Topic
Insights and notes grouped by this theme.
A Cinco de Mayo Lesson in Humble Persuasion
Modern buyers do not wait for marketing to educate them anymore. Before they ever talk to your company, they have already read the docs, compared competitors, watched demos, asked peers, scanned communities, and used AI to do their homework. By the time you meet them, they may know your category, your claims, and your weak spots surprisingly well.
Why proof, security, and implementation credibility now drive growth
In modern B2B buying, committees do not move because a vendor sounds confident. They move because the decision feels safe, verifiable, and achievable. That is why trust has become front-line growth infrastructure.
Search visibility now has to work for answer engines and generative AI too
AI Overviews, answer engines, and generative search are changing how buyers discover, evaluate, and trust companies. SEO still matters, but discoverability now depends on being found, understood, verified, and recommended.
How better offers reduce risk and create momentum
Most B2B offers fail because they ask for too much commitment too soon. The best offers reduce uncertainty, create a safe next step, and help buyers build internal alignment before the deal stalls.
Being an empathetic leader isn’t about being nice. It’s about unlocking value that command-and-control leadership never will.
What private equity, Stanford researchers, and frontline workers all discovered is surprisingly simple: empathy isn’t soft — it’s a performance driver. Giving employees real equity only succeeded in about 60% of companies. The difference-maker wasn’t industry, revenue, or geography. It was the CEO. Specifically, the CEO’s empathy. When leaders listened, communicated transparently, and treated people with dignity, employee ownership transformed culture, improved engagement, and drove materially higher financial returns.
Trust, AI, and the Rise of a New GTM Playbook
Artificial intelligence isn’t just transforming how companies work — it’s redefining how they grow. As GTM leaders adapt to a world where data, content, and customer engagement are increasingly automated, the real differentiator becomes judgment. The future belongs to organizations that can integrate AI without losing the human insight that drives trust, creativity, and strategic decision-making.
Trust, AI, and the Rise of Buying Networks: How B2B Growth Is Being Rewritten
B2B growth is being rewritten by the convergence of trust, AI, and data. Traditional funnels are collapsing under the weight of fragmented buyer behavior, giving rise to Buying Networks—dynamic ecosystems where intent, influence, and validation circulate freely.
AI—and deep tech more broadly—doesn’t play by the old rules
AI companies are not winning with recycled SaaS playbooks. They are winning by diagnosing where trust and influence actually form, then building marketing around real signals instead of old templates.
Ask More, Pretend Less
Vulnerability isn’t weakness — it’s strength. I just finished *Getting Naked* by Patrick Lencioni and *Don’t Believe Everything You Think*. The lesson? Clients don’t want superheroes. They want real people who ask the tough questions, admit when they don’t know, and put the client first. That’s how trust is earned. That’s how partnerships grow. That’s how we lead.
building trust
In B2B, trust isn’t built with slogans or glossy decks. Buyers look for proof before they ever speak with sales. They read research, scan peer reviews, and check who else stands behind your brand. And with AI search now shaping first impressions in seconds, the bar for accuracy and credibility is higher than ever.
Stop Whispering in a World That Rewards Shouting - quiet and cautious don't win
Marketing isn’t just about conversions—it’s about sticking in your customers’ minds. The brands we remember aren’t always the best; they’re the ones that show up consistently, dominating our thoughts through sheer visibility. By investing in share of voice (SOV) and creating unforgettable, omnipresent campaigns, brands can outpace their competitors and drive market share growth.
Embracing Imperfections
The Japanese art of Kintsugi and the modern concept of antifragility offer lessons in leadership. Kintsugi transforms broken pottery into art by highlighting its cracks with golden lacquer, symbolizing beauty in imperfection and strength in repair. Similarly, antifragility, as coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, teaches us to thrive amid chaos, leveraging volatility and failure as opportunities for growth. For leaders, this means embracing challenges, fostering innovation, and building systems that don’t just endure disruption but grow stronger because of it.
Shameful
The tech community is grappling with the revelation that the DevTernity conference knowingly deceived attendees by fabricating speaker profiles. The audacious act involved creating imaginary personas, including the prominent figures Anna Boyko, Alina Prokhoda, Natalie Stadler, and Julia Kirsina.
AI for bad - Sitemap Pilfering
Ethical practices are the cornerstone of sustainable success. Unfortunately, some individuals have taken a detour into the unethical, as revealed by this recent confession.
Sometimes you just need a fresh take
Marketing teams are great at worshipping whatever is new and dismissing whatever is old. That is usually a mistake. Old tactics are not automatically obsolete, and new ones are not automatically smart.
Is your content even valuable
We want personal data in exchange for content we kill ourselves to create. We also want to establish ourselves as thought leader and have a degree of authority in our space. There has always been a need to balance these objectives while we earn some trust. If prospects don’t trust us, we won’t see results no matter how fine-tuned our gated content strategy is. So how far do you go? What are the rules?
