Best of Stack & Scale in 2025
Top Newsletter issues, best tools and the most useful resources.
Hope you had a great holiday and you’re getting a chance to slow down a bit (or at least pretend you are between travel, errands, and one last quick work thing).
This week I’m doing something a little different to close out the year: a Best of Stack & Scale edition.
I’ve published 21 issues this year, which is weird in the best way. In some ways, it feels like I’ve been writing this newsletter forever… and in other ways it feels like it all happened in a blink.
This week’s Stack:
The top 5 S&S Newsletters
My favorite AI tools
My top go-to resources (newsletters, podcasts, influencers, etc)
Let’s go!
Top 5 Newsletters
I’m basing this on open rates, click-through rates, social engagement and anecdotal feedback rather than pure views, because the latest five (with one exception) would be posts since the newsletter continues to grow nicely and steadily.
#1: How I Turn One Closed-Won Deal Into 10 New Opportunities With AI + Clay.
In this issue, I showed exactly how I built a repeatable Clay workflow that automatically researches people and accounts, then creates sales dossiers and drops them directly into Slack, ready for your sales reps. This was by far my most popular, with the highest social engagement (from LinkedIn), most views, and most DM’s thanking me.
#2: Using Signal-Based Selling to Turn Web Intent Into Pipeline with Clay
In this issue, I walked through, step by step, how to capture intent, enrich accounts, find buyers, and automatically launch outbound using Clay.
#3: Vibe Coding for Marketers: From Concept to Prompt to Product
In this issue, Jeff Garwood shows us how he turns GTM ideas into shipped tools in hours with outcome-first prompts, thin scaffolds, and fast feedback. Jeff is on the more technical side, but in this conversation, he offers a lot of practical feedback, no matter your technical ability.
#4: Turn LinkedIn Post Comments into Auto DMs, No Manual Follow-Up Needed Using Clay
Yes, another Clay build. It was certainly one of the hottest tools in the GTM space this year, so I went deep into learning it and applying it for my clients (then I shared my best builds with you!). In this issue, I showed you a table I built to scrape LinkedIn post comments, detect intent, and follow up with selected people. This one also got a lot of traction on social.
#5: AEO Visibility Ranking Tool to See Exactly Where You’re Showing up in LLMs with Sam Calhoun
AEO is on the minds of a lot of marketers right now, so no surprise that this was a top episode. Here, Sam Calhoun guides us through how to build an n8n workflow to monitor answer-engine visibility at scale.
Top AI Tools
For the top tools section, I’m mixing two buckets: the AI tools my guests kept raving about and the ones I personally used the most this year. Some are obvious staples, a few are spicy newcomers, and all of them earned a spot because they actually made work faster, better, or just more fun.
This is by far the most-mentioned tool among guests and my most heavily used this year. No further explanation needed.
This is the second-most-mentioned tool among guests. Again, no much else to say here.
This is the third most mentioned tool, although I personally use a different voice-to-text AI solution. Early on, I was a pretty heavy user of SuperWhisper, but more recently been into a tool called super. All three have very similar functionality, so check them all out.
Snipd is a podcast app that lets you capture highlights, generate AI-powered summaries, and turn episodes into searchable notes. If you know me, I’m a huge podcast listener, and this is my player of choice.
What started off as a tool that most people used for turning content into a podcast with two hosts discussed content you provide it. Now, it’s a full on AI research tool and thinking partner. I’m continuously impressed with the new features they’re coming out with and finding myself using it more and more.
Know someone who might find this useful? Share it with them!
Top AI Resources
I get asked a ton “Where do you keep up with AI stuff without melting your brain?” It’s a question that I ask my guests, but I realized I’ve never actually published my personal shortlist, so this Best Of issue is the perfect excuse. These are my go-to resources for AI + marketing;
Newsletters:
Podcasts:
Marketing Against the Grain with Kipp Bodnar and Kieran Flanagan
The Artificial Intelligence Show with Paul Roetzer and Mike Kaput
People on LinkedIn
That’s a wrap for this issue, and for 2025.
Thanks for being here, whether you’re a longtime reader or you just found Stack & Scale recently.
I didn’t A/B test this sign-off, but I’m pretty sure the winner is “Happy New Year.” See you next week to start 2026 strong.
– Brandon
NotebookLM will be the n8n “comment something to get something” of 2026