How to Stop The Busywork in B2B Marketing (with Dmitry Shamis)

#238: Brand | In this episode, Dave sits down with Dmitry Shamis, former Head of Brand at HubSpot and now founder of Oh Snap, to talk about what brand really means in B2B and why so many teams are stuck doing busy work instead of meaningful marketing. After leading a team of 150+ creatives and scaling HubSpot’s brand across multiple products, Dmitry shares lessons on building brands that actually stand out.Dave and Dmitry cover:How to stand out in a crowded marketHow to develop and refine your point of viewWhy marketers get lost in busy work and how to stop itWhat to look for when hiring great designersThe role of AI in B2B marketing today (and what it won’t replace)Timestamps(00:00) - – Intro to Dmitry (04:00) - – What brand actually means in B2B (06:20) - – Why your POV is the foundation of your brand (08:30) - – How to uncover a real, differentiated POV (12:29) - – How to stand out in a crowded, same-sounding market (15:04) - – Why differentiation requires alignment between product and marketing (17:54) - – Building trust with product teams (18:43) - – Busy work in marketing: how to spot it and stop it (21:25) - – Why marketers burn out and how poor prioritization is killing teams (24:25) - – Making the case for brand work when it’s hard to measure (26:00) - – The “fishing” analogy: performance vs brand marketing (30:31) - – The real opportunity with AI in B2B marketing (34:30) - – How AI can eliminate bottlenecks and speed up creative execution (36:00) - – Why Dmitry’s starting a creative agency (Oh Snap) and how it’s different (39:08) - – How to hire great designers: what to look for beyond the portfolio 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:Webflow - A website platform built for the agentic web, helping modern marketing teams build fully custom sites—no developer needed—that perform in AI search. Learn more at webflow.com/for/exitfive.Markup AI - A content quality platform that scans your content against brand voice, preferred terms, messaging standards, and AI-search readiness before it goes live, right inside Google Docs. Learn more at markup.ai.Optimizely - A no-code AI platform where autonomous agents execute marketing work across webpages, email, SEO, and campaigns. Learn how to deploy agents on your marketing team at Agents in the Mix. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive. 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.Knak - A no-code, campaign creation platform that lets you go from idea to on-brand email and landing pages in minutes, using AI where it actually matters. Learn more at knak.com/exitfive, or check out the MCP server by clicking this link.***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