In this episode, Ian sits down with JP Laqueur, SVP of Marketing & Culture at DataBank, to explore how brand, culture, and CEO-led thought leadership work together to create lasting differentiation in B2B.

JP explains why DataBank prioritizes culture-first marketing, how involving the CEO in media and content unlocks disproportionate impact, and why disciplined PR often outperforms flashier tactics. The conversation also covers how marketing teams should think about video, written content, AI-driven discovery, and why human connection may become even more valuable in an AI-saturated world.

Key Takeaways:

• Culture is a competitive moat competitors can’t copy. Facilities and technology can be replicated, people and behaviors cannot.
• CEO-led storytelling scales trust. Thoughtful PR and executive content outperform most paid tactics when done consistently.
• Brand work compounds over time. Earned media, strong culture, and clear positioning reinforce each other across customers, employees, and investors.
  
  

Episode Timestamps:

*(14:01) The Trust Tree: Culture is the strategy

*(31:06) The Playbook: SEM is still working

*(46:45) Quick Hits:

Sponsor:

Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.

Links:

• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Connect with JP on LinkedIn
• Learn more about DataBank
• Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Ian sits down with Henry Wagner, Chief Marketing Officer at Megaport, to explore how marketing teams can earn attention in increasingly crowded and skeptical B2B markets.

Henry shares why Megaport invests in unconventional campaigns, like building an eight-bit video game to celebrate a major company milestone, and how smaller, calculated bets often outperform large, high-risk sponsorships. He breaks down his philosophy of “doing science, not alchemy” in marketing, emphasizing rigorous testing, learning, and iteration over narrative-driven guesswork.

Key Takeaways:

• Creative risk is easier to justify when bets are small and frequent. Contained experiments often deliver outsized attention with limited downside.
• Great marketing teams run science, not alchemy. Measurement, iteration, and learning beat intuition and narrative.
• LLMs change discovery, but not the need for authority. Clear, structured, problem-focused content still wins—measurement just looks different.

Episode Timestamps:

*(14:16) The Trust Tree:

*(17:56) The Playbook:

*(46:32) Quick Hits:

Sponsor:

Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.

Links:

• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Connect with Henry on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Megaport
• Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, Ian sits down with Greer Lynch, VP of Marketing at Reprise, the AI-powered demo automation platform helping enterprise teams deliver high-stakes software demos with confidence.

Greer shares how she approaches storytelling as the foundation of effective marketing, why community-building has become a core growth lever for Reprise, and how her team balances long-term brand investments with short-term demand generation. She also breaks down how Reprise thinks about rebranding for enterprise credibility, adapting SEO strategies for an AI-first world, and using AI internally to move faster without losing authenticity.

Key Takeaways

• Storytelling is the foundation of scalable marketing. Clear positioning and narrative make every channel more effective — from demand gen to community.
• Community is a long-term growth strategy. Bringing people together authentically builds trust, insight, and future demand, even beyond your immediate ICP.
• Brand maturity matters in enterprise markets. Positioning and design must reflect who you serve today, not who you served yesterday.
• AI is changing how marketing works — not eliminating fundamentals. The best teams use AI to accelerate insight, experimentation, and execution, not replace judgment.

Episode Timestamps:

*(03:01) The Trust Tree: Focus on what you can uniquely deliver to your audience

*(07:09) The Playbook: Storytelling and understanding your audience

*(32:53) Quick Hits

Sponsor:

Pipeline Visionaries is brought to you by Qualified.com. Qualified helps you turn your website into a pipeline generation machine with PipelineAI. Engage and convert your most valuable website visitors with live chat, chatbots, meeting scheduling, intent data, and Piper, your AI SDR. Visit Qualified.com to learn more.

Links:

• Connect with Ian on LinkedIn
• Connect with Greer on LinkedIn
• Learn more about Reprise
• Learn more about Caspian Studios

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.