Season 1 finale! 🎉 We wrap up the season with a deep dive into AI + SEO—why zero-click answers are shaking up demand gen, what to do when your traffic tanks, and how product marketing, content, and SEO can actually work better together in this new landscape.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why zero-click searches and AI overviews are stealing traffic
• How to audit your content by intent (what-is / how-to / compare)
• The role of schema/JSON-LD in being visible to large language models
• Why showing up on LinkedIn, Wikipedia, and trusted sources matters more than backlink farms
• How product marketing + content + SEO + paid need to join forces
• The hidden goldmine of proprietary data (and how to make it discoverable)
• Practical next steps for SEO managers facing plummeting numbers

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform. Follow us LinkedIn and check out our website!

Too many founders are building sales teams before they’re truly ready—and when growth stalls, they don’t know where to look. In this episode of Chocolate Pill, we’re joined by Laura “Wheels” Wheeler, Co-founder of RVNU and RevOps powerhouse, to unpack the most common GTM mistakes founders make and how to fix them without burning it all down.

You’ll hear why so many teams operate four stages ahead of where they should be, why saying “you don’t have product-market fit yet” needs to be normalized, and how chasing categories or AI gimmicks can actually backfire. We also dig into why your data dashboards may be lying to you, and how RevOps + Product Marketing together can become your best growth engine.

What you’ll learn:

• The telltale signs your GTM foundation is cracked
• Why sales team struggles are often not a sales problem
• How to build RevOps muscle early (even in spreadsheets)
• Why realizing customer value is the real growth unlock
• The dangers of category creation theater and AI-as-differentiator
• How to align data and story across teams for smarter scaling

👉 Listen in as we break down what founders keep getting wrong about go-to-market—and how to get it right.

Where to find Laura:

• LinkedIn: Laura Wheeler on LinkedIn 
• Out in the wild at karaoke bars 🎤

This week on Chocolate Pill, we welcome Den Jones, a recognized leader in Zero Trust security with 35+ years of IT and cybersecurity experience across tech, finance, and manufacturing. From running enterprise security at Adobe and Cisco to serving as Chief Security Officer at SonicWall and Banyan Security, Den has built and scaled some of the industry’s most forward-thinking security programs.

Now the founder of 909Cyber and host of the 909Exec podcast, Den shares how leaders can build pragmatic, scalable security strategies without slowing innovation. With his trademark mix of Scottish humor and real-world execution, he brings clarity to the challenges executives face in today’s evolving digital landscape.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why Zero Trust is more than a buzzword—and how to make it work in practice
• Lessons from leading security at Adobe, Cisco, and beyond
• How to balance innovation with resilience in high-stakes environments
• The role of executive leadership in driving secure, scalable growth

Den’s insights extend beyond cybersecurity into leadership, culture, and creativity (did we mention he’s also a music producer and football (soccer) fan?). Whether you’re an executive, founder, or tech leader, this conversation will leave you with fresh perspectives and practical strategies you can apply today.

Key quote:

"If everything is perfect and polished, there’s no trust there." —Den Jones

AI is rewriting the rules of search—and your SEO plan. Erin, Chris, and Sandi break down what’s changing (AI Overviews, LLM-driven answers, Gen Z searching on TikTok/YouTube), why over-relying on Google is risky, and how to rebuild a durable strategy. We cover intent-led content, the 7-11-4 framework for multi-channel engagement, using video as a repurposing engine, and the technical basics (schema, crawl efficiency, programmatic pages) that help you get discovered—and cited—by large language models. Plus: how to protect your brand voice in an AI world and a quick exercise to audit how LLMs describe your company vs. competitors. If you’ve wondered how AI and SEO actually fit together, this is your field guide.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why channel mix matters (and how to stop betting it all on Google)
• How AI Overviews and large language models are reshaping search results
• The 7-11-4 content framework to reach buyers across platforms
• Why Gen Z skips Google for TikTok & YouTube — and what that means for marketers
• How to build intent-driven content that actually matches user needs
• Video-first repurposing: turn one asset into dozens
• Technical SEO must-dos: schema markup, crawl efficiency, and programmatic pitfalls
• Why voice, tone, and brand differentiation are your best defense against AI sameness

Key quotes:

"AI SEO is the question behind the question. If you know your audience, you’ll know how to answer it." —Sandi

"You have to get good at things you’re not good at. That’s how you stay ahead of AI." - Chris

"Your content can’t just sound like AI. It still has to sound like you." - Erin

Topics covered:

• How startup marketing channels typically evolve after founder-led sales
• Why the “bag of tricks” approach can derail your channel strategy
• How to gather early signals from sales, your CEO, and competitors
• Paid media: where it works best and why it’s often the first marketing lever
• Building a test-and-learn mindset vs. going “all in” on one channel
• Budgeting considerations: balancing paid vs. organic channels
• How scale-ups should approach channel audits and avoid plateauing
• The growing power of video, influencer, and in-app marketing
• The right time (and budget) to invest in analyst relations
• Why website ≠ channel (yes, this one got spicy)
• Final advice: run a channel audit, align with your sales & demand gen team, and rethink your content mix

Key quote:

“You will be shocked how much you’re spending per lead on channels you’ve never measured before.” —Chris

Notable Things We Said

Sandi:

“Just because a brand that’s your competitor dominates on one particular channel doesn’t mean you entering that channel means you too will dominate.”

Chris:

“There is no constant in marketing. You’re either learning or shrinking.”

Erin:

“A good content person is also keeping their eyes on the prize. Sometimes the biggest opportunity is using a familiar channel in a completely different way.”

What startups and scaleups get wrong about hiring their marketing team — and how to do it better.

In this episode of Chocolate Pill, we break down the biggest hiring mistakes founders and marketing leaders make when building their teams, from first hires to scaling the org.

You’ll hear:

• Why hiring content first is a mistake
• The order of hires we recommend (PMM → Demand Gen → Content → MOPS)
• How to avoid hiring the wrong profile for your stage
• What scaleups need to do differently when building teams
• Why early career marketers should think twice about startup roles
• How CMOs can balance strategy vs. execution — and when to outsource
  
  

Why Great Content Strategies Fail Without Buy-In, Budget, and the Right Metrics

Everyone says they want great content. Few are willing to fund it like they mean it.
 In this episode of Chocolate Pill, we tackle the messy reality of building a content engine that actually drives growth, and why leadership plays a bigger role than most think.

Your hosts Erin, Chris, and Sandi unpack why shiny objects derail content teams, why “act like a media company” is useless advice if you don’t get a media company budget, and how to sell the value of content across your organization (hint: metrics matter, and so does product marketing).

In this episode:
 ✅ The thread of content through your entire organization
 ✅ Why content engines stall without leadership dedication
 ✅ The 7-11-4 rule and how modern metrics make content’s impact more visible
 ✅ How top, middle, and bottom-of-funnel content demand different mindsets
 ✅ The role of product marketing in helping leadership see content value
✅ Why most companies do “test and learn” but lack the patience to build content maturity

Quote of the episode:
 "Content is the connective tissue across your entire GTM motion. If leadership isn’t committed, you’ll end up with a bunch of random assets and no engine."

Meet your hosts:
 🎤 Sandi Green: Product marketing and GTM expert. Seven M&A deals, three exits, Fortune 100 + startup experience, and trusted advisor to Founders and CMOs.
 🎤 Chris: Startup veteran and first-GTM-builder. Deep experience with growth marketing, demand gen, budgeting, and headcount planning.
 🎤 Erin: Content strategy queen. Founding Content Strategist at multiple companies, Webby Award Honoree, and master of helping brands tell stronger stories.

Follow us:
👉 Miracle Max Marketing
👉 Connect on LinkedIn: Sandi, Chris, Erin

If this episode made you nod, laugh, or rethink your last campaign, subscribe and leave us a review. We’ll keep the chocolate and the marketing truth bombs coming.

#Marketing #ContentMarketing #StartupMarketing #B2BMarketing #Leadership #GTM #ProductMarketing #ContentStrategy #Podcast

Welcome to the Chocolate Pill, the podcast from a growth company run by three marketers who’ve actually done the work (and aren’t afraid to say what everyone else is thinking). In this not-too-polished debut, your hosts Sandi, Chris, and Erin introduce themselves, their company Miracle Max Marketing, and their mission: help scaling companies storm the marketing castle with less chaos and more clarity.

In this episode:

• Why we started this podcast (hint: we needed an outlet for what’s actually happening in marketing)
• Our backgrounds and what happens when an enterprise marketer, a startup growth strategist, and a content purist walk into a bar
• The patterns we keep seeing in the companies we work with
• The biggest marketing lies we’ve all been told (and why they’re still so common)
• What to expect from future episodes (spoiler: tactical tips + battle-tested strategies + therapy for marketing leaders)

Meet your hosts:
 🎤 Sandi Green: Product marketing and GTM expert. Seven M&A deals, three exits, Fortune 100 + startup experience, and trusted advisor to Founders and CMOs.
 🎤 Chris: Startup veteran and first-GTM-builder. Deep experience with growth marketing, demand gen, budgeting, and headcount planning.
 🎤 Erin: Content strategy queen. Founding Content Strategist at multiple companies, Webby Award Honoree, and master of helping brands tell stronger stories.

Follow us:
👉 Miracle Max Marketing
👉 Connect on LinkedIn: Sandi, Chris, Erin

Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode! And if you like what you hear, leave us a review. We read every one.

Marketing’s moving fast. We’ve been in it long enough to know what’s foundational and what’s just noise. Chocolate Pill is your no-BS guide to the strategies, trends, and stories that matter for CMOs, startups, and growing teams. Teaser’s live, full episodes are coming. Subscribe now for the truth behind the trends and be the first to hear what your competitors wish they knew.