when making business decisions. Instead of asking generic questions like “What's the best strategy?” Ruben explains why better outcomes come from reverse engineering your goals based on your skills, location, liquidity, lifestyle, time availability, and long-term vision. The episode also explores why B2B businesses create leverage faster than B2C models, and why AI may be the greatest business opportunity window modern entrepreneurs have ever seen.Tune in now to learn why “the math has to math,” how to stop chasing misleading business models, and why understanding the difference between owning assets and operating a business could completely change your financial future.#EntrepreneurMindset #BusinessGrowth #RealEstateInvesting #WealthBuilding #AssetVsBusiness #QuitYourW2 #B2BStrategy #AIForEntrepreneurs #FinancialFreedom #InTheLab

What This Episode Is About You've invested in a sales strategy. You've done the training. So why aren't you getting the results you expected? In this episode of the Selling to Corporate® podcast, Jess Lorimer reveals the single most important skill that professional salespeople use to create consistent, replicable results - and it's almost certainly not what you'd expect. Jess makes the case that the gap between coaches, consultants and professional salespeople isn't intelligence, experience or even strategy. It's one surprisingly simple skill that most business owners overlook, underestimate or quietly choose to ignore. This episode explains exactly what it is, why it matters more than any tactic or technique and what happens to your sales process when you don't use it. Who This Episode Is For Coaches, consultants, trainers, speakers, and done-for-you service providers selling to corporate clients Anyone who has invested in a sales strategy or programme and felt it 'didn't work' Business owners who find themselves constantly tweaking, adjusting, or second-guessing their sales process Those who are great at selling one offer or to one type of client, but struggle to replicate that success elsewhere Anyone who suspects their sales process isn't producing consistent results but isn't sure why Questions This Episode Answers What is the most important skill in B2B sales? Why does a sales strategy that worked stop working over time? How do professional salespeople create replicable results across different industries and offers? What's the difference between buying a sales strategy and actually executing one? Why does tweaking a sales process - even slightly - make results impossible to measure or replicate? Key Takeaways  1. The Most Important Sales Skill Is Following Instructions The single most important skill professional salespeople possess is the ability to follow instructions precisely and consistently. Not prospecting. Not objection handling. Not closing. Following instructions. Jess is direct: in her experience working with thousands of professional salespeople and thousands of coaches, consultants, speakers, trainers, and done-for-you service providers, the difference in results almost always comes down to this. Professional salespeople follow a proven process exactly as written. Most coaches and consultants - however intelligent and however well-intentioned - don't. This isn't a criticism of intelligence. In fact, Jess argues that high intelligence can be a liability here. Smart people are more likely to spot what feels 'wrong' about a set of instructions, more likely to rationalise a small adjustment and more likely to believe their version of the process is 'good enough'. It usually isn't. 2. Any Proven Strategy Has the Ability to Work - If It's Executed Properly Jess teaches seven different methods of B2B lead generation. She has clients who generate all of their corporate revenue from cold email outreach. She has clients who generate all of their revenue from networking alone - a method she personally dislikes. The method is not the determining factor. Execution is. The two reasons a sales strategy fails are almost always the same: The strategy being used is not proven. It was built in an AI tool, borrowed from a B2C context or sold by someone without hands-on B2B sales experience. The strategy is proven but it is not being followed correctly. Steps are skipped, wording is changed, volume is reduced or the process is quietly adjusted whenever something feels uncomfortable. If your sales process is not producing results, the first question to ask is not 'what strategy should I try next?' It is 'am I executing my current proven strategy exactly as intended?'   3. Small Changes to a Sales Process Create Big Problems One of the most common patterns Jess sees with experienced clients is a gradual drift away from the original process. It rarely starts as a conscious decision to change strategy. More often it starts with a lost deal, a knock to confidence, and a small adjustment made under pressure to 'save' the next opportunity. That one small change leads to another. The language shifts. The attachment changes. The objection handling softens. The reassurance given increases. None of it feels significant in the moment. But cumulatively, the process becomes unrecognisable - and critically, it becomes impossible to measure, troubleshoot or improve. Standardisation is not a constraint on creativity. It is what makes it possible to know whether your sales process is working, identify where it is breaking down, and fix the right thing. When every part of the process is slightly different, there is nothing consistent to evaluate. 4. Sales Should Be Boring - Creativity Comes in the Conversation Jess uses the analogy of Picasso: before he painted eyes on the sides of heads, he spent years learning the rules of perspective, line and composition. The creative leaps came after the foundations were mastered, not instead of them. The same principle applies to B2B sales. Your lead generation process, your outreach approach, your proposal structure, your pricing framework - these should be repeatable, measurable and consistent. They should feel a little boring, because boring is what makes them scalable. The creativity, the consultative problem-solving, the bespoke solution-building - all of that happens in the sales conversation itself, and in the delivery of the work. That's where you get to be brilliant and distinctive. Your process is what gets you to that conversation in the first place. 5. Following Instructions Builds the Confidence That Creativity Cannot When a sales process is followed precisely, it produces predictable metrics. Those metrics tell you what is working and what is not - early enough to make useful adjustments rather than emergency ones. That predictability is what gives professional salespeople confidence, even in difficult markets. When a process is modified and the results decline, the person executing it has no way of knowing which change caused the problem. That uncertainty erodes confidence and often leads to further changes, making the situation worse. Following instructions is therefore not just a technical requirement - it is the foundation of sustained confidence in your own sales ability. 6. Replicatable Success Requires Transferable Process, Not Transferable Luck Jess draws on her own sales career across jewellery, recruitment, tech, and sales training - including becoming the top diamond salesperson in her region at 16, and a top performer within her first year at a company operating across 30 countries - to make a specific point: success that can be replicated across industries, offers, and client types is built on process, not personality. If you are excellent at selling one particular offer but cannot replicate that success with other offers or other types of decision maker, it is a signal that your results are not yet built on a transferable process. They are built on familiarity, repetition or relationship - which are not scalable. A proven, correctly executed process is what creates results that transfer. Key Quotes "The most important skill professional salespeople have in their arsenal is following instructions." "Literally any proven strategy has the ability to work if it's being done properly. The problem is that most people aren't using proven strategies - or they're not following the instructions for the ones they have." "Your sales process shouldn't be where you feel creatively satiated. It should be where you are able to replicate a clear process and be given consistent metrics so you know what is working and what isn't." Resources + Links Mentioned in This Episode Cold -> Closed The self-paced B2B sales experience for coaches / consultants / speakers / trainers and done-for-you service providers who want scalable, sustainable sales from brand new corporate clients in 90 days or less. https://smartleaderssell.thrivecart.com/-cold-to-closed-product/ Join the B2B Sales Edit: Busyness to Business Weekly newsletter for coaches and consultants; sharing the real B2B sales techniques that have taken over 30,000 sales processes from busy -> balanced and profitable. https://magic.beehiiv.com/v1/988ac64b-5875-4924-9d10-50faad2aa4ad?email=%EMAIL% Episode Sponsored by The Expert Services Directory Access The Expert Services Directory here and use code PODCAST for a special bonus. https://bit.ly/ExpertServicesDirectory A curated directory that proactively markets your services to corporate decision makers every month. Standard listings reach 1,000+ decision makers per month; Directory Plus listings reach 2,000+. Only 10 suppliers per category. Standard listing: 1,000+ decision makers per month Directory Plus listing: 2,000+ decision makers per month Application required — not all applications are accepted If You've Enjoyed Listening to The Most Important Skill Professional Salespeople Have, Check Out These Episodes STC159 - Mindset Wobbles That Stop Your B2B Sales Progress (and How to Fix Them!) https://bit.ly/SellingToCorporate159 STC162 - 3 Things That Will Help You Maximise Any Sales Training You're Embarking On https://bit.ly/SellingToCorporate162 STC171 - The Simple Sales Technique I Use to Sign Corporate Clients Every Month https://bit.ly/SellingToCorporate171   Content Disclaimer The information contained above is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this article, video or audio are not intended to amount to advice and you should not rely on any of the contents of this article, video or audio. Professional advice should be obtained before taking or refraining from taking any action as a result of the contents of this article, video or audio. Jessica Lorimer disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this article, video or audio.  

Purna Virji is back on the Digital Marketing Mentor for a second round, and this time she's talking about the intersection of AI strategy and executive content, two elements of content marketing that are transforming consumer trust and loyalty.Since Episode 62, Purna has expanded her role at LinkedIn to Applied AI Strategy Lead, and she brings that lens to a conversation about why human storytelling has never been more valuable. Plus, she details how AI fits into the equation without replacing the voice behind it.Episode Highlights:Purna shares why the rise of AI has made human storytelling more valuable, not less, and what the salary data on executive content roles actually signals about where the industry is heading.This discussion uncovers specific stats behind well-executed founder-led marketing: more leads, larger deal sizes, and faster pipeline when executives show up consistently.Purna shares three executive story types that work across all stages of the buyer journey, from completely unaware to ready to buy.She gives insights into extracting high-quality content from a time-strapped executive without asking them to write a single word.Purna revisits a topic she shared in her previous episode with Danny, diving deeper into why repurposing content isn't repetitive, and why reformatting content across channels is both an instructional design principle and a practical reach strategy.Episode Links: Episode 62 with Purna Virji: The Queen of Content SolutionsPurna on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/purnavirjiHigh Impact Content Marketing: AmazonFounder-Led Sales and Marketing Never Ends (Playbook): Download on LinkedInSend us Fan MailFollow The Digital Marketing Mentor:Website and Blog: thedmmentor.comInstagram: @thedmmentorLinkedin: @thedmmentorYouTube: @thedmmentorInterested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family:Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations.ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business's digital marketing strategy.

Elyrea sells a kind of tour no traveler would think to search for, and Jean-Vladimir Deniau built the whole company around that fact.Jean-Vladimir Deniau is the founder of Elyrea, a French company that builds character-based immersive performances for the tourism market. The format is specific: a professional actor embodies a historical figure, Coco Chanel near Place Vendôme, Hemingway around Montparnasse, a GI on Omaha Beach, and walks a small group through that figure's neighborhood telling the story of their life. Deniau does not call himself a tour operator. He calls Elyrea a "Lego brick" that DMCs and tour operators build into the experiences they sell. The company has 15 of these performances running, almost all in France, and there is a structural problem at the center of it: nobody knows to ask for a tour with Coco Chanel, so the business cannot wait for B2C search demand. That one fact shapes how Elyrea picks its characters, how it sells, and how it funds itself.Mitch and Deniau cover the business behind the tours. Why Elyrea sells to the trade first and keeps its strongest tours off OTAs entirely. The capital-light model that built 15 tours with no outside investor. The four design rules behind a 90-minute performance, starting with the claim that you win or lose the audience in the first minute. And the recruitment problem of training an actor who learns the whole show, performs twice, and quits because the street is not the theater. Deniau also names the advice he would give any operator building an emotional experience: stay true to the place, do not overplay it, and keep the technology out of the way.Resources:Elyrea: elyrea.comLive actor booking for trade partners: elyrea.com/booking"The Colossus of Marousi" by Henry Miller, the travel book Deniau cites as the original spark

How much business are you losing simply because you're not staying in consistent contact with your audience? Most companies don't have a sales problem—they have a follow-up problem. And follow-up isn't about chasing people…it's about staying top of mind with value, relevance, and consistency. That's why my interview with Smita Wadhawan, CMO of Constant Contact, on the THINK Business – What Are You Good At? series hit on a hard truth—consistency is the new marketing advantage. Here are 5 takeaways that stood out: ✅ Mindshare → Market Share People can't buy from you if they forget you exist. Marketing isn't optional—it's oxygen. ✅ Consistency builds trust Trust isn't built in a moment—it's built in the follow-up moments people rarely do. ✅ Simple wins Customers don't want clever. They want clear. They want fast. They want relevant. ✅ Start now—then scale Stop overthinking platforms, funnels, or brand perfection. Start small. Ship. Learn. Improve. ✅ AI is here to help, not replace Use AI to automate repetitive work—so you can stay human where it matters most.   Smita Wadhawan Verma Global Chief Marketing Officer | Top 50 CMO | PayPal | Intuit | GoDaddy | Visa | SaaS | HealthTech | FinTech Award-winning Chief Marketing Officer with experience at GoDaddy, PayPal, Intuit, VISA, and SimplePractice — across SMB/consumer, SaaS, HealthTech, and FinTech. Global teams and global leadership at EcoVadis. Scaled and led businesses from a mid-size company to a $32B established brand, with budgets up to $175M. Expertise in growth marketing, product marketing, B2B and B2C marketing, lifecycle marketing, PR and comms. Smita has built and led teams of 150+ people in highly matrixed, cross-functional organizations across the US, Europe, Africa, Japan and India. She has partnered with top agencies like Koto, Instrument, Razorfish, TBWA, Highwire PR — and managed award-winning internal creative teams. Under Smita's leadership, her teams have won Digiday Awards and several Webby Award nominations. Smita is well known as a culture champion and recognized as a highly influential and inclusive C-Suite leader who can inspire teams to deliver outstanding results. Recognized as a 2024 Top 50 CMO in the US. Connect with Jon Dwoskin: Twitter: @jdwoskin Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.dwoskin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejondwoskinexperience Website: https://jondwoskin.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jondwoskin Email: jon@jondwoskin.com Get Jon's Book: The Think Big Movement: Grow your business big. Very Big! Connect with Jeff Gunsberg:Website: https://title-connect.com Connect with Smita Wadhawan:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smitawadhawan/ *E - explicit language may be used in this podcast.

John Horn is the CEO of StubGroup, a digital advertising agency and a premier Google ad agency. Subgroup has helped over 2000 clients, across 15k campaigns, with their paid ads and suspension issues. They have generated over half a billion dollars in revenue for their clients across many different verticals including ecommerce, lead generation, B2B, B2C, local services, and more. Connect with Jon Dwoskin: Twitter: @jdwoskin Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.dwoskin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thejondwoskinexperience/ Website: https://jondwoskin.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jondwoskin/ Email: jon@jondwoskin.com Get Jon's Book: The Think Big Movement: Grow your business big. Very Big! Connect with John Horn:Website: www.stubgroup.com X: https://twitter.com/stubgroup Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stubgroupadvertising/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnjhorn1/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StubGroup/     *E - explicit language may be used in this podcast.

These episodes of #thePOZcast, live from Transform 2026 in Las Vegas, are proudly brought to you by our friends at PIN. AI recruiting tools that automate candidate sourcing, screening, and scheduling across 850M+ profiles. Built for recruiters, agencies, and hiring teams. Learn more and check out a demo:  https://www.pin.com/book-a-demo?via=adam-posner Thanks for listening, and please follow us on Insta @NHPTalent and www.youtube.com/thePOZcast For all episodes, please check out www.thePOZcast.com   TAKEAWAYS:  1. Full Disconnection on Leave Is a Culture Signal, Not a Personal Choice Ariana's ability to fully disconnect during five months of maternity leave wasn't just personal discipline — it was enabled by a company culture that explicitly supports and expects it. Greenhouse has a caregiver community, respects the whole person, and understands that genuine recovery and presence during leave leads to a better return. Companies that say they support leave but create implicit pressure to stay connected are signaling something important about how they see their employees. 2. Institutional Knowledge Is the Best Return-to-Work Advantage What made Ariana's return from leave smooth wasn't a structured onboarding plan — it was nearly 11 years of context. She knew the Q4 rhythms, the relationships, the unwritten rules. For companies managing returning employees, this is a reminder that the investment in long tenure pays dividends at the most vulnerable moments. 3. The Candidate Experience Has to Be Half the Product Greenhouse's mission — make hiring work for everyone — isn't just a brand statement. It's a product design imperative that extends to the job seeker experience, not just the recruiter experience. In a market that is genuinely brutal for candidates right now, companies and platforms that design for both sides of the hiring equation will win trust from both. 4. Dream Job Signals Cut Through AI-Generated Noise Greenhouse's My Greenhouse platform — which lets candidates designate companies as dream job targets and signal genuine intent once a month — is a direct response to the noise problem created by AI mass-application tools. In a world where volume no longer equals signal, deliberate intent becomes the most valuable data point in the funnel. 5. The Market Is Shifting Toward Behavioral Hiring Over Background Matching Greenhouse is redesigning its own interview architecture around specific defined behaviors — 'make good decisions fast,' 'invent the future,' 'be entrepreneurial' — rather than experience checkboxes. The implication for candidates: the ability to demonstrate how you think and decide is becoming more important than where you've worked. Portfolio career holders take note. 6. The STAR Method Is Fully Gameable — and Everyone Knows It Traditional structured behavioral interviewing was built for a world where candidates had to recall and articulate their own experiences. AI second-screen tools have made that world obsolete. Real-time answer coaching during live interviews is happening right now, at scale, and the recruiting teams that haven't redesigned their interview approach for this reality are operating on outdated assumptions. 7. AI Offense and AI Defense Is the Most Useful Interview Framework in This Series Ariana's team ran a workshop that split into two tracks: AI defense (how do we design questions that are more AI-resistant and require genuine human judgment to answer?) and AI offense (how do we explicitly screen for AI mindset, curiosity, and capability as a positive qualification?). Both are necessary. Neither alone is sufficient. This framework is immediately replicable. 8. 'How Do You Use AI Personally?' Is One of the Most Revealing Interview Questions Right Now Asking candidates how they use AI in their personal or professional lives — not to catch them using it wrong, but to surface genuine curiosity and self-direction — is becoming one of the sharpest signals available in an interview. The candidates who have been experimenting, iterating, and developing their own AI workflows are showing you something important about how they'll operate in roles that don't yet have defined playbooks. 9. Portfolio Careers Need Behavioral Framing to Land Adam's candid share about feeling 'unhirable' after 10 years running his own business is a common experience for independent professionals re-entering corporate environments. Ariana's coaching: the shift toward behavioral hiring is actually an advantage for portfolio career holders — because the behaviors that make someone successful in an entrepreneurial context (making decisions fast, inventing solutions, operating without consensus) are exactly the behaviors companies are now explicitly hiring for. 10. The Best Conference Value Is the Hallway Conversation, Not the Session Ariana didn't attend a single formal session at Transform and still left with more actionable intelligence than most attendees. The real value — for her and for the industry — is in the one- to-one conversations between practitioners comparing notes on what they're actually building and experimenting with. Conference organizers should design more space for that. Attendees should prioritize it.   CHAPTERS:  00:00 – Welcome Back: Motherhood & the Return Adam reunites with Ariana Moon — last seen 8 months pregnant — and gets the update on baby Leo, sleep training, and how a strong support village made the first year survivable. 02:30 – Taking 5 Months of Leave — Fully Disconnected What it looks like to actually step away: Greenhouse's culture of respecting leave, why full disconnection is both supported and expected, and why Ariana has zero guilt about it. 05:30 – The Timing Was Right: Checking Out During the AI Gold Rush Her leave coincided with peak AI hype saturation. Stepping away while the market worked itself out turned out to be exactly the right call. 07:30 – Coming Back After Leave: The Real Reimmersion Story How 11 years of institutional knowledge, strong internal relationships, and knowing exactly what Q4 looks like made the return smoother than it would have been for anyone else. 10:00 – What It Means to Recruit at a Recruiting Platform The unusual dual role: running a great recruiting team while also serving as a live feedback loop for the product and staying connected to how the market is evolving. 13:00 – The Candidate Experience Nobody Talks About Enough Greenhouse's mission — make hiring work for everyone — and why it has to extend beyond the recruiter to the candidate side. The market is brutal for job seekers right now. 15:30 – My Greenhouse: The Dream Job Feature How Greenhouse's B2C platform lets candidates designate dream job companies, signal genuine intent once a month, and give recruiters a quality signal in a market flooded with AI-generated noise. 18:30 – Portfolio Careers & How to Position Them Adam gets personal about feeling 'unhirable' after 10 years of entrepreneurship — and Ariana's coaching on positioning portfolio skills in a behavioral hiring market. 21:30 – Behavioral Hiring: The Shift Toward Interpersonal Skills How Greenhouse designs interviews around defined behaviors — 'make good decisions fast,' 'invent the future' — and why the shift toward behaviors over background may be the biggest structural change in recruiting right now. 24:30 – AI Killed the STAR Method. Now What? Traditional structured interviewing is fully gameable by AI second-screen tools. Ariana's team ran a workshop to directly confront this — and built something new. 27:00 – AI Offense and AI Defense: The Framework The two-part workshop: AI defense (questions that require genuine human judgment) and AI offense (explicitly testing for AI mindset and capability as a positive qualification). 30:00 – Testing for Curiosity as a Hiring Signal Why "how do you use AI personally?" is becoming one of the most revealing interview questions — surfacing genuine curiosity and self-direction rather than catching people out. 32:30 – What's Lighting Ariana Up at Transform 2026 Ariana didn't attend a single session — and that's the point. The value of Transform is the one-to-one conversations about what people are actually doing, building, and experimenting with right now. 35:00 – Connect With Ariana & the Vegas Advocate Where to find Ariana on LinkedIn — and her unexpectedly enthusiastic case for why Las Vegas is actually a great place to live.