Why brands aren't just hosting experiences anymore. They're charging for them.

In this episode of the Growth Department podcast, Chelsey sits down with Tom Gray, Chief Strategy Officer at Imagination Group, the global experience design consultancy that helps brands build game-changing strategies and experiences for customers, employees, and stakeholders. Tom has spent his career designing the kind of brand experiences people willingly show up for, talk about, and increasingly, pay to attend.

Tom unpacks the shift from the attention economy to the connection economy, why 93% of what we see on social media is now algorithmically fed to us, and what that means for marketers trying to break through with real human moments. He breaks down the neuroscience of how experiential memories get tagged in the brain, why brand salience is being rewritten, and how brands like Ford, Visa, and Harley-Davidson are turning experiences into product, not just promotion.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• The shift from attention economy to connection economy and what it means for your 2026 strategy
• How experiential marketing creates stronger brand salience than digital advertising
• The neuroscience of memory tagging and why emotional experiences stick
• Why charging for brand experiences increases engagement, attendance, and word of mouth
• The IKEA effect and how investment shifts perceived brand value
• How Ford turned a test drive into a paid stunt driver experience that audiences shared organically
• Why experiential is moving from the promotion P to the product P in the marketing mix
• How Visa Live, Harley-Davidson festivals, and Hershey's theme parks built brand IP through experience
• How to identify your brand's unfair advantage in audience passion points like music, sport, and wellness
• Why the best marketers stop talking to themselves in offices and get curious about real customers

If you're a CMO, brand marketer, or experiential strategist trying to figure out where in-person fits in your 2026 marketing mix, or whether your brand has earned the right to charge for it, this episode delivers the framework.

Connect with Tom Gray and Imagination Group on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomoppad/

Check out Tom's articles and past projects: https://imagination.com/

Book he recommends: Playground by Richard Powers 
Podcast he recommends: Conversations with Tyler (hosted by economist Tyler Cowen)

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Growth Department slows the conversation down so founders and business leaders can go further, faster.

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The era of the Instagrammable photo backdrop is over. So what's next?

In this episode of the Growth Department podcast, Chelsey sits down with Diana Zwetzich, experiential designer and founder of guest-centered brand activations, to talk about why most brand experiences are falling flat and what separates a forgettable pop-up from an activation people actually remember.

Diana built her career on architectural design and environmental storytelling for global brands, including the viral 29 Rooms experience and Refinery29's Luna Lounge at Coachella. Now she's bridging the gap between experiential design and hospitality, helping brands stop performing and start hosting.

In this conversation, Diana breaks down the missing layer in experiential marketing, why beautiful design alone creates attention but not connection, and how the peak-end rule should reshape every guest journey you plan in 2026.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why "hosting" beats "performing" in every brand activation
• The real reason Instagrammable photo moments are losing impact
• How to train brand ambassadors to actually connect with guests
• The peak-end rule and why your tunnel entrance doesn't matter
• How to measure ROI on experiential marketing beyond reach and impressions
• Why smaller, more intimate activations often outperform big-budget spectacles
• The two moments you actually need to design (everything else is noise)
• How to brief an experiential agency so your activation has intention, not just aesthetics
• What brand loyalty, sentiment, and long-term recall really look like in post-event data

If you're a B2B or B2C marketer planning trade show satellite events, intimate client dinners, pop-ups, or experiential activations this year, this episode is your blueprint for doing it right.

Connect with Diana on LinkedIn and read her articles on guest-centered experience design. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diana-zwetzich-844738107/

(her book recommendation = 10x is Easier than 2x)

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Growth Department slows the conversation down so founders and business leaders can go further, faster.

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In this episode of the Growth Department podcast, Chelsey sits down with Jennie Malafarina, founder of Virago Marketing and 12-year B2B marketing executive, to talk about what's actually working in AI-powered demand generation, pipeline growth, and go-to-market strategy for SaaS and tech companies right now.

Jennie breaks down her full AI stack: ChatGPT for brainstorming, Claude for writing, Perplexity for research, and Grok for social signal. Then she goes deeper into the agentic systems she's built using Claude Code, Claude Cowork, N8N, Apify, Apollo, and HubSpot to automate LinkedIn outreach, web scraping, ICP enrichment, and SEO optimization at scale. She also introduces Cami, her upcoming AI marketing manager product.

But AI is only half the conversation. Jennie also unpacks why in-person events, trade show strategy, and community building drive more pipeline than ever, how she built Freight Movement into a lead generation community for logistics, and why her WILMA (Women in Logistics Marketing Alliance) group runs on abundance, not competition.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• How to build agentic AI workflows without knowing how to code
• Why vibe coding ROI calculators, interactive apps, and lead magnets is replacing traditional content marketing
• The LinkedIn automation tool Jennie uses to find high-intent B2B prospects (Goji Berry)
• How deep fakes, spoofed emails, and AI-powered scams are changing B2B cybersecurity
• Why cold email deliverability and outbound are getting harder, and what to do about it
• The real ROI of trade shows, satellite events, and experiential marketing
• How to measure pipeline impact from community-driven brand awareness events
• What 88% of buyers not being in-market means for your demand gen strategy
• Why B2B content marketing is shifting from blogs and white papers to virtual experiences

If you're a B2B marketer, founder, demand gen leader, or one-person marketing team trying to scale without sounding like AI slop, this episode is packed with tactical plays you can run this week.

Connect with Jennie at Virago Marketing, find her on LinkedIn, and learn more about Freight Movement and WILMA.

Virago Marketing:  https://viragomarketing.com/

Jennie's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennie-malafarina/

FR8 Marketing Gurus Podcast: https://viragomarketing.com/fr8-marketing-gurus-podcast/

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Growth Department slows the conversation down so founders and business leaders can go further, faster.

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Andre Ankri built a trades business from the ground up, and then rebuilt how it runs with AI. As CEO of UTS Group, he's automated everything from tender reviews to project manager matching, cut a process that used to take days down to under 30 minutes, and built a system that gets smarter on its own. But the real story is how he got there: through ADHD, hard lessons, and a wartime CEO mindset that keeps him out of the day-to-day and in the rooms where it actually matters.

In this episode we get into what it means to scale with systems instead of headcount, why exit readiness starts long before you plan to sell, and how Andre uses AI not just to run his businesses, but to manage his own brain.

If you're building something and you're tired of throwing people at problems, this one's for you.

In this episode:

• Why ADHD is a systems-building superpower, not a liability
• How UTS automated nearly every repeatable process in a trades business
• What the wartime CEO mindset actually looks like inside an org
• The difference between a business built to grow and one built to sell
• Why small and medium businesses have a massive AI advantage right now

About the Guest

Andre Ankri is the CEO and founder of UTS Group Inc., a security integration and design consultancy based in Ontario, Canada. He also founded Metador, a business automation consultancy, and co-owns Vitrion Building Systems. A neurodivergent leader with ADHD, OCPD, and dyslexia, Andre builds openly around cognitive difference — and the systems he's created to work with his brain have become the blueprint for how he runs everything else.

Find Andre on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andre-ankri-7a4090311/

Check out his recent favorite book, Greenlights: https://a.co/d/0bLBrdqB

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Growth Department slows the conversation down so founders and business leaders can go further, faster.

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Let's go for a stroll and chat about AI.

Chelsey gets honest about where she actually is on her AI journey, and why 10 months went by without making real progress. In this solo episode, she breaks down the 7 risks of AI adoption that keep business leaders up at night, from environmental impact and geopolitical supply chain exposure to deepfake security breaches, agentic AI governance gaps, and vendor dependency. 

But it's risk #7 that changed everything. After a networking call where only 2 out of 15 C-suite leaders had moved beyond dabbling with ChatGPT, Chelsey realized the biggest risk isn't adopting AI — it's waiting. 

If you're a go-to-market leader who knows you should be building AI fluency but keeps finding reasons not to, this one's for you.

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Growth Department slows the conversation down so founders and business leaders can go further, faster.

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What does it take to move from AI experimentation to an organization where agents are woven into every workflow? Dr. Pawan Anand has spent 15 years leading enterprise technological and AI transformations across communications, media, and technology.

In this episode, Pawan breaks down the concepts he's been writing about on Forbes: digital colleagues, the agent web, AgentOps, and what he calls AI native organizations.

What we cover:

• What digital colleagues are and how enterprises are using them now
• The agent web: the missing layer most AI strategies don't account for
• Why 91% of AI pilots fail to deliver expected results
• What AgentOps is and why it matters as agentic adoption scales
• How to build toward an AI native organization without skipping steps
• What ethical AI governance looks like in practice
• Where CEOs and CTOs should be involved, and where they should step back

If your company is somewhere between dabbling and all-in, this one's for you.

Guest: Dr. Pawan Anand is a Forbes Technology Council member, executive doctorate from Temple University, and senior technology executive specializing in Generative AI, agentic automation, and digital engineering. Find him on LinkedIn and Forbes.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pawan-anand/

Forbes Council: https://councils.forbes.com/profile/Pawan-Anand-Associate-Vice-President-Communications-Media-Technology-Persistent-Systems/0199c7f4-1f9b-41cc-b8cd-a7e50fa01b6b

Growth Department slows the conversation down so founders and business leaders can go further, faster.

If this episode helped you think differently, follow the show and share it with someone building alongside you.

Most founders building with AI agents are thinking about one thing: functionality. Can it do the thing? Can I automate this? Can I scale that?

What they're not thinking about is what happens when it goes wrong.

Logan Kelly is the CEO of Waxell AI; a governance and observability platform built to control agents running in production. He's an operator turned founder who learned firsthand that autonomy without guardrails doesn't scale. So he built the infrastructure to fix it.

In this episode of Growth Department, Logan breaks down why governance is the missing layer in most agentic AI stacks; and why putting it in place before your first incident is the only move that makes sense.

You'll learn:

• The difference between observability and governance; and why you need both
• How AI agents can be hacked through context poisoning and rug pull attacks
• Why your agentic chatbot is an attack surface most founders aren't protecting
• How to prevent a thousand dollar API bill from appearing overnight
• Why governance should sit above your agents, not inside them
• How to scale agent infrastructure without replacing your people

Whether you're a founder just getting started with AI agents or a leader ready to operationalize them across your business, this episode will change how you think about what it means to deploy AI safely.

🔗 Follow Logan and learn more about Waxell → waxell.ai 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/logankkelly/

Check out his favorite podcast: Behind the Bastards

🎧 Subscribe to Growth Department on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. 

🌐 More from Growth Department → growthdepartment.com

Growth Department slows the conversation down so founders and business leaders can go further, faster.

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Cien Solon bootstrapped Launch Lemonade with 1.5 people, reached 150 countries and 7,000 users without a single dollar of funding, and just closed her pre-seed round with 8,000 experts already building on her platform.

She did it by doing exactly what she teaches: scaling with AI agents instead of headcount.

As an AI founder, Techstars mentor, trainer, and investor, Cien is on a mission to make sure every entrepreneur and business owner gets to participate in the AI economy. Her tagline says it all: no one gets left behind.

In this episode of Growth Department, Cien breaks down what it actually looks like to build and scale a business with AI agents; no technical background required.

You'll learn:

• Why 99% of the world is still on the same AI learning curve as you; and why that's great news
• The single most important question to ask before adding an AI agent to your business
• How to decide when to hire a human vs. deploy an AI agent
• How business roles are shifting from executors to orchestrators of AI
• How to keep your team aligned when every department is experimenting with agents
• Why building in public is still the cheapest and most effective way to find customers

Whether you're a founder trying to figure out where AI fits, a business leader preparing your team for what's coming, or someone who just wants to understand what's actually possible, this conversation will give you the clarity and confidence to take the next step.

🎧 Subscribe to Growth Department on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. 

🔗 Follow Cien on socials and search Human in the Machine for her podcast and Substack. 

• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cienandai
• IG:  https://www.instagram.com/cienandai
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ciensolon/
• Substack: https://humanandthemachine.substack.com/

🍋 Check out Launch Lemonade → launchlemonade.ai 

📖 Her reading Recommendation:  The Coming Wave https://the-coming-wave.com/

🌐 More from Growth Department → growthdepartment.com

Growth Department slows the conversation down so founders and business leaders can go further, faster.

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Most business owners think growth means more top line revenue. More revenue means more salespeople. More salespeople means more problems.

Greg Stanley has spent over 30 years watching that equation fail.

With strategy and revenue responsibility for over $325 million at PwC, and now as founder of Accelerant Consultants and adjunct professor of sales leadership at Butler University, Greg has seen what actually separates companies that scale from companies that just get busier.

The answer isn't volume. It's value. And there's a framework for building it.

In this episode of Growth Department, Greg breaks down why chasing top line revenue is killing your margins; and what to optimize for instead.

You'll learn:

• The difference between an income-based org and a value-based org; and why most companies are building the wrong one
• The four pillars of an optimized revenue function and what happens when even one is missing
• Why your highest volume customer might actually be destroying your profitability
• How to lead a B2B sales team toward outcomes instead of activity
• When to fix your revenue strategy before you ever think about adding headcount

If you're a B2B founder or revenue leader who's tired of chasing volume and ready to build something valuable and transferable, this episode is required listening.

🎧 Subscribe to Growth Department on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube. 

🔗 Connect with Greg: 

• at Accelerant Consultants: https://www.accelerantconsultants.com/
• on LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-stanley/
• On Mike Weinberg's Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/is-sales-compensation-aligned-with-strategy-and/id1538657842?i=1000692992225

🌐 More from Growth Department → growthdepartment.com

Growth Department slows the conversation down so founders and business leaders can go further, faster.

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What if your next hire wasn't a "Human Employee"?

After two B2B exits, Amos Bar-Joseph is done with the "growth at all cost" playbook. The one that has you raising millions before you know who you're selling to, scaling headcount before you have product-market fit, and building a B2B company too bloated to maneuver when the market shifts.

Now, as Co-Founder & CEO of Swan, he's building something different: the autonomous business model. Three co-founders. 200+ customers. Millions in pipeline generated mostly by one person writing social content on the internet and letting AI agents handle the rest. His mission is to hit $30M ARR without ever throwing bodies at a scaling problem; proving that revenue per human employee, not just adding headcount, is the real growth metric.

In this episode, Amos breaks down exactly how founders and B2B revenue leaders can stop bolting AI onto broken go-to-market processes and start scaling with intelligence instead of headcount.

You'll learn:

• Why 90% of AI GTM implementations fail; and the two root causes behind it
• The "zone of genius" framework for deciding what your humans should own vs. what AI agents should automate
• Why replacing humans with AI is a losing bet; and what the second wave of AI companies is doing differently
• How lean teams can get started with AI even when there's no time to figure it out
• Why brand is now your most important competitive moat in an AI-native world

Whether you're a founder trying to do more with less, a B2B revenue leader building a smarter go-to-market motion, or just trying to understand where this is all heading; this one is required listening.

🎧 Subscribe to Growth Department on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

🔗 Follow Amos on LinkedIn → linkedin.com/in/amos-bar-joseph

🤖 Check out Swan → getswan.com

🌐 More from Growth Department → growthdepartment.com

Also, check out the podcast that Amos mentions here: https://youtu.be/13CZPWmke6A?si=5ssfQnfbDTWYM2KL

Growth Department slows the conversation down so founders and business leaders can go further, faster.

If this episode helped you think differently, follow the show and share it with someone building alongside you.