Jess didn’t tiptoe into her new role—she marched in, spotted the gaps, and asked for headcount by day 2. Josh? Still processing.In this episode, Jess and Josh unpack the thinking behind their first big hire at Vector, why product marketing came before growth, what made one candidate rise above 65 others, and how building the right team early on turned heads across the industry. TL;DR: If you’ve ever had to scale fast—or want to know how Vector assembled the B2B marketing Avengers—this one’s for you.Get to the good stuff:[00:00] Jess reminds Josh that she asked to make her first hire… 48 hours in. Josh has not recovered.[01:08] How Vector’s ideal customer shaped Jess’s hiring criteria: credibility, practitioner experience, and a dash of envy.[03:22] “Are you building the Avengers?” Josh reveals the industry buzz about Vector’s marketing team.[05:19] Jess shares why she prioritized senior, practitioner-led hires over junior generalists—especially in a startup environment.[06:40] Content + PMM = rocket fuel – why demand gen had to wait [08:18] Affirmation time, baby[10:18] The 1+1=3 moment: Jess makes her case (live, in person) for building out the team.[13:50] The "I'm hiring" LinkedIn post? 55K views, 53 reposts, 65+ applications—and how Jess filtered the noise to find standout talent.[17:10] The winning combo that makes marketers stand out: peer recommendations, great writing, clear thinking, and... following directions.[21:04] Top 1% hiring mentality: why the best people say no to comfort and yes to building.[23:18] Enter: Alex. Why her experience at Metadata, founder-ready mindset, and “recipe-like” walkthroughs sealed the deal.[27:00] Sales enablement, product launches, content libraries, positioning tweaks—Alex is already doing all the things.[28:52] What’s next? Jess reveals her plans for staying lean—and what role she’ll hire for next (but not yet, don’t DM her).This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.Filmed at the Sweet Fish Creator House in Orlando, FL.Editing by Handy Man Edit.Music by Peter McIsaac Music.

Josh wants stardom. Jess wants structure. Co-founder Nick mostly wants to avoid another content calendar.When Jess joined Vector, she quickly sniffed out a classic case of wasted brilliance: the founders had great takes—they just weren’t sharing them consistently. Vector’s LinkedIn presence was ghosting its own potential… until Jess built a system that turned sporadic founder inspiration into a pipeline-generating content machine.Hear how Jess transformed Josh and Nick’s raw thoughts into LinkedIn gold. And used AI to multiply their genius without losing their unique voices to bot-speak.Spoiler: Josh might be an influencer now. Sort of.Get to the good stuff:[00:00] Jess gently suggests more LinkedIn posting. Josh’s response? “Ain’t nobody got time for that.” [00:20] Josh admits that Jess pushed founder content from day one—and it’s now one of Vector’s biggest pipeline drivers.[00:45] Jess explains why founder POV matters. It builds trust, credibility, and actual conversions.[01:30] The old way? A one-way ticket to Ghost Town. The new way? A repeatable, scalable system that’s genuine and authentic.[03:15] Jess reveals step one in her chaos-to-content playbook: using AI (Claude) to extract the gold from Josh and Nick’s brain dumps.[04:00] Step two? Feed that raw brilliance into Claude to shape the structure and tone-of-voice.[06:10] Next comes the weekly content-mining ritual: 30 minutes of unscripted rambling that turns out to be a goldmine of high-performing content.[08:22] Ditch Zoom, move to StreamYard or Riverside (or similar!) Jess and Josh consider why video quality matters more than you think.[09:19] Claude plays content editor (with a little help from Descript), restructuring messy thoughts into tight, engaging stories. [12:39] “Wait… did I write this?” When AI-generated posts sound exactly like you, it’s weird but also kinda magical.[13:30] Turns out it only takes 4 hours a week to create 4–5 solid posts for two founders. No burnout, no excuses.[15:37] Jess cracked the content code: build a voice that sounds human, and humans will actually listen. Josh is into it—and honestly? You will be too.[15:50] Josh reflects on the impact of Vector’s outbreak content—from product demos quadrupling to elevated partnerships where top brands want to be associated with Vector.[17:20] Time for some measurement and optimization. Jess wants to review the top performers, study the hooks, and find the topics that resonate... then make the system work even harder.[19:22] Josh thanks Jess for making him an influencer… kinda.[19:37] Jess and Josh drop some love for marketers who are trying their best, even when they feel invisible. [25:14] Josh shares how he’s learned to ditch performative content, and how audiences can smell fake from a mile away. This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.Filmed at the Sweet Fish Creator House in Orlando, FL.Editing by Handy Man Edit.Music by Peter McIsaac Music.

Jess decides to update the entire site to push free trials instead of demos. Demos drop. Cue the sales teams' nerves. It definitely made for an interesting Monday.But, wait…the numbers start to rise AND the leads take a serious step up. So, how does ditching the “book a demo” button increase demos? Is this just reverse psychology or a cunning move disguised as chaos?Get to the good stuff:[00:00] Jess has a controversial idea to make the “book a demo” button a secondary call-to-action and push for free trials instead.[02:46] Jess holds peace talks after taking away the sales reps’ favorite CTA.[03:50] Jess has a method to her madness. She just has to convince the team that driving free trials is strategy not sabotage.[04:25] Josh and Jess dive into what’s needed behind the scenes to make sure the free trial button does its job.[06:11] Breaking news: It turns out sales and marketing can be aligned![07:02] Why a free product makes sense for Vector and how to know if it makes sense for your product or not.[08:04] Pit stop. Marketers, you deserve to have nice stuff said about you. Josh and Jess take a quick break to share some uplifting affirmations.[08:42] Josh applauds the genius of Jess’ strategy—ok, so not all free users will convert, but they’re out there spreading the word and creating a buzz.[10:11] Sometimes, asking for less can get you more! Josh explains how stepping back from the demo push actually pulled better leads in.[11:42] Hot take: trust your marketers—especially when their ideas sound insane.[14:45] Don’t be shy about what you’ve got. Josh and Jess explain why showing off your product is exactly what your prospects want. [17:02] It’s cool to be clear—and customer trust becomes much easier to build. Josh shares why transparency has always been a big thing at Vector.This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.Filmed at the Sweet Fish Creator House in Orlando, FL.Editing by Handy Man Edit.Music by Peter McIsaac Music.

Josh admits to ordering 500 custom Cards Against Humanity decks without any plan for them, except a strong urge to fight against boring swag at events. Jess steps in to help turn his impulse purchase into a real strategy that works.Will custom swag really drive brand awareness? What kind of swag do marketers actually want? And will Josh finally get rid of all those boxes from his house?Get to the good stuff:[00:00] Josh confesses how he ordered 500 custom Cards Against Humanity decks without a plan but with a cool idea for "Marketers Against Humanity"[04:17] Jess comes to the rescue to start outlining a gifting strategy to get the cards into the right people’s hands (and out of Josh’s house)[06:49] Jess shares how important shareability is with swag – is it fun and unique enough for people to share? [08:37] Things get spiritual when Jess and Josh share positive affirmations for marketers[09:01] Josh talks about the buzz our cards created at the CMO Summit and how he couldn’t give them out fast enough[11:14] Behind the scenes: Josh explains how he sourced the cards and designed all 180 cards himself to make sure they had Vector’s unique brand voice (yes, Josh wrote ALL of the cards!)[15:37] Josh and Jess break down the three-tier swag strategy, who gets what, and why a good merch strategy doesn’t have to cost a fortune[19:00] Jess explains how the right swag gets the attention of influencers. Spoiler: it’s about giving them something they actually want to talk about[21:04] Story time: Jess spills the tea on how one CEO’s love of bucket hats had them running with merch that made zero sense for their customers[23:53] Jess’ take on why gifting branded freebies at the right funnel stage beats random merch drops and how a simple handwritten note from Josh goes a long wayThis Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.Filmed at the Sweet Fish Creator House in Orlando, FL.Editing by Handy Man Edit.Music by Peter McIsaac Music.

Jess pitches Josh on starting a podcast as part of Vector’s video-first content strategy. All Josh hears is “blah bah blah, flying to Florida to spend $20K on an in-person shoot, yada yada yada,” and wonders how she plans to measure ROI. Can Jess convince him that some big, tough-to-measure bets are just as important as traditional lead-gen?Get to the good stuff:[01:00] Jess shares why she felt a podcast was the right big bet for Vector to make this year, and why she knew it couldn’t be your typical two-people-on-Zoom kind of show.[05:05] Josh and Jess reveal their original podcast concept, the a-ha moment that caused them to scrap the whole show just days before recording. [09:35] Josh and Jess talk through the messy middle (read: 24-hour panic spiral) of how This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast came to be.[14:00] Jess explains how AI became her brainstorm buddy, including generating hundreds of podcast titles before landing on the perfect one.[19:49] Things get weird when Jess and Josh uplift marketers’ spirits with positive affirmations.[22:32] Josh wants to know where the ROI is going to come from on the podcast. Instead of punching him, Jess explains how she plans to measure success, including tracking the repurposing multiplier.[26:25] Jess drops truth bombs about why trying to measure everything in marketing is like judging your marathon training on one bad run.This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.Filmed at the Sweet Fish Creator House in Orlando, FL.Editing by Handy Man Edit.Music by Peter McIsaac Music.