Most marketers use AI to write generic emails.

Kieran Flanagan used it to increase sales meetings by 30% and build a “Chief of Staff” that manages his 350-person team.

Kieran is the SVP of Marketing at HubSpot, where he has helped scale the company from 250 to over 7,000 employees.

He is also the co-host of the popular “Marketing Against the Grain” podcast.

In other words, Kieran doesn’t just theorize about AI; he is actively “vibe coding” custom internal tools to overhaul HubSpot’s entire go-to-market motion.

In this episode, Kieran opens his laptop to show exactly how he builds custom AI agents that extract viral talking points from video, automate complex management reporting from Slack, and personalize outreach at massive scale.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:

• The “Vibe Coding” Strategy: Why building your own simple tools beats buying off-the-shelf software.

• 30% More Meetings: The exact email workflow change that drove massive sales efficiency.

• Management Automation: How to use AI to summarize weekly team activity and identify blockers across 350 employees.

• The Death of Prompt Engineering: Why “context grafting” and intent matching are replacing complex prompts.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 - Introduction

00:30 - Managing a 350-person team at HubSpot

04:05 - How AI drove a 30% increase in sales meetings

08:07 - Building custom data sets for personalized outreach

14:47 - Demo: Kieran’s custom “Viral Talking Points” tool

21:18 - Why “Vibe Coding” is the future of marketing workflows

25:49 - Turning video transcripts into high-performing LinkedIn posts

30:45 - The evolution of prompt engineering (and why it’s dying)

38:37 - The “Shakespeare Trap” of using AI for feedback

42:30 - Using AI agents for deep research and storytelling

50:28 - Automating management: Summarizing Slack and identifying blockers

59:05 - Why AI makes creativity more valuable, not less

01:02:40 - The #1 trait Kieran looks for when hiring

01:03:15 - Sneak peek: AI agents inside Google Sheets

Where to find Kieran:

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

X: @searchbrat

Website: https://www.kieranflanagan.io/ , https://www.hubspot.com/

Podcast: @MATGpod

Where to find Tim:

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

X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

Is SEO actually dying, or are you just listening to the wrong people?

While the media claims that AI is causing a 25% traffic collapse, data from 40,000 of the largest websites in the U.S. tells a completely different story.

In this episode, Ethan Smith (CEO of Graphite) joins Tim Soulo to perform SEO Necromancy — resurrecting search from the dead by debunking the biggest myths in the industry.

Ethan is widely regarded as the leading expert on Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), having built growth engines for brands like Instagram, Robinhood, and BetterUp. He doesn’t just share opinions; he shares data-backed insights from his recent study on how search behavior is actually shifting.

You’ll hear why the rise of ChatGPT isn’t the Google killer everyone predicted, how small websites are actually gaining traffic in the AI era, and the exact strategy you need to ensure your brand is cited by LLMs.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:

00:00 - Intro

01:00 - Why AI isn’t actually killing the web

04:49 - Measuring the real traffic drop

07:31 - The winners and losers of the AI traffic shift

13:24 - How AI behaviors are expanding the search pie

18:18 - Cleaning up outdated and inaccurate citations

23:28 - Why SEO and AEO are the same thing

27:09 - Why your AI tracking is biased

38:33 - Mining sales calls and Reddit for high-intent prompts

41:29 - How to win the RAG citation game

47:29 - Why being #15 in citations is better than #15 in Google

51:04 - ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Perplexity: where to focus first?

Where to find Ethan:

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

Website: https://graphite.io/

Where to find Tim:

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

X: @timsoulo

Website: https://www.timsoulo.com/

Early-stage marketing is often a race for reach, but Jay Acunzo argues that resonance is the only metric that actually moves the needle in 2026.

Jay is the former Head of Content at HubSpot and Google, a world-renowned keynote speaker, and an expert in storytelling. He has helped countless brands find their "Premise"—the distinct point of view that makes them irreplaceable in a sea of commodities.

In this episode, Jay breaks down why "being the best" is a losing game and why "being their favorite" is the ultimate competitive advantage.

Here's what you'll learn:

(00:00) Intro
(01:24) Why "Marketing More" is a trap in the AI era
(04:16) Why 100 fans beat 100,000 followers
(07:36) The Disney Strategy: Why you should stop trying to be "The Best"
(09:52) Using Unsolicited Response Rate (URR) to measure resonance
(13:50) How to close deals faster by making people care
(16:21) Why generic content is dead (and how to find your "Premise")
(24:13) Why brands need personalities to survive
(28:55) 5 steps to differentiate your brand
(34:38) The Wistia Example: Why your homepage copy isn't your message
(41:55) Future-proofing your content for 2026
(51:09) The right way to use LLMs in creative work
(59:40) Why you can't automate thought leadership

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Ahrefs Podcast!

Where to find Jay:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayacunzo/
Website: https://jayacunzo.com/

Where to find Tim:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsoulo/
X: @timsoulo

Referenced:
HubSpot, Wistia, Google, SparkToro, TopRank Marketing, Anthony Bourdain, Andrew Davis, Melanie Deziel.