The Dave Gerhardt Show (from Exit Five)

Exit Five
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Interviews with top marketers sharing tactical tips, strategies, and lessons learned to help you grow your business. Hosted by Dave Gerhardt, founder of Exit Five, former CMO, and author of Founder Brand. Learn more at exitfive.com

  1. 8 HR AGO

    How CMOs Are Deploying AI Across Marketing

    #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 (06:55) - - Guest intros: Tara, Julia, Lily, Pejman, and Kevin (12:04) - - Tara on why AI adoption needs an internal owner and how to govern it without squashing enthusiasm (15:02) - - Lily: why their first AI initiative failed and what they did differently (17:15) - - How Lovable kicked off team-wide AI excitement at Three Play Media (19:37) - - Lily's HubSpot prospecting agent: 18% to 46% response rate on inbound leads (23:19) - - Julia: embedding AI agents into Optimizely's content workflow (31:20) - - Using AI to monitor content performance and auto-assign optimization work (33:24) - - Pejman: mapping workflows to find the highest-ROI AI opportunities (35:55) - - Building a brand tone checker that scores and rewrites content against brand guidelines (39:55) - - Kevin: making AI a mandate on a small team and building a culture of learning (44:06) - - 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: Knak - A no-code, campaign creation platform that lets you go from idea to on-brand email and landing pages in minutes, using AI where it actually matters. Learn more at knak.com/exitfive, or check out the MCP server by clicking this link. 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 on the waitlist for their new MCP server by clicking here.  Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand generation agency that helps high-growth cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise software companies drive more pipeline through AI SEO, paid media, and go-to-market engineering. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com and tell them Dave sent you. *** 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

    50 min

  2. 3 DAYS AGO

    Build a Better B2B Growth Engine with Uzair Dada from Iron Horse

    #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

    53 min

  3. 30 APR

    Claude Code for B2B Marketers (with Corey Haines)

    #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 (04:23) - Who is Corey Haines and how he went from laid off to AI-pilled (07:49) - The moment at coding boot camp that changed how he thinks about AI (10:30) - Why Claude Code in the terminal beats every other interface (14:40) - What Marketing-Skills.com is and how skills actually work (22:00) - Live demo: keyword research pulled straight from an API (24:15) - Live demo: 10 programmatic SEO pages built in 30 seconds (30:50) - Pushing pages live and the future of website editing (36:20) - Cross-referencing Google Search Console, Fathom, and keyword data (40:40) - Live demo: RevOps skill that audits HubSpot and builds lead scoring (47:20) - Video editing in the browser with Remotion and Claude (52:30) - The marketer as creative director: what the job actually looks like now (56:20) - 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: Knak - A no-code, campaign creation platform that lets you go from idea to on-brand email and landing pages in minutes, using AI where it actually matters. Learn more at knak.com/exitfive, or check out the MCP server by clicking this link. 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 on the waitlist for their new MCP server by clicking here.  Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand generation agency that helps high-growth cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise software companies drive more pipeline through AI SEO, paid media, and go-to-market engineering. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com and tell them Dave sent you. *** 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

    1 hr

  4. 27 APR

    B2B Social Media Strategy Discussion

    #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 (08:59) - - Personal brand building: how they started and how they justified it before it was a playbook (13:24) - - How to handle trolls and critics when you post publicly (17:16) - - Do marketers have to build a personal brand? What "building in public" actually means (22:24) - - The difference between an audience and a community, and what brands get wrong (25:28) - - Personal page vs. company page: where to focus your energy (29:31) - - Audience Q&A: how to get reluctant executives to post (33:56) - - Ghostwriting for executives: what works and what doesn't (36:42) - - Shifting from B2C to B2B social: how to reset your metrics and mindset (39:15) - - What's changed on LinkedIn and what you had to let go of (41:20) - - What B2B and B2C can learn from each other (44:13) - - Rapid fire: favorite LinkedIn follows, creative inspiration, books (47:26) - - 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: Knak - A no-code, campaign creation platform that lets you go from idea to on-brand email and landing pages in minutes, using AI where it actually matters. Learn more at knak.com/exitfive, or check out the MCP server by clicking this link. 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 on the waitlist for their new MCP server by clicking here.  Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand generation agency that helps high-growth cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise software companies drive more pipeline through AI SEO, paid media, and go-to-market engineering. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com and tell them Dave sent you. *** 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

    52 min

  5. 23 APR

    Real Talk from Three CMOs: Attribution, Paid Media, and Why B2B Is More Emotional Than You Think

    #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) (05:33) - - What they wish they'd known when they became CMO (10:32) - - How marketing has changed more than any other function (13:07) - - How to measure marketing impact in long, complex sales cycles (14:37) - - Growth at all costs vs. efficiency: how they're navigating it (21:55) - - How to talk to your CFO about marketing spend (25:28) - - What's not working anymore: email, granular data, paid media (32:52) - - What is working: sales enablement, influencers, product marketing (36:50) - - Why B2B is actually more emotional than consumer buying (40:39) - - Audience Q&A: defending channels that work but don't have clean attribution (42:30) - - Acquisition vs. retention: where are you actually spending time (46:29) - - Founder-led content and executive presence on social (49:58) - - LinkedIn influencers: is the spend worth it (52:49) - - 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: Knak - A no-code, campaign creation platform that lets you go from idea to on-brand email and landing pages in minutes, using AI where it actually matters. Learn more at knak.com/exitfive, or check out the MCP server by clicking this link. 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 on the waitlist for their new MCP server by clicking here.  Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand generation agency that helps high-growth cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise software companies drive more pipeline through AI SEO, paid media, and go-to-market engineering. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com and tell them Dave sent you. *** 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

    1hr 1min

  6. 20 APR

    How to Create a Category When You're Already the Market Leader (with Melton Littlepage, CMO at 1Password)

    #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 (07:45) - - What changes after multiple CMO roles (11:25) - - You can't attribute your way to being hot (12:29) - - The CMO's real job: be the chief markets officer (14:43) - - 1Password today and the market shift that created a new category (22:03) - - The three acts of 1Password's business (22:56) - - Naming the category: Extended Access Management (XAM) (23:58) - - How the decision to create a new category got made (29:18) - - The tactics: category point of view, lightning strikes, analyst relations (33:23) - - How the marketing org is structured (37:55) - - 1Password's three go-to-market motions (41:20) - - 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: Knak - A no-code, campaign creation platform that lets you go from idea to on-brand email and landing pages in minutes, using AI where it actually matters. Learn more at knak.com/exitfive, or check out the MCP server by clicking this link. 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 on the waitlist for their new MCP server by clicking here.  Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand generation agency that helps high-growth cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise software companies drive more pipeline through AI SEO, paid media, and go-to-market engineering. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com and tell them Dave sent you. *** 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

    51 min

  7. 16 APR

    How ClickUp Built a B2B Social Machine with Chris Cunningham from ClickUp

    #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 (04:25) - - Chris's background and why he's been at ClickUp for nearly a decade (06:21) - - The biggest mistake B2B companies make on social (08:29) - - The rule of three: make people feel something, teach them, or make them laugh (09:40) - - Why you should create for two platforms and distribute everywhere (11:34) - - How ClickUp separates brand, comedy, and product accounts (13:41) - - How social has driven real pipeline and closed deals (16:01) - - How Chris interviews ICPs to find content ideas (20:02) - - How to measure social when attribution is hard (25:08) - - The weekly production process: writers room, shoot day, and content bank (32:00) - - Tools and how to manage posting across 35 accounts (33:34) - - Don't sleep on Facebook Reels (35:06) - - How to start if you're camera shy and how to find unknown creators (40:48) - - Where AI fits in and why doubling down on human creativity is the biggest moat (45:32) - - Why brand is now the biggest competitive advantage in B2B (47:39) - - 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: Knak - A no-code, campaign creation platform that lets you go from idea to on-brand email and landing pages in minutes, using AI where it actually matters. Learn more at knak.com/exitfive, or check out the MCP server by clicking this link. 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 on the waitlist for their new MCP server by clicking here.  Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand generation agency that helps high-growth cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise software companies drive more pipeline through AI SEO, paid media, and go-to-market engineering. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com and tell them Dave sent you. *** 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

    54 min

  8. 13 APR

    Inside Ramp's Marketing: Creative Bets, Measurement, and AI Agents (with Drew Pinta)

    #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 (04:25) - - Drew's background: from the Fed to growth data (07:15) - - Drew's role as a data partner to marketing (09:51) - - How Ramp's funnel works (11:34) - - Using AI to scan Gong calls and finding attribution was wrong (16:15) - - Why measurement should meet the marketing, not the other way around (27:50) - - The 70/30 budget split (28:50) - - Ramp's channel maturity framework (36:20) - - The marketing leader as pilot, data team as instruments (39:35) - - The bull case: why marketers are better positioned than engineers in the age of AI (43:20) - - The bear case (48:20) - - Real AI workflows Ramp's marketing team has built (53:14) - - How Ramp enabled the team on AI (55:45) - - 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: Knak - A no-code, campaign creation platform that lets you go from idea to on-brand email and landing pages in minutes, using AI where it actually matters. Learn more at knak.com/exitfive, or check out the MCP server by clicking this link. 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 on the waitlist for their new MCP server by clicking here.  Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand generation agency that helps high-growth cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise software companies drive more pipeline through AI SEO, paid media, and go-to-market engineering. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com and tell them Dave sent you. *** 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

    1hr 2min
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Interviews with top marketers sharing tactical tips, strategies, and lessons learned to help you grow your business. Hosted by Dave Gerhardt, founder of Exit Five, former CMO, and author of Founder Brand. Learn more at exitfive.com

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