Welcome to The AI Marketing Coach, the podcast where innovation meets practicality and AI transforms the way we market. Hosted by Carmela Fortin, a certified coach, AI CMO and CEO with over 15 years of experience of unparalleled expertise to help you navigate the ever-changing marketing landscape.
Carmela’s career spans working with startups, SaaS companies, and enterprise teams to drive revenue growth, develop cutting-edge strategies, and harness the power of AI. No fluff, no overwhelming jargon—just smart, impactful marketing strategies delivered by a host who’s been in your shoes.
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How Priority Alignment Will Help You Choose the Right AI Tools
Season 1 · Episode 3
Saturday, March 8, 2025 • Duration 15:03
Are you drowning in tasks but still struggling to grow your business? The problem might not be which AI tool to use—it’s how you’re spending your time.
In this episode of The AI Marketing Coach Podcast, we’re flipping the script on AI adoption. Instead of searching for the perfect tool, we’re diving into how productivity and prioritization lead you to the right AI solutions—naturally.
✅ Learn the $10, $100, and $10,000 task framework (and why most business owners are stuck doing the wrong ones). ✅ Discover how AI “thinks” and how you can apply that mindset to work smarter, not harder. ✅ Do a live productivity exercise with me to uncover hidden inefficiencies in your day. ✅ Hear real-world examples from startups, small businesses, farmers market vendors, and service providers on how they broke free from busywork.
🚀 Whether you’re a founder, a small business owner, or a service provider, this episode will help you clear the clutter, focus on growth, and find the AI tools that actually fit your business.
Micro-Automations: The Future-Defining Edge in AI Marketing
Season 1 · Episode 2
Monday, January 27, 2025 • Duration 37:07
Micro-Automations: The Game-Changing Future of AI Marketing
🎙️ The AI Marketing Coach Podcast
Join host Carmela Fortin as she dives into the world of micro-automations and how they’re revolutionizing AI marketing. In this episode, you’ll discover how these small, laser-focused automations can create massive impact, driving growth, efficiency, and smarter marketing strategies.
Carmela shares insights on:
✨ Predictive models that keep customers coming back
✨ Real-time content adaptation to meet your audience where they are
✨ The power of unsupervised AI in uncovering game-changing customer insights
But that’s not all—she also explores what’s next in the evolving AI marketing ecosystem, including the role of quantum AI and how to navigate the challenges of change management when adopting cutting-edge tech.
If you’re ready to stay ahead of the curve and turn bold ideas into real-world results, this episode is for you.
Hit play and learn how to harness the transformative power of micro-automations to redefine your marketing game.
Be ready for Future Forward takeaways for you and your team:
- Microautomations can focus on specific high-impact actions.
- The future of marketing is about creating ecosystems.
- Retention revenue is crucial for sustainable growth.
In the inaugural episode of the AI Marketing Coach podcast, host Carmela Fortin dives into the transformative impact of AI marketing on businesses of all sizes. This episode emphasizes the need for a strategic approach to AI, focusing on actionable metrics like Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) and how AI can drive automation and collaboration. Listeners will learn about building effective go-to-market frameworks, leveraging AI-powered tools, and embracing a future of marketing shaped by smarter, more human-centered technology.
Carmela also provides practical affirmations and insights to empower marketers to thrive in the evolving world of AI integration.
AI marketing is about empowering users and teams, not just relying on tools.
Strategy is as crucial as technology for successful marketing campaigns.
Understanding Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is essential for long-term business growth.
Metrics should inform decisions, not just generate data.
AI enhances customer relationships through personalized experiences.
A well-built go-to-market framework aligns teams and drives success.
AI is accessible and valuable for small businesses, not just enterprises.
Collaboration across teams improves the effectiveness of marketing efforts.
Marketing to AI: How to Get Seen in a Language Model-First World
Season 1 · Episode 4
Thursday, May 29, 2025 • Duration 15:36
In this episode of The AI Marketing Coach, Carmela Fortin breaks down the new reality: your audience isn’t meeting your message first—AI is.
Today’s buyers want answers fast. They use tools that don’t read your site—they summarize it. They compress your value, reinterpret your tone, and decide what gets shown before a human ever clicks.
If your content isn’t structured for that layer, it gets ignored—or worse, misrepresented.
This episode covers:
Why your content must be designed for language model interpretation
The exact signals AI systems look for (and how to control them)
How to structure your pages so you’re quoted accurately—not lost in compression
The technical shift from keyword SEO to clarity-driven visibility
A real-world example of how simple structural changes led to 10X more AI mentions
📊 62% of B2B buyers use AI during research🔍 47% of search queries now trigger AI-generated responses💡 If your messaging isn’t built for AI visibility, it’s invisible
This episode is a strategic reset for anyone serious about getting seen and staying relevant in an AI-first internet.
🎁 Check out the free AI Visibility Audit:https://seattlestartupcoaches.com/blog/f/the-ai-visibility-messaging-self-audit-are-you-ready🔗 Subscribe, share, and tag someone who still thinks “posting more” is the answer.
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AI Burnout, Delegation & the New Rules of Business Efficiency with Kelly Lorenzen
Season 1 · Episode 8
Thursday, February 5, 2026 • Duration 26:11
In this episode of The AI Marketing Coach, Carmela sits down with Kelly Lorenzen, founder of KLM Consulting, Marketing & Management, and host of Collaborative Connections, to talk about the real reason small business owners are overwhelmed.
Spoiler: it's trying to do everything alone.
This conversation cuts through the noise and gets straight to the human reality inside small businesses: the control habits that keep founders stuck, the blurry lines between operations and marketing, and the moment when exhaustion quietly becomes burnout.
Kelly breaks down how AI fits into that picture, not as a flashy shortcut, but as a practical tool for buying back time, reducing decision fatigue, and reconnecting business owners with the parts of life they’ve put on hold.
Together, Carmela and Kelly explore what founders miss when they think “AI is just for marketing,” why delegation has become a survival skill, and the critical operational foundations entrepreneurs need before any AI can actually help them scale.
If you’re a founder or small business owner navigating growth, feeling stretched thin, or trying to build a healthier relationship with your business this episode hits the heart of what you need.
Why so many founders wait until they're already burned out to ask for help
How operational overwhelm, not lack of effort, is what stalls growth
The real difference between automation and outsourcing (and when to use each)
How AI can shrink the “invisible hours” you’re losing daily
Why fully AI-generated content breaks trust with your audience
How to recognize early signs of burnout before it becomes a crisis
Why founders must learn to delegate faster to stay sustainable
What actually makes marketing work (hint: it’s follow-through, not tools)
Kelly is the founder of KLM Consulting, Marketing & Management, and the host of . She specializes in helping small business owners streamline operations, build sustainable systems, and reclaim time by integrating the right mix of delegation, automation, and hands-on support. Her work spans CRM optimization, hiring, workflow design, and strategic consulting for founders who want to grow without burning out.
What Is a Pre-AI Layer? Why Most AI Marketing Fails Before It Starts
Season 1 · Episode 8
Friday, December 19, 2025 • Duration 17:47
Most AI marketing projects don’t fail because of the model. They fail because no one designed what comes before it.
In this foundational episode of The AI Marketing Coach, Carmela Fortin introduces a new concept to the market: Pre-AI Layers, the human, organizational, and decision frameworks that determine whether AI becomes a growth engine or quietly scales the wrong outcomes.
Drawing from over a decade growing AI SaaS companies, leading go-to-market strategy, and formal training in organizational change management, Carmela breaks down why AI doesn’t create clarity, reveals whether clarity already exists and what is critical to know for the market ahead.
If you’ve invested in AI tools but still feel misalignment, low adoption, confusing insights, or stalled ROI, this episode explains why, and where marketing is usually the first place those cracks appear.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
What a Pre-AI Layer actually is, in human terms and system terms
Why teams skip this step (and why that’s costing them real money)
How missing pre-AI decisions show up as:
AI content that doesn’t convert
Funnels that automate confusion
Dashboards no one trusts enough to act on
Why marketing absorbs AI failure before product or sales
The difference between collaboration and durable alignment that AI can respect
Why AI doesn’t replace leaders, it reveals leadership gaps
How pre-AI layers future-proof teams, roles, and careers in a volatile market
Key Ideas from This Episode
A Pre-AI Layer is the set of decisions, definitions, boundaries, and ownership that exist before intelligence is applied.
It’s where teams decide:
AI Readiness, Human-Centered Marketing, and the Pre-AI Layer with Venus Ranieri (VP of Marketing, Singularity University)
Season 1 · Episode 7
Tuesday, December 16, 2025 • Duration 41:53
In this episode of The AI Marketing Coach, Carmela Fortin sits down with Venus Ranieri, VP of Marketing at Singularity University, to unpack what’s really happening inside organizations as AI adoption accelerates. This conversation goes beyond tools and trends and into the human middle, the hesitation, resistance, blind spots, and leadership gaps that determine whether AI becomes a growth accelerator or a trust-breaking liability.
Together, Carmela and Venus explore why many AI initiatives fail before they even begin, how leaders can strengthen their pre-AI layer, and what marketing leaders must understand now to stay relevant in 2026 and beyond.
If you’re a founder, marketing leader, or executive navigating AI pressure without wanting to lose credibility, culture, or customer trust—this episode is for you.
Why AI resistance isn’t about fear of technology, it’s about trust, buy-in, and clarity
What the pre-AI layer is and why skipping it leads to costly failures
How Singularity University helps leaders build AI readiness without replacing human judgment
The difference between using AI and actually understanding how it works
Why top-down AI mandates often fail inside organizations
Where marketers are overusing AI—and where they should pull back
The real risks of inauthentic, fully AI-generated marketing content
How leaders should think about copyright, IP, disclosure, and ethics in an AI-first world
What skills marketing leaders need now to avoid becoming irrelevant, or replaceable
Why “just because you can use AI doesn’t mean you should”
The backlash to AI-generated brand campaigns (and what it signals)
How smaller AI startups are outperforming big players by listening to real user feedback
Why AI should be treated as a capability amplifier, not a replacement for humans
What today’s leaders can learn from the early days of social and digital marketing
Precision Outreach in the Age of AI with James Milsom at Hunter.io
Friday, November 7, 2025 • Duration 31:40
Cold email hasn’t disappeared, but the way we approach it has to the age of AI Marketing.
In this conversation, Carmela sits down with James Milsom, Head of Marketing at Hunter.io, to explore what it looks like to practice outbound with discipline, intention, and respect for the person on the other side of the inbox.
They discuss how AI can help us research more thoughtfully, how to maintain personalization without manufacturing familiarity, and why ownership matters more in outbound than tactics alone.
This episode is for leaders who want to bring craft and intelligence back to the channels that have lost their way.
Cold email is not dead, careless outreach is.
Intentional personalization matters more than personalization at scale.
AI can support research and context-building, but it should not replace human judgment.
Technical foundations (authentication, deliverability, reputation) matter as much as messaging.
Outbound effectiveness improves when one person / team has clear strategic ownership.
The best campaigns come from curiosity and context, not templates.
Most inbox noise is self-inflicted. Rushed outreach signals disregard.
67% of decision makers still prefer cold email as an initial contact method, but only when it feels intentional.
A/B testing is not time-consuming, it is a mindset.
AI is best used as a thinking partner, not a voice generator.
Deliverability and domain hygiene are non-negotiable for long-term outbound.
Ownership in outbound strategy prevents fragmentation and inconsistency.
Data-driven outbound is about learning patterns, not automating them.
Hunter.io is an all in one email platform to find and connect with the people that matter most to your business.
www.theaimarketingcoach.com
Become Inevitable: AI Marketing at Leadership Altitude
Season 1 · Episode 5
Thursday, November 6, 2025 • Duration 18:39
Are you waiting for the marketing to understand your brand? Or are you leading differently with AI?
AI marketing doesn’t fail because the technology is complex, it fails when leadership hesitates.
The real bottleneck in modern marketing and go-to-market strategy isn’t adoption, workflows, or tools. It’s trust: organizational trust, market trust, and self-trust.
In this episode, we break down trust as the operating system for AI-driven growth,; the invisible architecture that determines whether your positioning, messaging, brand narrative, and product strategy accelerate or stall. We explore how identity impacts AI adoption, how market direction shapes brand perception, and why alignment inside your team matters more than any new tactic, tool, or trend.
This episode is for founders, CMOs, growth leads, marketing strategists, product marketers, revenue leaders, and startup operators building or selling AI-powered products, shaping category direction, or leading teams through AI transformation.
We cover:
Why identity is the real bottleneck in AI marketing and GTM execution
How to create direction the market will trust
How to build internal alignment without performance or consensus theatre
How to develop self-trust that lets you lead ahead of the curve
How to simplify your AI stack so your tools serve your strategy, not the other way around
If you're marketing AI, selling AI, buying AI, or leading teams expected to adapt to AI, this episode gives you the leadership altitude required to become inevitable in your space.
Follow now for future episodes, they'll be dropping quickly!
Connect: @seattlestartupcoach
Human-First AI Marketing with Mike Montague
Season 1 · Episode 9
Thursday, February 19, 2026 • Duration 43:14
In this episode, Mike Montague discusses the evolution of marketing in the age of AI, emphasizing the importance of authenticity, human connection, and the playful approach to marketing. He shares insights from his career, the challenges of integrating AI into marketing strategies, and the necessity of personalization and change management. The discussion highlights the balance between automation and maintaining genuine relationships with customers, ultimately advocating for a human-first approach in AI marketing.
Takeaways from this incredible episode:
Finding your voice is crucial in marketing.
Authenticity is more valuable than ad spend.
AI should enhance, not replace human connection.
Personalization is key to effective marketing.
Change management is essential for AI adoption.
Over-reliance on AI can dilute authenticity.
Playfulness can enhance creativity in marketing.
Understanding your audience is vital for success.
AI can help identify the right prospects at the right time.
Building trust takes time and should not be rushed.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Location Insights
02:45 Finding Your Voice in Marketing
05:16 The Importance of Play in Life and Work
08:11 The Journey to Human-First AI Marketing
10:50 Navigating AI in Marketing
13:49 The Role of Authenticity in AI Marketing
16:50 Personalization and Predictive Analytics
19:40 Change Management in AI Adoption
22:17 Overcoming Challenges with AI Tools
25:22 The Future of Marketing with AI
- Embracing change management is essential for success.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Micro Automations in AI Marketing
Adopting AI requires a mindset shift and focus on outcomes.
Daily affirmations help marketers stay focused on impactful work.
00:00- Introduction to AI Marketing Coaching
07:40- The Importance of Metrics in AI Marketing
16:11 - Building a Collaborative Team with AI
22:00- Go-to-Market Framework: Navigating AI Marketing
27:48- AI for All: Accessibility Beyond Big Companies
33:58- Closing Thoughts and Affirmations for Success
"The right roadmap can turn fear into focus."
"Your CLV is the heartbeat of your business."
"Marketing is to make money. Say it with me."
Unlocking the Power of AI in Marketing
Navigating the AI Marketing Landscape
The Future of Marketing: Metrics, Tools, and Teamwork
Subscribe to the AI Marketing Coach podcast to stay ahead of the curve in AI integration. Share this episode with your team and start building your roadmap to smarter, more strategic marketing today!
AI marketing, customer lifetime value, marketing strategy, automation, metrics, go-to-market framework, marketing tools, team collaboration, future of marketing, AI integration
Carmela is the founder of Seattle Startup Coaches and the host of The AI Marketing Coach Podcast.
She works with founders and marketing leaders who want to use AI strategically without losing credibility, authenticity, or control of their business. Her work focuses on AI readiness, GTM clarity, operational alignment, and the human-centered “pre-AI layer” every company needs before bringing AI into their workflows.
Sign up for the newsletter to get weekly insights on
building a strong pre-AI foundation
reducing burnout with smarter systems
using AI responsibly across marketing and operations
real founder stories and practical guidance
You’ll also get early access to workshops, new episodes, and resources to help you grow with clarity, not chaos.
What actually matters
What should not be automated yet
Where human judgment lives when things go wrong
What “good” looks like, explicitly
Without this layer, AI doesn’t act intelligently. It guesses, efficiently.
SaaS founders building with AI (or feeling pressure to)
Marketing leaders navigating automation, layoffs, and tool sprawl
GTM teams struggling with alignment across product, sales, and marketing
AI practitioners who sense something is “off” but can’t name it yet
If you’ve ever thought:
“We have the tools… so why isn’t this working?” or "Why won't people buy and adopt this amazing tool I created?"
This episode is for you.
This is Part 1 of a two-part series.
In the next episode, Carmela slows this down and that matter.
About the Podcast Host
Carmela Fortin is an AI marketing strategist and advisor, certified organizational change management and executive coach, and founder of Seattle Startup Coaches.
She has spent over a decade helping AI-driven companies scale through funding rounds, hypergrowth, and market shifts, and now focuses on the human systems that make AI actually work.
If you’re building with AI and something feels off, it’s probably not the tools. At Seattle Startup Coaches, we help founders and marketing leaders design the pre-AI layer, the decisions, ownership, and alignment AI depends on to actually work. What's more, we then setup and scale the tools and campaigns for your company on top of that well laid foundation to scale against your goals. Learn more at www.seattlestartupcoaches.com
Don't forget to like, follow or share this episode if you felt it was helpful. To subscribe to The AI Marketing Coach Podcast newsletter visit www.theaimarketingcoach.com
Venus Ranieri is the Vice President of Marketing at Singularity University, where she leads global marketing initiatives for executive education and enterprise programs focused on exponential technologies, AI, and future-ready leadership.
At Singularity, Venus works closely with organizations and executives navigating uncertainty, helping them reimagine strategy, innovation, and growth in an AI-accelerated world—without losing the human core.
You can find Venus on LinkedIn or learn more about Singularity University at su.org.
Carmela Fortin is the founder of Seattle Startup Coaches and host of The AI Marketing Coach podcast. She works with founders and marketing leaders who are under pressure to “use AI” but want to do it without breaking trust, confusing their teams, or shipping strategy they can’t stand behind.
Her work focuses on AI readiness, go-to-market strategy, organizational change, and human-centered marketing, the work that needs to happen before tools matter. Then creating a solid foundation for growth acceleration and learning from the best.
If this episode resonated, here’s your next step:
👉 Visit seattlestartupcoaches.com Sign up for the newsletter to get insights on AI readiness, marketing leadership, and how to build a strong pre-AI layer—before AI becomes a liability instead of a lever.
You’ll get:
Practical guidance for founders and marketing leaders
Honest conversations about AI, trust, and credibility
Early access to workshops, podcasts, and resources
And if you’re navigating AI pressure inside your company right now, Seattle Startup Coaches offers hands-on support to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
Mike Montague is the Founder of Avenue9, where artificial intelligence amplifies your unique voice, empower syour marketing team, and enables your scaling business to achieve big-brand success. at https://avenue9.com/
Mike is also the host of the Human First AI Marketing Podcast at https://podcast.avenue9.com/Don't forget to check out Mike's list of favorite AI Marketing tools at https://avenue9.com/best-ai-marketing-tools/
Carmela is the founder of Seattle Startup Coaches, a certified executive coach, Fractional AI Chief Marketing Officer and the host of The AI Marketing Coach Podcast.
She works with founders and marketing leaders who want to use AI strategically without losing credibility, authenticity, or control of their business. Her work focuses on AI readiness, GTM clarity, operational alignment, and the human-centered “pre-AI layer” every company needs before bringing AI into their workflows.
Don't forget to share with all your AI Marketing friends and smash that like button!
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