AJ Eckstein (Founder & CEO of Creator Match) joins Mikael to discuss the emerging world of LinkedIn creator marketing and how brands can leverage professional influencers for B2B growth.

AJ's company Creator Match has run some of the biggest LinkedIn creator campaigns including Notion's viral "Notion Faces" campaign with 50 creators posting simultaneously, plus campaigns for HubSpot, BetterHelp, Teachable, and Wix.

Unlike traditional social platforms, LinkedIn creators typically maintain full-time corporate jobs while building influence in their professional niches - making them trusted voices rather than traditional influencers. The platform represents a massive blue ocean opportunity since most brands haven't tapped into creator partnerships on LinkedIn yet.

AJ explains that successful LinkedIn creators master "edutainment" - the balance between education and entertainment that works perfectly for B2B audiences. His free Chrome extension helps brands identify which creators are already doing sponsored content and provides analytics on engagement rates and top-performing posts. The key insight: LinkedIn creator marketing works because it combines the trust of professional recommendations with the performance of thought leader ads, creating organic-looking sponsored content that outperforms traditional LinkedIn advertising.

Tune into the full episode to learn how to build your own LinkedIn creator playbook!

HIGHLIGHTS:
0:00 Intro
1:48 AJ's bragging rights - major LinkedIn campaigns
4:45 What makes LinkedIn creators different
7:36 The creator opportunity and monetization
10:54 What makes a great LinkedIn creator
13:27 Why brands should use LinkedIn creators
16:54 The power of thought leader ads
18:57 Finding creators with Chrome extension tools
20:30 How to approach and work with creators
23:36 Key takeaways and blue ocean strategy

Connect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/
Connect with AJ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaron-aj-eckstein/ or visit creatorMatch.com

Taylor McMaster (Founder of DOT & Company) joins Mikael to discuss client onboarding and account management strategies that help agency owners scale beyond the day-to-day operational bottlenecks.

Over the past 6 years, Taylor has helped over 12,000 agency owners optimize their onboarding processes through her fractional account management services. After running her own marketing agency and feeling burned out from doing everything herself, Taylor discovered her passion for account management and client relationships.

She pivoted to offer fractional account managers who work 10-20 hours per week, fully white-labeled within agencies to handle client communication and project management. The biggest challenge most agencies face isn't strategy or delivery - it's communication breakdown with clients who don't know who to contact or feel left in the dark about project progress.

Taylor's four-pillar framework (onboarding, project management, agency structure, and communication) helps agencies audit their current processes and systematically improve client retention. The key insight: agency owners should focus on what they do best (strategy and results) while having skilled account managers handle the operational heavy lifting.

Tune into the full episode to learn how to remove yourself as the bottleneck in your agency!

HIGHLIGHTS:
0:00 Intro
2:12 12,000 agencies helped
4:18 From agency owner to account management specialist
6:51 The first client success story
9:03 Scaling across different agency types
11:39 The origin of "Dot & Company"
12:15 The four-pillar framework for account management
14:36 Most common agency problems
15:39 Why onboarding is make-or-break
18:33 Handling client expectations about working with the founder
20:27 The business impact of better account management
22:06 When is the right time to hire account management?
24:18 Where to connect with Taylor
Connect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/
Connect with Taylor - https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylormcmaster/

Chris Silvestri (Founder of Conversion Alchemy) helps series A - C B2B SaaS companies increase their conversions by improving their messaging. By applying his copywriting and positioning skills, his clients have seen their conversions improve anywhere from 30 - 200%.

Chris started out as a software engineer, but later on pivoted to solopreneurship. Before Conversion Alchemy, he explored and experimented with different business models including Amazon FBA and writing SEO blogs. What really stuck out about copywriting for Chris was the buyer psychology element, as well as how close you are to driving revenue-centric outcomes.

The reason why AI can’t magically bring outcomes from generating copy is because the fundamentals are broken. First thing is you need to have strong positioning - know what you do, who you do it for, and why you’re unique. Next comes messaging - understanding why people should care and how to frame it. Next, Chris recommends using Claude to set up your writing project, which he elaborates more on in the full conversation.

Tune into the full episode to learn how to use AI in B2B copywriting!

HIGHLIGHTS:

0:00 Intro
3:17 How Chris learned copywriting
5:30 Frameworks vs Formulas
7:50 The reason why AI copy sucks & how to improve
16:42 Is AI destroying the copywriting industry?
19:16 The future for copywriters

Connect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/

Connect with Chris - https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophersilvestri/

Jake Hundley (CEO of Evergrow Marketing, Host of The Agency Growth Podcast) operates in the landscaping & lawn care industry. To date, 100% of their business has come inbound - which is a dream state for most agency owners.

Jake and his co-founder Cody both worked at agencies prior to founding their own, and they recommend doing the same to anyone looking to become an owner. When they set up their flow, Jake and Cody picked tools that were easily scalable and repeatable, as productization was their number one priority from the start.

Even though local lead gen is their speciality, they still reject clients outside of the landscaping and lawn care industries, as their internal processes aren’t fully fleshed out for other industries and they see no value in trying to expand their offer due to how many operational difficulties custom offers bring.

Tune into the full episode to learn how to better productize your service!

HIGHLIGHTS:
0:00 Intro
4:24 Revenue retention for seasonal businesses
5:42 You need to prioritize scalability
8:14 Different industries require different budgets
10:13 How Jake closes new business
12:41 Time is the only finite resource
15:36 The profit-first system
18:12 Jake’s growth plans

Connect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/
Connect with Jake - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-hundley/

Bianca Blake (Co-Founder of Klickrr) is an expert in leveraging text-messaging as a marketing channel.

Texting is a heavily underrated marketing channel. Before founding Klickrr, Bianca ran marketing for various corporations. After getting fed up with the corporate life, she found a few contractor opportunities that ultimately grew into a consultancy she ran for 5+ years.

Bianca’s text messaging playbook consists of a high quality list segmented based on relevance, that you consistently engage with by sending messages that are below 160 characters without any special characters. From there, you need to analyze the data and optimize accordingly.

Tune into the full episode to learn how to turn text messaging into a competitive marketing advantage!

HIGHLIGHTS:

0:00 Intro
4:16 Bianca’s journey into entrepreneurship
8:07 The Do’s and Dont’s of text message marketing
12:39 The Text Message Marketing playbook
18:07 Where does text messaging fit into your strategy?

Connect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/

Connect with Bianca - https://www.linkedin.com/in/biancablake/

Patrick Ward (VP of Marketing, Formula.Monks at Media.Monks) joins Mikael to help marketers figure out what it takes to become a truly legendary marketer. He’s constructed world-class campaigns with such global multi-billion dollar clients & partners as Google, Nike, Walmart, Sony, Allianz, Fiji Airways, Oracle, and The U.S. Space Force.

What many software providers seem to forget is that they’re fundamentally competing with the status quo, not their category rivals. Even at huge conglomerates, the status quo might be an excel sheet or a few Google Docs. As a marketer, if you allow yourself to live in an advanced tech and automation echo chamber, there’s a good chance your message will never resonate and you’ll have a hard time truly weaving in the customer's mindset - which should be your top priority.

Tune into the full episode to learn how to master the Marketing Mindset!

HIGHLIGHTS:

0:00 Intro
1:10 Patrick’s world-class portfolio
2:09 The fundamentals stay the same
3:58 Builders vs Sellers
6:28 Understand the customers mindset
9:10 What is the Marketing Mindset?
11:59 The 5 Mindset Shifts
20:16 How to apply this framework?

Connect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/

Connect with Patrick - https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickjamesward/

Chris Roche (CEO of Catalyst Consulting) joins Mikael to discuss the bottom of the funnel (BOFU) for B2B tech. Chris is an ex-CRO who founded his agency 3 years ago, which has now grown to over 7 figures in ARR.

One hugely impressive stat about Catalyst Consulting is that Chris has been able to scale the agency to 7 figures with only around $10k spent in paid advertising. Chris attributes their organic growth to their ability to deliver tangible ROI to their clients, and due to their current fixed capacity it would be redundant to invest further in marketing their service.

When Chris evaluates clients, they typically look for a minimum of $25k ACV for a sales-led organization, or a 6-12 month CAC payback period for a PLG company. These aren’t the only metrics that matter though - most early stage startups think that they know their true numbers, when in reality they haven’t accounted for sales commissions, trial-to-purchase conversion rates, or other data that is missing from their calculations and CRM.

Tune into the full episode to learn how focusing on BOFU drives real ROI!

HIGHLIGHTS:

0:00 Intro
2:09 Chris’s entrepreneurial journey
4:29 Scaling to 7 figures organically
6:03 The analytical edge
7:54 PLG vs Sales-Led
9:47 You don’t need a crazy tech stack
10:31 Fix your CRM data ASAP
14:37 Are paid ads the right move for your business?
15:45 The revenue metrics that matter
18:04 LinkedIn Success = Strong ICP

Connect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/

Connect with Chris - https://www.linkedin.com/in/thechrisroche/

Lindsey Carnett (CEO & Founder of Marketing Maven, Author of The Marketing Maven Method: Secrets of a Maven) joins Mikael to help agency owners differentiate between brand and performance marketing, and better understand how to approach PR.

Brand Marketing & PR often get neglected in favour of performance marketing due to it being more difficult to measure the ROI of brand initiatives. Instead of thinking about the direct ROI of every campaign, to properly measure brand you need to focus on metrics such as conversation rates and sales velocity, as the goal here isn’t simply generating leads - it’s increasing the overall trust in your company.

Crafting a good brand message requires understanding your business objectives, reverse-engineering a plan based on other success stories, and building a bespoke strategy based on this competitive analysis. Then, you need to swim with the grain enough to look like a real player in your space, while figuring out how you’ll approach your unique messaging to stick out.

Tune into the full episode to learn how to better balance Brand and Performance Marketing!

HIGHLIGHTS:

0:00 Intro

3:12 Lindsey’s PR experience
4:21 Trust brings ROI
7:01 Lindsey’s creative journey
10:12 The Marketing Maven Method
12:45 What makes a good brand message?
16:55 Be the right level of unique
18:55 Quirky, Timely, Local, Hard News, Personality
20:09 Quirky vs Personality
21:48 Summary

Connect with Mikael - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/

Connect with Lindsey - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindseycarnett/