After a short hiatus, Adam O. and Kate Campbell return to the pod with energy, insights, and holiday spirit.

It’s been (what feels like) months, but the duo dives right in—talking marketing challenges, PR shakeups, and why small agencies might just shine in 2024.

🔖 Episode Highlights:

• [01:17] Keep It or Kick It: Holiday Marketing — Are festive brand posts cringe or creative genius? Kate and Adam debate.
• [06:50] Big Career Moves — Kate shares her return to agency life and why it feels like coming home.
• [09:37] PR Industry Shakeups — Mergers, layoffs, and what they mean for marketing in 2024. Small agencies, this might be your moment.
• [15:58] Market Optimism: The ServiceTitan IPO — Vertical SaaS makes a splash. Are the markets finally back?
• [23:21] Budget Cuts, Big Goals — Real talk: 3x growth with 0x budget. Adam shares scrappy marketing plays you can steal to get through lean times.
• [26:11] Why Smaller, Intimate Events Win — Skip the overpriced booths; invest in real connections.

💡 Tactical Takeaways:

• Renegotiate tech contracts for cash flexibility.
• Scale back ads strategically—test, iterate, reinvest.
• Be creative with AI: from eBooks to nurture streams, Adam explains how GPT tools are filling his team’s gaps.

🎁 Plus: Kate shares her predictions for 2024 trends—personal outreach and intimate dinners are back, folks.

🍼 Life Update: Adam’s baby countdown is on—tax incentives and sleepless nights are just around the corner.

Adam + Kate are feeling themselves on this one - as they beat their annual OKR of recording 20 episodes by the end of 2024 - and they beat that by 2 1/2 months.

The gang is in an extra good mood on this one as they reflect on the life decisions that got them to this point in their podcasting career.

Here's all the highlights and none of the lowlights:

• Kate and Adam cover what they have loved & hated about the first 20 episodes - and what the next 20 could look like.
• LinkedIn has been feeling like an angsty teen that only listens to mid-90s grunge as of late - and the gang tries to figure out why that is.
• Community continues to be all the rage for marketers (and for good reason)... and that's not going to change in 2025.

The gang is joined by Chef (and Inbound correspondent) Will Davidson of Growth Operations Firm to take a crash course in marketing + sales relationships in 2024 - and why marketing teams are always right.

Here's all the highlights, none of the lowlights:

• Kate and Will recap all the fun from Inbound 2024.
• Will gets into why it's never been more important for marketing and sales to work together.
• Will stumps both Adam and Kate when he asks them to pitch slap him with the pod.

In this episode, Adam and Kate dive headfirst into the world of brand building—and spoiler alert: it’s a whole lot more than just picking a cool logo.

Adam tests the waters by asking if happy hours are the unsung heroes of brand building. Kate, in full PR/comms mode, breaks down why founders and execs need to own their brand story from day one (and why consistency is everything).

Other highlights include:

• Why trying to “be authentic” might just be killing your authenticity.
• The dangers of building your audience on platforms you don’t control (looking at you, social media).
• And yes, happy hours...are they the secret sauce to building lasting relationships?

Pour yourself a drink and settle in—it’s time to learn how to build a brand that lasts.

The DBAS fairy podmother, Jenny Gardynski, joins Kate and Adam this week to talk about her storied career, her love for all things PR and Communications, and how she * doesn't * have any TikTok burner accounts.

Here's all the highlights, none of the lowlights:

• Kate gets in the time machine and does a career rewind with Jenny, touching on her experiences in PR/Comms over the last decade.
• Jenny covers on how her agency experience translated to moving in-house when she joined G2.
• Jenny outlines what makes her nervous about AI - and it's not for the reasons you think.
• Adam tries to pitch slap the gang and promptly reminds everyone why he isn't an AE.

Words are hard. Press releases are harder.

Adam FINALLY gets Kate to show the world how good of a PR/Comms professional she truly is (it just took 15 episodes)

And Adam gets that look from Kate when he claims the future of journalism "is AI".

Here's some of the highlights, none of the low lights:

• Adam wonders out lout if PR really stands for press releases.
• Kate gets into her PR/comms bag and breaks down when the right time is for a startup to work with an agency.
• The gang agrees on this: a 3-month PR contract with an agency is wasted money... but not for the reasons you think.

You have to meet Zach Roberts 💀.

If you have been paying attention to the marketing scene in 2024, chances are you have come across Zach.

He's an emerging voice in Product Marketing, is the co-host of the ascending We're Not Marketers 💀 podcast, and runs a product marketing-focused consultancy aimed at helping mid-stage startups get through (and over) product marketing related challenges.

Oh, and he roller skates in his free time.

Zach was kind enough to drop by our pod this week to talk about his views on product launches, enablement, and how the best product marketers are team players that focus on serving both internal and external customers.

Here's all the highlights, none of the lowlights:

• Zach shocks Kate and Adam with his acceptance of product opening videos in B2B
• Adam makes Zach really question how valuable infographics are in 2024 (hint: they aren't)
• Kate has Zach walk through what a solid product launch looks like
• Adam intros a new segment and promptly gets the episode slapped with the "explicit content" tag

Move aside, summer break - Adam + Kate are back!

The gang gets right back into the action, taking on the the frustration of job seekers everywhere - and trashing how AI has ruined the traditional job application process.

Here's some of the highlights, none of the low lights:

• The gang agrees: don't burn your bridges on the way out. The tech community is small and you never know when you will run into someone down the road.
• Kate covers how being self-aware and identifying gaps and weaknesses is important for hiring managers.
• Adam wonders if role-specific certifications are actually important for the hiring process in 2024.