Remarkable Content with Ian Faison

Missing wagyu. A Michelin inspector who might be in the dining room. An ingredient that runs out with one service left to go. And somehow, the plate still makes it to the front of the house. That’s The Bear.The kitchen in The Bear runs on chaos, but it also runs on structure. There’s a hierarchy, an operating model, and a team that has to keep solving problems in real time. And in this episode, we dig into what that means for B2B marketers with our special guest Catherine Solazzo, CMO at Appfire.Together, we explore how to pivot when things go sideways, why customers shouldn’t need a decoder ring to understand what you do, and why Catherine’s Michelin star has nothing to do with marketing awards.About our guest, Catherine SolazzoCatherine Solazzo is Chief Marketing Officer at Appfire, where she leads a “CMO+” organization spanning product marketing, demand generation, technical documentation, enterprise platforms, partner programs, and field marketing. She brings more than 20 years of global experience leading modern marketing functions, digital transformation, and channel development at high-growth technology companies. Before joining Appfire, Catherine held leadership roles at Syntax, Tech Data/TD SYNNEX, and IBM.About AppfireAppfire is a leading global provider of enterprise apps that enhance and connect platforms like Atlassian, Microsoft, monday.com, and Salesforce. As a top Atlassian Marketplace partner, Appfire helps teams get more out of tools like Jira and Confluence with apps for workflow, automation, and more.What B2B Marketers Can Learn From The Bear:Define your Michelin star before you chase it. In The Bear, the Michelin star is always there in the background, but the team is really chasing overall excellence. Catherine says marketing teams need to decide what their own star is, and for her, it isn’t a trophy. “My Michelin star is did I support our EBITDA targets, and am I contributing to the revenue of the company? That’s my Michelin star.” Awards are great, but only when they line up with what your audience actually cares about.Service doesn’t stop - so build an operating model that can flex. In the kitchen, there’s always another service tomorrow. Catherine sees the same rhythm in marketing: what you do with yesterday’s lessons makes today better or worse. When the team in Season 5 runs short on an ingredient during a crucial service, they figure it out on the spot. “Something comes in at us we didn’t expect. You have to pivot, think differently, and still send that plate out to the front of the house.” A strong operating model gives teams structure, plus enough room to adjust.Speak your customer’s language, not your own. The Bear teaches you restaurant vocabulary without ever feeling like a lesson. Tech, on the other hand, is famous for acronyms and jargon. Catherine is pushing her team to cut the vague language from Appfire’s content and product names. “They shouldn’t have to have a decoder ring in order to go through our website and understand what we do.” If your buyers have to decipher what you do, you’ve already lost them.Quote“I would much rather have my team be known for delivering 30% of the revenue for the company than winning an award in Cannes. That’s personally where I would feel that we are accomplished.” - Catherine SolazzoTime Stamps[1:45] Meet Catherine Solazzo, CMO at Appfire[2:15] Why The Bear? The Creative Brain vs. the Operational Brain[3:22] What It Means to Be a CMO+[5:12] What Is The Bear? Grief, Chaos, and Real Kitchen Service[7:50] Service Doesn't Stop: Lessons From Season 5[11:23] Let Them Cook: FX, Showrunners, and Protecting Your Teams[14:08] Launch, Relaunch, Relaunch[15:37] Front of House, Back of House: Breaking Down Silos[17:27] Insider Language and the Decoder Ring Problem[22:02] Show the Warts and All[25:55] What's Your Michelin Star?[33:51] Coming Back to Your Core Competency[36:40] Content Strategy in the Age of AI[39:14] Final Thoughts and TakeawaysLinksConnect with Catherine on LinkedInLearn more about AppfireAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com.In today’s episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK.Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Apollo 13 never made it to the moon. It also brought all of humanity together, set a record for the farthest distance from Earth, and produced some of the greatest problem-solving under pressure the world has ever seen.Eric Hanson, CMO at Mitel, joins us to dig into what B2B marketers can steal from the Apollo 13 playbook - and the 2024 documentary that reframed the story entirely. We cover why the clearest mission you can give your team is your most powerful tool, how to break down silos between marketing, sales, and product, why starting with the business need beats starting with the technology every time, and how going contrary to the mainstream is still the fastest path to getting your market's attention.About our guest, Eric HansonEric Hanson is CMO at Mitel, a communications platform helping organizations enable high-value and critical use cases across a hybrid and on-premises world. He is not a typical CMO: he started his career as an inside seller, moved into enterprise sales, co-founded a visual effects studio in San Francisco that worked on major motion pictures and global brand campaigns - including the design bible for Avatar's future interface - before finding his way into B2B marketing leadership. He has held senior roles at companies including DocuSign and brings a rare mix of creative, commercial, and strategic instincts to every team he leads.What B2B Marketers Can Learn From Apollo 13When the mission is clear, the impossible becomes possible. Eric's central argument is that the best B2B marketing isn't really about marketing at all - it's about creating the conditions where people come together around a common cause and do things nobody thought possible. He connects it directly to Apollo 13: "It brought all of humanity together, even for a brief moment. And so often with the way you think about what happens in the workplace, so much of it is about whether you can create that sense of a common cause, that common mission. Because the highest performing organizations, it's when you have that shared vision, that clarity of your mission, that people really come together and the impossible kind of becomes possible." His practical version of this is what he calls the triple threat: treating marketing, sales, and product not as separate functions with a waterfall handoff, but as a single coordinated strategy. When the foxhole includes everyone, you move faster, you adapt better, and you find things nobody would have found alone.Start with the business need, not the technology. Eric has a sharp way of describing the most common mistake in B2B selling: show up and throw up. Lead with the technology, the architecture, the speeds and feeds - and lose the room before you ever got it. His counterpoint is a story about a sales engineer calling on a CIO for an F1 team. The engineer launched straight into the tech, and the CIO cut him off: "If you can tell me how to make the car go faster, I'm all ears." Eric's version of this in practice is to start with the market dynamics, the specific pressures facing your ideal customer - whether it's a hospital struggling with patient flow or a multinational navigating digital sovereignty - and then work backwards to the technology. "The market can't always connect the dots on what the art of the possible is," he says. "That's our job." The faster horses problem is a marketing problem as much as it's a product problem.Tell an old story in a new, more human way. Ian's biggest takeaway from the Apollo 13 documentary is the audacity of director Peter Middleton, who looked at one of the most famous stories in American history - already immortalized in an acclaimed Tom Hanks film - and decided to tell it again. Differently. Without talking-head interviews, leaning entirely into archival footage, centering the human stakes over the mission mechanics. The result is a documentary that feels immediate rather than retrospective, and that lands differently than the movie despite telling the same events. Ian's takeaway for B2B marketers: "Every story that you think has been told can be retold in a different way." Eric adds the business version of this: the fastest path to getting your market's attention is to go contrary to the mainstream. For Mitel, that meant spending two years pushing the concept of digital sovereignty when everyone else was selling cloud. "I wouldn't say we planted it," Eric says. "But we anticipated it. And now the market is saying: yeah, you're right."Make it work with what you have - then adapt. The most memorable problem-solving moment in Apollo 13 isn't the drama of the oxygen tank explosion. It's the engineers in Houston dumping a pile of plastic bags, duct tape, and mismatched filters on a table and being told to build an air scrubber before the crew runs out of oxygen. No extra supplies. No time to order parts. Just: here's what you have, figure it out. Eric connects this directly to the George Lucas documentary series Light and Magic - where ILM built motion-control cameras from scratch because they didn't exist yet, pulling in motorcycle mechanics and stop-motion photographers to solve a problem nobody had solved before. And then he connects both to B2B marketing: "You read and react to what's happening in the market, and you try to optimize for that. Whether you're talking about your website performance and the emergence of AEO and how SEO dropped off a cliff overnight - you don't sit there and admire the problem. You go figure out a creative way to work around it." The crew of Apollo 13 didn't get home because they had perfect conditions. They got home because they broke the problem into the next three steps, solved those, and then took on the next three."The highest performing organizations - it's when you have that shared vision, that clarity of your mission, that people really come together and the impossible kind of becomes possible. I think about that every day. How can I create that type of environment that actually breaks down silos and makes people think about not how they've always done things - but how do we solve this problem that seems insurmountable?"- Eric HansonTime Stamps[1:38] Meet Eric Hanson, CMO at Mitel[1:55] Why Apollo 13?[3:09] About Mitel and Eric's Eclectic Path to CMO[4:23] Meredith Explains the Documentary: Apollo 13: Survival[6:58] What the Documentary Gets Right That the Movie Couldn't[7:54] Was Apollo 13 a Failure? Redefining What Success Looks Like[8:39] When the Mission Is Clear, the Impossible Becomes Possible[9:20] Break It Into Bite-Sized Pieces - Focus on the Next Three Steps[10:12] The World Cup, Pochettino, and Why You Have to Dream Big to Get Close[26:28] Great Innovation Happens When a Compelling Event Forces New Thinking[13:01] Steve Kerr, the Golden State Warriors, and the Whole Being Greater Than Its Parts[14:22] If You're Not Failing, You're Not Trying - Bob Iger and Ride of a Lifetime[15:21] Light and Magic: Make It Work With What You Have[24:59] B2B Lesson #1: Tell an Old Story in a New, More Human Way[18:57] B2B Lesson #2: The Triple Threat - Marketing, Sales, and Product as One Strategy[20:07] Start With the Business Need, Not the Technology[20:53] Digital Sovereignty: Going Contrary to the Cloud-First Mainstream[23:07] Content Strategy: Connect the Dots for Your Audience[24:03] The F1 CIO Story: "If You Can Tell Me How to Make the Car Go Faster, I'm All Ears"[29:06] From Visual Effects to CMO: How Eric's Background Shaped His Marketing[32:38] Marketing as Persuasive Journalism - Make an Argument and Cause a Reaction[36:38] AI as a Calculator: Enabling Sellers to Move Faster and Think Bigger[40:27] Final Thoughts - It's Not the Strongest Who Survive, It's the Ones That AdaptLinksConnect with Eric on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericshanson/Learn more about Mitel: https://www.mitel.comWatch Apollo 13: Survival: https://www.netflix.comAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com.In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, edited by Jon Goldberg, and our theme song is "Solomon" by FALAK.Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Three episodes in, you will be willing to die for Ser Duncan the Tall and Egg. No backstory required. No sprawling lore to decode. Just a knight who may not even be a knight, a boy who follows him anyway, and storytelling so elemental it hits like a gut punch. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms works because it does what most B2B content refuses to do: it puts the human at the center, leaves you wanting more, and trusts the oldest storytelling mechanics in the world. In this episode, we dig into what that means for marketers with our special guest Tara Corey, SVP of Marketing at Optimizely. Together, we unpack why the best content finds the friction point in a story rather than avoiding it, why you should be the biographer and not the subject, and what Optimizely's upcoming rebrand taught Tara about bravery and standing out from the B2B sea of sameness. About our guest, Tara Corey Tara Corey is SVP of Marketing at Optimizely, where she leads brand, content, and the company's upcoming rebrand. With over 20 years in marketing, she's known for building editorial-driven content strategies, championing authentic human storytelling, and running toward the hard moments — in her career and her content. She's a passionate believer in community, mentorship, and the idea that bravery isn't optional. What B2B Marketers Can Learn From A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: Put the human at the heart of the story — then leave them wanting more. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms doesn't try to tell you everything at once. It earns your investment in two characters and then trusts that investment to carry you through. Tara connects this directly to how B2B content fails: "Creating content has never been easier than it is right now with AI. But creating quality content that truly has that art of storytelling and a truly human-connected story — I think that's harder and harder to stand out and do well." Fewer things, done better, is the whole strategy. Be the biographer, not the subject. Most origin stories are boring because the subject tells them. The interesting version requires someone who knows which parts actually matter. Ian's challenge for B2B marketers: "Volunteer to be the biographer. Don't let someone else tell their own story. Tell their story in a way that you think is interesting." That means getting in person, asking the follow-up questions people skip, and hunting for the moment of friction — the "no kidding, there I was" — where everything shifted. Find the elemental story hiding in your B2B content. Betrayal. Honor. Trust broken and rebuilt. These mechanics work because they've always worked. Ian ties them directly to the world every marketer lives in: "How many of us have been there when it's like, 'You said you were gonna promote me. You said you were gonna do this. Why did you never do it?' — that's so elemental. And yet we just don't put it in B2B marketing, even though it's all around us." The richest stories aren't in the product. They're in the people. Quote"Bravery isn't optional. There's fear, there's excitement — but we've got to be brave, try not to be afraid, and be excited about what's possible. And also try to balance that with the simplicity of a great story and that human connection." — Tara Corey Time Stamps [1:22] Meet Tara Corey, SVP of Marketing at Optimizely [1:40] Why A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms? [3:02] What Is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms? A Brief History [7:20] What Makes It Work: Heart, Humor, and Unexpected Turns [10:47] Marketing Takeaways: Put the Human at the Heart of the Story [12:01] Leave Them Wanting More [13:51] Simple Storytelling Mechanics That Always Work [19:09] Be the Biographer, Not the Subject [21:03] How to Train a Team to Capture Better Stories [24:54] Find the Friction: Where Great Stories Actually Live [31:44] Critique vs. Tearing Down — And Why It Matters for Marketers [37:06] Bravery Isn't Optional: Optimizely's Content Strategy and Rebrand [38:30] Final Thoughts and Takeaways LinksConnect with Tara on LinkedInLearn more about Optimizely About Remarkable! Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering — The Business Thriller — Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is "Solomon" by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A two-hour wait in the summer heat. Overpriced churros. A parking lot that takes 45 minutes to escape. And yet - you remember every single ride, every firework, every detail. That's not an accident. That's Disneyland. Disney doesn't create magic through one big moment. They create it through thousands of tiny, intentional details working together. And in this episode, we dig into what that means for B2B marketers with our special guest Kris Lande, CMO at OutSystems. Together, we explore how to design end-to-end customer experiences that people actually remember, why the last impression is the lasting impression, and how to build community into your content strategy in a way no AI-generated campaign can replicate. About our guest, Kris Lande Kris Lande is Chief Marketing Officer of OutSystems, where she leads global marketing strategy and brand growth. With more than two decades of experience driving marketing for high-growth SaaS companies, Kris brings deep expertise in product marketing, category creation, and community-led growth. Before joining OutSystems, Kris spent over 13 years at Salesforce, where she led teams across product marketing, developer relations, and Trailhead. Earlier in her career, she led marketing at Escapia, a SaaS startup later acquired by Expedia. Kris holds a degree in Business Administration and International Business from Washington State University. About OutSystems OutSystems is the Agentic Systems Platform for companies who need to build governed AI apps and agents, fast. Global brands like Heineken and Bosch trust OutSystems every day to build everything from mission-critical life-saving apps to  AI agents that can automate their oldest, clunkiest legacy processes. Essentially, OutSystems gives our customers comprehensive AI tools under one secure roof, turning IT into a fast-moving innovation engine. What B2B Marketers Can Learn From Disneyland: The last impression is the lasting impression. Disney doesn't just nail the opening - they engineer the ending. Kris applies this directly to her event strategy: at OutSystems ONE, their annual conference in Amsterdam, the closing session ended with a full spirit tunnel - staff lining the exit with music, dancing, and high fives. "I want them to walk away feeling gratitude and feeling celebrated and feeling energized as they walked out that door." In B2B, most experiences just... end. The brands that create magic are the ones that design the goodbye. Identify friction points - then design around them, not away from them. Disney doesn't eliminate the wait. They make the queue part of the experience. Kris takes the same approach to events: knowing that European attendees tend to arrive late, her team put a mobile DJ, a saxophone player, and stroopwafels outside the doors before the morning keynote. "We made it a party outside because we knew that was going to be a friction point." The lesson: don't pretend friction doesn't exist. Find it, name it, and design something remarkable around it. Everyone's in marketing - culture is how you deliver on the brand promise. Disney's magic doesn't live in one department. It lives in every cast member, every queue, every trash can placement. Kris ties this to a principle she carries into every team: "Brand is a promise to the customer, and culture is how you actually deliver on that promise." That culture comes through in the SDR call, the webinar, the email copy - everywhere. "I believe everyone's in marketing. As employees, we are representatives of the culture." Quote"When you care and you're passionate about the details, your customers are gonna feel that. They can feel when you care about something. They can feel when you brought fun into something. And if you care, they will care." - Kris Lande Time Stamps [1:35] Meet Kris Lande, CMO at OutSystems [2:08] Why Disneyland? A Non-Disney Adult Makes the Case [4:06] What Is Disneyland? A Brief History of Intentional Experience Design [9:21] The Details That Make the Magic - And What Marketers Can Learn [13:42] Evolving Without Losing What Makes You, You [18:40] The Last Impression Is the Lasting Impression [22:11] Designing Around Friction Points [24:07] Building for the 10th Version, Not Just the First [28:31] Disney's Weenies - And Why Marketers Need Them Too [40:14] Community as Content Strategy [42:38] Authenticity in the Age of AI [45:48] Top Tips for Better Events [48:10] Final Thoughts and Takeaways LinksConnect with Kris on LinkedInLearn more about OutSystems About Remarkable! Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is "Solomon" by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What if your 100 people could feel like 300? That's the bet Robin Daniels, Chief Business Officer at Zensai and author of The Human Success Playbook, is making - and it's working. His company doubled revenue over three years and has been named a great place to work three years running. He joins us to break down how to unlock the potential already sitting inside your organization, lead through genuine uncertainty, and build B2B content that people can actually put to work. About our guest, Robin Daniels Robin Daniels is Chief Business Officer at Zensai, a learning and performance platform competing in a market dominated by Oracle, SAP, and Workday. He previously served as CMO at Matterport and WeWork and held senior marketing roles at Salesforce, LinkedIn, and Box. He recently co-authored The Human Success Playbook - a narrative business book that follows a fictional CEO who refuses a board's demand to cut 40% of the company and sets out to prove there's a better way. The book comes with an AI-powered interface where readers can ask the authors questions and apply every framework directly to their own organization. What B2B Marketers Can Learn From The Human Success Playbook The biggest AI opportunity isn't efficiency - it's multiplication. Robin starts every conversation the same way: do you see AI as a way to cut costs and get more efficient, or do you see it as a way to unlock insane potential in the team you already have? He's made his choice - and built a company around it. Ian puts the math plainly: if you have 100 people, the far more exciting challenge is figuring out how to make them feel like 200 or 300 and generate the revenue to prove it. Robin connects it to something every leader already knows but rarely acts on: "I truly believe everyone has something they're really creatively good at. But if you can actually find time to focus on that, it can lead to new ways of growing your business that maybe you hadn't even thought of before." The companies that win the next five years won't be the ones who cut hardest. They'll be the ones who figured out how to multiply. You can't shrink your way to greatness. Robin credits Tom Peters for the line and means it completely. His argument isn't about shaming companies that make cuts - sometimes it's necessary to survive. The argument is about where the real upside lives: investing in people, giving them new tools and skills and goals, and then letting them find growth paths nobody had imagined yet. "I've never seen a company shrink their way to greatness," he says. "You have to grow." Ian adds the frame: the goal isn't to replace anything - it's to generate more revenue. "How are we going to 2X our revenue?" is a fundamentally more energizing question than "how do we get more efficient?" And it tends to produce more interesting answers. Lead with a vision even when you don't have all the answers. Robin is direct about what employees actually hate most: not bad news, not hard feedback, but uncertainty. "If you don't know what you're working towards, it's really hard to do great work." In The Human Success Playbook, the fictional CEO Evan has eight months to show a different path or get fired - and the whole tension of the story is whether he has the courage to set a direction without knowing exactly where it leads. Robin's advice for real leaders in that position: paint the vision, commit to it, and stay flexible enough to adjust as the world changes. And then, with characteristic directness: "Being a leader has always been tough. Suck it up, buttercup." The future of B2B content is a framework people can make their own. Robin didn't just write The Human Success Playbook - he and his co-authors built an AI-powered interface on top of it so readers can chat with the book and apply its frameworks to their specific company. A 500-person manufacturer in Germany gets different advice than a mid-size bank in the Midwest. Ian connects it to a bigger shift in how B2B content works: "You're building to say: here's the framework, your AI already knows where you want to go as a business, layer this on top and execute." The white paper people download and never read is being replaced by something that actually does the work. Robin is explicit about why: competing against Oracle, SAP, and Workday with a smaller budget means doing something genuinely different. The book is that thing. "I truly believe everyone has something they're really creatively good at. But if you can actually find time to focus on that, it can lead to new ways of growing your business that maybe you hadn't even thought of before." - Robin Daniels Time Stamps [4:00] Meet Robin Daniels, CBO at Zensai and Author of The Human Success Playbook [4:39] Why Robin Wrote the Book - and Why Now [6:00] The Multiplier Choice: Unlock Potential vs. Cut Costs [8:00] It's Just a New Technology - Adapt and Grow [10:00] Robin Has Seen This Before: Internet, Cloud, Mobile, AI [11:00] The Book's Setup: CEO Evan, a 40% Cut Demand, and a Better Way [12:00] The Villain Isn't AI - It's Ignorance and Fear [14:00] Internal vs. External Motivation - and Why Inner Fire Wins [15:00] The Mountain Analogy: What Leaders Owe Their Teams in Uncertain Times [17:00] How to Lead When You Don't Have the Answers [19:00] Suck It Up, Buttercup - Leadership Has Always Been Hard [22:00] Your Whole Job Is to Make Stuff and Sell It [25:00] What Taylor Swift and the Vinyl Revival Teach Us About AI and Creators [31:00] What Should the CEO Actually Do? Reorganize Around Projects, Not Hierarchy [33:00] Invest in People's Capabilities - Measure Productivity, Not Efficiency [35:00] The Human Success Score - a Sleep Score for Your Organization [38:00] Replace "Replace" With "Multiply" in Your Vocabulary [40:00] "You Can't Shrink Your Way to Greatness" - Tom Peters [42:00] The Courage to Invest in People When Everyone Else Is Cutting [44:00] The Future of Books: Build a Framework, Let AI Make It Specific [49:00] Demo: Chat With the Book at Zensai.com [51:00] The "Talk to a Human" Button - the Future of B2B Content [52:00] Final Thoughts + Connect with Robin on LinkedIn Links Connect with Robin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robindaniels/ Learn more about Zensai: https://www.zensai.com Chat with The Human Success Playbook: https://zensai.com/report/thehumansuccessplaybook The Human Success Playbook on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com About Remarkable! Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, edited by Jon Goldberg, and our theme song is "Solomon" by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The story was always there. It just took the right storytellers to find it. That's the central lesson of Formula 1: Drive to Survive, and it's the same one B2B marketers keep missing. Michael Londgren, CMO at Responsive, joins us to unpack why Drive to Survive is one of the best modern case studies in brand building, and what it teaches us about storytelling, category creation, and why the best product doesn't always win. Together, we dig into why optimizing for serendipity beats optimizing for control, why nobody actually cares about your product features, and why treating marketing as a favor to your team might be the most expensive executive mistake of all. About our guest, Michael Londgren Michael Londgren is CMO at Responsive, the category leader in strategic response management - helping companies win more business with faster, trusted responses to RFPs, security questionnaires, and due diligence requests. He joined the company when it was still known as RFPIO and helped lead its rebrand and category creation strategy. Before that, he held senior marketing roles at Docusign, Google and Seismic. He's also a committed McLaren fan and a reluctant F1 convert who has since gone fully down the rabbit hole. What B2B Marketers Can Learn From Formula 1: Drive to Survive The story was always there — your job is to find it. F1 racing existed for decades before Drive to Survive. The rivalries, the drama, the characters - none of it was invented. What changed was that someone decided to actually tell the story. Ian's point is direct: "In B2B, we do the same exact thing where we just make excuses for ourselves about how boring we are. It's not boring to the people whose life's work it is." Michael connects it to the 15,000 SaaS solutions all competing for a slot in a company's stack of roughly 30: "If you're a standard B2B marketer doing the standard B2B things in a sea of 15,000 competitors, you're not gonna win." The brands that break through aren't the ones with the best features - they're the ones who found a human story worth telling. Don't brief your way to authenticity. Go find the story. Optimize for serendipity, not control. When Drive to Survive's producers started filming, they didn't know what the show would look like. They didn't know if teams would open up. They didn't know what rivalries would emerge. Season 1 was imperfect, messy, and completely riveting. Ian draws the line to B2B: "What people do is they don't do that, because they want to optimize for control. Whereas optimizing for serendipity is a far better strategy." B2B marketing teams script every word, engineer every answer, and then wonder why nobody engages. Michael connects it to something he learned from Keith Krach, CEO of Docusign: "Luck is when opportunity meets preparation." The grind is still required — you just can't design the outcome. Sometimes the thing that makes the show is the character you didn't plan on finding. Nobody cares about your product. They care about value. Michael puts it plainly: "Let's be honest, nobody cares about the product. They don't." Drive to Survive runs eight seasons and barely covers how the cars actually work. The engineering matters enormously. But it's not the story. The story is the drivers, the rivalries, the decisions, and what it costs to win. Michael connects it directly to Responsive's rebrand from RFPIO: "RFPIO is very product focused. Responsive is a higher value, more interesting concept. Everyone wants to be responsive. That's an aspiration." The lesson for any B2B brand: lead with what the value unlocks, back it with customer voices, and let the product prove itself rather than trying to prove it upfront. Marketing is a strategic imperative, not a favor. Ian heard something on a recent shoot that stuck with him: a senior executive said, "Anything to help marketing." It sounds generous. It's actually the wrong frame entirely. "You're not helping marketing," Ian says. "You're doing the thing that is strategically imperative for our business." He identifies three people any audience most wants to hear from: the CEO (who sets the vision), customers (who validate the value), and anyone inside the organization who happens to be genuinely interesting. Michael adds the Responsive example - a team member who started small-group Coffee Chats with customers, grew them to hundreds of regulars, and became a mini-celebrity in their community: "Identifying who really resonates and putting investment behind that person. That's it." "The future of marketing is customer success — how customers are getting value — and bringing that to life authentically. Back to Drive to Survive: authentic human storytelling within the context of high-stakes racing. That combination is a winning combination." — Michael Londgren Time Stamps [1:33] Meet Michael Londgren, CMO at Responsive [2:25] Why Formula 1: Drive to Survive? [4:15] What Is Drive to Survive, and How Did It Change F1? [6:45] Were You an F1 Fan Before the Show? [8:19] Favorite Team and Driver: McLaren and Lando Norris [11:49] Start With the Easiest Path Into a Story [18:49] Marketing Lesson #1: Without Characters, Your Story Is Already Dead [19:15] Reframing "RFP Teams" as Strategic Response Management [22:00] Marketing Lesson #2: Optimize for Serendipity, Not Control [25:41] Luck Is When Opportunity Meets Preparation [38:19] Brand Story, Product Story, Customer Story — They're Not the Same [29:28] Marketing Lesson #3: Nobody Cares About Your Product [32:37] The Mistakes Drive to Survive Made in Season 1 [34:16] Stop Obsessing Over Launches - Build for the Long Haul [40:37] How to Win in a Sea of 15,000 SaaS Competitors [40:54] Win as a Team, Not Just the Driver [42:26] Marketing Lesson #4: Marketing Is a Strategic Imperative, Not a Favor [47:45] The Three People Your Audience Always Wants to Hear From [49:38] Finding Your Internal Stars: The Coffee Chats Story [50:43] Final Thoughts + Responsive.io Links Connect with Michael on LinkedIn Learn more about Responsive About Remarkable! Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, edited by Jon Goldberg, and our theme song is "Solomon" by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What if your most loyal customers were doing your marketing for you? Taylor Swift doesn’t just drop albums — she hides cryptic clues in her nail polish, her jewelry, her lyrics, her social posts, her tour staging. And the fans who find them? They tell everyone. Phyllis Rothschild, CMO of Pete & Gerry’s Organics, joins us to unpack what B2B marketers can learn from Taylor Swift’s Easter egg playbook — and what it has to do with selling eggs. Together, we dig into why superfans are worth more than mass reach, how to simplify a hopelessly confusing category, and why the best marketing in the world still can’t beat getting someone to actually taste the product. About our guest, Phyllis Rothschild Phyllis Rothschild is CMO at Pete & Gerry’s Organics, the maker of Pete & Gerry’s and Nellie’s Free Range eggs. With a career spanning brand and consumer marketing, she brings a rare mix of storytelling instinct and category expertise to one of the most crowded shelves in the grocery store — and has strong opinions about yolk color. What B2B Marketers Can Learn From Taylor Swift’s Easter Eggs Make your superfans do the work for you. Maybe 1% of Taylor Swift’s listeners hunt for Easter eggs. But those fans amplify everything — they find the clues, post the theories, and bring the rest of the world along. Ian’s takeaway: “The smallest number that you can make ecstatic is probably a better way to do it — because those people tell their friends.” Phyllis connects it directly to Pete & Gerry’s: “The circle back is the fact that they’re doing the work for her — because they all get so engaged and so invested in the story that they then wanna retell it.” Design for the diehard first. The rest will follow. The experience is the marketing. Going to a Taylor Swift concert isn’t just about the music — it’s euphoric. The friendship bracelets, the staging, the crowd. Phyllis draws the direct line: “That’s the kind of feeling you want when someone experiences your brand or your product. You don’t want it to just be transactional. You want them to say, ‘The overall experience is what keeps me coming back for more.’” For Pete & Gerry’s, that means showing the amber yolk oozing onto the plate — not listing certifications. Make people feel something before you make them think something. One clear claim beats a PhD’s worth of education. The egg aisle is a case study in how to confuse a customer into paralysis. Cage-free. Free-range. Pasture-raised. Organic. Farm-fresh. Phyllis is blunt: “You don’t wanna have to have a PhD in egg science to make your weekly purchase.” Her approach: pick the one insight that matters and hammer it. “We just need one claim to get people to say ‘free-range means they go outside.’ And then that’s it.” The lesson for any crowded B2B category: the brand that educates the market doesn’t always win. The brand that owns one simple truth does. “Taylor Swift’s eras are like campaigns — they’re all different, but they all ladder up into the same brand story. You can reinvent yourself, evolve, tap into new tools and mechanisms, but you still need to stay true to who you are as a brand and what got you to where you are.” — Phyllis Rothschild Time Stamps [1:22] Meet Phyllis Rothschild, CMO of Pete & Gerry's Organics [1:45] Why Taylor Swift? Storytelling, Easter Eggs, and a Lifelong Fan [5:09] The Egg Break: Favorite Egg Dishes and the Best Hard-Boiled Hack [10:44] What Are Taylor Swift's Easter Eggs, and Why Do They Work? [17:32] Marketing Lesson #1: Make Your Super Fans Do the Work for You [22:25] Marketing Lesson #2: Show the Yolk - Product Experience Over Product Claims [26:22] The Egg Aisle Problem: Simplifying a Confusing Category [30:52] Marketing Lesson #3: Trial Is Everything - Getting Them to Taste It [34:50] Selling Without a Direct Customer Relationship [39:33] The Private Label Threat and How to Own Your Differentiation [44:09] Marketing Lesson #4: Eras, Campaigns, and the Common Thread [49:36] Final Thoughts: Try the Pasture-Raised Organic (The Blue Box) Links Connect with Phyllis on LinkedIn Learn more about Pete & Gerry's Organics About Remarkable! Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today’s episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, edited by Jon Goldberg, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Have you ever seen Schitt’s Creek? No? You really need to watch it. That’s advocacy. And it’s older than marketing itself - somebody took a bite of something and said, “You gotta try this.” Jason Grunberg, CMO of Forter, didn’t watch the show until he got sick and had nothing else to do. By the time he was better, he was binge-watching instead of resting. In this episode, he breaks down what Schitt’s Creek teaches B2B marketers about pointy characters, ownable positioning, brand as a bank, and why the transformation story is the only story worth telling. Together, we dig into why “safe is not where we make really strong emotional bonds,” what the Rosebud Motel’s rebrand can teach any B2B company trying to differentiate, and why AI inflation has already made “AI” a meaningless differentiator. About our guest, Jason Grunberg Jason Grunberg is CMO at Forter, the identity intelligence platform for digital commerce. With a background spanning agency and in-house roles across B2C and B2B, he brings a rare perspective on what it means to treat every buyer as a consumer - because at the end of the day, a wrong decision costs someone their job, and nothing is more personal than that. What B2B Marketers Can Learn From Schitt’s Creek Advocacy is the root of every decision. Jason didn’t watch Schitt’s Creek because of the awards or the marketing. He watched it because people he trusted kept telling him to. His takeaway for B2B: “Advocacy has been a core part of marketing and brand forever for anything. This is coded almost into the human experience - advocacy is the root of like how we end up making decisions and choices.” Before you chase the next channel, ask whether you’re creating the conditions for your customers to tell their colleagues, “You really need to try this.” Pointy characters resonate more than representative ones. The safest instinct in B2B marketing is to round off your personas until they feel inclusive. Schitt’s Creek did the opposite - and it’s why strangers kept telling Jason the show was basically his family. Ian’s takeaway: “The more pointy you make it, the more weird, the more absurd, it actually will resonate that much better.” Stop asking whether every CIO will see themselves in your story. Make the character want something specific, and trust the audience to find themselves in it. Brand is a bank - and technology is never the real differentiator. The Rose Apothecary didn’t succeed because of its product formulas. It succeeded because of the experience, the distinctiveness, the emotional value. Jason connects it directly to his work at Forter: “Quality is replicable, at least now more so than ever. The brand has to mean something.” On technology positioning, he’s blunt: “If there’s always the push from your product team to be like, ‘This is the core differentiator,’ I’m like, ‘Cool. That is 2,000 lines of code deep. That sounds really replicable. And it doesn’t say I’m getting a raise if I buy this.’” “Safe is not where we make really strong emotional bonds. On the edges is where we do that - because on the inside, there’s a lot of edge. We’ve just been conditioned to not show it all the time.” - Jason Grunberg Time Stamps [1:25] Meet Jason Grunberg, CMO of Forter [2:17] Why Schitt’s Creek? The Show That Felt Like His Family [4:53] Jason’s Role at Forter: Decisions AI and Customer-Centric Marketing [5:56] What Is Schitt’s Creek? Character Development as a Foundation [12:11] Marketing Lesson #1: Advocacy Is Coded Into the Human Experience [15:56] Marketing Lesson #2: Pointy Characters Win — Stop Regressing to the Mean [23:14] B2B Is Still Consumer: Everyone Is a Person Making a Personal Decision [26:35] Marketing Lesson #3: Brand Experience — Rose Apothecary and the Bank Analogy [29:11] Marketing Lesson #4: The Rosebud Motel and the Power of Positioning [32:18] The Name, the Pun, and the Juxtaposition of Lowbrow and Highbrow [36:21] The Audacity of the Arc: Why Schitt’s Creek Ended on Purpose [39:07] Final Thoughts and Takeaways Links Connect with Jason on LinkedIn Learn more about Forter About Remarkable! Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today’s episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, edited by Jon Goldberg, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nope. Yep. Nope. Yep. Everybody got choices? Chipotle didn't just sell burritos - they rebuilt trust with two or three words and some really clear visuals. No freezers. No can openers. No microwaves. Just a brand that went back to its roots and dared to say one thing loudly instead of everything at once. In this episode, we dig into what B2B marketers can learn from Chipotle's "For Real" campaign with our special guest Alicia diVittorio, Head of Global Corporate Marketing at Silverfort. Together, we unpack why "confusion equals no sale," what it really means to take a competitive stand without being obvious about it, and why the best copy - like "Microwaves Not Welcome" - has a point of view that nobody else can own. About our guest, Alicia diVittorio Alicia diVittorio is Head of Global Corporate Marketing at Silverfort, where she oversees brand, communications, PR, analyst relations, and content marketing including web and social. With a background in both brand and comms, she brings a rare perspective on the intersection of provocative positioning and human storytelling in B2B marketing. What B2B Marketers Can Learn From Chipotle's "For Real" Campaign: Go back to your roots - that's why they fell in love with you. Chipotle didn't invent a new brand. They reminded people of the one they already had. Alicia's takeaway for B2B: "Sometimes you really have to remind yourselves of your core value and make sure that comes to the top. That's why people fell in love with you in the first place." Before you evolve your messaging, ask whether you've drifted from the thing that made you matter. You get one message. Use it. Chipotle's campaign works because it says one thing — real ingredients - and doesn't look back. Ian's biggest takeaway says it plainly: "You get to tell people one thing at a time. Just stop trying to tell people two things or three things or whatever. You get one message and that's it." Everything else fades. Hit your one thing and make it interesting. Point of view beats positioning. "Real ingredients, real flavor" could be anyone. "Microwaves Not Welcome" can only be Chipotle. Alicia connects it directly to her comms background: "If we don't have a unique point of view, no one cares. You sound like everyone else. You gotta be provocative if you want to stand out." The difference between good copy and great copy is the same as the difference between a statement and a stance. Quote "Confusion does not equal a sale. We just do so much in B2B and it can be extremely overwhelming. I gotta take that back to the team." - Alicia diVittorio Time Stamps [1:12] Meet Alicia diVittorio, Head of Global Corporate Marketing at Silverfort  [2:22] Why the "For Real" Campaign: The Song, the Simplicity, the Lesson  [4:12] What Is Chipotle's "For Real" Campaign? A Brief History  [6:44] Going Back to Your Roots — What Chipotle Did Right  [15:40] Competitive Positioning Without Being Gross About It  [19:00] "Microwaves Not Welcome": The Power of a Point of View  [22:44] Targeting Multiple Demographics With One Idea  [26:49] The Bag Problem: Great Campaign, Missed Real Estate  [30:13] What B2B Marketers Should Steal From Chipotle  [43:10] Final Thoughts and Takeaways Links Connect with Alicia on LinkedIn  Learn more about Silverfort About Remarkable! Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, edited by Jon Goldberg, and our theme song is "Solomon" by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

18 minutes. One idea. No call to action. And somehow, one of the most trusted brands in the world. TED didn't build its reputation by saying more — it built it by saying less, better. The format was the brand. The editing was the strategy. And the trust was earned before a single word was spoken. In this episode, we unpack what that means for B2B marketers with the help of our special guest Varun Kohli, CMO at Cequence Security/GetReal Security. Together, we explore what enterprise marketers can learn from TED's obsession with brevity, the danger of diluting a brand you've worked hard to build, and why the best content makes your audience calmer or more confident — not just informed. About our guest, Varun Kohli Varun Kohli is an independent CMO with over a decade of experience leading marketing at enterprise security and technology companies. With 10 exits under his belt, Varun brings a rare combination of strategic vision and executional depth to the CMO role. He currently serves as CMO at Cequence Security/GetReal Security. What B2B Marketers Can Learn From TED Talks: Build trust before you speak. TED's red dot, the curated room, the format itself - all of it was designed to signal what audiences could expect before anyone took the stage. Varun draws the lesson directly for marketers: "Trust was designed much, much, much earlier before the first word was spoken. As marketers, you need to earn that trust. If you are waiting for that trust to be given to you when you start speaking, it's already too late." In B2B, your website, your content format, and your brand presence are all making a promise before a prospect ever reads a word. It's not about what to say - it's about what not to say. TED's 18-minute constraint isn't a limitation; it's the point. Varun sees the same discipline as a requirement for B2B content: "It's not about what to say. It's also about what not to say. That is where us marketers lose our audience - we try to cram too much into a very small space." The best content finds the one problem that resonates and doesn't look back. Spend more time editing than you did creating. Make sure your tagline can only belong to you. Brevity without distinctiveness is just noise. Varun shares the litmus test he runs with his teams: "When you're creating these short taglines or headlines, you should always ask - if I remove my logo and slap a competitor's logo on it, is it still true? If it is true, you did not choose the right words." Keep rewriting until no competitor's logo fits. That's when you've arrived. Quote "Great marketing is not about shouting the loudest. The great marketing part is resonating with your buyer. If you can do that, they'll come knock on your door." Time Stamps [1:28] Meet Varun Kohli, CMO at Cequence Security/GetReal Security [3:06] Learn and Unlearn: How Varun Thinks About Walking Into a CMO Role [7:25] What Are TED Talks? A Brief History [15:31] B2B Marketing Takeaways from TED Talks [30:21] TEDx: Brand Dilution or Smart Distribution? [42:52] The Competitive Logo Test [43:30] Final Thoughts and Takeaways Links Connect with Varun on LinkedIn Learn more about Cequence Security About Remarkable! Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is "Solomon" by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.