47% of B2B organizations are stuck in AI piloting while individuals race ahead. Here's how to close the gap.

Mike Kaput, Chief Content Officer at SmarterX and co-author of Marketing Artificial Intelligence, has spent the past decade watching companies say they’re “exploring AI” while their best people build personal superpowers with it, but remain siloed. In this episode, Jo digs into SmarterX’s 2026 State of AI for Business report — and the structural gap it reveals between what individual contributors are doing with AI and what their organizations have actually sanctioned.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

07:35 – The SMB’s “worst of both worlds” problem: why mid-market companies get stuck, with only 14–16% reaching scaling

10:38 – AI native, AI emergent, or obsolete: the three-category framework every SMB leader needs to hear

11:13 – Why “our data isn’t ready” isn’t the barrier leaders think it is — and what you can do today without involving proprietary data

14:08 – The three-tier AI tech stack: existing tools, frontier models, and specialized platforms, plus why sequence matters

18:04 – AI literacy before AI tools: why spending millions on software doesn’t help teams that still use AI like a search engine

24:47 – Why 58% of professionals want workflow integration training even more than prompting guidance — the shift from tactics to operations

28:28 – The workflow documentation step you can’t afford to skip

32:26 – The three moves a mid-market sales and marketing leader should make this week to get out of the silos and start building real AI infrastructure

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Kyle Denhoff of HubSpot breaks down YouTube channel structure, search optimization, repurposing, and what to measure.

In Part 2 of this conversation with Jo, Kyle Denhoff, Senior Director of Marketing at HubSpot (where he manages 13 YouTube channels), gets into the practical mechanics of building a B2B YouTube presence that compounds. Jo and Kyle cover channel architecture, YouTube Studio optimization, AEO strategy, getting camera-shy technical experts on camera, scrappy repurposing workflows, and a three-step plan for practitioners ready to start or restart their YouTube presence.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

• 02:14 — Channel structure: why YouTube thinks like TV and what that means for B2B channel design
• 03:54 — Playlists as content clusters: the two models Kyle uses to organize for algorithms and audience
• 07:07 — YouTube Studio essentials: the three metrics that actually predict algorithm traction (CTR, average view duration, engagement)
• 10:16 — Title and thumbnail strategy: why Kyle’s team builds the brief around packaging first, content second
• 12:12 — Answer engine optimization (AEO): how YouTube content is being cited by LLMs, and what that means for your content brief
• 19:19 — Content strategy prioritization: demand capture vs. brand awareness and why Kyle always starts at the bottom of the funnel
• 22:52 — Getting camera-resistant SMEs on video: why interview formats outperform scripted solo content for reluctant experts
• 24:28 — Repurposing on a tight budget: the studio-day model, Opus Clip, Descript, and the transcript-to-LinkedIn workflow
• 28:06 — Measurement: quality signals vs. performance metrics, and why the first 24 hours matter more than you think
• 30:44 — The 3-step practitioner plan: audit, commit to one series, publish every two weeks for three months

QUOTES FROM THE EPISODE:

“You don’t need the charismatic, loud host to be successful on these platforms. You want someone who’s educational, has lived experience, and can share stories, mental models, and results.” — Kyle Denhoff

“The transcript immediately goes into Google Drive, and our team uses it as foundational material for an upcoming newsletter or blog post.” — Kyle Denhoff

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Kyle Denhoff of HubSpot makes the business case for YouTube as a B2B growth and AEO channel, not just a place to park videos.

INTRO:

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

03:24 – YouTube’s scale: last year Nielsen reported YouTube generates more streams than Disney Plus and Netflix combined on U.S. televisions, and it's now a primary source for AI-cited content

05:51 – YouTube and AEO: HubSpot data shows LLMs are consistently citing three channels in B2B queries: Reddit, LinkedIn, YouTube

08:30 – LLMs seek consensus across sources: the shift from single-keyword blog strategies to intentional multi-channel publishing

09:29 – Format matters by channel (the “no copy-paste” rule): Reddit demands no promo, LinkedIn favors individual voices, YouTube earns trust through expertise on camera

11:33 – How YouTube maps to the full buyer journey: awareness, consideration, and conversion use cases, with examples from HubSpot’s channel architecture

13:12 – YouTube as a content anchor: why it’s easier to turn a YouTube video into a blog post than the reverse, and how one 8–10 minute video generates a full library of assets

17:35 – The organizational shift: what it takes to move from “do more video” to a video-first content strategy

21:33 – The team you need: on-camera expert, producer, and editor — and why the producer role is often underestimated

22:12 – Making the ROI case: UTMs, QLs, influenced MRR, and how to frame brand-building value when direct attribution isn’t available

25:28 – Time horizon: 9–12 months for a B2B YouTube channel to compound, and what early signals to watch for while you wait

39:28 – Three decisions before you invest: business objective, proof your buyers are there, and commitment to format and resourcing

NOTABLE QUOTES:

“YouTube is a massive media company with distribution into the family television to the search engines. If you’re looking to get visibility for your company and your products, you have to be there.” — Kyle Denhoff

“LLMs are lazy readers. We have to draw the thread for them — the link in the description has to point back to our product or service that has to do with this video.” — Kyle Denhoff (quoting HubSpot's head of growth, Aja Frost)

“It’s really hard to turn a blog post into a YouTube video. It’s a lot easier to turn a YouTube video into a blog post.” — Kyle Denhoff

Links mentioned in the episode: HubSpot AEO Grader (free tool): https://www.hubspot.com/aeo-grader

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Kelly Wilhelme, Director of Marketing at Weidert Group, sits down with HubSpot Senior Director of Marketing Kyle Denhoff to dig into why the traditional inbound playbook is losing effectiveness — and how to replace it.

They unpack how buyer behavior has shifted over the past 3–4 years, why marketers are seeing declining traffic and rising ad costs, and why the answer isn't more AI — it's a stronger foundation. The conversation centers on the Express stage of Loop Marketing: how to define an ICP using real customer data, how brand guidelines must evolve beyond visuals into usable systems, and how a solid foundation is what makes AI actually work.

Kyle and Kelly also explore how teams can move from one-off campaigns to an always-on, multi-channel approach — and why centralizing brand and messaging inside your core tools is what separates scalable marketing from AI-powered chaos.

If your traffic is dropping, your costs are rising, and AI isn't delivering the results you expected, this episode explains why — and where to start.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

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Nicole Mertes, Weidert Group COO, and Director of Business Development Frank Isca tackle one of the most common frustrations in B2B marketing: teams that are constantly busy but can't show consistent growth.

In this episode of The ChangeOver Podcast, they unpack why "random acts of marketing" create an illusion of productivity without building long-term momentum. Then they go further, walking through exactly what it takes to replace that pattern with a systems-driven growth engine that compounds over time.

The conversation covers how buyer behavior has changed, why the traditional inbound playbook is losing effectiveness, and why personalization at scale is nearly impossible without a connected foundation. Nicole and Frank then lay out the full architecture of a growth engine: four non-negotiable foundational elements that must be in place before the engine can run, and three always-on tracks that keep it moving once it does.

If your team feels like it's working harder than ever but still struggling to build consistent pipeline momentum — and you want a clear picture of what to do about it — this episode delivers both the "why" and the "how."

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Amanda Natividad explains how AI search, zero-click behavior, and disappearing data are forcing marketers back to craft, clarity, and value.

In the second half of this conversation on The ChangeOver Podcast, Amanda Natividad, VP of Marketing at SparkToro, and host Chelsea Drusch move from diagnosing the zero-click and attribution problems to answering the harder question:

They explore how zero-click dynamics and AI-driven search are stripping away the illusion of perfect attribution, and in the process, pushing marketing back toward fundamentals that were never optional to begin with.

From AI visibility (not rankings), to why gating content can sabotage discoverability, to the growing importance of taste, craft, and clarity, this episode reframes modern marketing as both more human and more demanding than before.

For industrial B2B teams navigating AI search, skeptical executives, and shrinking data certainty, this episode offers a practical mindset shift — and a reminder that “doing good marketing” is no longer a cliché. It’s the strategy.

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CHECK OUT SPARKTORO: https://sparktoro.com/

“About two-thirds of Google searches now end without a click. We can’t build strategies that depend on clicks happening anymore.” — Amanda Natividad

In this episode of The ChangeOver Podcast, Chelsea Drusch is joined by Amanda Natividad, VP of Marketing at SparkToro, for a grounded, practitioner-first conversation about why clicks are disappearing — and why that doesn’t mean marketing is broken.

Amanda breaks down what zero-click marketing really means, why platforms are structurally designed to keep users on-platform, and how this shift forces marketers to rethink attribution, ROI, and success metrics altogether. Drawing on SparkToro’s research and her own decade-plus career in the trenches, she makes a compelling case for moving beyond click obsession toward impressions, visibility, and value on investment (VOI).

For industrial B2B marketers facing skeptical stakeholders, shrinking organic reach, and unreliable analytics, this episode offers clarity and a healthier, more realistic way forward.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

CONNECT WITH US:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/weidert-group/

Instagram: instagram.com/weidertgroup/

Facebook: facebook.com/weidertgroup

X: x.com/WeidertGroup

YouTube: youtube.com/@Weidert

Website: weidert.com/changeoverpodcast

CONNECT WITH OUR HOST AND GUEST:

Chelsea Drusch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseadrusch/

Amanda Natividad: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandanat/

CHECK OUT SPARKTORO: https://sparktoro.com/

SPARKTORO BLOG: https://sparktoro.com/blog/

Manufacturers don’t have a data problem: they have a change management problem. In this episode, Frank sits down with Erik Henry of Simplified Data Solutions to break down why data unification fails, the weaknesses AI exposes inside disconnected systems, and how leaders can finally transform their mountains of data into real, revenue-driving insight.

Together, they unpack the cultural, behavioral, and leadership obstacles that absolutely must be addressed before any technology initiative, certainly including AI, can succeed.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

07:35 – Why manufacturers collect data but can’t use it: Unstructured data and the “gold mine” myth

08:17 – What’s driving urgency now: AI exposes outdated systems. Data + Context = Insight

10:43 – Unified data in marketing & sales: personalization opportunities

13:50 – The #1 reason unification fails: misaligned people

18:15 – Why AI projects collapse: the prerequisite everyone overlooks

22:23 – Identity vs. process: why people resist letting go of “their” spreadsheets

24:16 – Evaluating ROI: friction, opportunity, and the “squishy” middle

29:38 – The first two steps leaders should take to make progress

CONNECT WITH US:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/weidert-group/

Instagram: instagram.com/weidertgroup/

Facebook: facebook.com/weidertgroup

X: x.com/WeidertGroup

YouTube: youtube.com/@Weidert

Website: weidert.com/changeoverpodcast

CONNECT WITH OUR HOST AND GUEST:

Frank Isca: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frankisca/

Erik Henry: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erik-henry-mba/

Falcon’s VP of Marketing & Sales, Krista Short, joins host Chelsea Drusch to share how her team navigated one of the biggest shifts industrial marketers have faced in a decade: the collapse of traditional organic traffic and the rise of AI-driven discovery.

Falcon once relied on a disciplined inbound engine: weekly blogs, tight keyword models, and a well-oiled SEO program. Then 2024 happened. Traffic dropped. MQLs slipped. But the leads that mattered most didn’t budge.

That discrepancy became the catalyst for a complete strategic reset.

Together, Falcon and Weidert Group rebuilt the discovery engine around AI search visibility, commercial-intent content, and new top-of-funnel pathways that actually match how industrial buyers search today.

Three guiding questions anchor this episode:

• What happens when traffic falls but sales stay strong?
• Where are industrial buyers actually discovering solutions in an AI-first world?
• What does a modern content program look like when weekly blogs stop moving the needle?

Krista shares how Falcon shifted from keyword chasing to audience-backed experiments, including digital PR, entity-driven visibility, deep topic ecosystems, and early AEO strategy. She also explains why internal KPIs had to evolve… and why bravery is now a core marketing skill.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

• 01:00 – Inbound foundations: Falcon’s early SEO success and why it stopped working
• 02:35 – Search intent vs. keywords: how AI reshaped discovery behaviors
• 06:18 – The first red flag: when traffic tanked but sales-ready leads didn’t
• 10:09 – Reallocating resources toward experiments, not routines
• 13:02 – Digital PR, entity visibility, and why sites like Wikipedia matter
• 16:29 – Using clickstream data and sales feedback to shape content ecosystems
• 18:33 – Shifting from keyword calendars to problem-first content ecosystems
• 26:24 – Advice to industrial marketers stepping into the unknown

CONNECT WITH US:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/weidert-group/

Instagram: instagram.com/weidertgroup/

Facebook: facebook.com/weidertgroup

X: x.com/WeidertGroup

YouTube: youtube.com/@Weidert

Website: weidert.com/changeoverpodcast

CONNECT WITH OUR HOST AND GUEST:

Chelsea Drusch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelseadrusch/

Krista Short: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristashort/

In this episode of The ChangeOver, Weidert Group’s Chelsea Drusch sits down with SEO expert Dale Bertrand to unpack the seismic shifts AI and zero-click search are bringing to digital marketing.

Dale explains why the old playbook of keyword targeting and technical tricks no longer works — and how today’s search engines, powered by AI, reward content that delivers real value to buyers. Together, Chelsea and Dale explore how marketers can adapt by focusing on topical relevance, audience research, and brand reputation inside generative platforms like ChatGPT.

From reframing traffic declines as higher-quality leads to balancing SEO with “generative engine optimization,” this conversation helps marketers understand what it takes to stay visible when answers, not links, are the new search results.

Whether you’re a strategist rethinking your KPIs, a content creator trying to reach buyers in a zero-click world, or a marketing leader navigating stakeholder expectations, this episode offers clarity, perspective, and practical next steps for thriving in the Age of AI.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

• 02:17 Dale’s path from software engineering to SEO expert and marketing agency leader
• 04:30 Why topical relevance now matters more than keyword targeting
• 05:49 Why technical SEO “tricks” no longer work
• 07:41 Balancing technical optimization with audience-first content creation
• 13:00 Zero-click search explained, and why AI platforms are “qualifying” your traffic, not stealing it
• 16:42 Traffic down, revenue up: why quality matters more than volume
• 22:10 Why direct attribution was always a dream, and which metrics matter now
• 28:13 The marketer’s choice: metrics monkey or true strategist
• 33:16 The difference between AEO and GEO (or does terminology even matter?)

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