Smarter Marketer

About Smarter Marketer

Hosted by James Lawrence - Co-Founder of Rocket Agency and B&T Marketer of the Year finalist, each episode features candid conversations with marketers, leaders and innovators on what’s really working in today’s fast-changing landscape. This is the definitive podcast for Australian Marketers.

Publisher

James Lawrence

Category

business · business · business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

6 Apr 2022

Latest episode

21 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

130 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   21 Oct 2026

   121. How to Get Your Agency to Do Its Best Work w. Rocket Agency's Roeya Arzani

   Two clients can pay the same agency the same amount of money, work with exactly the same people and get very different results. One gets exceptional work while the other gets regular output. Why? And what can in-house marketers do to get the very best from their agency? In this episode, James Lawrence is joined by Rocket Agency’s Head of Client Services, Roeya Arzani, to explore what separates clients who get extraordinary value from those who don’t. They discuss better briefing, avoiding micromanagement, building trust and creating the conditions for exceptional work. Whether you work with a digital, creative, media or PR agency, this episode will help you get more from that relationship. Key takeaways Why giving your agency a task instead of a problem might be costing you its best ideas. What spending a full day inside a client’s business taught us that no written brief could. Why the fifth round of feedback on an ad headline might be doing more harm than good. How your agency can help you convince your CEO to increase your marketing budget. The uncomfortable question: Does your agency team actually like working with you? Why having one clear decision-maker on the client side can dramatically improve agency performance. Why the best agency relationships focus on one meaningful business metric rather than dozens of marketing KPIs. About the guest Roeya Arzani is Head of Client Services at Rocket Agency, where she leads the team responsible for building and managing relationships with Rocket’s clients. Having joined Rocket six years ago as an Account Manager, Roeya has worked closely with in-house marketing teams across a wide range of industries, helping them develop strategies, deliver campaigns and get more value from their agency relationships. Connect with Roeya on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/roeya-arzani/). Find Us Online: James Lawrence LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameslawrenceoz/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameslawrenceoz/) Smarter Marketer Website: https://rocketagency.com.au/smarter-marketer-podcast (https://rocketagency.com.au/smarter-marketer-podcast) Rocket Agency Website: https://rocketagency.com.au/ (https://rocketagency.com.au/) Rocket Agency LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocket-agency-pty-ltd/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocket-agency-pty-ltd/mycompany/?viewAsMember=true) Buy Smarter Marketer: Hardcover: https://amzn.to/30O63kg (https://amzn.to/30O63kg) Kindle: https://amzn.to/2ZqfCWm (https://amzn.to/2ZqfCWm) About the Podcast: This is the definitive podcast for Australian marketers. Join Rocket Agency Co-Founder and best-selling author, James Lawrence in conversation with marketers, leaders, and thinkers about what it takes to be a smarter and more successful marketer.

2. 

   6 Oct 2026

   120. GEO/AEO, AI Overviews and ChatGPT Ads: Answers to Australian Marketers’ Most Pressing AI Search Questions

   GEO/AEO, AI Overviews and ChatGPT Ads are changing how customers find, research and choose brands. In this episode, Host and Co-Founder of Rocket Agency, James Lawrence, is joined by Rocket's Head of SEO & GEO, Joe Alder, and Head of Paid Media, Sam Lucas, to explain where AI search stands in Australia right now and to answer the questions marketers are asking most. Key Takeaways: How quickly Australians have adopted AI tools, and how much they influence purchase decisions Why Google search volume is at record highs even as clicks fall Where ChatGPT Ads are up to in Australia Should you still be investing in Google Ads? How do you measure AI search and prove it's working to your C-suite? Which GEO tracking tools are worth using? SEO or GEO: which should you prioritise, and why? How to write content for both humans and AI Guests: Joe Alder, Head of SEO & GEO, Rocket Agency Joe leads Rocket's SEO and GEO offering. He shapes the agency's product and processes in organic and AI search, and he hires, trains and mentors the team that delivers them. His focus is getting clients results in Google and across AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. Sam Lucas, Head of Paid Media, Rocket Agency Sam oversees Rocket's full suite of paid channels and leads and mentors the paid media team. He also works on GEO projects with clients, where he connects AI search visibility to paid opportunities like ChatGPT Ads and the AI placements in Google and Microsoft Ads. You can follow Joe (https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-alder-1b0428139/) and Sam (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-lucas-912416182/) on LinkedIn. Find Us Online: James Lawrence LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameslawrenceoz/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameslawrenceoz/) Smarter Marketer Website: https://rocketagency.com.au/smarter-marketer-podcast (https://rocketagency.com.au/smarter-marketer-podcast) Rocket Agency Website: https://rocketagency.com.au/ (https://rocketagency.com.au/) Rocket Agency LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocket-agency-pty-ltd/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocket-agency-pty-ltd/mycompany/?viewAsMember=true) Buy Smarter Marketer: Hardcover: https://amzn.to/30O63kg (https://amzn.to/30O63kg) Kindle: https://amzn.to/2ZqfCWm (https://amzn.to/2ZqfCWm) About the Podcast: This is the definitive podcast for Australian marketers. Join Rocket Agency Co-Founder and best-selling author, James Lawrence in conversation with marketers, leaders, and thinkers about what it takes to be a smarter and more successful marketer.

3. 

   22 Sept 2026

   119. Why Marketing is About Behaviour Change w. Thinkerbell's Dan Monheit

   Most marketing briefs never mention behaviour. They mention a product launch, a credit card switch, a new vehicle landing next month. Dan Monheit's argument is that every one of them is the same brief wearing a different outfit: you want someone to do something they're not currently doing. In this episode of the Smarter Marketer Podcast, Host James Lawrence and Dan Monheit, Chief CX Thinker at Thinkerbell, discuss which biases suit which problems, why the best in-house marketers are really pitch people in client roles, what happens to brand building when a third of your audience asks an LLM first and more. Key Takeaways: How Dan ended up in behavioural science by coming at it backwards, from advertising rather than academia Why he thinks every brief is a behaviour change brief Why you should put the customer and the brand on equal footing, rather than the customer first The peak-end rule, and why the last experience shapes how people remember everything Effort bias: why invisible work is worthless work Why people can't reliably tell you why they buy things How the best in-house marketers build a business case that actually lands Where AI helps and where it costs you: writing to communicate vs writing to think What LLMs change for brand building and the consideration set Guest: Dan Monheit is Chief CX Thinker at Thinkerbell and one of Australia's most recognised voices on behavioural science in marketing. He co-founded Hardhat in 2005, straight out of uni, and spent fifteen years reinventing it before landing on the idea that held it all together: every brief is a behaviour change brief. Hardhat was acquired by Thinkerbell in 2024. You can follow Dan on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielmonheit/). Find Us Online: James Lawrence LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameslawrenceoz/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameslawrenceoz/) Smarter Marketer Website: https://rocketagency.com.au/smarter-marketer-podcast (https://rocketagency.com.au/smarter-marketer-podcast) Rocket Agency Website: https://rocketagency.com.au/ (https://rocketagency.com.au/) Rocket Agency LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocket-agency-pty-ltd/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/rocket-agency-pty-ltd/mycompany/?viewAsMember=true) Buy Smarter Marketer: Hardcover: https://amzn.to/30O63kg (https://amzn.to/30O63kg) Kindle: https://amzn.to/2ZqfCWm (https://amzn.to/2ZqfCWm) About the Podcast: This is the definitive podcast for Australian marketers. Join Rocket Agency Co-Founder and best-selling author, James Lawrence in conversation with marketers, leaders, and thinkers about what it takes to be a smarter and more successful marketer.

Who has been a guest on Smarter Marketer

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Katy Richardson
• David Lawrence
• Dr Robert Cialdini
• Joe Alder
• Samantha Dodson

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Spotify

5.0 / 5

33 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 49 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

64

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

85

Contact Smarter Marketer

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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