The Executive Brand Podcast

Tony Scott is the CEO of Intrusion, a publicly traded cybersecurity company. Before joining Intrusion in 2021, he served as the Federal CIO of the United States under President Obama, as CIO at VMWare, CIO at Microsoft, CIO at Disney, and as CTO at General Motors. Yes, let that sink in.In this episode, we talk about what Tony learned from working with Bill Gates, Obama, and other world leaders, what it actually takes to land a C-level role at a Fortune 5 company, and why he predicts a major AI disaster is coming in 2026.---We discuss:* The three most stressful weeks of his career (and there were many)* Why he chose to become CEO of a struggling cybersecurity company after serving as the Federal CIO* What Bill Gates really meant when he said “that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard” in meetings* How to actually get a C-level role at a Fortune 5 company* Tips for founders trying to sell into the enterprise or government and the phrases that immediately kill deals* Why he predicts a major AI disaster in 2026* What flying taught him about business* Why someone who’s already “made it” still invests in LinkedIn---Connect with Tony:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-scott-intrusion/Intrusion: https://www.intrusion.com/---Connect with Finn:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Project 33: https://www.project33.io/---My personal takeaways:* What gets you a meeting with a CIO at a Fortune 100 company is doing your homework & finding a top 3 organizational problem they're trying to solve. If you come to pitch on innovative tech, you won't get far. And if you start the conversation with "what keeps you up at night?" you've already lost. It shows you did zero research. Tony had a secret signal with his assistants to get rescued from bed vendor meetings. That question was usually the trigger.* Tony's prediction for 2026: there's going to be a very big disaster as a result of the abuse, misuse, or accidental use of AI. Something attention-grabbing. And people are going to go "oh my god, we didn't know that could happen." We're building so much on top of AI without understanding all the points of failure, so when that failure occurs, it'll bring on a bunch of governance and regulatory inspections. It happened with every big invention we've ever had.* What impressed Tony most about interacting with Obama: his questions. He’d ask surprisingly deep questions about technical topics. When Tony’s team would send in a draft white paper (about something cybersecurity related), they’d often overnight get back a markup from the president with all kinds of notes & questions in his handwriting in the margins.* At Microsoft, Tony interfaced with Bill Gates, who would often say "that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard” in meetings. Tony saw it as a test to see if the person had done their homework on their idea/proposal/opinion, and were able to stand their ground. Problems happened when other executives tried to copy that style without context and without being Bill (Tony decided not to emulate it)* None of the things Tony did in his career were direct predictors of the thing he was gonna do next. He went from Sun Microsystems to startups to being the CIO at Microsoft, Disney, VMware, then Federal CIO under President Obama, and finally, CEO of a public cybersecurity company navigating headwinds. Recruiters kept finding him because he had an unusual combination of tech experience + a law degree. That made him stand out. His advice if you want unique opportunities: build a unique skill stack. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Kacie Jenkins, a marketing leader who scaled programs at Sendoso, Sourcegraph, and Fastly and recently joined Claude Code/Anthropic. She talks about building authentic executive/founder brand, turning LinkedIn conversations into pipeline, limits of ghostwriting, organic content boosting paid performance, and why developer marketing must start with technical credibility.

Sydney Sloan was previously the CMO at G2, Drata, and Salesloft, prior to which she spent 16 years at Adobe in a variety of marketing leadership roles. She is currently an advisor at G2 and Executive in Residence at Scale Venture Partners, working with early-stage founders on go-to-market strategy.In this episode, we talk about her biggest lessons, how buyer behavior has fundamentally changed, why brand matters more than ever, and what the 2026 marketing playbook actually looks like.---We discuss:* Why this is the biggest transformation in 30 years of B2B marketing* Buyer research shifted from 29% to 50% on AI chatbots in 4 months, and what that means for you AEO strategy* Why you probably don't need marketing automation the way you used to* “Human in the loop” vs “human in the lead”* How to build brand in 2026 - and why it matters more than ever* The Show-Up-Bigger-Than-You-Are playbook* Reorganizing GTM teams around outcomes, not functions* The advice Sydney would give herself before her first CMO role---Connect with Sydney:* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydsloan/* G2: https://www.g2.com/* Scale Venture Partners: https://www.scalevp.com/---Connect with Finn:* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/* Project 33: https://www.project33.io/---My personal takeaways:1. The shift to AI search is happening faster than we think. Internal G2 data showed that in April 2025, 29% of buyers said they started their research in of of the AI chatbots. By August that number hit 50%, just four months later. In 2026, every company needs to focus on their AEO strategy making sure their brand is the citation source LLMs use.2. Marketing automation as we know it is dead. Companies need to capture high-intent signals using tools like Clay or Common Room, and immediately deploy AI agents to act on them. Speed is the new currency.3. Show up bigger than you are. Sydney got this advice from the CMOs of Okta and Snyk, and used it to scale Drata and Salesloft. You don’t need a massive budget, you need one anchor event or one bold move. At Drata, they bought out every ad space for two blocks around Moscone Center for RSA Conference so attendees couldn’t miss them. At Salesloft, they bought a billboard on Highway 101, but the ROI didn’t come from the traffic driving by, it came from leveraging photos of it online. Big one-off events, if properly leveraged, signal momentum to investors, customers and potential employees.4. We’re entering the “Rick Rubin Economy”, because AI lowers the barrier to entry for content and code, so the only differentiator is taste. You can’t prompt your way to good taste. We need to hire for context and judgment, or leverage advisory boards of influencers who actually understand the market. AI provides the speed, but humans provide the creative direction that determines if anyone actually cares.5. Do we need GTM Architects? Everyone is rushing to hire GTM Engineers and build AI workflows, but in software development, you need engineers and architects. They work at different levels of abstraction. Software Engineers build and maintain software, Software Architects design the system as a whole. We need this for GTM. You need someone to map the strategy, choose the agentic platforms, and decide *what* to automate before you build it. Sydney said she sees this as a separate role, likely sitting in RevOps, not something for the CMO.6. The biggest mistake new CMOs make is obsessing over their domain of the marketing department. Sydney’s advice for someone stepping into a C-level role for the first time: Spend your first 90 days building deep relationships with your peers - the CFO, CRO, CEO. If you don’t understand the business context and have alignment with your peers, the best marketing strategy in the world won’t save you. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Jessica Gilmartin was previously the CMO and CRO at Calendly, Head of Revenue Marketing at Asana, and Head of Product Marketing for Wildfire at Google. Today, she works closely with founders and first-time CMOs from pre-revenue through $100M ARR, advising them on everything from hiring, org design to GTM focus and executive communication.In this episode, we talk about how AI is changing the CMO role and marketing org, where it’s wildly overhyped vs working, and many other topics.Listen on: YouTube, Spotify or Apple PodcastWe discuss:* Why CMO + CRO combo roles usually fail* Why companies now hire CMOs from smaller, scrappier startups* Where AI is truly useful vs pure hype* Why random acts of marketing kill momentum* How Calendly moved from viral PLG to focused enterprise ABM* The real reason CMOs only last 18 months* Why taste, courage, and focus still matter more than toolsConnect with Jessica:* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicagilmartin/Connect with Finn:* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/* Project 33: https://www.project33.io/My personal takeaways:* We’re overvaluing AI right now: Jessica believes we’ll replace most of our day-to-day work with AI in 5-10 years. But right now board members are mandating AI adoption without specific use cases. The reality is AI is making teams 10-20% more efficient and that it works as an enabler, but not as a replacement. The best use cases she’s seeing are data enrichment for lead prioritization, competitive research for product marketing, and using LLMs as synthetic customer panels.* There are three paths to CMO and CEOs keep hiring wrong. 50% of B2B CMOs come from product marketing, 50% from demand gen, brand CMOs are rare in B2B. CEOs want a unicorn who’s great at both strategic messaging and technical growth. Jessica’s advice: “It’s like asking a backend engineer why they can’t code mobile apps.” Hire for your actual problem right now, not the one you’ll have at $100M.* The only mistake with bad hires is keeping them. Jessica repeats this constantly to clients, that you will always make bad hires. Or you hire people who were good then but aren’t right now. The mistake afterwards is keeping them too long. When you bring the right person on board, your life gets 10-100x easier.* Attribution is broken and that’s okay. You’re getting 70-80% accuracy at best. Jessica’s approach is to use the 80-20 rule. Get directionally correct data so teams understand where they can make impact and then work from there. The bigger issue is that companies wait too long to implement basic data and reporting infrastructure.* Random acts of marketing kill focus. At Calendly, Jessica pivoted the entire team to one thing: repositioning for enterprise customers. Because their CAC was zero for casual users due to viral growth. Marketers hate focus and they want to sprinkle seeds everywhere. But the winning strategy is making big bets, being explicit about trade-offs, and ensuring no one does random acts of marketing. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Ashley Faus is the Head of Lifecycle Marketing at Atlassian and author of Human-Centered Marketing. Besides helping build Atlassian’s thought leadership playbook, over the last year, she built her own executive presence on LinkedIn with now over 22,000 followers.In this podcast, we cover her thought leadership framework.We discuss:1. Ashley’s approach to LinkedIn2. The 4 pillars of thought leadership3. SMEs vs. influencers vs. thought leaders4. The “Internal Influencer” strategy5. How to operationalize employee advocacy6. Understanding trust intent vs buying intent7. And much moreConnect with Ashley:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyfaus/Human-Centered Marketing book: https://a.co/d/bbd8nV2Atlassian: https://atlassian.com/Connect with Finn:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Project 33: https://www.project33.io/Some key takeaways:1. Ashley’s content idea generation prompts: Write about “One question I asked today” and “One question I answered today”. It anchors your content in real experiences rather than generic advice.2. The 4 Pillars Framework: Thought leadership requires credibility (being the source), profile (audience size), prolificness (showing up often), and depth of ideas (saying new things)3. SME vs. thought leader: Subject-matter experts solve gnarly internal problems but lack profile. Thought leaders are disruptive and forward-looking4. A CEO’s job is often to show the market they are steady and predictable. Thought leadership is naturally disruptive, so it can actually be better to have non-C-suite experts as your primary visionaries.5. Build up your internal influencers. Laura Erdem at Dreamdata is a good example. She built an audience of now 50k+ LinkedIn followers by talking about how she actually uses the product in her own deals.6. Don’t fear employees leaving with their audience. Careers are long and the Valley is small. Investing in them creates lifelong partners, customers, and advocates.7. The first thing to NOT do is buy an advocacy platform and force people to register. Focus on the small handful of people who are “willing and able” and pair them with a marketer to help slice and dice their ideas.8. Revenue vs. thought leadership: Revenue belongs with “buy intent”. Thought leadership is about “trust intent” and “learn intent”. If you force it to drive short-term sales, you end up with a thinly veiled sales pitch that breaks trust.9. What “human-centered” marketing means: Most marketers talk about “capturing” leads and “converting” an MQL. Human-centered marketing means solving a problem for an actual person behind the screen, even if it doesn’t fit perfectly into a dashboard. Which is a fundamental mindset shift for most marketers. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Peter Kang runs social at Clay, the GTM Engineering Platform valued at $3.1B. Peter turned LinkedIn into one of Clay’s strongest growth channels, without paid ads, without corporate content, and with a team of one. In 69 weeks, he posted 961 times and grew the Clay company page from ~14K to 120K+ followers.This episode is a deep, tactical breakdown of what actually works on LinkedIn in 2025, and why most B2B advice completely misses the point.What we cover: - Why company pages still matter and what they’re actually good for- How Peter posted 961 times in a year as a team of one (and what broke)- Why video works even when it breaks every rule- Why “taste” is the real moat in modern marketing & how to hire for it- How Clay is activating their founders on LinkedIn and the playbook they’re following- Why LinkedIn runs on ACV, not CPM- How Clay connects social engagement to pipeline- Why optimization advice creates noise, not signal- The authenticity test most content failsConnect with Peter:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterhoilkang/Clay: https://www.clay.com/Connect with Finn: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Project 33: https://www.project33.io/Chapters:00:00 — Posting 961 times in 69 weeks02:00 — Why company pages still matter04:15 — Founder profiles vs company pages06:00 — Why long-form video works on LinkedIn08:45 — Followers are a vanity metric10:25 — Running social as a team of one13:00 — Clay’s real content portfolio15:00 — How Clay films executive videos18:45 — When to activate founders (and when not to)20:05 — What “taste” actually means23:00 — Hiring creatives with taste26:45 — Why product success drives social success29:00 — Why most LinkedIn copy fails31:00 — LinkedIn vs TikTok vs YouTube35:00 — LinkedIn as scaled ABM36:00 — How to test for authenticity38:30 — Why optimization advice is noise39:00 — Designed-by-committee content40:20 — Clay’s internal prompts and style guides42:00 — Claude vs ChatGPT42:30 — Closing This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Olga Andrienko spent 12 years helping build Semrush from $5M in revenue to IPO. She led social, brand, global marketing, and eventually operations at scale. Now she’s joining a pre-seed startup as CMO to build everything from scratch:- A new product category (AI-driven corporate learning)- A founder brand- An employee advocacy system- A modern AI-powered marketing engineWe discuss:* Why Olga left Semrush after 12 years* Why enterprise marketers feel stuck right now and how AI restrictions slow innovation* What marketers should actually do in a scary job market to stay employable* The #1 skill marketers need in 2025: experimenting with AI + no-code on their own* The departments where AI creates the biggest leverage (hint: not marketing)* How Semrush cut reporting time from 10 hours down to hours using automation* The automated workflows Semrush shipped: SOV tracking, reporting, content QA* The dream content engine Olga couldn’t build and why AI quality still isn’t there* How AI will reshape marketing orgs and which roles will (and won’t) survive* Why social media managers now have more strategic leverage than ever* Why brand pages on LinkedIn are basically dead and how to fix it* How Semrush scaled employee advocacy to 10M+ impressions a year* Employee advocacy vs executive thought leadership: the real difference* The exact system Olga is using to build her founder’s brand at Foxtory* How she scrapes top founders, analyzes formats, and recreates winning post types* The outbound → founder-brand → content loop that drives traction* Why a founder brand is a multi-year compounding asset and not a 3-month projectPerfect For You If* You’re a founder building your personal brand from zero* You lead marketing inside a startup and need leverage fast* You work in enterprise and feel slowed down by approvals, rules & legacy systems* You want to build an employee advocacy program that actually scales* You want to understand how top marketers think about org design & team structure* You want a behind-the-scenes look at how a former Semrush exec builds in publicConnect with Olga:Olga’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olgandrienko/Foxtery: https://www.foxtery.com/Connect with me:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Chapters00:00 — Why Olga left Semrush after 12 years02:00 — The gap in her career: building from zero03:30 — Solo vs team: why she chose a startup06:00 — How AI restrictions slow down enterprise marketers08:30 — What marketers should do when the job market feels unsafe10:50 — The biggest AI opportunities inside large organizations13:00 — Semrush’s 10h → 2h reporting automation14:30 — How they automated share-of-voice tracking16:45 — The content engine Olga couldn’t get approved20:15 — How AI changes team structure & role definitions22:00 — Why social media managers now have disproportionate leverage24:00 — Why most brand pages are a graveyard27:00 — How Sem rush scaled employee advocacy to 10M+ impressions30:30 — Advocacy vs executive thought leadership33:00 — Why Olga never touched executive accounts at Semrush36:00 — How she’s activating her new founder’s brand at Foxtery38:30 — Scraping top creators and rebuilding winning formats44:00 — Why she refuses AI-generated infographics47:30 — How she’s measuring success before product launch49:40 — Founder brand as a long-term compounding asset51:00 — What’s next for Foxtery#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Justin Levy is the Director of Social Media & Influencer Marketing at ZoomInfo, a $1.2B ARR company with 4,000+ employees. He built their first executive social program, scaled employee advocacy from 100 to 1,800 people, and grew ZoomInfo’s creator program to 40+ creators across LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Substack, newsletters, and podcasts.That program alone drove thousands of webinar registrants and millions influenced in revenue.We break it all down in this episode.What You’ll Learn• The real reason LinkedIn reach is collapsing and why the algorithm now behaves more like TikTok• Why B2B brands should stop overextending on LinkedIn and where to diversify instead• The truth about vertical video on LinkedIn and why the returns are shrinking• How ZoomInfo uses YouTube Shorts & Reddit to influence AI Overviews and search• The 5 pillars of ZoomInfo’s social + creator ecosystem and which one outperforms everything• Why ZoomInfo’s creator program drives millions in revenue with a full attribution breakdown• How to launch an influencer program with a small budget• Paid vs. earned influencer content: how B2B brands should think about it• What B2B creators get wrong: over-monetizing, low authenticity, and trust decay• How ZoomInfo built a 12-hour/day social SWAT team to handle brand attacks in under an hourPerfect For You If• You lead marketing or brand at a B2B company• You're experimenting with creator or influencer marketing• You want to diversify beyond LinkedIn• You’re building an executive social program or employee advocacy motion• You want to understand how a $1.2B ARR company runs modern social at scaleConnect with Justin:Justin’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinlevy/ZoomInfo: https://www.zoominfo.com/Connect with me: Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Chapters00:00 — Why Justin’s creator program outperforms everything else02:00 — ZoomInfo’s 5,000-registrant virtual event (and 2,000 from creators)03:07 — The biggest gap in B2B social today04:30 — How LinkedIn’s algorithm actually works in 202506:00 — Vertical video fatigue and diminishing returns06:58 — YouTube Shorts, TikTok & Reddit: new frontiers for B2B10:26 — Why LinkedIn is still #1 but shouldn’t be your only channel12:44 — ZoomInfo’s top 3 social channels14:13 — Breaking down ZoomInfo’s creator program15:57 — Why creator-driven demos outperform branded demos17:50 — Earned vs. paid: how to classify influencer marketing19:47 — Why you should combine logo placements + integrated creator content21:36 — How ZoomInfo measures millions in influenced revenue23:21 — Why every creator post gets a UTM24:55 — Why Justin ignores “the link kills reach” myth25:45 — First-touch, influenced pipeline, and attribution modeling27:34 — How smaller companies should start creator marketing29:53 — The “Top 50” organic play that gets creators on your radar33:13 — How many creators to pick for a 3-month test35:26 — Why you should always pair creator campaigns with a lead magnet37:07 — How Justin evaluates ROI when enterprise cycles are long39:35 — Why SMB-heavy leads aren’t good enough41:32 — One-to-one pipeline attribution explained43:37 — How to pick the right creators45:25 — The hidden metric Justin cares about47:18 — The authenticity problem with full-time creators50:22 — FTC rules, disclosure, and trust52:16 — Inside ZoomInfo’s 12-hour/day social SWAT team56:33 — Why consumers are shifting complaints from public to private59:00 — Closing#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

David Walsh, Founder & CEO of Limelight, is one of the few people who actually knows how B2B influencer marketing actually works. His marketplace powers creator campaigns for Clay, Webflow, HubSpot, ZoomInfo, Bill.com, and dozens of high-growth B2B companies.In this episode, we break down exactly how to collaborate with creators as a repeatable growth channel and not a one-off experiment.What You’ll Learn- The stage where influencer marketing actually works- Creator-Market Fit: the only metric that matters- The campaign structure Limelight recommends to every brand- What a good budget looks like- How to measure influencer marketing without guessing- Why organic posts are step one and paid ads are step two- How Clay built the best creator program in B2B- Why employee advocacy and creators is the real cheat code- The flywheel effect that happens when executives, employees, and influencers amplify each other- Why now is the moment to start creating content- David shares how his own content now drives 90% of Limelight’s revenuePerfect For- Founders who want real distribution, not just paid impressions- Marketing leaders tired of rising CAC and declining ad performance- Teams considering influencer marketing but unsure where to start- Anyone curious how B2B creators actually drive pipeline Connect with David: - David’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dw1232/- Limelight: https://www.limelighthq.com/Connect with me: - Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/- Website: https://www.project33.io/Chapters00:00 — The 2012-Instagram moment for LinkedIn02:05 — When a company is actually ready for influencer marketing03:44 — Does ACV matter?05:33 — Why LinkedIn creators are the hardest to find06:59 — Solving the creator cold-start problem09:13 — Employees vs full-time creators11:21 — Why creator partnerships are suddenly normalized13:19 — How often creators should post15:07 — The ideal campaign structure and why going wide wins17:30 — Why niche creators outperform big ones19:01 — Budget ranges for 60-post campaigns20:32 — How to measure success the honest version22:55 — The 80/20 of engagement quality25:14 — Turning creator posts into paid ads27:30 — Why creator budgets will explode over the next 5 years31:06 — Creator-Market Fit 33:10 — The campaigns David points companies to35:02 — How Clay built the new standard37:10 — How brands should think about creative control40:38 — Why over-controlling the creator kills performance42:22 — How to think about creator fatigue + competitive overlap44:28 — The transparency rules creators follow46:12 — Employee advocacy + creators = distribution48:33 — How creators help employees grow, and vice versa50:48 — Why every company will have “personality-led marketing”52:54 — Why employee content must become measurable54:34 — David’s closing message: start creating now#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbranding This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org

Kyle Lacy is the CMO of Docebo, a publicly traded enterprise learning platform used by companies like Zoom, OpenTable, Dior, and Denny’s. Before Docebo, he led marketing at Lessonly, Seismic, Salesforce, and Jellyfish, and he’s been publishing online since MySpace.In this episode, Kyle breaks down what’s still true about personal branding in 2025, how executives should think about posting online, the mistakes leaders make when they worry too much about reach, and why story is the only thing that differentiates you.We also talk about publishing as a discipline, how to turn meetings into content, the realities of being an exec at a public company, and why Ramp and Liquid Death are raising the bar for brand in B2B.What You’ll Learn- The one thing about personal branding that hasn’t changed since 2010- How to create content as a busy executive- Why reach doesn’t matter as much as people think- The biggest mistakes executives make on LinkedIn- How to use LinkedIn for internal communication- When executive thought leadership becomes a marketing motion- The best way to pick content topics Perfect for founders, CMOs, and B2B leaders who want to:- Build a real executive brand - Understand how to post confidently without fear- Turn daily work into high-performing content- Enable your leadership team to publish consistently- Use LinkedIn for recruiting, culture, and storytellingConnect with Kyle: Kyle’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylelacy/Docebo: https://www.docebo.com/ Revenue Diaries: https://www.therevenuediaries.com/Connect with Me:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/Website: https://www.project33.io/Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFHChapters00:00 Who is Kyle Lacy?01:22 Writing one of the first personal branding books (in 2010)03:30 What’s still true about personal branding05:00 Story vs. generic content07:00 How personal to get online08:58 Why specific details make you relatable10:22 How Kyle sees LinkedIn compared to other platforms12:05 The truth about reach and algorithm changes13:42 Kyle’s workflow: how he actually creates content15:38 Posting daily as an executive17:44 The Delta incident: how a single tweet almost got him fired20:37 How executives should think about posting22:38 Why building a network matters for every leader23:58 Dealing with imposter syndrome vs. publishing fear25:39 Do people assume you’re not working?27:36 Evergreen vs. timely content29:49 Using LinkedIn for internal communication31:41 When executive thought leadership becomes a real marketing motion33:54 Using audience trust for hiring35:48 Which executives should post (and why some shouldn’t)37:58 Themes and sub-themes: Kyle’s writing strategy39:22 Hooks, structure, and intuition40:49 Framework content vs. story content42:00 Commenting, community, and consistency44:38 Why Kyle wishes he started his newsletter earlier46:15 Substack vs. Beehiiv48:04 Kyle’s current tool stack49:10 Brands inspiring him: Ramp, Liquid Death50:37 Why good taste still wins This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.executivebrand.org