Louder Than Words with John Bonini

In this episode, I sit down with Natalie Marcotullio to talk about the thinking behind Navattic’s Buyer First report—and why content only started working when they made it bigger than the product . We get into: How to create content that people care about before they’re in a buying cycle The evolution of the Buyer First report (and why it’s still ungated) Why tying your brand to a bigger idea buil...

In the debut episode of Words in Progress , a mini-series within Louder Than Words, John Bonini sits down with Natalie Marcotullio, Head of Growth & Product Marketing at Navattic, to unpack how she and her team transformed a vague idea— buyer first —into a tangible, ownable editorial narrative and content framework. They walk through the evolution of Navattic's flagship report, how it moved fr...

In this episode, John sits down with Natalie Marcotullio, head of growth and operations at Navattic. Natalie shares her experience transitioning from a traditional SEO-driven content marketing playbook to a more customer-focused approach and how that's paid off.  Discussed in this episode: Leveraging customer insights and data to craft content that stands out. Unique perspectives and insights are...

In this episode, John catches up with old friend and copywriting savant, Eddie Shleyner. Eddie is the founder of VeryGoodCopy where he has built up a massive audience and profitable personal brand using primarily 2 mediums –– blog posts (what Eddie calls micro articles) and email.  Things discussed in this episode:  Teaching yourself a new skill can be done through creating personal projects and w...

This week, John sits down with content legend Ross Simmonds. Ross is the founder and CEO of Foundational Marketing, an agency focused on distribution, as well as the (new!) author of "Create Once, Distribute Forever." Discussed in this episode: Leading with value is crucial in content marketing to avoid being banned or blocked from platforms. Content creators should prioritize distribution to reac...

This week, I sit down with a friend and and someone whose work I've long admired––Emily Triplett Lentz. Emily has one of the most prolific and legendary resumes in content marketing, working for brands like Basecamp, Help Scout, Loom, and currently, Calendly.  Things discussed in this episode:  Community plays a crucial role in content marketing as it helps build trust and loyalty among target aud...

This week, John sits down with Chris Savage, co-founder and CEO at Wistia. The team at Wistia has always approached content differently than most other companies. They host, and film, parades. They buy and refurbish old station wagons. They record original music. All for the content. In this episode, John geeks out with Chris to learn all about the how and why behind Wistia's unique flavor of cont...

In this episode, John hangs out with recovering in-house marketer, now founder of Growth Sprints, Brendan Hufford. In the past, Hufford worked in both growth and SEO for companies like ActiveCampaign. Now, he works with SaaS companies to help take them grow through short, focused sprints using his SaaS Growth Sprint framework.  Discussed in this episode:  Navigating bureaucracy requires understand...

This week, John is joined by Rand Fishkin––one of the true OGs when it comes to B2B content marketing. Rand is the founder and former CEO of Moz and the current founder and CEO of SparkToro. He's also the author of Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World. Discussed in this episode:  SparkToro's three-year retrospective  The evolution of Rand's marketing approach invol...

 This week, John sits down with Amanda Goetz. Amanda is a 2x founder, 3x CMO, and now a full-time brand builder and creator on personal and professional growth inspiring 150k people each week through social and her weekly newsletter, Life’s a Game. Amanda shares insights and experiences on: Her experience transitioning to full-time content creation (and she’s worked through the anxiety that induce...

You know Dave Gerhardt. Maybe it's from his days running marketing at Drift. Or from his time hosting the Seeking Wisdom podcast with David Cancel. Or, maybe you've heard of (or are a member of) his B2B community, Exit Five.  Point is, if you've been working in B2B marketing at any point in the last decade, you know Dave.  In this rare podcast interview, Dave goes into detail on everything that's...

We’re back! The first new episode of Louder Than Words in more than 6(!) years.  Today, John welcomes marketing and creative extraordinaire Amanda Natividad to talk about her own journey as a creator filled with uncertainty and self-doubt to a full-blown influencer, how she approaches creating content that’s unique and more defensible, and how the freedom to create on her/their own terms at SparkT...

Airbnb runs about 700 experiments in a given week. Here, I chat with data scientist Linsday Pettingill on the culture and principles that allow their team to move so quickly and efficiently, and how others people can transpose these ideas to their own work.

What do companies like Facebook, Dropbox, Airbnb, Pinterest (and others!) all have in common? Not just a great product, but a methodical, measured approach to driving extraordinary growth. In this episode, Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown (founders of GrowthHackers.com) unpack the principles behind these methods.

Scott Monty, former head of social media at Ford Motor Company, talks about his decision to join Ford in 2008 and the specifics of what went into the social and branding strategies that helped turn the company’s image around.

Jason Fried, Founder and CEO of Basecamp, talks about the (rare) art of making more money than you spend instead of aiming for growth at all costs.

Christian Rudder, cofounder of OkCupid and bestselling author of “Dataclysm: Who We Are When We Think No One is Looking”, talks about OkCupid’s algorithmic approach to growing past its competition.

Tucker Max, bestselling author of "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell", talks about the inspiration behind founding his new company, Book in a Box, and how they’re helping people turn ideas into books.

Jay Acunzo, former marketer at Google and HubSpot, talks about the inspiration behind his current passion project Unthinkable.fm, and how he’s helping connect marketers everywhere that are bothered by “suck.”

Meghan Keaney Anderson, HubSpot's VP of Marketing, has been with the company for five years. Here she talks about the levers that have inspired growth and why content and SEO will be radically different over the next five years.

Jess Iandiorio, VP of Marketing at Drift, details prescriptive tips on how brands can start building a more effective customer growth strategy and retain more customers.

Keith Frankel talks in detail about the career that has taken him from the competitive board rooms at MTV to the rose-tinted offices of the tech world and the experiences therein that led to his mission to never lie again.

Neil Pasricha, best known for his blog–1000 Awesome Things–and subsequent "Book of Awesome" series talks about his new book, "The Happiness Equation", and how he discovered the simplest formula to a happy life.

Jason Zook, best known for making over $1,000,000 wearing t-shirts and selling his last name (twice), talks about creativity, hustle porn, and preparing for success.

David Heinemeier Hansson on why Silicon Valley culture gets it all wrong.