September 25, 2025 • 28 mins
What Should Marketers Focus on in Q4
In this episode, we’re kicking off Q4 with a look at the state of marketing. We’ll share our biggest thoughts on what’s driving change right now and highlight the challenges and opportunities that will define how marketers finish the year strong.
Pumpkin Spice White Russian
This cocktail has everything you want in a fall drink. Think of it as the after-5 p.m. version of your morning pumpkin spice latte, but without the long wait in line. Smooth coffee notes, creamy richness and a hint of pumpkin pie spice make it a perfect seasonal sipper.
Ingredients (makes 4):
- 4 gingersnap cookies, crumbled (for rim)
- 1 tsp. honey (for rim)
- 6 oz. coffee liqueur (such as Kahlúa)
- 5 oz. vodka
- 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
- 6 oz. heavy cream
Directions:
1. Place crumbled cookies on a plate. Rub rims of 4 glasses with honey and dip in cookie crumbs to coat.
2. Whisk together coffee liqueur, vodka and pumpkin pie spice in a measuring cup.
3. Pour into prepared glasses, dividing evenly; add ice.
4. Top each glass with heavy cream and serve immediately.
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Hosts: Rich Mackey & Catelin Drey
Producer: Zac Hazen
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
hey zach, another week, another episode, we're
here yep, and we're closing onthe end of the end of the year.
Uh, playing for 2026 isstarting and today we're going
to break down some thoughtstrends, challenges, things that
we think you should know headinginto q4, and everything's going
to be marketing related,obviously but yeah, of course,
marketing related and I changedmy microphone Things that we
think you should know headinginto Q4.
Everything's going to bemarketing-related, obviously.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Yeah, of course, marketing-related, and I changed
my microphone because I had toput it on, so now I think it's
probably in the frame for somepeople, depending on how you
crop this, but hopefully thatdoesn't bother anybody.
But yeah, so budgets are goingto close.
They're probably in thebudgeting process right now.
Campaigns are peaking, tryingto make it through.
(00:47):
The end of the year 2026 iscoming like tomorrow, so it's
really insane.
We're going to break down thetrends, challenges and
opportunities we think youshould be paying attention to in
Q4.
We've each got a couple ofthose that we brought separately
.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
There's a little overlap on some with technology,
so it should be a good time.
Yes, be a good time.
Yes, and uh, for q4.
Since this will be the firstepisode of q4, you can expect
more seasonal cocktails.
This time I really focused onactual, like seasonal stuff, so
you're gonna get a lot of fallflavors.
Uh, for in october, novemberand december is going to be all
(01:19):
the holiday flavors, so I wentoutside in my normal sights.
Uh, today's drink is a pumpkinspice white russian.
Um, this is a cocktail recipefrom the countrylivingcom.
Uh, as they say, it'severything you want in a fall
drink, or it's kind of like your5 pm version of a morning
(01:41):
pumpkin spice latte, withouthaving to wait in line.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
I think that's the most important part, um so
you're saying you can't havethis in the morning, like you
have to wait till five?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
oh, you can have it whenever you want.
I mean, there's coffee in it.
There's definitely some coffeenotes lots of pumpkin pie
flavors, honestly good richness,um yeah, I think honestly.
I looked at this and I was likethis is when I'm actually gonna
have to like roll my sleeves upand go try, because I'm a big
(02:10):
pumpkin spice guy okay I guessI'm admitting that publicly but
zach is a basic bitch there yougo, but yeah, no, I was really
happy about this one.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Like it looks really good I'll do one or like pumpkin
spice lattes in the fall, butlike they're just so sweet so I
have to do like half pumps onthose.
Like it just getsoverwhelmingly sweet for me, and
that's the sensitivity I have.
But this seems less sweetthough, which is good.
So, all right, how do we makethis?
We Mm-hmm.
So all right, how do we makethis?
We take four ginger snapcookies.
(02:43):
You've got to crumble them forthe rim.
Honestly, if you're going touse them on the rim, I would
recommend a food processor andjust grind those babies down to
a powder.
That's going to be really great.
You need a teaspoon of honeyfor the rim as well, because
those ginger snap cookiecrumbles have to stick in some
way.
So, as you get into the recipe,you need three quarters cup of
coffee liqueur, such as Kahluawill work.
(03:06):
Starbucks has a coffee liqueurthat's really good.
There's a couple of other onesout there that I really like.
Two thirds of a cup of vodka.
One and a half teaspoons ofpumpkin pie spice.
We just have to admit that'snot really a thing.
It's a combination of otherspices like.
But okay, we'll call it pumpkinpie spice, because you can buy
that at the store.
Trader Joe's has it, all yourgrocery stores have it, and then
(03:28):
three quarters of a cup ofheavy cream.
So hopefully you are notlactose intolerant.
So to make this thing, you placeyour crumble cookies on a plate
, you rub the rims of fourglasses with honey and then dip
in a cookie crumbs to coat.
So that is fantastic.
And then, unlike a lot of these, this one is a whisking.
It's more like baking than likemaking a cocktail.
(03:50):
So no shaker.
You whisk together the coffee,liqueur, vodka and pumpkin pie
spice in a measuring cup.
Just get it all nice andcombined.
That's really all you're goingfor.
You don't have to like makewhipped cream or anything out of
it.
Pour it into the preparedglasses, divide it evenly and
add ice, and then top each onewith the heavy cream and serve
immediately.
(04:11):
So this is an interesting one,because it's like that heavy
cream float on it which I guesswhen you get, like your
Starbucks drink or whatever,like that's how their lattes are
right, the coffee is always onthe bottom and like the milk and
foam are always on the top.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, it's basically just like a right russian
pumpkin spice latte like I andyou could.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
I think you could dust it with a little more
pumpkin spice if you wanted to,or a little fresh nutmeg might
be.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, I was gonna say some fresh, freshly grated
nutmeg maybe but, um no, yeah, Ilove pumpkin spice, so
definitely want to try this oneall right.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Well, um, I think it's interesting.
I'm like I'm mixed on pumpkinspice.
I get it like a lot of peoplelike it though.
Um, this is one I would try,though I would 100 try this,
because it doesn't seem likeit's super overly sweet.
Really, the your sweet elementis the cream and then the honey
on the rim.
That's about it, so all right.
So that's the cocktail for fall,and I'll be curious to see what
(05:10):
else we have for fall and, aswe get into holiday, what those
drinks are.
I've got a few holiday ones too, if you need some
recommendations, but it soundslike you've got them all planned
out, so we'll just go with it.
Yeah, all right, so should wetalk about Q4 and what people
should be looking for, expectingand kind of how things are
going to ramp up?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah, let's talk about Q4.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Welcome back, zach.
Time to get into this Q4 stuff.
So I know you've got at least acouple things here.
I've got a couple of data here.
I've got a couple of datapoints that I think will not
surprise anybody.
So marketing emails are goingto ramp up considerably as you
get closer and closer toChristmas.
They go up about 14% in totalcompared to Q3.
(05:58):
And then the worst thing forB2B marketers is like you don't
really have that holiday offer,like we don't run holiday
specials on retainers, like youknow, get your SEO at 40% off.
Like those aren't really thingsfor B2B, where B2C marketers
are going to start discountingsuper deep and then jamming
(06:19):
inboxes like crazy.
So that's something to watchout for.
If you've got clients who keeptheir work and personal life
separate, that's a little lessof an issue.
But we still get email fatigueright, even if it's from a
personal email address.
Just going through and clearingall those out that can impact.
You know our like getting moreaggressive with our work email
as well, and it is going to beunsubscribe season.
(06:42):
This is always the time whenpeople start unsubscribing
because they get too many emails.
So something to watch out forthere.
Not a great one, but it willhappen.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, no, definitely.
I'm definitely ready to get alot of emails in my inbox.
Um, so mine's a littleunrelated to that, just like
curious rich.
How much, how many hours do youthink generative marketers say
generative AI saves them perweek on average?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Six.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
That was really close .
It's actually five hours perweek on average, and that's per
person.
So putting that intoperspective, I think, just like
generative AI, and implementingAI into your existing workflows
is going to be something big tolook out for.
So I wanted to mention that.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, I think what's interesting so generative AI is
AI that creates right.
It generates something.
So I think the other one that'sgoing to be more interesting as
we get into Q4 is agentic AI, soAI that acts like a team member
, because I think that will do awhole lot more Generative AI.
I'm still really mixed on.
(07:51):
I think it's great for firstdrafts, it's great for things,
but technically it's agentic AIis doing research for you.
Those, I think, are huge.
Agentic AI could technicallymake a shopping list for me and
then map it out in Google maps.
I suppose.
Um, I would have to take a lookat that and you have to build
that agent to do that, um, so,yeah, I'm going to find it
(08:11):
interesting.
I think that agentic AI willalso start saving people more
time than that.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Oh, a hundred percent .
Ai is an accelerator, not areplacement, is correct.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Correct, um, I think, is that getting us into some of
your main points of things towatch out for in Q4?
I feel like that was on yourlist.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
It definitely is.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Let's get to it.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Well, yeah, another interesting stat to go along
with that is nearly 88% ofmarketers are already using AI
in some capacity and 93% of themsays it helps generate content
faster, which, as a contentmarketer, that makes a lot of
sense to me, as we were kind ofjust discussing.
I don't think it's a replacement.
I think where it really helpsis doing those things that you
(08:54):
said research, starting you at areally good like first draft
point.
I would say, if you don't havea lot of time and you write out
a whole rough draft and you'relike, wow, this looks like
absolute garbage, like throwingit into AI to get some ideas of
how you can improve, it isn'tbad, especially if you ask it
(09:14):
directly for suggestions.
But I think kind of my mainpoint here is you should, in
some capacity, start looking atways to implement AI into your
team's workflows and your ownworkflow.
You don't want it to be puttingout everything.
I mean quality is still moreimportant than the volume of
which you put things out.
Sure, AI can go out and helpyou create tons of blogs, tons
(09:36):
of different things, but ifyou're not, if you are losing
the human quality of it, notrefining tone, fact-checking or
making sure that it actuallyconnects authentically with your
audience and has your voice,then you're definitely missing a
lot of what AI can do for you.
It's again not a replacement.
(09:56):
You really need to focus on itimproving your processes, not
replacing you doing that thing.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
It still got to have the human element.
Like right, let AI do what AIis good at, let humans do what
humans are good at.
So funny side story there.
So a friend of mine sent melike I asked how their day was
and he just sent me this stringof like 15 emoji and there were
just a bunch of them in thereand I was like, oh okay.
So I threw it into chat GPT andsaid, interpret all these emoji
(10:27):
for me.
And it wrote like it basicallygave me the treatment for a
fantasy story where, like adinosaur and an elf go on a
journey.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Looking for something .
Speaker 1 (10:35):
And it just was crazy .
So here's the funny thing, whenyou talk about generative AI.
At the end of it, it offered towrite me a children's story
based on the treatment that itgave me, like a whole book, and
I was like no, I don't want that, thank you, I just wanted you
to decode what my friend wassaying.
Yeah.
And so I pasted that for himand he's like oh my God.
(10:57):
He's like no, not really.
And so then I actually wentback in and I said reinterpret
this in this context.
And I shared some of what thatfriend was going through, like
they had a pet who died, theywere having some issues at work,
Like some other stuff that wasgoing on and it reinterpreted
(11:17):
the emoji with that and I sentthat to him and he's like yeah,
that's basically what I meantwith it.
So I think the good examplethere is garbage in, garbage out
.
If you just give it somethingand say tell me what this is,
it's like I can make somethingup that's completely crazy and
wild.
If you give it context.
(11:38):
And in a lot of cases likeespecially when we're using it,
we, we give it a walled gardenof resources it can use.
So don't go out to some randomweird place with crazy stuff.
Use this content for us.
A good example that I have ishaving it find the right photo
from our photo library for ablog post, versus generating
(12:02):
some wild fantasy photo on itsown.
You know, that type of thing iskind of more where I would look
for AI to speed that up.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Well, and I think people definitely need to start
looking into where AI can speedup like different parts of their
processes, right, I mean, Iknow you and I have talked about
this a lot, but basically, like, ai is not going away and this
is probably going to be in theB2B trends episode as well
because it's that important.
If you're trying to ignore AIand you're scared of it, that's
(12:34):
understandable, but at the sametime, you're setting yourself
back.
Like I said earlier, 88% ofmarketers are already using it.
If you're a marketing companyor you're doing marketing for
yourself without using AI, howare you going?
Speaker 1 (12:52):
to keep up, and I think that's a tough question
that a lot of people need to askthemselves.
I think so too.
So that dovetails into one ofmy points, which is about
technology and platforms.
So optimizing how you're usingtechnology and platforms, so
automating workflows, taking anyroutine tasks from discovery to
pricing to reporting, all ofthose things research, excuse me
and generating, creating aworkflow for those so they can
(13:13):
happen automatically.
So you're not doing the actualtask, you're actually having it
pull in.
So a really good example of thatone for B2B folks is you've got
a prospect, a prospectivecompany you want to reach out to
, or a prospect.
You can actually have AI go outand do research on that company
, pull in information from theirsales reports, pull in
(13:34):
information from their stock ifthey've got it, how many
employees they have from theirLinkedIn profile, pull all of
that stuff in for you and giveyou a summary and speed up that
discovery.
So it might have taken you 45minutes to an hour to go
research on your own.
You can have it like 10 minutesor even better.
You don't even care how muchtime it was, because it's out
there doing it as you put thingsinto your CRM and you're just
(13:58):
being able to go whenever youwant on demand and see that
discovery that's done on demandand see that discovery that's
done.
Same thing with analytics havingit go through and look at your
analytics and pull togetherinsights and things like that.
You've still got to put sort ofthe so what on it, but it can
tell you what happened and itcan give you good summaries.
(14:18):
So those are just a couple ofways.
I think that technology andplatforms are really going to
start to help us be moreefficient and do more,
especially in Q4, because thatstuff's just ramping up so fast
do all these things, but there'sstill that human element.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
It's more of a hybrid approach which, when we went to
inbound, we didn't do it thisyear but the hybrid ai hybrid
team approach is huge.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
So yeah, caitlin didn't accost anybody and make
them do a video.
Um, she almost did.
Um I do know she did uh, meetyamini again and she ran into um
a couple of other folks fromthe executive team there as well
, so she was very thrilled withthat and we had great food.
That's a whole other episode,yeah that's a whole other
(15:14):
episode.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
It was awesome.
So another one of my biggestthoughts that I've been like
thinking of as it relates tocontent.
Obviously you you know I'm acontent marketing specialist, so
a lot of what I think aboutrelates to content.
Personalization is becoming abigger and bigger thing and like
I mean, hold on, sorry, I havea stat for this.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Somebody's calling me tell them they can't call you
during a podcast no, I know allright, so nearly four in ten.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
So, like 39 percent of us, consumers expect brands
to personalize their onlineshopping experience or you know
their emails to some extent andif they aren't getting like that
personalized stuff, they'returning away.
And one of hubspot's, likebiggest things that they talked
about when we were at Inboundtalking about Inbound again but
(16:09):
tailoring your content and yourmessaging to your specific
target audience is going to besuper important and it's always
been super important.
But the way that you can dothat with AI is very different
and impressive.
It gets down to the nittygritty details of targeting that
specific subset of people.
(16:30):
So I think that's somethingthat people need to have their
eyes on and really think about.
And, honestly, personalizationcan be kind of creepy, but over
80% of consumers are comfortablewith some level of
personalization and I thinkthat's telling.
I think people are beginning toactually appreciate how you
target them, because if you'reproviding them value in the
(16:53):
moment, that speaks in a way tothem specifically rather than
just pushing out your message toa broad, general audience.
That's way, way more effective.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Yeah, show me things that so, yeah, show me things
that I want, Show me things thatI like.
Talk to me.
I'd like you know who I am, andI think that's where you know
having AI do some of thatdiscovery and update your CRM,
because you're only going to beable to personalize to the
extent of the data that you have, and so things like having a
LinkedIn URL for your prospects,like having that in your
(17:25):
database, and AI can totally dothat.
They can go out and match theemail address to the LinkedIn
profile and pull that link in.
Now they've got everything inthat LinkedIn profile that they
can use to personalize or shareor to give you more information.
So I think that all that'simportant, and especially as it
comes to AI and it comes topersonalization.
And another thing we heard a tonabout at Inbound is quality of
(17:47):
your data is what matters.
So there's a whole hierarchyand you mentioned it with
content, you know quality overquantity.
Same thing with your data.
You've got just massive amountsof data.
Don't do you any good?
But having quality data inthere is going to be important
and I think using AI to helpwith your unstructured data
(18:08):
right.
So like an email or a blog postor a LinkedIn profile.
That's not structured data.
It's not a phone number, anemail address, stats, purchase
history, things that are verystructured and even but AI can
still summarize that and helpyou use that data in things as
well.
So that's a great one.
(18:30):
So I'm going to take us out oftechnology now.
We're going to move on tosomething completely different.
We're going to talk aboutconsumer behavior and values.
So the world is shifting andwe're not going to get super
political or anything.
But there are a lot of economicpressures on people right now
and those aren't going away fromwhat we've seen.
(18:51):
They're going to probably getworse in q4, especially as you
get into, like, holiday spendingand things like that.
So economic pressures mean thatconsumers think more about what
they're going to buy.
They're looking for value.
So affordability, savings,perks, anything like that, is
going to be important for them.
It's also important forcompanies.
(19:13):
So as the consumer goes,business goes as well, or vice
versa.
Be looking to buildrelationships with companies
that they have loyalty to, thatthey believe in, that they deem
(19:36):
as affordable or as high value.
All of that is going to beimportant and it'll just ramp up
as Gen Z gets deeper and deeperinto the workplace.
They're looking for things thatare genuine and relatable and
things that they understand andthat speak to them.
So whether you're doing B2C orB2B, you've got to take that
into account as well.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I mean as an elder Gen Z person I think the more
authentic and not buttoned upyour messages sometimes can
really speak to us.
Like when I see an ad, it'sjust an ad.
But when I see somebodyactually talking to me face to
face, telling me about a product, not BSing me, that's different
.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
So Yep, yeah, and I think that user generated
content is going to be anotherbig area where you know, b2b
hasn't really capitalized on UGCmuch, but B2C definitely has
with influencers and things.
So I think that's going to be aplace where you'll have to
figure out how that works foryou or if it works for you.
But that authenticity, themistakes, the little like
(20:38):
baubles, that people have thelittle laugh here and there,
like that all just reads asgenuine.
Yep, absolutely so.
The other piece in this ispurpose-driven marketing and I
think we've seen some of thiswith the backlash.
Target got over a few thingspolitically.
You know their CEO ended upquitting or getting thrown out.
(20:58):
Their stock has declined, theirsales have declined.
You know things like that.
Their stock has declined, theirsales have declined.
You know things like that.
You've got a far more activistcrowd, especially in Gen Z, and
as they continue to evolve andget it.
Like you said, you're an elderGen Z, you're not like.
I mean I think you're pushing30 now right, I'm 27.
Three years away, 27, but 27.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Don't scare me like that.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
There are plenty of people You're almost 30.
You're okay.
There are plenty of people likemid to late 20s.
For Gen Z, though, those peopleare in the workforce.
They're influencing decisions.
They have the ear of the CEO orthe CFO or CMO or whoever.
So really starting to thinkthrough that and getting ahead
(21:44):
of it and understanding who youare and what you stand for and
making sure that you're puttingthat out there You're not going
to make everybody happy.
That's just never going tohappen, especially not right now
when things are so divided.
But getting who you are and whoyou want your company to be and
attracting that audience isgoing to work better for you
(22:06):
than for others.
You can't Just say like, hey,this is what we do, come buy
from us.
You actually have to align withthem.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
We were just on a discovery call with somebody
today.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yep, yeah, we did a discovery call with a potential
client today and she said youknow, I've been on a bunch of
these and some people.
I'm just like, yeah, I feellike you're not listening to me,
I feel like you don't get it.
And she's like, in some of them, you just feel like, yeah, I
just I don't know, I just don't,I'm not feeling you like
personally.
But she liked our vibe and shesaid that specifically, like
(22:40):
like I really liked the vibethat I'm getting here, I feel
like you're listening to me, etcetera.
And that's going to be reallyimportant in B2B, people will be
doing discovery calls withthree or four companies and you,
being who you are in genuine,genuine, it'll get you clients
that you want to work with.
Because if somebody is reallydiametrically opposed to your
values as a company, you'reprobably you're not going to be
(23:00):
successful.
You don't want to work withthem.
So like, why bother?
Like it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
So a lot of stuff there.
Well, and I honestly think,just piggybacking off of that I
I think the messaging reallymatters too right.
There's a lot of the samevoices happening in B2B.
So setting yourself apart withan authentic human voice where
you're actually connecting withthem, not trying to just sell
them the service that you'reproviding, I totally agree with
(23:29):
that.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Yeah, I think it's also a part of people are doing
research, right?
We talked about this.
So, yeah, I think it's also apart of like people are doing
research, right.
Like we talked about this in aprevious episode, I think like
people have already researchedyou before they ever came close.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
This piggybacks into something I have for next week,
but I kind of want to say heretoo.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Can you tease it for next week?
Speaker 2 (23:45):
So when I was at Inbound yeah, so while I was at
inbound um, I went to a b2btrends for the contrarian
marketer.
It was hosted by somebody who'slike pretty high up in like the
linkedin learning, uh, likeplatform, and one of the first
things that she said I'm sorry,I can't remember her name.
I wish I need to shout her out,but that's okay, you can shout
(24:07):
her in the comments she comparedbasically catching like
somebody's attention.
Right, when you're like your,your first impression to like
the first impression rose fromthe bachelor or the bachelorette
, people who get the first, uh,the first impression rose are
like 52 percent, or like a highpercent, more likely to actually
(24:28):
be in the finale and win theshow.
And it's the same for B2Bmarketing, right, you want to be
on, you want to have a greatfirst impression and you want to
be when people are researching,you want to be on their list of
first brands that they'veresearched.
So putting yourself out there,just raising brand awareness and
being memorable are superimportant, which I'll discuss
(24:50):
more next week with actual statsand numbers.
But yeah, when you said that, Iwas like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, 100%.
Yeah.
You've got to understand theseare savvy people making these
decisions whether it's aconsumer or it's a B2B
opportunity and they alreadyknow quite a bit about you.
So if they've seen and feltwhat you're supposed to be
beforehand, that's going tobring them into you and you're
going to make a better,technically second impression.
(25:19):
Your first impression isprobably your website or
something they read in ChatGPT.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
A campaign you put out just to raise brand
awareness.
You want to get that firstimpression, Rose, so you can end
up in the finale Jeez.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
I don't watch the Bachelor, but I get what you're
saying.
I understand the concept of theshow and I've seen clips and
things before, so I'm notcompletely inept on those kinds
of trends.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
It's like the Rose they give the person that makes
the best first impression andapparently those people end up
have the highest chance ofending up in the finale because
they remember them.
They stood out.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
It's not just because they're hot, it's not just like
oh, you look really hot, that'sdefinitely probably part of it,
but yeah.
All right.
So I think that we talked abouta lot of stuff.
I think a couple of keytakeaways.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Ai is not going away, you've got to find a way to use
it properly.
Start auditing your processesto look for opportunities to
implement AI into your workflow.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yep, yeah, and create automated workflows wherever
you can Take that routine stuffand get it off your plate so
that you can look better or workbetter and work smarter.
You've got people who are moresavvy.
They're looking at things,they're researching things, they
(26:35):
want to know who you are, theywant to align with it.
People are going to be choosierand businesses are going to be
choosier with their money.
I know we're going through thatlike really thinking like, do
we need this piece of software,or can this one work good enough
?
Or like, is this one actuallyeven better and we just don't
know it and so we don't needthat thing, and kind of going
through that, you know, andspending, we'll spend money
where we need to.
Like we've got some veryexpensive software stacks that
we use, but we need those.
And some of the ones that we'reyou know, we're even looking at
(26:58):
getting rid of are, like youknow, three or $400 a year.
But it's like, do I need tospend that three or $400 a year
if I've got something else thatwill do it?
So you're going to have pickyconsumers, you're going to have
B2B decision makers and they'relooking for value, they're
looking for fit, they're lookingfor alignment.
They're looking forpersonalization 100%, so all of
(27:19):
those are doable.
There are things that we'reexploring right now for
ourselves and Zach's activelyworking on some of that for us,
and so it's very interesting andyou can always ping him and
he's happy to chat with youabout that.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yeah, Thank you for listening.
As always, you can find ouragency at antidote71.com and all
of our socials there as well.
If you have a question you'dlike to send our way, head to
ctapodcastlive to shoot us anemail.
Even better, leave us a voicemessage on our hotline at
402-718-9971.
Again, we always say this yourquestion will make it on an
(27:54):
episode of the podcast.
Once that first question hits,I'm going to be the happiest man
ever, but until then we'regoing to keep saying it.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
So yeah, I think I'm going to call in with an accent
and just be like, pretend to besomebody else and you'll see the
number it came from and you'dbe like this is just Rich
calling in.
Like that's just stupid.
All right, so we will be backnext week with another episode
and Zach teased it a little bit.
But what episode?
What's the topic that he'sgoing to be talking about?
That on it is B2B trends thatare making waves, things you
(28:23):
need to look for in 2026.
So we got you set up for Q4,which is coming in like five
minutes, it's going to be Q4.
And then we're going to work toget you set up for 2026.
And we'll kind of look at thosethings to look for in trends.
What's always interesting withthat is to look back at sort of
the middle or end of 2026 andsee if things are happening the
way we thought they were.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Because sometimes they do sometimes they don't All
right.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
So we will see you next week.
And thanks, zach, it was reallynice to see you again today
yeah, awesome episode.
hey zach, another week, another episode, we're
here yep, and we're closing onthe end of the end of the year.
Uh, playing for 2026 isstarting and today we're going
to break down some thoughtstrends, challenges, things that
we think you should know headinginto q4, and everything's going
to be marketing related,obviously but yeah, of course,
marketing related and I changedmy microphone Things that we
think you should know headinginto Q4.
Everything's going to bemarketing-related, obviously.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Yeah, of course, marketing-related, and I changed
my microphone because I had toput it on, so now I think it's
probably in the frame for somepeople, depending on how you
crop this, but hopefully thatdoesn't bother anybody.
But yeah, so budgets are goingto close.
They're probably in thebudgeting process right now.
Campaigns are peaking, tryingto make it through.
(00:47):
The end of the year 2026 iscoming like tomorrow, so it's
really insane.
We're going to break down thetrends, challenges and
opportunities we think youshould be paying attention to in
Q4.
We've each got a couple ofthose that we brought separately
.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
There's a little overlap on some with technology,
so it should be a good time.
Yes, be a good time.
Yes, and uh, for q4.
Since this will be the firstepisode of q4, you can expect
more seasonal cocktails.
This time I really focused onactual, like seasonal stuff, so
you're gonna get a lot of fallflavors.
Uh, for in october, novemberand december is going to be all
(01:19):
the holiday flavors, so I wentoutside in my normal sights.
Uh, today's drink is a pumpkinspice white russian.
Um, this is a cocktail recipefrom the countrylivingcom.
Uh, as they say, it'severything you want in a fall
drink, or it's kind of like your5 pm version of a morning
(01:41):
pumpkin spice latte, withouthaving to wait in line.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
I think that's the most important part, um so
you're saying you can't havethis in the morning, like you
have to wait till five?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
oh, you can have it whenever you want.
I mean, there's coffee in it.
There's definitely some coffeenotes lots of pumpkin pie
flavors, honestly good richness,um yeah, I think honestly.
I looked at this and I was likethis is when I'm actually gonna
have to like roll my sleeves upand go try, because I'm a big
(02:10):
pumpkin spice guy okay I guessI'm admitting that publicly but
zach is a basic bitch there yougo, but yeah, no, I was really
happy about this one.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Like it looks really good I'll do one or like pumpkin
spice lattes in the fall, butlike they're just so sweet so I
have to do like half pumps onthose.
Like it just getsoverwhelmingly sweet for me, and
that's the sensitivity I have.
But this seems less sweetthough, which is good.
So, all right, how do we makethis?
We Mm-hmm.
So all right, how do we makethis?
We take four ginger snapcookies.
(02:43):
You've got to crumble them forthe rim.
Honestly, if you're going touse them on the rim, I would
recommend a food processor andjust grind those babies down to
a powder.
That's going to be really great.
You need a teaspoon of honeyfor the rim as well, because
those ginger snap cookiecrumbles have to stick in some
way.
So, as you get into the recipe,you need three quarters cup of
coffee liqueur, such as Kahluawill work.
(03:06):
Starbucks has a coffee liqueurthat's really good.
There's a couple of other onesout there that I really like.
Two thirds of a cup of vodka.
One and a half teaspoons ofpumpkin pie spice.
We just have to admit that'snot really a thing.
It's a combination of otherspices like.
But okay, we'll call it pumpkinpie spice, because you can buy
that at the store.
Trader Joe's has it, all yourgrocery stores have it, and then
(03:28):
three quarters of a cup ofheavy cream.
So hopefully you are notlactose intolerant.
So to make this thing, you placeyour crumble cookies on a plate
, you rub the rims of fourglasses with honey and then dip
in a cookie crumbs to coat.
So that is fantastic.
And then, unlike a lot of these, this one is a whisking.
It's more like baking than likemaking a cocktail.
(03:50):
So no shaker.
You whisk together the coffee,liqueur, vodka and pumpkin pie
spice in a measuring cup.
Just get it all nice andcombined.
That's really all you're goingfor.
You don't have to like makewhipped cream or anything out of
it.
Pour it into the preparedglasses, divide it evenly and
add ice, and then top each onewith the heavy cream and serve
immediately.
(04:11):
So this is an interesting one,because it's like that heavy
cream float on it which I guesswhen you get, like your
Starbucks drink or whatever,like that's how their lattes are
right, the coffee is always onthe bottom and like the milk and
foam are always on the top.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, it's basically just like a right russian
pumpkin spice latte like I andyou could.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
I think you could dust it with a little more
pumpkin spice if you wanted to,or a little fresh nutmeg might
be.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, I was gonna say some fresh, freshly grated
nutmeg maybe but, um no, yeah, Ilove pumpkin spice, so
definitely want to try this oneall right.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
Well, um, I think it's interesting.
I'm like I'm mixed on pumpkinspice.
I get it like a lot of peoplelike it though.
Um, this is one I would try,though I would 100 try this,
because it doesn't seem likeit's super overly sweet.
Really, the your sweet elementis the cream and then the honey
on the rim.
That's about it, so all right.
So that's the cocktail for fall,and I'll be curious to see what
(05:10):
else we have for fall and, aswe get into holiday, what those
drinks are.
I've got a few holiday ones too, if you need some
recommendations, but it soundslike you've got them all planned
out, so we'll just go with it.
Yeah, all right, so should wetalk about Q4 and what people
should be looking for, expectingand kind of how things are
going to ramp up?
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah, let's talk about Q4.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Welcome back, zach.
Time to get into this Q4 stuff.
So I know you've got at least acouple things here.
I've got a couple of data here.
I've got a couple of datapoints that I think will not
surprise anybody.
So marketing emails are goingto ramp up considerably as you
get closer and closer toChristmas.
They go up about 14% in totalcompared to Q3.
(05:58):
And then the worst thing forB2B marketers is like you don't
really have that holiday offer,like we don't run holiday
specials on retainers, like youknow, get your SEO at 40% off.
Like those aren't really thingsfor B2B, where B2C marketers
are going to start discountingsuper deep and then jamming
(06:19):
inboxes like crazy.
So that's something to watchout for.
If you've got clients who keeptheir work and personal life
separate, that's a little lessof an issue.
But we still get email fatigueright, even if it's from a
personal email address.
Just going through and clearingall those out that can impact.
You know our like getting moreaggressive with our work email
as well, and it is going to beunsubscribe season.
(06:42):
This is always the time whenpeople start unsubscribing
because they get too many emails.
So something to watch out forthere.
Not a great one, but it willhappen.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, no, definitely.
I'm definitely ready to get alot of emails in my inbox.
Um, so mine's a littleunrelated to that, just like
curious rich.
How much, how many hours do youthink generative marketers say
generative AI saves them perweek on average?
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Six.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
That was really close .
It's actually five hours perweek on average, and that's per
person.
So putting that intoperspective, I think, just like
generative AI, and implementingAI into your existing workflows
is going to be something big tolook out for.
So I wanted to mention that.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, I think what's interesting so generative AI is
AI that creates right.
It generates something.
So I think the other one that'sgoing to be more interesting as
we get into Q4 is agentic AI, soAI that acts like a team member
, because I think that will do awhole lot more Generative AI.
I'm still really mixed on.
(07:51):
I think it's great for firstdrafts, it's great for things,
but technically it's agentic AIis doing research for you.
Those, I think, are huge.
Agentic AI could technicallymake a shopping list for me and
then map it out in Google maps.
I suppose.
Um, I would have to take a lookat that and you have to build
that agent to do that, um, so,yeah, I'm going to find it
(08:11):
interesting.
I think that agentic AI willalso start saving people more
time than that.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Oh, a hundred percent .
Ai is an accelerator, not areplacement, is correct.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Correct, um, I think, is that getting us into some of
your main points of things towatch out for in Q4?
I feel like that was on yourlist.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
It definitely is.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Let's get to it.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Well, yeah, another interesting stat to go along
with that is nearly 88% ofmarketers are already using AI
in some capacity and 93% of themsays it helps generate content
faster, which, as a contentmarketer, that makes a lot of
sense to me, as we were kind ofjust discussing.
I don't think it's a replacement.
I think where it really helpsis doing those things that you
(08:54):
said research, starting you at areally good like first draft
point.
I would say, if you don't havea lot of time and you write out
a whole rough draft and you'relike, wow, this looks like
absolute garbage, like throwingit into AI to get some ideas of
how you can improve, it isn'tbad, especially if you ask it
(09:14):
directly for suggestions.
But I think kind of my mainpoint here is you should, in
some capacity, start looking atways to implement AI into your
team's workflows and your ownworkflow.
You don't want it to be puttingout everything.
I mean quality is still moreimportant than the volume of
which you put things out.
Sure, AI can go out and helpyou create tons of blogs, tons
(09:36):
of different things, but ifyou're not, if you are losing
the human quality of it, notrefining tone, fact-checking or
making sure that it actuallyconnects authentically with your
audience and has your voice,then you're definitely missing a
lot of what AI can do for you.
It's again not a replacement.
(09:56):
You really need to focus on itimproving your processes, not
replacing you doing that thing.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
It still got to have the human element.
Like right, let AI do what AIis good at, let humans do what
humans are good at.
So funny side story there.
So a friend of mine sent melike I asked how their day was
and he just sent me this stringof like 15 emoji and there were
just a bunch of them in thereand I was like, oh okay.
So I threw it into chat GPT andsaid, interpret all these emoji
(10:27):
for me.
And it wrote like it basicallygave me the treatment for a
fantasy story where, like adinosaur and an elf go on a
journey.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Looking for something .
Speaker 1 (10:35):
And it just was crazy .
So here's the funny thing, whenyou talk about generative AI.
At the end of it, it offered towrite me a children's story
based on the treatment that itgave me, like a whole book, and
I was like no, I don't want that, thank you, I just wanted you
to decode what my friend wassaying.
Yeah.
And so I pasted that for himand he's like oh my God.
(10:57):
He's like no, not really.
And so then I actually wentback in and I said reinterpret
this in this context.
And I shared some of what thatfriend was going through, like
they had a pet who died, theywere having some issues at work,
Like some other stuff that wasgoing on and it reinterpreted
(11:17):
the emoji with that and I sentthat to him and he's like yeah,
that's basically what I meantwith it.
So I think the good examplethere is garbage in, garbage out
.
If you just give it somethingand say tell me what this is,
it's like I can make somethingup that's completely crazy and
wild.
If you give it context.
(11:38):
And in a lot of cases likeespecially when we're using it,
we, we give it a walled gardenof resources it can use.
So don't go out to some randomweird place with crazy stuff.
Use this content for us.
A good example that I have ishaving it find the right photo
from our photo library for ablog post, versus generating
(12:02):
some wild fantasy photo on itsown.
You know, that type of thing iskind of more where I would look
for AI to speed that up.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Well, and I think people definitely need to start
looking into where AI can speedup like different parts of their
processes, right, I mean, Iknow you and I have talked about
this a lot, but basically, like, ai is not going away and this
is probably going to be in theB2B trends episode as well
because it's that important.
If you're trying to ignore AIand you're scared of it, that's
(12:34):
understandable, but at the sametime, you're setting yourself
back.
Like I said earlier, 88% ofmarketers are already using it.
If you're a marketing companyor you're doing marketing for
yourself without using AI, howare you going?
Speaker 1 (12:52):
to keep up, and I think that's a tough question
that a lot of people need to askthemselves.
I think so too.
So that dovetails into one ofmy points, which is about
technology and platforms.
So optimizing how you're usingtechnology and platforms, so
automating workflows, taking anyroutine tasks from discovery to
pricing to reporting, all ofthose things research, excuse me
and generating, creating aworkflow for those so they can
(13:13):
happen automatically.
So you're not doing the actualtask, you're actually having it
pull in.
So a really good example of thatone for B2B folks is you've got
a prospect, a prospectivecompany you want to reach out to
, or a prospect.
You can actually have AI go outand do research on that company
, pull in information from theirsales reports, pull in
(13:34):
information from their stock ifthey've got it, how many
employees they have from theirLinkedIn profile, pull all of
that stuff in for you and giveyou a summary and speed up that
discovery.
So it might have taken you 45minutes to an hour to go
research on your own.
You can have it like 10 minutesor even better.
You don't even care how muchtime it was, because it's out
there doing it as you put thingsinto your CRM and you're just
(13:58):
being able to go whenever youwant on demand and see that
discovery that's done on demandand see that discovery that's
done.
Same thing with analytics havingit go through and look at your
analytics and pull togetherinsights and things like that.
You've still got to put sort ofthe so what on it, but it can
tell you what happened and itcan give you good summaries.
(14:18):
So those are just a couple ofways.
I think that technology andplatforms are really going to
start to help us be moreefficient and do more,
especially in Q4, because thatstuff's just ramping up so fast
do all these things, but there'sstill that human element.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
It's more of a hybrid approach which, when we went to
inbound, we didn't do it thisyear but the hybrid ai hybrid
team approach is huge.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
So yeah, caitlin didn't accost anybody and make
them do a video.
Um, she almost did.
Um I do know she did uh, meetyamini again and she ran into um
a couple of other folks fromthe executive team there as well
, so she was very thrilled withthat and we had great food.
That's a whole other episode,yeah that's a whole other
(15:14):
episode.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
It was awesome.
So another one of my biggestthoughts that I've been like
thinking of as it relates tocontent.
Obviously you you know I'm acontent marketing specialist, so
a lot of what I think aboutrelates to content.
Personalization is becoming abigger and bigger thing and like
I mean, hold on, sorry, I havea stat for this.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Somebody's calling me tell them they can't call you
during a podcast no, I know allright, so nearly four in ten.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
So, like 39 percent of us, consumers expect brands
to personalize their onlineshopping experience or you know
their emails to some extent andif they aren't getting like that
personalized stuff, they'returning away.
And one of hubspot's, likebiggest things that they talked
about when we were at Inboundtalking about Inbound again but
(16:09):
tailoring your content and yourmessaging to your specific
target audience is going to besuper important and it's always
been super important.
But the way that you can dothat with AI is very different
and impressive.
It gets down to the nittygritty details of targeting that
specific subset of people.
(16:30):
So I think that's somethingthat people need to have their
eyes on and really think about.
And, honestly, personalizationcan be kind of creepy, but over
80% of consumers are comfortablewith some level of
personalization and I thinkthat's telling.
I think people are beginning toactually appreciate how you
target them, because if you'reproviding them value in the
(16:53):
moment, that speaks in a way tothem specifically rather than
just pushing out your message toa broad, general audience.
That's way, way more effective.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Yeah, show me things that so, yeah, show me things
that I want, Show me things thatI like.
Talk to me.
I'd like you know who I am, andI think that's where you know
having AI do some of thatdiscovery and update your CRM,
because you're only going to beable to personalize to the
extent of the data that you have, and so things like having a
LinkedIn URL for your prospects,like having that in your
(17:25):
database, and AI can totally dothat.
They can go out and match theemail address to the LinkedIn
profile and pull that link in.
Now they've got everything inthat LinkedIn profile that they
can use to personalize or shareor to give you more information.
So I think that all that'simportant, and especially as it
comes to AI and it comes topersonalization.
And another thing we heard a tonabout at Inbound is quality of
(17:47):
your data is what matters.
So there's a whole hierarchyand you mentioned it with
content, you know quality overquantity.
Same thing with your data.
You've got just massive amountsof data.
Don't do you any good?
But having quality data inthere is going to be important
and I think using AI to helpwith your unstructured data
(18:08):
right.
So like an email or a blog postor a LinkedIn profile.
That's not structured data.
It's not a phone number, anemail address, stats, purchase
history, things that are verystructured and even but AI can
still summarize that and helpyou use that data in things as
well.
So that's a great one.
(18:30):
So I'm going to take us out oftechnology now.
We're going to move on tosomething completely different.
We're going to talk aboutconsumer behavior and values.
So the world is shifting andwe're not going to get super
political or anything.
But there are a lot of economicpressures on people right now
and those aren't going away fromwhat we've seen.
(18:51):
They're going to probably getworse in q4, especially as you
get into, like, holiday spendingand things like that.
So economic pressures mean thatconsumers think more about what
they're going to buy.
They're looking for value.
So affordability, savings,perks, anything like that, is
going to be important for them.
It's also important forcompanies.
(19:13):
So as the consumer goes,business goes as well, or vice
versa.
Be looking to buildrelationships with companies
that they have loyalty to, thatthey believe in, that they deem
(19:36):
as affordable or as high value.
All of that is going to beimportant and it'll just ramp up
as Gen Z gets deeper and deeperinto the workplace.
They're looking for things thatare genuine and relatable and
things that they understand andthat speak to them.
So whether you're doing B2C orB2B, you've got to take that
into account as well.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
I mean as an elder Gen Z person I think the more
authentic and not buttoned upyour messages sometimes can
really speak to us.
Like when I see an ad, it'sjust an ad.
But when I see somebodyactually talking to me face to
face, telling me about a product, not BSing me, that's different
.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
So Yep, yeah, and I think that user generated
content is going to be anotherbig area where you know, b2b
hasn't really capitalized on UGCmuch, but B2C definitely has
with influencers and things.
So I think that's going to be aplace where you'll have to
figure out how that works foryou or if it works for you.
But that authenticity, themistakes, the little like
(20:38):
baubles, that people have thelittle laugh here and there,
like that all just reads asgenuine.
Yep, absolutely so.
The other piece in this ispurpose-driven marketing and I
think we've seen some of thiswith the backlash.
Target got over a few thingspolitically.
You know their CEO ended upquitting or getting thrown out.
(20:58):
Their stock has declined, theirsales have declined.
You know things like that.
Their stock has declined, theirsales have declined.
You know things like that.
You've got a far more activistcrowd, especially in Gen Z, and
as they continue to evolve andget it.
Like you said, you're an elderGen Z, you're not like.
I mean I think you're pushing30 now right, I'm 27.
Three years away, 27, but 27.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
Don't scare me like that.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
There are plenty of people You're almost 30.
You're okay.
There are plenty of people likemid to late 20s.
For Gen Z, though, those peopleare in the workforce.
They're influencing decisions.
They have the ear of the CEO orthe CFO or CMO or whoever.
So really starting to thinkthrough that and getting ahead
(21:44):
of it and understanding who youare and what you stand for and
making sure that you're puttingthat out there You're not going
to make everybody happy.
That's just never going tohappen, especially not right now
when things are so divided.
But getting who you are and whoyou want your company to be and
attracting that audience isgoing to work better for you
(22:06):
than for others.
You can't Just say like, hey,this is what we do, come buy
from us.
You actually have to align withthem.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
We were just on a discovery call with somebody
today.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yep, yeah, we did a discovery call with a potential
client today and she said youknow, I've been on a bunch of
these and some people.
I'm just like, yeah, I feellike you're not listening to me,
I feel like you don't get it.
And she's like, in some of them, you just feel like, yeah, I
just I don't know, I just don't,I'm not feeling you like
personally.
But she liked our vibe and shesaid that specifically, like
(22:40):
like I really liked the vibethat I'm getting here, I feel
like you're listening to me, etcetera.
And that's going to be reallyimportant in B2B, people will be
doing discovery calls withthree or four companies and you,
being who you are in genuine,genuine, it'll get you clients
that you want to work with.
Because if somebody is reallydiametrically opposed to your
values as a company, you'reprobably you're not going to be
(23:00):
successful.
You don't want to work withthem.
So like, why bother?
Like it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
So a lot of stuff there.
Well, and I honestly think,just piggybacking off of that I
I think the messaging reallymatters too right.
There's a lot of the samevoices happening in B2B.
So setting yourself apart withan authentic human voice where
you're actually connecting withthem, not trying to just sell
them the service that you'reproviding, I totally agree with
(23:29):
that.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Yeah, I think it's also a part of people are doing
research, right?
We talked about this.
So, yeah, I think it's also apart of like people are doing
research, right.
Like we talked about this in aprevious episode, I think like
people have already researchedyou before they ever came close.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
This piggybacks into something I have for next week,
but I kind of want to say heretoo.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Can you tease it for next week?
Speaker 2 (23:45):
So when I was at Inbound yeah, so while I was at
inbound um, I went to a b2btrends for the contrarian
marketer.
It was hosted by somebody who'slike pretty high up in like the
linkedin learning, uh, likeplatform, and one of the first
things that she said I'm sorry,I can't remember her name.
I wish I need to shout her out,but that's okay, you can shout
(24:07):
her in the comments she comparedbasically catching like
somebody's attention.
Right, when you're like your,your first impression to like
the first impression rose fromthe bachelor or the bachelorette
, people who get the first, uh,the first impression rose are
like 52 percent, or like a highpercent, more likely to actually
(24:28):
be in the finale and win theshow.
And it's the same for B2Bmarketing, right, you want to be
on, you want to have a greatfirst impression and you want to
be when people are researching,you want to be on their list of
first brands that they'veresearched.
So putting yourself out there,just raising brand awareness and
being memorable are superimportant, which I'll discuss
(24:50):
more next week with actual statsand numbers.
But yeah, when you said that, Iwas like, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (24:57):
Yeah, 100%.
Yeah.
You've got to understand theseare savvy people making these
decisions whether it's aconsumer or it's a B2B
opportunity and they alreadyknow quite a bit about you.
So if they've seen and feltwhat you're supposed to be
beforehand, that's going tobring them into you and you're
going to make a better,technically second impression.
(25:19):
Your first impression isprobably your website or
something they read in ChatGPT.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
A campaign you put out just to raise brand
awareness.
You want to get that firstimpression, Rose, so you can end
up in the finale Jeez.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
I don't watch the Bachelor, but I get what you're
saying.
I understand the concept of theshow and I've seen clips and
things before, so I'm notcompletely inept on those kinds
of trends.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
It's like the Rose they give the person that makes
the best first impression andapparently those people end up
have the highest chance ofending up in the finale because
they remember them.
They stood out.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
It's not just because they're hot, it's not just like
oh, you look really hot, that'sdefinitely probably part of it,
but yeah.
All right.
So I think that we talked abouta lot of stuff.
I think a couple of keytakeaways.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Ai is not going away, you've got to find a way to use
it properly.
Start auditing your processesto look for opportunities to
implement AI into your workflow.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Yep, yeah, and create automated workflows wherever
you can Take that routine stuffand get it off your plate so
that you can look better or workbetter and work smarter.
You've got people who are moresavvy.
They're looking at things,they're researching things, they
(26:35):
want to know who you are, theywant to align with it.
People are going to be choosierand businesses are going to be
choosier with their money.
I know we're going through thatlike really thinking like, do
we need this piece of software,or can this one work good enough
?
Or like, is this one actuallyeven better and we just don't
know it and so we don't needthat thing, and kind of going
through that, you know, andspending, we'll spend money
where we need to.
Like we've got some veryexpensive software stacks that
we use, but we need those.
And some of the ones that we'reyou know, we're even looking at
(26:58):
getting rid of are, like youknow, three or $400 a year.
But it's like, do I need tospend that three or $400 a year
if I've got something else thatwill do it?
So you're going to have pickyconsumers, you're going to have
B2B decision makers and they'relooking for value, they're
looking for fit, they're lookingfor alignment.
They're looking forpersonalization 100%, so all of
(27:19):
those are doable.
There are things that we'reexploring right now for
ourselves and Zach's activelyworking on some of that for us,
and so it's very interesting andyou can always ping him and
he's happy to chat with youabout that.
Speaker 2 (27:32):
Yeah, Thank you for listening.
As always, you can find ouragency at antidote71.com and all
of our socials there as well.
If you have a question you'dlike to send our way, head to
ctapodcastlive to shoot us anemail.
Even better, leave us a voicemessage on our hotline at
402-718-9971.
Again, we always say this yourquestion will make it on an
(27:54):
episode of the podcast.
Once that first question hits,I'm going to be the happiest man
ever, but until then we'regoing to keep saying it.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
So yeah, I think I'm going to call in with an accent
and just be like, pretend to besomebody else and you'll see the
number it came from and you'dbe like this is just Rich
calling in.
Like that's just stupid.
All right, so we will be backnext week with another episode
and Zach teased it a little bit.
But what episode?
What's the topic that he'sgoing to be talking about?
That on it is B2B trends thatare making waves, things you
(28:23):
need to look for in 2026.
So we got you set up for Q4,which is coming in like five
minutes, it's going to be Q4.
And then we're going to work toget you set up for 2026.
And we'll kind of look at thosethings to look for in trends.
What's always interesting withthat is to look back at sort of
the middle or end of 2026 andsee if things are happening the
way we thought they were.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
Because sometimes they do sometimes they don't All
right.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
So we will see you next week.
And thanks, zach, it was reallynice to see you again today
yeah, awesome episode.
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