Be the GM, Not the Player: A Story on Creating Leverage in Marketing (Micro-Lesson)

In this episode, we’re delivering another B2B marketing lesson in under 10 minutes—no fluff, just practical insights.

Matthew Carnevale, Marketing Manager at Exit Five, shares a game-changing mental model for marketers: the GM vs. Player mindset. Inspired by a sports analogy, Matthew explains why thinking like a General Manager—hiring resources and creating leverage—will help you tackle big opportunities without waiting for bandwidth.

Learn how shifting your mindset from “doing the work” to “making the plays happen” can unlock faster results, level up your career, and drive impact for your business.

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What is B2B Marketing with Dave Gerhardt?

Dave Gerhardt (Founder of Exit Five, former CMO) and guests help you grow your career in B2B marketing. Episodes include conversations with CMOs, marketing leaders, and subject matter experts across all aspects of modern B2B marketing: planning, strategy, operations, ABM, demand gen., product marketing, brand, content, social media, and more. Join 5,000+ members in our private community at exitfive.com.

Player vs GM
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[00:00:00] All right, so I want to tell you guys a story. As you know, Exit5 performs really well on LinkedIn Organic.

It's really our bread and butter channel, at least from an awareness standpoint. So, earlier in the year, we decided to experiment with LinkedIn paid ads. Which only made sense right now you can use thought leadership ads. You can boost your organic content to audiences that you select. So it only made sense for us to try and run some paid and being the general marketer that I am, especially with experience and growth, I'd run some campaigns in the past.

So I raised my hand and said, you know, I'll take the first stab at it. So, I created a couple different campaigns, ran a couple tests but what I found was that I wasn't able to fully commit because I didn't have the bandwidth to do so. I was focused on other things that were more urgent to me, and since LinkedIn ads were a [00:01:00] bet and a bit of a nice to have for us, I didn't prioritize it.

And since I didn't prioritize it and I wasn't all in, I wasn't comfortable spending a lot of company money every month to see and to try and push on that channel. So in team meetings, a couple of times I brought up the fact that. LinkedIn paid is going to be big for us, but I can only tackle it when I have the bandwidth.

And I kept pushing it off month after month until Dave stopped me. And he gave me this mental model that changed my entire outlook on strategy and prioritization. He knows I'm a big sports guy. So he made a sports reference. Which is called the player versus the general manager or in short the player versus the GM So he said what you need to do is start acting like the GM and not the player Meaning that if we have something that we think is gonna make a big impact on the business Then we need to hire someone or acquire a [00:02:00] resource that's gonna help us with this thing It's not about making the play or making the shot or doing the thing.

It's about finding the person Or resource that can do it for us and do it well, because we know, and we believe that this is going to be a big growth lever for us. And that mental model has really stuck with me. It's totally reframed how I've thought about. My work and strategy and another part of it is this is slightly ego driven, right?

It's like, you know, I want the recognition for doing the thing. I want to look like the star, you know, when we launched the big campaign and it drives in a bunch of revenue. Um, I want to look like it was me who started that thing from scratch and now it's killing it, but it's really not about that. It's just about how can I get the results?

And how can I be part of those results in some way, but not necessarily the doer of the thing, because if I'm committing to only being the doer, my [00:03:00] time is limited. So I'll never be able to do all the things I want to do. In sports, the general manager has a lot more leverage than the individual player, although it may not always seem like it

the general manager gets to All the different players on the team, things like how much you're going to pay them, uh, who to trade. They get to select who the main coaches, who the offensive coaches, the defensive coach, all the coaches, um, who coordinates with the coaches, who the trainers are, doctors, et cetera.

So they get to actually select all the different pieces. So they have a lot more leverage and a lot more budget and resources to make the dream of winning come true. And in sports, it's often the player themselves that gets the recognition, because they're the ones that are making the big shots and making all the plays, but it's the GM in the background who's pulling all the strings and making it happen.

And when it comes to business, I think it's actually the [00:04:00] opposite. It's great to be the player, nothing wrong with that, but the GM is the equivalent of the leader in the company who's calling the shots. And they're the one who looks good in the end of the day when all the right decisions are made and when things start to work out.

So if there's something that you as a marketer have been waiting on, something that, you know, could deliver a lot of value to the business, but you're putting it on the back burner because you don't have the bandwidth or, you know, you need to work on it. And it's going to create a lot of leverage for the marketing team.

What you should do instead, instead of waiting until you have the bandwidth or trying to be the hero. You should go to your manager and say, Hey, here's this thing that I think is going to have a big impact for us. Here's how much we need to spend to make it happen. I don't have the bandwidth, but I think we need to jump on this right away.

It's going to change things in a big way for us. So we need to hire someone here so much they're going to cost. And here's what I think we're going to get from it.

So if you're a [00:05:00] marketer in that situation today, and you have that thing in the top of your mind, maybe this podcast made you think of it, or maybe you're going to run into it in the future. Go make that pitch to your manager, to the boss or to yourself. If you're a business owner, be the GM, not the player.

That's how you move up. That's how you create leverage and success for the company. So if you needed to hear this, go do that thing today.