The B2B Growth Marketer · 2022-01-26 · 6 min
Key moments - from our scoring
Substance score
17 / 100
Five dimensions, 20 points each
Marty Berman, who has produced video content for SpaceX and Hermes, breaks down a practical framework for approaching video creation in B2B contexts. His core principle is deceptively simple: viewers should walk away with one clear headline or takeaway, even if the final video runs 10 minutes. The story structure - beginning, middle, end - serves that single insight. More critically, Berman argues that stories must center on people, not places or things. For B2B software companies tempted to lead with feature benefits or efficiency metrics, this reframe is essential: the audience is always a human trying to solve a problem or ease a pain point. Berman also cautions against technical gatekeeping - dismissing work shot on phones in favor of expensive gear - arguing that consistent creation matters far more than equipment quality. This episode delivers no-nonsense advice for tech and software marketers struggling to find authentic narratives beyond the standard metrics-driven pitch.
Identify one clear headline or takeaway you want viewers to remember, then structure your story's beginning, middle, and end to support that single message. Focus on people solving problems rather than features or technical specs.
Because the person watching is a human who relates to human stories and struggles; at the end of the day, any B2B software exists to solve a person's problem or make their job easier, so the narrative should center on that human outcome rather than specifications.
No. Consistent creation with whatever tools are available - even a phone - matters far more than expensive equipment; people were creating amazing content on phones while Berman was obsessing over camera lenses and aperture settings.
Length is secondary to clarity; Berman has created 10-minute mini-documentaries where viewers only needed to learn one thing, but the entire story was required to make that single insight land with the audience.
Focusing on how software solves human problems rather than listing features or efficiency gains is 'the marketing and sales gold' because audiences are humans seeking relatable narratives about overcoming real pain points.
Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.
The episode runs roughly 6 minutes and produces only a handful of claims, all of which are elementary storytelling basics ('beginning, middle and end', 'stories are about people'). There is zero actionable density for a B2B operator and no idea that a working marketer wouldn't already hold.
your story should have a beginning, middle and end
stories are about people, not places or things
Every point made - one clear takeaway, human-centric storytelling, tools don't matter - is recycled conventional wisdom that appears in every beginner content-marketing article. There is no contrarian angle, no first-principles reasoning, and no tension with mainstream thinking.
stories are about people, not places or things
your story should have a beginning, middle and end once you find you kind of your headline
The guest has a plausible practitioner background (SpaceX, Hermes) that is name-dropped in the intro, but the transcript itself surfaces nothing that demonstrates scale, seniority, or hard-won expertise - only beginner storytelling maxims and a personal anecdote about being annoyed by iPhone photographers.
you have a long history and experience of creating video, producing video, telling stories, both digital, you know, for, you know, for SpaceX and now for Hermes
I remember getting really upset because people were shooting this amazing stuff on their phone
There are virtually no named campaigns, metrics, client examples, or concrete outcomes in the entire episode. The only gesture toward specificity is a passing reference to an unnamed 10-minute mini-documentary and vague camera-settings jargon.
I've made like a mini documentary that was 10 minutes
it improves improves efficiency by 30 percent and and all these like data points
The host explicitly surrenders after the guest's first answer, stating he has no further questions, and then piles on agreement rather than probing for evidence, mechanisms, or pushback. The conversation is a pure validation loop with no follow-up depth.
i love that i love that uh it's like it's it's great advice for any piece of content true any marketing i don't have any further questions
So more great advice we might need you as like a regular i mean you're just dropping knowledge left and right
Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.
When it comes to telling a story to create a movement, Marty Berman is no stranger. Marty was the in-house Senior Producer at SpaceX, helping shape the future of space exploration. Marty has joined the team at Hermeus, which is creating a new era of hypersonic private and commercial flight. In today's episode, we dig into the impact of visual storytelling and how it can shape the brand for years to come. Marty Berman - Director of Content & Marketing / Hermeus LinkedIn Alex Meade - Beacons Point, VP of Sales & Marketing LinkedIn
Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.
Welcome to the B2B Growth Marketer Podcast. This is the Helpful Hot Take and I'm joined again by Marty Berman. Marty, welcome back. Hey, Alex.
Good to be here. so in the helpful hot take we'll just ask one quick question uh and today you know we talked a lot about storytelling and b2b storytelling and how to find that arc we talked a little bit about music and maybe too long about music for uh for a podcast but you know we can't control the rabbit holes all the time so what i wanted to ask you is you know obviously you have a long history and experience of creating video, producing video, telling stories, both digital, you know, for, you know, for SpaceX and now for Hermes.
Hermes, yeah. Hermes. Hermes. Someday I'll get it right.
So I wanted to ask you because our listeners are a little bit more like the tech and B2B marketing, maybe a little more software. And storytelling is always a goal, but it sometimes is harder to find the right story. So what I wanted to ask you is when you approach a video or you know you probably aren even being asked to create a video but you now thinking of videos to create But what how do you approach you know a video before you even make it Like what your process to say what am I trying to say And what's the story I need to tell here?
Yeah. I mean, I think I'll start with saying like, if someone can walk away with just one takeaway from the video, you win. So like, if you can kind of think of, okay, what's the headline here? And then just kind of work your video around that.
And like, OK, how do I make that land as best as possible? Because even if the video is 10 minutes long, like I've made like a mini documentary that was 10 minutes. And like we really only wanted you to learn one thing. But it took the entire story for that to hit home.
So I guess I'd kind of lead with saying something like, you know, your story should have a beginning, middle and end once you find you kind of your headline and kind of think about what that would be. And then the best piece of advice I was probably ever given was stories are about people, not places or things. So if you just kind of think about that and take it to its extreme, even if you have, you know, a B2B software you're selling. OK, how can I make this not about the features, but about the people?
And that just opens up, oh, man, there's so many incredible examples of this. Because at the end of the day, the person who's watching this is a human who wants to be told a story and who can certainly relate to stories and other humans. That is the marketing and sales gold right there Don think about the services Keep the people at the center keep the people at the main arc of your story. Because anything that software, B2B, anybody that's creating something, it's to make someone's job easier, better, to relieve a pain, to solve a problem.
And it's always a person that that problem is being solved for so i love that i love that uh it's like it's it's great advice for any piece of content true any marketing i don't have any further questions i don't know if there's anything else that i can ask uh that it that is better than that when you're creating video i mean like that is that is uh you know everyone wants to get bogged down of you know it has this feature it improves improves efficiency by 30 percent and and all these like data points when it really comes down to is what does this do for the people who use it yep and i'll say i'll say one other thing just because this tripped me up for for for a few years once i really understood cameras and i really like got it down the lenses and you know what my aperture should be and my shutter speed and my frame rate and i really got all technical and I really loved it.
I remember getting really upset because people were shooting this amazing stuff on their phone. And I would be like, oh, I'd be nitpicky. Like, yeah, but you don't have the bokeh that I have with my this lens or whatever And then it took me a while to realize I an idiot because uh you know the tools don matter And at the end of the day just create and create as much as possible and as as regularly as possible. That's the only thing.
Yeah. Don't, don't be a hater of the tech, just, uh, embrace it. And as long as you're, you're, you're, you know, the top 90%. I used to take photos.
I used to be like, you know, as a hobby before I guess I got married and had kids. And I used to, when Instagram started, I was like, man, everyone now is like thinking they're photographers or phones taking photos like you know they kind of like know photography and i remember being like kind of bitter about it and then realized same thing that it's it's not the way you do it but it's like what how you do it and what it's saying yeah so more great advice we might need you as like a regular i mean you're just dropping knowledge left and right i love it i mean it's funny you know you get people talking about what they love And yeah, it's just fun.
So it's fun for me too. So yeah, appreciate being on. Okay. Well, thank you so much.
And I'll also put your personal Twitter and your Twitter to Hermes over in the show notes there. So thank you so much. Cool. Thanks, Alex.
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