Influencer Marketing, Podcasting Strategy, and Brand Driving Demand with Jess Cook (VP Marketing at Vector)

Summary

The Dave Gerhardt Show

Episode: Influencer Marketing, Podcasting Strategy, and Brand Driving Demand with Jess Cook (VP Marketing, Vector)

Date: January 15, 2026
Host: Dave Gerhardt (Exit Five)
Guest: Jess Cook (VP Marketing, Vector)

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Episode Overview

This episode features a deep-dive conversation between Dave Gerhardt and Jess Cook, VP of Marketing at Vector. The discussion focuses on tactical, real-world B2B marketing strategies that Jess has executed at an early-stage SaaS company, including influencer marketing campaigns, podcasting as a brand engine, and building distinct brand identity. The episode offers practical tips, candid insights, and engaging banter around what actually works—and what doesn’t—in modern B2B marketing.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Vector in a Nutshell

• About the company: Vector helps marketers build ad audiences from website visitors, ad clickers who don’t convert, and people researching competitors—by name and title.
• Stage & team: ~20-person company, pre-Series A, seed round, only two in the marketing team.
• Jess’s background: Content and brand specialist; landed the VP role partly by being visible in the community and on LinkedIn.

“Vector lets you build ad audiences from the people who visit your website, who click your ads but don't convert, and who are researching your competitors or relevant topics by name.” (B – 04:51)

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2. B2B Influencer Marketing: From Skepticism to Results

Why Try Influencer Marketing?

• Jess lacked a demand gen marketer and was hesitant to “throw money out the window” with typical ads.
• Needed broad, trustworthy content distribution beyond standard LinkedIn posts from the team.

“I needed another way to get into people's brains and eyeballs and hearts and minds. So influencers felt right because it was… a really easy way to increase distribution in a trustworthy way.” (B – 09:06)

How the Campaign Worked

• Budget: $12,000.
• Influencers: 7 micro-influencers (avg. 12k followers), some were customers, others respected marketers Jess already knew.
• Structure: 3-month pilot, aligning messaging with launches or survey data; gave content creators flexibility and loose direction.
• Measurement: Light tracking—used call recording software (Fathom) and CRM “How did you hear about us?” fields.

“I look back and we had, over three months, 45 demos that we could track back to this program, over 80% of which were ICP… that represents 1.1 million in pipeline.” (B – 14:55)

Results & Takeaways

• Impact: 45 demos, $1.1M in pipeline, 80%+ ideal customers.
• No hard CTA: Content was informational/friendly, not ‘book a demo now’.
• Tracking: Skipped UTMs to keep the process simple, relied on direct signals in conversations.

Scaling & Process Tips

• Long-term partnerships are better than one-offs.
• For discovery: leverage existing relationships if marketing to marketers; in other industries, consider influencer tools or rely on SMEs for referrals.
• Typical B2B cycles mean layered, repeated exposure is more effective.

“Long-term partnerships and the long-term relationships really do well.” (B – 22:35)

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3. Podcasting as a Brand Magnet

The Show: “This Meeting Could Have Been a Podcast”

• Format: Jess and CEO Josh record their internal one-on-ones as episodes—building in public about real decisions.
• Chemistry & Prep: Heavy upfront planning, batch recording in person (Jess flies from Michigan to Florida), but unscripted conversations.
• Content: Each episode covers a real business challenge, decision, or debate (“Jess wants to run ads,” etc.).
• Engagement: Double the downloads in season two vs. season one; steady social follower growth.

“We just wanted to take building in public to the extreme. Each episode covers one decision we had to make together.” (B – 26:26)

Value Delivered

• Awareness “magnet”: Pulls prospects in without being product-focused.
• Personalities at work: Real talk—listeners hear candid conversations you don’t usually get to be a part of.
• Intangible returns: Not strictly trackable to pipeline, but “we feel it”—in social, in fan engagement, LinkedIn DMs, and live event registrations.

“One of the marketing team's goals for 2026 is to be your marketing team's favorite marketing team. And… the podcast is a really good example of that.” (B – 36:30)

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4. LinkedIn & Brand: Standing Out in B2B

Jess’s Approach to Content

• Growth: From 0 to 37,000+ followers in ~4 years.
• Philosophy: “What would help someone not want to cry at their job today?”—practical, empathetic tips for content marketers and career advancers.
• Origin: Background in B2C—McDonald’s, Rice Krispies, CPG brands—switched to B2B SaaS in 2019.

“I started writing on LinkedIn because I was like, man, I really wish I would have had somebody to just, like, throw me a tip of the day, help me feel like I wasn't drowning.” (B – 42:01)

The Power of Brand

• The Ghost Mascot: Vector uses a ghost character depicted everywhere (website, swag, events), which makes the brand memorable and differentiated.
• Brand as a habit: “People tell me now that when they see a ghost, they think of Vector, not Snapchat.” (B – 47:04)
• Non-negotiable: In a sea of AI content homogeneity, standing out with brand is critical.

“Find you a C-suite leader who believes in brand so much they create their own mascot.” (B – 47:23)

Other Brand Mascot Winners

• Fibbler: Lion mascot in meme ads.
• Mutiny: Raccoon (but Jess advises: use mascots even more!)

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5. Leadership: From Content Specialist to VP

Biggest Transitions

• Metrics & Reporting: From “feeling” whether something works to rigorous measurement/dashboards.
• Managing a team: From creative director of writers to leading a cross-functional marketing team.
• Work-life boundaries: Explicit about giving 50 hours a week and maintaining family priorities.

“I want to get really good this year at knowing what's working and actually doing some sort of reporting and, like, building some dashboards… So that's one big thing.” (B – 53:59)

Leadership & Life

• Outsource what you can (groceries, cleaning) to make remote-work life work.
• Find leaders who understand or empathize with your life stage for flexibility.

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6. Notable Quotes & Memorable Banter

• “I want to make the podcast I want to listen to.” (A – 02:36)
• “Influencers felt right because it was… a really trustworthy way [for distribution].” (B – 09:06)
• “Feedback is a gift. If you can internalize it the right way.” (B – 33:23)
• “No is a full sentence.” (A – 34:05)
• “How would they ever buy from you if they don't know who you are? And do they like you?” (B – 37:21)
• “The point of LinkedIn is to never have to apply for a job.” (B – 41:07)
• “What can I outsource? Very much like I would here at Vector.” (B – 56:28)
• “When they see a ghost they think of Vector, they don't think of Snapchat.” (B – 47:10)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Vector’s Value Proposition – 04:51
• Choice & Execution of Influencer Campaign – 08:53
• Influencer Tracking and Results – 14:55
• Thought Leader Ads and Value of Influencer UGC – 10:07–11:52
• Sourcing B2B Influencers – 19:23–21:00
• Podcast Format, Prep, and Results – 26:11–36:11
• Content Strategy and LinkedIn Philosophy – 40:23–43:43
• Mascots & Brand Differentiation – 47:04–48:58
• Transition to VP: Metrics, Team, and Balance – 53:59–56:28

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Tone & Character

The conversation is direct, candid, energetic, and full of practical wisdom with relatable humor. Both Dave and Jess keep things casual but insightful (“delete the UTMs!”], peppering industry knowledge with war stories, failures, tips, and life advice for marketers who want to grow their impact and careers.

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Actionable Insights for Listeners

• Try B2B influencer campaigns with trusted voices, even on small budgets. Focus on relevance and relationship over reach; long-term beats one-off campaigns.
• Leverage podcasting as a top-of-funnel awareness engine. Make it personality-driven and transparent—let listeners sit in on real conversations.
• Double down on brand assets—don’t be afraid to get quirky or bold (mascots/characters included).
• Leadership in marketing means learning to measure, manage, and balance with real life. Don’t neglect reporting, but don’t let it override craft, team fit, and creativity.
• If you’re earlier in career: Build your presence, lean into LinkedIn, and seek out the leaders who “get it.”

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End of Summary

For more:

• Follow Jess Cook on LinkedIn
• Check out the “This Meeting Could Have Been a Podcast” show by Vector
• Join the Exit Five community at exitfive.com

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Feedback is a gift! If you found this summary helpful, let Dave and Jess know.

Transcript

[A]

Okay, everyone, look, we're all using AI right now. Point blank, that's. That part's done. ChatGPT, like my dad's talking to me about ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini. It's all gone mainstream and everyone's using it for copy help, idea generation, the baseline stuff. As Jess on our team head of marketing likes to remind me, I'm. I'm only scratching the surface and there's clearly a gap. Most marketing teams are using AI tools to think, but not actually do. And that's where things are heading next. Our sponsor, optimizely built this platform called Opal that lets you use autonomous AI agents to go and do the stuff you shouldn't be doing manually versus just being another chatbot. This is stuff like creating and optimizing on brand web pages, emails, SEO content and campaigns by audience segment. It catches brand, legal and accessibility issues before anything else goes live. It pulls data from your other systems like Google Analytics or your CRM and sales tools to auto build reports, summaries and recommendations. And guess what? It's completely no code. So marketers like you and me can build and leverage agents for any use case that we dream up without needing to rely on developers. Heck yeah. So get this. Optimizely has this awesome offer for Exit 5 listeners. They're offering a free personalized 45 minute AI workshop to help you identify the best AI use cases for your marketing team and map out which agents can save you time with a practical plan you can actually go and use right away. So if you need help demystifying all of this AI agent stuff and you want to figure out where you can put AI agents to work inside of your marketing team, go and check this out. Go to optimizely.com exit5 and check it out. That's optimizely.com exit5. You're listening to the Dave Gehard Show. 1, 2, 3, 4, exit. Okay, this is Jess Cook. Jess is a VP of marketing at Vector. And I invited Jess on the show because 2026, I'm back on this podcast and I want to do something different. Not different revolutionary, but different for us. I was kind of in a rut of just doing interview interview, talking about your background. People really don't care about that. They want to know, they want to talk to marketers who are doing cool shit and we're like, let's go into this year and let's just have a bunch of people on, from, from our community, from our universe, come on and actually talk about marketing. I want to start Making the podcast that I want to listen to. Again, not so many interviews and this is an interview, but we know you're doing cool shit and that's what we're going to hang out and we're going to talk through today. We did, we did a bunch of prep on this. We got four kind of topics that we're going to dive into based on the work that you're doing at Vector. But Jess, tell me what, what is Vector?

[B]

That is a great question. First, I have to say this is. I'm like realizing a years long dream right here. I need you to know that. Like that.

[A]

All right, go ahead, I'll listen. I'll. I'll take it, I'll take it.

[B]

I've been listening for years. It's been like a legit. Like if I had. I don't do vision boards, but like, if I had a vision board to be like, the DG show gotta be on there someday. So.

[A]

Man, that's so cool.

[B]

Making dreams come true.

[A]

God, that feels good. Ah, take that in. Take that dopamine. Let's go. Give me some of that natural dopamine. Holy cow. Wow. Thank you, Jessica. All right, and that's the end of this episode. If you want more. If you want more. But okay, so as a listener though, don't you agree? Like, I want to hear. The stuff I want to listen to is like, I want to hear what people are doing. And I used to, I missed, I missed that type of podcast. And I think I got away, like, you know, too many. Like, I don't care. We went to college or if you went to college or whatever. Let's say what you're doing.

[B]

Yeah, I totally agree. I think some of my favorite episodes of your show have just been like, I would be like on a walk and I'd get my phone out and I'd be like taking notes and I'd like write the person's name down. Cause I'm like, I have to go follow this person immediately after this is over, so I can continue to learn from them. So. Yeah, totally agree. I'm excited.

[A]

So that's the bar. That's the bar. Then I think what's cool about podcasting, we'll talk about this too. You can attract a wide range of listeners. So I want to cover specific topics like AI and SEO or product marketing or whatever. CMOs all the way down from. From CMO to intern. That same advice. They're gonna be listening to the same thing. It's like, you're gonna, you're You're a VP of marketing. You'll be walking around and be like, oh, I heard this episode about like SEO, like are we doing that? I wonder? And like that's the show that I want to have.

[B]

So I love it.

[A]

Okay, so vector, some type of SaaS tool. You have a ghost mascot series A ish. What, what else? Tell me how do I. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

So vector, let's you build ad audiences from the people who visit your website, who click your ads but don't convert, and who are researching your competitors or relevant topics by name. So like you can actually see the list of people by name and title who are going to be in your ad audiences before you spend a dime and push them over to all the platforms that you are already spending your money on. Which is really exciting. We are pre series A. I don't know, it's seed round at the moment.

[A]

Yeah, whatever. Just like how many people? Like roughly what stage in 20ish people total.

[B]

Two in marketing.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Early stage startup.

[B]

Real early. And I got in here because of our boy Dan Murphy, who put my name forth when my CEO Josh was looking for somebody to lead marketing. So shout out to Dan.

[A]

How did he know you?

[B]

You know, it's funny, I don't know LinkedIn. We had never actually formally met.

[A]

I'm sure he's trying to get the referral bonus looking at like first degree connections.

[B]

Yeah, well, Josh was looking specifically for someone with a content and brand background.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Which is interesting. An interesting choice for a marketing leader right now. Well, no, I think it's a great choice for marketing leader right now. I think it goes against a lot of conventional wisdom and kind of tradition is like, who should your marketing leader be? So I was really lucky that whatever I did in the community or on LinkedIn got me noticed and Dan put my name forward, which was amazing.

[A]

That is awesome. I mean, yeah, that's the goal. The hardest part is I get a lot of messages. I know Dan does too, about like, hey, do you know a person for this? And it's like, ah, it's hard. You know, you think we would. We got this community of all these people. I think one of the hardest things is I think it's very hard to recommend someone that you haven't worked with directly. I really don't know. I'm like, yeah, I don't know. She, she seems really smart, she's cool to hang out with, but you just don't know.

[B]

Yeah, totally.

[A]

Anyway, it look looks like you're doing awesome. You guys are doing Cool stuff. A lot of people, you know, I just want to, I want you to know that like I. This is more than B2B. Sass. Jess Cook. I don't know if you've heard. Okay, I have, I have a bigger heart than that. And so I'm gonna, I'm just trying to explain this story. Like I, I like when you peop listeners have full context of like the type of company you're at, what you're doing, and then you can, you know, your marketing knowledge is. Tactics are applied through that lens. So Jess is VP of marketing, early stage startup in the you kind of marketing and sales tech space. Her background came up through content and brand. Okay, cool. So one thing we, we have four topics here that you're of stuff that you're doing in marketing at Vector that is working right now. And I want to spend like a couple minutes hitting on each one and, and let's leave people walking away with, you know, some, some insight here. Okay, so topic number one is influencer marketing. In, in B2B, you spent. So you had this idea, we're going to do influencer marketing. Let's talk about that. Why did you do it? And then you spent 12 grand on seven micro influencers and you generated a million dollars in pipeline. Let's dive into that. This is something everyone's asking about. They're seeing content on LinkedIn, they're seeing Influencer and B2B. How did this come up at Vector and how'd you execute on it?

[B]

Yeah, this was something I wanted to try very early on and you know, took me a couple months to kind of like ramp up and then get a budget sold in. And then part of that budget was like, we're going to test out some influencers. And so I landed on 12,000 simply because I'm not great at math. I had to like literally use calculator to figure all this out. But you know, that basically got me.

[A]

Like, I'm good at math now. I'm got chatgpt. I'm good at math.

[B]

Right, we're all good at math.

[A]

Now wait, before you get into the campaign a little, just let's go back and like, why did you want to. What? Why did you want to do this? So hey, you're, you're leading marketing, you're trying to accomplish some goal. Like we could do anything. Direct mail, influencers, events, trade shows, whatever. I want to know specifically, like, how did you pick this channel? What was the goal reason behind it? And then let's talk about how you.

[B]

Did it great, great place to start. So I don't have a demand gen marketer and I don't have a background in demand gen. And so I'm not about to jump in and like start running ads willy nilly because I will just be throwing money out the window trying to build ads, all of that. But we needed greater distribution. I post on LinkedIn, our founders post on LinkedIn. We have a couple of employees who are really good at posting on LinkedIn. But like that wasn't going to be enough. And short of running ads, I needed another way to like get into people's brains and eyeballs and hearts and minds. So influencers felt right because it was one, a really easy way to just like increase distribution in a really trustworthy way. And two, one thing I do know how to do is like go in and like turn those right into thought leadership ads. So that felt like a pretty big win. So that was the main reason was like we just need more people to kind of know who we are from a trusted source and influencers feel like the right way to go about that. Our audience is marketers and like we eat that stuff up. Right. Like we. I love when I see somebody I know whether it's paid or not, like recommending something. So that was kind of the impetus and thought.

[A]

I think that this is a big slept on thing. I was on the phone with a guy yesterday who's asking for advice, interviewing for a new job. It's kind of is crazy like thought leadership ads. It's like on one side it's like it's a bummer from a organic standpoint because like you don't get to reach all your followers. But from a company standpoint, if you're spending money on LinkedIn, I mean the thought leader ad is, is insane.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Now you can take those 12 influencers and it's not just like one off post. Those are literally become like UGC ads for your brand, which is really cool.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

So you can justify the cost other than like we, we need these 12 infl. Actually what was the offer? What would it, what, what did they post? What did you have them all post? And what were the mechanics of that?

[B]

So we did a three month pilot and I lined each month with either a launch, like a product that we had launching or that we wanted to promote. And then one of the month, one of the three months we had done a survey and I, I gave them like all the results basically and had them like post about the results and the implications of it. So each month was kind of aligned to that and we had, we ended up kind of doing a mix of like customers and non customer influencers. These are not, they were not people with like huge followings. Like average was like 12 or 13,000 followers, which is incredible. Super respectable.

[A]

No way. If you have any, if you have, if you only have 10,000 followers. We are not offending you right now. If you're not. I don't know if you know, I have 190,000 followers, so that is nothing to a guy like me. So.

[B]

Pennies.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

No, so we're, I mean, yeah, that's good. So trust, I think built into those like kind of audiences of that size. Right.

[A]

Well also, hold on. This is what's crazy about B2B. And you don't need hundreds, you're not doing this to generate hundreds of thousands of impressions or leads or whatever. Right. Like, right. You could get, I don't know how much vector costs but like whatever. Let's just you know, make some simple math. I mean we, we have like sponsors that we work with, for example, where if they get like one customer from doing a sponsorship deal with us, the math is amazing. And so it's, it's the same thing. It's like we don't, we don't need hundreds of leads from this. It's like, can we get a couple, you know, can we get a couple hand raisers?

[B]

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And that was kind of the goal. And, and the other thing I, I decided against doing with this was any kind of tracking. Like I didn't give any of the influencers any utms. I just wanted to try it. I didn't want to, I didn't want to wait. I didn't want to like set up this whole system in the back end.

[A]

To try and over. Over that demand gens person. Dead, dead body. Would they have let you done that without. No utms? I know, I just delete them out. Delete.

[B]

Yeah. Bye. Bye. They're so messy. But yeah, I just, I just wanted to like directionally, is this going to work for us? We'll be able to see if it, if it's working.

[A]

But like that's a fun, you're at a fun stage. Right. Like you're, you're like, you don't need to obsess over the measurement of this because like you're at an early stage where like you will know if this worked.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

When I come into the office next, you know, the next. Did I show up at the bakery the next day and there was like, three people in line, and there's never been anyone in line.

[B]

Like, yeah, okay, 100. And. And we could feel it. Like, you're. You're totally right. We're at a stage where, like, we do a program like that and we feel it. Yeah. At the end of the program, I went back and looked. The only real tracking I did was I went into our call recording software and I set up some alerts. So I set up, like, the names of all the influencers. I set UP1 for LinkedIn, which I know, like, they could have seen somebody else's LinkedIn post or whatever, but, you know, and then I set up one for just, like, influencer. And. Yeah, so I could kind of see that. And then we have a. How did you hear about us? Field. Wow. Field on our form. So I look back at the end of the three months, and we ended up having.

[A]

What do you use for the call recording, by the way?

[B]

Fathom.

[A]

Fathom. Cool. And. And is that. Is that. Is that pretty accurate? Like, if you, if you typed in, like, Dave Gearhart, it would. It would be pretty good about mentions?

[B]

Yes. Yeah, absolutely.

[A]

And do you have to count them or, like, will it give you the count of the mentions?

[B]

It'll give me the count of mentions. And I get alerts in my email, too. Like, every day. There's, like, a digest of how many times something was mentioned.

[A]

Could you. Could you say, like, over the last 30 days, how much has this been mentioned?

[B]

More?

[A]

And you can do that in Fathom?

[B]

Yeah, it has, like, a little AI chat thing built into it. So, yeah, you could ask something like that and it would be able to get that back to you.

[A]

I mean, that's an amazing way to do. To do this. Right? It's like, if we can now track. If you have a company where you have sales. So. So the. In your case, like, you have to talk to a sales rep. Yeah.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

So you can then mine every call to understand, like, hey, and just ask, how did you hear about us? Oh, it must have been LinkedIn.

[B]

Exactly. So, yeah, I look back, and we had over three months, 45 demos that we could track back to this program, over 80% of which were ICP, which is pretty incredible. And that represents 1.1 million in pipeline. So, yeah, like, this is like, okay, we. I. I think the thing that gets hard then is like, a lot of marketing leaders, a lot of CEOs would see that and be like, how do I pour a million dollars into that? Right. And there's diminishing returns at Some point. And just like, bandwidth issues, right? Like, I was the one to run that program.

[A]

Yeah, no, it's all good. This is great. This is fun. I don't.

[B]

I.

[A]

We can't. Everybody's marketing is different. Like, we. We can't say we. We're. I just want to talk to you about what you're doing and how it's working and what we learned. Because even, even just that little nugget, someone's like, oh, really? You could do that? And fathom, like, that's, That's a nugget.

[B]

That's.

[A]

That's a valuable thing. Right? So on the 45 demos thing, none of your offers were even like, go start a free trial of Vector today. Wasn't it all, like, content? So there was no direct, like, book a demo. That means these people saw the ads, checked out your stuff, thought Vector was interesting, then went to book a demo. You weren't running, like, book a demo ads with influencers. Right.

[B]

There was no call to action. It was really just like, hey, here's this new product. Here's this survey data. Hey, here's this thing you can do.

[A]

And so that. So that survey data was like, how would someone get. How would someone get it? What do you think the path was for someone to get a. To tell me your best guess at how you think those 45 demos, like, happened.

[B]

Yeah, I think a lot of it was, hey, I trust this person. This is really interesting. Let me go Google Vector. Okay, Let me go to Vector. Let me kind of look around. Oh, yeah, this is cool. I can build ad audiences with people that are actually named Amazing. Let me actually see, like, what I can do with this.

[A]

And I did their ad copy say, like, check out Vector or was like, here's some cool data from Vector.

[B]

It was a mix of both. Like, I, I was pretty, like, hands off with these content creators because one, they know their audience best. Like, I don't want them to. I don't want them creating content. They don't actually think people are going to resonate with the. I asked for, like, could I see your post 24 hours ahead of time? Just because I want to make sure, like, how you talk about Vector is right. But besides that, like, it was kind of like, do what you think is right. Here's if, if you want to throw a link in the comments, here's like, the page I would link to about this. But for the most part, it was really, it was really up to them, like, how they wanted to talk about the, the content and the Product that they were kind of handed. I did really loose briefs. Like, it was just like, yeah, here's some messaging points. Here's. I gave them all, like, a very loose time frame because I've been on the other side of this where like, I've been paid by other companies to post something and they're like, we need you to post on this day. It's like, well, I already have plans for that day.

[A]

I know, right? Or I've done, like, happens to me all the time. I'm like, very randomly, I'll have something scheduled. Usually I do it on my calendar. And I'm like, oh, I double posted. Like, why is the engagement on this one so off? Yeah, on that. By the way, I have an interesting perspective on this because we do. You know, this is like what our sponsorship business is. It's been a part of our sponsorship business at exit five, Right. We. We're essentially like an influencer type of company. It. It comes through, like our newsletter and podcast ads or whatever. But in your example of, like, you were hands off and letting them write the thing. I've seen a dramatic difference for I think two years ago, I didn't have the same confidence that I have now, and I don't. I why we have the results from, like, working with sponsors. Right. I think before I would be like, oh, you know, whatever. This company, this is the ad they want to run. Like, okay, cool. Like, this is the ad. And now I'm like, I don't know. Actually, I can do a better job. Like, I know this audience so well. Like, let me write, hey, guys, can I write the ad for you in the newsletter? And they're like, yeah, yeah. And I'm like, no, I should tell them that. And so now we will get a brief, but we will write the ad in our tone, in our voice, in our way, and it works so much better. And it's like, oh, this is the lesson for influencers. And it's like, it's this weird thing where, like, the more we want to control it and, like, we get these messages. I get them all the time from, like, HubSpot as an example.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

They're like, hey, can you post. Here's the utm. Like, post this on this date. And I'm like, I understand they're trying to do, like, the broad, like the big play like that, but there just feels like that if you can really do it this way, it's better. How did you find these 12? Because this is what comes of all the time. Is there some Magic database that you found to get these people.

[B]

Like, yeah, there are a few tools out there. There's. Hive site is one that's kind of cool, where you can actually go in and like, hive Site, Hive Site.

[A]

How did you get your 12 though?

[B]

I kind of knew all of them, so four of them were customers. And so that felt really important to have like people who are actually in the product, using it day to day and have seen business results can actually talk about this for us. And then the remainder were just like, Kaylee Edmondson, Brittany Blanken. Right. Like people who are demand gen marketers that have so much trust built up in their communities and their audiences.

[A]

So you, you knew. You knew these people. Right? And. And then are there. There's probably industries. Me ask this as a question. Do you think there are industries where you can't know who the people are and so therefore you need like a database or something like that?

[B]

Absolutely. I think it was easy for me because I'm a marketer marketing to marketers. And you know, my whole kind of sphere of people are marketers. And so it was very simple for me to be like, yeah, these are the people I really want on this in this pilot. I think it would have been a lot harder like at my previous role at island, which is, you know, enterprise browser and where they were selling to like it and you know, information security. Like, I would have been like, I don't even know where to start. So there are tools out there that will help you kind of understand like, who has influence with the people that you really want to reach.

[A]

Could you have gone to someone at island, like, was there that customer internally? And could you have asked like, hey, who do you follow?

[B]

Totally. Yeah, exactly. That's another great way is like, who's. Who's like your internal SME. Who's kind of the one with their ear to the ground? Can you talk to them about, like, where would our. Where would our audience actually be, like, listening and getting their information from?

[A]

Okay, so you did this. We'll move on from this section in a minute. But you did this influencer campaign. Seems like it was effective. I understand how you did it. Any. Any parting thoughts before we. We move on to this, like, next part?

[B]

Things I want to try moving forward are kind of like hybrid sponsorship or partnership plus influencer. So think like we sponsored the notorious B2B podcast and. And Tass and Tim, Tas Bober and Tim Davidson who host that show. Part of that sponsorship was that they posted. I never heard of them for us. Yeah, they're you know, little known folks.

[A]

It's the fruit. That's the fruit guy, I think the.

[B]

Fruit guy and the landing page lady.

[A]

Yeah, no, I'm not, I've never heard of her. Not familiar, huh?

[B]

Right. So that, that's something cool I want to look into, I think video, I think a little bit more.

[A]

What about like scaling this, right? Because Josh, like your CEO Josh like you tell him like, yeah, this drove 45 demos. Like wouldn't the reaction be like, cool, let's do it again. Let's get 45 more. Yeah, why don't you just do it again?

[B]

Yeah, absolutely. Just kind of continue to do it, I think. Grow that pool. I think I, at this point, like now I would need to build a couple systems and some documentation to like really streamline it and help me scale it.

[A]

Why don't you just get like those 12 and just have them on like a retainer for like the whole year?

[B]

Yeah, that's it. That's the point is like the long term partnerships and the long term relationships really do well.

[A]

I think so too. I think, I think in, especially in B2B, I think if you're selling consumer, it's like I could do one post and sell a bunch of, you know, razors or whatever.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

In B2B just because of how people buy. They're like your influencer stuff might be awesome, but someone just might not be ready to buy vectors right now.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And so even, you know, back to like what we're, what we're doing. Right. We've shifted from like when I first started doing this, we would do like you know, a week long campaign with, with someone wanted to sponsor, they wanted to get like a sponsored post from me and, and we put them in the newsletter and that would be like a one off like allart thing. And now it's like, no, what really works is like three to six months of like hearing web flow, air ops, whatever on the podcast over and over and over, plus seeing it in the news. Then the deals come in and that's what you want. We want people to look at it in like over six months. You know, did you get incremental lift from doing this? B2B is not going to be like we sent a newsletter and like 40 people bought Vector today. It just doesn't work.

[B]

Like we're done now. Yeah. Well even like on the flip side, like I've been posting, doing sponsored posts for SEMrush for two years. They understand that too. Like I think the, the brands that are Doing it. Right. Are like creating these long term partnerships with, with.

[A]

Oh, like you're an influencer for them. Is that a recurring thing?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

How does it work? Is like a monthly per month thing.

[B]

It's. Yeah, I would say probably 10, 8 to 10 times a year. They'll reach out and say, hey, we have this new campaign. Like, here's kind of what we're talking about.

[A]

So just copy that for Vector. That makes a ton of sense. Like, yeah, nice. That's a, that's a great idea. Okay, cool. Influencers done. Cool. Good, good on you. Keep doing it or do it until it stops early. All right. AI generated slop. I think it's the best thing to ever happen in marketing, actually, because it raises the bar. Right? AI Slop is going to kill deals, kill brand and kill trust. Today, marketers like, we're also customers too. Right. And so we have to actually put ourselves in the position of our customers and think about all the AI slop they're seeing. And it's on us to create things that actually matter. Things that have meaning and impact, things that are educational, entertaining, funny, useful, specific and relevant. And that's everything that our sponsor, Air Ops stands for. They're helping reshape how people discover and connect with brands. Because AI SLO is not going to win. Air Ops is built for marketers who want to create content that sounds like their best subject matter expert, not another chatbot. This is content grounded in real sources, real insights and real information gain. Their content engineering platform helps you surface your highest value opportunities in AI search, then shows you how to actually take action on them. Not just see dashboards, not just get another recommendation or SEO report, but actually go out and execute. And this is the topic that everyone is being asked to get smarter about right now. AI search and SEO. If you care about this topic, then you want to go and check out Airops. They're built for you. It's airops.com exit5. You can learn more about Air Ops and what they're doing in the AI and SEO space. That's airops.com exit5. Let's talk about podcasting. So you hosted podcasts at Vector. The podcast is called this meeting could have been a podcast. And it is between you, the head of marketing, VP of marketing, and the CEO. How did this thing come to be? Why do you do it? Is it valuable? Must be. We're talking about it in this. We're talking about it as a marketing tactic. Let's. I could spend an hour talking about the value of Podcasting. So let me hear it. This is like, how's it going?

[B]

One of my favorite topics. So it's going great. We're in season two. We have plans for season three and four, so obviously it's doing something for us. We really started doing this because we wanted some sort of, like, you know, there, there's lead magnets, right? We wanted an awareness magnet. We wanted something that was going to bring people to us continuously that would always be kind of this big top of funnel. Like you always know you're going to get value out of it. And through that, you're going to learn about us. And through learning about us, you're going to learn about Vector. And at the same time, we did not want the show to be about the product. We just wanted to, like, take building in public to the extreme. So we came up with this idea of this meeting could have been a podcast. We kind of decided, like, it was going to be our one on ones. It was essentially going to be like, you're sitting down in our one on ones. Each episode covers, like, one decision we had to make together. So it's like, Jess wants to start running ads. Josh went to a conference and has a bunch of crazy ideas. Jess wants to start a podcast. Right. So, like, each one kind of has a. A vein that we explore. And I think people like it because there are things you always want to say to your CEO that you can't. Right. Because you just don't have that relationship. And Josh and I have that relationship. And so I think, like, I can say the things or ask the questions and I can get a real answer back to the things that, like, most people can't actually ask. And it's done really well for us. We, this season is even more successful than, than last season. We have about double the downloads we did pretty consistently, month over month. And it's a lot of fun.

[A]

I love the. I love the whole idea. The concept of it is great. It seems like you do have the right chemistry for it, which matters. You know, I think that's the kind of secret sauce of it, right?

[B]

Yeah, totally. I think people know that, like, they're going to learn something, but they're also going to be entertained. We have a couple, like, weird moments where we do really awkward, positive affirmations and we stare directly into the camera. So it's fun. I think one big piece of it being so successful is that we record on set. So we actually do this together. He lives in Florida, I live in Michigan. I fly down to Florida every Few months and we over two days record an entire season. So I bring eight changes of clothes and we have like all the scripts written up and we kind of know exactly like what order we're going to do them in. And we do, you know, the silly photos where you have to like, like the, you now do have to do.

[A]

A lot of prep for that or is it like topic driven and you're kind of riff a ton of prep.

[B]

Ton of prep just to make sure that like we get the outline right. We don't do any real scripting besides the show opener. The show opener is kind of like a little skit. Besides that, it's all just kind of off the top of our head based on our outline. But we, we have very specific points we want to like make sure we hit and very specific stories we want to make sure we tell, you know, moments from like, oh, you know, hey, remember when we were at Drive exit 5 drive and the boat mix up and we had to like go figure all that out and it worked out right. So like we, we will sit down and like try to really get solid outlines written. And that is what takes the most work.

[A]

Nice. That's awesome. I. I feel like the, I mean the in person thing makes a ton of difference and then also feel like because you're batching them, your banter is already like, you're like warmed up a little bit, you know?

[B]

Yeah, it is. And it, if you can feel that in the episodes, like, it just feels like one big conversation, which is, which is awesome.

[A]

Do you ever have a day where you're not really feeling up for it and you just got to do it anyway?

[B]

There was one episode where I was, we were going to. I think it was like, you know, one of the last episodes we were going to record on day one of the two day shoot. And I was like, I don't know, I'm not feeling this one. Can we just like move this to the first slot tomorrow and let's take that first one we were going to do tomorrow morning and move it to now and like, I think I'll be in a better like headspace to do that. And it worked out great. But that's really like, I get so excited.

[A]

Have you ever been like mad at him and you have to do the podcast?

[B]

No, no, we. I don't get mad at each other. I can tell him if he's being crazy and he can tell me if I'm being crazy.

[A]

And we're like, I mean, it's not normal. You're allowed to be frustrated at your. With your boss. You know, whoever your boss is, is like, can be kind of annoying sometimes.

[B]

Yeah. I don't know. We get along great. Like, I had someone ask me yesterday, have you guys known each other like a really long time? And I was like, this time last year, I did not know him.

[A]

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, that's. If you can find that. That is the recipe. I mean, I think there's a lot of people who can do the job. Like, I think.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, I think that somebody else probably could. This is not a reflection on you. It's like, I think somebody else could probably be doing an effective job at marketing for Vector. Right?

[B]

Totally.

[A]

But when you have. It really is. I think the thing I'm learning too, Jess, is like, everyone always is like, it's all about the people. It's all about. But it really. The business stuff is so easy. Almost all of the frust. All of the problems I have in a week are people problems.

[B]

Yes. Yeah. I mean, this is my fifth job in six years and it's, it's simply because, like, I would go somewhere and I would be okay, like, kind of doing my work. But, like, I didn't feel that. I don't. I never felt what I feel here. Right Where I'm like, man, people really want to know my opinion and they really care about it and like, it just, it's different here. And I think if I had advice for people who are like, especially as a content person, where it's like really hard to quickly show how your work is having impact. Like, it's so long term, it's really difficult. Is like, there is, there is a leader out there for you. Whether you're like, you are going to report to a CEO or you're going to report to a VP of marketing, or you're going to report to like a manager of some kind. Like, there is a leader out there for you who you are going to be able to jive with and get along with and grow with. Like, keep searching if you haven't found them yet. Okay.

[A]

Because it just takes all the out and then you two are on the same page and you can actually have productive and creative discussions instead of constantly worrying about hurting feelings or saying something or I don't know.

[B]

Yeah. How do I deliver this to them so that they like it? Yeah. It's like, yeah, cuts all that out for sure.

[A]

I tried this week. I tried just being super direct all week and it's really working.

[B]

What we. Are you not Normally, like, that I.

[A]

Can be direct, but I think I'm like. I think right now it's more like I'm just saying, like, if I'm saying exactly why I don't like something and saying exactly what to do next instead of just being. Yeah. Like, I think before, I'd be like, okay, sounds good. And I'm like, ah. I kind of don't really like, especially because a lot of people, a lot of our team is new, and so I feel like the more. I just need to, like, say more things out loud, and it's. It's like intentionally trying to shape the team and the culture.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I feel like if I don't. So. So I'm trying to be more direct, and I. It's. It's hard.

[B]

It is. I didn't always feel like this, but feedback is a gift. Like, if you can take. If you can internalize it the right way.

[A]

I know. It's really hard, though. I still don't love it, and I. It feels uncomfortable. And everyone's like, it's a gift. It's a. It's a gift until it happens to you. Let me just sit there and give you 10 minutes of feedback. You know, it's like, I get a lot of feedback, and I don't want any more of it. Like, I'm good. It doesn't feel that good. But anyone who goes on a podcast is like, feedback. Feedback is. I. I understand. I understand the concept, but it doesn't. I'm. We're still humans, and it's. And it's challenging. And then I. I think sometimes you need to just say, like, no. Like, the words no. Like, no.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And it needs to.

[B]

It's a full sentence.

[A]

Leah says that to me all the time. She's like, they just say no. It's a full sentence. We say no. No. Is it? No is a full sentence.

[B]

What?

[A]

But there's something that's weird about it. If someone emails me and they're like, hey, can I. Can I have a. Can I pick your brain tomorrow? If I just wrote back, no, that would be an asshole move. So I don't. I just. So then what do I do? I just ignore it. Then I ignore the message. But then I'm also an asshole anyway. In a work context. Yeah. Like, it's okay. Like, look. Nope, we're not doing that. Okay, done.

[B]

Yeah, totally.

[A]

Like, it's a little bit like parenting sometimes. Management and parenting. I'm not saying that teammates are children. I'm just saying, like, you just got to Be direct. Sometimes.

[B]

Yeah. You just got to say it like it is.

[A]

Okay. On the, on the results of the podcast now, you know, it's working. It's working. It feels awesome. It's working. But what, what does that actually mean? I've been in a situation where you got a podcast and you, you, you feel it. You get DMS on LinkedIn, it shows up on sales calls. I'm wondering if you feel that in the same way.

[B]

Yeah. I will tell you right now, I cannot tie it back to, I don't know, more than a handful of deals where it's been mentioned on a sales call or I know for a fact that someone either saw a clip, heard an episode. Right. However, I. Yeah, I think like you say, we feel it. We feel the increase of, you know, the kind of up and to the right increase of traffic, the growth on social between me and Josh.

[A]

The.

[B]

We're doing a live episode actually. This is exciting. Next week, by the time this actually airs, it'll have happened. Thank God. I'm like really nerve wracked about it.

[A]

But is it in Florida? Like live in Florida?

[B]

No, we're gonna do like a gold cast webinar live recording and it's gonna feel just like the podcast. Like it, it's gonna be wild. So we're, we're doing more of it. Like we even just like the registrations for that. I'm like, it's working. We have fans and followers and listeners.

[A]

So you feel it, you feel it beyond sales, which is like a cool benefit of it, which is like employment, brand, personal brand, there just feels to be more. It's not like I know for a fact that the podcast has generated six deals for us, but it's more just like in general, since doing this, there seems to be more like buzz and air cover for vector.

[B]

Yes. Yeah. I think one of the marketing team's goals for 2026 is to be your marketing team's favorite marketing team. And I think that, that the podcast is a really good.

[A]

Who came up with that idea?

[B]

It was me.

[A]

Hell yeah.

[B]

I mean, it's real. Like, I want people to, when they're asked, like, who's doing cool stuff? I want people to say vector. And the podcast is an example of that.

[A]

I like that. I like goals like that.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

This is what happens when you put a content brand person in charge of marketing.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

This is healthy. The goal doesn't always have to be 7 million in pipeline this quarter. Obviously that's the one that's going to get you to keep Your job. But, like, you do both, you're going to get more inbound because more people know Vector. I meant to say this to you earlier, but I like the goal of, like, we're doing this to get more people to know that we exist.

[B]

Yeah. How would they ever buy from you if they don't know who you are and who you. And do they like you? Like, that's a big thing, too. Just likability.

[A]

Cool. So, and then podcasts, you're gonna double down on it?

[B]

Yes. Still going. We're doing live episodes, season three and four. They're coming.

[A]

Cool. Dan's on my ass about podcast downloads. It's my least favorite topic in the world.

[B]

Why is that? I think you're doing amazing. Are you not?

[A]

Yeah, it's fine. It's just like, it's seasonal. The December and January.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like, Thanksgiving through January. Like, and it's. I've been doing this for, for many, for seven years now. And it's like, every year, like, few. I, I haven't, I feel like I haven't listened to a podcast in three months. And that's okay. I'm still doing mine.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So, you know, he's just like, why are these down? Why? I'm like, dude, it's okay. It's okay.

[B]

And then, yo.

[A]

And then also, I don't know, I just feel like the goal is not. I don't really care if they grow like this because the podcast, I think there are so many benefits of it beyond just, like, the growth machine. And it's like, we create content through it. You meet people through it. You know, for you and Josh, like, it's an amazing way to get content out. You're now kind of like putting takes and bits on the record. And like, that thing you said in the podcast actually becomes, like, a key piece of messaging. And, like, that becomes his, like, keynote at your event. And, you know, customers are DMing you saying they listen. People are sharing with their families and saying, like, yo, check out the podcast of my CEO. So there's, There's a lot of benefits beyond just the downloads.

[B]

100%.

[A]

Do you think a part of it, like, did you commit to doing this regardless of how it went? Or did you say, like, hey, we're gonna do three episodes and try this?

[B]

We committed to a full season and just kind of wanted to see, like, what it would do. I, I, you know what, Dave? I think the thing that we really realized it was, like, becoming a thing was my and Josh's social following, like, really started. We Started to see really steady growth. I've been posting on LinkedIn for like three years now, close to four. You know, the algorithm kind of does this thing year over year and it's like, you see growth and then it kind of levels off. You see growth behind the scenes. For me, like, I was starting to see like real growth again. And so I was like, something's happening here. Like, this is, this is happening. So I think that was the moment we were like, okay, even I think halfway through season one being distributed, like the fourth episode was out, we were like, we're doing season two over it again. So, yeah, it makes a difference. It's hard to track. Yes. But like, you can feel it, you can find it.

[A]

Damn. I'm looking at your LinkedIn right now and your post today. I'm like, is that me? It's a bald guy with like a stubble and he's got an exit five crew neck on. I really was like, was that me? For a second. Now the head shape is different. That's trash. Okay, let's see. LinkedIn. You talked a bunch about LinkedIn. You've been posting on LinkedIn for three years. You said, holy. You got 37, 000 followers. That's. That's not a, that's not a joke. That's not that, that ain't no 10k, Jess.

[B]

No, that's the main reason my daughter thinks I'm cool, you know?

[A]

You know, wow, love that. And, and you start. We started posting three years ago. Is that, is that. Is this all been growth within three years?

[B]

Yeah, almost four. I think it was April of 2022. I started posting.

[A]

You know what, you know those things. Like, imagine being one of those people who posts on LinkedIn.

[B]

And then I'm like, that's me.

[A]

Hi. I'm like, you're looking at me. Yeah.

[B]

And like, yeah, what about it exactly, bro?

[A]

Or like, I, I mean, I think it just. And then there's another one. Is like, I one day, I wanna. The point of working. You've seen the other ones. Like, the point of working is to never have to use LinkedIn.

[B]

Hey, you know what I will tell you, the point of LinkedIn is to never have to apply for a job that is.

[A]

Or like to have a. You have a family, you want to make money. That's okay. You have, you're running marketing and you have like a great company paying you money to talk about their products. And like, you can use that money to live your life. Like, God damn, that's good. That's good.

[B]

It's amazing. Yes.

[A]

But that's crazy. Three years, 37,000 followers. Can. I mean, hey, heck, yeah. We. We. Love we.

[B]

We.

[A]

I'm. I'm happy to have a LinkedIn success. Success story. How do you define your. Your content strategy? In my prep notes from Aaron, it says LinkedIn unhinged branding. But, like, I don't. I don't really think you're unhinged. You're like, you're not talking about Vector.

[B]

Like, Vector's a little.

[A]

Vectors. Unhinged. Oh, the. Okay. Jess Cook is not unhinged. The Vector Social brand is unhinged.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Which, honestly, like, all I do for the Vector Social page is just, like, repost me and Josh's stuff, but from the podcast mostly. But, yeah, I don't. My content strategy is, like, I just. I really started posting on LinkedIn because my. So. Okay, hold on. Actually, I got to go back even further. My background is in copywriting and creative direction. I was copywriter, Creative Director on B2C Brands, McDonald's, Rice Krispies, Frost of Lakes, Pop Tarts, Cotton Owl, a lot of, like, CPG stuff for 15 years. And I made the switch over to B2B and SaaS in 2019. And I felt so lost in those first couple of years. Like, I was like, they're gonna figure out I have no idea what I'm doing. They're gonna fire me. Like, all I know how to do is write recipe description for Rice Krispies Treats. Like, what am I doing here? And finally got my feet underneath me, and I finally. Like, it took a good two years, but I really felt like, okay, I actually, like, I have some transferable skills here. Like, I know what I'm doing. I know what good content is. And so I started writing on LinkedIn because I was like, man, I really wish I would have had somebody to just, like, throw me a tip of the day. Like, help me feel like I wasn't drowning. And I just wanted to be that person for someone else, and I just kept going. So that's kind of. My ethos is like, what would help someone not want to cry at their job today? Like, what could be something that could really help them out that they could use? Who's a content marketer or trying to move up the ladder or has an untraditional background that maybe is like, man, today is rough, and they just need a little glimmer of hope.

[A]

Can you remember a Rice Krispies recipe off the top of your head right now?

[B]

Well, it's the same recipe over and over and over and you just put a different topping. So it could be like butterscotch Rice Krispies treats and you just put butterscotch in the original recipe. Like I legit. I wrote, I kid you not, 200 plus recipe descriptions as a junior copywriter.

[A]

Love that. Yeah, look, I, I think it's, I think it's great. I love, I love the, I love the background and, and, and how that, how that plays out. And I think it's the perfect era for this. Like, you, I think you have to, you have to win by standing out, by being different, by getting attention, by getting people to, to like you. I talked to, I did a podcast this morning actually with, with Louis, Louis Grenier. You know his books.

[B]

Oh, yes.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. And his whole thing is like standing out, being different. He was great. He was super creative. Reminded me a lot of like, kind of like Harry Dry type of stuff. But yeah, I like that. Even just like the fact that Vector has a, has a mascot for some reason works for me.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like it does. And I said to you yesterday, like, you get, you gave these out at our event and like my kids both have this ghost, this ghost stuffy. But there's something about like I'm looking at your LinkedIn, like the banner. You have the only way to build ad audiences by name. And it's Vector and this little ghost. And then like your, your white and pink, like the brand colors. It really does work and it makes me. I said this on the podcast with Louie, but like, it'd be, it'd be fun to like, use brand as an advantage right now and to stand out and to not have your website and everything feel like, you know, stripe.

[B]

Yes, whatever. I feel like it's non negotiable moving forward. And I think I posted this just the other day. I really think we're going to start to see content marketers move up into that, like, marketing lead role because they understand that. And, you know, I think that was part of the reason I like Vector was so appealing to me when the opportunity arose, was like they had the ghosts on their site. They really, they named the problem. They had fun colors. There was like a little bit of, I don't know, sass or attitude to their vibe and their tone. And it spoke to me as like my past in B2C, right. Where everything has a mascot and you actually like try to capitalize on emotion and not just like, oh, there's frosting on every flake. Right. Like it's bigger than that. And I think we're going to start to see like this is going to be the new wave where marketers who understand that are rising to the top.

[A]

And it's just more fun. This is a more fun job to like be creative and like, I don't know, I love that stuff like this. What I love about marketing is like if the my kids school was doing a fundraiser and they wanted help like getting more parents to like donate, I'd love to be involved in that and like come up with something creative. And that's what we're doing just at a bigger scale with like a B2B brand and like that's the fun. That, that is so fun. What, what's not fun is all the other internal and people stuff and da da. But like I think if we can do more of that like craft. I love this lately like the craft of marketing, the art of marketing, like that that's what's fun.

[B]

It's so fun. And we, we lean pretty hard into the ghost. I think people really love him. Like I've had so many people tell it, tell me now that like when they see a ghost they think of vector. They don't think of Snapchat, like they think of us, which is. That's pretty wild.

[A]

Who did you have? So did the ghost start out like as you. You all just started using the ghost emoji and then did you eventually like design the ghost emoji into your own ghost?

[B]

So Josh came up with the ghost which again like find you a. A C suite leader who believes in brand so much they create their own mascot like that. That's huge. So he created the ghost. He used a little ghost image on one page of the website kind of to start as, as this idea of like we're revealing the ghosts that are coming to your site, clicking your ads, right? Like they're no longer anonymous. And when I started last year, they were a pretty big like part of the branding already. And I just recognize that it could be the thing we really lean into and use all the time. So yeah, the ghost emoji is like I think we kind of own that now. We're going to do a little sneak peek of our plan this year. We're going to do a little tour. We're going to do our own little event series called the Ghost Tour Tour where we go to different cities and we're taking prospects and customers out to nice dinner and then we're going to go do like a walking ghost tour, right? We do a lot of like the hey boo or we like lean into the like language like that. I, I, one of my favorite parts of the job is I have the privilege of commenting as vector on LinkedIn. So like I get, I take on the voice of the ghost.

[A]

Oh yeah. When that's when, when it's not you actually, you can say whatever you want.

[B]

Oh, it's so fun. Yeah.

[A]

I call it like, are there other, are there other brands that you think have done a good job of this, like kind of created a character are winning right now with brand like Vector is one who, maybe one or two others that you could mention that, that people might follow.

[B]

Fibbler is another one. If you've ever heard of fibbler, they're LinkedIn like ads attribution tool. They also have mascot. It's a little like lion. I stop at every single one of their ads that I ever see on LinkedIn because it's always like they're lying in some sort of like meme that I've seen before.

[A]

Like the actual, It's a Swedish company. This is always true. There's something out there that they.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. So they're, they're a really good one. There are companies that have mascots that I'm like, use your mascot more.

[A]

Like, you know, like, who, who's got a good mascot?

[B]

Mutiny has the raccoon.

[A]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[B]

And I'm like, you gotta, you gotta use that raccoon more.

[A]

I need a mascot.

[B]

You need a mascot.

[A]

We need a mascot.

[B]

What would be your mascot?

[A]

Like the number five with like legs.

[B]

Oh, I love it.

[A]

I don't know. I don't know. That's a good one. The ghost is great. The ghost is. The ghost works. All right, cool. Brand like brand is back, baby.

[B]

Brands back.

[A]

It's funny, this, this note in here was, you know, Jess, Jess worked on childhood brands. McDonald's, Eggo, Rice Krispies and Cotton. This is Google Gemini, by the way. Oh, and one of the suggesting questions was you, you spent years writing for brands like Eggo and Rice Krispies. Now that you're a parent yourself, do you look at these boxes in your own pantry and think, I would have written that tagline differently?

[B]

That's a great question.

[A]

I think that was Aaron. That was Aaron actually, not Gemini.

[B]

Ah, she's amazing. Oh, I'm sure I would have, I mean, I, I was writing those lines as like a 20 year old.

[A]

No disrespect 20 year olds. Listen, there's no disrespect one.

[B]

I, for 10 whole years, I was.

[A]

A 20 something, but I'm 38. Listen to me. I'm 38. And if I could go back for one day and talk a bunch of. To my 23 year old and 25 year old self, I would.

[B]

Heck yes. Absolutely. Agreed. Yeah, I would. And because I know things now that I couldn't have possibly known then. So, yeah, absolutely, I would write.

[A]

Which is just. Which is it doesn't even mean you're smarter. Just like literally, you have more time. Like I will have, I will know more when I'm 70 than I know more now. It's a fact. Any, any older person, any person older than me that I've ever disrespected in my life, take back, it's over. Wipe it away. Never happened.

[B]

Never happened. No.

[A]

Right.

[B]

I, I understand the error of my ways.

[A]

You, you in the copywriting thing now. So you wrote for like the big brands, Right? But now all the, the whole marketing play is like everything in our pantry. Right. It's like Linda made these snacks because she was tired of feeding her family. She was, she saw the sugar, how much sugar there was in normal snacks, and so she made veggie chips. You know, it's always a story about like how some family, like created their.

[B]

Own thing now their garage sold it in a wagon.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. What is your, like, guilty pleasure at home drink during the day? Like, for me, I'm a closet Olip guy. I'm not. You know, a lot of people don't like it. A lot of people do. Has that fake taste in it. For me, it works. Well, what's your. Do you have one? I could see you being a tea person.

[B]

I'm a Coke Zero girl.

[A]

Whoa. I didn't see that.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Love it.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Can't get enough. I have to like limit myself to one a day.

[A]

Does it have caffeine?

[B]

Oh, yeah. Caffeine doesn't really, like, do anything for me though. I could have a cup of coffee right before bed and be fine.

[A]

Has that always been true?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So we had, we had this. We were in Arizona and we had this team dinner and it was really late at night and I was on the west coast and I just was all out of it. And Dan got a. I was really full too. And after dinner, he ordered an espresso. He says, I always get an espresso after dinner. And he's like, I feel like I. We ate so much. He's like, you'll be fine. You ate so much steak. Like it's not going to bother you. I was up the whole Freaking night.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

So that stressed me out. You're a Coke Zero. We're going to send you a big case of Coke Zero. Oh, you can have one a day. When is it? Is it timed as timed at a certain point in the day.

[B]

This is the thing about getting older. I won't tell you how old I am, but I am older than you. And I don't like to drink water. I have this Josh, actually, for Christmas, got me this water bottle that, like, lights up when I don't drink enough. And so I make myself drink three of those before I can have a Coke Zero.

[A]

Good. That's good. Good for you. And I would have guessed that you're, like, 28. So take that. Put it in the bank. Clip that on the record. You can have it. Gift from me to you. Happy Hanukkah. Like, you know you're good. What else is in my. What is in my doc? I think. I think we did it. We talked a little bit about the transition from content to VP of marketing, but maybe let's wrap up and just. And hit on this for. For a couple more minutes. I. We didn't do it enough justice.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Are there things that need to be different Content person Jess to VP Jess. And what are they here?

[B]

I will tell you my weaknesses and things that I need, like muscles. I need to build now and started before I got to this role, but really need to build now that I'm in the role. But one is metrics reporting. Like, I. You know, one, we do a lot. Like, I think the first year of me being here was a lot of, like, vibes and feeling like, does this work? Do we feel the pull of this program we just started? Yeah, we think it's working. I want to get really good this year at, like, knowing what's working and actually doing some sort of reporting and, like, building some dashboards. We have an incredible rev ops lead I believe she's been on. She's been on multiple Exit 5 events, Sarah McMurra. But she's building all kinds of stuff for me for this year to really understand, like, what's working, where should we double down? So that's one big thing to managing a team. When I was a creative director, I managed copywriters and art directors, you know, teams of 10 or so. But it's been a while. And managing an actual, like, marketing team is, you know, that. That's a. That's a different skill set than being the individual contributor. So those are. Those are the two, for me, is, like, really sharpening up on like, kind of reporting and metrics and understanding like what's. What is important. There's so much data that you could gather and like what's just noise and what actually is showing me that like we're doing our jobs and second is just being a good leader for my team. We have a demand gen marketer starting later this month, which is so exciting. And yeah, so there will be three of us on the marketing team. And I just want to be, I want to be a great, A great leader to them. Hey, buddy.

[A]

Nice Sam's here. I think you're set up. I think that's also a key ingredient in your past. Without knowing you too well personally, if you can manage copywriters and create, like, to be able to be a creative director is, is, you know, you, you weren't a vp, a marketing year before, but managing that many people and having to give feedback on work at that scale is, is, you know, very translatable, very important. He had to know where my baseball glove is. There's a foot of snow on the ground. I don't know why, why that's.

[B]

They don't care. Kids don't care. They will swim in 50 degree water. They will play in the shorts and clean the snow in their shorts. Doesn't matter.

[A]

Yeah. How do you, how do you balance keeping your sanity while working from home and having a family?

[B]

It's not easy.

[A]

If we could make a. If we could make a gif. I say gif. If we could make a gif out of your reaction right there, that, that would be like, that's the answer.

[B]

Let's do it. There are a few of those from our podcast that are gold. I make some crazy faces. I don't mean to. I am fortunate enough to be able to, like, get my groceries delivered, pay to have my house cleaned. Like, to anyone that has the ability to do those things, like, I just say, do it. I think part of it too is like, I'm kind of okay with the house looking like a Toys R Us exploded in it at some point. And then knowing that, like, I'll clean it up this weekend. So a lot of it is just like, what can I outsource? Very much like I would here at Vector. Like, what can and should I outsource? The other kind of side of that coin is like, I realistically have, let's say, a max of 50 hours to give Vector a week. And like, I've told Josh this before, like, that is. That's what I have and I will work my Ass off for you in that 50 hours. And then when the kids are home or we have Girl Scouts or we have basketball practice or, you know, volleyball practice, like, I'm gonna sign off and I'm gonna go enjoy those things without feeling guilty. And he has kids, too. I think that's a. That's a really important piece, is like a. Find yourself some leaders that if they aren't in the same life stage as you, at least have empathy for that and. And will give you the flexibility you need to, like, live your life while you work.

[A]

Amen. Because if you don't do that, you're an.

[B]

LIES detect.

[A]

There you go. Send that to your boss.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

But do you. Are you able to fully turn off, like, you're not checking your chutney? Not, like, looking at. Sitting up in the bleachers, looking at slack on your phone?

[B]

Oh, totally. Yeah.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

I'll be on vacation. I was. I was in a pool in Turks and Caicos earlier this year. Checking in, like, checking in on LinkedIn. Like, what?

[A]

So, like, that's. That's the whole thing, right? Like, even you quantifying it as 50 hours, it's like. It's not. It's not.

[B]

You're so.

[A]

It's not. Yeah, maybe. Maybe like, hours touching the computer, but, like, yeah, yeah. And like, as the owner of the business, like, don't you just want. Or the boss, whoever. Like, is it about the hours that you're working? Or, like, how can I create an environment where, like, you. You're. You're walking the beach in Turks and Caicos and you're like, oh, you know what kind, but you know what ads we should run? Like, I want that. And so if you're only going to be in the office for whatever, but, like, you get it. And. And we're in marketing. Like, ideas don't just stop. And so, like, are you gonna be like, all right, my work brain is off. Like, do. Dave, do not get any ideas this weekend, because if you get them, you'll have to work.

[B]

Those are the mom. The ideas. When you are away and you're Every.

[A]

Every weekend ever. Every weekend ever is when I have ideas. Because Monday through Friday you're in meetings, and then when you finally get a minute, it's like, oh, ha.

[B]

Yeah, unlock. I got it. I figured it out. Yeah.

[A]

Do your kids know what you do for work?

[B]

So my oldest will be 13 in four days, so she kind of gets it. She understands. She thinks it's cool that I have, like, LinkedIn followers.

[A]

I mean, what is. Does age map? My, my, my. My parents are 68 and they don't know what I do. So the age is not the qualifier.

[B]

That's true. I feel like that, like, man, this generation, like, she showed me how to edit videos on my phone. She has shot videos for me for LinkedIn. So she totally gets like, what I do and that I'm helping building a company and we have a brand. Like, she understands all that. My six year old, like, doesn't really get it. She'll like come in and she'd be like, oh, that's you. Look at that. You know, like, she thinks that's kind of cool.

[A]

That was my guy that just came in, is six and he, he literally, that's why he's like, dad, because he. And he can't hear because I got these in. And so you're just like, there's no sound right now. And I'm just sitting here. He has no idea you're talking.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I know they, they like get it, but they don't, you know, I mean, they don't really understand like what marketing is, but yeah, yeah, but they.

[A]

Have nice clothes they can wear to school.

[B]

Heck yeah. You know that they have a Stanley cup or the OLA is like the big one now. The big.

[A]

Give me a break. My whole, the whole issue at the kid's birthday was someone gave her off brand Stanley and I had to tell her it wasn't a Stanley and we got an argument about like, no, but seriously, this is why brand matters. That's not actually a Stanley.

[B]

Yeah, even at that age it matters.

[A]

But they created a cat anyway. All right. Jess Cook, you rock, man. Thank you for hanging out. This is great. Super fun. You can go find Jess Cook on LinkedIn. We'll. We're measuring your follower count before and after this and so we will be able to directly track how many followers you got. Go check out Vector. And Jess is also like OG member of the Exit 5 community. She's in there. You could, you know, holler at her in there or you know, say like, hey, I heard Jess on the podcast and it was awesome. And then just send me any notes or feedback davexit5.com or reach out on LinkedIn. Big year ahead for our podcast. We want to share a lot of, like, really useful marketing stuff and I hope we're off to a good start, but if we're not, send me a note and let me know because they will. Jess and you know what? Feedback, like we talked about earlier, Jess, feedback is a gift. Right?

[B]

The gift. Hey, thanks for making my dream come true. I appreciate it.

[A]

Oh, do you? Stop that. Don't. Hey, thanks for listening to this podcast. If you like this episode, you know what? I'm not even going to ask you to subscribe and leave a review because I don't really care about that. I've said something better for you. So we've built the number one private community for B2B marketers at exit 5. And you can go and check that out. Instead of leaving a rating or review, go check it out right now on our website, exit5.com our mission at Exit 5 is to help you grow your career in B2B marketing. And there's no better place to do that than with us at exit 5. There's nearly 5,000 members now in our community. People are in there posting every day asking questions about about things like marketing, planning, ideas, inspiration, asking questions and getting feedback from your peers. Building your own network of marketers who are doing the same thing you are. So you can have a peer group or maybe just venting about your boss when you need to get in there and get something off your chest. It's 100% free to join for seven days so you can go and check it out risk free. And then there's a small annual fee to pay if you want to become a member for the year. Go check it out. Learn more more exit5.com and I will see you over there in the community. Hey, by the way, we're doing a new event at Exit 5. On the heels of our very wildly successful and super fun drive, we're doing an event designed for marketing leaders. It's called the Exit 5 Marketing Leadership Retreat. It's a two day in person working session for CMOs and VPs in Arizona in March. Not a conference, not a marathon of content. It's a room of a hundred. Only 100 marketing execs from companies like Zoom, Snowflake, ManyChat, Bit, Ly, G2HP and more. You'll spend two days pressure testing real decisions with your peers who are doing the same job you are. What to hire next, what to cut, what's actually working, what's not. Small, intimate, exactly what you have needed in a marketing event designed for leaders and CMOs and VPs like you and me. It's on March 18th through 20th, 2026 at Mountain Shadows Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. We have a hundred spots and they're filling up fast. I think as of do as of recording this, we had 42 tickets sold so if you're a CMO or VP of marketing and you want to think better, move faster, and lead with more clarity this year, this event is made for you. We do awesome events. I'm su super excited to have this one out there. You should go check it out. Exit5.com retreat that's exit5.com RET treatment.