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Hosted by Steve Phipps of Wayfind Marketing, The Growth-Minded Marketing Podcast simplifies marketing for B2B CEOs ready to grow with confidence. Each episode offers real-world strategies, step-by-step coaching, and inspiring CEO interviews—all designed to help you align your marketing with your business goals, stop wasting time and money, and scale without the stress. If you’re a growth-minded leader tired of vague advice and underperforming tactics, this is your next step.
Steve Phipps: If AI in marketing is
feeling overwhelming to you right now.
Here's the good news.
You don't have to do everything.
You just need to focus on doing the
right things and in the right order.
Welcome back to the
Growth-Minded Marketing Podcast.
If you're just joining us.
I'm Steve Phipps, the CEO and
founder of Wayfind Marketing, and I
am here with Annie Laurie Walters.
AnnieLaurie Walters : This is part two
of our two-part conversation about AI
and marketing, in part one, we spent
time grounding ourselves in reality.
What's, how has AI changed buyer
behavior and what matters most right now?
What do CEOs and their teams
need to be paying attention to?
Steve Phipps: This episode is all
about tactics, so preparation and
priorities as we head into this year.
Really, the question is what should
CEOs and their marketing teams focus on?
What deserves attention right
now and what can safely wait?
AnnieLaurie Walters : Steve, as CEOs
and their teams are looking towards.
Planning out their year Q one's already
started, but looking into Q2, Q3,
there's a lot of pressure to move fast.
It feels like AI has just sped
everything up significantly.
But from your perspective,
what really needs to be at
the top of the list right now?
Steve Phipps: I would say that
the priority is, is getting.
Clarity.
It's not speed, it's not
tools, it's not automation.
Those things are important, but before
you invest in ai, play with new platforms,
or you ask your team to use AI more,
you need to be able to answer some
foundational questions with confidence.
Who are we best for?
Who are the our, our ideal clients?
What problems do we solve
better than anyone else?
Why do customers consistently choose us?
These are fundamental questions that a
lot of times businesses and leadership
and marketing and sales have not answered.
They maybe they've answered in their
minds, but they as a team haven't answered
this in a way that is clear, cohesive,
and a part of a, an overall strategy.
And if those answers aren't
clear, AI's not gonna fix that.
It's only going to magnify the confusion.
And, you know, there's also
real pressure showing up inside
of leadership teams right now.
Uh, a lot of CEOs and marketing
leaders, they're, they're frustrated
because there's a lot of activity,
but what's really driving results
and that pressure is foresee a shift
away from scattered efforts and
towards a smaller set of priorities
that can be measured and improved.
And, and ultimately that's a
good thing, but in the moment
it feels really stressful.
AnnieLaurie Walters : So this isn't
really about falling behind with
technology or having technical debt.
It's, it's really more about making
sure that you're pointed in the right
direction before you accelerate.
Steve Phipps: Exactly.
And, and I wanna be clear
here, yes, technology matters.
AI matters.
It, it's gonna be a part
of your strategy, but.
There's gotta be a strategy
for it to be a part of.
If you just step in and, and try
to leverage tools without a plan,
you're just gonna get further
down the wrong road faster.
And so, as we know, AI is moving
super fast, but that doesn't negate
the fact that leadership still needs
to move with intention and clarity.
AnnieLaurie Walters : Let's make it
practical, Steve, when a CEO comes to you
and says, Steve, where do I even start?
What do you usually tell 'em?
Steve Phipps: Well, you know, a really
good starting point is, is internally,
if we talk about having a strategy, you
can still use different tools, experiment
with them, figure out how to use them.
And so using them internally is
a really good starting place.
You know, ai, it's a really
good thinking partner.
I mean, yes, you can use it for, uh,
creating emails and, and sending.
You know, a variety of different tactical
things, but one of the ways that can
be really helpful is it's, it's a
really good sounding board for CEOs.
It can take on the
perspective of your buyers.
It can help clarify strategy.
You can use it to pressure, test
decisions, or, you know, even it can be
a good way to just get ideas out of your
head and, and it, it can reflect it back
to you to help you make sure that it's
coming out the way that you think it is.
So that can be helpful for, as
you're seeking to bring alignment
to your team to, to get another
perspective before you take it to them.
And this is very much a part I've
mentioned before, our guide marketing
framework, and this is Path one,
generate your story and strategy.
That's, that's where ultimately
this comes in, is thinking through
what's the plan, what's the strategy?
And again, that's before
content, before campaigns.
Using that as a, as a way
to help think through.
What your strategy's going to be.
And so in this particular case, you know,
AI becomes a tool that you can use to help
think through ideas and punch holes in, in
what's incomplete, and identify the gaps.
AnnieLaurie Walters : I think it's a
good opportunity to mention our guide
marketing framework series that we have
recorded here on the podcast, some of our
earliest episodes, and we'll be sure to
drop in the show notes, links to those.
But we did an entire podcast on how to
generate your story and your strategy,
and we talked about using AI to do that.
So if you're looking for
some real clear steps.
How to use AI to help you with
your strategy and your story.
Be sure to check that out and it'll
be linked in the show notes below.
So Steve, if we zoom in even more, what
are some of the things that you believe
need to be prioritized immediately?
Like what do they need to start?
Steve Phipps: So what, whether you
do this with AI or not start, there
are three, three priorities that I
would put at the top of the list.
Number one is clarify your messaging.
The messaging, the words that you were
using to communicate to your buyers,
what you do, why it matters, how you
help them compare to competitors.
So your leadership team, your sales team,
and your marketing team should all be
your customer service team should all
be able to articulate the same story,
not similar, you know, where you get all
these variations, but, but a consistent,
clear story about who you serve.
Why it matters.
Number two is thinking
through internal alignment.
Uh, you know, often sales and
marketing are on different pages.
They have different priorities,
and so you, you get these silos.
So as you're thinking through
these processes and, and that,
that's a key thing is, is
oftentimes there aren't processes.
So it's unclear where the handoff
is from one team to the next.
You can use AI to help document your
processes, clarify those expectations,
and, and let that help create some
of the documentation that might
take a, a much longer time to do.
And then the third is, uh, get clarity
around your buyer's expectations.
Understand your buyers.
Again, don't assume.
So this is where leadership
needs to understand how are your
buyers making decisions today?
What are the questions
that they're asking?
A lot of it's going to be unchanged, but
there are some things that have changed.
Maybe they're asking different
questions because they can get
answers through AI that they couldn't
before that they would have to have a
conversation with the salesperson about.
And so digging in understanding, and
that's where you can use AI as a tool to.
Respond as if they were your customer.
Educate it.
Define who your customer is, and, uh,
AI tools can, can help give you feedback
from your customer's perspective.
Again, to help punch holes.
Uh.
Assumptions.
AnnieLaurie Walters : What I love
about what you're saying here is even
when we're talking about the tactics,
it still has to be rooted in your
strategy and you're just continuing
to point us back to get clear in your
strategy, get clear on your message,
get clear on these things, because I.
If those things are broken or
non-existent, AI is not a silver bullet.
It's not gonna just magically
solve all of your problems.
And if you rush in and start using AI
to, you know, do marketing things, it's
that same problem that we've seen time
and time again of throwing the spaghetti
if against the wall and see if it sticks.
It's still the same thing, it's
just packaged in a new way.
You have to have the strategy to drive
the tactics and, and that's what I love
most about what you're saying here.
Steve Phipps: So one thing I wanna be
clear on here, if you're listening,
you're thinking, I'm waiting for you guys
to get to the tactics, and maybe you're
thinking the tactics have more to do
with content creation and social media.
The assumption here is that.
You're gonna be using AI
in some form or fashion.
If you're doing marketing in-house,
that you're gonna be using those
tools, Chad, GPT, Gemini, CLO Imy.
Pick your tool that you're gonna be
using that to create the content.
The thing that often is missing
though, is this type of strategic.
Information and direction that
you can then feed into ai.
So if you just want to go straight
into creating blogs and social posts,
video scripts and things like that,
you're not gonna get the results.
You're looking for the quality of
the content that you really need
because you haven't educated ai.
You can't educate them on your
customers and how you approach them
with your voice and your expertise if
you haven't gone through these steps.
So getting clarity around your buyers,
the messaging, having those internal
conversations to where everybody's
aligned, that is a critical piece of
the tactics that are going to come out
of and be informed by this initial.
AnnieLaurie Walters : Let's say
those things are done and those
conversations have happened.
You said something that I think deserves
a little attention, and you talked
about training your ai, forming your ai,
cultivating, what do you mean by that?
For someone who's new to that
term, what does that mean?
What does that look like?
Steve Phipps: I think an underlying
assumption that some people have about
AI is that it is going to out of the box.
Provide this fantastic content
that's just gonna be on the mark.
And that's really, that's a myth because
if you think about ai, if you treat AI as
you would a new employee, you're not going
to assume that day one, that person's
gonna be able to write a fantastic article
that's gonna resonate with your buyers
because they haven't been trained, they
don't know you, they've not absorbed all
the information about the buyers and the
company and the products and the services.
So.
When that same assumption is
made about ai, you're gonna
get similar types of results.
It's gonna be generic, it's
not gonna be dialed in.
And a big part of that education process
is having this type of information,
strategic plan, the messaging, buyer
descriptions, personas, descriptions of
your products and services, your all of
these things, all of this information,
putting that into the AI tools so that.
It can be much more rifled in and
understand the nuance of your buyers,
what they're looking for, how you're
positioned in the marketplace.
Then you can start getting content that's
much further down the road in terms of
it's quality sounding more like you, and
then it's more about fine tuning than
having to just redo the whole thing.
AnnieLaurie Walters : So given this.
I think we see some anxiety sometimes
from CEOs or marketing directors,
leaders who feel like they need to
do it all right now, and there's
so much to do, so little time.
Well, what can wait?
Well, what should wait and what
needs to be done right away?
Steve Phipps: So I would
answer to that one.
I get it as a CEO, this can feel
incredibly overwhelming and there's a fear
of getting left behind, of missing out
on buyers and opportunities, et cetera.
So man, this is, it's important and
sometimes that can cloud our judgment as
to where we need to focus our priorities.
So the good thing is there's
a lot that's involved here.
This gets into a lot of complexity.
And so for the.
Goal of simplifying.
There's a lot that can
be left undone for now.
You don't have the bandwidth, your
team doesn't have the bandwidth
to do everything right now.
Advanced automations that can wait,
custom AI tools that can wait.
In some cases.
Maybe instead of hiring somebody,
you're thinking about how can we
replace this with an AI agent?
Most of those sinks could probably wait.
They can make sense later.
You wanna make sure you have a
solid foundation to build on.
That's one of the things that I encourage
people to do is what can you focus on?
What can your team get
done in the next 90 days?
Pick a handful of priorities.
If you're using EOS or something like
that, you know, what are your rocks for
the next 90 days in the marketing arena?
Get those things done.
Don't try to do everything.
Because sometimes there's this myth of,
well, I can just use AI and it's faster.
But again, if you haven't trained it,
if you haven't done the foundational
work, AI gets dangerous because
it's just creating more output, but
there's not better thinking behind it.
People end up busy, the results are
inconsistent, and it's not building trust.
So AI can't be a replacement for your
judgment and clarity and leadership,
and that's why you need to have a
plan, figure out what you can do in
the next 90 days and focus on that
more manageable increment of time.
AnnieLaurie Walters : So don't,
so don't try to do it all.
Pick a few rocks.
Focus on those first.
Let those be the most strategic, easy
wins, maybe for moving you forward
or saving you a little bit of time.
Or like you just said, build out a
AI agent that knows you and knows
your strategy, and knows your
voice and your messaging, your C.
Maybe start there as a focus and
then just hold back on the rest.
You don't have to do it all right away.
Steve Phipps: So, AnnieLaurie, I,
I wanna take a minute here because
I think this is a, a good line for
us to run for a minute, and that
is, I'm inserting a question here.
We have a, a list of questions
that we're going through.
So this one's not on the list, but
just as the conversation's gone,
I think this is really important.
The question that I wanna pose out
there is, great, well, 90 days.
How do we determine those priorities?
The assumption that I'm gonna make is that
you are using AI in some form or fashion.
The first thing I would encourage
you to do is go take the marketing
assessment on our website.
There's zero cost to do that.
It gives you a reference point using
a marketing framework that's based and
built on proven marketing principles, and
it gives you a sense of where you are.
And that framework starts with G,
generate your story and your strategy.
Now, if you score perfectly on
every component there, fantastic
move to you, which is your website.
Where is your website?
Off the mark.
Where's the messaging?
Unclear, where are you not answering
questions that your buyers are asking?
So what's the immediate, what content do
you need to create over the next 90 days?
If I go back to G, generate
your story and your strategy, it
could be that you realize what
we don't have clear messaging.
Maybe you have written descriptions,
good written descriptions of your
buyers, but your messaging is unclear.
Your salespeople are
saying different things.
Your marketing, your website
is saying different things.
It's inconsistent.
It's not building trust, breaking trust.
So maybe you need to start there.
Maybe you need to get
clear on the tactics.
How can we reach our buyers?
Do we need to be on LinkedIn?
Should we be on TikTok?
If you're B2B, probably not.
Maybe at some point if you're not on
LinkedIn and owning that need to be
jumping off to these other channels
unless you've got the resources to do it.
So again, get narrow and think through.
Then you can look at your website.
Then you can start thinking
about informing with content,
creating a content plan.
So again, as you go through
this, there is a sequence to
it, there's a priority to it.
And pick a couple of things
based on where you are.
And use that to guide what you're
gonna do for the next 90 days.
And then when you make that
decision, then you can look at how
do we use AI to help us with this?
You can't start with AI in terms of,
well, we have this tool, start with
what's the priority, and then look at
how you can use AI to create a better
output, more efficiently and faster.
So that would be my encouragement.
Think about the 90 days, take
some time, evaluate those things.
Use that to determine what you're focused
on for the next 90 days, and then after
those 90 days, the beginning of the
next quarter, or just before you go into
the next quarter, do the same thing.
Great.
Let's reassess.
Where are we?
What's improved now?
What do we need to focus
on for the next 90 days?
And that gives you a cadence
that's not overwhelming.
AnnieLaurie Walters : Steve,
let's talk about competitors.
I'm sure there's some people who
are feeling a little antsy or my
competitors already outpacing me.
Are they already ahead of me?
What are they doing?
How do I know if my competitors
have already left me the dust?
What should they do?
What should they be looking for instead?
Steve Phipps: Well, a
couple of things here.
One is I would say the mistake is
looking at tools instead of outcomes.
Instead of asking what
AI tools are they using?
Really, again, it's fundamental.
Do they have strategy?
Do they have clear messaging?
Does their website do a
better job of building trust?
Are they showing up consistently where
their buyers are asking questions,
are they the ones being referenced
or summarized the tools themselves?
Again.
Aren't the end.
They're the means to an end.
And you don't have to be the
most sophisticated company
in terms of the tools you're
using or how you're using them.
You need to be the most
trustworthy company.
And if you do that all, and if you
decide we're not using any ai, fantastic,
just create content that's gonna
build the trust in the credibility
that your buyers are looking for.
That informs AI and that informs your
buyers when they do get to your website.
AnnieLaurie Walters : Steve,
here's the next question,
and it is really eye-opening.
As you look ahead, get out
your crystal ball, what do you
think 2026 is gonna reward?
Steve Phipps: Again, there's
a lot of fundamentals here.
I think this year, years ahead,
it's going to continue to reward,
focus, clarity, consistency.
Companies that know exactly
who their customers are.
Communicate that clearly and reinforce
it everywhere their buyer shows up.
And the thing about that is
sometimes I think CEOs are looking
for like the, the sexy answer and.
It's not.
It is the fundamentals.
Even AI and all its advancements, it's
still looking for the fundamentals.
Can I trust you?
Are you clear in what you do?
If I were to commit to you,
can I trust that you're gonna
do what you say you can do?
These are buyers' questions.
It just happens to be that AI is
the one asking those questions
now on behalf of the buyers.
It's going to continue to
reward human expertise.
So leaderships that are willing
to explain how buying decisions
are made, what the process looks
like, what are the trade-offs?
If you get this instead of this,
what do you gain, what do you lose?
And showing real experience, this is
where again, you've gotta be the human in
the loop to demonstrate your expertise,
your authority, uh, your experience, and.
I think this year we're gonna see the
companies that are, are, again, continue
to be vague and try to be nebulous.
They don't wanna give too much away to
their buyers 'cause they want somebody
to have to call the salesperson.
Those are the companies in the
long run and maybe even the
short run are going to drop off.
They're not gonna get the traffic.
AI's not gonna recommend you.
Because you're hiding behind generic
language that doesn't really build trust.
AnnieLaurie Walters : I was thinking about
one of our clients here in Memphis, one
of our service based clients who has,
we've served them for many years and
we have practiced just the consistency
of messaging and communicating and
answering those questions as Steve is
encouraging all of our listeners to
do, and long before AI was running.
Everything like this was back in the olden
days, they were answering the questions
Steve Phipps: year and a
AnnieLaurie Walters : half ago.
I know, right?
They were answering the questions.
They were putting it all out there.
And um, recently I was looking at their.
SEOI was looking at how they're doing
in rankings and now all the tools will
also show you how they're, how your
clients are doing in AI rankings as well.
It's baked into that.
I was very pleasantly surprised
to see this specific client that
has been so fateful to continually
answer those questions is killing
it in ai and they didn't even try.
So I wonder, maybe some of you
listening, if you're already out there
and you're answering those questions
and you're being transparent on
your website, AI will reward that.
It might already have rewarded it.
You might already be way ahead of
the game and not even know it yet.
Steve Phipps: I think it's worth pointing
out here because again, yes, there are
specific tactics that are different now
because of AI than say, two years ago.
For instance, today, it's incredibly
important that websites have schema
markup as a technical part of their
site build to help the AI engine, right?
But what hasn't changed
is Google's framework, eat
EEAT, expertise, experience,
authority, and trustworthiness.
That's their grid for content that
is meaningful, and it's the same.
Because they're looking at it
from the buyer's perspective.
They wanna surface content that's gonna
be meaningful for the people searching.
Mm-hmm.
That type of content, which, that's
the type of content that we've been
creating for clients and coaching
clients to create for years.
It's even more important
now in some regards.
Yes, some things have shifted and changed,
but some things are still these bedrock.
Principles, answer your buyer's questions
openly, honestly, with authority
and credibility, and it's gonna help
generate conversions and it's gonna.
Help drive traffic or help you show
up in ai because again, we're all
aligned on what we're looking for.
It's just whether or not we're
willing your company is willing
to provide that kind of content.
AnnieLaurie Walters : I'm glad you
brought up e specifically expertise
and experience because you're not the
only company that's trying to use ai.
So you've gotta put your expertise and
your experience into whatever content
you're using AI to create, or you're just
flooding the internet with more junk.
So that is where, back to what
we were saying earlier, doing
that messaging, building it out,
whatever AI tool that you use.
Figuring out how to load it up
with your expertise and load
it up with your experience.
Specific things that's gonna make your
content look different, because that's
what the search engines on the AI side
and the traditional search side are
looking for something nobody's said yet.
Steve Phipps: Here's a super
practical tip for using your AI and
training, and so we were talking
about that just a few minutes ago.
One of the things that you can do in
the prompt, or if you're creating a
custom GPT to use internally is you can
instruct it to follow the EAT framework.
And to identify within the content where
it would be good for you to insert a
case study, a quote, a testimonial,
something from you that demonstrates
that level of expertise so you can
prompt it to basically prompt you
to input that type of information.
AnnieLaurie Walters :
That's a great tip, Steve.
Thank you for that because the more
Steve Phipps: I'm here
all day AnnieLaurie,
AnnieLaurie Walters : the more we can do.
We gotta strive to make
our content our own.
Don't get lazy with ai.
Yes, you can't get lazy.
It can be your best friend or
your worst enemy if you get lazy
with it, don't get lazy with it.
It's just gonna back fire.
Steve Phipps: Yes.
Okay, so we've covered a lot today.
Part one, we talked more about the
leadership aspect of this and the buyer's
journey, what that looks like with AI.
Today.
We talked more about the setting,
the priorities, the tactics
process, 90 day planning, and.
You may be feeling
overwhelmed and that's okay.
This is exactly the type of work that we
help CEOs work through with their teams.
We help.
Service-based companies.
B2B companies simplify their marketing by
starting with a strategy, getting clarity
on who you serve, what you say, how your
marketing aligns with your business goals.
And I mentioned this earlier, but
a, a really good starting point
that doesn't cost you anything is.
Go to our website way, find marketing.com
and take our free marketing assessment.
There's a link at the top and it
will give you a clear picture of your
marketing, what's working, what's not.
It's based on our guide marketing
framework and for CEOs who want
deeper support, we offer coaching
services for in-house marketing teams.
We provide agency services for
those that wanna outsource their
marketing, and we help you get clarity,
alignment, and we guide you through
all the noise and the chaos and.
A lot of times you don't need more
tools, you need a clear plan and
someone who's gonna help you stay
focused on what actually matters.
That's you.
You're looking for somebody like that.
Our team would love the
opportunity to have a conversation
to see if we're a good fit.
AnnieLaurie Walters : So as we wrap up
this two part series on AI marketing
in 2026, Steve, what's the big one
thing that you want people to remember?
Steve Phipps: AI isn't
replacing leadership.
Not your leadership, but it
is raising the bar for it.
The companies that are going to
win won't be the ones who are using
the most tools or the latest tools.
They're the ones who have the
clearest thinking strategy, strong
alignment, and the discipline to stay
focused on what actually matters.
AnnieLaurie Walters : And
the companies who slow down
get clear lead intentionally.
Those are the ones that
are gonna win in 2026.
Not because they avoided ai, but because
they used it to support better decisions,
clear communication and healthier teams.
Steve Phipps: You know, if
you're headed into this next year
feeling pressure, that is normal.
But I wanna encourage you with something
that a friend of mine told me last night,
and he commented, he said, sometimes
we have to slow down to speed up.
So I wanna e.
It's okay to slow down long enough
so that you can speed up pressure
Doesn't mean you have to panic.
Rather, it is an invitation to
lead your team and your company
with clarity rather than chaos.
AnnieLaurie Walters : If this series
was helpful, we'd encourage you to
share it with another leader on your
team or in your network and make sure
you're subscribed so you don't miss
future conversations just like this one.
Steve Phipps: Thanks for joining us.
On the Growth-Minded Marketing Podcast,
be sure to like it, share it, subscribe.
AnnieLaurie Walters : We'll see you
next time on Growth-Minded Marketing.