2025 was the year AI stopped being a "lab project" and started doing real work.

In this year-end wrap-up, Kevin sits down with fellow podcast host Lisa Martin (CMOs Unscripted) to compare notes on the dozens of conversations they've had with founders, marketers, and executives over the last 12 months. They unpack how the winners of 2025 moved from "AI washing" to execution, finally ditching vanity metrics for board-ready ROI.

Looking ahead to 2026, the duo debates the next frontier: Agentic AI. Lisa—a former NASA scientist turned agency leader—explains why the next wave of AI isn't a tool you use, but a workforce you hire, and why successful teams are now onboarding these "agents" just like human employees.

Key Observations from 2025 & 2026:

• The Speed Advantage: Why product-led companies with embedded AI moved significantly faster than their peers in 2025.
• The "Agent as Employee" Shift: Why forward-thinking organizations are no longer just deploying AI tools, but onboarding autonomous agents with specific roles and bias training.
• Marketing as an Operating System: The emerging trend where integrated marketing is being used to unify Sales, Product, and Comms around a single financial narrative.
• The Complexity Reality: Lisa’s observation on why the fragmented, non-linear buyer journey makes B2B marketing a "harder science" than her work at NASA.
• The Media Pivot: Why a growing number of executives are leaving traditional operator roles to become "media-first" leaders who ship content directly to the market.

Mentioned in this Episode:

• Lisa Martin: LinkedIn Profile
• Podcast: CMOs Unscripted
• Kevin Kerner: LinkedIn Profile
• Mighty & True

Enjoyed this year-end review? Subscribe to Tech Marketing Rewired for more candid conversations in 2026.

I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin

🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.

New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.

Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.

👉 Catch all our episodes at www.techmarketingrewired.com

📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at kevin@mightyandtrue.com

🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.

📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: https://kevinkerner.substack.com/

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www.mightyandtrue.com

I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin

Growth marketing isn’t a buzzword here; it’s a practical operating system that replaces vanity metrics with revenue clarity.

I sit down with Rob Freedman, the former VP of Marketing and Partnerships at EZO (now at Surecam), to unpack a full-funnel approach that starts at first touch and keeps going through renewal and expansion. Rob lays out four non-negotiable pillars for 2026: high-velocity experimentation, clean business-grade data, radical cross-functional alignment, and ecosystem leverage through partnerships.

We dig into how to set up a true Skunkworks for testing, protect budget for bold ideas, and rank experiments with ICE so you act fast on real signals. Rob explains why growth leaders think like general managers, tracking CAC, LTV, payback, activation, pipeline, retention, and expansion by cohort, then aligning marketing, sales, product, and CS around shared outcomes.

Expect actionable tactics to fix the leaks at handoffs, run win-loss to inform product roadmaps, and ship targeted improvements that accelerate sales cycles.

Partnerships get the spotlight as force multipliers. From technical integrations to co-marketing with platforms like Zendesk, we walk through how to tap external audiences with lower CAC and stronger intent.

We also get hands-on with Answer Engine Optimization: adding structured FAQs, an “Hey AI, learn about us” resource, and using LLMs to reveal content gaps so your brand gets cited more often. Rob shares early results—steady LLM traffic growth and SQL lift rivaling referrals—and an honest take on AI’s role beyond copy: competitive monitoring, workflow automation, and personalization at scale.

You’ll leave with three fast starts: launch one meaningful experiment, replace one vanity metric with a business metric, and call churned or lost prospects for insights you can ship against next quarter.

We also talk about Rob's charitable organization, the Rainshine Foundation, an amazing mission to improve living conditions for people in remote rural communities of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

If you’re ready to turn marketing from a department into a revenue engine, this conversation will give you the map. If you enjoyed this, follow the show, share with a teammate, and leave a quick review to help others find us.

🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.

New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.

Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.

👉 Catch all our episodes at www.techmarketingrewired.com

📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at kevin@mightyandtrue.com

🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.

📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: https://kevinkerner.substack.com/

📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.

www.mightyandtrue.com

I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin

Ads don’t need to follow people to perform.

They need to understand the moment. Kevin sits down with Brendan Norman, founder of Classify and former leader at Facebook Audience Network, to unpack how AI-driven contextual 3.0 finally lets the open web match social platforms for precision. Instead of broad categories and brittle keyword lists, today’s systems read full pages like humans do: entities, sentiment, tone, and brand mentions captured as vectors, then retrieved with natural language to find the exact URLs where your message fits.

We dig into why the old ad tech “pipes” kept contextual stuck at 1.0—and how the Ad Context Protocol (inspired by Anthropic’s MCP) is standardizing secure connections between data providers, DSPs, SSPs, agencies, and creative tools.

That foundation enables agentic workflows: automated buyers negotiating prices, testing creative, and optimizing placement while humans set strategy. Expect real lifts in CTR and suitability as spammy, bot-heavy pages get filtered out and high-quality placements rise to the top.

The conversation also tackles the privacy question head-on. Targeting pages rather than identities aligns ads with what users are focused on right now, enhancing relevance without surveillance. Brendan shares practical examples from niche outdoor gear to B2B use cases where consumer content becomes the perfect context for business messaging.

We close with what marketers should do today: learn the new query language of vectors, pilot agentic bidding, demand quality and fraud signals, and prepare for SMB-friendly tools that democratize advanced targeting. If you care about performance, privacy, and real relevance, this is your roadmap.

If you enjoyed this conversation, follow the show, share it with a teammate, and leave a quick review—your feedback helps more marketers discover smarter ways to buy media.

🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.

New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.

Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.

👉 Catch all our episodes at www.techmarketingrewired.com

📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at kevin@mightyandtrue.com

🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.

📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: https://kevinkerner.substack.com/

📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.

www.mightyandtrue.com

I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin

The old launch playbook is broken, and we’re not waiting for GA to prove it. We sit down with Sarah McConnell, VP of Demand Generation at Qualified, to unpack a product launch strategy built for AI speed: CEO-led storytelling, live demos that actually work, and agent-driven follow-up that turns events into measurable pipeline. If you’ve wondered how to ship, sell, and scale an AI product before the ink is dry, this is the blueprint you’ve been hunting for.

Sarah explains how Qualified moved from a simple chatbot to Piper, an AI SDR agent designed to generate pipeline, and why Piper X sits front and center on the website guiding buyers in real time. We dig into the mechanics of a high-velocity launch: crafting the keynote that becomes the messaging script, filming studio-grade demos with an in-house team, and running virtual and in-person events that prioritize hands-on access. The kicker? Piper handles email outreach for registrations and post-event follow-up, driving a reported 70% lift in event-sourced pipeline.

We also explore how measurement and SEO are shifting. Registrations and CTA engagement remain core, but “pipeline in the room” now sets sales priorities. On the discovery side, AEO (AI Engine Optimization) matters: structuring pages so LLMs and Piper can cite, navigate, and highlight content leads to smaller yet higher-converting traffic. Throughout, Sarah shows how AI accelerates the work without replacing the human judgment that makes a launch land. Ready to rewire your go-to-market for AI speed and real outcomes? Hit play, subscribe, and share your boldest launch experiment with us.

🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.

New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.

Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.

👉 Catch all our episodes at www.techmarketingrewired.com

📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at kevin@mightyandtrue.com

🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.

📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: https://kevinkerner.substack.com/

📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.

www.mightyandtrue.com

I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin

Think your team is doing “random acts of marketing”? You’re not alone. We sat down with Josh Leatherman, CMO of Cyderes and author of the book "Scaleable Acts of Marketing" to unpack a practical, scalable system that turns creative chaos into a predictable growth engine the CRO and CFO can rally behind. No fluff, no vanity metrics—just the six systems that make marketing work at scale: talent, technology, ICP focus, digital buying signals, process, and data.

We start by challenging a common myth: sales should “own” finding in-market buyers. Josh explains why only marketing has the tools to identify the 5 percent of your TAM that’s ready to buy right now, and how to capture that demand with intent data, AI-enhanced platforms, and content tuned for real buyer questions.

From there, we dive into building trust with finance—co-creating attribution models, forecasting ROI, and reporting on sales-qualified opportunities and marketing-sourced revenue so leadership can see cause and effect. Expect candid talk about private-equity expectations, why MQLs fail in boardrooms, and how sourced deals often close faster, at higher ACVs, with better win rates.

Culture and capability tie it together. Josh shares how to hire humble, hungry, smart operators; why “rip off and duplicate” accelerates learning; and where AI already improves prioritization, messaging, and measurement inside Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, and 6Sense.

We also map first steps for CMOs: lock arms with your CRO, bring revenue operations in as “Switzerland,” audit your stack for unused AI, narrow your ICP, and build tight feedback loops with SDRs so every buyer objection sharpens your plays.

If you’re ready to move beyond dashboards and into decisions, this conversation gives you the blueprint to align marketing with sales and finance, prove ROI, and earn the budget to scale.

Follow, share with a marketing leader who needs a boost, and leave a review to tell us the next growth challenge you want us to tackle.

GRAB A COPY OF "SCALEABLE ACTS OF MARKETING" HERE.

https://www.joshualeatherman.com/book-scalable-acts-of-marketing

🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.

New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.

Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.

👉 Catch all our episodes at www.techmarketingrewired.com

📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at kevin@mightyandtrue.com

🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.

📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: https://kevinkerner.substack.com/

📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.

www.mightyandtrue.com

I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin

In this episode, we sit down with Kelly Greenwalt, a veteran marketing operations leader who’s navigated two decades of tool explosions and AI’s rapid rise at brands like National Instruments and Epicor (where she is currently the Sr. Director of Marketing Operations).

Kelly shares her playbook for turning a sprawling tech stack into a strategic growth engine and evolving the MOPs function from a technical back office to a critical business partner.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• The Composable Stack Framework: How to build a modern marketing engine with a data lake as the reliable center and agile point solutions as the spokes.
• An ROI-First Vendor Playbook: Kelly’s process for evaluating new tools, using an enablement function to drive adoption, and spotting hidden pricing traps in seat-based vs. usage-based models.
• AI That Actually Delivers: A look at conversational AI that acts as a top-performing virtual BDR, booking meetings and reviving dormant leads, without the hype.
• The MOPs Role in M&A: Why marketing operations is a secret weapon in M&A, essential for aligning budgets, messaging, and growth targets long before a deal is announced.
• How to Level-Up Your MOPs Career: Actionable advice on shifting from "making things work" to owning the data story, and which skills (like email programming) to retire in favor of strategy.

If your stack feels complicated and your AI roadmap is noisy, this conversation offers the clarity and frameworks you need to move forward.

More Rewired Content:

• Catch up on all the episodes on our Tech Marketing Rewired page
• Watch full episodes on YouTube
• Read key takeaways on our Substack

🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.

New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.

Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.

👉 Catch all our episodes at www.techmarketingrewired.com

📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at kevin@mightyandtrue.com

🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.

📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: https://kevinkerner.substack.com/

📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.

www.mightyandtrue.com

I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin

Stop trying to impress developers with adjectives. They want truth, working demos, and clear docs.

That’s the heartbeat of this conversation with product marketing leader Dave Macias (ex-Dell, MongoDB), who breaks down how to tell an honest AI story when the market is loud and your buyer is a skeptical engineer under pressure to ship.

We dig into the moment everyone “became an AI company” overnight, and how MongoDB anchored on authentic differentiation—being the memory layer for agentic systems and a practical vector database—rather than claiming to be something it wasn’t.

Dave shares a playbook for navigating AI’s sub-hype cycles—RAG, agents, MCP—and choosing what to embrace by listening to customers first. His team analyzed a hundred recorded calls, then replayed key segments where developers mapped their architecture and constraints.

The result: tighter positioning, better taglines that open the right door, and a content path that moves fast from spark to substance with runnable examples and serious documentation.

We also get tactical on sales enablement: how to arm reps with high-signal keywords, the next right question, and the confidence to bring in specialists without overreaching.

Beyond marketing, Dave opens up about taking a purposeful career pause. He planned it for years, wrote “I will” goals that combined craft and family, and set aside time to build with AI-native tools and rediscover creative energy.

If you’re trying to earn developer trust, scale AI messaging with integrity, or design your next chapter with intention, this conversation offers practical steps you can use today.

If this resonates, follow and share with a teammate who’s wrestling with AI positioning right now. And if you enjoyed the episode, subscribe and leave a review—tell us the one AI buzzword you’re ready to retire.

🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.

New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.

Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.

👉 Catch all our episodes at www.techmarketingrewired.com

📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at kevin@mightyandtrue.com

🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.

📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: https://kevinkerner.substack.com/

📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.

www.mightyandtrue.com

I am always looking for ways to improve. Send me a text and let me know your thoughts! - Kevin

What separates exceptional integrated marketing campaigns from forgettable ones? According to Sinziana Ursu, a leader of Integrated Marketing Programs at Upland Software, success comes down to two critical elements: a clear, distinct point of view and genuine cross-channel thinking.

Drawing from her extensive experience leading marketing teams at companies like WP Engine and Dell, Sinziana breaks down the timeless fundamentals that drive results regardless of company size or industry. "Having a unique perspective that connects the campaign together is basic marketing, but it's essential," she explains. "Then you need to consider how that message manifests across every touchpoint – from your website to sales conversations to internal enablement."

The conversation takes a fascinating turn as Sinziana shares how Account-Based Marketing has evolved beyond mere acquisition tactics. Today's sophisticated ABM strategies focus equally on retention, expansion opportunities, and cross-geographic growth. But success hinges on marketing-sales alignment, which Sinziana approaches through three lenses: goal alignment around meaningful revenue contributions, operational frameworks with shared scorecards, and genuine relationship building with sales counterparts.

As a marketing leader who's embraced AI tools firsthand, Sinziana offers practical insights on leveraging generative technology without losing the human touch. She's discovered that AI excels at research synthesis, creative variation, and campaign framework development – but cautions against the "shiny object syndrome" that leads marketers astray. "Start with the problem you're trying to solve, not the tool," she advises, whether that's addressing content bottlenecks or enabling new marketing channels.

Looking ahead, Sinziana predicts B2B marketing will continue converging with consumer approaches – bolder brands, more frictionless buying experiences, and earlier product engagement. For marketers, this means developing both technical fluency and deeper customer understanding. The future belongs to those who use AI to eliminate mundane tasks while investing more in creative thinking and authentic customer connections.

Ready to transform your integrated marketing approach? Listen now and discover how to build campaigns with genuine impact, align effectively with sales, and leverage AI to work smarter, not just faster.

🎧 Tech Marketing Rewired is hosted by Kevin Kerner, founder of Mighty & True.

New episodes drop regularly with unfiltered conversations from the frontlines of B2B and tech marketing.

Catch the video version of the podcast on our YouTube channel.

👉 Catch all our episodes at www.techmarketingrewired.com

📩 Got a guest idea or question? Email us at kevin@mightyandtrue.com

🔗 Follow Kevin on LinkedIn for more insights and behind-the-scenes takes.

📰 Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: Subscribe to Kevin's Substack at: https://kevinkerner.substack.com/

📰 Want more tech marketing insights? Subscribe to the Drag & Drop newsletter for fresh thinking, real talk, and tools that make your job easier.

www.mightyandtrue.com