Podcast Summary: The Exit Five CMO Podcast – "Beyond Copy: How To Use AI to Build GTM Systems That Scale"

Host: Dave Gerhardt
Guests: Dan (Compound Growth Marketing), Owen (AirOps)
Date: October 13, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Dave Gerhardt is joined by Dan and Owen, two marketing and GTM ops leaders, to move beyond AI “fluff” and provide practical, real-world examples of how AI can actually scale go-to-market (GTM) systems in B2B marketing. Rather than focusing on AI content generation alone, the discussion showcases workflows to automate webinars, content creation, sales transcript analysis, and content refreshes — all with a strong human-in-the-loop element. The trio also address the current hype-vs-reality gap in AI adoption, share insights and pitfalls from their own experience, and answer live audience questions about tools, budgets, and learning curves.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Current State of AI in Marketing: Hype vs. Reality

• Gap Between Hype and Practical Use: Dave and Dan highlight the disconnect between big AI promises on LinkedIn and actual daily practice in enterprise marketing teams.
  • "There's a huge gap from what we're talking about and saying that we're doing with AI compared to what we're actually doing." – Dave (05:29)
• Advice: Start with proven manual workflows, optimize them, then add automation incrementally.

2. Building Repeatable, Scalable AI Workflows for Webinars (Dan, 08:24–18:00)

• Problem: Teams struggle to scale webinars beyond one/month due to manual process bottlenecks.
• Solution:
  • Use tools like Clay to build modular workflows:
    • Automate topic ideation, title generation, agenda/description, guest research, and email sequences.
    • Pass titles and context stepwise, allowing human review and edits between.
  • Key tip: Invest time up front to set up and refine; benefits accrue after initial build.
• Takeaway:
  • Quality of output hinges on well-defined inputs, prompts, and examples.
  • AI = “A super-speedy intern; still needs a human to QA the work.”

Notable Quote:

“If you have good inputs and output examples...that’s where you should spend most of your time...Having more than one example is really going to help you out.”
— Dan (12:50)

Timestamps:

• [08:24–16:49] Dan demo: Clay workflow for webinar production
• [13:40] Beth asks: "How is this actually faster?"
• [16:49] Why not just use a custom GPT instead of Clay?

3. Human-in-the-Loop: Why Instructions and Context Still Rule

• Quality is driven by clarity of prompt design, context, and examples, not ‘automation for automation’s sake.’
  • Giving AI the tone, target audience, and prior outputs goes far in improving reliability.

4. Practical Tooling & Budget Reality Checks

• Tool selection:
  • Clay and AirOps for advanced automation, Zapier Agents for free/entry-level tinkering.
• Budget:
  • Don’t let cost block you. Prove value manually → unlock tool budgets.
  • "Hiring full-time humans is expensive. Two grand a month is not a lot of money." – Dave (36:37)

5. High-Impact Workflows with AI

5A. Content Creation for SEO & AI Search (Owen, 18:47–32:59)

• Principle: Most valuable content = original research + unique internal insights.
• Workflow Example:
  • Analyze gaps between high-intent queries and your/competitors’ coverage.
  • Enrich with recent (last 90 days) sales call transcripts.
  • AI finds implicit and explicit content gaps voiced by prospects.
  • Output: Prioritized list of topics to create briefs for.
• Tools: AirOps (built-in “recipes”/power agents), search console data.
• Advice: Manual process first, then automate.

Notable Quote:

“If I was to give this to my head of content, here are 10 questions that have recently come up on sales conversations for which we don’t have content. Amazing.”
— Owen (22:55)

• [29:01] “How did you figure out AEO queries for your company?”
  • Use internal tools, Google Search Console, Reddit, “People also ask,” and direct sales team input.

5B. Webinar and Content Ops without Expensive Tools

• Dan later demos Zapier Agent (free tool): Analyze sales call transcripts to:
  • Summarize competitor mentions, objections, feature requests.
  • Output: Structured spreadsheet/dashboard—product marketers can spot trends, new competitors, and prioritize content updates.

Notable Quote:

“If you look at the whole staircase, you’re going to be overwhelmed. But...focus on the next right step.”
— Dan (34:31)

6. Data Privacy & Quality

• Only use platforms with security certifications (SOC 2).
• Check tool data handling—opt out of training/sharing if possible.

7. Content Refresh for AI & SEO Wins (Owen, 41:14–49:37)

• Insight: Regular refresh = 3x more likely to be cited in ChatGPT/AI search responses.
• Process:
  • Audit old articles for freshness, structure, and brand alignment.
  • AI proposes deltas; human reviews, edits, and approves.
  • Focus on updating pieces that still align with current strategy (“content cannibalization” is real).
• Metrics:
  • “Just getting your headings in order makes you 3x more likely to get cited by an LLM.”

Notable Quotes:

“Everything in your back catalog is valuable...But not everything should be refreshed.”
— Owen (42:04)

“The bar is just drastically raised...You are three times more likely to get your page one article cited by an LLM if you just get your headings in order.”
— Owen (48:40)

Memorable Moments & Quotes

• "AI is like sending an intern off to do it...except it’s instant." – Dan (08:24)
• "Try it out 10–15 times manually, see if it works, then automate. Don’t overbuild too early." – Owen (18:01)
• “Your first result might be underwhelming to you. And that’s fine—just keep iterating on it.” – Dan (51:52)
• "People say, 'AI will take all our jobs,' but...I couldn't even make a Sora video work for our own event." – Dave (07:49)

Audience Q&A & Learning Pathways

• How to pick tools: Start with what you have; add purpose-fit solutions as needs grow.
• Getting started:
  • Don’t wait for the “perfect” tool. Manual process → test results → automate known wins.
  • “Start super small and pick a workflow that's core to your business.” – Owen (50:59)
• Learning:
  • AirOps Academy and Clay provide resources.
  • Most learning happens by experimentation; “move the stuff around and see what breaks,” as Dave advises.

Actionable Advice:

• Identify bottleneck or repetitive process → prototype AI-assisted workflow → pilot/test → scale/automate.

Key Timestamps

• 01:25–06:20 Dave: Purpose of session; the state of AI in marketing, goals of Exit Five
• 06:20–16:49 Dan: Building scalable webinar ops in Clay
• 18:01–32:59 Owen: Content ideation with AirOps, AI search, and real-world sales data
• 33:15–36:29 Dan: Free AI workflow for sales transcripts in Zapier Agent
• 41:14–49:37 Owen: Content refresh, why it matters for AI/SEO, practical audit steps
• 49:37–53:05 Final Q&A: Who should own these workflows, how to reduce overwhelm, learning strategies

Final Thoughts

• The big takeaway: AI can bring massive leverage, but only when paired with strong process, relevant context, and a human to review, refine, and direct.
• Next Steps:
  • For marketers: Identify a ripe workflow, prototype with available tools, iterate, then layer on automation.
  • For deeper hands-on learning: AirOps Academy, Clay, and free tools like Zapier Agent are good starting points.
• Stay curious and keep experimenting: “If you’re attending hour-long webinars about AI, you’re already ahead of the curve. Keep pushing, testing, and just start building.”

Connect with the Hosts/Guests:

• LinkedIn: Dave Gerhardt, Dan (Compound Growth Marketing), Owen (AirOps)
• For ongoing discussion and resources: Exit Five Community