Most early-stage startups don’t need a CMO. They need someone to kill the 4 channels that aren’t working and go all-in on the 1 that is. It’s why founders burn $200k on a marketing hire before they have product-market fit.

Um… what!? @Tesla

Every one of my client proposals is now an interactive website I develop in Claude. Much more fun than building a deck.

It used to take me 30-45 days, several meetings, hours of operational work, analysis, and research to put together a GTM plan for a client. AI productivity gains have my last sprint down to just 7 days… 🤯

Go Braves!

I’ve never failed professionally when I had a leader or client who genuinely wanted me to win. Not someone who wanted me to “perform.” Not someone waiting to see if I’d prove myself. Someone who was invested in me succeeding. Every time I’ve had that, I’ve found a way. I think there’s a lesson in there about leadership. People do some of their best work when they know you’re in their corner.

ChatGPT Astra just edited a talking head podcast video to perfection. Took 2 minutes. 🤯

Founders can literally do all marketing themselves without hiring me as Fractional CMO. AI has unlocked this. They could also run finance, ops, customer success, sales and install the HVAC system themselves but that doesn’t mean they want to. They hire me so they can do less and trust the marketing will get done with excellence.

Bad take from Codie. It’s actually pretty simple. The decision for a company to run ads should be based on the following: 1. You understand your unit economics and financials like the back of your hand. 2. You have an expert media buyer who can execute well. 3. You have adequate budget to compete in the platform. 4. Your ICP is spending time on the platform. 5. You have a proven product/service with actual sales. 6. Most importantly - the initiative maps to your company growth goals. That’s it.

Founders - Your email newsletter is worth more than you think. Period. I’ve watched some sit on a six-figure asset and treat it like a chore. The thing goes out because someone remembered it’s supposed to. A recycled subject line, a company update nobody asked for, a link to the blog. Send it. Back to real work. That’s the whole problem. They think of the newsletter as an obligation. Meanwhile they’re sitting on an owned audience, people who literally raised their hand and asked to hear from them, and they’re doing nothing with it. Here’s the ladder of value to build: 1. Organic social is the top of the funnel. Free, discovery, how strangers find you. The micro conversion off that content is the email opt-in. Someone said keep talking to me. So do it. The free newsletter has one job: deliver 10x value. Not a company update. Not repurposed filler you slapped together an hour before send. Value so good people would happily pay for it and can’t believe they don’t have to. That’s what earns the next open, and the one after that. Then the ladder keeps climbing: 2. A paid tier with more depth and an exclusive community. 3. A paid workshop every month, 25 to 100 bucks a seat, where your most engaged people show up live. And that room, full of people who already trust you and already pay you? That’s who you sell your actual product to. Run it top to bottom: free social, to opt-in, to 10x free value, to paid tier, to paid workshop, to product. That’s a full revenue engine grown out of a newsletter that started with a few organic posts. B2B founders don’t think this way. Small business owners don’t think this way. They see a box to check instead of a compounding asset they own outright. None of this is new. It’s a proven playbook. The only reason it’s still an edge is that almost nobody actually runs it. Build the ladder. This is exactly what I do at Draftmagic. I help founders build full funnels out of their email newsletters and own that channel end to end. If you’ve got a list sitting dormant, let’s turn it into the growth engine it should be.

There should be an alternative internet with no AI.

It’s hard to overstate how beloved Dolly Parton is in my home state of Tennessee. Between her art, philanthropy, business enterprise, and spirit… she was a true gem. RIP Dolly

Every founder I work with says they want to exit at a $50M valuation. It’s like a magic number for entrepreneurs. Oddly, the ones who make it to $50M EV typically choose to keep going even with offers to sell.

This is every interaction I’ve had with Claude recently… Claude: This is exactly how you accomplish this very important task you’re asking about. Me: Hmmm… Did you consider this small detail? Claude: Ah, you’re right. Everything I just told you is wrong. Do the opposite of what I said. Me: 😑

Founders: What’s one thing you wish you could wave a magic wand and solve?

The three worst mistakes I made as a marketing leader had nothing to do with marketing. 1. I didn’t socialize the narrative well enough. I’d build the plan. Nail the strategy. Then assume everyone would get it. They didn’t. It stalled because the exec team never really bought in, and I hadn’t done the work to bring them along. Half the job is walking the halls and repeating yourself until other people tell your story back to you. I thought that part was politics. It’s the actual job. 2. I caved when I should have held the line. I’d have real conviction, someone senior would push, and I’d struggle to hold the line. Called it collaboration. It wasn’t. I was just avoiding conflict. The calls I regret aren’t the ones I got wrong. They’re the ones I got right and didn’t fight for. 3. I held onto the wrong people too long. I’d wait months. Told myself I was giving them a chance. Work hard to develop them. Really I just didn’t want to admit that I made the wrong hire. Waiting didn’t help them. It didn’t help the team. It didn’t help me. None of these were about being a better marketer. They were about learning to actually lead. To manage up, to hold a line, to make the hard calls on people. The operator got me the title. Becoming a leader is what the job actually asked for. I’m still working on it.

When I talk to SaaS founders who are hitting a growth plateau the first thing I ask is, “When is the last time you spoke with a customer directly?” Shocking how often the answer is never.

I meet regularly with a group of six guys and we spend the hour checking in, sharing our challenges, and supporting each other. Only rules are to bring your whole self and lean into vulnerability. Might be the best thing I do all week. Highly recommend finding a group like this.

Reached out to a top outsourced sales firm for a consult call… you would know the name. - 5 text follow up confirmations - 3 emails - They sent me coffee gift card for the meeting … the sales rep “no-showed” me. I figure, okay this happens. But I receive no email follow up. So I move on. Then a different rep texts me two days later asking why I didn’t show up to the call. I reply informing them that I did, but they didn’t show up. No response. A week later they put me in a drip sequence to reschedule. With a third rep. 🙃 I’m not one to put a company on blast. But I’m tempted. Isn’t that the entire job you’re supposed to do?

Airtable is a case study in ZIRP era fundraising and SaaS VC mania. Total raised: $1.4 Billion Sold for: $1.28 Billion Peak Valuation: $11 Billion Unreal.