This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast

Vector
  • 5.0 (4)
  • Marketing

This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast drops you smack dab in the middle of the closed-door sessions where Jess Cook (Head of Marketing) and Joshua Perk (CEO) are working to turn their company, Vector, into B2B marketing’s next big thing. In each episode, they tackle a real, strategic decision together—"Should we hire an agency?", "Should we push free trials or demos?", "What are we going to do with all the swag Josh bought?!"—dishing out pros, cons, knowns, unknowns, wins, challenges, and stories along the way. Come for the big picture strategy and day-to-day tactics, stay for the jokes that make HR nervous.

  1. 4d ago

    Jess wants to sponsor a bunch of communities

    Pre-Series A Jess once slid a six-figure community sponsorship proposal across the table. Josh fell out of his seat. She had one argument: these are the people we need to be talking to. He signed. Exit Five was the obvious play, the community every B2B marketer already had open in a tab. Demand Collective was the riskier one: a few hundred vetted demand gen operators, run by a guy in his first full year doing this solo. Plenty of people would've called it reckless. Jess called it marketing. Hear how a webinar lit up the demo request Slack channel, why two community founders ended up in a rivalry Jess invented, and how Josh's plan to build Vector's own community lasted about four words. Get to the good stuff:[00:00] Jess pitches doubling down on communities. Josh puts up exactly one line of resistance before calling Exit Five for the contract [00:44] Jess and Josh's read on community members — "If you're spending your free time in a marketing community, you're probably our customer. Also, touch grass." [01:55] The two plays. Exit Five, where "all the cool kids hang," and Demand Collective, a few hundred vetted demand gen operators [04:21] The Exit Five package: media, podcast plugs from founder Dave Gerhardt, customer glow-ups — leading to a demo-request Slack channel chanting "Exit Five webinar." [08:10] The event side: a bigger Drive sponsorship, a booth, the ghost tour... and a serious discussion about letting people scream inside a Toyota Corolla [09:16] Vector bet early on Eric Linssen's brand-new community. The Slack channel repeating "Demand Day Summit" back at them said it worked [11:18] Newsletter, webinar, doesn't matter. Real customers talking shop turned into real leads [12:45] Jess's rule across communities, events, and influencers: make the customer the rock star, not Vector — a bold philosophy for two people recording a podcast about themselves [14:31] Positive affirmations. Side effects may include irrational confidence [15:00] Dave Gerhardt versus Eric Linssen. One made-up competition. Jess has the numbers [16:34] Community sponsorships went from "nice idea" to "don't you dare cut that." [17:48] The community organizers write the newsletters, run the interviews, and script the ads. Vector's job is showing up with good customers and a red pen [19:05] Jess goes shopping for community number three. Turns out the first two still have juice left [21:50] Community sponsorships became Vector's biggest pipeline channel in nine months. Jess's advice: know exactly who's in the room, then give every community its own job [23:42] Josh pitches a Vector-owned community. Jess's answer starts with "No..." and somehow gets more negative from there This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.Filmed and produced by Sweet Fish.Editing by Handy Man Edit. Show notes by Content 10x.  Music by Peter McIsaac Music.

  2. Sep 2

    Josh wants everyone to use AI (but, like, in a human way)

    Josh's latest “great” idea: everyone at Vector should be using AI. In a human way. Whatever that means. It was March 2026 and the mood had shifted from “you should try ChatGPT” to “agents, Claude Code, MCP — if you’re not across all of it, your team’s getting fired.” Jess was at an Exit Five retreat where 100 CMOs were all asking the same question: what is AI actually being used for? So, she came back and ran a comfort check. Scale of one to ten. Safe space. No wrong answers. Kelly humbly rated himself a 7. Jess respectfully disagreed (and immediately dropped her own score from 7 to 4). Everyone else wished they were a 7. By the end, Josh was walking back a Friday all-hands meeting quote that needed its own apology tour, and Vector was shipping an AI tool built to make marketers superhuman. Hear how Jess got her entire marketing team comfortable with AI, what happens when sales calls start writing your ad copy, and why Josh thinks the future belongs to the most insecure employees in the room. Stay with him. Get to the good stuff: [00:00] Step one: everyone at Vector should use AI. Step two... they're still working on step two [00:51] From "you should try this" to "your team's getting fired" in about a week. Jess and Josh clock how fast the AI panic escalated [02:05] Jess talks herself through the AI threat model. The product's got a moat. The workflow's fair game. Josh: "Fingers crossed." [03:37] Jess walks into a room of 100 CMOs, all asking the same question: who's got this figured out? One answer involves shutting an entire company down for two days. [06:17] Kelly rates himself a 7. Jess immediately recalibrates herself down to a 4. Kelly builds a tool that skips the paraphrase and goes straight to what customers say on sales calls [09:14] Jess keeps reminding herself this doesn't have to happen all at once. Josh's advice? One project. Then another. Nobody panic-builds the future by Tuesday [11:40] Josh does the math on AI. It saves you ten minutes writing, costs you an hour checking. He calls it the AI tax [13:36] Jess unlocks a new AI fear — marketers who've never had to write a bad first draft [15:18] Josh's deal with AI: you can have the homework. I'm keeping the taste [16:30] Time for affirmations. Buyer-manifestation energy only, no notes [16:51] Josh revisits one of his all-time greatest hits: the "most insecure employees win" quote. The explanation has aged considerably better than the wording [19:33] Jess is still figuring out what her job is now. Josh's advice: AI can wait five minutes. Your deadline can't [20:56] Kelly's AI review is bleak: "Pretty sure I'm sharpening the shiv that takes my job." Jess would like to rewrite that story [22:18] Mid-AI existential crisis, Josh decides it's the perfect time to pitch a book called The Future is Human. The title and cover are ready. Manuscript pending [23:34] Josh's mentor helped write the Netflix culture deck. Her lesson: build a vision that survives whatever the world does next [28:24] Jess's hiring request: web designer. Josh's counteroffer: AI This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.Filmed and produced by Sweet Fish.Editing by Handy Man Edit. Show notes by Content 10x.  Music by Peter McIsaac Music.

  3. Aug 19

    Jess gets promoted to VP

    Josh promoted Jess to VP of Marketing, now he has to explain himself. It could've been just another episode about a promotion. Josh showed up with a list. Trust, track record, and receipts — the works. Somewhere in there, a Pokémon-style ghosty evolution got involved. Cue the part performance review, part origin story, part accidental therapy session. Hear how Josh's three-point list turned into a full-blown career audit, why "Sponge, Scaffolding, and Ninja Kick" became an actual operating system, and how one unhinged podcast idea was Jess's 'make big bets' philosophy in action. Get to the good stuff: [00:00] Josh announces the promotion. Jess would like to thank her mom, Dr. Atkin, and the Academy [00:41] Jess forgot she'd been promoted. Josh announced it with a Pokémon evolution, because of course he did. [02:30] Josh has a surprisingly strong opinion about the phrase, "What should I work on?" [03:40] The best marketing leaders are basically undercover CEOs. Jess explains how [06:59] "I trust you" — terms and conditions apply. Jess on what real autonomy feels like [09:45] Sponge, Scaffolding, Ninja Kick. A 30-60-90 plan so good Josh still remembered the code names a year later. [11:19] Jess already had a marketing wishlist. She'd just never found a company weird enough to say yes [13:31] Josh's most controversial take: Jess's stress was a green flag. He knows how that sounds [15:53] Jess made a very hard year look suspiciously easy. Josh's next words: "Start crying on demand." [17:35] Jess's first marketing bet at Vector: a podcast that never mentioned the product. Apparently, this was Plan A [19:03] Reason three for the promotion: strong opinions, immediately followed by "bitch, give me money." [23:05] Jess and Josh would like you to believe in yourself  — whether you like it or not [23:49] Jess's one hiring rule: hire the person who'll eventually run this function [27:16] Jess spent years thinking content was a nice-to-have. Josh cold DM'd her because of it [29:16] Every CEO has a marketing thesis. Josh's just happened to involve artists [33:37] Jess admits she didn't know pipeline. Not how to measure it, anyway. Cue the High School Musical comparisons [36:58] Josh's CMO checklist: executive presence, mini-CEO energy, maximum goofy shit [39:57] New segment idea: bad character voices. Jess uses the first one to manifest a CMO promotion This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.Filmed and produced by Sweet Fish.Editing by Handy Man Edit. Show notes by Content 10x.  Music by Peter McIsaac Music.

  4. Aug 5

    Josh wants to build an ABM program

    Josh wanted a secret marketing sleeper cell. Jess informs him it already has a name — ABM. Organic had done its job. Now they needed to go to market without becoming the company that cold calls you through dinner. The goal was outbound that didn't feel like outbound. Then the first person who proved it could work... outbounded Jess. Hear how Jess and Josh are rebuilding outbound around signals, not spam. Also, Josh still isn't convinced "ABM" is a better name than "marketing sleeper cell." Get to the good stuff:[00:00] Josh pitches a "sleeper cell" of undercover marketers. Jess informs him it's called ABM — he still likes his version better [00:56] Inbound built Vector. The Series A forced Josh to figure out what builds the next stage [02:02] Josh explains why hiring SDRs would've solved one problem — and created a whole other one [02:56] Jess compares Vector's demand gen team to a Disney cruise baby race. Somehow, it perfectly explains their ABM strategy [05:09] Traditional ABM starts with a target account list. Jess starts with buyer signals [05:56] Every winning signal gets an outbound sidekick. Jess explains how the XDR role came to exist before anyone knew about it [07:13] The cold call hypocrisy of it all. Josh on why outbound should feel as good as the brand that came before it [08:41] The hiring story that made Josh ask Jess, "Do you ever feel like your life is a movie?" [11:27] "Screw it. Let's just do it." The perfect hire showed up before the org chart did [12:46] If it walks like an SDR... why does Abby's title say ABM Manager? [15:05] Turns out the missing link between marketing and sales wasn't another meeting [16:33] Jess and Josh interrupt the ABM chat to gas up marketers for a minute [17:00] The relay race behind Vector's ABM strategy. Demand gen, ABM, and sales each have a different leg to run [20:23] Kelly's wonderfully nerdy "Signal House." Coming soon to an ABM strategy near you [22:46] Josh asks the obvious question: "What does this actually look like?" Jess has two campaigns ready to go [23:24] A content writer in the middle of an outbound program? Hear Jess out [25:26] The bet Vector is making. Turns out the zig isn't better AI, it's better humans [27:38] Where Vector's ABM strategy goes next. Marketing and sales have one rule: "Never the twain shall cross." This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.Filmed and produced by Sweet Fish.Editing by Handy Man Edit. Show notes by Content 10x. Music by Peter McIsaac Music.

  5. Jul 22

    Jess wants to run video ads

    Jess wanted to run TV commercials. Josh's only note: make it feel like the Super Bowl. She had a Series A budget, a Rice Krispies Super Bowl commercial on her CV, and a UK-based agency called Deadpan she'd tracked down from a single KlientBoost video (the name should have been a clue.) Four videos and two cease and desists later, Vector was on Disney+, Hulu, and Peacock. And the numbers? "Why doesn't everyone else do this" numbers. Hear how Vector ended up on the same streaming channels as Disney princesses and superheroes, and why a marketer at DocuSign was not nearly as excited about it as Josh was. Get to the good stuff: [00:00] Jess wants to run real TV commercials. Josh immediately raises the stakes to an unreasonable level. Jess: "Hold my beer." [01:05] Not everyone needs the demo yet. Jess breaks down the three-video journey that meets buyers wherever they are [03:01] Josh notices Jess left out the CEO vision video. She hasn't [03:43] Turns out Jess's resume includes a Super Bowl ad, talking Cheez-Its, and the Great Toilet Paper Debate [07:50] How one KlientBoost video convinced Jess to commission four commercials from UK-based Deadpan Agency without ever crossing the Atlantic [09:58] Deadpan pitched seven concepts, from safe to unhinged. The winner was never going to be the safe one [10:32] The ad concepts arrive. One of them involves a demand gen marketer folded into a suitcase. [12:26] Jess has a defense for all the unhinged creative. It's cheaper than being forgotten [14:15] Deadpan handled the shoot in the UK. Jess weighed in on everything from scripts to which corners of the house looked the most American [16:06] Affirmations break. Somehow even more cinematic than usual [16:51] AI is good at a lot of things. Making marketers laugh isn't one of them [18:21] Mesolab builds the explainer video. Vector pivots the positioning. The animation doesn't care [19:58] Josh draws a line between a Fiverr animation and what Mesolab built. It's a pretty wide line [23:04] The creative projects marketers dream about? Jess reckons they make up about 4% of the job [25:31] Someone at DocuSign sees the explainer video. This feels promising for about three seconds [27:43] The UI walkthrough had 90 seconds to explain Vector. PSA: not a demo [29:22] Josh had notes on the UI walkthrough. They arrived several approvals later [31:52] Ghosty survives a cease and desist. The detective hat and magnifying glass were part of the settlement [33:32] The podcast takes a brief detour into Back to the Future lore and Pig Latin… marketing resumes shortly [36:11] Kelly arrives to run ads. Jess hands him a hard drive full of videos [38:12] Josh and Jess spend a moment imagining kids demanding better ad targeting from their parents [39:05] Jess shares the results. 34% net new traffic, 22% more demo requests, and a 41% pipeline increase. Josh's response is mostly variations of "wow" [42:27] The campaign with marketers hiding in suitcases is outperforming everything else. Josh has theories [43:29] Josh makes the case for the campaign's most important line: "The next best way is Vector" This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.Filmed and produced by Sweet Fish.Editing by Handy Man Edit. Show notes by Content 10x. Music by Peter McIsaac Music.

  6. Jul 8

    Josh wants to do owned events

    Josh wanted his ChiliPalooza moment. He also wanted a Toyota Corolla people could scream in. What he got was the Jess edit — and it involved ghosts. They already knew small private dinners worked. Drive by Exit Five had proved it. What if they just did it four times? $45K for four cities. $880K in projected pipeline. Josh is still waiting for his ChiliPalooza, but this will do. Three words from Josh. Jess had the whole concept. She built the landing page herself that evening. And the T-shirt the audience voted against? She printed it anyway. Get to the good stuff: [00:00] The T-shirt vote is in. Josh is not okay [00:46] If you don't have your own user conference, are you even a real startup? [01:32] Jess pumps the brakes on the big event. One Toyota Corolla full of screaming marketers, however, is still very much under consideration [04:01] Josh also wanted a community. Badly. He still does, for the record. Jess had questions about who was going to run it. [05:42] Event vs Community: Community needs a full-time person, a moderation strategy, and a prayer. Events need a good restaurant. Easy choice [07:06] Josh says three words. Jess goes "say less." The Ghost Tour Tour is born [08:10] A tale of two strategies: build it and hope they come, or sidecar the events where they're already showing up [10:41] The Ghost Tour Tour explained. No, it's not a haunted house [12:35] The invite request gamble: it scared Jess, but paid off. Turns out nobody wants to be the one at a conference with no dinner plans [15:12] Sponsoring the event has a perk nobody talks about: you get the attendee list. Pull from one side, push from the other. [16:18] Pit stop. Marketers, you deserve nice things. Josh and Jess deliver [16:38] Jess wants to talk budget. Josh does not. $45K for four events changes his mind [17:52] The Ghost Tour Tour roadshow revealed. Four stops, four cities, and a September that's going to be a lot [18:59] Easy to think you can run an event alone. Jess hired Steph Pennell at INGÉNUE before it became a problem [20:11] Josh vs democracy: three T-shirt designs, one public vote, one very unhappy CEO [23:40] Bonus swag reveal — a cinch bag, a ghosty, and a city outfit plan idea that died on contact [24:14] Jess hands the attendee list to Sara McNamara. What comes back is either voodoo magic or a mild privacy concern. Either way, it works [25:31] Did Jess overbook? Yes. Did it work? Also yes. Spirit Airlines, take notes [27:10] Jess builds the Ghost Tour Tour landing page in an evening using Claude. Before Claude Design existed. She vibed harder [31:19] Jess and the marketing team picked unscalable outreach on purpose. Sometimes you just have to do it the hard way [32:31] The invite bell curve explained — from why people don't commit until the week of, to why a ghost that follows you home is a pretty good reason to show up [34:23] Jess on how she'll know if the Ghost Tour Tour worked. Six meetings per stop. $880K in projected pipeline. $45K invested. The math is mathing [36:32] What if it doesn't work? Jess becomes a ghost. What if it does? Josh wants a 5000 person event. Damned if you do, damned if you don't   This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.Filmed and produced by Sweet Fish.Editing by Handy Man Edit. Show notes by Content 10x.  Music by Peter McIsaac Music.

  7. Jun 24

    Jess hires a demand gen marketer

    Jess opens a demand gen role. The brief: run ads, talk to customers, build in public. Sixty applicants land in her inbox in 48 hours. Six months later, still searching. Josh's read on the situation? "Do you just really suck at hiring?" Most candidates checked two boxes. Nobody checked all three… until Kelly showed up and had CTV ads running within two weeks. Hear how six months of searching ended with a hire who had an ABM program live before Jess could blink. Get to the good stuff: [00:00] Jess asks for a demand gen marketer. Josh says yes. Cue a six-month odyssey [02:32] Jess had three boxes. Run ads. Talk to customers. Build in public. Box three is where most demand gen marketers ghost you [05:06] Jess calls every marketing leader she knows. Same answer every time: hardest role I've ever hired for. Josh hints she just really sucks at hiring [06:14] Demand gen means something different everywhere. ABM. Growth. "Write the blog, hit send." Jess’s preference? Someone who'd defied all the laws of checklist marketing [08:20] Sixty applicants become twenty-five interviews. Two boxes, consistently. Never three [10:12] Six months in, Jess is willing to try anything. Newsletters. Craigslist. Missed connections [11:35] It’s December, the Series A is coming, sales want pipeline… and the company helping marketers run better ads still doesn’t have a demand gen marketer [12:20] Jess has a "just hire someone" moment. Josh holds the line [12:50] Eric Linssen of Demand Collective has a name. Kelly Arndt. Jess has been waiting 84 years for this moment [14:32] Kelly has the demand gen chops and he also has a content brain. The six-month search suddenly makes a lot more sense [15:40] Jess skips “where do you see yourself in five years?” and hands Kelly the real budget and the real targets. He comes back with month one [16:33] Kelly could hold a room with a CMO. Box three — finally ticked. Jess considers drone surveillance and wire taps while she counts down to Kelly’s Day One [17:54] Kelly basically starts before he starts. Sales calls, Slack channels, marketing plans. Disclaimer from Josh: entirely voluntary. [18:48] Nobody's week two checklist says "run connected TV ads." Kelly's did. 180,000 ICP contacts. Surround sound campaign, activated [21:40] Jess's mastermind asks: when organic starts dying, how do you nurture? Her answer. Ads. Their eyes lit up [23:16] Vector ads are showing up on Disney+, Hulu, Paramount. People in their network are texting mid-show. Jess only watches shows involving ghosts. Unrelated [24:13] Josh hears ABM program, and panics. Kelly has it live mid-panic [27:49] Building a tool that pulls pain point quotes straight from sales calls and turns them into ad copy?  Kelly is living in 2049 [28:49] Time to stare deeply into the camera. Marketers, you need to hear this [29:43] Three hiring tips from Jess, starting with: you're going to kiss a lot of frogs [33:44] Josh tries to 6X the pipeline goal. Jess declines.   This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.Filmed and produced by Sweet Fish.Editing by Handy Man Edit. Show notes by Content 10x.  Music by Peter McIsaac Music.

  8. Jun 10

    Josh raises a Series A (and becomes a monster)

    Season three Jess is not season one Jess. Same goes for Josh. Raising $10 million will do that to a person.  Josh hits the road to raise Vector's Series A. Weeks later, he's back full of ideas. None of them related to Vector's actual business. While Josh is away, Jess and the leadership team stop waiting for permission. They figure out what to do without him. Turns out: they know what they're doing. Back on the investment front, Josh sends a telegram. Complete ye olde English prose from a plane at 3 am. Hear how Josh used the whispering game, a New York meeting slot he hadn’t booked yet, and high school lunch table vibes to get through the roadshow. Get to the good stuff: [00:00] Josh returns from the investment roadshow with three groundbreaking business ideas, all of them “great.” Sigh. [02:24] The raise isn't the win your LinkedIn feed thinks it is — why Josh resisted until he couldn't. [04:02] Jess explains how they gathered customer feedback for the raise three months after a hard pivot. Alex said I've got this... and delivered. [07:30] Jess coined the phrase Deep Ass Financial Dive (trademark pending), and yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. [09:57] Churn versus Optics: Josh admits letting optics win for the fundraising window. [11:57] Josh explains how having the biggest quarter in company history changes the room. [13:10] Fundraising sucks. Josh does not recommend… kind of. [15:22] Josh’s investor playbook: practice reps, whisper campaigns and an imaginary New York slot. [20:46] Dad is out of the house. Jess learns to stop asking for permission. [24:01] Jess starts feeling like Josh is at war. Josh sends her a telegram from the fundraising front... in ye olde English. [26:00] Josh turns Fridays into grenade drops. We need to become an agency. AI is replacing us all. Something else about AI. Goodbye. [28:30] Affirmations break. Live, laugh, lower CAC. [29:05] The $10 million question… why SignalFire and HubSpot Ventures said yes. [33:33] Jess and Josh ditch the press release for their Series A announcement. They were over the theater, so naturally…cue the 90’s sitcom-style video. [37:59] Jess pitches real ghosts (naturally). This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.Filmed and produced by Sweet Fish.Editing by Handy Man Edit. Show notes by Content10x. Music by Peter McIsaac Music.

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This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast drops you smack dab in the middle of the closed-door sessions where Jess Cook (Head of Marketing) and Joshua Perk (CEO) are working to turn their company, Vector, into B2B marketing’s next big thing. In each episode, they tackle a real, strategic decision together—"Should we hire an agency?", "Should we push free trials or demos?", "What are we going to do with all the swag Josh bought?!"—dishing out pros, cons, knowns, unknowns, wins, challenges, and stories along the way. Come for the big picture strategy and day-to-day tactics, stay for the jokes that make HR nervous.

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