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Marketing Engineer: The $1M Job with AI Agents

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Marketing Engineer: The $1M Job with AI Agents

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859 segments

0:00

I think one of the most valuable people

0:02

in tech over the next 18 to 24 months is

0:04

going to be something called a marketing

0:07

engineer. Now some people call it a

0:09

forward deployed marketer and some other

0:11

people are calling it an AI growth

0:13

operator. I'm saying call it whatever

0:15

you want. The name is probably going to

0:17

change but the job won't. It's the

0:20

person who can do a whole marketing team

0:22

work with AI agents. And I think there's

0:25

going to be a ton of money to be made in

0:27

it. I actually think this becomes a

0:29

250k, 500k, a milliondoll job because

0:33

every company wants more leads. They

0:35

want faster experiments. They want

0:37

sharper positioning and they want to

0:39

read on their customers and they want

0:41

their just marketing to get smarter

0:43

every week with a smaller team than a

0:46

bigger team. Whoever can walk in and

0:49

just build that with AI agents are going

0:51

to get to name their price. So, if

0:54

you're a marketer, this is how you

0:55

become way more valuable. If you're a

0:58

founder, you know this. You don't just

1:00

want to vibe code something. You want

1:02

people using your product. So, you're

1:04

going to have a huge edge if you can use

1:06

AI agents to do your marketing for you.

1:09

By the end of this episode, you're going

1:11

to know what a marketing engineer

1:13

actually does. What do they build? What

1:16

the tool stack looks like? how to use

1:19

things like Grockbot and Claude and

1:21

Codeex and Hermes and creative models,

1:23

how they all play together within the

1:25

context of a marketing engineer, and the

1:28

exact 30-day plan I'd follow to learn

1:31

from scratch if marketing engineering is

1:33

interesting to you. Let's get into the

1:35

episode. I can't wait to see what you

1:38

[music] build.

1:46

So something I can't stop thinking about

1:49

is marketing keeps changing and having

1:53

been a part of multiple cycles. I've

1:56

started and sold three ventureback

1:57

companies. You know, one was in the web

1:59

era, one was in the social era, one was

2:01

in the mobile era. Every time the

2:04

technology changes, the most valuable

2:07

kind of marketer changes with it. So,

2:10

think about the traditional era of

2:12

marketing. I actually think about it as

2:14

like the Don Draper era where marketing

2:17

was about making people care through the

2:19

story, through the psychology, getting

2:22

your product in front of people on

2:23

whatever channels existed at the time.

2:26

Things like traditional print media and

2:28

radio. The best marketers at that time

2:31

understood what people wanted, what they

2:33

were insecure about, who they were

2:35

trying to become and how to package a

2:37

product so the market paid attention.

2:39

Obviously, that skill matters a lot. But

2:42

then the internet showed up and it

2:44

created the digital marketer. So it

2:45

evolved from traditional to digital.

2:47

Suddenly you had websites, email, SEO,

2:50

Google. In 2005, I think six, you had

2:53

Facebook ads, landing pages, pixels. The

2:56

best marketer became the person who

2:58

could acquire customers through channels

3:02

you could actually measure. And a lot of

3:04

people didn't know these were new

3:05

channels. So the the best marketers

3:08

understood funnels targeting these new

3:10

channels, analytics, things like Google

3:12

Analytics and the very practical

3:14

question about what happens after

3:16

someone clicks.

3:18

Then software created loops and then

3:22

growth hacking became a thing around if

3:24

I remember correctly 8 9 10 11 the best

3:28

growth uh hacker people were all about

3:31

activation referrals onboarding

3:33

retention pricing there was a guy by the

3:35

name of Dave Mccclure had this I think

3:37

it was called the R framework activation

3:40

and referral um that was the you know

3:44

the marquee er uh the the the symbol of

3:47

the time of the growth hacker era.

3:49

Basically, marketing moved closer to

3:52

product because the product itself could

3:54

become the growth engine. Now, we're

3:56

walking into the marketing engineering

3:59

era. And I feel like not a lot of people

4:01

have spoken about this. That's why I

4:02

want this to be the deacto episode about

4:05

this whole era. The marketing engineer

4:09

still needs all that old stuff. It still

4:11

needs, you know, customer understanding,

4:13

judgment, positioning, understanding

4:15

distribution, uh, taste. Um, if

4:19

anything, taste, you know, people talk

4:21

about this all the time, but taste

4:23

matters more now than ever because AI is

4:25

about to make average marketing

4:27

marketing just unbelievably cheap. The

4:30

new part is that the marketing engineer

4:33

also builds the system behind the

4:36

marketing. So the marketing engineer is

4:38

connecting uh customer data uh reading

4:41

the results uh shipping little landing

4:43

pages and uh you know calculators and

4:46

then turning raw customer signal into

4:49

content outbound positioning and product

4:52

ideas. So the way I think about it is

4:55

traditional marketing was about you know

4:58

making people care. Digital marketing

5:00

was acquiring customers through

5:02

measurable new channels. Growth hacking

5:04

was about using product and data to

5:06

build these loops. And marketing

5:08

engineering is about using AI, agents,

5:11

data, code, and taste to build a

5:13

marketing system that keeps learning.

5:16

Um, and the last phrase is an important

5:18

one because a marketing system that

5:20

keeps learning is now actually possible

5:22

in the agentic era. Now, most companies

5:25

already have pieces of this lying around

5:28

uh to their credit. So they've got, you

5:30

know, tools and dashboards, calls,

5:32

content, calendars, CRM, some SAS tools.

5:36

Um, the problem is the learning is is

5:39

pretty scattered. Um, you know, sales

5:42

might hear one version of the market,

5:43

support hears another. Uh, product sees

5:46

the usage and marketing sees what got

5:48

clicks and the founder remembers, you

5:51

know, the one customer call that just

5:52

hit him emotionally that week and just

5:54

can't get that one customer call out of

5:57

his or her head. I know that happens to

5:59

me. Uh then everyone walks into the

6:02

growth meeting with a slightly different

6:03

version of reality. So the marketing

6:06

engineer's whole job is actually to pull

6:08

in these signals into one system and

6:12

turn them into growth. So the way I

6:14

define the role is this. uh a marketing

6:16

engineer's you know is a marketing

6:19

engineer is the person who turns market

6:23

signal into pipeline using AI agents

6:26

data code taste and that's really the

6:29

job um and I'm going to get you know

6:31

super tactical on how you can actually

6:32

do this soon um if I were a founder

6:35

right now uh the question I'd be asking

6:37

myself is who be who on my team would be

6:41

building the growth system for this

6:42

company now I am a founder my uh myself

6:45

so a lot lot of time I'm doing this

6:46

myself. Um, and I just hope that you

6:49

know if you're a founder listening here,

6:51

uh, either you hire someone or you do it

6:53

yourself. Um, and you know, because the

6:55

companies that are going to win in this

6:56

agentic era are going to learn the

6:59

market faster than anyone else. So, it's

7:01

kind of it's crucial to know. So if you

7:03

see the customer pain earlier, you spot

7:05

the winning language earlier, you're

7:07

testing more angles using fed uh

7:09

Facebook ads, shipping more surfaces,

7:12

lead magnets, and understand what's

7:14

working before the competitor even

7:15

notices things, you have this unfair

7:18

advantage. So the question I get asked a

7:21

lot is, okay, but what is the first

7:22

thing I would build? Okay, I want to

7:24

become a marketing engineer. I want to I

7:26

want to do more marketing engineering.

7:28

What do I build first? And the first

7:30

thing I would build is a growth repo.

7:33

Yeah, I know it sounds a little bit

7:34

nerdy. Um, but you know, even if you're

7:37

non-technical, I believe you can do it.

7:40

So, you're going to want to go and

7:41

create a GitHub repo. Um, or honestly

7:44

just a structured folder. Uh, you can

7:46

call it something like growth OS. And it

7:49

becomes a place where the company's

7:51

marketing memory is going to live. The

7:54

problem it's going to be solving is that

7:56

most people use AI in these random

7:58

chats. So they'll open up a chat GBT or

8:00

Claude Gemini. They'll ask for 10 posts

8:04

and maybe they'll copy and you know copy

8:06

one into a doc that they like and then

8:08

the work just disappears. Next week the

8:12

AI is starting from scratch again. Uh

8:14

when what it really needed was the

8:16

performance data and the founders voice

8:18

and the objection from the sales calls

8:20

and the language that actually created

8:23

replies. So the growth repo is going to

8:26

fix that. Um, and inside it, what we're

8:28

going to have is a customer truth

8:30

folder, and that's going to have our

8:33

sales calls notes or support tickets,

8:35

maybe some churn notes, interviews, um,

8:38

even uh, live product feedback can go in

8:41

there. So, you've got uh, a content

8:43

engine folder with the founder voice

8:46

guide with the winning hooks and the

8:49

scripts and notes on what performed

8:50

before. You've got an outbound engine

8:53

folder with the ICP, your ideal customer

8:56

profile. Uh the account research, the

8:59

trigger events, maybe some approved

9:01

angles could be good to have there. Even

9:03

actually ban uh band language is good to

9:06

have as well. Um because you know AI

9:10

outbound gets weird fast. If you let it

9:12

talk like an overexited SDR who just

9:15

discovered personalization, you know,

9:17

sometimes bad things could happen. So,

9:19

you've got a creative testing uh folder

9:22

for ad angles um and things like landing

9:26

page tests and hooks and offers and

9:29

results. And you've got an agents folder

9:31

where you define the jobs your AI

9:33

workers do. And that repo is the

9:37

difference between hey AI helped me make

9:40

a thing and AI is helping the whole

9:43

company get smarter. That's how a growth

9:46

or a marketing engineer uh you know is

9:49

thinking about it. And then the prompt

9:52

gets way better. So instead of hey you

9:55

know write me 10 LinkedIn posts, you say

9:58

you know read me read the customer truth

10:00

file, read the founder voice file, read

10:02

the last five uh posts that drove

10:04

qualified replies and draft five new

10:07

posts around Payne's buyers that were

10:10

actually mentioned this week. So, it's a

10:12

totally different level of output. Um,

10:15

because the agent is now having real

10:17

context. What tools do I need if I want

10:20

to become a marketing engineer? Well,

10:24

I'll tell you some of the most important

10:25

ones and how to think about, you know,

10:27

where all the tools fit uh and your tool

10:30

stack. So, you know, Grockbot is new,

10:32

but it's just an incredible uh product.

10:35

So I think of Grockbot as the growth

10:39

operating system that lives close to the

10:41

internet. So marketing is a living

10:43

system. The marketing is moving.

10:45

Competitors are moving. Culture is

10:47

changing. Customers are changing their

10:49

language. Uh creators are picking up new

10:51

formats. Um you know Grockbot is

10:54

especially useful in that world because

10:56

it is connected to the X ecosystem. If I

11:00

were setting this up as a founder, I'd

11:02

give it a few clear lanes. So, I'd say

11:04

one bot watches competitors and tells me

11:06

what changed. One is going to watch

11:08

customer language across X and Reddit.

11:10

One watches the creators in the niche

11:12

and finds formats worth testing. And one

11:15

watches ads and landing pages. Um, you

11:18

know, [clears throat] basically wherever

11:19

there's a connection to the internet,

11:22

you know, Grockbot is going to be extra

11:24

good there. That doesn't mean you can't

11:26

use Grockbot to do everything. You

11:28

totally can. Um, and I think, uh, you

11:32

know, I'm one of those people that, you

11:34

know, say like, you know, basically, you

11:36

know, pick an ecosystem that you like,

11:38

that you feel comfortable with. If

11:39

Grockbot feels good for you, you know,

11:41

just do everything in there as well. The

11:45

way I think about it, this is just the

11:46

way I'm thinking about it. So, uh, hope

11:49

it gets the creative juices flowing. You

11:51

know, for me, I use Claude and Codeex

11:54

and products like that in in a different

11:56

part of the system. So, they're going to

11:58

help me build the repo and generate the

12:00

landing pages, writing scripts, building

12:02

the little internal tools that I was

12:05

talking about. Um, and then, you know,

12:07

turn that repeatable work into something

12:09

durable. Um, you know, I've talked on

12:12

this channel about Hermes before. Hermes

12:14

style workflows are still extremely

12:16

valuable, uh, especially when you want

12:19

scheduled operations with memory and

12:21

approval. So something like every Monday

12:24

morning build me a market brief or every

12:26

Friday afternoon review the experiments.

12:29

Um every time a fresh batch of sales

12:32

calls land, you know, maybe put it in a

12:34

folder and then pull the objections and

12:36

update the positioning file. Then you

12:39

have creative models. Then they're going

12:41

to help you move faster on ads,

12:43

thumbnails, mockups, and video concepts.

12:46

Um there's a bunch of those that exist.

12:49

There's foul AI, there's Higsfield,

12:52

there's a bunch of them. And local AI

12:55

matters when the data is, you know,

12:57

particularly sensitive or there's p

12:59

private customer transcripts or

13:01

regulated notes, pricing plans,

13:03

basically anything a company would feel

13:06

weird sending into a cloud tool. Um,

13:10

also things that are expense, too

13:11

expensive to do into a cloud tool. I'm

13:13

going to do a whole separate episode on

13:15

local AI. So, so stay tuned for that

13:17

over the next one or two weeks, you

13:20

know, and subscribe. Uh, so that comes

13:22

into your feed. The tools are going to

13:24

keep changing, but the workflow is the

13:27

thing to actually learn. So, where it

13:30

gets really interesting is when the

13:31

agent connects to live business data and

13:35

the tools obviously to actually do the

13:37

work. So, take SEO content. The beginner

13:42

version is asking an AI to write a blog

13:45

post about a keyword. So, a marketing

13:47

engineer isn't going to do that. A

13:48

marketing engineer is going to check

13:50

Google Search Console, pulling, you

13:53

know, keyword data from Hrefs or or SEM

13:56

Rush, look inside this CMS to see, you

14:00

know, if it already exists. It's going

14:02

to rank opportunities by volume and by

14:05

buyer intent and it's going to research

14:08

what's already ranking uh in you know

14:11

hopefully adding the founders's point of

14:13

view and draft the post write the

14:16

metatitle suggest internal links and

14:19

just send the whole thing for approval.

14:21

Um that's a pretty big jump but you know

14:23

the agent has a job the job has inputs

14:26

and the inputs come from the business

14:29

and the output goes somewhere useful.

14:32

So, every agent is going to need a real

14:35

job spec. And I'd write it out almost

14:38

like I was hiring a person. Here's the

14:40

data sp here's the data source. Here's

14:43

when you run it. Uh here's what you

14:45

filter out. Here's the output I expect.

14:47

Like here's what good looks like. Here's

14:49

what's going to need human approval.

14:51

Here's the metric that matters. And

14:53

here's what you write the result so the

14:56

system gets smarter next time. So for

15:00

you know maybe a competitor engager

15:02

agent that might be every weekday

15:05

morning check these 20 LinkedIn accounts

15:08

and pull the people who commented on new

15:11

post enrich them drop the drop the bad

15:15

fit leads and draft 10 messages tied to

15:18

a specific post they engaged with. Oh

15:21

and then obviously write that write the

15:23

results to a file for approval. The

15:26

metric is going to be positive replies

15:29

from qualified accounts because a

15:31

marketing engineer cares about business

15:33

results, right? Not activity counts. Uh

15:36

messages sent is activity. Quality

15:39

qualified replies is going to be your

15:41

signal. And the whole point the

15:43

marketing engineer is trying to do is to

15:45

generate pipeline demand. And you train

15:47

these agents the same way you train a

15:50

new hire. You start with small tasks.

15:52

You watch it work. You correct the

15:54

mistakes. You add the correction to

15:56

memory because now we have memory and

15:58

then you expand the scope as you

16:00

increase your comfort level. If the

16:02

outbound agent writes a first line that

16:05

sounds like fake, for example, you got

16:08

to add the rule to the repo. And if the

16:10

content agent keeps writing these

16:12

generic intros that sound like generic

16:14

AI, you give it three good examples and

16:17

three bad ones. If the customer truth

16:20

agent makes a claim with no evidence,

16:22

you know, we got a problem here. You got

16:24

to add the rule to that. Every insight

16:28

needs a quote or a link or a source.

16:31

Every correction becomes part of this

16:33

operating system, this growth, you know,

16:36

marketing engineering uh uh system. And

16:40

that's how this whole thing compounds.

16:42

And going back to like how does a, you

16:45

know, marketing engineer make a million

16:47

a year or $500,000 a year or $1.5

16:49

million a year for their own startup.

16:51

It's because they're building this and

16:53

it's so darn valuable. But let's let's

16:56

actually get into a concrete example so

17:00

that just this gets solidified into your

17:03

head. So imagine a vertical SAS startup

17:07

selling software to commercial HVAC

17:10

contractors. These are companies

17:12

managing technicians and service calls

17:15

and maintenance contracts

17:18

uh and and dispatch. So, it's a real,

17:21

you know, B2B market. Um, the buyer has

17:24

a lot of money. The workflows are messy

17:26

and the language is specific, which is

17:28

why I wanted to use this uh example. The

17:31

marketing problem for that company is

17:34

usually a little bit more sharper than,

17:36

hey, we need some more content. Um, the

17:39

real problem that they're facing is

17:41

usually something like which pain gets

17:43

the owner to take a a demo. Uh, maybe

17:47

it's dispatch chaos, or maybe it's late

17:49

invoices. Maybe it's that the owner has

17:52

no idea which jobs were profitable until

17:55

the month is over. Or maybe it's

17:58

actually that the technician finishes a

18:00

service call, spots a replacement

18:03

opportunity, and the follow-up quote

18:05

just never gets sent. Um, that's

18:07

interesting just because it's really

18:09

specific. So, when you have something

18:11

specific, you know, it's it's just

18:14

interesting.

18:16

you know, my bunny ears go up. Stop

18:18

losing replacement revenue after every

18:21

service call is obviously a much sharper

18:23

angle than run your HVAC business

18:26

better. So, this is where your marketing

18:28

engineer is going to earn their keep,

18:30

right? It's going to start with the

18:31

customer truth system. That first system

18:34

is going to be the customer truth

18:35

system. And every startup says they

18:37

understand the customer and you talk to

18:39

five people and they get five different

18:41

results. We talked about that. But the

18:43

marketing engineer is going to pull

18:44

those signals into one place. The output

18:48

is a file called what the market is

18:51

telling us.md. I tweeted about this

18:53

idea. It went viral. I'm glad people

18:55

liked it. It's basically this a markdown

18:58

file which updates every morning or

19:00

every week depending on how much signal

19:02

the c uh the company is going to have.

19:04

And it's reading the sales calls and

19:06

support tickets and churn notes. Uh even

19:09

stripe movement. Um, oh, CRM notes is a

19:13

good one. Uh, and also social data,

19:16

especially if it's more consumerry, and

19:18

its whole job is to show what's changed.

19:21

So, maybe the buyers are using a

19:23

different phrase than they were you

19:25

using a month ago, or maybe the trial

19:27

users keep getting stuck before they

19:29

invite a teammate. You're just going to

19:30

get some insight

19:33

and you're going to ask the agent to

19:36

show quote snippets, uh, ticket links,

19:39

event counts. Um, what you don't want is

19:43

obviously a vague summary, which a I've

19:45

seen a lot of people do this. They just

19:46

get these summaries and it's pretty

19:48

vague. Like in this case, you'd get

19:50

something like u customers want better

19:53

collaboration.

19:54

You want something way more sharp than

19:56

that. I want the thing that's going to

19:58

make the business, you know, harder to

20:01

lie to. So, for the HVAC company, you

20:03

know, good memo might be something like

20:05

five sales calls this week mentioned

20:08

emergency dispatch, but the calls that

20:10

actually converted all talked about

20:13

missed follow-up quotes after the tech

20:16

left. Um, just a lot sharper.

20:21

The second system is the founder content

20:24

engine. So, a lot of companies have uh

20:27

raw material, great raw material, like

20:29

the founder has opinions. Um, and you

20:32

got customer stories. Um, but you know,

20:36

you're not really capturing all the

20:37

stuff. So, the marketing engineer could

20:39

build the loop. So, you can record

20:42

founder founder talking to customers.

20:45

You can pull from podcasts, extract the

20:47

strongest ideas, and then have the

20:50

system watch what performs. you know

20:52

which hooks you know people keep

20:54

watching because you have this data

20:56

right and then you create uh content out

20:58

of that for the HVAC company um imagine

21:03

something like the loss replacement

21:05

revenue insight becoming you know five

21:09

things a founder post about the hidden

21:11

revenue leak in service businesses a

21:13

short video on why contractors lose

21:15

money after the first visit a landing

21:17

page line that says every completed job

21:20

uh should create the next quote a cold

21:22

email angle could be good and a simple

21:25

calculator that estimates the loss

21:26

revenue. Um, so the system here is

21:30

learning the the third system is the

21:32

outbound signal engine. So bad outbound

21:36

uh usually starts with a spreadsheet a

21:39

spreadsheet full of names. But good

21:41

outbound starts with timing. So, who

21:43

just raised money? Who's hiring for the

21:45

exact problem you solve? Who posted

21:48

publicly about, you know, a pain point?

21:52

Um, and then who fits your ICP and has a

21:55

real reason to care this week. You know,

21:57

these people are, you know, they they've

22:00

got the pain. You're selling

22:01

painkillers, not vitamins with with when

22:04

timing uh hurts.

22:07

So having an agent watching those

22:09

signals, researching accounts, uh

22:13

drafting specific angles and sending to

22:15

human for approvals, that's the type of

22:17

thing that for the HVAC company would be

22:19

awesome. So like watching for

22:21

contractors, hiring dispatchers or

22:23

opening new locations, getting bad

22:25

reviews, and then having the agent

22:26

actually go and reach out outbound uh is

22:30

going to be huge. The fourth is the

22:32

creative testing engine.

22:35

So, uh, you know, taking one offer and

22:38

spinning up 20 hooks, 10 ad angles,

22:41

recording the results, and testing them.

22:43

So, a lot of people say like, "Facebook

22:45

ads don't work for me." Uh,

22:49

yeah, maybe. Or maybe the creative,

22:52

you're just not testing enough creative

22:53

with the right angle. So, a good uh

22:56

marketing engineer, you know, could

22:58

create thousands of pieces of creative

23:01

uh based on, you know, your positioning.

23:04

Um, it's basically like having

23:08

uh creative becoming this like learning

23:10

system, not really a treadmill that you

23:12

actually have to do, you know, have to

23:13

do. You're going to have it on repeat,

23:16

having these agents go and create

23:17

creative based on uh just how the world

23:20

is changing and how that data is is

23:23

changing too. And again like another

23:26

like huge insight around like wow this

23:28

is like a new way of doing marketing

23:30

marketing engineer. The fifth system is

23:33

AI search visibilities. So, you know,

23:35

you now have billion I mean there's a

23:38

billion plus people using chat GPT

23:40

asking ju just chat GPT. I'm not talking

23:43

about Google AI uh AI overviews or or

23:46

Gemini or Perplexity or Claude. Uh I

23:50

just saw Sam Alman said they have a

23:51

billion users. It's insane. So you got

23:54

to think about whether your company is

23:56

even understandable to those systems and

23:59

then having agents actually go pull in

24:03

that data and actually create content

24:06

and optimize your website such that

24:09

you're you know ranking high there.

24:11

Getting cited by AI is like such a huge

24:15

opportunity and something that a

24:17

marketing engineer is thinking about. Of

24:19

course the sixth system is the growth

24:22

cockpit. So you know this is like a

24:24

weekly view that tells the team what has

24:27

changed and what to do about it. What's

24:29

con what content has worked? What

24:31

campaign created real conversations?

24:33

Which objection came up again? What test

24:35

won? How many tests won? What percentage

24:37

of tests won? What competitors moved? Uh

24:40

what customer pain is getting louder and

24:42

what to test next. You know, for the

24:45

HVAC company, the cockpit might say

24:47

something like, "Hey, you know, this

24:49

week the lost uh replacement revenue

24:51

angle drove fewer clicks than the

24:53

dispatch angle, but twice as many demo

24:56

requests from owners with more than 20

24:58

tech. So, that's the kind of memo that

25:01

if you're an executive, you want to wake

25:03

up to that. Um, and that's super super

25:05

valuable. So, if you've gotten this far,

25:08

what are some ideas on how you've

25:09

actually could get can make money with

25:13

marketing engineering? And you know, I

25:15

think there's a few ways that you can do

25:16

it. The first is becoming the person

25:19

inside the company. So, if you're

25:21

already a marketer or a RevOps person, a

25:24

growth person, a creator, um or just

25:27

honestly like a curious

25:30

um marketing-minded person, this is one

25:33

of the clearest ways to become way more

25:36

valuable uh because this work sits

25:39

directly next to uh revenue. All the

25:43

ideas that we talked about, all the

25:44

systems that we talked about is things

25:46

around creating pipeline, lifting

25:48

conversion, uh cutting wasted spend is

25:51

huge with things like uh these marketing

25:54

agents. And you've got this direct line

25:56

to business value. And that's how

25:58

someone becomes a $500,000 hire because

26:01

they look at it and they're like, "Well,

26:03

if I'm going to save $2 million and I'm

26:05

going to increase revenue uh this this

26:07

amount this much and I'm going to double

26:09

the conversion rate, uh that's a huge

26:12

huge like it's it's a win-win

26:14

situation." Um so you know why in the

26:18

original I said I think that there's

26:20

going to be people make a million

26:22

dollars doing this and I actually think

26:23

that's conservative. I think there will

26:25

be versions of that of the best

26:27

marketing engineers

26:29

uh making millions of dollars a year is

26:31

because

26:33

uh they're going to be just driving

26:35

insane amounts of value uh in the same

26:39

way that forward deploy engineers are

26:41

driving insane amounts of value for

26:43

companies right now. The second way is

26:45

just do consulting. So you embed, you

26:48

know, you create an offer, you embed

26:50

with a founder company, maybe it's 30,

26:52

60, 90 days. Uh you build one growth

26:55

system and then you sell the outcome. So

26:58

hey, we'll build your customer true

27:00

system and turn it into weekly campaigns

27:03

or we'll build your founder content

27:05

engine or we'll build your outbound

27:07

signal engine. some of these ideas that

27:08

we talked about, you just embed

27:10

yourself, you build it, uh, and you

27:13

charge, you know, 5, 10, $30,000

27:16

a month depending on what you're

27:18

actually building. The third, uh,

27:21

somewhat less talked about is

27:22

productized services. So, you can pick

27:24

one, uh, one wedge and then repeat it.

27:28

So, for example, outbound signal engines

27:31

for vertical SAS, it's what you focus

27:33

on, or founder content engine for B2B

27:36

CEOs.

27:37

uh customer truth repos for seedstage

27:40

startups before they hire a a full

27:43

marketing team. So the tighter the

27:45

wedge, the easier it is to sell, deliver

27:48

and repeat. And that's like the only

27:50

thing that you focus on. That's why it's

27:52

called productized service services

27:54

because it's not like you're doing

27:55

services custom things for everyone.

27:57

There's this one thing you do for this

27:59

one niche and you charge x amount of

28:01

dollars for it. The fourth is software.

28:05

Um, I think the biggest outcomes are

28:07

going to come from this, but I do think

28:10

that I would start with services first.

28:11

So, you do the work by hand, you build

28:14

the same system for five companies, 10

28:16

companies, and you notice the pain that

28:19

repeats, and then that's when you turn

28:21

it into software. Um, that's and that's

28:24

also how you avoid building something

28:26

that nobody wants. Uh, the fun part is

28:29

all these ideas actually stack together.

28:32

You can start by consulting to learn

28:34

what actually works. You can notice the

28:36

same system every client needs. You

28:38

productize it. You eventually turn it

28:39

into software like you know set of

28:42

agents. Um if I were doing this uh

28:46

tomorrow morning, I would keep the first

28:48

version almost painfully simple. You

28:51

know, I would, you know, build that

28:54

growth OS folder. I'd have five of those

28:56

files. customer truth, founder voice,

29:00

uh, experiments, agent jobs, and then I

29:03

would paste 20 real customer notes, um,

29:08

or or call call summaries, and then I

29:10

would ask the agent to do one job. I'd

29:12

say, tell me what's changed, show me the

29:14

receipts, suggest one marketing test

29:17

that could create pipeline this week,

29:19

not next week, not a month from now. And

29:21

then build one thing from that output.

29:23

you know, for that HVAC company I was

29:25

talking about. Maybe it's the loss

29:27

replacement revenue calculator

29:30

um or something like that. The first

29:32

goal is just to prove the system can

29:35

turn this messy market data into one

29:39

useful uh action. So, if you listen to

29:42

this and you're like, "Wow, being a

29:43

marketing engineer sounds really cool. I

29:46

want to go hone my skills in the next 30

29:48

days to become a marketing engineer. Be

29:50

it as an employee, as a founder,

29:53

whatever it is. Here's the plan that I

29:55

would run. Week one, I would do an

29:58

audit. So, I'd pick one real company. It

30:01

could be yours, a friends, uh, whatever

30:03

you can get access to. I would study the

30:06

website, the offer, the ICP, uh, the

30:09

founders content if there is any. Um,

30:12

oh, sales calls and support tickets if

30:14

you can get them obviously. Um, and then

30:17

you output, you know, a market map.

30:20

Who's the customer? What pain do they

30:22

describe? What words do they use? And

30:25

what would you test first? Uh, what are

30:27

they buying instead of your product or

30:30

this product? Where's the funnel leak?

30:33

And what would you test first? So, what

30:35

week one is just studying all that

30:37

stuff. Um, week two is the growth repo.

30:41

So create it, add the folders and build

30:44

your first what is the market telling us

30:46

uh markdown file. Uh you can use

30:48

whatever tools you like. Could be claw

30:50

chat chat gbt grockbot uh gemini local

30:53

models whatever it is. Uh the tools

30:56

actually matter less than the workflow

30:58

here. The goal is to basically just to

30:59

turn that scattered signal into the meta

31:02

with real receipts and actually just

31:04

start uh you know feeling like a re a

31:08

true marketing engineer. Week three is

31:11

your first machine. So you can pick one

31:13

system and actually build it. You know,

31:16

it could be the content engine, the

31:17

outbound signal engine, a landing page

31:19

tester. Obviously, this is going to vary

31:22

depending on what the company needs and

31:23

wants, but just pick one because you

31:27

know you're going to get better outcome

31:29

with one uh and one working system is

31:32

going to beat five like half-built ones.

31:34

And then week four, week four is just

31:36

all about results. Like what what

31:38

changed? Okay, you did this thing. Did

31:39

replies improve? Did meetings get

31:41

booked? Did any conversion lift? Uh, did

31:44

the founder sound sharper? You know, did

31:46

the founder like the post? Um, at the

31:49

end of your month, you should have a

31:51

case study that sounds something like,

31:53

you know, I audited this audited this

31:55

company's growth. We built this customer

31:57

truth repo I found was like one high

32:00

intent pain that they didn't know about

32:02

and I turned it into an outbound signal

32:04

engine which shipped you know 75

32:08

targeted messages got nine warm replies

32:11

booked three calls and I documented

32:13

everything what I learned um and then

32:16

you're showing like a real business

32:18

result tangible value um and that's how

32:21

you get hired that's how you get clients

32:22

and that's how you become credible I

32:25

think the Best marketing engineers are

32:27

going to feel like part marketer, part

32:30

product person, part revops, part data

32:33

analyst, part creator, and part

32:35

engineer. So they can talk to a

32:38

customer, they can build the workflow

32:40

that uses that insight. They can write

32:42

the positioning. They can wire the

32:44

automation. And they can make the

32:46

landing page. And they can read the

32:47

conversion. And they can set the

32:49

outbound agent. And they know when

32:51

personalization sounds fake. And they

32:53

can use AI to make more. And they've got

32:56

the judgment and taste to know what

32:58

should exist in the first place. The

33:01

agents are going to be a commodity at

33:04

some point. Your judgment about what to

33:06

point them to is the moat. And that's

33:07

the job of the marketing engineer

33:09

really. And I think it's going to be one

33:12

of the most valuable jobs out there. Um,

33:15

if this is if you're a marketer, uh,

33:18

this is how you become the person your

33:20

company literally cannot run without.

33:22

And if you're a founder, this is how you

33:24

get agents running your marketing for

33:27

you. Um, I think there's a real edge

33:30

that uh you can have when you're

33:32

actually using marketing agents to

33:35

actually grow your startup ideas because

33:38

people are still stuck in the old growth

33:41

hacker or even even worse digital

33:44

marketing era of marketing. I think this

33:46

window is open right now. I think a lot

33:49

of people haven't built the machine and

33:52

I wanted to give you the sauce so that

33:54

you can uh internalize it so you can

33:56

process it so you get your hands dirty

33:58

around building some of these agents,

34:00

some of these marketing agents because

34:02

it's all about increasing your

34:04

probability of success when it comes to

34:06

building your own startup. And I thought

34:10

that that, you know, hey, if you can get

34:13

a promotion, if you can, if you can, you

34:16

know, have more fun being an employee

34:18

working within uh an organization, why

34:21

not? Why not do this? Um, so hope this

34:25

has been helpful. Obviously, I could

34:27

have gone deeper in so many parts of

34:30

this episode. There just wasn't enough

34:32

time. Um, but do let me know what you

34:36

want me to go deeper in. Is it the

34:37

Grockbot point, you know, part? Is it,

34:40

you know, different uh, you know, the

34:42

markdown files, skills? Uh, you let me

34:45

know. I live to serve. I'm here to just

34:48

give that information to you. Hopefully,

34:52

uh, you enjoy it. Hopefully,

34:55

um, it gets your creative juices

34:57

flowing. And if you haven't liked,

34:58

comment, and subscribed

35:01

at this point, I don't know what you're

35:02

doing. H, hook it up. You're hooking

35:05

yourself up. you're getting more quality

35:07

content in your feed, less slop. So, uh,

35:12

thank you for giving me your time. Hope

35:15

it's been helpful, and I'll see you next

35:17

time.

Interactive Summary

The video introduces the 'marketing engineer'—a pivotal new role in the AI era that combines traditional marketing expertise with AI agent orchestration to build self-learning growth systems. The speaker details how this role evolves from previous marketing eras, outlines the essential 'growth repo' structure for organizing marketing data, and provides a tactical 30-day plan for individuals to master the workflow of connecting customer signals to automated pipeline generation.

Suggested questions

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