Tech Marketing Rewired

The old launch playbook is broken, and we’re not waiting for GA to prove it. We sit down with Sarah McConnell, VP of Demand Generation at Qualified, to unpack a product launch strategy built for AI speed: CEO-led storytelling, live demos that actually work, and agent-driven follow-up that turns events into measurable pipeline. If you’ve wondered how to ship, sell, and scale an AI product before the ink is dry, this is the blueprint you’ve been hunting for.Sarah explains how Qualified moved from a simple chatbot to Piper, an AI SDR agent designed to generate pipeline, and why Piper X sits front and center on the website guiding buyers in real time. We dig into the mechanics of a high-velocity launch: crafting the keynote that becomes the messaging script, filming studio-grade demos with an in-house team, and running virtual and in-person events that prioritize hands-on access. The kicker? Piper handles email outreach for registrations and post-event follow-up, driving a reported 70% lift in event-sourced pipeline.We also explore how measurement and SEO are shifting. Registrations and CTA engagement remain core, but “pipeline in the room” now sets sales priorities. On the discovery side, AEO (AI Engine Optimization) matters: structuring pages so LLMs and Piper can cite, navigate, and highlight content leads to smaller yet higher-converting traffic. Throughout, Sarah shows how AI accelerates the work without replacing the human judgment that makes a launch land. Ready to rewire your go-to-market for AI speed and real outcomes? Hit play, subscribe, and share your boldest launch experiment with us.I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.👉 Catch all our episodes at www.techmarketingrewired.com📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at kevin@mightyandtrue.com🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  https://kevinkerner.substack.com/📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.www.mightyandtrue.com

Think your team is doing “random acts of marketing”? You’re not alone. We sat down with Josh Leatherman, CMO of Cyderes and author of the book "Scaleable Acts of Marketing" to unpack a practical, scalable system that turns creative chaos into a predictable growth engine the CRO and CFO can rally behind. No fluff, no vanity metrics—just the six systems that make marketing work at scale: talent, technology, ICP focus, digital buying signals, process, and data.We start by challenging a common myth: sales should “own” finding in-market buyers. Josh explains why only marketing has the tools to identify the 5 percent of your TAM that’s ready to buy right now, and how to capture that demand with intent data, AI-enhanced platforms, and content tuned for real buyer questions. From there, we dive into building trust with finance—co-creating attribution models, forecasting ROI, and reporting on sales-qualified opportunities and marketing-sourced revenue so leadership can see cause and effect. Expect candid talk about private-equity expectations, why MQLs fail in boardrooms, and how sourced deals often close faster, at higher ACVs, with better win rates.Culture and capability tie it together. Josh shares how to hire humble, hungry, smart operators; why “rip off and duplicate” accelerates learning; and where AI already improves prioritization, messaging, and measurement inside Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, and 6Sense. We also map first steps for CMOs: lock arms with your CRO, bring revenue operations in as “Switzerland,” audit your stack for unused AI, narrow your ICP, and build tight feedback loops with SDRs so every buyer objection sharpens your plays.If you’re ready to move beyond dashboards and into decisions, this conversation gives you the blueprint to align marketing with sales and finance, prove ROI, and earn the budget to scale. Follow, share with a marketing leader who needs a boost, and leave a review to tell us the next growth challenge you want us to tackle.GRAB A COPY OF "SCALEABLE ACTS OF MARKETING" HERE. https://www.joshualeatherman.com/book-scalable-acts-of-marketingI am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.👉 Catch all our episodes at www.techmarketingrewired.com📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at kevin@mightyandtrue.com🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  https://kevinkerner.substack.com/📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.www.mightyandtrue.com

In this episode, we sit down with Kelly Greenwalt, a veteran marketing operations leader who’s navigated two decades of tool explosions and AI’s rapid rise at brands like National Instruments and Epicor (where she is currently the Sr. Director of Marketing Operations). Kelly shares her playbook for turning a sprawling tech stack into a strategic growth engine and evolving the MOPs function from a technical back office to a critical business partner.In this episode, you'll discover:The Composable Stack Framework: How to build a modern marketing engine with a data lake as the reliable center and agile point solutions as the spokes.An ROI-First Vendor Playbook: Kelly’s process for evaluating new tools, using an enablement function to drive adoption, and spotting hidden pricing traps in seat-based vs. usage-based models.AI That Actually Delivers: A look at conversational AI that acts as a top-performing virtual BDR, booking meetings and reviving dormant leads, without the hype.The MOPs Role in M&A: Why marketing operations is a secret weapon in M&A, essential for aligning budgets, messaging, and growth targets long before a deal is announced.How to Level-Up Your MOPs Career: Actionable advice on shifting from "making things work" to owning the data story, and which skills (like email programming) to retire in favor of strategy.If your stack feels complicated and your AI roadmap is noisy, this conversation offers the clarity and frameworks you need to move forward.More Rewired Content:Catch up on all the episodes on our Tech Marketing Rewired pageWatch full episodes on YouTubeRead key takeaways on our SubstackI am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.👉 Catch all our episodes at www.techmarketingrewired.com📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at kevin@mightyandtrue.com🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  https://kevinkerner.substack.com/📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.www.mightyandtrue.com

Stop trying to impress developers with adjectives. They want truth, working demos, and clear docs. That’s the heartbeat of this conversation with product marketing leader Dave Macias (ex-Dell, MongoDB), who breaks down how to tell an honest AI story when the market is loud and your buyer is a skeptical engineer under pressure to ship. We dig into the moment everyone “became an AI company” overnight, and how MongoDB anchored on authentic differentiation—being the memory layer for agentic systems and a practical vector database—rather than claiming to be something it wasn’t.Dave shares a playbook for navigating AI’s sub-hype cycles—RAG, agents, MCP—and choosing what to embrace by listening to customers first. His team analyzed a hundred recorded calls, then replayed key segments where developers mapped their architecture and constraints. The result: tighter positioning, better taglines that open the right door, and a content path that moves fast from spark to substance with runnable examples and serious documentation. We also get tactical on sales enablement: how to arm reps with high-signal keywords, the next right question, and the confidence to bring in specialists without overreaching.Beyond marketing, Dave opens up about taking a purposeful career pause. He planned it for years, wrote “I will” goals that combined craft and family, and set aside time to build with AI-native tools and rediscover creative energy. If you’re trying to earn developer trust, scale AI messaging with integrity, or design your next chapter with intention, this conversation offers practical steps you can use today.If this resonates, follow and share with a teammate who’s wrestling with AI positioning right now. And if you enjoyed the episode, subscribe and leave a review—tell us the one AI buzzword you’re ready to retire.I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.👉 Catch all our episodes at www.techmarketingrewired.com📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at kevin@mightyandtrue.com🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  https://kevinkerner.substack.com/📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.www.mightyandtrue.com

What separates exceptional integrated marketing campaigns from forgettable ones? According to Sinziana Ursu, a leader of Integrated Marketing Programs at Upland Software, success comes down to two critical elements: a clear, distinct point of view and genuine cross-channel thinking.Drawing from her extensive experience leading marketing teams at companies like WP Engine and Dell, Sinziana breaks down the timeless fundamentals that drive results regardless of company size or industry. "Having a unique perspective that connects the campaign together is basic marketing, but it's essential," she explains. "Then you need to consider how that message manifests across every touchpoint – from your website to sales conversations to internal enablement."The conversation takes a fascinating turn as Sinziana shares how Account-Based Marketing has evolved beyond mere acquisition tactics. Today's sophisticated ABM strategies focus equally on retention, expansion opportunities, and cross-geographic growth. But success hinges on marketing-sales alignment, which Sinziana approaches through three lenses: goal alignment around meaningful revenue contributions, operational frameworks with shared scorecards, and genuine relationship building with sales counterparts.As a marketing leader who's embraced AI tools firsthand, Sinziana offers practical insights on leveraging generative technology without losing the human touch. She's discovered that AI excels at research synthesis, creative variation, and campaign framework development – but cautions against the "shiny object syndrome" that leads marketers astray. "Start with the problem you're trying to solve, not the tool," she advises, whether that's addressing content bottlenecks or enabling new marketing channels.Looking ahead, Sinziana predicts B2B marketing will continue converging with consumer approaches – bolder brands, more frictionless buying experiences, and earlier product engagement. For marketers, this means developing both technical fluency and deeper customer understanding. The future belongs to those who use AI to eliminate mundane tasks while investing more in creative thinking and authentic customer connections.Ready to transform your integrated marketing approach? Listen now and discover how to build campaigns with genuine impact, align effectively with sales, and leverage AI to work smarter, not just faster.I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.👉 Catch all our episodes at www.techmarketingrewired.com📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at kevin@mightyandtrue.com🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  https://kevinkerner.substack.com/📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.www.mightyandtrue.com

What does it take to build one of the strongest brands in MarTech? Saima Rashid's remarkable journey from analytics expert to marketing leader at 6Sense reveals the power of becoming your own best customer."The data is great, but unless you're translating it into actual insights and driving action, who cares?" Saima's analytical foundation became her superpower as marketing evolved into an increasingly technical discipline. Rather than simply telling prospects about their platform's capabilities, the 6Sense team showed them through transparent case studies of their own implementation. This "customer zero" strategy paid extraordinary dividends – within a year of launching their AI email product, 25% of new business pipeline was being generated autonomously through AI agents.Drawing from conversations with thousands of marketing leaders through the CMO Coffee Talk community, Saima shares the critical imperatives facing today's marketing executives. The AI mandate requires creating a culture of innovation where teams feel empowered to experiment with new technologies. The accountability mandate demands speaking the CFO's language about efficiency metrics while maintaining strong alignment with sales leadership. And the talent mandate emphasizes hiring for curiosity and drive while building diverse teams that bring multiple perspectives.Despite tightening budgets and evolving search landscapes, the fundamentals remain crucial: creating high-quality content that genuinely helps prospects, understanding your ideal customer profile, and crafting cohesive journeys from brand awareness to conversion. As Saima puts it, "Great brands have higher average selling prices and lower customer acquisition costs. The research is out there."Connect with Saima on LinkedIn.I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.👉 Catch all our episodes at www.techmarketingrewired.com📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at kevin@mightyandtrue.com🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  https://kevinkerner.substack.com/📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.www.mightyandtrue.com

The AI landscape has transformed so dramatically since 2021 that the original marketing playbook is already outdated. In this episode, get an exclusive preview of the upcoming second edition of The AI Marketing Canvas from author and Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, clinical professor Jim Lecinski, who explains why the rise of generative AI demanded a completely new roadmap.Lecinski unveils the core change in his updated framework: marketers must now operate with a "whole brain," combining left-brain predictive analytics with right-brain generative AI. He provides new perspectives on the five-stage implementation canvas that guides organizations from data foundation to monetization and his practical 2x2 matrix for identifying the most valuable use cases.This discussion is filled with fresh insights from the upcoming new edition, tackling the most urgent challenges facing leaders today. We explore the "gray market" AI paradox, where cautious enterprise security policies unintentionally push employees to use risky consumer tools. Jim also shares updated case studies, like IKEA's AI interior designer, that exemplify the new quadrant of external, value-creating AI applications.Jim’s most compelling point is that the biggest barriers to AI adoption are not budget or technical skill, but the lack of a clear implementation plan—a problem the second edition of his book aims to solve. Whether you're starting out or scaling up, his advice is direct: commit one hour a week to hands-on learning. As he says, "If you wanted to learn how to surf, you wouldn't watch a PowerPoint about surfing". This episode is your surfboard for the new wave of AI.I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.👉 Catch all our episodes at www.techmarketingrewired.com📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at kevin@mightyandtrue.com🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  https://kevinkerner.substack.com/📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.www.mightyandtrue.com

What if your AI could think exactly like you? Not approximating your style based on internet data, but truly capturing your unique patterns of thought, expertise, and decision-making?Suman Kanaganti, CEO of Personal AI, is creating a future where AI becomes deeply personal—trained on your own memory stack rather than generalized internet knowledge. His company builds small, specialized language models (under 1 billion parameters) that train in minutes yet capture the essence of how individuals or brands think and make decisions.The difference between these personal language models and general-purpose LLMs like ChatGPT is profound. While large models excel at broad knowledge, they lack the specialized understanding of your unique perspective. Personal AI fills this gap by creating models that see the world through your lens, maintaining complete privacy and data ownership in the process.This approach is already transforming enterprises, particularly in retail where brands like Wilson are using personal AI for brand-perfect content creation. Financial institutions value the security of on-premises deployment with strict privacy controls. The most fascinating applications emerge when companies create ecosystems of AI personas representing different roles and expertise domains, enabling "compounding collaboration benefits" as these personas interact with each other and human employees.Looking ahead, Personal AI is developing agent orchestration capabilities and exploring integration with wearable devices—all while maintaining their core principle that your data should belong to you, not platform ecosystems. As Kanaganti puts it: "We want to be at a place where we meet personal AI with the advancements of the data collection methods and then intersect the data to make it ownable by the end user."Ready to explore how personal AI could transform your business? Visit personalai.com or email Suman directly at s@personalai.com to learn more about this revolutionary approach to artificial intelligence.I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.👉 Catch all our episodes at www.techmarketingrewired.com📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at kevin@mightyandtrue.com🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  https://kevinkerner.substack.com/📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.www.mightyandtrue.com

Creating meaningful internship experiences isn't just good for students—it's vital for building your company's talent pipeline. But why do so many internship programs fall short, and how can we design systems that truly work?Cheryl Rodness, Head of Global Brand at Quest Global, brings decades of experience developing internship programs at scale for companies like IBM, Juniper, and Calix. In our conversation, she reveals that the biggest failure point happens before interns even arrive: "Companies decide they want an intern but don't actually think about what the student will do." This fundamental oversight sets both parties up for disappointment.What distinguishes exceptional internship programs? Cheryl outlines a comprehensive framework that includes clearly defined projects, dedicated mentorship, executive engagement, and structured evaluation. Rather than seeking high GPAs, successful managers look for "hunger and aspiration"—students eager to learn, contribute ideas, and take initiative. These qualities predict future success far better than academic credentials alone.The conversation takes a fascinating turn as we explore how AI is reshaping internship work. While these tools enable interns to tackle more complex projects, Cheryl cautions against over-reliance: "AI is a first draft capability. If you don't have somebody looking at it for readability, context, and impact, you're dead in the water." Teaching interns to critically evaluate AI outputs prepares them for the hybrid human-AI workflows they'll encounter throughout their careers.For companies looking to build or improve their internship programs, timing matters more than you might think. Start recruitment by December to attract top candidates, create detailed playbooks to guide both interns and managers, and always provide fair compensation. The investment pays dividends when exceptional interns transition into valuable full-time employees who already understand your company culture and operations.Ready to transform how your organization approaches internships? Listen now to discover the systems and strategies that benefit both students and companies in creating truly meaningful professional development experiences.I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.👉 Catch all our episodes at www.techmarketingrewired.com📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at kevin@mightyandtrue.com🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  https://kevinkerner.substack.com/📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.www.mightyandtrue.com

Ever wondered how challenger tech brands compete (or co-exist) with industry giants like Adobe and Salesforce? In this enlightening conversation, Aditya Venpati, VP of Marketing at MoEngage, shares the trust, creativity, and distribution strategies that help an AI-first customer engagement platform stand out in crowded B2B tech markets.Aditya’s journey from engineer to marketer gives him a practical lens on SaaS marketing and go-to-market decisions. He asks a simple question of every tactic, does it actually work for the end user? That mindset powers a human-centric strategy focused on building trust, solving real customer problems, and creating content people want to share.What truly differentiates MoEngage is creative content with built-in distribution. Their “Adapt or Die” coffee table book features 13 contributors across nine companies, many not customers, which adds credibility and automatic reach. At events, they trade generic swag for custom-engraved Stanleys and “hydration kits” that spark genuine conversations. These experiential touches create positive emotion and brand recall long before a product demo.Instead of pitching a rip-and-replace, MoEngage positions as a complementary layer to existing platforms. This B2B2C reality acknowledges long vendor relationships and focuses on specific use cases where MoEngage adds incremental value, opening doors in accounts that might otherwise be hard to penetrate.Behind the scenes, Aditya has built a marketing culture around four non-negotiables, customer problems first, growth mindset, ask forgiveness not permission, and trust. That environment fuels bold experiments that often outperform traditional tactics, especially as AI changes how buyers research and decide.As channels shift fast, Aditya’s advice for tech CMOs is simple, keep a constant pulse on how your audience consumes information. Regular customer conversations reveal changing patterns across LinkedIn, search, and AI-assisted research, and can be the difference between relevance and obsolescence.Looking to navigate your own tech marketing challenges? Reach out to use at www.mightyandtrue.comAlso, send an email to aisearch@mightytrue.com for a complimentary AI search analysis that shows how findable your brand is in both traditional and AII am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.👉 Catch all our episodes at www.techmarketingrewired.com📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at kevin@mightyandtrue.com🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at:  https://kevinkerner.substack.com/📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.www.mightyandtrue.com