Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribeNeed marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hireEric introduces the new AEO: Autonomous Engine Optimization, the AI harness Nick Eubanks used to grow a 12-week-old website, and why every sales call and customer conversation inside your company is a page waiting to be published. Then the self-improving product has arrived: Amplitude's Wave agent found its own problems and shipped fixes worth +160% engagement and a 6% to 9% onboarding lift. Eric and Neil also pick apart OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra launch, the five things that took Andrew Warner's new YouTube channel to 937,000 views in a month, how B2B buyers now find agencies through Claude, and why the best salespeople sell like doctors. Key takeaways◾AEO now means autonomous: content creates, drafts and ships itself with a human in the loop◾Self-improving products are live: Wave found and fixed real conversion problems on its own◾On YouTube, info calls, retention data and trending topics beat subscriber counts Chapters00:00 The new AEO: Autonomous Engine Optimization03:07 Self-improving products: Amplitude's Wave agent06:44 OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra launch misstep11:37 Andrew Warner: 937K views in a month16:48 How buyers find agencies through Claude21:18 Sell like a doctor

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribeNeed marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hireEric came back from a founder retreat with a hard truth: the AI hackathons and training programs everyone planned in January didn't work, and the companies pulling ahead just raised the talent bar. He walks through the GitHub leaderboard that shows who's actually shipping, why one 200-engineer company is keeping only its top 40, and Neil's long-held view that you can't train mindset. Then the sycophancy trap: why ChatGPT agrees with whatever you feed it, what Neil found when he ran a real recommendation test across an accounting firm, and why most executives still don't understand how these models work. Key takeaways◾You can't train mindset. Raise the bar and hire people who already have it◾A public shipping leaderboard exposes who's really working in about a week◾AI is a sycophant. Optimize for it, don't just ask it follow-up questions Chapters00:00 Stop training, raise the talent bar01:14 The GitHub leaderboard: keep the top 4002:31 Neil: hire amazing people, it solves most problems07:45 The AI therapy trap: it agrees with you13:17 Neil's accounting-firm recommendation test15:54 Three years in, executives still don't get it

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire What do you actually do when things get really tough in business? Neil and Eric share their worst moments — 2020 included — and the playbook for surviving them: eating the elephant a day at a time, buying time with cash, and choosing stability over growth when it counts. Then the reveal that hot AI startups like Cursor quietly run thousands of ads at a time, and a five-star massage-studio case study on referrals, grandfathered pricing, and service details that carry over into any business. Key takeaways◾Tough seasons are survived a day at a time — systems over panic◾The hottest AI startups test thousands of ads, not two◾Great service businesses engineer referrals on purpose Chapters00:00 When things get really tough09:14 Stability vs growth15:56 The 6,400-ads reveal17:10 The massage-studio case study

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric brings the DHH question — outspend or outteach? — and the hosts take sides on the cheapest marketing that almost nobody has the patience to do. Then it gets personal: why Bezos Expeditions invested in Basecamp, whether pressure makes winners, the hairy reality of agency M&A (data rooms, earn-outs, and numbers that never survive diligence), a tale of two agency contractors, and why revenue beats views every single time. A candid operator's episode on teaching, buying, and building agencies. Key takeaways◾Outteaching compounds — it's the free marketing nobody commits to◾In agency M&A, the seller's numbers never survive the data room◾Optimize for revenue, not reach Chapters00:00 Outspend vs outteach: the DHH question01:12 Bezos and Basecamp02:21 Pressure makes winners05:48 The agency M&A trap09:55 Managing mistakes properly12:09 A tale of two agencies18:33 Revenue over views

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil and Eric react to the report that Chinese institutions turned 171 million public X posts into a million-account digital twin of the American electorate — and are testing political messages on it. They unpack the marketing angle behind cognitive-domain warfare, why the data asymmetry between open and closed internets matters, the Paul Graham chart showing LinkedIn users adding AI and deleting DEI from their profiles, and why following trends is usually the losing move. A sobering look at what happens when audience modeling gets weaponized. Key takeaways◾Audience modeling at nation-state scale is here — and it's a marketing system◾Open platforms hand their behavioral data to anyone, including adversaries◾Profile trends follow incentives: AI in, DEI out Chapters00:00 China's AI models of American voters02:04 Privacy and platform rules04:06 The LinkedIn graph: AI in, DEI out07:12 Think for yourself, don't chase trends

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil and Eric dig into the two lessons Silicon Valley keeps relearning every decade, straight from Ben Thompson's conversation with Patrick O'Shaughnessy: consumers don't want to pay for software, and they don't care about being productive. They trace the pattern from Dropbox's forced pivot to B2B through to OpenAI replaying the same story at 100x scale, why advertising was always the endgame for ChatGPT, whether the SaaSpocalypse is real, and what the future of marketing looks like when AI knows your smartest moments. A sharp episode on where the money in software actually comes from. Key takeaways◾Consumers won't pay for software — advertising is the consumer endgame◾SaaS isn't dying, it's consolidating into B2B◾The next marketing frontier is reaching people in their smart moments Chapters00:00 The 2 lessons Silicon Valley relearns00:21 Ads over subscriptions: Dropbox to OpenAI03:32 SaaS isn't dying, it's going B2B05:55 Bubble or buildout?07:32 AI's long-term explosion11:32 Marketing in smart moments

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire It starts with a message Eric got about a team member's wife being hit by a car, and turns into the clearest thing either of them has said about keeping good people. Neil lays out how he thinks about founder retention after an acquisition, they debate what Single Brain should actually be, and Eric closes with the GrokBot marketing playbook. Key takeaways◾How you behave in someone's worst week is the retention strategy. Everything else is a policy document.◾Brand recognition you already have is worth more than the product name you are attached to.◾Multifaceted marketing wins now: shipping fast, engaging in public, DMing influencers and bundling. Chapters00:00 Looking After Your People02:20 Founder Retention Matters05:31 Building Single Brain08:56 GrokBot Marketing Playbook

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil asks Eric to name the two things he is actually doing for the rest of 2026, and the answer is less about tools than you would expect. Along the way they share their own survey of 100 companies on AI agent adoption, and the numbers are far below the hype. Neil also gives away the specific tactic he is using to get cited by ChatGPT and Gemini. Key takeaways◾Of 100 companies surveyed, only 17 use AI agents in marketing at all, and just 3.5% of their marketing staff.◾The fastest route into AI answers is getting into the same articles that already cite your competitors.◾Shipping constantly beats one big launch. Staying top of mind is the strategy. Chapters00:00 Marketing and Hiring Priorities02:55 What Counts as an Agent06:20 2026 Focus Areas10:43 Europe and Service Expansion

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Reddit's citations in ChatGPT have collapsed to almost nothing, and so have the review sites. Eric pulls up the PromptWatch data live and Neil reads what it means for anyone who built a strategy on those placements. Then they turn to the money side: how to underwrite a deal, what a creative agency is really worth, and what Sequoia's 'services are the new software' thesis does to agency valuations. Key takeaways◾Reddit and the big review sites have been almost entirely cut out of ChatGPT's citations.◾The marketer's job is shifting from ranking pages to being the source an AI quotes.◾Founder retention is not one structure. Name which model each founder is actually in before you buy. Chapters00:00 Reddit’s Decline01:57 The Marketer’s Shift04:14 Deal Underwriting Logic07:36 Valuing Creative Agencies12:56 M&A Patience Pays18:01 Eric's Agency M&A Thesis

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric and Neil open on Travis Kalanick's take on founders, and end up somewhere much less comfortable: the research says the people pushed hardest early on are rarely the ones who end up best. They get into what founder drive actually is, why the two of them handle being crossed differently, how first-principles thinking changes a deal, and the Four Seasons founder's brutal one-line definition of excellence. Key takeaways ◾Being a founder is about pushing, not driving. The title on the org chart is not what makes it work. ◾Across 34,000 top performers, early standouts and eventual world-class performers are almost never the same people. ◾Excellence, per the Four Seasons founder, is the capacity to take pain. Suffering is built into the job. Chapters 00:00 Founder Drive 04:20 Seasons of Work 08:32 What Actually Makes Them Angry 11:53 First Principles Dealmaking 13:58 Protein and Macros 16:25 Trade-Offs Everywhere 17:55 Tiger Parent Pressure 20:27 Raising Without Resentment 24:01 Defining Excellence 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire A cafe in San Francisco lets startups pay to brand the drinks, so you can order an ElevenLatte or a MongoDB Greens. Eric thinks it is genius and cheap. Then the segment everyone will argue about: an Instagram reel showing a brand that does not exist ranked number one on ChatGPT for a real query. Neil and Eric take apart how it was done, why AEO is still SEO underneath, what Kimi's download and DAU curve says about Chinese model adoption, and why the Philippines back office grew instead of collapsing after ChatGPT. Key takeaways◾Brand in the places your buyer already stands, not just the feed◾If you can game it, it is a ranking system, and ranking systems are SEO◾AI made offshore work more valuable, employment is up 20% and revenue up 30% Chapters00:00 Intro Etiquette Matters00:07 Branding in Public Places03:22 Ranking on ChatGPT05:34 AEO Is Still SEO06:16 Kimi’s Growth Surge08:41 Marketable Moments Matter12:19 AI Creates More Jobs

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire China is releasing models that are not as good and are good enough, at a fraction of the cost, and getting real penetration in the United States. Neil and Eric work through what that does to pricing, then get to WD-40, which used Amazon's generative video ads to triple daily unit volume with an 86% new-to-brand rate and a 45% higher click-through rate. Eric's answer to every founder asking whether this kills agencies is the same question back: who is going to maintain it. He had that exact conversation with a multi-billion dollar hospitality company this week. Key takeaways◾Good enough at a tenth of the price is a pricing event, not a quality debate◾AI ad production collapses cost per asset, it does not manage the account◾Every founder building agents for each team member is telling you they are understaffed Chapters00:00 China’s Price Disruption03:55 Raising the AI Bar05:10 Marketing Needs Adaptability08:43 Singapore’s AI Optimism11:05 WD-40’s AI Ad Win15:13 Why Agencies Still Matter15:37 Agentic Web Future

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Clay Collins predicts the indie hacker is about to get crushed by the direct response marketer who learned to ship software, and Neil and Eric react as two people who have straddled both sides. Their generation sold ebooks and courses because that was the only thing you could build without engineers, and the wall was never talent, it was operational. That wall is gone. They also cover the SBA loan changes worth watching, and then the harder question underneath all of it: if AI does the thinking, what happens to the people who stop wanting to think. Key takeaways◾The engineering advantage evaporated, the marketing advantage did not◾Twenty years of learning how to make strangers care now ships in a weekend◾Cognitive polarization is the real risk, not job replacement Chapters00:00 Content, Careers, and Time04:22 SBA Loan Changes05:29 Direct Marketers in Software11:29 Intelligence and Volition17:48 AI Sentiment Divide19:16 Wealth Preservation Fears

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Most SEO starts with keyword research. Neil and Eric start somewhere else entirely: the customer. Neil breaks down audience-first SEO, the approach Single Grain's Nicky Lamb wrote up and the one they have been quietly running for clients. Take wealth management: 2.7 million monthly searches in the US, and almost none of them are one audience. Someone trying to understand the term, someone saving for retirement, a business owner preparing for a sale and an ultra high net worth family are four different buyers behind the same keyword. Then Eric walks through the company brain he is rolling into ClickFlow, and what Atlassian's numbers say about where a SaaS moat actually sits. Key takeaways ◾Start with the ICP, not the keyword list, and the queries sort themselves ◾One high-volume term usually hides four buyers who need four different pages ◾A software moat is context and workflow, not the model underneath Chapters 00:00 Audience First SEO 02:19 ClickFlow Content Workflow 07:48 Atlassian and SaaS Moats 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Vercel's Guillermo Rauch says agent-led growth replaces product-led growth: let agents adopt your product first, take meetings only if you have to, and treat months of meetings as the signal that this was never your customer. Eric runs it against the Higgsfield playbook, zero to $400M ARR in fourteen months on daily X launches and thousands of creators posting every day. It closes on Leopold's LP letter, Charlie Munger's three ways to go broke, and what four turns of leverage does to a 20% drawdown. Key takeaways◾If an agent cannot discover, read, and use your product, you are invisible to the next buyer◾Distribution at Higgsfield's pace is a daily habit, not a campaign◾Leverage turns a recoverable drawdown into an unrecoverable one Chapters00:00 From PLG to ALG02:48 AI Distribution Machines10:35 Leverage, Risk, and Scale

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire A Procter & Gamble study shows every single role is now part marketing and part engineering, whatever the job title says. Eric maps it to the Coinbase pot-of-one idea and admits he builds more than he used to. From there: how Palantir landed and expanded on the cheap with forward-deployed engineers, why today's wow is tomorrow's average, and a long practical walkthrough of running ChatGPT Voice as a hands-free agent that controls the other agents on his machine. Key takeaways◾Every role is converging on part marketer, part builder, regardless of title◾Forward-deployed engineering is a sales motion, not an engineering one◾Voice is the interface that makes an agent stack usable while you do other things Chapters00:00 Everyone Becomes a Builder07:50 AI Changes Workflows12:47 Voice Agents at Work

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Would you burn an entire year of profit, walk away from your core customer, and bet the company on unproven technology that falls flat for its first twelve months? That is the decision NVIDIA actually made, and Eric walks through it from Thinking Machine. Neil answers honestly. The back half turns personal: Neil is recording from Legoland mid-vacation, and the two get into what it took to actually take the time off, being alone with his kids for the first time, and what that trade looks like when you run a company. Key takeaways◾The bets that look reckless in year one are the ones with no competition in year five◾Founder control is what makes an unpopular decade-long bet survivable◾Time off is an operating decision, not a reward you earn later Chapters00:00 Nvidia's Big Bet04:18 The Sega Deal and Near-Bankruptcy08:59 Six Flat Years After CUDA12:14 Vacation and Family Life17:52 Bored on Vacation, Hunting Deals

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Airtable sold to Bending Spoons for $1.25B in cash, and the internet immediately called it a down round. Eric pulls up Jason Lemkin's numbers and the actual purchase agreement to show what really happened: 3.1x ARR growth since 2021, $900M sitting in the bank, and a reorganization that carved the HyperAgent business out into its own entity before the deal closed. Then Alfred Lin's Empire State Building versus Millennium Tower piece on why speed is the core operating value, and why Jensen Huang has never fired anyone. Key takeaways◾A headline acquisition price tells you almost nothing until you read the reorg clause◾Speed is not a nice-to-have operating value, it is the one that compounds◾Public, brutal feedback can retain people better than quiet firing does Chapters00:00 Airtable Deal Breakdown03:20 Bending Spoons Playbook06:06 Speed Above All09:41 Jensen's Tough Love

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric listens to two people argue organic content versus paid ads and calls the whole debate stupid, because the answer is both. From there into the ROI of podcasting after nearly ten years of doing this one, using the Forbes highest-paid list as a reality check, and finally why recruiting is higher leverage than managing when you are small. Key takeaways ◾ Content versus paid is a false binary, and the answer is both ◾ Buying growth can beat building it, if you know what you are buying ◾ Recruit better people and you spend less time managing them Chapters 00:00 Content vs paid ads 05:53 The ROI of podcasting 07:53 Sponsor break 10:51 Recruiting beats managing

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire A full, honest audit of their own social strategy. They set a 2025 plan to ramp volume, raise quality and lean more personal, and here they grade it. Neil puts social at two to three percent of attributable revenue, explains why it works for mid-market and SMB but not for enterprise, and makes the point that an enterprise logo on a five thousand dollar contract is not an enterprise deal. Eric breaks down the webinar formats that convert and why he copies proven ones rather than inventing his own. Key takeaways ◾ Social is 2 to 3% of attributable revenue, and still worth doing ◾ Social opens enterprise doors but rarely closes enterprise contracts ◾ Copy the formats that already convert instead of building from scratch Chapters 00:00 Our 2025 social plan vs mid-2026 reality 07:46 Sponsor break

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil spends 60 to 70% of his time reaching out to companies to buy, and explains when he wants founders to stay and when he does not, plus where global agency RFPs actually come from. Eric makes the case for open weights in marketing, where models like GLM 5.2 and Kimi K3 cut costs 25 to 100x on high-volume creative work. They then get into what nobody in his AI executive group could answer: how you actually measure the ROI of AI, why token usage is a terrible metric, and why revenue per employee is a better one. Closes on Jensen Huang's first post and Anthropic's MCP release finally being practical for non-technical marketers. Key takeaways ◾ Open weights cut 25 to 100x on high-volume creative, and that is the marketing case ◾ Measure AI on revenue per employee, not on token spend ◾ The CEOs who spent last year cutting headcount have quietly backtracked Chapters 00:00 How Neil splits his time: recruiting and buying companies 01:05 Buying businesses, and whether founders stay 03:17 Where the global RFPs actually come from 06:33 Why open weights matter for marketing 09:46 Measuring the ROI of AI 12:59 Sponsor break 17:00 Jensen Huang's first post and the open-weights letter 23:34 MCPs get practical

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil and Eric open on Google going negative on free cash flow to win the AI race, and ask whether it is a reckless bet or the only move a company with that much distribution can make. They use Naval's point about cheap software pushing value toward vertically integrated businesses to explain why agencies are turning into “brains”, including what the Google Ads team told Eric about traditional agencies this week, and finish on ChatGPT Voice as a genuine daily operating tool rather than a novelty. Key takeaways ◾ Google is spending free cash flow, not spare cash, to win AI ◾ Cheap software moves the value to vertically integrated, opinionated businesses ◾ Voice is turning AI from a tool you open into a system you run the day on Chapters 00:00 Google's AI cash bet 03:40 Naval: cheap software moves value to verticals 05:30 Agencies evolve into brains 08:22 ChatGPT Voice as a daily command centre 10:12 Sponsor break 14:47 Which AI companies do you trust with your data? 17:35 Agentic recruiting workflows

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric ran Sol 5.6 against Fable 5 on real marketing work: an Amazon investment analysis, one-shot website builds, YouTube thumbnails that hit 6-7% CTR, and clip selection with hooks. His verdict: Sol finishes jobs with less back and forth. Neil's rule: never marry one model. Then why 62% direct traffic means brand is working, the AI-native org structure Eric's team published, and both hosts' hiring anti-pitch: passion, standards, and moving fast on people. Key takeaways ◾Judge models on finished jobs, not clever answers ◾Direct traffic is the scoreboard for brand strength ◾Hire people who tell you what to do, and move quickly when it's not working Chapters 00:00 Testing AI Models for Marketing 07:09 Brand Power Drives Direct Traffic 09:29 Building AI-Native Teams 21:04 Hiring, Standards, and Anti-Selling 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire A VC asked Eric the classic question about SingleBrain: if anyone can build it, what's the moat? His answer: maintenance, optimization, and upgrades are the real business. Then Ben Affleck sells InterPositive to Netflix for $587M in cash: a 16-person team that taught AI how real films are made. Chamath's warning on restricting Chinese AI models, and a full masterclass on networks: the double opt-in, Neil's box-derby story that led to a Hearst introduction, and why you build a network by not trying to. Key takeaways ◾Industry craft is the moat: vertical tools built by people who know the work win ◾Target buyers who pay for outcomes, not tech teams who build in-house ◾Networks compound through genuine relationships, not business cards Chapters 00:00 Netflix Buys AI Startup 07:08 AI Tools and Industry Craft 09:00 How Real Networks Grow 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric shares Sahil Lavingia's chart: June 2026 was the first month Gumroad spent as much on AI tokens as on human payroll. They debate what that means at scale, then dig into Elon's Economist interview: AI timelines, universal income, fear marketing, and why 87% of Chinese respondents are net positive on AI while most Americans are afraid. Eric closes on open-source models catching the frontier and why regulation can't put the genie back. Key takeaways ◾AI spend matching payroll is coming for more companies; the only question is speed ◾Fear is a marketing choice: how leaders talk about AI shapes adoption ◾Open-source models catching up changes the whole regulatory debate Chapters 00:00 Gumroad's AI Payroll Shift 01:59 Elon's AI Future Debate 07:48 Free Markets vs Regulation 08:33 Home Base and New Deals 11:11 Organic Growth and Enterprise Sales 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric brings marketing lessons from Lake Como: a fourth-generation craftsman selling $1,000-quality shoes for $150, and why a couple of grand a month on a hotel display case beats most ad spend. Then the World Cup: Haaland won the brand game, and Beckham proves popularity is not the same thing as profit. Neil shows ChatGPT at 77 on Google Trends vs Claude at 19, while Anthropic wins on revenue. They close on Junior Bridgman's quiet path from NBA bench to $1.4 billion and IM8's billion from General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund. Key takeaways ◾The best-known brand is not automatically the most profitable business ◾Compounding beats stardom: interest plus time wins ◾Sometimes the right move is not scaling Chapters 00:00 Marketing Lessons from a Lake Como Conference 03:10 World Cup Brand Power 08:27 Compute and AI Constraints 13:12 Behind the Scenes at Events 14:43 Beckham and Business Compounding 17:12 Raising a Billion for Growth 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric tested GPT Sol 5.6 against Claude Fable 5 on real marketing jobs: websites, thumbnails, clips, recruiting, and growth analysis. Final score: Sol 4, Fable 0 - even though Fable had better ideas and design. They also unpack Anthropic and Blackstone's $1.5B bet that implementation is the next trillion-dollar AI business, model wars, valuations, and why marketing pressure is finally easing. Key takeaways ◾The new model benchmark is finishing jobs, not sounding smart ◾Implementation, not models, is the next AI gold rush ◾Expectations are normalizing: marketing pressure is easing Chapters 00:00 Sol 5.6 vs Fable 5 and the model wars 08:24 Chips, bottlenecks, and AI demand 09:41 Valuations, PE, and services 18:19 Marketing pressure is easing 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric shows Neil the AI marketing loops Single Grain actually has live: a CRO loop, an AEO/SEO loop that drafts TOFU-MOFU-BOFU content straight to the CMS, and a sponsorship loop that negotiates $25k minimums on its own. Plus why you should stop using LLMs for math and route tokens to cheap deterministic systems, and how compounding loops beat one-off prompts. Key takeaways ◾Loops that report back and improve beat one-off prompts ◾Route math to deterministic systems, not LLMs ◾A sponsorship loop can handle the back and forth for you Chapters 00:00 Stop using LLMs for math: token routing 03:50 AI marketing loops you should build today 07:05 Travel, recruiting, and follow-up 11:48 Cold calling and the brand payoff 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil and Eric answer the question Eric asked a room of 9-10 figure operators: what part of your company would you rebuild from scratch if AI were native from day one? They dig into fully automated recruiting funnels, the dentist model for agencies where seniors diagnose and agents do the repetitive work, and why SEO conferences feel like they are lagging the actual market. Key takeaways ◾Almost every operator would rebuild recruiting first ◾The new agency model: humans diagnose, agents execute ◾SEO is lagging: AEO and agents are where attention is going Chapters 00:00 What would you rebuild from scratch with AI? 02:28 AI-powered recruiting and deals 05:32 The new agency model: everyone as a dentist 08:15 MozCon and why SEO is lagging 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil and Eric break down what Eric learned hosting a dinner of 9-10 figure AI operators, and why AI is forcing companies to redesign compensation. They get into AI margin expansion showing up in boring workflows, the burnout wave hitting tech, and how to keep pay fair when AI-native A-players produce 5-10x output. A candid episode on incentives, culture, and looking after your team while everything changes. Key takeaways ◾9-10 figure operators would rebuild recruiting and ops AI-native first ◾AI-native A-players break same-title salary bands ◾Margin wins are hiding in boring workflows, not sexy demos Chapters 00:00 What a 9-10 figure AI operators dinner revealed 03:07 AI margins and compensation 07:32 Burnout and the tech survey 15:18 AI productivity and fair pay 17:30 Fairness, sacrifice, and culture 21:45 Supporting sick team members 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric and Neil go behind the scenes on raising for SingleBrain: building a clean story for VCs, what the numbers have to say, and how to position a services-plus-software narrative. They cover conference networking that actually compounds, managed revenue agents as a new service line, and why creators are becoming real channel partners that drive B2B pipeline, not just awareness. Key takeaways ◾VCs buy a clean story before they buy the numbers ◾Managed revenue agents are a new service line ◾Creators are becoming channel partners, not just reach Chapters 00:00 Raising for SingleBrain 08:49 A clean story for VCs 12:19 Conference networking strategy 13:11 Managed revenue agents 20:32 Creators as channel partners 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil and Eric argue the B2B website is turning into a sales rep, a proof engine that has to sell before the sales call. From there the conversation turns to investing and business economics: betting on SpaceX, treasury strategy, debt versus venture, and the mechanics of buying distressed businesses. A candid look at how operators think about risk, leverage, and where durable value gets created. Key takeaways ◾Your website has to sell before the sales call ◾Debt vs venture changes who controls the outcome ◾Distressed businesses can be the best entry point Chapters 00:00 Websites are becoming sales reps 02:09 Betting on SpaceX 05:53 Debt versus venture 10:49 Buying distressed businesses 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil and Eric dig into AI search visibility: why your brand may be invisible when buyers ask ChatGPT, how organic click behavior is changing, and what still moves revenue. They react to Kai-Fu Lee's prediction that 50% of companies will need new leadership and that 95%+ of AI transformations fail, then break down a survey showing 89% of teams now give AI agents write access, up from 52%, and what that means for security, governance, and permissioning. Key takeaways ◾Track visibility in answer engines, not just Google ◾95% of AI transformations fail by bolting AI on the edges ◾Agent write-access is exploding, so is the security opportunity Chapters 00:00 Your brand is invisible in AI search 04:27 AI leadership shift (Kai-Fu Lee) 10:20 Bottom-funnel marketing wins 12:50 AI permissions and security 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil and Eric explain why software itself is becoming the best marketing channel: free tools, calculators, agents, and lightweight products now do the demand-gen work blog posts used to do. They break down how every feature launch becomes a marketable moment, why free products drive outsized buzz, and how conferences and events still generate real pipeline when you show up to give rather than sell. Plus how they think about valuing AI-pilled talent and staying focused. Key takeaways ◾Software is the new lead magnet, not the PDF ◾Every feature launch is a marketable moment ◾Win the hallways at events, don't just speak Chapters 00:00 Software is becoming marketing 03:03 Free products drive buzz 06:59 Events and conferences as lead gen 14:41 Valuing AI-pilled talent 19:58 Vision boards and focus 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric breaks down what Marc Andreessen calls the single best marketing strategy he has ever seen: Alex Karp goes on CNBC and talks about the military, super intelligence, and AI sovereignty while barely naming his own company, and the number behind it is striking. They contrast it with Snap, where Evan Spiegel talked up the future of his 2,000 dollar Spectacles instead of the product and watched a billion in market cap evaporate. From there it is Jason Lemkin's ICONIQ quota data, the reports Neil actually reads every morning, his "you have a budget problem, not a money problem" framework, and the command through negation directive Eric now sends four times a day. They close on Skills Dojo, their new free GitHub for marketers. The strategy is hiding in plain sight, and the number proves it works. Key takeaways ◾Talk about what people care about and let your company sit attached to it ◾Thought leadership can outpull product marketing with enterprise buyers ◾Chase specific, actionable reports over dashboards that just look busy Chapters 00:00 Karp never mentions Palantir 01:00 The best strategy Andreessen's seen 01:27 The Seinfeld method 01:37 Nobody read the S1 01:48 Thought leadership beats product 3-to-1 02:10 Why Karp owns the mindshare 03:04 When it backfires: Snap Spectacles 04:30 Snap's market cap collapse 05:02 The shocking sales quota data 06:38 What the quota shift means 07:49 AI SDRs and deal revivers 08:26 The all-in-one CRM sprawl 09:55 The reports Neil actually reads 11:27 RFP counts by region 14:21 Signal, not dashboards 14:50 "You have a budget problem" 18:03 Jamie Dimon: no money problem 19:41 Command through negation 20:52 Getting your team to take risks 22:00 Skills Dojo: GitHub for marketers 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric pulls up a Financial Times chart showing that the companies spending most on AI are hiring more people, not fewer, and he and Neil use it to take apart the everyone-loses narrative. Neil recounts debating Search Atlas co-founder Monik, who is convinced AI will gut white collar work, and explains why he is seeing the exact opposite across thousands of client companies. They run the historical receipts on radiology, ATMs, and the spreadsheet, argue over whether Google is simply bloated, and look at why HighLevel scaled from 2,000 to roughly 3,000 staff. A detour into an employee who stole from both their companies turns into a lesson on where to spend your attention. The headline fear is loud, but the data underneath tells a different story. Key takeaways ◾Companies with the highest AI adoption are growing headcount, not cutting it ◾Efficiency raises demand, so you end up needing more engineers ◾Every past automation scare created more jobs than it destroyed Chapters 00:00 The FT chart everyone misreads 00:52 We're only seven months in 01:20 The white-collar reduction debate 02:26 Why Google looks bloated 03:27 Efficiency means more engineers 04:14 Do more or charge less 05:04 AI creates abundance, not scarcity 05:49 Radiology, ATMs and spreadsheets 06:34 Who pays if the jobs vanish? 08:13 The AI bubble chart 09:25 Only 12 of 8,000 are AI-pilled 09:55 HighLevel's jump to 3,000 staff 11:33 Most companies only do table stakes 12:14 The employee who stole from both 14:42 The lesson: just move on 15:14 The billionaire who destroys rivals 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire After Anthropic quietly shipped a Figma competitor and handed Figma only a basic version of its updated design tool, Eric and Neil dig into the David Sachs warning that is rattling founders: feed the frontier labs all your context and data, and you hand them everything they need to compete with you. They walk through why Claude keeps your context after you leave, why GLM 5.2 on Open Router runs a fraction of the cost, and Microsoft's 2.5 billion dollar "your data is your data" pitch. The conversation turns to the forward deployed marketer, the two clashing cultures inside every agency right now, and why some AI-forward shops are trading at more than 30 times profit. Eric even demos the business video game he built over a weekend. The tools are incredible, but whose competitor you become depends on what you give away. Key takeaways ◾Whoever holds your context and data can build your competitor ◾Open weights like GLM 5.2 buy you control and far lower cost ◾AI native is a culture, not a tool your team quietly ignores Chapters 00:00 Who controls your AI stack 00:22 Anthropic undercuts Figma 00:38 David Sachs on AI sovereignty 01:28 Why Claude keeps your context 01:51 Open weights save money and control 02:11 The Figma board bombshell 03:26 Microsoft's $2.5B data promise 04:12 Trusting the frontier labs less 05:35 GLM 5.2 and Open Router 06:03 Eric's business video game 09:27 The forward deployed marketer 10:42 Two cultures under one roof 12:54 AI as truth revealer 13:52 Agency valuations getting cut 15:04 Buying agencies for 2x profit 18:02 When you still need account managers 20:50 Marketing region by region 21:41 The relationship-first culture 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric opens with Eli Schwartz's viral take that the AEO panic is the best thing to happen to SEO budgets in years, and he and Neil unpack why every CMO is suddenly fighting over who owns answer engine optimization. They dig into why brands keep asking to just buy a tool like Profound, why publishing AI listicles is the new keyword stuffing, and how ChatGPT actually only crawls your own site a fraction of the time. Neil shares real agency data on the gap between SEO and GEO budgets that surprises even Eric, then they test which agencies the LLMs actually cite, from Seer and Wil Reynolds to iPullRank. They land on why brand, an omni-channel presence, and a human in the loop still decide who wins. The panic is real, but the money is not moving where you think. Key takeaways ◾AEO and SEO are far more tightly linked than the panic suggests ◾LLMs weigh what the whole web says about you, not just your own site ◾Buying a tracking tool is not a strategy when everyone can buy it too Chapters 00:00 The AEO panic explained 01:04 When SEO lived inside product 01:55 Why SEO budgets aren't shifting yet 02:50 What the panic really is 03:37 Losing pitches without technical SEO 04:15 "Can't we just buy a tool?" 04:49 Why publishing listicles fails 06:26 Software and services converge 07:22 Query fanouts and getting cited everywhere 09:22 SEO vs GEO budgets: 11x apart 11:12 Testing the agency queries 12:42 Profound pivots to done-for-you 13:44 Is the data really cleaner? 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric and Neil open on "founder mode" — Brian Chesky stripping out professional C-suite layers at Airbnb, the Flexport founder returning to reignite growth, and Steve Jobs' comeback at Apple — arguing that every time a founder retook the wheel, the company accelerated. They answer two live audience questions: whether AI will disrupt B2B video agencies (reinvest efficiency gains into more value, don't drop prices) and whether CPG multiples will overtake SaaS. The episode closes with an early read on ChatGPT's advertising platform, a candid crypto-vs-SaaS-vs-AI sentiment check, and Warren Buffett's rule on long-term holding. Key takeaways ◾ Founder mode beats hired-management mode — Airbnb, Flexport and Apple all prove the pattern ◾ AI won't kill video agencies, but it exposes the ones not delivering value — reinvest the gains, don't cut prices ◾ ChatGPT ads are an early-mover window — 900M weekly users, ~25¢ clicks, get in before the cost rises Chapters 0:00 Founder mode: Airbnb, Flexport, Apple 1:21 Will AI kill video agencies? 5:07 CPG vs SaaS multiples 5:53 ChatGPT ads and LLM traffic 8:43 Crypto vs SaaS outlook 13:14 Warren Buffett: invest in yourself 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric opens with a Jeff Bezos maxim from a Walter Isaacson interview: never hire your friends if you're under 40, but always hire them after 40, once you have the pattern recognition to know who to trust. Neil adds his own rule: hire deep specialists over generalists, down to the specific platform. The conversation then breaks down Ramp's data on AI token spend — how the same budget buys wildly different volumes across model tiers — and builds the framework: cheap models for routine work, frontier models only for genuinely ambiguous, high-stakes problems. The episode closes on token waste, "AI theater" inside companies, Eric's "nail it before you scale it" rule, and why AI-enabled agencies are trading at 22-30X multiples. Key takeaways ◾ Under 40 you lack the pattern recognition to hire friends safely — after 40 it becomes a competitive advantage ◾ Match the model tier to the task: frontier models for novel high-stakes problems, cheap models for everything routine ◾ Nail the workflow manually before you automate it — automating a mess just scales the mess Chapters 0:00 Bezos: never hire friends under 40 2:21 Hire deep specialists not generalists 3:48 $100k in AI: which model wins? 9:53 Token waste and AI theater 11:27 Nail it before you scale it 16:25 AI agencies hit 30X multiples 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric and Neil unpack Greg Isenberg's tweet on the most valuable marketing skills right now, working through community building, storytelling, the forward deployed marketer model, data literacy, and relentless experimentation. They flag the "abdication of intelligence" trap: using AI without judgment turns capable marketers into slop cannons, while people who can show real agent deployments separate themselves from the pretenders. Neil makes the case for deep networking as an underrated force multiplier, then Eric raises Aaron Levie's prediction that agents will use software 100x more than people, shifting the game toward agent-ready content, products, and skills libraries. A practical episode on building the AI-native marketing skill set before everyone else does. Key takeaways ◾ The forward deployed marketer is replacing the agency model — one AI-fluent marketer who deploys and maintains agents end-to-end ◾ When agents use software 100x more than humans, agent-ready content, APIs and data sources win the citations ◾ AI becomes the abdication of intelligence the moment you stop applying judgment to its output Chapters 0:00 The most valuable skills right now 2:18 The forward deployed marketer model 4:07 Data literacy and the AI abdication trap 8:07 Why experiments beat imitation 12:27 Networking as a force multiplier 19:48 Agents will use software 100x more 21:51 Claude Tag and context lock-in 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil and Eric open by dissecting LVMH's 16 straight quarters of decelerating growth, arguing the COVID spike distorts the story and that 172-year-old brand power, not a handbag, is what makes luxury houses durable. They break down Sundar Pichai's warning that anyone who skips learning to orchestrate AI agents today will spend 2027 playing catch-up, then dig into Google actively building AI spam defenders to keep generative slop out of AI Overviews. Eric closes on Eli Schwartz's viral post that reduces all of AEO to three plain words: be unique, be helpful, be agent-ready. A sharp episode on brand moats, the compounding AI agent gap, and the only SEO play with a real shelf life. Key takeaways ◾ Brand power compounds over centuries, not quarters — LVMH's dip looks worse than it is once you strip out the COVID bump ◾ The AI agent gap compounds every day — start orchestrating agents now or risk never catching up by 2027 ◾ Every AEO tactic built to game the algorithm has a shelf life — the only durable play is "be unique, be helpful, be agent-ready" Chapters 0:00 LVMH's 16 quarters of decline 4:41 Sundar Pichai: learn agents now 6:51 Does AI volume drive revenue? 8:34 Google's AI spam defenders 12:23 Eli Schwartz's 3 AEO pillars 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

"No one's prompting anymore. Everyone just uses loops." That one line from Matt Van Horn kicked off a 3.4M-view firestorm, so Eric Siu sat him down to explain what he actually meant. Chapters 00:00 "Nobody's prompting anymore" — and who Matt Van Horn is 03:00 What a loop actually is 04:57 The AI "money printer" that made $0 06:05 Why the barrier to building anything just collapsed 08:30 How to point loops at your own business 10:50 Printing Press: hidden APIs + self-learning CLIs 18:00 Last 30 Days: the agentic search engine 23:04 Watch: the "Flight Goat" launch video (1.3M views, built with Hyperframes) 27:30 The "MVH skill" — one skill to automate everything 34:30 Agent Cookie: always-logged-in agents 41:00 Terminal apps & why CLI beats clicking 46:00 AI inequality & the cost advantage 47:00 The one move: start now, be the nerd Connect with Matt Van Horn: @mvanhorn on X · printingpress.dev Marketing School is the daily marketing podcast with Eric Siu & Neil Patel. Subscribe for the tactics, tools and AI shifts shaping how modern businesses grow.

Need Marketing Help? https://npdigital.com/ Neil Patel breaks down what's actually changed in e-commerce, and why the brands winning right now are the ones adapting to AI search before everyone else. In this session, Neil shares the data behind the new buying behavior: why AI search (GEO) is quietly becoming the highest-converting channel he's ever measured, how shoppers now research and buy across ChatGPT, Reddit, Instagram, and Amazon, and the exact things you need to fix so AI agents actually recommend your products. Chapters: 00:00 Intro: 25 years of marketing data 00:50 The new e-commerce landscape 03:45 Why buyers need multiple touchpoints 05:25 Buy now, pay later & economic uncertainty 07:30 How each generation shops and spends 09:35 Trust: the real conversion lever 10:50 AI search (GEO) is reshaping discovery 13:45 The invisible conversions you're missing 15:00 AI search: the highest-converting channel 16:15 Why people really buy on social 18:45 Social commerce habits by generation 20:50 Using influencers the right way 22:05 Applying AI to the customer journey 23:20 Why your offer beats your strategy 27:55 Prepare your products for AI agents 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric reveals how he's restructuring his entire company around AI agents, building what he calls a "single brain" that connects every tool and data source into one unified intelligence. He breaks down the four levels of AI adoption, why 91% of enterprises are failing at implementation, and how an org chart of specialist agents, fleet commanders, and closed loops lets one human operate like a 10x team member. Along the way he shares practical tactics: spinning up hundreds of ad creative variations, building cold email infrastructure, finding $500K in savings with a CFO agent, slashing token costs, and optimizing for the coming wave of agent-driven buying (B2A). Key takeaways ◾A connected "single brain" beats isolated AI tools ◾One human plus five agents equals a 10x team member ◾Optimize for agents now, because they're the new buyers Chapters 00:00 Implementing AI and the single brain concept 00:47 The four levels of AI adoption 02:28 Why only 9% of enterprises are scaling AI 04:27 What single brain actually looks like 05:31 Connecting your tools into one brain 06:14 The agent org chart explained 07:19 Designing for specialist agents 09:35 Giving every team member their own fleet 10:52 Do-it-yourself vs done-with-you 11:23 End-to-end workflows explained 12:03 Building loops and the org chart of the future 13:55 Compressing time with instant data 15:05 Combining agents for ad creative at scale 17:04 Prompt in, campaign out 18:46 The CFO agent that found $500K in savings 19:17 Driving token costs down 20:50 Agents are the new buyers (B2A) 22:00 Optimizing your software for agents 24:03 Three moves by Friday 26:18 Building leverage and staying ahead 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Everyone's pouring money into shiny AI marketing. Neil Patel and Eric Siu think most of it is a trap. Live from the Social Commerce Summit, they break down what AI will NEVER replace, the "boring and ugly" tactics still quietly printing money, and the moves you should actually be making instead. In this episode: - The "clipping economy" and why a 10-person podcast is on track for $30M - Why boring, ugly fundamentals still beat the sexy AI use cases - The email "make money button" that's made one marketer millions - What AI can't take away: distribution, brand, strategy, community and the human touch - How social commerce is quietly rewriting the org chart (armies of creators) - Using AI to expand globally fast (and where the easy revenue actually is) Chapters: 0:00 10 years of Marketing School, live on stage 0:35 The clipping economy (TBPN, $30M, OpenAI) 2:18 Why boring & ugly still beats shiny AI 4:54 What AI won't replace: distribution & brand 5:07 Stop building "AI theater" — automate what already works 7:02 Distribution & brand can't be taken from you 7:40 The email "make money button" (MarketBeat) 8:40 AI won't replace original strategy 9:54 Why AI keeps giving you the wrong answer 11:19 Community & events: the 18-year-old's bet 14:04 The human touch: customer success is going parabolic 17:52 When customers want a human, not AI 18:13 Social commerce is rewriting the org chart 19:47 Clipping + affiliates at scale 20:23 Founder-led content & high-leverage thinking 21:18 Use AI to expand globally, fast 23:51 Wrap up Marketing School is the daily marketing podcast from Neil Patel and Eric Siu. New episodes break down the tactics, trends and tools moving marketing right now. Subscribe for daily marketing tips from Neil & Eric. #marketing #AImarketing #ecommerce #NeilPatel #EricSiu

Neil Patel and Eric Siu go deep on what's actually changing in business right now: why trading ideas faster (not a bigger brain) is the real unfair advantage, how AI agents like Hermes and OpenClaw break when you overload them, and the hidden token bill that's quietly eating the savings companies expected from replacing headcount. They also cover how to show up inside ChatGPT and AI search, where agencies still earn their fees, the comeback of Dell and on-prem AI infrastructure, and when reinventing (or even selling) a business is the highest-leverage move you can make. Chapters 00:00 Why trading ideas (not bigger brains) drove human progress 16:26 7 ways to show up in LLMs and AI search 17:28 Where agencies still earn their fees in the AI era 33:56 Using AI agents (Hermes, OpenClaw, Picasso) without overloading them 49:41 The hidden token bill eating your AI savings 50:10 The comeback of Dell and on-prem AI infrastructure 1:05:09 Reinventing your business by mode: startup, growth, mature 1:05:34 When selling a dying business is the smart move 1:15:27 Alexa, Amazon ads and the new AI search land grab

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Eric and Neil break down why token maxxing is dead. Cognition is betting that AI should be priced on outcomes rather than token usage, with adaptive routing, spend attribution, and an AI productivity guarantee that funds your usage if Devin delivers less value than you pay for. They unpack the rise of the forward-deployed marketer, the most valuable hire in marketing that almost nobody is staffing for, why AI only matters when it moves real KPIs, and the one question that compounds your results over a decade: what is the highest-leverage thing I can do with my time today? Key Takeaways: • Token usage is a poor way to measure productivity. Price AI on business outcomes instead. • The forward-deployed marketer owns the client outcome while agents do the labor, and it is the hire almost nobody is staffing for. • Ask one question every day: what is the highest-leverage thing I can do with my time? Compound that for 10 years. Chapters: 00:00 Token Maxxing Is Dead (Cognition) 02:17 The Forward-Deployed Marketer 04:06 AI Only Counts If It Moves KPIs 06:10 The Highest-Leverage Question 09:49 Reinventing A Dying Business 11:08 Neil's Brutal Travel Schedule 15:13 AI Fluency And The Wealth Gap 18:39 Search Is Going Conversational 21:26 Apple's Long Game On Hardware 23:15 The Steve Jobs NeXT Lesson 24:50 The AI Deception Eval 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric and Neil rank the latest AI tools they've tested for marketing, from autonomous agents like Hermes, OpenClaw, Codex, and Cloud Code to MCPs from HeyGen, Riverside, and Beehiiv. They break down why overloading agents makes them degrade fast, the real dollar value behind $200/month ChatGPT Pro vs Claude Max subscriptions, and how token costs are quietly blowing up company budgets. Plus the Anthropic IPO winners, smart token routing, and why selling AI services feels completely different from selling agency work. Key takeaways ◾Overloading AI agents makes them degrade fast ◾ChatGPT subsidizes far more value than Claude per dollar ◾Token costs are quietly wrecking company budgets Chapters 00:00 Ranking the latest AI tools 01:30 Forking agents to build cold outbound 03:20 Where Hermes and OpenClaw fail 04:30 ChatGPT Pro vs Claude Max value 07:40 Favorite MCPs: HeyGen, Riverside, Beehiiv 09:50 Why Anthropic stays quiet on disruption 11:30 Anthropic IPO winners 14:30 Betting on the Spurs 17:30 Karrot personalized LinkedIn ads break 18:30 The real cost of Pro subscriptions 22:00 Token routing and rising AI costs 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 📩Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil and Eric dig into McKinsey shifting a quarter of its fees to outcome-based pricing and what that means for agencies built on billable hours. Then they run through seven AI marketing trends for 2026: hiring AI-pilled marketers, optimizing for agents instead of just LLMs, AI-built sites and landing pages, integrating directly into LLMs over chasing their traffic, the documentation boom, the backlash against using AI to market to AI, and why HTML artifacts are becoming the new way to package and share ideas. Key takeaways ◾Outcome-based pricing is reshaping how agencies charge ◾Optimize for agents and integrations, not just LLM traffic ◾Using AI content to win inside LLMs will get discounted Chapters 00:00 McKinsey goes outcome-based pricing 01:01 How outcome-based deals get structured 02:51 Quantum Black savings example 03:35 Why performance-based deals get renegotiated 04:53 Seven AI marketing trends for 2026 04:58 Trend 1: Hiring AI-pilled marketers 05:45 Trend 2: Optimizing for agents 07:57 ClickFlow AI SEO break 08:36 Trend 3: AI-built sites and landing pages 10:07 Trend 4: Integrating directly into LLMs 11:35 Trend 5: The documentation boom 12:32 Trend 6: Backlash against AI marketing to AI 14:15 Trend 7: HTML as a marketing trend 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil and Eric open with a fascinating look at how human progress accelerated 50,000 years ago — not because our brains got bigger, but because we started trading ideas. Key Takeaways ◾ Intelligence is a network property — the more ideas you trade, the smarter and faster you move ◾ 68% of Google searches now result in zero clicks, making brand citation the new ranking goal ◾ Seven AEO/SEO tactics still drive results: brand mentions, structured data, fresh content, longtail queries, third-party reviews, direct answers, and omnichannel Chapters 00:00 Human brains haven't changed in 200,000 years 02:30 Trading ideas as the engine of progress 05:10 AI accelerating idea exchange 07:20 Isolation regresses intelligence 09:45 Gatekeeping information kills momentum 11:00 Anthropic calls for AI slowdown 13:15 Claude's Fable 5 model breakdown 16:00 Microsoft's 100K engineers cautionary tale 18:10 Google zero-click searches hit 68% 21:00 Being cited vs. ranking — the new SEO goal 23:30 Fan-out queries and why SEO still matters 26:00 7 AEO and SEO tactics that work now 26:15 Tactic 1: Backlink gap for brand mentions 27:30 Tactic 2: Robust structured data 28:20 Tactic 3: Update top content frequently 29:30 Tactic 4: Target conversational longtail queries 31:00 Tactic 5: Third-party reviews and sentiment 32:30 Tactic 6: Lead with direct answers 33:30 Tactic 7: Go omnichannel 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Neil and Eric discuss the biggest AI bottleneck for companies: extracting internal knowledge and turning it into usable company context. They break down AI cost optimization, DeepSeek vs. frontier models, AI productivity guarantees, rising demand for AI implementation experts, and why channels like SEO, email marketing, SMS, direct mail, and live events still drive growth. They also cover how podcast mentions generate revenue and why AI is changing tasks more than eliminating jobs. Key Takeaways:• Company knowledge extraction is the next AI growth unlock.• AI adoption is shifting from token usage to measurable business output.• SEO, email, SMS, direct mail, and live events remain powerful marketing channels. Chapters:(00:00) AI’s Biggest Bottleneck(01:26) Knowledge Extraction Opportunity(02:09) AI Cost Optimization(04:43) AI Productivity Guarantee(06:02) AI Model Pricing Trends(08:48) Podcast Revenue Impact(10:21) AI Jobs And Hiring(12:37) Marketing Channels That Win(12:45) Direct Mail Marketing(13:11 Email) And SMS Marketing(13:51 Live) Events And Networking(14:17 SEO) And AI Overviews

Neil and Eric break down the AI coding wars between OpenAI and Anthropic, debating whether Claude Code or Codex is winning developer mindshare. They cover AI marketing tools, MCPs, APIs, Slack agent workflows, content strategy, and why pipeline matters more than vanity metrics. You’ll also hear insights on AI-powered productivity, ad creative feedback loops, Tesla self-driving, and the future of AI agents for marketers and operators. Key Takeaways: • Claude Code vs Codex is becoming the biggest AI developer workflow battle in 2026. • More content views do not always create more business pipeline or revenue. • AI workflows with APIs, agents, and feedback loops are replacing traditional software stacks. Chapters: (00:00) Claude vs OpenAI Debate (00:49) AI Market Share Discussion (01:46) Consumer Mindshare Shift (03:20) Spider Story & Tesla Talk (06:45) Best AI Marketing Tools (09:52) Venice AI & Privacy (11:37) AI Work Tools for 2026 (13:27) Claude Co-Work Productivity (15:23) AI Agents & SlashGoal (18:14) Unified AI Company Brain (20:33) Content Creates Pipeline (25:20) Creative Feedback Loops (26:39) Horizontal vs Vertical Video Debate

Neil and Eric break down Google’s latest AI search guidance, AEO and GEO myths, AI search optimization data from Ahrefs, ChatGPT citation trends, Google AI Overviews, and why YouTube visibility may matter more than traditional SEO signals. They also discuss the future of AI-powered shopping, agency growth opportunities, global marketing events, and lessons from international business travel. Learn what’s changing in SEO, how AI search is evolving, and where marketers should focus next. Key Takeaways:• SEO remains the foundation of AI search visibility.• YouTube mentions strongly correlate with AI brand visibility.• AI Overviews are reshaping informational search traffic. Chapters:(00:00) Google AI Search & SEO(02:01) AI Search Optimization Data(05:08) Schema Markup & AI Citations(05:43) YouTube Visibility Insights(06:18) AI Shopping Search Future(09:57) Jakarta Business Lessons(12:33) Web Summit & Agency Growth(13:06) Creative Agency Economics(15:43) Travel, Health & Productivity(17:08) Final Thoughts & Wrap-Up

Neil and Eric discuss why AI may be creating more jobs than it replaces, breaking down new JOLTS job openings data, AI’s impact on engineering and marketing teams, the rise of AI-powered product development, and why businesses are hiring more to keep up with faster innovation. They also explore AI agents, bot traffic surpassing human traffic, and what marketers must do to optimize for the future of search and growth. Key Takeaways: • AI is creating new job categories while increasing productivity across teams. • Faster product development is driving demand for more engineers and marketers. • Businesses must optimize for AI agents, bots, and humans simultaneously. Chapters: (00:00) AI and the Job Market (01:40) AI Creating More Jobs (03:02) Free Tools Growth Strategy (05:04) Engineering Productivity with AI (06:34) Why AI Drives Hiring (07:35) AI and B2B Software Growth (09:11) Product Marketing Becomes Critical (11:09) AI-Powered Team Communication (12:33) Personality Tests and Team Alignment (16:30) Should CEOs Be Deep in AI? (20:03) Bot Traffic Surpasses Humans (21:07) Optimizing for AI Agents

Neil and Eric discuss extreme startup culture, whether founders must work seven days a week to win, and the tradeoffs between success, longevity, and personal fulfillment. They break down lessons from a fast-growing startup, debate paid work trials, and explore how AI is creating high-leverage employees. The conversation also covers AI-powered content creation, social media growth, productivity, and why being early on trending topics often beats perfection. Key Takeaways:• Startup success often requires intensity, but sustainability matters.• AI boosts leverage, but original thinking still wins.• Speed and trend timing can outperform perfect execution. Chapters:(00:00) Startup Culture and 7-Day Workweeks(02:18) Success, Failure, and Life Goals(09:34) Hiring, Work Trials, and Talent(12:44) AI and the Rise of Super Employees(15:32) AI Content Creation Challenges(20:06) Building an AI Content Machine(24:06) Social Media Growth and AI Trends(25:22) Why Timing Beats Perfection

Hosted by Neil and Eric, this episode explores Meta advertising data, the 80/20 rule in e-commerce, Jeff Bezos’ views on AI and business impact, Claude Opus 4 dynamic workflows, AI-powered revenue opportunities, networking strategies for entrepreneurs, and how LLM traffic compares to traditional SEO traffic. Learn how top advertisers scale creative production, how AI can improve business operations, and why building a strong professional network matters more than ever. Key Takeaways: • Top Meta advertisers drive massive results through creative diversification. • Claude Opus 4 dynamic workflows can unlock new revenue opportunities. • Strong networks are built through content, events, and direct outreach. Chapters: (00:00) Meta Ads and the 80/20 Rule (02:05) Jeff Bezos on AI (03:41) Space Industry Competition (05:14) Business Impact vs Philanthropy (06:34) Claude Opus 4 Workflows (08:44) AI Revenue Opportunities (11:43) Building Your Network (17:29) LLM Traffic vs SEO Traffic

70% of SEO teams still haven’t restructured for AI, and Neil and Eric explain why that’s creating massive opportunities for AI-native professionals. They discuss how companies are struggling to adopt AI effectively, why most organizations already have the tools they need but fail to use them, the growing AI mindset gap between the US and China, and how businesses can build AI training systems that scale knowledge across teams. Learn how AI is reshaping hiring, SEO, marketing, and workplace productivity. Key Takeaways: • Most companies have AI tools but don’t fully use them • AI-native workers are gaining a major hiring advantage • Every company needs a system for AI training and skills sharing Chapters: (00:00) Why SEO Teams Aren’t Ready (00:33) The GEO Knowledge Gap (01:51) Why AI-Native Workers Win (03:08) AI Fraud and Security Risks (05:06) Companies Ignore Their AI Tools (08:01) What Chinese Teams Do Better (10:17) Why Young Workers Resist AI (11:53) Building an AI Skills Dojo (14:35) AI Training Systems That Scale

Neil and Eric break down how ChatGPT and Google treat Wikipedia differently, why AI search is reshaping SEO, and where AI-generated content wins or fails. They discuss AI content marketing, Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT citations, AI SEO workflows, content automation, 100x employees, ClickUp layoffs, and how creators can use AI for thumbnails, content updates, translations, and scaling marketing without sacrificing quality. • ChatGPT vs Google AI search signals • AI content marketing automation workflows • Why human-edited AI content wins Chapters: (00:00) ChatGPT vs Google Citations (01:31) AI Content Marketing Implications (03:25) Automating SEO Content Updates (05:41) Where AI Content Wins (09:53) AI Content Marketing Examples (13:48) ClickUp, AI, and Layoffs (15:52) The 100x Employee Debate (20:57) AI Stock Market Narratives (23:56) Building the 100x Organization

Neil and Eric discuss AI in business, hiring, marketing, and self-driving technology. They break down the trade-offs between Tesla and Mercedes autonomous driving, why AI should enhance employees instead of replace them, and how companies can use AI apprenticeships to scale talent faster. They also explore AI-powered workflows, marketing efficiency, Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT visibility, and the future of AI-driven business growth. Perfect for entrepreneurs, marketers, founders, and anyone adapting to the AI era. Key Takeaways: • AI creates leverage for employees who use it effectively • Marketing teams need more output, not just lower costs • Google AI Overviews cite brands more often than ChatGPT Chapters: (00:00) New Home and Tesla Trade-Offs (00:42) Business Trade-Offs Explained (03:02) AI Mastermind Costa Rica (05:17) AI Apprenticeship Strategy (07:50) Hiring Success and Failure Rates (09:15) AI Workflow Automation (10:53) Marketing Event in Colombia (11:44) AI and Marketing Jobs (14:26) AI Replacing Employees Debate (15:48) AI Adoption and Competitive Advantage (17:23) AI Overviews vs ChatGPT Visibility

Neil and Eric break down why clipping is taking over B2B tech media, why horizontal videos may outperform vertical content on X and LinkedIn, and how companies like Ramp, Lovable, and Replit are building content factories for distribution. They also unpack Google’s latest AI SEO guidance, including why traditional SEO still matters for GEO and AEO, plus the biggest AI SEO myths marketers keep falling for. Key Takeaways:• Why clipping is becoming the B2B content meta• Horizontal vs vertical video debate for engagement• Google confirms SEO still matters for AI search Chapters:(00:00) Clipping Takes Over Tech Media(01:39) Engineering Content For Clipping(02:45) Horizontal vs Vertical Video Debate(09:41) Google’s AI SEO Guidelines(11:25) Non-Commodity Content Explained(16:42) AI SEO Myths And GEO Hacks(20:09) Marketing A Beverly Hills Home(21:21) Pinterest And Vibe Marketing

Neil and Eric break down OpenClaw founder Peter Steinberger’s $1.3M AI token spend and what it reveals about lean AI startups, automation, and scaling with minimal payroll. They discuss Hermes vs OpenClaw, AI CMOs replacing marketers, why taste and experience still matter in business, Brian Chesky’s comments on people managers, and how AI tools like Claude and OpenAI guaranteed capacity are reshaping software, marketing, and hiring. Key Takeaways:• AI token spend is replacing traditional payroll costs• Experience and taste still outperform AI in marketing• Future managers must be player-coaches and contributors Chapters:(00:00) OpenClaw Token Spend(01:05) Hermes vs OpenClaw(03:49) AI CMO Debate(05:08) AI Can’t Replace Taste(06:24) ClickFlow AI SEO(07:05) Brian Chesky on Managers(09:08) OpenAI Guaranteed Capacity(10:09) Player-Coach Leadership(11:28) Hiring Young AI Talent

Neil and Eric break down why AI search tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews heavily cite listicles, why Google is cracking down on self-published SEO listicles, and how AI-generated content is causing major traffic declines. They also discuss GEO vs SEO, token optimization opportunities, Google’s AI search evolution, and the future of AI consulting, content marketing, and search rankings in the AI era. Key Takeaways: • AI search engines favor listicle content for citations • AI-generated SEO content can trigger massive traffic drops • Token optimization may become a billion-dollar AI service Chapters: (00:00) AI Search Loves Listicles (00:45) Google Cracks Down on SEO Spam (02:33) Short-Term SEO Tactics Fail (05:11) GEO Tools and AI Content Problems (07:16) AI Content Traffic Collapse (10:19) Google vs ChatGPT Search Future (12:00) Google AI Search Updates (14:21) Token Optimization Business Opportunity (16:30) AI Consulting and Token Control (18:47) The Future of AI Pricing

Neil and Eric unpack how to measure the real value of an X account beyond views, why LinkedIn drives 50x more leads for Neil, and the trap of chasing audience capture instead of revenue. They dig into ICP-focused content vs broad TAM plays, parabolic AI stocks like AXT and Lumentum tied to indium phosphide bottlenecks, and the storytelling lessons behind them. The episode closes with a sharp breakdown of rebranding, why Intercom launched Fin, and why Eric spun up Single Brain instead of bolting AI onto Single Grain. Key takeaways ◾Narrow ICP content beats broad views for revenue ◾AI supply chain bottlenecks are driving parabolic stocks ◾Focused brand offshoots convert better than mixed offerings Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Chapters 00:00 The real value of an X account 02:07 X vs LinkedIn for lead generation 04:00 Breaking down Neil's LinkedIn engagement 06:58 TAM by dollars, not population 10:48 Why chasing views hurts your business 14:05 Karrot LinkedIn personalised ads break 15:52 Parabolic AI stocks explained 16:37 The indium phosphide bottleneck 19:36 Storytelling and bottleneck lessons 20:59 Rebranding: Intercom to Fin 22:13 Single Grain to Single Brain 23:01 Keeping your brand focused 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil and Eric break down how to send 1 million emails a month for $100 using Amazon SES, why deliverability beats price when choosing an email provider, and the shared IP neighborhood trick Neil uses to protect inbox placement. They also unpack the "reply guy" strategy for going viral on X without followers, how social algorithms now reward interest graphs over follower counts, and why Neil stopped blasting YouTube videos to his full email list after the algorithm flagged it as bot traffic. A practical episode on cutting email costs, growing reach from zero, and gaming algorithms the right way. Key takeaways ◾Cheap email providers work, deliverability decides revenue ◾Reply guys win on X without big follower counts ◾Social algorithms reward engagement, not follower size Chapters 00:00 Send 1M emails for $100 a month 00:41 Email provider pricing breakdown 01:36 Why deliverability beats price 01:49 Shared IP neighborhood strategy 03:08 SendLayer mention 04:08 Reply guy strategy on X 05:52 ClickFlow AI SEO break 06:36 How to be a reply guy 07:27 Followers don't matter anymore 08:41 How social algorithms actually work 09:27 Email blasts for YouTube launches 10:23 Why blasting hurt Neil's videos 11:21 Neil's email review workflow 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil and Eric break down the etiquette of podcast collaborations, why giving raw recordings drives reach, and how a give-to-get mindset shapes long-term wins. They share lessons from speaking at the Social Commerce Summit, including QR code lead capture tactics, why case studies supercharge AI sales presentations, and how to calculate ROI on paid speaking gigs. A practical episode on collaboration, lead generation, and choosing the right events to grow your business. Key takeaways ◾Give raw recordings to maximize podcast reach ◾QR codes turn talks into qualified leads ◾Pay-to-speak events can deliver 40x returns Chapters 00:00 Podcast collaboration etiquette 03:00 Give-to-get philosophy 06:26 Social Commerce Summit recap 06:46 QR codes for lead capture 09:00 Lead qualification tradeoffs 11:52 Community in the AI era 12:17 ClickFlow AI content break 12:48 Conversion stats from the event 14:14 Single brain and AI implementation 16:01 Adding case studies to presentations 19:30 Getting paid to speak 20:33 Paying to speak for ROI 22:36 Criteria for paid speaking events 24:11 Calculating speaking ROI 26:04 HubSpot Inbound and brand-building events 27:29 Repurposing speaking clips 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Neil and Eric break down the etiquette of podcast collaborations, why giving raw recordings drives reach, and how a give-to-get mindset shapes long-term wins. They share lessons from speaking at the Social Commerce Summit, including QR code lead capture tactics, why case studies supercharge AI sales presentations, and how to calculate ROI on paid speaking gigs. A practical episode on collaboration, lead generation, and choosing the right events to grow your business. Key takeaways ◾Give raw recordings to maximize podcast reach ◾QR codes turn talks into qualified leads ◾Pay-to-speak events can deliver 40x returns Chapters 00:00 Podcast collaboration etiquette 03:00 Give-to-get philosophy 06:26 Social Commerce Summit recap 06:46 QR codes for lead capture 09:00 Lead qualification tradeoffs 11:52 Community in the AI era 12:17 ClickFlow AI content break 12:48 Conversion stats from the event 14:14 Single brain and AI implementation 16:01 Adding case studies to presentations 19:30 Getting paid to speak 20:33 Paying to speak for ROI 22:36 Criteria for paid speaking events 24:11 Calculating speaking ROI 26:04 HubSpot Inbound and brand-building events 27:29 Repurposing speaking clips 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Neil and Eric break down the rise of one-person startup teams, Coinbase’s “pod of one” model, AI-native company structures, and how AI agents are reshaping product, marketing, and service businesses. They discuss judgment as the ultimate competitive advantage, Amazon’s new supply chain services, China’s growing tech influence, and how startups can use AI automation to move faster, scale leaner, and build modern revenue systems powered by agents and infrastructure. Key Takeaways: ⬛️ One-person AI teams are changing startup operations ⬛️ Judgment becomes the most valuable business skill ⬛️ AI agents + automation drive scalable growth Chapters: (00:00) One-Person Startup Teams (00:34) Coinbase Pod Of One (01:48) AI Agents And Judgment (03:04) AI-Native Agency Models (06:23) Automation And Margins (07:25) Uber Growth Strategy (09:18) Amazon Supply Chain Service (10:48) AI Agents And Logistics (11:20) Favorite Snack Recommendations (14:00) Marketing Expansion Into China (16:12) SingleBrain AI Revenue Agents (18:46) OpenAI Symphony And AI Automation

Neil and Eric break down why autonomous AI commerce is accelerating after Stripe introduced agentic payments and Cloudflare enabled AI agents to create accounts, buy domains, and deploy apps autonomously. This episode explores AI agents with spending power, Google’s continued search growth in the AI era, hiring elite talent, scaling marketing channels, and the future of AI-driven business operations. Learn how companies like Google, Robinhood, and Coinbase are adapting to the AI economy. ⬛️ Stripe and Cloudflare unlock autonomous AI commerce ⬛️ Google search keeps growing with AI Mode ⬛️ A-player hiring creates massive business leverage Chapters: (00:00) Stripe gives AI agents spending power (00:40) Autonomous commerce and AI workflows (01:24) AI travel and bookkeeping agents (02:40) Future of fragmented AI ecosystems (04:25) Jevons paradox and AI demand growth (05:06) Brian Chesky on hiring elite talent (07:24) Google AI Mode revenue growth (09:45) The Hudson creator growth method (11:23) Why A-players change everything (17:13) Coinbase vs Robinhood crypto economics (20:25) Scaling marketing through expansion (23:24) Optimization versus premature scaling

Neil Patel and Eric Siu break down the rise of “token maxing,” why AI token spend without ROI is dangerous, and how companies like Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft are battling for AI dominance. They also cover TBPN’s X growth strategy, AI-powered advertising, enterprise AI services, and the marketing playbook behind Grüns’ $1.2B exit. A must-watch for marketers, founders, and AI operators looking to scale with smarter distribution, AI adoption, and performance marketing strategies. Key Takeaways: ⬛️ Token maxing without ROI creates dangerous incentives ⬛️ Google and Microsoft may dominate AI through distribution ⬛️ Grüns scaled to a $1.2B exit with message-match funnels Chapters: (00:00) TBPN’s X Ad Strategy (00:33) Mid-Form Content Growth (01:41) Monetizing Podcast Impressions (03:00) What Is Token Maxing? (04:08) AI Spend vs ROI Debate (05:10) Cutting AI Token Costs (06:16) Anthropic vs OpenAI (09:50) Why Distribution Wins AI (10:49) Anthropic’s $1.5B Venture (12:03) Why Services Businesses Win (13:32) OpenAI Enterprise Growth (14:21) Grüns’ $1.2B Marketing Playbook

Neil and Eric break down why the AI job apocalypse narrative is wrong, using fresh data on software engineering demand, AI-powered productivity, product manager hiring trends, and the rise of “AI-pill” talent. They discuss how AI is increasing output instead of replacing workers, why companies still need top engineers and marketers, and how AI is reshaping business efficiency, hiring, and organizational structure. They also debate bloated corporations, eBay’s spending problem, and why technology historically creates more opportunity than destruction. Key Takeaways: ⬛️ AI-powered workers are becoming 100x more productive ⬛️ Software engineering and PM jobs are rising again ⬛️ AI is increasing workloads, not eliminating teams Chapters: (00:00) AI Job Apocalypse Is Wrong (00:42) Software Engineer Demand Rising (01:07) The Rise of AI-Pill Engineers (02:02) AI’s Impact on Marketing Teams (03:49) One-Person Product Teams (04:47) Software Jobs Growing Again (05:32) AI Wage Growth Trends (05:47) Why Technology Creates More Jobs (08:55) Work, Family, and Productivity (12:38) AI as an Equalizer (13:13) Product Manager Hiring Rebound (14:57) AI Adoption in Marketing (15:49) GameStop vs eBay Debate (18:15) Why Big Companies Are Bloated (21:11) The Problem With Growth at All Costs

Eric and Neil break down 3 marketing roles they believe AI will kill first, why entry-level execution work is getting compressed fast, and what marketers need to do now to stay valuable. They also cover why specialists are likely to beat generalists, why human judgment matters more than ever, and how AI is reshaping the structure of marketing teams. They also get into what separates unacceptable, capable, adaptive, and transformative AI users, why most teams are still behind, and how marketers can move beyond basic prompting into real workflows that actually save time and drive results. Key takeaways ◾ Entry-level execution-heavy marketing roles are under the most pressure from AI. ◾ Specialists with strong judgment are becoming more valuable than generalists. ◾ Most teams are still early in their AI adoption and workflow maturity. ◾ Prompting matters less than context, systems, and human review. ◾ AI can increase output fast, but teams still need people who can think strategically. Chapters (00:00) 3 marketing roles AI will kill first (02:42) Why data analysts, junior writers, and generalists are at risk (05:25) The 4 levels of AI marketing maturity (08:07) Why most teams still feel behind (09:40) Why mental health is becoming a bigger AI issue (13:25) The AI tools that can augment your content team

Eric and Neil break down how Eric cut his AI token spend from around $7,500 a month to nearly $0 by changing his model hierarchy, fixing fallback issues, and reducing unnecessary API usage. They also get into why usage-based AI pricing is changing software, why some tools become more valuable in an agent-driven world, and what founders, marketers, and agencies need to understand as AI costs shift from seat-based pricing to usage-based pricing. Key takeaways ◾ You can dramatically reduce AI token spend by fixing model hierarchy and fallback logic. ◾ AI costs need to be actively monitored because broken workflows can quietly burn cash. ◾ Usage-based pricing is becoming a bigger part of software economics. ◾ Some tools get more valuable in an agent-first world, while others matter less. ◾ Agencies that help companies become AI-readable may have a major opportunity. Chapters (00:00) How Eric cut his $7,500 AI token spend (03:25) Why usage-based AI pricing is going up (05:08) Why some software matters less in an agent world (08:11) ClickFlow ad break (12:29) Why AI-readable brands matter more (17:19) What this means for agencies and founders

Eric and Neil break down how AI is changing software and what founders need to understand as user behavior, distribution, and product expectations keep shifting. They unpack why building around websites, dashboards, and traditional UI patterns may matter less going forward, and what happens when people increasingly want outcomes instead of more clicks. They also get into what this means for marketers, agencies, and SaaS companies, why old funnels may become less effective, and where founders should focus if they want to stay relevant as AI changes how people discover, use, and buy software. Key takeaways ◾ AI is changing what users expect from software. ◾ Founders may need to build for outcomes, not just interfaces. ◾ Websites, funnels, and traditional SaaS UX may matter less over time. ◾ Marketers need to think beyond clicks and landing pages. ◾ The companies that adapt faster will have a major advantage. Chapters (00:00) How AI is changing software (03:12) Why traditional UI matters less (06:48) What this means for founders (10:21) Why websites and funnels may lose value (14:37) What marketers and agencies should do now

Eric and Neil break down how Clavicular built a viral marketing machine, why clipping is starting to look a lot like paid media, and what businesses can learn from that playbook. Reports on Clavicular’s growth describe a large clipping operation that helped make his content unavoidable across platforms, which is the bigger distribution shift they unpack in this episode. They also share 10 marketing and AI tools they would still pay for even if they cost $1,000 a month, including tools for landing pages, AI call handling, ad creative, multilingual video, personalization, SEO workflows, and agent-based execution. Key takeaways ◾ What looks organic can actually be engineered distribution at scale. ◾ Clipping is becoming a serious modern paid media strategy. ◾ Businesses can apply the same playbook and often get better conversion quality. ◾ AI tools are collapsing weeks of marketing work into minutes. ◾ APIs, agents, and personalization are becoming core parts of the stack. Chapters (00:00) How Clavicular built a viral marketing machine (07:04) 10 tools we’d pay $1,000/month for (09:50) HighLevel, Higsfield, and YouTube’s multilingual features (14:59) X API, personalization, and SEO workflows (19:06) Hermes, Gemini, and agent-based marketing

Eric and Neil break down the fake GitHub star economy, why startup credibility signals are easier to manipulate than most people realize, and what that means for trust online. They also get into employee-generated content, the marketing channels they would bet on if they were starting over today, and why they are still doubling down on SEO even as the game shifts away from clicks and toward revenue, visibility, and AI-driven search. Key takeaways ◾ GitHub stars and other online trust signals can be manipulated, which makes surface-level credibility much less reliable. ◾ Employee-generated content is becoming a bigger growth lever for companies that want more distribution. ◾ If they were starting over, Eric and Neil would still bet on channels like podcast clips, email, AEO, X, SMS, and LinkedIn. ◾ SEO is not dead, but the old way of measuring it is. ◾ The real focus now is revenue, conversions, and visibility across search engines and AI surfaces, not just clicks. Chapters 00:00 The fake GitHub star economy 03:10 Why fake traction can fool people 08:26 The rise of employee-generated content 12:30 The 7 marketing channels they’d bet on today 18:18 SEO is dead again… so why are they doubling down? 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who actually test what they teach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of NP Digital and one of the most recognized marketers in the world. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ClickFlow: https://www.clickflow.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Eric and Neil break down the new media flywheel, why clips, live shows, and community now work together, and why entrepreneurs need to think more like media companies. Key takeaways ◾ The strongest media businesses now run on video, streams, clips, and community. ◾ The biggest opportunities are often in boring, unsexy businesses with large markets. ◾ AI is a multiplier for top performers, not a shortcut for average ones. ◾ Great hiring now depends more on adaptability, creativity, and real AI fluency. ◾ The people who embrace AI early are creating a much bigger gap over time. ◾ Passion still matters, and it becomes obvious fast when someone truly has it. Chapters 00:00 The new media flywheel 00:56 Why the real money is in boring businesses 04:07 Why AI is making A-players even stronger 09:09 What founders should look for when hiring 16:04 Why passion still wins 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who actually test what they teach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of NP Digital and one of the most recognized marketers in the world. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ClickFlow: https://www.clickflow.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Eric and Neil break down why clips are becoming more valuable than the actual show, and why the real shift in media has less to do with long-form content and more to do with packaging, distribution, and platform-native monetization. They unpack the TBPN playbook, why some podcasts are really vehicles for generating clips, why legacy media is still missing the shift, and what marketers can learn from the way modern content is being engineered to spread. Key takeaways ◾ Clips are becoming a real business model, not just repurposed content. ◾ Live viewership matters less when clips drive most of the reach. ◾ More views do not matter if they come from the wrong audience. ◾ The topic you choose affects how monetizable your content becomes. ◾ Legacy media still has not fully adapted to clip-first consumption. ◾ Marketers need to think more like media companies built for distribution. Chapters (00:00) TBPN’s live views vs. clip views (02:13) Why legacy media is losing attention (04:32) Why viral views do not always make money (06:48) What legacy media should do with clips (08:48) Eric’s AI workflow and Claude cost savings

Eric and Neil break down why marketing feels different now, and why the real shift may have less to do with long-form content and more to do with clips, packaging, distribution, and platform-native media strategy. They unpack the TBPN playbook, why OpenAI reportedly bought the company, how clipping is becoming a true moat, and what marketers can learn from the way modern content is being engineered to spread. Key takeaways ◾ Clipping is becoming a real growth strategy, not just repurposing. ◾ The best content is often designed for distribution from the start. ◾ More views do not matter if they come from the wrong audience. ◾ Platform-native packaging can change how content performs. ◾ Better guests create stronger viral moments. ◾ Marketing teams need to think more like media companies. Chapters 00:00 Birthday, summit, and the TBPN conversation 02:27 The TBPN clipping playbook 05:58 Why content should be engineered for clips 09:36 Where TBPN’s views are really coming from 12:45 Why guests change everything 15:37 How to manufacture better clip moments 17:44 Why a16z is winning more attention 19:56 The real lesson for marketers 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who actually test what they teach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of NP Digital and one of the most recognized marketers in the world. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ClickFlow: https://www.clickflow.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Eric and Neil break down a genius AI prospecting system a pool builder is using to target high-value homes, render custom backyard pools, and mail personalized postcards on autopilot. They also unpack Sequoia’s thesis that the next trillion-dollar AI company will sell work, not software, why AI works best when paired with human strategy, and how smart operators are using AI to create better content, better outbound, and better outcomes. Key takeaways ◾ AI can turn satellite imagery and rendering into hyper-personalized outbound. ◾ The next big AI opportunity may be selling outcomes, not software. ◾ Services businesses may benefit more from AI than most people realize. ◾ AI alone often produces mediocre work, but AI plus human judgment can outperform either one alone. ◾ Great prompts and real context lead to far better outputs than generic AI requests. ◾ The best creators are using AI to spot patterns, generate variations, and improve what already works. Chapters 00:00 How a pool builder uses AI to close bigger deals 02:17 Sequoia’s trillion-dollar AI thesis 06:39 Why AI alone still fails in business 07:58 ClickFlow for AI SEO content 08:32 Why AI + human beats AI alone 12:02 A smarter way to use AI for content creation 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who actually test what they teach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of NP Digital and one of the most recognized marketers in the world. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ClickFlow: https://www.clickflow.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Eric and Neil break down why Anthropic’s next big moat may have nothing to do with raw model intelligence and everything to do with permission, governance, and trust inside enterprise systems. They also unpack the difference between individual AI and institutional AI, why most companies still aren’t ready to let agents act inside real workflows, how AI helped cut major costs without cutting headcount, and why relationships still matter more than ever when it comes to closing massive deals. Key takeaways ◾ The next great AI moat may be permission, not intelligence. ◾ Enterprise adoption depends on governance, access, and trust. ◾ Institutional AI beats generic AI when it is deeply tied to SOPs and company knowledge. ◾ AI can create huge cost savings without automatically replacing full-time teams. ◾ Big contracts still come from strong relationships, not just better tools. ◾ AI can still make very expensive mistakes when you trust it too much. Chapters (00:00) Anthropic’s new moat is permission (03:04) Institutional AI vs. individual AI (03:32) How ChatGPT ruined a family vacation (07:27) How AI is changing Eric’s productivity (09:21) $7,500 in tokens saved over $500,000 (11:30) Why relationships still close the biggest deals

Eric and Neil break down why Uber’s AI spend is skyrocketing, what it means when tools like Claude Code become too useful to cut back, and why token costs may become the next big enterprise bottleneck. They also get into why AI may create more jobs than people expect, how smart teams should think about ROI on token spend, and why the companies that learn to scale AI efficiently will have a major edge. Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Key takeaways ◾ AI gets expensive fast when teams find real workflow value. ◾ Token costs are becoming a serious budgeting problem for enterprise teams. ◾ More AI usage only matters if it drives real ROI, not just more output. ◾ The biggest advantage may go to companies that optimize token spend first. ◾ History suggests new technology creates new categories of work, not just displacement. Chapters 00:00 Uber burns through its AI budget 02:52 How teams are cutting AI costs 06:16 Why AI may create more jobs 12:28 How to measure real AI ROI 16:47 A business idea: return on token spend 18:09 What history says about AI and jobs 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who actually test what they teach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of NP Digital and one of the most recognized marketers in the world. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: / @levelingupofficial Neil Patel: / @neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Eric and Neil break down how they used AI and the YouTube API to analyze 320 episodes worth of predictions, score who was more accurate over time, and uncover the deeper pattern behind why the podcast works. They also get into why marketers need to stop protecting their opinions, how APIs can surface content opportunities faster, why speed now matters more than polish, and what today’s “AI-forward” operators are still getting wrong. Key takeaways ◾ AI is great at spotting patterns across large content datasets. ◾ The best marketers use data to challenge their assumptions, not defend them. ◾ Speed matters more than polish when you can launch, learn, and optimize fast. ◾ “Quick and decent” beats waiting weeks for something perfect. ◾ A rough-looking website can still convert if the offer is strong enough. ◾ Many “AI-forward” marketers still have very little real execution. Chapters (00:00) AI scores 320 predictions (03:02) Why APIs are so useful for marketers (06:04) What aggressive marketers can teach you (10:48) Why an “AI slop” website still converted (14:35) The real problem with “AI-forward” marketers (17:09) Why better marketers are worth paying for

Eric and Neil break down GitHub as the next major marketing channel, why AI voice agents are finally good enough for discovery calls, and the trap of "AI theater" that's killing marketing ROI. They unpack the eye-watering $4.7M midroll pricing on Acquired FM, what makes elite peer groups actually valuable, and round it out with seven AI tools driving real growth right now. Key takeaways ◾ GitHub repos are becoming a serious marketing channel ◾ AI voice agents can now handle full discovery calls ◾ Don't let AI theater distract from what actually drives ROI Chapters (00:00) GitHub as a marketing channel (01:47) Agentic and hyperpersonalized marketing (02:02) Boardy.AI and voice agent discovery calls (03:09) The AI theater trap (05:01) Tying AI to real customer problems (06:24) Why recording wearables kill conversations (08:29) Karrot LinkedIn ads break (09:04) Acquired FM's $4.7M midroll pricing (10:54) Acquired vs All-In vs Founders (11:34) Learning from historical business deep dives (13:06) YPO, EO and picking the right peer groups (16:33) Seven AI tools to grow faster (16:55) Boardy.AI for networking and discovery (17:36) Finn.ai for customer support (18:12) Hermes paired with OpenClaw (18:24) Nano Banana for paid creative (18:40) Paperclip for managing agents (19:02) High Level for landing pages (19:16) Manus and GenSpark as OpenClaw on-ramps

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric and Neil break down how one founder used AI and 800 fake doctor profiles to scale a GLP-1 telehealth business toward $1.8B in revenue, and why aggressive AI-powered marketing (done ethically) is the new edge. They unpack the Jevons paradox of skyrocketing AI infrastructure costs, the four levels of AI marketing maturity, the Ferrari vs. Honda model routing strategy to cut LLM spend, and why Chinese sentiment toward AI is wildly more optimistic than in the US. A sharp episode on building custom AI tools, scaling infrastructure, and adapting before the curve leaves you behind. Key takeaways ◾ One-person billion-dollar companies are becoming reality with AI ◾ AI infrastructure costs may soon rival headcount costs ◾ The four levels of AI marketing separate winners from laggards Chapters (00:00) The $1.8B one-employee AI company (01:52) ClickFlow AI content break (02:31) Tractor adoption and the AI jobs debate (04:30) Why AI token costs will skyrocket (05:47) Agents will transform corporations, not consumers (06:48) Mapping infrastructure scale for hypergrowth (09:05) Cutting AI waste with the Ferrari vs Honda model (10:52) The caveman prompt hack to slash costs (14:16) Building a company "single brain" with Nemo (15:39) Nvidia DGX Sparks and rising chip prices (16:20) The four levels of AI marketing (17:58) Custom tools vs off-the-shelf software (19:08) Alibaba funds real-world AI (19:40) China vs US: AI optimism gap (21:00) Why human content still wins for some customers

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Eric and Neil break down OpenAI's $200M acquisition of TBPN and whether owning media is actually worth it for AI giants. They unpack Neil's co-branded conference playbook in Canada, why Anthropic's shipping velocity is crushing OpenAI, the rise of "world intelligence" agents inside companies, and why Neil's switching corporate spend from Amex to Ramp. Plus an honest look at credit card perks, points strategy, and when cash back beats miles. Key takeaways ◾Owning media isn't always worth it, even at $200M ◾Anthropic's shipping velocity is winning mind share ◾Every company now wants its own "world intelligence" agent Chapters (00:00) OpenAI buys TBPN for $200M (01:31) Why owning media properties isn't always smart (02:03) Neil's co-branded conference playbook (05:13) Breaking down the TBPN deal economics (06:42) OpenAI's code red vs Anthropic (07:46) The Open Claude loophole explained (09:03) Anthropic and Google's shipping as marketing (09:32) ClickFlow AI SEO break (10:05) World intelligence and Single Brain (11:30) Ramp, Glass, and internal AI agents (12:30) Why Neil's company is leaving Amex (14:01) Amex Black Card perks breakdown (16:08) Ramp vs Brex and shipping velocity (16:48) Centurion travel benefits (17:46) Cash back vs points strategy (20:16) Why you need a points dealer

Neil and Eric break down how IKEA turned an AI chatbot's failures into a $1B design consultancy, why creative is now the real ceiling on paid ads, and where API pricing and in-LLM advertising are heading. They unpack agentic commerce, dynamic personalized ads, and who actually wins the LLM race long term — Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, or OpenAI. A sharp episode on reskilling instead of cutting, scaling with AI creative, and betting on the right players in the AI stack. Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Key takeaways ◾IKEA's AI chatbot unlocked a $1B new business line ◾Creative and first-party data are the real paid ad levers ◾Google and Microsoft likely win enterprise AI long term Chapters 00:00 IKEA's $1B AI chatbot story 01:45 Reskill before you cut 02:18 Scaling $1.5M to $20M with 4,500 creatives 03:57 The two real levers in paid ads 06:05 Auction-based API pricing 07:17 Where ads inside LLMs are heading 09:33 Agentic commerce and dynamic ads 11:04 Who wins the LLM race 13:15 Anthropic's momentum vs Microsoft 14:38 OpenAI turbulence and Brett Taylor 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Most marketers still default to Meta and Google first, but that may no longer be the smartest place to start. In this episode, Eric and Neil break down the underpriced channels getting overlooked right now, why GitHub and GEO are becoming serious growth opportunities, and how AI is changing what separates average marketers from the ones who keep winning. They also get into why execution speed is becoming the real edge, why not everyone in your company needs to become an AI expert, and the five skills marketers will need by 2027 if they want to stay relevant. Key Takeaways: ◾Some of the best paid marketing opportunities right now are on smaller social platforms like Snap, Pinterest, and X. ◾GitHub is becoming more than a developer platform and may turn into a real marketing channel. ◾GEO traffic is converting significantly better than many traditional channels. ◾AI is helping teams execute faster, but it is not automatically turning weak talent into top talent. ◾The marketers who adapt fastest will have the biggest advantage over the next few years. Chapters: 00:00 The most underpriced marketing channels right now 00:43 Why GitHub is becoming a marketing channel 01:34 Why GEO is converting better than email and paid ads 02:51 How AI is changing A players and B players 07:01 Why most teams won’t become transformative with AI 15:26 The 5 skills marketers need by 2027 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Hosted by Eric Siu and Neil Patel, recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu - Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Chamath says brands could go to zero as AI makes products cheaper, faster, and easier to copy. In this episode, Eric and Neil break down why they disagree, why status still drives buying behavior, and why branding may actually become more important as AI creates more abundance. They also get into why luxury still holds power, why most people misunderstand what makes premium brands durable, and how AI agents are shifting the market from selling software seats to selling actual output. Key Takeaways: ◾Chamath’s “brands go to zero” argument ignores how much status still drives human behavior. ◾Strong brands like Apple, Jordan, Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Tesla still carry emotional and social value. ◾AI may not kill brands, but it could make weak brands easier to replace. ◾Luxury markets are smaller than they look, even if they feel huge online. ◾The bigger AI opportunity may be services-as-software, not just traditional SaaS. Chapters: 00:00 Chamath says brands are going to zero 03:30 Why status still drives what people buy 05:47 The Mercedes minivan example that proves branding matters 10:23 Why luxury is smaller than people think 15:13 The $5.5 trillion AI services shift 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Hosted by Eric Siu and Neil Patel, recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu - Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Meta is reportedly pushing engineers to use AI for most of their code, and it may be one of the clearest signs yet that AI adoption is becoming mandatory inside major companies. In this episode, Eric and Neil break down why AI works differently in coding than in marketing, why engagement without revenue means nothing, and how the smartest companies are using AI to drive conversions, optimize operations, and move faster. Key Takeaways: ◾Meta’s AI push could signal where the rest of tech is headed. ◾AI works better in coding because the output is easier to verify. ◾More engagement does not always mean more revenue. ◾Some of the best AI use cases in marketing are in CRO and business optimization. ◾Distribution still matters, even if AI makes execution cheaper. Chapters: 00:00 Meta’s AI coding push 02:09 When AI engagement doesn’t lead to revenue 05:45 What real AI ROI looks like 07:26 Using AI to improve conversions 11:17 Stripe’s bet on AI agents 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Hosted by Eric Siu and Neil Patel, recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu - Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Oracle cut 30,000 jobs this morning to fund AI data centers, and their stock jumped 5%. Nvidia's growth is reaccelerating because of AI agents. Meta just built AI that predicts your dopamine before you feel it. Eric and Neil break down what all of this means for marketers and business owners right now, who actually gets paid the most in marketing today, and how Eric's AI agent is already negotiating his own sponsorship deals. Key Takeaways: Companies are cutting headcount specifically to fund AI infrastructure, and the market is rewarding them for it. Nvidia's growth reacceleration is being driven by real agent adoption, not just hype. The highest paid marketing role right now is customer acquisition on social, not SEO or paid. Meta's brain-decoding AI doesn't need to read your mind, it already knows what will trigger you. AI agents are handling real business tasks like negotiation, and most people haven't caught up yet. Chapters: 00:00 Oracle fires 30,000 to fund AI data centers 02:38 Why Nvidia's growth is reaccelerating 09:18 The highest paying marketing job right now 11:33 Meta's AI predicts your dopamine before you feel it 14:41 How an AI agent is negotiating Eric's sponsorship deals 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Hosted by Eric Siu and Neil Patel, recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu - Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil and Eric break down how SEO, AEO, and AI search are changing faster than most marketers realize. They explain why the new way to win is through APIs and agents, why AI-generated content often fails over time without a human in the loop, and how evals are replacing old school testing cycles for the best AI teams. They also get into why publishing listicles on your own site can quietly hurt organic traffic, how synthetic data could reshape marketing measurement, and why every CEO may soon be running their own internal AI agent. Key Takeaways: The future of SEO and AEO is increasingly API-first, with agents doing the work faster across content and workflows Pure AI-written content may get short-term gains, but long-term performance still depends on human editing, iteration, and strong systems AI evals are speeding up experimentation, helping teams test and improve workflows far faster than traditional approaches Chapters: 00:00 Why SEO and AEO Are Moving to APIs 01:16 Why AI Content Still Struggles to Rank 02:57 The Listicle Strategy That Can Hurt Organic Traffic 06:59 Why AI Evals Are Replacing Old Testing Loops 12:14 How Evals Change Product and Marketing Workflows 14:24 Why CEOs Will Soon Run Their Own AI Agents 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Hosted by Eric Siu and Neil Patel, recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu - Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil and Eric break down the brutal reality of AI transformation inside real organizations, why just telling your team to "use AI" completely backfires, how C players are using AI to hide and do less, and why rockstar employees are becoming 100x more valuable overnight. They share the exact systems they use to roll out AI internally, from weekly hackathons to AI fluency standups to Friday agents that hold every employee publicly accountable. Plus, why the entire marketing job pyramid is being flipped upside down, what the Travis Kalanick robotics bet tells us about where jobs are really going, and why even a 2,000-person global law firm says their AI tool makes their job harder, not easier. Key Takeaways: - Telling your team to "just use AI" produces slop, you need AI that adapts to each person's experience level - Rockstar employees given AI tools work harder; C players use them to get lazy - The marketing job pyramid is flipping, fewer low-level roles, more A and B players paid significantly more Chapters: 00:00 The Hardest Part of AI Transformation Nobody Talks About 02:20 Why Training Your Team on AI Doesn't Work 04:14 The System That Actually Gets Teams to Adopt AI 08:00 How Eric Uses Friday Agents to Hold Every Employee Accountable 10:04 Why the Marketing Job Pyramid Is Being Flipped Upside Down 11:47 How AI Exposes Weak Employees in Job Interviews 15:25 Travis Kalanick's Robotics Bet and Where Jobs Are Really Going 18:17 Why a 2,000-Lawyer Firm Says Their AI Tool Makes Work Harder 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Hosted by Eric Siu and Neil Patel, recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil and Eric break down why AI is quietly killing the marketing channels most businesses still rely on — cold email open rates have dropped over 40%, AI-generated content is getting near-zero engagement, and outreach inboxes are completely flooded. They share exactly where they're shifting their marketing spend in 2026, why branding and in-person events are the new moat, and why Neil basically quit doing podcasts. Key Takeaways: Cold email open rates dropped 40%+ from end of 2024 to Q1 2026 across 11 B2B companies AI-generated content gets terrible engagement unless it's specifically about AI topics Brand, relationships, and intellectual horsepower are the only real moats left in 2026 Chapters: 00:00 AI Is Destroying the Marketing Channels You Rely On01:13 The Cold Email Saturation Problem Nobody Is Admitting02:51 Open Rates Dropped 40% — Real Data From 11 B2B Companies05:48 Why Branding Is the Only Real Moat Left in 202606:44 Why He Basically Quit Doing Podcasts11:46 The 3 Things That Survive AI: Brand, Relationships, Horsepower13:23 Why Manual Content Is Beating AI Content Right Now 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Hosted by Eric Siu and Neil Patel, recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the HostsEric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficialNeil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free ResourcesUbersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/ Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire Neil and Eric react to Jensen Huang's bold claim that a $500K engineer should be spending $250K on AI tokens, and why the real answer involves open source. They break down how AI costs are exploding internally, why Cursor's $2B revenue run rate doubled in 3 months, and the rise of vertical AI models. The conversation also covers 7 SEO trends for 2026, how AEO audits expose major gaps, the Agentic Commerce Protocol changing checkout forever, and a live breakdown of IM8's $120M bundle strategy. Key Takeaways: 70-80% of your AI usage should run on open source infrastructure. Sites that link to you are the easiest wins for GEO and SEO. AEO audits are exposing massive gaps most companies are ignoring. Chapters: 00:00 Jensen Huang's $250K Token Claim 01:25 Open Source vs Paid AI Tokens 02:40 Eric's $5.6K Monthly Anthropic Spend 03:32 AI Costs Exploding Internally 04:05 Cursor's $2B Revenue & $40B Valuation 05:48 Vertical Models & Intercom's Finn 06:35 SEO Trends for 2026 08:42 Doing SEO via API 09:20 Brand Search Driving Rankings 09:48 AEO Audits With Oracle 10:30 Human-Written Content & E-A-T 11:23 Publishing Where Your Customers Aren't 12:32 Agentic Commerce Protocol & Stripe 15:22 IM8's $120M Checkout Breakdown 18:03 Legion Protein & Supplement Talk 𝗔𝗕𝗢𝗨𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗟 Welcome to Marketing School, one of the top business podcasts with over 61 million downloads. Each episode delivers actionable marketing tips and strategies from two entrepreneurs who truly practice what they preach. The show is hosted by Eric Siu, founder of Leveling Up and Single Grain, and Neil Patel, co-founder of Neil Patel Digital and recognized by Forbes as a Top 10 Marketer. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/ ✅ Subscribe for Daily Marketing Insights!

In this episode, we break down how easy it currently is to “game” AI platforms like ChatGPT and Google Gemini—and why those loopholes won’t last. We discuss the risks of short-term hacks versus long-term credibility, how AI will reshape job markets by rewarding bottleneck skills, and why strategy and adaptability will matter more than ever. We also share real-world wins and failures using AI in marketing and operations, highlighting where it drives massive leverage—and where it still falls short. 🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/

🎙️ Learn More About the Hosts Eric Siu – Leveling Up: https://www.youtube.com/@LevelingUpOfficial Neil Patel: https://www.youtube.com/@neilpatel 📩 Free Resources Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe Ubersuggest: https://www.ubersuggest.com/ Answer The Public: https://www.answerthepublic.com/

In this episode, we react to a bold take from Jensen Huang on why AI shouldn’t be used as an excuse for layoffs—and instead should be a tool to do more with more. We break down the real reasons companies are cutting jobs, why the “AI efficiency” narrative is often misleading, and how top performers are using AI to scale output rather than replace people. We also dive into what’s actually driving growth today, from optimizing for platforms like ChatGPT to the overlooked power of boring but effective marketing channels, and why the future belongs to teams that combine AI fluency with strong judgment.

In this episode, we break down one of the wildest shifts happening in content and marketing right now: AI-powered media at scale.After discovering a highlights channel from Alex Hormozi pumping out dozens of videos per day, we reverse engineer how it works—and how you can replicate (and improve) the strategy using AI tools. We also dive into real-world insights from global marketing teams—what’s actually working, where AI is falling short, and why most people are wasting the time AI is saving them. If you want to understand where content, AI, and marketing are really headed and how to stay ahead this episode is a must-listen.