Cheers from the blue skies somewhere over Pennsylvania.

Fifth plane of October. I’m on my way to Paris (France, not Illinois) to hang with the Docebo crew and customers at UNLEASH.

As I mentioned last newsletter, we just got back from a week in Costa Mesa with my cousin’s family. Our boys (same ages) spent literal hours in the bed of his truck running an imaginary “war.” Zero screens. Endless plot twists. Hours of fun. It took me straight back to my backyard growing up where I would run full NBA Finals scenarios by myself, bottom-of-the-ninth walk-offs, entire battles staged with only myself and a play musket.

There was one point where I remember overhearing my dad tell a friend, “Kyle’s got an incredible imagination,” and you could hear the pride in his voice. 

There are times when I miss that version of me.

Why do we tend to abandon our childlike imagination as adults? Is it the responsibility? Is it just part of becoming an adult? The calendar bookings, the bills, the jobs, and the comments about “be realistic, Kyle.” We stop playing in our heads, and it shows. I can feel the cost. 

This week, I’m trying to bring that curiosity back on purpose: in how I prep for UNLEASH, in how I listen to customers, and in how I lead my team. 

So here’s to having more childlike curiosity and imagination… and speaking of creativity… let’s look at how to build a badass B2B content marketing strategy. :)

♥️ kyle

On Frameworks for Building Strong Thought-Leadership

I was lucky to have been part of one of the first true content marketing and thought-leadership teams back in the olden days.

What’s hilarious (other than the fact that I’m getting old) is that the strategies we implemented back then are the same ones I’m using today.

Even though the act of content research, production, and distribution is changing fast (thanks to the robots) the fundamentals still matter.

And fundamentals, the real lessons, can only be learned if you do the thing. You can’t think your way into great thought leadership. You have to build, publish, measure, and repeat your way there.

I first experienced that power at ExactTarget, where we built one of the earliest content marketing teams in SaaS. Over roughly 18 months, that team grew to 12 people with a seven-figure budget. We produced research reports, benchmark studies, and experiential campaigns that drove demand and built brand authority long before “content marketing” was a career and a corporate buzzword. 

When I left to join OpenView, I wanted to capture that playbook for smaller software companies… teams that didn’t have $1 million to spend but still needed to build credibility and influence. That’s when I wrote “4 Content Strategies to Own Thought Leadership in Any Market.”

It was a simple piece with a simple premise: Most content is a flat tire. You can keep pedaling, but you’ll never move fast enough to lead.

That was eight years ago. And while the tools have changed, the idea hasn’t.

The difference now is that we can build something that scales. Thought leadership is no longer about publishing great content. It’s about building a system that compounds authority over time.

In 2017, the goal was to create great content. In 2025, the goal is to sustain it.

It’s no longer a one-off campaign or a flashy benchmark report, it’s a connected system that aligns brand, leadership, data, and employees around a single narrative.

And it’s all pretty simple: tell a clear story to the market, put real people in front of it, back it with real data, and rally your team to share it. That’s the system. Four pillars. 

• Market & External Comms

• Executive Thought-Leadership & Community

• Benchmarking & Research

• Internal Comms

Let’s dig in.

1. Market Communications

This is the megaphone. It’s how the world hears your story.

Whether you’re an early-stage startup or a global enterprise, you have to decide what you want the market to believe about you and then prove it consistently. That means defining a handful of narrative pillars that everything ladders up to: media coverage, investor decks, analyst briefings, even how your CEO talks on stage.

The best programs balance top-tier media (Fortune, TechCrunch, Fast Company) with vertical credibility (the niche outlets your customers actually read). It’s not about chasing headlines; it’s about building narrative consistency over time. When you own your story, you control your reputation (as much as you possible can in today’s age).

2. Internal Communications & Employee Advocacy

If the market is your megaphone, your people are the echo.

When employees understand and believe the story, they share it—and when they share it, the reach multiplies. Internal storytelling is where culture meets communication: product launches, company wins, value rollouts, or customer impact stories that connect back to the mission.

The companies that do this best don’t overcomplicate it. They create rhythm—monthly updates, all-hands highlights, “wins” channels—and make it easy for employees to share externally. Recognition drives participation, and participation builds belief.

When your internal comms strategy reinforces your external story, you create alignment that competitors can’t replicate. You’re not just communicating—you’re building collective ownership of the brand.

3. Executive Thought Leadership & Community

People follow people, not logos.

At ExactTarget, our early success came from what I called “experiential thought leadership.” We’d send sales reps into stores to experience the customer journey firsthand, turning those learnings into data, stories, and credibility. It worked because it connected teams to purpose and brought our expertise to life through real people.

That same principle applies today. Your executives should each have a clear domain (AI, culture, growth, learning, whatever their natural lane is) and a cadence that fits their voice. It could be monthly essays, podcasts, panels, or quick social reflections. What matters is consistency. The most trusted leaders are the ones who show up with a point of view, again and again, over time.

When you turn your leaders into creators and connectors, you’re not just building visibility, you’re building community.

4. Benchmarking, Research & Data Leadership

This is where true authority is built. 

If you want to own your category, own the data that defines it. At ExactTarget, we did that through consumer and peer research. Later, I learned to build it through proprietary product data. Either way, the principle is the same: every company sits on a goldmine of insights that could anchor its credibility, if you know how to mine it.

Start with one meaningful question your organization can answer better than anyone else. Each study should spark dozens of stories (reports, decks, social posts, even customer dinners where you unpack the findings).

When done right, research becomes a flywheel, not a one-off campaign. It powers brand awareness, gives your sales team proof points, drives press mentions, and feeds analysts (they are super hungry). We want to stop renting credibility and start earning it.

That’s the goal. 

It really is hilarious. Everything old becomes new again in B2B. The channels always evolve, the tech stack will change, but the original foundations (stories, repetition and trust) are still strong. 

The only way to learn them is to do the work That’s how you turn content into a system, and a system into a strategy.