Plenty of marketing teams are racing to scale with AI-generated content. Chris Eberhardt, who leads marketing at Clarify, the autonomous CRM, decided to delete all of it. He believes that choice is why the company’s content strategy works today.

In this episode of Fanclub Setlist, Erica talks with Chris about how Clarify’s marketing has changed from launch through its funding round and into a crowded AI CRM market. He explains why the team removed every AI-generated blog post after the traffic turned out to be poor quality. They went back to 10–15 human-written posts a month, and organic search now drives about 40% of inbound leads. He also covers how founder-led content grew into a media engine: LinkedIn, a weekly Substack, and a podcast.

Chris breaks down the “engine and fuel” split behind Clarify’s AI use. AI handles ad management, weekly reporting, website updates, and lead qualification. Humans handle executive brand, SEO and AEO strategy, and design. The conversation also covers how Clarify moved from “AI native CRM” to “autonomous CRM for fast-moving go-to-market teams,” and why positioning for your buyer beats positioning for investors. Chris also talks about competing when a feature that once set you apart for a year now sets you apart for weeks, and about what surprised him most moving from HubSpot and Formlabs to a startup: if you hit a blocker, you’re the only one who can clear it.

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

Website: https://www.chriseberhardt.co/

CHAPTERS

How Clarify’s marketing has changed since launch

Founder brand grows into a media engine

Deleting every AI-generated blog post

Rebuilding SEO and AEO with human writers

Engine vs. fuel: where AI works and where humans do

Running a marketing function with two full-timers

The first two systems to build if you started over

From “AI native” to “autonomous CRM”

Positioning for buyers, not investors

Competing when features get copied in weeks

What surprised Chris about startups: unblocking yourself

Connect with Chris Eberhardt
Website: https://www.chriseberhardt.co/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophereberhardtResources MentionedClarify: https://www.clarify.ai/

Most business advice assumes growth is the goal. Andy Starr, co-founder of Level C alongside brand strategist Marty Neumeier, has built a business that deliberately opts out of that assumption, and he's convinced that's exactly why it's lasted.

In this episode of Fanclub Setlist, Erica talks with Andy Starr about what happens when a business stops chasing scale and starts obsessing over quality instead. Andy explains why he spends less than five minutes a day on LinkedIn and why Substack has become the more valuable platform for the kind of long-form thinking he and Marty do. He walks through the moment a fellow Level C alum offered to fund an endowment to keep the program running after Andy and Marty are gone, and why that reaction was the clearest signal that their approach was working.

The conversation moves into what Andy calls aesthetic intelligence: the ability to make decisions that other people instantly recognize as right, tasteful, or better, and why he thinks this is the one thing AI genuinely can't replicate. He also gets candid about self-management as a founder's real full-time job, and why he believes every business owner should be in therapy.

CHAPTERS

Sunday scaries vs. everyday scaries as a business owner

The rise of the "culturist, futurist, cultural futurist"

Why Andy spends less than five minutes a day on LinkedIn

Substack, long-form content, and the platforms worth your time

Knowing what you're good at (and what you're not)

Rejecting growth and scale on purpose

Managing yourself before you manage anyone else

Why every business owner should be in therapy

The Florence masterclass and the endowment offer

Defining aesthetic intelligence

Why AI can't replace taste and judgment

The two-minute test: can you explain what makes you different?

Final takeaway: don't ask any other question before this one

Connect with Andy Starr

Andy Starr's LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-andy-starr/⁠

Level C website: ⁠https://www.levelc.org/⁠

Level C on Substack: ⁠https://levelc.substack.com/⁠

Level C on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/levelcorg⁠

Most founders assume the goal is to scale as fast as possible. But for some operators, the most exciting and most valuable work happens earlier than that, in the messy, undefined stretch before a business has any real shape. That's the zero to one phase, and it's where Mikhail Alfon has chosen to spend his career.

In this episode of Fanclub Setlist, Erica talks with Mikhail Alfon, founder of Blue Light Media, a social media and content agency he built from nothing in 2014 and sold roughly a decade later. Mikhail walks through how a firing (he started a social media department without permission and got let go for it) became the origin story for an agency that went on to work with brands like Bulletproof Coffee, Nutribullet, and SharkNinja.

Now, post-acquisition, Mikhail works almost exclusively in the zero to one phase, helping founders go from an idea and a vision to a functioning team and system. He describes it as fractional CMO or fractional VP work: building out hiring, creative direction, and marketing infrastructure for early-stage companies. A major part of that infrastructure now includes AI. Mikhail shares how he uses Claude to turn raw meta ads data into creative briefs and marketing analysis, cutting down work that used to require a much larger team.

The conversation also covers the distinction between personal brand and company brand, why Mikhail intentionally built Blue Light Media to function without him at the center of it, and how his current business runs entirely on referrals rather than outbound marketing or paid acquisition.

CHAPTERS

Introduction

How Mikhail got into marketing: the local SEO job that led to a firing

The grit it took to start a business with $1,000 to his name

Personal brand vs. company brand: preparing Blue Light Media to run without him

What Mikhail's doing now: zero to one and fractional CMO work

Using AI and automation to replace a 20-person team

Advice for consultants without a referral base yet

Putting your ideas out publicly (TikTok, Instagram, Substack, LinkedIn)

Taking early clients for free to build a scope of work

Using Claude AI for meta ads creative briefs and marketing workflows

Understanding AI tools before hiring someone to build with them

Closing thoughts and where to find Mikhail

Connect with Mikhail
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikhailalfon

Website: https://www.mikhailalfon.com/

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

YouTube: https://youtube.com/@itsmiqk?si=mAzJFJ3KkJGZxEJ0