The Dave Gerhardt Show (from Exit Five)

#402 | Dasha interviews Colin Kendall, CMO at SC&H, live at Drive. They discuss how a brand that isn't a household name can build a brand and pipeline. Colin attributes the success to events - his team turned them into a measurable revenue channel by going beyond the sponsor booth. They focus on getting their own experts on stage, and repurposing that content afterward to build touchpoints with people who'd never heard of them. He explains how to get time-strapped executives to build a real LinkedIn presence and why standing out in the age of AI slop means having a point of view that's uniquely yours. He also dives into how his team scales their CEO's voice by turning his Slack posts into LinkedIn content. Plus, why he's betting on employee advocacy and personal branding in 2027, and how gamifying it (like Exit Five's Clout Cup) makes it stick.
Timestamps (00:00) - Marketing a firm that sells expertise, not software

(01:31) - Inside SC&H: a hands-on alternative to the Big Four accounting giants

(04:13) - SC&H's biggest 2026 win: proving events drive real revenue

(05:04) - Why a sponsor booth isn't enough: get your experts on stage

(06:04) - Make one speaking slot last all year by repurposing the content

(07:01) - Turning in-house experts into credible LinkedIn thought leaders

(09:02) - The AI slop problem: why your point of view has to be your own

(11:04) - Repurposing leader's Slack messages as LinkedIn posts

(11:53) - The 2027 bet: employee advocacy and personal branding

(13:48) - The Clout Cup: using competition to drive LinkedIn growth

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:
Zoom Webinars & Events – The virtual event platform built to help B2B marketers run webinars that actually drive pipeline, with branded registration pages, live engagement features, and built-in tools to repurpose sessions into clips and content. Learn more at zoom.com/exitfive.
Convertiv - A B2B marketing agency that helps enterprise teams build an AI-powered go-to-market strategy, specializing in AEO. Podcast listeners get a free AI search review showing how you stack up against competitors. Learn more at convertiv.com/exitfive.
Optimizely - the AI platform for marketers. Build your own AI agents or pull from a directory of 50+ pre-built ones for marketing use cases. Their new Virtual Teammates can join meetings, complete tasks, support campaigns, and keep your website optimized. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive.
Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand gen agency helping high-growth cybersecurity and enterprise software companies show up earlier in the buying journey, combining AEO, modern paid advertising, and a dedicated go-to-market engineering team. Podcast listeners get two free media planning sessions to find out what channels are driving the best ROI. Learn more at compoundgrowthmarketing.com/exitfive.
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.
***

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

#400 | Lashay Lewis helps B2B SaaS companies create profit-driven content strategies. We talk about why a B2B content strategy should be built from the bottom of the funnel up, why she interviews sales teams to understand "life before using the product" and why she interviews customer success teams to understand "life after using the product" and how that influences content strategy, how writing influences buyers, the power of a strong company POV, training in-house writers and freelancers in a way that scales, where podcasting fits in a B2B content strategy, why search volume can be misleading, and thoughts on how content marketers can use AI.
Timestamps (00:00) - Why timeless marketing fundamentals still beat chasing new tactics

(03:45) - Why bottom-of-funnel content actually converts

(06:57) - Why search intent matters more than search volume

(13:06) - The customer research questions that make content convert

(15:14) - How to write content without interviewing experts every time

(24:36) - Feature mapping: turning product features into customer pain points

(31:55) - Companies that get bottom-of-funnel content right

(35:41) - Repurposing one converting article across every channel

(43:03) - Wrap-up and where to find Lashay

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:
Zoom Webinars & Events – The virtual event platform built to help B2B marketers run webinars that actually drive pipeline, with branded registration pages, live engagement features, and built-in tools to repurpose sessions into clips and content. Learn more at zoom.com/exitfive.
Convertiv - A B2B marketing agency that helps enterprise teams build an AI-powered go-to-market strategy, specializing in AEO. Podcast listeners get a free AI search review showing how you stack up against competitors. Learn more at convertiv.com/exitfive.
Optimizely - the AI platform for marketers. Build your own AI agents or pull from a directory of 50+ pre-built ones for marketing use cases. Their new Virtual Teammates can join meetings, complete tasks, support campaigns, and keep your website optimized. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive.
Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand gen agency helping high-growth cybersecurity and enterprise software companies show up earlier in the buying journey, combining AEO, modern paid advertising, and a dedicated go-to-market engineering team. Podcast listeners get two free media planning sessions to find out what channels are driving the best ROI. Learn more at compoundgrowthmarketing.com/exitfive.
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.
***

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

#399 | Dave sits down with R. Ethan Braden, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Texas A&M University, to talk about big brand swings he took with NASCAR, Fast Company and SXSW to insert the university into the national conversation and change the perception of a 150-year-old brand. Ethan explains why Texas A&M University's challenge is reputation and how he got the whole campus telling the same story. Ethan also covers why he holds marketing to the same rigor as finance and engineering, and why his strategy involved going where other universities aren't. Ethan covers how he turned 4,300 faculty into media experts with earned media PR. They also get into repeating one message, and why great marketers can work in any industry when they focus on the craft, not the category.
Timestamps (00:00) - Why a higher-ed CMO is on a B2B marketing podcast

(03:02) - The real challenge: brand perception

(08:18) - Building a brand that gets noticed

(11:46) - Why Ethan thinks you should pick a lane and repeat one message

(16:02) - Holding marketing to the same rigor as finance and engineering

(18:43) - NASCAR and IndyCar sponsorships

(25:48) - SXSW with Fast Company and brand partnerships

(31:39) - Building an earned media engine with 4,300 faculty experts

(34:43) - Marketing challenges: talent and trust in higher ed

(40:02) - Why great marketers can work in any industry

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:
Zoom Webinars & Events – The virtual event platform built to help B2B marketers run webinars that actually drive pipeline, with branded registration pages, live engagement features, and built-in tools to repurpose sessions into clips and content. Learn more at zoom.com/exitfive.
Convertiv - A B2B marketing agency that helps enterprise teams build an AI-powered go-to-market strategy, specializing in AEO. Podcast listeners get a free AI search review showing how you stack up against competitors. Learn more at convertiv.com/exitfive.
Optimizely - the AI platform for marketers. Build your own AI agents or pull from a directory of 50+ pre-built ones for marketing use cases. Their new Virtual Teammates can join meetings, complete tasks, support campaigns, and keep your website optimized. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive.
Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand gen agency helping high-growth cybersecurity and enterprise software companies show up earlier in the buying journey, combining AEO, modern paid advertising, and a dedicated go-to-market engineering team. Podcast listeners get two free media planning sessions to find out what channels are driving the best ROI. Learn more at compoundgrowthmarketing.com/exitfive.
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.
***

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

OK maybe it's not so secret, but it makes for a more clickable headline. 
We're doing an Exit Five Meetup in NYC October 15 and we'd love to have you. Tickets here: https://exitfive.com/nyc/

#398 | Dasha chats with Ross Simmonds, founder of Foundation Marketing and Distribution.ai, live at Drive. They talk about why most marketing content fails: it gets created once and then left to collect dust. Ross breaks down his full distribution playbook for a single blog post - from social and email to Reddit, shorts, carousels, and reposting on a schedule. Then, Ross shares the receipts: 10X traffic and a three-year-old asset that now gets cited in AI answers and still generates leads. He explains his rule to create ridiculously good content once and distribute it forever, the four E's that separate great content from slop, and the two blog posts that changed his career. Plus, how to hire people that runs without you, why spamming Reddit with self-promotion is ineffective, and Ross’s bet on in-person events in 2027.
Show notes:
14 books to get a job in advertising: https://rosssimmonds.com/blog/20-books-read-job-advertising/ 

Timestamps: (00:00) - Recording Live at Drive

(02:36) - Why Most Great Content Just Collects Dust

(03:43) - How AI Made Distribution Noisier and Cheaper

(04:56) - Distributing One Blog Post Across Every Channel to Maximize Reach

(06:55) - 10X Traffic and Playing the Long Game with Content

(09:19) - The Four E's of Great Content

(11:01) - The Blog Posts That Changed His Career

(14:30) - His Biggest Win: A Team That Runs Without Him

(17:30) - Reddit Done Right: White-Hat, Not Spam

(18:58) - His Bet for 2027: In-Person Events Come Back

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:
Zoom Webinars & Events – The virtual event platform built to help B2B marketers run webinars that actually drive pipeline, with branded registration pages, live engagement features, and built-in tools to repurpose sessions into clips and content. Learn more at zoom.com/exitfive.
Convertiv - A B2B marketing agency that helps enterprise teams build an AI-powered go-to-market strategy, specializing in AEO. Podcast listeners get a free AI search review showing how you stack up against competitors. Learn more at convertiv.com/exitfive.
Optimizely - the AI platform for marketers. Build your own AI agents or pull from a directory of 50+ pre-built ones for marketing use cases. Their new Virtual Teammates can join meetings, complete tasks, support campaigns, and keep your website optimized. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive.
Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand gen agency helping high-growth cybersecurity and enterprise software companies show up earlier in the buying journey, combining AEO, modern paid advertising, and a dedicated go-to-market engineering team. Podcast listeners get two free media planning sessions to find out what channels are driving the best ROI. Learn more at compoundgrowthmarketing.com/exitfive.
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.
***

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