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I work with a lot of B2B GTM teams. Most of them swear they have a data problem. But when I pop the hood, they actually have a speed problem. The signals are there — they see when buyers are active, in-market, ready.

But it takes them over a week to act on it. By then it’s too late.

ZoomInfo's GTM Studio fixes the gap between signal and action.

It's an AI-powered canvas that connects your CRM, marketing tools, and intent data — then helps you act on it automatically.

If you're tired of having great data and slow execution, this will help.

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I’ve rewatched some over and over, took notes, and quietly wondered what it would take to one day be up there.

I bet your favorite TED talk has popped into your head since reading that first sentence. Mine is Simon Sinek’s Start With Why.

So when I got the invite to attend TED this year, I wasn't just excited. I was awe-struck.

And somewhere in the back of my head, I wondered: could I ever speak on that stage?

By the end of day one, I had my answer. Probably not — at least not for a long time. But not for the reason I expected.

The people on the TED stage aren't there because they built a great business. They're there because they dedicated their lives to the biggest problems facing humanity. These aren't career advancements. They're missions.

I noticed it in the applause. There were ~20 sessions on day one, and I noticed a pattern pretty quickly — the standing ovations weren't going to the most technically impressive talks. Some of the smartest people in that room landed flat by comparison.

The room stood up for the people who told you why it mattered to them personally before they told you what they built. They turned attendees into believers.

You can't see that by watching a TED Talk on YouTube. You have to watch 1,000 people respond to something in real time to feel the difference.

Three talks stuck with me two weeks later. I can describe all three in under 30 seconds — and that's not an accident.

Talk one: Hidden Hunger.

A researcher discovered that while millions of people appear fed, they're actually malnourished. Eating starches that fill them up but don't give them the nutrients they need. He named the problem "Hidden Hunger." Two words.

I remembered the talk because I remembered the name. The name made the problem real. It gave me something to hold.

That's not a TED trick — that's what the best marketing does. Dark funnel, quiet quitting, revenue leak. The marketer who names the problem owns the conversation.

Most content describes symptoms. The best content names the disease.

Talk two: WEIRD education.

A woman working to solve Africa's education crisis did something I wasn't expecting. Instead of arguing that the Western model needed to be replaced, she made the Western model look like the outlier.

She used an acronym: WEIRD. Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic. Her point — the way the West does education is actually a weird approach on a global scale. It's a tiny minority model being applied to a majority-world problem. To replicate it across Africa would cost $40 billion a year. It will simply never happen.

So she didn't pitch "a better model." She made you see the old model differently first. The reframe was the argument.

In B2B marketing, we spend most of our time explaining why our approach is better. We rarely make the old approach look strange. That's the more powerful move — and we're leaving it on the table.

Talk three: The zoo streamer.

A zookeeper started bringing animals home, making videos, and streaming them live. People could donate through the platform. She wasn't inventing anything — streaming existed, donations existed, animals existed. She just pointed existing tools at a problem nobody thought to aim them at.

She raised enough to buy a 3,000-acre property in Texas. She now runs a zoo that nobody physically visits. It's all streamed online. People donate to feed the animals. Kids "go to the zoo" from their living room.

She didn't build new technology. She redirected existing technology toward something nobody expected.

I think about that every time I hear a marketer say they need a new channel. Usually you don't. You need to aim for what you already have somewhere unexpected.

TED didn't teach me anything directly about marketing.

But it reminded me — at the highest level, with the stakes as high as they get — that the best story wins. Not the best product, the best data, or the most impressive slide deck.

So here's what I'm sitting with, and I think it's worth asking yourself too.

Are you naming the problem your audience is experiencing, or just describing your solution? The person who names it owns it.

Are you making the old approach look strange, or just explaining why yours is better? The reframe is more powerful than the argument.

Are you using your tools the standard way, or are you rethinking the cross-over? Streaming plus zoo equals a new model for conservation. What's your version of that?

I don't know if I'll ever speak at TED. But I know I'm going to keep chasing stories worth telling.

This is your invitation to do the same. 

Holler at you next Saturday,
Devin

PS: I even got to meet the legendary Simon Sinek. We were both stuck outside the auditorium because security wouldn’t let us in with our coffee.

Pen by Devin Reed​
​Founder, The Reeder​

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