The Dave Gerhardt Show · 5 Oct 2026 · From the week of 5 October
How to Get 10X More Traffic From Content You Already Have (with Ross Simmonds, Foundation Marketing)
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In brief
Recorded live at Exit Five's Drive event in Vermont, host Dasha interviews Ross Simmonds, founder and CEO of Foundation Marketing and Distribution.ai, about content distribution. Ross argues that the biggest problem in marketing is that companies create content and never spread it. He walks through a step-by-step distribution playbook for a single blog post. He cites results of 10x traffic for multiple client brands and a three-year-old asset that is now consistently cited in AI answers and still generates leads. The episode also covers his four E's test for good content, how he hires a team that delivers without him, white-hat Reddit participation versus spam, and his prediction that in-person events will surge in 2027. His core rule is to create ridiculously good content once and distribute it forever.
For founders
- Ross Simmonds holds that most companies' content fails because it is published once and left to collect dust, and that distributing it repeatedly is where the return comes from.
- Ross's rule is to create ridiculously good content once and keep distributing and updating it indefinitely, since new people keep entering the target market.
- Ross's own career was built on individual blog posts, one of which led Bacardi to fly him to Miami to present to its C-suite, and he tells people they are 'one piece of content away from a fundamentally different life.'
- To hire well, Ross shows candidates the company's values, watches how they react, avoids surprises after they join, and then gives them big problems to own.
- Ross predicts, with an 'I think', a surge in in-person events in 2027, and points to top AI firms hiring for community and events roles.
For revenue leaders
- Ross's playbook for one good blog post runs through every social channel, the email newsletter, sales outreach, a long-form video cut into shorts, relevant subreddits, carousels and stories, followed by scheduled reposts in the following weeks.
- Ross has sales teams send new content to their contacts, including pipeline deals that have gone quiet.
- Ross cites a client white paper that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and produced about six leads after a single LinkedIn post, against 10x traffic for brands that distribute their content properly.
- Ross reports that a content asset kept updated and distributed for about three years is now consistently cited in LLM answers to priority prompts in the client's category and still generates leads.
- Ross says Reddit influences B2B deals heavily as AI training data, but only white-hat participation works there: brands should disclose who they are and add value rather than post self-promotional comments.
What was said 21, most useful first
Ross Simmonds lays out a multi-channel, repeated distribution sequence for a single good blog post.
Ross only distributes a post he considers good. The steps are: - Write a promotional post for each social channel (LinkedIn, X, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon), with a longer LinkedIn version and a strong hook. - Schedule a reshare for the next day and the following week. - Send it in the email newsletter. - Have the sales team send it to their contacts. - Make a long-form video, ideally, and cut it into shorts for Reels and TikTok. - Share it on stories, then on LinkedIn again. - Submit it to relevant subreddits. - Build an Instagram or LinkedIn carousel. - Optionally record a green-screen story with a swipe-up link. - Repost after about two weeks and schedule more posts for the following weeks.
“you can take the blog post and then upload it to Reddit, submit in to key subreddits that are relevant to your niche and your audience”
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Multiple client brands saw about 10x the traffic to their websites and content once they actually distributed it.
Ross cites a brand that spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a white paper covering design, stats and surveys. It promoted the paper once on LinkedIn and got about six leads. He says distributing and amplifying it through his playbook is what makes leads 'start to trickle in.'
“we've seen, like, ten x, the amount of traffic to multiple brands websites and their content? Because they actually distributed.”
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A client content asset kept updated and distributed for about three years is now consistently cited in LLM answers and still generates leads.
Ross says Foundation created the piece for a client about three years ago. Instead of publishing it once, they kept updating, distributing and promoting it. It now appears in LLM answers to some of the highest-priority prompts in the client's category, and the client still generates leads from it.
“We continue to update it, distribute it and promote it is now cited in the LLM consistently across some of the most priority prompts in their category, and they're generating leads on the back of this asset from, like, three years ago.”
There is no point at which you should stop promoting a great piece of content, because reaching 100% of a target market is practically impossible.
Ross argues that marketers overestimate how many people they reach and underestimate how little they have promoted, so they should lean toward promotion. New people enter the market every year and won't have seen the resource. Updating it annually also gives new value to people who saw the first version. He conditions this on the content being excellent to begin with.
“There is no point in which I would say stop promoting it unless you can say with high confidence that you've reached a hundred percent of the target market in your demographic, and I would argue that simply due to math that is likely impossible.”
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Dasha uses an 'anti-sell' in recruiting, telling candidates both why they should and shouldn't join.
Dasha lays out the reasons to join and the reasons a candidate probably wouldn't want to. Her example: someone who dislikes ambiguity and wants a clear swim lane won't fit a Series A startup. If a candidate balks, both sides have avoided a bad fit. If they are excited to wear many hats, it is a good fit.
“We call that the anti sell. And it works so what you're like, look. Here are all the reasons you should join. And here are all the reasons you probably don't wanna join.”
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The biggest problem in marketing is that companies create content and then don't distribute it.
Ross says CMOs and executives he spoke with produced white papers and ebooks but did not promote them on LinkedIn, Reddit, SlideShare or Medium. He built Foundation Marketing around organic distribution of a company's stories through Reddit, SEO, paid and other channels.
“the biggest problem in marketing is that we're creating things and not actually spreading them.”
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AI has cut the cost of distributing content across multiple platforms to a fraction of what it was.
Ross's example is podcast repurposing. Finding key moments used to take hours of listening before the clips were sent to an editor, and AI can now do much of that work. He says AI has created challenges, but he sees the opportunity as massive.
“We now have the ability to distribute great content, valuable stories across multiple platforms for a fraction of the cost that it used to take.”
Demand for distribution services has grown because AI answers draw on the same surfaces brands distribute to.
Ross says LLMs pull from Reddit, SEO and the other channels that organic distribution targets when they answer questions. He says demand for Foundation Marketing's services has increased as a result. He also launched Distribution.ai as software for marketers and sales executives to distribute their stories at scale.
“Ai is now using all of those different distribution surfaces to translate back into the LLM answers to questions. So our services have increased in demand because of that.”
Ross Simmonds has sales teams send new content to their contacts, including pipeline deals that have gone quiet.
Ross makes sales outreach one step of his blog-post distribution playbook. The sales team is asked to send the piece to their contacts, specifically including prospects in the pipeline who have gone silent.
“You're also gonna tap to your sales team and hopefully ask them to send it out to their contacts. Anybody who's the pipeline that might have gone quiet.”
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Ross Simmonds's rule is to create ridiculously good content once and distribute it forever, because the return compounds over the long game.
Ross says people don't realize content is a long game. If a company is willing to keep distributing its stories, he says the ROI 'can be infinite.'
“when you play the long game and you're willing to distribute your stories, the Roi can be infinite, which is why I always say, create ridiculously good content once and then distribute it forever.”
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Ross Simmonds judges content by four E's: it should educate, engage, entertain and empower.
Ross admits doing all four is hard, but says content that does is very successful. He defines each one: - Educate: give people information they never had. - Engage: get people talking, possibly through controversy or a contrarian angle. - Entertain: make people feel an emotion. - Empower: make readers feel they can go and do something special.
“The best content does what I like to call the four E's. It educate, engages, entertain and empowers people. Now it's hard to do all four.”
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Foundation attracts strong hires by living its values visibly, including an unlimited book budget.
Ross says Foundation 'eats its own dog food': it promotes its content, builds software, speaks at events and empowers its team. It gives staff an unlimited book budget as part of its commitment to learning and professional development. He says this draws great people in. The company is fully remote, with staff in Spain, across Canada, the US and beyond.
“We have an unlimited book budget because we are so committed to learning and professional development that people get books just sent to them all the time.”
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Reddit influences billions of dollars of B2B deals as AI training data, and that marketers spamming it in 2026 are eroding its value.
Ross calls Reddit 'ridiculously valuable' still. He says people don't realize how much B2B dealmaking it shapes, because it is such a powerful source of training data for AI tools like Gemini. Manipulating and spamming Reddit is the 2026 marketing trend he hopes ends.
“There's billions of dollars worth of deals in B2B that are being influenced by Reddit that people don't even realize because Reddit is such a powerful training data, platform.”
Brands win on Reddit only through transparent, value-adding participation, and that repetitive self-promotion doesn't work.
Ross endorses 'white hat' Reddit participation: a brand shows up authentically, discloses who it is (as in Dasha's example, 'I work at…'), and chimes in only when relevant. He says comments that keep saying 'you should buy my software' or 'we are the best', or that pretend to be something they're not, are the practice that needs to end.
“Be transparent add value, educate engage entertain and empower if you do that on reddit, you'll win. But if you go in in every single time, your comment is hey, you should buy my software, hey, we are the best.”
Listen on Apple Podcasts Pipeline & demand generation Link to this
Ross Simmonds predicts a massive surge in in-person events in 2027 as buyers seek real connection amid the rise of AI.
Ross frames it as his biggest bet for 2027, hedged with 'I think.' He describes himself as digital-first, but believes buyers want to meet real people in person. He calls in-person connection increasingly necessary as AI rises. As evidence, he says some top AI firms are starting to hire for community and events roles.
“My biggest bet for twenty twenty seven would be that there's going to be a massive surge in in real life events. I think people have loved the Internet and Ai and social and all of that. But I think there's a real desire amongst buyers to get together with real people”
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AI-generated slop on every platform creates an opening for authentic, human content.
Ross says low-quality AI content is not limited to Reddit but fills X, Threads, LinkedIn and Quora. He argues that brands that put authentic, valuable human content on these crowded platforms can win.
“That creates an opportunity If you can create authentic, valuable human content and then put it on these platforms, you can win.”
Two early blog posts launched his career.
The first, '14 books you need to read to get a job in advertising', was written before he had an advertising job; it led agencies in his city to reach out and got him interviews. The second, on what marketers need to know about marketing to Gen Z, was written while he lived in his parents' basement with no money. Bacardi read it and flew him from Nova Scotia to Miami to present to its C-suite. He says that showed him content could reach globally known brands, and he tells listeners they are one piece of content away from a different life.
“you are one piece of content away from a fundamentally different life, so just create great things. Publish it out there. Don't be afraid of the cringe.”
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He moved from consumer to B2B marketing because B2B is more linear and easier to innovate in.
Ross worked in consumer marketing selling scotch and Canadian consumer goods. He found it complex because it required playing on many layers of emotion, both the audience's and the client's, which created drama that didn't influence the buyer. He calls B2B more cut and dry: solve a problem, get paid. He says it is easier to innovate in B2B because most B2B marketers are slow to adopt changes that consumer marketing sees sooner.
“It's easier to innovate. Right. It. Because in B2B most people are slow to respond to the changes that consumer sees quicker.”
The B2B content leaders are brands willing to do what others won't, and the rest of the industry later copies them.
Asked for good examples, Ross names HubSpot's shift to YouTube videos among others. He says more B2B brands are leaning into educational, engaging, entertaining and empowering content. The pattern he describes is that a few brands try something different, get copied, and then the industry catches on.
“it's always the ones that are just, like, willing to do things that everybody else isn't and then they get copied and then the industry starts to catch on.”
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Ross Simmonds names building a Foundation Marketing team that delivers top client work without him as his biggest win of 2026.
Ross says his team goes into top brands to work on AI visibility and turn it into pipeline. He says they do it without him, and many of them are now better than him at Reddit and LinkedIn. He credits creating that culture, not his own work.
“the fact that they're doing it without me and so many of them are better than Me now at Reddit and LinkedIn and stuff like that is just, like, chefs kiss.”
Ross Simmonds hires by putting the company's values in front of candidates, watching how they react, and avoiding surprises after they join.
Ross says the most important thing in hiring is to be very intentional about upholding the company's values and to show them to interested candidates. He is transparent about how the company works so nothing feels like a trick after the hire. He then gives new hires big problems and lets them thrive.
“the most important thing to hire great people is to be ridiculously intentional of holding up your values of what you care about as a business. And then showing them to the person who's is interested in the role and seeing how they react to it.”
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