The Dave Gerhardt Show (from Exit Five)

#334 | Dave is joined by Jessica Serrano, CMO at Bagel Brands (Einstein Brothers, Noah's, Bruegger's, Manhattan Bagel), for a conversation about what B2B marketers can learn from consumer restaurant marketing. They discuss why consumer and B2B marketing are way more similar than people think, how she’s using AI across her marketing and sales process, and her philosophy that her job is to ‘build brand over time and drive sales overnight.’ Jessica shares how COVID forced Dig Inn to rebuild itself as an e-commerce business, how she built a B2B catering sales motion from scratch using HubSpot and buyer personas, and how filtering work emails out of a consumer list became a real customer acquisition tactic. Listen to this episode to learn tactics that work whether you're selling bagels or software.
Timestamps

(00:00) - Why a consumer CMO listens to B2B marketers (and vice versa)

(03:39) - How COVID forced Dig Inn to rebuild as an ecommerce business overnight

(07:01) - The math behind going after $500 catering orders vs. $15 walk-ins

(10:39) - Building buyer personas for office admins, sports nutritionists, and universities

(16:11) - Why Jessica switched from ChatGPT to Claude (and the breakthrough moment)

(23:00) - Using AI for rapid product testing on a budget that wouldn't cover traditional research

(29:00) - "Build the brand over time, drive sales overnight" and what that looks like at Bagel Brands

(31:53) - Why you can't just copy a playbook from Taco Bell to Burger King

(36:12) - The biggest lesson from working at brands with nearly 1,000 locations

(39:40) - Google reviews as a source of truth for aligning marketing and operations

(46:43) - Why organic-first content matters more in the age of AI and dead internet theory

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/
***
Brought to you by:
AirOps - The content engineering platform that helps marketers create and maintain high-quality, on-brand content that wins AI search. Go to airops.com/exitfive to start creating content that reflects your expertise, stays true to your brand, and is engineered for performance across human and AI discovery.
Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.
Convertr - The enterprise lead data management platform that sits between your lead sources and your CRM, automatically validating, enriching, and standardizing every lead before it touches your systems. Check them out at convertr.io/exitfive.
Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand generation agency that helps high-growth cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise software companies drive more pipeline through AI SEO, paid media, and go-to-market engineering. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com and tell them Dave sent you.

***
Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.
They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.
Visit hatch.fm to learn more

#333 | Dave is joined by Clare Schmitt, a seasoned marketing leader and a member of our CMO community, to walk through what it actually takes to lead a rebrand at a mid-market B2B company. Clare shares how she partnered with her CEO to drive a full rebrand, from hiring a naming agency and running an RFP, to managing a small decision-making council, rolling out the new brand across every department, and measuring success post-launch. If you're a marketing leader thinking about a rebrand, this episode is a practical, top to bottom playbook from someone who just did it.
Timestamps

(00:00) - Why rebrands come up and what this episode covers

(03:04) - Clare's role at Piedmont Global and how the rebrand got started

(05:19) - Should you hire a naming agency? What it costs and what they actually do

(08:47) - Running an RFP and why they chose Focus Lab

(09:33) - Why the CEO has to own the rebrand go-to-market

(11:09) - Keeping the decision-making council small and who was in it

(18:03) - How to get CEO buy-in: framing a rebrand as infrastructure, not a marketing initiative

(20:40) - Timeline: how long a rebrand actually takes ($50M+ companies)

(22:22) - The rollout: project management, execution, and building the website internally

(24:19) - Measurement, post-launch QA, and tracking whether your narrative is sticking

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/
***
Brought to you by:
AirOps - The content engineering platform that helps marketers create and maintain high-quality, on-brand content that wins AI search. Go to airops.com/exitfive to start creating content that reflects your expertise, stays true to your brand, and is engineered for performance across human and AI discovery.
Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.
Convertr - The enterprise lead data management platform that sits between your lead sources and your CRM, automatically validating, enriching, and standardizing every lead before it touches your systems. Check them out at convertr.io/exitfive.
Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand generation agency that helps high-growth cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise software companies drive more pipeline through AI SEO, paid media, and go-to-market engineering. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com and tell them Dave sent you.

***
Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.
They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.
Visit hatch.fm to learn more

#332 | Dave is joined by Domi de Saint-Exupéry, CMO at Lemlist, a bootstrapped $40M ARR sales engagement platform, to break down exactly how she turned $1.2M in marketing spend into $31M in new ARR in 2025. Domi shares the full breakdown of every channel, agency, influencer strategy, and partnership play that drove results. This includes how they went from $0 to $500K in paid ads, why partnerships are the most underrated B2B growth channel, how they built a micro-influencer program, and what AI use cases are actually working (and which are overrated). If you want real numbers and real playbooks, this one's for you.
Timestamps

(00:00) - Introduction: $1.2M in spend, $31M in new ARR

(03:39) - What Lemlist does and how the company got to $40M ARR

(06:54) - Going from $0 to $500K in paid ads: what triggered the shift

(11:09) - How to execute paid ads well: outsourcing vs. in-house, and scaling by channel

(17:24) - LinkedIn ads creative: why "on-brand and safe" was the wrong approach

(21:54) - Mistakes made in paid: Snapchat, Spotify, and channels that didn't work

(25:24) - The micro-influencer playbook: how to find, brief, and measure creators

(35:38) - How influencer content compounds with paid ads and outbound (the Julio story)

(41:08) - Partnerships: why $450K went here and why it's the most underrated B2B channel

(49:38) - AI in marketing: what's overrated (content generation) and what's actually working

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/
***
Brought to you by:
AirOps - The content engineering platform that helps marketers create and maintain high-quality, on-brand content that wins AI search. Go to airops.com/exitfive to start creating content that reflects your expertise, stays true to your brand, and is engineered for performance across human and AI discovery.
Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.
Convertr - The enterprise lead data management platform that sits between your lead sources and your CRM, automatically validating, enriching, and standardizing every lead before it touches your systems. Check them out at convertr.io/exitfive.
Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand generation agency that helps high-growth cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise software companies drive more pipeline through AI SEO, paid media, and go-to-market engineering. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com and tell them Dave sent you.

***
Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.
They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.
Visit hatch.fm to learn more

#331 | Dave is joined by a group of marketing leaders from Ramp, Snowflake, and Hightouch for a discussion about ABM and their plans for 2026. Casey Patterson (Director of ABM, Snowflake), Drew Pinta (Director of Growth Data Science, Ramp), and Brian Kotlyar (CMO, Hightouch) break down what ABM actually looks like in 2026 and what’s working right now inside of their companies. They share how they’re picking target accounts, aligning with sales, and building programs that go way beyond running ads. The group also digs into measurement, personalization, and how teams are using better data and AI to scale ABM without wasting budget. If you need a deeper dive on ABM tactics right now, this is the episode for you

Timestamps

(00:00) - - Why ABM is still a top topic in 2026

(04:34) - - Intros: Snowflake, Ramp, and Hightouch

(07:54) - - Defining ABM (and why sales alignment is everything)

(14:04) - - The “stop list”: ABM tactics they’ve killed

(16:34) - - Why paid social “ABM awareness” is overrated

(19:54) - - Shifting ABM to in-person and physical plays

(24:04) - - Budgeting for ABM and how to start small

(28:38) - - Why ABM measurement is different than traditional demand gen

(33:58) - - How they build ABM audiences using data + signals

(39:18) - - Scaling personalization without making it manual

(44:58) - - Final takeaways and wrap-up

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/
***
Brought to you by:
AirOps - The content engineering platform that helps marketers create and maintain high-quality, on-brand content that wins AI search. Go to airops.com/exitfive to start creating content that reflects your expertise, stays true to your brand, and is engineered for performance across human and AI discovery.
Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.
Convertr - The enterprise lead data management platform that sits between your lead sources and your CRM, automatically validating, enriching, and standardizing every lead before it touches your systems. Check them out at convertr.io/exitfive.
Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand generation agency that helps high-growth cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise software companies drive more pipeline through AI SEO, paid media, and go-to-market engineering. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com and tell them Dave sent you.

***
Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.
They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.
Visit hatch.fm to learn more

#330 | Dave is joined by Ryan Narod, VP of Marketing at Rippling, to break down how Rippling has built one of the stand outbrands in B2B right now. Ryan walks through real examples of campaigns they’ve run over the last year, from scrappy iPhone videos and webinar promos to high-production customer stories and their 2026 Super Bowl commercial. They talk about how Rippling shifted from being great at growth marketing to building a brand people actually recognize, how they inject more personality and “human” into everything they ship, and how they measure brand marketing without losing pipeline accountability.
To see Ryan's real campaign examples, head over to youtube.com/@heydavegerhardt.
Timestamps

(00:00) - - Why Rippling is going all-in on brand

(02:54) - - Ryan’s background and why he joined Rippling

(04:17) - - What Rippling does and how they position the platform

(08:17) - - What “brand marketing” means at Rippling

(10:37) - - Building a story that makes HR the hero

(19:50) - - Ryan shares Rippling marketing examples (ads, videos, webinars)

(26:56) - - High-production customer storytelling (Berries)

(32:18) - - The “HR Deserves Better” campaign

(35:16) - - How Rippling measures brand and pipeline impact

(42:53) - - The Super Bowl commercial and what it takes to pull it off

(44:56) - - Final takeaways and wrap-up

Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Learn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/
***
Brought to you by:
AirOps - The content engineering platform that helps marketers create and maintain high-quality, on-brand content that wins AI search. Go to airops.com/exitfive to start creating content that reflects your expertise, stays true to your brand, and is engineered for performance across human and AI discovery.
Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.
Convertr - The enterprise lead data management platform that sits between your lead sources and your CRM, automatically validating, enriching, and standardizing every lead before it touches your systems. Check them out at convertr.io/exitfive.
Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand generation agency that helps high-growth cybersecurity, DevOps, and enterprise software companies drive more pipeline through AI SEO, paid media, and go-to-market engineering. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com and tell them Dave sent you.

***
Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.
They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.
Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.
Visit hatch.fm to learn more