Category: Show Notes

AI is now a standing agenda item. It shows up in QBRs, board packets, and 2026 budget plans with a big expectation stamp on it. CMOs are being asked to operationalize it fast, prove value in workflows, and keep risk, governance, and tool sprawl under control.

To get specific about what to prioritize next, Drew brings together Guy Yalif (Webflow), Andy Dé (Lightbeam Health Solutions), and Kevin Briody (DisruptedCMO). Together, they focus on how CMOs can move from scattered experiments to intentional AI adoption across people, process, and technology, and what it takes to make AI a trusted part of how marketing runs.

In this episode: 

• Guy shares an AI fluency maturity model and explains why the shift to operational excellence is a change management challenge. 

• Andy breaks down agentic AI and workflow automation with examples from CI, outbound, RFPs, content, and AEO, using “why, what, how, so what.” 

• Kevin focuses on the people and platform side, from job anxiety and culture to vendor shakeouts and MarTech-level discipline. 

Plus: 

• Centering AI plans on people and fluency so it feels additive, not threatening. 

• Using councils, fast-track approvals, and guardrails to scale safely. 

• Balancing efficiency with human experience and customer acceptance. 

• Treating AI tools like core MarTech, with scrutiny around contracts, integrations, and vendor longevity.

If you want your 2026 AI plan to feel like a strategic advantage instead of a collection of pilots, this conversation will help you decide what to run, what to scale, and what to skip. 

Most marketers worry about whether buyers trust their brand. Brent Adamson, author of The Framemaking Sale, argues that the actual issue sits somewhere else: Buyers do not trust themselves.

In this episode, Drew sits down with Brent to challenge three big assumptions: That more supplier trust is the answer, that buyers have a neat journey to map, and that customer centricity is always the right north star. 

In this episode: 

• Why decision confidence matters more than supplier trust 

• How shifting from “trust us” to “trust yourselves” reshapes GTM 

• How to rethink buyer journeys through the “never again” and spaghetti-bowl lens. 

• Framemaking in practice, from nudges and checklists to maturity models. 

• The three Es, Establish, Engage, Execute, as a shared marketing and sales playbook.

Plus: 

• Escaping the smartness arms race by editing content to reduce anxiety and build buyer self-confidence. 

• Turning social proof into a confidence engine, using “other customers like you…” stories. 

• Making content supplier-agnostic, helping buyers ask better questions and weigh tradeoffs.

If you want your buyers to trust themselves enough to decide, start here. 

If AI is only helping you write copy, you are leaving real leverage on the table. 

Every marketing team is buried in invisible busywork; a trail of repetitive, manual steps hiding inside every task. So what happens when you take one of those messy workflows, map every step, and rebuild it?

In this episode, Drew talks with Dave Brong (Level Agency) about how CMO Huddles transformed a messy, 10-step post-meeting grind into an automated system that transforms hundreds of conversations into structured insight, searchable intelligence, and real business value. 

In this episode: 

• How a manual, repetitive workflow became an automated intelligence engine 

• How transcripts, metadata, and semantic search unlock institutional knowledge 

• The reality: Only ±10% of the system relies on AI (code does the heavy lifting) 

• When to use low-code tools vs. engineers for reliability, privacy, and scale

Plus: 

• A simple method to audit workflows and spot automation opportunities 

• How to balance build vs. buy for AI workflows 

• How to amplify human judgment instead of replacing it

If you are tired of manual follow-up, underused data, and AI hype without impact, this conversation is for you.  

Growth targets keep climbing while cost lines tighten, and planning season starts to feel very personal for CMOs. AI threads through every conversation, zero-based thinking pulls against last year’s baseline, and the goalposts never seem to hold still.  

So the job becomes building a budget you can walk into the room with, own, and defend with conviction. 

To get there, Drew brings together Andrew Cox (Forrester), Lisa Cole (2X), and Alan Gonsenhauser (Demand Revenue). The conversation centers on tying spend to strategy, translating marketing into CFO-ready terms, and giving AI a role in the plan that the numbers can support.

In this episode: 

• Andrew shares Forrester’s view on moving past “last year plus X,” building budgets around corporate objectives and campaigns, and forcing prioritization. 

• Lisa applies a zero-based mindset to business priorities, uses a 70-20-10 program mix for core, flex, and test, and frames marketing as an ATM of Audience, Trust, and Monetization. 

• Alan outlines the signals of strong and weak budgets, tying the majority of spend to growth campaigns and long-term value plans, and maintaining a year-round working relationship with the CFO.

Plus: 

• Keeping tech spend in check, including guidelines for MarTech mix and contract flexibility 

• Positioning brand and PR in financial terms like pipeline influence, win rates, and pricing power 

• Responding to AI efficiency pressure by fixing workflows first and framing value in utilization, speed, and scalability 

• Why the budget should be the numerical expression of strategy, not a defense of legacy spend

If you want to walk into your next budget review with a clear story, solid numbers, and conviction, this conversation will help you get there. 

Nine years in. 500 episodes later. Hundreds of CMOs on the mic. A deep well of marketing wisdom for anyone brave enough to draw from it. 

This milestone episode is a celebration of the bold B2B ideas, experiments, and hard-earned lessons that have filled the show from day one. Thank-you to every marketer who has listened, shared, and dared to try something new because of what they heard here.  

Recorded live at the 2025 Super Huddle, Drew’s conversations with Udi Ledergor, Denise Persson and Chris Degnan, and Carilu Dietrich anchor this milestone episode. 

In this episode: 

• Udi shares how Gong pulled off a Super Bowl spot on a regional budget, aimed it at VPs of Sales, and tracked impact in traffic, conversations, and pipeline. 

• Denise and Chris explain how a CMO and CRO stayed aligned through four CEOs at Snowflake and evolved the story from “cloud data warehouse” to “data cloud,” all in lockstep. 

• Carilu shows how Lovable is building a movement with real users as influencers, a CEO who lives on social, and a speed-first mindset tuned to the pace of AI and customer buzz. 

Plus: 

• Why a “crazy ideas” budget creates room for standout plays that still satisfy the CFO 

• How empathy for sales and shared ownership of the number strengthen CRO-CMO alignment 

• How CEO-led social, customer stories, and edutainment power modern B2B brands 

• What it takes to move at AI speed while keeping product value and customer love at the center

If you want a concentrated hit of CMO-level courage, alignment, and playmaking, this milestone episode is your highlight reel. 

Events sit at the crossroads of joy and heartburn for B2B marketers. The magic of getting customers together in real life is real, and so is the pain when sales skips the pre-work and ROI gets fuzzy. With every dollar under scrutiny, CMOs are treating events as strategic bets that have to earn their spot on the plan. 

In this episode, Drew talks with Charles Groome (Insightful), Jamie Gier, and Lorie Coulombe (Equity Shift) about how they decide which events to do, design experiences people remember, and turn field time into pipeline. They cover event portfolios, sales pre-work, and the simple tools that keep everyone aligned before, during, and after the show. 

In this episode: 

• Charles sorts events into three buckets, leans into a listening circuit with smaller meetups, and looks at target-account impact to decide where bigger bets belong. 

• Jamie frames events around getting discovered, creating memorable experiences, and driving deals, with customers on stage and pods focused on key accounts. 

• Lorie sets clear goals for each event, does deep homework on audiences and geographies, and locks in sales pre-work and follow-up expectations.

Plus: 

• Build an event portfolio that blends big shows, listening trips, CABs, and customer moments. 

• Use themes, news hooks, and customer voices to stand out in crowded halls and drive recall. 

• Align sales and marketing via pods, shared KPIs, and simple scoreboards. 

• Tighten spend with regional focus, partner co-hosting, and clear criteria.

If events are on your 2026 budget and you want them to pay in pipeline, this episode will help you pick, plan, and prove them with more confidence.