551. From Creator to Tastemaker with Benjamin Groff

A song doesn't exist in physical form. So what actually is it? That's a question my guest this episode, music publisher Benjamin Groff, once got asked point-blank by a tech CEO — and it changed how he thinks about his entire industry. Benjamin built Kobalt's first U.S. office from the ground up, has signed artists like Ryan Tedder, Tiësto, and Kid Cudi, and now runs his own boutique publishing company, Brill Building, which just landed its first Billboard Hot 100 #1 with Beyoncé's "Break My Soul." In this episode, we get into: ➡️ How Benjamin finds emerging artists years before anyone else notices them ➡️ Why data and virality metrics can't replace real taste and curation ➡️ What 100+ years of "new technology is going to ruin everything" panics — player pianos, drum machines, Napster, now AI — actually teach us ➡️ Why 85% of success comes down to identity and mindset, not raw skill ➡️ The Tony Robbins framework for why "good" work barely gets you anywhere anymore If you've ever wondered whether AI is coming for your creative career, this conversation will change how you think about it. 🎧 Listen now  🔗 Learn more about Benjamin's coaching at benjamingroff.com/coaching

"You're not going to be replaced by an AI; you're going to be replaced by someone using AI." But there's a layer above that too: what happens when AI is using AI? In this episode of Marketing Speak, I welcomed back serial entrepreneur David Henzel, of MaxCDN, LTVPlus, and now Context Engine, to talk about what it actually looks like to run an "AI-first" company from the inside. This isn't a theory. David's businesses have already cut ten-person QA teams down to two doing a better job, and he walks through exactly how. What we got into: ➡️ Why middle management may be the first real casualty of the AI shift ➡️ How to build a "company brain" that keeps every decision, call, and conversation in one place ➡️ Why David refuses to rely on just one AI vendor, and what that protects you from ➡️ What it really means to go "AI-first" instead of just "AI-enabled" ➡️ How documenting your business could make it more valuable if you ever sell it ➡️ David's free offer: a Context Engine workshop and a year's license for three lucky listeners If you've been wondering how to actually operationalize AI in your business instead of just using it as a faster search bar, this conversation will give you a real blueprint. The show notes, including the transcript and checklist to this episode, are at marketingspeak.com/550.

Sustainable growth doesn't come from chasing attention. It comes from becoming something people can't help but talk about. My guest on today's show is Scott Martin, founder of Groundswell Origins and author of Groundswell: The Unseen Wave of Business Growth. He has spent over twenty-five years building brands as an agency owner and strategist for national companies. He now hosts the Groundswell Origins podcast, where he digs into how businesses create growth that feeds itself. In our conversation, we explore what it takes to build a brand people remark on rather than one they simply scroll past. Scott shares his shift away from selling customers and toward giving them something worth sharing. He explains why meaning matters more than attention when it comes to earning trust, and why founders often already know their best direction if they learn to trust their gut instead of copying competitors. Scott also breaks down his idea of brand coherence: the belief that a brand only builds real trust when its culture and its message actually line up. Word of mouth remains one of the most durable ways to grow. When you learn to build meaning instead of chasing more eyeballs, you create something people want to pass along themselves. So without any further ado, on with the show!  The show notes, including the transcript and checklist to this episode, are at marketingspeak.com/549

The things that used to work just stopped working. If that sounds familiar, you are not alone. In this episode of Marketing Speak, I sat down with Nick Musica, a longtime SEO veteran turned executive coach, to talk about what happens when the habits and go-to moves that built your career suddenly lose their power in the AI era. What we got into: ➡️ Why the patterns that got you here will not get you where you want to go next ➡️ The real difference between giving yourself a job and building a company ➡️ Why dabbling in self-employment is a trap, and what to do instead ➡️ How adaptation, not any single hard skill, is your best protection against disruption ➡️ Why AI may not make us more intelligent, and how to keep your humanity intact ➡️ The soft skills, resonance, and intuition that become more valuable as the tools level the playing field If you are feeling stuck between what worked before and what comes next, this conversation is for you. The show notes, including the transcript and checklist to this episode, are at marketingspeak.com/548.  

AI is reshaping podcasting faster than most creators can keep up with, and not all of it is good news. In this episode of Marketing Speak, I welcomed back Rob Walch, longtime podcasting veteran and now part of the team at Captivate, to talk through what AI actually means for creators, what still matters after fifteen years of change, and whether it is too late to start a show at all. What we got into: ➡️ The difference between AI tools that genuinely help you and the flood of AI slop dragging CPMs down for everyone ➡️ Why disclosure is now a legal and ethical must when you use AI voices or scripts ➡️ How to read your Apple Podcasts Connect data and rearrange episodes around what listeners actually consume ➡️ Why audio-first is still the smartest starting point, and what you really need to compete ➡️ How the strongest podcasters use their show to build authority and win clients rather than chase ad dollars ➡️ Why word of mouth still favors human-made content in an AI world If you have ever wondered where podcasting is headed, this conversation will help you plan your next move. The show notes, including the transcript and checklist to this episode, are at marketingspeak.com/547

Why do so many great companies get bought, then deliberately ruined in the name of profit? That mystery is what drove Eric Ries, author of the mega-bestseller The Lean Startup, to write his new book, Incorruptible. Eric has spent 15 years helping founders build companies, and he has watched the best of the industry alongside its dark side: beloved brands acquired and gutted, founders pushed out of companies that still bear their names. In this episode, he unpacks why it keeps happening, and what a rare set of enduring companies do differently. In this Marketing Speak episode, Eric breaks down: ✅ Why learning, not technology, is still the real rate-limiting step in the AI era ✅ Why you can't outsource the hard cognitive work, no matter how good the tools get ✅ The two traits that Costco, Patagonia, Vanguard, and Rolex share despite having nothing else in common ✅ Ethos and integrity: how to give your mission a guardian that outlasts shareholder pressure ✅ Why it's always too early to protect your company's mission, until suddenly it's too late Whether you're starting something new or trying to keep what you've built from being hollowed out, Eric's blueprint for an incorruptible company is worth your time. Tune in! The show notes, including the transcript and checklist to this episode, are at marketingspeak.com/546  

Your LinkedIn inbox is full of spam. So is everyone else's. And the old outreach playbook is the reason why. Jason Osborn has spent eight years helping companies generate leads on LinkedIn, and he noticed something: the more people leaned on automation and pitch-first messaging, the worse their results got. So he flipped the entire model. In this episode of Marketing Speak, Jason walks through the LinkedIn Reverse Podcast Method — a strategy that uses a podcast not for thought leadership, but to interview your ideal prospects, build genuine relationships, and convert conversations into clients without ever making a pitch. What we unpacked together: ➡️ Why the LinkedIn Reverse Podcast Method works when everything else feels spammy ➡️How the coffeehouse analogy explains the entire relationship-first sales process ➡️The live intro and outro technique that seeds your offer without a hard pitch ➡️Why content on LinkedIn is secondary — and direct outreach always comes first ➡️The one thing that separates people who succeed from those who keep jumping to the next shiny object: consistency If your LinkedIn outreach is not working, or you have been thinking about starting a podcast as a lead generation tool, this episode will give you a completely different way to think about both. 🎧 Listen now!  

AI is forming judgments about your brand right now. Most organizations have no system to manage it. Every earnings call you publish, every case study your vendor posts, every complaint about your return process, AI is reading all of it and building a case for or against recommending your brand to buyers. And the most damaging narratives are often ones brands unknowingly wrote themselves. In this episode of Marketing Speak, I sat down with Jessica Bowman, enterprise AI visibility strategist and founder of Coxwell & Gain, who has spent her career pioneering the operational side of AI visibility for Fortune 500 brands. This is not a conversation about keywords or rankings. It is about whether AI will recommend your brand at all. What we unpacked together: ➡️ Why AI visibility is not a marketing function, it is an operational one ➡️ How earnings calls and vendor case studies can become liabilities in AI narratives ➡️ What a real AI visibility audit looks like and which teams need to be involved ➡️ Why changes to AI narratives take 18 to 24 months, and why you need to start now ➡️ The real cost of AI visibility tools, and why they run two to three times the price of SEO tools If you have ever wondered whether AI is working for or against your brand, this episode will sharpen how you think about it. 🎧 Listen now

Most marketers are obsessed with reach. Jay Acunzo thinks that's the wrong game entirely. In this episode of Marketing Speak, I sat down with Jay Acunzo,  keynote speaker, author of Break the Wheel, and host of How Stories Happen,  who built a thriving speaking business from scratch, lost it all in five days when the pandemic hit, and came back with a sharper mission: helping experts stop being commodities and start being irreplaceable. Jay shares: Why resonance beats reach every time, and how to build a business where clients come because they want you, not just someone who looks like you The 'That's the thing about' device, a single phrase that turns a good story into one that actually inspires action Align, Agitate, Assert, Invite,  the four-part story structure that moves your audience from where they are to where you want them to be Why your competitive edge will never come from a $20/month AI subscription, and what to do instead The two things every great interviewer must master to capture real, specific, powerful stories from guests If you have something genuinely worth saying and want to say it in a way that actually lands, this episode is your blueprint. Listen now!  

Stop pitching from the stage. Start storytelling. Majeed Mogharreban shares how he engineers speeches so audiences imagine working with him—and hate imagining a future without him. Watch this @mktg_speak episode