S 02 | Ep 16 Why leaders shouldn ’ t be the smartest person in the room Kevin Lee founded Didit in 1996 , before Google existed , and has spent nearly three decades at the intersection of search , paid media , direct mail , and now generative engine optimization . He is also the founder of the e - Marketing Association and its nonprofit arm , the e - Marketing Foundation , where he creates hands - on marketing opportunities for international graduate students navigating the US immigration system through optional practical training . Kevin discusses what makes agency work sustainable , which is deep subject matter expertise in each channel rather than one generalist trying to do everything , and a trust - first model of entering client relationships by solving the problem they already know they have before pitching anything bigger . This episode gets into one of B2B marketing ' s most persistent tensions , the practice of gating content behind lead forms and then delivering it in formats that almost guarantee people will not read it . Kevin argues that friction in the form of registration walls , downloadable PDFs , and disconnected video links actively undermines the trust that marketing is supposed to build . His view is that information wants to be free , and that the companies who make their expertise easy to find and consume will always outperform those who try to lock it down .