Season 5 of The Payments Shed Podcast continues with one of the most influential voices in modern B2B marketing and personal branding. Grant Evans is joined by Lara Acosta — entrepreneur, Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree, three-time founder, and the world's #1 ranked female creator on LinkedIn. Having built an audience of more than 340,000 followers and generated millions of content views, Lara has become one of the leading advocates for brand-led growth, helping entrepreneurs, creators, founders, and executives turn attention into commercial outcomes. Lara shares why so many businesses still underestimate the commercial impact of brand, how content can become a genuine revenue driver, and why building trust before a buyer enters a sales process has become one of the biggest competitive advantages in modern B2B. Drawing on her experience building multiple businesses — including LA Digital, Literally Academy, and SaaS platform Kleo — she explains how personal brands are reshaping the way companies attract customers, talent, and opportunities. The conversation explores the realities of building a business around audience and influence, the challenges and opportunities of female leadership in B2B, and why traditional sales and marketing playbooks are becoming increasingly outdated. They also unpack the evolving relationship between content and sales, how buyer behaviour continues to change, and where AI is genuinely helping businesses move faster versus where it's simply creating more noise. Plus, Lara steps up for The Payments Shed’s legendary Shelf of Shame to nominate one B2B sales or marketing trend she'd happily banish forever. *** The Payments Shed Podcast is headline sponsored by Damisa. Damisa is a regulated cross-border payments and treasury infrastructure provider. Using a blend of traditional banking rails and stablecoin technology, Damisa helps businesses move money faster, cheaper, and more transparently across global markets. Its platform supports collections, settlements, disbursements, and liquidity management, while maintaining a strong compliance-first approach. Damisa is building the next generation of global payment infrastructure. Learn more at: https://www.damisa.xyz/ *** The Payments Shed Podcast is also sponsored by Cyclops. Cyclops is a crypto and stablecoin infrastructure platform built for payments companies, enabling PSPs, acquirers and processors to offer crypto acceptance, stablecoin settlement and payouts without building their own blockchain stack. It provides a unified solution for pay-ins, pay-outs and fiat-to-digital asset conversion, with simple API or low-code integration. Learn more at: https://cyclops.finance/ *** The Payments Shed Podcast is supported by PCN. PCN is a boutique recruitment agency rooted in Amsterdam, driven by a singular mission: connecting top talent with industry leaders. PCN specialises in five core pillars — Fintech, Cybersecurity, SaaS, E-Commerce, and Salesforce — backed by a global network across borders. Learn more at: https://teampcn.com/ *** Disclaimer: Any views or opinions referenced in this podcast episode are our own, or those of our respective guests, and they do not represent any views, opinions, or statements from our respective employers, or those of our guests. Additionally, any views expressed here are not intended as investment, legal, tax, or financial advice.
