This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast

Josh wanted to redesign the website. Jess said no. A few months later, Jess came back with the same idea. She called it an Uno reverse. Josh may have finally admitted Jess is wiser than he is. A repositioning gave them the green light — a new narrative, new pricing, two product pages that didn't exist before. What Josh thought would be a simple redesign turned into three mood boards, a glow up that didn’t kill Ghosty, and a 37-line launch checklist. If you've ever underestimated what it actually takes to ship a new site — or had to explain why it's not just a fresh coat of paint — this one's for you. Hear how Jess navigated a full site overhaul, got leadership buy-in by showing her work, and figured out what it really takes to launch a website that tells a story. Get to the good stuff: [00:00] "Our website is atrocious." Bold words from the guy who built it. The redesign finally gets the green light. [01:07] Why this redesign happened now — and not when Josh suggested it. [02:03] What you keep vs. what you kill in a brand refresh. Spoiler: Ghosty lives. [03:27] First impressions matter. How design shapes how buyers perceive your product, not just your brand. [05:10] The “real” reason Josh approved the redesign budget: those gradients with text on them were haunting him. [06:01] Keep it, evolve it, or kill it. Three buckets to sort your brand before you redesign anything. [06:54] Inspiration audits, mood boards, and why "I just don't like it" isn't helpful feedback. [10:20] Giving good design feedback is a skill. A little word vomit is okay. [12:22] Three mood boards walk into a bar. One's too safe, one's too stark, one's just right. [15:09] Wireframes, design applied, and those "aha" moments that never get old. [17:01] Why pricing and packaging research didn't just live in a spreadsheet, and how it influenced how the site was structured. [18:48] Moving from feature-based navigation to product-led storytelling. [19:50] Getting leadership to understand a website isn't "just a website". Show your work. Every step of the way. [21:39] Product imagery that actually tells a story — and how marketing and product crushed it. [23:24] Positive affirmations to soothe your soul. Plus, some ASMR that nobody asked for. [24:06] The parts of a site launch people often forget: developers, RevOps, SEO, tracking, QA. It's a lot. [25:33] Content staffing realities and why your sitemap can be your best project management tool. [29:12] Launch day logistics: pick a date, be flexible, and for the love of Ghosty, build a checklist. [31:30] Josh wants last-minute typography changes. Jess ends the meeting. As she should. This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.Filmed and produced by Sweet Fish.Editing by Handy Man Edit.Music by Peter McIsaac Music.

Most companies guard their marketing plans like state secrets. We did a live podcast episode to show you everything. Josh tripled Jess's pipeline goal (classic CEO move), organic search is in chaos, and marketers everywhere are white-knuckling their way through what Josh calls "pipeline anxiety." So what's Vector doing about it? Ghost tours. Influencer programs. Adding a demand gen hire to the team. And a whole lot of marketing on vibes that's about to get way more measurable. In this bonus live episode, Jess and Josh break down their entire 2026 marketing strategy—the three big rocks, the budget, the hires, and yes, the Lexapro-inducing vulnerabilities keeping them up at night. Because if you're gonna build in public, you might as well go all in. Get to the good stuff: [00:00] Josh opened with a casual pipeline goal update: triple it. Jess pretended to be fine. She wasn't fine. [01:22] Marketing to marketers means you're getting paid to have therapy sessions about pipeline with your entire ICP. [02:00] Pickleball notepad flashcard game begins. First up: organic search. Pure chaos. SEO-GEO-EIO. [04:40] Josh's internal fear: losing organic traffic is scary, but losing visibility and attribution? That's the part nobody's talking about. [06:16] Vector's product roadmap includes bot detection for ads—because 10-15% of your ad spend is retargeting Terminator, not humans. [08:23] Paid media still has volatility and black box vibes, but it's making a comeback as cold email implodes. [10:00] Cost per ICP click is Vector's killer metric—because cost per click doesn't matter if everyone clicking is garbage. [12:32] ABM as a strategy? Love. ABM tools? Not so much. Marketers are finally leaving the legacy platforms. [15:37] Consolidation is inevitable, but Josh had thoughts on whether Vector is best-in-breed or all-in-one. (Spoiler: it's the political answer.) [18:00] The major theme for 2026: pipeline anxiety. Every marketer feels it. Lexapro sales are up. [23:00] Jess presented her 2026 plan the same way she pitched her budget—with a story, a Jaws gif, and three pictures of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. [24:54] Big Rock #1: Be everywhere your audience is and turn it up to 11. Ghost Tour Tour announcement dropped. [28:23] Piggybacking events to save budget while traumatizing prospects with haunted walking tours. [31:41] Media sponsorships with Exit Five and Demand Collective—distribution plays that don't require a $100k booth. [33:42] Influencer program is back and doubled down after turning $12k into $1.1M in pipeline. [34:16] Big Rock #2: Be your favorite marketing team's favorite marketing team. Hiring top 1% talent who advocate for their discipline, not just the product. [36:32] Department excellence is the mandate—Alex is the best PMM Jess has ever met, and the new demand gen hire is at the same level. [37:00] Marketable moments—engineering has an OKR to ship enough that there's something valuable in the Ghost to Market newsletter every week. [38:55] Vector on Vector—demand gen marketer will build the ultimate playbook for using Vector at Vector, then share it with customers. [39:56] Big Rock #3: Build our own crystal ball. No more marketing on 100% vibes. Time for QBRs, metrics, and knowing the numbers cold. [41:13] Positive affirmations break—let's hear it for moments of zen. [42:41] Vulnerability Corner debut. Josh was worried about keeping Vector special while scaling, and fears a pipeline system collapse across B2B. [46:00] Jess just got promoted to VP of Marketing and is nervous about living up to the title, leading a team, and continuously outdoing themselves. [48:00] Q&A: How has your ICP evolved? Answer: sharper and sharper as positioning tightened from sales + marketing to just marketing. [50:00] Solo marketer priority? Focus on LLMs, SEO, and GEO—shape the narrative of what AI says about you. [51:47] Balancing weirdness with conversion? Be quirky at the top of the funnel, crystal clear at the bottom. Clarity is queen. This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast is a Vector production.

Jess tells Josh that she's keen to start running ads. After all, you can't pivot to being an ad tech company without actually running ads yourself.All she needs is a designer, someone to launch the ads, and a budget of tens of thousands of dollars. Nothing huge. Okay, maybe a few heart palpitations from Josh.In this episode, Jess takes us through her advertising journey—from the creative side of marketing to hitting the big green launch button for paid ads. And what's all of this got to do with Josh pretending to be in the gym? You'll just have to listen to find out.Get to the good stuff:[00:00] Vector's an ad tech company now…so shouldn't we be running ads?[01:02] Jess reminisces about her B2C advertising days with a flashback to a Roomba-riding cat (naturally).[02:36] Moving into ads when it isn't your area of expertise? And when your customers are looking to you for marketing inspiration? Absolutely no pressure there, Jess.[05:35] A key lesson in ads—take what's working organically and put money behind it. Pretty safe bet.[06:04] What do ghosts and knock-knock jokes have in common with great ads?[07:25] Be brave. Be bold. Bring back mascots to stop the scroll.[08:37] Josh with the mic drop—ad creative matters more than the offering. Safe = snoozefest. Think outside the box.[09:59] How did ghosts getting less pale by the pool make LinkedIn stop doomscrolling?[11:33] Jess wanted to start using Vector for Vector, so she brought in reinforcements. Shout-out to Isaac Ware and Sara McNamara, the real MVPs.[14:27] Jess shares an insider trick—use ads to test new messaging first. Josh definitely already knew this.[17:13] Jess and Josh stress the importance of testing—no room for assumptions in advertising.[18:32] Jess uses some hauntingly good messaging to boost newsletter sign-ups. The pipeline generator. Don't sleep on top-of-funnel content. Or, as Josh puts it, don't be a putz.[21:59] Turn off any ad that doesn't work—apart from Josh's gym post. He's jacked.[25:13] Dear marketer…email inbox or tiger attack? Affirmations to save your soul.[26:48] The best ad campaigns don't always need changing. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And if you're Chick-fil-A, don't replace the cows.[30:45] Jess reminds us that sometimes the media is the message. When everyone else is doing the same thing, do something different.[34:06] Cost per ICP click is the new KPI—light bulb moment for Vector. Best news? We're releasing a new campaign reporting feature for cost per ICP click (included in the basic plan, yay!)[36:00] Jess's top takeaways for starting an ad program: use broad awareness to gather information, create variance, give it time to see if it works, figure things out in one channel first, and if you really don't know where to start, start with what you already have.[38:52] PSA: anyone want to join the team as a demand gen marketer?This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.Filmed and produced by Sweet Fish.Editing by Handy Man Edit.Music by Peter McIsaac Music.

Jess had it all figured out. A five-star restaurant. 17 prospects and customers. Four months of planning. $15k on the line. The perfect setup to fill next quarter's pipeline…right?Just one tiny problem: there’d been a mix-up. The dinner wasn't tomorrow night. It was tonight. In three hours. Cue panic. Cue scrambling. Cue Jess and Josh praying people would actually show up.Hear how a last-minute disaster turned into one of the best events Vector's ever done and why letting customers do the talking is more powerful than any pitch.Get to the good stuff:[00:51] Why sponsor events as an early-stage company? Leave the booths for the big guys—how showing up small meant Vector was seen by the right people.[02:50] The events around the events are really where it's happening. Plus, Natalie Taylor’s dinner playbook: invite your customers. She’s a genius.[11:22] Sarah pulls off some FBI-style magic and reverse-engineers an anonymized attendee list into data we need. Sneaky sneaky.[13:37] Jess's invite strategy. Josh is skeptical. Jess is right. He should know this by now.[16:32] Dan Murphy delivers the news: contract mix-up. The boat cruise is Thursday. Your dinner is tonight. In three hours. Jess has a minor menty-B moment.[17:48] Exit Five springs into action. New restaurant secured. Transportation sorted. Jess and Josh sprint back to the hotel to prep.[22:27] Will anyone actually show up? Just two people on the bus. Are we having a $15k dinner with four people? That’s a lot of wine…[23:45] Dear marketer, here’s your affirmations break.[24:54] Jess and Josh channel their inner theater kids to break the ice and acknowledge the awkward: yes, we need customers.[26:26] The dinner becomes deeply personal. No Vector talk. Just real conversations about family, life, oh and that crazy documentary about the stalker mom.[27:07] Jess gets rejected attempting dinner strategy phase 2. Mission accomplished—they're having too much fun.[27:46] The follow-up is effortless. LinkedIn DMs turn into demo requests. Almost 100% conversion from one dinner. Jess and Josh want the "boat mix-up package" next year.[30:12] How to match your team to your audience. Bring the people who spur the right conversations (sorry sales, not you).[31:56] Jess has the event bug. Already signed for Pavilion, going back to Drive. It's giving budget sweats for Josh again.[33:11] How we sold less but ironically sold more. How authenticity is shifting brand action.[33:32] Josh still dreams of his, er, Vector's name in lights.This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.Filmed and produced by Sweet Fish.Editing by Handy Man Edit.Music by Peter McIsaac Music.

Season 2 is here—and we're kicking it off with the conversation every marketer loves: asking for budget.Jess has big goals, a solid strategy, and one tiny problem: she needs money. Real money. Not the "ask permission for every shiny sponsorship" kind—an actual, formal quarterly budget.So, she builds her first-ever marketing budget, wraps it in a killer deck, and presents it to Josh and Nick. The number's big. Really big. But then something happens—they get excited.Hear how Jess convinced two founders to hand over hundreds of thousands of dollars, why the story matters way more than the spreadsheet, and what happens when your CEO gets so nervous he starts sounding like Goofy.Get to the good stuff:[00:00] Season 2 kicks off! Jess needs a budget. Josh braces for impact.[02:46] Jess had only ever built content budgets before. It’s a fraction of the plan, but it’s where you start—if you don't have anything to talk about, there's nothing to amplify.[04:40] Josh approaches Jess about building a budget before she has to beg for one. Makes the whole "money, please" conversation way easier.[06:24] The reverse prenup: why having a formal budget gives marketers power to make decisions without having to justify every dollar.[09:07] Jess is low-key panicking. First time building a budget. Zero historical data. No "what worked last quarter" safety net. Just ambition, strategy, and a spreadsheet.[11:45] Jess's presentation strategy. The balance of making Josh and Nick feel excited and just a little nervous. That's how you know you're asking for what you actually need.[15:10] Jess comes armed with receipts from industry friends. She's done her homework. Obviously.[16:49] The big reveal. The big number. Josh falls out of his seat. Nick couldn’t Venmo it. Cue minor CEO heart attack.[21:45] Jess's advisor moment. He tells her to forget the pretty spreadsheet, the secret weapon is the story. A budget pitch is no different to any other pitch.[22:30] The Nick test will be hard to pass. Jess presents to Josh first to get his buy-in, trust, and a little feedback first.[26:24] Jess get her allotted soppy praise moment from Josh, but it’s well deserved. She executed and built trust.[29:32] Josh takes the budget to their board and advisors. Because even CEOs need backup. [32:42] Jess’ budget gets cut. But wait, she’s actually grateful? [35:03] Positive affirmations break. You're a marketing wizard.[36:24] Jess's key budget-building takeaways: let strategy guide your budget, sell the story, acknowledge other budget pressures and shoot for the moon.[37:37] Jess's life goal: someday ask for more money than the AWS bill. She’s dreaming big people.[39:00] The one thing Jess forgot: travel. Don't worry—Josh and Nick are just docking it from her paycheck. Motel 6, here she comes.This Meeting Could’ve Been a Podcast is a Vector production.Filmed and produced by Sweet Fish.Editing by Handy Man Edit.Music by Peter McIsaac Music.

Josh happily announces he’s redesigning the website. Jess smiles and nods while she internally screams in marketer.But Jess spots an opportunity. Maybe we don’t need a whole new website. But the messaging and a few key visuals? They might just need a little work. Hear how Jess steered Josh away from climbing a mountain of redesign and dev work and toward small messaging and visual tweaks that do a whole lot of heavy lifting. Get to the good stuff:[00:00] Josh shows off a brand new website design just before a new product launch – surprise, Jess![01:07] Vector’s website origin story (before the ghosts took over)[06:02] Jess compliments Josh’s original messaging. Then shares why she changed it.[07:51] Sit back marketers, and let us say nice things about you.[8:27] Shameless plug: The product launch that kicked off Josh’s idea to revamp the website.[10:58] Jess explains why she changed the headline from “grow your MQLs” to “turn intent into pipeline.”[14:08] Why we used graphics to show off the product (and the ghost mascot, of course).[16:53] Josh explains the reasoning behind his urge to redesign the website, and how the team hit a healthy middle ground.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.

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.

Josh returns from CMO Summit buzzing with ideas, like hiring 20 influencers immediately. Jess works with him to understand which ideas could move the needle right now, and which ones are more distraction than priority. Can she pull him out of his post-conference spiral and keep her sanity?Get to the good stuff:[01:02] Josh cops to the CEO tendency toward shiny object syndrome and offers some ideas as to why it afflicts so many execs.[03:35] Jess explains how a well-documented strategy can help determine if new tactics align with agreed-upon company goals—and provides ammunition to say "no" when necessary.[07:00] Josh shares why he came back from CMO Summit feeling behind for not having an influencer strategy, and Jess responds.[12:37] Jess shares her favorite way to validate or disprove ideas before putting significant time and budget behind them.[17:27] Things get weird when Jess and Josh share positive affirmations for marketers.[18:57] Plot twist: Josh's experience at CMO Summit makes him a believer in events, AND an even bigger believer in the brand building and content marketing that drove people to the Vector booth in the first place.[25:00] Red flag territory: what to do when you can’t push back on your CEO’s wild ideas, and when it's time to quit so you can go do meaningful work somewhere else.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.

Head of Marketing Jess Cook, and CEO Joshua Perk let you eavesdrop on their one-on-ones to hear how they're building Vector into a standout brand and must-have tool for B2B marketers.Come for the big-picture strategy and day-to-day tactics. Stay for the jokes that make HR nervous.This Meeting Could've Been a Podcast drops May 21st on YouTube and all major podcast platforms.