Dave Gerhardt

Hey I'm Dave Gerhardt. I created Exit Five, which has turned into the top community for B2B marketing professionals. Before starting Exit Five I had a 10 year career in marketing and grew from PR intern to CMO. I even once had hair! My wife says I'm more handsome now though, and she's quite pretty so that means a lot -- but the internet just boxes me in as the typical bald guy tech bro. So oh look, another bald tech guy writing on LinkedIn! whoopty freaking do.

Anyway. Where was I... OH. Receipts! I wanted to talk about receipts, because in a world of fluff and online influencers, I actually have some receipts and I want to tell you about them here because it signals power, credibility, and makes it seem like I'm super rich, so: I used to be pretty good at marketing, and my work as a marketer played a key role (at least I think so) in helping two software companies to successful exits: Drift for $1B+ and Privy for $100M+. I certainly helped the founders make a bunch of money, and I was able to comfortably purchase a brand new Toyota Sienna minivan for my family in 2021.

Today I spend my time working on Exit Five, and it's actually been super fun and given me a bunch of purpose. We're a team of six full-time team members now, and we have a private online community and host in-person events around the world. Plus there's a popular podcast and newsletter for marketers. We reach something like 20 MILLION marketers with our content every year, and we've got a pretty special thing going on. I hope to keep it going. You can learn more about it all at exitfive.com.

I spent most of my life in the Boston area but now live in the woods in Vermont with my wife, two kids, two cats, and one dog.

You can reach me at dave@exitfive.com if you want, but TBD if I reply. Depends on the message. But please don't send me any more swag or books. But if for whatever reason you do want to send me something, I play the ProV1x golf ball and like the low numbers.

PS. Find my podcast “The Dave Gerhardt Show” on Spotify

Founder & CEO

Exit Five is a media company focused on B2B marketing. We help B2B marketers build successful careers through our content and community. Learn more at exitfive.com

We polled ~100 CMOs at companies $50M - $500M+ ARR on what their top marketing challenges are right now. Here are the top takeaways.

_________________________________________________________

1. AI. No surprise. 85% said AI adoption is # 1 priority for 2026.

But this goes beyond the cute use cases you see on LinkedIn and from the AI creators showing you all the new things to do with the new tools.

"I need practical use cases and quick wins to show” - VPM $25M ARR

“We are expected to be using AI to scale marketing  efficiently” - VPM $30M ARR

“We are under pressure to demonstrate hard savings and additional value created via AI adoption.” - CMO $450M ARR

“Wondering am I moving fast enough on AI transformation — not just adopting tools, but truly rethinking how marketing works from the ground up.” - CMO $600M ARR

_________________________________________________________

2. Everyone said some version of this: "We need to grow more, spend less, & prove marketing did it.”

Grow more. Spend less. And PROVE that marketing did it. That is the key word there.

They all talked about revenue growth, but the framing has evolved beyond "drive more MQLs."

The dominant language was:

• Marketing-sourced and marketing-influenced pipeline (not just leads)
• Pipeline quality over volume
• Tying marketing to ACV expansion and retention, not just new logos

“We ned to tie marketing more directly to revenue outcomes — not just MQLs, but marketing-sourced and marketing-influenced pipeline, ACV growth, and expansion revenue” - VPM $85M ARR

_________________________________________________________

3. The other repeat topics we heard included:

• Team too small for scope of work
• Feeling  caught between strategic work (positioning, GTM, C-suite influence) and heavy day-to-day execution
• Structural misalignment after acquisition or reorg
• AI search disruption
• Moving upmarket
• Moving from single product to multi-product

_________________________________________________________

PS. We run a private group for in-house B2B marketing leaders. If you're running the marketing team at a company doing $50M+ ARR you should check this group out. Apply here:

exitfive.com/cmo-council

LinkedIn is the number one channel for B2B marketers (for content, social, ads, you know we love it here) so I had LinkedIn VP Marketing Davang Shah on the podcast this week to go right to the source about what's working, what's not, and trends across the platform.

We covered: 

- What actually works with LinkedIn ads right now
- Brand vs performance marketing strategies and how they differ
- How to think about measurement beyond last-click attribution on ads
- Why 95% of your buyers aren't in market at any given time and what to do about it

Davang also shares the data behind thought leader ads, what most marketers get wrong about the buyer journey, and how he's leading his own team through the AI shift at LinkedIn.

Listen here:

https://lnkd.in/erc8w2vM

PS. Did you know the average B2B deal takes 211 days and involves 22 people?

LIAM DARMODYᵍᵐ

Personal Brand Strategist & Networking Coach → I help entrepreneurs, executives & teams build brands to attract clients, talent & opportunity | Family Man | Connector | AI & Blockchain Bull | Hot Sauce Aficionado🌶️

I help founders, entrepreneurs, and executives build businesses by becoming trusted, visible, and referenceable in their space. My work sits at the intersection of personal brand strategy, go-to-market execution, and AI-enabled operations. I help people understand how to show up across LinkedIn, search, and AI-driven discovery and how that visibility turns into real opportunity over time.

Currently, I'm working with Brandi (mybrandi.ai), helping companies understand how they show up inside AI-generated answers and recommendations, and how brand visibility, trust, and demand are increasingly shaped by systems they do not directly control.

Seeing this shift up close has changed how I help individuals and teams show up online.

A core part of my approach is what I call Voice Enablement with AI.

Instead of writing for people, I teach them how to use AI to think, draft, and create content in their own voice. Most clients stop writing from scratch and start editing instead. Content creation becomes faster, more consistent, and still unmistakably human.

How? Because we are using your actual voice!

What I help with most often:

• Founder and executive positioning and LinkedIn profile strategy
• Personal narrative clarity for humans, AI systems, and decision-makers
• Relationship-based networking and social selling without pressure tactics
• Using AI to streamline content creation, engagement, and workflows
• Measuring what actually matters in brand and go-to-market efforts

Alongside my advisory work, I take on select fractional go-to-market and operations roles, supporting teams during growth, transition, or strategic realignment.

I’m known for helping people:

• Clarify what makes them meaningfully different
• Build trust before asking for anything
• Turn visibility into opportunity over time
• Turn chaos into organized chaos ;)

I call this manifesting serendipity.

It’s not luck. It’s intention, consistency, and showing up in the right conversations long before you need something. It's being in someone's orbit often enough that you become the first person they think of when they need your product or service. 

It's about being top of mind. 

Outside of work, I’m a husband, a dad of two, an early-morning lifter, and a proud hot sauce aficionado 🌶️. 

If you’re building a brand, a business, or your next chapter, I’d love to jam with you. 

Hi5, 
LD

Founder

I help executives, founders, and their teams build magnetic brands that attract clients, talent, and opportunity on LinkedIn. 

My services include: 

My services include: 
- Profile Optimization
- LinkedIn feature training
- Core content strategy
- Ghostediting (ask me about it)
- Content performance analysis 
- Sales Navigator training

Liam's Brand Stand was born out of my passion for personal branding and belief that LinkedIn is the ultimate platform for professionals and organizations to manifest serendipity and unlock opportunity.

This passion started as a fascination that turned into a hobby, then to a side hustle, and now, my full-time focus. I started creating content and being more intentional about building my brand here in January 2020 and since then I've amassed 35,000 followers and my content has garnered ~23,000,000 impressions, ~600,000 reactions, and ~100,000 comments. 

Completely organically.

Pretty crazy, especially when you consider I'm just a suburban dad who took to LinkedIn as a way to have conversation with other adults while cooped up in my house with my wife, a toddler, and an infant during a pandemic. 

That's the kind of opportunity that exists on LinkedIn and I'm on a mission to help more people experience it for themselves. 

If you're interested in doing so, visit: 

liamsbrandstand.com to learn more 
-or- 
calendly.com/liamdarmody to book time with me

Thanks for stopping by! 

Hi5, 
LD

LIAM DARMODY

Saw this (Ai) video by AiCandy on Instagram and I couldn’t not share it. Talk about an attention grabbing ad for a video company… though I must say, a tad unsettling to think about. Too soon?

The future is here. Let us pray 

At least we have each other! 

Hi5,
LD
🌶️

Dig this? Saves and sends appreciated!
Follow me for brand and business innovation content.

Brand Strategist & GTM Operator helping founders build their businesses with LinkedIn & AI 🌶️ Hot Sauce Aficionado 🌶️

Son: “dad, how much is college?”
Me: “too much”
Son: “like… $500?”
Me: “ha, no… Duke costs $92,000/year”
Son: “whaaaaat?” 
Me: “yeah. What’s 92,000x4?”
Son: “one million dollars?”
Me: “$368,000”
Son: “that’s not that much.”
Me:

No alternative text description for this image

Tell me you didn't read my profile before inviting me to connect without telling me you didn't read my profile before inviting me to connect...

Remember that every word you type (or in my case wispr) online is a reflection on your personal brand. And you never know who is reading, so act accordingly…

Here’s yet another example of the emphasis that LinkedIn is placing on comments sitting right in front of my face. A few weeks back, I installed the LinkedIn widget on my phone. It cycles through showing me different posts snippets from people in my network with one-click access to go and explore more. 

I noticed recently that some of the snippets that I'm seeing have a little blue conversation bubble embedded in the headshot of the person. When I click it, it takes me to one of their comments in another conversation on the platform.

Often times it's a post from somebody that is not in my network, which means one thing:

LinkedIn is using comments left by people within our network to help us discover new content from people who are not yet in our network.

So treat your commentary on LinkedIn as you would treat a post because LinkedIn is promoting it as if it were.

Also an important reminder to ensure your first few lines capture the audience’s attention… 

Comments are becoming a discovery mechanism. 

Use them wisely. 

Hi5 & have a great day!
LD
🌶️

I uploaded 401,477 words of my own LinkedIn writing into Claude 
and asked it to tell me where I could improve.

That's 4,148 posts spanning over a decade.

What it found was interesting:

I used the word "really" 591 times. Once every 7 posts. 
Most of the time it's filler that adds nothing.

"I think" showed up 281 times. Which is wild because half 
the time I wasn't thinking, I was stating an opinion and 
softening it out of habit.

"Incredible" 127 times. To Claude's point, when everything is incredible, 
nothing is.

"Super" 108 times. 
"So much" 206 times. 

These aren't bad words, but when you see them at scale, you realize they're crutches. Places where I got lazy instead of choosing a better word or just cutting it entirely.

That saying "never use two words when one will do?" I struggle with that, and I lean on Claude to help me get better.  

This is a perfect example of how humans can use AI to make themselves better without losing their authenticity or human touch. 

AI won't make you a better writer by writing for you, but it can hold up a mirror and show you patterns you'd never catch on your own. 

Not in a single post. Not even in a hundred. But across thousands? The patterns are undeniable and AI can see them. 

If you've been posting on LinkedIn for any length of time, export your posts (go to the "Me" icon at top left --> settings & privacy --> data privacy --> download your data), upload them into your favorite AI and  ask it to find your blind spots.

You'll cringe a little. And then you'll write better.

At least, I hope so. 

(Watch this post tank...)

Hi5,
LD
🌶️
__
Dig this? Saves & Sends appreciated. 
Follow me for AI, brand & business innovation content.
Or subscribe to my newsletter above.

I watch college basketball one month a year.

Every March I pretend that's enough to fill out a winning bracket. I read the articles. Study the matchups. Spend hours on analysis I'm genuinely unqualified to do.

It's a great time. I lose anyway.

This year I handed the whole thing to Claude.

Told it to analyze the injury reports, the BPI projections, the KenPom data, the coaching records in March. Cross-reference all of it and give me picks with reasoning.

5 minutes later I had a full bracket, region by region, with upset calls and a title pick.

Will it be right? Probably not. But my manual analysis wasn't right either. At least this one cost me 30 minutes instead of 5 hours.

That's the real takeaway. Not the basketball.

Every week most of us burn hours doing manual research and analysis we could compress into minutes. AI can synthesize so much information you need to make informed decisions. 

What's even cooler is that I had it create a Gamma summarizing it's findings (from my phone no less) and am now sharing that directly from Gamma to LinkedIn. 

The internet is becoming a lot more interconnected and I'm here for it! 

I'm curious... 

Did you use AI to help you research your picks? 

And... 

Who'd you pick to take it all? 

Hi5 & happy March Madness, 
LD
🌶️
__
Dig this? Saves/Sends/Reposts appreciated!
+Follow me for daily posts about AI, Brand, & Business Innovation.

Claude's March Madness Bracket Research

"AI IS COMING FOR YOUR JOB!!!”

We hear a lot about all of the jobs that AI is going to eliminate. We hear a lot less about the jobs that AI is going to create. This job from Deloitte is a good example. 

It wouldn’t surprise me if every (innovative) company is going to have a person or teams of people focused on how humans leverage AI to maximize efficiency and productivity in the future. 

Is HR getting a rebrand to the “Humans & Robots” department? 

Is it the next evolution of IT? 

Time will tell. 

One thing I know for certain: training teams to leverage AI rather than fear it is important. 

Yes, there will be jobs eliminated.
Yes, there will be jobs created. 

The best insurance policy for either scenario is to understand how AI can help us be more productive.

What do you think? 

Hi5,
LD
🌶️

graphical user interface, text, application

taplio

The Battle

Dave Gerhardt

LIAM DARMODY

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreDave Gerhardt's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreLIAM DARMODY's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Dave Gerhardt

LIAM DARMODY

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Dave Gerhardt's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreLIAM DARMODY's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreDave Gerhardt's LinkedIn Performance