Revenue Rewired

Jay Feitlinger & Sarah Shepard | B2B Growth Experts

Reimagine how you approach marketing, sales, and revenue growth with the Revenue Rewired podcast. Hosted by StringCan Interactive’s CEO Jay Feitlinger and COO Sarah Shepard, this podcast dives into the biggest challenges mid-market B2B companies face. Weekly this dynamic duo breaks down complex strategies into actionable insights to help you align your business, maximize ROI, and drive measurable growth. No jargon (ok maybe a lil), but mainly just straight talk to fuel your revenue engine. Tune in and take your business to the next level.

  1. Aug 27

    Ep 75: The Real Cost of Ignoring Time Tracking in Your Revenue Team

    Revenue doesn't always break in obvious places. Sometimes it leaks 15 minutes at a time, hidden inside a calendar nobody's tracking. In this episode, Sarah Shepard breaks down why time tracking matters so much for B2B marketing strategy and revenue operations, even for the founders who'd rather do anything else. She walks through how StringCan built a low-pressure pilot system, why sales pipeline management depends on accurate hour data, and how her team uses ClickUp and Claude to automate the whole process. If you've ever guessed at how your team spends its week, this one's for you. Key Takeaways Why the most expensive line item in your business is also the one you've probably never measuredThe simple two-week pilot that reveals where your team's hours actually goHow inaccurate time data quietly wrecks your sales enablement and client service teamsThe AI-powered workaround that got a squirrelly CEO tracking time better than anyone elseWhy team-level tracking builds trust while individual tracking builds resentment Chapters 0:19 - Why a "boring" ops topic might be your biggest revenue clue 2:10 - The line item bigger than payroll that nobody's watching 4:05 - The politics behind why people fudge their hours 6:30 - How a two-week pilot beats a permanent timesheet 8:45 - Turning team data into trust instead of a witch hunt 10:50 - The proposal mistake costing your client services team 13:00 - Inside StringCan's ClickUp and Claude-powered time tracker 15:10 - What accurate hours mean for mid-market sales teams 16:43 - Wrap up and how to reach the show SEO Keywords b2b marketing strategy, sales pipeline management, revenue operations, mid-market sales, sales enablement, time tracking, revenue leaks, agency operations, ClickUp, sales productivity HOSTS Jay Feitlinger, CEO of StringCan Interactive, has spent 30-plus years building marketing systems and companies. Jay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayfeitlinger/ Sarah Shepard, COO, is the no-nonsense operator who pressure tests every assumption before it becomes strategy. Sarah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahshepardcoo/ ABOUT REVENUE REWIRED Revenue Rewired is a podcast for B2B marketers, sales leaders, and business owners working at the intersection of sales and marketing. Every episode delivers usable insight for mid-market companies trying to grow revenue on purpose. Website: https://www.stringcaninteractive.com Email: podcast@stringcaninteractive.com Get the book: https://www.amazon.com/Revenue-Rewired-Identify-Leaks-Costing-ebook/dp/B0FST7JCXQ Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7423414515779936256/?displayConfirmation=true

  2. Aug 20

    Ep 74: Visibility No Longer Equals Influence: What Marketers Get Wrong About Engagement

    Jay Feitlinger and Sarah Shepard open with a split screen a lot of B2B teams will recognize. The LinkedIn numbers looked flat. Twenty-four hours later, the text messages started arriving from people who loved the content. Same week, two completely different stories, and only one of them shows up in a report. This conversation gets into why public engagement dried up, what happens when social media quietly becomes interest media, and how much of your analytics data is already missing before you present it. Jay shares what 30 years of chasing impressions taught him about vanity metrics. Sarah explains why platform trust erodes faster than content quality ever does. WHAT YOU'LL TAKE AWAY Why strong content can get served to the right number of people and still return almost nothing publicly, and what that reveals about your audience rather than your workThe reason only 5 percent of a highly engaged webinar audience answered a poll, and the psychology Jay thinks is driving the silenceWhat "interest media" means, and how the shift rewired who actually sees what you publishThe share of your analytics data that's already unknown, and why your best-fit buyers may be hiding inside that blind spotThe conversation to have with your CEO when engagement looks bad, instead of the excuse marketers usually reach for CHAPTERS 0:01 The metrics said one thing, the text messages said another 1:43 Thirty years of eyeballs and the scoreboard that stopped counting 3:32 Is visibility fair validation, or paranoia in disguise 5:52 When an algorithm researcher can't find his own network in his own feed 7:05 Social media is now interest media, and the platform answers to shareholders 10:00 Time on site, missing data, and reports that don't tell the whole story 13:59 Trust erodes first, content follows: the shift toward smaller communities 16:30 Two paths when validation disappears: give up or find a different pool 19:31 Reddit as a fact-checking layer and the problem with self-policing AI slop 21:10 The em dash that got a real author accused of being a bot 24:43 Attribution, hypotheses, and the follow-up question every executive asks 27:08 The client lunch that explains why marketers get judged on the wrong numbers SEO KEYWORDS visibility vs influence, LinkedIn algorithm changes, vanity metrics B2B, interest media, marketing attribution, engagement metrics, mid market B2B marketing, marketing ROI, Google Analytics unknown data, AI slop LinkedIn, social platform trust, B2B content strategy, revenue leaks, Revenue Rewired podcast, Jay Feitlinger, Sarah Shepard, StringCan Interactive HOSTS Jay Feitlinger, CEO of StringCan Interactive, has spent 30-plus years building marketing systems and companies. Jay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayfeitlinger/ Sarah Shepard, COO, is the no-nonsense operator who pressure tests every assumption before it becomes strategy. Sarah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahshepardcoo/ ABOUT REVENUE REWIRED Revenue Rewired is a podcast for B2B marketers, sales leaders, and business owners working at the intersection of sales and marketing. Every episode delivers usable insight for mid-market companies trying to grow revenue on purpose. Website: https://www.stringcaninteractive.com Email: podcast@stringcaninteractive.com Get the book: https://www.amazon.com/Revenue-Rewired-Identify-Leaks-Costing-ebook/dp/B0FST7JCXQ Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7423414515779936256/?displayConfirmation=true

  3. Aug 13

    Ep 73: The Real Cost of Hiring Marketing or Sales First (and Why It's Rarely Either)

    Should sales and marketing live under one leader, or stay separate? Jay Feitlinger and Sarah Shepard dig into one of the toughest calls a growing company makes: which role to hire first, and whether combining both into a single seat ever really works. They walk through the warning signs of an overloaded department, the case for a rev ops hybrid, and why a fractional hire can clear the runway before you make a permanent one. If you're a founder or leader trying to figure out where your next revenue investment should go, this conversation gives you a real framework instead of a formula. Key Takeaways Why "it depends" is the only honest answer to the sales vs marketing hiring question, and what actually determines the right call for your businessThe exact team size and pipeline volume that signals a combined sales and marketing role is about to breakWhat happens when marketing generates leads faster than your team can handle them, and why that can hurt your reputation more than help itThe overlooked reason a fractional hire might be smarter than jumping straight to a full-time CMO or VP of SalesWhere rev ops actually fits between sales and marketing, and why it's not quite either one Chapters 00:00 Jay and Sarah kick off with East Coast humidity and a preview of a spicy topic 02:07 Can sales and marketing ever really be one role? 05:26 How to define the ratio between sales and marketing in a combined role 08:16 The team size and workload signals that a combined role is about to break 11:00 The million dollar question: if you could only hire one, which comes first? 14:06 Why foundation and positioning have to come before either hire 18:23 The case for rev ops as the real hybrid answer 20:46 A real client story where sales beat marketing as the first hire 24:39 What a bad marketing hire actually costs beyond the salary 25:22 Why a fractional hire can be the smartest first move 27:06 The CMO title trap and why so many hires are set up to fail SEO Keywords sales and marketing alignment, revenue operations, fractional CMO, chief revenue officer, B2B marketing strategy, sales vs marketing hiring, revenue growth leadership, mid market sales and marketing, rev ops strategy, head of sales and marketing Hosts Jay Feitlinger, CEO of StringCan Interactive LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayfeitlinger/ Sarah Shepard, COO of StringCan Interactive LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahshepardcoo/ About Revenue Rewired Revenue Rewired is a podcast for B2B marketers, sales leaders, and business owners navigating the intersection of sales and marketing. Hosted by Jay Feitlinger and Sarah Shepard, each episode delivers actionable insights for mid-market companies looking to grow revenue strategically. About StringCan Interactive StringCan Interactive is a B2B digital marketing agency helping owner-led companies grow revenue through smarter sales and marketing alignment. Website: https://www.stringcaninteractive.com Podcast Email: podcast@stringcaninteractive.com Buy the Book: https://www.amazon.com/Revenue-Rewired-Identify-Leaks-Costing-ebook/dp/B0FST7JCXQ Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7423414515779936256/?displayConfirmation=true

  4. Aug 6

    Ep 72: Why "I Think This Was Written by AI" Is the New Sales Objection

    AI made everyone a skeptic. Buyers now question every ad, every email, and every claim before they even pick up the phone. Jay Feitlinger and Sarah Shepard get into why trust has become the hidden variable behind slipping conversion rates and stalled sales pipeline management. From a carry-on bag showdown at the airport gate to a prospect who assumed a personal email was written by AI, they trace how tiny broken promises snowball into full-blown distrust. If your mid-market sales team is watching leads go cold with no clear reason, this conversation on revenue operations and sales enablement will change how you think about every touchpoint with a buyer. KEY TAKEAWAYS Find out why one bad flight can wreck brand loyalty for good, and what that teaches you about b2b marketing strategy.Learn why AI watermarks on ads and images are making buyers second-guess everything they see online.Get the three Ps Jay uses to decide if he trusts a vendor before he ever takes a sales call.Discover why Sarah deliberately left "people" out of her trust framework, and what that means for sales enablement.Hear the homework assignment for any mid-market sales leader watching pipeline conversion slip this year. CHAPTERS 0:01 - Jay and Sarah catch up on Arizona flooding before getting into today's real topic 2:34 - The carry on bag story that shows how trust erodes one bad experience at a time 7:36 - Why AI watermarks and fake vacation photos are making buyers doubt every ad they see 11:00 - How younger generations are learning to trust a business without ever meeting a human 16:42 - Jay's three Ps for earning trust before a client ever hears a sales pitch 20:30 - Why Sarah left "people" out of her trust formula on purpose 22:19 - Why turnover is a revenue operations problem long before it becomes a client problem 26:27 - A homework assignment for every revenue leader watching their sales pipeline management slip SEO KEYWORDS b2b marketing strategy, sales pipeline management, revenue operations, mid-market sales, sales enablement, B2B trust building, AI and marketing trust, customer trust strategy, Revenue Rewired podcast HOSTS Jay Feitlinger, CEO of StringCan Interactive https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayfeitlinger/ Sarah Shepard, COO of StringCan Interactive https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahshepardcoo/ ABOUT REVENUE REWIRED AND STRINGCAN INTERACTIVE Revenue Rewired is a podcast for B2B marketers, sales leaders, and business owners working at the intersection of sales and marketing. Hosted by Jay Feitlinger and Sarah Shepard, each episode delivers practical insight for mid-market companies that want to grow revenue with strategy behind it. The show is produced by StringCan Interactive, a B2B digital marketing agency built for owner-led companies. Website: https://www.stringcaninteractive.com Contact: podcast@stringcaninteractive.com Buy the Revenue Rewired book: https://www.amazon.com/Revenue-Rewired-Identify-Leaks-Costing-ebook/dp/B0FST7JCXQ Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/7423414515779936256/?displayConfirmation=true

5
out of 5
19 Ratings

About

Reimagine how you approach marketing, sales, and revenue growth with the Revenue Rewired podcast. Hosted by StringCan Interactive’s CEO Jay Feitlinger and COO Sarah Shepard, this podcast dives into the biggest challenges mid-market B2B companies face. Weekly this dynamic duo breaks down complex strategies into actionable insights to help you align your business, maximize ROI, and drive measurable growth. No jargon (ok maybe a lil), but mainly just straight talk to fuel your revenue engine. Tune in and take your business to the next level.