FOR THE LOVE OF GOD: If the Founder or CEO gets invited to do a podcast ... DONT MAKE IT A 45 MINUTE AD. I don’t get why people do this. The whole medium is about opening up, being real, having some banter, sharing stories. And they keep bringing it back to their software, their product, their new book. This is the opposite of good marketing. Be great. Be useful. Be funny. Be interesting. That’s the best marketing. And you won’t need to pitch the product the whole time. But some Founders and CEOs just only know how to be in robot PR team mode. Please use your brain. If *you* listened to this podcast, would you find value in it? No you'd skip through it, rolling your eyes at another on-script CEO just parroting a bunch of talking points. And the worst part, most of these people are not Fortune 500 CEOs. So there's not some huge risk of saying the wrong thing, upsetting Wall Street etc. I've had this happen before as a podcast host. Plenty of times over the last 10 years. Sponsor company wants to have their CEO on. Random PR pitch wants to have the Founder or key executive of this AI company on to talk about AI trends. And it's always the same thing: boring, no substance, and a thinly veiled pitch for their company. They never have any energy, never ask any questions back, just ends up being another piece of corporate marketing slop. Like when the CEO of Farmers Insurance gets to speak for 5 minutes on a PGA Tour broadcast (but you're not the CEO of Farmers Insurance). Marketing 101, do not do that! Be likable. Go off script. Use this as an opportunity to build trust, get people to know you, and think "hey, that founder was actually awesome, I gotta go look up their company." But instead we are always so short term focused. Thinking a podcast appearance will somehow lead to 6 new MQLs this quarter. This is another reason I am GLAD AI is eating the funnel in marketing and creating a sea of sameness. The only way to win moving forward is going to be to LET GO of control of your brand.