CMO Jillian Als: Rebranding in the age of AI

CMO Jillian Als: Rebranding in the age of AI

Jillian Als is the CMO at Leadfeeder, the website visitor identification platform that recently consolidated its brand away from Dealfront. She joins the show to walk through what it actually takes to pull off a rebrand in a single quarter, why purpose work matters more than colours and fonts, and how she's rethinking paid search, AI's role in marketing, and what marketers should own in a world where every channel feels noisier. Along the way she shares hard-won lessons from a startup bankruptcy, why she banned AI from her team's early narrative work, and where she thinks human judgment still beats the machines. Tune in to this episode as we explore: * (03:05) Inside a startup bankruptcy and the early warning signs Jillian missed * (09:07) Why Leadfeeder dropped the Dealfront name and rebranded in a single quarter * (14:39) Defining mission, purpose, and vision from the outside as a new CMO * (18:31) Getting brand narrative to seep through the organisation * (20:30) Why she banned AI from the early narrative work * (23:10) The manual / AI-assist / fully agentic spectrum for marketing tasks * (25:36) Advice for marketers feeling pressure from above to deliver AI's promises * (26:57) Building the new website for LLMs and an MCP server in the works * (32:03) Paid search scepticism and why "be everywhere" prevents compounding * (39:10) Retention as a team sport and marketing's role beyond closed-won * (40:39) Quickfire: AI for slides, problem-solving as a career skill, and a PR-shaped big bet Links: * Jillian Als on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillianals/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillianals/]  * Leadfeeder: https://www.leadfeeder.com/ [https://www.leadfeeder.com/] * Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/462487/unreasonable-hospitality-by-guidara-will/9781529146837 [https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/462487/unreasonable-hospitality-by-guidara-will/9781529146837]

Justyna Dzikowska: Building Brands in the AI Era

Justyna Dzikowska is the Head of Marketing at Brand24, the social listening and media monitoring tool helping companies measure their online presence. She joins the show to share what 10+ years in SaaS marketing has taught her about building brand visibility in the AI era. From working in traditional PR to why most companies are measuring LLM visibility wrong, Justyna offers a practical view on content pruning, video in B2B, and why narrowing your strategy is harder than ever when every channel feels like a priority. Tune in to this episode as we explore: * (02:10) Why traditional PR is suddenly relevant again for AI search visibility * (04:59) The problem with measuring brand visibility through LLMs alone * (08:50) The biggest misconception marketers have about analytics and data collection * (11:25) Why studying competitors matters more than obsessing over your own brand * (13:15) Why prioritisation, not ideas, is the real bottleneck in modern marketing * (18:35) The rise of video content and humanised brand communication in B2B * (23:27) Where AI-generated video belongs and where it absolutely doesn't * (28:55) The "curse of the AEO case study": what happens when AI content backfires * (30:43) How content pruning helped Brand24 after a Google update * (33:45) Quickfire: ZenABM, the "Still No CMO" YouTube channel idea, and a LinkedIn recommendation Links: * Justyna Dzikowska on LinkedIn Brand24: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justyna-dzikowska-content-marketing-digital-pr/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/justyna-dzikowska-content-marketing-digital-pr/]  * Brand24: https://brand24.com/ [https://brand24.com/]  * Tom Rudnai on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-rudnai-0539b6151/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-rudnai-0539b6151/]  * ZenABM: https://zenabm.com/ [https://zenabm.com/]  * Emilia Korczyńska on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emiliakorczynska/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/emiliakorczynska/]  * Product Rantz: https://pages.userpilot.com/product-rantz/ [https://pages.userpilot.com/product-rantz/]

Brand Marketing Expert: How to make B2B brands stand out

Chelsea Castle is a content and brand marketing leader who most recently led content and brand at Close, the small business CRM. She joins the show to share what she's learned from building and inheriting content programs at startups including Chili Piper, Lavender, and Emma/Campaign Monitor, and why marketing is closer to renovating a house than following a playbook. Chelsea opens up on building memory structures through repetition, finding spiky points of view that compound over time, and why protecting human judgment matters more than ever in an AI-driven landscape. Tune in to this episode as we explore: * (00:54) Chelsea's path from journalism and agency life into content marketing in tech * (02:32) Balancing strategy and tactics: what working at Lavender taught her * (06:57) The differences between reviving a brand, scaling one, and building from scratch * (13:30) Why marketers should still absorb context the old-school way before reaching for AI * (20:35) Brands as memory structures and why everything in content compounds * (24:51) Red threads and brand associations at Chili Piper, Notion, Asana, and Vector * (30:31) Getting company-wide buy-in for brand, and why it has to start at the top * (35:38) What makes a spiky point of view different from a hot take or rage bait * (42:42) Staying consistent with your message without sounding like a broken record * (47:30) Quickfire: connecting MCP to a CRM for content IP, and a skydiving road show Links: * Chelsea Castle's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseacastle/  [https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseacastle/%20] * Close [https://close.com/%20] * Lavender [https://www.lavender.ai/%20] * Chili Piper [https://www.chilipiper.com/%20] * Peep Laja (Wynter) [https://wynter.com/author/peep-laja%20] * Jess Cook (Vector) LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jesscook-contentmarketing/%20] * Dave Gerhardt (Exit Five) [https://www.linkedin.com/in/davegerhardt/] * Andy Raskin [https://andyraskin.com/%20] * Chris Walker [https://www.refinelabs.com/chris-walker%20] * Adam Robinson (RB2B) [https://www.linkedin.com/in/retentionadam/]

Minisode - Compliance Content & AI Search

Sarah Cameron, Head of Content & PR at ComplyAdvantage, cuts through the AEO hype to share what's actually moving the needle - and what your exec team is probably already asking you about. From vendor comparison content to tracking AI citations, she brings the receipts on a strategy that's delivering higher demo conversion rates than organic search. Tune into this episode, as we explore: * (00:03) AEO vs. SEO  * (03:04) The vendor comparison bet that paid off big (and why they almost didn't take it) * (04:41) How to build your first prompt tracking list when you're starting from scratch * (05:50) Why AI search converts better than organic - and what that tells you about buyer intent * (07:02) Keeping your exec team and board informed on AI search without losing your mind Listen to the full episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1mVJj6o7TokSHljPFlpZU0 [https://open.spotify.com/episode/1mVJj6o7TokSHljPFlpZU0]

Growth lessons from Darren Chait (beehiiv CMO /ex-Calendly)

Darren Chait is the CMO at beehiiv and ex-Head of Growth at Calendly. He joins the show to share how an Australian corporate lawyer ended up co-founding Hugo, leading growth at Calendly, and now shaping the playbook at one of the fastest-growing creator platforms. Along the way, he explains why the best CMOs think like CFOs, how the role of a marketer has shifted in 2026, and what actually makes a newsletter worth subscribing to. Tune in to this episode as we explore: * (00:34) The beehiiv philosophy: why creators should own their audience, not rent it * (06:35) From corporate lawyer in Australia to co-founding Hugo and joining Calendly * (08:26) What four years at Calendly taught Darren about growth at real volume * (11:23) Why there's no traditional marketer archetype left in 2026 * (15:41) The best CMOs are actually CFOs: understanding every lever in your business * (19:33) A three-step playbook for the first weeks in a new marketing leadership role * (22:12) Calendly vs beehiiv: incremental experiments vs big swings * (28:35) How AI changes the job of a marketer without replacing judgment * (34:25) What makes a newsletter genuinely work: trust, consistency, and multi-channel reach * (45:53) Newsletter vs email marketing: the two-way relationship that changes everything * (49:28) Darren's dream campaign: dominating cities with out-of-home advertising * (53:17) Final recommendation: Growth Daily by Marketing Max Links: * Darren Chait's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenchait/  [https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenchait/] * beehiiv: https://www.beehiiv.com/  [https://www.beehiiv.com/] * Calendly: https://calendly.com/  [https://calendly.com/] * Kyle Poyar: https://www.growthunhinged.com/  [https://www.growthunhinged.com/] * Growth Daily by Marketing Max: https://www.marketingmax.com/ [https://www.marketingmax.com/]