Positioning Needs to Underpin Every Part of Your Brand Strategy with Stacey Epstein, CEO of Structured - Ep 74

We’ve got the perfect guest to help you understand how your brand can stand out and provide a uniquely incredible experience for customers in the AI era.

Stacey Epstein is the CEO of Structured, the only AI-native channel marketing platform purpose-built for complex partner ecosystems. She is also the Host of AI’ve Got Questions, a casual, candid podcast for marketers trying to make sense of the fast-moving world of AI. Stacey joins co-hosts Matt Amundson and Craig Rosenberg to discuss why your positioning framework needs to be at the core of every marketing campaign, how hiring for taste drives differentiation, and how to inject the voice of your customers into your brand.

Plus, Stacey shares how to maximize the impact of your CEO or Founder throughout your marketing.

Also, Craig talks about the miracle of birth, Matt mixes up the abbreviations of an African country, and Producer Sam expounds on the etymology of the word “czar”.

Critical Takeaways

• Before you start executing any marketing tactics, you need to develop a strong positioning framework that clearly articulates what your company does, why it matters, who the buyer is, and what makes you different. Way too many B2B companies are still doing "random acts of marketing" where every campaign differs from the website messaging, creating inconsistent brand experiences that confuse buyers and dilute impact.
• As AI handles more aspects of content creation, campaign distribution, and administrative tasks, marketing teams should prioritize hiring "tastemakers" who demonstrate exceptional judgment in evaluating strategic creative decisions. The ability to curate, refine, and elevate work, whether human-made or AI-generated, matters more than the ability to execute tactical tasks manually.
• Treat your S-1 as the foundation for all Go-To-Market activities. It should be the basis of your positioning, informing everything from why you exist, what your product does, points of competitive differentiation, and your future vision
• Organizations need a centralized AI leader, whether in marketing ops, revenue ops, or IT, to coordinate AI initiatives across functions and prevent teams from burying themselves in disjointed AI projects. This role ensures strategic alignment, prevents redundant tool purchases, and helps teams focus AI adoption on high-impact use cases rather than experimenting randomly.

Chapters

00:00 - Episode Preview

00:42 - Craig’s Story of Endings and New Beginnings

02:46 - Introducing Stacey Epstein, CEO of Structured

07:16 - Accidentally Sending an Embarrassing Email to Every Co-worker in an Entire Region

15:34 - Why Positioning is Foundational to Your Brand and Storytelling

21:29 - How to Get Better Input on Marketing from Founders & CEOs

31:58 - What Stacey's Learned about AI From Hosting her Podcast

34:54 - Why You Need to Hire “Taste Makers” in an AI-first world

41:50 - A Brief Aside on the Etymology of Czar/Tsar

43:35 - Why Companies are Hiring GTM Engineers & The Impact They're Having

45:58 - How to Lead AI Implementation in Your Company

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Epic Quotes

• “ Who owns AI in the company?” - Stacey Epstein
• “ I love coming back to use cases, because use cases come back to the benefit for the company. So instead of telling me what the product does, tell me how that would be used.” - Stacey Epstein

Connect with Stacey

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/staceyepstein/
• Magnetic GTM Website: https://www.magneticgtm.com/
• Podcast: https://aivegotquestions.buzzsprout.com/
• Structured Website: https://structured.ai/

Shoutouts

• David Boskovic: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dboskovic/
• David’s Episode: https://open.substack.com/pub/thetransaction/p/building-an-ai-first-go-to-market
• Lisa Cole: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisacole01/