#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 (06:04) - - Embracing Diverse Career Paths to Become a CMO (10:48) - - Leveraging Big Company Skills in Startups (11:39) - - Influencing Resources Without Ownership in Large Organizations (16:01) - - Weekly Team Meeting Tips (19:02) - - Mychelle’s OKR Framework (23:48) - - How Knak Creates and Captures Demand (25:20) - - How To Understand and Target Buyers (30:50) - - Having AI Discussions With Your Team (34:24) - - AI is Shifting from Core Component to Creative Assistant (35:46) - - Integrating AI into Core Tools (41:28) - - Sales and Marketing Alignment (44:50) - - Navigating Relationships as a CMO Send guest pitches and ideas to [email protected] the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterCheck out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership***Today’s episode is brought to you by Grammarly.Ever have one of those weeks where you spent more time replying to Slack and email than doing actual marketing work?You’re not alone. The average marketing team spends 28+ hours a week just keeping up with comms.That leads to burnout, frustration, and a whole lot of performative productivity that doesn’t actually move the needle.AI-fluent marketing teams are changing that. Grammarly’s 2025 Productivity Shift Report shows how they’re using AI to:– Cut down on back-and-forth– Automate content, research, and reporting– Eliminate busywork– Make space for strategyWe’re marketers because we love crafting campaigns, driving revenue, and proving impact – not spending all day buried in messages.Get the report and see how top teams are making AI actually useful.Visit go.grammarly.com/exitfive to grab it.***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