📬 This Weekend Proved Something Big About AI, Storytelling, and Community

I have the technical skills of a potato… yet somehow I won my first AI hackathon in the middle of the Utah desert with 30+ creators, founders, and operators.

A few days ago, Zapier hosted the very first B2B creator trip in Zion, Utah - Zapier Outpost - and it honestly reshaped how I think about what’s coming next for AI, brand marketing, and the creator economy.

But first…the question that inspired everything:

THE WHY

“While Alix Earle & Poppi Soda can team up for a brand trip at Coachella…
why can’t creators and a B2B or AI brand do the same?”

Zapier decided to find out.

🏜️ What We Did in Zion, Utah

Three days of:
• canyon content sessions
• late-night s’mores and group meals
• hiking at one of the prettiest places in America
• smores and campfire songs (yes, Chris Cunningham actually sang)
• deep conversations about AI, workflows, and storytelling

It felt less like a typical brand activation…
and more like a creative off-site with 30+ people who see the world differently.

And on the final morning, they surprised us with a curveball:

⚡ The One-Hour Hackathon

No prep.
No instructions.
Just: Here’s the prompt. Here are the Zapier tools. You have 60 minutes. Go.

I got paired with Marina Mogilko, Kelly Goss, and Dmitry Shamis, and we locked in instantly on an idea:

StorySauce.

A pipeline that turns raw thoughts → into polished video scripts → with hooks → ranked against top-performing YouTube content → delivered straight into your CRM.

So no idea ever gets “lost in the sauce.”

We built it like a mini startup sprinting against the clock, and then - to make it more challenging - had to present it live to the Zapier team, including CEO Wade Foster and the host, Philip Lakin.

They announced our team as the winners — which still doesn’t feel real.

But the prize wasn’t the prize.

💡 What This Trip Really Proved

This weekend hammered home a truth we see at Creator Match 🧩 every day:

(Not just that Zapier is the best AI automation/orchestration platform)… but

Storytelling is still the most underrated skill in tech.

Features don’t travel. Stories do.

B2B brands don’t need more PDFs, more jargon, or more feature pages.
They need humans who turn ideas into narratives that spread. They need more Creators.

And this weekend felt like a preview of a future where creators and companies build side-by-side… not from separate worlds.

Huge thanks to Fiona, Denise, and Cailin from the Zapier team for bringing everyone together so intentionally.

🔥 8 Takeaways From the First B2B Creator Retreat

8️⃣ Empty-calorie content is a trap.
Reach means nothing if no one remembers you.

7️⃣ Borrow ideas from unexpected places.
Innovation = cross-pollination.

6️⃣ Explore the edges.
New formats & distribution = where the arbitrage lives.

5️⃣ Community accelerates creativity.
Ideas move faster IRL than screen-to-screen.

4️⃣ Bookmarkable content is the real currency.
If people save it, reference it, or share it offline — that’s impact.

3️⃣ Your niche ≠ the whole world.
What’s obvious to you is magic to someone else.

2️⃣ The internet rewards clarity, not complexity.
If people can’t explain your idea back to you, it’s not ready.

1️⃣ Never assume your audience knows what you know.
Simplicity scales.

And the bonus lesson:
We are all wasting so much time on tasks Zapier could be automating.

🏁 And Then… Straight to Vegas for F1 🏎️ 

As if the weekend couldn’t get any crazier…

Right after Zion, we flew straight to Las Vegas for the F1 Grand Prix to activate one of our large tech partners at Creator Match 🧩 — pairing a mix of F1 and tech creators to bring their new partnership announcement to life through authentic storytelling.

Yes, B2B and F1 are officially intersecting.
The recap drops tomorrow on LinkedIn.

Back-to-back brand trips.
Two totally different worlds.
The same core lesson:
Community + storytelling is becoming the new B2B moat.

And our team at Creator Match 🧩 is helping lead the charge.

🦃 As We Head Into Thanksgiving…

I’m deeply grateful for this growing community… the creators, the brand marketers, and everyone who believes there’s a more human (and more fun) way to do B2B.

Thank you for reading, supporting, and building this future with us.

Plus, some new hires joined the team so be on the lookout for more 🧩 emojis across LinkedIn!

💬 Question of the Week

Do you think we need more IRL in this AI world?

Hit reply… I actually want to know. And I’ll reply ;)