Funnel Reboot

Hosted by Glenn Schmelzle

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236

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Aug 2026

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About the show

A show giving you better insight into your funnel, so your marketing can be even better. New content biweekly, geared to help data-based marketers solve common problems that businesses have with the strategy, implementation and measurement of their digital marketing. Podcast hosted by Glenn Schmelzle.

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August 17, 2026Episode 24036 min

The Personal Branding Book, with Daria Dmitrieva

When I ask how someone forms their perception of a brand, what comes to mind? It might be they hear about it by word of mouth, or on an email thread or private message. In a nutshell, what's said about our company when we're not in the room, when we're not in control of the message. Now try the same experiment with our personal brand. Is our immediate thought how to look as good as possible? Is it how to curate the results that pop up when they search our name? Truth is, our personal brand has already been formed, we just weren't in on those conversations. Being active on our social media accounts can help, but we can also send the wrong brand message, shooting ourselves in the foot. When I first got onto Facebook and X, I feared that posting too much content would make me look distracted. When I did post, I felt a certain portion of them should be about my company or at least something generic. If I did have an opinion, it had to be watered down.My thinking was I should talk how my employer wanted me to talk. Turns out that is the complete opposite of how I should have been branding myself. It wasn't until I hung out my own shingle, that I realized being a generic-sounding consultant made me a commodity. That meant my rates were set by the market - I had to be a price-taker. But employees who act generically are also treated as commodities who must take whatever salary is offered. So regardless of where you sit, you're better off with a good personal brand. Am I saying employees should kiss ass on social, posting about how much they love their work? No. They can post thoughtful criticisms about the industry, they can post solutions to problems they and their peers face. Content like this boosts a person's brand without offending employers. They know you won't always be working for them; they'll bask in your halo while they can get it. But before you put out content you have to get introspective on what your brand stands for. It's hard for us to stare at a sheet of paper and figure this out, we get better results using a framework. And this is where our guest can help. Since getting her MBA from Moscow International Higher Business School, she has managed some of Europe's largest brands, from Stollwerck, to Nestlé and Shell. She is also a visual artist, marketing consultant and coach. Her 2026 book deals with this very issue. Let's go now to the French seaside resort town of Cannes to speak with the author of "The Personal Branding Book", Daria Dmitrieva. Chapter Timestamps 00:00 Intro 02:27 Meet Daria Dmitrieva 03:12 Brand As A Compass 05:55 Premium Brand Parallels 08:56 Authenticity Over Packaging 13:33 Fear And The Shadow Gift 19:04 Become A Magnet 22:26 CEO Dreamer Critic Roles 26:33 Body Cues And Intuition 28:39 Celebrate Progress 32:02 Daria Origin Story 35:35 Where To Find The Book Links to everything mentioned in the show are on the Funnel Reboot site's page for this episode.

August 3, 2026Episode 23932 min

Balancing Data in B2B Partnerships, with Brendan Ziolo

"Black Swan" author Nassim Nicholas Taleb says "understanding how to act under conditions of incomplete information is the highest and most urgent human pursuit" He might have been referring to B2B marketing. Think of it. Internal teams have internal data that give insight into customer accounts and lifetime value. Their agencies are close to different data: media auction signals, campaign trends. But both of them are data-poor, disadvantaged by limited access to each others' systems. As long as we tolerate the status quo, both sides will keep making false assumptions and poor decisions that harm their relationship. The same problem's existed in occupations and athletic pursuits, where having one person do it all brings the risk of making a wrong move. The solution is a two-person-team, where each compensates for the others' blindspot. One of the earliest examples comes from a young French acrobat in the mid 1800s who experimented with an aerial act he and a teammate performed over a pool. He was Jules Leotard, and yes, his name's become synonymous with the gymnast outfit he wore. His most dangerous maneuver started up high on his trapeze, with a teammate who'd dangle by their legs as they swung from their trapeze. When they were at the apex of their swings, he'd vault off into the air, to be grabbed by his teammates' arms. Talk about trust! There are many modern equivalents where people work in pairs: we have baseball pitchers and catchers exchange signals, synchronized swimming pairs vault each other out of the water. Airplanes are flown by captains and co-pilots, police and military cover for each other in tactical operations, or train Locomotives which are jointly operated by an Engineer and a Conductor. Our guest strives for 360 degree views of data shared between his agency and clients. He has done B2B marketing for startups and brands like Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent. In 2023 he founded Zinc Marketing, working for B2B technology companies. Beyond this, he has been featured in ABC, BusinessWeek, as well as tech and healthcare publications. He is also co-host of the B2B Marketing Pint podcast, and his love of camera gear helped us still record when some of my equipment broke. Head with me to a local pub to hear about trapeze performances done by agencies and clients, from Brendan Ziolo Chapter Timestamps 00:00 Intro 02:08 Meet Brendan Ziolo 03:22 Agency vs In House Data 06:00 Beyond MQLs to Revenue 11:25 Funnel Alignment Fixes 12:42 Radical Transparency 16:48 Qualifying Clients Fast 19:22 Directional Targets and Scaling 24:30 AI Needs Humans 29:56 Quality Over Quantity 30:52 Email Autopsy and Wrap Links to everything mentioned in the show are on the Funnel Reboot site's page for this episode.

July 20, 2026Episode 23838 min

Content, Simplified with Lee Densmer

Talk of Content marketing started appearing online around 2007. One of the few people who started talking about it was former Funnel Reboot guest Joe Pulizzi. It wasn't until 2014 I became aware of marketers who were staking their career on the profession of creating content. I found the idea of giving-away-expertise a bit unsettling. Maybe it was because for a dozen years prior to that, I'd mainly communicated with audiences through paid ads. Gradually, Content marketing won out - we simply expect content on social media brings marketing results. Only one problem, our guest says most of us aren't doing content marketing right. One of her main critiques is that we're making too much of it.. I'll use myself as an example. Let's look across the various accounts I've had on twitter/x; that have a combined 40,927 posts. Of those, analytics says only about 200, or 0.5% of them were home runs. If I'd known how our guest turns less into more; my marketing results could have been very different. I would also have been less stressed and would have slept better. Our guest is founder of Globia Content Marketing agency. After earning two Bachelor's degrees, from the University of Puget Sound and Boise State University, and completing her Master's at the University of Colorado Boulder, our guest spent two decades as an in-house B2B marketer. Wanting to improve how content marketing's done, she started posting on LinkedIn and built a sizable following and hung out her shingle in 2023. In 2025, she published her book Content Simplified. Let's go to boise idaho to speak with Lee Densmer Chapter/Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:34 Meet Lee Densmer 02:46 Why Content Fails 04:08 Quantity Trap 05:47 Three by Five Framework 07:27 Set Three Goals 09:23 Burnout Social Example 10:48 Pick Three Buyers 15:14 Choose Three Themes 17:09 Mission Statement Focus 19:29 Stay In Your Lane 21:08 Avoid Endless Debates 22:28 AI Limits And Guardrails 25:54 SME Interview System 28:30 Chatbot Announcement 28:59 CEO Approval Bottleneck 30:59 Channels Promotion Repurpose 33:48 Metrics That Matter 36:29 Proving ROI And Budgets 37:21 Book details & Wrap Up Links to everything mentioned in the show are on the Funnel Reboot site's page for this episode.

July 6, 2026Episode 23741 min

Why you want AI to be a more Skilled Marketer than you, with Chris Dore

Small businesses run on lean marketing teams and tight budgets, but don't count them out. They're the overwhelming majority of businesses on earth. Small companies have one function that's poised to figure out AI through experimentation, analysis and strategic changes in direction. It's marketing, and it may very well determine the winner of the AI race. After graduating from Laurentian University, our guest worked in corporate and consulting positions across Canada and even in Korea. He then founded a business which he grew to a successful exit, which led to mentoring students at Algonquin College and eventually teaching in their Business Management and Entrepreneurship program. Hungry to understand what AI could do for businesses, he went back to school in 2016 — to Carleton University for a Master's degree. In 2025 he heard about the AI Collective and founded its local Ottawa chapter. He is now CEO of ScarlettNova, an AI company dedicated to building artificial intelligence solutions for businesses, and Founder of Rogue Ventures, an AI venture studio. Let's go to a coffee shop to talk with Chris Doré. Chapters Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 01:47 Why Chris says Marketers will endure 02:50 Why Pay for Pro Models 04:50 From User to Builder 08:02 Automation vs Agents 10:33 Context and Company Brain 13:36 Document Workflows for AI 17:47 Adoption Gap and Learning Curve 19:06 Token Costs and Budgeting 22:01 AI Energy Debate 22:19 Quantum Boost Ahead 23:00 Marketing Rapid Fire 23:18 Websites Get Personal 25:22 Vibe Coding Limits 26:06 Skills Over Knowledge 26:38 Events Still Matter 28:43 Paid Media After SEO 30:17 Winning With Niches 32:06 Trust And Adoption 34:32 Full Spectrum AI Help 36:02 Adoption Is Human 37:45 Venture Studio Spinoffs 39:20 Wrap-up Links to everything mentioned in the show are on the Funnel Reboot site's page for this episode.

June 22, 2026Episode 23629 min

Earn It! with Steve Pratt

Everyone makes content now. But having content doesn't automatically mean anyone will actually consume it. There are brands with long-running programs and audiences that carve out time for their content, while other brands' programs fade because it became a thankless chore. What's different between content that's adored and content that dies in obscurity? The brands that win make content that audiences don't see as branded content. Where the work they made was so genuinely useful, or surprising, or true — that instead of feeling exploited, the recipients felt like they were being favored. A gift doesn't need your logo on it. Your fingerprints are already there. Our guest knows how to do this. His early career was working in production at AOL and several TV and radio networks. Then in 2014 he launched Pacific Content, an agency he built into the one brands trusted when they wanted to stop making noise and start building audiences. It was acquired by one of the country's largest media companies in 2023. What he learned doing that became the book Earn It, which came out in 2026. Let's go to this talk with Steve Pratt. Chapter Timestamps: 00:00 Why Content Gets Ignored 01:00 Meet Steve Pratt 02:12 Attention Is Finite 04:38 Be The Party Host 06:52 Marketing As A Gift 08:23 From You Not About You 09:55 Bravery And Commitment 12:46 Promote The Gift 15:03 Podcast Case Studies 21:07 Measuring Time And Trust 24:04 Fewer Things Better 25:35 Expertise Over Platform 27:04 Pacific Content And Wrap Up Links to everything mentioned in the show are on the Funnel Reboot site's page for this episode.

June 9, 2026Episode 23526 min

From Adversaries to Advocates: How to win friends (and budgets) with data

I can't prove it, but I think many marketers wish they could improve how they're perceived by corporate leadership. I have felt this way in more than one role, and racked my brain on how to fix it. I've entertained everything including coming to board meetings with a dozen custom-branded donuts. Thankfully, the a solution I have come up with isn't extreme and it doesn't require donuts. I was recently given the chance by a local association - the OPMMA - to give a talk and I picked this problem. I hope as you listen to how I think it's solved and the three moments where this method demands doing the opposite of what our gut says to do. So give a listen to 'From Adversaries to Advocates' All references in this show are linked in the Shownotes for this episode on the Funnel Reboot site.

May 25, 2026Episode 23433 min

Using CRM for Total Recall, with Brandon Drake

We humans like conversations that keep moving forward. Every time we share some detail about ourselves, we expect the other person to remember it. If they bring that detail back up in our next interaction, we feel pleased and want to keep that relationship going. Conversely, we get annoyed when they blast us with messages we had already said didn't interest us. This is severely problematic for us sales and marketing professionals. The sheer volume of people and details we all encounter is too much to keep straight in our outbound emails, let alone in our heads, and that's why we use CRMs. But there are many CRMs out there and to fit a business, they all need to be customized. That's where our guest comes in. A graduate of CalState in information systems, he worked in data analyst roles for several tech companies, including a Customer Relationship Management company that sold to enterprises. Wanting to work more with solopreneurs and SMBs, he decided to go out on his own as a CRM consultant to show them sustainable relationship-building techniques. Suffice to say, he is able to deliver immediate benefits to his clients under this business model. He also has a passion for coaching people on their nutrition, which explains why both components are blended in the name of his business - the health data guy. Let's go to Laguna Beach to speak with Brandon Drake. Chapters/Timestamps: 00:00 Why Memory Matters 00:34 Meet Brandon Drake 02:19 From Burnout to Health 03:44 Back to CRM Consulting 07:00 Relationship First CRM 09:14 Automated Nurture Emails 11:20 Crowdsourced Content Engine 12:11 Bio Form Data Hack 16:11 Progressive Profiling Scores 19.45 PSA: Funnel Reboot Reading Room 20:29 Segmentation Beats Spray 26:46 Protect Email Reputation 28:16 AI Needs Process First 32:28 Where to Find Brandon Links to everything mentioned in the show are on the Funnel Reboot site's page for this episode.

May 15, 2026Episode 23347 min

The Marketing Growth Formula, with Heidi Hattendorf

Episode 233 In the 2009 movie "Up" there's a golden retriever whose collar can translate his thoughts to speech. When Dug the dog first starts speaking, the main characters marvel at how smart he is, but expectations drop a moment later when he snaps his head around and halts mid-sentence when he hears a squirrel. We marketers are prone to Squirrel-chasing. Let's be honest and admit that we get caught on a treadmill of activity without stopping to ask ourselves if it's having an impact. How do we break this habit? This month's book says it's by creating a Go-To-Market plan with detailed tactics. A plan reminds us why we're sticking with those tactics, so we don't get distracted by any tactic that comes along. Our guest has an MBA and 25+ years of marketing leadership experience in the US and Europe. Her consultancy, Transformation Insights, offers Fractional CMO services that help companies grow by building go-to-market strategies that are consistent and effective. She is also a speaker and the author of The Marketing Growth Formula which came out in late 2025. Let's go to Miami Florida to talk with Heidi Hattendorf Links to everything mentioned in the show are on the Funnel Reboot site's page for this episode.

April 27, 2026Episode 23249 min

Market Eminence, with David Newman

Episode 232 There is a quiet, enduring power in wisdom that resists the urge to conform. Wise people refuse to abandon their convictions. It's not obvious who will be the Wise character in These Stories, the role often casts them as having lowly beginnings or in the shadow of others who are more powerful. But they speak out anyway, even if they are mocked or sidelined. Take: Don Quixote's sidekick Sancho Panza, whom Quixote usually makes fun of, becomes so well known for his practical wisdom that he becomes a Governor. In the story of Sidharrtha, when the prince leaves his palace, he is called a fool and so-called teachers treat him as an outcast. They never reach enlightenment but he ultimately does.To Kill a Mockingbird's Atticus Finch, the lawyer in the deep South who was shunned by his community for taking on an unwinnable case. Though he lost, townspeople credited him as "the only man in these parts who can keep a jury out so long in a case like that." Sheherazade, the woman in One Thousand and One Nights who was facing execution at dawn, but who told cliffhanger tales that stalled the king's command, saving her life. Lastly, the Young boy In The Emperor's New Clothes, where everyone believed the lie that only smart people could see the emperor's clothes, so no one said anything as he walked by. The boy's exclamation brought what everyone knew to be true into the open. These fictional characters remind us that while the truth may be unpopular at first, people eventually realize they should listen to, and follow the person who said it. They remind us that when leaders step up, share their convictions, act as the voice of reason, they will ultimately triumph. Our guest's new book says that any company wanting to lead their category.must fearlessly shout out what they know to be true. The title "Market Eminence," refers to the position of category authority that leaders who do this can reach. Its tone is as bold as his previous books Do It! Selling, Do It! Speaking and Do It! Marketing. He is also an advisor who works with marketers, salespeople and executives, host of a 500+ episode, top-ranked podcast called The Selling Show. Let's welcome back this previous show guest from Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania, David Newman. Links to everything mentioned in the show are on the Funnel Reboot site's page for this episode.

April 13, 2026Episode 23123 min

Sales and Marketing that's Scalable, with Peter Fillmore

It goes without saying that the purpose of sales and marketing is to help a company grow. We create forecasts where revenue grows a hundred-thousand, a million, or 10 million dollars. But we expect to achieve that with incremental changes to our resources and tech-stacks. When Base 10 Math is used to express numbers that differ by orders of magnitude, we use exponents, noted with the letter N put in superscript (N stands for the Latin word numerus or number). N to the power of 5 is equal to a hundred-thousand, N to the power of 7 is equal to ten million. We don't have to raise N very much to see it balloon in size. Each increment it jumps by represents its value going up by a factor of ten. The question of how we reach scale then isn't how to change financial numbers by a basic percentage; it's how do we grow them by a factor of N? Our guest knows how sales and marketing can scale their organization without snapping them. *come with their own jargon like batch mode, local vs global maximums, and WIP bottlenecks. He graduated from the University of New Brunswick with an engineering degree and then went into technically heavy roles, working in IBM's semiconductor division. He pivoted into leading sales and marketing teams for tech organizations until the late 2000s, when he founded a product startup with an app that helped salespeople gain visibility into their funnel activity. He also teaches sales practices and scaling up in the engineering faculty at the University of Ottawa. Join me now as I sit down in person with the head of Ottawa's Scaling Up initiative, Peter Fillmore. Chapters/Timestamps 00:00 Intro 02:10 My guest Peter Fillmore 03:27 What Changes When You Scale 05:37 Making the Funnel Visible 08:58 Sales Fundamentals and Urgency 09:55 PSA 12:03 Saying No and Off Ramps 13:26 Marketing Segments and Messaging 15:31 Discipline Metrics and Cadence 22:53 Connect with Peter & Ottawa Scaling Up Initiative Links to everything mentioned in the show are on the Funnel Reboot site's page for this episode.