GrowthPath Partners LLC

Empowering Purpose-Driven Growth

Posts

AI Features Fade, Relationships Build Your Moat

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AI features get commoditized fast. Everyone’s adding chatbots, automation, predictive analytics. Your competitors will copy those in weeks. The defensible moat is how systematically you build relationships that customers remember.

Will Guidara’s keynote at Pavilion’s GTM2025 event shifted how I think about AI and relationships in practice. Guidara took Eleven Madison Park to number one in the world by identifying 120 customer touchpoints and asking at each one: how can we exceed expectations?

The hot dog story and sledding trip for kids who’d never seen snow weren’t random acts. They were systematic.

Steven Bartlett does the same with his billion-stream podcast – monitoring CO2 during interviews, creating custom playlists from guests’ first concerts, building personalized books in real-time. Jimmy Fallon cried in his car after receiving his.

This translates directly to B2B. I’ve created The Unexpected Experience Maturity Model showing four stages companies progress through:

Stage 1: Random Acts → Stage 2: Mapped Moments → Stage 3: Systematic Care → Stage 4: Trust Moat

Most B2B companies operate at Stage 1 or early Stage 2. The defensible ones are building toward Stage 4.

Key takeaways:

  • AI features become table stakes quickly. Relationships built over time are the defensible moat.

  • While we can delight with surprise moments, the goal is consistently making customers feel understood using info they willingly share.

  • The Unexpected Experience Maturity Model shows progression from Random Acts to Trust Moat.

  • Breaking down GTM silos becomes necessary when systematically exceeding expectations across many touchpoints.

  • Custom GPT included to help design unexpected experiences for your business

Featuring insights from Will Guidara, Steven Bartlett, and David Samuels (former CCO at SAP, now CEO of AgentSync) on what separates 70% retention from 110% net retention.

See the full framework, B2B touchpoint examples, and access the custom GPT in the newsletter below.

A 15-min AI podcast version of the newsletter is also available (link in comments) to cater to different learning styles.

If you found this helpful, please subscribe and share.

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Google NotebookLM: Chat with AI Podcast Hosts

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Did you know that you can have an interactive voice conversation with the two AI podcast hosts in Google Gemini’s NotebookLM? Watch this snippet…

My next newsletter drops tomorrow (Thu, Oct 16). Equipped with my newsletter as the source material, see how the two AI podcasters responded when I asked them:

“What’s the difference between companies stuck at 70% retention and those hitting 110% net retention?” and “How this might be perceived by GTM leaders in various phases of the AI learning journey?”

As some of you know, AI accessibility is important to me. So each of my LinkedIn newsletters come with an AI podcast version to accommodate different learning styles.

Try it, it’s free! Go to notebooklm.google.com and upload a file or type a URL as source material. Click on Audio Overview. Within a few minutes, you’ll have access to an AI podcast. Click “Play” to listen to it or “Interactive Mode” to talk to it and ask questions.

Subscribe (link in comments) to get my newsletter and AI podcast on building defensible competitive advantage through unexpected and memorable customer experiences.

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B2B AI: From Automation to Memorable Experiences

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Your competitors are using AI to automate customer interactions. What if you used it to create moments customers remember?

Steven Bartlett’s team played Jimmy Fallon’s favorite songs and created a personalized book during their podcast. Jimmy cried in his car afterward. See the video (link in comments) of Jimmy and Steven talking about this story on The Tonight Show.

This Thursday (Oct 16), I’m introducing The Unexpected Experience Maturity Model that shows how B2B teams can systematically build memorable experiences into webinars, sales calls, and customer success touchpoints.

Most companies are at Stage 1 or early Stage 2. The defensible ones are building toward Stage 4.

There’s also a Custom GPT that co-designs unexpected experience ideas for your business.

Subscribe to my newsletter (link in comments) to get it in your inbox.

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AI & Your Marketing Team: From Tools to Teammates

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What does a marketing team look like when AI handles execution, sharpens strategy, and challenges your thinking?

I’m speaking at DigiMarCon – Digital Marketing, Media and Advertising Conferences & Exhibitions Rocky Mountains on October 17 in Denver (but you can join virtually) about how one lean marketing team evolved to train, build, and manage over 100 AI teammates. They achieved 75% faster content creation, 98% lead qualification accuracy, and 35% better campaign performance.

The shift requires changing how your team operates, defining AI roles that support strategy, and building workflows where humans and AI work side by side.

I’ll walk through:

  • ➡︎ How to evolve from AI tools to AI teammates

  • ➡︎ What a real human + AI org structure looks like (with roles and workflows)

  • ➡︎ How to design AI roles that drive real results

  • ➡︎ Common mistakes teams make and how to avoid them

  • ➡︎ A practical path to get started with use cases you can apply

You can attend in-person in Denver or join virtually. If you’re interested in building human + AI marketing teams, I’d love to see you there.

See link in the comments to learn more and register.

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College Grads: Guide AI as Your Thinking Partner

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Two weeks ago, I spent an hour with a college class of mostly seniors who will enter the workforce in less than a year. Their first job will require them to work with two types of teammates: humans and AI.

Professor Raul Galang (Professor RG) invited me to speak to his MKT 364 Product Design class at Colorado State University in Ft. Collins about what’s actually waiting for them after graduation.

These students are sharp and curious. They asked about entry-level expectations, what employers look for, and how to build AI skills that translate to real work.

I shared with them that AI isn’t here to replace your thinking. It’s here to make your thinking stronger. Some companies are already building marketing teams where AI teammates outnumber humans four to one. That’s not a distant future scenario. That’s happening now.

Humans and AI have complementary strengths. We bring a moral compass, judgment, context, and the ability to challenge assumptions. AI brings speed, pattern recognition, and the ability to process information at scale. When you combine both, you get better decisions faster. The key is learning to guide AI as a thinking partner, not just an answer engine.

I walked them through three levels of critical thinking with AI. Basic evaluation, multiple perspectives, and assumption-challenging. We compared lazy prompts with strategic ones and saw how dramatically output quality changes when you put in the work up front.

The students who will stand out know how to:

  • ➡︎ Ask better questions instead of accepting first answers

  • ➡︎ Pressure-test ideas and find blind spots

  • ➡︎ Use AI to explore angles they might have missed on their own

  • ➡︎ Show their thinking process, not just the final output

I also showed them how to use two practical tools for learning: NotebookLM and ChatGPT’s Study Mode. Both are free. Both help students go deeper on material, test their understanding, and practice in ways that actually build knowledge.

These students aren’t scared of AI. They’re trying to figure out how to use it well. That’s exactly the right mindset.

Parents and educators can help by teaching students to show their work and explain their thinking. Help them understand that using AI to strengthen analysis is different from letting AI do the thinking for you. Give them frameworks and tools to practice before they need it in a real job.

These students are about to walk into workplaces where AI teammates are standard. The ones who learn to guide AI thoughtfully will have a real advantage.

If you’re a parent with a college student, talk to them about building this skill now. I’ve written more about how I’m approaching this with my own daughter (link in comments).

These kids are ready. They just need guidance that matches the reality they’re walking into.

Big thanks to Professor RG for allowing me to share and inspire the next generation.

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