Most brands are still screaming for attention. Scott Martin believes the future belongs to the ones who earn trust.

In this episode of The Viral Genius Podcast, Fernando Labastida sits down with Scott Martin — CEO of Groundswell Origins, author of Groundswell: The Unseen Wave of Business Growth, TEDx speaker, and creator of the upcoming book Title Shift. Together, they unpack one of the most important shifts happening in marketing today: the move from an attention economy to a trust economy.

Scott explains why consumers are overwhelmed, skeptical, and tired of “growth hacking theater”… and why the brands that win next will be the ones that build authentic, coherent experiences from the very first touchpoint all the way through delivery. He calls this new category Brand Coherence — the strategic bedrock for sustainable growth in an age of AI, content overload, and mistrust.

You’ll also hear:

Why “trust → like → know” is the new buying cycle

How AI-generated perfection is accelerating mistrust

What Scott learned from decades in growth hacking — and why he walked away from it

How his Groundswell Method helps companies grow without traditional marketing

The power of circles of trust, superconsumers, and founder-led category creation

Why patience may actually be the greatest “growth hack” of all

This is a rich, future-forward conversation about designing brands people actually believe in — and why transformation (not tactics) is the real engine of word-of-mouth.

If you’re a founder, marketer, creator, or anyone trying to build something that lasts, this episode is a north star.

CHAPTERS

00:00 — Introduction: Content Overload & Mistrust00:46 — Meet Scott Martin02:11 — The Premise of Title Shift03:26 — Entering the Age of Mistrust04:49 — Circles of Trust & the Return to Community06:50 — Defining a New Category: Brand Coherence08:44 — Sustainable Growth Marketing09:14 — What Brand Coherence Really Means16:02 — The Groundswell Method Explained20:05 — Transformation as the Ultimate Growth Loop26:46 — Lightning Strikes & Community Building33:28 — Closing Thoughts & What’s Next

Where to Find Scott Martin

Website: https://groundswellorigins.com

YouTube: https://groundswell.tv

LinkedIn: Search Scott A. Martin – Groundswell

Groundswell Inner Circle Community: https://groundswellinnercircle.com

Podcast: The Groundswell Podcast (available on all major platforms)

Register here → https://summit.strikemarketingsummit.com/talks/the-future-of-content-operations/

If you’ve ever been seduced by the endless parade of shiny AI tools—and then wondered why your content still doesn’t work—this conversation with Audra Carpenter is your wake-up call.

Audra has been doing content marketing since Obama’s first term. She’s logged her “10,000 hours” inside the chaos of AI implementation, and she’s emerged with something founders desperately need: a practical, battle-tested blueprint for turning AI into an actual operating system for your content. Not a toy. Not a trick. A system.

In this speaker-preview episode, Audra breaks down:

🔥 Why AI is incredible at “macro” work—but fails spectacularly at the micro decisions humans make without thinking

(“AI will 100% miss the tiny nuances you make unconsciously. It’s a black box.”)

🔥 The hidden, unconscious micro-steps that make or break your content workflows

She explains why everyone gets stuck when they try to “just have AI write the blog post.”

🔥 The 3 roles every company will soon have: Architect, Operator, Automator

And why founders must stop chasing tools and start building infrastructure.

🔥 How to build AI-powered workflows that actually scale your business

Agents aren’t autonomous yet—but the workflows she’s building today are “sexy, powerful, and real.”

🔥 Why the ONLY unfair advantage left in marketing is your humanity

As AI removes barriers, differentiation becomes emotional, relational, and strategic—not technical.

About Audra’s Strike Marketing Summit Talk

Title: From Workflows to Intelligence: The Future of Content OperationsWhen: Friday, December 12 · 1–2 PM CT (2–3 PM ET)Where: Strike Marketing Summit (100% virtual & free)Register: https://summit.strikemarketingsummit.com/talks/the-future-of-content-operations/

This session is a must-attend for founders, marketers, and operators who want to build a content machine that runs with AI—not against it.

Audra will show you how to shortcut years of trial and error… and finally get AI to produce consistent, usable, on-brand output.

Soundbites You’ll Love

“Not all the shiny tools.”

“AI is great at macro work—not the micro.”

“I want to shortcut it for you.”

“Workflows are the future. Agents aren’t here yet.”

“Marketing is still marketing—we just have a different tool.”

Navigating Data Challenges for AI Success

In this episode, Fernando Labastida talks with Eduardo Ortiz Ramírez about one of the most overlooked barriers to AI success: the quality of a company’s data and processes. Eduardo explains why data problems can derail even the most ambitious AI initiatives—and why the solution isn’t always a massive, expensive digital transformation.

Instead, he shares a more practical path: intelligent reinvention. This approach centers on identifying strategic pain points, implementing quick wins, and modernizing processes in targeted, high-impact ways.

If your organization is struggling to make AI work—or you're unsure how to prepare your systems and people for AI adoption—this conversation gives you a roadmap for getting unstuck.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the Viral Genius Podcast00:40 Understanding Intelligent Reinvention

Bryan Eisenberg has shaped modern digital marketing more than almost anyone alive. He and his brother Jeffrey pioneered ideas like conversion rate optimization (CRO), persuasion architecture, and scent, and authored 11 bestselling books that defined the field.

In this Strike Marketing Summit preview, Bryan joins Fernando Labastida to unpack a critical shift:

In a world where AI curates our choices, stories — not facts — determine which brands survive.

What You’ll Learn

Why AI leads convert 23× better than SEO leads — and what this means for visibility, differentiation, and demand generation.

How AI is changing search behavior from “ranking” to story recall, giving brands with strong narratives a structural advantage.

Why marketers must craft “brandable chunks” — simple, vivid pieces of vocabulary customers repeat and algorithms latch onto.

How the average person now absorbs 15,000+ marketing messages per day, and why your messaging must cut through instantly.

Why great companies win by telling origin stories and belief stories that customers can retell in their own words.

Case Study: The Tri-Chord Method

Bryan breaks down a real-world transformation of Dr. Matt Delgado, an Austin chiropractor whose brand exploded after shifting to:

A clear origin story rooted in healing his own autoimmune condition

A belief story built around the nervous system as the “master system”

A signature methodology — The Tri-Chord Method — now recognizable inside AI tools

Sticky vocabulary like:

AQ (Ask Quotient)

The body was meant to move

Timeout Prescription

This approach created a story customers wanted to repeat… and that AI systems began to surface.

Why This Matters

If your brand sounds like everyone else’s — “family-owned,” “great service,” “high quality” — AI will flatten you into irrelevance.But if you engineer the right stories, the algorithms will recall you.

Where to See Bryan Live

Strike Marketing Summit 2025📅 Friday, December 12🕛 12 PM – 1 PM CSTTalk: The Stories We Sell

Register here: https://summit.strikemarketingsummit.com

A must-listen for any founder, marketer, creator, or practitioner who wants to stand out in an AI-driven world.

In a world where timelines are noisy and attention is scarce, summits have become one of the most reliable — and overlooked — ways to break through the clutter.

In this Strike Marketing Summit preview, Fernando Labastida sits down with Darrell Vesterfelt, VP of Growth at Mighty Networks and co-founder of multiple large-scale online events (including one with 180,000 registrants). Darrell explains why summits are his favorite top-of-funnel strategy across industries — SaaS, creator businesses, physical products, agencies, and more.

More importantly, he breaks down the psychology behind why a well-structured event can fill your funnel in one shot… even if you're a startup launching to crickets.

Why summits work (according to Darrell):

1. They break the norm.An event with multiple expert speakers stands out instantly in a crowded feed. When people are scrolling through endless micro-content, a summit feels like a high-value destination.

2. They overwhelm with value.As Darrell says, you want attendees to think:“If they give me this much for free, what happens when I pay them?”

3. They activate networks — without spending a fortune.Even a 200-person summit can outperform a 10,000-person one if the goal is targeted leads, not vanity metrics.

4. They work for SaaS, creators, founders, and service businesses alike.Darrell has run successful summits for everything from homesteading courses to software platforms.

5. They build trust faster than any other marketing move.Summits compress connection, authority, reciprocity, and community into a single strike.

Whether you’re launching a new startup, releasing a product, or building your personal brand, this interview shows exactly why an event might be your most leverage-rich move.

Darrell’s Session at the Strike Marketing Summit“Why Most Startups Launch to Crickets — and How One Summit Can Fill Your Funnel Overnight”📅 December 11, 2025⏰ 5:00–6:00 PM CST🔗 https://summit.strikemarketingsummit.com

What you’ll learn:

Why summits break through noise better than any single-topic event

How Darrell generated 180,000 registrations

Why value-overload is the #1 persuasion lever in event marketing

Why small summits can outperform massive ones

How to use a summit to launch a company, a product, or a category

The difference between “attention” and “activation”

Why success depends on the end goal, not the audience size

Ways to use summits for SaaS, creators, agencies, and physical products

Chapters

00:00 – Why summits break the norm00:26 – Darrell’s biggest summit successes

01:31 – Why events fill funnels at every scale

03:02 – The psychology of attention & value

04:46 – Reciprocity and value overload

05:39 – The School of Traditional Skills case study

06:07 – 10,000+ attendee summits at Mighty Networks

07:28 – Small vs. large summits: what counts as “success”

08:46 – Closing & Summit invitation

Entrepreneurship is chaos. Writing a book while running a company? Even more chaotic.But Navy-SEAL calm, tight communication, and a simple battlefield framework can turn that chaos into a strategic advantage.

In this Strike Marketing Summit preview, Fernando Labastida sits down with Kevin McGrew, CEO of EverSocial and author of Smack Marketing: The New Rules of Marketing Warfare. Kevin breaks down the real story behind becoming a founder-author — the mistakes, the wins, the wasted $10K, the unexpected power of AI, and the marketing lessons he learned the hard way.

Most importantly, he reveals the SMAC Framework, a military-inspired operating system for writing a book, building a category, and communicating with punch:

S – SHOOT: Define exactly who the book is for, and what category battlefield you want to own.M – MOVE: Write fast, imperfect drafts. Avoid perfection paralysis. Use AI as a co-pilot.A – ADAPT: Iterate with early feedback, test your stories, and use data to know what resonates.C – COMMUNICATE: Plan distribution before you finish the book — because “a book without distribution is just a diary.”

If you’ve ever thought about writing a book, using content to stake your claim in a category, or running a strike-style launch event that actually drives authority, this episode is gold.

Kevin’s Session at the Strike Marketing Summit“From CEO to Author: How to Write and Publish Your Marketing War Book”📅 December 11, 2025⏰ 4:00–5:00 PM CST🔗 https://summit.strikemarketingsummit.com

What you’ll learn from this interview:

Why entrepreneurs operate in constant chaos — and how to stay calm.

The #1 mistake founders make in their books (and how Kevin fixed his).

Why “aim at everyone, hit no one” is the downfall of most business books.

The real cost of book publishing — and how AI changed the game.

How a book becomes the fuel for your strike events, webinars, and authority engine.

Why your category POV must come before your manuscript.

Why distribution matters more than writing.

What if you stopped treating a summit like a product—and started treating it like a gateway to connection?

In this special Strike Marketing Summit preview episode, Fernando sits down with Rachel Starr, the powerhouse founder of CoCreator Society and a community architect with a deeply human approach to growth. Rachel doesn’t host events the way most people do—and after hearing her philosophy, you may never look at summits, launches, or audience-building the same way again.

Rachel believes summits aren’t content containers—they’re vessels for community, belonging, and real relationships. In her world, a summit isn’t a promotional tactic. It’s an experience—a curated environment where people feel seen, supported, and connected enough that sales naturally follow.

Inside this conversation, you’ll learn:

Why Rachel treats summits as “connection gateways” rather than list-building machines

How she uses “mom energy” (her term!) to create safe, magnetic, high-trust spaces

The strategy behind curating—not crowdsourcing—topics, speakers, and attendee flow

Why community-first businesses inevitably outperform audience-first businesses

How Rachel uses AI without losing humanity—and why no technology can replace moments

The story behind launching her new CoCreator Society app and why the experience matters as much as the content

Why deeply designed experiences build stronger, more resilient businesses than daily posting ever could

Rachel also shares her belief that we’re entering a new era—one where community replaces traditional institutions, and entrepreneurs become the creators of places where people reconnect, collaborate, and grow together.

If you’ve ever wondered how to build a business that’s rooted in meaning and momentum, this episode is a masterclass in the power of moments.

In this episode, Sheriff Subair, Head of Marketing at HeySummit, shares how running workshops and virtual events can completely transform your marketing results. Sheriff explains how active, participatory experiences like summits generate deeper audience engagement, build stronger customer relationships, and create brands people actually remember.

He also previews his talk at the Strike Marketing Summit, “Summit as System: Turning Events into Authority, Community, and Revenue Machines,” and breaks down how businesses are running multiple summits a year to keep their customer acquisition engines constantly running.

🚀 Key Takeaways:

Running events can triple your monthly lead generation.

Workshops and summits build real relationships with your audience.

Memorable brands are the ones customers buy from.

Events outperform passive content like SEO and ads.

Hosting multiple summits a year keeps your growth flywheel spinning.

Conversations > impressions — proximity builds trust.

Summits create community, authority, and long-term visibility.

🔊 Sound Bites:

“We were able to triple the number of leads.”

“People buy from brands they remember.”

“Events and summits bring you closer to your audience.”

⏱ Chapters:

00:00 — Introduction to the Strike Marketing Summit

00:43 — The impact of summits on lead generation

03:12 — Why multiple summits a year can drive growth

07:56 — How summits outperform passive marketing1

0:00 — Building authority and community through events

What if your next book didn’t need to be 300 pages of fluff — but under 100 pages of clarity that builds your brand, authority, and revenue?

In this special Viral Genius Podcast episode, host Fernando Labastida talks with Chris Stanley, the “Mini Book Guy” and 20-time Amazon bestselling author, about how short, powerful books can transform your business.

Chris reveals how writing less can actually help you think deeper — and how a mini book can serve as the cornerstone of your business, helping you design your own category, establish credibility, and grow faster.

They also unpack the story behind The Mini Book Hall of Fame, Chris’s community initiative that celebrates authors who’ve built businesses around their books — proof that this is a legit movement reshaping how entrepreneurs publish and profit.

You’ll learn:

Why clarity in writing trumps word count.

How to use your book to design a category no one else owns.

The secret to turning intellectual capital into income.

How mini books help solopreneurs overcome the “credibility crisis.”

Why virtual summits and publishing go hand-in-hand for growth.

🗓️ Chris Stanley’s talk — “From 7 Days of Writing to $700K a Year” — premieres at the Strike Marketing Summit, December 11–12.👉 Register at StrikeMarketingSummit.com

Sound bites from this episode:

“Clarity comes from writing.”“You’re designing a category.”“This is a legit thing.”

What if ChatGPT wasn’t just a tool — but your business operating system?

In this episode, Russ Henneberry — author of Digital Marketing for Dummies and founder of theCLICK — reveals how to structure your ChatGPT account to actually grow your business.

Russ calls it Growth OS — a practical system for transforming ChatGPT-5 into an intelligent workspace that boosts creativity, productivity, and results.

We go deep on:

The fourth great platform shift after Google, Amazon, and Facebook — and why ChatGPT is bigger.

How to build utility vs. role-based GPTs (and why you need both).

Setting up projects that remember, organize, and scale your workflows.

Why “authentic connection” still beats automation — even in the age of AI.

The skeptical GPT Russ uses to poke holes in his own plans.

This isn’t theory — it’s a hands-on session where you can follow along and install the same GPTs Russ uses daily.

🧠 Key Takeaways

ChatGPT is the next mega-platform — treat it like Google in 2004.

Organize your AI into intelligent projects with sealed memory.

Use utility GPTs as tools and role-based GPTs to extend your thinking.

Collaboration with AI multiplies creativity — not replaces it.

Learn by doing: open a ChatGPT tab and follow along.

💬 Sound Bites

“ChatGPT looks easy — until you structure it right. That’s when the magic happens.”“I’ve built GPTs that think in 80/20, and one that argues with me — because AI shouldn’t always agree.”“The future of content creation is exciting — and practical.”

🕒 Chapters

00:00 Intro: From Google’s rise to AI’s next wave01:20 What is Growth OS03:00 Utility vs. Role-Based GPTs05:00 Building Intelligent Projects in ChatGPT07:45 The “Skeptical GPT”09:30 Workshop Preview: Installing Draper GPT11:00 Where to Find Russ + Summit Details

📅 Featured Session

Catch Russ’s full Growth OS Workshop at the Strike Marketing Summit🗓 Thursday, December 11 | 2 PM CST🎟 Register: StrikeMarketingSummit.com