Dave Gerhardt (founder of Exit Five) joined Josh Spilker (Head of Search Marketing at AirOps) to break down a practical brand flywheel for B2B teams.

They covered why human voice still wins, how to use social and community as an idea-testing engine, and how systems and metrics turn one good idea into compounding distribution.

Top 5 takeaways

1. Authenticity beats polish in the AI era
   Human voice stands out because AI now cranks out "default marketing" faster than ever.
2. Use social (or community) as your idea-testing engine
   Quick feedback loops help you validate topics before you invest in bigger assets.
3. Repurpose by adding value, not just reformatting
   Take one conversation and build deeper assets with extra research, context, and point of view.
4. Focus on fewer channels—then commit hard
   Consistency across a small set of channels drives momentum more than scattered effort does.
5. Systems + measurement create sustainable momentum
   Repeatable workflows and ruthless measurement keep the flywheel moving and improving.

Best practices and key learnings

Dave and Josh kept coming back to one core idea: teams don't "hack" their way to momentum. Teams build momentum when they ship consistently, listen for signals, and turn those signals into repeatable production and distribution.

Lead with people-led content, not generic promotion

AI makes polished, promotional content cheap, so your team needs a clear voice and point of view to stand out. Put real humans (founders, SMEs, and practitioners) at the center of the content so the market can trust what it reads.

• Publish content under a real name, and add personal context that makes the advice feel lived-in.
• Choose substance first, then add personality through stories, opinions, and examples.

Use social and community as your fastest feedback loop

Social platforms and communities give you a free, always-on research channel for topic testing. Look for small signals (comments, DMs, saves) and let them guide what you create next.

• Post the rough idea first, then let the audience tell you what to expand.
• Use internal channels (Slack, sales calls, customer conversations) when you can't rely on social.
• Promote proven topics into bigger bets like podcast themes, newsletter issues, and event programming.

"It's this platform where you can write for free, you can test ideas and get feedback… for $0." — Dave Gerhardt

Repurpose by going deeper, not wider

Repurposing now requires added value, not copy/paste reuse across formats. Start with one strong conversation, then build a better "second draft" asset that includes research, synthesis, and extra examples.

• Run a prep process (brief, research, questions) so the source conversation gives you real raw material.
• Turn the conversation into a deeper newsletter or article that adds outside examples and context.
• Keep multiple pieces in motion at once so your cadence never depends on one asset.

Pick fewer channels and commit to the packaging

Every channel can work, but no team can do every channel well at the same time. Decide where you will win, define the format ("packaging"), and focus until you see consistent results.

• Cut your channel list until you can show up consistently and improve each week.
• Make a clear format decision (cadence, length, style) instead of defaulting to "what everyone does."
• Treat events, podcasts, newsletters, and webinars as different wrappers for the same job: earn attention with value.

Well, just everything works, like, TikTok works, YouTube works, email works, LinkedIn works, you just cannot possibly do them all, and you will never have a chance to have a breakout success with any of them if you're kinda half-ass doing all of them, so I would just, like, let's just trim, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, and the only thing we're gonna do right now is LinkedIn, or the only thing we're gonna do right now is make our newsletter great. Like, I would bet on your chances of succeeding more if you did that than doing what I've done at every company I've been at, which is just we make a ton of videos, and we just post them to YouTube, and then they all have 17 views, and we're like, YouTube doesn't work for us." - Dave Gerhardt

Build systems, roles, and metrics that protect momentum

Momentum comes from repeatable workflows and clear ownership, not heroic one-off efforts. Track what matters, then change what doesn't work.

• Define the "jobs to be done" across the pipeline (recording, editing, publishing, distribution, measurement).
• Pair subject matter experts (SMEs) with a content ops/content engineer mindset to scale output without losing substance.
• Review performance every cycle (open rate, clicks, unsubscribes, downloads, watch time) and adjust fast.

How to put these insights into practice

AI tools now make content output easy, so strategy and differentiation matter more than ever. Your audience will ignore "default marketing," but they will pay attention to content that shows real experience, real opinions, and real people behind the ideas.

Start small: choose one feedback channel (LinkedIn, a community, or internal sales signals), test ideas weekly, then promote only the winners into deeper assets. When you build a simple workflow for repurposing and measurement, you turn one strong idea into a consistent engine for growth instead of a one-time post.

Turn your expert insights into a repeatable content engine

Authenticity, focus, and systems create compounding momentum when you commit to them over time. If you want help turning webinars, interviews, and SME insights into a repeatable content engine, book a call and see what that workflow looks like in practice.

How AirOps helps teams build a brand flywheel

AirOps helps content and SEO teams turn expert insights into consistent, measurable outputs across channels. You can build workflows for planning, repurposing, publishing, and distribution so your team spends less time wrangling process and more time shipping content your audience actually wants.

If you want to see how it fits your team's stack and goals, book a call.