BE
Blair Enns
X (Twitter) ↗ LinkedIn ↗ Website ↗

Blair Enns

Things Blair Says on Podcasts

Founder of Win Without Pitching, a sales training firm for creative and expert-advice businesses. Wrote The Win Without Pitching Manifesto, Pricing Creativity, and The Four Conversations: A New Model for Selling Expertise, drawing on work with creative firms since 2002 on how they sell and price their work. Co-hosts 2Bobs with David C. Baker. Has appeared as a guest on The Futur with Chris Do, Ditching Hourly, and EntreArchitect Podcast with Mark R. LePage.

Where to Find Them

Blair Enns hosts and writes 2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns and writes The Agency Profit Podcast . They have also been a guest on The Futur with Chris Do (2 times) , Ditching Hourly (2 times) , EntreArchitect Podcast with Mark R. LePage (2 times) , Creative Agency Account Manager Podcast , The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast , Coffee N° 5 with Lara Schmoisman and Design Domination .

Recently: “Demand Is the New Supply” on 2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns (November 2026); “Inside the Head of a CMO” on 2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns (October 2026); “Get Your Freak On!” on 2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns (October 2026); “Get Your Freak On!” on 2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns (October 2026); “Do You Need an Advisory Board?” on 2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns (September 2026); “Do You Need an Advisory Board?” on 2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns (September 2026).

What They Said

“I'm overwhelmed with solicitations, email and social media, LinkedIn. Those channels are dead to me as a way of hiring somebody. I no longer respond to unsolicited inquiries, electronic inquiries, unless somebody can prove that they really, really truly know me. Like, I've read your book, I've been following your podcast, and these very specific observations that clearly aren't AI.” — Blair Enns, 2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns

Blair was telling the story behind his essay 'Demand Is the New Supply'. He says a referral from someone you trust is now one of the few channels that still cuts through AI-generated outreach.

2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns · 2026-11-04 Permalink → Listen →
2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns Around 07:04 into the episode
Blair Enns

AI episode yet, but it's steeped in AI. I would assume our listeners just accept that, like I said in a recent episode, it's the water we're swimming in now. So we're not going to not talk about it.

David C. Baker

…it bypassed all the public sort of channels. Talk about that and why that was different and sort of what it was Prompted in your mind about the difference between this approach, demand is new supply, and supply is new demand, how it sparked the thinking around individual relationships and trust.

Blair Enns

Yeah. So, at about the time, I'm just like sick to death with the crap that's in my inbox. And I'm thinking, well, maybe I'll just make a policy about as a matter of policy, I will no longer reply to unsolicited emails. I'm thinking about that. Then I get a text from our mutual friend and he says, Hey, somebody else that's very close to him that I also have a relationship with. He said, I'm helping this person who's a family member launch this new business, really highly specialized. It's so highly specialized that it's basically podcast booking appearances for a very specific type of professional in very specific situations. And he said, Do you have any clients that match that description? And I thought about it, I said, Well, I can think of two off the top of my head. I'm happy to introduce you. So I sent email introductions to both of those people. And it dawned on me. I'm overwhelmed with solicitations, email and social media, LinkedIn. Those channels are dead to me as a way of hiring somebody. I no longer respond to unsolicited inquiries, electronic inquiries, unless somebody can prove deep knowledge of me. Unless somebody can prove that they really, really…

David C. Baker

So I have a question about this. Yeah. You went on in the article to talk about the professionalization of influencers. And he and I both have rolled our eyes at traditional influencers, right? I can't stop laughing just thinking about it. But you're saying this is a different angle on influencer.…

Blair Enns

Are you saying me, myself, or the listener?

David C. Baker

So this person that you contacted on behalf of your friend, these two people, they gave it the time of day because they trusted you. But if all you did as a business was connect people, would they then think about you differently? In other words, you didn't make any money by referring these two…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.
“You make your thinking public. You and I both agree that we have to think through our fingers. So you do your thinking through writing. You publish that writing. That's how you earn trust. And as soon as you have AI doing that writing, then that's an admission that you're never going to get to that place. Because the output is a proxy for what's going on inside us in our brains. And as soon as you start faking that by using something else to help create the output, you're not going to build trust with anybody.” — Blair Enns, 2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns

Asked how someone actually earns the kind of trust that makes people follow their recommendations, Blair says it comes from publishing your own thinking, and that outsourcing the writing to AI undercuts the point.

2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns · 2026-11-04 Permalink → Listen →
2Bobs—with David C. Baker and Blair Enns Around 15:45 into the episode
Blair Enns

RVs, sniper rifles, and cameras.

David C. Baker

…to hear about. And I have never seen anybody else do that. I thought that was really fascinating. Then there's others that are sponsored, but then every once in a while, he just says, hey, this is something I've just seen. They're not paying me. I just think you all really ought to look into this.

Blair Enns

You know, I think there's some people listening to this thinking, come on, guys, you're just catching up to this. We've been aware of this for a while.

David C. Baker

True of many of our

Blair Enns

episodes. You and I have not been. Like you've said, and I say this in this piece, I've long disdained influencers and influencer culture, but now I understand. I still have a huge disdain for the get-rich quick people, all that stuff. But I have my trusted sources I go to on all topics. And those…

David C. Baker

regret that question so much. So let me wrap this up by asking you a question. So I'm listening to this and I'm buying it and I want to be somebody that earns people's trust. How do you earn trust? You're running an agency. You're a principal. How do you get that? It doesn't happen quickly…

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

Collections They Appear In

Agency Business Product & Design