When your messaging is unclear, it shows up everywhere. In sales calls. In hiring. In customer churn.

In this episode, Chelsey sits down with Amanda Rabideau, messaging expert and Founder and CEO of Promanda, to break down the difference between positioning and messaging, why unclear messaging creates internal friction, and how it quietly costs companies customers after the sale.

With two decades of experience shaping brand narratives, Amanda shares what she calls the “zero-to-one messaging problem” and why most teams skip this work until it’s already slowing them down.

Inside the conversation:

• The difference between positioning and messaging and why both matter
• How unclear messaging creates confusion inside your team and in the market
• Why founders avoid messaging work and what it’s really costing them
• How to test your messaging without spending money
• Why AI can help but won’t replace human insight

Messaging is not copywriting. It’s the foundation everything else builds on. When your team is aligned and your story is clear, growth becomes simpler.

About Our Guest

Amanda W. Rabideau is the Founder and CEO of Promanda, an AI-powered messaging platform designed to help professionals solve the zero-to-one messaging problem. With two decades of experience in go-to-market strategy and brand storytelling, she has helped startups and established companies turn complex ideas into clear, compelling narratives that drive growth. Amanda built Promanda to give marketers, consultants, and agencies the structure and strategic clarity needed to align teams and confidently bring powerful stories to life.

You can find her here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandarabideau/

Promanda.ai website (there's a trial!) - https://www.promanda.ai/

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Growth Department slows the conversation down so founders and business leaders can go further, faster.

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Marketing is shifting faster than most teams can process. AI is automating the mechanics. Performance channels are more crowded than ever. And founders are asking the same question: what actually creates durable advantage now?

In this episode, Chelsey sits down with Anthony Kennada to unpack what he learned building the Customer Success category at Gainsight, why category creation is harder than people admit, and why he believes the next era of marketing belongs to brands that embrace what machines cannot replicate. From conferences that built movements to the 95–5 rule and the rise of analog experiences, this conversation connects the dots between strategy, storytelling, and staying human in an AI-driven world.

You’ll walk away with practical insight on:

• What category creation really requires and when it makes sense
• How to build trust with the 95% of buyers who are not ready yet
• Why 80% of marketing may be automated and what remains
• What Brand Humanity means for founders and CMOs
• How smaller companies can compete without massive budgets
  
  

If you’re building, repositioning, or preparing for the next shift in marketing, this one is worth your time.

About Anthony Kennada
Anthony is a B2B marketer who believes business brands should feel human. As the first Head of Marketing at Gainsight, he helped build the Customer Success category and scale the company from early stage to over $100M in ARR and a $1.1B acquisition. He later served as CMO at Front and Hopin, founded AudiencePlus, and now leads Goldenhour, a movement helping founders and CMOs put Brand Humanity into practice.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akennada/

X: https://x.com/akennada

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/akennada

Anthony's site: https://www.kennada.com/

goldenhour website: https://goldenhour.net/

Check out Anthony's podcast, Brand Humanity:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-brand-humanity-show/id1830643380

Thank you for listening! If you liked the ep, we'd love to have you along for the ride! You can subscribe, follow, and share with a founder who is thinking about the future of their brand.

Growth Department slows the conversation down so founders and business leaders can go further, faster.

If this episode helped you think differently, follow the show and share it with someone building alongside you.

Even world-class products can struggle when buyers don’t know where to place them. In this episode, Chelsey Reynolds sits down with globally renowned positioning expert, April Dunford, to unpack why great products get ignored and how positioning, when done well, sets the context that makes value instantly obvious.

April shares how she defines positioning, why it’s more than messaging, and how misaligned context can flatten even the strongest product story. Drawing from her work with hundreds of technology companies and the expanded edition of Obviously Awesome, she breaks down what founders and leaders need to decide before they ever touch a positioning exercise, and how to avoid the traps that slow teams down or send them back to square one.

You’ll hear practical guidance on how positioning evolves as products ship faster, markets change, and competitors multiply, plus how to know when it’s time to revisit your positioning and when to leave it alone.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why positioning is about context, not clever messaging
• The critical decisions to make before starting any positioning work
• How to choose between head-to-head, big fish small pond, or category creation strategies
• When positioning should change and when it should stay put
• What founders often miss when positioning for customers versus investors
  
  

If this conversation resonates, follow or subscribe for more leadership-focused conversations on growth, positioning, and building products people understand and love.

About our Guest:

April Dunford is the world's foremost authority on product positioning. As a consultant, April helps companies make complex products easy to understand and love. After a 25-year career as a VP of Marketing at various rapidly developing technology firms, she has consulted with 300 technology companies, including Google, Epic Games, Postman, and others. April is the acclaimed author of the best-selling book, "Obviously Awesome," which delves into the art of positioning, and the newly released, "Sales Pitch," which unveils the secrets to crafting a winning sales narrative in the market.

April's Website: https://www.aprildunford.com/

SubStack: https://aprildunford.substack.com/

Follow her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprildunford/

Follow her on IG: https://www.instagram.com/aprildunford

Her Book, "Obviously Awesome!"

Her fun book she's reading right now: Children of Time

Growth Department slows the conversation down so founders and business leaders can go further, faster.

If this episode helped you think differently, follow the show and share it with someone building alongside you.