In this episode of the BIP Podcast, we go behind the scenes with the founder of B2B, a growth consultancy that’s reshaping how service businesses approach marketing and growth. From why they started building in public to their roadmap for hitting $10 million+ in revenue, this episode is packed with transparent insights, practical strategies, and future-focused vision. Learn how a traditional SEO agency evolved into a holistic growth partner, and discover the building blocks of scalable, predictable B2B success.

David, founder and growth strategist at B2B, brings over a decade of B2B sales and marketing experience to the conversation. With a background in business development and an instinctive understanding of commercial growth, David has helped scale 300+ service businesses. He’s now on a mission to build a world-class consultancy while openly documenting the journey.

• Building in Public is both a marketing strategy and a way to give back to the business community.
• Many businesses don’t need “just marketing”—they need holistic growth strategies.
• B2B specializes in helping “ordinary” service-based businesses scale beyond referrals.
• Marketing works best when it’s integrated with product, pricing, positioning, and sales strategy.
• The future of B2B includes three core pillars: consultancy, media, and venture investment.

David’s journey began in B2B sales and business development roles. His commercial approach to marketing led him to identify a key problem: businesses wanted growth, not just SEO. What started as a traditional agency evolved into a holistic growth consultancy because clients needed full-spectrum support—from positioning to performance.

Most B2B businesses approach agencies thinking SEO will unlock growth. But SEO is only one piece of a larger puzzle. True growth comes from aligning marketing with sales, pricing, customer journeys, and business strategy. David uses the analogy of health: SEO is just the diet—you still need sleep, exercise, and consistency to achieve long-term results.

B2B works with established B2B service businesses that have product-market fit and strong referral pipelines. These are “ordinary” businesses—often 10–15 years old—that have never quite figured out marketing. Their typical clients turn over between $1M and $50M and need systems to scale.

Referrals are a strong signal of trust and quality—but they’re not scalable. David discusses how B2B helps companies install repeatable marketing engines. These engines don’t replace referrals—they amplify them, making growth more predictable and less dependent on luck or personal networks.

David outlines a three-pronged growth strategy:

1. Consultancy & Growth Partnering – Core service offering with performance-based partnerships.
2. Media & Content – Building a media company to increase brand presence and generate its own revenue.
3. Venture Arm – Launching and investing in businesses for equity and long-term growth.

The aim? To become the best growth consultancy in the world for established B2B businesses.

David shares three reasons:

1. It’s smart marketing. Most competitors don’t have the courage to be that transparent.
2. It’s...

In this episode of Building in Public, host David Ellis dives into a core growth principle for B2B service businesses: shifting from product-pitching to point-of-view marketing. Drawing from direct consulting experience with startups and $100M enterprises alike, David shares a powerful framework for scaling demand by selling how you think, not just what you do. From lead generation strategies to the smart use of AI and custom GPTs, this episode is packed with real-world examples and actionable insights.

David Ellis is a seasoned B2B growth strategist and founder of a consultancy that helps companies scale by building demand through strategic content, IP-powered tools, and a differentiated worldview. With a background in marketing and tech, David's current focus includes leveraging AI tools, reshaping sales processes, and guiding clients on how to resonate deeply with their audience before pitching a product or service.

• Most businesses skip the vital middle step of selling a unique perspective before selling a product.
• Content should educate and align people with your worldview before pushing a call to action.
• Referral and Google Ads audiences are already problem-aware; social audiences often aren’t—your strategy must change accordingly.
• AI can supercharge content and case study production—but only with the right training and inputs.
• Custom GPTs (micro agents) can dramatically increase productivity if built around your IP..
• Measuring engagement rate, not just impressions, reveals content performance.

David explains how referral or Google Ads leads are often already problem-aware and looking for a solution, making the conversion easier. In contrast, platforms like LinkedIn require more nurturing because users aren't necessarily shopping for your solution.

This involves using content and marketing assets to promote your unique worldview. Once prospects resonate with your perspective, they’re more likely to trust your service recommendations and become loyal customers.

David shares a case study of a leadership coaching company targeting Gen Z engagement issues. Instead of a generic sales page for their workshop, they repositioned the landing page to sell their point of view on why Gen Z employees disengage—and only offered the workshop after establishing credibility.

Pushy, cold outreach can repel ideal clients. Building perceived abundance and expert status—by letting leads come to you through thought leadership—creates trust and demand without desperation.

David's team uses AI to write case studies by training a custom GPT on their tested frameworks and video interview transcripts. This not only saves time but leverages their internal IP to scale quality output.

AI content often feels generic because it lacks personality and perspective. The key is training AI on your tone, voice, and playbooks to produce content that feels authentic and valuable.

Start small. Build micro GPTs for single, high-value tasks (e.g. writing case studies) and train them on your own frameworks and examples. AI is a colleague, not a...

In this high-impact episode of Building in Public, the hosts dive into their Q1 performance—revealing how they aimed for 30 new clients and ended up closing 31. They unpack the lessons learned from doubling their marketing spend, crafting a resonant market message, experimenting across platforms like LinkedIn and YouTube, and refining performance metrics. This episode is a must-listen for B2B marketers, founders, and content strategists seeking to scale sustainably and authentically.

David (Host) – A seasoned fractional CMO with experience working across nearly 300 B2B companies. David shares insights from his growth consultancy work and leads the conversation around strategic marketing, content, and operations in a fast-scaling agency.

• A strong market message and unique point of view can 10x marketing effectiveness.
• Doubling marketing spend doesn’t guarantee better metrics—but maintaining performance while scaling spend is a big win.
• Content should align with platform and format for maximum resonance.
• YouTube is an untapped goldmine for B2B lead generation—every lead from YouTube converted this quarter.
• Engagement on LinkedIn (comments, conversations, networking) is just as important as content creation.
• Measuring engagement rate, not just impressions, reveals content performance.
• The content is the strategy; paid ads are simply a distribution booster.

The team aimed to sign 30 new clients and closed 31 (29 confirmed on the scorecard, 2 additional off-record). They consider this a win with room for optimization in Q2.

Maintaining key marketing metrics while doubling spend, and validating the importance of a unique market message that drives performance across cost per lead, deal size, and retention.

By uncovering inherent uniqueness already present within a business and articulating it clearly. It can't be faked—authenticity and thought leadership are essential.

Quantitatively: more engagement, leads, and revenue. Qualitatively: comments, mentions in calls, and that gut feeling of alignment.

They test content pillars in various formats (videos, carousels, memes), post organically, and iterate based on data.

Same message and format from LinkedIn didn’t resonate. Platform-specific tweaking led to 100% conversion from YouTube leads once fixed.

Crucial. Active engagement boosts algorithm reach and accelerates lead conversion. Comments and connections matter.

Engagement rate = engagements ÷ impressions. High impressions alone don’t prove resonance; it's the engagement that counts.

Content is the strategy. Ads are used to scale distribution of what’s already working organically. Great content must come first.

Maintaining spend, improving processes, reducing cost per lead/demo, tweaking sales operations, and evolving content strategy with more team involvement.

Discussion around Q1 goals and client acquisition performance.