In this episode Kieran Krohn sits down with Scott Brinker, VP of Platform Ecosystem at HubSpot and the “godfather of martech.” Scott shares why AI agents are the biggest shift in marketing since the internet, and how they’re reshaping the way companies create, sell, and serve customers.

From data strategy to customer service automation, Scott unpacks the real-world applications of AI agents, how businesses can prepare for the rise of “buyer agents”, and why adaptability is now the ultimate competitive advantage.Key Takeaways:AI agents mark the biggest marketing shift since the internet Content still matters, visibility has simply moved up the funnelBusinesses must adapt to how LLMs and buyer agents consume dataThe best companies will use AI to turn unstructured data into insightGovernance and real-time data enrichment are now criticalMarketing efficiency gains should be reinvested into creativity and experimentationFuture marketers will need to market to AI agents, not just humansChapters:00:00 – Teaser01:22 – Why AI Is a General Purpose Technology03:38 – The Death (and Rebirth) of Content Marketing06:41 – Shifts in Search, YouTube, and Community Platforms08:30 – AI Tools vs. AI Agents Explained11:47 – The Rise of Customer Service Agents13:36 – Data Quality and Why It Matters More Than Ever16:16 – Organising and Governing Company Data18:59 – Always-On CRMs and Dynamic Data Enrichment22:07 – Structuring Conversational Data for Insight24:15 – AI’s Impact on Marketing Teams and Efficiency27:42 – Reinvesting Efficiency Gains for Growth31:20 – The Rise of Buyer Agents34:30 – Where to Start with AI Agents36:08 – Building a Culture of ExperimentationVALUABLE RESOURCESGrade your website’s performance to find conversion opportunities & generate more qualified leads: https://scalestation.io/free-website-graderABOUT KIERANKieran Krohn is a renowned GTM professional, entrepreneur, investor and business growth expert.His background is growing and scaling HubSpot’s business in Australia and New Zealand by developing their partner ecosystem. Over the last decade, he has held a number of roles in channel and direct sales as well as leadership where he built a high performing sales team. He has been awarded key accolades as the top performer 4x in the region and achieved Presidents Club 7x consecutively. His mission is to help business founders achieve the freedom they set out to when they left the corporate world, and build valuable businesses that will create financial certainty for generations to come.Connect with Kieran on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kierankrohn/AI agents, marketing technology, HubSpot, data strategy, automation, buyer agents, martech, content strategy, CRM, business growth#AIinMarketing #GrowthUnlocked #ScottBrinker #HubSpot #MarTech #BusinessGrowth #MarketingStrategy#Podcast #Businessmodel

In this episode, Kieran Krohn speaks with Sidney Minassian, founder of Impact Ladder and seasoned entrepreneur. Sidney shares his Founder’s Playbook, how to scale without burning out, build brands that stand out, leverage partnerships, and develop people. He also reveals why optionality and self-leadership are essential for creating companies that attract investors and thrive long-term.

Key Takeaways:

Brand, partnerships, and people are the growth engine

Founders must own everything but also learn to let go

Self-leadership shapes company leadership

Be known for one thing, niching creates power

Always be exit-ready to unlock optionality

Chapters

00:00 Intro

01:09 Sidney’s Founder Journey & Exits

03:29 The Playbook: Brand, Partnerships & People

05:42 Building a Memorable Brand in a Noisy World

09:10 Why Authentic Connection Matters

11:24 The Three Founder Mistakes to Avoid

16:47 Scaling from $20M to $200M

19:05 Designing Companies Investors Want

23:38 Owning the Category & Building Authority

28:16 Optionality: Always Be Exit-Ready

34:33 Self-Care, Detachment & Systems Thinking

41:37 What Sidney Would Build in 2025

46:03 Where to Follow Sidney

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Grade your website’s performance to find conversion opportunities & generate more qualified leads: https://scalestation.io/free-website-...

ABOUT KIERAN

Kieran Krohn is a renowned GTM professional, entrepreneur, investor and business growth expert.

His background is growing and scaling HubSpot’s business in Australia and New Zealand by developing their partner ecosystem. Over the last decade, he has held a number of roles in channel and direct sales as well as leadership where he built a high performing sales team. He has been awarded key accolades as the top performer 4x in the region and achieved Presidents Club 7x consecutively.

His mission is to help business founders achieve the freedom they set out to when they left the corporate world, and build valuable businesses that will create financial certainty for generations to come.

Connect with Kieran on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kierankrohn/

keywords

entrepreneurship, scaling businesses, founder playbook, brand partnerships, self-leadership, optionality, investor attraction, business growth, AI in business, personal branding

#FoundersPlaybook #StartupGrowth #BusinessLeadership #GrowthUnlocked #SidneyManassian

In this episode of Growth Unlocked, Kieran Krohn speaks with Mark Roberge, former CRO who helped scale HubSpot from $0 to $100M ARR and author of The Sales Acceleration Formula. Now co-founder of Stage 2 Capital and lecturer at Harvard Business School, Mark shares how AI is transforming sales from art into science, why discipline beats growth-at-all-costs, and what it takes to build sustainable revenue engines in 2025 and beyond.

Key Takeaways

AI is turning sales from an art into a science

The future of selling is buyer-facing time approaching 100%

Don’t scale because you raised money — scale when you’re ready

Product-market fit and go-to-market fit must come before hiring sprees

Experimentation is key: treat GTM like a product

Sustainable growth beats reckless hypergrowth

RevOps may become the CRO of the future

Chapters:

00:00 – Teaser: AI Transforming Sales

01:09 – Lessons from Scaling HubSpot

04:19 – AI Agents in Sales Enablement

07:01 – Ideal Customer Profile & AI Targeting

11:05 – Future of Sales Roles with AI

15:12 – Navigating Tech Consolidation & Anxiety

17:06 – Trade-offs: Hypergrowth vs. Sustainable Growth

23:19 – Treating Go-To-Market Like a Product

27:44 – Frameworks for Prioritization & Experimentation

33:00 – What Will Separate Winners by

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Grade your website’s performance to find conversion opportunities & generate more qualified leads: https://scalestation.io/free-website-...

ABOUT KIERAN

Kieran Krohn is a renowned GTM professional, entrepreneur, investor and business growth expert.

His background is growing and scaling HubSpot’s business in Australia and New Zealand by developing their partner ecosystem. Over the last decade, he has held a number of roles in channel and direct sales as well as leadership where he built a high performing sales team. He has been awarded key accolades as the top performer 4x in the region and achieved Presidents Club 7x consecutively.

His mission is to help business founders achieve the freedom they set out to when they left the corporate world, and build valuable businesses that will create financial certainty for generations to come.

Connect with Kieran on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kierankrohn/

Keywords

AI in sales, revenue growth, HubSpot, SaaS scaling, sustainable growth, experimentation, go-to-market strategy, RevOps, sales enablement, entrepreneurship

#AIinSales #SaaSLeadership #GrowthUnlocked #MarkRoberge #ScienceOfScaling

In this episode of Growth Unlocked, Kieran Krohn speaks with John-Daniel Trask, founder of Raygun and AutoHive. JD shares his journey of bootstrapping Raygun over 12 years into a global SaaS leader and why patience can often outperform hypergrowth. He also unpacks how to build in the age of AI, why too much capital can kill discipline, and what it really means to create a sustainable company in 2025.

Key Takeaways:

Patience can beat VC-fuelled hypergrowth

Capital enables focus, not success

AI should empower teams, not replace them

Sustainable businesses prioritise culture and profitability

Future leaders must celebrate innovation, not fear it

Chapters:

00:00 Teaser – Patience vs Hypergrowth

01:09 Bootstrapping Raygun into a SaaS Leader

03:22 The Power of Focus Over Capital

07:01 Lessons from the VC Model

11:05 Common Mistakes in Scaling with Capital

15:12 Automating with AI Agents

19:54 The Birth of AutoHive

24:03 Building an AI-First Company

28:13 Are We Seeing the End of Big Business?

33:43 What Makes a Great Company in 2025

37:27 Advice for Leaders Adopting AI

41:37 Where to Connect with JD

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Grade your website’s performance to find conversion opportunities & generate more qualified leads: https://scalestation.io/free-website-...

ABOUT KIERAN

Kieran Krohn is a renowned GTM professional, entrepreneur, investor and business growth expert.

His background is growing and scaling HubSpot’s business in Australia and New Zealand by developing their partner ecosystem. Over the last decade, he has held a number of roles in channel and direct sales as well as leadership where he built a high performing sales team. He has been awarded key accolades as the top performer 4x in the region and achieved Presidents Club 7x consecutively.

His mission is to help business founders achieve the freedom they set out to when they left the corporate world, and build valuable businesses that will create financial certainty for generations to come.

Connect with Kieran on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kierankrohn/

keywords:

business growth, patience, venture capital, automation, AI, company culture, sustainable growth, entrepreneurship, software development, tech industry

#PatienceOverHype #SaaSLeadership #GrowthUnlocked #JohnDanielTrask #AIandBusiness

In this episode of Growth Unlocked, Kieran Krohn sits down with Bob Burg, bestselling author of The Go-Giver, to explore one of the most overlooked leadership skills: influence without authority. They discuss why genuine influence is not about pushing people but pulling them in, how leaders can secure lasting commitment, and the pitfalls of leading through compliance rather than genuine buy-in. Bob shares practical lessons on building trust, aligning leadership with personal values, and why modern leaders must focus on serving others to truly succeed.

Key Takeaways:

Influence means pull, not push

Compliance fades, commitment endures

People follow value, not titles

Leadership is about them, not yo

Trust and service create true power

Chapters

00:00 Teaser – The Essence of Influence

00:31 What Real Influence Means

03:23 Why Push Leadership Fails

06:46 Commitment vs Compliance in Leadership

09:32 The Biggest Mistake Leaders Make

13:18 Why Employees Feel Disengaged

15:54 Building Emotional Buy-In

18:40 Creating a Culture of Trust

21:44 Coaching to Personal Motivation

24:34 Preparing for Influence with Research

27:22 The Five Laws of Stratospheric Success

29:15 The Future of Influence-Driven Leadership

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Grade your website’s performance to find conversion opportunities & generate more qualified leads: https://scalestation.io/free-website-...

ABOUT KIERAN

Kieran Krohn is a renowned GTM professional, entrepreneur, investor and business growth expert.

His background is growing and scaling HubSpot’s business in Australia and New Zealand by developing their partner ecosystem. Over the last decade, he has held a number of roles in channel and direct sales as well as leadership where he built a high performing sales team. He has been awarded key accolades as the top performer 4x in the region and achieved Presidents Club 7x consecutively.

His mission is to help business founders achieve the freedom they set out to when they left the corporate world, and build valuable businesses that will create financial certainty for generations to come.

Connect with Kieran on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kierankrohn/

keywords

leadership, influence, emotional buy-in, genuine influence, leadership training, organizational culture, commitment, buy-in, value creation, leadership mistakes

#Leadership #InfluenceWithoutAuthority #GrowthUnlocked #BobBurg #BusinessLeadership

In this episode of Growth Unlocked, Kieran Krohn and Darryl Grauman discuss the most common mistakes business leaders make, focusing on product-market fit, the importance of metrics, leadership culture, and the challenges of adopting AI. They emphasize the need for consistency in execution, the dangers of over-engineering tech stacks, and the critical role of effective sales leadership.

Key Takeaways:

The biggest mistakes often stem from poor product-market fit

Validating market opportunities is crucial before launching products

Vanity metrics can mislead businesses away from true performance indicators

Effective leadership is essential for maintaining company culture under pressure

Uniformity in execution helps identify bottlenecks and improve service delivery

AI adoption should focus on prototyping and low-risk experimentation

Chapters

00:00 Identifying Common Business Mistakes

03:42 Understanding Product Market Fit

06:51 The Importance of Metrics in Business

09:57 Leadership and Company Culture

12:51 Executing with Consistency

15:54 Navigating AI Adoption Challenges

19:35 Leveraging AI for Insights

23:11 Managing Tech Stack Complexity

26:56 Hiring the Right Sales Leadership

29:39 Eliminating Vanity Metrics

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Grade your website’s performance to find conversion opportunities & generate more qualified leads: https://scalestation.io/free-website-...

ABOUT KIERAN

Kieran Krohn is a renowned GTM professional, entrepreneur, investor and business growth expert.

His background is growing and scaling HubSpot’s business in Australia and New Zealand by developing their partner ecosystem. Over the last decade, he has held a number of roles in channel and direct sales as well as leadership where he built a high performing sales team. He has been awarded key accolades as the top performer 4x in the region and achieved Presidents Club 7x consecutively.

His mission is to help business founders achieve the freedom they set out to when they left the corporate world, and build valuable businesses that will create financial certainty for generations to come.

Connect with Kieran on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kierankrohn/

#GrowthUnlocked #BusinessGrowth #Leadership #SalesStrategy #VanityMetrics #RevenueGrowth #GoToMarket #AIinBusiness #Productivity #BusinessLeadership #GTMStrategy #ScaleUp #BusinessMistakes #CustomerAcquisition #FutureOfWork

In this episode of Growth Unlocked, Kieran Krohn sits down with Ryan Tuckwood, co-founder and CEO of SWISH Sales Coaching, and one of the few entrepreneurs to ever land investment from three sharks on Shark Tank Australia. Together, they explore how sales has evolved from boiler room tactics to a human-first, trust-driven approach that actually drives more revenue.

From sleeping on a bathroom floor with just 31 cents to building a global sales coaching brand, Ryan shares how early lessons from his mother shaped a core value he still carries: always give more than people expect. He also unpacks how understanding human behaviour, not sales tricks, is what actually closes deals today.

Whether he’s sharing wisdom from Richard Branson on Necker Island, redefining how leaders should hire, or building brand love through over-delivery, Ryan’s insights are both practical and profoundly human.

Key Takeaways:

• You don’t need to be liked to close sales, but you must be trusted.
  

• Sales cultures fail because leadership is fixated on pressure, not people.
  

• “Do the work before the work, deep research is the foundation of meaningful outreach.
  

• Cold calling isn’t dead; lazy calling is.
  

• Your brand should be a community, not just a logo.
  

• Build your team like a dinner party, only invite people you’d truly enjoy working with.
  

• Founders must eventually fire themselves from roles they’ve outgrown.
  

• Playfulness isn’t a distraction, it’s a success multiplier (thanks, Richard Branson).

  
  

Chapters:

00:00 – Ryan’s Rock Bottom & Unlikely Start

02:00 – Early Beliefs, Family Values & Overdelivering

04:39 – Why “Selling with Integrity” Isn’t Optional

08:42 – Sales Pressure & The Problem with Commission Culture

12:06 – Shark Tank Prep: The Work Before the Work

15:24 – How Personalised Outreach Won a Government Tender

21:34 – Turning SWISH into a Movement, Not a Company

22:22 – Likability vs. Trust: The Truth About Influence

28:34 – Where AI Should Stop and Humans Should Start

35:14 – Life Lessons from Richard Branson on Necker Island

39:45 – The Dinner Party Test: Redefining Ideal Clients

42:10 – Letting Go to Level Up: Leadership & Team Growth

43:53 – How to Connect with Ryan & Learn More

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Grade your website’s performance to find conversion opportunities & generate more qualified leads: https://scalestation.io/free-website-...

ABOUT KIERAN

Kieran Krohn is a renowned GTM professional, entrepreneur, investor and business growth expert.

His background is growing and scaling HubSpot’s business in Australia and New Zealand by developing their partner ecosystem. Over the last decade, he has held a number of roles in channel and direct sales as well as leadership where he built a high performing sales team. He has been awarded key accolades as the top performer 4x in the region and achieved Presidents Club 7x consecutively.

His mission is to help business founders achieve the freedom they set out to when they left the corporate world, and build valuable businesses that will create financial certainty for generations to come.

Connect with Kieran on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kierankrohn/

#SalesLeadership #HumanFirstSelling #GrowthUnlocked #RyanTuckwood #SalesCoaching #FounderMindset #ColdCallingIsNotDead #BuildTrustNotHype #SharkTankSuccess #PersonalBrandingMatters #AIandSales #BusinessWithIntegrity #LeadershipLessons #ScalingSmart #SalesStrategy #StartupJourney #NeckerIslandWisdom #RichardBransonLessons #SellWithPurpose #CommunityDrivenGrowth

In this episode of Growth Unlocked, Kieran Krohn sits down with Wasif Kasim—former CEO of Online Marketing Gurus and now a sought-after agency growth consultant. Together, they unpack the no-fluff realities of scaling a digital agency, the hidden costs of neglecting HR, and the personal sacrifices leaders often overlook while chasing growth.

Wasif shares how his earliest exposure to business wasn’t in boardrooms but by watching his uncle hustle through unglamorous trades. That curiosity later sparked a career that took him from cold-calling at Dell to leading a team of 150+ and managing $100k/month ad budgets. From navigating culture across continents to building an internal recruitment engine, Wasif offers battle-tested strategies that every scaling leader needs to hear.

Key Takeaways:

Sales skills are life skills—everyone should do a sales stint.

Culture isn’t built with pizza parties; it requires proactive, people-first leadership.

Internal recruitment is critical to staying ahead of attrition and growth.

Founders must make themselves replaceable to scale sustainably.

Offshoring works best when treated as strategic, not just cost-saving.

Investing 15% of revenue into marketing is the minimum for serious growth.

Emotional intelligence and cultural fit matter more than just performance.

Personal sacrifice is real—but it doesn’t have to be permanent.

Chapters:

00:00 – Intro & Wasif’s Entrepreneurial Origin

02:00 – Why Everyone Should Do Sales

05:00 – Leadership Lessons & Prioritising People

07:00 – Strategic HR: Internal Recruitment & Offshoring 11:00 – Proactive Promotions & Culture Code

16:00 – Building Culture Across Borders

19:00 – The Cost of Bad Hires & Cultural Fit

21:00 – Agencies Must Market Themselves

25:00 – Letting Go to Scale

28:00 – Marketing Spend & Competing Smart

31:00 – Balancing Family & Ambition

34:00 – Creativity, Recharging & Family Time

36:00 – Final Advice: Be Replaceable, Do Right by Clients, and Invest in Growth

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Grade your website’s performance to find conversion opportunities & generate more qualified leads: https://scalestation.io/free-website-...

ABOUT KIERAN

Kieran Krohn is a renowned GTM professional, entrepreneur, investor and business growth expert.

His background is growing and scaling HubSpot’s business in Australia and New Zealand by developing their partner ecosystem. Over the last decade, he has held a number of roles in channel and direct sales as well as leadership where he built a high performing sales team. He has been awarded key accolades as the top performer 4x in the region and achieved Presidents Club 7x consecutively.

His mission is to help business founders achieve the freedom they set out to when they left the corporate world, and build valuable businesses that will create financial certainty for generations to come.

Connect with Kieran on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kierankrohn/

#AgencyGrowth #LeadershipLessons #DigitalMarketingStrategy #ScaleYourBusiness #GoToMarket #EntrepreneurLife #FounderJourney #BusinessMindset #SalesLeadership #MarketingTips #HRStrategy #RemoteTeamCulture #StartupScaling #GrowthUnlocked #WasifQasim #MarketingLeadership