The Dave Gerhardt Show (from Exit Five)

Epizode

• How to Win at AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) 04.06.2026 55min

  #361 | In this episode, Matt Carnevale, Head of Community at Exit Five talks with three marketers doing impactful work in AEO. AI search is changing how buyers find products, and most B2B teams are still figuring out where to start. In this session, each marketer shares what's working and wins they’ve experienced — from earned media and technical audits to homepage fixes and tracking AI visibility. Whether you call it AEO, GEO, LLMO, or EIEIO – this one’s for you. This session features guests Matt Dzugan, VP of Data Intelligence at Muckrack, Brett Bernath, Director of Product at Webflow, and Jess Joyce, Founder of Inbound Scope – an SEO and AI Search consultancy.Timestamps(00:00) - - - Why 80% of CMOs say AEO is a top priority — and most don't know where to start (02:58) - - - How Muckrack used original research to get cited in ChatGPT before their product launch (03:00) - - - Why top-of-funnel content is getting eaten by AI — and where to focus instead (03:03) - - - Quick win #3: authority — how to show up in Reddit and third-party platforms (03:06) - - - The sleeper tip: Bing Webmaster Tools is already giving you first-party AI data (03:17) - - - How to handle competitor comparison content without verifiable claims falling flat (03:33) - - - The four-bucket AEO maturity model: content, technical, authority, measurement (03:34) - - - Why your homepage is your worst-performing page for AI discoverability (03:37) - - - Quick win #1: technical hygiene — schema, meta descriptions, and structured data (03:38) - - - How to identify which journalists get cited most by AI in your niche (03:39) - - - Quick win #2: are you actually answering what your customers are asking? (03:44) - - - Why 1 in 3 B2B SaaS sites have technical blockers killing AI discoverability (03:46) - - - Why original research is the single best content type for earning AI citations Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more
• Why B2B brands should be doing influencer marketing with Ishveen Jolly 01.06.2026 43min

  #360 | Dave sits down with Ishveen Jolly, founder and CEO of Open Sponsorship, to talk about what influencer and athlete marketing actually looks like for B2B brands — and why it's more accessible than most marketers think. Ishveen breaks down how a $5K March Madness campaign outperformed traditional ads, why your first influencer deal will almost certainly miss on the offer, and how to think about sports sponsorships without a Tommy Fleetwood budget. They get into audience-fit versus story-fit sponsorships, why the goal should never be a landing page click, and why most B2B teams are applying the wrong success metrics from the start. If you've ever wondered how to get into influencer or sports sponsorship marketing without a Fortune 500 budget, this is the episode.Timestamps Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more
• How Snowflake Runs ABM with Casey Patterson 28.05.2026 1h 2min

  #359 | Dave sits down with Casey Patterson, Director of ABM at Snowflake, to talk about what ABM actually looks like inside one of the biggest companies in enterprise software. Casey breaks down how she cold LinkedIn messaged her now-boss Hillary to get her ABM decks reviewed before ever working together, why ABM works best when marketing stops thinking about credit and just focuses on helping sales get into accounts, and how she's thinking about the shift from traditional ABM plays to agent-driven ABM. They also get into geo-fenced out-of-home advertising, one-to-one field marketing plays, and why the future of ABM looks more like Netflix than a campaign calendar. Plus a surprisingly good tangent on finding mentors and how to actually get one.Timestamps(00:00) - - How Casey cold LinkedIn messaged her way into a mentorship (08:52) - - What a mentor actually is and how to find one (15:51) - - Why delusional confidence is underrated in marketing (20:22) - - The crux of ABM: sales alignment or nothing (23:29) - - ABM is not running digital ads to a list of accounts (28:54) - - How Casey thinks about running a team of 23 ABM marketers (31:49) - - A real ABM play: field event, OOH, gifting, and email at once (39:30) - - How to figure out the right number of accounts to target (44:31) - - Agent ABM: the three phases Casey is building toward (47:47) - - The future of ABM: reaching people in their preferred channels (49:49) - - How Dave uses AI to write his newsletter (56:32) - - The bull case for marketers in the age of AI Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more
• What’s Actually Working in B2B Email Right Now 25.05.2026 52min

  #358 | Ben Wallis (Customer Lifecycle Manager, Quo), Jaina Mistry (Director of Brand and Content Marketing, Knak), Kremi Mestanova (B2B Content and Growth Strategist, Kremi Marketing), and Tyler Cook (Head of Email Marketing, Hypermedia Marketing) join Dave for an Exit Five live session on what's actually working in email right now. Ben shows how Quo built a Spotify Wrapped-style year-in-review campaign with fully personalized GIFs and real usage data for every customer. Jaina makes the case for why B2B newsletters are one of the most slept-on trust-building channels in marketing, and breaks down the operating model that makes it sustainable. Tyler Cook shares his five-step AI-powered newsjacking system that goes from trend to sent email in under an hour, including a real example that got a 67% open rate. And Kremi walks through how she restructured email programs for two very different B2B brands and cut unsubscribe rates by 20% while lifting click-through rates by 40%.Timestamps(00:00) - - Intro (07:03) - - Ben Wallis: personalized year-in-review email campaign for every customer (17:32) - - Jaina Mistry: why B2B newsletters are the most slept-on trust channel (29:03) - - The operating model that makes publishing 52 newsletters a year sustainable (29:23) - - Tyler Cook: the AI-powered newsjacking system that goes from trend to sent in under an hour (41:05) - - Kremi Mestanova: restructuring email programs for two very different B2B brands (50:23) - - Live Q&A Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more
• How Ramp Is Rebuilding Marketing Around AI Agents 21.05.2026 48min

  #357 | Dave sits down with George Bonaci, VP of Growth at Ramp, to talk about what growth actually looks like at one of the most talked-about brands in B2B. George breaks down why Ramp has no CMO and why he thinks that's a feature, not a bug. He makes the case for attention as the new moat when execution gets commoditized, and shares how he went from hardcore attribution obsessive to betting on stunts with no direct attribution. They also get into Project Glass, Ramp's internal AI tool that reads every Slack channel, preps his meetings, and diagnosed a reporting issue in 15 minutes that would have taken two weeks to investigate. And George shares why he thinks marketers now have two jobs: marketing to humans and marketing to machines.Timestamps(00:00) - - George's background: from biochemist to accidental marketer (07:34) - - How marketing is structured at Ramp (no CMO) (09:49) - - Why brand is the growth lever (14:04) - - AI and the death of functional marketing roles (15:19) - - Ramp's hub and spoke model for AI (16:39) - - Building autonomous go-to-market workflows (17:49) - - How the team responded to going agent-first (21:29) - - The J curve of productivity (22:49) - - Are marketing jobs safe? (24:34) - - Marketing to machines: Ramp's two jobs (25:49) - - Offering $3,000 bonuses to AI agents (29:23) - - Project Glass: Ramp's internal AI tool (35:03) - - Attention as the new moat (36:53) - - How to measure attention without direct attribution (42:03) - - Why taste matters more than ever in direct mail and events (43:03) - - How George went from "measure everything" to betting on stunts Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more
• How to Think About AEO with Brett Domeny (Director of Product Management at Webflow) 18.05.2026 46min

  #356 | Dave sits down with Brett Domeny, product lead at Webflow focused on AEO, to talk about what it actually takes to show up in AI search. Brett breaks down Webflow's AEO maturity model — four core areas that actually matter: content, technical structure, authority, and measurement — and why most of AEO is just good SEO done right. They get into how LLM crawlers work and what your site needs to do to be discoverable, why Reddit and community platforms have outsized influence on AI citations, and how to measure whether any of it is working.Check out Webflow's free AEO assessment here.Timestamps(00:00) - - Intro and Brett's background (02:00) - - The state of search and why CMOs are worried (04:00) - - Webflow's AEO maturity model (05:30) - - Why AEO is an evolution of SEO, not a replacement (06:30) - - Technical: how LLM crawlers work (16:00) - - Content: optimize for questions, not keywords (19:00) - - Does authentic content still win in an AI world? (26:00) - - Measurement: the three-bucket framework (30:00) - - How accurate are the prompt visibility tools? (37:00) - - How to show your boss AEO is working (40:00) - - Authority: why Reddit has outsized influence on AI citations (43:00) - - Why Brett has stayed at Webflow for six years
• Should You Run Marketing Like a Product Team? 14.05.2026 51min

  #355 | Dave sits down with Maria Scheifler to talk about why your marketing team might be getting less done as it grows — and what to do about it. Maria makes the case for running marketing like a product team: two-week sprints, a prioritized backlog, and a lightweight intake process that kills approval bottlenecks without losing control. She walks through the context-switching exercise that proves multitasking is destroying your output, how to push back on random requests from across the company without saying no, and why getting team buy-in before rolling out any operational changes is the step most marketing leaders skip.Timestamps(00:00) - - Intro: the problem isn't your strategy, it's your operating system (05:12) - - Maria's background (08:12) - - Why teams get bigger and somehow get less done (10:41) - - The multitasking exercise that proves context switching kills output (18:10) - - Running marketing like a product team: the mindset shift (20:58) - - Building a working agreement with your team (23:30) - - The experimentation guardrail template: killing approval bottlenecks without losing control (29:09) - - Building a prioritized backlog (33:30) - - How the backlog helps you push back without saying no (40:19) - - Two-week sprints: how to plan, commit, and ship (42:31) - - Daily standups: how to keep them short and useful (43:22) - - Sprint reviews: showing the rest of the company what marketing does (45:03) - - Retrospectives (47:02) - - Where to start on Monday Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more
• Customer Marketing Deep Dive 11.05.2026 58min

  #354 | Sue (Head of Lifecycle Marketing, Monarch Money), Jonathan (VP of Marketing, Seamless.AI), and Naomi (Senior Product Marketing Manager, Customer.io) join Dan for a live Exit Five session on customer marketing. Sue breaks down how Monarch discovered that the best time to promote their referral program was during trial and the data behind a 64% lift in referral shares and half a million dollars in incremental ARR. Jonathan shares how Seamless.AI stopped treating customer engagement like a campaign and built a full 365-day behavioral program, including an AI chatbot that deflected 55% of support tickets and live trainings that flattened their churn curve. Then Naomi walks through how she uses plain-text emails asking for replies to close the feedback loop on new features and shape the product roadmap.Timestamps(00:00) - - Intro (07:49) - - Sue: Why the best time to promote a referral program is during trial, not after (10:49) - - The results: 64% lift in referral shares and $500K in incremental ARR (17:49) - - Sue's background: 16 years in lifecycle marketing from online dating to Calm to Monarch (20:49) - - Jonathan: Stopping treating customer engagement like a campaign (26:49) - - Building a 365-day behavioral multi-channel customer engagement program (27:49) - - The AI chatbot that deflected 55% of support tickets (36:03) - - Live customer training 4x a week and how it flattened the churn curve (41:03) - - Growth plays for NRR: marketing to users inside existing accounts (43:03) - - Jonathan's results: 24% decrease in cancellations year over year (44:03) - - Naomi: Using lifecycle marketing to close the product feedback loop (50:03) - - The MCP server onboarding flow and why she asks for replies instead of clicks (57:03) - - Using beta email campaigns to shape the product roadmap (01:00:03) - - Live Q&A Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more
• How CMOs Are Deploying AI Across Marketing 07.05.2026 50min

  #353 | Tara (CMO, Optimizely), Julia (Director of AI Adoption, Optimizely), Lily (CMO, Three Play Media), Pejman (CMO, Menlo Security), and Kevin (CMO, CompTIA) join Dave for a live Exit Five session on how real marketing teams are actually using AI right now. Lily shows how she replaced two BDR headcount with a HubSpot prospecting agent and went from an 18% to 46% response rate on inbound leads. Julia walks through how Optimizely's marketing team embedded AI agents directly into their content workflow, from briefing to brand voice checking to traffic monitoring, without anyone having to leave the platform. Pejman shares the framework his team uses to map workflows and find the highest-ROI AI opportunities, plus a custom brand tone tool that turns hours of manual review into minutes. And Kevin talks through what it actually looks like to lead an AI culture change on a small team with limited resources.Timestamps(00:00) - - Intro (07:29) - - Guest intros: Tara, Julia, Lily, Pejman, and Kevin (12:38) - - Tara on why AI adoption needs an internal owner and how to govern it without squashing enthusiasm (15:36) - - Lily: why their first AI initiative failed and what they did differently (17:49) - - How Lovable kicked off team-wide AI excitement at Three Play Media (20:11) - - Lily's HubSpot prospecting agent: 18% to 46% response rate on inbound leads (23:53) - - Julia: embedding AI agents into Optimizely's content workflow (32:03) - - Using AI to monitor content performance and auto-assign optimization work (34:07) - - Pejman: mapping workflows to find the highest-ROI AI opportunities (36:38) - - Building a brand tone checker that scores and rewrites content against brand guidelines (40:38) - - Kevin: making AI a mandate on a small team and building a culture of learning (44:49) - - Group Q&A: optimizing spend vs. shipping faster, budget shifts, and new KPIs Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more
• Build a Better B2B Growth Engine with Uzair Dada from Iron Horse 04.05.2026 53min

  #352 | Dave sits down with Uzair Dada, CEO of Iron Horse, to talk about why most B2B companies are overcomplicating their marketing and what to do instead. Uzair breaks down his three-part growth framework — get discovered, get chosen, close — and explains why most companies are wasting the majority of their ad budget targeting the wrong audience entirely. He also gets into how to actually show up in AI search, why brand vs. demand is a false choice marketers invented to argue about, and how he blocks every Friday afternoon to build with AI. Then they get into what AI adoption really looks like inside enterprise companies, and why taste and judgment are becoming the only true differentiators left.Check out Webflow's free AEO assessment here. Timestamps(00:00) - - Intro (03:17) - - Running the same agency for 26 years and why AI makes it exciting again (06:19) - - Why Uzair blocks Friday afternoons from 2-7 to build with AI (11:13) - - How a personal prep tool became a company-wide account dossier app (15:34) - - The leadership meeting habit that drove AI adoption across the org (17:35) - - Are marketers going away? The case for taste and judgment (25:02) - - Why brand vs. demand is a false choice (26:29) - - Get discovered, get chosen, close: a simpler B2B growth framework (28:03) - - The company targeting a million people when their real audience was 20,000 (34:52) - - The real bottleneck to AI in enterprise isn't the tech, it's governance (41:46) - - AEO: start with your Gong call transcripts, not a new tool (44:28) - - Why the second query matters more than the first in AI search
• Claude Code for B2B Marketers (with Corey Haines) 30.04.2026 1h

  #351 | Dave is joined by Corey Haines, the founder of Conversion Factory, Swipe Files, and Marketing-Skills.com, which has over 20,000 stars on GitHub. He's been all-in on AI since 2023 and in this episode he shows Dave exactly how he works now. He pulls up his screen and walks through live keyword research from an API, 10 programmatic SEO pages generated in under a minute, a cross-referenced SEO audit that would cost five figures from a consultant, a RevOps skill that audits HubSpot and builds out a lead scoring model, and a video editor running in the browser. Then they talk about what all of it means for marketers: the job isn't going away, but the way you do it is changing fast, and the gap between marketers who get that and those who don't is already showing up.Timestamps(00:00) - Don Draper, Peggy, and what AI actually changes about marketing (04:57) - Who is Corey Haines and how he went from laid off to AI-pilled (08:23) - The moment at coding boot camp that changed how he thinks about AI (11:04) - Why Claude Code in the terminal beats every other interface (15:14) - What Marketing-Skills.com is and how skills actually work (22:34) - Live demo: keyword research pulled straight from an API (24:49) - Live demo: 10 programmatic SEO pages built in 30 seconds (31:33) - Pushing pages live and the future of website editing (37:03) - Cross-referencing Google Search Console, Fathom, and keyword data (41:23) - Live demo: RevOps skill that audits HubSpot and builds lead scoring (48:03) - Video editing in the browser with Remotion and Claude (53:13) - The marketer as creative director: what the job actually looks like now (57:03) - The bull case for marketers in an AI world Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more
• B2B Social Media Strategy Discussion 27.04.2026 53min

  #350 | Dave was a guest on Slate's Social Social Club webinar for a conversation about everything organic marketing and B2B social media strategy with Jeff Meltz (Head of Social at Atlassian), Brianna Doe (Founder, Verbatim), and Carmen Vicente (Social Strategist at Slate). If you are thinking about things like creating content on LinkedIn, making videos, writing content for your executive team, trying to understand measure the ROI of social media - this is a good session to listen to.Timestamps(00:00) - - Intro: Dave, Brianna Doe, and Jeff Meltz (Head of Social, Atlassian) join Slate's Social Club webinar (09:33) - - Personal brand building: how they started and how they justified it before it was a playbook (13:58) - - How to handle trolls and critics when you post publicly (17:50) - - Do marketers have to build a personal brand? What "building in public" actually means (22:58) - - The difference between an audience and a community, and what brands get wrong (26:02) - - Personal page vs. company page: where to focus your energy (30:14) - - Audience Q&A: how to get reluctant executives to post (34:39) - - Ghostwriting for executives: what works and what doesn't (37:25) - - Shifting from B2C to B2B social: how to reset your metrics and mindset (39:58) - - What's changed on LinkedIn and what you had to let go of (42:03) - - What B2B and B2C can learn from each other (44:56) - - Rapid fire: favorite LinkedIn follows, creative inspiration, books (48:09) - - One tip for people just starting to build a presence online Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more
• Real Talk from Three CMOs: Attribution, Paid Media, and Why B2B Is More Emotional Than You Think 23.04.2026 1h 2min

  #349 | Megan Lueders (CMO, Sonatype), Ido Mart (CMO, ManyChat), and Kim Storin (CMO, Zayo) join Dave for a live CMO panel from an Exit Five meetup in Austin. Megan breaks down how the pace of change in marketing has outrun every other function in the business. Ido talks about why your strengths as a CMO only matter if you choose the right environment for them. And Kim shares how she measures marketing impact in a company with long, complex sales cycles and drops a line worth writing down: marketing is never green when the business is red. They also get into pipeline attribution, founder-led content, LinkedIn influencers, and what most CMOs get wrong about aligning with their CEO on what marketing actually is.Timestamps(00:00) - - Intros: Megan Lueders (Sonatype), Ido Mart (ManyChat), Kim Storin (Zayo) (06:07) - - What they wish they'd known when they became CMO (11:06) - - How marketing has changed more than any other function (13:41) - - How to measure marketing impact in long, complex sales cycles (15:11) - - Growth at all costs vs. efficiency: how they're navigating it (22:29) - - How to talk to your CFO about marketing spend (26:02) - - What's not working anymore: email, granular data, paid media (33:35) - - What is working: sales enablement, influencers, product marketing (37:33) - - Why B2B is actually more emotional than consumer buying (41:22) - - Audience Q&A: defending channels that work but don't have clean attribution (43:13) - - Acquisition vs. retention: where are you actually spending time (47:12) - - Founder-led content and executive presence on social (50:41) - - LinkedIn influencers: is the spend worth it (53:32) - - Sales enablement and how to make messaging stick internally Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more
• How to Create a Category When You're Already the Market Leader (with Melton Littlepage, CMO at 1Password) 20.04.2026 52min

  #348 | Dave sits down with Melton Littlepage, CMO at 1Password, to talk about what category creation actually looks like inside a company that's already won. Melton breaks down why 1Password is betting on an entirely new category called Extended Access Management, how they chose it over competing in an existing one, and the tactics behind it: lightning strike events, analyst relations, and embedding a former CISO on the marketing team to agitate the problem from the inside. He also makes the case for sports sponsorship as a B2B play, and why the President's Cup was an easy yes.Timestamps(00:00) - - Melton's background: 20 years building SaaS before it was called SaaS (08:19) - - What changes after multiple CMO roles (11:59) - - You can't attribute your way to being hot (13:03) - - The CMO's real job: be the chief markets officer (15:17) - - 1Password today and the market shift that created a new category (22:37) - - The three acts of 1Password's business (23:30) - - Naming the category: Extended Access Management (XAM) (24:32) - - How the decision to create a new category got made (30:01) - - The tactics: category point of view, lightning strikes, analyst relations (34:06) - - How the marketing org is structured (38:38) - - 1Password's three go-to-market motions (42:03) - - Why 1Password is betting on sports marketing Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more
• How ClickUp Built a B2B Social Machine with Chris Cunningham from ClickUp 16.04.2026 54min

  #347 | ClickUp drives millions of impressions for the company through videos and content for B2B marketers on social, and in this episode Dave sits down with Chris Cunningham, a founding member of the marketing team at ClickUp and the guy who runs social there now, to talk about how they do it. Chris breaks down why 99% of companies are doing social wrong, how ClickUp runs a weekly writers room and shoots 12 to 15 videos every Thursday, and why he tests every video with multiple hooks using Instagram trial reels before it ever hits the main feed. He also gets into how he manages 35 accounts across platforms, how he finds unknown creators with small followings and turns them into writers, and how this has driven real pipeline. Then the conversation shifts to AI and whether doubling down on human creativity might actually be B2B's biggest competitive advantage right now.Timestamps(00:00) - - Intro (04:59) - - Chris's background and why he's been at ClickUp for nearly a decade (06:55) - - The biggest mistake B2B companies make on social (09:03) - - The rule of three: make people feel something, teach them, or make them laugh (10:14) - - Why you should create for two platforms and distribute everywhere (12:08) - - How ClickUp separates brand, comedy, and product accounts (14:15) - - How social has driven real pipeline and closed deals (16:35) - - How Chris interviews ICPs to find content ideas (20:36) - - How to measure social when attribution is hard (25:42) - - The weekly production process: writers room, shoot day, and content bank (32:43) - - Tools and how to manage posting across 35 accounts (34:17) - - Don't sleep on Facebook Reels (35:49) - - How to start if you're camera shy and how to find unknown creators (41:31) - - Where AI fits in and why doubling down on human creativity is the biggest moat (46:15) - - Why brand is now the biggest competitive advantage in B2B (48:22) - - Unique content formats worth studying and stealing Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more
• Inside Ramp's Marketing: Creative Bets, Measurement, and AI Agents (with Drew Pinta) 13.04.2026 1h 2min

  #346 | Dave sits down with Drew Pinta, Director of Growth Data at Ramp, to talk about what it actually looks like to measure marketing when the hardest things to measure are often the ones working hardest. Drew breaks down how Ramp uses incrementality testing and event studies to put real numbers on brand stunts, how they split budget 70/30 between proven channels and experimental bets, and how scanning thousands of Gong calls with AI surfaced attribution insights that contradicted every model they had. He also makes the bull case for why marketers might be better positioned than engineers in the age of AI, and doesn't shy away from the bear case either.Timestamps(00:00) - - Intro (04:59) - - Drew's background: from the Fed to growth data (07:49) - - Drew's role as a data partner to marketing (10:25) - - How Ramp's funnel works (12:08) - - Using AI to scan Gong calls and finding attribution was wrong (16:49) - - Why measurement should meet the marketing, not the other way around (28:24) - - The 70/30 budget split (29:24) - - Ramp's channel maturity framework (37:03) - - The marketing leader as pilot, data team as instruments (40:18) - - The bull case: why marketers are better positioned than engineers in the age of AI (44:03) - - The bear case (49:03) - - Real AI workflows Ramp's marketing team has built (53:57) - - How Ramp enabled the team on AI (56:28) - - Guardrails for AI agents Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more
• Creative + AI examples from B2B marketers 09.04.2026 55min

  #345 | Luke (Head of Growth & Marketing, ElevenLabs), Liz (CMO, Brain Labs), Vicente (Creative Director, Bitly), and Carter (Global Brand Team, UiPath) join this Exit Five Live session to show how they're actually using AI to do creative work. Luke breaks down how his team built a full brand video with one person in one day using voice cloning, image models, and AI video tools. Liz shows the Claude skill her team built so anyone in the org can self-serve on-brand design without going through a designer. Vicente walks through how Bitly cut video production time by two weeks using AI. And Carter shares how he's leading a video initiative that's changing the way a global brand team operates. If you're tired of AI hype and want a look at what people are actually doing, this one's for you. Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more
• The 6 Types of Ownable Ideas (And How to Find Yours) with Katelyn Bourgoin, Founder of Unignorable 07.04.2026 44min

  #344 | Dave sits down with Katelyn Bourgoin, founder of Unignorable, to talk about the one strategic move most B2B marketers overlook: owning an idea so tied to you that it sounds like an echo coming from anyone else. Katelyn breaks down the six types of ownable ideas, from coined categories to named problems to X vs. Y frameworks, and walks through how to find the central argument your brand should be built on. They also get into why category creation isn't always the answer, what made "conversational marketing" work at Drift, and why ownable ideas matter more now than ever.Timestamps(00:00) - - Intro and Dave recaps the Exit Five Marketing Leadership Retreat (04:01) - - Katelyn introduces the concept of ownable ideas (08:32) - - Katelyn's background: failed startup, buyer psychology, and finding her niche (11:19) - - What an ownable idea actually is (and why it's not category creation) (13:34) - - The 6 types of ownable ideas with examples (19:13) - - How to find your central argument (the webinar software example) (21:54) - - Katelyn breaks down Dave's own central argument back to him (27:15) - - The chocolate covered almond analogy (29:16) - - How Dave extracted the ownable idea at Drift (30:39) - - Why the founder has to own marketing (and what to do if they don't) Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more
• How to Make Outbound Work and Build Pipeline in 2026 (with Jen Allen-Knuth, Founder of DemandJen) 03.04.2026 48min

  #343 | In this session from Drive 2025 titled “Building Pipeline in the Shiny Object Era”, Jen Allen Knuth unpacks why deals stall even when your product is objectively better, how the explosion of shiny tools and AI noise is making it worse, and why most teams are unintentionally fueling the problem with me-centric messaging. Jen shares the two zero-dollar exercises every team should run to quantify how much pipeline they’re losing today, align sales and marketing around the true blocker, and rebuild outbound messaging that creates curiosity.PS. Want to join us at Drive 2026?Head over to exitfive.com/drive to grab your ticket.  Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more
• How to Be the CMO Everyone Wants to Work With (with Dave Kellogg) 31.03.2026 1h 14min

  #342 | Recorded live at Exit Five's Marketing Leadership Retreat, this episode features Dave Kellogg sharing his framework for being the CMO everyone wants to work with. Dave draws on 12 years as a CMO across three companies, two CEO stints, and ten board seats to cover CMO failure archetypes, how to build a real partnership with your CRO, and why internal marketing is just as important as running marketing. Last time we had Dave on the podcast it was one of the most downloaded episodes of all-time, and this one is even better. Get your notebook read.Link to slides Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn more at vector.co, and get their new MCP server by clicking here. Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more