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Jay Berkowitz, Founder and CEO of Ten Golden Rules, helps law firms implement the Law Firm Success Formula to attract qualified prospects, convert more opportunities, and build five-star operations. Driven by a strong desire to win, Jay applies his competitive nature to helping clients rank higher, sign more cases, earn stronger reviews, and generate valuable referrals. In this conversation, Jay introduces The AI Visibility Optimization Framework—Collect Prospect FAQs, Publish Answers Regularly, Become an Expert on Reddit & Quora, and Blog on Customer-Generated Topics. He explains how businesses can identify real customer questions from sales calls, intake conversations, and AI-generated transcripts, then answer them through videos, blogs, FAQs, and social content. Jay also discusses optimizing websites and Google Business Profiles, responding quickly and empathetically to inquiries, and delivering five-star service that generates reviews and referrals. He shares how referrals, conference speaking, webinars, podcasts, and high-value content drive agency growth and how EOS helped him develop leaders as the company expanded. — Implement the Law Firm Success Formula with Jay Berkowitz  Good day. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint, and my guest today is Jay Berkowitz, the Founder and CEO of Ten Golden Rules, a two-time Inc. 5000 digital marketing agency that helps law firms generate more qualified leads and clients. Jay, welcome to the show.  Thank you so much. Great to be here, Steve.  So we already talked a little bit about it, but I was really curious about why you focus on law firms. There are so many marketing agencies out there, but I’ve never seen anyone that focused on such a narrow niche. And then I’m going to link it to my favorite question. So what is your personal Why, and how are you manifesting it in your Ten Golden Rules agency? And maybe there’s a connection to law firms as well?  Well, I’ll start with my personal Why, and my personal Why is I really like to win. And I’ve done the StrengthsFinder and different psychology tests, and I’m in the top—whatever—one or five percentile of people who are competitive. And so I was competitive in sports, but I really want to do well in business, and I want my clients to do well. Like, I really, really hate it if my client’s not right at the top of Google and if my client’s not growing in more new cases signed every month.  So that seems to be a really great fit for the business I’m in, which is helping clients with growth strategies, part of which is the marketing piece, getting new traffic to their website. Part of it is conversion, so we do a lot of work with our clients on getting a higher percentage of the folks who do show up to call, to click, to fill out a form. And then we work with their intake teams on converting those opportunities. And the final piece we work with them is really running a five-star operation—meaning that they’re getting more five-star Google reviews and getting more referrals from past clients and referral partners. So we do a lot of work in those three pieces of the business to help law firms grow, and I really want them to win because when they win, I win. Selfishly.  No, I love it. I love it. So are you like an outsourced marketing department and marketing-sales department for these law firms? How do you see yourselves? What is the role that you fulfill?  Yeah, I mean, we are a consulting agency. So first and foremost, we’re going to help them strategically figure out where to focus. And we have a fully functioning digital marketing agency, so we do websites and SEO and Local Services Ads and pay-per-click and social media and video and lots of AI. And then as a part of our consulting practice, we help with intake consulting that I mentioned before and five-star operations. And a big part of that is just finding the right partners because we’ll do high-level intake coaching and point out if they’re not answering the phone, if they’re not putting the right people on the phone, and then we’ll connect them with one of the top intake coaches in the legal industry.  If their back end is a little rough and needs some help, there’s a number of partners. Like, for example, there’s a really great software called Case Status we recommend to all of our clients. And imagine Case Status is an app. So, like, when we all order an Uber or order food, we get updates. “Hey, your driver’s been selected. Your driver will be here in 10 minutes. Your driver’s waiting outside. Do you want to have a conversation with your driver? What temperature do you want?”  And so there’s a great app called Case Status, which can manage the case in an app format that consumers are really used to. “Hey, we got your MRI booked, and here’s the location, and here’s the time. Don’t forget your MRI is tomorrow at 8:00 A.M. Here’s the location. If you can’t make the MRI, click here. Hey, we got your MRI. We forwarded it to the next surgeon,” in a case of a car accident. So using that software helps our firms get five-star Google ratings and lots more referrals, and that’s just one small piece of the pie.  So within the niche of law firms, is this even a narrower niche of injury law firms that you work with?  Yeah, it’s funny because when, as a business person, you go from working on 200 SIC codes and you pick one, “I’m only going to work with lawyers,” everybody always asks, like, “Which niche within the niche are you?” But by the nature of our business, 50% or 60% is personal injury, just because those guys are really invested in marketing. They spend a lot of time and money on it, and we’ve built a little reputation.  But we also have estate firms and family lawyers, criminal attorneys, sex abuse lawyers, securities attorneys. So I always say 50% is personal injury and 50% is everybody else who deals with consumers. Because for the most part, the B2B lawyers, they’re not going to spend a lot on marketing. But we have done some beautiful websites for them.  Very interesting. I have kind of a tangential question, but you may be able to help me answer it because I’m obviously wondering about it. I always see these billboards with the injury law firms promoting themselves, and I get if someone gets in a car accident and there’s a billboard above them, then it’s going to be an obvious thing for them to call, but it probably doesn’t happen that often. So how are these billboards so good for lawyers, or is it just a myth and they’re just wasting their money on it?  No. I think the math is pretty compelling, and the average personal injury firm will make between $10,000 and $20,000 on average on cases. Then there will be one or two or three, what they call whales, every year. So a terrible incident where, like, a FedEx truck or a commercial vehicle hits a family and there’s serious injuries or death involved, and it’s a multimillion-dollar case.  So the lawyers make a third of all the revenue that comes in on those cases, and they do a lot of work and they have a lot of expenses too. But when there’s millions of dollars at stake for just one case, these guys can afford the TV advertising, the billboard advertising, and the digital marketing that they do with us.  So it’s not just a billboard. Yeah. Billboard is just a visible one. It’s basically the general idea that they do a lot of advertising because being top of mind is important.  Yeah, for sure. And if, God forbid, someone you knew had an accident, you’d start noticing that every second ad on TV is also personal injury.  Yeah. Yeah. That’s true. That’s true. So let’s talk about frameworks because that’s what this podcast is about. Business blueprints or concepts that you have developed, you observed, something that helps you make sense or streamline the ideas that you deal with in your business. Anything that comes to mind, something that can be explained in three to five steps?  Yes. Well, I touched on it a little bit a minute ago, and we call it our Law Firm Success Formula. And the first part is attract, the second part is convert, and the third part is five-star operations. But I’ll spend a couple more minutes on it. So the attract piece is, first and foremost, you’ve got to have your website dialed in. You have to have a contemporary website. If your website’s more than five years old, it just sends a subtle, even subconscious message to folks that you’re not current, and the design times change over time.  And also, Google’s functionality is going to change, or the functionality of your website, as it’s friendly to Google, particularly your mobile website, if it’s five years old, is not going to be the current best practice. And Google’s going to come and test your mobile website, and they’re going to send negative ratings back to the algorithm, and you’re going to show up less in the searches. Equally important is your Google Business Profile. And that’s your Google Maps address. And that has to be up-to-date and optimized and constantly updated with new content and blogs and videos and information and photos from your location because I always say that you don’t own your Google Maps, you lease it from Google, but it’s a second and very powerful web presence that a firm can have.  So we do a lot of work on the websites, on the Google Maps, and there’s a whole SEO protocol around local SEO that surrounds the Google Maps listing and how you’re listed on your website and how you’re linked to by local businesses and the Chamber of Commerce and business associations and bar associations. And then the next piece is getting your message out there and optimizing for the AI. And so the AI today that’s important in my part of the business is the SEO AI, or a lot of us are calling it AEO, answer engine optimization. So a lot of the work we’re doing with our clients is answering questions on video, and those videos go on YouTube, and then we also use the video on a blog on the website.  And you can use those videos throughout the internet, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. Very importantly, add a video to your Google Maps every week. So we generally shoot a series of at least a dozen videos with the client every quarter and have them answer questions. Because again, when you’re asking questions of Google or ChatGPT or Claude, “Who’s the best car accident attorney if I was hit in an Uber?” So we literally answer that question, and the attorney will say, “One of the things I’m getting asked all the time now is, who’s the best car accident attorney if I’m hit in an Uber? Do I need a car accident attorney?” And they’ll go on to answer that question, but literally, we put the question in the video.  The question goes on their blog, goes on their website, goes on their Facebook, their Twitter. So it’s a very effective strategy to target the AEO, or the answer engine optimization. And by the way, there’s a couple other pieces that are very important to come up in the AI. So number one is answering questions. Number two is becoming an expert, so getting written up in journals and your bar association, your Chamber of Commerce, whatever industry you’re in, getting on Wikipedias and things like that, and answering questions on Reddit and Quora, which are the answer engine websites. And then the final piece is some technical stuff you can do on your website, as simple as adding frequently asked questions. Most people only have five FAQs on their website. You should have 50 or 100 today in this world of answer engine optimization.  So the first piece in our formula is attracting traffic to the website and getting the brand right. And then the second piece is conversion. And I mentioned things like answering the phone. Super critical today that you answer the phone. And I know that sounds obvious, but Google’s actually tracking how long it takes you to answer the phone when someone clicks off a Google ad or a Google Maps listing. And if it takes more than 15 seconds and three rings, Google’s going to, again, downgrade you for future listings. And it’s not nefarious. There’s nothing negative. It’s just like when people use Google, Google wants them to have a successful experience.  Yeah.  So if they’re looking for a car accident lawyer or a shoe repair or a pizza, if you don’t answer the phone quickly, the next time, they’re going to put you down a little bit lower in the listings. So conversion is a multifaceted program that we help our clients with: answering the phone, answering the phone with empathy, answering the phone with a professional who can handle the call, not somebody who’s a busy trial attorney or a busy paralegal, and they don’t even want to take calls. So you really need a professional who’s trained to convert those opportunities.  And then we’ve also built some software to optimize any missed calls, and we even have a software when people fill out a form on the website, it immediately sends a text to the intake team so you can call them back. Because we’ve all had that experience where you fill out the form on the website, and you wait five minutes, 10 minutes, an hour, a day. Well, by then, you forgot whose form you filled out, and you filled out a couple other forms on other law firms’ websites or other marketing agencies’ or consultants’ websites, right? So very important that we have the software that immediately texts the form information to the intake team.  They can call the person right back. And then the final piece, I talked about five-star operations, and we have several programs to help our clients get more Google reviews and get more referrals from their existing clients and their referral partners. And one of the subtle things that a lot of people don’t do, and this is the easiest, most cost-effective marketing piece, is just sending out a monthly newsletter.  I mean, every business and every law firm and every marketing agency has to have a monthly newsletter. It’s very inexpensive. You can use Mailchimp or Constant Contact and send out some valuable information, some of your community activities, if you’re speaking at the Chamber of Commerce or your bar association, or I’m speaking at an industry conference. And every time I send out a newsletter, I get two or three calls. “Oh, Jay, I was meaning to call you. We want to redo our website.” Or, “Jay, would you be on my podcast?” Thank you for that, Steve. And just being top of mind increases your business opportunities, those referrals. So there’s a number of those programs that we do to help our clients get more five-star Google reviews and more high-value referrals.  That’s fantastic. You’re really very systematic about it. I mean, this is a huge framework, so I don’t know if we can promote it. It’s not going to be easy to promote all parts of it. But I really like the AEO optimization element: answering questions, becoming an expert on Wikipedia, Reddit, Quora, and the FAQs. Is there anything else there in this AEO optimization that may be important?  Well, the first part about answering questions, I can give you a couple clues there. One of the areas to get questions is to monitor the questions you take on a regular basis. And we use an AI called Fathom that records all my phone calls. And it creates a transcript, and I asked another AI, like a Claude or one of the AIs, to read all 200 most recent sales calls and transcribe all of the questions that I answered more than once. And there were several questions that I answered 20, 30 times and several that I answered two, three, four times.  It came up with 269 questions that I get asked on a regular basis on my sales calls, and now we’re systematically answering those questions on videos and blogs and content on our website because we know those are the questions that we get asked on a frequent basis by people who are interested in our products and services. So if you can find the true questions that you’re asked, I often joke that Margaret, the receptionist, you should give her a little clipboard beside her desk, and every question that comes in through the intake department, you want her to write it down and then hand that off to your marketing department and write a blog post.  Because literally, the questions that people are asking about car accidents or divorces or consulting services or marketing blueprints, those are the questions that people are asking Google, ChatGPT, and Claude. So if you proactively collect and answer the questions, that’s very powerful. And then in the expertise area, things you can do like getting in Wikipedia's, which is hard to get. You really have to be a known public figure today to get approved for a Wikipedia. But Grok has its own Grokipedia, and there’s several other pedias out there. Just making sure that you’re properly listed in all of your industry association listings and your local business associations.  When you just take a look at who’s linking to your competitors, you’re going to find a list of 200 websites that link to and list your competitors, and you can get listed in all those places, in most of those places, because there’s multiple chambers of commerce and business associations and bar associations in every region. And that’s true for every business, not just for lawyers. And then the final piece about the five-star operations, the simplest insight there is if you want lots of five-star reviews, you have to run a five-star business. You have to think of yourself like a five-star hotel.  And when you show up at The Ritz or The Four Seasons, which I’m lucky enough to do a couple times a year because I go to lawyer conferences, and those guys don’t fool around. Even as you pull up, they’re like, “Oh, welcome, Mr. Berkowitz.” I’m like, “How do they know that?” Probably because I told them what type of car I was coming in. Or they’ll ask you, “Are you staying here?” And your name is Mr. Berkowitz. And then as soon as the person hands your bags off and they take you to reception, you’re Mr. Berkowitz for the rest of your stay. They know who you are.  They recognize the staff are trained to give you that high level of service. And then when you go over to the concierge, there’s someone whose whole job is to make your visit great and get you fantastic dinner reservations and nurture your whole relationship, get you theater tickets or concert tickets. So if you think of your business as a five-star operation from the first time they call to every conversation, they should know Mr. Berkowitz. They should be able to pull up your file. They should know what the status of your business relationship is or your legal case.  And in fact, we recommend the software I talked about earlier, so they’re proactively sending you updates on your case. You don’t even have to call in. And the number one bar complaint is, “My lawyer doesn’t answer the phone and doesn’t give me updates on the status of my case.” And I think that’s true for every business. So if you’re proactively sending out updates and information to your clients, they’re proactively happy as opposed to reactively trying to chase you down.  Basically, you cannot fake being a good business. You have to be a good business. But it’s good to be reminded of what it takes to be a five-star service-oriented.  Yeah, you’re right. Yeah. Five years ago, you could fake it. Today, you can’t fake it. The Google reviews are omnipresent, and I think in 70 or 80% of businesses. I saw a data point the other day, people look at Google reviews before they work with a company.  Yeah. That is true. That is true. Well, thanks for reminding me. So what drives growth in your marketing agency business?  I think there’s three big chunks of business opportunities for us. The first one, and the best one for everybody, is always referrals. And so I do a lot of hard work to nurture my referral base. As a matter of fact, I’ve even created my own sort of networking group, if you will, of other people who call on the same types of businesses that I do. And I make sure that I reach out to them and have a quick Zoom call. I met with two of them this morning on just a half-hour Zoom call, finding out what’s up in their life, what type of referrals they’re looking for, and asking how I can give, and giving as many referrals as I get.  So building those relationships, we call it know, like, and trust in networking. And constantly building those relationships and then spending time with them at the industry conferences to really put a focus that I think I made a mistake and I ignored that up until the last four or five years. And now I spend more time at a conference on the trade show floor with the other vendors as I do trying to meet the attorneys, because if you build a relationship with a vendor who has 200 clients, you can get 200 referrals. If you build a relationship with a one-off prospect, you can get one.  Maybe he’ll refer you to someone he does business with. But really building those relationships, those referral relationships, has been fruitful for me. And then the second piece is those trade shows. And there’s an expression we use in my mastermind, which is, “Stage time is money time.” And if you can become an expert and develop a book and a presentation and get featured at your industry conference, that’s the best way to attend those conferences. And if you haven’t spoken on stage at your industry conference, I highly recommend it.  There’s about 10 benefits that you don’t even know about, that people reach out to you beforehand, even before the conference, to book you on their podcast or book a meeting with you or introduce you to someone. At the conference itself, there’s often a green room, which is a private area where you can do some business, where the other speakers are, and often the media is also in the green room. So you’ve got access to some of the most influential influencers at the conference itself. And then obviously, after you’re on stage, everyone wants to be your best friend if you do a good job, if your presentation is high value.  Yeah.  So that’s one of the best conference hacks. And then we try and do everything to optimize having a booth and having a presence at the conference or whatever we’re doing there. We often host a party or a dinner as well. And a lot of times, we do that with our vendor friends that I talked about earlier. And it really gives you a chance to stand out at the conference itself.  And then the third piece is marketing. We’ve been very fortunate and successful. We started a webinar series six years ago, and every month for six years, without fail, we’ve done a webinar. SEO for lawyers, pay-per-click for lawyers, social media for lawyers, video for lawyers, and then branching out into things like EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System. We do an annual business planning webinar. And thankfully, about two years ago, February, one of those videos took off on YouTube.  Something in the algorithm, it just loved it, and people were watching a long time on this video, and they were watching other videos after they watched this video. And I used to be so proud because I had 2,000 or 3,000 people who watched my webinars, and this one started going to 20,000, 30,000. Today, I believe it’s been viewed 95,000 times. It’s called the Top 10 Hottest Technology Tips for Attorneys, and that one seemed to pull the whole channel with it. So now, on a regular basis, we’ll get 50,000 or 60,000 views each month, and our overall channel’s up to 1,300,000 or 1,400,000 views on YouTube.  So creating high-value content has been a great sort of foundation for us, and then we’ll also market that in several different ways. We send emails: “Hey, please come to our monthly live-streaming event. We’ve got a great panel. We’re going to teach you all about the latest technologies in AI for lawyers.” And then those panel partners will promote the event as well. And then we send the emails in advance to the webinar. We post on our LinkedIn, my personal LinkedIn, company Facebook, Jay’s Facebook, Twitter, company Twitter.  And then after, “Hey, a lot of people said they missed the webinar. They couldn’t get the link to work. Here’s a replay of the webinar.” And then we take snippets from the webinar and put it in our social media. So that and a weekly podcast has been very, very powerful inbound marketing and thought leadership marketing for the firm.  Love it. That’s really cool. You’ve got some good processes, and thanks for sharing. This is interesting, the 10 technology tips. And it’s got a good title for sure, and I’m sure that it’s a good niche as well, and well done doing this. So no business is perfect, of course. What is something that you’re actively trying to figure out in your business?  Well, I’ve been spectacularly unsuccessful at hiring salespeople. And a number of my friends in my mastermind say the best day of their life is when they hire a salesperson who can sell better than them. We have a great sales process, and we have a great sales team, but I haven’t yet found the person who’s a little bit more effective in nurturing and closing the sales. So I definitely have some work to do still in building a sales team.  Yeah. I mean, you’re two times Inc. 5000, so you must be growing fast. And in fact, I saw that you doubled the number of employees in the last couple of years. How do you make sure that the leadership is growing with the number of employees? How are you growing your leaders?  Well, Steve, thank you, because that’s one of my favorite topics. And we’re big proponents of EOS, the Entrepreneurial Operating System, and the book Traction. And by the way, my hot tip to anyone who’s hearing this and is a business owner: don’t read the book Traction first. Read this book, Get a Grip. Because Get a Grip tells you the story of Traction, but it’s told as a story. And if you’re the founder, what EOS calls a visionary, Traction’s more like an operations manual, and that’s for your COO, your chief operating officer. So read Get a Grip, and then we got started three or four years ago self-implementing EOS.  Yeah.  And two and a half years ago, we hired an implementer and did a full-scale EOS, Entrepreneurial Operating System, integration into our business. And that was when we were around 10 or 12 people. And when you’re a small business, five, six, seven employees, all of them can report to the CEO, and we had very hands-on training. And as the business grew and we got to 10 or 12, that’s where you’re supposed to develop leadership specialties.  And obviously, 12 people can’t report to you, and you’re getting busier in sales and marketing and speaking and flying all over the place. So as we built this EOS leadership team, it’s been a real fantastic awakening for me because now there’s people who are very, very competent at what they do. They’re leading each of our departments, and I don’t have to sit in all the seats anymore. I found people who are better than me, smarter than me at what they do to lead each of those teams.  That’s pretty cool. That’s pretty cool. So if someone is running a law firm out there and listening to all that advice and they’d like to learn more, where should they go and where can they connect with you?  Well, the easiest thing is to go to tengoldenrules.com, or I’m Jay Berkowitz on most of the social media because when a new social media comes out, I always grab the name Jay Berkowitz. And probably much to the chagrin of a couple guys who are probably more important than me, Professor Jay Berkowitz and Chiropractor Jay Berkowitz. And if you guys are hearing this, I’m sorry, Dr. Jay Berkowitz, but I’ve got the Twitter and the Facebook and the LinkedIn handle.  Yeah. That’s pretty cool. Actually, I was wondering because this podcast has been running for six years, and I had the recollection that I had a Jay Berkowitz on this show four or five years ago, and I had to make sure that it wasn’t you. So it’s funny that you mentioned this. Yeah. That’s awesome. So this is pretty impressive, not just as a law firm or a law firm owner, but anyone.  I mean, these ideas that, Jay, you shared with us—how to attract people on your website, how to leverage AI and become an expert and create those FAQs and harvest them from your sales conversations, and then how you build a five-star operation so that you actually retain those clients and get them to refer and give you testimonials—that’s very, very valuable stuff. So I recommend all of you to look into implementing some of this stuff or reach out to Jay at one of the Jay Berkowitz handles or on the Ten Golden Rules website.  So, Jay, thank you for coming and sharing your ideas and experiences and frameworks, particularly frameworks. And if you enjoyed listening, then stay tuned because every week I bring a couple of amazing entrepreneurs to this show. So thanks, Jay, for coming, and thank you for listening.  You’re welcome, Steve. Thanks for having me.  Thank you. Important Links: Jay's LinkedIn Jay's website

What happens when a newsletter creator sees a gap in the media landscape — and decides to fill it herself? In this episode of Send & Grow, Hunter sits down with Kim Nunley, founder of 30 Second Timeout, a daily women's basketball newsletter that helps fans keep up with the biggest stories in under three minutes. Kim talks about building a media business around her passion for women's basketball, growing an audience across social media and email, and why she decided to take things one step further with the Post Up Club (https://thepostupclub.com/)— a monthly snail mail membership where fans receive personal letters, basketball stories, and physical surprises in their mailbox. Subscribe to Send & Grow 2.0 for more conversations with the people building, growing, and powering the newsletter industry. 

WATCH THE KEYNOTE BREAKDOWN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M5GgsisFUc&t=385sIn his new keynote opener, Robert Rose has a few golden threads worth pulling. In this interview, we watch a recent performance and pull those threads, stitching a new structure for this opener to really connect. (Hint: it's all about the bookends!)Plus, the worst we've ever bombed, favorite interactions with AV teams, and what we say to ourselves right before hitting the stage.Learn more about Robert, and his speaking, books, and services, at https://robertrose.net/Follow him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robrose/ *KEEP LEARNING:

A simple automated email sequence is one of the highest return marketing assets that your MSP can build… here's how to get started. Also this week, how to get your whole team involved in marketing, and how to arrange a party for 3,000 MSPs. Welcome to Episode 358 of the MSP Marketing Podcast with me, Paul Green, powered by the MSP Marketing Edge. The one email sequence every MSP should have running Most MSPs never use this, which even though it's an oldie, is still completely valid in 2026. It's an automated email sequence which warms up a prospect who has joined your CRM. And the beauty of it is that you set it up once and then you forget about it and it's going to work for you for years and years to come. There are still far too many MSPs who connect with someone on LinkedIn or hand over a business card at a networking event or someone comes and downloads something from their website and that's it. That person kind of disappears, maybe the MSP remembers them maybe they don't, and actually they're never contacted again. Today, I want to fix that because a simple automated email sequence is one of the highest return marketing assets that your MSP can build. And as I say, once it's set up, you don't really have to do anything. Let's talk about the one email sequence every MSP should have running. So we should start with looking at how people end up on your list in the first place and how if you don't have a list, you should have a list. Most MSPs underestimate the opportunity that having an email list presents. So of course, LinkedIn connections are a massive source of leads because when you connect with a business owner or manager on LinkedIn, then not only do you have a connection on that platform, but you have the ability to then go and harvest other information about them. I'm a big fan of taking your connections on LinkedIn, finding their email address. There's a number of different ways you can do that… you can either get it off LinkedIn or you can use a plugin like Lusher or something like that, or you can just go and Google it. There are only about seven or eight types of email address, paul@, paul.green@, pgreen@, p.green@, you get the idea, you go and brute force Google search those in speech marks and you will find that email address eventually. So all those LinkedIn connections, you can go and find their email address and not enough MSPs are gathering email addresses and adding them into a CRM. Are you using a CRM? Do you have a basic one set up? Please go and do that quickly, it's easy. Use MailerLite or MailChimp or if you're in The Tech Tribe, you've already got one, it's Growably, which is free as part of you're the Tech Tribe membership. Go HighLevel is another popular one. Another one is ActiveCampaign. The ultimate one is HubSpot, but you will be paying them in kidneys every month. HubSpot's really, really expensive. But the point is you can't rely just on LinkedIn or gathering business cards. You've got to have a CRM where you are gathering people's email addresses and you've got permission to email them. By the way, if you do take all of those email addresses or just business cards or any emails you gather from anywhere, as long as you're not doing this on mass and not just buying a bunch of data and shoving it in (that's bad) but if you're trickling in people you've met on LinkedIn or in real life, then what you do is you send them an email as soon as you put their email address in. You tell them what you've done, you say, “Hey, we just connected on LinkedIn, I hope you don't mind but I found your email address and I've put it into my database. I'm going to send you one email a week about growing your business with technology. If you really don't want that, there's an unsubscribe button at the bottom.” And like 8 out of 10 people will not un...

Indi Tatla, John Toon and Ryan Pearcy are on the show together for the first time in months, and this week the AI conversation finally gets a bit more nuanced. Airwallex has launched T:0, an AI accounting platform for US startups that builds the chart of accounts as the business grows and reports burn and runway in real time. John Toon sees apps creeping into each other's patch. Ryan Pearcy thinks everyone's going after everything because it's so easy to build now, and it'll be the Wild West until the ones that work win on word of mouth. Aynsley Damery's Alldone claims a full set of UK limited company accounts in an hour or less, with the numbers calculated from the legislation and AI kept to the wording and mappings. Indi Tatla likes the cold review challenge. John Toon isn't convinced by a demo built on a perfect client, and Ryan Pearcy can't see small firms running two systems. Then John Toon's own OneSixth, which handles VAT margin schemes and partial exemption and posts the journals back to the ledger, is out in beta. AuditBot has launched AccountsBot, which reviews financial statements against a disclosure checklist from HAT Group. John Toon tried building the same thing with ChatGPT and couldn't get it past 80 per cent reliable. Intuit and Perplexity have connected QuickBooks and Mailchimp to Perplexity for US users, and John Toon wonders why they didn't make more of Perplexity's sourcing. Bill Gates picks accountancy as his example of a job AI will replace, which leads to the big question of the episode: if trainees skip the basic prep, how do they learn to check the bot's work? Ryan Pearcy brings in Michael Gould, co-founder of Anaplan, on swapping the spreadsheet nobody dared touch for an AI engine nobody can explain. John Toon doesn't think ticking boxes ever taught anyone much, and makes his case with a car analogy that even Indi Tatla likes. Also covered: a Startup Coalition report on the 11.2 million hours UK businesses spend each year proving who they are, and whether BizPass is digital ID by another name. And Joiin's new forecasting, with full three-way integration and the group consolidation John Toon is most excited about. 00:00 Intro 02:18 Advancetrack 02:56 Airwallex launches T:0 for US startups 07:56 Alldone: a full set of accounts in an hour 14:45 OneSixth: VAT margin schemes and partial exemption 21:09 AuditBot launches AccountsBot for disclosure checklists 23:49 Intuit and QuickBooks connect to Perplexity 27:11 Bill Gates on AI and accountancy: who trains the juniors? 30:00 Michael Gould on AI in finance and the spreadsheet problem 38:55 Startup Coalition: 11.2 million hours proving who you are 47:14 Joiin launches three-way forecasting 54:20 Outro

In this candid episode of the Wellness Pro Show, Cate Stillman sits down with Brenda Rigney — former COO of an $80M business turned company-of-one entrepreneur, founder of SKOOL Scale Camp, and one of the most successful summit hosts on the SKOOL platform — for a deep-dive conversation on how to build a genuinely location-independent business without losing revenue or engagement. Brenda walked away from a corporate role trending toward a $500K solo business to intentionally rebuild everything around a different question: What if my business revolved around my life instead of my life revolving around my business? The answer became SKOOL Scale Camp — a freemium community that has grown to over 13,000 members across two brands, generates $55K summits in 2 months, and runs entirely from wherever Brenda happens to be in the world (currently Northern France, previously Spain, next stop London). Cate mirrors the parallel arc from her own 25-year online business journey — from HD Conference calls in 2001, through the launch of her own summit in 2015, to running Yogahealer, Club Thrive, and Wellness Pro Academy on SKOOL today. Together, they unpack what has genuinely shifted for wellness pros and online entrepreneurs, and where the leverage now lives. Together, Cate and Brenda explore: The Summit-as-Traffic-Engine: How Brenda's June 2025 launch summit brought 950 people into her community — and how her October and November summits collectively brought in 9,000 members and $55K in revenue Why SKOOL Won This Round: The specific engineering choices, funding, and forum-first UX that make SKOOL the current gold standard for community engagement — and why underfunded LMS platforms quietly decay over time The Three Revenue Streams of a Freemium Community: Sponsored speaker slots ($150-$575), premium/VIP membership tiers, and standalone high-ticket coaching packages — and how they compound without adding complexity The 60% VIP Discount Play: How Brenda structured monthly premium at $49 vs. annual VIP with 60% savings — and why the math still works even when accounting for monthly churn Onboarding Over Courses: Why creating more content is the biggest waste of time for community owners in the age of AI — and what to build instead (challenges, leaderboard gamification, live sessions turned into micro-courses) The Leaderboard as Conversion Signal: How gamification isn't about competition — it's a diagnostic for identifying which members are actually ready to buy Free vs. Paid Community Design: Why giving away too much for free is the #1 reason freemium models fail — and the "2% of the cake" rule for what to put in free vs. paid tiers The AI + One Human Team: Brenda's actual team stack — one longtime creative director (10-15 hours a month for integration work) plus a Claude-powered content team, growth strategist, and AI-first workflows Why Small Doesn't Mean Slow: How a $9 offer sold to a warm community of 13,000 can generate $5,000 in a single day — and why volume is now a viable path alongside high-ticket for the right personality The Speaker Recruitment Framework: How Brenda gets 75+ speakers per summit by starting with 1-2 anchor speakers and letting the network snowball — plus her "must reach Level 5 in the community" contingency This episode is a practical, honest look at what actually works for solo wellness pros, coaches, and mid-career women entrepreneurs building sustainable businesses in the era of AI and community platforms — without burning out chasing scale. Notable Quote: "It used to be like, when I do a summit, I have to be at home with all my stuff — camera, lights, all this. Now I'm like, why am I here? I could be in Paris running a summit. I could be in London running a summit. That's where this whole business model came for me. Not from scarcity — from abundance. I want my business to revolve around my life." Connect with Brenda Rigney: Website: brendarigney.com Community: SKOOL Scale Camp (free to join on SKOOL) Connect with Cate Stillman: Website: wellnesspro.academy Podcast: Wellness Pro Show Books: Body Thrive, Master of You, Primal Habits, Uninflamed Referenced in this episode: SKOOL (community platform) Sam Ovens (SKOOL founder) Alex Hormozi (referenced) Claude AI (Brenda's primary AI content team) MailChimp, Stripe integrations Meta Ads for summit promotion If you're a wellness pro, coach, or mid-career entrepreneur wondering whether it's actually possible to build a real business that funds a location-independent life, this conversation is a working example — from two women who've done it, at different scales, with completely different offer stacks.

What actually determines whether your newsletter reaches the inbox or quietly disappears into spam?In this episode of Send & Grow 2.0, Hunter Kallay sits down with LB Blair, an email business and technology expert who has worked with some of the world's biggest email senders.LB breaks down the often-misunderstood world of email deliverability, from sender reputation and list hygiene to infrastructure, authentication, traffic patterns, and the spam filters deciding whether your email gets through.They also talk about some of the worst deliverability advice floating around online, why open rates don't tell the whole story, how AI is changing the spam ecosystem, and what newsletter operators can actually do to protect their lists.If you send email, deliverability isn't something you can afford to ignore.Subscribe to Send & Grow 2.0 for more conversations with the people building, growing, and powering the newsletter industry.

What if the tool you've been waiting for, the one that finally makes Xero as efficient as QuickBooks with Right Tool, already exists, and it's being built by a former bookkeeper who accidentally fell into coding? In this episode, Serena sits down with Mark Corum, the developer behind X2Uno and Right Tool, to talk about building Chrome extensions for accounting software, the surprising parallels between bookkeeping and programming, and why the tech world's pricing model might be completely backwards. Whether you're a Xero loyalist, a QuickBooks refugee, or just curious about what happens when an accountant teaches themselves to code, then this conversation has something for you.In this episode you'll hear about:X2Uno - What it is, how it differs from Right Tool, and why Mark felt a moral obligation to build something for Xero usersRight Tool & MonkbeeHow Chrome extensions actually workXero vs. QuickBooksThe cost of switching platformsAI and the future of accountingProgramming, bookkeeping, and musicCleanup work as a nicheX2Uno availability — How to get it now (free beta on the Chrome Web Store), the MailChimp discount path, and the Facebook community for feature requestsResources mentioned in this episode:X2Uno → sign up for beta her: https://mailchi.mp/x2uno/ambitiousMeet Mark CorumI am Mark Corum. I went to college for accounting and decided to make my own bookkeeping company in my Junior year. Realized I like accounting, but I am not an accountant and transitioned out of it and stumbled into programming in late 2019 - vowing never to touch QuickBooks again.2021 comes around and I am working on a chrome extension for QuickBooks called "MonkBe" that is discovered by Hector Garcia and remade into RightTool. Now that is used by about 50,000 people and I want the additional fun of working on Xero!Connect with MarkLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markcorum/Thanks for listening. If this episode inspired you in some way, take a screenshot of you listening on your device and post it to your Instagram stories and tag me @ambitiousbookkeeperFor more information about the Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast or interest in our programs or mentoring visit our resources below:Visit our website: https://www.ambitiousbookkeeper.comFollow the Blog: https://www.ambitiousbookkeeper.com/blogConnect on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ambitiousbookkeeperConnect on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ambitiousbookkeeperConnect on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/serenashoupcpaThank you for your support of our show. If you haven't left a review yet it's super simple. Please go to ambitiousbookkeeper.com/podcast and leave your review.Podcast Publishing Tools we use:Editing → Sabr Media LLC: https://www.iangilliam.com/sabr-media-llcDescript: https://get.descript.com/u7lubkx09073 (affiliate link)Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1753696 (affiliate link)

To Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupMost ecommerce brands are paying for every contact in the database, including the tens of thousands they have not mailed in a year. Then they mail them anyway, because they are paying for them. Channing Ferrer argues both halves of that are costing you money, and he has his own company's data to back the second half.Brevo studied its customer base and found the brands sending the least email posted the highest conversion and click-through rates. The heaviest senders were worse on conversion, worse on click-through and worse on opens. Brevo bills by the message sent, so telling customers to send less costs them revenue. They say it anyway.For a retention lead, a lifecycle marketer, or a founder still building the sends themselves, this is a conversation about where the money actually goes in a retention program. Channing spent six years at HubSpot running sales strategy through the run from $200 million to $1.5 billion in revenue, then ran sales at Semrush and led Brandwatch back to growth.Discover More: https://www.brevo.com/solutions/enterprise/?utm_medium=partnership&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=podcast&utm_term=enterprise&utm_content=dtc-podcast-0926 What you get in 38 minutes:What changes when you stop paying for stored contacts and start paying for messages sentThe mobile wallet as a retention channel, including how a loyalty card gets pushed a new offer and changes appearance on the lock screenSalomon's use of a wallet pass, and how the same mechanic works for a brand with no physical storesWhat Channing puts on a dashboard for a $20M ecommerce brand, and why send volume belongs near the bottom of itHow Brevo customers run campaigns through Claude and ChatGPT over an MCP connection without opening Brevo at allThe three ways a customer outgrows a pricing tier, and how Brevo handles each oneWhy loyalty points should reward a social post and not only a repeat purchaseWho this is for: retention leads, ecommerce founders, lifecycle marketers, and anyone weighing a move off Klaviyo or Mailchimp.What to steal: pull volume off your primary dashboard and replace it with open rate, click-through rate, bounce rate and revenue per send. Then look at what your platform charges you for and ask whether it is charging for the list or for the work.Timestamps:00:00 Why personalized messaging converts better05:00 How Brevo is using AI agents07:00 Turning mobile wallets into a loyalty channel14:00 Why sending fewer emails can drive better results25:00 Building loyalty through customer advocacySubscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signupAdvertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertiseWork with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouseFollow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletterWatch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

There's a big difference between asking for audience engagement and ensuring a crowd feels engaged. The first usually annoys people, but the second is mandatory to succeed as a speaker.In this episode, I analyze one of the most engaging keynote openers I've had the pleasure of watching in awhile. It brings people on a short journey, removes objections from their minds, and takes them outside their jobs just long enough to ensure they're open to something really confronting which challenges the conventional wisdom of how to achieve greater influence.The opener is from Chloé Nwangwu, aka the Brand Scientist. Chloé was gracious enough to perform her opener live for us, after which we break it down, celebrate what works, and tweak a few things to make it even better. WATCH THE KEYNOTE BREAKDOWN:https://youtu.be/yz9KWgjwTSQLearn more about Chloé at https://www.nobiworks.com/ and follow her at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nwangwu/*KEEP LEARNING:

In this candid Wellness Pro Hotline episode, Cate Stillman sits down with Ally Watters — Wellness Pro Academy member, longtime bodyworker, and founder of Thrive Mode — for a real-time coaching session on the two hardest transitions most wellness pros face: migrating platforms and repositioning their business identity. Ally has been running her coaching offer on Hey Marvelous for years alongside a busy bodywork practice, weekly Thursday group calls, and email campaigns in MailChimp. The engagement she wants is there in her live sessions, but not in the forum — because her current platform simply doesn't foster it. As she considers migrating to SKOOL, she's also facing a bigger identity shift: moving from "bodyworker who coaches on the side" to "coach who does bodywork on the side." Cate walks her through both moves in real time — including how to migrate without rebuilding everything, why community engagement is the true multiplier of member success, and how to reposition existing clients into the new structure without losing them. Together, Cate and Ally explore: Why "Personal Netflix" platforms are quietly dying: The war for attention is now a battle between well-funded platforms, and if your LMS isn't investing in engagement features, you're losing every day you stay on it Rip Off the Bandaid Migration: Why waiting until "next season" to migrate is often a mistake — and how to move the 20% of content that actually matters instead of trying to port your entire library Why SKOOL Beats Facebook Groups and Hey Marvelous: The specific engineering choices (DMs, leaderboards, forum-first UX) that make SKOOL the current gold standard for wellness club engagement Community Is the Health Intervention: Why habit change requires other people also standing in the kitchen struggling — and why lone-wolf clients almost always regress The 20-Member Business Model: How Cate reframes Ally's mental math from "I need 300 customers" to "I need 20 members" — and how that changes every tech decision Manual Beats Fancy at Small Scale: Why enrolling 20 members a year doesn't require Zapier automations, complex funnels, or expensive integrations — a 10-minute onboarding checklist works better Repositioning as Service: How to move existing bodywork clients into your coaching container without them feeling upsold — by anchoring the change in their desired results, not your business needs The Daily 10-Minute Club Habit: What Cate does (and should do more of) inside SKOOL each day to keep engagement compounding — including shoutouts, message replies, and polls Gaming the Behavior You Want: Incentives like "$10 at Whole Foods" or "an ace in your back pocket for a 20-minute critical issue call" as low-cost ways to shift member behavior into the new platform This episode is a working example of what a Wellness Pro Hotline session looks like — no theory, no fluff, just direct coaching on the exact obstacles wellness pros hit as they scale from transactional to transformational. Notable Quote: "Some people are self-employed. There's a lifestyle cost that goes with that. Part of it for us is we have so much agency, we have so many choices, that it's easy to get caught up. But rarely do we have 300 customers. We usually have 20 to 35. So it doesn't need to be that fancy." Connect with Ally Watters: Thrive Mode Coaching Program Wellness Pro Academy Member Connect with Cate Stillman: Website: wellnesspro.academy Podcast: Wellness Pro Show + Wellness Pro Hotline Books: Body Thrive, Master of You, Primal Habits, Uninflamed Referenced in this episode: SKOOL (community platform) Hey Marvelous (legacy LMS) MailChimp + Stripe integrations Alex Hormozi teachings If you're a wellness pro considering a platform migration, repositioning your business, or wondering whether community engagement is really worth the effort — this real-time coaching session is your working example.

It's a metaphor, calm down. But this is the missing link between someone with expertise and ideas, and someone who actually develops, owns, and grows a business around an ownable, bookable idea.EPISODE CREDITS:This episode sponsored by Wistia.Hosted and produced by me, Jay Acunzo.Music from Embleton.***CONNECT WITH ME:Subscribe to my newsletter to turn inspiration into action.Subscribe to my YouTube channel for regular insights into idea development, signature talk development, and growing a speaking business.Follow me on LinkedIn for random rants and routinely re-thinking how we build our businesses.***ABOUT ME, JAY ACUNZOI'm a public speaking and storytelling advisor trusted by bestselling authors, TED speakers, seven-figure coaches, and brands like Mailchimp, Wistia, and Salesforce. Before starting my advisory firm (where I work 1:1 with clients and run group programs), I was a digital media strategist at Google and head of content for 3 organizations, including HubSpot.I've given keynotes across the US and several other countries to marketers and managers, designers and dentists, leaders and landscapers, and my journey as a speaker has been featured in 3 different books.Today, I teach business leaders how to communicate with greater clarity, influence, and resonance.Learn more about my advisory work at jayacunzo.comBook me to speak at jayacunzo.com/keynotesWatch video versions of some episodes, plus get regular insights into stronger public speaking and growing a speaking business, at youtube.com/jayacunzo***IF YOU ENJOY THE SHOW:Leave a review on Apple Podcasts Leave a rating on Spotify Thanks for your support! Keep making what matters.

The meeting focused on the importance of communication in real estate, with @SteveSellsAustin sharing insights from his 20 years of experience as a broker and agent in Austin. He emphasized proactive, relevant, and consistent communication with clients, other agents, and within one's own business, highlighting the value of weekly updates, goal setting, and building long-term relationships. @SteveSellsAustin discussed strategies for staying top of mind with clients, such as using email marketing tools like Constant Contact and Mailchimp, and leveraging social media and local Facebook groups. He also stressed the importance of authenticity, transparency, and honesty in client interactions, and encouraged new agents like Samuel to utilize their unique backgrounds and networks to build trust and credibility. The conversation included practical tips for winning listings, managing client expectations, and differentiating oneself in the market, as well as the use of creative marketing tools like magnetic poker chip business cards. The session ended with an open invitation for questions and an offer to share resources and support among the participants.

In this episode of The Canadian Investor Podcast, we break down the latest earnings from major U.S. retailers, Canadian banks, and one beaten-down software company. We start with Walmart and Target, where the results show that the consumer may be starting to feel more pressure. Walmart continues to perform well overall, but its comparable sales growth slowed sharply, and management noted that higher gas prices are changing consumer behaviour. Target showed stronger comparable sales than expected, but both retailers are leaning on price cuts and grocery strength as discretionary spending remains under pressure. We then turn to Canadian bank earnings, including Bank of Montreal, Scotiabank and National Bank. We discuss provisions for credit losses, improving margins, strong capital markets results, wealth management growth, and why the banks continue to deliver despite concerns about the Canadian economy. Finally, we look at Intuit after its latest earnings, including the pressure facing TurboTax and Mailchimp, the continued strength of QuickBooks, and whether AI and pricing pressure are starting to disrupt parts of the business. Tickers discussed: WMT, TGT, BMO.TO, BNS.TO, NA.TO, INTU, HD Subscribe to Our New Youtube Channel! Check out our portfolio by going to Jointci.com Our Website Canadian Investor Podcast Network Twitter: @cdn_investing Simon’s twitter: @Fiat_Iceberg Braden’s twitter: @BradoCapital Dan’s Twitter: @stocktrades_ca Want to learn more about Real Estate Investing? Check out the Canadian Real Estate Investor Podcast! Apple Podcast - The Canadian Real Estate Investor Spotify - The Canadian Real Estate Investor Web player - The Canadian Real Estate Investor Asset Allocation ETFs | BMO Global Asset Management Sign up for Fiscal.ai for free to get easy access to global stock coverage and powerful AI investing tools. Register for EQ Bank, the seamless digital banking experience with better rates and no nonsense.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does it actually take to build and run a successful newsletter business? In this episode of Send & Grow 2.0, Hunter Kallay sits down with Jakub Chodounský, who runs four curated newsletters, to talk about the realities of building a newsletter business—from keeping content fresh and managing a relentless publishing schedule to finding ways to step away without everything falling apart. #Newsletter #NewsletterBusiness #EmailMarketing #NewsletterGrowth #creatoreconomy They talk about the challenges of running time-sensitive newsletters, how Jakub approaches growth, what he's learned from building multiple publications, and what it really takes to keep a newsletter business going week after week. Follow Jakub's newsletters: C# Digest (https://csharpdigest.net/), React Digest (https://reactdigest.net/), Programming Digest (https://programmingdigest.net/) and Leadership in Tech (https://leadershipintech.com/) Hunter's newsletter: FryAI (https://www.fry-ai.com/) 

How much of your technology stack is being held together by people swiveling between screens, copying information, and quietly compensating for systems that cannot communicate? In this episode, I speak with John Foreman, Chief Product Officer at Clio, about what he calls the "swivel chair problem." John previously served as Chief Product Officer at Mailchimp and Podium, and now helps guide product development at a company seeking to support the complete operation of a law firm. We discuss why legal professionals have moved from understandable caution around AI toward increasingly sophisticated daily use. John explains why concerns about client confidentiality, intellectual property, model training, and data access initially slowed adoption, as well as why lawyers are now helping set the pace for responsible professional AI use. Our conversation also examines why disconnected technology stacks make AI appear far less capable. People can interpret information across documents, billing platforms, case management tools, email, and court systems. An AI system cannot perform the same work unless it receives the necessary context and access. John also explains why the familiar chatbot may be the wrong interface for many jobs. Some AI tasks should happen quietly, while work involving legal filings and client records requires structured review, accountability, and human approval. With lawyers spending an average of 62% of their time on nonbillable work, the immediate opportunity could include intake, billing, timekeeping, reviews, document processing, and filing. These lessons extend well beyond legal services. Where is the swivel chair problem hiding inside your organization? Listen to the conversation and share your thoughts with me.

Amanda Natividad joins the show to rework the opener of her keynote with Jay. It's extremely data-heavy and leads to a lot of "throat-clearing" by Amanda, which she notices rewatching it.Making things harder, she was introduced onto the stage in a strange way, presenting her with a tricky decision: acknowledge it or push ahead?Amanda is the author of the book, Zero Click Marketing: How to Build Brands and Earn Customers on a Traffic-Starved Web, which she coauthored with Rand Fishkin.WATCH THE KEYNOTE PUNCH-UP:https://youtu.be/cBRIKNYnFx4?is=X9SqqELKNjAOZwioLearn more about Amanda at https://zeroclickmarketing.co/ and follow her at https://linkedin.com/in/amandanat Watch the full keynote from MicroConf: https://linkedin.com/in/amandanat*KEEP LEARNING:

In this episode of Send & Grow 2.0, Hunter Kallay sits down with Dave Gerhardt, founder of Exit Five and former CMO at Drift, to talk about building a modern media and community business around B2B marketing. About Send & Grow: Send & Grow is a podcast about the people, strategies, and businesses behind today's most interesting newsletters. We talk to newsletter operators and creators about how they build audiences, create great content, and turn attention into sustainable businesses. Subscribe to Send & Grow for more conversations with the people shaping the newsletter industry.

This conversation blew my mind, and I found so much clarity talking my friend Jeremy Enns (founder of the Podcast Marketing Academy) as he helped rework my show's strategy so it better serves others and my business at the same time.You'll hear a BIG realization about 30 or so minutes into our chat, plus get an inside look at the strategy, my creative execution, and how the show connects to other content and my revenue-generating offerings.EPISODE CREDITS:Learn more about Jeremy Enns and the Podcast Marketing AcademyThis episode sponsored by Wistia.Hosted and produced by me, Jay Acunzo.Music from Embleton.***ABOUT ME, JAY ACUNZOI'm a public speaking and storytelling advisor trusted by bestselling authors, TED speakers, seven-figure coaches, and brands like Mailchimp, Wistia, and Salesforce. Before starting my advisory firm (where I work 1:1 with clients and run group programs), I was a digital media strategist at Google and head of content for 3 organizations, including HubSpot.I've given keynotes across the US and several other countries to marketers and managers, designers and dentists, leaders and landscapers, and my journey as a speaker has been featured in 3 different books.Today, I teach business leaders how to communicate with greater clarity, influence, and resonance.Learn more about my advisory work at jayacunzo.comBook me to speak at jayacunzo.com/keynotesWatch video versions of some episodes, plus get regular insights into stronger public speaking and growing a speaking business, at youtube.com/jayacunzo***IF YOU ENJOY THE SHOW:Leave a review on Apple Podcasts Leave a rating on Spotify Thanks for your support! Keep making what matters.

Claire Wolfson got her first dachshund at 20, became completely obsessed, and watched him get paralysed by the spinal condition that affects almost every sausage dog. The original plan was to design a supportive harness. That didn't work out. So her husband Chris drew a simple wiener dog silhouette, they slapped it on some beanies, and Bean Goods was born. That was 2011. Thirteen years, one capsule tee collection, two designers, and zero business education later - they're doing $140,000 to $150,000 a month. In this episode, Claire is refreshingly honest about what 13 years of slow, scrappy building actually looks like - the years of winging it on pricing and margins, the decade of running Instagram solo, the agency experiments that never paid off, and what finally shifted when she stopped doing it all alone. What you'll learn in this interview: How Bean Goods started with beanies, a logo, and no manufacturing experience - and why a capsule collection of 3 to 5 graphic tees in 2013 was the moment Claire knew it could be a real business Why starting on Instagram in 2012 - the year the platform launched - gave Bean Goods an early mover advantage in the dachshund community that still pays off today How Claire grew the brand's Instagram solo for nearly a decade with no social media strategy background, and what "consistency" actually looked like before it became a buzzword The pricing and margins reality of those early years: blanks at $3.50 to $8.50, one-colour screen prints, and absolutely no idea what a healthy margin looked like How they hit their first six-figure year around 2013 to 2014 using only organic Instagram and email marketing - and why MailChimp lasted for years before Klaviyo What eight years of just Claire and Chris doing everything actually cost them - and how getting their first intern in 2019 started to change the shape of the business The meta ads journey from 2017 onwards: a Facebook ads course built for service businesses, a short agency stint, and why she kept coming back to running them herself How Bean Goods went from inconsistent $68K to $80K months to consistently hitting $140K to $150K - and the specific ad account changes that drove it Why bundling is brand new territory for a 13-year-old brand - and what it says about how much room there still is to grow even when you think you know your business What it takes to build a team and a warehouse operation that can run for three weeks while you're in Europe - and why that, more than any revenue milestone, is the win Claire talks about most If you're building slowly and wondering whether the grind is ever going to compound into something real - Claire's story is the answer. Bean Goods didn't go viral. It didn't have a moment. It just kept going, kept learning, and kept showing up for a community of people who are, against all odds, extremely passionate about sausage dogs. SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend with the code FOUNDR50. Just head to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://your.omnisend.com/foundr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to get started. WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS? Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://foundr.com/operators⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+ Start your $1 trial → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING? → Starting from scratch? Apply here → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ → Already have a store? Apply here → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ CONNECT WITH BY CLAIRE WOLFSON Instagram →⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/beangoods/ LinkedIn → ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-wolfson-599b47a/ Website → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://beangoods.com/ FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES YouTube → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Website → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.foundr.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/foundr/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/foundr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.twitter.com/foundr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Podcast → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.foundr.com/podcast⁠

You know the drill: two hours into fighting with an email template, the fonts still don't match your brand, and you're one broken column away from just hitting send on something that looks... fine. What if that email actually took ten minutes and looked like you hired a designer? Jan just spent real time inside Flodesk's brand-new AI design tool, Flodesk Studio, and she's back with the unfiltered rundown — what it nails, where it's still buggy, and whether it deserves a spot in your owned-media toolkit.What You'll LearnWhy a generic-looking email is a missed branding opportunity, not just a minor annoyanceHow Flodesk Studio builds emails around your actual colors, fonts, and voice instead of generating something off a promptThe one prompt trick that makes the AI copywriter sound like you, not like AIWhere the beta still has bugs (and what to check before you move your whole workflow over)Whether you need a full Flodesk account to use it — and how to export it elsewhere if you don'tEpisode Highlights[00:04] Why the email you've been wrestling with for two hours could take ten minutes instead [01:23] The owned-media reminder: your email list is the most personal real estate you have — you're landing in someone's inbox next to messages from actual people [02:50] What Flodesk Studio actually is, and why it matters that it's currently free, beta access [03:49] The key difference from other AI tools: every layout starts with work from real human designers, not a prompt-generated template [05:29] You don't need a Flodesk email account to use Studio — design it there, export the HTML, and drop it into Mailchimp, Kit, Beehiiv, or wherever your list already lives [06:46] Walkthrough of setup: brand colors, font mapping, and how it guides you even if your branding isn't dialed in yet [08:12] The favorite tip of the episode: ask your AI platform of choice for a short brand voice summary first, then feed that straight into Studio [10:55] Why the AI copywriter's first draft didn't need the usual heavy rework AI drafts normally require [12:44] Sending the finished email — straight through Flodesk, or downloaded as HTML for another platform [13:39] The honest bugs: a font that shifted on delivery, no click-based tagging inside Studio yet, and having to hop back into Studio for edits after import [16:46] The bottom line: a time-saver that elevates rather than replaces the human, brand-first design workKey Takeaway"A tool that makes every email look like Chef's Kiss — made, not generated — in a fraction of the time. It's good stewardship for a business owner."Resources MentionedFlodesk Studio (beta, free): studio.flodesk.comJan's full written walkthrough with screenshots: available on the blog at https://jantouchberry.com/flodesk-studio-review-my-honest-first-look-at-the-betaBook a brand and website consult with Jan: jantouchberry.comGet 2 free weeks of Flodesk - https://partners.flodesk.com/757l1wvhqq8sCall to ActionStudio can only carry a brand that's actually been defined — colors, fonts, voice, all of it. If your brand still feels like a midnight Canva situation, that's exactly where Jan comes in. Head to jantouchberry.com to book a time to talk through your next best brand and website step, then go grab your free Flodesk Studio beta and start playing.CONNECT WITH JAN:Here are all the best places and FREE stuff

I'm writing my next book! In this episode, I lay out all the details for why I'm taking a risk, where the book fits in the market, and just how much of a delusional project this might be.Then, listen to the empathy statement—a kind of prologue or "starter dough" writing which sets the tone and answers the question, "Why should I care?"Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter for book updates, exclusives, and behind-the-scenes, as well as the chance to submit your stories for inclusion!EPISODE CREDITS:Written and produced by me, Jay Acunzo.Music for Why They Resonate is by Embleton (Instagram - Facebook).***ABOUT ME, JAY ACUNZOI'm a public speaking and storytelling advisor trusted by bestselling authors, TED speakers, seven-figure coaches, and brands like Mailchimp, Wistia, and Salesforce. Before starting my advisory firm (where I work 1:1 with clients and run group programs), I was a digital media strategist at Google and head of content for 3 organizations, including HubSpot.I've given keynotes across the US and several other countries to marketers and managers, designers and dentists, leaders and landscapers, and my journey as a speaker has been featured in 3 different books.Today, I teach business leaders how to communicate with greater clarity, influence, and resonance.Learn more about my advisory work at jayacunzo.comBook me to speak at jayacunzo.com/keynotesWatch video versions of some episodes, plus get regular insights into stronger public speaking and growing a speaking business, at youtube.com/jayacunzo***IF YOU ENJOY THE SHOW:Leave a review on Apple Podcasts Leave a rating on Spotify Thanks for your support! Keep making what matters.

In this episode, Paul Dio sits down with Jason Bagley, founder of Growth Experts, joining all the way from Cape Town, South Africa. Jason's story is a study in what happens when a marketer stops selling deliverables and starts selling outcomes. He started as a software developer, moved into web design at the exact moment Squarespace and Wix turned it into a race to the bottom, pivoted to a newsletter-only business, sold that during COVID, and eventually landed on the model he's running today — an all-you-can-eat growth marketing agency where the team doesn't just write the thing, they get the thing live. The heart of the conversation is a single insight Jason had with his very first Copy Check client. He'd written a newsletter and expected feedback on the copy. What he got back was a question about MailChimp. That's when the penny dropped. Clients don't want the newsletter written. They want the newsletter sent. They want the landing page built and live. They want the LinkedIn post published. Jason built Growth Experts around that reframe and it's changed how his agency shows up for every client since. Jason and Paul dig into what actually makes a newsletter worth reading in 2026 (spoiler — content, not cadence), how AI is changing what a small team can ship, and why he keeps telling his team to stop asking for sign-off on the work that isn't mission critical. He also gets honest about the mid-growth phase of his own business — the part nobody puts on LinkedIn — where the challenges get harder even as the numbers get better. The episode closes on attention and legacy. Jason's read on where audience attention is moving is simple. It's moving toward honest people doing real things and showing the mistakes. And his legacy is smaller and more personal than most guests give — his wife first, his kids second because of that, and the entrepreneurs he mentors through EO, planting seeds that go on to change worlds he'll never see. Timestamps 00:00 — Welcome from Cape Town 00:45 — Software developer to web design agency 02:00 — The race to the bottom in websites 02:45 — Pivoting to newsletters only 03:30 — Building and selling Firing Squad 04:30 — Launching Copy Check with zero clients 05:30 — The MailChimp question that changed everything 06:30 — Building Growth Experts around outcomes not deliverables 07:45 — Early clients and the cold email skill 09:00 — What actually makes a newsletter worth reading 10:30 — The anchor client from the IT retailer 12:00 — What separates one agency from another in a crowded market 13:00 — High-agency teams and the sign-off tax 14:45 — Latency between idea and execution 16:00 — Building things again thanks to AI 17:00 — Why leaders have to show AI steps first 18:00 — Where attention is moving in a crowded market 19:30 — Video, honesty, and being over the weekly hype cycle 21:00 — The mid-growth phase nobody puts on LinkedIn 22:30 — Leading a team without micromanaging 23:30 — Legacy starts with his wife 24:30 — Mentoring through EO and planting seeds 25:30 — Where to find Jason Episode Resources Discover how Jason and his team at Growth Experts run an all-you-can-eat growth marketing agency built on a simple idea — clients don't want the newsletter written, they want it sent, live, published, and tracked: www.growthexperts.co Legacy Podcast: For more information about the Legacy Podcast and its co-hosts, visit https://businesslegacypodcast.com Leave a Review: If you enjoyed the episode, leave a review and rating on your preferred podcast platform. For more information: Visit https://businesslegacypodcast.com to access the show notes and additional resources on the episode.  

In this episode, Seth Godin takes us into how he thinks about storytelling and the intersection of strategy and story, and then we hear him dissect one of his go-to stories. Plus, Seth and I trade stories in the back half of the episode—business storytelling nerdery on full display.Seth is a world-renowned author, speaker, and thought leader who has written more than 20 bestsellers, including Purple Cow, The Practice, and This Is Marketing. At the time of this recording, Seth was focused on promoting This is Strategy.Together, Seth and I discuss his delightful story about recumbent bikes. This "super-story" has found its way into Seth's work repeatedly for over a decade. We discuss ‌the evolution of this story, how he conceptualizes status and affiliation, and why focusing on pedagogy as a storyteller is essential. Also in the episode: why the idea of your "posture" matters for storytellers, the role of the storyteller in the world today, and why smaller stories often have a bigger impact.Learn more about Seth's work and subscribe to his daily blog at seths.blogEPISODE CREDITS:Written and produced by me, Jay Acunzo. For more, subscribe to my newsletter→Production support for the original edit by Ilana Nevins.Music for Why They Resonate is by Embleton (Instagram - Facebook).***ABOUT ME, JAY ACUNZOI'm a public speaking and storytelling advisor trusted by bestselling authors, TED speakers, seven-figure coaches, and brands like Mailchimp, Wistia, and Salesforce. Before starting my advisory firm (where I work 1:1 with clients and run group programs), I was a digital media strategist at Google and head of content for 3 organizations, including HubSpot.I've given keynotes across the US and several other countries to marketers and managers, designers and dentists, leaders and landscapers, and my journey as a speaker has been featured in 3 different books.Today, I teach business leaders how to communicate with greater clarity, influence, and resonance.Learn more about my advisory work at jayacunzo.comBook me to speak at jayacunzo.com/keynotesWatch video versions of some episodes, plus get regular insights into stronger public speaking and growing a speaking business, at youtube.com/jayacunzo***IF YOU ENJOY THE SHOW:Leave a review on Apple Podcasts Leave a rating on Spotify Thanks for your support! Keep making what matters.

Intuit's Q3 fiscal 2026 earnings call was packed with numbers, and with her co-hosts sitting this one out, Alicia goes through them one by one to explain what each actually signals for bookkeepers, accountants, and QuickBooks users. She breaks down the strength of QuickBooks Online and mid-market growth, the slowdown in Desktop and Mailchimp, AI already running at scale, the shift toward assisted tax, and what the August pricing and packaging changes mean for your clients. She also steps off-script to share why she thinks Intuit raised prices before users were ready, and previews the deeper episodes coming on pricing and the ProPartner program.Sponsors:Aqqrue - http://uqb.promo/aqqrueSTR Search - http://uqb.promo/str(00:00) - Welcome and Setup (01:25) - How to Read Earnings (02:49) - Companywide Results (05:09) - QuickBooks Segment Growth (08:15) - QBO Plans and Pricing (09:33) - Services Payments Payroll (12:14) - Desktop and Migration (13:18) - Mid Market Enterprise Push (15:02) - Mailchimp Reality Check (16:53) - AI at Scale (17:40) - August Pricing Shakeup (23:07) - Accountants as Customers (24:51) - Workforce Cuts and Margins (26:41) - TurboTax Trends (30:43) - Credit Karma Monetization (34:13) - Pro Tax and Wrap Up (35:58) - Training Course and Goodbye LINKSJuly 21 through October 8: HANDS-ON QUICKBOOKS TRAINING COURSE, http://royl.ws/HOT2026?affiliate=5393907Alicia's book on Amazon: http://royl.ws/conversion-bookWe want to hear from you!Send your questions and comments to us at unofficialquickbookspodcast@gmail.com.Join our LinkedIn community at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14630719/Visit our YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/@UnofficialQBOPodcastSign up to Earmark to earn free CPE for listening to this podcasthttps://www.earmark.app/onboarding 

The man, the myth, and the legend Andrew Davis appeared in the first-ever episode of the show. We're running it back today, so you can hear how a master operates and thinks.Andrew Davis is a bestselling author and internationally acclaimed keynote speaker. Before building and selling a thriving digital marketing agency, Andrew produced for NBC's Today Show, worked for The Muppets in New York and wrote for Charles Kuralt. He's appeared in the New York Times, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and on NBC and the BBC. Davis has crafted documentary films and award-winning content for tiny start-ups and Fortune 500 brands.Recognized as one of the industry's "Jaw-Dropping Marketing Speakers," Andrew is a mainstay on global marketing influencer lists. Wherever he goes, he puts his infectious enthusiasm and magnetic speaking style to good use teaching business leaders how to grow their businesses, transform their cities, and leave their legacy.Learn more about Drew, his speaking, and his books at akadrewdavis.comEPISODE CREDITS:Written and produced by me, Jay Acunzo. For more, subscribe to my newsletter→Production support by Ilana Nevins.Music by Embleton (Instagram - Facebook).***ABOUT ME, JAY ACUNZOI'm a public speaking and storytelling advisor trusted by bestselling authors, TED speakers, seven-figure coaches, and brands like Mailchimp, Wistia, and Salesforce. Before starting my advisory firm (where I work 1:1 with clients and run group programs), I was a digital media strategist at Google and head of content for 3 organizations, including HubSpot.I've given keynotes across the US and several other countries to marketers and managers, designers and dentists, leaders and landscapers, and my journey as a speaker has been featured in 3 different books.Today, I teach business leaders how to communicate with greater clarity, influence, and resonance.Learn more about my advisory work at jayacunzo.comBook me to speak at jayacunzo.com/keynotes***IF YOU ENJOY THE SHOW:Leave a review on Apple Podcasts Leave a rating on Spotify Thanks for your support! Keep making what matters.

If you've spent the last three weeks with seventeen browser tabs open comparing ConvertKit, Flodesk, and MailChimp — and you still haven't picked one — this episode is for you.A listener asked the question so many of us get stuck on: "How do I choose?" And the honest answer isn't a longer feature comparison. It's three simple questions that cut through the noise, plus one mistake that's quietly costing undecided business owners real money every week they wait.In this episode, you'll learn:The only three questions you actually need to answer before picking an email platformA plain, no-fluff comparison of Kit (formerly ConvertKit), Flodesk, and MailChimp — including where each one falls shortThe one mistake that costs you money when you wait too long to decideWhat's coming for Flodesk users that might close one of its current gapsYour simple Collab Task to get unstuck this weekEpisode Highlights:[00:00] The listener question everyone gets stuck on: ConvertKit vs. Flodesk vs. MailChimp[01:15] The only three questions that actually matter before you choose a platform[03:30] Kit (formerly ConvertKit): built for automation and selling, lighter on design[04:45] Flodesk: design-first, flat-rate pricing, and where it's historically been weaker[06:50] What's coming for Flodesk — a beta integration and a first look at Flodesk Studio[08:00] The real mistake: it's not picking wrong, it's picking nothing[09:30] This week's Collab Task(Timestamps are estimates based on the script — adjust to match final recorded/edited audio.)Key Takeaway:"The cost isn't picking the 'wrong' platform. The cost is picking no platform."Resources Mentioned:Kit (formerly ConvertKit) — kit.comFlodesk — JanTouchberry.com/emailMailChimp — mailchimp.comThis Week's Collab Task:Pick your platform using the three questions from this episode, then create a free account — this week, not this month. Head to jantouchberry.com to dig deeper into building the rest of your owned-media strategy once you're set up.Call to Action:Already have a platform but not sure it's the right fit? Or ready to build the website and brand that actually turns your email list into clients? Head to jantouchberry.com to see how we can work together.CONNECT WITH JAN:Here are all the best places and FREE stuff

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPod, he didn't say “now you can fit fifty songs on a CD instead of ten.” He said CDs are dead — and pulled a thousand songs out of his pocket. That's not a better product. That's a new category. And it's the single idea that changed my business more than almost anything else I've ever learned. Welcome back to the vault. Today I'm opening up an actual course from my mentor Dan Kennedy — the one course, out of the forty or fifty I got when I bought his company, that radically changed my life. It's called Opportunity Concepts, and it taught me the difference between three kinds of offers… and why the one almost nobody leads with is the one that out-converts everything else. I'll show you exactly how I used it to launch ClickFunnels, and how to weave it into your own value ladder. Key Highlights: ◼️The three offer types — “Repair, Improvement, and New Opportunity” — and why 95% of businesses stay stuck competing on the weakest two ◼️The “-er” test — if you can only describe your offer with a word ending in -er (“faster,” “better,” “cheaper”), you're selling an improvement… and improvements always lose to new opportunities ◼️How I positioned ClickFunnels as a “new opportunity” — not a better MailChimp or Infusionsoft, but a brand-new thing called a sales funnel — to become a “category of one” ◼️The Steve Jobs move — why “CDs are dead, here's an iPod” beats “fit more songs on a CD” every single time, and how to run the same play on what you already sell ◼️The value-ladder twist — where new opportunity, improvement, and repair each belong in your funnel (lead with the new opportunity, sell the other two higher up) Here's what I want you to sit with: most people spend their whole careers trying to be a slightly better version of everyone else — faster, cheaper, smarter — and then wonder why it's so hard to stand out. The shift isn't building a better mousetrap. It's deciding you're not in the mousetrap business at all. Dan Kennedy charged $1,500 for this one idea, and I bought his entire company to own it, because it's worth every penny. So before your next launch, ask yourself the only question that really moves the needle: what's the new opportunity only you can offer — and what would it take to become the category of one? ◼️SELLING OPPORTUNITY: This whole episode comes from a $1,500 Dan Kennedy course Russell bought an entire company to own — now rebuilt as a multimedia book you can read, scan, and watch Dan teach. If you want to position your offer as a new opportunity instead of a “better” version of everyone else, this is the playbook. → https://www.SellingOpportunity.com ◼️If you've got a product, offer, service… or idea… I'll show you how to sell it (the RIGHT way) Register for my next event → https://sellingonline.com/podcast ◼️Still don't have a funnel? ClickFunnels gives you the exact tools (and templates) to launch TODAY → https://clickfunnels.com/podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most video business owners are stuck chasing reach when what actually grows a business is resonance. In this episode, storytelling and speaking strategist Jay Acunzo joins me to break down why mattering more to the right people beats marketing to everyone, and how to communicate with enough conviction that clients seek you out instead of the other way around. If you're tired of competing on price and ready to become your market's favorite, this conversation will shift how you show up. Key Takeaways Resonance beats reach. People don't take action because you reached them, they take action because they actually care. Jay's 6-part "dialogue outline" walks a client from "how does this help me?" all the way to "I'm in, how do I start?" Don't try to be different from your competitors. Aim to be refreshing to your specific market instead. Get into your client's journey early as their "running buddy" rather than waiting at the finish line to capture demand. About Jay Acunzo Jay Acunzo is a public speaking and storytelling advisor trusted by bestselling authors, TED speakers, seven-figure coaches, and brands like Mailchimp, Wistia, and Salesforce. Before starting his advisory firm, Jay was a digital media strategist at Google and head of content for 3 organizations, including HubSpot. He's directed documentaries, hosted podcasts, and created award-winning content for innovative startups and Fortune 500 brands. Today, Jay teaches business leaders how to communicate with greater clarity, influence, and resonance. In This Episode [00:00] Welcome to the show! [06:35] Meet Jay Acunzo [12:46] Mediocre Content [21:02] What Defines A Successful Business [25:39] Stop Chasing [28:57] Winning Clients [44:03] Be Different Or Be Refreshing [45:33] Influence The Space [50:15] Communicate With Influence [53:21] Connect with Jay [53:54] Outro  Quotes "Reach is how many see it, but resonance is how much they care." —Jay Acunzo "Don't market more, matter more. If you matter more, you need to hustle for attention less." —Jay Acunzo "Don't be the best, be their favorite." —Jay Acunzo "Nobody's waking up thinking, 'I gotta call Ryan.' It is our job to tell the people." —Ryan Koral "You've been a commodity waiting around for some kind of gift." —Jay Acunzo Guest Links Follow Jay Acunzo online Links Find out more about the Studio Sherpas Mastermind Join the Grow Your Video Business Facebook Group  Follow Ryan Koral on Instagram Follow Grow Your Video Business on Instagram Get your Early Bird tickets for the Onward Summit Join the Studio Sherpas newsletter

Listen as we explore why community-based marketing is becoming more popular and how insurance agents can get started. This strategy is a great way for agents to grow their business just by getting involved in your local community.   Read the text version   Get Connected:

Intuit just cut 17% of its workforce, roughly 3,000 employees, and Alicia is joined by Dan DeLong and Matthew "Spot" Fulton to unpack what actually happened and why it isn't the AI story everyone assumed. Drawing on Dan's 18 years inside the company, they break down the real drivers behind the cuts, the unusually generous severance packages, the closing of the Reno and Woodland Hills offices, and the three big bets shaping Intuit's future. They also dig into the uncertain fate of MailChimp and what the mid-market pivot signals for ProAdvisors and the QuickBooks community.Sponsors:Aqqrue - http://uqb.promo/aqqrueC&R Consulting - http://uqb.promo/cnr(00:00) - Intuit Layoffs Overview (01:57) - Why Layoffs Happen (03:01) - Dan Layoff Story (04:58) - Restructure Not AI (06:23) - Details and Office Closures (09:42) - India and Global Impact (11:50) - Culture and Job Mobility (14:15) - Severance and Support (20:47) - Layoffs and Career Growth (24:42) - Letter Management Layers (29:03) - Customer Support Outsourcing (32:10) - Strategic Hubs and Remote Work (36:09) - TurboTax Credit Karma Merge (37:04) - Restructuring Around Customers (38:09) - Three Big Bets Explained (38:46) - AI Native Done For You (39:49) - Center Of Money Push (41:56) - Mid Market Expansion (43:22) - MailChimp Cuts And Risks (47:10) - Divestiture Rumors And AI (52:36) - SMB Churn And Competition (54:42) - Closing Thoughts And Thanks (55:41) - What's New With Hosts (56:16) - Scaling New Heights Plans (58:25) - Alicia Events And Training (01:01:35) - Awards And Final Wrap LINKSIntuit Account login episode: uqb.show/81 Dan's School of Bookkeeping course about Bulk Editing Data in QuickBooks: https://www.schoolofbookkeeping.com/a/2148284044/FzeLMxRpSchoolofbookkeeping YouTube: https://snip.ly/SOBYTFree Live Workshop Wednesdays: https://www.schoolofbookkeeping.com/workshop-wednesdayQB Power Hour: https://www.qbpowerhour.com/ Alicia's book on Amazon: http://royl.ws/conversion-bookJuly 21 through October 8: HANDS-ON QUICKBOOKS COMPLETE TRAINING COURSE, http://royl.ws/HOT2026?affiliate=5393907We want to hear from you!Send your questions and comments to us at unofficialquickbookspodcast@gmail.com.Join our LinkedIn community at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14630719/Visit our YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/@UnofficialQBOPodcastSign up to Earmark to earn free CPE for listening to this podcasthttps://www.earmark.app/onboarding 

Here's how to turn Why They Resonate into Why YOU Resonate. Plus, a rant in two parts about the troubled relationship between thought leaders with big followings and AI. You see, they've all taken unpaid jobs working for other people. They just don't seem to notice yet. EPISODE CREDITS:Written and produced by me, Jay Acunzo. For more, subscribe to my newsletter→Music by Embleton (Instagram - Facebook).***ABOUT ME, JAY ACUNZOI'm a public speaking and storytelling advisor trusted by bestselling authors, TED speakers, seven-figure coaches, and brands like Mailchimp, Wistia, and Salesforce. Before starting my advisory firm (where I work 1:1 with clients and run group programs), I was a digital media strategist at Google and head of content for 3 organizations, including HubSpot.I've given keynotes across the US and several other countries to marketers and managers, designers and dentists, leaders and landscapers, and my journey as a speaker has been featured in 3 different books.Today, I teach business leaders how to communicate with greater clarity, influence, and resonance.Learn more about my advisory work at jayacunzo.comBook me to speak at jayacunzo.com/keynotes***IF YOU ENJOY THE SHOW:Leave a review on Apple Podcasts Leave a rating on Spotify Thanks for your support! Keep making what matters.

FREE: Find out why you're brand isn't ranking in AI with a Remarkable Digital Free AIO Audit Here The best eCommerce Australia founder stories start with a problem nobody else has solved.Amanda Phoenix moved from Vancouver to Melbourne with $3,000 to her name, had a motorcycle accident, and sewed her first product from a $5 polka-dot tablecloth she bought at Spotlight. Today she runs Peak Moto - Australia's leading women's motorcycle gear retailer with stores in Melbourne and Brisbane and a fast-growing eCommerce store.In this episode of the Ecommerce Australia Podcast, Ryan Martin sits down with Amanda to trace the full founder journey: From living on a chicken farm in regional Victoria on a working holiday visa, to a presale campaign that flooded her Gmail with 200 orders in a single evening, to rage-quitting a marketing agency job and opening a 29-square-metre hole-in-the-wall with no running water and a four-hour daily limit imposed by the absence of a toilet.Amanda shares hard-won lessons on eCommerce SEO, finding the right marketing agency, why she walked away from wholesale (B2B) to go all-in on direct-to-consumer, how she negotiated her first commercial lease to exit penalty-free, and why community, not advertising, has been the biggest driver of growth for Peak Moto.If you're an Australian eCommerce founder, a product-based business owner, or thinking about opening a bricks-and-mortar store alongside your online store, this episode is essential listening.What You'll Learn• How Amanda bootstrapped Flying Solo Gear Company from zero - no money, no network,no plan• Why a presale strategy turned a hobby into a real eCommerce business overnight• The exact lease negotiation that let her exit her first store with 30 days notice and no penalty• Why she dropped B2B wholesale and went D2C — and what it meant for margins• How to build a community that sells for you without paid advertising• What to look for (and watch out for) when hiring an eCommerce marketing agency in Australia• Bricks-and-mortar lessons: why smaller is smarter when opening your first retail locationEpisode Timestamps00:00 Welcome — the full circle moment02:00 Amanda's background: strength coach, national team, total burnout04:30 Why Australia? Selling everything for $15K CAD and booking a one-way ticket06:00 Chicken farm in regional Victoria — the working holiday visa reality08:30 Moving to Melbourne: nearly run over by a tram on Day 110:00 The motorcycle accident that created Flying Solo11:30 The $5 Spotlight tablecloth, a borrowed sewing machine, and the first bum bag13:30 The Yarra Valley petrol station moment — what are you wearing?15:00 Kill Switch Pack: carbon fibre, Kevlar, and the world's toughest bum bag17:30 Flying Solo born in one day at the cafe downstairs20:00 The presale that changed everything: 200 backpack orders in one evening22:00 Word of mouth, Mailchimp, and growing without paid ads24:00 Rage quit → first retail space → 29sqm with no toilet27:30 Importing MotoGirl, Revit saying yes when everyone else said no29:00 Why Flying Solo became Peak Moto31:30 Founder advice: smaller MOQs, ditch B2B, test before you scale36:00 How Peak Moto built a community that drives word-of-mouth sales40:00 Bricks and mortar lessons: leases, location, lifestyle44:00 How to find a good marketing agency — and the red flags to watch forLinks & MentionsGuests→ PeakMoto — Women's Motorcycle Gear (Melbourne & Brisbane)→ Flying Solo Gear Company→ Amanda Phoenix on InstagramMentioned in this episodeRevit Motorcycle Gear — peakmoto.com.au/brands/revitMotoGirl — UK women's motorcycle gear brandPulp Digital — Meta ads agency (shoutout: Bella)

Have you ever lost the joy in your creative work — that sense of fun you had when you were starting out, before the admin and the algorithms drained it away? How do mid-career creatives get it back, and what can a four-year-old teach us about play? Austin Kleon talks about productive procrastination, silly rituals, the case for paper reference books in an AI world, and how his newsletter went from a marketing cost to the day job that keeps the lights on. In the intro, Does social media still sell books? [Self-Publishing with ALLi]; Trial by algorithm [The Bookseller]; Publishing's AI Hypocrisy Problem [The New Publishing Standard]; ALLi AI survey for authors; Brave New Bookshelf Podcast, and Pics from signing at BookVault. Today's show is sponsored by ProWritingAid, writing and editing software that goes way beyond just grammar and typo checking. With its detailed reports on how to improve your writing and integration with writing software, ProWritingAid will help you improve your book before you send it to an editor, agent or publisher. Check it out for free or get 15% off the premium edition at www.ProWritingAid.com/joanna This show is also supported by my Patrons. Join my Community at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn Austin Kleon is the New York Times and international bestselling author of nonfiction books, including Steal Like an Artist, Show Your Work!, and Keep Going, as well as an artist, professional speaker, and poet. His latest book is Don't Call It Art: 10 Ways to Create Like a Kid Again. You can listen above or on your favorite podcast app or read the notes and links below. Here are the highlights and the full transcript is below. Show Notes Why Austin wrote Don't Call It Art now, and what his kids taught him about creative joy Productive procrastination, silly rituals, and treating writing like Lego Comedy as a philosophical position, and giving yourself permission to be bad in private Sharing process in the algorithm era, and why your whole life is the process Bibliomancy, paper reference books, and what AI can't give you that a dictionary can Style, the Taco Bell distinctiveness rule, and how Austin's newsletter became his day job You can find Austin at AustinKleon.com. Transcript of the interview with Austin Kleon Jo: Austin Kleon is the New York Times and international bestselling author of nonfiction books, including Steal Like an Artist, Show Your Work!, and Keep Going, as well as an artist, professional speaker, and poet. His latest book is Don't Call It Art: 10 Ways to Create Like a Kid Again. So welcome back to the show, Austin. Austin: Thank you for having me back. It's nice to talk to you again. Jo: You were on the show in March 2020, and at the time, your book was Keep Going, which was prescient considering the pandemic and politics. So I wondered, why this book, Don't Call It Art, now? Was this something you see in the creative community or your own life that made you want to write this book? Austin: Keep Going is a book about what happens when the world goes crazy around you and you're still trying to do your creative work. This is a book about what happens when inside has bottomed out. Keep Going is a book about the world bottoming out, and you're worried that your own creative work is going to bottom out too. How do you keep pushing through and keep making stuff? This book, to me, is about what happens when you bottom out inside—when you've lost that love and feeling for the thing that you wanted to do, and you're just not connecting with it in the way that you used to or the way that you want to. How do you get back? How do you return to that sense of joy and wonder and fun that we have when we're starting out? And for me, it was being around my little kids that taught me how to tap into that. My kids were natural—they didn't have any creative hangups. I would spend all day talking to people who had creative hangups, and then I'd get back in the house, and I'd just be around these beings who didn't have any of them. It was really instructive. I felt like, if I could bottle the energy of my kids when they were about four years old and try to put it in a book, I think it could really help a lot of the people that I run into, and the people with the kinds of problems I hear from. Jo: You mentioned bottoming out. How do people know when they've hit that point? Austin: You just don't want to do it anymore. You're kind of like, “This just isn't giving me back what it used to.” When we start with our creative work, that's the thing that juices us. We come away from it feeling full up. I think you hit a certain point where you start to feel drained after it. Or maybe you don't feel drained by the thing itself that you're doing—maybe it's all the stuff around it, which is more often the case. For example, if you're a mid-career writer like me, who's been publishing books for 16 years now, I still really like writing. I still really like drawing. I still really like cutting and pasting and putting things together. It's the admin around the work—the emails, the meetings, the running-a-business part of it—that's super draining for me, and that stuff can start to bleed over into the creative work. So it's really important for me to make sure that I'm having some playtime, some R&D, some research and development time, to make sure it's not just all business. When you take the thing that you love and you turn it into the thing that you make a living from, you can really run into a lot of problems. Jo: I'm at 20 years, so I know exactly what you're saying, and a lot of listeners are the same. We love writing books, but it's all the stuff that goes around it. So for those of us who do this for money as well as passion, what are some practical ways to have more fun with our creativity? Austin: Something I learned from my kids is that you really are your most creative when you're supposed to be doing something else. So one of the things I use a lot in the studio is productive procrastination. Whatever I'm supposed to be working on, I start another little project, and that's my little naughty fun time. When I first come into the studio, I try to do something that I'm not supposed to be doing—something that I won't have much to show for. That could be making one of my blackout poems. That could be making a collage in my notebook. It could also be sitting here. I have a bass in the studio now, so I can practise my bass guitar. Sometimes I'll do that for the first 15 minutes just to get in that headspace of, “Hey, what's it like to do something just for yourself? Just because you want to do it?” The juice that you get from that little naughty “I'm going to do what I'm not supposed to be doing right now” thing, that carries into the rest of the day. It's like a nice start to things. Jo: Do you think that play could be something different to what we make our money with? For me, writing novels and stories is great fun in one way, but it's also what I then publish and make money on. So writing stories is more serious, I guess, than playing with Lego or something. Austin: Right. So the trick is, how can you make writing your stories like playing with Lego? That's kind of been my whole career. I hate staring at Microsoft Word and that blinking cursor, taunting you like, “Come on, what have you got?” A lot of my creative life has been about trying to make it more playful, trying to make it feel more like a game. That's how I came up with my blackout poems. I take an article from The New York Times and I black it out until it only has a few words left behind. It sort of looks like if the CIA did haiku, for some people listening. That was one little exercise. Then weirdly, that side thing that I thought was just play, just fun—that turned into my first book. So then it's, okay, what else can I mess around with and play with? I do a lot of collage work in the studio, and I rarely actually use that for any of the books. Sometimes I use it for my newsletter to illustrate the newsletter. But it's always about trying to figure out, how can I make writing a game? How can I make it more playful? There are different things that I do to make it feel more playful. One of them's really stupid. I really believe in silly rituals because I think silliness is really powerful. People talk about their daily rituals—Mason Currey has that great book, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. When I was reading that book, I realised it was really the silly stuff that I really liked. There was, I think it was Balzac counting out coffee beans or something before he got to write. Or Steinbeck sharpening 12 pencils or something goofy like that. So one of the things I like to do before I write is that I have these cigarette pencils. They're pencils that look like cigarettes in the studio. I put one in my mouth before I start writing, and I pretend to be some old '40s writer on a typewriter. I like doing goofy stuff in the studio because I think when you do goofy stuff—stuff that you'd be embarrassed if anyone else saw it—it gets you in that playful state. Jo: It's interesting. In your book, you have a section that says, “Don't take things too seriously.” For many of us, we write memoir for example, and that is very close to us. It's like the deepest expression of what we want to say in the world. It feels very serious. So how can we hold things more lightly and not take things so seriously? Austin: For me, comedy is actually a philosophical position. What I mean by that is, I think a lot of people set out with a tragic model of creative work. They think, “Oh, I have this special gift,” or, “I have this thing that I really need to do, and I need to put it out into the world, and I need to make the world look more like I want it to look.” They have this idea that, “Through blood and sweat and tears, I'm going to see this thing through, and I'm going to push it into the world, and I'm going to have my way.” I think there's another way of working where it's more like, “I'm just a normal person trying to play with my environment, and take my experiences and put them into something interesting. So I'm going to play and use my wits, and we're going to see what we come up with.” Those really are two modes of life. The pandemic taught me that it was really when we were keeping our sense of humour, when we were having a laugh and keeping our egos in check around the house and just acknowledging how goofy we all were and how ridiculous the situation was, that seemed to be when we were really thriving. Versus, “Well, we're in this tough situation. We've got to make it into what we want it to be.” That felt really bad. But when we cruised along and we were just improvisational, when we went at things with a kind of lightness, that worked. There's a great Italo Calvino essay about lightness in Six Memos for the Next Millennium. Lightness is really underrated. Even when we're going about heavy work, having a sense of lightness and play with it just makes the work better. That's a philosophical position of mine. I aspire to comedy. I aspire to a comic outlook on life. I'm just a creature with a body who's going to die, and I'm fundamentally ridiculous. Life is pretty absurd. You just make the best of it. Jo: There's certainly some truth there. Staying on a similar theme, you have a chapter in the book on permission to be bad. Many of the listeners also have your book Show Your Work, and it shaped many of us into sharing our work in progress. It feels quite dangerous now, in a world where judgment is much louder than it maybe was when you wrote Show Your Work. So tell us a bit about permission to be bad versus should we keep some of this private? Austin: Permission to be bad is about the making part of things. It's the private part. It's permission to be bad when you're in private, when you're actually doing the work. Show Your Work is a book about what you do after you've done the work, or while you're doing the work. It was never about putting up a webcam and running a 24/7 feed. It was more like, hey, what are the ways that I can connect with the kind of audience I can build while I'm making the work itself? So the way I see permission to be bad is, you really have to give yourself permission when you're not sharing, when you're off screen, to really be as bad as you want to be. It doesn't necessarily mean quality-wise. I think it also means letting yourself write stuff that you would never say on social media. Letting yourself read stuff that you wouldn't admit you were reading on social media. Letting yourself listen to stuff. Letting yourself really be that unfiltered, unhinged, private person that you want to be. Then when it comes to sharing, you put some time in between that input time, that making time, and the sharing time, and then you share what you think is going to be useful or helpful or interesting to other people. Jo: I think you wrote that book before TikTok, and how fast people are moving. Do you think people need to slow down a bit in what they share, maybe? Austin: I don't know. I obviously had a lot more faith in social media back then. I use all the principles from Show Your Work in my newsletter. Newsletters are very much the new kind of great thing. They're doing a lot of the work that social media used to do, in that you're still able to have this direct connection with the people that you're trying to reach. The big problem with social media now is that it's all algorithmically tuned, where the people that are following you don't see the stuff that you're doing most of the time. What you have to do now, if you want the people who are following you to see your stuff on social media, is you have to make stuff that the algorithm likes. That's a whole different thing. As far as the Show Your Work principle—which is share your process as much as your product—that carries over to any platform. In my newsletter every Friday, I share a list of 10 things that were going on behind the scenes here. It might have been what I was watching on TV, what I listened to, a new pen I was trying out, or something like that. The Friday newsletter is almost always process stuff. When I talk about process, my definition is actually very broad. For a lot of people, it's drafting, editing, whatever. For me, the process is the whole life. The process is almost everything except the finished thing. A writer's life is 24/7. My friends who have real jobs really are like, “What do you do all day?” And I'm like, “Well, what do you mean?” They're like, “Well, I see you out on your bike ride.” I'm like, “Yes, when you see me out on a bike ride, I'm thinking through something half the time.” If I'm watching TV, I'm thinking, “Hey, would this be good in the newsletter?” I'm never off. My whole life—everything is copy, as Nora Ephron said. That's part of the job. It's very hard to turn off. So I see the whole life as process, and the question becomes, what little bits and pieces of that life and that process can you share with people while you're making the things that you hope to sell them later? Right now, I'm in a cycle where I'm selling this book, but all these people have showed up because I've shared my process every week for the past seven years since I put out a book. Jo: It's funny you say that. I was at the dentist yesterday, and— My dentist literally asked me, “So where do you get all your ideas?” This is a common question for all of us, right? And it just becomes so hard to explain that to people who don't walk around in the world just constantly getting ideas. Austin: I can't believe I'm going to tell this story. I was getting my vasectomy after my second kid, and I was talking to this doctor just before the operation. He said, “So what do you do for a living?” I said, “I'm a writer.” He said, “Oh, that must be cool. You get to use your brain.” And I said, “That's everything that you want your doctor to say.” I was going to say, “Please use your brain,” before he's about to cut into you. He said, “Oh, no, no. What I mean is, I know what I'm going to do every day for the next 10 years.” He knew exactly what his day was going to look like. He said, “You have to use your brain. You've got to figure out new stuff.” I was like, “Oh, that's really interesting.” That's the trade-off, right? He's got the job security. He knows what he's going to do. Every writer has a moment where they have to talk to a normal person about what you do. Jo: I was going to say, I'm married to one. Austin: Now, my wife, on the other hand, grew up the daughter of a writer, so she knows exactly what it's like. Nothing ever phases her. She's totally used to it. She's used to me staring off into space, completely checking out of a conversation. She's used to me using lines on her that I'm going to put in a piece later. She's used to the whole rigmarole. It's very handy. I've been very lucky in that sense. Jo: Coming back to the book, you talk about your use of bibliomancy for inspiration. Since we're talking about that, tell us about it. I think all the book people listening will be happy. Austin: I'm a person who still keeps a dictionary nearby—a paper dictionary. I keep a big old American Heritage. It's just a big, thick book. When I really don't have any ideas, I will turn at random to the dictionary, close my eyes, stick my finger down the page, open my eyes, and just see what I come up with. Sometimes just that act will give me an idea. I also do that with books. I'll go around the studio, pick up a book, flip to a random page, and just see what it says there, or read an old piece of marginalia that I've left in a book. I believe deeply in the power of bibliomancy, and I think it's a case for paper books. I'm one of those people that still really believes in reference books. I've started collecting more and more of them. I have an old, big dictionary that's always open on my desk, and I look up words. I learned from John McPhee, the writer, that you should look up words that you think you know. That was the first time I'd ever heard anyone say that. So I look up words that I think I know. Instead of reaching for a thesaurus when I need a different word, I actually just look up the definition of the word that I already have. That's another McPhee tip. The other thing that happened that I thought was really interesting is, I got a Roget's for the first time—a thesaurus. I don't think most people know what an actual thesaurus is. Most people think of a thesaurus as a synonym finder, and that's not actually what a thesaurus is at all. A thesaurus is more like an encyclopaedia, weirdly. You look up things based on big concepts, and then it gives you a bunch of words to look up later. It's a very strange thing. It's not what most people think it is. I have a couple of editions of Roget's in here. I like the really old Roget's from the 1900s because they actually have opposing ideas facing each other on the page. Do you have an old-school Roget's? Have you ever looked through one? Jo: I don't have one now, but I certainly grew up with them. I was literally just thinking, I wonder if there are ones for Americans and ones for British people, because so often we say different things and mean different things. I always hear Americans say, “Oh, that's a doozy,” or something, and it means the complete opposite thing here. Austin: Like if you say “fanny pack” over there. That means something very different than it means here, right? Chips or fries, that kind of stuff. So I wonder if there are different ones for different cultural references. Jo: I don't know. Austin: As people, with ChatGPT and all these LLMs and stuff, people are like, “Why would you ever pick up a paper reference book?” And I'm like, “I actually like the friction.” I like having to move in space and go over to my dictionary. I like flipping the pages. I like having to scan a page for the word I'm looking for, because— This marvellous thing happens when you're looking for the word, where you bump into all these other words. If you're a word nerd, you get to start thinking about the root of the word—oh, why is this word next to this word? Well, it's because they share the same root. Then you're going down all these fun rabbit holes. The thing that I'm trying to do as a writer and a creative person is, I'm trying to get to the thing that I didn't know I was looking for. The thing that people misunderstand about AI, I think personally, is that it's a great tool if you know what you're looking for. If you're like, “Find me this thing. I want exactly this. I want to see a picture of a dog wearing a king's costume,” or some crap like that, then it can spit that picture out for you. Or, “I want to know what happened on this day,” and whatever. It can do that. But that's not actually what I'm doing most of the time when I'm writing or making something. I start with an idea, but what really happens—the magic of writing and the magic of making stuff in general—is when you discover something that you didn't even know you were headed for. That's the real magic for me. Sometimes I have an idea and I want to articulate it for people, but more often than not, there's something that bothers me or something that I want to talk about, and I sit down and write, and I figure out what it is that I actually have to say and what I actually think. Every writer really knows this, and that's why the dictionary, stuff like that, those are ways of training you to get in that discovery mode. “Well, let me—oh, I bumped into this. I went looking for this one thing and then I ran into this other thing.” That's why I love the library. I don't know what system you use over there, but you look for one book in the Dewey Decimal System over here, and then, okay, here's all these other weird books next to it. Then you end up with three other books other than the one that you were looking for. That's the magic. To me, that's the magic of creative work, discovering what you didn't know you were looking for. That was particularly important for me when I was writing this book because we discovered that my wife has a condition called aphantasia. It's very rare in the population, about 2 to 3% of people. There's probably some people listening to this right now who are like, “What is this? Tell me.” Jo: Aphantasia actually more common in the creative industries. Austin: Yes. What it is, is that you don't see—when I say close your eyes and picture an apple, you don't actually see the apple in your head. You can think about an apple and the qualities of an apple, but you don't actually see it. Some people, and it's a matter of degree—some people like me, I can close my eyes, I can tell you what the apple looks like, I can tell you what colour it is, I can tell you where the shading is. Someone like my wife doesn't see the apple. She can tell you what an apple is. It's really interesting because she has a degree in architecture, which is known as a very visual field. But the thing you discover about aphantasia is, it doesn't keep people from becoming artists. In fact, it's the opposite. Someone like Ed Catmull, who co-founded Pixar, writes about it in his book, and so many of the great animators at Pixar are actually aphantasics. The reason is that they learned that they had to draw in order to see things. When you don't have a picture in your head of what you want something to look like, things appear in the drawing, and you find things that you couldn't even picture. A lot of writers actually are aphantasics. John Green discovered recently that he has aphantasia. It turns out that it's a superpower for writers, because if you don't have a picture in your head, then you don't have to translate that picture into words. A lot of writers talk about thinking in radio, like they have a constant narrator. My wife—she's probably going to kill me for talking about her this much—when she describes it to me, she's like, “Oh, it's like a radio in my head. I'm constantly hearing a voice, and it's a narrator.” I was like, “Holy shit, that would be really helpful to me.” I don't have anything like that in my head. I read Mrs Dalloway for the first time, and I gave it to her and I said, “You've got to read this book. I think this must be what it's like in your head.” And she said, “Oh my God, it is.” Part of the thing that I took away from that experience—this is a long-winded way of getting here—is that I take a lot of inspiration from people with this condition. Most of the people I know in the arts or the creative fields, they set out with this grand vision, and then they start working on the thing and it's nothing like what they had in their head, and they get really depressed: “This isn't what I had in mind.” Whereas if you set out without a picture in your head, and you just start manipulating things and you see what appears, that's more of the comic mode I was talking about earlier. What would happen if we just sat down with our materials and we started playing and we saw what appeared on the page? What if we started typing and saw what appeared, and then we played with that? That's the kind of joy. That's more like how kids operate. Kids are better at that. They're better at reacting to what's actually in front of them, instead of having these grandiose visions about what they're trying to achieve. Jo: Just coming back on the longevity of a creative career. Your books are very distinctive. You have a very distinctive visual style, your handwriting and the way the books are done. I wondered if another part of the ennui, perhaps, or the draining of the later career is that we get trapped into doing something that feels like it looks the same. Or we have a voice, and we're happy in that voice, but sometimes we want to do something completely different. For authors, we have different names. I write under two different names, and that helps. But equally— How do you define author voice, and do you ever feel like doing something completely different to your normal style? Austin: Style, in a lot of ways, is self-plagiarism. Style is the repeated things that we notice in people's work. Hitchcock talked about this in films. Wes Anderson is someone like that—Wes Anderson has a style. I'm sure that he gets really sick of it too sometimes, but you also can't help it in some ways. I thought a lot about this because people worry about style so much. A lot of the time, what we call style is what Adrian Tomine one time said: “Style is just the distance between what's in my head and what comes out of my hand.” I really like that definition. With this book, I was trying to think, “Okay, if I do another book in this series, how can I push things a little bit?” And then I was reading this article about Taco Bell. You guys have Taco Bell over there, don't you? Do you have Taco Bell? Jo: No. Austin: So Taco Bell, for people who don't know, is this American Mexican chain, and they have tacos and burritos and stuff like that. They're well known for making these really insane… it's so American, this company. They make a taco with a Doritos as a shell. Doritos are crisps, I guess. Jo: Yes, we have Doritos. Austin: Okay. I spent time in England, I just don't remember if I ate Doritos when I was in England. Anyway, I was reading this article about Taco Bell. It was really funny. They have an innovation kitchen at Taco Bell, and they have a rule about new products. The rule is called the distinctiveness rule, and the rule is: you can change the flavour or you can change the taste, or you can change the form, but you can't change both at the same time. I got really obsessed with this concept because I thought, “Well, this could be kind of interesting.” If you're someone who's had success and you're known for something, this presents an interesting thing. You could do a complete break and do something completely new, or you could try the distinctiveness rule. Okay, well, what if I play with this idea of taste versus form? What if I change the taste and keep the form? So the idea for Don't Call It Art was, what if I do another one of these books, but the taste is more like if my kids made it? It had the texture of kids' art, it had lots of scribbles in it, it was loose and messy. That was kind of the idea. The actual book ended up being more like the other books. It ended up looking like an Austin Kleon book, because I just can't help that. The thing you said about having multiple names that you write under, that's kind of what I do with the newsletter. I think of the newsletter as very different from the books. The newsletter is this twice-weekly thing where I can be a little bit more of myself. In the books, I'm this very helpful, happy version of myself. It's me, but it's me on my best day. I'm really helpful and interesting for you. The newsletter is still a highlight reel in a sense, but it's a little bit more of my weird everything-I'm-into. It's more of the unclipped version of me. The newsletter becomes a place where I can do a lot of the weird stuff that's much different from the books. I have these little projects going all the time. Sometimes I'll make a bunch of prints and put them online. Sometimes I'll make a bunch of zines on a topic I haven't covered in the book. Sometimes I'll do a mixtape. As someone who's interested in a lot of different forms and genres and just different modes of output, having something like a newsletter has been really creatively fruitful for me. It's kept me from getting too bottomed out with the books because the books do a certain thing for the reader, and as much as I'd love to do a book that was radically different, I also think I've been given a real gift with the form of my books, in that I kind of own the way that they feel and look. There aren't a lot of books that look like those books and feel like those books, and so I like playing with that form. It would be hard to get rid of it now. The pseudonym for me is kind of like the newsletter in a sense. The newsletter is a little bit more of where I get to be wild and wacky. Then the books are a little bit more of a chiselled thing. Jo: The books are perfect examples of the form, as you say, but it's interesting about the newsletter. You mentioned at the beginning that we can be drained by the admin around the work. For many people listening, a newsletter becomes admin. So how does the newsletter fit into your business? The books are traditionally published, they're very professional. How do you have your independent side, and how does all of that work together in your business? Austin: Thank you for asking that question. I run the whole show at the newsletter. The newsletter is just me, and then my wife edits it, and no one else is involved. I don't have an assistant. I don't have a team. It is just me, and that's why I love it. I control everything. I pick who gets in there. I pick everything. I love that. I grew up watching David Letterman over here, and Letterman had a nightly show, and I always thought that was killer. I thought, “Man, what a fun job. You have a show every night where you have a new guest, and you have all these wacky things going on.” It was like a variety show. I always thought that would be really fun, so the newsletter is my version of that. I started the newsletter in 2013, and it was just a Friday newsletter. It quickly became a list of 10 things I thought were worth sharing. I had a friend, Hugh MacLeod, who was like, “Hey, I have a newsletter. It's bigger than any conference you've ever gone to.” He was talking about South by Southwest here in Austin. He's like, “I have a newsletter now, and it's bigger than South by Southwest.” Jo: Oh, I remember him. Austin: He would say, “Every time I have a new print, I put it out, and there's a button, and then they buy it.” He was like, “You've got to get it. This newsletter thing is killer.” This was in 2011 or something. Jo: Yes, I still have his books. Blogging in Your Underwear or something. Austin: Totally. So Hugh's a whole different story, but I was just like, “Oh, I should really get a newsletter.” Letterman always had a top 10 list on his show. I just always thought a 10 list was really fun. And of course the books are lists of 10 too. So it just worked to have a weekly list of 10. It felt good, and it felt like an infinitely repeatable format. What I'm looking for as a creative person is an infinitely repeatable format that can go on and on and on and be new every time. So the list of 10 is something that people know the form of. It goes back to the Taco Bell thing. They know the form, but they're not sure what's going to go inside. They know it's going to be a burrito, but they don't know what's going to be in the burrito, and that's the exciting part. The newsletter, business-wise, was always a marketing cost for about the first eight years of its existence. I paid MailChimp to send it out. Then in about 2021, when I hadn't done a book for a while, my agent said, “You know, you should really think about doing a paid tier of your newsletter.” And this is to his credit, because he doesn't make anything off the newsletter. He said, “There's this thing called Substack now that makes that really easy.” So we moved to Substack in 2021 in October, and I started doing a Tuesday edition of the newsletter that was just for paid people. That grew enough that it's gone from a marketing cost to something that's almost—it's not quite as much as I make on my books, but it's close. And to be candid, my books sell pretty well. So suddenly the newsletter has become this really healthy income stream. The newsletter to me is actually the day job now. The newsletter is what really keeps the lights on. It's also the perfect mix. It's the day job, it's the thing that keeps income coming in on a regular basis, but it's also the thing I like to do the most. I'm not like a traditional writer who likes to just get lost in their book and take years and years and go away. I'm someone who loves to be doing a lot of different things. The newsletter is a perfect format for me. I'm talking myself into not quitting, actually. It's funny. It's gone from this thing that was a marketing cost to now it's a significant part of our income. That journey—such a bad word, journey—that trip has been very interesting. It's been really cool. But I'm also just lucky. I've been really lucky, and I think part of my thing is, I'm always just trying not to squander my luck. Jo: Well, the book is fantastic, and I know people are going to love it. And the newsletter, of course. So tell us— Where can people find you and your books and newsletter online? Austin: The easiest thing to do is to just go to AustinKleon.com, and that has links to everything—the books, the newsletter. I do actually keep an old-school blog still. I'm one of the few people that still maintains their blog and keeps it up to date. I'm hedging my bets because I think in the end everything will come back to a self-hosted website. I think in the end everyone's going to just go back to their little websites, or at least I hope so. Jo: Well, that was great, Austin. Thanks so much. Austin: Oh, thank you. The post Don't Call It Art: Rediscovering Creative Joy With Austin Kleon first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Most marketing teams spend the majority of their time creating content. The problem is, that's probably the wrong way round. Amy Woods makes a compelling case that if you're not spending more time on repurposing and distribution than on the original piece, you're leaving most of the value on the table.In this one, Amy joined Joe to talk through how to build a content calendar you can actually maintain, why strategy has to come before systems, and what it looks like to plan your repurposing before you've even hit record. There's a lot of practical, immediately useful thinking here, including the 30/70 split that might make you rethink your whole flow.+Amy Woods: linkedin.com/in/amywoods2Content 10X: www.content10x.comContent 10X Podcast: www.content10x.com/podcast+Timestamps:00:00 - Introduction01:45 - What repurposing actually means05:30 - Why distribution gets skipped11:00 - The 30/70 time split13:30 - Strategy before systems20:00 - How far ahead to plan28:00 - Different directions repurposing can flow39:30 - A full repurposing walkthrough48:00 - Quick fire community questions+If you enjoyed this, please like and subscribe - it genuinely helps us reach more marketers like you.Join 35,000+ marketers getting our weekly newsletter (it's free): https://themarketingmeetup.com/newsletterListen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marketing-meetup-podcast/id1365546447Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5QvmFdxg5pMwsfPkKjhXl9+ The Marketing Meetup thrives for many reasons, but one of the crucial reasons we're able to do what we do is because we have the support of some incredible individuals from some equally inspiring companies. Below is the list of our partners in crime: our amigos. All we have to say is a big, massive, thank you.Cambridge Marketing College: The place to go for marketing qualifications (CIM, CIPR) and marketing apprenticeships. Cambridge Marketing College have supported us since day one, and are an unbelievably kind bunch of people.Frontify: The Frontify DAM simplifies brand workflows so marketing teams can deliver engaging experiences on a global scale, fast.Planable: Planable's the content collaboration platform that helps marketing teams create, plan, review, and approve all their awesome marketing content.Mailchimp: Join a marketing platform that scales with your business. Save 20% for 12 months on Mailchimp Premium or Standard and see why millions of users trust Mailchimp to boost their ROI. Switch plans or cancel anytime.Wistia: Wistia is a complete video marketing platform that helps teams create, host, market, and measure their videos and webinars, all in one place.Prismic: Prismic is the CMS and landing page builder that powers scalable content infrastructure for modern marketing terms.Canva: An online design and publishing tool with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere.

You've identified the problem you solve (Part I) and defined your first product (Part II). Before you can sell anything, you need to collect an audience.This episode walks through building your "collectors" — the places where potential customers find you, raise their hand, and give you permission to keep talking to them. We build the entire infrastructure live using AI.Five years ago, this setup would have cost $3,000-$15,000 upfront: a web developer, email software like MailChimp, and a marketing consultant. Today, the total cost is about $32 — a $12 domain registration and $20/month for AI tools. Hosting through Vercel or Netlify is free. Email through Resend is free for up to 3,000 emails a month. Facebook groups are free.This episode covers registering a domain name, building a one-page website with an email collector using a copy-and-paste AI prompt, setting up a public Facebook group with a strategic intake question, and defining the one call to action that ties everything together.The deeper benefit: when you build it yourself with AI, you understand every piece. You can change your headline at midnight, update your email sequence without a support ticket, and move at the speed of your own decisions.The barrier to starting a business isn't money or a team anymore. It's willingness to learn the tools.Free website builder prompt and Part II worksheet available in the show notes.Next episode: Part IV — your first marketing post and social media setup.

What's the hidden tax your organization pays every time a creative asset moves from a design tool to a marketing platform, and how can you shorten the time to gain important insights about how your campaigns perform?Agility requires more than just speed. It demands that we eliminate the friction between our systems and processes so teams can move from concept to customer with minimal translation errors and maximum impact. It also means that we need to find the best ways to understand campaign performance without requiring everyone in marketing to be a data scientist.We're going to discuss:- the persistent gap between creative design and marketing execution- the value that AI-based capabilities can add to the understanding of analytics and performanceTo help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Ose Amiegheme, Head of Email Product at Intuit Mailchimp. About Ose Amiegheme Ose Amiegheme is a product leader building the future of creation and growth tools.Today, he leads product for Intuit Mailchimp's Email and omnichannel campaigns creation experiences, shaping how small businesses create content, launch campaigns, and grow across channels.Previously, he led advertising products at TikTok supporting multi-billion-dollar revenue businesses and helped launch products spanning GenAI creative tooling, campaign optimization, and advertiser control systems.Before TikTok, Ose spent four years at Adobe helping build Adobe Express, where he worked across editor experiences, AI-assisted creation, and products used by millions of creators globally. His career has followed a consistent theme of building products that empower creators and marketers to tell their story in a way that feels genuine but also standout.Outside of work, Ose is a huge soccer fan and he is excited for the upcoming soccer World Cup. Ose Amiegheme on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ose-amiegheme/ / https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyejones/ ---------- Resources ---------- Intuit Mailchimp: https://mailchimp.com/ The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://aglbrnd.co/r/2868abd8085a9703 Drive your customers to new horizons at the premier retail event of the year for Retail and Brand marketers. Learn more at CRMC 2026, June 1-3. https://aglbrnd.co/r/d15ec37a537c0d74 We're proud to be a media partner for #MAICON26 - Oct. 13-15! Learn how AI can power your marketing and business and help you grow smarter. Use code AGILE150 to save! https://aglbrnd.co/r/7fe458ced0f04658Reach your customers with Reddit. Spend $500 in ad spend, get $500 back in ad credit! Learn more: https://advertalize.com/r/491818c79fb1873fDon't miss We Make Future - the International Festival of Innovation in AI, Tech, and Digital Marketing, June 24-26 in Bologna. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/c80991afff416bb2The most influential minds in software, AI, and engineering leadership will be at WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America, September 23-25 in San Jose. Learn more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/60a7299222a7bcf1 Enjoyed the show? Tell us more at and give us a rating so others can find the show at: https://aglbrnd.co/r/faaed112fc9887f3 Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://aglbrnd.co/r/35ded3ccfb6716ba Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ist Substack wirklich nur ein Newsletter-Tool oder steckt dahinter gerade eine der spannendsten Plattformen für Personal Branding, Community-Aufbau und unabhängige Sichtbarkeit? In dieser Folge von „Be your Brand“ spricht Verena Bender mit Substack-Expertin Kristina God darüber, warum Newsletter gerade ein riesiges Comeback erleben und weshalb Substack aktuell für viele Creator, Expert:innen, Selbstständige und Personal Brands so spannend wird. Kristina gehört mit ihrem „Online Writing Club“ zu den Top-15 internationalen Substack-Publikationen und erklärt, warum Substack viel mehr ist als Mailchimp oder ein klassischer Newsletter-Anbieter. Gemeinsam sprechen sie unter anderem über: • Was Substack eigentlich ist • Wie man mit Substack startet • Subscriber gewinnen & Community aufbauen • Warum Notes aktuell der größte Wachstumstreiber sind • Unterschiede zwischen Substack, Mailchimp & klassischen Newsletter-Tools • LinkedIn + Substack als starke Kombination • Sichtbarkeit durch Schreiben • Creator Economy & unabhängige Plattformen • Personal Branding auf Substack • Monetarisierung durch Paid Subscriber • langfristige Sichtbarkeit statt kurzfristiger Reichweite • warum viele Menschen online zu früh aufgeben Außerdem erzählt Kristina: • wie sie selbst zu Substack gekommen ist, • warum sie auf Englisch veröffentlicht, • wie sie ihre ersten Subscriber gewonnen hat, • warum Subscriber oft wichtiger sind als Follower • und weshalb gerade im deutschsprachigen Raum noch enormes Potenzial auf der Plattform liegt. Eine Folge für alle, die: • sichtbar werden wollen, • mit ihrem Wissen Reichweite aufbauen möchten, • über einen Newsletter nachdenken, • ihre Personal Brand stärken wollen • oder sich unabhängiger von klassischen Social-Media-Plattformen machen möchten. Mehr zu Kristina God: auf Substack: https://substack.com/@kristinagod und auch hier: onlinewritingclub.com Mehr von mir findest du in meinem Newsletter mit Impulsen rund um Personal Branding, Sichtbarkeit und Positionierung. Newsletter https://beyourbrand.substack.com/ Außerdem begleite ich Menschen im 1:1 Personal Branding Coaching dabei, mit ihrer Expertise sichtbar zu werden. Coaching: https://prleben.de/coachings/

This webinar covers practical video marketing for marketers, including a two-hour production workflow, AI-assisted scripting with Claude, talking head video setup, audio quality tips, editing tools like CapCut and Wistia, and how to repurpose footage across portrait and landscape. Chris Lavigne, Head of Production at Wistia, shares how to make videos that earn their keep without chasing views.Timestamps:00:00 - Introduction03:55 - The two-hour workflow06:20 - Start with one question09:15 - Scripting with AI12:45 - Shoot setup and audio19:00 - Editing tools21:00 - Publishing to LinkedIn23:00 - Real video ROI25:10 - Gear walkthrough28:20 - Q&A33:30 - Camera-shy teams41:30 - Portrait vs landscape52:55 - Outdoor shooting58:10 - Motion graphics on a budgetWatch / listen:Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marketing-meetup-podcast/id1365546447Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5QvmFdxg5pMwsfPkKjhXl9The Marketing Meetup thrives for many reasons, but one of the crucial reasons we're able to do what we do is because we have the support of some incredible individuals from some equally inspiring companies. Below is the list of our partners in crime: our amigos. All we have to say is a big, massive, thank you.Cambridge Marketing College: The place to go for marketing qualifications (CIM, CIPR) and marketing apprenticeships. Cambridge Marketing College have supported us since day one, and are an unbelievably kind bunch of people.Frontify: The Frontify DAM simplifies brand workflows so marketing teams can deliver engaging experiences on a global scale, fast.Planable: Planable's the content collaboration platform that helps marketing teams create, plan, review, and approve all their awesome marketing content.Mailchimp: Join a marketing platform that scales with your business. Save 20% for 12 months on Mailchimp Premium or Standard and see why millions of users trust Mailchimp to boost their ROI. Switch plans or cancel anytime.Wistia: Wistia is a complete video marketing platform that helps teams create, host, market, and measure their videos and webinars, all in one place.Prismic: Prismic is the CMS and landing page builder that powers scalable content infrastructure for modern marketing terms.Canva: An online design and publishing tool with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere.Want to find out more about our sponsors, and their exclusive TMM discounts and resources? Head here: https://themarketingmeetup.com/location/virtual/, sign up to a webinar and opt-in to receive your unique offer :)

Join Flodesk Partner, Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS for a robust deep dive into the evolving landscape of email marketing, practical technical strategies, and AI's impact — all centered around the power of Flodesk for creators, small business owners, and marketers. Discover how Flodesk outperforms industry standards with 17% higher email visibility and why its technical backbone (including Amazon SES integration) leads to superior open and click-through rates. Favour dispels myths about pricing, reveals pitfalls of competitor platforms like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and ConvertKit, and walks through the essential metrics and best practices that drive sustainable growth.Explore actionable tactics for segmenting your list, building workflows, ensuring compliance, managing DNS records, and even leveraging backlinks from within your email platform. Gain insight into content strategy, the importance of high-quality list growth over vanity numbers, and how to work through mental blocks or burnout as a digital creative. Favour also unpacks the risks and opportunities of AI-driven content, the importance of protecting your web assets from scraping, and emerging best practices as AI reshapes marketing. For creators feeling overwhelmed by platform choices, technical jargon, or skepticism about automation and visibility stats, this episode offers clarity, step-by-step guidance, and a boost of confidence to take your email marketing to the next level. Learn from real-world examples, industry benchmarks, and practical tools that favor sustainable relationship-driven marketing over spammy tactics.Who Is This For?Entrepreneurs and small business owners Solopreneurs and digital creators Email marketing beginners to intermediates Marketing professionals looking for actionable technical advice Anyone considering Flodesk or seeking more ROI from email tools Creatives interested in building sustainable, compliant audience relationships List managers wanting to increase engagement and deliverabilityReady to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

How Stories Happen is now Why They Resonate. Here's why and what to expect next. Plus, learn the single Italian word which says so much about our creative work — and why it's the driving force behind the show's rebrand and revival. EPISODE CREDITS:Written and produced by me, Jay Acunzo. For more, subscribe to my newsletter→Music by Embleton (Instagram - Facebook).***ABOUT ME, JAY ACUNZOI'm a public speaking and storytelling advisor trusted by bestselling authors, TED speakers, seven-figure coaches, and brands like Mailchimp, Wistia, and Salesforce. Before starting my advisory firm (where I work 1:1 with clients and run group programs), I was a digital media strategist at Google and head of content for 3 organizations, including HubSpot.I've given keynotes across the US and several other countries to marketers and managers, designers and dentists, leaders and landscapers, and my journey as a speaker has been featured in 3 different books.Today, I teach business leaders how to communicate with greater clarity, influence, and resonance.Learn more about my work at jayacunzo.com.***IF YOU ENJOY THE SHOW:Leave a review on Apple Podcasts Leave a rating on Spotify Thanks for your support! Keep making what matters.

Most publishers view their email list as a cost center, especially as providers like Mailchimp and HubSpot continue to hike their prices. When a list balloons, the knee-jerk reaction is often to "clean" it by deleting thousands of leads or slashing newsletter frequency to stay under a pricing tier. In this episode, we explain why this "cost-saving" measure is actually a direct hit to your bottom line. We dive into the data behind the Publisher Flywheel, the surge in growth from new list-building tools, and how to protect your database from bots without sacrificing future recurring revenue.Key Topics DiscussedThe "Panic-Delete" Trap: A look at why deleting "unengaged" subscribers can cost you more than you save. We break down the math of how a small monthly savings on email overhead can result in a $15,000 loss in annual subscription revenue.Why Less Frequency Means Fewer Subscriptions: We analyze data from a publisher who cut their newsletter from daily to weekly. The result? A clear drop-off in paid signups. We discuss why your newsletter is the primary "momentum" engine for your paywall.The 5x Growth Factor: An update on the results we're seeing with the new Leaky Paywall List Builder. We discuss why a full-screen takeover on the second article view is outperforming traditional pop-ups and what to do when your list starts growing faster than expected.Implementing a "Sunset Policy": Instead of hitting the delete button, learn how to use re-engagement segments. We discuss the strategy of moving unengaged readers to a "Do Not Send" list to lower your costs while preserving your most valuable marketing asset.Front-End Quality Control: A deep dive into three levels of list defense: Password requirements, silent email verification, and One-Time Passwords (OTP). Learn how to block bots and "junk" emails at the point of entry so your subscriber table stays 100% clean.Links & Resources Mentioned:Leaky PaywallList Builder Email Verification ServiceNewsletter Glue

Become a member of AIAP to participate in these discussions: https://forms.aiap.net/forms/createaccount Is social media really the best place to find your next big architecture client? In this episode of A Photographer's Life, members of the Association of Independent Architectural Photographers (AIAP) pull back the curtain on their most effective business tool: Email Marketing. While everyone else is chasing "likes," top-tier pros are seeing 30%+ open rates and landing consistent contracts through curated, high-value email campaigns. In this episode, we dive into: • The "Social Media Trap": Why awareness doesn't always equal hires. • Lead Generation Secrets: How to use LinkedIn, SMPS rosters, and tools like Hunter.io and LeadLeaper to find the right decision-makers. •Targeting the Right Hierarchy: Should you be emailing Marketing Directors, Partners, or Project Architects? •Technical Success: Why you must use a reputable service (like Mailchimp or Benchmark) to avoid the dreaded spam folder. •The Long Game: How one campaign can fuel your business for months. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting to build your firm's contact list, this discussion offers a roadmap to making your marketing as precise as your photography. This podcast is Copyright 2026, The Association of Independent Architectural Photographers™, All Rights Reserved. This content may not be used in full or in part without the written consent of the AIAP. Don't forget to like the video and subscribe to the channel. #ArchitecturalPhotography #PhotographyBusiness #EmailMarketing #AIAP #PhotographyTips #CreativeEntrepreneur #MarketingForPhotographers

Ever worried you're missing your shot at breakthrough growth because your leadership team is stuck in old patterns?This episode is a raw look inside the mind of Sheldon Cummings, former Chief Operating Officer at Mailchimp and current President and General Manager at Smarsh, who's steered brands across continents and navigated acquisition into one of the world's most powerful tech companies. Cameron Herold digs deep into resilience, ruthless prioritization, and the magic of connecting culture to results, all delivered with a straight-shooter's clarity. If you're tired of shallow “success stories” and want the playbook for leading teams through uncertain times, this is your urgent reality check.Don't wait for your competitors to outpace you. Listen now! The invisible skills (and mistakes) revealed here will save you from costly setbacks, wasted energy, and slow, silent failure. These exclusive insights aren't recycled elsewhere. Your team (and your sanity) can't afford to miss this.Timestamped Highlights[00:00] – The one moment that reset Sheldon Cummings's entire career path… and how he engineered opportunity from chaos06:42 – How a bold toolkit-first mindset kept propelling him up—across continents, industries, and uncertain times11:07 – “Can you run a business you don't ‘make'?” The surprising truth from global CPG frontlines17:05 – The #1 underdog advantage in modern marketing—why Mailchimp doubled down on it during COVID18:36 – What nobody tells you about integrating remote teams after a billion-dollar acquisition22:58 – Ruthless prioritization in product roadmap: When discipline trumps ideas (and keeps customers loyal)24:41 – Find the real numbers that matter: How top execs slice through data noise (and ignore 9,000 distractions)35:40 – How to unfreeze middle management and create instant buy-in during relentless changeAbout the GuestSheldon Cummings is the former Chief Operating Officer for Mailchimp. Before stepping into his leadership role at Mailchimp, he had a dual role as a VP Intuit Sales in addition to serving as Intuit's Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer (CDEIO). Since joining Intuit in 2017, Sheldon has led a number of leadership positions across Intuit's Sales, Marketing, Global Partnerships, and Global Operations teams. Prior to Intuit Sheldon has had a number of roles across industries and countries, including leading a European business for 6 years headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. Sheldon, a native of New York City, graduated with a BA from Wesleyan University, and received his MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management with concentrations in Finance, Marketing, and Strategy. He is currently the President and General Manager of Smarsh.

If you're sending the same email to everyone on your list and wondering why it's not driving the sales you expected, this episode is for you.I'm Catherine Erdly, and this is Resilient Retail Game Plan — practical product business advice with a healthy dose of reality.In this episode I'm sitting down with Ali Wood from Intuit Mailchimp to get practical about how independent retailers and e-commerce brands can get dramatically more from their email and SMS marketing — using data they already have.We talk about why fragmented data is costing retailers real money, how segmentation can transform your customer relationships, and why the retailers who win over the next few years won't be the ones with the biggest budgets — they'll be the ones who are smartest with their data.In this episode you'll hear about:Why sending the same message to your whole list is leaving money on the tableHow to use customer lifetime value and buying propensity to automate smarter campaignsThe power of combining email and SMS — including a 22x ROI stat from SMS alone, and 41x when Shopify data is in the mixCreative ways to collect richer customer data through quizzes, pop-ups and behavioural signalsWhat clean data + AI + human creativity actually looks like for a lean retail teamWhether you're just starting to think about segmentation or already running email campaigns and want to level up, this conversation will leave you with a genuinely different way of thinking about your marketing.CHAPTERS00:00:40 The Gold Mine Independent Retailers Are Sitting On00:02:10 Meet Ali Wood from Intuit Mailchimp00:04:40 How Mailchimp Evolved from Email Tool to Full Automation Platform00:08:22 The Segmentation Shift: Stop Sending the Same Email to Everyone00:11:29 Creative Ways to Collect Better Customer Data00:14:45 Using SMS to Drive Email Open Rates00:15:11 How We're Working With Intuit Mailchimp00:16:33 Measuring What's Actually Working Across All Your Channels00:18:30 Think Strategy, Not Just Open Rates00:21:17 SMS Best Practices: What's Working for E-Commerce Brands00:23:24 The Trust Factor: Why Phone Numbers Are Different from Email Addresses00:23:44 The Numbers: 22x ROI on SMS, 41x with Shopify00:25:58 AI + Human Creativity: The Future of Small Business Marketing00:27:45 Clean Data, Automation & Analytics: The Loop That Wins00:29:07 Catherine's Key Takeaways & Call to ActionMentioned in this episode: resilientretailclub.com/mailchimpNote: This episode was produced in partnership with Intuit Mailchimp. All views expressed are Catherine's own.

What happens when a coworking operator gets completely fed up with their tech stack… and decides to build their own solution? That's exactly what Dan Wesson and Chelle Peterson did. Dan and Chelle are the co-founders of The Post Workspace and CoLevel, and I've known them since they went through Coworking Startup School back in 2018. It has been so fun to watch their journey from launching their space in Tucson to building a platform that's now helping operators all over the world. They didn't set out to create software. They just wanted to run a better coworking space. But after juggling Calendly, DocuSign, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, social schedulers, answering services… and still missing leads, still feeling overwhelmed, still wondering what was falling through the cracks… they hit a breaking point. So they fixed it. We talk about: – What they were actually dealing with behind the scenes before building CoLevel – The moment they realized their tech stack was holding them back – Why speed to lead is one of the biggest missed opportunities in coworking – How automation can increase hospitality (not replace it) – What it looks like to compete with larger operators without a big team If you've ever felt like your tech stack is running you instead of the other way around… this one will hit home. Resources Mentioned in this Podcast: Daniel Wesson on LinkedIn Chelle Peterson on LinkedIn CoLevel What Every Coworking Operator Needs to Know About Lease Renewals Everything Coworking Featured Resources: Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space Coworking Startup School Community Manager University Follow Us on YouTube

Alicia breaks down Intuit's fiscal Q2 2026 earnings report, covering strong performance from QuickBooks Online, TurboTax, and Credit Karma alongside a notable drag from MailChimp. She also unpacks Intuit's growing push into the mid-market through Intuit Enterprise Suite, its expanding AI strategy — including a new integration with Claude Cowork — and what looming price increases could mean for small businesses and their bookkeepers.SponsorsUNC - https://uqb.promo/unc(00:00) - Q2 2026 Report Overview (00:52) - QuickBooks Growth Drivers (01:16) - Intuit Enterprise Suite Surge (02:11) - Claude AI Inside IES (03:07) - QBO Services and SMB Trends (04:19) - TurboTax and Credit Karma Wins (04:53) - Assisted Tax Push (06:40) - MailChimp Slows Down (07:50) - Guidance and HI Focus (08:58) - AI Monetization and Pricing (10:39) - Competitive Moat and Data (11:49) - Wrap Up and Key Takeaways (12:30) - Alicia Updates and Classes LINKSIntuit's FQ2 January 2026 earnings report: https://investors.intuit.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1307/intuit-reports-strong-second-quarter-results-and-reiterates-full-year-guidanceAlicia's upcoming classes: eCommerce in QBO: http://royl.ws/e-commerce?affiliate=5393907 Baby's Got Backups: http://royl.ws/QBO-Backups?affiliate=5393907  3rd Party Apps: http://royl.ws/3rdparty?affiliate=5393907  We want to hear from you!Send your questions and comments to us at unofficialquickbookspodcast@gmail.com.Join our LinkedIn community at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14630719/Visit our YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/@UnofficialQuickBooksPodcast?sub_confirmation=1 Sign up to Earmark to earn free CPE for listening to this podcasthttps://www.earmark.app/onboarding 

If you want to sell more art, stop tracking likes and start tracking the leading indicators that actually create consistent sales. In this episode, I'm breaking down the most important concept artists miss when it comes to growing income: sales are a lagging indicator.  Sales are the harvest. The smoke. The result. So if you want consistent sales, you have to track the leading indicators, the seeds you're planting that create those results later. We'll cover metrics across five areas: Creativity metrics Visibility metrics Email metrics Relationship metrics Mindset metrics And then we'll land on the one metric that matters most: consistency. Because better art, better marketing, and better sales won't happen without it.  If you've been feeling powerless when sales slow down, this episode will give you your agency back, plus a simple tracking framework that helps you adjust without spiraling. Make sure to subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss a thing! And don't forget to come hang with me on Instagram @jodie_king_. Interested in being a guest on a future episode of Honest Art®? Email me at amy@jodieking.com! Resources mentioned: Join me for an in-person workshop: https://jodieking.com/workshop  Looking for an artist community? Join us in the Honest Art® Society: https://www.jodiekingart.com/has  Jodie's FAVORITE business tool. Does Instagram feel overwhelming? Learn how to attract collectors on IG Need to learn how to use email marketing? This episode is for you! Active Campaign: www.activecampaign.com  Flo Desk: www.flodesk.com   Mailchimp: www.mailchimp.com Stop playing small and start creating with courage with the Honest Art® Society Elevate Your Art, Business, and Community inside the Studio Elite Mastermind Join Jodie for one of her upcoming workshops Worthy by Jamie Kern Lima: https://amzn.to/47x68bA  Have a question for Jodie? Ask it here: https://forms.gle/hxrVu4oL4PVCKwZm6  How are you liking the Honest Art® Podcast? Leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform and let us know!     Watch this full episode on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLMquJfuMsSg0fr46BRdia1cWd-81GThzF For a full list of show notes and links, check out my blog: www.jodieking.com/podcast   DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission at no additional charge on your end. Thank you for supporting my channel!