Trust & Influence in B2B

I’m Joel Harrison, founder of B2B Marketing.net (formerly B2B Marketing magazine) Propolis and the B2B Marketing Awards. It’s been my mission for the past 21 years to recognise, celebrate and evangelise for the amazing profession that is B2B marketing, which has evolved beyond that recognition in that time. In this podcast, I’ll be exploring what I believe is the biggest challenge facing B2B marketers today: Trust. Buyers have always been cynical, hard to reach and even harder to convince, and increasingly expect to be self-directed in their research. In other words, they only want to engage with you on their terms. As if that wasn't bad enough, media and content channels are fragmented whilst AI is opening the floodgates to a tidalwave of content of questionable quality and veracity. It all adds up to a crisis of trust in B2B. In this podcast, I'll be interviewing innovative and inspirational marketers in the front line of addressing this challenge, providing deep insights into the context of this challenge, exploring new insights about its implications and looking at real world solutions and success stories. I’ll be exploring this topic from every relevant angle and perspective, but I’m going to focus particularly on thought leadership, influencer marketing and advocacy as they have particular relevance to this challenge.

Trust & Influence in B2B is a arts podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 71 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts Trust & Influence in B2B, a arts show with 71 episodes published.

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  Episode #71

  Why influencer skills are becoming essential for B2B CMOs | With Archana Dhankar of Proofpoint

  Aug 11, 202633 minS1

  Most B2B marketing leaders aren't short on expertise — they're short on the confidence and the practised skill to be visible with it, whether that's in the room with their own board or out in public. Archana Dhankar, VP Marketing EMEA at Proofpoint, TEDx speaker and LinkedIn Top Voice, joins Joel Harrison to unpack what it actually takes to build that visibility, internally and externally, and turn it into real influence. ➡️ She breaks down the practical mechanics of building influence: a 2:1 ratio for balancing self-promotion against value-added content, a three-stage framework for knowing when visibility has become influence (likes, saves, and inbound interest), and why trust compounds differently on a public platform than it does inside your own organisation. She's also candid about the cost — the professional accountability, the late nights, the posts that flop despite your best instincts — and closes with practical advice for reluctant leaders and junior marketers on where to start. What you'll learn Why visibility and influence are not the same thing, and how to tell them apart The 2:1 ratio Archana uses to keep self-promotion from tipping into ego A three-stage framework for measuring whether your content is building real influence Why trust compounds differently on social platforms than it does in daily work The personal cost of building a public profile – and why consistency, not confidence, is the hard part How to start building influence if you're a reluctant leader, or a junior marketer just starting out Chapters 00:01 – Introduction and episode setup 02:08 – Archana's journey: two decades in B2B marketing, content roots back to 2008 04:20 – Visibility vs. influence: the core distinction 06:17 – What prompted Archana to go public, and the “side hustle” advantage 09:33 – Three phases of measuring when visibility becomes influence 12:51 – Self-promotion vs. ego, and the 2:1 content ratio 14:18 – Balancing personal brand with company brand 16:47 – Why trust is the foundation of influence 18:41 – Winning over skeptical stakeholders: SEMrush and Adobe as B2B influencer examples 20:28 – How being an influential leader has shaped Archana's career 23:29 – The personal cost: accountability and consistency 26:08 – Where to start if you want influence, not just visibility 30:19 – Advice for junior marketers 31:14 – The one mindset shift that matters most LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/archanadhankar/ Visit Joel Harrison's website to explore exclusive reports, upcoming events, and join the B2B marketing community: https://www.joelharrisonb2b.com/ Follow Joel Harrison and Trust & Influence in B2B across the web: LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/

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  Episode #70

  From the moshpit to the marketing plan | What a decade in the music business taught Jason Miller about attention in B2B

  Aug 5, 202637 minS1

  In this episode of Trust and Influence in B2B Marketing, Joel Harrison sits down with Jason Miller, who leads content and marketing at V7 Labs and previously held senior content marketing roles at LinkedIn, Marketo and ActiveCampaign. Before B2B, Jason spent a decade in the music industry — touring with bands, working artist development, and photographing rock's biggest names — and he's never really left it behind. Together, they explore why the safe, by-the-numbers approach so many B2B marketers default to is quietly the riskiest choice of all, and what a career spent between the tour bus and the marketing plan has taught him about actually earning an audience's attention. ➡️ Jason holds nothing back. He explains why the music industry never called its fans “leads,” and how that community mindset shaped his approach at Marketo, where the entire strategy handed down from Marketo co-founder and CMO Jon Miller was simply “get people to like us.” He unpacks why viral, one-hit-wonder campaigns — from Old Spice to the Volvo truck ad — aren't repeatable playbooks for most brands, and why chasing them is a trap. He's candid about the tension between personality and brand safety inside a large corporate marketing team, drawing on his time working on Bing at Microsoft, and makes the case for consistency over virality — including a great story about Rick Rubin, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and creating for yourself rather than for an audience. He closes with a warning about AI and taste: why outsourcing judgment to an algorithm is the worst thing a marketer can do right now, and what will actually matter in B2B marketing going forward. What You'll Learn What the music industry got right: why bands never called their fans “leads,” and what that means for B2B community-building. The Marketo playbook: how “get people to like us” became a strategy, not just a slogan. The one-hit-wonder trap: why viral campaigns like Old Spice and the Volvo truck ad aren't repeatable playbooks for most brands. Personality vs. brand safety: what happens to a big idea inside a large corporate marketing team, and why smaller, faster teams can take more risks. Consistency beats virality: “posting the draft,” building in public, and what Rick Rubin's work with Red Hot Chili Peppers can teach content marketers. AI and the death of taste: why outsourcing taste to an AI agent is a mistake, and the skills marketers now need to stay relevant. Chapters 00:00 - Introduction: From the Mosh Pit to the Marketing Plan 02:21 - Jason Miller: From Music Industry to B2B, and Life at V7 Labs 05:13 - Startup Speed vs. Corporate Red Tape 07:07 - Life on the Road: Artist Development Lessons 09:33 - B2C Personality Meets B2B: The Marketo Playbook 12:58 - The One-Hit-Wonder Trap: Old Spice, Volvo and Repeatable Playbooks 15:13 - HubSpot, “It Slaps,” and the Line Between Cool and Try-Hard 17:55 - Second Skin: Music as a Sense of Purpose 20:55 - Personality Inside a Corporate Machine: The Microsoft/Bing Story 24:49 - Consistency Over Virality: Posting the Draft and Rick Rubin's “Create for Yourself” 29:18 - Likable, Relevant, Consistent: What Actually Works on LinkedIn 31:43 - Why the Clay and Eleven Labs Playbooks Aren't Repeatable 34:14 - AI, Taste and the Last Human Trait 38:37 - Closing Thoughts Note: chapter times are taken from the unedited transcript and are approximate — confirm against the final published cut before adding to the platform. Follow the Guest Follow Jason Miller https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsnmiller/ https://www.v7labs.com/ Closing & Calls to Action If you care about making B2B marketing more meaningful, useful, and memorable, this conversation is for you. It's honest, funny in places, and packed with takeaways on how to build genuine personality into your content — whether you're a content creator, strategist, or brand leader. Visit Joel Harrison's website to explore exclusive reports, upcoming events, and join the B2B marketing community ➡ https://www.joelharrisonb2b.com/ What do you think comes first —having something to say, or having the confidence to say it? Let us know in the comments below. Subscribe to the channel for weekly insights, interviews, and on-the-ground perspectives from the world of B2B marketing. https://youtube.com/@JoelHarrison-B2B?sub_confirmation=1 Follow Joel Harrison and Trust & Influence in B2B across the web: LinkedIn ▶ https://linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/ Podcast ▶ https://trust-influence-in-b2b.captivate.fm/ Instagram ▶ https://instagram.com/joelharrisonb2b/ Hashtags #JoelHarrisonB2B, #B2BMarketing, #ContentMarketing, #BrandPersonality, #B2BContent, #MarketingPodcast, #B2BInsights, #JoelHarrison, #B2BStrategy, #ContentStrategy, #Storytelling, #MusicIndustry, #B2BGrowth, #ThoughtLeadership, #MarketingTrends

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  Episode #69

  Stop trying to please everyone! | Karl Van den Bergh of Illumio on why consistency, not consensus, is what earns trust in B2B

  Jul 25, 202631 minS1

  Most leadership advice pushes you toward a familiar template: decisive, diplomatic, endlessly composed. It's meant to build trust. Often it does the opposite – because trust depends on people actually knowing who you are, not the version of you assembled to fit expectations. In this episode of Trust & Influence in B2B, Joel Harrison is joined by Karl Van den Bergh, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer at Illumio, the breach containment company. Karl has spent more than 25 years leading go-to-market teams at global technology companies, including CMO roles at Gigamon and DataStax, and now writes regularly on authenticity and what it means to be human at work. Together they unpack why being yourself is a trust strategy rather than a soft skill, how to tell real authenticity apart from the performative kind, and why Karl believes AI raises the value of human, relational marketing rather than eroding it. In this episode: Why most leadership advice pushes conformity rather than authenticity, and what gets lost in the process The test that actually separates real authenticity from the performative kind Why brands that try to please everyone end up forgettable – and the campaign that proves the opposite How fear of conflict quietly kills team performance, and what fixed it on Karl's own team Why Karl believes AI raises the value of human, relational marketing rather than replacing it Chapters 00:00 Cold open 01:26 Karl's background – from physics to CMO 03:13 Why he started writing about being yourself at work 06:10 Why a distinctive point of view is a differentiator 08:37 Personal brand vs. company brand 10:55 What authenticity actually means 11:50 Spotting performative authenticity 13:47 How authenticity cascades through a team 17:27 Where leaders fall short on consistency 19:46 Does this get harder as the stakes rise? 21:56 The counterargument: "Don't Be Yourself" 24:30 AI and the flattening of content 27:52 One thing to start doing differently next week Karl on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlvandenbergh/ Joel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelharrison/

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  Episode #68

  Employee voices drown out brand voices in B2B – so how do you orchestrate them? Rida Oyebade of Workday on employee advocacy

  Jul 23, 202632 minS1

  Why is employee advocacy so often mistaken for a content strategy? Rida Oyebade, Senior Social Media Manager at Workday, explains why handing employees “ready-made content” isn’t enough — advocacy only works when it still sounds like the person sharing it, not the brand behind them. In this episode of Trust & Influence in B2B, host Joel Harrison talks to Rida Oyebade about employee advocacy — the discipline of turning colleagues into credible, willing voices for the brand. Rida traces her own path into advocacy, breaks down the different tiers of an advocacy programme, and is candid about what she’s learned building one from scratch at Workday: why participation has to stay genuinely optional, why no programme survives without real buy-in from leadership, and why the whole discipline is really about borrowed trust rather than borrowed content. In this episode Why brand-originated content is losing ground to individual voices in B2B Why handing employees ready-made content isn’t the same as earning their voice The three tiers of employee advocacy, and why each needs different handling Why employee advocacy means borrowing someone’s “personal real estate” — and why participation has to stay optional What actually makes advocacy programmes work, and why persuasion alone isn’t enough Whether employee advocacy is a specialism worth building a career around Guest Rida Oyebade is Senior Social Media Manager at Workday, where she leads employee advocacy — working with colleagues, or “influencers” as she prefers to call them, to carry the brand into places a corporate account can’t reach.

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  Episode #67

  Growth, creativity and trust: the B2B story of Cannes Lions 2026

  Jul 14, 202639 minS1

  In this special edition of Trust & Influence in B2B, Joel Harrison is joined by Fiona McKenzie of Marketbridge to make sense of Cannes Lions 2026. Fresh from five days of multi-stream content, installations and fringe events, they let the dust settle and distil what actually matters for B2B marketers – viewed through a growth lens, not creativity for its own sake. They unpack why B2B is visibly on the rise at Cannes, the tension between creativity and commercial measurement, and the CFO buy-in conversation (brand as future cashflow). They dig into three important releases from the week: the FT's work on trust (including the finding that 82% trust a source more when it challenges than when it agrees), Bloomberg on reputation pulling weight across the full funnel, and Bain & Co.'s new model positioned as a rival to NPS, scoring a buyer's likelihood to choose you before any deal is on the table. The conversation moves through the B2B Lions winner – an obscure Swedish ball-bearing company using tidal energy in the Faroe Islands, and why a big idea told as a wider go-to-market story is a step in the right direction – the rise of creators and influence in B2B, Joel's framework of five "trust champions," and a notably optimistic read on AI: a technology that surfaces existing misalignment and removes grunt work rather than replacing human judgment. They close on what Cannes could do better for the B2B community. In this episode: What Cannes actually is, and why it's so hard to navigate. B2B moving up the agenda. The growth-versus-creativity lens. CFO buy-in and brand as future cashflow. Why CMOs are exhausted by the measurement debate. Three key releases: FT on trust, Bloomberg on reputation, Bain's NPS rival. The B2B Lions winner and what it signals. Creators, influence and Joel's five trust champions. A grounded, optimistic take on AI. What's missing, and what would take Cannes to the next level in 2027. Reports and resources mentioned (links below): FT – research on trust in B2B https://dimensionsofinfluence.ft.com/ Bloomberg – reputation across the funnel, B2B Summit presentation https://www.bloombergmedia.com/blog/corporate-rep-study-2025/ Bain & Co. – new buyer-choice model positioned against NPS https://www.bain.com/insights/raising-the-odds-on-a-deal-how-likelihood-to-buy-rewires-b2b-growth/ Chapters: (00:00) Welcome and why we waited for the dust to settle (01:13) What Cannes actually is, and how to navigate it (03:04) B2B on the rise at the festival (04:28) The growth lens: creativity anchored in commercial value (05:21) CFO buy-in and brand as future cashflow (07:54) Why CMOs are exhausted by measurement (10:23) Is B2B creativity judged by the wrong (B2C) playbook? (11:26) Three key releases: FT, Bloomberg and Bain (16:45) Talking the language of the boardroom (19:36) The B2B Lions winner: a Swedish ball-bearing story (24:29) Creators, influence and the five trust champions (30:11) AI: surfacing misalignment, not taking our jobs (35:17) What Cannes could do better (37:46) Wrap-up and how to share your own take Title suggestions Following your [Hook] | [Elaboration], with [Guest] format: Cannes decoded | Cutting through the noise to find the B2B signal, with Fiona McKenzie from Marketbridge Creativity anchored in growth | What Cannes Lions 2026 really told B2B marketers, with Fiona McKenzie from Marketbridge Trust is the scarce resource | Reading the room after Cannes 2026, with Fiona McKenzie from Marketbridge A ball-bearing company won | Why the B2B Lions winner is a step in the right direction, with Fiona McKenzie from Marketbridge Brand as future cashflow | The CFO conversation B2B marketers need to have, with Fiona McKenzie from Marketbridge It's not boring, it's mismeasured | Rethinking B2B creativity after Cannes, with Fiona McKenzie from Marketbridge Five days, one signal | Making sense of Cannes Lions 2026 for B2B, with Fiona McKenzie from Marketbridge The five trust champions | Creators, influence and where B2B is heading, with Fiona McKenzie from Marketbridge

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