Pipelineology

Gary meets with Preston Bowman, CEO of Stone Creek Consulting, who recounts starting in radio at 13, becoming a licensed on-air teenager, and at 17 managing a radio station, which became a “business bootcamp” that sparked his love of business and marketing. After college (electronics engineering with a business minor) and early web-app development work, he built his business in 2001 and increasingly integrated marketing into web work, later partnering early with HubSpot and shifting to a marketing agency with a digital focus. Preston argues most companies confuse tactics with strategy and need an installed process. He outlines his “combustion marketing” framework: clear messaging (spark), irresistible offer (fuel), nurturing funnel that builds familiarity and trust (oxygen), and consistent follow-up (containment). He shares a recent example where a client’s “strategy” was only a social media calendar, and describes his diagnostic roadmap sessions that rate message/offer/funnel/follow-up and fix the most upstream issue first.

Discover:

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

00:28 Teen Radio Station Manager

03:59 From Radio to Tech Career

06:18 Early Web Development Days

09:23 Spaghetti Marketing Problem

14:05 Combustion Marketing Framework

18:53 Real Client Strategy Example

23:33 Diagnostic Roadmap Process

25:59 Who It's For and Next Steps

29:11 Final Advice and Wrap Up

strategyeval.com

On this episode of the Pipelineology podcast, Gary interviews Joe Fontana, Chief Marketing and Growth Officer at BuyerForesight Amzai and author of "Fred Flintstone Selling In A George Jetson World," about using conversation-driven events to build pipeline for long-cycle, multi-stakeholder B2B deals. Joe argues that despite automation and AI, sales is fundamentally a series of human conversations, and his model focuses on curated micro-events centered on prospect pain rather than decks, demos, case studies, or self-promotion. He explains targeting and research over an eight-week window, the importance of defining the “why” that gets prospects into the room, and disciplined follow-up that continues the conversation without immediate pitching. He outlines fit criteria (B2B tech, law firms, associations) and shares contact info and his own monthly tastings as a no-pitch example.

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

00:41 Joe’s Background and Sales Philosophy

02:31 What Conversation Events Are

05:11 Getting the Right People in the Room

09:21 No Pitch Decks or Prework

11:17 Follow Up That Builds Trust

13:23 How to Build the Target List

16:58 ROI Math and No Show Reality

18:48 Why Small Rooms Win

22:18 Owning Relationships Post Event

25:15 Who This Works For

29:20 How to Reach Joe

33:51 AI and Bad Outreach

34:57 Wrap Up and Thanks

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-fontana75/

[email protected]

Gary talks with Arthur Germain, principal and Chief Brandteller at Brandtelling, who describes his background from publishing to PR and explains that differentiation comes from client stories, not feature lists. They discuss how over-reliance on AI can make company messaging bland and uniform, and how AI works best with active human editing and guardrails. Arthur outlines his approach using Simon Sinek’s Start With Why plus an added “who” audience layer, and stresses writing a “brand bible” to prevent narrative drift as companies grow or acquire others, avoiding watered-down committee messaging. He shares “vibe coding” Brand Bots (brandbots.brandtelling.net), including tools to assess tone across five axes and an MSP-specific “MSP Sound Like” commoditization score. Examples include rebranding Sunrise Electrical to Sunrise Power Solutions and a law firm differentiating via a strong point of view on training. Arthur recommends using customer verbatims to refine messaging and says he works with growth-stage professional services firms, starting with a brand narrative audit at brandtelling.com.

Discover:

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

00:32 Arthur’s Brandtelling Origin

01:20 AI Makes Brands Sound The Same

03:25 Using AI With Guardrails

05:37 Start With Why and Who

07:55 Avoiding Committee Speak

10:09 Vibe Coding Brand Bots

13:26 Tools for Tone and MSPs

14:59 Narrative Drift and Foundations

16:12 Before After Brand Story

20:06 Differentiation Through POV

22:00 Customer Verbatims for Messaging

25:40 Who Arthur Helps and Contact

27:44 Wrap Up and Thanks

brandtelling.com

brandbots.brandtelling.net

In this episode of the Pipelineology podcast, Gary is joined by Stacy Thal, founder of Brand Brands Better. Stacy shares her career path from screenwriting (including working with Francis Ford Coppola, who taught her “build it up, tear it down” and that writing is in the editing) into marketing and brand strategy. She explains how she helps startups, investors, founders, and CMOs connect founder and investor ambitions with what customers actually want, drawing on experience with companies like Google, Walmart, Yahoo, and agency work for brands including LinkedIn and Samsung. Stacy emphasizes storytelling through “intensive experienced acute listening” rather than being “shouty,” citing Google Store learning that customers cared more about connection than specs, and a connected-fitness brand discovering weight loss mattered most to the market. She discusses brand blunders like Lululemon’s Great Wall stunt, her pivot to startups after repeated layoffs, her day-one process of auditing and building foundational brand strategy, and how to contact her via brandbrandsbetter.com or LinkedIn.

Discover:

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

00:27 Stacy’s Brand Mission

02:25 Coppola Screenwriting Roots

06:16 Storytelling Through Listening

08:48 Google Store Human Story

11:14 Company Values vs Market

13:28 Brand Blunders

16:23 Why Startups Over Big Brands

19:09 Day One Brand Audit

21:42 Huddle Pivot Case Study

24:07 When to Reach Out

25:43 Wrap Up and Thanks

brandbrandsbetter.com

linkedin.com/in/stacythal

On this episode of the Pipelineology podcast, Gary interviews Niki McKinnell of McKinnell Consulting. She shares her path from government crisis communications to B2B SaaS marketing and consulting, focused on proactive story building and elevating company messaging. She explains how many companies lose leads by not responding within minutes and recommends low-effort automation: connect form fills to an immediate calendar booking option, trigger rep-like follow-up emails if no meeting is booked, and add alerts and reminders for sales. Niki defines “stabilization” as aligning teams and processes across the customer lifecycle to move faster, close more deals, and retain customers. She outlines repurposing content (e.g., turning webinars into transcripts, guides, blogs, clips, and thought leadership) using tools like Claude with brand context, noting AI gets ~80% and still needs human review. She also details pre-event planning, lead capture and prioritization, ROI measurement, and swag/gifting strategies, emphasizing cross-functional go-to-market alignment to prevent breakdowns like selling unfinished products and to refine messaging based on field feedback.

Discover:

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

00:40 Niki Career Journey

02:07 Automated Lead Capture

04:23 Easy Automation Setup

05:44 Stabilizing Go To Market

06:44 Repurposing Content Smarter

09:53 Claude Workflow for Drafts

12:39 Quality Control With AI

14:18 Event Prep and ROI

17:17 Lead Scanning and Prioritization

19:43 Swag and Gifting Strategy

23:14 Aligning Teams and Launches

27:33 Messaging From Field Feedback

31:02 Wrap Up and Thanks

linkedin.com/in/nikimckinnell

In this episode of the Pipelineology podcast, Gary interviews Scott Wasserman of Wasserman Revenue Advisors, a fractional CMO for B2B SaaS and PE-backed companies focused on pipeline-driven growth, dark social, demand gen, and rev ops alignment. Scott shares his unusual path from owning a successful Hair Club for Men franchise to building a digital marketing consultancy by learning inbound marketing through HubSpot as metrics and measurable channels emerged. He explains how buying behavior has shifted to “dark social” touchpoints - Slack, podcasts, private messages, and algorithm-driven platforms, making attribution harder, and suggests adding “how did you hear about us” back to forms to regain signal. They discuss AI’s impact: it accelerates work like metrics and content creation but can create “AI slop,” requiring a human voice and careful use. Scott emphasizes streamlining, testing ideas, and relationship-based networking rather than pitch-heavy outreach, and advises contacting him via LinkedIn.

Discover:

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

01:01 Scott’s Unusual Career Start

02:13 Digital Marketing Metrics Shift

04:29 Paid Ads and Hidden Touchpoints

06:25 Dark Social Explained

11:14 What to Do About Dark Social

13:04 AI Changes Content and Work

15:50 Avoiding AI Slop and Staying Human

17:33 AI Efficiency vs Job Fears

20:13 Jurassic Park Moment on Reporting

21:02 Streamline With AI

22:22 Test And Learn

24:00 The AI Fix

25:01 Talk Like Humans

26:00 Real LinkedIn Networking

30:07 From Chat To Business

32:12 Everyday Conversation Skills

38:52 How To Reach Scott

40:26 Final Wrap Up

linkedin.com/in/scottwasserman

Gary interviews Kyle Campbell, serial entrepreneur and founder of Dark Matter Strategic, about his path from high-ticket sales floors (including early work with Russell Brunson and other marketing accounts) to starting agencies in 2012 and forming Dark Matter Strategic in 2018. Kyle explains his firm’s focus on lead management, emphasizing revenue capture and recovery over generating more leads. Many businesses fail to respond quickly or at all, causing major revenue leaks. He shares examples of poor follow-up from service contractors and companies at the Consumer Electronics Show, and cites the importance of rapid response to inquiries. Kyle discusses using AI and automation to improve speed-to-lead, summarize conversations for human handoffs, and streamline repetitive operational tasks, while warning that AI layered on broken systems only exposes problems faster. He also outlines database re-engagement: cleaning and segmenting lists, targeting proven offers, and leveraging existing leads, and provides ways to connect via LinkedIn, Facebook, and darkmatterstrategic.com.

Discover:

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

00:36 Kyle’s Origin Story

02:28 Wild West Sales Floors

04:38 From Sales to Agency Life

06:29 You Don’t Need More Leads

08:05 Speed to Lead Stats

11:39 Why Leads Get Missed

13:28 AI Follow Up and Handoffs

18:28 Where AI Delivers ROI

20:52 Database Reengagement Goldmine

23:14 Direct Mail and Old School Plays

26:05 No One Magic Script

27:20 Where to Find Kyle

29:06 Closing Thanks and Wrap Up

https://www.darkmatterstrategic.com/

linkedin.com/in/kyle-campbell-b5194b20

In this episode of the Pipelineology podcast, Gary meets with Ben G Kaiser, owner of Kaiser Media Group. Ben shares how he built a YouTube tech review business over 8–9 years by publishing 2,200 videos, growing to 140,000 subscribers, 50 million views, and 16 million in tracked tech sales, which led to brand work with companies like Intel and Lenovo. He explains how small businesses can apply the same principles without big production budgets by focusing on a specific target audience, telling client success stories, and creating direct, intentional content rather than “vanity” pieces. Kaiser outlines his “Pillar Content Flywheel” framework to organize content into pillars that keep audiences engaged and help dominate a niche, tying it to StoryBrand’s guide/hero concept. He also describes how extensive content can help AI tools like Claude “vet” and recommend consultants, and notes his LinkedIn 30-day content prompt challenge and how to contact him via LinkedIn DM.

00:00 Welcome and Introduction

00:19 Ben’s YouTube Origin Story

02:57 Landing Big Brand Deals

04:34 Content for Small Businesses

07:28 Storytelling That Connects

11:33 Pillar Content Flywheel

16:07 Content That Sells for You

17:49 AI Discovery and The Peacocks Echo

20:55 Avoiding Vanilla Content

22:56 Who Ben Works With

24:55 How to Contact Ben

25:30 Wrap Up and Takeaways

linkedin.com/in/bengkaiser

In this episode of the Pipelineology podcast, Gary is joined by Chris Inman, founder of I.D.E.A. Cleveland, who shares his path from high school video work to sports broadcasting and corporate video production before shifting to helping small businesses use video to grow. Chris explains the “content treadmill” and argues most businesses fail with video because they don’t decide what each video is supposed to do for sales. He emphasizes strategy before content, setting goals and KPIs tied to leads and revenue, and building trust and authority over time through a customer journey that turns cold audiences into warm leads. Chris outlines a framework to ask before hitting record - who the content is for, why they would subscribe, what questions the show should answer, and how viewers go deeper through a non-lazy call to action rather than “book a meeting.” He discusses consistency as consistency of messaging, not posting frequency, and recommends evergreen topics based on common prospect questions and sales conversations. Chris suggests growing faster by being a guest on other shows and promoting content beyond YouTube, including creative uses like QR codes on business cards. He closes by inviting listeners to connect with him on LinkedIn and to check out his book, “Stop Wasting Money On Marketing: A No-Fluff Guide to Building a Plan That Actually Works,” available on Amazon, and his website ideacleveland.com.

Discover:

00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

00:32 Chris Inman Origin Story

03:05 Video System Not Treadmill

05:25 Strategy Before Record

08:32 Customer Journey to Trust

12:10 Who Why What How Framework

14:23 Calls to Action That Convert

18:09 Avoiding Burnout With Cadence

18:47 Consistency Is Messaging

20:29 Evergreen Topics From Sales

21:02 Repurpose And Drive To Website

22:26 Use AI To Mine Questions

24:05 Intentional Content For Sales

24:50 Simple Video Setup That Works

27:07 Audio First Gear Advice

30:27 Be A Guest To Grow Faster

32:30 Promote Beyond Algorithms

33:47 Objection Handling Video Library

35:01 Where To Connect And Learn More

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ideacle/

https://www.ideacleveland.com/about

Chris's Book: Stop Wasting Money on Marketing: A No-Fluff Guide to Building a Plan That Actually Works

In this episode, Gary chats with David Wachs, founder and CEO of Handwrytten, the world's largest provider of automated handwritten notes. David shares his journey from running a text messaging company to establishing Handwrytten, which sends out 15,000 to 30,000 handwritten notes daily for various businesses. They discuss the unique impact of handwritten notes on client retention and ROI, drawing comparisons to digital methods like emails and text messages. David explains the technology behind Handwrytten's robots and provides practical advice on leveraging handwritten notes for building client loyalty. They explore real-world success stories, the spillover effect, and methods to test handwritten notes' effectiveness, emphasizing the value of personal touch in modern marketing.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome

00:24 David Wachs' Background and Handwrytten Overview

01:46 The Unique Value of Handwritten Notes

05:25 Handwritten Notes as a Retention Tool

05:33 Outreach Strategies with Handwritten Notes

09:27 Case Studies and ROI of Handwritten Notes

15:53 The Technology Behind Handwrytten

18:27 The Spillover Effect in Customer Experience

20:21 Getting Started with Handwritten Notes

23:31 Conclusion and Farewell

www.handwrytten.com