What up, marketers. Welcome to this marketer deep-dive edition of Adam’s Letter. Thanks to the 698 of you who have joined the community! We’re marching to 1,000. It’d mean the world to me if you take a second to forward this to a friend or colleague who would enjoy it. 

Here’s to the crazy ones. The marketer turned influencer. The B2B CMO. The Dad Bod Defeaters.

This one’s for you.

Today’s story is about Dave Gerhardt (DG). As the Creator of Exit Five, Chief Brand Officer at Drift, CMO at Privy, and Author of Founder Brand - you’ve certainly heard of him.

Dave is the single marketer I look up to most.

He’s played the game at the highest levels, shares similar values of family and fitness alongside his business, and has turned his career experience into a valuable community supporting B2B marketers across the globe.

Here’s what you need to know about DG:

• Has worked at B2B pillar brands like Constant Contact, Hubspot, Privy, and Drift

• Left traditional employment to build a one-man media company worth multi 7 figures.

• Runs a community for marketers with over 3,500 paying members (👋🏽 proud member)

Dave is living out a blueprint for any marketer who has thought “is this it?” and wants to continue growing in their career. Here’s what I’ve learned from him:

Your 9-5 is simply the vehicle to take your career where you want it to go

Too many marketers feel stuck. We’re in jobs we tolerate, without clear career progression, and are unsure how all the work we put in left us here.

Often, this is because you’re viewing your career as the destination you arrive at, instead of using it as a vehicle to take your life where you want to go.

Chill Tony Robbins. Get to the point.

If you map DG’s career, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

He got his first real marketing job because he interviewed marketing leaders in Boston for a podcast he started as a side project.

He then used his experiences at that job (Drift) to become known as designing categories for B2B brands. That eventually led him to Privy where he used his previous experience to deploy a playbook around the company’s founder.

Then he wrote a book called “Founder Brand.”

You see where I’m going with this.

Every step along the way was an experience that armed DG with new tools he could use to earn better jobs, grow an audience, and start a community for other marketers in similar spots.

His 9-5 didn’t own him. He used the 9-5 to arrive where he eventually wanted to go. Turns out that’s worth multi 7-figures a year with total flexibility as the owner of a media platform and community.

Do BEFORE teaching.

Another tendency of marketers can be to jump from “do-er” to “teacher” too quickly.

I found some incriminating videos of myself from very early in my career that prove this true personally (they’re staying locked in a vault until we pass at least 10k subscribers).

DG makes a point of talking over and over again about how necessary the 10 years he put in as an employee set him to succeed as a creator.

It can be tempting to use our powers and understanding of media to start too early, or jump too quickly, or create something less than valuable…because we can.

But you still need reps.

I know there are some who will disagree with this, but in our space - with so many charlatans and snake oil salesmen - putting in the years of work to have the reps, experience, and war stories that will fuel your second act is absolutely a necessity.

Be wary of the creator who gives advice on things they haven’t done. 🤐

You need to build your own Founder Brand

This may come as a “duh” given Dave’s book.

But for whatever reason - I just recently realized I need to be building a Founder Brand for myself.

It’s so easy to think that our role as marketers is simply to prop the brand or executive or product that we’re tasked with supporting. That’s true.

But we’re doing a massive disservice to ourselves and to our customers if we don’t expand our own brands to maximize our impact. Taking the actions of putting our strategies and methods to work for our own benefit will both make us sharper marketers today and help us build a career destination in the future that matches our goals.

Buy Founder brand. Read or listen to it with the lens of your own brand as the company.

You’ll nod to so much of it, yet learn and apply the lessons differently when you’re thinking of your future organization.

You’re welcome.

My takeaway: Career investments compound. It’s easy to get caught in the short term. If you invest your time and energy in behaviors that compound (like this newsletter), you’ll receive the benefit over the course of enough time. That compounding can create the freedom you need to pursue the career interests you have real energy for. Keep going.

Thanks for reading! If you found this valuable, consider subscribing or sharing it with a friend 😊 

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