#252 Category Creation | Dave is joined by Josh Lowman, Founder and Creative Director of Gold Front, a category design studio that’s worked with brands like Uber, Notion, and Qualtrics. Josh is a leading voice in strategic brand positioning and category creation. He’s spent over a decade helping high-growth B2B companies define what makes them irreplaceable in crowded markets.

Dave and Josh cover:

Why most category creation efforts fail (and what to do instead)
The four real paths to category leadership: create, transform, niche, or go solo
How B2B marketers can align product, brand, and messaging around a single strategy to stand out and scale

Whether you're launching a new product or repositioning an existing one, this episode is a masterclass in strategic clarity.

Timestamps

(00:00) - – Intro
(02:38) - – Josh’s backstory and founding Gold Front
(05:53) - – How Gold Front became a category design studio
(08:08) - – What “category creation” really means
(11:23) - – Why being irreplaceable is the real goal
(14:28) - – The four paths to category leadership
(18:13) - – Why Drift didn’t succeed in creating a true category
(22:08) - – Clay and Notion as category-of-one examples
(24:58) - – Marketing vs. actual customer perception
(29:34) - – Can Exit Five be more than the “Dave Gerhardt community”?
(32:29) - – How to scale brand DNA beyond the founder
(35:19) - – Defining Exit Five’s ethos as a company
(37:39) - – Strategy as a company-wide unifier
(40:29) - – Advice for CMOs on driving strategy with CEOs
(43:04) - – Why strategy is always the root cause
(44:34) - – Vibe marketing and the rise of right-brain thinking
(47:19) - – Josh’s mental health journey and long-term therapy
(50:49) - – LinkedIn, self-worth, and staying grounded
(53:19) - – Weightlifting, discipline, and mental clarity
(56:19) - – Daily habits that improve mindset
(59:34) - – What 30 days of silent meditation does to your brain
(01:04:19) - – Final thoughts on presence, self-work, and leadership

Send guest pitches and ideas to hi@exitfive.com
Join the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletter
Check 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 Knak.

Email (in my humble opinion) is the still the greatest marketing channel of all-time.

It’s the only way you can truly “own” your audience.

But when it comes to building the emails - if you’ve ever tried building an email in an enterprise marketing automation platform, you know how painful it can be. Templates are too rigid, editing code can break things and the whole process just takes forever.

That’s why we love Knak here at Exit Five. Knak a no-code email platform that makes it easy to create on-brand, high-performing emails - without the bottlenecks.

Frustrated by clunky email builders? You need Knak.
Tired of ‘hoping’ the email you sent looks good across all devices? Just test in Knak first.
Big team making it hard to collaborate and get approvals? Definitely Knak.

And the best part? Everything takes a fraction of the time.

See Knak in action at knak.com/exit-five. Or just let them know you heard about Knak on Exit Five.

***

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

Category Creation Playbook: How to Be Irreplaceable in B2B Marketing (with Josh Lowman)

The Exit Five CMO Podcast (Hosted by Dave Gerhardt)