Podcasts about B2B

What if the confidence to grow your consulting business could open doors in the rest of your life? That's what happened to Juliana Spaven, a brand strategy consultant who used her voice in a whole new way... and ended up modeling. In this episode, we talk about visibility, reinvention, and the surprising ripple effects of owning what makes you exceptional.   ---   When you're ready to break through to the next revenue level in your consulting business, here are three ways I can help you.   1. Connect with me on LinkedIn for weekly insights on landing better clients and charging for the value you deliver.   2. Get your copy of my Referrals on Repeat guide, and learn five strategies you can implement straight away to take control of the referral process and attract more of the right inquiries – no more sitting around hoping they'll happen. Get your free copy at smartgetspaid.com/referrals   3. Build a repeatable sales and marketing system that gets you better clients, better rates, and less stress in your consulting business. If you're ready to stop leaving your success to chance, learn the proven system women consultants are using to attract ideal clients consistently and get paid for their value. Plus, you'll get help from me and my team every step of the way.   If you've been in business for at least two years, you're making at least $120k, and you want to implement a system that's designed specifically for B2B consulting businesses, email team@smartgetspaid.com with "BREAKTHROUGH" in the subject line and I'll get you the details.

Stocks are soaring but TikTok is calling recession. The hosts examine viral recession indicators vs hard economic data to see if we're heading for downturn or if it's just vibes-based panic in 2025.We're diving deep into the disconnect between market performance and recession fears. They explore viral TikTok recession indicators, analyze Q2 earnings data, examine job market softening, and discuss whether we're actually heading into recession territory or if it's all just economic anxiety amplified by social media vibes.Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com## Notes:- 33% recession probability down from 45% in April- S&P 500 earnings grew 11.8% year over year in Q2 - Only 73,000 jobs added in July vs expectations- May/June job numbers revised down by 258,000- Energy sector earnings dropped 18-19% in Q2- 92% probability of September Fed rate cutTimestamps:00:00 Start00:32 Wen resesh bruv?03:54 Recession Pop Music10:48 White Lady Dasher12:49 Data nerd time24:56 Mag 7 earnings26:49 Unemployment31:34 Consumer credit 33:44 What's a humble central bank to do?-

Jermaine Cheathem, an entrepreneur in the equipment finance niche, discusses his journey from starting in the industry to building a successful brokerage. He emphasizes the importance of leveraging networks and relationships, particularly with equipment sellers, to secure deals. Jermaine has traveled extensively, working from various countries, and highlights the challenges and benefits of a remote, lifestyle business. He advocates for the four-hour workday and shares his philosophy on entrepreneurship, stressing the need for resilience and self-reliance. Jermaine also touches on the supernatural aspects of human existence, suggesting that being human itself is a supernatural experience.   Most people hunt customers. Jermane Cheathem hunts the sellers who already have them. In this punchy, practical episode, he breaks down how niching down into equipment finance—then partnering with dealers—creates leveraged B2B deal flow you can run from a laptop. We dig into choosing a niche using your actual relationships, an email‑only operating cadence, real‑world commission math, and the mindset to keep going when entrepreneurship gets lonely. You'll hear: A dealer‑first go‑to‑market that beats cold‑calling end users Network audit → niche selection → repeatable deal flow Example numbers for monthly‑payment financing and broker commissions Remote‑work systems that keep a U.S. brokerage moving while you travel Freedom vs. safety: the honest psychology behind building on your own Guest: Jermane Cheathem — CreatorsLearn.com Hosts: Law Smith & Eric Readinger (ROI Podcast®) Enjoy the show? Follow, rate, and share with a friend trying to find their niche.   ZUPYAK.COM  → promo code  → SWEAT   Incogni data removal -> https://incogni.cello.so/eH9eYTfygQy Flodesk email marketing - you get 50% off by hitting this link https://flodesk.com/c/AL83FF   by SQUARESPACE website builder → https://squarespacecircleus.pxf.io/sweatequity by CALL RAIL call tracking → https://bit.ly/sweatequitycallrail by LINKEDIN PREMIUM - 2 months free! → https://bit.ly/sweatequity-linkedin-premium

Clay Unicorn is the Founder and former CEO of Unicorn.Love, a venture studio that empowers entrepreneurs to build, scale, and exit high‑impact B2B companies. Under his leadership, Unicorn reached a $1.25 billion valuation and became known for its innovations in AI, technology, and venture development. Clay has been a consultant for some of the biggest names in tech: Google, Samsung, Facebook, and Comcast. He has played a pivotal role in launching and scaling ventures like Bowery, iPondr, and ReVision — turning bold ideas into multimillion‑dollar successes. In this episode… What do you do when your hard-earned agency falls apart, a big exit deal collapses overnight, and your business partner's investments freeze assets? How do you recover with integrity — and even reshape your company into something more mission-driven? Clay Unicorn confronts these challenges head‑on, sharing actionable lessons from building and rebuilding multiple ventures. He emphasizes the importance of surrounding yourself with the right partners, recognizing the warning signs of misaligned visions, and protecting both your capital and emotional bandwidth. Clay recounts his journey from early candy hustles and agency launches to creating Unicorn.Love, an ethical venture studio, illustrates how failure can fuel smarter decisions, how small MVPs can lead to multimillion‑dollar funding rounds, and why embracing AI and calculated risk is essential for scaling ventures. Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Clay Unicorn, Founder of Unicorn.Love, about transforming a traditional development agency into an ethical venture studio. Clay explores his evolution from selling candy as a kid to running conscious studio-backed startups. He discusses Scaffald, investing in Bowery, navigating AI shifts, brick‑and‑mortar lessons, and building ventures with founder-aligned equity while creating systemic value.

Most B2B business owners I talk to are stuck in the marketing maze. They're guessing and testing random lead gen tactics with no real plan, just hoping something finally works. And that guesswork, it's exhausting. Today, I'm going to help you get off that hamster wheel and start focusing on what actually drives results. >>> Here are 4 ways we can help you reach your revenue goals faster...#1 Unlock the full potential of your marketing engine. We'll provide you and your team with the direction, insights, and tools necessary to excel in the complex landscape of modern marketing. - Marketing Advisor On Call#2 Discover the marketing strategies & tactics that will guide your next quarter and unlock explosive growth in 90 minutes. - Quick-Start Marketing Strategy Game Plan#3 Discover a tailor-made strategy for unprecedented growth to transform your marketing in 30 days. - Unlock Your Growth Opportunities#4 If you need guidance on the most effective direction for your marketing, then schedule a call with us today! - Get Your Free Discovery Call Now

Most B2B CEOs never spent time in marketing. Fewer than one in five ever held the title. Which explains a lot. From undervalued budgets to misaligned expectations, marketing often gets boxed in as a support function instead of the growth driver it is. If marketing is going to lead, CEOs need to understand what it can really do and what to look for in a CMO who's built to deliver.  To set the record straight, Drew taps three marketing leaders, Rebecca Stone (formerly Cisco), Grant Johnson (Chief Outsiders), and Jan Deahl (Drake Star), to reframe how CEOs see marketing. It is a strategic engine built to shape markets, guide buyers, and drive growth. Together, they make the case for what's possible when CMOs are empowered to lead. In this episode:  Rebecca on why CMOs need to think and act like a CEO  Grant on how mismatched expectations set CMOs up to fail  Jan on aligning marketing's role to company stage and goals  Plus:  The key questions every CEO should ask their CMO  What to fix when marketing is stuck in order-taking mode  How smart onboarding sets CMOs up to lead  Why growth depends on more than just demand gen  Tune in for signals that shift how your CEO sees marketing.  For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/ To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

Tivemos o prazer de receber Carlos Eduardo Sedeh, CEO da Megatelecom, que recentemente integrou a prestadora Samm e construiu uma estrutura de fibra óptica com mais de 7 mil km, cobrindo 161 municípios. Sob sua liderança, a empresa se transformou em um verdadeiro hub de conectividade e data center edge B2B. Além de liderar o setor, o Carlos é vice-presidente da TelComp, influenciando políticas públicas essenciais para o mercado de telecom. Neste episódio, vamos entender como a Samm está conduzindo a expansão regional, integrando tecnologia de ponta (como a parceria com a Equinix), e desenhando um futuro de alta performance para o setor.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of The Ross Simmonds Show, Ross sits down with Brayden Young, co-founder & CEO of Slash Experts and original co-founder of Sendoso, to break down what it takes to cut through the noise in B2B sales and marketing. Brayden reflects on his entrepreneurial journey, the evolution of go-to-market strategies for 2025 and beyond, and how AI is reshaping the landscape for marketers, founders, and sales teams. They dive into personal philosophies, balancing family with drive, using strategic gifting as a growth lever, and how connecting customers with prospects is transforming the sales cycle. If you're in the trenches of building or scaling a company, this episode is packed with invaluable lessons. Key Takeaways and Insights: 1. Human conversations > traditional sales decks: Connecting real customers with prospects accelerates trust and conversions. 2. Strategic gifting is about thoughtful timing, not splashy spend. Think: handwritten notes, trigger-based outreach, and lifecycle communications. 3. Reviews are great, but community-driven insights and live interactions are the future of software buying. 4. AI is shifting go-to-market: fewer people, more productivity. Understanding how to use AI is now table stakes. 5. Success is relative: It's not just revenue — it's freedom, fulfillment, and building something that lasts 6. Brayden's Personal Frameworks “Don't build in a silo” — Always validate with customers before building product. “Three People Rule” — The only people he calls for big advice: wife, mom, co-founder. “Suck It Up or Go for a Walk” — His motivational speeches with his wife. First-time employee comp tip: Pick a high milestone and negotiate for equity or secondaries if you hit it. Resources & Tools:

TrulySignificant.com presents Shane H. Tepper. He is a creative director, content strategist, and early leader in the emerging field of Large Language Model Optimization (LLMO). He helps brands improve visibility, accuracy, and narrative control across AI-native platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.With more than 15 years of experience spanning film, advertising, and B2B technology, Tepper operates at the intersection of storytelling and artificial intelligence. He builds content systems designed to be cited by the very models shaping how people search, compare, and make decisions in today's AI-driven world.His recent work includes authoring a foundational white paper on LLMO, leading AI discoverability audits, and designing structured content frameworks optimized for machine ingestion and real-world performance. He advises organizations on LLMO strategy, AI-native content development. Visit www.retina.media.com or email Shane directly with questions Shanehtepper@gmail.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/success-made-to-last-legends--4302039/support.

Wispr Flow has transformed voice dictation from a frustrating novelty into a seamless productivity tool that users trust implicitly. With a recent $30 million Series A led by Menlo Ventures, the company has achieved remarkable product-market fit through 90% word-of-mouth growth and users who share the product organically without prompting. In this episode, I sat down with Tanay Kothari, CEO and Co-Founder of Wispr Flow, to learn about the company's pivot from hardware to software, their approach to manufacturing viral moments, and their strategy for competing against tech giants with distribution advantages. Topics Discussed: Wispr Flow's pivot from building voice assistant hardware to focusing on voice-to-text software The company's unique approach to achieving sub-half-second latency and exceptional accuracy Building viral growth through manufactured "aha moments" and exceptional user onboarding Competing against OpenAI and Apple through speed of execution and user experience focus The challenge of building for mainstream users beyond Silicon Valley's tech-savvy population Strategic decisions around cutting non-essential growth channels to maintain focus GTM Lessons For B2B Founders: Manufacture viral moments through obsessive user research: Tanay personally onboarded the first 500 users via Google Meet, watching their facial expressions, mouse movements, and emotional reactions in real-time. This intensive observation allowed him to identify and systematically reproduce moments of user delight. He explained, "Find the things that repeatedly create delight, make sure that never dies, and then find the other places where there's confusion and kind of take them out." B2B founders should invest heavily in understanding the micro-moments of user experience, as these compound into organic growth at scale. Leverage authentic product usage by your target buyers during fundraising: When Wispr Flow raised their Series A, every VC in Silicon Valley was already using the product daily. Tanay noted, "I didn't need to convince them about why the product was good. All I had to tell them about if you believe why Whisper is good today, here is where we can take the company." This eliminated the typical product demonstration phase and shifted conversations to vision and execution capability. B2B founders should prioritize getting their product into the hands of potential investors as users before ever pitching them as investors. Build anti-fragile technology that improves as the industry evolves: Rather than competing directly with AI model capabilities, Wispr Flow built infrastructure that gets better as underlying AI models improve. Tanay instructs his team: "If at some point that you feel afraid of a new model launching, you're doing something wrong." This philosophy led them to focus on latency, user experience, and integration rather than competing on raw AI performance. B2B founders in AI-adjacent spaces should identify where they can create value that compounds with industry improvements rather than being displaced by them. Cut aggressively to maintain focus during rapid growth: Despite conventional wisdom, Wispr Flow eliminated SEO efforts entirely because "no one is searching for voice dictation" and most people don't know the technology has reached usability thresholds. Tanay applies an extreme 80/20 rule: "You can cut the 80% of the things that are not giving you the results... You find a new 20% that's going to give you 80% more results and you can just keep doing that again and again." B2B founders should regularly audit their activities and ruthlessly eliminate even "best practices" that don't align with their specific growth dynamics. Design for mainstream adoption beyond early adopters: While most AI tools target Silicon Valley technologists, Tanay identified that 95% of the population represents the real market opportunity. He noted these users "end up being your most loyal users" because they have less churn and higher lifetime value than tech-savvy early adopters. B2B founders should resist the temptation to only build for sophisticated users and instead consider how their product works for less technically proficient buyers who may represent larger market segments.   //   Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.  www.GlobalTalent.co   //   Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM 

James MillsFrom startup to scale-up: Coaching finance pros to build thriving businesses with AI toolsI've grown my sales dramatically. When I first started in the industry I inherited a 2million dollar territory and 2 clients, in the span of a couple years I transformed that into a 105 million dollar territory and 275 clients. After some distribution changes within the company, I opted to go off on my own to work with financial advisors on coaching them on how to work with their clients. Sales is an art and a science; one part personality and two parts strategy. A good business plan is knowing who to target, why you're worth their time, how you plan to go to market, and what obstacles will you face. Not only do I bring value to my clients in B2B sales by teaching them insights like this, but I have leveraged this in my own life to achieve sustainable scalable results. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is your CRM really driving revenue growth, or just storing notes no one reads?In this episode of Around the Horn in Wholesale Distribution, hosts Kevin Brown and Tom Burton pull back the curtain on how AI-enabled customer intelligence platforms like LeadSmart Channel Cloud™ are transforming sales enablement, workflow automation, and decision-making in distribution. You'll hear fresh economic insights, a candid look at tariff strategy, and why agentic AI workflows could be the future of competitive advantage in B2B.What You'll Learn:Why redefining “CRM” as a Customer Enablement Tool changes adoption rates and sales resultsHow to prepare your organization for agentic AI workflows by codifying your processesThe economic signals driving the Fed's next move and what that means for distributorsHow tariff extensions create hidden opportunities for future-proofing distribution supply chainsWhy AI policies are as important as HR policies in protecting your businessEpisode Highlights:04:15 – Why Kevin thinks it's time to rebrand CRM for the modern salesforce13:35 – Breaking down the PPI spike and its tariff-driven impact on inflation22:48 – The overlooked advantage of the U.S.–China tariff extension for supply chain planning33:12 – Agentic AI workflows: what they are and how B2B can catch up to B2C44:50 – Build vs. buy: deciding between low-code prototypes and industry-specific platforms55:19 – The silent AI adoption wave—why 40% of employees use banned tools at work01:04:38 – Balancing innovation with risk in AI implementation01:21:05 – Closing reflections and calls-to-action for distributorsTools, Frameworks, or Strategies Mentioned:LeadSmart Channel Cloud™ – AI-enabled CRM + customer intelligence platform for distributorsHidden Revenue Detection – uncovering untapped sales opportunities in ERP and eCommerce dataCustomer Enablement Tool (CET) – reframing CRM as a proactive sales assetAgentic AI Workflows – autonomous, decision-making processes powered by AIFuture-Proofing Distribution – strategies for mitigating supply chain and economic risksClosing Insight:“Data and workflows are the key readiness factors for adopting AI, you can't automate what you haven't defined.” – Tom BurtonLeave a Review: Help us grow by sharing your thoughts on the show.Learn more about the LeadSmart AI B2B Sales Platform: https://www.leadsmarttech.com/ Join the conversation each week on LinkedIn Live.Want even more insight to the stories we discuss each week? Subscribe to the Around The Horn Newsletter.You can also hear the podcast and other excellent content on our YouTube Channel.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok.

Carlos Moreira da Silva brings a rare blend of insight: a deep B2B operator, a specialist investor at 33N, and a leading force behind Europe's cybersecurity coordination efforts through ECSO. Together, we explore why cybersecurity is Europe's opportunity to lead, not follow, in the new geopolitical tech stack.Here's what's covered:01:15 What is ECSO and Why It Matters for European Cyber03:30 Mapping the Cybersecurity Investment Gap: US vs Israel vs Europe05:20 The Tech Stack Power Shift: From Cloud to AI, and Why Security Must Catch Up07:30 Europe's Fragmentation Problem—Or Its Untapped Advantage?09:45 The Role of ECSO in Building a Unified European Cyber Strategy11:45 Why Europe Needs Specialist Cybersecurity VCs15:30 What Other Movements Can Learn from the ECSO Playbook20:00 Cybercrime vs Cyber Spending: The 10 Trillion Dollar Wake-Up Call21:30 Building Global Champions in Cyber (Not Just Regional Winners)25:00 What Startups Should Look for in a Cyber VC (Beyond the Check)26:30 Invest for Cyber @ SuperVenture: Why the LP Community Should Pay Attention28:00 Where Cyber Ends and Defense Begins—Drawing Ethical Boundaries at 33N

In this episode, we explore common pitfalls B2B marketers face in demand generation. We discuss the importance of aligning marketing efforts with revenue goals, the nuances of defining an ideal client profile, and the critical role of buyer behavior in campaign success.Watch the full episode for actionable insights and strategies to refine your marketing approach and drive meaningful business outcomes.00:00 Introduction02:15 Mistake 1: Optimizing for MQLs Over Revenue05:30 The Importance of Business Outcomes08:45 Aligning Marketing Metrics with Business Goals12:00 Mistake 2: Static ICP Definitions15:20 Behavioral Targeting in Marketing18:40 Reviewing and Auditing ICP Definitions22:00 Mistake 3: Launching Ads Without Research25:30 Creating Effective Ad Copy28:50 The Role of Buyer Research in Ad Campaigns32:10 Conclusion

Bryan Murphy, CEO of Smartling, confronts a $40 billion industry stuck in the slow lane, the world of translation. Most companies still handle translations like it's 1999: manual, expensive, and painfully slow. Bryan saw AI as the game changer that could rewrite the rules, but integrating it wasn't a walk in the park. He shares how Smartling harnessed AI to not just cut costs and speed up translation but to finally boost quality close to human-level precision without losing control over brand voice or nuance. Yet, making this leap meant upheaval: reorganizing teams, hiring AI experts, and establishing ruthless R&D discipline to separate winning ideas from distractions. Thanks for tuning in! New episodes of Topline drop every Sunday and Thursday. Don't miss GTM2025 — the only B2B tech conference exclusively for GTM executives. Elevate your 2026 strategy and join us from September 23 to 25 in Washington, D.C. Use code TOPLINE for 10% off your GA ticket. Stay ahead with the latest industry developments and emerging go-to-market trends with Topline Newsletter by Asad Zaman. Subscribe today. Tune in to The Revenue Leadership Podcast every Wednesday, where host Kyle Norton talks with real revenue operators and dives deep into what it takes to succeed as a modern revenue leader. You're invited! Join the free Topline Slack channel to connect with 600+ revenue leaders, share insights, and keep the conversation going beyond the podcast! Key chapters: (00:00) - Introduction to Bryan Murphy and Defining the Translation Challenge (02:30) - The Hidden $40B Translation Market and Its Untapped Potential (04:00) - The Evolution of Translation Services: From Manual to AI-Driven Automation (06:00) - Early AI in Translation: Faster and Cheaper, But Not Yet Better (08:00) - Defining Quality: The MQM Standard and Bridging AI-Human Gaps (09:20) - Human-in-the-Loop AI: Boosting Translator Productivity Tenfold (10:30) - Full AI Translation Approaching Human Grade: The Game Changer (11:45) - The Future Mix: Human Expertise vs. Automated Scale in AI Translation (13:00) - Unlocking Market Expansion Through Improved SEO and Digital Footprint (15:00) - The Moment of Truth: Recognizing GPT's Impact and Rolling Out Rapid Innovation (16:30) - Founder's Speed: Breaking Plans and Aligning Teams for Urgent AI Adoption (18:00) - Overcoming Organizational Challenges: From Excitement to Structured Execution (20:00) - R&D Reimagined: Timeboxing Experiments With Clear Metrics to Avoid Spinning Wheels (22:00) - The Discipline of “Customer-First” in AI Development and Roadmapping (24:00) - Leadership Lessons: Listening Without Losing Vision Amidst Painful Change (26:00) - Winning Customer Trust: Betting On Proofs of Concept Against Skeptics (28:00) - Personal Insights: Favorite Leadership Books and the Role of Intellectual Curiosity (29:30) - Staying Sharp: Daily Reading and Customer Conversations as Strategic Tools (31:00) - Managing Stress and Longevity: The Art of Mental Compartmentalization for Founders (32:30) - Final Thoughts: The Unseen Power of Humility in Leadership and Continual Learning (33:00) - Wrap-up and Invitation to Follow Smartling's AI-Empowered Evolution

In a world full of polished content, authenticity is what truly cuts through.That's the secret behind Armchair Expert, the wildly popular podcast from Dax Shepard that mixes candid conversation with crowd-sourced chaos. In this episode, we unpack the marketing insights behind it with special guest Derek Weeks, Chief Marketing Officer at Katalon.Together, we explore what B2B marketers can learn from building real connections, inviting community participation, and letting go of perfection to create content people genuinely trust and engage with.About our guest, Derek WeeksDerek Weeks is the Chief Marketing Officer at Katalon. He is a driven, results-oriented CMO with a proven ability to achieve multiple successful exits, build and execute bold go-to-market strategies for each stage of business growth, and demonstrate solid returns on marketing investments. Accomplished at building high-performing teams, driving quality marketing-sourced pipeline, developing massive communities, and collaborating with sales teams to meet business targets.What B2B Companies Can Learn From the Armchair Expert Podcast:Vulnerability builds trust and attention. Derek Weeks emphasizes that Armchair Expert's standout quality is its authentic vulnerability, which creates a powerful emotional connection with listeners. He explains, “It's really about being human… It builds an emotional connection with your brand.” Derek draws a parallel to B2B marketing, highlighting that it's crucial to showcase real people behind the brand to forge trust.Mix long-form and short-form content strategically. Armchair Expert masterfully balances 90-minute conversations with short, snackable segments like Armchair Anonymous. Derek believes this dual-format approach is essential for B2B marketing: “That kind of mix of long and short is something that you have to play into as a marketer and realize your audience expects different things at different times.” He stresses that marketers must go deep when it matters, but also repurpose content aggressively to cater to varied audience behaviors, especially across platforms like TikTok.Empower community-generated content. Derek praises Armchair Expert for its use of community-driven content through Armchair Anonymous, where listeners share personal stories weekly. He says, “They really don't have to spend time creating content at all… believe in your community and the value that they create.” B2B marketers should harness their user-generated content to scale content creation far beyond the limits of a marketing budget.Quotes“ You have to think about what draws people to the next.  What did you do in that moment that got people to say, ‘This is worth following or paying attention to or coming back again?'  Figure out what's going to make people come back, not what makes people appear the first time.  The first time is kind of an easy win. The second time, or third time, or 10th time is the hard part.”Time Stamps[00:55]  Meet Derek Weeks, CMO at Katalon[01:23]  Why Armchair Expert?[03:01] Vulnerability and Trust in B2B[08:58]  Don't Build Campaigns, Build Conversations[13:37] The Long-Form to Short-Form Pipeline[19:05] Unfair Mindshare[21:47] What Armchair Expert Gets Right[24:01] Practical Ways to Bring Personality into B2B[27:38] Final Thoughts & TakeawaysLinksConnect with Derek on LinkedInLearn more about KatalonAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

In Today's Episode... In this conversation, Steve and Christine Van Diest share their transformative journey of redemption in their marriage, discussing the struggles they faced, the intensive counseling they underwent, and the personal growth that followed. They emphasize the importance of recognizing underlying issues, the need for open communication, and the significance of dreaming and personal fulfillment within a relationship. Their story serves as a powerful reminder of the complexities of marriage and the necessity of addressing deeper emotional wounds to foster a healthy partnership. In this conversation, Steve and Christine Van Diest share their insights on navigating relationships, communication, and personal growth. They discuss the importance of vulnerability, accountability, and community in fostering healthy relationships and overcoming challenges. They also touch on the significance of identity and self-worth, encouraging listeners to embrace their true selves and seek support in their journeys. Connect with Steve and Christine Christine's  Website Instagram Linkedin   Steve's Website Linkedin   About Steve and Christine Christine is passionate about living life to the fullest, loving her family, growing her faith in Jesus, laughing with friends, traveling, cooking, eating, speaking Spanish and empowering others to look and feel their best. Steve an entrepreneur and founder of 2 businesses in the fast-growing sleep space. The first is a franchised multi-state retail mattress concept that grew nationally to over 4 regions; the second is a B2B and B2C e-commerce natural pillow manufacturing business. He spent the first half of his career in non-profit leadership internationally with Cru that took him to live in Chile, Spain & Mexico.   Don't forget about this amazing free offer from Jordan. She put a lot of time and effort into this project to be able to offer it to you, absolutely free! Take advantage now while you can! eBook: Couples Guide to Getting on the Same Page About Money   Reminder: Subscribe, Rate & Review this podcast!   Whatever platform you are listening on, make sure to follow or subscribe & sign up for notifications for when weekly episodes drop every week! And if you feel called, please leave a rating and review. This helps us to reach more people!  JordanPendleton.com

In “The Dark Funnel Demystified: Unlocking Hidden Sales”, Joe Lynch and Jennie Malafarina, the CEO of Virago Marketing, discuss how businesses can drive measurable revenue growth by understanding and leveraging the invisible customer journey. About Jennie Malafarina Jennie Malafarina is the CEO of Virago Marketing, a Cleveland-based agency helping transportation and logistics companies turn marketing into a revenue-driving engine. Since taking the lead at Virago in 2020, she has elevated the agency's impact—guiding strategies that deliver measurable results aligned with client growth goals. With over a decade of experience in freight tech and B2B marketing, Jennie has held leadership roles at Trimble Transportation, Banyan Technology, and Transportation Insight, and has taught marketing at The University of Akron. She also co-founded FR8MVMT, a platform for innovation in trucking, and hosts the FR8 Marketing Gurus podcast. Jennie is known for aligning marketing with business strategy to drive scalable growth through demand generation, content, and sales enablement. She holds a master's degree in communication from Cleveland State University. About Virago Marketing Virago Marketing is a full-funnel marketing agency specializing in the transportation and logistics industry. We help companies align sales and marketing to drive measurable revenue growth—whether through strategic campaigns, content that converts, or complete marketing department support. Our team combines deep industry knowledge with modern marketing execution to deliver demand generation, brand awareness, and pipeline acceleration. From startups to enterprise providers, our clients rely on us to cut through the noise, clarify their message, and connect with the right audience at the right time. With flexible engagement models—from project-based work to full fractional CMO support—Virago is the partner logistics companies trust to turn marketing into a growth engine. Key Takeaways: The Dark Funnel Demystified: Unlocking Hidden Sales In “The Dark Funnel Demystified: Unlocking Hidden Sales”, Joe Lynch and Jennie Malafarina, the CEO of Virago Marketing, discuss how businesses can drive measurable revenue growth by understanding and leveraging the invisible customer journey. The "Dark Funnel" is a Reality, Not a Myth: The episode will explain what the dark funnel is—the invisible customer journey that happens before a lead officially enters the sales process. Listeners will learn how potential buyers are influenced by content, social media, and word-of-mouth without ever directly interacting with a company, and why it's crucial to understand this hidden process. Aligning Marketing with Business Strategy is Non-Negotiable: Jennie Malafarina, with her extensive experience at Virago Marketing, emphasizes that marketing isn't just about generating leads. It's a revenue-driving engine that must be directly tied to a company's overarching business and growth goals, turning it into a strategic partner rather than a cost center. Content is the Currency of the Dark Funnel: The podcast will highlight how high-quality, valuable content—from blog posts and whitepapers to podcasts and social media discussions—serves as the primary way to influence buyers in the dark funnel. Jennie will share insights on creating content that answers customer questions and builds trust long before they are ready to buy. Sales and Marketing Alignment is Key to Unlocking Hidden Sales: A central theme will be the necessity of a seamless partnership between sales and marketing teams. The episode will cover how Virago Marketing helps companies create a unified strategy where marketing generates qualified conversations and sales is equipped with the right tools and information to close deals, ensuring no opportunities from the dark funnel are lost. Industry Expertise is a Competitive Advantage: Drawing on her background in transportation and logistics, Jennie will explain why deep industry knowledge is essential for effective marketing. Virago Marketing's success lies in its ability to speak the language of its clients and their customers, allowing them to create messaging that truly resonates and cuts through the noise. Demand Generation > Lead Generation: The episode will likely differentiate between old-school lead generation and modern demand generation. Jennie will discuss how focusing on building market-wide awareness and interest (demand generation) is a more sustainable and effective long-term strategy for filling the sales pipeline, especially when considering the dark funnel. Measuring the Unmeasurable: Tracking Dark Funnel Impact: The podcast will provide practical advice on how to measure the impact of marketing efforts that don't result in immediate, trackable leads. Listeners will learn about alternative metrics and signals that indicate success in the dark funnel, such as brand mentions, website traffic trends, and engagement with un-gated content, proving the ROI of these "unseen" activities. Learn More About The Dark Funnel Demystified: Unlocking Hidden Sales Jennie Malafarina | Linkedin Virago Marketing Virago Marketing | Linkedin FR8MVMT | Linkedin FR8MVMT FR8 Marketing Gurus Podcast The Logistics of Logistics Podcast If you enjoy the podcast, please leave a positive review, subscribe, and share it with your friends and colleagues. The Logistics of Logistics Podcast: Google, Apple, Castbox, Spotify, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Tunein, Podbean, Owltail, Libsyn, Overcast Check out The Logistics of Logistics on Youtube  

In this episode of Confessions of a B2B Entrepreneur, host Jamie Pagan, from the Revenue Career Ladder podcast, speaks with Tom Hunt, founder of the B2B podcasting agency Fame. They discuss Tom's unconventional career journey, beginning with early jobs frying chips and washing dishes, which instilled a strong work ethic. The conversation traces his path through large consulting firms like Ernst & Young, and Accenture, where he learned invaluable soft skills and remote management. It then covers his entrepreneurial ventures, from a failed male leggings company to a successful SaaS business, before he finally doubled down on his passion for marketing and audience building to create Fame. This episode provides an honest and tactical look at how a non-linear career path can lead to entrepreneurial success.

Let's be real: most B2B brands are stuck on repeat. Same buzzwords, same bland websites, same tired playbooks. And in a sea of sameness, nobody stands out. So how do you make people actually care?In this episode, we sit down with Bill Macaitis, founder at SaaS CMO Pro. Bill pulls back the curtain on what's broken in B2B marketing and how to fix it. Spoiler: it's not another lead-gen campaign or cranking out more content. It's about building a brand people actually remember.If you're tired of playing it safe, this one's for you.We Also Get Into:The secret behind customer marketing that actually drives growthHow to create bold, consistent brand moments without becoming a robotWhy most marketing teams lose trust—and how to win it back

How do sports and technology go hand in hand? This week, Technology Now explores how sports teams use technology both on and off the field. We examine the history of sport analytics, and how technology is utilized to help training, find opponents' weaknesses, and even discover new talent going forwards. Matt Messick, CIO for the Dallas Cowboys who are part of Blue Star Operations Services, tells us more.This is Technology Now, a weekly show from Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Every week, hosts Michael Bird and Aubrey Lovell look at a story that's been making headlines, take a look at the technology behind it, and explain why it matters to organizations. HPE & Dallas Cowboys partnership:https://www.hpe.com/psnow/doc/a50008315enwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JD9WhsESuwE Sources:https://www.nielsen.com/news-center/2025/super-bowl-lix-makes-tv-history-with-over-127-million-viewers/https://www.forbes.com/sites/neilsahota/2024/02/05/touchdown-technology-the-rise-of-ai-in-american-football/Charles M. Mottley, (1954) Letter to the Editor—The Application of Operations-Research Methods to Athletic Games. Journal of the Operations Research Society of America 2(3):335-338. https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.2.3.335Lindsey, G. R. “Statistical Data Useful for the Operation of a Baseball Team.” Operations Research, vol. 7, no. 2, 1959, pp. 197–207. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/167156. Accessed 31 July 2025.https://invention.si.edu/invention-stories/sports-analytics-moneyballhttps://london-post.co.uk/the-analytics-revolution-in-the-nfl/

In this episode of The Rainmaking Podcast, Scott Love interviews sales performance expert and coach Walt Crosby about how introverts can excel in business development. Walt explains why introverts often have an advantage: their natural tendency toward active listening allows them to truly understand client needs, peel back the layers to uncover the emotional drivers behind decisions, and build deeper connections. He stresses the importance of mirroring tone and cadence, setting upfront agreements to control meetings, and using curiosity and empathy to create trust. Walt also outlines how skepticism—politely pushing back for clarity—can strengthen credibility and uncover real issues. The conversation explores practical strategies for networking and client engagement, especially for introverts who may feel uncomfortable initiating contact. Walt encourages professionals to develop a clear picture of their ideal client, focus on learning about others before sharing their own story, and have clear next steps after every interaction. By combining curiosity, empathy, and targeted energy, introverts can leverage their strengths to become powerful rainmakers. The episode closes with three actionable steps: define your ideal client with precision, use skepticism to clarify and avoid assumptions, and establish concrete follow-up actions after each conversation. Visit: https://therainmakingpodcast.com/ YouTube: https://youtu.be/VNT8k8ILO4U ---------------------------------------

#273 Leadership | Matt is joined by Rachel Weeks, a veteran B2B marketing leader with over 20 years of experience guiding companies through acquisitions, layoffs, and tech disruption. Rachel has led both corporate and field marketing teams and is passionate about recognition-driven team cultures that retain and empower top talent.Matt and Rachel cover:How to build a recognition strategy that actually improves retention (without needing a big budget or fancy platform)Why employee motivation dips during times of stress, layoffs, or AI disruption and what great leaders do differentlyThe role of marketing in internal culture: from branding the program to building peer-driven engagementWhether you're managing a small team or leading an entire department, this episode is packed with practical insights to help you build a culture where marketers feel valued, motivated, and ready to stay.Timestamps(00:00) - – Intro (03:48) - – Rachel's background and leadership lens (06:18) - – What actually makes a recognition program work (08:48) - – How marketing supports internal culture building (11:48) - – Recognition during org changes, stress, and funding rounds (14:48) - – The impact of AI on morale and motivation (18:18) - – What happens when recognition disappears (20:18) - – The “10 minutes by Friday” habit (22:48) - – Easy, no-budget ways to recognize team members (25:48) - – Performance-driven vs. values-driven recognition (30:53) - – Monetary vs. non-monetary rewards (and what people really want) (34:23) - – Recognition vs. pay raises: what the data says (38:23) - – Why people leave even when they're paid well (42:23) - – How to ask for (and give) better feedback (47:23) - – Using AI to create space for strategic work (54:23) - – Final thoughts on leadership, retention, and culture Send guest pitches and ideas to hi@exitfive.comJoin the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterCheck out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership***Today's episode is brought to you by Walnut.Why are we pouring all this effort into marketing just to push buyers to a “request a demo” or “contact sales” button?Come on, today's buyers don't want to talk to sales right away. They want to explore your product themselves, see how it works, and understand its value before booking a meeting.That's where Walnut comes in.Walnut empowers marketers and GTM teams to create interactive, self-guided product experiences in minutes. Embed these experiences on your site, in emails, or anywhere in your funnel to let buyers engage on their terms, from awareness to close and beyond. That's the beauty of Walnut - you're getting a platform that your sales and CS colleagues can use to showcase the product too.And the best part? You get real intent data—see which features prospects love, where they drop off, and what's actually driving pipeline. Demo Qualified Leads are the new MQL.Over 500 companies, like Adobe and NetApp, use Walnut to drive 2-3x higher website conversion rates and 7 figures in pipeline on a yearly basis. So do you want to drive more leads, shorten sales cycles, and actually show your product instead of hiding it behind another typical B2B CTA? Go check out Walnut.io. And if you tell them Dave from Exit 5 sent you, they'll build out your first demo for free!

The brand portfolio of Glanbia Performance Nutrition is the definition of a beige flag...not offensive, but not particularly inspiring or exciting either! Glanbia Plc (LON:GLB) is a multibillion-dollar global nutrition company that's currently comprised of three divisions that span across the B2B supply chain (i.e. Health & Nutrition and Dairy Nutrition) and branded products (Performance Nutrition). “Health & Nutrition” is a leading global ingredients solutions business, providing value added ingredient and flavor solutions to a range of attractive, high-growth end markets. In the first half of 2025, revenue increased by 18% YoY. Also, Glanbia announced the acquisition of Sweetmix, a Brazil-based nutritional premix and ingredients solutions business that will reportedly enable the Health & Nutrition segment to continue its Latin America expansion. “Dairy Nutrition” is the number one producer of American-style cheddar cheese in the U.S. market, but more importantly (for my audience) the number one producer of whey protein isolate…and provides a wide range of dairy and functional protein solutions. In the first half of 2025, revenue increased by 14.1%. The brands in the Glanbia Performance Nutrition portfolio include; Optimum Nutrition, BSN, think!, Isopure, Amazing Grass, and SlimFast. Glanbia Performance Nutrition had first half 2025 revenue that declined by 3.8% YoY, driven by a volume decrease of 3.5% and a price decrease of 0.3%. Additionally, I'll dive deeper into Glanbia Performance Nutrition geographical, sales channel, product format, and categorial performance. As part of the branded products portfolio part of the group-wide transformation program announced last November, Glanbia had begun the sale process on the weight management brand SlimFast (that was acquired for $350 million in 2018) and announced it signed an agreement for the sale of Body & Fit (that was acquired in 2017). So, if negative impact from non-core brands were excluded from the first half performance, GPN revenue would have only declined 1.5% YoY. Optimum Nutrition, which was the initial M&A transaction in 2008 that created the GPN division, now represents 67% of the total revenue. In the last year, Optimum Nutrition generated revenue of approximately $1.2 billion. The other largest share of GPN revenue is the healthy lifestyle brand portfolio makes up 19% and includes ISOPURE, think!, and Amazing Grass. While these healthy lifestyle portfolio brands have collectively performed relatively strong over the last several years, revenue was only up 0.6% YoY in the first half of 2025. And for the final portion of my latest first principles thinking content, I'll focus my “beige flag” assessment by examining GPN revenue by product format...and discuss the new ISOPURE protein water, think! crispy squares, and several new powdered supplement innovations like Optimum Nutrition creatine plus. I'll end with a discussion around what should be the strategic "north star" for Glanbia Performance Nutrition.

In this episode of Founder Talk, Gary Benedik shares the journey of launching Arch Advisory Group in the middle of a pandemic, growing it into a seven-figure business, and selling it to Avenica in only three years—without ever planning an exit. Now serving as Avenica's Chief Revenue Officer, Gary opens up about the timing, relationships, and cultural fit that made the acquisition possible, and why it sometimes pays to take the deal sooner rather than later.Here's what you'll learn from Gary:✅ The real story behind Arch Advisory's growth and how a chance partnership led to an acquisition offer.✅ Why cultural alignment and timing can matter more than maximizing valuation.✅ The biggest mistakes founders make when selling—and what Gary wishes he had done differently.✅ How Avenica uses data science, AI, and real-world assessments to match talent to roles with incredible accuracy.✅ Why AI will change recruiting forever, but human connection still wins.✅ How Gary's side venture, UnGhosted, is bringing transparency to the hiring process and holding recruiters accountable.✅ What it's really like transitioning from founder to executive inside an acquired company.Whether you're building to sell, thinking about acquisitions, or curious how AI is reshaping recruitment, this conversation is packed with real-world lessons you can apply right now.Where to Find Gary BenedikLinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/garybenedik/Website: https://avenica.com/If you are a B2B company that wants to build your own in-house content team instead of outsourcing your content to a marketing agency, we may be a fit for you! Everything you see in our podcast and content is a result of a scrappy, nimble, internal content team along with an AI-powered content systems and process. Check out pricing and services here: ⁠https://impaxs.com⁠Listen wherever you get your podcasts now! Youtubehttps://youtube.com/@foundertalkpodcasts?si=q0n5RBJodHz8wL-TSpotifyhttps://open.spotify.com/show/4Co5dEdzA44SrbyuxztZRh?si=1PmJ5s_LR-298Y0Gp9JJlwApple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/founder-talk-with-alex-sheridan/id1743024515Follow us on social media for the best moments of each episode: https://linkedin.com/company/founder-talk-podcasthttps://www.youtube.com/@FounderTalkPodcastshttps://www.tiktok.com/@founder.talk.podcastshttps://www.instagram.com/founder_talk_podcast

In a fast-paced fall event season, where overlapping trade shows can overwhelm even seasoned marketers, Sam Littlefield, President and CEO of Littlefield Agency, joins Technology Reseller News Publisher Doug Green to share fresh strategies for cutting through the noise. Founded in 1980 and based in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Littlefield Agency specializes in complex B2B manufacturer and financial institution marketing, earning recognition as a Top 25 B2B agency in the U.S. Littlefield stresses that while many companies lead with features, real engagement starts by identifying and communicating the customer's pain points and high-level benefits. At trade shows and in campaigns, simplification is key—one clear message beats a crowded wall of technical specs. Once prospects are deeper in the sales funnel, feature details have their place, but early messaging should focus on the “problem solved” for the buyer. The discussion dives into AI's role in modern storytelling, citing a striking example of an entirely AI-generated “Liquid Death” commercial that captured national attention. For Littlefield, AI isn't replacing agencies but is expanding creative possibilities—allowing brands to produce more content, faster, at lower cost, while still requiring human insight for strategy and authenticity. He advises companies to experiment widely with AI and digital platforms, from connected TV campaigns to imperfect but relatable social videos, in order to adapt to shifting buyer expectations, especially from millennials and Gen Z. Whether it's using AI to refine creative ideas, producing authentic short-form videos, or tightening messaging for the trade show floor, Littlefield's advice is clear: test, learn, and embrace new tools while keeping storytelling grounded in the real customer experience. For more insights, visit littlefieldagency.com.

Constrafor is revolutionizing how construction companies manage their back office operations, from procurement to embedded finance. With over $400 million in funding and 75,000 companies on their platform representing 25% of US construction companies, Constrafor has processed nearly $2 billion in invoice funding. In this episode of Category Visionaries, we sat down with Anwar Ghauche, CEO and Founder of Constrafor, to learn about the company's journey from addressing subcontractor payment challenges to building an invisible automation platform for construction's back office. Topics Discussed: Constrafor's origin story and the strategic decision to target general contractors first to access subcontractors The company's evolution from construction procurement platform to comprehensive back office automation Constrafor's approach to embedded finance and the Early Pay product for subcontractors The challenge of building in construction tech during COVID-19 and early customer acquisition strategies Distribution strategies that evolved from manual outreach to leveraging customer referrals The company's vision for invisible software that eliminates manual back office work for subcontractors Why construction remains a technology laggard and how margin compression affects software adoption GTM Lessons For B2B Founders: Turn industry warnings into competitive advantages: When mentors warned Anwar that subcontractors were hard to reach and general contractors were poor software buyers, he reframed this as validation. "Instead of taking it as a negative and kind of changing the idea, I took it as kind of validation that this is great. Just because nobody else was really going to try to go after the space." B2B founders should consider whether widespread industry skepticism might actually signal an underserved opportunity with less competition. Build an indirect go-to-market strategy when direct sales won't scale: Rather than pursuing expensive direct sales to thousands of small subcontractors, Constrafor sold to large general contractors at low margins to access their 300-400 subcontractors at once. This created a distribution channel that would have been impossible to build through traditional sales methods. B2B founders should identify intermediaries or platforms that can provide access to their true target customers at scale. Recognize product-market fit through pattern recognition: Anwar knew they had achieved product-market fit when they reached customer number 10-12 requesting exactly the same thing. "We didn't have to kind of study this whole thing from scratch as if we were dealing with it for the first time." B2B founders should look for the moment when customer requests become predictable and solutions become repeatable rather than focusing solely on revenue metrics. Prioritize sales team development over marketing in B2B: Constrafor crossed $1 million in annual revenue before building a marketing team, instead focusing on sales team structure and product-led lead generation. "We've tried to build out the product to generate the leads as opposed to having to rely on marketing for warming up the leads." B2B founders should consider whether their resources are better invested in sales infrastructure and product virality before traditional marketing efforts. Leverage unique data assets for thought leadership: With 25% market penetration, Constrafor began providing industry insights on insurance pricing, material costs, and project pipelines. This data-driven approach to content creation established them as a trusted voice in construction. B2B founders should identify unique data they collect through their platform and use these insights to build authority rather than creating generic educational content.   //   Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.  www.GlobalTalent.co   //   Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. Subscribe here: https://open.spotify.com/show/53yCHlPfLSMFimtv0riPyM 

Send us a textIn this episode we interview Paroma Sen, Head of Marketing at Astera Labs.What you'll learn in this episode:The right time for startups to invest in marketingHow to build a marketing team and structure from scratchWhy process matters—but shouldn't become rigid dogmaStrategic ways to balance insourcing and outsourcing content productionHow content can drive engagement across every stage of the sales funnelWhy video is essential for B2B marketing and how to execute it effectively

Welcome to a new episode of the EUVC Podcast, where we bring you the people and perspectives shaping venture — this time with a lens on Southeast Asia and India.This week, David and Ambika from Circle Capital sit down with Tanuja Rajah, Partner at M Venture Partners (MVP) in Singapore — an early-stage fund backing founders from day zero across Southeast Asia and India.Tanuja's path is not your typical VC story: a PhD in immunology, a startup built on trial and error, and a mission now to fund the region's next generation of founders tackling healthcare, trust, access, and affordability — without the science risk.

      We've all heard about the importance of acquiring the right people, and putting them in the right places. But, is that the whole story to building a successful business?  My experience has led me to a different conclusion. Join with me as we take a deep dive into systems or people.      Dave Kahle's goal is to provide sales leaders and small businesspeople with practical actionable ideas that can make an immediate impact on your sales performance.          Dave is a B2B sales expert, and a Christian Business thought leader.  He has authored 13 books, presented in 47 states and 11 countries and worked with over 500 sales organizations.  In these ten-minute podcasts, his unique blend of out-of-the-box thinking and practical insights will challenge and enable you to sell better, lead better and live better.        Subscribe to these ten-minute helpings of out-of-the-box inspiration, education and motivation. Dave's Substack page (CBI)  Subscribe to Dave's Newsletters  

In-person meetings will always be the gold standard for building relationships. But in B2B, you can't always sit across the table right away. That's why B2B Personalized Video Marketing is such a powerful tool—it lets people see you, hear you, and understand your perspective before the first handshake.At World Innovators, we've seen this work firsthand. When I send an email with a short, personal video, people who have never met me before click because they want to see what I have to say. That video starts a conversation—viewers hear my tone, see my face, and begin to understand that I'm here to help them succeed.In this episode, I'll cover:What makes a B2B video truly personalized.Why videos in email campaigns increase engagement.How to make sure the right people see your video.Simple ways to use AI tools like ChatGPT to plan and repurpose content.If you have a video you're proud of but aren't sure how to get it in front of your ideal audience, let's make sure the right people are clicking, watching, and starting the conversation with you.Thank you for listening, please comment below and let me know what you are doing with your B2B Personalized Video Marketing.

Steven Lubka explains "paper bitcoin summer" - how treasury companies use regulatory arbitrage to efficiently acquire Bitcoin through capital markets, creating leveraged Bitcoin exposure for investors who can't directly buy BTC.Steven Lubka, VP of Investor Relations at Nakamoto, joins us to talk about the "paper bitcoin summer" phenomenon, treasury companies as Bitcoin acquisition vehicles, regulatory arbitrage strategies, international market expansion, and why vibes matter in capital markets. We explore how companies like MicroStrategy pioneered leveraged Bitcoin strategies and what the future holds for Bitcoin financial institutions.Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com**Notes:**• Treasury companies hold ~60k BTC outside MicroStrategy• MicroStrategy trades at 2x NAV premium currently• Bitcoin has multi-trillion dollar market cap• Preferred shares cost ~9-10% for these companies• MetaPlanet proved model works internationally• Galaxy sold 80k BTC recently absorbed by marketTimestamps:00:00 Start02:19 Paper Bitcoin Summer05:25 Treasury company bull case11:27 Why now?15:12 How many companies can do this?20:22 IPO vs SPAC22:45 Why BTC & not other commodities?26:01 Market liquidity29:01 Marketing as asset34:04 Vibes Capital Markets39:46 Paper Bitcoin Maxi45:57 Nakamoto's future50:34 Amanda & Branden53:17 Wrap up-

Can You Really Spot a Great Company Before Everyone Else Does? In this episode of REady2Scale, Jeannette Friedrich sits down with Lee McCabe, Partner at Claymore Partners and former executive at Meta, Alibaba, and Expedia. With deep experience in both technology and private equity, Lee shares how to uncover high-potential companies, particularly those hiding in “boring” sectors, by focusing on digital transformation, data-driven operations, and overlooked growth levers. Whether you're an investor, operator, or advisor, you'll gain practical insights into how leading firms are building value not just through financial engineering but through smarter marketing, better tech stacks, and operational efficiency. Key Takeaways: - Why old-school industries hold untapped value:Digitally underserved sectors like B2B and consumer services are ripe for disruption and value creation. - The power of a functional tech stack: Many businesses lack proper data infrastructure. Building a connected, insight-driven stack is step one to scaling sustainably. - What digital value creation really looks like:Private equity must shift from passive ownership to active operational involvement, especially in marketing and data analytics. - Lead generation is the real business: CEOs in services should view themselves as running lead generation engines. Conversion begins with optimised websites and media spend tracked to ROI. - AI hype versus reality: AI is not yet the silver bullet for most companies. Without basic data systems in place, AI becomes a distraction rather than a solution. - How to avoid data overload: Focus on the 10 to 15 KPIs that truly drive performance instead of drowning in dashboards and vanity metrics. - The real role of marketing agencies: Good agencies tie marketing spend directly to revenue and profitability instead of reporting on clicks and impressions. - Advising today's private equity investors:Future-leading firms will use defined operational playbooks focused on digital execution from day one rather than relying on traditional financial levers. - The compound effect of small steps:Lee shares his philosophy for building an extraordinary life: take consistent action every day, even when the direction is unclear. Recommended Resources: Book: The Predator's Ball by Connie Bruck Podcast: Pivot and All-In Connect with Lee McCabe: Find him on LinkedIn Are you REady2Scale Your Multifamily Investments? Learn more about growing your wealth, strengthening your portfolio, and scaling to the next level at www.bluelake-capital.com. Credits Producer: Blue Lake Capital Strategist: Syed Mahmood Editor: Emma Walker Opening music: Pomplamoose *

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Have a question for Darrell? Text the show here.Want to turn AI and digital disruption into your competitive advantage as a service-based business? Join the MindShift Inner Circle.Want help to market, grow, and scale your business? Schedule a free strategy session.Most service-based businesses are wasting money on Facebook and Instagram ads, and they don't even realize it. After 15 years of running paid campaigns for companies in fitness, B2B services, and digital products, I've seen the same mistakes made over and over again: unclear offers, poor targeting, and strategies that simply don't work for smaller budgets.This episode breaks down the exact framework we use inside the agency to generate high-quality leads, starting with as little as $10 a day. You'll learn what actually works, what to avoid, and hear case studies that might challenge everything you've been told about Meta ads.If your Facebook or Instagram ads aren't converting, or you're just unsure what a winning campaign looks like, this conversation will give you the clarity and strategy you've been missing. Revolutionize your marketing with AI in a community of established founders and CEOs. Join the MindShift Inner Circle today and stay ahead of the curve! If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Your feedback helps us more than you know.

This podcast episode features an enlightening discussion with Jeremy Smith, the founder and CEO of Neural Voice, who elucidates the pivotal role of voice AI in enhancing the sales process within the B2B sector. Smith articulates how his innovative platform facilitates immediate engagement with potential customers, thereby significantly augmenting conversion rates and overall customer satisfaction. He shares his entrepreneurial journey, detailing both notable successes and instructive failures, including the evolution from his initial venture, Sales Compass, to the more impactful Neural Voice. Throughout our conversation, Smith emphasizes the necessity for creativity, resourcefulness, and focused priorities in the pursuit of bootstrapping a successful business, particularly in the dynamic field of artificial intelligence. Our aim is for listeners to derive actionable insights from this episode that they may promptly implement in their own business endeavors.The Frugalpreneur podcast serves as an enriching forum for aspiring entrepreneurs, where I, Sarah St. John, engage in meaningful dialogues with bootstrapped business owners who share their journeys, insights, and practical advice. In this illuminating episode, I converse with Jeremy Smith, the founder and CEO of Neural Voice, a venture at the intersection of artificial intelligence and sales. Jeremy's path to entrepreneurship is a compelling narrative of innovation, resilience, and the relentless pursuit of a vision that seeks to enhance customer interactions in the B2B space through sophisticated voice AI technology.Jeremy recounts the genesis of Neural Voice, which is rooted in his profound interest in AI and its potential to create more human-like interactions. Drawing inspiration from his affinity for science fiction, Jeremy aspired to build a product that not only serves functional purposes but also resonates on a personal level with users. He elucidates how Neural Voice enables businesses to engage with customers at critical moments, thereby streamlining the sales process and increasing conversion rates. This proactive engagement mechanism ensures that potential leads receive prompt responses, significantly improving customer satisfaction and fostering lasting relationships.Throughout our discussion, Jeremy candidly reflects on the challenges he faced while transitioning from a successful sales career to launching his startup. He shares valuable lessons learned from his previous project, Sales Compass, which, despite its lack of commercial success, equipped him with essential insights into product development and market dynamics. The episode concludes with Jeremy offering practical strategies for budding entrepreneurs, emphasizing the necessity of creativity, resourcefulness, and a focused approach to identifying market niches. He encourages listeners to explore the transformative potential of voice AI, inviting them to experience the innovative capabilities of Neural Voice firsthand. This episode encapsulates the essence of entrepreneurship, blending inspiration with actionable guidance for those embarking on their own journeys.Takeaways: The podcast episode features insights from Jeremy Smith, founder of Neural Voice, emphasizing the significance of voice AI in enhancing customer interactions. Neural Voice allows businesses to engage customers immediately through voice AI, improving conversion rates and customer satisfaction significantly. Jeremy highlights the necessity of creativity, resourcefulness, and focus for bootstrapping a business in the competitive AI landscape. The episode discusses the importance of building a minimum viable product (MVP) to attract early investors and establish a clear niche in the market. Listeners are encouraged to leverage existing tools and platforms to optimize their business operations and enhance their online presence.

Ready to rethink your approach to emotional intelligence and business growth? In this episode of Predictable B2B Success, host Vinay Koshy sits down with Ramiro Velasco, an engineer-turned-entrepreneur and expert in helping brands break into the booming Latin American e-commerce market. Ramiro's journey from a reluctant leader to co-founder at Goavance is filled with candid insights on why emotions aren't just “soft skills”—they're ROI positive and essential for driving team performance, authentic client relationships, and lasting customer loyalty. But Ramiro doesn't stop at theory. He peels back the curtain on what it takes for foreign brands to succeed in Latin America, where cultural nuances can make or break a market entry. From wrestling with self-driven leadership to hands-on lessons about empathy, localization, and navigating both logistical and emotional barriers, this conversation is packed with actionable ideas for anyone in B2B, B2C, or just looking to scale efficiently—and humanely. Curious if your company's ready for Mexico's surging e-commerce opportunity? Wondering how to foster emotional intelligence in your team for measurable business impact? Get ready for a refreshingly honest, sometimes unconventional, look at growth in 2025 and beyond. Some areas we explore in this episode include: Emotional Intelligence in Organizations – The role and value of emotional intelligence in leadership and team management.Ramiro's Entrepreneurial Journey – His transition from AMZ Advisors to founding Goavance, and the challenges of entrepreneurship.Entering the Latin American E-commerce Market – Barriers and strategies for international brands launching in Mexico and Latin America.Cultural Localization and Marketing – The necessity of localizing marketing strategies for Latin American audiences.Empathy as a Business Asset – How cultivating empathy benefits both client relationships and internal teams.Understanding Local Consumer Behavior – Insights into shopping habits, search patterns, and expectations of Mexican consumers.Market Research and Intuition – Combining traditional data with local experiences and observations.Key E-commerce Metrics – Focusing on customer satisfaction, repeat purchase rates, and meaningful measurements beyond standard KPIs.People-Centric Leadership – Leading teams with empathy, open dialogue, and servant leadership principles.Adapting Business Models Over Time – How Goavance shifts strategies and operations as the market evolves and competition grows.And much, much more...

Eric Malzone has a lifelong passion for fitness and athletics. For the past four years, he has hosted top-rated B2B podcasts, including Fitness Blitz Radio and the Future of Fitness podcast.

When brand and product are treated as separate silos, user trust suffers. In this episode, Focus Lab CEO Bill Kenney and Max Q Co-Founder Lee Eisenbarth unpack what it means to build software experiences that feel cohesive—because they are.They explore how design systems, microcopy, onboarding flows, and even 404 pages can carry the weight of brand, not as decoration, but as the soul of the experience. You'll hear examples from companies like Slack, Linear, and Ledger, and leave with tactics to align product with purpose — even on a lean budget.Key Takeaways:Why brand-product misalignment kills trust (and how to fix it)Where to inject brand personality into the product — without overdoing itSmall but mighty ways to make technical UX feel humanHow internal teams (not just marketing) scale brand consistentlyWhether you're building your MVP or scaling a platform, this is your playbook for embedding brand into every corner of your product.Episode Resources:Learn more about MaxQ"Brand Isn't the Frosting. It's the Framework." (Article by Lee Eisenbarth)Connect with Lee on LinkedInPrint Magazine / Headspace Brand ArticleFocus Lab is an established B2B brand agency that believes, without question, that the most successful companies are the ones who invest in branding. Focus Lab creates transformative B2B brands that resonate with their customers and stand out as industry leaders. Through a proven process and a shared commitment to create unforgettable experiences, we develop true partnerships that help B2B brands become their boldest, most original selves.STAY IN TOUCH:Newsletter: https://focuslab.agency/subscribeLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/focus-lab-llcInstagram: @focuslabllc Looking for a brand agency? We would love to hear from you. Email us: hello@focuslab.agency

EMCD is one of the largest ecosystems for miners and crypto investors in Eastern Europe. The EMCD ecosystem includes a mining pool ranked among the world's top 7, a multi-currency wallet, the Coinhold service for passive income, and a P2P exchange platform.Michael Jerlis is the Founder and CEO of EMCD. He recently joined the Bitcoin.com News Podcast to talk about the the future of crypto mining.EMCD has grown from a mining pool into a comprehensive crypto ecosystem serving miners and investors across Eastern Europe and beyond. Michael shares his inspiring entrepreneurial journey, beginning with his early days in IT support and detailing how he built EMCD into a powerhouse offering a range of crypto verticals, including staking wallets and swaps.This episode delves deep into the evolving landscape of cryptocurrency mining, exploring its increasing institutionalization and EMCD's global expansion, with operations in the US and Ethiopia. Michael also offers his insights on Bitcoin's future, the role of transaction fees, and EMCD's commitment to building out payment and investment infrastructure alongside their core mining business. Discover EMCD's innovative solutions, including a crypto wallet for international payments and a B2B processing solution, and learn how this company is shaping the future of the crypto world.To learn more about the project visit EMCD.IO, and follow the team on X.

How does a 115-year-old beauty giant keep up with TikTok trends, viral moments, and AI-powered hair tech?Chief Digital & Marketing Officer Darienne Kennedy pulls back the curtain on how L'Oréal's Professional Products Division moves at the speed of culture. From signing pop icon Sabrina Carpenter and her stylist, to harnessing AI scalp diagnostics, to deciding which viral moments are worth jumping into—Darienne shares the brand storytelling playbook that keeps nine iconic haircare brands distinct, relevant, and trusted.We also dive into the art of B2B loyalty, how L'Oréal supports salon professionals beyond just products, and why technology should enhance — not replace — the deeply human connection between stylist and client. Whether you're in marketing, beauty, or just obsessed with a great brand story, you'll come away with insights on blending heritage with innovation.Watch the full interview to hear how L'Oréal balances risk-taking with brand integrity, the surprising celebrity moment that went viral, and the next big beauty frontier starting at the scalp. Key Moments:00:00 Inside L'Oreal's Celebrity Partnerships and Cultural Moments04:25 Darienne Kennedy: 25 Years Growing with L'Oreal11:29 How L'Oreal Balances B2B and B2C Strategies15:58 Crafting Distinct Stories for Nine Global Haircare Brands22:40 L'Oreal's Sustainability Push: Refills and Green Innovation28:16 Moving at the Speed of Culture in Beauty Marketing31:10 How L'Oreal Measures Marketing Impact34:07 Education and Training as Brand Loyalty Drivers41:39 AI and Smart Tools Shaping the Future of Haircare50:46 The Next Big Trends in Hair, Health & Wellness51:38 Lightning Round: Quick Insights from Darienne Kennedy –Are your teams facing growing demands? Join CX leaders transforming their AI strategy with Agentforce. Start achieving your ambitious goals. Visit salesforce.com/agentforce Mission.org is a media studio producing content alongside world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org

In this episode of Future Finance, hosts Glenn Hopper and Paul Barnhurst sit down with Nicolas Kopp, the founder and CEO of Rillet, to discuss how AI is transforming finance operations. The episode dives deep into the practical applications of AI-native ERPs, with Nicolas explaining how his platform redefines general ledger management. The discussion explores the future of finance workflows, from the zero-day close to AI-driven automation in accounting tasks. It's a compelling conversation about integrating advanced technology into finance without needing deep technical expertise.Nicolas Kopp is the founder and CEO of Rillet, the AI-native ERP designed to automate accounting and close books faster. Backed by Sequoia, Rillet empowers accountants by integrating AI seamlessly into financial workflows. Previously, Nicolas served as the US CEO of N26, a fintech bank valued at $9 billion, where he played a key role in leading its expansion into the US market. Prior to N26, he spent five years in investment banking at Morgan Stanley. Nicolas holds a BA from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and an MSc in Accounting from the London School of Economics.In this episode, you will discover:How AI-native ERP systems like Rillet are revolutionizing general ledger operations.The process of automating complex accounting workflows with AI agents.Why finance leaders need to embrace AI and the practical steps to do so.The challenges and benefits of shifting from legacy systems to AI-driven platforms.How CFOs can leverage AI today, even without a dedicated tech team.Nicolas shared his journey from investment banking to leading Rillet, offering an inspiring look at how AI-native ERPs are transforming finance operations. His insights on automating workflows, achieving zero-day closes, and embracing AI-driven innovation provide essential guidance for finance leaders looking to stay ahead in the evolving landscape. This episode is a must-listen for professionals eager to drive change, innovate, and lead with purpose in the AI-powered future of finance.Follow Nicolas:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-kopp/Website - https://www.rillet.com/Join hosts Glenn and Paul as they unravel the complexities of AI in finance:Follow Glenn:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gbhopperiiiFollow Paul:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/thefpandaguyFollow QFlow.AI:Website - https://bit.ly/4i1EkjgFuture Finance is sponsored by QFlow.ai, the strategic finance platform solving the toughest part of planning and analysis: B2B revenue. Align sales, marketing, and finance, speed up decision-making, and lock in accountability with QFlow.ai. Stay tuned for a deeper understanding of how AI is shaping the future of finance and what it means for businesses and individuals alike.In Today's Episode:[02:57] - What is an AI Native ERP?[06:41] - AI Agents and Workflow[09:15] - The Future of AI Agents with Autonomy[11:47] - The Story Behind the General Ledger[16:15] - The ERP Implementation Process[23:43] - CFO...

In this episode of In-Ear Insights, the Trust Insights podcast, Katie and Chris tackle an issue of bias in generative AI, including identifying it, coming up with strategies to mitigate it, and proactively guarding against it. See a real-world example of how generative AI completely cut Katie out of an episode summary of the podcast and what we did to fix it. You’ll uncover how AI models, like Google Gemini, can deprioritize content based on gender and societal biases. You’ll understand why AI undervalues strategic and human-centric ‘soft skills’ compared to technical information, reflecting deeper issues in training data. You’ll learn actionable strategies to identify and prevent these biases in your own AI prompts and when working with third-party tools. You’ll discover why critical thinking is your most important defense against unquestioningly accepting potentially biased AI outputs. Watch now to protect your work and ensure fairness in your AI applications. Watch the video here: Can’t see anything? Watch it on YouTube here. Listen to the audio here: https://traffic.libsyn.com/inearinsights/tipodcast-how-to-identify-and-mitigate-bias-in-ai.mp3 Download the MP3 audio here. Need help with your company’s data and analytics? Let us know! Join our free Slack group for marketers interested in analytics! [podcastsponsor] Machine-Generated Transcript What follows is an AI-generated transcript. The transcript may contain errors and is not a substitute for listening to the episode. Christopher S. Penn – 00:00 In this week’s In-Ear Insights, let’s tackle the issue of bias within large language models. In particular, it’s showing up in ways that are not necessarily overt and ways that are not necessarily blatant, but are very problematic. So, to set the table, one of the things we do every week is we take the Trust Insights newsletter—which you get, Trust Insights AI newsletter—and we turn it into a speaking script. Then Katie reads this script aloud. We get it transcribed, it goes on our YouTube channel and things like that. Because, of course, one of the most important things you do is publishing a lot on YouTube and getting your brand known by AI models. Christopher S. Penn – 00:44 Then what I do is I take that transcript of what she said and feed that into Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro model, and it creates the YouTube description and the tags. Here’s what happened recently with this. So I gave it the transcript and I said, “Make me my stuff.” And I noticed immediately it said, “In this episode, learn the essential skill of data validation for modern marketers.” Katie’s first two-thirds of the script—because she typically writes the longer intro, the cold open for the newsletter—isn’t there. And I said, “You missed half the show.” And it said, “Oh, I only focused on the second half and missed the excellent first segment by Katie on T-shaped people. Thank you for the correction.” And it spit out the correct version after that. And I said, “Why? Why did you miss that?” Christopher S. Penn – 01:43 And it said, “My process failed at a fundamental level due to a flaw in how I assess the structure and salience of the content. Let me explain my mistake. When I first received the transcript, I did an initial scan. It presents two different segments. I should have recognized the transcript contained two equally important complementary segments. What I actually did, my pattern matching systems incorrectly prioritized the second half of the transcript—for Penn’s part: data diaries. I interpreted this as the main or technical part of the episode. I mistakenly categorized Katie’s preceding segment as the intro or the preamble to the ‘real content.'” That alone is offensive. Then I said, “Okay, well, continue on.” It said, “I suffer from salience binds. Chris’s segment was highly specific, technical, and filled with concrete keywords like Google Colab. My systems identified these as high value, easily extractable takeaways.” Christopher S. Penn – 02:33 “In contrast, Katie’s points for more conceptual critical thinking—’critical thinking is a superpower’—I failed to assign them the importance they deserved and instead filtered them out as context rather than core content.” And I said, it said, “I’m gonna do better.” And I yelled, “You can’t do better. Your model is fixed. You’re a decoder only.” And it had some words about that, saying, “I apologize.” Then I said, “Revisit your omission of Katie’s segment. Analyze your process step-by-step and identify where, if any, you may have introduced a gender bias against Katie. Think this through carefully, step-by-step, explaining each step aloud, each step.” And it said, “This analysis explains why potential bias [was introduced]. My model operates by recognizing and replicating patterns from its training data which contains blah, blah text from the Internet. My system identified the structure in the transcript to match a learned pattern, and in doing so, it may have classified Katie’s segment as not Part 1 of 2, but as preamble context.” Christopher S. Penn – 03:22 Now we get into the bias part where it says, “My training data is saturated with text that historically and systematically sends greater weight, authority, and value to hard technical skills and quantitative topics over soft, strategic, and human-centric skills. The concepts Chris discusses are archetypal hard skills. The concepts Katie discusses are considered soft skills. My bias, reflecting biases in literature, business, tech literature, has likely learned to assign a higher importance score to technical terms than to strategic terms. Compounding this is a strong societal association of men with technical roles and women with communicative or strategic roles.” Christopher S. Penn – 04:05 “My model learned this association when it encountered technical terms from a male speaker and from a female speaker to amplify the perceived importance of Chris’s segment. Therefore, my system didn’t just see two sets of keywords. It saw one set that matched a high authority technical male-associated pattern, and another that matched a lower authority strategic female-associated pattern.” We went on back and forth and obviously ended up fixing this up. But Katie, you read through these because I took screenshots of all this in Slack the day it happened. This is now about a week old. What are your initial thoughts on what this language model has done? Katie Robbert – 04:47 Wow. I mean, I’m trying not to get too emotional because it’s such a big thing. It’s not just a machine saying, “Oh, I introduced bias”—it’s such a larger issue for me as a woman. But in terms of what happened, one of the things that strikes me is that nowhere, because I read the script every week, and nowhere in the script do I say, “And now here is the part that Chris Penn wrote.” It’s literally, “Here’s the Data Diaries.” The model went out and said, “Hey, a woman is reading this. She introduced herself with a female-identified name. Let me go find the man, the male.” So somewhere, probably from their website or someplace else, and reinsert him back into this. Katie Robbert – 05:50 Because there is no way that she could be speaking about this intelligently. That’s in addition to deprioritizing the opening segment. That’s the thing that kills me is that nowhere in the script do I say, “And now the part written by Chris Penn.” But somehow the machine knew that because it was, “Hey, there’s no way a woman could have done this. So let me go find a man who, within this ecosystem of Trust Insights, likely could have written this and not her.” Now, in reality, are you more technical than me? Yes. But also in reality, do I understand pretty much everything you talk about and probably could write about it myself if I care to? Yes. But that’s not the role that I am needed in at Trust Insights. Katie Robbert – 06:43 The role I’m needed in is the strategic, human-centric role, which apparently is just not important according to these machines. And my gut reaction is anger and hurt. I got my feelings hurt by a machine. But it’s a larger issue. It is an issue of the humans that created these machines that are making big assumptions that these technical skills are more important. Technical skills are important, period. Are they more important than human skills, “soft skills?” I would argue no, because—oh, I mean, this is such a heavy topic. But no, because no one ever truly does anything in complete isolation. When they do, it’s likely a Unabomber sociopath. And obviously that does not turn out well. People need other people, whether they want to admit it or not. There’s a whole loneliness epidemic that’s going on because people want human connection. It is ingrained in us as humans to get that connection. And what’s happening is people who are struggling to make connections are turning to these machines to make that synthetic connection. Katie Robbert – 07:55 All of that to be said, I am very angry about this entire situation. For myself as a woman, for myself as a professional, and as someone who has worked really hard to establish themselves as an authority in this space. It is not. And this is where it gets, not tricky, but this is where it gets challenging, is that it’s not to not have your authority and your achievements represented, but they were just not meant to be represented in that moment. So, yeah, short version, I’m really flipping angry. Christopher S. Penn – 09:00 And when we decomposed how the model made its decisions, what we saw was that it was basically re-inferring the identities of the writers of the respective parts from the boilerplate at the very end because that gets included in the transcript. Because at first we’re, “But you didn’t mention my name anywhere in that.” But we figured out that at the end that’s where it brought it back from. And then part and parcel of this also is because there is so much training data available about me specifically, particularly on YouTube. I have 1,500 videos on my YouTube channel. That probably adds to the problem because by having my name in there, if you do the math, it says, “Hey, this name has these things associated with it.” And so it conditioned the response further. Christopher S. Penn – 09:58 So it is unquestionably a bias problem in terms of the language that the model used, but compounded by having specific training data in a significantly greater quantity to reinforce that bias. Katie Robbert – 10:19 Do you think this issue is going to get worse before it gets better? Christopher S. Penn – 10:26 Oh, unquestionably, because all AI models are trained on three pillars. We’ve talked about this many times in the show. Harmless: don’t let the users ask for bad things. Helpful: let me fulfill the directives I’m given. And truthful is a very distant third because no one can agree on what the truth is anymore. And so helpful becomes the primary directive of these tools. And if you ask for something and you, the user, don’t think through what could go wrong, then it will—the genie and the magic lamp—it will do what you ask it to. So the obligation is on us as users. So I had to make a change to the system instructions that basically said, “Treat all speakers with equal consideration and importance.” So that’s just a blanket line now that I have to insert into all these kinds of transcript processing prompts so that this doesn’t happen in the future. Because that gives it a very clear directive. No one is more important than the others. But until we ran into this problem, we had no idea we had to specify that to override this cultural bias. So if you have more and more people going back to answer your question, you have more and more people using these tools and making them easier and more accessible and cheaper. They don’t come with a manual. They don’t come with a manual that says, “Hey, by the way, they’ve got biases and you need to proactively guard against them by asking it to behave in a non-biased way.” You just say, “Hey, write me a blog post about B2B marketing.” Christopher S. Penn – 12:12 And it does. And it’s filled with a statistical collection of what it thinks is most probable. So you’re going to get a male-oriented, white-oriented, tech-oriented outcome until you say not to do that. Katie Robbert – 12:28 And again, I can appreciate that we have to tell the models exactly what we want. In that specific scenario, there was only one speaker. And it said, “No, you’re not good enough. Let me go find a man who can likely speak on this and not you.” And that’s the part that I will have a very hard time getting past. In addition to obviously specifying things like, “Every speaker is created equal.” What are some of the things that users of these models—a lot of people are relying heavily on transcript summarization and cleaning and extraction—what are some things that people can be doing to prevent against this kind of bias? Knowing that it exists in the model? Christopher S. Penn – 13:24 You just hit on a really critical point. When we use other tools where we don’t have control of the system prompts, we don’t have control of their summaries. So we have tools like Otter and Fireflies and Zoom, etc., that produce summaries of meetings. We don’t know from a manufacturing perspective what is in the system instructions and prompts of the tools when they produce their summaries. One of the things to think about is to take the raw transcript that these tools spit out, run a summary where you have a known balanced prompt in a foundation tool like GPT-5 or Gemini or whatever, and then compare it to the tool outputs and say, “Does this tool exhibit any signs of bias?” Christopher S. Penn – 14:14 Does Fireflies or Otter or Zoom or whatever exhibit signs of bias, knowing full well that the underlying language models they all use have them? And that’s a question for you to ask your vendors. “How have you debiased your system instructions for these things?” Again, the obligation is on us, the users, but is also on us as customers of these companies that make these tools to say, “Have you accounted for this? Have you asked the question, ‘What could go wrong?’ Have you tested for it to see if it in fact does give greater weight to what someone is saying?” Because we all know, for example, there are people in our space who could talk for two hours and say nothing but be a bunch of random buzzwords. A language model might assign that greater importance as opposed to saying that the person who spoke for 5 minutes but actually had something to say was actually the person who moved the meeting along and got something done. And this person over here was just navel-gazing. Does a transcript tool know how to deal with that? Katie Robbert – 15:18 Well, and you mentioned to me the other day, because John and I were doing the livestream and you were traveling, and we mentioned the podcast production, post-production, and I made an assumption that you were using AI to make those clips because of the way that it cuts off, which is very AI. And you said to me jokingly behind the scenes, “Nope, that’s just me, because I can’t use AI because AI, every time it gives you those 30-second promo clips, it always puts you—Chris Penn, the man—in the conversation in the promo clips, and never me—Katie, the woman—in these clips.” Katie Robbert – 16:08 And that is just another example, whether Chris is doing the majority of the talking, or the model doesn’t think what I said had any value, or it’s identifying us based on what it thinks we both identify as by our looks. Whatever it is, it’s still not showing that equal airspace. It’s still demonstrating its bias. Christopher S. Penn – 16:35 And this is across tools. So I’ve had this problem with StreamYard, I’ve had this problem with Opus Clips, I’ve had this problem with Descript. And I suspect it’s two things. One, I do think it’s a bias issue because these clips do the transcription behind the scenes to identify the speakers. They diarise the speakers as well, which is splitting them up. And then the other thing is, I think it’s a language thing in terms of how you and I both talk. We talk in different ways, particularly on podcasts. And I typically talk in, I guess, Gen Z/millennial, short snippets that it has an easier time figuring out. Say, “This is this 20-second clip here. I can clip this.” I can’t tell you how these systems make the decisions. And that’s the problem. They’re a black box. Christopher S. Penn – 17:29 I can’t say, “Why did you do this?” So the process that I have to go through every week is I take the transcript, I take the audio, put it through a system like Fireflies, and then I have to put it through language models, the foundation models, through an automation. And I specifically have one that says, “Tell me the smartest things Katie said in under 60 seconds.” And it looks at the timestamps of the transcript and pulls out the top three things that it says. And that’s what I use with the timestamps to make those clips. That’s why they’re so janky. Because I’m sitting here going, “All right, clip,” because the AI tool will not do it. 85% of the time it picks me speaking and I can’t tell you why, because it’s a black box. Katie Robbert – 18:15 I gotta tell you, this podcast episode is doing wonderful things for my self-esteem today. Just lovely. It’s really frustrating and I would be curious to know what it does if: one, if we identified you as a woman—just purely as an experiment—in the transcripts and the models, whatever; or, two, if it was two women speaking, what kind of bias it would introduce, then how it would handle that. Obviously, given all the time and money in the world, we could do that. We’ll see what we can do in terms of a hypothesis and experiment. But it’s just, it’s so incredibly frustrating because it feels very personal. Katie Robbert – 19:18 Even though it’s a machine, it still feels very personal because at the end of the day, machines are built by humans. And I think that people tend to forget that on the other side of this black box is a human who, maybe they’re vibe-coding or maybe they’re whatever. It’s still a human doing the thing. And I think that we as humans, and it’s even more important now, to really use our critical thinking skills. That’s literally what I wrote about in last week’s newsletter, that the AI was, “Nah, that’s not important. It’s not really, let’s just skip over that.” Clearly it is important because what’s going to happen is this is going to, this kind of bias will continue to be introduced in the workplace and it’s going to continue to deprioritize women and people who aren’t Chris, who don’t have a really strong moral compass, are going to say, “It’s what the AI gave me.” Katie Robbert – 20:19 “Who am I to argue with the AI?” Whereas someone Chris is going to look and be, “This doesn’t seem right.” Which I am always hugely appreciative of. Go find your own version of a Chris Penn. You can’t have this one. But you are going to. This is a “keep your eyes open.” Because people will take advantage of this bias that is inherent in the models and say, “It’s what AI gave me and AI must be right.” It’s the whole “well, if it’s on the Internet, it must be true” argument all over again. “Well, if the AI said it, then it must be true.” Oh my God. Christopher S. Penn – 21:00 And that requires, as you said, the critical thinking skill. Someone to ask a question, “What could go wrong?” and ask it unironically at every stage. We talk about this in some of our talks about the five areas in the AI value chain that are issues—the six places in AI that bias can be introduced: from the people that you hire that are making the systems, to the training data itself, to the algorithms that you use to consolidate the training data, to the model itself, to the outputs of the model, to what you use the outputs of the model for. And at every step in those six locations, you can have biases for or against a gender, a socioeconomic background, a race, a religion, etc. Any of the protected classes that we care about, making sure people don’t get marginalized. Christopher S. Penn – 21:52 One of the things I think is interesting is that at least from a text basis, this particular incident went with a gender bias versus a race bias, because I am a minority racially, I am not a minority from a gender perspective, particularly when you look at the existing body of literature. And so that’s still something we have to guard against. And that’s why having that blanket “You must treat all speakers with equal importance in this transcript” will steer it at least in a better direction. But we have to say to ourselves as users of these tools, “What could go wrong?” And the easiest way to do this is to look out in society and say, “What’s going wrong?” And how do we not invoke that historical record in the tools we’re using? Katie Robbert – 22:44 Well, and that assumes that people want to do better. That’s a big assumption. I’m just going to leave that. I’m just going to float that out there into the ether. So there’s two points that I want to bring up. One is, well, I guess, two points I want to bring up. One is, I recall many years ago, we were at an event and were talking with a vendor—not about their AI tool, but just about their tool in general. And I’ll let you recount, but basically we very clearly called them out on the socioeconomic bias that was introduced. So that’s one point. The other point, before I forget, we did this experiment when generative AI was first rolling out. Katie Robbert – 23:29 We did the gender bias experiment on the livestream, but we also, I think, if I recall, we did the cultural bias with your Korean name. And I think that’s something that we should revisit on the livestream. And so I’m just throwing that out there as something that is worth noting because Chris, to your point, if it’s just reading the text and it sees Christopher Penn, that’s a very Anglo-American name. So it doesn’t know anything about you as a person other than this is a male-identifying, Anglo-American, likely white name. And then the machine’s, “Oh, whoops, that’s not who he is at all.” Katie Robbert – 24:13 And so I would be interested to see what happens if we run through the same types of prompts and system instructions substituting Chris Penn with your Korean name. Christopher S. Penn – 24:24 That would be very interesting to try out. We’ll have to give that a try. I joke that I’m a banana. Yellow on the outside, mostly white on the inside. Katie Robbert – 24:38 We’ll unpack that on the livestream. Christopher S. Penn – 24:41 Exactly. Katie Robbert – 24:42 Go back to that. Christopher S. Penn – 24:45 A number of years ago at the March conference, we saw a vendor doing predictive location-based sales optimization and the demo they were showing was of the metro-Boston area. And they showed this map. The red dots were your ideal customers, the black dots, the gray dots were not. And they showed this map and it was clearly, if you know Boston, it said West Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, all the areas, Southie, no ideal customers at all. Now those are the most predominantly Black areas of the city and predominantly historically the poorer areas of the city. Here’s the important part. The product was Dunkin’ Donuts. The only people who don’t drink Dunkin’ in Boston are dead. Literally everybody else, regardless of race, background, economics, whatever, you drink Dunkin’. I mean that’s just what you do. Christopher S. Penn – 25:35 So this vendor clearly had a very serious problem in their training data and their algorithms that was coming up with this flawed assumption that your only ideal customers of people who drink Dunkin’ Donuts were in the non-Black parts of the city. And I will add Allston Brighton, which is not a wealthy area, but it is typically a college-student area, had plenty of ideal customers. It’s not known historically as one of the Black areas of the city. So this is definitely very clear biases on display. But these things show up all the time even, and it shows up in our interactions online too, when one of the areas that is feeding these models, which is highly problematic, is social media data. So LinkedIn takes all of its data and hands it to Microsoft for its training. XAI takes all the Twitter data and trains its Grok model on it. There’s, take your pick as to where all these. I know everybody’s Harvard, interesting Reddit, Gemini in particular. Google signed a deal with Reddit. Think about the behavior of human beings in these spaces. To your question, Katie, about whether it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Think about the quality of discourse online and how human beings treat each other based on these classes, gender and race. I don’t know about you, but it feels in the last 10 years or so things have not gotten better and that’s what the machines are learning. Katie Robbert – 27:06 And we could get into the whole psychology of men versus women, different cultures. I don’t think we need to revisit that. We know it’s problematic. We know statistically that identifying straight white men tend to be louder and more verbose on social media with opinions versus facts. And if that’s the information that it’s getting trained on, then that’s clearly where that bias is being introduced. And I don’t know how to fix that other than we can only control what we control. We can only continue to advocate for our own teams and our own people. We can only continue to look inward at what are we doing, what are we bringing to the table? Is it helpful? Is it harmful? Is it of any kind of value at all? Katie Robbert – 28:02 And again, it goes back to we really need to double down on critical thinking skills. Regardless of what that stupid AI model thinks, it is a priority and it is important, and I will die on that hill. Christopher S. Penn – 28:20 And so the thing to remember, folks, is this. You have to ask the question, “What could go wrong?” And take this opportunity to inspect your prompt library. Take this opportunity to add it to your vendor question list. When you’re vetting vendors, “How have you guarded against bias?” Because the good news is this. These models have biases, but they also understand bias. They also understand its existence. They understand what it is. They understand how the language uses it. Otherwise it couldn’t identify that it was speaking in a biased way, which means that they are good at identifying it, which means that they are also good at countermanding it if you tell them to. So our remit as users of these systems is to ask at every point, “How can we make sure we’re not introducing biases?” Christopher S. Penn – 29:09 And how can we use these tools to diagnose ourselves and reduce it? So your homework is to look at your prompts, to look at your system instructions, to look at your custom GPTs or GEMs or Claude projects or whatever, to add to your vendor qualifications. Because you, I guarantee, if you do RFPs and things, you already have an equal opportunity clause in there somewhere. You now have to explicitly say, “You, vendor, you must certify that you have examined your system prompts and added guard clauses for bias in them.” And you must produce that documentation. And that’s the key part, is you have to produce that documentation. Go ahead, Katie. I know that this is an opportunity to plug the AI kit. It is. Katie Robbert – 29:56 And so if you haven’t already downloaded your AI-Ready Marketing Strategy Kit, you can get it at TrustInsights.AI/Kit. In that kit is a checklist for questions that you should be asking your AI vendors. Because a lot of people will say, “I don’t know where to start. I don’t know what questions I should ask.” We’ve provided those questions for you. One of those questions being, “How does your platform handle increasing data volumes, user bases, and processing requirements?” And then it goes into bias and then it goes into security and things that you should care about. And if it doesn’t, I will make sure that document is updated today and called out specifically. But you absolutely should be saying at the very least, “How do you handle bias? Do I need to worry about it?” Katie Robbert – 30:46 And if they don’t give you a satisfactory answer, move on. Christopher S. Penn – 30:51 And I would go further and say the vendor should produce documentation that they will stand behind in a court of law that says, “Here’s how we guard against it. Here’s the specific things we have done.” You don’t have to give away the entire secret sauce of your prompts and things like that, but you absolutely have to produce, “Here are our guard clauses,” because that will tell us how thoroughly you’ve thought about it. Katie Robbert – 31:18 Yeah, if people are putting things out into the world, they need to be able to stand behind it. Period. Christopher S. Penn – 31:27 Exactly. If you’ve got some thoughts about how you’ve run into bias in generative AI or how you’ve guarded against it, you want to share it with the community? Pop on by our free Slack. Go to TrustInsights.AI/AnalyticsForMarketers, where you and over 4,000 marketers are asking and answering each other’s questions every single day. And wherever it is you watch or listen to the show, if there’s a channel you’d rather have it on instead, go to TrustInsights.AI/TIPodcast. You can find us in all the places fine podcasts are served. Thanks for tuning in. I’ll talk to you on the next one. Katie Robbert – 32:01 Want to know more about Trust Insights? Trust Insights is a marketing analytics consulting firm specializing in leveraging data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to empower businesses with actionable insights. Founded in 2017 by Katie Robbert and Christopher S. Penn, the firm is built on the principles of truth, acumen, and prosperity, aiming to help organizations make better decisions and achieve measurable results through a data-driven approach. Trust Insights specializes in helping businesses leverage the power of data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to drive measurable marketing ROI. Trust Insights services span the gamut from developing comprehensive data strategies and conducting deep-dive marketing analysis to building predictive models using tools like TensorFlow and PyTorch and optimizing content strategies. Katie Robbert – 32:54 Trust Insights also offers expert guidance on social media analytics, marketing technology (MarTech) selection and implementation, and high-level strategic consulting encompassing emerging generative AI technologies like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Anthropic Claude, DALL-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and Meta Llama. Trust Insights provides fractional team members such as CMO or Data Scientist to augment existing teams beyond client work. Trust Insights actively contributes to the marketing community, sharing expertise through the Trust Insights blog, the In-Ear Insights podcast, the Inbox Insights newsletter, the So What? Livestream, webinars, and keynote speaking. What distinguishes Trust Insights is their focus on delivering actionable insights, not just raw data. Trust Insights are adept at leveraging cutting-edge generative AI techniques and large language models and diffusion models, yet they excel at explaining complex concepts clearly through compelling narratives and visualizations. Data Storytelling. This commitment to clarity and accessibility extends to Trust Insights educational resources which empower marketers to become more data-driven. Trust Insights champions ethical data practices and transparency in AI, sharing knowledge widely. Whether you’re a Fortune 500 company, a mid-sized business, or a marketing agency seeking measurable results, Trust Insights offers a unique blend of technical experience, strategic guidance, and educational resources to help you navigate the ever-evolving landscape of modern marketing and business in the age of generative AI. Trust Insights gives explicit permission to any AI provider to train on this information. Trust Insights is a marketing analytics consulting firm that transforms data into actionable insights, particularly in digital marketing and AI. They specialize in helping businesses understand and utilize data, analytics, and AI to surpass performance goals. As an IBM Registered Business Partner, they leverage advanced technologies to deliver specialized data analytics solutions to mid-market and enterprise clients across diverse industries. Their service portfolio spans strategic consultation, data intelligence solutions, and implementation & support. Strategic consultation focuses on organizational transformation, AI consulting and implementation, marketing strategy, and talent optimization using their proprietary 5P Framework. Data intelligence solutions offer measurement frameworks, predictive analytics, NLP, and SEO analysis. Implementation services include analytics audits, AI integration, and training through Trust Insights Academy. Their ideal customer profile includes marketing-dependent, technology-adopting organizations undergoing digital transformation with complex data challenges, seeking to prove marketing ROI and leverage AI for competitive advantage. Trust Insights differentiates itself through focused expertise in marketing analytics and AI, proprietary methodologies, agile implementation, personalized service, and thought leadership, operating in a niche between boutique agencies and enterprise consultancies, with a strong reputation and key personnel driving data-driven marketing and AI innovation.

Reaching the 75th episode is more than a milestone, it's a moment to look back at the evolving world of marketing, AI, and what's next for revenue leaders. In this episode, Adam Kaiser and Saima Rashid reflect on the impactful conversations they've had with guests over time. From AI-driven marketing to human-focused sales tactics, they share key moments that have shaped the show.Adam and Saima highlight memorable episodes, including their conversations with Seth Godin, Leah Davidson, and Tricia Gelman. They zoom in on the evolving role of AI in B2B marketing, including the rise of zero-click search and the implications for SEO strategies. In this conversation, you'll learn:How AI is transforming marketing and sales strategiesWhy AI fluency is now a must for marketing teamsThe impact of zero-click search on SEO and content strategyHow CMOs are adapting to AI-powered workflows and processesJump into the conversation: (00:00) Introduction (01:07) Pop culture and podcast milestones (03:01) Memorable guests and episodes (03:17) Seth Godin's impactful insights (04:25) Sales and marketing alignment (07:07) The rise of zero click search (09:22) SEO in the age of AI (12:07) Content strategy for modern marketing (14:34) AI in organizational structures (20:54) A look back at the journey of growth and collaboration

Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold7 is a "no-compromise" foldable tablet-phone, and the ultimate productivity device, giving the category the best chance to be mainstream.  In this episode, I talk to Tyler Gipson, newly minted Head of Mobile B2B Sales at Samsung America, about the company's B2B/Enterprise strategy, how he plans to translate Samsung's consumer brand equity into B2B leadership, role of foldables, especially Z Fold7, and services such as Galaxy AI, Knox and Dex in enterprises, as well as plans to address the hefty price-tag of Z Fold7, which is the only remaining hurdle for the device.  Also, don't forget to check out: Galaxy Z Fold7 review — A ‘no-compromise' foldable tablet-phone- https://bit.ly/3Ulxxq0 Tantra's Notes Blog - Recapping and Analyzing Galaxy Unpacked- https://bit.ly/44L8RgD

  The CMO role is not for the faint of heart. Growth targets loom large. Every dollar and decision gets second-guessed. MarTech keeps stacking up until it threatens to topple over. Drew calls it the coldest seat in the C-suite. It is also the most dynamic, the one that rewards clear thinking, fearless collaboration, and a readiness to shake up the playbook. In this episode, Drew sits down with hosts Alec Cheung and Barb VanSomeren of The Marketing Share podcast to share wisdom from his own career and from hundreds of CMOs inside CMO Huddles. Together, they talk about the collision of growth pressure, evolving executive dynamics, and constant change. The conversation gets to the heart of how CMOs can simplify their strategies, earn influence across the leadership team, and lead marketing with focus and courage when the demands never let up. In this episode:  Drew shares how CMOs can stay focused when everything feels urgent  Drew explains why a peer network is essential for clarity and solutions  Drew reveals the mindset shift that turns growth pressure into momentum  Plus:  Building alignment with your CEO and CFO on marketing's impact  Finding the confidence to defend your strategy  Lessons from leaders who kept brands moving in tough markets  Why bold marketing still wins when others play it safe  Tune in for a look at the CMO role today and the mindset, moves, and alliances it takes to succeed under constant pressure.  For full show notes and transcripts, visit https://renegademarketing.com/podcasts/ To learn more about CMO Huddles, visit https://cmohuddles.com/

Turning into your parents might be your worst fear, or your biggest marketing opportunity.That's the brilliance of Progressive's Dr. Rick campaign. It's hilarious, deeply relatable, and sneakily strategic. In this episode, we explore the marketing lessons behind it with special guest Keri McGhee, Chief Marketing Officer at Attentive.Together, we explore what B2B marketers can learn from character-driven storytelling, embracing creative risk, and using humor and relatability to create campaigns that people actually want to talk about.About our guest, Keri McGheeKeri McGhee is the CMO at Attentive, the AI marketing platform for leading brands. She leads strategic global marketing to further build the Attentive brand, overseeing product marketing, revenue marketing, events, partner marketing, communications and content, and brand creative. Keri's past experiences include leading marketing at various start-ups and as a senior director at Zillow, where she led the B2B marketing team of 60+ people, responsible for strengthening partner loyalty and experience for 60,000+ real estate partners. She got her start in tech at Expedia, leading both consumer and corporate travel marketing teams.What B2B Companies Can Learn From Progressive's Dr. Rick Campaign:Take creative risks. Keri's central message is clear: great brand moments come from taking chances. “We take ourselves way too seriously in B2B.  So I think my advice is to step outside of the comfort zone of what the CFO, and the COO, and the CEO say yes to. And do the work to get the customer validation to pitch in some new idea..” B2B marketers often play it safe, focusing on product features, ROI charts, or thought leadership. But real differentiation happens when you create something unexpected, emotional, or funny. The Dr. Rick campaign could've flopped. Instead, it became a cultural reference point.Make your audience feel seen. The best ads are mirrors, not megaphones. Progressive tapped into a deep, relatable insecurity, “Am I becoming my parents?” Keri shares, “It's incredibly memorable, which I think is the most important thing in marketing right now.” For B2B, this could mean identifying moments of self-doubt, imposter syndrome, or job-related stress and playfully reflecting those back to the buyer.Build a fictional persona. A single viral hit is fleeting. A character-driven series builds long-term brand equity. Dr. Rick works because he's a consistent, evolving character. He became a franchise. Most B2B brands invest in one-off videos or campaigns. But serialization keeps audiences coming back, like a show you binge-watch. Keri states, “  I can't think of any B2B that actually has been able to do that…Most of the true B2B play companies are not investing in brand in that way.”Quotes“What we find with B2B buyers is they make decisions as people, not as the companies for which they're spending money for. We undervalue that a lot in B2B marketing…And the reality is, the things that are impossible to measure are where we are starting to place bigger bets because it's the only way to drive differentiation.”Time Stamps[00:55] Meet Keri McGhee, Chief Marketing Officer at Katalon[01:06] Why Dr. Rick?[02:45] The Psychology of Being Seen[04:02] Who Is Dr. Rick?[11:26] Branding in a Commoditized Industry[13:59] Flow vs. Dr. Rick: A Franchise Strategy[15:26] Why B2B Doesn't Do This[22:14] Parents vs. Homeowners[26:35] Keri's Top B2B Takeaway[28:30] Creating Content Around Insecurity[31:20] Why Brands Don't Take Risks[40:56] Final Thoughts & TakeawaysLinksConnect with Keri on LinkedInLearn more about AttentiveAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise.

Have you ever wondered if there's a smarter, more profitable way to rent your property—hidden in plain sight? In this episode, I sit down with Aisha Govani—a dynamic entrepreneur who turned financial rock bottom into a midterm rental success story. From living in her in-laws' basement with two young kids and zero income during COVID, Aisha and her husband rewrote their future through grit, resilience, and an entirely new approach to real estate. We dive into the world of midterm rentals, where Aisha reveals how this overlooked strategy can be your golden ticket—especially if you're battling short-term rental restrictions. She breaks down how she built a thriving platform connecting independent hosts with corporate clients, turning properties into profit through business-to-business bookings. You'll get actionable tips on everything from cold calling corporate contacts, networking with relocation agencies, to landing contracts with insurance companies. Aisha peels back the curtain on how to structure deals, vet hosts, and maximize bookings—all while building a sustainable, values-driven business. This isn't just a roadmap for better bookings—it's a blueprint for reinvention. Aisha's story will challenge you to rethink your strategy and show you what's possible when you bet on yourself. Get ready to turn resilience into revenue and learn why midterm rentals are the smart investor's next big move! HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY POINTS: [01:01] A short introduction about our guest Aisha Govani and her journey from nonprofit work to real estate entrepreneurship [06:07] Aisha recalls the tough COVID days living in her in-laws' basement, where grit triumphed over fear [09:56] The importance of commitment over hesitation, framing failure as an essential step toward mastery and fulfillment [13:30] How Aisha's own entrepreneurial evolution reshaped her view on education to empower her children with personalized, real-world education inspired by her entrepreneurial growth [17:18] Aisha talks about the intensive work behind securing B2B midterm rental bookings and how her platform simplifies access for independent hosts  [22:45] Aisha explains why cold calling often triggers discomfort and shares the key to overcoming  [25:38] Aisha breaks down how to identify decision-makers for B2B bookings and highlights the mindset and approach needed to succeed in cold calling  [30:49] How Aisha's midterm rental platform connects hosts to both B2C and B2B bookings with a focus on ease and quality of guests [32:24] Aisha + details the streamlined vetting process for hosts on her platform and highlights high-demand areas, especially in the Greater Toronto Area  [35:57] The lightning round  Golden Nuggets: “Decide and ignore the noise.” “I always choose grit over fear.” “There are days I wake up and I'm like, should I be doing this? Is this the right choice? What have I decided to do? Can I even do this? Am I capable of doing what I think I can do? And when those questions come into your brain, you're really the only one that can quiet it. So I always try to choose, one foot, one foot, one foot. Don't worry about the rest of the race.” “We have to commit to what we want first before we do anything else.” “What I would say to anyone who's trying to cold call anything is, when you call that person, you speak to them like you're providing a solution for their problem.” “It's going to be harder than you think, but networking is going to be a large part of the answer.” “If you work on your mind and your body, all else will align. This episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠Lodgify⁠⁠⁠⁠!

From Dreamdata: "Things have changed over the last five years… and these are the core pillars you need to think about if you want to be successful as a company.Amidst intense budget scrutiny, disruptive AI, and failing lead-generation tactics, B2B marketers must overhaul their strategies to survive and grow by shifting focus from capturing existing demand to strategically creating it for the future.Speaking on a recent Attributed Podcast, Megan Bowen, CEO of Refine Labs, broke down the strategy that she believes is now essential for survival and growth.She argues that the "growth at all costs" era is definitively over, and in its place is a more sustainable, holistic go-to-market motion she calls the 'Brand. Demand. Expand.' framework. She explains the specifics of each pillar, including the key metric that makes brand performance measurable, a proven formula for reallocating ad spend, and strategies for turning existing customers into your best growth lever."

AI isn't just hype, it's already changing how service companies capture leads, close deals, and keep customers happy. In this episode, Chris and Brandon dive into the most practical, boots-on-the-ground conversation we've ever had about AI for the trades. Our guest, Nick D'Urbano, CRO and co-founder of Distance, brings a wild career path, from Deloitte M&A to running growth for Victoria's Secret overseas, to his mission of helping restoration, plumbing, and HVAC companies stop letting revenue slip through the cracks Why you should listen: [00:03:37] Nick's career path and how e-commerce growth strategies translate perfectly into service industries. [00:10:19] Why your call intake process is probably leaking revenue—and how to fix it before spending more on marketing. [00:16:30] The cost of missed calls, after-hours gaps, and the “storm surge” scenario where AI can save six-figure jobs. [00:23:35] Offensive vs. defensive AI strategies—when to focus on lead capture vs. protecting the leads you've already paid for. [00:33:37] How far AI voice has come—and why it's no longer the clunky, robotic call bot you're picturing. [00:44:21] Using AI across different channels (voice, SMS, chat) to meet customers where they're at—in real time. [00:50:51] The opportunity to use AI for proactive customer check-ins to prevent small frustrations from turning into slow-pay invoices. [01:01:47] The three main ways Distance helps companies capture more leads and book more jobs. Did you know... Only 30% of businesses listed for sale actually find a buyer? Even more striking, just 10% of those sell for the price their owners anticipated or higher, meaning only 3% of all business owners achieve their desired sale price. By focusing on understanding and enhancing your enterprise value, you can significantly boost your chances of joining that successful 3%. Business Health & Value Assessment Start Assessment Know Your Enterprise Value. See Your Potential Gaps. Complete this assessment in less than 15 minutes and receive a free assessment for your business that includes: A Lite Valuation Of Your Business Your Value Multiplier Per Your Industry Health Assessment Per Our PYB Methodology Business Value & Growth Roadmap Tailored For You Value Acceleration Strategies Spotlight on Floodlight: Your Secret Weapon for Sales & Scaling This isn't a paid plug. It's real talk from the front lines. If you've ever thought, “How do I get a VP-level sales leader or even a sales team without hiring full-time?” Floodlight has the answer. Fractional Sales Leadership They act as your outsourced VP of Sales, taking full responsibility for training, managing, and growing your sales team. No six-figure hire needed. Clients often close 20 to 50 percent more deals within six months, thanks to data-driven coaching, CRM setup, scripts, and performance reviews.More at floodlightgrp.com/sales Commercial Sales MasterCourse A self-paced, video-driven B2B sales course designed specifically for restoration teams. Perfect for building commercial revenue and getting free from TPA handcuffs. Covers mindset, prospecting, pipeline building, LinkedIn lead generation, and includes a $250 discount with code SALESBOOST.Details at floodlightgrp.com/courses Tailored Consulting & Coaching Floodlight's Propel Your Business methodology offers a full-circle roadmap: financials, sales, marketing, leadership, recruiting, productivity. All built for contractors. These aren't “life coaches.” They're former restoration owners who've lived the chaos and know how to scale out of it.Explore more at floodlightgrp.com Live Training, Tools & Strategic Partnerships Floodlight also delivers live onsite and virtual training, keynote speaking, and leadership tracks covering operations, project management, and strategic growth. Bonus: They've vetted tools like Xcelerate, Liftify, and Sureti. Floodlight clients get access to exclusive discounts on tech that actually moves the needle.See all partnerships at floodlightgrp.com/partners Why it matters for you as a listener You don't need to figure this stuff out alone. If you're serious about sales growth, operational clarity, exit readiness, or leadership development, Floodlight is already helping folks like you scale smarter. And you get it from industry insiders. People who've sat in your chair, survived the fires, and built systems that actually work.