Now that LinkedIn is flooded with a million marketing “thought leaders,” it seems harder to get solid advice you actually want to follow. Trish Seidel, Marketing Director at Teal, is one of the people you should be following. She bills herself as “your marketing big sister,” and she’s developed a reputation for cutting through the noise with practical, no-BS B2B marketing advice that genuinely works, all based on her 10+ years in communications, content strategy, branding, growth hacking, and more.

Through 600+ mentorship conversations (aka “big sister chats”), she’s shared her hard-won insights with individuals across industries, and she was kind enough to join us on our Best Story Wins podcast to share them with us too. 

The B2B Marketing Advice You’ve Been Waiting For

As someone who’s deep in the trenches of marketing (and unimpressed by the buzzwords and trends so often recycled across feeds), Trish’s perspective is both insightful and refreshing. If you’ve been in a rut, her B2B marketing advice might be exactly what you need to re-energize yourself.

1. Focus on fundamentals when everything falls apart. 

Sometimes the best marketing strategy is the simplest one. Trish learned this lesson during a particularly challenging period when trying to help nonprofit management software Springly gain traction in the U.S. market.

“We were failing right and left. We were hemorrhaging cash. We didn’t know what to do,” Trish says. The solution wasn’t a fancy new tactic; it was going back to basics. 

For her team, that meant SEO. They made the bold decision to invest their entire marketing budget in SEO for one quarter, and it was the exact jumpstart they needed. “We were able to grow 1,800% or 2,000% in 18 months,” Trish says. Yes, this was before the proliferation of AI, but the strategy of going back to basics, remembering who you’re trying to reach, and creating quality content they’ll be interested in is always a smarter play than trying to keep up with trends.

2. Embrace AI-first thinking for scale. 

Now that AI is on the scene, and many teams are still debating whether to use AI, Trish is already thinking three steps ahead.

“AI today is the worst it’s ever gonna be,” Trish says. “It’s only gonna get better. It’s only gonna get stronger. It’s only gonna get more powerful.”

When it comes to integrating AI into a marketing practice, Trish’s philosophy starts with automating the low-effort tasks first, then slotting in human talent to supplement and focus on the most important things (like high-quality thought leadership). 

This approach has enabled her team at Teal to achieve enviable efficiency (with 20 people managing 2 million users and millions in organic traffic per month). 

3. Build your brand around empowerment, not pain. 

Here’s where Trish’s perspective gets particularly interesting. In competitive markets, most brands default to fear-based messaging, highlighting pain points and creating urgency through anxiety. Trish takes the opposite approach.

At Teal, which operates in the crowded job search space, her team made a conscious decision to reframe their story entirely. “We want to approach the job search, resume, cover letter, and interviewing from a place of empowerment, positivity, and enlightenment,” Trish says.

This isn’t about ignoring real challenges. “We don’t want to deny the pain and negativity that comes with it, because it is frustrating and it is hard and is a little bit scary,” Trish says. But Teal doesn’t want to exploit that negativity intentionally or get clients based out of fear.

This approach helps them differentiate from competitors and create a more positive foundation to interact with their audience. 

4. Kill any “smoke and mirrors” marketing tactics. 

Sometimes the best marketing advice is what not to do. According to Trish, smoke and mirrors practices have no place in marketing anymore. 

People want transparency and authenticity, but Trish says marketers cling to the antiquated idea that you can’t reveal what’s behind the curtain. This doesn’t do anything to cultivate trust and, worse, she says it creates more stress and anxiety because people don’t understand what’s happening.

With her team at Teal, Trish pursues radical transparency in their customer communications. For example, when they send emails, they tell people exactly how they got their contact information. It’s a small detail that builds trust and demonstrates integrity in a big way.

5. Think about your personal brand like a side hustle. 

For B2B marketers, personal branding isn’t optional; it’s a competitive advantage. But Trish’s approach is refreshingly practical. She says you can’t think of it as a hobby or a fun side project. You have to make it your side hustle. 

And, no, she’s not going to tell you to “just be authentic.” If you want to succeed, it’s all about discipline. “You need to post consistently every day or every work day for at least 30 days,” Trish says. “Build the habit.” 

A lot of people feel self-conscious about posting, and it’s not easy to build that discipline. But she reminds us that the stakes aren’t as high as you might think. “You have to remember that if no one sees it, it’s invisible, which means that it’s not embarrassing because no one saw it,” Trish says.

But if structure helps you become more disciplined, set specific goals, create systems for consistency, and measure your progress over time.

The Biggest “Big Sister” Advice

The common thread running through all of Trish’s B2B marketing advice is this: Focus on what works, be honest about what doesn’t, and don’t overcomplicate things. 

Whether you’re struggling with internal buy-in, trying to scale your content efforts, or building your personal brand, the key is to approach marketing with both ambition and realism. Focus on fundamentals, use the tools that actually help you work smarter, and work toward incremental progress. It’s easy to get overwhelmed or intimidated, but just focus on one thing at a time. That’s the best way to maintain momentum and make real change. 

For more of Trish’s honest B2B marketing advice, listen to her full episode on the Best Story Wins podcast, where she dives deeper into AI strategies, personal branding, and the future of B2B marketing.