Kitchen Side: Spryng Reflections, Connection, Community, and Soul

In this Kitchen Side episode of The Long Game Podcast, the Omniscient Digital team reflects on their experiences at SPRYNG, a standout B2B marketing conference in Austin. The conversation blends AI experimentation, prompt engineering, and the future of creativity with philosophical reflections on human connection, authenticity, and the soul of marketing. They explore why many AI users are missing the point by chasing “best practices,” and how real breakthroughs come from first-principles thinking and creative risk-taking. The episode also dives into the power of in-person events, emotional resonance, and inefficient—but high-value—tactics like dinners, meetups, and personal storytelling that can’t be scaled.

Key Takeaways

• AI and Prompting from First Principles: Real innovation with AI comes not from templates or best practices, but from individual experimentation and intent.
• Four Modes of AI Maturity: From microtasker to teammate, AI can scale with how deeply users integrate it into their workflow.
• The Importance of Human Vibes: Tactical content aside, the SPRYNG conference reminded marketers that human connection and emotion matter more than metrics.
• Don’t Optimize for the Median: Taking every piece of feedback can dilute differentiation—stand firm in your positioning.
• Community as a Business Superpower: Relationships built at events, meetups, and over meals have long-term impact beyond immediate ROI.
• Efficient Growth vs. “Inefficient” Magic: Some of the most meaningful, high-ROI activities are hard to measure—like handwritten notes, founder dinners, and late-night talks.
• Where’s the Soul in AI Content?: As AI floods the web, standout content will come from real human stories, creativity, and nuance—not mass automation.

Show Links

• Connect with David Khim on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Connect with Alex Birkett on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Connect with Allie Decker on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Connect with Omniscient Digital on LinkedIn or Twitter

What is Kitchen Side?

One big benefit of running an agency or working at one is you get to see the “kitchen side” of many different businesses; their revenue, their operations, their automations, and their culture.

You understand how things look from the inside and how that differs from the outside.

You understand how the sausage is made. 

As an agency ourselves, we’re working both on growing our clients’ businesses as well as our own. This podcast is one project, but we also blog, make videos, do sales, and have quite a robust portfolio of automations and hacks to run our business.

We want to take you behind the curtain, to the kitchen side of our business, to witness our brainstorms, discussions, and internal dialogues behind the public works that we ship.

Past guests on The Long Game podcast include: Morgan Brown (Shopify), Ryan Law (Animalz), Dan Shure (Evolving SEO), Kaleigh Moore (freelancer), Eric Siu (Clickflow), Peep Laja (CXL), Chelsea Castle (Chili Piper), Tracey Wallace (Klaviyo), Tim Soulo (Ahrefs), Ryan McReady (Reforge), and many more.

Some interviews you might enjoy and learn from:

Actionable Tips and Secrets to SEO Strategy with Dan Shure (Evolving SEO)

Building Competitive Marketing Content with Sam Chapman (Aprimo)

How to Build the Right Data Workflow with Blake Burch (Ship