Podcast listeners -> customers in less time. | Listen to "The Podmaster" for free tips and insights | Podcasting 'OG' (since '01) | One of Rephonic's "6 Must-Follow podcast coaches" (stalk featured section).

You'll already be a guaranteed top 5 percent podcaster just by working with my company, Podknows Podcasting.
Did you know, 92% of new podcasts fail before they’ve even started?
Ours don’t. We don’t leave success to chance. We make it happen.

Podcasts don’t fail because people aren’t trying. They fail because they’re missing strategy.

That’s where Podknows Podcasting is different.

We don’t hand over a checklist of tips and leave you to figure it out for yourself.
We don't just get you to send your audio to us, chop it up, and then return it to you saying "here ya go mate."

We take charge.
We create strategic, results-driven podcasts that grow audiences, attract sponsors, and position you as a trusted authority in your space.

Audio quality is a given.
What matters is the outcome: brand growth, stronger relationships, and measurable return on investment.

Here are just a few examples:

A B2B client in the outdoor industry grew their audience one hundredfold and secured thirty thousand dollars in sponsorship within twelve months (The Rock Fight)

A mental health brand reached the top five percent of podcasts in just a month, landed speaking engagements, and built her entire offering around the podcast (Different, Not Broken)

A travel business used their podcast to secure luxury bookings and national television appearances

Who we work with includes brands and founders who want their podcast to be a strategic asset, podcasters ready to grow their impact, influence, and income, and businesses that want expert help avoiding being one of the 92 percent who fail.

We begin with a detailed audience blueprint, build a custom strategy, and produce weekly content designed for growth and easy repurposing across email, social media and even books!

We are a small team of expert creatives, but I personally lead every project.
I direct your strategy, guide your recordings, polish your production, and run the campaigns that turn listeners into leads.

Why trust me?
I’ve been podcasting since 2001, long before it became a trend.
I also bring more than two decades of radio experience and award-winning audience expertise.
My clients have landed major sponsorships, multiplied their audiences, and been featured on national television.

I don’t just help you launch a podcast.
I make it work for you.
Let’s talk.

Neal Veglio

You know what? 2026 might be the year you actually decide to work with me on your new or existing podcast. The next 12 months are gonna 'hit different'. Here's just a quick rundown of what we're cooking up.

We're introducing an in-studio option for larger businesses, just off the M4, smack bang between Wales and London. 
Yes, this means you too will be able to magpie the look and feel of Steven Bartlett's dreadful show with all the almost comical cutaways and trite transitions your little heart could desire. 
🎤You'll forgive us for trying to steer you away from that, and actually make something worth engaging with though, yeah? Particularly since you're paying us 5Gs for it.

Our hugely successful international remote podcast service will continue, albeit with a slight price increase in the new financial year to reflect the phenomenal real-world results we've been getting for clients over the past 18 months. 
🎤Did we mention that 90% of our podcasters covered the costs of producing their shows last year, thanks to the massive highly engaged communities we've helped them build around them?

I'm still offering my super popular podcast audits — see LinkedIn recommendations — but they're about to be soooo 2000 and late.
Why just optimise what you've already been doing, when you could have me guide you to what you should be considering doing, to maximise your returns. That's exactly what my Podcast Growth Diagnostic is designed to do.
🎤When you've finished salivating over the idea of being able to take full credit with your CMO for having the savvy to get an actual expert on the case with your underperforming podcast so you can properly strategise it, HMU, boo.

Brand new for this year – so new, in fact, our first episode went out this week – the ad supported ICN. The "Podknows Powered Indie Creator Network" offers creators and influencers of all shapes and sizes the opportunity to get us putting our stamp of quality on their content, without the agency pricing.
Yes, it means you have to tolerate a couple of our ads here and there.
But hey, it's this or keep paying that Fiverr editor to continue churning out mediocre cack that nobody'll ever wanna listen to, and then you STILL have to do all the work getting it published, anyway.
🎤Wanna remove ads, and just benefit from how sexy we make you sound? Sure, we'll do that. If you're willing to pay us a little more.
Hey, I've got two French Bulldogs to feed you know.

I'll be starting up the Podmastery Mentorship Programme. Yeah, this one's gonna be sexy. It won't be one of those icky glorified Slack groups where it's all about the community lead's ego. Nah mate, this is going to be a vibrant learning and networking space for anyone in podcasting, from freelance editors all the way up to agency founders.
🎤The best news is, now all my peers who keep sliding into my DMs wanting me to give them free advice on how they can compete with me will have a place to hang out, cheeky bastards.

Podcast strategy for B2B podcasts aiming for clarity, not more content. I help businesses decide what their podcast should actually do. 20+ years in the industry. 🎧= “B2B Podcasting Insights.”

That awkward moment when you realised you wasted a day, back in May 2025, writing your acceptance speech for being inducted to the Podcasting Hall of Fame.

Ah well I'll keep it open in a chat in my marketing projects in Chat GPT for next January...

It's one thing to secretly like Steven Bartlett and his awful podcast.

It's next level to defiantly and publicly plant your sword in the fact and insinuate that people who don't also like him, and it, are inferior to yourself and himself.

Check your face in the mirror, loves. You might want to touch up the desperation that's showing.

If you're gonna position yourself as a 'podcast expert' on LinkedIn, please, for the love of all things Rodecaster, remember to plug your Blue Yeti in when talking 'into the end of it', telling people why they need to follow your advice...

When I first started posting about podcasting on LinkedIn, there were only a handful of us doing it openly. And that includes the already 'famous' ones.

Most of these were:

People who’d actually made shows. (Whom I've since met and verified legit.)
People who'd broken things and learned from it.
People who'd then fixed things and put in place systems to repeat that.
People who'd watched audiences grow slowly, but measurably.

It was a small corner of the platform, and it felt more like we were sharing notes than selling expertise.

Fast forward a few years and… it’s very different.

I’m seeing a lot of opportunists offering advice on how to 'win at podcasting' who I’d never come across before. 

No shows I recognise. 
No track record I can trace. 

Often, no podcast of their own at all. Which isn't a dealbreaker, but it's definitely a credibility factor.

No word of a lie, for a few of these people I've actually Googled "(insert name) podcast consultant" and yielded no results, even though that's their LinkedIn headline. And more than once just this week alone.

I don’t say all this to be a gatekeeper. 
New people should absolutely enter any industry. That’s healthy.
But podcasting isn’t theory.

It’s not something you master by reading a Reddit thread or running a few clips through the algorithm.

The best podcast experts sit with:
Consistency earned over time
Trust you can’t fake
Mistakes you only make once you’ve actually published
And an audience that ditches-tha-eff-out if you get it wrong

So if you’re a brand boss or small business owner thinking about starting a podcast, or hiring someone to help you with one, here’s the bit that matters when it comes to making your decision on who to trust.

Don’t ask how confident someone sounds.
Ask what they’ve made.

Investigate what shows from others they've worked on?
Try to figure out if those shows have been working or if they're just slop.

What decisions they got wrong (and learned from) early on?
What they'd do differently now?

Also, most importantly, how do they define success beyond downloads and clips being posted to social media?

Podcasting rewards people who’ve spent time in the medium, not just around it.

That doesn’t mean you need the longest serving expert.
It just means you want someone whose advice is shaped by reality, not trend cycles.

Because starting a podcast isn’t hard.
But making one that’s actually worth your time and financial investment is a serious challenge.

And it's not helped if you hire a try-hard who decided to try and sell podcasting expertise because TikTok fame didn't work out for them.

Marketing: “We need more authenticity in our content.”
Also marketing: "Let’s get ChatGPT to write all our CEO’s podcast scripts.”

And this is why I throw shade at most internal marketing teams handling their own podcasts. If they can't even figure out their wider marketing strategy, how the hell you reckon they can get their heads around sorting out a podcast that isn't a complete waste of time.

Look, podcasts are the one place your audience still expects (and respects) real voices, not marketing robots.

But too many B2B brands are out here publishing 20-minute monologues that sound like someone hit 'record' on a whitepaper. 
Just because they're trying to protect the time of their seniors.

Worse still, they're getting seduced by some awful icky companies that are quickly getting set up to allow brands to do that without even being present, by automating the whole process using AI presenters who pretend to not only exist, but actually work for you.

Yeah, you know who you are.

Here’s the truth:

Your podcast shouldn’t sound like someone published your Monday group huddle.

It should sound like your smartest people having the conversations your buyers wish they could be in the room for.

So if you want to get a B2B podcast actually working for you in 2026...

✅ Ditch the CMO approved scripts.
✅ Invite real conversations to take place.
✅ And for Christ's sake say something worth listening to!

If you’re going to start a podcast, make sure it’s not just content. 
Make sure it truly does offer you a competitive advantage.

Otherwise, ChatGPT, Eleven Labs and AI agent connected to a hosting account could’ve easily done it for you. 

And none of us want to listen to content that's THAT bottom of the barrel.

I've got room for just two corporate sized brands that want to do a podcast properly, for the coming quarter.

If that sounds like you, we should probably talk.

But if you're the kind of berk who'd rather pay some opportunists who've figured out how to use subpar AI voices to publish 3000 episodes a week and call it content, then I wish you luck. 

Let's face it you're gonna need it when you jump through hoops to recoup your content after they go bust, only to realise it wasn't worth your efforts to begin with.

Krista Mollion

Last Business Coach You'll Ever Need I 100% Activator + Rebel 💥 Blow Up Your Solopreneur Business By Joining Profitable Solopreneur/MBA/Accelerator 🚀 Free Masterclass: Path To 10k+ Months 🎯 Content AI Workshop 5/10🧠

Congrats! You built a great product or service.

You've done all the right things, including hiring marketing and sales experts. 

So why aren't the numbers adding up?

When your revenue isn't steadily growing, it is normal to blame a bad hire, coach, or agency. 

But that's not it.

And it's not your fault either.

The true issue?

Your GTM foundations aren’t built for your next stage of growth.

When GTM is broken, you don’t just waste money —you lose decision speed, momentum, and compounding progress.

That cost is invisible on a P&L, but brutal over 12–18 months.

So you hire someone new, hoping, and ... they fail again.

See the problem? It's the system, not the hires.

That’s where I come in.

I convert marketing investment into forecastable revenue by fixing the GTM systems behind it.

What I Do

I operate as a Fractional CMO with executive ownership of growth.

I don’t replace founder judgment.
I translate it into a disciplined, board-ready revenue system teams can execute and finance can trust.

I design and lead go-to-market systems that align:
	•	strategy
	•	demand
	•	sales
	•	unit economics

So growth compounds capital-efficiently — not through brute force.

My work sits at the intersection of GTM, finance, and leadership.
Silicon Valley–fluent. Operator-minded.
Low theater. High standards. Real accountability.

How I Work

I partner with founders, CEOs, and CFOs to align growth targets, unit economics, risk tolerance, and capital constraints before execution begins.

I don’t advise from the sidelines.
I take responsibility for execution by leading the system until it is operating, measurable, and ready to scale — whether that means directing internal teams, coordinating external partners, or sequencing work myself when needed.

I’m engaged as an external executive partner — not an employee — with clear scope, authority, and accountability.

I work across three engagement types:
	•	GTM Strategy (strategy-only)
	•	GTM Advisory (quarterly or ongoing)
	•	Fractional CMO (operator role)

In Fractional CMO engagements, I stay through the system build until growth is stable and a full-time CMO can inherit clarity, clean economics, and momentum — not a reset.

Execution follows the system.
Accountability stays with me.

Fit

I work best with founders who value ownership over activity, discipline over speed, alignment over consensus, and want long-term sustainable systems, not short-term fixes. 

If you’re looking for quick results or someone to “just run marketing,” I'm not it. But if you want someone to build a growth engine, let's talk.

Fractional CMO + Chief Creative Disruptor for SaaS Brands

Attention is currency and it is our mission to get you more of it. 

We design creative, AI-driven, digital and influencer marketing campaigns For micro brands with macro goals

Privately, I love the slow life.

All-day ski runs.
Long hikes.
Driving the California coast with nowhere to be.
Sailing. Boats.
Long dinners that stretch past midnight.
A good bottle of Château Margaux.
Long, lazy summers.

Very different from Silicon Valley work culture.

Everything moves fast.
Everyone is in a hurry.
Time is the enemy.

Launch faster.
Hire faster.
Raise faster.
Prove results.
Close deals.
Grow.
Hit deadlines.

Missed? You're gone.

For a long time, my weekday and weekend worlds felt completely incompatible.

And I burned out and took a break.

During my time away. I realized a couple of things:

Speed doesn’t have to mean sloppiness.
And slow doesn’t have to mean inefficiency.

What actually reconciles the two is precision.

The “slow lover” in me doesn’t hate speed — she hates chaos.
She hates half-done work.
She hates hacks, shortcuts, cheap fixes, and fragile systems.

So I stopped trying to hack my way to success via chaos.

Instead, I focused on building things that are:
• clean
• intentional
• well engineered
• designed to scale

In my work, that looks like:

• crystal-clear KPIs
• thoughtful GTM architecture
• systems designed to scale without breaking
• foundations strong enough to run fast on

That’s my beautiful way of blending speed with efficiency.

Move fast — but on purpose.
Build quickly — but with elegance.
Scale — without sacrificing quality.

And rest. We need to pause in business too and reflect. Getting away from the problem will open up the new angles like nothing else.
And when you return, you will see things with fresh eyes.

Whether you move fast or slow, excellence is always an option.

You don't have to accept chaos as the only path.

Build a revenue engine that endures
Then relax and watch it build momentum.

For me, excellence is the goal.
But I combine it with alot of hands-off time.
And it works for me while I am away.

Life is too short to settle for anything less than getting the best of both fast and slow worlds.

Founder, Unignorable Brands | Founder-Operator Fractional CMO & GTM Leader for $3–20M B2B Companies | Global Expansions | Numbers ​> Narratives

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Most founders don’t hate marketing.
They hate paying for confusion.

When marketing “doesn’t deliver ROI,” what usually breaks isn’t execution — it’s expectations.

Marketing gets treated as promotion.
Promotion gets treated as growth.
And when the numbers don’t line up, pressure moves downstream to sales, pricing, and attribution.

That’s how marketing starts to feel expensive, vague, and hard to trust.

In this week’s newsletter, I unpack why marketing so often fails to deliver ROI — not because teams aren’t working hard, but because marketing is misunderstood as an activity instead of a system.

The short version:

Marketing isn’t ads.
It isn’t content.
It isn’t campaigns.

It’s the system that aligns what you sell, who it’s for, how it’s priced, and where buyers encounter it — so sales doesn’t have to create clarity from scratch every time.

When that system is missing, promotion is asked to compensate.
And that’s where ROI quietly breaks.

I published this as part of a new series on why marketing is so often misunderstood by founders — especially in the $3–20M ARR range, where growth starts to feel heavier than it should.

Read the full article here → 

Curious how this shows up in your business:
Where are you relying on activity to compensate for missing clarity upstream?

Founder, Unignorable Brands | Fractional CMO (GTM & Revenue Systems) | Fixing Growth Bottlenecks for $3–20M B2B Companies

A founder-level look at the 4 Ps — and why promotion alone was never designed to drive growth. Most CEOs don’t dislike marketing. They dislike wasted 

Open article: Why Marketing Doesn’t Deliver ROI (And What CEOs Miss) by Krista Mollion • 5 min read

Why Marketing Doesn’t Deliver ROI (And What CEOs Miss)

A quick clarification on the CMO role (especially for first-time founders and growing companies).

A Chief Marketing Officer is an executive leadership role, not a delivery function.

At the CMO level, the mandate is to own:
• Go-to-market strategy
• Positioning and market narrative
• Demand architecture and pipeline quality
• Revenue alignment with Sales and Finance
• Budget allocation and priority sequencing
• Cross-functional alignment across Product, Sales, and Finance

For this reason, a CMO reports to the CEO.

Not as a matter of hierarchy — but because marketing decisions directly affect revenue quality, capital efficiency, and long-term valuation.

What the CMO role is not designed for:
• Campaign execution
• Content production
• Tactical channel management

Those functions require dedicated operators, and the CMO requires hiring/performance authority and budget ownership over them to be effective.

When marketing leadership is placed under operations or staff functions, it often becomes activity-driven rather than outcome-driven. Over time, this shows up as inconsistent demand, misaligned incentives, and slower compounding.

This isn’t about titles.
It’s about governance.

Growth scales best when marketing has clear executive ownership and accountability.

💎 Fractional CMO for $3–20M B2B Founders | Executive GTM leadership to build compounding growth systems | Single-owner accountability across GTM, spend & outcomes | Silicon Valley–fluent, operator at heart | 3x founder

Over the years, I’ve learned that how you lead matters just as much as what you do.

So I wrote down my operating beliefs — the principles that guide how I think, decide, and build with founders and leadership teams.

This isn’t theory.
It’s how I actually operate.

If you’re curious whether we’d ever work well together, this will give you a very clear answer.

Read the full piece here →

How I think, decide, and build as a Fractional CMO and GTM Execution Partner I believe who you are and how you lead matters just as much as what you d

Open article: My Operating Beliefs as a Leader by Krista Mollion • 9 min read

If you missed your 2025 targets, please don't: 

– Blame your team 
– Hire a bunch of new people or a new agency “to fix it”
– Add tools you don’t fully use
– Chase new tactics after watching one convincing video
– Wait and hope things improve
– Invest in AI before you understand where it fits

Blame and new hiring is easier than leadership accountability.

Growth doesn’t come from quick reactions, avoided decisions, blame, or throwing money at random solutions.

It doesn’t stall because founders lack ambition or intelligence.
It stalls when random action is mistaken for strategy.

Real growth comes from building a revenue engine, choosing the right levers, and sticking with them long enough to compound — and yes, that usually takes longer than you’d like or hope, but that’s simply how it works.

Before you plan forward, look backward.

Start with this quick growth audit for 2025:

𝟭. 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲.
Where did revenue actually come from this year?
Which channels looked busy but didn’t convert?
What worked once — but never compounded?

𝟮. 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴.
Could your ideal customer clearly explain what you do —
or are you still “kind of everything”?

𝟯. 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘀.
Who reached out first this year — and why?
Which conversations turned into deals fastest?
What objections keep repeating?

𝟰. 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗿𝗮𝗴.
What decisions took too long?
What initiatives stalled momentum?
Where is leadership still involved in things that shouldn’t require it?

This checklist is the starting point of your success for 2026.

If you want the full picture, my Growth Engine Diagnostic shows you exactly where leverage is hiding — and what to fix first so 2026 compounds instead of plateaus.

What’s your growth top priority in Q1 2026?

💎 Fractional CMO for $3–20M B2B Founders | Executive GTM leadership to build compounding growth systems | Single-owner accountability across budgets, runways & board narratives | Silicon Valley–fluent, operator at heart

As we enter a new week — and especially still in January— I’ve been sitting with a quiet but radical thought.



What if this year, we focused on prioritizing the right P in business?

Not profits.
People.

We all say people matter. It’s almost a given.
But if we’re honest, most systems, incentives, and decisions are still built around profit first.

This is normal. No profits, no business.
And yet… profits don’t exist without people.

The work is done by people.
The bills are paid by people.
Funding comes from people.
Trust is built (or broken) between people.

Somewhere along the way, many of us started viewing people through a transactional lens:
	•	What they owe us
	•	What they didn’t deliver
	•	What they should have done better

Customers become “leads.”
Employees become “resources.”
Investors become “gatekeepers.”

We see people as a means to our own end, not as real. That subtle detachment changes everything. It creates tension, frustration, and burnout — often without us even realizing it.

But what if we flipped the lens?

What if we put people back at the center — not as obstacles between us and success, but as the very foundation of it?

Because when people are truly prioritized:

	•	Productivity becomes more natural
	•	Collaboration deepens
	•	Trust compounds
	•	And yes, profits will increase

So here’s my challenge for you:

What if 2026 is the year you truly put people first?

And how might that reframe the way you think about:
	•	Your customers
	•	Your employees
	•	Your partners
	•	Your investors

What’s better: more or less?
99% or 10%?

Most people default to more.
More reach. More likes. More followers. More emails. Spam, spam, spam!

I always pick less.

Because “more” is a big business—
and LinkedIn is full of people selling it.

If you want to go viral, create content 99% agree with:

• Eye-candy photos or videos
• Personal stories
• Feel-good quotes
• Light humor
• Colorful carousels
• Big announcements

Nothing wrong with it.
It’s built for mass appeal.

But if you sell high-ticket B2B services (not generic products), here’s the truth:

At any given time, only ~10% of your network will ever need, be ready for, or be able to buy.

That makes things easier.

If you want to get paid, your content only needs to resonate deeply with that 10%.
And when you do the math—that 10% is worth millions.

The other 90%?
Colleagues. Friends. Old conference connections.

Nothing wrong with them.
They’re just not your buyers.

So ask yourself:

Are you optimizing for reach—or for revenue?

P.S.
Ghostwriters, content managers, and social media experts:
chasing views without positioning may look good on dashboards,
but it doesn’t always serve your client’s business.

Clarity beats virality.
And conversions pay more than claps.

One of the most misunderstood ideas in marketing is lag time.

Not clicks.
Not channels.
Time.

Most B2B businesses have a 60–90 day gap between the first meaningful touch and closed-won revenue. And yet we keep asking monthly marketing spend to explain monthly results.

No wonder the conversations get tense.

Once you make lag time visible, a lot of friction disappears:
Marketing looks less mysterious.
Finance looks less impatient.
And decisions get calmer.

If you know how long it takes to bake the cake, stop opening the oven for a peep, only to confirm what you already know.

It’s a small shift in reporting, but a big shift in how growth gets discussed.

Food for thought as the week wraps up:
Does your exec team actually know how long revenue takes to materialize (and are your marketing goals and reporting set accordingly)?

Everyone’s obsessed with the LinkedIn algorithm.
And yes — algo candy works.

I usually do the opposite.

I post heavy content.
Real thinking.
High signal.
High cognitive load.

The kind that doesn’t get many likes —
but quietly lands in DMs weeks later.

Here’s the truth most people miss:

The algorithm doesn’t reward depth.
It rewards ease.

Fast to consume.
Low friction.
Familiar formats.

So if your thoughtful posts aren’t performing,
you’re not wrong — you’re just asking the algorithm to work harder than it wants to.

The tradeoff no one names:

Heavy posts = trust, authority, quiet DMs
Light posts = reach, visibility, growth

Different jobs.

The real question:
Are you trying to be popular —
or are you trying to sell?

Trying to do both at once
without intention
usually fails at both.

The algorithm isn’t your customer.

Join me tomorrow - Thursday, January 8th - where I'll be speaking about LinkedIn 2026 strategy aifh the incredible Tracy Bedwell . RSVP to join live in UK time or get the replay. https://lnkd.in/gRR5iunF

Both sides are acting in good faith.
Both sides are usually disappointed.

The CMO expects a system.
The CEO expects one person to do six jobs.

Alignment beats optimism. Every time.

Drama feels productive.
It isn’t.

Calm leadership is what actually scales.

You can have the right strategy.
Strong leaders.
The right tools.

I’ve watched capable teams stall, not from lack of talent,
but from leadership volatility.

When priorities keep shifting and decisions get reopened emotionally,
compounding quietly breaks.

Adding more features
Constantly switching strategies
Priorities change with politics
Hires come and go with layoffs and churn
This is the best way to create chaos.

What does scale is boring in the best way:
clarity, trust, high retention, clear priorities, and steady leadership.

Same team.
Same talent.
Very different outcomes.

This is usually where compounding quietly breaks.

Drama feels good in the moment
but it is an expensive mistake.
Setting up calm, consistent "boring" systems and then staying disciplined and focused with a "less is more" attitude is the profitable way.

------------------------
If you're new here, I'm Krista Mollion, Fractional CMO and founder of Unignorable Brands and I talk about why growth stops compounding as companies scale. 🚀 Follow along - I aim to address real problems after working with 250+ B2B companies.

Let’s talk about engagement pods.

For anyone new to the term:
It's a group that agrees to like, comment on, and repost each other’s content to trigger the algorithm. 

Pods have always existed on all social platforms but in the past these were all simple free groups.

Today, they are hiding inside paid communities.

Pods didn’t disappear. They evolved.

Same idea, new packaging:

• Paid communities (Kajabi, Circle, Skool, etc.)
• “Optional” engagement channels
• Support threads
• “Growth” cohorts or creator challenges

But the mechanics are identical.
Drop your post. Get flooded in the first hour.

If someone’s content consistently explodes in the first 60 minutes — and their account keeps getting restricted — that’s not organic reach. That’s coordinated engagement. Even if they lie about it.

Don't believe me? Go to your biggest, most popular creators and look if they either run or belong to a best-selling course-cohort-community. I bet you the answer will be 'yes'.

Almost every course or community I’ve joined in the past two years had an “optional” pod inside it.

I don't participate in them (check my posts and you will quickly see 😉) but many do...and lie about it. They call their behavior "support one another's posts". It's not; it's fake engagement and it hurts your credibility, destroys trust, and doesn't attract your dream clients. I highly recommend you don't do it.

When you see a post that have double digit reposts and thousands of likes, unless it is a public figure, it is either boosted (paid ad) or fake engagement.

They may brand themselves as a LinkedIn or Creator community or course, but know this: there’s usually a link-drop thread somewhere.

I hope this clarifies things — for those who already knew, and for those who now do.

Now you know what’s up.

Question:
Have you joined a course or community in the past 3 years and discovered an engagement pod behind the scenes?
And if you run a community — would you be comfortable if members shared screenshots here?👇

One screenshot below from a course I bought last year to learn a new skill. Note: I have canceled and will not continue.

The irony is when you see someone post their account was temporarily restricted and they "have no idea why", I know why. And now you know too.👇

From the outside, it probably looks like a lot is happening.

Your team is busy.
Meetings are full.
Campaigns are live.
Deals are moving.

But underneath that activity, something isn’t carrying forward.

Every quarter feels like a reset.
The same conversations keep coming back.
Progress exists — but it doesn’t stack.

That’s a frustrating place to be as a CEO.

Not because people aren’t trying.
But because effort keeps getting absorbed instead of converted into momentum.

When that happens, the issue usually isn’t execution.
It’s that something upstream isn’t clear enough for work to compound.

I wrote a deeper breakdown on how to spot where momentum is actually leaking — before you add more pressure, headcount, or tools.

Read it here →

A practical breakdown of the system behind predictable growth Most founders think they have a lead generation problem. What they usually have is a GTM

Open article: What Is Go-To-Market (GTM)? by Krista Mollion • 6 min read

This is why “good posts” keep getting buried on LinkedIn.

Most experts don’t lose on social because they lack insight.

They lose because they explain too early.

Algorithms don’t reward depth at the top of the funnel.

They reward:
• Simplicity
• Repeatability
• Predictable formats
• Low cognitive load

That’s why “basic” posts spread
while better thinking gets buried.

The mistake isn’t being smart.
It’s leading with complexity
before you’ve earned attention.

Simple surface × repeatable frame → distribution.
Depth below the fold → trust and conversion.

The winning move:
Hook first. Go deep later. 💎

Where do you naturally default?

📅Want more insights on how to win on social? On Thursday, January 8th, I'll be speaking about LinkedIn 2026 strategy aifh the incredible Tracy Bedwell. RSVP to join live in UK time or get the replay. https://lnkd.in/gRR5iunF

Now Hiring! 🎉

👉 Wanted: Supernatural CMO

Requirements include:
• Predict the future
• Make us viral
• Crush the competition
• Double revenue
• Save the day

Work location: The Upside Down
Reports to: The CEO (office nickname: Papa)
Mandate: Defeat Vecna. Save Will. Keep the board calm.

Warning: The previous 4 CMOs did not survive the mission. Résumé exaggeration will be exposed immediately.

Bonus points if you can do it with limited data, a moving ICP, and
“we’ll figure the strategy out later.”

Marketing experience preferred.
Telekinesis required. 🔮

Happy Friday.

Why CMOs age in dog years 🐕

You’re driving the car.
Everyone else is in the backseat.

“Go faster.”
“Slow down—what’s the ROI?”
“Why aren’t we there yet?”
“Take a left. No—my other left.”
“Have you tried just… more leads?”

One steering wheel.
Six opinions.
Same destination: predictable growth.

If you’ve ever wondered why marketing feels exhausting, it’s not the work.

It’s the navigation.

Happy Sunday to every CMO still holding the wheel. 🚗

P.S. Will AI be the equivalent in Marketing to the self-driving car?

You can do everything right —
and still be forced to downsize.

Several exceptional people at Agorapulse  are suddenly on the market — through no fault of their own.

This wasn’t a failure of talent.
This wasn’t a failure of effort.
This wasn’t leadership “cleaning house.”

Because economics happened.

They’re proven.
They’re resilient.
They’re exactly who you want when things get hard.

If you’re a founder, hiring manager, or recruiter — or hiring soon — please take 30 seconds to look:

👉 https://lnkd.in/gxjaACQs

I’m using my platform today for one reason only:
to spread the word and help good people land fast, fairly, and with dignity.

It could be you.
It could be me.

If you can help, comment, share, or reach out directly.

Let’s turn an unfair moment into a fast, human outcome.

Hiring? Experienced marketers impacted by layoffs. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gxjaACQs

Fractional leadership isn’t a trend.
It’s a response to how executive work has changed.

After 20+ years in the game, priorities shift.
Time and judgment become more valuable than sitting in an office five days a week.

Post-COVID, many senior executives chose alternatives to full-time roles —
not out of laziness, but clarity.

Some join boards.
Some write.
Some go fractional.

What companies actually get:

A truly senior executive
(not theory — decades of pattern recognition)

Someone who operates like a full-time leader
with real scope and ownership —
without full-time overhead.

Is fractional right for everyone?
A loud no.

It works best for companies in the $3–20M ARR range,
especially remote-first or flexible teams.
(Stage matters.)

And on the executive side:
fractional only works with real seniority.
This is not a role for juniors.

A fractional executive is:
• Not a strategist
• Not an advisor
• Not a contractor
• Not full-time

Fractional ≠ temp.

When fractional is misunderstood, companies don’t just waste money —
they lose decision speed, momentum, and compounding progress.
That cost rarely shows up on a P&L,
but it becomes painfully obvious over 12–18 months.

Many of my fractional engagements last longer
than full-time CMO roles in tech
(which average ~18–24 months).

Real transformation takes at least 12 months.

Fractional can be long-term leadership for the right-sized company.
Some companies outgrow it.
Others choose sustained growth without the overhead.

Honest question:
Did you actually know what “fractional” meant before this post?

The highest-leverage leadership work often feels invisible —
until the results (or the stagnation) show up. And by then, alot of time and budget have already been wasted and missed opportunities.

Loud presence gets attention.
Quiet confidence earns trust.

The founders I respect most
aren’t trying to win the room.

They’re listening.
They’re watching patterns.
They’re deciding when to speak — not rushing to fill silence.

Attention is easy to get.
Trust is built slowly.

And the people who understand that
usually don’t need to announce it.


If this resonates, you’re probably not the loudest voice in the room.
That’s not a problem.
It’s often the advantage.

Hustle works — until it doesn’t.
Systems are deliberate.

When leaders stay in hero mode, chaos gets normalized:
• high-paid people doing low-leverage work
• nothing moves unless you’re present
• one sick day shakes the business

That’s not dedication.
That’s a bottleneck.

“No one can replace me” isn’t a flex.
It’s a warning sign.

Growth doesn’t come from doing more.
It comes from building systems that work without you.

This mindset makes sense early.
After your first million, it gets expensive.

Chaos is normal at the start.
Staying in it once people depend on you
is a leadership choice.

Hustle creates motion.
Systems create momentum. 💎

taplio

The Battle

Neal Veglio

Krista Mollion

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Performance ScoreNeal Veglio's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreKrista Mollion's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Neal Veglio

Krista Mollion

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);}Neal Veglio's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreKrista Mollion's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreNeal Veglio's LinkedIn Performance