APAC's B2B Growth Podcast

APAC's B2B Growth Podcast (formerly Growth Colony) is a bi-weekly interview show unpacking trends, busting myths and delivering insights B2B marketing and sales leaders across Asia-Pacific can put to work today. Each episode, host Shahin Hoda sits down with a marketing leader, sales leader, founder or operator who has a real point of view, not a generic take. Guests bring specific stories from inside their own companies: what worked, what failed and what they'd do differently. We cover what's actually driving B2B growth in the region: account-based marketing built for APAC rather than adapted from a US or UK playbook, sales and marketing alignment, and founder and operator commentary from people doing the work, not just talking about it. If you're a B2B marketing or sales leader in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore or anywhere else in Asia-Pacific trying to build pipeline from strategic accounts, this show is for you. </p

APAC's B2B Growth Podcast is a business podcast hosted by xGrowth, with 297 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

xGrowth hosts APAC's B2B Growth Podcast, a business show with 297 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #271

  What B2B Marketers Should Measure Instead of MQLs with James Toepfer

  Sep 23, 202639 min

  James Toepfer, former Head of Campaign Strategy and Demand Marketing for Digital Media APAC at Adobe, joins the show to explain why his team there ditched the Marketing Qualified Lead for the Marketing Qualified Account. He unpacks the disconnect that forced the change, an MQL dashboard glowing green while sales sat in the red, and how an account view reshaped BDR targets and conversion. Expect a practical breakdown of MQA and advice for lean teams without an insights function. Guest Introduction James Toepfer is a senior B2B marketing leader with 20+ years driving marketing strategy, go-to-market architecture, and revenue growth across enterprise SaaS in ANZ and APAC, at organisations including Adobe, Google, Intuit, PayPal, and Optus. Key Topics The "green dashboard, red sales" disconnect: why MQL volume and database coverage stopped reflecting sales performance What MQA measures: engagement across a buying group of 7-10 ICPs per account, including "dark funnel" activity, not a single last-touch metric The multi-quarter transition at Adobe, running MQL and MQA in parallel, led by a global insights team with heavy BDR enablement The Account Engagement Hub: a self-serve tool for BDRs to prioritise accounts, see engaged contacts, and build outbound plans How BDR incentives changed under MQA: unchanged pipeline targets, but higher-quality conversations and disposition rates Adjusting the model under quarter-end pressure by narrowing to the most-engaged accounts, not adding more leads Advice for smaller teams: group leads by account manually and work backwards from the revenue number Why conversion improved once the denominator shifted to prioritised accounts, alongside sharper, problem-led content Resources & Links People Kerry Cunningham - Former Forrester analyst, now at 6sense, whose talk first shaped James's account-based thinking Jon Miller - Marketo co-founder, early advocate for account-based measurement Jon Stona - Global CMO of Airwallex, cited as an example of bold B2B brand marketing Nishi Seth - Google Cloud Marketing Lead APAC, cited for her take on continuous optimisation Lucinda Barlow - Senior Director, International Marketing at Uber and James's former Google leader, cited for brand built on a customer "jolt" Mark Jones - Host of The CMO Show, which Adobe sponsors Dave Gerhardt - Founder of Exit Five, followed for ABM content Shadé Zahrai - Self-leadership researcher whose "I could" vs "I should" framing James cites as a takeaway Companies & Tools Adobe - Where James led the MQL-to-MQA transition 6sense - Intent platform Kerry Cunningham now works with Marketo - Automation platform, part of Adobe, co-founded by Jon Miller The CMO Show - Marketing podcast hosted by Mark Jones, sponsored by Adobe Exit Five - B2B marketing community founded by Dave Gerhardt Contact & Credits Host: Shahin Hoda Guest : James Toepfer Produced by : Shahin Hoda and Alexander Hipwell Edited by: Alexander Hipwell & Dave Somido Music by : Breakmaster Cylinder Podcast Co-ordinator: Jonah Igsie APAC's B2B Growth Podcast is Presented by xGrowth

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  Episode #270

  How to Run a 7-Person Marketing Team With Just One Person with Jeff Sauer

  Sep 9, 202641 min

  Jeff Sauer has spent twenty years teaching marketers how to measure what matters. In this episode, he explains how AI has rewritten his marketing playbook, letting a lean team (often just himself and a stack of AI tools) produce work that used to take a copywriter, web designer, project manager, and paid ads specialist. If you run a small marketing team and want a practical look at what AI can take off your plate today, this conversation is packed with real workflows, real numbers, and honest warnings about what still needs a human eye. Guest Introduction Jeff Sauer is the founder of MeasureU , a measurement training platform for agency owners and consultants, and previously ran an Inc 5000 agency for a decade before selling it. He has trained more than 50,000 marketers across over 100 countries and built a YouTube channel with more than 55,000 subscribers. Key Topics How AI has shifted marketing staffing from "I need these people" to "what staff do I actually need" Jeff's AI stack: Claude Code as his daily driver, plus ChatGPT, Gemini, Veo 3, Seedance, and Copy Coders for specialist tasks Building serversideblueprint.com end to end with AI, which sold $15,000 worth of workshops An automated LinkedIn workflow that drafts, schedules, and replies to comments, generating over 1,000 B2B leads this year Why long-form YouTube content anchors his content engine, feeding blog posts, newsletters, and social clips Building 40+ lead generating landing pages in minutes each with Claude Code, no WordPress plugins needed His anti-AI tuning rules and six-step skill framework for catching AI writing patterns before they go live Why email remains the highest ROI channel, and how voice dictation feeds his AI-assisted writing process Resources & Links Companies & Tools MeasureU , Jeff's training company MeasureU AI Marketing Guide , free guide to this episode's four workflows, plus an AI vs human task grid Claude and Claude Code , Jeff's daily AI driver ChatGPT and Codex, for image generation and code checks Google Gemini , for image generation Google Veo 3 and ByteDance Seedance , for AI video generation Copy Coders , Genesis bots for email, script, and landing page copy Publer , Taplio , Apify , and n8n , earlier tools for LinkedIn scheduling, research, and automation, now folded into Claude MacWhisper , voice dictation for email drafts Z.ai GLM models, used to critique and bug check AI code Authority Hacker , source of Jeff's skill framework Lovable , an early 2025 vibe coding tool WordPress , Gravity Forms , and Go High Level , the old site and lead capture tools Jeff no longer needs Contact & Credits: Host: Shahin Hoda Guest : Jeff Sauer Produced by : Shahin Hoda and Alexander Hipwell Edited by: Alexander Hipwell & Dave Somido Music by : Breakmaster Cylinder Podcast Co-ordinator: Jonah Igsie APAC's B2B Growth Podcast is Presented by xGrowth

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  Episode #268

  What is Gartner’s Prediction on AI and Job Market with Neal Woolrich

  Aug 12, 202640 min

  AI isn't just changing individual jobs, it's changing the shape of the org chart itself. In this episode, Neal Woolrich, Director in Gartner's Human Resources Advisory practice, joins Shahin to unpack whether the traditional "pyramid" structure is giving way to a "diamond" with fewer entry-level roles, and what that means for the next generation of managers. Neal cuts through the noise around AI-driven layoffs (much of it, he argues, is "AI washing") and shares Gartner's projection that AI becomes a net job creator by 2030. He also walks through real governance models from Lloyd's Bank, ServiceNow and Red Hat, and tackles the thorny question of what happens when AI agents start appearing on the org chart alongside humans. Guest Introduction Neal Woolrich is a Director in Gartner's Human Resources Advisory practice, based in Melbourne, where he advises organisations on culture, employee experience and organisational design. He spent 13 years as a broadcast journalist with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) before moving into HR consulting. Key Topics Why the traditional "pyramid" org structure (many entry-level roles, fewer managers, fewer executives) is being challenged by a "diamond" shape with a shrinking entry point The shift from specialist workers to AI-complemented generalists, and what it means for how organisations build skills over time Why Neal believes many AI-attributed layoffs are actually "AI washing," with financial or market pressures the real driver Gartner's projection that AI becomes a net job creator by 2030, and what the next four years of labour market disruption might look like New roles emerging directly from AI adoption, including AI governance and AI ethics functions Three real-world governance models: Lloyd's Bank's "control tower" approach, ServiceNow's AI council with supporting pods, and Red Hat's three-tier framework based on degree of AI impact The emerging practice of placing AI agents on the org chart, and the open questions around ownership and accountability when things go wrong Differences in AI adoption pace between the US, UK and Australia, and why Neal doesn't think Australia's "behind" position is cause for panic How organisations can communicate AI rollouts to reduce the roughly 40% of the workforce that reacts negatively to major change Resources & Links People Mentioned Rick Beato – YouTube music educator and producer Neal cited as someone whose commentary on the shift from big studios to home recording has shaped his thinking about the AI "bubble" debate Companies & Tools Gartner – Research and advisory firm where Neal works; source of the org-structure and net-job-creator research discussed throughout Ramp – Fintech company referenced for its hiring trends report, which found companies adopting AI kept similar junior hiring rates to before AI Lloyd's Bank – UK bank cited for its "control tower" approach to AI governance ServiceNow – HR technology company cited for its two-tier AI council and pod governance model Red Hat – Open-source company cited for its three-tier framework grouping roles by degree of AI impact IBM – Red Hat's parent company, referenced regarding a recent stock drop tied to AI strategy commentary Moderna – Referenced for merging its IT and HR functions in recognition that AI is a human experience as much as a technology one Contact & Credits Host: Shahin Hoda Guest : Neal Woolrich Produced by : Shahin Hoda and Alexander Hipwell Edited by: Alexander Hipwell & Dave Somido Music by : Breakmaster Cylinder Podcast Co-ordinator: Jonah Igsie APAC's B2B Growth Podcast is presented by xGrowth

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  Episode #267

  Building a Go to Market Hub That Connects Sales, Marketing and Customer Success with Ronan Bray

  Jul 29, 202636 min

  What happens when a marketing leader goes all in on AI, not just for himself, but for his entire team? Ronan Bray, Head of Marketing & Growth at Cloud Assess, joins the podcast to unpack exactly that. From a two week Christmas break spent teaching himself to build apps, to rolling out a fully connected go to market platform that pulls live data from HubSpot, Google Search Console, and Notion, Ronan shares the real story of AI adoption inside a B2B marketing team, mess, momentum, and all. This episode is a practical playbook for any marketing leader wondering how to move a team from AI curiosity to AI capability. Ronan gets specific about what worked (starting small with personal projects), what didn't (announcing a team wide AI mandate with almost no context), and where he still won't let AI near the steering wheel, like paid ad spend and image or video creation. Guest Introduction Ronan Bray is Head of Marketing & Growth at Cloud Assess, where he leads a global marketing team driving pipeline with over 85 percent of ARR from inbound. Over 16 years he has scaled B2B marketing for ASX listed companies and his own startups (three reaching acquisition or buyout), building on experience at HubSpot and Drift. Key Topics Ronan's personal path into AI, from everyday ChatGPT use to picking Claude as the team's core tool to avoid spreading focus too thin How a two week Christmas break and a personal "vibe coding" project (a lawn care scheduler built in Lovable) became the spark for wider team adoption The simple three question framework Ronan uses with his team: where's your time going, what's repetitive, and what's the ideal end state Building a go to market hub in Lovable that connects HubSpot, Google Search Console and Firecrawl to surface content gaps and sales insights automatically Why Ronan's team keeps a human in the loop on all content, even though AI can draft it, because audiences and algorithms can both tell when something is fully AI generated The security guardrails Cloud Assess put in place around domain locking and vulnerability scanning when building internally with Lovable Why Ronan won't hand over paid ad spend decisions to AI, even with tools connected to Google Ads What's next for Ronan's team: using AI for image and video generation to communicate fast moving product releases to sales and customers Resources & Links Companies & Tools Cloud Assess : Ronan's company, an AI powered training and assessment platform, referenced throughout as the environment for his AI rollout Lovable : the AI app builder Ronan and his team use to build internal tools, including their go to market hub Claude : the AI assistant Ronan's team standardised on for everyday tasks and custom team projects HubSpot : the CRM feeding deal and pipeline data into the go to market hub Firecrawl : the web scraping tool connected to their platform to analyse blog and competitor content ChatGPT : the tool Ronan first used for personal AI adoption before switching to Claude Notion : used by Cloud Assess's product team to track features, later integrated into the go to market hub Higgsfield : an AI image and video tool Ronan tested via MCP, which he found fell short for a recent website rebuild Contact & Credits Host: Shahin Hoda Guest : Ronan Bray Produced by : Shahin Hoda and Alexander Hipwell Edited by: Alexander Hipwell & Dave Somido Music by : Breakmaster Cylinder Podcast Co-ordinator: Jonah Igsie APAC's B2B Growth Podcast is Presented by xGrowth

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  Episode #266

  The Partner Marketing Playbook Nobody Talks About with Jordana Sunderland

  Jul 15, 202635 min

  Most B2B marketers treat partners like a sales channel. Jordana Sunderland says that's the core mistake. In this episode, Jordana, Director of Integrated Marketing for the Pacific Zone at Schneider Electric, joins Shahin to unpack what genuine partner marketing looks like and why so many companies get it fundamentally wrong. From her early career marketing pharmaceuticals to her current work navigating the energy transition, Jordana draws on cross-industry experience to reveal how insights, enablement, and real partnership beat price conversations every time. If your go-to-market relies on a channel or distribution network, this episode is essential listening. Guest Introduction Jordana Sunderland is Director of Integrated Marketing, Pacific Zone at Schneider Electric, a global leader in energy technology. With over two decades of B2B marketing experience across the pharmaceutical and energy sectors, Jordana has built a reputation for turning partner relationships into genuine growth engines through enablement, insight, and advisory-led sales. Key Topics Why leadership and sales teams default to price conversations with partners, and why that framing is detrimental to long-term growth How to win share of mind over share of shelf by understanding what partners are actually trying to achieve in their business The role of partner enablement, including loyalty programs, training, and data-driven insights, in driving preference for your product over competitors A real-world example from community pharmacy: how Jordana's team became indispensable to partners by providing expert analysis on government pricing changes that directly affected their revenue How to balance end-user demand generation against partner-led selling, and why Jordana recommends a 70/30 partner-to-end-user investment split as a starting point The attitudinal segmentation approach to partner acquisition: why firmographic size is a poor proxy for partner quality and how to identify partners who share your values Co-marketing reality check: why logo placement and random promotions deliver nothing, and what genuine co-marketing amplification looks like MDF fund management: how to maintain brand alignment when marketing development funds are in play, and why sales and marketing must be tightly connected Resources & Links Companies & Tools Schneider Electric -Jordana's current employer; a global energy technology company Viatris -the generics pharmaceuticals company (formerly Mylan) where Jordana held a marketing role prior to Schneider Electric Books & Resources The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson - recommended by Jordana as a foundational read that shaped her marketing approach Contact & Credits Host: Shahin Hoda Guest : Jordana Sunderland Produced by : Shahin Hoda and Alexander Hipwell Edited by: Alexander Hipwell & Dave Somido Music by : Breakmaster Cylinder Podcast Co-ordinator: Jonah Igsie APAC's B2B Growth Podcast is Presented by xGrowth

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