In this episode of Trust and Influence in B2B Marketing, Joel Harrison sits down with Jason Miller, who leads content and marketing at V7 Labs and previously held senior content marketing roles at LinkedIn, Marketo and ActiveCampaign. Before B2B, Jason spent a decade in the music industry — touring with bands, working artist development, and photographing rock's biggest names — and he's never really left it behind. Together, they explore why the safe, by-the-numbers approach so many B2B marketers default to is quietly the riskiest choice of all, and what a career spent between the tour bus and the marketing plan has taught him about actually earning an audience's attention.

➡️ Jason holds nothing back. He explains why the music industry never called its fans “leads,” and how that community mindset shaped his approach at Marketo, where the entire strategy handed down from Marketo co-founder and CMO Jon Miller was simply “get people to like us.” He unpacks why viral, one-hit-wonder campaigns — from Old Spice to the Volvo truck ad — aren't repeatable playbooks for most brands, and why chasing them is a trap. He's candid about the tension between personality and brand safety inside a large corporate marketing team, drawing on his time working on Bing at Microsoft, and makes the case for consistency over virality — including a great story about Rick Rubin, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and creating for yourself rather than for an audience. He closes with a warning about AI and taste: why outsourcing judgment to an algorithm is the worst thing a marketer can do right now, and what will actually matter in B2B marketing going forward.

What You'll Learn

• What the music industry got right: why bands never called their fans “leads,” and what that means for B2B community-building.
• The Marketo playbook: how “get people to like us” became a strategy, not just a slogan.
• The one-hit-wonder trap: why viral campaigns like Old Spice and the Volvo truck ad aren't repeatable playbooks for most brands.
• Personality vs. brand safety: what happens to a big idea inside a large corporate marketing team, and why smaller, faster teams can take more risks.
• Consistency beats virality: “posting the draft,” building in public, and what Rick Rubin's work with Red Hot Chili Peppers can teach content marketers.
• AI and the death of taste: why outsourcing taste to an AI agent is a mistake, and the skills marketers now need to stay relevant.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction: From the Mosh Pit to the Marketing Plan

02:21 - Jason Miller: From Music Industry to B2B, and Life at V7 Labs

05:13 - Startup Speed vs. Corporate Red Tape

07:07 - Life on the Road: Artist Development Lessons

09:33 - B2C Personality Meets B2B: The Marketo Playbook

12:58 - The One-Hit-Wonder Trap: Old Spice, Volvo and Repeatable Playbooks

15:13 - HubSpot, “It Slaps,” and the Line Between Cool and Try-Hard

17:55 - Second Skin: Music as a Sense of Purpose

20:55 - Personality Inside a Corporate Machine: The Microsoft/Bing Story

24:49 - Consistency Over Virality: Posting the Draft and Rick Rubin's “Create for Yourself”

29:18 - Likable, Relevant, Consistent: What Actually Works on LinkedIn

31:43 - Why the Clay and Eleven Labs Playbooks Aren't Repeatable

34:14 - AI, Taste and the Last Human Trait

38:37 - Closing Thoughts

Note: chapter times are taken from the unedited transcript and are approximate — confirm against the final published cut before adding to the platform.

Follow the Guest

Follow Jason Miller

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jsnmiller/

https://www.v7labs.com/

Closing & Calls to Action

If you care about making B2B marketing more meaningful, useful, and memorable, this conversation is for you. It's honest, funny in places, and packed with takeaways on how to build genuine personality into your content — whether you're a content creator, strategist, or brand leader.

🌐Visit Joel Harrison's website to explore exclusive reports, upcoming events, and join the B2B marketing community ➡ https://www.joelharrisonb2b.com/

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