11 September 2025

This is How the Top 1% Marketers are Using AI

2Frameworks

11Insights

Frameworks in this episode

Innovation6 steps

AI Creative Muscle Workout

Reverse-engineer excellent work, recreate it with AI, and diagnose every gap

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Mindset6 steps

Convince Me AI Can't Do It

Assume AI can solve the problem, then locate the precise constraint when it cannot

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Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Myth Buster· 1

Myth Buster17:30

B2B Content Does Not Have to Choose Information Over Entertainment

B2B companies have often treated entertainment as a consumer-marketing tactic and restricted their videos to informational material. Holland expects that boundary to disappear, with entertainment becoming another engagement channel alongside tutorials and explainers.

B2B brands have historically resisted entertainment
Informational and entertaining content can coexist
Different entertainment genres can serve business audiences
AI makes experimentation with ambitious formats more affordable

“I think entertainment is going to be another engagement channel on social.”
Nicholas Holland · 17:30

“You could see like a B2B soap opera. You could see like a B2B horror series.”
Host · 18:00

#b2b#entertainment#social media#content

Hot Take· 3

Hot Take14:00

AI Is Letting Marketing Absorb More of the Sales Process

As agents handle qualification, booking, research, and follow-up, marketers gain more influence over activities traditionally owned by sales. The speakers expect sales teams to welcome this shift because it fills calendars and removes repetitive work that representatives and SDRs often dislike.

Marketing can own more qualification and meeting generation
Agents cover repetitive work during sales absences
Automated follow-up can increase selling capacity
The shift may reduce reliance on difficult SDR workflows

“marketing is eating more of the sales process.”
Host · 14:00

“I think it's the stuff the sales people don't want to do.”
Host · 14:00

#marketing#sales#sdr#automation

Hot Take16:30

Video Is the Next Information Gap AI Will Flood

Large language models have reduced the shortage of written information, but the speakers believe a comparable shortage still exists in video. As generation costs fall, they predict a major increase in video covering specialized topics over the next five years.

The internet once lacked sufficient written information
LLMs have reduced that text shortage
Many audience interests remain underserved by video
AI production will trigger a large increase in available video

“That marketing efficiency is still true with video.”
Host · 17:00

“you're going to see a landslide of video over the next 5 years.”
Host · 17:00

#video#content supply#llms#media

Hot Take18:30

Create a Bespoke Podcast for Every Target Account

The collapse in AI production costs enables account-based content at a depth that was previously uneconomic. An enterprise company could create a highly researched, polished podcast for each of 100 target accounts, then use each episode as personalized product-marketing material and sales outreach.

AI makes high-depth personalized media economically feasible
A podcast can be produced for one account rather than a mass audience
Competitors and peers may also value the specialized episode
Podcast-quality output can function as product-marketing collateral

“you can now do things at a scale you'd never be able to”
Host · 18:30

“What does it look like whenever podcast level quality becomes product marketing material?”
Nicholas Holland · 20:00

#account based marketing#podcasts#personalization#enterprise

Explainer· 4

Explainer01:00

Why Context Will Define the Next Generation of AI Assistants

Useful AI assistants need more than conversational memory: they need to understand the user professionally and know the company they serve. Holland predicts that business files, brand guides, playbooks, CRM records, and other internal material will become essential inputs for AI work.

AI capability already exceeds many users' ability to apply it
Professional and company context improve relevance
Business knowledge is distributed across CRM data, files, and documents
Context may become the defining AI theme of 2026

“I think the word for 2026 is going to be context.”
Host · 02:00

“when you really start to use these, you'll want it to know the company that it works for.”
Nicholas Holland · 02:00

#context#ai assistants#business data#brand

Explainer09:30

Website Agents Let Buyers Research Without Sales Pressure

Website agents are expanding from support into presales research because buyer questions do not fit clean departmental categories. Visitors can ask basic, awkward, or detailed questions without navigating a site or feeling pressured into a sales meeting, which can increase engagement and retain scarce traffic.

Support questions can reveal sales needs
Conversational research requires less effort than site navigation
Agents remove embarrassment around basic questions
Lower pressure can produce longer engagement

“There are no stupid questions to an agent. I can ask the dumbest thing.”
Host · 11:30

“Talking to a real human was like four minutes or less. And talking to the avatar was like eight minutes.”
Nicholas Holland · 12:00

#website agents#presales#buyer research#conversion

Explainer13:00

How Customer Agents Hand Leads to Prospecting Agents

A customer-facing agent can answer presales questions, qualify a visitor, and offer a meeting with a representative. If the visitor declines, it can pass the conversation to a prospecting agent that researches the company and performs a context-aware follow-up.

Customer agents can answer presales questions
Qualification rules can be taught to the agent
Qualified visitors can book directly with representatives
Declined meetings can trigger researched follow-up by another agent

“the fact that agents are handing off to agents is going to be wild.”
Nicholas Holland · 13:30

“agents to agents who I think will probably be a big theme of 2026.”
Host · 13:30

#agent handoff#lead qualification#prospecting#sales automation

Explainer15:30

AI Video Opens New Channels and Changes Creative Conventions

Cheaper image and video production gives marketers new room to experiment across social platforms and advertising channels. The speakers expect audiences to recognize AI-generated media, but argue that transparent AI creation will develop into its own accepted creative genre rather than merely imitating traditional production.

AI lowers the cost of participating in video-heavy channels
Generated media can become a distinct creative genre
Transparency matters more than hiding AI involvement
New tools create opportunities beyond incremental optimization

“there's a there's a white space right now.”
Nicholas Holland · 15:00

“it's going to be a new genre is all I'm saying.”
Nicholas Holland · 16:30

#ai video#social media#advertising#creative genre

Story· 1

Story22:30

How an AI Conversation Helped a Teen Launch a Coaching Class

Holland used a low-latency voice model to help his son work through business ideas, choose youth football coaching, break the concept into steps, and create promotional material. The experience also exposed how access to a weaker free model can cause learners to underestimate current AI capabilities.

Voice AI can coach users through uncertain ideas
Breaking a business idea into progressively deeper steps is a learned skill
Inferior model access can distort beliefs about AI capability
The resulting football coaching class was promoted on Facebook

“You learn how to break it down and then you go deeper and deeper and deeper.”
Nicholas Holland · 23:00

“We got it on Facebook. He's got him a little class going now.”
Nicholas Holland · 23:30

#entrepreneurship#voice ai#coaching#learning

Takeaway· 2

Takeaway03:00

AI Image and Video Models Are Ready for Real Marketing Assets

The speakers argue that current image and video systems have crossed from novelty into practical production tools. A simple billboard edit and subsequent video animation illustrate how sophisticated creative changes can now be generated in seconds.

Image and video models can produce usable marketing assets
Simple instructions can trigger sophisticated edits
Production speed has collapsed from manual workflows to seconds
Marketers can test creative concepts that were previously too expensive

“they're ready for the prime time. They are ready to create real marketing assets.”
Host · 03:30

“I can do anything.”
Nicholas Holland · 04:00

#image generation#video generation#creative tools

Takeaway19:30

When Marketing Rules Change, Create a Game You Can Win

AI has moved from a novelty to a necessary capability, changing the constraints that defined earlier marketing competition. Rather than fighting established leaders under old distribution rules, marketers can invent new formats, channels, and competitive games suited to emerging capabilities.

Established channels favor incumbent leaders
AI creates new fields on which to compete
Technology has caught up with much of its hype
Creative ambition is increasingly a decisive constraint

“the rules are changing.”
Host · 20:30

“you win the game by making the rules up.”
Nicholas Holland · 20:30

#strategy#innovation#competition#ai marketing