Podcasts about Mailchimp

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.

Ryan Pearcy and Indi Tatla cover a big week in accounting tech, from Starling's contested MTD launch to Intuit cutting 3,000 jobs and Xero's push to own the workflow layer. Starling Bank launched Accounting Essentials in March, a free bookkeeping and MTD submission tool for sole traders and landlords built on its acquisition of Ember. Indi walks through Lucy Cohen's analysis, which found 18% of entries in a fully reconciled ledger had no corresponding bank entry for the same period. That raises serious questions about what happens when AI-categorised bank data is the primary input for MTD submissions. Ryan notes that Starling had built a strong accountant partner channel and the "job done" framing has damaged those relationships. Neither host disputes the product's convenience. Both dispute that convenience is the same thing as accuracy. Xero has announced XeroForce, a no-code agent builder that lets practices describe repeatable processes in plain English and run them as automated workflows across clients and connected apps. The ambition is to shift Xero from the ledger layer to the workflow layer, with audit trails and sign-off controls across an entire client base. Indi is sceptical about how it performs against messy real-world data and edge-case tax rules. Ryan raises whether XeroCon might be where Xero fills in the technical detail. Intuit has cut around 3,000 roles, 17% of its global workforce, across QuickBooks, TurboTax, Credit Karma and Mailchimp, announcing the cuts on the same day it raised its full-year revenue guidance. Indi frames it as AI shifting from feature roadmap to operating model, and notes that Intuit has a history of testing "you don't need an accountant" messaging in other markets before the UK. Also covered: Starling adds Tap to Pay via Adyen; Bokio exits the UK on 30 June with six weeks notice to users; Sage Copilot now included in Sage Business Cloud Accounting at no extra charge; Ignition launches beta integrations with Vinyl and FYI; a correction on Xero Workpapers access when clients disconnect; and Xero practitioner awards are not running in the UK this year. 00:00 Welcome to the Digi-Tools in Accrual World podcast 03:55 Starling says 'job done' on Making Tax Digital. Accountants have thoughts. 11:17 Starling adds Tap to Pay via Adyen, extending its accounting suite to contactless payments 13:10 XeroForce: Xero launches a no-code AI agent builder for financial workflows 19:18 Bokio exits the UK on 30 June, giving users six weeks to save their data 22:12 Intuit cuts 3,000 jobs and signs deals with Anthropic and OpenAI 25:42 Sage Copilot now available to all Sage Business Cloud Accounting users at no additional charge 27:40 Ignition launches Vinyl and FYI integrations 31:00 Xero Workpapers Correction 32:40 Xero practitioner awards skip the UK in 2026, with the programme running in other regions 36:33 Rate, Subscribe and Nominate for the Digital Disruptor Awards

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.

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/

00:00 - Intro and welcoming Skye back from her Spanish adventures 06:00 - Q1: How do you balance learning new tech and AI without losing sight of actually coaching? 11:25 - Q2: The number one personal habit limiting coaches in their business 20:25 - Q3: MailChimp vs ActiveCampaign, what should coaches actually be using? 25:20 - Q4: The most challenging and rewarding parts of family life as a self-employed PT 31:40 - Q5: Is "Lift Bitch" too offensive as a male coach marketing to women?Skye's back. After a few weeks off and what felt like a full tour of northern Spain, we're back together and straight into the questions.First up: how do you keep up with all the new tech and AI without losing sight of actually coaching? The answer isn't about finding some perfect balance. It's about making deliberate decisions. You're not going to absorb everything at once, and waiting for a moment of clarity that never comes is exactly how you stay stuck. Block the time. Pick the thing. Build the process. The tech exists to give you time back to coach better, not to replace the work you need to put in.Then we get into the habits that are genuinely holding coaches back, and we don't pull punches. Work ethic comes up, but not in the generic sense. The real issue is consistently avoiding the hard, uncomfortable tasks in favour of the ones that feel productive without moving the needle. Self-accountability is a big one too, specifically the habit of externalising it, expecting someone else to keep you on track when that's never really how it works. Then there's the emotional side: letting a good week become an excuse to ease off, or a tough week become a reason to go quiet. The business doesn't care which kind of week you're having.From there it gets practical. MailChimp versus ActiveCampaign, which one should a newer coach actually start with? There's a straight breakdown of where each one fits, what ActiveCampaign does significantly better, where Canva and Wix sit in the landing page conversation, and why the right answer depends more on where you're heading than where you are right now.Ant then gets asked about the personal side of building a career in this industry while raising a family. It's an honest one. The distinction between being physically present and actually being present is something that lands.We close out with a question that sparks a proper debate. A coach wants to know whether naming his women's programme "Lift Bitch" is too offensive when he's a man coaching women. There's a creative alternative involving Britney Spears, a conversation about audience trust and context, and a story about Bang Tidy Bootcamps in Manchester that you need to hear for yourself.

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.

Going freelance or fractional sounds like freedom. But there's a lot between handing in your notice and building something that actually works. In this webinar, Luan Wise, Steve Folland and Ayo Abbas joined us to share what they wish they'd known before making the jump, covering everything from choosing your title to finding your first clients and setting a rate you can stand behind.Between them, they bring decades of real experience running their own businesses as marketing consultants and freelancers. The conversation covers the parts that rarely come up in how-to guides. The identity shift when you go solo. The discomfort of quoting your rate. The contracts and the admin. And why having more than one client matters far more than most people realise when they're just starting out.Key topics include:Why the words freelance, consultant and fractional signal very different things to clients, and how to choose the one that fits the work you want to doHow Luan, Steve and Ayo found their first clients, and the role that old contacts, referrals and consistent visibility each playedSetting a rate for the first time and why knowing your own value stays uncomfortable even with years of experience behind youThe business admin that catches people off guard, including contracts, IR35, scope creep and keeping proper financial recordsWhy spreading your work across multiple clients from the start is a protective strategy, not just a nice-to-haveHow AI is shifting what clients expect from consultants, and how to position your expertise alongside itTimestamps:00:00 - Introduction04:00 - Choosing your title13:00 - Perception and identity22:00 - Making the transition30:00 - Finding clients40:00 - Setting your rate50:00 - AI and your business56:00 - Audience Q&AWatch / listen:Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marketing-meetup-podcast/id1365546447Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5QvmFdxg5pMwsfPkKjhXl9Please take the time to check out our partners, all of whom we work with because we think they're useful companies for lovely marketers.Frontify — all your brand assets in one place: Frontify combines DAM, brand guidelines, and templates into a collaborative source of brand truth.Canva - an online design and publishing tool with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere - it's our go-to design software.Mailchimp — the all-in-one marketing platform that helps teams turn emails, automation, and now SMS into smarter, more connected customer journeys (and they've been longtime friends of TMM!).Cambridge Marketing College — the best place to get your marketing qualifications and apprenticeships.Planable — the content collaboration platform that helps marketing teams create, plan, review, and approve all their awesome marketing content. It's how we keep our social scheduling calm and organised. Wistia — a complete video marketing platform that helps teams create, host, market, and measure their videos and webinars, all in one place.Prismic — the CMS and landing page builder that powers scalable content infrastructure for modern Marketing teams.

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

In this episode Live from Shoptalk, host Isaac Morey sits down with Ken Chestnut, the Global Head of Partner Ecosystem at Intuit, live from the floor of Shoptalk in Las Vegas. If you have ever wondered how industry leaders like Intuit—the powerhouse behind QuickBooks and Mailchimp—are bridging the gap between financial operations and marketing growth, this episode provides a front-row seat. They discuss the realities of the modern Martech stack, the strategic implementation of artificial intelligence, and why retention is the new frontier for small business success.Key TakeawaysRetention Over Acquisition: Ken emphasizes that "retention is the new acquisition." While top-of-funnel marketing is important, businesses achieve higher ROI by focusing on loyalty and servicing existing customers effectively.AI as a Means, Not an End: Rather than viewing AI as a content-generation tool, Intuit uses it for predictive analytics and personalization at scale, helping business owners "punch above their weight class" without needing massive marketing departments.The Power of Integration: A significant hurdle for small businesses is data silos. By integrating platforms like Shopify with QuickBooks and Mailchimp, businesses can move away from "data hoarding" and toward actionable insights.The Rise of Agentic Commerce: Ken shares a forward-looking perspective on "agentic-to-agentic" purchasing, where AI agents handle transactions. He notes that the next great challenge for brands will be ensuring their identity and personalization strategies remain relevant when a bot—not a human—is making the buying decision.The conversation opens with a focus on the core mission of Intuit: providing an end-to-end platform for small businesses. Ken explains that while QuickBooks handles the "run" side of business, Mailchimp powers the "grow" side. He highlights a critical shift in marketing strategy, noting, "The ROI on owned channels, whether it's email or SMS, is significantly higher than paid media, often reaching up to 40x ROI."As the discussion progresses, Isaac and Ken address the common struggle of data silos. Many businesses use between 6 and 20 different technologies, creating a fragmented view of their customers. Ken explains how Intuit leverages AI to unify this data, specifically citing the February integration with Shopify as a prime example. "Our top 10% of joint merchants are seeing on average a 30x ROI because of that deep end-to-end solution," Ken notes, emphasizing the impact of combined roadmaps and joint innovation.Finally, the discussion turns to the future. Ken shares his "hot take" on the shift toward agentic purchasing. He challenges listeners to think about how their brand will maintain its value when automated agents prioritize price and specifications over brand loyalty. The episode concludes with a look at Intuit's move into the mid-market space, ensuring that as their smallest customers succeed and scale, the Intuit ecosystem scales right along with them.Final Thoughts:This episode serves as a reminder that the most successful businesses are those that minimize friction and maximize intelligence. By integrating financial data with marketing efforts, merchants can turn their numbers into narratives that drive genuine loyalty. As the industry moves toward AI-driven decision-making, the ability to build an effective ecosystem will be the best strategy of the modern commerce era.Chapters00:00 - Introduction to the episode and setting the scene at Shoptalk01:45 - The role of ecosystem management in modern commerce03:30 - Distinguishing between bolt-on tools and foundational platform architecture06:15 - Criteria for selecting high-value partners08:45 - Maintaining platform consistency while fostering third-party innovation12:20 - Closing thoughts on the future of ecosystem growthAbout Our GuestKen Chestnut is the Global Head of Partner Ecosystem for @Intuit Mailchimp. With an extensive background in defining and scaling technology alliances at companies like AWS and Stripe, Ken specializes in category definition and go-to-market strategies. He is focused on building ecosystems where both technology and service partners contribute meaningfully to the success of small and mid-sized businesses globally.This has been produced in cooperation with Content Cucumberhttps://www.contentcucumber.com/Follow Talk Commerce on your favorite platform:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@talkcommerceBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/talkcommerce.bsky.socialApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talk-commerce/id1561204656Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7Alx6N7ERrPEXIBb41FZ1nTwitter: @talkingcommerceLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/talk-commerceFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/talkingcommerceWebsite: https://talk-commerce.com/

The March 2026 Update covers major changes across the show, including a new thumbnail system created with vibe coding, a move from Mailchimp to Kit for the Dispatch newsletter, and a new way to publish live show notes for viewers and patrons. Chuck also outlines schedule update, highlights the role of MacVoices Magazine, and thanks supporters whose contributions help keep everything moving forward.  Show Notes: Chapters: [0:00] Introduction to the March 2026 update [0:09] Overview of major changes underway [1:13] New thumbnail workflow and vibe-coded app [2:06] Using Claude for vibe coding projects [3:04] Why the newsletter platform changed [3:49] Transition from Mailchimp to Kit [6:27] New process for distributing live show notes [8:00] Early access to show notes for patrons [9:45] April schedule adjustments and travel conflicts [10:39] Broader evolution of the show and future plans [10:57] Purpose and value of the magazine [13:08] Monthly support report and patron thanks [14:07] Upcoming April coverage and closing remarks Support: Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect: Web:      http://macvoices.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/ MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/ Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher: Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

The March 2026 Update covers major changes across the show, including a new thumbnail system created with vibe coding, a move from Mailchimp to Kit for the Dispatch newsletter, and a new way to publish live show notes for viewers and patrons. Chuck also outlines schedule update, highlights the role of MacVoices Magazine, and thanks supporters whose contributions help keep everything moving forward. Show Notes: Chapters: [0:00] Introduction to the March 2026 update [0:09] Overview of major changes underway [1:13] New thumbnail workflow and vibe-coded app [2:06] Using Claude for vibe coding projects [3:04] Why the newsletter platform changed [3:49] Transition from Mailchimp to Kit [6:27] New process for distributing live show notes [8:00] Early access to show notes for patrons [9:45] April schedule adjustments and travel conflicts [10:39] Broader evolution of the show and future plans [10:57] Purpose and value of the magazine [13:08] Monthly support report and patron thanks [14:07] Upcoming April coverage and closing remarks Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:      http://macvoices.com      Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

What happens when a 50-year-old brand built on whistleblowing and independent journalism has to master digital subscriptions? For Ben Moss, CEO of The Moss Report and Publisher of the Townsend Letter, the answer was trading a "leaky" paywall for a high-value "Essentials" strategy.In this episode of the Paywall Podcast powered by Leaky Paywall, Ben joins Pete to discuss how he modernized two legendary niche publications without losing the "Trust Moat" his father built over half a century. They dive deep into the mechanics of the digital transition, including:The "Essentials" Strategy: How Ben replaced a standard metered paywall with a curated "Starter Pack" of 20 high-value articles—and why it triggered a 30% spike in free registrations.The Power of the Automated Drip: A look at the 18-email onboarding sequence that nurtures new readers from "casual visitor" to "mission-driven subscriber."Consolidating the Tech Stack: Why Ben moved away from "Frankenstein" setups (like Mailchimp) to an integrated Flow Letter and Leaky Paywall dashboard to save time and reduce technical debt.Acquiring a Legacy: The reality of taking over the 40-year-old Townsend Letter, moving it from a declining print-and-ad model to a 100% digital, reader-supported platform.The "Patreon" Mindset: Why authenticity and a whistleblowing legacy are the ultimate competitive advantages in an AI-driven world where "information is cheap, but trust is expensive."If you are a niche publisher wondering how to turn a loyal "analog" audience into a thriving digital community, this episode is a blueprint for building a brand that readers don't just read, they fund.

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 

Are you pouring energy into social media, podcast guesting, and SEO — only to watch those visitors disappear with no way to reach them again? In this episode of Her Faith at Work, Jan Touchberry reveals why your email list is the single most powerful organic marketing tool a Christian woman entrepreneur can build — and why every other visibility strategy you use becomes exponentially more effective when it feeds into a well-tended list.Jan breaks down the "bucket with a hole in it" problem that plagues even the most visible online businesses, walks through what a healthy email list actually does for your bottom line, brings a faith-based perspective on email stewardship, and gives you a practical 5-step framework — including a complete welcome sequence breakdown — to start building and tending your list today.What We Cover in This EpisodeWhy social media is "borrowed ground" — and what that means for your business stabilityThe mindset shift: your email list is the engine of visibility, not the reward for it4 things a healthy email list does for your business (including the one that directly impacts revenue)Why building an email list is an act of faith-based stewardshipThe 5 practical components you need to start growing your listA complete breakdown of the 5-email welcome sequence that warms up new subscribersWhat to do right now — whether you have no list, a dormant list, or a thriving oneKey Takeaways1. Social Media Is Borrowed GroundYou do not own your Instagram following, your Facebook page, or your TikTok audience. Algorithms shift, accounts get shut down, platforms disappear. Your email list is the one audience asset you actually own — and you can take it with you anywhere.2. Your List Is the Engine, Not the RewardWaiting until you have a "big enough" following to focus on your email list is a costly mistake. Every piece of visibility content you create — podcast appearances, SEO blog posts, collaborations — becomes dramatically more effective when it flows to a list that captures and retains interested people.3. Email Converts Better Than Social MediaPeople on your email list have already taken a step toward you. They are not passive scrollers — they are engaged. The data consistently shows that email subscribers convert to buyers at a significantly higher rate than social media followers.4. Your List Is a Stewardship ResponsibilityWhen someone hands you their email address, they are trusting you with something personal. Stewarding that access well — showing up with intention, delivering real value, not abusing the relationship — reflects the kind of business you are called to build.5. Consistency Is CompoundingEvery email you send is a deposit into the relationship. Going silent for months and then appearing in someone's inbox to sell something is a trust-breaker. You don't have to email daily — but you do have to show up regularly enough that people remember who you are.The 5-Email Welcome Sequence BreakdownJan walks through her recommended welcome sequence for new subscribers:Email 1 — Deliver & Introduce (Send immediately)Deliver the freebie, introduce yourself in 2-3 sentences, and tell subscribers what to expect from you going forward. Keep it short and warm.Email 2 — Your Story (Send 1-2 days later)Why do you do what you do? What brought you here? People buy from people they relate to — this is where that connection starts.Email 3 — Address the Core Problem (Send 2-3 days later)Speak directly to the struggle that brought them to your list. Show them you understand. This is not a sales email — it's an "I see you" email.Email 4 — Teach Something Useful (Send 2-3 days later)Give a quick win. A tip, a framework, a simple shift they can apply immediately. Proving your value before you ask for anything builds trust fast.Email 5 — Make an Offer (Send 2-3 days later)Now you've earned the right to invite them into something. Keep it natural and low-pressure: "If you want to go deeper, here's how I can help."5 Things You Need to Start Building Your List1. A compelling opt-in offerSolve one specific problem for one specific person. A checklist, guide, private podcast playlist, or short video training — something that gives her a quick win.2. A dedicated landing pageA clean page that answers three questions: What is it? Who is it for? What do they get?3. An email platformFlodesk, ConvertKit, MailChimp, ActiveCampaign — the best one is the one you will actually use. Set up automated delivery so your freebie reaches subscribers immediately.4. A welcome sequenceThree to five emails that introduce you, build trust, and set up a natural first offer. Don't leave new subscribers in silence.5. ConsistencyShow up regularly. Not necessarily daily or even weekly — but often enough that your subscribers remember who you are when your email lands.Resources & Links MentionedJoin Jan's email list: jantouchberry.com/newsletterFlodesk (email platform Jan uses) — https://jantouchberry.com/emailYour Next StepNo email list yet?Start today. Pick a platform, create a simple freebie, set up a landing page. Done is better than perfect.Have a list but haven't emailed in a while?Send an email this week. No explanations needed — just show up, deliver value, and start rebuilding the habit.Already emailing consistently?Make sure your opt-in is connected to every visibility strategy you're using. Every podcast appearance, SEO post, and partnership should have a clear path to your list.CONNECT WITH JAN:Here are all the best places and FREE stuff

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!

Why Knee Surgery Recovery Is So Hard for Women Under 60 The Paradox of the Efficient Body: Pathophysiological, Biomechanical, and Endocrinological Determinants of Compromised Knee Flexion Following Total Knee Arthroplasty in Women Under 60 Intuitively, chronologically younger patients with “efficient body mechanics” should achieve superior recovery. However, the physiological vigor defining a young, healthy female patient translates into a highly reactive immune and inflammatory response to the architectural trauma of a total joint arthroplasty. This biological efficiency acts as a catalyst for rapid soft tissue contracture. Furthermore, this demographic faces a unique convergence of physiological variables: perimenopausal endocrinological shifts, uniquely female biomechanical alignments (a wider Q angle), and a high susceptibility to amplified central sensitization to pain. The X10 Meta-Blog We call it a “Meta-Blog” because we step back and give you a broad perspective on all aspects of knee health, surgery and recovery. In this one-of-a-kind blog we gather together great thinkers, doers, writers related to Knee Surgery, Recovery, Preparation, Care, Success and Failure. Meet physical therapists, coaches, surgeons, patients, and as many smart people as we can gather to create useful articles for you. Whether you have a surgery upcoming, in the rear-view mirror, or just want to take care of your knees to avoid surgery, you should find some value here. Why Knee Surgery Recovery So Hard for Women Under 60 #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; }/* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */ Subscribe to the Blog Here * indicates required Email Address * First Name Last Name

Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS hosts a two-part deep dive on email marketing and CRM platforms from the Marketing Club on Clubhouse, joined by Alex (HubSpot, agency owner), Sandra (MailerLite, digital products coach), and David (Flodesk, just starting out).The conversation spans why four out of five marketers prefer email over social media, how a single font size change drove a 73.7% open rate,Flodesk's Magic Links and auto-segmentation features (Read on G2 Reviews), subject line testing with CapitalizeMyTitle.com, deliverability testing with mail-tester.com, the "send fewer emails, get higher clicks" strategy, and the critical difference between first-party and second-party data.Book SEO Services? Save These Quick Links for Later>> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book SEO Services with Favour Obasi-ike⁠>> Visit Work and PLAY Entertainment website to learn about our digital marketing services>> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our exclusive SEO Marketing community⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠>> Read SEO Articles>> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the We Don't PLAY Podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠>> Purchase Flaev Beatz Beats Online>> Favour Obasi-ike Quick Links>> Start Recording your Podcast with Riverside Today | Sign Up with My Affiliate Link HereKey TakeawaysFont size 16 is the email sweet spot. Favour moved from 12/14 to 16 and hit a 73.7% open rate and 68.9% click rate — his highest ever.Send fewer, better emails. Cutting from 16 emails/month to 4 increased click rates from 3.5% to 17.9% over three months.For every $1 spent on email marketing, expect $42 back in impact across traffic, connections, and conversions.Flodesk Magic Links auto-segment subscribers based on what they click, eliminating manual workflow creation.Test deliverability before sending. Use InboxBooster.com to check inbox placement across Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, and AOL. A Wikipedia link triggered spam in Favour's test.Use CapitalizeMyTitle.com to score subject lines on readability, SEO, and sentiment. Score green on all three before sending.Memorable Quotes"Four out of five marketers say they would rather give up social media marketing than email marketing." — Favour [03:10, Pt.1]"It's not just what you say. It's how you say things, and how it's layered." — Favour [13:05, Pt.1]"The content you send to your audience is more important than what platform you use." — Sandra [31:18, Pt.2]"Email marketing is like an animal in itself. It's not just about sending email. It's about analyzing the data." — Sandra [29:41, Pt.2]"We divided our time in half and got more impact. From 16 emails in May to 4 in August — 15% increase in click rates." — Favour [52:00, Pt.2]FAQsQ: Which CRM platform does Favour recommend?Flodesk. He has used it since 2019 (beta). It partners with Amazon SES for high deliverability, costs $19/month for unlimited subscribers, and offers Magic Links for auto-segmentation.Q: What other platforms were discussed?Alex uses HubSpot (B2B agency), Sandra uses MailerLite (small list, digital products), Melo uses MailChimp, and Ty uses Klaviyo. Each fits different business needs and budgets.Q: How do I improve my email open rate?Increase font size to 16, test subject lines on CapitalizeMyTitle.com, test deliverability on mail-tester.com, and segment your list so every email is relevant to the recipient.Q: How often should I send emails?Quality over quantity. Favour cut from 16/month to 4/month and saw click rates jump from 3.5% to 17.9%. Send fewer emails with more substance.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Send a textLearn how to make AI 100x better at marketing using Claude Code skills — downloadable prompt frameworks that turn AI into an expert-level marketer for email marketing, SEO audits, copywriting, and automation. In this episode, Corey Haines, creator of the open-source Marketing Skills repo and founder of Conversion Factory, breaks down how agentic AI tools like Claude Code and OpenClaw let you go from manual copy-paste workflows to fully autonomous marketing systems. Discover how to use AI skills to run email campaigns through Mailchimp or Resend, automate sponsor and backlink outreach with web scraping tools like Firecrawl, optimize on-page SEO at scale, and build self-learning AI agents that improve over time. Whether you're a business owner, content creator, or marketer — this episode gives you the exact playbook to stop being the middleman and start using AI the way Don Draper would use a team of typists. Drop a comment with the first skill you're going to try!#AIMarketing #ClaudeCode #MarketingAutomationTIMESTAMPS00:00 – How AI Skills Make Marketing 100x Better 04:06 – Where to Find and Download AI Marketing Skills 07:06 – How to Use Skills in Claude Cowork and Claude Code10:19 – Why the Terminal Is a Marketer's Secret Weapon 14:21 – The Don Draper Paradigm: AI as Your Typist 16:06 – How to Get Started with Claude Code as a Beginner 19:35 – Why Context Is King for AI Marketing Agents 21:11 – Automating Email Campaigns with Claude Code and Mailchimp 25:07 – Agent-Friendly Email Tools: Resend, Customer.io, and Kit 26:35 – SEO and Shopify Optimization Using AI Agents 32:02 – On-Page SEO Audit Automation at Scale 33:55 – AI-Powered Sponsor Outreach and Backlink Building 38:06 – Hermes Agent vs OpenClaw: Autonomous AI Compared 43:36 – The Future of Autonomous AI Marketing Agents 50:13 – Self-Learning AI Loops and Automated Task Triggers 52:55 – Why Marketers Should Think Like AI EngineersConnect with Us!https://www.instagram.com/alchemists.library/https://twitter.com/RyanJAyala

In this episode of the Grow A Small Business Podcast, host Troy Trewin interviews Daniel McDonnell co-founder of Maple Movement, shares how severe gut health issues during his professional Ironman career led him to discover the power of maple syrup as a natural fuel source and launch Maple Movement. What began as a house-deposit gamble quickly evolved into a fast-growing gut-friendly energy gel brand now stocked in 125+ stores across Australia and New Zealand. Daniel opens up about bootstrapping the business, learning margins from scratch, managing rapid growth from his living room, and transitioning to a 3PL. He dives into brand positioning, organic content strategy, subscription revenue, and building a lean, aligned team. It's a raw, practical story of turning personal pain into a scalable FMCG business with purpose and momentum. Why would you wait any longer to start living the lifestyle you signed up for? Balance your health, wealth, relationships and business growth. And focus your time and energy and make the most of this year. Let's get into it by clicking here. Troy delves into our guest's startup journey, their perception of success, industry reconsideration, and the pivotal stress point during business expansion. They discuss the joys of small business growth, vital entrepreneurial habits, and strategies for team building, encompassing wins, blunders, and invaluable advice. And a snapshot of the final five Grow A Small Business Questions: What do you think is the hardest thing in growing a small business? According to Daniel McDonnell, the hardest part of growing a small business is keeping up with rapid growth before scalable systems are fully in place, especially during big sales months when demand spikes beyond operational capacity. He shared how he and his wife were packing nearly 95 orders a day from their living room while trying to maintain a personal brand touch, highlighting that the real challenge wasn't generating sales but managing growth sustainably while building the right infrastructure to support it. What's your favorite business book that has helped you the most? Daniel said his favorite business book that's helped him the most is "Built to Sell" by John Warrillow — a practical guide about structuring and scaling a business so it's not dependent on the founder and becomes sellable. He's mentioned it shaped how he thinks about systems, value creation, and building something that can run beyond him. Are there any great podcasts or online learning resources you'd recommend to help grow a small business? According to Daniel McDonnell, one podcast he highly recommends for small business growth is Chew the Fat by the Greive brothers, where they share real, relatable stories after building and exiting Realbase. He values listening to founders who have scaled and exited businesses, as their practical lessons help avoid costly mistakes. Daniel also emphasizes learning directly from experienced mentors and operators rather than figuring everything out the hard way. For him, real-world business conversations and founder-led insights have been the most impactful learning resources. What tool or resource would you recommend to grow a small business? Daniel McDonnell would point to a tool that helps you systemize and scale without chaos, and one he personally recommends is Notion — it's where he organizes products, SOPs, content calendars, order processes, and more in one place so nothing slips through the cracks. He also emphasizes tools for automating the parts of your business that don't need manual work, like Mailchimp or Klaviyo for email automation, and Shopify + a good 3PL integration to handle orders cleanly as volume grows. For analytics and ads, basic dashboards like Google Analytics and Facebook/Meta Business Suite help you make smarter decisions instead of guessing. The key, he says, isn't having every tool under the sun — it's picking the ones that actually save you time and help you standardize your processes so the business can scale. What advice would you give yourself on day one of starting out in business? According to Daniel McDonnell, on day one he would tell himself to raise far more capital than he thinks he needs, understand margins and cash flow from the start, and build scalable systems early—because growth can come fast, but without enough cash and structure, it becomes far more stressful than it needs to be. Book a 20-minute Growth Chat with Troy Trewin to see if you qualify for our upcoming course. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your small business to new heights! Enjoyed the podcast? Please leave a review on iTunes or your preferred platform. Your feedback helps more small business owners discover our podcast and embark on their business growth journey.     Quotable quotes from our special Grow A Small Business podcast guest: Solve a real problem and the market will pull you forward - Daniel McDonnell When the team wins in their own lane the whole brand moves faster - Daniel McDonnell Build systems early because growth exposes every weakness - Daniel McDonnell      

From Command to Control: Stories of Digital Dilemmas The hosts discuss Apple Mail email signatures and discover that when a website URL lacks a prefix, Apple Mail defaults it to an insecure http link, which can trigger junk filtering; they also note cases where a displayed https link still points to http behind the scenes. They compare Apple Mail to Outlook in business environments, mention limitations around advanced signature management, and comment on Apple's minimal transparency in service-status outage explanations. They cover Apple's iOS 12 update extending certificates for services like iMessage, FaceTime, and device activation through January 2027, and then shift to opinions and speculation about Tim Cook's political pandering possibly being tied to tariffs and CEO succession timing. Returning to tech, they explain Apple Pay's security benefits—device-specific numbers and unique transaction codes—especially after a client's credit card was repeatedly compromised, and discuss adding additional browser protection via Malwarebytes Browser Guard and Chrome/Safari extension deployment through MDM (Addigy), including using ChatGPT to generate a configuration profile. They also describe using ChatGPT to edit MailChimp newsletter HTML quickly, and explore AI-assisted app development ideas such as an iOS app that converts call logs into calendar entries, referencing a Steven Robles video about building an app with AI while noting potential security pitfalls like exposed credentials. Lgistics issue involving gear ordered for testing via an Amazon locker at Staples. When attempting pickup, the host discovers the locker has no keypad and relies on the Amazon app and NFC. Despite signing into the client's Amazon account and enabling required app permissions (Bluetooth and device access), the locker cannot be accessed. Amazon customer service suggests the order data may be incomplete due to a third-party seller and issues immediate refunds or credits.   00:00 Welcome In: Time, the Clock Tower, and "Running Out of Time" 00:46 Client Referral Follow-Up: When People Go Radio Silent 01:39 Apple Mail Link Gotcha: Why Your Clean URL Becomes HTTP 04:13 Hidden Signature Code: Displayed HTTPS, Actual HTTP (and Spam Filters) 05:45 Why Apple Should Default to HTTPS (Google Already Does) 08:34 Signature Tools & Workflows: WiseStamp, Outlook, and What Clients Actually Use 10:37 Apple Still Updating Old iOS: Certificate Expiration and 2027 Cutoff 11:40 Tim Cook, Politics, and the CEO Succession Theory 15:06 Bully-Pulpit News Cycle: Waiting for the Next Outrage 16:08 Epstein Files & Accountability: Why Consequences Aren't Landing in the U.S. 18:16 From Past Scandals to Today: How the Bar Moved (Back to Tech) 19:00 Merch & Sponsorship Shoutouts (The Command Control Power Mug) 19:47 Apple Services Outages & the Vague Status Page Problem 21:14 Why Apple Pay Is Safer After a Card Gets Compromised 23:40 Dashlane vs Malwarebytes Browser Guard: Phishing/Scam Blocking Extensions 28:19 Layered Web Protection: Safari Safe Browsing, DNS Filtering, and Extension Risks 31:36 ChatGPT for Real Work: Fixing a Mailchimp Newsletter with HTML 33:06 AI-Assisted App Idea: Turn Call Logs into Calendar Entries (and Vibe Coding) 37:59 Security Caveats + Wrap-Up Quip About AI Summaries

A Knee Recovery Nightmare! Right Total Knee Replacement My Physical and Emotional Fight Against Pain Hypersensitivity and Protective Muscle Guarding – written by Cathy Banovac – interview by Lisa Pelley and Mary Elliott – Cathy was coached by Erin Rempher, PTA My name is Cathy and I reside in Arizona. I am 57 years old, a homemaker, and have had a genetic history of chronic osteoarthritis.  From a very young age, I have always had a very low pain threshold.  Prior to the commencement of pain in my knee, I considered myself a fairly fit and active person…loved gardening, entertaining family and friends, cooking, crafting, playing golf, traveling with my husband, walking our dogs, and playing with our grandchildren. Life was good! Early Summer In addition to the normal aches and pains that come with aging, I began to experience more than usual pain in my right knee.  I was experiencing daily occurrences of popping/clicking, giving out when walking at times, difficulty negotiating steps or stairs, and nightly interrupted sleep due to pain.  Over the counter medications, icing, heat, etc. was no longer managing my symptoms.  Upon visiting an orthopedic surgeon for examination and subsequent imaging, I learned I was over 70% bone on bone in my right knee joint.  I was told I was looking at a total knee replacement.  I was preparing to head to Michigan for a family vacation on the lake with my kiddos in August, so was not happy to hear this news.  I convinced my doctor to give me a steroid injection just to buy me the time I needed to take my vacation.  He was reluctant and told me that he predicted it would do nothing to help my condition at the very least or, at the very most, last for a brief time.  I made it through the trip, yet 3 weeks post-injection the symptoms had returned. No More Injections My surgeon declined my request for another injection, instead reiterating my need for the TKR.  Over previous years, I had witnessed my mother, father, husband and a few friends have knee replacement surgeries.  All came through their surgeries with what appeared to me to be a fairly pain controlled, timely recovery and successful return to their regular daily activities.  I was told I was on the younger side for this type of procedure, nevertheless, would greatly benefit from extended quality of life and return to desired activity, given my current quality of life and daily activity was becoming more diminished by the day. My Knee Replacement I underwent RTKR on September 25.  All went well and as expected with the surgery.  I was up and walking, began some light physical therapy exercises, and maintained post-op range and motion through use of a CPM while in hospital.  I was discharged to home on the third day post-op, with a couple of narcotic pain medications (initially Percocet/Oxycodone and Morphine) and directions to commence in-home physical therapy the following day.  My follow-up visit with the surgeon was scheduled for 6 weeks post-op.  Day one at home began my challenging journey of recovery, both physically and emotionally.  I experienced difficulty managing my pain even with narcotics and over the counter medications.  My swelling was as expected and able to be kept in check with anti-inflammatory meds and icing.  I experienced annoying side effects from the narcotics, i.e., headaches, nausea, constipation, and thus was bounced from one medication and dosage to another, none of which seemed to be the right combination or solution to my pain.  Out of complete desperation and in uncontrollable pain, I went to the emergency room after being home for four days post-op, hoping to get some relief. A Problem with the Surgery? I thought surely there must be something wrong.  A few hours later, together with a lecture from the hospital PT and some morphine, I was discharged back to home.  Back on more medication, I failed to again find relief from pain.  I was averaging about 2-3 hours of sleep per night and little sleep during the day.  My home physical therapist had her work cut out for her.  Over the next 4 weeks (twelve 45 min. sessions of in-home PT), I had yet to reach better than 85 degrees flexion and 10 degrees extension.  My in-home therapist said she spent most of those 4 weeks strengthening my calves, hamstrings, and quad muscles, all which were extremely weak.  Therefore, already I was approximately 4 weeks behind in range and motion advancement.  My pain was still very much out of control, all while I feared becoming more and more dependent on the narcotics prescribed. At the first follow-up appointment (six weeks post-op), my flexion was below 90 degrees and extension still not at the zero degree mark.  I was informed by my surgeon that I needed a Manipulation Under Anesthesia (MUA).  My knee felt very stiff, pain was still unmanageable, and I was stuck without advancement in physical therapy. Manipulation Under Anesthesia He took x-rays and made sure the appliance was not loose or slipping out of placement.  All was found to be in proper order and an examination found no infection that could be causing pain or other symptoms.  My surgeon had done his job.  I was told however, that he believed I was stuck due to scar tissue build-up and thus was in need of the MUA to break up the scar tissue.  This would also permit the ability to continue physical therapy, working towards achievement of the desirable degree of range and motion outcomes.  I underwent the MUA six weeks and one day post-op and immediately resumed PT the following day.  I was told not to worry about a reduction in my flexion and extension after having the MUA.  An MUA tends to put patients back about 3-4 weeks, so it is almost like starting all over again.  However, the idea is that advancement in range and motion should become easier now that the scar tissue has been broken up by the procedure.  I went to PT for 5 days in a row the first week following the MUA, did my home exercises faithfully on my own twice a day, then returned to PT three times a week for the next several weeks. After the MUA At the two week follow-up appointment post the MUA, I was still in unmanageable pain, still getting only 2-3 hours of uninterrupted sleep per night, and running every gamut of emotion and temperament.  My poor husband was beside himself and wondering whatever became of the woman he married 27 years ago.  My flexion was still only reaching in the low 90's and my extension was no better either.  I was still experiencing great sensitivity to the touch anywhere on or around my surgical knee.  I couldn't stand wearing pants or having any sheet or blanket covering my knee.  My pain was the worst at night, just when I was settling in for some restful moments on the couch watching TV with my husband.  I would suddenly be lifted off my seat with either pain that mimicked touching a lit match to my knee, or the stabbing of a knife, or the shock of a taser. Dealing with the Pain This pain varied and sometimes was relentless for several minutes.  I was in tears most evenings and headed to bed to ice or apply heat, which calmed the nerve pain somewhat.  I would take meds (Hydrocodone/Norco, Extra-Strength Tylenol, Ibuprofen,  Zofran (for nausea) Vitamins, a stool softener (due to Hydrocodone) and Gabapentin aka Neurontin.  I was soooo sick of taking medications.  I think my surgeon was beside himself as to how to control my pain and sensitivity, therefore, he recommended I seek help at a Pain Management Clinic for possible sympathetic blocks, as well as my medicinal pain management.  Both he and my physical therapist told me I was forecasting pain neurologically before any exerted physical effort on their part was made to cause any pain.  My intolerance for any amount of pain was prohibiting any measurable progress in my range and motion, thus scar tissue was building at a rapid pace.  Physical therapy continued to be a challenge as I protective muscle guarded any force applied by my therapist to get better R&M.  I cried through most of my sessions. Pain Management At my first appointment with the Pain Management Clinic, I met with the doctor.  Most people have sympathetic blocks in their back to relieve nerve pain, but the doctor I was referred to chose to recommend a Genicular Neurotomy, accomplished through a procedure called Coolief Cooled Radiofrequency Ablation.  I first underwent a test which involved Lidocaine injections in four areas surrounding my new knee.  The patient then logs their pain and activities over the following 72 hours.  A follow-up appointment with a Nurse Practitioner then reviews the log and determines eligibility for the ablation procedure.  At this appointment she chose to cut my medication cold-turkey for a couple of days as she deemed I was dependent on them, even though I was getting little pain control.  I experienced severe withdrawal symptoms for two days. A Change in Medication I thought I was going to go out of my mind.  A change in my medication increased the Gabapentin I was taking, and I was found to be eligible for the ablation.  I underwent that procedure approximately 6 weeks post my first MUA, just before the Thanksgiving holiday.  I was told that I would still be experiencing pain for approximately 4-6 weeks, due to the fact that the ablation was going to make my nerves “angry” as they fought their temporary death.  I was also informed that this procedure is temporary as nerve endings most often regenerate themselves over a 6 month to 2 year period.  Some patients must undergo two or three of these procedures to get lasting relief. Unhappy News This was not happy news to my ears, yet I was still desperate for relief and reaching out for anything, and I mean anything, that would control my pain.  I returned to the pain clinic for a follow-up to the ablation procedure only to report pain still very bad and that I was still taking a boatload of medication, icing, heat to quad muscles to relieve cramping, and poor results in physical therapy sessions.  I was told to give it more time and come back in a few more weeks.   At my next follow-up approximately 3 weeks later, I discharged myself from the Pain Management Clinic.  I felt that their treatment plan was not successful for me and they had no other plan to offer other than continued reliance on prescription medication and time. When recovery goes wrong – Read More A Desparate Time After barely getting through the Christmas holidays, persisting in physical therapy and weaning myself down on prescription medications (since they didn't seem to be having any great effect on my pain), I began to explore the possibility of medical marijuana as a solution to my pain control.  I have never tried marijuana and had little desire to smoke or vape it, but was interested in edibles they have out now.  I was desperate and finding myself sinking into anxiety, panic attacks and, at times, depression.  My family and my husband were becoming very concerned as I was changing into a person they did not know and they were at a loss as how to help me through my circumstances. Medical Marijuana Since medical marijuana is legal in the State of Arizona, I sought out a doctor with whom I met and applied for a patient card.  This process took approximately 3 weeks, including approval of my application through the Arizona Department of Health and Human Services.  Upon receiving my card, I met with a licensed nurse at a dispensary to become educated about the various products and my specific needs.  She was recommended by the doctor who signed off on my patient eligibility and works with a number of cancer patients to help control their symptoms.  We met for over an hour.  She was extremely patient with me, educating me about cannabis (which I knew little of) and gave me recommendations to try.  I purchased three of her recommendations.  I also decided to try getting a light massage once per week.  The massages lasted for approximately three weeks before I decided to suspend them, as I found them not helpful enough to warrant the expense. Little if Any Improvement Having done everything I was asked to do in my recovery and still making little if any gains, I found myself in a very dark place emotionally, desperate to end my pain, and I was done!!  One day, I was occupying my time, in between home therapy and out-patient therapy sessions, searching the Internet for anything that might literally save me.  When in answer to my prayer, I came across several website postings about a therapy called X10.  I shared some of it with my husband, my parents and my kids.  They encouraged me to explore it more.  After reading some of the patient blogs and watching a few of the videos that I could access, I made my first contact with PJ Ewing by emailing him.  PJ responded very quickly telling me that the X10 Therapy and machine was not yet available in the State of Arizona, but he provided me with some other resources.  I was initially devastated by this news, but I almost immediately decided that I was not going to accept that response.  I instantly thought to myself, “Well, if it is not available in AZ, then maybe I can travel to wherever it is available. Not Taking ‘No’ for an Answer This time, I placed a phone call to PJ and we talked for over an hour.  As it so happened, in our conversation I discovered that the X10 headquarters is in Franklin, MI, and I had family who lived in Rochester, MI.  PJ was more than gracious in discussing all the parameters and specifics of the possibility of travel to Michigan to undergo the X10 program.  To say the least, after completion of my discussion with PJ, I heard God say “Not yet, Cathy, I still have a plan for you on this earth.”  I discussed the possibilities with my husband and shared them also with my son and daughter-in-law, exploring their permission to have me as a houseguest for 2-3 weeks.  Of course, they couldn't have been more gracious and welcoming. Pain Still a Big Problem My pain was still out of control, I continued out patient PT three times a week with slow or little advancement in my R&M, had my six week MUA follow-up with my surgeon only to be told I was facing a second MUA.  I told my surgeon and my physical therapist about the X10 Therapy website I had discovered, and PJ sent me the clinical data to share with them.  Each of them, I am grateful to say, told me they had looked at the data and were “intrigued” by the therapy plan.  Both encouraged me to pursue it as an option for me, yet both also strongly indicated that enough time had passed between my first MUA and the ablation, therefore, still recommended I have the second MUA before commencing X10 Therapy. Turning to X10 Therapy after a Second MUA Once my husband and I had made the decision to pursue this plan, the wheels began to roll quickly.  Initially, I scheduled the 2nd MUA and a flight out from Phoenix to Detroit by myself the next day following the MUA.  I notified PJ of my  plans and he began to put things in motion by placing me in contact with Mary Elliott, Melissa, Mike, a therapy Coach, Erin a Physical Therapist, and Marty, a technician for machine home delivery and set-up.  The X10 Therapy approach is really a “team” approach to wellness, in addition to the machine itself and the technological programs it delivers to the patient. The Second MUA Was Coming Up As the days approached the 2nd MUA, I became extremely anxious and experienced a couple of panic attacks.  I began to stress about the MUA pain, having gone through one already.  The thought of flying alone, even though my son would be there to meet me at the other end of my flight, and having to get through a 4 hour flight plus 1 hour car ride to his home in pain, had me scared beyond belief.  I was consumed with thinking about how I would manage my pain.  Should I just knock myself out to sleep on the plane?  What if that didn't work?  What meds could I then take if in pain?  What about my leg position – straightening and bending?  How would I get help from curb, through security, to gate, onto plane and the same again when arriving including a stop at baggage claim?  How am I going to sleep at night?  Is this therapy going to put me back in unmanageable pain again, even though the X10 Therapy information says I am in control?  What if it doesn't work?  Can this end my knee recovery nightmare? And on and on and on…! Making Plans After talking it over with my husband and doctor, it was decided that I would delay my trip to Michigan for one week following the 2nd MUA.  I would continue outpatient PT immediately following the MUA, but have some time to consult with a psychologist concerning my sleep depravation, fears, anxiety/depression and develop a plan to manage my pain, as well as talk to the airline for special assistance to help solve my transportation needs.  My husband decided to make the trip with me for a couple of days, just to get me settled and started with X10 Therapy.  Armed with a revised medication and travel plan, I notified the X10 Team of my change in start date and all were extremely understanding and accommodating.  I had the 2nd MUA  on January 18.  I continued outpatient PT for three more sessions, in addition to my own home exercises twice per day.  My daily sleep and pain control was managed better and I was counting the days until our departure date.  It simply could not arrive fast enough! Friday, January 19 This will remain a very important and pivotable day in my life.  My journey towards healing, life anew and well-being would begin that very day.  Having endured a comfortable flight and having managed all the transportation arrangements with ease (kudos to Delta Airlines), we arrived at my son's home ready to commence what I can now claim as my own personal miracle.  Within an hour, Marty arrived with a smile, this technological marvel known as the X10 machine, and a thorough first orientation/training session filled with words of encouragement and confidence.  I was on my way, although until I began to see results (which were really displayed within that first session), I Had Hope I was still cautiously optimistic about where I was headed.  Could I really achieve the flexion and extension goals I was unable to achieve thus far with any of my existing recovery methods?  Would this therapy really enable me to manage my pain comfortably with mild medications?  Could I trust my X10 therapist and her plan for me?  Would the X10 team really be there for me when I needed them?  Was the X10 therapy the answer to my prayers?  Would I really be returning home in as little as  just over 2 weeks time to see my surgeon's and physical therapist's jaws drop as they witnessed my flexion and extension reach what we all thought would be skeptical results, but instead blow them away with incredible success?  It would not be long before I could actually acknowledge to myself that the answers to each of those questions would be a resounding YES! 110º Flexion Once I was able to reach the 110 degree mark for flexion, it was decided that I would add 5 min a day on the stationery bike. As I felt comfortable, I was able to increase that time in small increments and add another bike session in the evening.  While my progress was measurable daily, I did experience some cramping in my right thigh and calf, dealt with some bursitis in my right hip for about two weeks, and waking with some right leg pain some nights. Taking Care of Myself I found icing and elevating regularly after each exercise session, icing my hip, heat on my upper thigh at night, Tramadol 50 mg. only twice a day with Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen alternated during the day, and Theraworx Relief foam massaged in the cramping areas once or twice a day helped keep my discomfort manageable.  In addition, I spent some resting time researching dietary recommendations for inflammation and pain.  I incorporated tumeric, magnesium, Osteo Bi-flex, 100% Cherry or Pineapple Juice, Vitamin B6 & B12, Vitamin C, Vitamin D3, Zinc, fresh berries and decaffeinated tea with ginger, lemon and honey in my daily diet.  I also decided to limit carbohydrates and sugar intake in an effort to keep my inflammatory response in check. One Week In After one week on the X10 and with constant reassurance and communication from all of my X10 team, I could actually begin to call this journey and the X10 Therapy my miracle.  I had breached the 100's for flexion after starting at 55 degrees, and reached 0 degrees at the end of the first session on my extension, previously at 8 degrees.  My fears, anxiety and uncertainty soon gave way to renewed love for life, joy at gaining confidence in doing daily activities again, sharing my daily success by telephone with family and friends, and hope for the future.  The almost daily contact from one or more of my X10 team members answered any questions that arose, provided authentic cheerleading for my cause, and motivated me to press on for better and better results. Working with My Coach Mary called often to check in with me and was my calm and steady encourager.  My conversations with her were uplifting and kind of like talking to an old friend, casual and comforting.  My PT, Erin, made a home visit to discuss my history and offered varied strategies for increasing my flexion degrees, as well as made adjustments in my therapy plan due to some bursitis that I had recently developed in my right hip.  She was careful to make the appropriate adjustments to my therapy plan.  She and Mike (my strengthening coach and with whom I also met in person to go over exercises), together modified my plan by delaying some of the exercises, while still permitting three sessions a day for range and motion growth. Conclusions As I approach my last day of sessions on the X10 Therapy machine and a return home to Arizona tomorrow, I write my story to encourage anyone who has experienced one or more of the circumstances that I experienced subsequent to a total knee replacement.  I am happy to report that I was successful in breaking through some of my scar tissue, reaching 0 degrees for my extension and 117 degrees flexion.  My gait is much improved and, as I have returned to walking without a limp or dragging my surgical leg, the pain in my hip and lower back has also improved greatly. My knee recovery nightmare has finally come to an end. Some Rehab Insurance I will continue outpatient therapy immediately upon my return home in order to solidify my current range and motion, and even further improve my flexion as I am able.  I write this also as a means of paying it forward to future patients of the X10 and in grateful appreciation to my X10 Team, my family and my friends who affirmed, guided, encouraged, and yes, celebrated, my X10 Therapy journey of success.  The proof, as they say, is in the pudding, which is said to mean that you can only judge the quality of something after you have tried, used, or experienced it.  I absolutely cannot wait to share my experience and demonstrate my range and motion achievement in person to my surgeon and PT Team back home in Arizona. Thanks be to my God, to all of my support team and to X10 Therapy… life is good once again! To read about total knee replacement for a younger population, click here. The X10 Meta-Blog We call it a “Meta-Blog” because we step back and give you a broad perspective on all aspects of knee health, surgery and recovery. In this one-of-a-kind blog we gather together great thinkers, doers, writers related to Knee Surgery, Recovery, Preparation, Care, Success and Failure. Meet physical therapists, coaches, surgeons, patients, and as many smart people as we can gather to create useful articles for you. Whether you have a surgery upcoming, in the rear-view mirror, or just want to take care of your knees to avoid surgery, you should find some value here. #mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; }/* Add your own MailChimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block.We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */ Subscribe to the Blog Here * indicates required Email Address * First Name Last Name

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 1954: Michael Levitt explores essential strategies for business success by outlining five powerful marketing tools, ranging from SEO to content marketing, and explains how each one helps businesses grow, connect with customers, and drive conversions. He also offers practical, eco-friendly solutions for reusing recycled paper in the workplace, helping companies reduce waste and embrace sustainable practices. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.breakfastleadership.com/blog/marketing-tools-5-types-why-your-business-needs-them & https://www.breakfastleadership.com/blog/ways-to-use-recycled-paper-in-the-workplace Quotes to ponder: "Social media also provides an opportunity for customers to engage with your brand and give you feedback." "SEO involves optimizing your website content, structure, and code so that search engines can easily find and index your site." "Content marketing can take many forms, such as blog posts, e-books, infographics, videos, and more." Episode references: Facebook Ads: https://www.facebook.com/business/ads Instagram Ads: https://business.instagram.com/advertising Google SEO Starter Guide: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/seo-starter-guide Mailchimp: https://mailchimp.com  

Alicia and Dan wrap up their three-part tour through the Intuit Connect Innovation Circle, covering everything from Intuit Enterprise Suite's construction-focused upgrades to MailChimp's QuickBooks integration and enhanced bill pay workflows. They discuss AI-powered project management tools, approval workflows that go seven layers deep, and how Credit Karma is now offering lending services directly within QuickBooks—plus why some features mentioned three months ago may have already launched (or been shelved entirely).SponsorsUNC - https://uqb.promo/unc(00:00) - Introduction and Hosts' Banter (00:45) - Intuit Connect Experience (01:37) - Intuit Enterprise Suite for Construction (03:24) - New Features in Intuit Enterprise Suite (08:04) - Challenges and Solutions in Intuit Enterprise Suite (15:12) - MailChimp Integration with QuickBooks (24:57) - Customer Hub Overview (29:19) - Exploring New Features in Online Bill Pay (30:18) - AI and Machine Learning in Bill Processing (33:46) - Bill Payment Speeds and Security Measures (37:20) - Accountant Tools and Client Management (41:03) - Recurring Invoices and Customer Dashboards (42:28) - Lending Options and Financial Products (47:09) - Upcoming Courses and Collaborations LINKSCustomer Hubba-Hubba (our episode about the new Customer Hub: www.uqb.show/107Alicia's current classes: 1099s in QBO: http://royl.ws/QBO1099?affiliate=5393907, recording with CPEQBO Year-end Cleanup for Taxes: http://royl.ws/yearend?affiliate=5393907, recording with CPEProjects & Job Costing in QBO: http://royl.ws/ProjectCenter?affiliate=5393907, recording with CPESales Tax in QBO: http://royl.ws/SalesTax?affiliate=5393907, recording with CPEPayroll Perfection Bundles (4 QBO Payroll classes - 1099s, Running Payroll, Compliance, and QB Time), Live Feb 3-10: http://royl.ws/payroll-perfection?affiliate=5393907  Dan's LinksSchoolofbookkeeping YouTube: https://snip.ly/SOBYT Free Live Workshop Wednesdays: https://www.schoolofbookkeeping.com/workshop-wednesdayWe 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 

Email and SMS work best as a duo, but only when the message is relevant, timed well, and earned through proper consent.In this session, Ali Wood (Head of Partnerships, UK & Ireland at Mailchimp) breaks down how to use SMS alongside email to create a more joined-up customer journey, from getting phone-number opt-ins (without being creepy) to segmentation, automation triggers, and what's coming next with RCS (Rich Communication Services) and WhatsApp.We cover when SMS is a great fit (nudges, reminders, transactional updates), when email does the heavy lifting (story, detail, trust), and how to avoid turning your audience into full-time “STOP” typers.Key topics include: • Email vs SMS: what each channel is best for • How to collect phone numbers (quizzes, surveys, value exchange) • Segmentation beyond demographics (behaviour, intent, price sensitivity) • Automations: welcome, cart abandonment, VIP flows, reminders • Compliance essentials: consent, unsubscribe, timing rules • RCS: “SMS on steroids” (verified sender, rich media, buttons) • Q&A: emotional response to SMS, best send times, pop-ups that don't convert______Timestamps:00:00 SMS marketing overview03:20 Email vs SMS marketing10:43 SMS automation examples11:42 SMS opt-in & list growth14:33 SMS segmentation & testing25:16 SMS compliance, timing & RCS29:50 Q&A: SMS marketing in practice_______Watch / listen:Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marketing-meetup-podcast/id1365546447Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5QvmFdxg5pMwsfPkKjhXl9_______Please take the time to check out our partners, all of whom we work with because we think they're useful companies for lovely marketers.Frontify – All your brand assets in one place: Frontify combines DAM, brand guidelines, and templates into a collaborative source of brand truth.Mailchimp - The all-in-one marketing platform that helps teams turn emails, automation, and now SMS into smarter, more connected customer journeys (and they've been longtime friends of TMM!).Cambridge Marketing College – The best place to get your marketing qualifications and apprenticeships.Planable – the content collaboration platform that helps marketing teams create, plan, review, and approve all their awesome marketing content.Wistia – a complete video marketing platform that helps teams create, host, market, and measure their videos and webinars, all in one place.

Join Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS for a masterclass on email marketing strategies that actually drive revenue. In this session, Favour breaks down the power of segmented email campaigns, explains the metrics that matter, and shares how to build a website-first content strategy that turns subscribers into customers. Learn how to leverage free tools, automate your email sequences, and create long-term relationships with your audience through strategic, data-driven email marketing ROI.Whether you're just starting with email marketing or looking to optimize your existing campaigns, this episode delivers actionable insights you can implement immediately to boost engagement and generate sustainable revenue.What You'll Learn✓ How to use segmented emails to increase revenue and engagement✓ The difference between click-through rate and click rate (and why it matters)✓ Why your website is the foundation of successful email marketing✓ Google's E-E-A-T framework for creating helpful content✓ How to repurpose one piece of content across multiple channels✓ Which free tools every email marketer should be using✓ The "website-first" content strategy that saves time and builds SEO✓ How to create automated email sequences that work 24/7Top 7 Email Marketing Best Practices1. Use Segmented Emails StrategicallyCreate segments based on subscriber behavior and preferences. Use polls and interactive elements to gather data, then tag links to track which subscribers are interested in which offerings.2. Build a Helpful, Responsive WebsiteYour website should be fast-loading, mobile-friendly, and provide genuine value. Focus on Google's E-E-A-T framework: Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust.3. Create Content on Your Website FirstPublish content on your website before sharing on social media. This builds your owned digital assets, improves SEO, and gives you more control over distribution.4. Leverage Email Metrics for Continuous ImprovementTrack who opens, clicks, and takes action. Identify your most engaged subscribers and create VIP segments for them. Use this data to refine your messaging over time.5. Implement Scheduled and Automated Email SequencesSet up automated sequences that trigger based on subscriber actions. Create welcome series, nurture campaigns, and re-engagement flows that work around the clock.6. Repurpose Content Across Multiple FormatsTake one long-form piece and break it into blog posts, social media updates, podcast episodes, videos, and email newsletters. Maximize your content creation efforts.7. Focus on Long-term Relationship BuildingNot everyone opens emails the day you send them. Be consistent with your schedule, provide ongoing value, and build trust over time rather than chasing quick sales.Key Metrics to TrackDeliverability Rate - Percentage of emails reaching subscriber inboxesOpen Rate - Percentage of delivered emails that get openedClick Rate - Percentage of delivered emails with link clicksClick-Through Rate (CTR) - Percentage of opened emails with link clicksConversion Rate - Percentage completing your desired actionPodcast Episode Timestamps[00:00] Episode introduction: Email marketing best practices that earn revenue[00:40] Why segmented emails are the #1 revenue driver[03:06] How to create segments triggered by scheduled emails[03:37] Example: Segmenting by in-person vs. virtual event preferences[06:00] Using polls to understand what your audience really wants[07:00] Revenue starts at the beginning: building systems for MRR[08:00] Click-through rate vs. click rate explained[09:00] Identifying and segmenting your most engaged subscribers[10:00] Tracking email opens and clicks consistently[10:30] Creating VIP segments for highly engaged subscribers[14:00] Re-engaging inactive subscribers through targeted campaigns[15:00] Email deliverability and its impact on revenue[17:00] Understanding spam filters and how to avoid them[18:00] Email authentication: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC[20:00] Real case study: Client ranking page one for competitive keywords[21:42] Technical SEO: indexing, blogs, location pages, schema markup[23:00] Email marketing as direct response marketing[24:00] Why not everyone opens emails immediately (and that's okay)[25:00] Best Practice #1: Have a helpful, responsive website[25:32] Google's E-E-A-T framework: Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust[26:22] You have less than 10 seconds to make an impression[27:00] The "website-first" content strategy[27:22] Free analytics tools: Google Search Console, GA4, Bing, Microsoft Clarity[28:00] Repurposing one article into multiple content formats[30:00] Maximizing content value through strategic repurposing[32:00] Creating content pillars and topic clusters[33:00] Planning content calendars aligned with email campaigns[35:00] Balancing evergreen content with timely topics[37:00] Creating lead magnets that attract quality subscribers[39:00] A/B testing email subject lines and content[40:00] Overview of popular email marketing platforms[41:00] Mailchimp: features, pricing, and best use cases[42:00] Constant Contact for small businesses and nonprofits[43:00] Brevo (formerly Sendinblue): affordable with SMS capabilities[44:00] HubSpot: comprehensive CRM and marketing automation[45:00] Choosing the right platform for your business needs[46:00] Free tier options and when to upgrade[50:00] Advanced segmentation for e-commerce businesses[51:00] Using behavioral triggers to increase conversions[52:00] Email in omnichannel marketing strategies[53:00] Measuring ROI from email campaigns[54:00] Common email marketing mistakes to avoid[57:00] Recap of key best practices[59:00] Closing remarks and next session announcement[59:29] Tomorrow's topic: Search Engine Marketing & SEO Best Practices (11 AM Central)Tools & Resources MentionedEmail Marketing Platforms: Flodesk >> Sign up and Get 50% OffAnalytics Tools: Google Search Console, Google Analytics (GA4), Bing Webmaster Tools, Microsoft Clarity, Fathom Analytics, Matomo AnalyticsOther Tools: Eventbrite, PinterestSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if you could turn your expertise into a thriving newsletter business while living your dream life in rural France - with just 3-4 hours of work per day?In this episode of Change Is Possible, host Ani Filipova interviews Lucy Werner, award-winning PR expert, author of "Hype Yourself," and founder of a hugely successful paid newsletter generating thousands per month. Lucy shares her journey from running a London PR agency to building a sustainable solopreneur business in the south of France - all while raising three young children.#Newsletter #Solopreneur #PRStrategy #ContentCreation #CareerChange #PortfolioCareer #RemoteWork #ChangeIsPossible #AniFilipovaDiscover how Lucy:• Built a 5,000-person email list over 5 years before launching her paid newsletter• Got 100 paying subscribers in just 6 weeks and became a Substack bestseller• Generates multiple income streams (newsletter, brand partnerships, retreats, 1-to-1 coaching)• Grows her business through public speaking and podcasts - never paid ads• Maintains work-life balance with only 3-4 focused work hours per day• Leverages her 16,000 Instagram followers (proving you don't need massive numbers)

What does it really mean to “build a platform” as a Christian writer—and why does the idea make so many of us uncomfortable?In this episode, I kick off a new season focused on building your platform without losing your soul. I lay the foundation by answering a fundamental question many writers wrestle with: Why can't I just write?You'll learn why a platform isn't about self-exaltation or chasing followers, but about creating a practical, faithful way for readers to actually find and benefit from your words.In This Episode, You'll Learn:* Why writing for readers means helping readers find you* The critical difference between a platform and a pedestal* How Christians often misunderstand platform-building—and why that matters* Why a platform is about logistics, not ego* What a writing platform actually is (and what it isn't)* Why your email list is the true hub of an effective platform* Practical next steps if you're starting from zero—or feeling overwhelmedKey Takeaway:Building a platform isn't about putting yourself above others. It's about stewarding your message well so the people who need your words can hear them.Simple Next Steps:If you're ready to begin (or refine) your platform, consider starting here:* Choose an email service provider (like Mailchimp, MailerLite, Kit, FloDesk, or Substack)* Decide how often you can realistically communicate with your readers* Create a helpful lead magnet that serves your audience and invites them onto your email listNeed Personal Guidance?If platform-building feels confusing or overwhelming, you don't have to figure it out alone. Book a coaching session with me to clarify your next steps and create a realistic, actionable plan that fits your life.I also have a new 3-session coaching package called “The Path to Purposeful Writing” that is on sale until January 15, 2026. It includes guidance, accountability, and writing evaluation.Learn more at amylynnsimon.com/coachingYou can also find the podcast on YouTube @amysimonwriter This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amylynnsimon.substack.com

What good is reach if you don't have resonance? In this transformative episode of Business of Story, host Park Howell sits down with Jay Acunzo to explore why clarity isn't enough for brand stories and how to transform expertise into influential public voice through premise development. --- ABOUT JAY ACUNZO --- Jay Acunzo is an author, speaker, and public speaking coach who helps experts become stronger public voices. He's written books about creativity and storytelling, and he's traveled the world giving keynotes to marketers and managers, dentists and designers, leaders and landscapers. His clients include bestselling authors, mainstage TED speakers, startup founders, and seven-figure coaches and consultants. Brands like Salesforce, GoDaddy, Zillow, and Mailchimp have trusted Jay to support some of their most visible projects. He began his career in sales and marketing at Google and HubSpot, and his own journey as a speaker has been featured in 3 different books. Jay's philosophy challenges conventional marketing wisdom: don't market more, matter more. Think resonance over reach. Don't be the best, be their favorite. --- WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER --- ✓ What a premise really is (and why it's different from a tagline, mission, or niche) ✓ The resonance over reach philosophy and why it creates more business impact ✓ How resonance works (using physics to understand the urge to act) ✓ The narrative argument framework: six beats that move audiences from skepticism to action ✓ Laddered messaging structure: We Want → We Need → We Hope ✓ Story 2.0: Why process alone isn't enough (you need practice and posture too) ✓ The critical difference between clarity and strength in brand storytelling ✓ How to develop your premise through iteration (not instant perfection) ✓ Why focus is something you pick, but clarity is something you build ✓ Real examples: How Jay helped Anne Handley refine her premise for ASAP: As Slow As Possible ✓ Premise examples from James Clear, Simon Sinek, Michelle Warner, and more ✓ How to apply premise thinking to products and services (StoryCycle Genie case study) --- KEY FRAMEWORKS REVEALED --- NARRATIVE ARGUMENT (6 Beats): What are their goals? What's their current approach? What are the problems with that approach? What root cause do you see? What change do they need? How do they implement it? LADDERED MESSAGING (3 Phrases): • We Want: Meet people where they're at • We Need: Your premise/philosophical change • We Hope: The grand transformation STORY 2.0 (3 P's): • Process: Story structure and frameworks • Practice: Regular creation and refinement • Posture: Seeing yourself as a storyteller --- MEMORABLE QUOTES --- The goal is not to market more, it's to matter more. What good is awareness if you don't have affinity? What good is reach if you don't have resonance? Don't be the best, be their favorite. Clarity doesn't mean strength. Clarity doesn't mean efficacy. Focus is something you pick. Clarity is something you build. --- ABOUT BUSINESS OF STORY --- The Business of Story podcast helps business owners and marketers master the art of storytelling to grow their brands and create meaningful impact. Hosted by Park Howell, creator of the StoryCycle System and ABT Framework, each episode features expert guests sharing proven strategies for business growth through authentic narrative. Whether you're building a brand, leading a team, or developing your public voice, Business of Story delivers the frameworks and insights you need to make your message matter. Topics: premise development | resonance over reach | brand storytelling | thought leadership | narrative argument | public speaking | IP development | expert positioning | influential voice | business communication | content strategy | keynote speaking | Story 2.0 | clarity vs strength | laddered messaging

Start selling digital products and services with MiloTree for FREE! If you're an online coach, course creator, or digital product seller, you've probably experienced this: You're working 35-45 hours a week managing sales, manually sending products, and personally following up with every customer. You're making some money, but you're completely burnt out. Sound familiar? In my newest episode, I shared the exact automation strategy that helped our MiloTree customer Ava transform her business. She went from making $1,800 a month while working 45 hours a week to earning over $11,000 a month working just 9 hours a week. The secret? She automated three key parts of her sales process using MiloTree. And in this post, I'm going to show you exactly what she automated and how you can set up the same system to sell digital products on autopilot. Show Notes: MiloTree Free Plan MailerLite (recommended email service provider) Goldmine Product AI Prompt Join The Blogger Genius Newsletter Become a Blogger Genius Facebook Group Subscribe to the Blogger Genius Podcast: iTunes YouTube Spotify The Problem: Manual Sales Are Killing Your Business Growth Here's what's happening to most digital product creators. You've built amazing products—courses, coaching packages, memberships, digital downloads. You're getting some sales, but you're stuck in a manual sales cycle that looks like this: Someone downloads your freebie → You manually add them to your email list → You manually send follow-up emails → You manually process orders → You manually deliver products → Repeat. This manual process has three major problems: Time Drain: You're spending hours every week on tasks that could be automated Revenue Cap: You can only make as much money as the hours you can physically work Burnout Risk: Eventually, managing everything manually becomes unsustainable The good news? You can automate your entire sales process so your business runs without you working harder—you just work smarter. The Solution: Three Types of Sales Automation That Actually Work There are three powerful ways to automate your digital product sales: tripwires, order bumps and upsells, and email sequences. Let me break down each one and show you exactly how they work together to create a sales system that runs on autopilot. 1. Tripwires: Turn Freebie Seekers Into Buyers Instantly A tripwire is a low-cost product (usually $7-$27) that you offer immediately after someone opts in to get your free lead magnet. Here's how it works: Someone sees your content on social media → They click to download your free cheat sheet → They enter their email on your opt-in page → They land on the thank you page → Right there, they see an offer for your complete toolkit for just $17 → They click, they buy → MiloTree delivers the product automatically. You do nothing. It all happens automatically. The beauty of tripwires is that they convert freebie seekers into paying customers right away. Once someone has bought from you once, they're 9 times more likely to buy from you again. 2. Order Bumps and Upsells: Increase Average Order Value Without More Traffic Here's where things get really powerful. Someone's already buying your $47 course. At checkout, you offer a $12 complimentary workbook with one simple checkbox. They tick the box—boom, they've added it to their order. After they complete the purchase, they land on your thank you page. Now you offer them your $97 "done-for-you" premium version. With another click, they've purchased that as well. You just turned a $47 sale into a $156 sale without getting a single additional customer. Order bumps and upsells can increase your revenue by 30-50% without any additional marketing. You're simply maximizing the value of customers you're already getting. 3. Email Sequences: Build Relationships and Sell While You Sleep This is the foundation that makes everything else work. An email sequence is a series of automated emails you set up once that go out to new subscribers automatically. One of our MiloTree customers, Amanda, set up her main email sequence six months ago. That one sequence generates over $1,500 a month for her business, and she hasn't touched those emails since she initially created them. Here's what a good email automation does: Builds Relationships: Your subscribers get to know, like, and trust you through consistent communication Delivers Value: You're providing helpful content that solves their problems Sells Naturally: You're making offers that feel like helpful solutions, not pushy sales pitches Email is one of the best channels for sales. For every $1 you spend on email marketing, you typically make about $36 in return. That's a 3,600% ROI. Why You Can't Do Email Marketing Through Gmail (And What You Need Instead) Here's something crucial to understand: You cannot do email marketing through Gmail, Yahoo, or any regular email account. You need what's called an email service provider (ESP). An email service provider is a platform like MailChimp, MailerLite, Kit, or Flodesk. It's built specifically for business email marketing. Here's what ESPs do that regular email can't: Deliverability: They get your emails into people's inboxes instead of spam folders Analytics: They track who opens your emails, who clicks links, and who buys Segmentation: They let you organize subscribers based on their interests and behavior Automation: They let you set up those money-making email sequences we talked about My favorite email service provider is MailerLite. We use it ourselves for MiloTree's email marketing. I recommend it for three reasons: Free to Start: You get your first 1,000 subscribers completely free User-Friendly: It's the easiest ESP I've used—intuitive drag-and-drop design Seamless Integration: It works perfectly with MiloTree for automated product delivery MiloTree integrates with 24 email service providers, including MailChimp, Kit (formerly ConvertKit), Flodesk, ActiveCampaign, MailerLite, Klaviyo, and many others. We're always adding new integrations based on customer requests. But if you're just starting out and asking me what to try first, I'd go with MailerLite. How MiloTree and Your Email Service Provider Work Together Let me show you the exact flow of how MiloTree and your email service provider work together to automate your sales. This is where the magic happens. Here's the complete automated workflow: Step 1: Someone sees your content on Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, or your blog Step 2: You offer a lead magnet (a free download, cheat sheet, template, etc.) Step 3: They click and land on your MiloTree opt-in page where they enter their name and email Step 4: MiloTree captures that email and automatically sends it to your email service provider Step 5: MiloTree instantly delivers the freebie to your new subscriber on the thank you page—they can download it immediately Step 6: At the same time, MiloTree sends a "tag" to your email service provider Step 7: That tag triggers your automated email sequence to start Step 8: Your welcome sequence begins—usually 5-7 emails that go out over the next week Step 9: These emails build the relationship, provide value, and make offers Step 10: When someone clicks to buy, MiloTree processes the payment and delivers the product automatically You do nothing. It all runs on autopilot. The Power of Tags: How to Trigger Different Email Sequences Here's what makes this system so powerful: tags. A tag is simply a label you assign to a subscriber based on what they've downloaded or purchased. Let's say you have three different freebies: A "Social Media Content Calendar" (tagged: social-media-freebie) A "Product Launch Checklist" (tagged: launch-freebie) An "Email Marketing Guide" (tagged: email-freebie) When someone downloads your Social Media Content Calendar, MiloTree automatically tags them with "social-media-freebie" in your email service provider. That tag triggers your social media email sequence. The beauty of this system is that different freebies can trigger different email sequences. Someone interested in social media gets emails about social media. Someone interested in email marketing gets emails about email marketing. You're sending the right message to the right person at the right time—all automatically. How to Set Up Your MiloTree and Email Service Provider Integration in 2 Minutes Setting up this automation sounds complicated, but it literally takes about two minutes. Let me walk you through it step by step. Step 1: Log into your MiloTree dashboard at milotree.com Step 2: Click on "Email Integration" in the menu Step 3: Select your email service provider from the dropdown menu (MailerLite, MailChimp, Kit, etc.) Step 4: Follow the simple connection instructions—every platform is slightly different, but we have step-by-step guides for each one Step 5: Test the connection to make sure it's working That's it. Now every time someone opts into your freebie, their email automatically flows into your email service provider and triggers your automated sequence. If you have any trouble with the setup, just email me at jillian@milotree.com and I'll personally help you get it working. Your Action Plan: Set Up Your Automated Sales System Today Here's exactly what I want you to do right now to start automating your sales: First, if you don't have an email service provider yet, sign up for one. I recommend MailerLite to start because it's free for your first 1,000 subscribers and it's incredibly user-friendly. Second, sign up for MiloTree if you haven't already. Start with our free plan to test everything. You can create a freebie opt-in page for free, sell a product for free, and see how the system works. Then when you're ready to scale, upgrade to one of our paid plans to run your entire digital product business with MiloTree. Third, connect MiloTree to your email service provider using the two-minute process I outlined above. Don't worry if you get stuck—just reach out and we'll help you. Fourth, create your first lead magnet if you don't have one yet. Download my free AI prompts that will help you create an irresistible freebie in about 10 minutes: The 3 AI Prompts You Need to Create a Freebie Cheatsheet Fifth, set up your welcome email sequence. This is the series of 5-7 emails that will build relationships and make sales automatically. Why MiloTree Makes Selling Digital Products Easier Than Any Other Platform At MiloTree, we built our platform specifically for coaches, course creators, and digital product sellers who want to automate their sales without dealing with complicated tech. Here's why creators love MiloTree: All-in-One Platform: Sell digital products, offer unlimited freebies, grow your email list, process payments, and deliver products—all from one simple dashboard No Tech Skills Required: Our AI tools help you create opt-in pages, sales pages, and checkout pages in minutes, not days Start Free: Test everything with our free plan—no credit card required. Create opt-in pages, deliver freebies, and see how the system works before you upgrade Affordable Pricing: Our paid plans start at just $9/month and grow with your business. No surprise fees or complicated pricing tiers Built for Creators: Unlike generic ecommerce platforms, MiloTree is designed specifically for digital product creators, so everything is streamlined for your needs Integrates With Everything: We connect with 24 email service providers, plus all major payment processors Personal Support: When you have questions, you can email me directly at jillian@milotree.com and I'll help you personally

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Would you like access to our advanced agency training for FREE? https://www.agencymastery360.com/training What would you do if the merger you believed would change everything suddenly collapsed? Agency owners often dream of the big exit: the acquisition, the payday, the validation. But if you've been in this industry long enough, you know the story rarely goes as planned. Today's guest lived through the dot-com boom, a merger gone sideways, a rare "un-merger," and multiple reinventions across three decades. Today's featured guest is an agency owner who lived through the dot com boom, a merger gone sideways, an unmerger (a rare event), and multiple reinventions over three decades. He'll talk about his journey and the lessons he's gained in resilience, clarity, and what it means to build a business that lasts. Tom Snyder is the founder and CEO of Trivera, a Milwaukee-based agency that originally launched in 1996 under the name Website Solutions. He got his start back when tables ruled the web, Netscape Navigator was leading the browser war, and you had to explain to clients what the internet even was. Tom's agency grew quickly through the dot com boom, became part of an early multi-agency rollup, unmerged after the dot com crash, and later rebuilt itself around strategic services, recurring revenue, and emerging technologies. Thirty years later, he has seen nearly every high and low this industry can deliver and has the scars and wisdom to match. In this episode, we'll discuss: The roll up that seemed like a dream and the subsequent meltdown. The rare chance to unmerger. Learning to adapt to new technologies. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources This episode is brought to you by Wix Studio: If you're leveling up your team and your client experience, your site builder should keep up too. That's why successful agencies use Wix Studio — built to adapt the way your agency does: AI-powered site mapping, responsive design, flexible workflows, and scalable CMS tools so you spend less on plugins and more on growth. Ready to design faster and smarter? Go to wix.com/studio to get started. The Early Days of the Web: A Front Row Seat to Digital History Tom got into websites before most people even understood what a web browser was. He recalls visiting a friend in 1995 who showed him a website for a local jeweler. The fact that someone in Milwaukee could suddenly sell jewelry to anyone in the world blew his mind. That spark soon became Website Solutions, a one-man shop in his duplex basement that grew into a million-dollar agency within three years. These early days were defined by scrappiness. There were no WordPress installs, no Mailchimp, no Shopify. Agencies wrote their own CMS platforms, email tools, and ecommerce systems. For years, Trivera worked on project-based engagements. Sell a website. Build it. Launch it. Then hunt for the next one. It created a revenue roller coaster that made it hard to grow. Then the breakthrough came when someone asked a simple question: Why are you not offering annual retained services? Once they shifted the model, everything changed. Retainers gave them predictable cash flow, stability during downturns, and the ability to build deeper, longer-term partnerships. Inside the Dot-Com Boom and the Rollup That Promised Millions By the late nineties, agency rollups were happening everywhere. Big groups on the West Coast were buying smaller shops at high valuations, promising stock payouts that would multiply as the group grew. Tom's agency was acquired by one of these rollups. The offer was attractive: $1 million in stock with the expectation that it could balloon into ten million within a couple of years. For Tom, this was more than a payday. It felt like a way to secure better opportunities for his team. Higher salaries, better benefits, more resources. All the things agency owners often think a larger parent company can provide. But as the ink dried on the deal, the dot com crash hit. Internal battles erupted among the agency owners inside the rollup. Some wanted to scale fast and sell. Others were emotionally attached to their agencies and resisted change. As the economy collapsed, so did the plan. When an Agency Merger Falls Apart Tom describes the internal environment as chaos. Agencies within the rollup started blaming one another for the downturn. Some owners viewed Tom's Midwest operation as a weak link and argued it was a mistake to acquire them. Then came the breaking point. At a Las Vegas meeting that was supposed to chart a path forward, Tom learned that he would lose control of his agency. His wife, who served as CFO, would be dismissed. His team would report to another agency owner. This happened on September 10th. The next morning, as they sat in their hotel room trying to process what to do, the news broke that planes had hit the World Trade Center. The world changed, and so did their priorities. In that moment of clarity, they made the decision to walk away and unmerge. How a Rare Un-Merge Saved the Agency Unmerging from an agency rollup almost never happens. But because the rollup was already fracturing, the leadership was surprisingly open to it. They returned most of the shares, let Tom keep a small portion, and released the original agency name. From there, Tom and his wife rebuilt everything from scratch under a new identity. Although it felt like the right decision to make, they were still exiting what was still a financially stable operation to start from scratch, which was a scary but necessary step to take. They brainstormed names that felt Greek or Latin until they arrived at Trivera. The name itself was available only because the previous owner had just let the domain lapse. It felt like a small sign that starting over was the right move. This reset allowed Tom to build the agency the right way. No irrational exuberance, burn rates, or pressure to sell. Just strong culture, smart financial discipline, and an eye on durable business fundamentals. How Adapting to New Technology Helped Survive in Crisis After the dot com crash, new technologies created fresh opportunities. SEO, email marketing, mobile, and social opened new revenue streams that helped Trivera rebound each time the economy dipped. Tom noticed a pattern. Every downturn was followed by a brand new marketing wave that rewarded the agencies willing to embrace it early. One of the most pivotal moments came during the 2009 recession. The agency had lost clients, payroll was tight, and they needed a breakthrough. Everyone was asking about social media at the time, so Tom and his team built an event called Social Media University. They hustled for two months and ended up selling 400 tickets. The sales and sponsorship revenue kept their payroll alive and catapulted them into a new service category. Events like this do more than create revenue. They cement authority, give an agency a story in the market, and in Tom's case, it opened doors to new clients and positioned them for the next evolution of the agency. Letting Go of Comparison to Stay Focused on the Journey Despite the wins, Tom admits there were years he compared his agency to others and wondered why they scaled or sold faster, especially some that got the tools from his very social media event. It is easy to feel behind when you see competitors raising money, getting acquired, or shouting big revenue numbers. However, there's very little one can actually know about other agency's purchase deals. These stories are incomplete. You never know what the real terms were. You never know the headaches behind the scenes. And you definitely never know if they actually took money home. Success in the agency world is rarely a straight line. It is more often a messy, winding path filled with reinventions, hard conversations, and moments when you question everything. So agency owners struggling and watching others reach new milestones should remind themselves that longevity comes from resilience, not a perfect upward curve. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

Website Marketing vs. SEO Marketing: The Complete Business Essentials Guide with Favour Obasi-Ike | Sign up for exclusive SEO insights.This episode demystifies the relationship between website marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO), clarifying the critical distinction between the two. The discussion frames website marketing as the broad, all-encompassing "ecosystem" of a brand's online presence, including email, social media, and advertising. In contrast, SEO is presented as the tactical, high-performance "engine" that powers a website's visibility and drives targeted traffic within that ecosystem. Through foundational principles, practical strategies, and live consultations with business owners, this guide provides a comprehensive framework for building a powerful and effective digital identity.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Next Steps for Digital Marketing + SEO Services:>> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Need SEO Services? Book a Complimentary SEO Discovery Call with Favour Obasi-Ike⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠>> Visit our Work and PLAY Entertainment website to learn about our digital marketing services.>> Visit our Official website for the best digital marketing, SEO, and AI strategies today!>> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our exclusive SEO Marketing community⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠>> Read SEO Articles>> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Need SEO Services? Book a Complimentary SEO Discovery Call with Favour Obasi-Ike⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠>> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to the We Don't PLAY Podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Key Takeaways• Website Marketing is the Ecosystem, SEO is the Engine: Website marketing is the entire universe of your online activities, from email campaigns to social media posts. SEO is the specific, technical practice of optimizing your website to be found by search engines, giving your marketing efforts direction and power.• Your Website is Your Digital Identity: A website is more than a link or a digital storefront; it is the central hub for establishing your brand's credibility, trustworthiness, and authority, creating a lasting experience for both new and returning visitors.• Messaging Precedes Marketing: The effectiveness of any marketing tactic hinges on compelling messaging that connects with customer psychology. As demonstrated with the "strawberry" example, great marketing shifts a customer's mindset from a simple "need" to an emotional "want."• Storytelling Sells, Facts Only Tell: To convert visitors into customers, product descriptions must go beyond listing features and instead create an emotional connection. As speaker Mo advises:• Technical Health is Non-Negotiable: A website's foundational health depends on more than just load speed and hosting. Consistently publishing fresh content is critical because every update creates a new "tokenized" copy for search engines to crawl. A dormant site gives search engines no reason to return, while an active site signals relevance and forces re-evaluation, directly impacting rankings.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Detailed Episode Notes1. Defining the Landscape: Website Marketing vs. SEOTo build a successful online presence, it is vital to distinguish between the overarching platform of website marketing and the specific tactics of SEO. Website marketing represents your brand's total visibility and communication channels online. SEO, a critical component within that framework, is the deliberate set of actions taken to ensure your website is discovered by the right audience at the right time. Understanding this difference is the first step toward a coherent and effective digital strategy.Contrasting Key ConceptsWebsite Marketing (The Ecosystem)The Truck and Engine AnalogyThe relationship between these two concepts can be understood through a simple yet powerful analogy presented during the episode:"Think of your website like a truck. Website marketing is the truck itself—it exists, it's present, and it's visible. SEO is the engine that actually moves the truck forward, giving it the power, speed, and direction it needs to reach its destination."With these foundational definitions established, it's clear that the website itself serves as the strategic center of all marketing efforts.2. The Strategic Hub: Your Website's Core FunctionYour website is your most critical digital asset. It is the definitive online destination where you control the narrative and build direct relationships with your audience. Far more than just a place for transactions, it is the central hub for establishing trust, demonstrating expertise, and solidifying a brand identity that resonates with visitors long after they leave.The Four Pillars of a Trustworthy WebsiteFor a website to be effective, it must embody four key qualities for every visitor:1. Credible: The information is accurate, professional, and demonstrates authority.2. Resourceful: It provides value and answers the questions your audience is asking.3. Trustworthy: The site is secure, transparent, and operates with integrity.4. Accessible: It is easy to navigate and available to all users.Analyzing Visitor BehaviorEvery website serves two primary types of visitors: new visitors and returning visitors. Understanding their distinct behaviors through analytics is crucial for optimization. With over 1.1 billion websites online, simply existing is not enough; your site must be engineered to effectively engage both audiences and guide them toward a desired action.Key Website ComponentsA modern website is a multimedia platform composed of various elements that search engines index and users engage with:• Text (including body copy, headlines, and policies)• Images (with descriptive alt text for accessibility and SEO)• Audio (e.g., MP3 files for podcasts or sound clips)• Video (e.g., MP4 files for tutorials or product showcases)• Documents (e.g., PDFs for white papers or downloadable guides)A well-structured website, rich with these components, provides the perfect foundation for the tactical work of SEO to drive qualified traffic.3. Tactical Deep Dive: Activating Your SEOSEO is the disciplined practice of aligning your website's structure and content with the specific words and phrases your target audience uses in search engines like Google. It is not about tricking algorithms but about creating a valuable and relevant experience that naturally earns high visibility. This requires a consistent content engine, especially since blogs have a shelf life of 24 months. A single post can provide SEO value for up to two years, demonstrating the long-term ROI of a strategic content plan.The Content Creation EngineGenerating traffic starts with a simple question-and-answer flow. How do you generate traffic? By kickstarting the engine. How do you kickstart the engine? By creating content. How do you create effective content? By building links through publishing valuable posts like blogs, landing pages, and product pages.Uncovering SEO OpportunitiesA live demonstration in the episode revealed how to find high-intent keywords directly from Google's search suggestions—a reflection of real, frequent user queries.The strategic takeaway is clear: each of these suggestions represents a distinct user need. A single list of 10 terms can be transformed into 10 to 50 unique media assets, including blog posts, email newsletters, social media updates, and even podcast episodes. This moves SEO from theory to a practical, content-driven reality.4. Marketing in Action: Live Business ConsultationsApplying marketing theory to real-world businesses is the fastest path to clarity. This section analyzes the specific, actionable advice given to two entrepreneurs, providing a blueprint for any product-based business seeking to translate online presence into measurable results.5. Tools & Resources MentionedThe selection of a tool, particularly for email marketing, is not just a matter of features but also of technical performance. As discussed in the episode, platforms with strong server infrastructure (like Flodesk's partnership with Amazon SES) can significantly impact email deliverability, a key component of the overall marketing ecosystem.• AI Idea Generation: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, DeepSeek, Grok• Email Marketing Platforms: Constant Contact, Mailchimp, Flodesk (preferred), Aweber, Kit, Brevo• Website Hosting: GoDaddy, BlueHost, Hostinger, SiteGround• Website Builders: Webador• Social & Content Platforms: Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Clubhouse• E-commerce: AmazonSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Don't build all your business on platforms you don't own! Sure, be on social media and build something there, but don't put all your eggs in that basket alone. Monetize that email list that you own!   In Ecclesiastes 11:1-6, the richest man ever to live said… Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.  Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.  If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.  He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.  As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.  In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.   I run my email list through Mailchimp- http://eepurl.com/iRGMHo  Kit is another awesome option- https://partners.kit.com/awnqv8uyzd9l   If you need help getting started, get in touch. It's also one of the things I teach inside my Income Engine Academy.   --- Click here to change your life- http://eepurl.com/gy5T3T   Hit me up for a one-on-one brainstorming session- https://militaryimagesproject.com/products/brainstorming-session-1-hour    Check out my Linktree for different ways to rock your world! https://linktr.ee/ruggeddad    Check out the sweet Hyper X mic I'm using. https://amzn.to/41AF4px    Check out my best-selling books: Rapid Skill Development 101- https://amzn.to/3J0oDJ0 Streams of Income with Ryan Reger- https://amzn.to/3SDhDHg Strangest Secret Challenge- https://amzn.to/3xiJmVO This page contains affiliate links. This means that if you click a link and buy one of the products on this page, I may receive a commission (at no extra cost to you!) This doesn't affect our opinions or our reviews. Everything we do is to benefit you as the reader, so all of our reviews are as honest and unbiased as possible. #passiveincome #sidehustle #cryptocurrency #richlife

In this episode of the Tacos & Tech Podcast, host Neal Bloom sits down with Jared Tangney, co-founder and CTO of Biolinq. From their early EvoNexus days to today's FDA clearance, Jared walks us through the incredible journey of Biolinq - how it pivoted from sweat-sensing tattoos to a revolutionary microneedle platform that can measure glucose, lactate, and even cortisol with no blood and no pain.Jared shares how a Mailchimp newsletter led to their first investor, Mark Cuban, and why he believes San Diego is the global epicenter for biosensing innovation. With a focus on serving the largest segment of the diabetes population and plans to expand into broader metabolic and stress biomarkers, Biolinq is changing what's possible in wearable health tech.Key Topics Covered:* How Biolinq's microneedle platform works and why it matters* From sweat-based sensors to skin-based semiconductors* Lessons from nearly a decade of R&D and pivots* Measuring glucose, lactate, and now cortisol - what's next?* How a newsletter sign-up brought Mark Cuban in as the first investor* Navigating FDA clearance and commercialization strategies* San Diego's competitive edge in biosensing, diabetes tech, and medical wearables* The growing importance of AI and multi-analyte sensing in personal health* Reflections on community, startup persistence, and tacos (Fish 101 for the win)Links & Resources:Learn more about BiolinqConnect with Jared Tangney:LinkedIn This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit risingtidepartners.substack.com/subscribe

For legal technology company Clio, this was a particularly significant year, marked by major announcements – including its $1 billion acquisition of vLex – that many saw as transformative for the company. This was on full display at the company's ClioCon conference in October, where CEO Jack Newton gave a keynote laying out the company's vision for a new era of AI-driven legal work in which Clio becomes an "intelligent legal work platform" that serves not as a system of record, but as a system of action, powering lawyers through their workdays by automating much of what they do.  In today's episode, recorded live at ClioCon, host Bob Ambrogi sits down with the two key executives leading Clio's product and technology vision: John Foreman, who joined as chief product officer in May, bringing experience from major SaaS companies including MailChimp and Podium, and Jonathan Watson, the chief technology officer who's been with Clio for eight years. They explore the company's ambitious vision to develop AI and expand into larger law firms, discuss how vertical software creates advantages for AI implementation, and explain why understanding the complete client journey enables more powerful automation. Foreman and Watson share insights on moving beyond simple chatbots to AI that can actually take action, the challenges and opportunities of expanding into the enterprise market, and what's next as they work to "finish drawing the owl." "We've started to draw the owl for folks," Foreman says, "and we're going to finish drawing the owl, and it's going to be a beautiful owl." Note: As of this recording, Clio had not yet closed its acquisition of vLex. The deal did finally close on Nov. 10.    Thank You To Our Sponsors This episode of LawNext is generously made possible by our sponsors. We appreciate their support and hope you will check them out. Paradigm, home to the practice management platforms PracticePanther, Bill4Time, MerusCase and LollyLaw; the e-payments platform Headnote; and the legal accounting software TrustBooks. Briefpoint, eliminating routine discovery response and request drafting tasks so you can focus on drafting what matters (or just make it home for dinner). Eve, taking care of the tasks that slow you down so you can operate at your highest potential   If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.  

During the chaos of the holiday season, is it possible for small retailers to turn their fragmented customer data into a perfectly timed, personalized marketing, or are they destined to just add to the noise? Agility requires not just collecting customer data from every channel, but having the insight and tools to act on it in the moments that matter most. It's the ability to translate a customer signal into a relevant experience, instantly.Today, we're going to talk about how small and mid-sized retailers can punch above their weight during the critical holiday season. We'll explore the challenge of turning fragmented customer data from online browsing, email clicks, and even in-store visits into a cohesive strategy that drives precision-targeted campaigns, creates loyal customers, and, most importantly, delivers measurable ROI in a complex, multi-channel world. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Diana Williams, VP of Product Management at Intuit Mailchimp. About Diana Williams Diana Williams is VP of Product Management at Intuit Mailchimp. She is a dynamic leader who excels at turning concepts into revenue-generating products in fast-paced environments. Her experience includes launching e-commerce and business platforms, with expertise in product strategy and accelerating high-quality product execution. Previously, she held leadership roles at technology startups and companies like Meta and eBay. She resides in the Bay Area. Diana Williams on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianalwilliams/ Resources Intuit Mailchimp: https://www.mailchimp.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Palm Springs, Feb 23-26 in Palm Springs, CA. Go here for more details: https://etailwest.wbresearch.com/ 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://www.theagilebrand.showCheck 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

During the chaos of the holiday season, is it possible for small retailers to turn their fragmented customer data into a perfectly timed, personalized marketing, or are they destined to just add to the noise?Agility requires not just collecting customer data from every channel, but having the insight and tools to act on it in the moments that matter most. It's the ability to translate a customer signal into a relevant experience, instantly.Today, we're going to talk about how small and mid-sized retailers can punch above their weight during the critical holiday season. We'll explore the challenge of turning fragmented customer data from online browsing, email clicks, and even in-store visits into a cohesive strategy that drives precision-targeted campaigns, creates loyal customers, and, most importantly, delivers measurable ROI in a complex, multi-channel world.To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome, Diana Williams, VP of Product Management at Intuit Mailchimp. About Diana WilliamsDiana Williams is VP of Product Management at Intuit Mailchimp. She is a dynamic leader who excels at turning concepts into revenue-generating products in fast-paced environments. Her experience includes launching e-commerce and business platforms, with expertise in product strategy and accelerating high-quality product execution. Previously, she held leadership roles at technology startups and companies like Meta and eBay. She resides in the Bay Area. Diana Williams on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianalwilliams/ Resources Intuit Mailchimp: https://www.mailchimp.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Palm Springs, Feb 23-26 in Palm Springs, CA. Go here for more details: https://etailwest.wbresearch.com/ 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://www.theagilebrand.showCheck 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.

In 2001, three web designers built a quirky email tool called Mailchimp.It wasn't their main business.It wasn't even meant to make real money.For years, Ben Chestnut and his partners survived on web-design gigs, while Mailchimp earned just enough to cover lunch.Then…one surprising spreadsheet changed everything.In this episode, Ben reveals:The decision that tripled their revenue overnightHow a mispronunciation on the world's biggest podcast turned into a marketing masterstrokeHow a painful wake-up call about leadership reshaped the company's cultureListen now to hear how guerrilla billboards, a monkey logo, and a string of improbable breaks built one of the most recognizable names in tech. Follow How I Built This:Instagram → @howibuiltthisX → @HowIBuiltThisFacebook → How I Built ThisFollow Guy Raz:Instagram → @guy.razX → @guyrazSubstack → guyraz.substack.comWebsite → guyraz.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.