Zach Wright

Syft AI

Syft AI helps outbound sales teams uncover pipeline that would otherwise be missed. We use AI to identify companies with active problems, then generate perspective-led messaging so reps can engage the right buyers.

As Co-Founder and CRO, I lead sales, marketing, and customer success. I use Syft every day to run our own outbound motion and partner closely with customers to improve theirs.

Co-Founder and CRO

Board Member

Pavilion

Started CRO school 10/2023
Graduated 12/2023

Executive Member

Oracle

Led a team of seven field individuals selling Oracle's platform, analytics and infrastructure cloud into named Mid-Market accounts across North America.

#3 region in all of Oracle Cloud for net new revenue (FY' 22). 
Led team to deliver 14 out of 14 forecasted opportunities in Q4 with two open headcount.

Regional Sales Director

Informatica

I sold into Mid-Market accounts in the Central region

Account Executive: Mid-Market

Covered Minnesota in the SMB space (<$500M)
FY'18: Strategic Named accounts
FY'16 & FY'17: Net New accounts

2x Presidents Club excellence

SMB Technology Account Executive

Business Development Consultant

Sales Development Intern

Most outbound teams don’t lose because competitors are better. They lose because good deals never make it onto their radar.

I co-founded Syft AI to change that. The best sellers used to spend hours researching accounts, looking for signals, and crafting tailored outreach. Now AI does that work in minutes, finding the right buyers and enabling perspective-led selling at scale.

We call these “Value Matches.” The idea is simple: sales should start with companies already experiencing the problems you solve.

I share what we’re learning every day building Syft and working with sales leaders who want outbound to work better.

Outside of work, I’m a proud dad to my two-year-old son Charlie, with another little one joining us this December.

Co-founder and CRO

Syft is a “value matching” application that uses AI to enhance the process of value selling by matching sellers with the most suitable prospects. Instead of the traditional "spray and pray" approach, Syft focuses on connecting sellers with prospects more likely to need their products or services. Syft then automates gathering the necessary information to present a "value hypothesis" for the seller to approach the prospect with a perspective. This approach results in a high-quality sales pipeline, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the sales process.

Please visit our website (syftai.com) or click request demo to start automating your value-matching efforts.

I was at a customer happy hour this week, their CEO did what good CEOs do.
He looked around the table, smiling over at me, and asked the sales team: “So who is actually using Syft? And when is the last time you set a meeting with it?”

Quick pause. Everyone glances around the table.

Then the rep next to me just shrugs and says:
“I got 4 responses and set up 2 meetings… TODAY.”
If you know me, I probably didn't hide my smile well. (I'm a bad poker player). 

This is a company that used to exclusively lean on channels and marketing. Mostly inbound. Now the sales team is getting predictable meetings from outbound.

And not just any meetings.

They are talking to companies that:
• Sit cleanly in their ICP 
• Maybe accounts they have never heard of before
• Have a verified related challenge or related project.

It reminded me of something simple that is easy to forget in B2B sales:
The strongest proof you have is not your story.
It is your customers explaining how they are winning with you in one sentence.

My favorite line from the Pavilion conference: “No one has been a CRO in 2026 yet.” The playbook is still being written.

But this part feels constant: the story that spreads inside a company is not the clever sequence or the new tool. It is a rep at a happy hour casually saying they are crushing it. For us at Syft AI, that is the bar.

If you are not hearing that from your team yet, that is the real problem to solve.

Co-founder @ Syft AI | Redefining how sales teams find outbound pipeline

Narrate Creative

Representing yourself on social media and controlling your narrative has never been more important. AI is everywhere, but it’s no match for the real you. 

A Founder’s network and influence are proven to be the biggest levers for growth available to companies of all sizes, especially to early-stage startups. 

But posting thought-provoking social media content every day is hard, and you have a lot of other areas of your business to worry about. 

That’s why we have a process to collect your thought leadership, in your words, to help you show up consistently on social media with content that will resonate with your specific ideal audience. 

Our systemized approach will help you start more sales conversations and earn more revenue. 
Want to use LinkedIn content to create more sales opportunities? I will create you a week’s worth of content — in your own words — FREE. No commitment required and no hard sell. 

Here’s how it works: We’ll meet for a call, and I’ll interview you to create a week’s worth of video and text posts and help you schedule them on LinkedIn.

Sound good? Message me on LinkedIn to chat about it.

The Lean Marketing for SaaS Podcast

Host of the Lean Marketing for SaaS Podcasts, featuring guests that include SaaS founders, marketers, creators and more. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJhJq-ikqELM84mS3_2CXWf0ostuPAPFG

Host

Tell Ten Friends Marketing

Tell Ten Friends is a new media marketing company, specializing in using web-based tools to grow your customer base, and building your website to be a complete sales tool.

Owner

Hootsuite

Manager of blog and social team. Senior Editor of HootSuite blog, strategist and lead social media manager for marketing on all of the major social networks: Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook and Instagram.

Lead Storyteller/Content Manager

Work at Play

Accounts and Strategy professional with an emphasis on social media and professional sports.

Account Executive

Strutta

Strutta is a software platform for online photo and video contests, that has worked with some of the world's largest brands and ad agencies. 

In the capacity of Director of Community Relations and later Director of Marketing, I have led Strutta's marketing from pre-launch to cash-flow positive status. Site content, sales materials, staffing, training, CRM management, agency and client relations, project management, assistance with "productizing" our software and many other business operations fall under my stewardship. 

Strutta continues to be a leading technology provider for multimedia contest campaigns on Facebook, and self-hosted. Contact me if you are interested in the power of contests with social media.

Director of Marketing

Fulcrum Agency

Public Relations and Marketing Manager for a firm specializing in Sales Training and Business Coaching. Specializing in online marketing initiatives, email campaigns and business blogging.

Manager of Marketing and Public Relations

CHUM Television

Producer, copywriter and editor of local advertising and promos for Victoria television station. Also managed several annual marketing events throughout Vancouver Island to promote the station.

Commercial Producer

Island Publishers, The Business Examiner

Advertising Consultant

Peak Publishing

Managing a large client base as a Display Advertising Rep for a semi-weekly newspaper and special sections.

Marketing Consultant

We do thought leadership social media content for Founder-led sales. In just two 30-minute interviews a month, we create one post per weekday for you, and help you start more sales conversations.

Founders, social sellers and thought leaders: I can help you book more meetings from your social media content.

I’ll help you build a simple, time-effective workflow that will help you build your influence on LinkedIn with content (in your own words) and fill your inbox with sales leads automatically.  

We’ve helped dozens of tech startup founders with founder-led sales. Our systems help them grow their qualified leads and revenue. I use the same system to book 5-10 qualified leads a week. 

Happy to walk you through the systems on a quick call. Click the link below my name above; my calendar loads on that page.

Jordan Behan

STOP saying these words and phrases in your content. 

Here are three examples of things that I try to edit OUT of my client's content (recorded in their own words), to make them sound smarter: 

1. "So." I don't know when it happened, but so has become an overused filler word. Sometimes it adds useful context, but most of the time, a sentence is stronger without it. So stop it (see what I mean?). 

2. "At the end of the day." This one has just become too popular an idiom. See also: "ultimately." It's a useful phrasing ("after [x], [y] happens"), but it's overused. Instead of suggesting a substitute, I challenge you to be more specific. Tell us what [x] is, specifically. This approach might NOT be as succinct, but it will help you sound more like yourself and less like everyone else. 

3. "I think." You are, therefore you think (hat tip to Descartes). You don't have to tell us every time. The problem with this one, especially starting a sentence with it, is that you sound unsure of yourself. I think you'll sound more confident without it (see?). 

What other examples can you think of that we can do without in our writing, especially as it applies to LinkedIn content?

Give me two 30-minute meetings a month and I’ll make your personal social content kick ass. Done-with-you content production for CXOs, in your OWN words.

LinkedIn content reach is way down, and here's my hot take: So what?  

Posts that used to get 1000s of impressions are now lucky to get a few hundred at best. Panic time? No. 

My advice for how to beat the algorithm in an era of AI slop, false promises and manufactured controversy?

Don't even try. Instead of trying to "go viral," go NICHE (pronounced "neesh," and I will die on that hill). 

The goal with LinkedIn content is to get attention or start discourse around an idea, I'll grant you that. 

But there's not much benefit to doing that with a large group of random strangers. It's good for the ego, but likely not good for the actual business outcome you were hoping for. 

Instead of creating content that you hope will appeal to the masses, create something of value for your specific ideal audience, and create it YOURSELF. 

Need an AI assist? That's fine, but the more humanity, vulnerability, and "handmade" creativity you put into it, the better. Your goal should be to make someone think or change their mind about something. 

Someone. Even just one person. Creating your LinkedIn content for an audience of one will have better long-term results than chasing likes and impressions. 

Caveat: You still have to be interesting. You can't change minds without something unique to say and by grabbing attention. But think about whose attention you want and create for them. 

If you've read this far, I invite you to roast me on the irony of using an AI-assisted headshot in this post to stop the scroll. I go to the gym 3x per week, but it's been a little generous with the shape of my biceps, I mean, really. 

Maybe a good time to remind people that an algorithm is not our enemy. We aren't trying to crack a code; we are trying to capture the attention and curiosity of a specific type of person. In that sense, using an AI-filtered selfie is not ironic at all. After all, if my hook didn't grab your attention and get you to read, you didn't even make it this far.

Jordan in front of a harbour, a headshot that was sent through an AI filter. 

Your AI-generated comments are not making you sound smart. 

They are making you look lazy and unoriginal. 

They're sycophantic; at best, they summarize what the post is already saying, and we can spot them a mile away. 

And they're killing the buzz of LinkedIn. 

Commenting is great, don't get me wrong. Done right, they can position you as a subject matter expert or an all-around funny person that people want to hang out with. 

But not if they're AI-generated. DON'T outsource your creativity. 

If you use ChatGPT to help you craft a succinct comment, that's fine, provided you're feeding it an original thought to begin with. 

But that's not what I'm seeing. I'm seeing a spray-and-pray approach where the commenter didn't even stop to understand the context. 

Want proof? Someone will unironically leave an AI-generated comment on THIS post, and they will stand out like a sore thumb. 

If you're reading this and you still leave comments using Gen-AI and some kind of automation tool, stop. Quietly move on and adopt another tactic. 

A lot of people are desperate for engagement on their LinkedIn posts, so they won't always call you out, but believe me, they can tell. We can ALL tell. And it's not a good look.

An AI-generated image of an AI bot leaving comments onb LinkedIn while Jordan enjoys a coffee and some shut-eye. 

Every year I post a version of the same joke on American Thanksgiving.

Something like: Hey Canadians, happy “get a lot of work done with fewer meetings” day to all who celebrate. 

But the joke won’t seem as clever when LinkedIn shows you this post three weeks from now 🤷🏻‍♂️

No alternative text description for this image

I replaced my entire AI workflow with 100 SDRs and now we’re generating eleventy-billion in top line revenue without a single prompt. 

If you want get a copy of the exact sequence and workflow we’re using, comment “SICK” below and I’ll DM you the playbook, and as a bonus, a real estate listing for an amazing bridge that just came on the market. 

#sickofthisshit

I yelped quite loudly, complete with an F-bomb, and my teenage kid came running downstairs to see if I was ok. 

The funny thing is, I just sharpened my chef's knife the day before, and here it was, sinking into the flesh of my thumb while I was cutting a bagel. 

I was a bit embarrassed and also a bit glad to have one of my kids show genuine, immediate concern. 

'Twas but a scratch, and I'll live. And here's what it taught me about B2B sales: 

Ok, ok, I joke. But the preceding story is true, and I share it to illustrate a point. The point is that this is a story about something that happened to ME. 

MY flesh, being incised by my own knife. My struggle to get to the Band-Aids and patch myself up. 

As good as my custom GPT is, it could not have told you this story. 

At least, not without being prompted by me, and that prompt would have had to contain details of my story. In other words, I would still have had to tell a story. 

This is what AI can't yet replace. My anecdote. My feelings in the moment. They are genuine, and my hope is that they've captured your attention, even if only for a fleeting moment while you scroll. 

As I write this, a grammar checker highlights my spelling and usage errors. I could also run this text through my various prompts to clean it up further (I won't, but I could). But the original tale was mine to tell, and I hope you agree that a machine could not have told it this well. 

Even if it could, that's not my point. My point is that there's value in sharing my first-hand experience. Even if I have an assist from AI to do so. 

My mistakes, my lessons, my insights and my questions(Holy shit that sounds like an AI wrote it but it was me, I swear). 

This is the drum that I've been beating for several years now. Telling our authentic stories, sharing our unique insights, inviting feedback and conversing as humans... this still has value, and I'm wagering my entire business on the idea that that value won't diminish. 

The bots will get better at sounding like us. They will save us plenty of time (I've been writing this for 24 minutes already). But it will be a while before they're asked to join us around the campfire. 

Consider this my invitation to you to share more of your own stories. Embrace your humanity and the everyday experiences that make you uniquely YOU. 

People will appreciate and connect with your message much more than they would with some AI slop or a message prepared by a marketing team. 

Let's agree to stay in touch with what makes us human, and use the tools for what they are: tools. 

Normally I would tie this back to my work and what I do, but my call to action for you today is much simpler: Tell more stories.

How the heck did I end up in marketing? First, I had to fail as a sportscaster. 

When I was in high school, that was the dream. 

My guidance counsellor told me I'd better get some work experience, which is how, at the tender age of 16, I was hired into a weekends-and-evenings job as a sports reporter/photographer for my local newspaper.

After two years of community college, the reality of working in broadcasting seemed daunting and competitive. 

I still ended up putting in a few years at a TV station, but just like my hockey career, there came a time when I had to accept that I wasn't gonna go pro. 

In my short-lived TV career, I transitioned from news to creative services. 

Writing and editing advertisements. I spent a year in Toronto as a production assistant for film commercials before coming to Vancouver (my "Goldilocks" city), with a goal of working in marketing. 

As a fledgling marketer, I became fascinated with "Web 2.0." The democracy of it. The fact that I could break all of the "rules" I was taught in news and be my own publisher. I knew that meant that everyone could, and I knew damn well that everyone WOULD. 

ICQ. Blogger. Twitter. MySpace. I carved out little corners of the web and met some amazing people with similar interests. I got jobs at startups, including Hootsuite, which was in hypergrowth. By that point, I was already one of the "grown-ups" in the room; my internet hobby had given me valuable work experience. 

Eventually, the siren's song of entrepreneurship lured me. I'm leaving tons of detail out of this story for brevity, but that's more or less how I became a "social media" guy who turns 50 this year. 

I've even struggled with calling myself a social media guy. I'm not a famous influencer or tv personality, but I've been in this game a long time. I've never been the leading scorer, but I make a heck of a player/coach. 

One of my superpowers is predicting how people (the vox populari) will react to an idea, a campaign, or even a single piece of content. Which is how I know this post will flop 😆 

But it makes me good at writing subject lines, or asking questions in interviews, and writing hooks for my clients (a skill I can't seem to master for myself, alas).

I write this from the cozy confines of my home office. No broadcast make-up or fancy suit required. Decades of experience in my rearview and no signs of stopping anytime soon. And I know I'm in the right spot. 

The path to get here meandered, but it was all meant to be. Professionally, nothing pleases me more than sharing my knowledge with my clients, hyping them up and seeing them thrive. 

If you want to come on this journey with me, drop me a follow or send me a DM. I'll share my knowledge and make YOU a social media powerhouse. 

If you've read this far, tell me: What was your high school dream, and did you achieve it, or pivot? 

*Pic: Me in 2013; a keynote at Hootsuite. Photo by Bob Garlick

Do you believe in manifestation?

I read Mind Magic recently, and I figure there's no harm in saying this out loud: 

Before the end of year, I want to start TWO more engagements with companies that have several executives looking for social media coaching and content production. 

(But is it even "manifesting" if I write about this publicly and then start doing human-powered outbound to find those clients? Tag a company in the comments and I'll give you the credit, not my mind or the Universe)

START using these words and phrases in your content: 

*(My most popular post from the past six months is one with words I said to STOP using, so this is the antidote)

1. Rad. I don't know when it happened, but the word "rad" seems to have fallen out of fashion. Take it from a Gen-Xer, this one is underrated, and it WILL make a comeback. Be the first to start the trend. 

2. Antediluvian. The word rad is thought to be antediluvian, and I think it's anything but. Let's bring it back. (Means "old-fashioned," by the way) 

3. Cattywampus. I had to look up the spelling of this one, but it's a perfect example of a word that bots aren't likely to use, so sneak it in when you can. Plus, it's fun as hell to say. 

4. Ineffable. It's tempting to think that this one means "Not to be f*d with," but it actually means "too great to be described in words." What's a better word to use than that? 🤣 

5. Civil disobedience. I should probably write something political here, but instead I'll use it in a sentence: The engagement on my post about what words to STOP using was a form of civil disobedience. 

What am I missing? What popular words or phrases should we be using more often? (Welcome all ye copywriters and wordsmiths)

Who will win in the AI Heavyweight Championship of the World? 

I had Frank Prendergast on my podcast to talk about all things AI. Eventually we talked about the topic of AI models and the current OpenAI and Google battle for the ages. 

Frank gives us the "tale of the tape" for this ongoing heavyweight bout. 

LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE!!

I bought a 3D printer, and I love it. 

Not since the Nintendo Entertainment System have I been this giddy about a piece of tech. 

My friend John Biehler was an early adopter of 3D printing, and I had SO MANY questions that, rather than keep blowing up his phone, we sat down to record a podcast so I could ask them all. 

My biggest concern: Will the novelty wear off? "I don't think so," says John.

How much of an "AI assist" is ok in marketing and content? 

Frank Prendergast answered that question on my podcast, and (spoiler alert), I completely agree with him. 

Here's my take: If you're trusting your personal brand to generative AI, that's silly. But if you're ignoring these new tools entirely, you're missing a trick.

"Broetry." 

It's that thing. 

Where every sentence is a line. 

And the sentences are often too short. And I've made my point, so I'll get back to a normal cadence here and say it's like any other kind of writing, in that it CAN be effective, but also egregious. 

It increases "dwell time" and encourages clicks of the "read more" link, and that's why it exists, but I'm not here to demonize it. 

It's ok to break up the text, especially on longer posts. Our goldfish attention spans and text fatigue are still very real things, so I see no harm in making posts easier to scan and read. 

Just. 

Don't. 

Abuse it. Agree? Disagree? @ me.

An AI generated image of Jordan, in animated, style, writing "broetry." 

If I was in a crisis that required a carefully planned response and communications plan, I'd call Carla S. Shore.

If you're in a jam, not only can you call Carla, but you can sign up for her crisis communications bootcamp and be ready BEFORE the unthinkable happens. 

Details in Carla's post below.

Senior communications specialist; Post-secondary instructor

Is your organization ready to communicate when a crisis hits? Because it will, and you should plan ahead. I'm giving a workshop this Thursday in Vancouver: Crisis Communication Bootcamp: Build Your Response Plan. It's by donation so incredibly affordable. 

https://lnkd.in/gdU25YKW

Method and Metric SEO Agency #crisiscommunications #publicrelations #vancouver

Open article: Crisis Communication Bootcamp: Build Your Response Plan by eventbrite.com

Crisis Communication Bootcamp: Build Your Response Plan

Getting close to the end of the year... time to reflect on how much AI has decimated my business as a content creator. 

Spoiler alert: It hasn't. 

I read a lot of posts here about how AI has destroyed content businesses and replaced content teams, and even some by creators who think it's the root of all evil. 

One of my proudest accomplishments is that I've been able to navigate what would otherwise be a disruption by simply picking up new tools and using them for what they're good at. 

Here's a quick recap of my process, and why there's still healthy demand for it. 

The trick is I'm not selling AGAINST AI, and I'm not letting it drive. 

1. I record my clients in conversational interviews, capturing their unique insights with engaging and relevant questions. I call them "human prompts." 

2. I use AI video tools to select winning video clips and perform a light edit, keeping the best stuff. For text posts, ChatGPT performs the grammar and punctuation fixes in a first pass. I come over top and tighten things up, paying attention to ensuring there's a strong hook. 

3. The client reviews, suggests tweaks if necessary, and ultimately approves it all for publication. 

4. We schedule it for them. 

That's it. Simple, and taking advantage of the strengths of the humans in the loop and the time savings of AI. 

Sometimes I use AI image tools to make images, often in an "animated" style, so they are cute and very obviously AI-generated. Fun. Easy. And we're all in on the joke. 

I read yesterday that Merriam-Webster declared "slop" the word of the year. I chuckled when I read that. We know slop when we see it, and we can still spot genuine human expertise when we see that, too. 

Will things change in 2026? Probably. And I'll adjust. I won't whine that a perfectly useful tool has become more useful; I'll just find new ways to use it. 

If you've read this far, tell me about how you're using AI to improve upon your own human expertise. I'm always open to learning new tricks. 

*Photo: Running the Gunner Shaw 10km cross country race earlier this month, taken by John Denniston.

Jordan is running a cross-country race next to a mud puddle. 

No one will see this post, but in case you do, a quick poll to get your opinion:

Should I rebrand to Social CXO? (I own the domain) Or is Narrate Creative still the best option? 

taplio

The Battle

Zach Wright

Jordan Behan

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreZach Wright's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJordan Behan's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Zach Wright

Jordan Behan

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Zach Wright's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJordan Behan's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreZach Wright's LinkedIn Performance