#409 | Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs and author of “Everybody Writes”, takes the Drive stage to make the case for slowing down in a marketing world built for speed. Using episode eight of a 1987 Mighty Mouse cartoon as her guide, she contrasts “cow mode” (fast, efficient, easy to measure) with “sloth mode” (slow, deliberate, harder to quantify). Ann argues that AI has scaled marketing’s cow energy as the job shifted from being seen to being chosen. She walks through her ASAP (as slow as possible) matrix for deciding when to move fast and when to slow down, and a “wallop tracker” that measures trust and resonance before a sale shows up. She illustrates her points with the story of the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, where one marketer built a devoted following by choosing to matter more instead of mooing harder. Her throughline: when speed is cheap, judgment is what carries the premium.

Timestamps:

(00:00) - Dave introduces Ann Handley

(01:48) - What good marketing is really for

(03:15) - A 1987 cartoon about speed vs. patience

(09:01) - Why marketers default to speed over craft

(13:38) - How AI shifted the goal from getting seen to getting chosen

(20:40) - A simple framework for deciding when to slow down

(24:27) - How to measure trust before the sale shows up

(30:03) - How one marketer made a sewer district famous on social

(38:02) - A holiday voicemail line that drew 3,200 calls

(43:16) - Why judgment beats speed in the age of AI

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Why You Should Slow Down and Market Intentionally to Make an Impact (with Ann Handley)

The Exit Five Podcast

Why You Should Slow Down and Market Intentionally to Make an Impact (with Ann Handley)