The Dave Gerhardt Show (from Exit Five)

Dave sits down with Eoin Clancy, VP of Growth at AirOps, to talk about what's working in B2B marketing right now. They get into the rise of the content engineer role, how to use AI to produce high-quality content without creating AI slop, and why webinars have become AirOps' top growth channel in 2026. Eoin breaks down the three signs that content is AI slop, how AirOps runs their webinar funnel end-to-end, and how they follow up with attendees without ever pushing for a demo.

Timestamps

(00:00) - - Intro and episode overview

(04:15) - - What AirOps does and the content engineer role

(09:49) - - Why good SEO principles haven't changed in the AI era

(14:13) - - AirOps' growth story: 10x revenue in 12 months

(17:40) - - The challenge of using AI without creating slop

(20:48) - - Three signs your content is AI slop

(24:47) - - How to capture and maintain your brand's tone of voice

(27:41) - - Why subject matter expertise is the best content ingredient

(36:49) - - Why webinars are AirOps' #1 growth channel in 2026

(42:43) - - How AirOps plans topics and sources webinar guests

(44:05) - - The webinar tech stack: Luma, HubSpot, Zoom, and Clay

(44:34) - - Personalized follow-up strategy and signal scoring

(49:07) - - How to build internal buy-in for a long-game content strategy

(54:14) - - How to fill a webinar without gating anything

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Brought to you by:

Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. 

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 their new MCP server by clicking here. 

Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.
Join us in Stowe, Vermont for Drive 2026 - three days away from your desk to learn what's working in B2B marketing from the people who are actually doing it. Grab your ticket at exitfive.com/drive.

***

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

#363 | Louis Grenier joins Dave for a conversation about what it takes to stand out in B2B marketing when everything feels the same. They get into how people really decide to buy, why most B2B brands look and sound identical, and the marketing fundamentals that hold up no matter what's changing around them. The kind of conversation that reminds you why you got into marketing in the first place.
Timestamps 

(00:00) - - Intro

(07:14) - - Surviving cancer at 36 and what it taught Louis about doing work that matters

(14:10) - - Why marketers fail when they try to educate the market instead of meeting it

(19:36) - - The case for leading with one thing even when your product does ten

(21:39) - - You can't create demand you can only position into demand that already exists

(27:08) - - Why the most memorable brands use assets that mean nothing on purpose

(36:34) - - What a real point of view is for and why most companies get it wrong

(37:33) - - How to get leadership to say yes to bold unconventional marketing ideas

(48:18) - - Why pain points don't drive purchases and what actually pulls the trigger

(53:22) - - The case for saying the same thing a thousand different ways

(01:00:32) - - Why strong marketing fundamentals matter more in an AI world not less

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Brought to you by:

Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. 

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 their new MCP server by clicking here. 

Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.
Join us in Stowe, Vermont for Drive 2026 - three days away from your desk to learn what's working in B2B marketing from the people who are actually doing it. Grab your ticket at exitfive.com/drive.

***

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

#362 | Dave sits down with Eddie Shleyner, founder of VeryGoodCopy.com, to talk about why great marketing copy can't be generated — it has to be written. They get into why AI writing feels flat, what separates copy that moves people from copy that just fills space, and why the process of writing is where the real work happens. Eddie also shares how he accidentally built one of the most-read copywriting newsletters on the internet and what he's learned about writing for humans after years of studying what makes people take action.

Timestamps

(00:00) - - - How Eddie accidentally discovered copywriting while writing job ads

(02:58) - - - Why marketers are starting to push back on AI-generated content

(02:59) - - - Why the best copy gives readers less — and makes them feel more

(03:04) - - - Marketing is a human profession because empathy can't be prompted

(03:13) - - - Where AI actually helps: research, not writing

(03:17) - - - How VeryGoodCopy started as a private Google Doc no one was supposed to see

(03:22) - - - Why AI writing tells you how to feel instead of letting you feel it

(03:23) - - - The experiment: Eddie wrote the same story as AI, word for word, to prove a point

(03:25) - - - What inspired writing has that AI writing doesn't

(03:31) - - - Why shortcuts in the writing process produce worse work, not faster work

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Brought to you by:

Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. 

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 their new MCP server by clicking here. 

Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.
Join us in Stowe, Vermont for Drive 2026 - three days away from your desk to learn what's working in B2B marketing from the people who are actually doing it. Grab your ticket at exitfive.com/drive.

***

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

#361 | In this episode, Matt Carnevale, Head of Community at Exit Five talks with three marketers doing impactful work in AEO. AI search is changing how buyers find products, and most B2B teams are still figuring out where to start. In this session, each marketer shares what's working and wins they’ve experienced — from earned media and technical audits to homepage fixes and tracking AI visibility. Whether you call it AEO, GEO, LLMO, or EIEIO – this one’s for you. This session features guests Matt Dzugan, VP of Data Intelligence at Muckrack, Brett Bernath, Director of Product at Webflow, and Jess Joyce, Founder of Inbound Scope – an SEO and AI Search consultancy.

Timestamps

(00:00) - - - Why 80% of CMOs say AEO is a top priority — and most don't know where to start

(02:48) - - - How Muckrack used original research to get cited in ChatGPT before their product launch

(02:50) - - - Why top-of-funnel content is getting eaten by AI — and where to focus instead

(02:53) - - - Quick win #3: authority — how to show up in Reddit and third-party platforms

(02:56) - - - The sleeper tip: Bing Webmaster Tools is already giving you first-party AI data

(03:07) - - - How to handle competitor comparison content without verifiable claims falling flat

(03:23) - - - The four-bucket AEO maturity model: content, technical, authority, measurement

(03:24) - - - Why your homepage is your worst-performing page for AI discoverability

(03:27) - - - Quick win #1: technical hygiene — schema, meta descriptions, and structured data

(03:28) - - - How to identify which journalists get cited most by AI in your niche

(03:29) - - - Quick win #2: are you actually answering what your customers are asking?

(03:34) - - - Why 1 in 3 B2B SaaS sites have technical blockers killing AI discoverability

(03:36) - - - Why original research is the single best content type for earning AI citations

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Brought to you by:

Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. 

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 their new MCP server by clicking here. 

Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.
Join us in Stowe, Vermont for Drive 2026 - three days away from your desk to learn what's working in B2B marketing from the people who are actually doing it. Grab your ticket at exitfive.com/drive.

***

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

#360 | Dave sits down with Ishveen Jolly, founder and CEO of Open Sponsorship, to talk about what influencer and athlete marketing actually looks like for B2B brands — and why it's more accessible than most marketers think. Ishveen breaks down how a $5K March Madness campaign outperformed traditional ads, why your first influencer deal will almost certainly miss on the offer, and how to think about sports sponsorships without a Tommy Fleetwood budget. They get into audience-fit versus story-fit sponsorships, why the goal should never be a landing page click, and why most B2B teams are applying the wrong success metrics from the start. If you've ever wondered how to get into influencer or sports sponsorship marketing without a Fortune 500 budget, this is the episode.

Timestamps

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/

***

Brought to you by:

Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. 

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 their new MCP server by clicking here. 

Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.
Join us in Stowe, Vermont for Drive 2026 - three days away from your desk to learn what's working in B2B marketing from the people who are actually doing it. Grab your ticket at exitfive.com/drive.

***

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