A song doesn't exist in physical form. So what actually is it?

That's a question my guest this episode, music publisher Benjamin Groff, once got asked point-blank by a tech CEO — and it changed how he thinks about his entire industry. Benjamin built Kobalt's first U.S. office from the ground up, has signed artists like Ryan Tedder, Tiësto, and Kid Cudi, and now runs his own boutique publishing company, Brill Building, which just landed its first Billboard Hot 100 #1 with Beyoncé's "Break My Soul."

In this episode, we get into:

➡️ How Benjamin finds emerging artists years before anyone else notices them
➡️ Why data and virality metrics can't replace real taste and curation
➡️ What 100+ years of "new technology is going to ruin everything" panics — player pianos, drum machines, Napster, now AI — actually teach us
➡️ Why 85% of success comes down to identity and mindset, not raw skill
➡️ The Tony Robbins framework for why "good" work barely gets you anywhere anymore

If you've ever wondered whether AI is coming for your creative career, this conversation will change how you think about it.

🎧 Listen now
🔗 Learn more about Benjamin's coaching at benjamingroff.com/coaching

The show notes, including the transcript and checklist to this episode, are at marketingspeak.com/551

"You're not going to be replaced by an AI; you're going to be replaced by someone using AI." But there's a layer above that too: what happens when AI is using AI?

In this episode of Marketing Speak, I welcomed back serial entrepreneur David Henzel, of MaxCDN, LTVPlus, and now Context Engine, to talk about what it actually looks like to run an "AI-first" company from the inside. This isn't a theory. David's businesses have already cut ten-person QA teams down to two doing a better job, and he walks through exactly how.

What we got into:

➡️ Why middle management may be the first real casualty of the AI shift
➡️ How to build a "company brain" that keeps every decision, call, and conversation in one place
➡️ Why David refuses to rely on just one AI vendor, and what that protects you from
➡️ What it really means to go "AI-first" instead of just "AI-enabled"
➡️ How documenting your business could make it more valuable if you ever sell it
➡️ David's free offer: a Context Engine workshop and a year's license for three lucky listeners

If you've been wondering how to actually operationalize AI in your business instead of just using it as a faster search bar, this conversation will give you a real blueprint.

The show notes, including the transcript and checklist to this episode, are at marketingspeak.com/550.

Sustainable growth doesn't come from chasing attention. It comes from becoming something people can't help but talk about.

My guest on today's show is Scott Martin, founder of Groundswell Origins and author of Groundswell: The Unseen Wave of Business Growth. He has spent over twenty-five years building brands as an agency owner and strategist for national companies. He now hosts the Groundswell Origins podcast, where he digs into how businesses create growth that feeds itself.

In our conversation, we explore what it takes to build a brand people remark on rather than one they simply scroll past. Scott shares his shift away from selling customers and toward giving them something worth sharing. He explains why meaning matters more than attention when it comes to earning trust, and why founders often already know their best direction if they learn to trust their gut instead of copying competitors. Scott also breaks down his idea of brand coherence: the belief that a brand only builds real trust when its culture and its message actually line up.

Word of mouth remains one of the most durable ways to grow. When you learn to build meaning instead of chasing more eyeballs, you create something people want to pass along themselves. So without any further ado, on with the show!

The show notes, including the transcript and checklist to this episode, are at marketingspeak.com/549