Explore every episode of the podcast B2B Marketing Mindset

With all the overwhelming noise, hype, and questionable search results, more people are turning to communities (both online and off) as their trusted source for buying everything from consulting to water heaters. AI can search the web but there is wisdom in the crowd.

My guest today is Candice Grobler – community building expert. We’re discussing the invisible iceberg brewing in the path of AI Titanic – are online communities taking over the marketing landscape?

Podcast is brought to you by The Agency Founders Network.com – a private, online community of marketing founders of all stripes. Join now for free – no credit card required – AgencyFoundersNetwork (.) com

The post Forget AI, Communities Are The New Internet appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

My guest today says: If you’re just plugging into ChatGPT like it’s some kind of marketing Jesus — without a crystal clear offer, target, and brand — AI will just scale the confusion that’s already killing your business.

Watch as we test ChatGPT with the dumbest company ideas imaginable.

Blake Thomas is a long time, expert marketer Fractional CMO, Strategic Advisor and president of Bolivia – who has strong opinions and isn’t afraid to speak his mind. He is also a punk rock aficionado and knows all the words to every GG Allen song.

Podcast is brought to you by The Agency Founders Network.com – a private, online community of marketing founders of all stripes. Join now for free – no credit card required – AgencyFoundersNetwork (.) com

The post Do THIS Before Using AI appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Today we have a guest who is asking the eternal question marketers face every day: W.T.F.

This week I sat down with Tim Kilroy, a straight-talking expert who’s helped hundreds of marketing firms and agencies grow by thinking differently about how they sell, who they serve, and what they stand for.

We got into:

The broken state of client acquisition

Why trust is so low in the marketing world

What he thinks of the new class of gurus

What it means to sell expertise

And more

Podcast is brought to you by The Agency Founders Network.com – a private, online community of marketing founders of all stripes. Join now for free – no credit card required – AgencyFoundersNetwork.com

The post WTF IS UP WITH MARKETING? appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Today I’m talking about thought leadership – what it is and if it still matters in the age of AI.

Podcast is brought to you by The Agency Founders Network.com – a private, online community of marketing founders of all stripes. Join now for free – no credit card required – AgencyFoundersNetwork (.) com

The post Is Thought Leadership Dead In the Era of AI “Experts”? appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

In 1995 I had an employee who was stealing from my company. “Cilia” was a bookkeeper. (Yes, now I know).

Cilia wasn’t just copping paper clips from the stock room. We’re talking “really stealing a lot of (my) money, call the cops, get taken out in cuffs” stealing.

Of course we fired her.

That’s when the shit really hit the fan.

A true story with guest Brett Linkenhohl

Podcast is brought to you by The Agency Founders Network.com – a private, online community of marketing founders of all stripes. Join now for free – no credit card required – AgencyFoundersNetwork.com

The post FIRING A THIEF FIXED OUR OPS appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Is AI in sales the work of the devil? A satanic pilot to make take your job? Find out as I talk to Michael Ocean CEO of SellMeThisPen.ai – He is a fellow coach and doing some incredible things with technology and probably isn’t in cahoots with The Dark Lord… or is he? 

Podcast is brought to you by The Agency Founders Network- a private, online community of marketing founders of all stripes. Join now for free – no credit card required – AgencyFoundersNetwork.com

The post Is A.I. In Sales The Work Of The Devil? appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

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Today I’m interviewing Eli Rubel. Eli is the founder behind No Boring Design, Profit Labs, and MatterMade, he is a serial entrepreneur and investor that turns struggles into profit while “building in public” – sharing his raw, real (and sometimes insane) entrepreneurial journey as it happens on LinkedIn.

Podcast is brought to you by The Agency Founders Network.com – a private, online community of marketing founders of all stripes. Join now for free – no credit card required – AgencyFoundersNetwork (.) com

The post The Profit Code Unlocked: What’s Holding You Back? appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

In this episode I talk to Chris Lopes about Sales Playbooks – what they are and why you should care. The right playbook can make the difference between sales success and sales suck-cess. Heh, heh.

What exactly is a Sales Playbook?

Are they unique to each company?

What are the key components of a sales playbook?

Who should “own” the playbook within the organization?

How can sales leaders ensure their team follows and benefits from the playbook?

Podcast is brought to you by The Agency Founders Network.com – a private, online community of marketing founders of all stripes.

Join now for free – no credit card required – AgencyFoundersNetwork.com

The post Mastering Sales Playbooks – Strategy, process, and profit appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

If you sell expertise—whether through consulting, coaching, training, or professional services—you’re not just selling knowledge. You’re selling trust, credibility, and perceived value. And nothing amplifies those faster than influence.

Influence is what turns you into the go-to authority for your niche. Knowing how to create and use it is why some experts command premium fees while others struggle to stand out. It’s what makes potential clients seek you out instead of the other way around.

In this episode I talk to Patrick Prothe about influence – how to create it and wield it for coaches, consultants, marketers, trainers, speakers – anyone who sells their expertise.

The post Selling Expertise: How To Leverage Influence appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

If you sell expertise for a living you’ve probably struggled with if you should generalize or focus on a niche.

You keep hearing people say that “The Niche is where it’s at” from a competitive standpoint.

“But….But…But we have to cast a wider net – not a narrower net so we don’t miss any opportunities!”

This week I have master marketer Claudia Ring to tackle this important but narrow topic.

The post To Niche Or Not To Niche appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Today we’ll be talking about the biggest mistakes made by people who sell expertise. So coaches, consultants, professional witnesses and experts hang with us for a few minutes to see if you are making mistakes that are costing you money.

Featuring Louie Bernstein a top LinkedIn Voice and 40 year veteran fractional sales manager, we’ll be talking about hidden mistakes everyone (including us) make that cost us deals and leave us wondering “what went wrong”.

The post The Biggest Sales Mistakes Made By Consultants, Coaches, and SMBs appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Today we are talking about how to be in front of the right people at the right time.

THE MAGIC MOMENT

TIMING IS EVERYTHING OMNI-PRESENCE ALL THE TIME

SALES CAN’T DO IT ALONE

COST PER TOUCH

The post Getting In Front Of Customers At The Right Time appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

One thing I’m hearing more than every is “marketing doesn’t work for us” – usually it’s more specific – email doesn’t work, social doesn’t work, advertising doesn’t work – nothing works for these companies.

If marketing didn’t work, Apple, Coca-Cola, IBM, your competitors wouldn’t exist.

If you are thinking that marketing doesn’t work for your company, today we are going to try to help you figure out why by sharing some hard truth bombs you might not want to hear.

• Nothing works – now what?

• You are doing it wrong

• Your expectations are misguided

• Your assumptions are wrong

• MarCom for B2B – How it works

The post Marketing Doesn’t Work appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

The marketing industry is in a state of over saturation and fragmentation. That means it’s ripe for consolidation as larger agencies buy smaller agencies.

And it’s a buyers market.

My guest today is Tom Shipley – he’s building a mega agency through acquisition. We’ll be talking about the state of the market and why now is the time to sell your firm – or not.

For many agencies being acquired isn’t the end – it’s a new beginning.

• Why now?

• Brand Acquisition Criteria

• What is the 2Y3X program?

• What do you look for in a potential Acquisition?

• What motivates buyers?

The post Is Marketing In Decline? appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

The post Spending Money On Marketing But Not Getting a Return? Let’s Fix It. appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Today we discuss a concept that is really crucial in terms of determining your marketing strategy but it seems lost to time.

However, it’s no less relevant. It’s called the Market Life Cycle – although we will show you how to expand how it’s used – extending to mapping products, services, industries, your company and more.

We will connect it to specific strategies depending on where you are in the cycle. Plus you can download a free workbook at the link in the comments.

• What is the Lifecycle concept?• Stages of the Lifecycle• It is not just about Products or Services • Companies go through the Lifecycle too.• Marketing tactics for each Stage of the Lifecycle

• Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid them

The post Lost Marketing Hack appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Being a vendor sucks that’s not something that you should aspire to. You want to be a trusted advisor but how and why?

Well, worry, not because that’s what today’s episode is about why it sucks to be a vendor why it’s only slightly better to be a solution provider and how awesome it is to be a trusted advisor.

Will be covering the entry intricacies of each type of relationship, and how to transform your business relationships from low value to high value.

• Are you a vendor?

• Are you a solution provider?

• Are you a trusted advisor?

• Why is it a curve?

• How can you move up the curve?

The post Vendor or Trusted Advisor – What Are You? appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Back in 2003 I had to shutter a seven figure marketing firm. I could have sold it but:

a) I was ignorant and thought that service businesses were hard to sell

b) personal tragedy had struck and I had to focus all of my energy on my family

Advisors all said “Your assets go down the elevator every night – there isn’t anything to sell.” They were wrong.

We had extensive operating manuals, contracts with F100 clients, a great team and a track record of cash flow.

Today we blow apart the myths of selling marketing services companies with an expert who knows how it works and tolerates dumb questions.

• Current climate for Agency M&A

• What creates value

• How to build for a sale

• Multiples for agencies

• How to choose an M&A Partner

The post What’s My Agency Worth? appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

My guest today has grown several companies from one employee to hundreds of millions in revenue in the Direct to Consumer niche and he’s spilling the beans on what works and what doesn’t.

We helped him make it happen on one of his companies and he’s a true master of growth, marketing, branding and how to leverage marketing and marketing agencies.

Bill Gates is not a serial entrepreneur. He had success once. (Malcom Gladwell calls him a “one-er”) – Jalem Getz has done it three times.

Hang with us for the next half hour for some beefy advice and lessons learned from a true master of growth.

• Advice for Startups• Role of marketing• In-house vs. external agencies• Surprise lessons• Advice for agencies and marketers

The post MULTI-MILLION $$ ADVICE appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

If you can only do one thing to improve marketing – this is that one thing.

This common sense tactic seems to be lost over time but it really makes the difference between failure and success when it comes to both sales and marketing.

Simply put, you need to talk to your customers. But if you don’t do it right, it will be a waste of time. Or worse, you’ll get data that leads to making the wrong decisions.

In Episode 109, I’m interrogating my co-host Bill Lowell about how to correctly survey customers to get insights straight from the horses mouth.

OLD SCHOOL HACK REVEALED

STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES MOUTH

KEYS TO SUCCESS

INFORMATION ≠ INTELLIGENCE

TYPES OF CUSTOMER RESEARCH

The post An Old School Marketing Hack appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Bill and I have been in business continually for 34 years. In this episode we share the secret sauce that not only has kept us up and running but allowed us to gain significant clients and traction.

This isn’t an episode where we brag about how we got rich in the marketing business, how we travel around in private jets and own three mansions. We aren’t going to try to sell you a course to “get rich quick”.

We are going to tell you the truth – good, bad and ugly.

How we built our businesses

The power of peers and mentors T

he need for community

The old way

The new way

The post How We Built Our Agencies appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Marketing people and agencies have a HUGE problem. Their approval rating is lower than Joe Biden’s (actually, lower than ANY president in history, airlines, home internet providers and my Aunt Mary’s meatloaf.) According to Harvard Review, 80% of CEO’s don’t trust marketers.

Today we are asking Paul Fioravanti to help us understand what’s going on here and how marketing agencies and related service business can build credibility and trust with client leadership. We’ll answer these burning questions and more:

Is there a trust issue with CEO’s?

Does the marketing industry have a credibility problem? If so, why do you think that is? 

What are CEO’s looking for from CMO’s (or marketers in general)

What advice would you give to agencies (of all kinds)

The post Why CEOs Don’t Trust Marketing appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Today we share the five secrets to creating buyer personas that really connect with B2B buyers.

A typical buyers persona might read like this:

Male

Born in 1948

Raised in the UK

Married twice

Lives in a castle

Wealthy and famous

However, that persona applies equally to King Charles and Ozzy Osbourne. See the problem here?

We’ll be running down the particulars with Naomi Soman from Similarweb to help you create personas that strike the hearts of buyers.

The post Conversion Secrets: Why Hubspot Personas Don’t Work appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Once again we tackle a mysterious subject to break it down and demystify public relations – how to score press for your agency or business.

There’s no secret to it – just good, old fashioned marketing.

Today’s guest is Shelly Schumacher from storied agency Nelson Schmidt in Milwaukee.

She’s going to share some sage advice to put you in the pages so you can get some of that sweet, sweet publicity.

The post How PR Works To Build Credibility appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

There is little doubt that online video is dominating the algorithms on all platforms these days.

But how do you harness that dynamic to drive your sales funnel?

Today, we’ll be talking to Jeremy Shere from Expert Content Pros to understand how to use video to directly drive the funnel, how it works and new A.I. tools to make producing video more efficient.

The post Driving The Sales Funnel With Video appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Are cold calls and/or emails dead? Or are you doing it wrong?

Today we talk to sales expert Louie Bernstein to get an understanding about these two outreach tactics that are widely misunderstood and misused.

Why cold email can be a big mistakeWhy cold calling is still effectiveThe post call emailThe Case for LinkedIn MessagingUsing Audio Messages in LinkedIn

The post COLD EMAIL VS. COLD CALLS appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Today’s marketing landscape is changing by the week and we are sharing the top five skills you need to move up the ladder whether in a corporate job, an agency or to build a solid consulting career.

Our guest is Jerry Bernhart one of the top 1% of recruiters in the US and founder of Bernhart Associates Executive Search.

The top five skills to establish yourself as a successful marketing leader are:

AdaptabilityLeadershipChange ManagementCollaborationBusiness Acumen

The post 5 Skills Marketers Need in 2024 appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

There are three types of video that every business should feature to supercharge the sales funnel.

Today we are talking to Mark Wonderlin of Mosaic Media to get insight into how to leverage video in the sales funnel, the one video every business needs and more.

3 VIDEOS YOU NEED

MOST EFFECTIVE B2C FUNNELS

HOW CAN B2B USE VIDEO?

THE ONE VIDEO EVERY BUSINESS NEEDS

WHAT ARE DIFFERENT TYPES OF VIDEO

The post 3 MUST HAVE VIDEOS TO SUPERCHARGE YOUR SALES FUNNEL appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Welcome to episode #100. We are going to share the most cringe worthy mistakes businesses make when it comes to branding. These mistakes don’t just make you look dumb, they can hurt your business. Yet we see them all the time. We’ve got some examples of dumbness as well as some examples of how to get it right.

WHAT IS A BRAND?SKIP THE RESEARCHLACK CONSISTENCYCOPY COMPETITORSFAIL TO DELIVER ON YOUR PROMISEBEING CLEVER INSTEAD OF CLEAR

Stay tuned for ridiculous brand mistakes and more!

The post 5 CRINGE WORTHY BRAND MISTAKES – Stop Doing These Things Immediately appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

There is a reason the use of video is proliferating across all platforms – it is the most effective tool to build credibility, show expertise and maximize algorithms.

Today we are talking to Jeremy Shere from Expert Content Pros about how to leverage video to grab your prospect’s attention, differentiate your business, how it works in the sales funnel and more. We’ll also share common mistakes and Jeremy’s recommended AI driven tools.

WHY VIDEO FOR ENGAGING PROSPECTS

HOW TO USE VIDEO TO DIFFERENTIATE

HOW TO USE VIDEO STRATEGICALLY IN THE SALES FUNNEL

COMMON MISTAKES USING VIDEO

RECOMMENDED TOOLS

The post HOW TO USE VIDEO TO REACH MORE CUSTOMERS appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Have you recently started a marketing services business, agency or consultancy? Or maybe you’ve been in business a few years and have hit a ceiling in terms of growth. If so, you’ll want to pay close attention to today’s episode because I’m going to share how we went from a cramped office above an auto parts store to one of the hottest agencies in Milwaukee, billing over six million in fees. 

Full disclosure – when we started our business, we were very good technicians but we had no idea how to drive growth, set pricing, get profitable clients or manage the work. We didn’t understand the financial aspects of our business – and I could write a book about what we didn’t know when we started. 

My wife (then girlfriend) was working at a design firm and was miserable due to a terrible work environment. I was 32 years old and fresh out of the University of Wisconsin. We decided that we could do it better. But we soon found out there was more to running a business than being good at our craft. 

We started out as a pretty humble design studio, taking over a rehearsal room in my apartment above an auto parts store in Glendale, Wisconsin. The floor had a huge hole that went all the way through to the business below – we covered it with a sheet of plywood – threw some carpet over it and started looking for clients. 

It didn’t go well. We quickly found that doing postcards for the local hospital wasn’t going to pay the bills – we had to change our business model. This would end up being a pattern throughout the life cycle of the business – continual change and adaptation. 

At first we read books and talked to clients to understand what they really needed. We learned that, even in 1991, graphic design service didn’t offer enough value to have a viable business. Clients needed help solving tough marketing problems – they needed more than brochures – they wanted help improving their strategies. They wanted to see hard, measurable results. 

It took a lot of hubris to start a company without any experience. We kept trying things, failing, and trying again.The truth is, we didn’t figure it out ourselves. Our secret to success was to lose our ego’s and seek help from people with more experience.  

That meant surrounding ourselves with more experienced people, mentors and coaches. Soon we found ourselves winning clients like NML, Harley Davidson, Eaton, Rockwell, Abbott Laboratories, ABB Industrial Systems – and so many more. We had a beautiful office in downtown Milwaukee and we owe it all to our team of experts. 

People like Anthony Mikes from Second Wind Network, Dave Woods from Agency Management Roundtable, Bill Lowell, Jim Locatelli, Matt Shultz and so many other agency owners (I’m sorry I don’t remember names!) who shared what they knew, including financials and everything they learned the hard way. We had coaches before it was cool. To this day I still seek out great coaches to help me better understand how to overcome problems in my business. – and that’s after having 34 years of experience under my belt. 

Here’s the top five problems new agencies face where seeking out a mentor or coach can help: 

• Not understanding costs
• Self limiting beliefs
• Attracting the wrong clients
• Not having formal SOP’s
• Not seeking help 

We spent years in trial and error. If we had sought out mentors and coaches sooner we would have grown faster and would have been more profitable. We also listened to our clients and hired more experienced people. But mostly, we didn’t assume we knew it all. 

Final Thoughts: 

If you are hitting a wall with your company, consider a mentor, advisor or coach. You’ll save years of trial and error (mostly errors) and what you pay in fees to these experienced folks is returned ten-fold. Our company has lasted three decades – it’s smaller now, our clients are different – almost everything is different. And now I get to return the privilege by helping small marketing services businesses become bigger and more profitable. That’s a pretty good deal if you ask me. 

The post How We Built a Multi-Million Dollar Agency in Just a Few Years appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

I can really relate to today’s program because I’ve faced these common company killing problems in my own business, and I’ve helped other consultants and marketing services firms overcome them.

What is interesting to me is that these problems are universal with companies as they go from scrappy start up to successful enterprise – unless they can’t solve them.

Then they end up on the crap pile of broken dreams.

This week we will share some very personal challenges we’ve faced in our 30+ years in business and how to overcome them. (HINT: we didn’t do it alone).

1. CLIENTS FROM HELL
2. UNRELENTING PRICE PRESSURE
3. LACK OF SALES EXPERTISE
4. BOOM/BUST CYCLE
5. WORK LIFE BALANCE

The post CLIENTS FROM HELL AND 4 MORE COMPANY KILLERS appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

This week we are hanging out with Kenny Lange, an organizational and leadership coach, to talk about sales. Specifically, how to avoid the trap of traditional selling where you cajole, plead, bully, convince, push and stalk prospects.

Kenny says there is a better way and we agree. Tune in to find out a better way to sell – better for the prospect and better for your soul.

1. Build genuine rapport

2. Discover real challenge

3. Determine services alignment

4. Ask if they’d like help

5. Start with “No”

The post SELLING BY HELPING – Don’t Be A Sales-hole appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

User experience is a talked about a lot, and today we are getting into the finer points of UX with our special guest Jeannette Juetten.

User Experience – what is it?

Why is UE important?

How does research play a role in UE?

Why are personas important?

How does the user experience shape perception?

The post User Experience is Everything – How UX Drives Growth appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Let’s talk about driving referrals through business networking feature networking master Artie Berne.

Don’t sit around and wait for the phone to ring. Personal interaction is back in vogue and in today’s episode we share the most effective ways to drive more referrals and position yourself and your business as the “go to” for whatever it is that you do.

The post Networking Tips – Driving Referrals Through Relationships appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

There is a lot of talk lately about the future of marketing – whether it’s A.I. or the ever changing algorithms of social media or whatever flavor of the week tech platform – we thought we’d go right to the source and talk to a young marketer to get the scoop.

On this week’s episode we talk to Julia – a recent college graduate about how her generation sees the industry.

The post The Future of Marketing: Inspired or Expired? appeared first on .

Performance marketing is all the rage but why do clients and agencies end up hating it?

You hire a marketing agency or firm for results. You feel like you are paying for those results. So it makes sense to only pay if those results are delivered. Right?

Wrong, my poor, summer child. That’s not how it works.

Today we discuss performance marketing – upsides and downsides. We’ll share how it can work – but most clients who insist on paying for performance end up hating the idea once they understand it.

In this episode:

1. What is Performance Marketing?

2. All stick and no carrot for marketers

3. Overly complex agreements and high risk

4. Marketers lack control – measurement is haphazard

5. Scope of work plus flat fee is the way

The post Performance Marketing – Here’s How It Works appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

I don’t know about you but when I buy expertise, I don’t want to be appeased – I want that expert focused on results and outcomes.

Yet so often marketers, digital agencies, consultants, et. al. are “yes men” – their primary goal is getting your money, not solving your problem.

This issue is seldom discussed but it’s huge because it’s very bad for clients who expect outcomes to end up with an agency or consultant that will deliver on any hair brained idea I might have just because they need to meet a sales quota.

I want them focused on my objectives.

1. What is Appeasement marketing?

2. What is Results marketing?

3. Many marketers appease clients

4. Clients want results

5. Results marketing puts clients first

The post Appeasement Vs. Results Marketing – What Do Clients Want? appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

RFPs or “Request For Proposals” are project announcements put out by companies outlining the “what” and “how” of a project they are looking to bring outside help on, with the expectation that firms looking to take up the project will “bid” on it, effectively making it a competition for who can get the job done for the lowest possible price. 

In this week’s episode, we talk about the good, bad and ugly of the RFP process, share our experienced with this approach and whether or not it’s a fit for buying expertise. 

For material goods, RFPs can make sense; “We need X number of trucks, capable of hauling Y pounds of cargo, and get over Z mpg,” If the product is exactly the same no matter where it is purchased, an RFP can work. 

For services, particularly those involving consulting and expertise, RFPs create a lose-lose situation. 

On the side of the creator of the RFP, the reasoning is that the RFP “levels the playing field” so that they can compare one company’s offering with others. On the surface that might make sense for the buyer – but it is the LAST thing any good sales person wants. If anything, when you are selling you want the playing field tilted far in your favor. So far that your offering can’t be compared to others. 

RFP’s make the assumption that all consultancies are identical in all aspects –  ignoring differences in skill and experience. Even worse, if everything the client wants is specified and standardized – what is left to discuss? 

Price. And only price. 

Also, built into the RFP is what you need done, and how you want it done, why bother hiring a consultancy? It would be cheaper, by far, to hire someone directly to follow your instructions, than to hire a consulting firm. 

On the side of the prospective “bidders” on an RFP, many buyers ask for speculative “solutions” while giving very little information upon which to make recommendations. This is bad for everyone involved because the chances your recommendations will be on target are slim  and the chances that the client will latch onto a bad idea are great. Even worse, you might win and have to implement this bad idea that has likely been “stolen” from other firms. 

There’s no guarantee that you’ll be hired, leaving that work unpaid, and no guarantee that they won’t take your advice, implement it themselves, or pay someone else to implement it at a lower cost. 

In our experience, successful firms don’t respond to RFPs because it’s poor practice and they simply don’t have to do so. They are busy, and spending a week giving away random ideas isn’t a sound business decision. It’s a waste of resources because bidders seldom win these contracts. Most often, there is a firm behind the scenes who wrote the RFP and is the predetermined “winner”. 

What do you think? Do you respond to RFPs? Why or why not? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Some people love trade shows and some hate them. Few people actually leverage the unique opportunity in-person trade events deliver. In the Age Of Hand Sanitizer, we’ll share some ways you can leverage in person and virtual events to get the maximum return on your investment, with special guest Anna Bahr

1. Trade Shows: Still Relevant in Digital Age?

2. Key Elements to Trade & Event Success

3. How are industry events changing

4. Balancing traditional and virtual events

5. The Role of Technology

Today’s guest is Tim Hayden from Brain+Trust and he’s schooling us on the real A.I. you need to be worried about (and it’s not ChatGPT or anything on the market – yet.)

Artificial Intelligence: what was once a plot point in many a science fiction story, is now shaping up to be the next biggest technological leap forward since the advent of the internet. So what does this mean for us “Organic Intelligences” and how we do business? 

A.I. has become something of a catch-all term for a number of different technologies that are all in their infancy, as well as whatever fictional, sentient machines you can think of (HAL 9000, Mr. Data, Skynet, etc.). 

This creates a lot of misconceptions about the A.I. we have now, and what we will have in the future.  Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is the hypothetical intelligence that we see in the media: a sentient machine that can think, make decisions, and learn, similarly to how we do. As it stands, this only exists in our imaginations, but there’s no shortage of people trying to make it a reality. 

The A.I. that exists today is something of a precursor to that, known as a Large Language Model. LLMs work by taking the prompt given by the user, cross referencing it with a massive pool of data in the form of written language, and trying to “predict” what words (and in what order) and response should contain. Think of it like an advanced version of a smart phone’s predictive text feature; it looks for keywords in the prompt, pulls up data containing those words, and “averages out” the data into a response. It is a form of what is known as “Generative Artificial Intelligence. 

Because Large Language Models don’t “think” in the traditional sense, but rather “reference,” it’s only as intelligent as the data you feed it.

Today’s LLM’s are trained on a diverse dataset that ChatGPT says includes: 

1. Books, literature, and written fiction/non-fiction.
2. Articles from various publications, including newspapers, magazines, and online platforms.
3. Websites covering a wide array of topics, such as science, technology, history, arts, entertainment, and more.
4. Academic papers and research articles from various fields, including mathematics, computer science, psychology, sociology, and more.
5. Conversational data from online forums, social media platforms, and messaging apps.*
6. Technical documentation, manuals, and guides.
7. Wikipedia articles and other encyclopedic content.
8. Creative writing, poetry, and storytelling.

So ultimately what comes out of today’s “A.I.” is only as good as the data that goes in. 

Companies collecting, using, and selling user information is nothing new, tracking demographics and behaviors to direct what ads you see, what products you get recommended, etc. Now, these companies are buying and selling data to train their A.I. Just recently, the social media platform Reddit has struck a deal with an unnamed company developing A.I., to sell their user data and activity for $60 million a year. 

This presents some new complications. A.I. can’t detect when inaccurate, or outright false information is included in its training. Tim Haden, CEO of Brain+Trust points out how this can be something of a foil when it comes to how we use A.I. going forward, “…there are all kinds of ways that this is going to be consequential whenever we think about the data sources that will be used for A.I., and what happens and what changes with human behavior?” 

Hayden says A.I. will almost certainly replace search engines in the near future, and with that in mind, the quality of the training data becomes paramount. He goes on to say ‘Google gives us lists when it gives us search results. If you think about that statement, Google Search never worked. It never did. It always gave us lists, it didn’t give us answers. With A.I., “ you’ve got your answer right in front of you.”  

With A.I. that can formulate direct answers to your inquiries, search engines become obsolete. So what then becomes of things like SEO, or search analytics? Much of our advertising and marketing industry as we know it today hinges on the existence of search engines and how people interact with them, so removing them from the equation entirely creates a conundrum; How to “optimize for A.I.”? 

We cover this topic in much more detail in the podcast. What do you think? Will A.I. become sentient in your lifetime? 

Today’s special guest is Steve Harper, author, speaker, entrepreneur and networking master.

Steve is sharing his secrets and methods to drive more referrals and word of mouth for your business. We’ll talk about leveraging your professional network to build social capital and go from waiting for the phone to ring to deliberately driving opportunities.

1 Why build a professional network?2 What is social currency?3 Bring value first4 How it works (building social capital)5 The Ripple

It blows my mind that so many companies don’t know these two fundamental operational pieces that virtually ensure growth – or they do know, but execute them terribly. Bill and I talk about two Silver Bullets that make B2B companies grow. We’ll break each down so you understand how they work and share what we’ve learned from running our own B2B firms and working with hundreds of B2B clients to help them grow. Get these two things right and you’ll see profitable growth.

Today I yell at the sky about how companies like Canva and Adobe lie about their products, disparage the marketing industry and insult their customers by showing them as goofy goobers.

These advertisements depict using their tools effectively as so easy, a child (or room of dancing interns) can do it. We’re going to watch the ads on air and take Photoshop’s generative AI feature for a spin to see if it does what it says on the box.

Today we discuss the advantages of bringing in outsiders to your company to move decision making faster while making better decisions.

The concept is widely used by big companies but far fewer SMBs are familiar with the practice so they never think it’s an option.

You can bring in someone, with or without domain expertise in your industry to facilitate faster, better decision making.

Consultants can be facilitators, but not many have the tools and capability to lead a client team to a specific outcome.

The facilitator brings the team together, creating consensus and objective guidance. It’s their job to make sure the decisions are sound and that the process is solid in that decision making.

They also move much faster than clients alone. I’ve seen companies struggle to get a marketing plan in place for 10 months (or sometimes years).

A good facilitator will get you there in weeks.

Today we are unlocking the mysteries of how publicity and PR work to help you score some sweet press.

Do you find yourself wondering “Why do my competitors get press coverage – why not us?” Join us with Master Marketer of the Week Lisa O’Neil and find out what’s up with that.

1. Is “free press a thing?”
2. DIY or PR Partner?
3. What is the most important factor in getting coverage?
4. Why do press relations? (What they can expect from the effort)
5. How to leverage coverage to extend reach
6. Final Thoughts

Today we are joined by the Master Marketer of the week Scott Thomas to talk about how to get the sales team to work with the marketing team like one big, happy family.

We’re breaking down five reasons things go south plus our final thoughts at the end where we bring it all together.

• Different perspectives and incentives
• Leadership sees sales as more important
• No agreement on goals, definitions and data
• Lead handoff too soon
• Overall Lack of planning on both sides

Join us as we expand on these points and suggest some ways you can bring your teams together.

This week we are giving the the five DON’Ts – there are probably a lot more than five but it’s a start. It’s 2024 – last week I talked about the five things you MUST do in 2024 to thrive in the post COVID market landscape where everything has changed – except how you do marketing. Since COVID the market for every product and service has changed dramatically. If you aren’t satisfied with the results of your GTM strategy in this episode and future episodes we’ll give you a roadmap to tune up your approach.

If you are still going to market essentially the same way you did in 2019 or earlier this year’s theme is “adapt or die”. I’m going to show you five “must do” marketing initiatives for 2024. Since COVID the market has changed dramatically – impacting every industry, every size company – at least those that survived. If you aren’t satisfied with the results of your GTM strategy in this episode I’ll give you a roadmap to tune up your approach.

Today we are talking about the impact of TLC on marketing and sales – that’s Talent, Leadership and Culture not to be confused with TCB – Taking Care of Business. (That was Elvis). This is a big deal when it comes to hiring marketing and sales leadership. Wade’s company Cendea has a great process to make it work better.