#182: Growth | Building a Strong Brand, Embracing AI, and Leading a Marketing Team with Mychelle Mollot, CMO at Knak

In this episode, Dave sits down with Mychelle Mollot, CMO at Knak, a platform for creating, designing, and optimizing email and landing page content. Mychelle shares her wealth of experience, having led marketing efforts at IBM and various startups. She discusses her approach to leading marketing teams, scaling brands, and embracing AI in B2B marketing.Dave and Mychelle cover:How Knak built a brand and captured demand in a space without a known categoryThe balance between meeting short-term goals and dedicating some marketing budget to high-risk, high-reward experimentsHow AI is evolving from a standalone tool to being embedded in the core functionalities of marketing platformsTimestamps(00:00) - - Intro to Mychelle (04:31) - - Embracing Diverse Career Paths to Become a CMO (09:15) - - Leveraging Big Company Skills in Startups (10:06) - - Influencing Resources Without Ownership in Large Organizations (14:28) - - Weekly Team Meeting Tips (17:29) - - Mychelle’s OKR Framework (22:15) - - How Knak Creates and Captures Demand (23:47) - - How To Understand and Target Buyers (28:13) - - Having AI Discussions With Your Team (31:47) - - AI is Shifting from Core Component to Creative Assistant (33:09) - - Integrating AI into Core Tools (38:51) - - Sales and Marketing Alignment (42:13) - - Navigating Relationships as a CMO Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Zoom Webinars & Events – The virtual event platform built to help B2B marketers run webinars that actually drive pipeline, with branded registration pages, live engagement features, and built-in tools to repurpose sessions into clips and content. Learn more at zoom.com/exitfive.Customer.io - An AI powered customer engagement platform that help marketers turn first-party data into engaging customer experiences across email, SMS, and push. Learn more at customer.io/exitfive.Vector - A contact-level ads platform that lets you build audiences from actual people on your site, clicking your ads, and checking out your competitors. Learn how to build an ABM program that scales at vector.co/exitfive.Join us in Stowe, Vermont for Drive 2026 - three days away from your desk to learn what's working in B2B marketing from the people who are actually doing it. Grab your ticket at exitfive.com/drive.Walker Sands - An integrated B2B marketing and growth services agency that helps marketing leaders turn strategy into measurable business impact through their Outcome-based Marketing model. Learn more at walkersands.com/exitfive.***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more