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Roop’s on vacation this week, and Sam has plenty to talk about after spending a few days in Buenos Aires for the latest MAGNET Global Network principal meeting. He shared some of his favorite moments from the trip and what he learned from agency leaders around the world. One of the biggest topics? AI, of course. But unlike last year’s conversations, which were largely about uncertainty, this year’s discussions focused more on how agencies can actually use AI to do better work. That includes investing in young talent, building stronger strategic partnerships, and being more intentional about how teams use new tools. And while the meetings were packed with good conversations, some of Sam’s favorite moments happened outside the conference room. Because sometimes the best ideas come from sitting down with people who understand your business, sharing experiences, and learning from each other. Throw in some incredible food, late dinners, and a little sightseeing, and we’d say Buenos Aires was a pretty successful trip. See you next week for more Little Talks. — Claudia and Sam Tell us what you think!

Tell us what you think!

LinkedIn doesn't have to be boring. There, we said it. This week on Little Talks, Roop and Claudia are back with more from UNBOUND, this time talking about all things LinkedIn and how brands can show a little more personality. One thing we heard over and over? Not everything needs to be so polished. A quick walk-and-talk video, a real opinion, or someone from your team sharing what they actually know can go a lot further than another perfectly written company post. It also helps to know why you're posting in the first place. Are you trying to help someone? Build trust? Start a conversation? Figure that out, then worry about whether it should be a video, carousel, photo, or something else. And don't forget about the actual people behind the company. People like hearing from people. Pretty simple. LinkedIn is still a professional platform. That doesn't mean your personality has to disappear when you log in. See you next week! Sam will be back and ready to go!! — Claudia and Roop  Tell us what you think!

If you've listened to Little Talks for a while, you probably know we're big fans of Jay Schwedelson. So when Roop and Claudia saw him on the UNBOUND schedule, obviously they had to be there. This week, they're bringing some of their favorite takeaways from his sessions back to the podcast, starting with what's changing in email. As AI summaries become more common in Gmail, Apple Mail, and Copilot, the actual text in an email matters more than ever. Those tools can't read words that are part of an image, which means a beautifully designed email could be leaving out some pretty important context. Jay also shared that the average Gmail AI summary is only 29 words, making that first sentence and the way you structure your copy even more important. The same idea carries over to showing up in AI search. Recent content is being cited more often, listicles are performing well, and regularly updating existing content can give it a better chance of appearing in an AI-generated answer. But with all this talk about optimizing for AI, Jay also had some advice for sounding less like it: have an opinion, use specific details, show the people behind your brand, and maybe give words like "unlock," "elevate," and "leverage" a break. AI might be changing where our content shows up and how people consume it. That doesn't mean we have to start writing for robots. See you next week for more Little Talks. — Roop, Sam, and Claudia Tell us what you think!

The gang is back together after two weeks of travels! Roop and Claudia recap UNBOUND and share with Sam what actually stuck with us after a few packed days of sessions, speakers, product announcements, and a whole lot of AI talk. Some sessions were all-in on using AI to do more. Others made the case that as AI-generated content becomes easier to make, human judgment, trust, and personality matter even more. We're probably somewhere in the middle. But some of our favorite sessions weren't about AI at all. Astronaut Suni Williams talked about flexibility and trust after an eight-day space mission unexpectedly became 278 days. Tom Brady shared how he treated every limited practice rep like the Super Bowl so he'd be ready when his opportunity came. And we haven't even gotten to all the email, LinkedIn, AEO, and content takeaways yet. Those are coming. For now, consider this the UNBOUND debrief. —Roop, Sam, and Claudia Tell us what you think!

Sam’s on vacation this week, so Claudia is officially comes out from her behind the scenes roll producing the podcast and joins Roop on the mics! And the timing couldn’t be better because the duo is getting ready to head to Boston for HubSpot’s UNBOUND marketing conference. So this week on Little Talks, we’re previewing which sessions made it onto our schedules, and what we’re most excited to hear about while we’re there. AI search strategies are obviously high on the list this year, but so are the very human sides of marketing: storytelling, building trust, owning your audience, creating better LinkedIn content, and figuring out how all of it actually contributes to your pipeline. There’s a lot we want to learn, and there’s even more we couldn’t fit onto our schedules. So consider this our UNBOUND pregame. We’re sharing what caught our attention before we head to Boston, and you can bet we’ll come back with plenty to talk about when we get back! Expect deeper dives into the topics absorbed in the coming weeks, and be sure to follow us on LinkedIn for live news and notes from Claudia and Roop all next week! See you in Boston. — Claudia and Roop Tell us what you think!

It's easy for media plans to become routine. Search works. Social works. So year after year, the same dollars keep going to the same places. This week on Little Talks, Matt Fogarty, SVP of Sales at Mogl, joins Sam and Roop to talk about why it might be time to rethink that approach. Tools like The Trade Desk are giving mid-market brands access to more data, premium inventory, and insights that were once mostly reserved for companies with much bigger media budgets. That doesn't mean search and social are going anywhere. It means marketers have more options and more information to decide where their dollars can work hardest. As 2027 planning gets underway, it might be worth asking: Does your media mix reflect where your audience is today, or where they've always been? See you next week for more Little Talks. — Matt, Sam, Claudia, and Roop Tell us what you think!

LinkedIn. Facebook. Instagram. YouTube. TikTok. Reddit. Threads. And probably three new platforms by the time we finish writing this. Does your brand really need to be on all of them? This week on Little Talks, Sam and Roop talk about whether brands should actually be doing less on social in 2027. Not necessarily posting less, but being a little more intentional about where and why you're posting. A hundred thousand views looks great, but 20 shares from the right people might actually mean more. And three good posts a week can do a lot more for your brand than seven posts you made because the content calendar said you had to. Pick the platforms where your audience actually spends time. Make things they'll want to engage with. Give it enough time to see what's working. And if a platform isn't doing anything for you, maybe you don't need to be there. Your brand doesn't have to be everywhere. It just has to be good where it shows up. See you next week for more Little Talks! - Claudia, Sam, and Roop Tell us what you think!

Annual planning always looks great on paper. The budget makes sense. The priorities are clear. Everyone knows exactly what they're doing. And then the year actually starts. This week on Little Talks, Sam and Roop talk about planning for 2027 and why a good marketing plan needs enough structure to keep everyone focused, but enough flexibility to change when something starts working (or really isn't). It starts with knowing your audience, connecting marketing goals to business goals, and choosing three to five priorities your team can actually move. From there, media, analytics, content, and creative should be working together to figure out what's driving results and where to adjust. Because ten priorities aren't priorities. And last fall's spreadsheet shouldn't dictate what you're doing next summer. Make the plan. Just don't be afraid to change it. See you next week for more Little Talks. Claudia, Sam, and Roop Tell us what you think!

Most companies have values. The bigger question is whether anyone can actually remember them. This week on Little Talks, Sam and Roop talk about how LFG became a big part of Littlefield culture and why, six years later, it’s still something we use every day. LFG came out of a pretty difficult time for the agency in 2020. As we rethought where Littlefield was headed, we also wanted values that actually sounded and felt like us. We landed on Littlefield Team First, Freaking Go to the Edge, and Gotta Adapt or Die. A little dramatic? Maybe. David Littlefield certainly had some questions when he first saw the stickers. But nobody forgets it. More importantly, we actually use it. LFG shows up in staff meetings, emails, client conversations, and even on our elevator button. Because company values shouldn't live in a forgotten PDF. They should show up in how your team works every day. See you next week for more Little Talks. — Claudia, Sam, and Roop Tell us what you think!

"Can you knock this out by tomorrow?" On its own, it's usually not a big deal. But after the fifth "quick request" of the week, those little asks start adding up. This week on Little Talks, Sam and Roop talk about the capacity problem facing in-house marketing teams. Between sales requests, trade shows, last-minute projects, and everything in between, it's easy for strategic work to get pushed aside by whatever feels most urgent. The conversation isn't about saying "no." It's about making the tradeoffs visible. Every new project takes time away from something else, and the best teams are intentional about what moves forward and what waits. Because marketing isn't just producing deliverables. It's helping drive growth, and that work deserves the time and focus to do it well. See you next week for more Little Talks! — Sam, Claudia, and Roop Tell us what you think!

AI has made marketing faster. From writing and research to brainstorming and campaign planning, the tools keep getting better. But as Sharon Toerek, Owner and Founder of Legal+Creative | Toerek Law, explains on this week's Little Talks, moving faster also means being more thoughtful about how you use AI. Sharon joined Sam and Roop to discuss the legal side of AI, including intellectual property, data privacy, and why those conversations can't wait until something goes wrong. The takeaway wasn't that marketers should avoid AI. It was that every team should understand the tools they're using, establish clear policies, and make sure legal considerations keep pace with the technology. AI is changing the way marketers work. The companies that benefit most will be the ones that pair innovation with the right guardrails. See you next week for more Little Talks. — Claudia, Roop, Shannon, and Sam Tell us what you think!

Planning isn't usually the problem. Most teams have goals. They have strategy sessions. They have whiteboards full of ideas and calendars full of kickoff meetings. The hard part is what happens after all of that. This week on Little Talks, Sam and Roop discuss Traction by Gino Wickman and why it's had such a big impact on the way Littlefield Agency operates. The system isn't flashy, and that's kind of the point. It creates a rhythm that helps teams stay focused, solve problems, and actually follow through on the things they said were important. The conversation covers everything from quarterly Rocks and Level 10 meetings to core values and issue lists, but it all comes back to one idea: growth doesn't happen because you planned well. It happens because you consistently execute. Whether you use Traction or another framework, the biggest takeaway is simple. Great teams don't just make plans. They build systems that help them keep those plans moving. See you next week for more Little Talks. — Claudia, Sam, and Roop Tell us what you think!

AI search isn't coming. It's already here. This week on Little Talks, Sam and Roop talk about one stat that caught everyone's attention: AI referral traffic to U.S. retail sites is up 393% year over year. That's not just another marketing number. It's a sign that buyers are starting to search differently. Instead of scrolling through a page of links, they're asking AI tools questions, comparing options, and getting recommendations before they ever visit a website. In fact, AI-referred visitors are converting at a much higher rate because they're arriving with more context and confidence. So what does that mean for B2B brands? It means showing up in AI search is about more than SEO. Reviews, product pages, third-party mentions, Reddit conversations, and the overall trust you've built online all play a role in whether AI sees your company as a credible recommendation. The buying journey isn't going away. It's just changing. And if your brand isn't part of those AI conversations, you may never make it into the consideration set in the first place. See you next week for more Little Talks. — Roop, Claudia, and Sam Tell us what you think!

Trust is one of those things marketers talk about all the time, but it's hard to point to on a dashboard. This week, Sam and Roop discuss why that doesn't make it any less important. When you're selling equipment that costs six or seven figures, people aren't clicking an ad and making a purchase that afternoon. They're talking to coworkers. Reading reviews. Watching YouTube videos. Asking AI questions. Checking Reddit. They're figuring out whether your company is worth trusting long before they ever talk to sales. That's why trust is more than a brand metric. It's part of your marketing. The conversation covered everything from paid media and AI search to dealer relationships, customer reviews, and the small moments that shape a buyer's opinion over time. Because while you can't tell people to trust you, you can consistently give them reasons to. The brands that earn trust are usually the ones willing to educate, be transparent, and show up wherever customers are looking for answers. See you next week for more Little Talks! — Claudia, Sam, and Roop Tell us what you think!