Podcasts about marketers

In this episode I discuss the boring marketing strategies guaranteed to boost your bottom line in 2025. Discover time-tested tactics like hosting in-person events and leveraging email marketing, plus modern essentials such as short-form video, search everywhere optimization, and podcasting. Whether you're a CMO, founder, or marketer, learn how to combine old-school and new methods for consistent ROI, creative networking, and sustainable growth that outlasts fleeting trends. Stay ahead by mastering these reliable, high-impact techniques that deliver results no matter what's trending. TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Why “boring” marketing always wins (02:16) In-person events and building connections (07:10) Webinars and digital lives for lead generation (11:55) Email marketing, direct mail, and high-ROI tactics (17:20) Short-form, organic, and podcasts for modern reach

Imagine facing a diagnosis that could redefine your identity—not once, but twice. That's the story of Gregory S. Works, who didn't just survive two kidney transplants—he transformed every setback into a testimony of faith, humor, and unbreakable resilience. Gregory's journey is about more than survival. It's about discovering purpose in the midst of pain, leaning into faith during the toughest seasons, and inspiring others to live fully despite the odds. In this episode of the Marketer of the Day Podcast, Gregory shares his powerful story of navigating chronic illness, embracing second chances, and using his experiences to help others. From health scares to breakthroughs, his message is clear: life is a gift, and it's meant to be lived with gratitude, service, and joy. Whether you're battling a personal challenge or simply want a fresh perspective on resilience, Gregory's wisdom will encourage and uplift you. Quotes: “Two kidney transplants didn't define me—they refined me.” “Resilience is not about bouncing back, it's about bouncing forward with purpose.” “Faith and humor became my medicine when doctors couldn't give me all the answers.” Resources: Follow Gregory Works on Facebook Connect with Gregory Works on LinkedIn Check out Greg Works' book, Triumph: Trials, Transplants, Transition, Transformation, on Amazon

He went from being a broke nurse to building and selling three companies for over $300 million—all while working less than five hours a day. Meet Trevor G. Blake, the man, the myth, the legend. Trevor is a serial entrepreneur, bestselling author, and a master at blending neuroscience with business strategy. His mission? To help ambitious entrepreneurs rewire their brains, overcome fear, and achieve success without sacrificing their health or happiness. In this episode of the Marketer of the Day Podcast, Trevor shares his unique approach to confidence, brain reprogramming, and business scaling. If you've ever felt trapped by long hours, self-doubt, or the burnout cycle, Trevor's story proves there's another way. Get ready to learn how to turn mindset into your most valuable asset, build wealth with purpose, and define success on your own terms. Quotes: “The brain doesn't know the difference between imagination and reality—so give it the reality you want.” “You don't have to work 80 hours a week to build wealth—you just need to work smart with purpose.” “Fear is a habit, but so is confidence. Which one are you practicing?” Resources: Explore Trevor G. Blake on Instagram Connect with Trevor G. Blake on LinkedIn Subscribe to Trevor G. Blake on YouTube Free Guide Reveals The ‘5-Hour Workday' Science-Backed Success Formula You Can Implement Immediately To Build A 7-Figure Business! Learn more with TrevorGBlake.com

Big budgets and star power don't guarantee success. Sometimes it takes time, refinement, and the right story to win an audience.That's the journey of The Gilded Age, the HBO drama that overcame early skepticism to become a hit. In this episode, we dig into its marketing parallels with the help of our special guest Laura Goldberg, Chief Marketing Officer at Auctane.Together, we explore what B2B marketers can learn from practicing patience, locking in product-market fit, and doubling down when momentum builds to gain lasting growth.About our guest, Laura GoldbergLaura Goldberg is the Chief Marketing Officer at Auctane. She is a seasoned, operations-driven go-to-market executive with a proven track record of propelling software companies to new heights, particularly serving small and medium sized businesses (SMBs), a vital segment for Auctane. Goldberg excels in crafting data-driven marketing strategies that resonate with customer needs, and her expertise will be key in advancing Auctane's mission to deliver exceptional shipping and mailing experiences to businesses worldwide.Previously, Laura was the CMO at Constant Contact, a digital marketing platform trusted by millions of small businesses and nonprofits. She has also held marketing leadership positions at Kabbage, an American Express Company, and LegalZoom, where she played key roles in driving customer growth, revenue expansion, and EBITDA improvements, leading to successful exits for both companies.What B2B Companies Can Learn From The Gilded Age:Patience is essential. The Gilded Age wasn't an overnight success—it built momentum slowly, and Laura sees the same in B2B marketing. “You gotta have patience. You gotta see it more than once. It has to build. You may not, be a… hot [thing] out of the gate. But… it's gonna build. Nobody makes a decision… with The Gilded Age, it's, you know, a solid hour and you gotta pay attention. Like you have to make a commitment to it and it takes time.” Marketing results rarely happen instantly. Success comes from committing, nurturing, and allowing campaigns to grow into traction over time.Product-market fit is non-negotiable. The show's elaborate sets and costumes bought it some time, but what kept audiences hooked was stronger storytelling in later seasons. Laura draws a clear B2B parallel: “You may have some stumbles outta the gate… You gotta deliver the goods. The product market fit, if you will, has to be there eventually. It doesn't have to be perfect right outta the gate, but it has to get to perfect pretty quickly.” In other words: creative campaigns and strong distribution will only get you so far—if the product doesn't ultimately deliver, marketing can't save itLean in when you gain traction. Once The Gilded Age started buzzing online, the promotion amplified everywhere. Laura says the same is true for B2B: “Once you get traction, lean in. When I tell you that my socials, everything I see is talking about this show… I see Mr. Russell in his flower suit all over the internet. By the way, I think it's an interview from two years ago that I keep seeing. So recycle all that stuff. But like once you feel that traction gripping, lean in, like repeat, be on everything. Repost, retweet… you have to lean in when you're doing well and really get that momentum.” Marketers should maximize momentum, recycle strong content, and make sure their presence is unavoidable when the audience is paying attention.Quote“ Customer, customer, customer. I feel like too many times it's really easy to talk about why your product's great and what it does… but you really have to frame it in the, what are you doing for me and me being the customer. How am I making things faster, cheaper, better for your end customer with what we're doing, and making sure that you're not just yelling features and functionality at people.”Time Stamps[00:55] Meet Laura Goldberg, Chief Marketing Officer at Auctane[01:14] Why The Gilded Age?[02:57] The Role of CMO at Auctane[09:50] What is The Gilded Age?[26:28] The Craft of Period Pieces[29:19] B2B Marketing Lessons from The Gilded Age[31:43] Laura's Marketing Strategy as a CMO[37:25] Winning Across Channels[49:35] Final Thoughts and TakeawaysLinksConnect with Laura on LinkedInLearn more about AuctaneAbout Remarkable!Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. In today's episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Head of Production). Remarkable was produced this week by Jess Avellino, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. Create something remarkable. Rise above the noise. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Jeremie Watson is here! As the founder of Watson Marketing Agency and an award-winning marketer, he helps brands achieve their highest potential, especially in the 7 to 8 figures. Jeremie believes that every mistake is a unique learning opportunity. He advocates for embracing the longer path to lasting success and being patient with ourselves to avoid burnout. His philosophy is to stop comparing yourself to others, take the time to understand who you are, and remember: persistence is key. Never give up!You can connect with Jeremie Watson on Instagram @ceojeremie

Marketers live in the gray area of measurement — especially in social media. In this episode, Emeric Ernoult, CEO and co-founder of Agorapulse, shares his hard-earned insights on proving the real value of social. Discover why social isn't just a trend, how to balance brand awareness with demand generation, and why vanity metrics are signals, not goals. Emeric also dives into how AI can multiply your efforts (for better or worse), and what it really takes to create memorable content that drives lasting ROI.

In this episode, Eric shares how AI agents are already reshaping his workflow by automating tasks and unlocking more time for strategic, high-impact work. From recruitment and lead generation to outreach and meeting prep, he breaks down practical examples of how agent-based systems enhance team productivity and redefine the future of work. TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Building a Foundation of AI Agents (02:49) Enhancing Team Performance with AI Workflows (05:40) Leveraging AI for Recruitment and Lead Generation (08:28) Personalizing Communication with AI Agents (09:54) Preparing for Meetings with AI Research

He went from jail at age 18 to coaching leaders through chaos and scaling businesses with calm precision. Meet Jim Padilla, a Christian entrepreneur, sales expert, and grandfather of seven (all under the age of seven!). Jim built his empire not despite his past, but because of it. With a rare gift for turning volatility into victory, he has become the “secret weapon” for leaders looking to master high-stakes sales, build winning teams, and generate unstoppable momentum. In this episode of the Marketer of the Day Podcast, Jim shares how faith, resilience, and strategy guide his approach to business and life. From transforming broken beginnings into a life of purpose to helping entrepreneurs escape chaos and scale with confidence, Jim offers a fresh perspective on what true leadership looks like. Get ready for a powerful conversation about faith in the marketplace, family legacy, and the art of calm precision in business growth. Quotes: “Chaos doesn't have to be the end—it can be the beginning of clarity.” “Your past doesn't disqualify you; it prepares you for the mission ahead.” “When faith anchors your business, momentum follows naturally.” Resources: Follow Jim Padilla on Facebook Connect with Jim Padilla on LinkedIn Discover insights at Gain the Edge Now

Aliza Licht, Award-winning Marketer & Author, joins Sid live in-studio to talk about Jewish advocacy and the political landscape in New York. The discussion begins with Sid highlighting former President Donald Trump's support for Israel and the Jewish community. The conversation then shifts to post-October 7th activism, where Aliza describes her journey from marketer and author to Jewish activist. Aliza shares her views on New York's mayoral race, advocating for Andrew Cuomo over Curtis Sliwa, emphasizing the need to defeat Mamdani. The interview also covers criticisms of various political figures and the importance of prioritizing capitalism, the NYPD, and New York's best interests. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if reality isn't random—but coded? Jose Miguel Calderon Carpio, a transformational CIO, award-winning tech strategist, and author of Cosmos, explores this very idea. In his book, he argues that the universe may operate more like software than stardust and that life is intentional, designed, and deeply meaningful. On today's episode of the Marketer of the Day Podcast, Jose Miguel shares how to avoid living as an “NPC” in the world, how to tap into the universe's intentional design, and how understanding these patterns can transform your personal and professional life. Quotes: “The universe is not a mistake—it's a masterpiece of conscious design.” “Life is software, and every decision we make is code shaping our future.” “We are not just observers of the cosmos—we are active participants in its unfolding design.” Resources: Follow Jose Miguel on Facebook Connect with Jose Miguel on LinkedIn Read "Code Called Cosmos" on Amazon

On today's podcast episode, we discuss what folks are prioritizing when it comes to upskilling in AI, the stigma of using the technology at work, and which part of the “Using AI at Work” conversation needs more attention. Join Senior Director of Podcasts and host, Marcus Johnson, Senior Editor, Lisa Haiss, and Analyst, Grace Harmon. Listen everywhere and watch on YouTube and Spotify.   To learn more about our research and get access to PRO+, go to EMARKETER.com   Follow us on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/emarketer/   For sponsorship opportunities, contact us: advertising@emarketer.com   For more information, visit: https://www.emarketer.com/advertise/   Have questions or just want to say hi? Drop us a line at podcast@emarketer.com    For a transcript of this episode, click here: https://www.emarketer.com/content/podcast-how-marketers-use-ai-work-skills-stigma-future-of-advertising-jobs-behind-numbers   © 2025 EMARKETER   Consumers skip ads but not rewards. Fetch drives performance with 12.5M+ monthly users and 11.5M+ receipts scanned daily, capturing 88% of household spend. Your brand becomes the reward earning real engagement, verified purchases, and lasting loyalty. Fetch: America's Rewards App. Where brands are the center of joy. Learn more at business.fetch.com.  

Simplifying marketing while staying true to your purpose is possible!Marketing does not have to feel overwhelming or out of reach. In this episode, Candice sits down with Berlyn Komar, digital marketing strategist and founder of Planted Marketing and The Greenhouse. With a background in photography, Berlyn shares how her creative journey evolved into building an agency that helps purpose-driven brands grow with authentic strategies. She also opens up about her ADHD diagnosis, the lessons she's learned outside of college, and how solopreneurs can simplify marketing without burning out. Here's what to expect on the podcast:Berlyn's transition from photographer to marketing agency founderWhy college is not always the answer, especially in fast-changing fieldsHow understanding ADHD reshaped the way Berlyn works and structures her businessThe story behind Planted Marketing and the importance of purpose-driven brandingHow The Greenhouse Community supports solopreneurs with real-time guidancePractical tips for personal branding, especially for those in direct salesThe pros and cons of AI in marketing and how to use it wisely without losing authenticityBerlyn's passion for sustainability, purpose, and building supportive communitiesAnd so much more! Berlyn Komar is a digital marketing strategist and founder of Planted Marketing, a full-service agency specializing in organic content marketing for purpose-driven brands.With over a decade of experience, Berlyn has helped countless small businesses and solopreneurs grow by building authentic marketing strategies. She also founded The Greenhouse, a membership community that provides affordable marketing support for solopreneurs navigating the challenges of DIY marketing.Get your FREE TRIAL to The Greenhouse Community with this link:https://www.thegreenhousecommunity.com/checkout/the-greenhouse-membership?affiliate_code=11e889Website: https://plantedmarketing.com | https://plantedmarketing.com/greenhouse-communityInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/plantedmrktng/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/berlynkomar/-----If you're struggling, consider therapy with our sponsor, BetterHelp.Visit https://betterhelp.com/candicesnyder for a 10% discount on your first month of therapy.*This is a paid promotionIf you are in the United States and in crisis, or any other person may be in danger -Suicide & Crisis Lifeline Dial 988-----Connect with Candice Snyder!Website: https://www.podpage.com/passion-purpose-and-possibilities-1/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/candicebsnyder?_rdrPassion, Purpose, and Possibilities Community Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/passionpurposeandpossibilitiescommunity/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passionpurposepossibilities/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candicesnyder/Shop For A Cause With Gifts That Give Back to Nonprofits: https://thekindnesscause.com/Fall In Love With Artists And Experience Joy And Calm: https://www.youtube.com/@movenartrelaxationClick this link to receive your FREE TRIAL to The Greenhouse Communityhttps://www.thegreenhousecommunity.com/checkout/the-greenhouse-membership?affiliate_code=11e889

Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We're breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use.In this episode, Elena and Rob explore how the Mixture of Experts model uses AI to uncover four distinct consumer segments that traditional econometric models miss entirely. They reveal why assuming all consumers behave the same way leads to missed opportunities and how dynamic segmentation can transform marketing strategy.Topics covered:   [01:00] "How Do Consumers Really Choose? Exposing Hidden Preferences With the Mixture of Experts Model"[03:00] Four hidden consumer segments uncovered by AI[05:00] Why traditional models oversimplify consumer behavior[06:00] The power of discount thresholds in promotion-driven buying[07:00] How AI creates flexible, realistic customer pictures[08:00] Why consumers are more like a zoo than a herd of cows  To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter.  Resources: Vallarino, D. (2025). How Do Consumers Really Choose? Exposing Hidden Preferences with the Mixture of Experts Model. arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.05800.   Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Think you know your customer? You might be wrong. And that's costing you.  Daniel sits down with Rachel Waldstein, VP of Global Strategic Consulting at Wunderkind, to explore how today's top brands balance personalization and privacy.  Money isn't the only currency around here…it's also about trust. Rachel walks through how Marketers can collect and activate first-party data without crossing the line, and how to shift KPIs as privacy regulations and platform changes reshape what really matters. And, Rachel describes her 15-touch customer path: a plan to meet customers where they are located. From email to SMS, to scouring Reddit pages and beyond, where are your customers located? How does AI play a role in this? If you're planning on using customer data to drive decisions AND care about their privacy while doing your job, this is the episode for you.  Wunderkind is a global performance marketing solution powered by AI, data, and identity. To learn more, visit: https://www.wunderkind.co/ Follow Rachel: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-waldstein/ Follow Daniel: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@themarketingmillennials/featured Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Dmurr68 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-murray-marketing Sign up for The Marketing Millennials newsletter: www.workweek.com/brand/the-marketing-millennials Daniel is a Workweek friend, working to produce amazing podcasts. To find out more, visit: www.workweek.com

This week, Cathy McKnight, Chief Problem Solver at Seventh Bear, makes her monthly visit to the studio, and she and our host Ian Truscott discuss 5 skills marketers need for working with agentic AI, based on an article she wrote for Salesforce.com. They discuss: Strategic thinking Creative direction AI literacy Ethical judgment Orchestration and collaboration If you have any comments or thoughts on this topic, we would love to hear them, we welcome your feedback.  Enjoy! — The Links The people: Ian Truscott on LinkedIn  Cathy McKnight on LinkedIn Mentioned this week: Cathy's article on Salesforce.com: 5 Agentic AI Marketing Skills You Need Right Now Cathy's firm - Seventh Bear Rockstar CMO: The Beat Newsletter that we send every Monday Rockstar CMO on the web and LinkedIn Previous episodes and all the show notes: Rockstar CMO FM. Track List: We'll be right back by Stienski & Mass Media on YouTube You can listen to this on all good podcast platforms, like Apple, Amazon, and Spotify. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How the owner of Lunazul tequila, Deep Eddy vodka and a high-end bourbon and whiskey portfolio is tapping into fast moving social media and food trends without losing sight of its roots. Blevins also discusses new agency relationships with Mono and Assembly.

Event marketers talk about personalization a lot. We slap a name on a badge, segment an email list, and call it a day.But attendees want more than that. They want to feel seen: from the first invite, to the way a session is designed, to the follow-up that lands after the show. That's the kind of personalization that creates loyalty, accelerates deals, and turns an event into something people don't forget.That's why on this episode, Jody Hall (Director, Global Event Management at Labcorp) and Michelle Khair (Event Coordinator at Argen Corporation) get real about what's working.Join them as they talk about:✅ How intentional design keeps personalization clear and focused✅ What it means to “architect moments that matter”✅ Where AI supports personalization without replacing the human touchListen in for a conversation that cuts through the noise and shows what true personalization looks like in practice.----------------------------------Connect with ThemJody Hall: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodyahall/Michelle Khair: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-khair-766066169/Connect with Matt KleinrockLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-kleinrock-9613b22b/Company: https://rockwayexhibits.com/

In this conversation, Ann Wyatt and Jeremiah Llewellyn discuss the multifaceted aspects of working at Horn USA, focusing on marketing, technology, and the importance of people in the business. They explore how technology enhances workforce collaboration, the unique skills developed at Horn, and the significance of passing down knowledge in the manufacturing industry. Additionally, they highlight the company's internship programs and community engagement efforts, emphasizing the need for effective recruitment strategies to attract future talent. In This Episode:-00:00: Introduction To Workforce 4.0-00:30: Welcoming Horn USA Back To Workforce 4.0-05:35: Horn USA- Leading The Workforce With Innovation-10:02: Collaboration Between Humans And Machines-12:40: The Role Of International Business Skills-15:52: Opportunities Obtained Through Horn USA-19:12: Building Confidence With Hands On Training-21:08: Preserving Tribal Knowledge: The Call To Step Up-25:24: Horn USA: Passing The Torch To Future Generations-33:06: Horn USA's Blueprint For Creating An Internship-34:51: The Value Of Leveraging Creativity To Build Talent Pipelines-39:15: Leveraging Marketing As A Recruitment Function-43:47: How You Can Work For Horn USA-46:35: Conclusion And Contact InformationMore About Jeremiah Llewellyn:As a once- IT- turned- Marketer guru, Jeremiah Llewellyn is passionate about about taking a creative approach to solving problems. A graduate of Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), Jeremiah began his manufacturing career in IT at Horn USA and has since transformed his career into Marketing. Jeremiah most recently kicked off the Horn USA summer internship program and is well known for taking an analytical approach to understanding marketing data and driving business value. You can learn more about Jeremiah by connecting with him here.The Future of Work (and this Episode) Is Brought To You By Secchi:Secchi is a revolutionary workforce engagement tool created for organizations to make data-driven frontline decisions in real-time. By measuring and combining multiple people-related lead indicators, Secchi provides in-the-moment visibility into individual frontline employee performance, team performance, engagement/turnover risks, and positive employee behaviors all while removing the traditional barriers of administrative burden on leaders. To learn more about Secchi, check them out here.

Content marketing is changing fast, and so are the rules of visibility. Tessa Burg talks with Jon Gillham, Founder of Originality.ai, about how marketers can avoid the “AI slop” trap in today's era of AI-generated content. Jon shares what he's learned since launching the first commercially available AI detector—just three days before ChatGPT hit the market—and offers practical advice on balancing efficiency with authenticity. Listeners will hear about using AI tools responsibly while still producing high-quality, original content that builds trust and stands out in search, LLMs and beyond. Jon also explains how marketers can increase their visibility with strategies like adding citations, original data and quotes.  Whether you're worried about declining Google traffic, retention challenges or simply how to future-proof your content strategy, this episode delivers insights you can put into practice right away. Leader Generation is hosted by Tessa Burg and brought to you by Mod Op.  About Jon Gillham: Jon Gillham founded Originality.ai after selling a content marketing agency he had previously founded. Originality.ai launched in November 2022 to detect GPT-3-generated content (before ChatGPT had launched). One of the earliest adopters of generative AI content for SEO purposes at scale through his agency, Jon understood the wave that was coming, which ChatGPT and GPT-4 have fully unleashed. Additionally, he believed that there was a need for a modern plagiarism checking solution. One that provided scan history, detection scores, shareable results, team access etc., what you would expect from a modern Plagiarism Checking solution. The team now includes experienced Machine Learning Engineers, Researchers, Developers and Marketers, all on a mission to try and provide transparency on the true originality of any writing.   About Tessa Burg: Tessa is the Chief Technology Officer at Mod Op and Host of the Leader Generation podcast. She has led both technology and marketing teams for 15+ years. Tessa initiated and now leads Mod Op's AI/ML Pilot Team, AI Council and Innovation Pipeline. She started her career in IT and development before following her love for data and strategy into digital marketing. Tessa has held roles on both the consulting and client sides of the business for domestic and international brands, including American Greetings, Amazon, Nestlé, Anlene, Moen and many more. Tessa can be reached on LinkedIn or at Tessa.Burg@ModOp.com.

In this insightful episode of the Stuck In My Mind Podcast, host Wize El Jefe welcomes Tim Bradley—co-founder of Pennant Video and creator of the Video Marketing Trifecta—for a masterclass in modern video marketing, authentic storytelling, and building impactful campaigns that drive real business results. Whether you're a startup founder, B2B marketer, or any leader feeling “stuck” in the noisy world of digital marketing, this conversation is packed with actionable wisdom, practical frameworks, and a fresh perspective on connecting with audiences in today's attention economy. A Marketer's Journey: Tim Bradley's Origin Story Wize El Jefe kicks off the episode with a warm welcome and immediately dives into Bradley's journey. Tim recounts his early days, growing up with a dad who always had a camera at family gatherings, sparking an early love for visual storytelling. From making stop-motion Lego movies in the backyard as a kid to entering the world of YouTube just before its Google-era explosion, Tim found himself at the intersection of creativity and technology right as digital video was transforming how brands communicated. Leading Creative Teams: Lessons in Fast-Paced Storytelling Tim shares lessons from leading a 25-person creative team, detailing how high-speed, high-stakes content creation in video marketing taught him the importance of intentional storytelling. Unlike long-form narratives, he explains, most marketing videos have just 60 seconds to grab attention, build trust, and empower decisions. One key takeaway? No single video can do it all. Instead, the secret lies in delivering the right story, with the right information, at the right moment along the buyer's journey. The ‘Aha' Moment: Why One Video Is Never Enough For many businesses, the common mistake is packing too much into one video—trying to appeal to every stakeholder, answer every question, and check every marketing box. Tim describes how this leads to bloated, unfocused videos that end up being more like boring PowerPoint presentations than compelling narratives. His solution was to develop frameworks (and learn to say “no” to client bloat!), ultimately leading to the creation of his flagship approach: the Video Marketing Trifecta. Introducing the Video Marketing Trifecta Tim lays out the Trifecta framework—a strategic, repeatable system that breaks down B2B video content into three distinct but connected pieces: Anthem Videos: These flagship “why we exist” stories live atop websites and at the center of major events, rallying audiences by tapping into beliefs, values, and mission. They're designed to speak to the audience's heart and reflect the viewer's aspirations back at them. Explainer Videos: Where anthem videos build emotional resonance, explainers serve the mind—clarifying “what do you do?” and “how do you do it?”, tailored for different roles, industries, or pain points. Endorsement Videos: The gut check and validation, where satisfied customers become storytellers. These testimonials are powerful trust-builders, showing prospects people like them succeeding with your solution. Together, these three content pillars differentiate, demonstrate value, and validate your brand, stitching together a buyer's journey that doesn't depend on just one magical piece of content. Solving Real Business Problems—Not Just Creating “Flashy Content” Tim makes a compelling distinction between flashy, high-production-value videos and genuinely effective content. The former might get attention, but if it isn't audience-first and aligned with real buyer concerns, it'll fall flat. Authentic storytelling, built on knowing your customer, using consistent frameworks, and grounding content in actual buyer needs, is where true ROI happens—especially in complex B2B sales that can last up to a year. Learning from Mistakes: Focus and Adaptability From failed attempts at all-in-one videos to wasting resources chasing every social channel, Tim is candid about how early missteps shaped his approach. Now, his focus is on being highly intentional—meeting audiences where they are, focusing efforts on platforms and moments that truly matter, and ensuring each piece of content has a clearly defined role. The Power of the Mid-Funnel: Unlocking Hidden Value One of the most powerful insights from the episode is Tim's emphasis on the neglected “mid-funnel.” While brands invest heavily at the top (awareness/advertising) and bottom (customer nurturing/thought leadership), the critical middle—where trust is built, decisions are made, and engagement happens—often gets overlooked. This is where the Video Marketing Trifecta shines, filling a gap ignored by many in-house teams, especially in long B2B sales cycles. Actionable Advice for Startups and Small Budgets Tim's advice isn't just for Fortune 500s—he breaks down how startups and small businesses can apply the same principles. With just a smartphone and some consistency, anyone can start building a valuable content library, learn from audience feedback, and invest resources more strategically over time. The key: Just start, keep learning, and don't wait for perfect equipment to tell your story. Creative Trends & The Role of AI The conversation examines the evolving role of AI in content creation and production efficiency. While Tim embraces AI tools for speeding up tedious editing and transcription, he cautions against letting shortcuts erode trust or authenticity. For podcasting and video alike, leveraging technology should enhance—not replace—the human connection. Myths, Trends, and What's Next Tim busts the myth of the “one-video-to-rule-them-all,” emphasizing that great video assets can—and should—be repurposed, remixed, and used across channels, events, and content calendars for maximum return on investment. In terms of trends, he urges brands to embrace “video first” strategies, invest in internal teams, leverage influencer and creator culture even in B2B, and make better use of existing assets through thoughtful repurposing. Practical Alignment: Syncing Video Strategy with the Buyer's Journey For businesses looking to better match their video strategy with real buyer journeys, Tim recommends having authentic conversations—with customers, sales teams, and industry partners—to surface pain points, objections, and opportunities for trust-building stories. Strong relationships, clarity on goals, and an audience-first mindset are more valuable than any piece of equipment or viral trend. For the Stuck Marketer: Don't Add to the Noise Closing out, Tim offers heartfelt advice to leaders feeling overwhelmed: Don't just contribute to digital noise for the sake of it. Engage with intention—prioritize value, make real connections, and let authentic stories cut through. To anyone who has felt like video “didn't work,” he encourages honest reflection on goals, creative approach, and whether the content was truly audience-driven. Final Takeaways & Resources For more: Listeners are encouraged to check out Pennant Video and download the ungated “Funnel Focused” playbook at pennantvideo.com for hands-on strategies. Whether you're redefining your approach to content, struggling with low engagement, or just getting started with video, this episode is a must-listen for demystifying B2B video marketing and building a brand people can trust. If you know a founder, marketer, or leader who's struggling to turn attention into genuine sales, this episode might be the missing piece they need. Stay clear, stay strategic, and stay wise—because the right stories, told in the right way, are what truly drive business results. Listen now for brilliant, battle-tested advice from a storyteller at the forefront of video marketing innovation!

Did you know poultry is the third most popular pet in America, behind dogs and cats? It's surprising stats like this that reflect the rural lifestyle trends driving growth at Tractor Supply Company.This week, Elena and Rob talk with Kimberley Gardiner, CMO of Tractor Supply. Learn how she measures marketing impact through business outcomes, builds teams grounded in humility, and why she rejects the brand versus performance marketing debate. Plus, hear the undeniable impact of connecting directly with customers.Topics covered: [04:00] Transitioning from automotive to Tractor Supply marketing[10:00] Using marketing strategically as a business driver, not cost center[15:00] Investing marketing dollars for measurable returns[18:00] Customer metrics that matter: traffic, transactions, basket size[22:00] Why brand marketing versus performance marketing is a false choice[26:00] What Kimberley learned about rodeo after joining Tractor Supply  To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter.  Resources: 2024 MarketingWeek Article: https://www.marketingweek.com/marketers-improvement-financial-fluency/Kimberley Gardiner's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimberley-sweet-gardiner/ Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Healthcare marketers are under constant pressure to deliver immediate patient volume. But when performance campaigns take center stage at the expense of brand marketing, the long-term health of the organization suffers. In this episode of Ignite, Lauren Leone sits down with Cardinal's Katie Gray, Senior Account Director, to explore how performance and brand can work together—not against each other. They identify common mistakes healthcare organizations make when overemphasizing performance and outline strategies to build trust, drive volume, and support sustainable growth. Whether you're a CMO balancing pressure from the board or a marketer trying to prove ROI, this conversation will help you rethink how brand marketing fuels performance over time. RELATED RESOURCES How to Build a Full-Funnel Healthcare Marketing Strategy - https://www.cardinaldigitalmarketing.com/healthcare-resources/blog/healthcare-full-funnel-marketing-strategy/ Why Capacity-Driven Marketing Is Non-Negotiable - https://www.cardinaldigitalmarketing.com/capacity-driven-marketing-media-investment-strategy/ Performance Creative: The Key to Paid Media Success - https://www.cardinaldigitalmarketing.com/healthcare-resources/blog/performance-creative-the-key-to-paid-media-success/ How to Set Smarter Healthcare Marketing Goals - https://www.cardinaldigitalmarketing.com/healthcare-resources/blog/marketing-goal-planning/

In this week’s First $1,000 segment, hear how a digital marketer gets paid for cleaning up Google listings for orthodontists—fixing visibility problems most offices didn’t even realize they had. Side Hustle School features a new episode EVERY DAY, featuring detailed case studies of people who earn extra money without quitting their job. This year, the show includes free guided lessons and listener Q&A several days each week. Show notes: SideHustleSchool.com Email: team@sidehustleschool.com Be on the show: SideHustleSchool.com/questions Connect on Instagram: @193countries Visit Chris's main site: ChrisGuillebeau.com Read A Year of Mental Health: yearofmentalhealth.com If you're enjoying the show, please pass it along! It's free and has been published every single day since January 1, 2017. We're also very grateful for your five-star ratings—it shows that people are listening and looking forward to new episodes.

Today we're talking to you shy marketers out there, and many of you are better than a lot of the loudmouth marketers. But you loudmouth marketers like me are going to learn something to increase your market share. Screw The Commute Podcast Show Notes Episode 1040 How To Automate Your Business - https://screwthecommute.com/automatefree/ Internet Marketing Training Center - https://imtcva.org/ Higher Education Webinar – https://screwthecommute.com/webinars See Tom's Stuff – https://linktr.ee/antionandassociates 00:23 Tom's introduction to Shy Marketers 01:28 Add calm marketing into your mix 03:55 Don't get beat by loudmouth marketers 06:28 You can still be an entrepreneur and screw the commute Entrepreneurial Resources Mentioned in This Podcast Higher Education Webinar - https://screwthecommute.com/webinars Screw The Commute - https://screwthecommute.com/ Screw The Commute Podcast App - https://screwthecommute.com/app/ College Ripoff Quiz - https://imtcva.org/quiz Know a young person for our Youth Episode Series? Send an email to Tom! - orders@antion.com Have a Roku box? Find Tom's Public Speaking Channel there! - https://channelstore.roku.com/details/267358/the-public-speaking-channel How To Automate Your Business - https://screwthecommute.com/automatefree/ Internet Marketing Retreat and Joint Venture Program - https://greatinternetmarketingtraining.com/ Kartra - https://screwthecommute.com/kartra/ Copywriting901 - https://copywriting901.com/ Become a Great Podcast Guest - https://screwthecommute.com/greatpodcastguest Training - https://screwthecommute.com/training Disabilities Page - https://imtcva.org/disabilities/ Tom's Patreon Page - https://screwthecommute.com/patreon/ Tom on TikTok - https://tiktok.com/@digitalmultimillionaire/ Email Tom: Tom@ScrewTheCommute.com Internet Marketing Training Center - https://imtcva.org/ Related Episodes New YouTube Features - https://screwthecommute.com/1039/ More Entrepreneurial Resources for Home Based Business, Lifestyle Business, Passive Income, Professional Speaking and Online Business I discovered a great new headline / subject line / subheading generator that will actually analyze which headlines and subject lines are best for your market. I negotiated a deal with the developer of this revolutionary and inexpensive software. Oh, and it's good on Mac and PC. Go here: http://jvz1.com/c/41743/183906 The Wordpress Ecourse. Learn how to Make World Class Websites for $20 or less. https://screwthecommute.com/wordpressecourse/ Join our Private Facebook Group! One week trial for only a buck and then $37 a month, or save a ton with one payment of $297 for a year. Click the image to see all the details and sign up or go to https://www.greatinternetmarketing.com/screwthecommute/ After you sign up, check your email for instructions on getting in the group.

Welcome back to the podcast. Today, we're talking about a counterintuitive but powerful marketing strategy from the brilliant Laura Ries: defining a "strategic enemy." The concept is simple yet profound. Instead of trying to be a vague, all-encompassing "best," your brand gains credibility and loyalty by clearly stating what it opposes. This isn't just a marketing gimmick—it's how the human brain works. Our minds latch onto conflict and contrast far more easily than abstract claims. A brand that stands against something—be it a competitor, an industry convention, or even an old way of thinking—creates a tribe of followers who share that opposition. This strategy demands ruthless focus and the courage to make sacrifices. It means letting go of the fear of missing out and doubling down on a single, powerful idea.

Instagram is always changing. So, it's time to optimize your content.  Daniel and Jay break down the newest Instagram updates and share the practical strategies driving serious growth right now: reply-driven stories, banners, and even pinning comments are doing numbers.  Plus, should you prioritize SEO-friendly captions or chase hashtags? Captions are the way to go…and hashtags are on their way out.  If you're a Marketer looking to beat the algorithm, get more eyeballs on your content, and convert viewers, this is the episode for you.

After decades of being overshadowed by Boomers and Millennials, Generation X is poised to become the dominant global consumer group and are projected to spend $15.2 trillion 2025 and $23 trillion worldwide in 2035, according to new research from NielsenIQ (NIQ)

A Bethesda marketing expert explains how consistent, patient-focused content can raise your dental practice's profile and keep appointment books full without costly ads. Learn all about it at https://liftberry.clientcabin.com/app/info LiftBerry City: Rockville Address: 10401 Grosvenor Place Website: https://liftberry.clientcabin.com

Sit back and relax but pay attention to my conversation with Gee Ranasinha. Gee lives in the Northeast part of France. As he puts it, his marketing experience goes back to the “days of dial-up internet and AOL CDs”. During our conversation Gee tells us how he progressed from working with film, (do you know what that is?), to now working with the most advanced digital and other technological systems.   He is the CEO of his own marketing company KEXINO. He talks a bit about what makes a good marketing firm and why some companies are more successful than others. He says, for example, that most companies do the same things as every other company. While labels and logos may be different, if you cover up the logos the messages and ways to provide them are the same. The successful firms have learned to distinguish themselves by being different in some manner. He practices what he preaches right down to the name of his company, KEXINO. He will tell us where the company name came from. You will see why I says he practices what he preaches.   Gee gives us a great history of a lot of marketing efforts and initiatives. If you are at all involved with working to make yourself or your company successful marketing wise, then what Gee has to say will be especially relevant to you. This is one of those episodes that is worth hearing more than once.     About the Guest:   Gee has been in marketing since the days of dial-up internet and AOL CDs. Today, he's the CEO of KEXINO, a marketing agency and behavioral science practice for small to medium-sized businesses. Over the past 17 years KEXINO has helped over 400 startups and small businesses in around 20 countries grow awareness, reputation, trust - and sales. A Fellow of the Chartered Institute Of Marketing, Gee is also Visiting Professor at two business schools, teaching Marketing and Behavioral Science to final-year MBA students. Outside of work Gee loves to cook, listens to music on a ridiculously expensive hi-fi, and plays jazz piano very badly.    Ways to connect with Gee:   KEXINO website:  https://kexino.com LinkedIn:  https://linkedin.com/in/ranasinha YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/c/Kexino Instagram:  https://instagram.com/wearekexino TikTok:  https://tiktok.com/@kexino Threads: https://www.threads.net/@wearekexino BlueSky:  https://bsky.app/profile/kexino.com     About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:16 Well and a gracious hello to you, wherever you may be, you are now listening to an episode of unstoppable mindset. I am your host, Mike or Michael. I don't really care which hingson and our guest today is Gee Ranasinha, who is a person who is very heavily involved in doing marketing and so on. Gee has been marketing for a long time, and reading his bio, he talks about being in marketing since the days of dial up and AOL and CDs. I remember the first time I tried to subscribe to AOL. It was a floppy disk. But anyway, that's okay. The bottom line is that does go back many, many years. That's when we had Rs 232 cables and modems. Now people probably don't mostly know what they are unless they're technically involved and they're all built into the technology that we use. But that's another history lesson for later. So Gee, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here. This should be a fun subject and thing to talk about.   Gee Ranasinha ** 02:27 Well, thank you very much for inviting me, Michael, I do. I do appreciate it.   Michael Hingson ** 02:31 Well, I'm looking forward to it and getting a chance to talk. And love to hear some of your your old stories about marketing, as well as the new ones, and of course, what lessons we learned from the old ones that helped in the new ones. And of course, I suspect there'll also be a lot of situations where we didn't learn the lessons that we should have, which is another story, right?   Gee Ranasinha ** 02:50 Yeah, history does tend to repeat itself, unfortunately, and   Michael Hingson ** 02:55 that usually happens because we don't pay attention to the lessons.   Gee Ranasinha ** 02:59 Yeah, yeah, we, we, I think we think we know better. But I mean, it's, it's, it's funny, because, you know, if you look at other other industries, you know, if, if you want to be an architect, right, you would certainly look back to the works of, you know, Le Corbusier or Frank Lloyd Wright or Renzo Piano, or, you know, some of the great architects, and you would look back on their work, look how they did it. And you would, you know, turn back the the annals of history to to see what had gone before. But for some reason, in our industry, in marketing, we we don't think we can learn from the lessons that our erstwhile peers have had in the past, and we've so as a result, we tend to sort of rename things that have gone before, so that the newer generation of marketers will actually pay attention to them. So we give things new names. But actually, if you, if you scratch the surface and look a little bit deeper. It's actually nothing new at all. And I don't quite know why that is. I think people think that they know better than the people who've gone before them, because of the technology, because you know so much of the execution the promotion side of marketing is technology based. They I'm guessing that people don't see a relevance to what happened in the past because of the technology aspect being different, right? But what I contend is that the the essence. Of marketing is about understanding human behavior and their reactions to particular inputs, impulses, right? Um, in which case, we have plenty to learn from the people who've you know, who've walked in our in the walk this path before, and we should be a little bit, maybe a little bit more humble and open minded into accepting that we don't know everything, and we maybe don't even know what we don't know.   Michael Hingson ** 05:36 I always remember back in what was it, 1982 or 1983 we had a situation here in the United States where somebody planted some poison in a bottle of Tylenol in a drug store. I remember that, yeah, and within a day, the president of the company came out and said, This is what we're going to do to deal with it, including taking all the bottles of all the pills off the shelves until we check them over and make sure everyone is clean and so on. And he got right out in front of it. And I've seen so many examples since of relatively similar kinds of crises, and nobody takes a step to take a firm stand about how we're going to handle it, which is really strange, because clearly what he did really should have taught us all a lesson. Tylenol hasn't gone away, the company hasn't gone away, and the lesson should be that there is relevance in getting out in front of it and having a plan. Now I don't know whether he or anyone really had a plan in case something happened. I've never heard that, but still whatever he got right out in front of it and addressed it. And I just really wish more marketing people, when there is a crisis, would do more of that to instill confidence in consumers.   Gee Ranasinha ** 07:07 He did the right thing, right? He did, he did what you or I would have done, or we would like to think we would have done in this place, right? I, I'm, I'm guessing it was probably, not the favorite course of action, if this had been debated at board stroke shareholder level. But like I said, he he did what we all think we would have done in his place. He did the right thing. And I think that there are many instances today, more instances today than maybe in the past, where the actions of an individual they are. An individual has more freedom of expression in the past than they've had in the in the present, and they don't have to mind their P's and Q's as much. I mean, sure we know we're still talking about profit making organizations. You know, we're living in a pseudo capitalist, Neo liberal society. But surely we're still there still needs to be some kind of humanity at the end of this, right? You know, reputations take years, decades, sometimes, to build, and they can be knocked down very quickly, right, right? There's so I think some somebody, somebody, somebody a lot older and wiser than me, well, certainly wiser older. Said a brand's reputation was like a tree. It takes ages to grow, but can be knocked down very quickly, and there are plenty. You know, history is littered with examples of of organizations who haven't done the right thing.   Speaker 1 ** 09:16 Well, the Yeah, go ahead. No, go ahead. Tell me   Michael Hingson ** 09:20 the I observed this actually not too long ago, on a podcast, this whole discussion to someone, and they made an interesting point, which I think is probably relevant, which is, today we have a different environment, because we have social media. We have so many things, where communications go so quickly, and we we see so many people putting out information right or wrong, conspiracy or not, about anything and everything that comes up, that it causes people maybe to hesitate a little bit more to. Truly study what they want to say, because everyone's going to pick up on it. But at the same time, and I appreciate that at the same time, I think there are basic marketing principles. And as you point out, and as you're well aware, there is such a thing as human behavior, and while people want instant gratification, and they want to know right now what happened 20 minutes ago. The reality is we're not necessarily going to get that. The media doesn't help because they want to put everything out and get the story. But still, the reality is human nature is human nature, and ultimately, Truth will win out. And what we need to do is to really work more toward making sure that that happens.   Gee Ranasinha ** 10:48 I, I actually don't agree with that. Okay, in in, you know, in the, in the with the greatest respect, firstly, I think, I think as a cop out to use social media, information channels, news cycles, that sort of thing, because, if anything, because of the pace of the news cycle and The, you know, the fire hose of social media today, me, we're in a better position to say what we mean and not regret it, because it's forgotten it 20 minutes. Yeah, so it works, it's, it's an argument for what we're talking about not, not against   Michael Hingson ** 11:41 it, yeah. I agree. Yeah, go ahead,   Gee Ranasinha ** 11:45 yeah. And the second thing you said, truth will out. And I think truth does not without and there are plenty of people who continue to spout out misinformation and disinformation, yeah, constantly at every level of corporate at a corporate level, at a political level, at a geopolitical level, or at a local level, right? I don't want to sort of go down that rabbit hole, right, but there are, there are plenty of misquotes, myths, truths, which are never, never withdrawn and never counted, never excused and live out there in the ether, in perpetuity.   Michael Hingson ** 12:35 Yeah, it's true, but I also think that in the end, while some people continue to put their inaccurate information out, I think there are also others who have taken the time, or do take the time they put out more relevant information, and probably in the long run, more people buy into that than to misinformation. I'm not going to say it's a perfect world, but I think more often than not, enough positive information comes out that people eventually get more of the right answer than all the yammering and bad information. But it may take time.   Gee Ranasinha ** 13:18 I would love to believe that, Mike, I really would maybe I'm just too cynical, right?   Michael Hingson ** 13:27 I hear you, I hear you, and you know, I don't know I could be just as wrong. I mean, in the United States today, we've got a government with people who are definitely talking about things and saying things that most of us have always felt are untrue, but unfortunately, they're being said and pushed in such a way that more people are not opposing them. And how quickly that will change remains to be seen. And for all I know, and I think, for all I know, maybe some of what they're saying might be right, but we'll see.   Gee Ranasinha ** 14:05 I think that's the issue. I mean, I, as I said, I don't really want to jump down that politics rabbit hole, but no, not really. I think, you know, the issue is, if you say a lie enough times, people believe it. Yeah, right, yeah. And the fact that nobody's fact checking this stuff, I'm like, I said. I'm not. I'm not singling out politics. I'm singling out messaging in its widest in its widest interpretation, right, false messaging of any sort, if left unchecked. Yeah. Correct. I think the people who know an alternative reality or know that it's a lie know that it's an untruth by not publicly facts checking it, by not calling these. People out are complicit in spreading the lie.   Michael Hingson ** 15:03 Yeah, well, I think that's true, and you're right. It doesn't matter whether it's politics. It doesn't matter whether it's well, whatever it is, it's anything. And I think there's one of the beauties of of our country, your country. And I didn't explain at the beginning that G is in the you said, northwest part of France, right? Northeast, northeast, well, east, west, northeast part   Gee Ranasinha ** 15:29 of Yeah, well, near enough, you know, if you go, if you go, if you go east, far enough times you get, you get to West Anyway, don't you? Well, you get back where you started. Or maybe you don't, I don't know if, depends who you listen   Michael Hingson ** 15:39 to, right? If the Earth is flat. Well, even the Flat Earthers have had explanations for why the earth is flat and people don't fall off, but that's okay, but yeah, so northeast part of France and and I hear, I hear what you're saying, and I think it's important that people have the freedom to be able to fact check, and I, and I hope, as we grow more people will find the value of that, but that in all aspects, but that remains to be seen.   Gee Ranasinha ** 16:14 Well, I think especially in you know, perversely, now that we have the ability to check the veracity of a piece of information a lot easier, right? Almost in real time. Yeah. I think the fact that we can means that we don't, you know, you probably know the quote by what was his name? Edwin Burke, who may or may not have said that, you know, evil triumphs when good men do nothing or something like that. Along that sort of lines, some people say that he didn't say that. He did say, it doesn't matter who said it, right? It's a great quote. It's a great quote. It's a great quote. And that's what I mean about being complicit, just by the fact of not calling this stuff out, feeds the fire. Yeah, to the to the point where it becomes and especially, I'm talking with people who maybe are a little bit younger and haven't and are more likely to believe what they see on screens of whatever size, simply because it's in the public domain, um, whereas The older strokes more cynical of us may may question a lot more of what's thrown in front of our eyes. So I think all of us have a responsibility, which I don't think all of us understand the power that we yield or we're afraid to or afraid to? Yeah, absolutely.   Michael Hingson ** 18:08 So tell me a little about kind of the early Gee growing up and so on, and how you got into this whole idea and arena of marketing and so on.   Gee Ranasinha ** 18:18 Well before this, I was the CMO of a software company. I was there for seven years, and before that, I was working for a company in London, working with in the print and publishing industries. So I've been around media for most of my working life, and after, after being at the software company for seven years, sort of hit a little bit of a ceiling, really. I mean, the company was a small company, and it could only grow at a certain rate, and so I wasn't really being challenged anymore. I had to wait a little bit until the company could fill the bigger shoes that had been given, if you like. You know, I mean growing pains. It's very common for companies of all sizes to go through this sort of thing. So to be honest, I probably was treading water a bit too long. But you know, you get you get complacent, don't you, you get comfortable in in the, you know the corporate job, and you know a salary at the at the end of every month, and you know corporate travel and company BMWs and expense accounts and all of that sort of trappings. And you know, I, I fell for all of that. You. Um, but I finally realized that something needed to happen. So at the end of 2007 beginning of 2008 Me and a couple of colleagues decided to start the agency, which, as you will remember, 2008 was not exactly the best time to start a marketing agency. Good time to start any agency,   Michael Hingson ** 20:29 to be honest. The other hand, there were a lot of opportunities. But yeah, I hear you. Well, yeah,   Gee Ranasinha ** 20:34 glass half full. Glass half empty, right? Yeah. But you know, luckily, with with a number of very, very supportive clients in those early days, you know, we weathered the post recession? Yeah, slow down. And 17 and a half years later, here we are. We've now. We started off with three. We were three. We're now 19. We're in nine countries. Nine of us were in the US. The rest are in Europe, South Africa, Japan, and two people in Australia. That's that, that's, that's who we are. So, you know, we're a a team of marketing, creative and business development specialists, and we work with startups and small businesses primarily in the US, even though we're based all over the place, and we combine marketing strategy, proper strategy, with a thing called behavioral science, which works with organizations to increase their awareness, their reputation, their trust, and most of all, of course, sales Right? Because sales is name of the game. Sales is what it's all about. So yeah, I'd say probably 80, 90% of our clients are in the US and, well, certainly North America anyway, and it's all sorts of industries, all sorts of sizes. We've we've got, we certainly had in the past. You know, solopreneur type businesses, small businesses and larger businesses, up to around 40 to 50 mil to revenue that sort of size, anything bigger they usually have, usually got, you know, quite well, working teams within the organization. So we're, you know, the amount of effective contribution that we can add to that is, it's obviously going to be as a percentage, much lower. So it's, it's, it's really for that, that smaller sized profile of organization, and it's not sort of limited by particular industry or category. We've, you know, we work with all sorts. We've worked in sports, healthcare, FinTech, medical, professional services, software, publishing, all sorts, right across the board.   Michael Hingson ** 23:34 What got you started in marketing in the beginning, you you know you were like everyone else. You were a kid and you grew up and so on. What? What really made you decide that this was the kind of career you wanted?   Gee Ranasinha ** 23:46 Marketing wasn't my first career. I've had a few others in the past. I actually started off my first first company, and I founded, way back when was a media production company. I was a professional photographer, advertising photographer, working with advertising agencies as well as direct corporate commissions. This is in the days of film. This was way before digital image capture.   Michael Hingson ** 24:20 So this is going back to what the 1980s   Gee Ranasinha ** 24:23 it's going to late 80s to early 90s. Yeah, and I was working with eight by 10 and four by five view cameras, sometimes called plate cameras. It was mainly studio stuff. I was happier in the studio that we did location stuff as well. But studio was where I was happiest because I could control everything. I suppose I'm on control freak at the end of the day. So I can control every highlight, every nuance, every every part of the equation. And. And and that's where I started. And then after doing that for a while, I came I got involved with professional quality digital image capture. Is very, very it is very, very beginning. And was instrumental in the the adoption of digital image capture for larger print and publishing catalog fashion houses who were looking for a way to streamline that production process, where, obviously, up until then, the processing of film had been a bottleneck, right? You couldn't, you couldn't process film any quicker than the film needed to be processed, right the the e6 process, which was the the term for using a bunch of chemicals to create slides, die, positives, transparencies. I think it used to take like 36 minutes plus drying time. So there was a, you know, close to an hour wait between shooting and actually seeing what what the result was. And that time frame could not be reduced up until that point in time, the quality of digital image capture systems wasn't really all of that, certainly wasn't a close approximation to what you could get with with film at The time, until a number of manufacturers working with chip manufacturers, were able to increase the dynamic range and the the total nuances that you could capture on digital Of course, the problem at that time was we were talking about what, what were, What today is not particularly large, but was at the time in terms of file sizes, and the computers of the day would be struggling to deal with images of that high quality, so It was always a game of catch up between the image capture hardware and the computer hardware needed to to view and manipulate the image and by manipulate it was more more manipulation in terms of optimizing the digital file for reproduction in print, because obviously that was the primary carrier of, yeah, of the information. It was for use in some kind of printed medium. It wasn't like we were doing very much with with email or websites or anything else in the in the early 90s. So the conversion process to optimize a digital image captured file, to give the best possible tonal reproduction on printed material has always been a little bit of a black art, even when we when we were digitizing transparency films, going to digital image capture made things a lot more predictable, but it also increased the computational power needed, number one, but also for photographers to actually understand a little bit more about the photo mechanical print process, and there were very few photographers who understood both, both sides of the fence. So I spent a lot of time being a pom pom girl. Basically Mike. I was, I was, I was waving the pom poms and preaching large about the benefits of digital image capture and how and educating the industries, various in photographic industries, about, you know, possible best practices. There weren't any sort of standards in place at the time,   Michael Hingson ** 29:41 and it took a while for people to really buy into that they weren't visionary enough to understand what you were saying. I bet   Gee Ranasinha ** 29:48 Well, we were also taught very few were enough, and there were two reasons. One of them was financially based, because. We were talking about a ton of money, yeah, to do this properly, we were talking about a ton of money. Just the image capture system would easily cost you 50 grand. And this, you know this, this was in the days when 50 grand was a lot of money,   Michael Hingson ** 30:18 yeah, well, I remember my first jobs out of college were working with Ray Kurzweil, who developed Omni font, optical character recognition system. Oh, my goodness me, I did not know that. And the first machine that he put out for general use, called the Kurzweil data entry machine, was only $125,000 it worked. It still took a while to make it to truly do what it needed to do, but still it was. It was the first machine, and a lot of people just didn't buy into it. It took a while to get people to see the value of why digitizing printed material was so relevant, some lawyers, Some law firms, some banks and so on, caught on, and as people realized what it would do, then they got interested. But yeah, it was very expensive,   Gee Ranasinha ** 31:14 very expensive. And I think the other reason for the reticence is just nature, to be honest. Mike, I mean, you know, as as people, as human beings, most of us are averse to change, right? Because change is an unknown, and we don't like unknowns. We like predictability. We like knowing that when we get up in the morning, the sun's gonna come up and we're gonna go through our our usual routine, and so when something comes along that up ends the status quo to the point where we need to come up with adopting new behaviors that's very uncomfortable for many people. And you know, the adoption of digitization in, you know, any industry, I think, in everybody who's worked in any particular industry has has plenty of anecdotal evidence to show how people would consciously or unconsciously dragging their feet to adopt that change because they were happier doing stuff that they knew,   Michael Hingson ** 32:32 who went out of their comfort zone, right?   Gee Ranasinha ** 32:35 Absolutely, it's natural, it's, it's, it's who we are as as as human beings, who most of us are as human beings with, obviously, we're talking about the middle of the bell curve here. I mean, there are plenty of wackos on either side just go out and do stuff, right? And, you know those, you know, some of those get, you know, locked up with in straight jackets. But the other ones tend to, sort of, you know, create true innovation and push things forward.   Michael Hingson ** 33:04 Steve Jobs, even Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, good examples of some of the people who did things that most people didn't think could be done.   Gee Ranasinha ** 33:18 You know, the true innovation always happens at the periphery, but we tend to over emphasize the median. We know we try to make averages of everything, yeah, but averages aren't what moves the needle, right? No. And you know Britain, you know, for even for marketing, obviously, that's very much, very, very much my sort of thing. Um, most organizations, most business owners, certainly most marketing managers, find comfort in in executing their marketing in ways in which they are comfortable, in ways which are somewhat expected within the industry. But the problem is, it doesn't get you noticed. It doesn't get you attention. If you're in the middle, right? You know the worst, the worst place to walk on the in the street is in the middle of the road right, pick a side, but don't walk in the middle.   34:27 Not a good idea yet.   Gee Ranasinha ** 34:30 That's our our job is to is to, number one, generate attention, because there's no way we can communicate a message unless we have someone's attention. Everything starts from the attention side of things. Now there are very, you know, various ways that we can attract attention, but attention needs to come and needs to come from somewhere. And you know the definite. Of creating attention is to to create some kind of visual, audio, or combination of the two, experience which is somewhat outside of the norm, and create some kind of emotional response that our brains want to pay attention to, right? Want to notice? Because if you're not noticed, then there's no it doesn't matter how great your product is, doesn't matter how wonderful your customer service is, or it's available in 27 colors, or it's free delivery, or what you know, all the rest of it doesn't matter, because you know, unless people know who you are, what you do, who it's for, and why they should give a crap, then you know anything else you do after that Time is is moot, is irrelevant.   Michael Hingson ** 36:00 I read an interesting email this morning from someone who was talking about why speakers don't tend to be as successful as they should be. And this person talked about you could have the greatest speech in the world. You could be   Michael Hingson ** 36:17 talking and getting standing ovations and so on, but you're not getting a lot of speaking engagements, and his comment was the reason you're not is that your talk isn't necessarily relevant. I thought that was interesting. I think there's some things to be said for relevance, but I think it's also that you're not helping to get people to think and realize that being different and getting people to think and value that is more important than we tend to want to recognize as well.   Gee Ranasinha ** 36:59 I would, I would, I would wholeheartedly agree relevance is a very important component. But, you know, I maintain that it starts with attention. Yeah, relevance, I think, within the speaking world, I yes, there's so much we can do with relevance by by coming at a subject matter topic from a totally different perspective. Yeah, right. You know, just because you have the same message as 100 other competitors doesn't mean they have to say something in the same way, right? And so even if the core message is similar, the way that we choose to present that can be, you know, 100 101 different ways. And I think that is something that we forget, and I think that's one of the reasons why so much of the marketing that we see today is ignored. Yeah, you know, there's a there's a marketing Well, I wouldn't say the marketing model. There's a communication model, okay? Sales model actually called Ada, Ida, a, I D, A, okay. So even if you've not, not worked in sales or marketing at all, if you've even seen the film Glengarry Glynn Ross, or the play that it was based on. It's actually playing in New York City at the moment. I believe, yeah, a, I D, A, which is tracking the customer experience in four steps. So the idea is you have awareness, interest, desire and action, right? A, I, D, A, and it's understanding that there are four steps to getting to the position of negotiating the deal with a prospective buyer, but number one starts with awareness. You know they need, they need to be aware that you exist and nobody's going to buy from you if they don't know who you are. They need to know who they need to know who you are before they'll buy from you. Right then obviously needs to be an interest a product market fit what you're selling is something that they could conceivably use in terms of solving a particular problem that they perceive as having the desire. Why should they buy from you, as opposed to somebody else? Why do they. Need to buy your product, as opposed to a competitive product, and then finally, action, right? So that's what we might call sales, activation or performance marketing, or, you know, sales in the old terms, right? As they would say in that film, it's getting the getting the buyer to sign on the line that is dotted. But all of this stuff starts with attention and when we're not doing a very good job, I think as a mark, as an industry, we used to be really good at it, but I think we've taken our eye off the ball somewhat, and hoped that technology would fill in the gaps of our incompetence at being able to, excuse me, being able to shape the way that we market to customers, to buyers, in ways which create the memory structures in the brain to a sufficiently acute level so that when they are in The position to buy something, they think of us, as well as probably a number a handful of other suitors that solve their problem. And this is why, I think this is the reason why, because of the over reliance of technology, I mean, this is the reason why so much of our marketing fails to generate interest, sales to generate the tangible business results that are expected of it. Because we're, we're marketing by bullet point. We're expecting buyers to buy off a fact sheet. We've, we've exercised the creativity out of the equation. And we're and, and we were just producing this vacuous, generic vanilla   Michael Hingson ** 42:12 musach, yeah, if you   Gee Ranasinha ** 42:14 like, Okay, I mean, again, you know, think of any particular industry, you can see this. It's pretty much endemic. You can have two totally different organizations selling something purportedly solving the same problem. And you can look at two pieces of you can look at a piece of marketing from each company. And if you covered up the logo of each person of each company's marketing output, 10 will get you five that what's actually contained in the messaging is as equally valid for company A as it is for Company B, and that's a real problem.   Michael Hingson ** 43:00 It's not getting anyone's attention or creating awareness.   Gee Ranasinha ** 43:03 It's not creating attention or awareness. And worse, it's creating a level of confusion in the buyer's mind. Because we're we're looking for comparisons, we're looking at a way to make an educated decision compared to something else, and if we can't see why product A is miles ahead in our minds of Company B or product B, what often happens is rather than make a wrong decision, because we can't clearly differentiate the pros and cons between the two products, what we end up doing is nothing. We walk away. We don't buy anything, because we can't see a clear winner, which impacts company A and company B, if not the entire industry. And then they turn around and say, Oh, well, nobody's buying. Why? Why? Why is our industry lagging behind so many others? It's because we're just on autopilot, creating this, this nonsense, this generic sea of sameness in terms of communication, which we just don't seem to have a grip on the fundamental understanding of how people buy stuff anymore. We used to Yeah, up and up and up until probably the 90s. We used to know all this stuff. We used to know how get people going, how to stand out, how to create differentiated messaging, how to understand. Or what levers we could pull to better invoke an emotional reaction in the minds of the target buying audience that we're looking to attract. And then for some for, you know the if we plotted these things around two curves, you know, the point at which these curves would cross would probably be the adoption of technology,   Michael Hingson ** 45:29 whereas we came to reproduce the same thing in different ways, but you're still producing the same thing. The technology has limited our imagination, and we don't use re imaginations the way we used to.   Gee Ranasinha ** 45:43 We we've we're using, we're using technology as a proxy for reach. And getting in front of 1000 eyeballs or a million eyeballs or 100 million eyeballs doesn't necessarily mean any of those eyeballs are fit in the ideal customer profile we're looking to attract. Right? More doesn't mean better, and what what we're doing is we're trying to use technology to to fill in the gaps, but technology doesn't understand stuff like human emotion, right, and buying drivers and contextual messaging, right? Because all of this stuff human behavior is totally contextual, right? I will, I will come up with a and I'm sure you're the same thing. You will have a particular point of view about something one day and the next, the very next day, or even the very next hour, you could have a totally different viewpoint on a particular topic, maybe because you've had more information, or just maybe for the for the hell of it, right? We know we are we are not logical, rational, pragmatic machines that always choose the best in inverted commas solution to our issue.   Michael Hingson ** 47:23 Do you think AI will help any of this?   Gee Ranasinha ** 47:29 I think AI will help in terms of the fact that it will show how little we know about human behavior, and so will force forward thinking, innovative marketers to understand the only thing that matters, which is what's going on between the ears of the people we're trying to attract. I think AI is already showing us what we don't know, not what we know,   Michael Hingson ** 48:04 right? And it's still going to be up to us to do something about that and use AI as a tool to help possibly create some of what needs to be done. But it still requires our thought processes ultimately, to make that happen,   Gee Ranasinha ** 48:23 AI can't create. All AI can do is remix what has already been in existence, right? Ai doesn't create what AI does. The thing is, we're using AI for the wrong stuff. AI is really good at a ton of things, and it sucks big time at a load of other things. But for some reason, we want to throw all our efforts in trying to make it better at the things it's not good at, rather than use it at the things that it's really, really good   Michael Hingson ** 49:04 at, such as,   Gee Ranasinha ** 49:08 such as interpreting large data sets, Creating models of financial models, marketing models, marketing matrix, matrices, spotting, spotting trends in data, large, huge, like huge models of data, which no human being could really, in reality, Make any head in the tail of finding underlying commonalities in in the data to be able to create from that, to be able to draw out real, useful insights on that data to create new. New messaging, innovative products, services that we haven't thought of before because we haven't been able to see the wood for the trees,   50:13 if you like, yeah, right   Gee Ranasinha ** 50:17 for that sort of stuff, for the grunt work, for the automation. You know, do this, then do this, and all of that sort of stuff, A, B, testing, programmatic stuff, all of that stuff, banner ads and, you know, modifying banner all of that stuff is just basic grunt work that nobody needs, needs to do, wants to do, right? Give it all to AI it. Most AI is doing it, most of it anyway. We just never called it AI. You know, we've been doing it for 25 years. We just called it software in those days, right? But it's the same. It's the same goddamn thing. Is what we were doing, right? Let it do all of that stuff, because it's far better. And let's focus on the stuff that it can't do. Let's find out about what levers we need to pull at an emotional level to create messaging that better resonates in the minds of our buyers. That's what we need to do. Ai can't do that stuff right.   Michael Hingson ** 51:16 Where I think AI is is helpful today, as opposed to just software in the past, is that it has been taught how better to interact with those who use it, to be able to take questions and do more with it, with them than it used to be able to do, but we still have to come up with the problems or the issues that we wanted to solve, and to do it right, we have to give it a fair amount of information which, which still means we've got to be deeply involved in the process.   Gee Ranasinha ** 51:53 I mean, where it's great. I mean, if we're looking at, you know, Text, type, work, right, right, or I, or ideas or possibilities, or actually understanding the wider consideration set of a particular problem is that the hardest thing is, when you're staring at a blank piece of paper, isn't it? Right? We don't need that's the hardest thing, right? So we don't need to stare at a blank sheet anymore with a flashing cursor, right? You know, we can engage in a pseudo conversation that we need to take into consideration that this conversation is taking place based upon previous, existing ideas. So the chance that we'll get something fresh and original is very, very small. And as you just mentioned, you know, the quality of the prompt is everything. Get the prompt wrong and without enough granularity, details, specificity, whatever else you get just a huge piece of crap, don't you? Right? So in other words, having a better understanding of how we as humans make decisions actually improves our prompting ability, right, right?   Michael Hingson ** 53:12 And I think AI, it is not creative, but I think that AI can spew is probably the wrong word, but AI can put out things that, if we think about it, will cause us to do the creating that we want, but it's still going to be assets involved in doing that.   Gee Ranasinha ** 53:35 The problem is, and what we're seeing, certainly in the last couple of months, maybe even longer, maybe I just haven't noticed. It is just we were, you know, there's this old saying, you know, just because you can doesn't mean you should, right? I just see an absolute tsunami of vacuous, generic nonsense being spouted out across all types of channels, digital and otherwise, but mainly digital, all of it AI generated. Sometimes it's images, sometimes it's videos, sometimes it's both, sometimes it's text, whatever. But we we're adding to the noise instead of adding to the signal. So the inevitable result of all of this is going to be numbness. We're going to becoming different to marketing of all sorts, the good stuff as well as the bad. You're going to be it's we're just gonna get numb. So it's going to make the attention stuff. That's why I've been banging on about attention all this time, right? It's gonna, it's, yeah, there's, see, there is a method to my madness here. So the the point is that creation and maintaining. Attention is going to be even harder than it would have been before. Yeah, and, and we, you know, we're getting to the point where, you know, you've got agentic AI, where you've got agents talking to other agents and going around in this feedback loop. But we're not, we're not, we're not creating any emotional engagement from a, from a from a buyer perspective, from a user perspective, yes, it all looks great. And as a, as an exercise in technology, it's fantastic. So wonderful, right? But how has it increased sales? That's what I want to know has has it reduced or altered the cost of acquiring a customer and maintaining that customer relationship, because that's where the rubber hits the road. That's all that matters. I don't care whether it's a technological masterpiece, right, but if it hasn't sold anything, and actual sales, I'm not talking about likes and comments and retweets and all of that crap, because that's vanity metrics. Is nonsense   Michael Hingson ** 56:11 signing a contract. It's, you know,   Gee Ranasinha ** 56:16 there needs to be as an exchange of money at some point in time. Yeah, right. Is that happening? And I contend that it's not. And I think there are loads of people, loads of business owners, who are throwing money at this in the vain hope they you know that basically they're playing the numbers. They just need one horse to come in, 100 to one to be able to justify what they've spent on all of this stuff, right? Yeah, but I think those odds are getting longer and longer as each month goes, yeah. Well, you I think there's going to be an inevitable backlash back to stuff that actually resonates with people at a human level, at an emotional level, a psychological level, it has to   Michael Hingson ** 57:08 you started your marketing company 17 and a half years ago, caxino. Where'd that name come from?   Gee Ranasinha ** 57:18 From nothing? Okay, it doesn't mean anything I needed. I needed to have something which number one, that the domain was available. Of course, I needed to have something which was short, something that didn't mean, you know, something incongruous in another language and and so after a lot of to ing and fro ing, there were two schools of thought. At the beginning, we didn't know whether to go with something abstract, like caxino or something which was, you know, based based upon the the butting up of two existing words you know, like you see, you know, so many times, you know, big red table, or, you know, whatever. So we did, we decided to go with something abstract, so that we weren't encumbered by language.   Michael Hingson ** 58:22 You practiced what you preach pretty much. You're different, yeah, but why don't you call it? You don't refer to it as a digital marketing agency. Why is that?   Gee Ranasinha ** 58:34 No, I don't see us as a digital marketing agency, because digital marketing is not all we do. And not only that, I think, Well, I think there's, there's a number of reasons. Number one, I think we're using the word digital is, is a curveball. Firstly, because everything that we do is digital, right? Everything is already digital. Print is digital, TV is digital, billboards are digital. So saying digital is like saying electrical, electrical marketing agency, it makes as much sense to be honest. So that's number one. But I think the bigger issue is that by categorizing a marketing agency as being a digital marketing agency does a disservice to its work and indeed its outlook, because The object is not to be digital in your marketing, it's to do marketing in a digital world, which are two very different positions, okay? Because digital, the way that we're talking about it, is not a attributive noun, and it's certainly not an adjective. You. In the context that we're talking about it, digital is a channel. It's simply one way of getting in front of our audience. But it's not the only way of getting in front of our audience. Okay? So, yeah, along with many other reputable agencies, we happen to use the most appropriate channel of communication that makes sense to address a particular target audience group, and that's it. Okay, if that's digital, great. If that's walking down the street with an A frame with something written on the front of it, that's also great, okay, but it's, it's, it's not about it's not about the channel. It's about you being in the places where our target target audience group expects us to be. And so that's why I don't think of us as a digital marketing agency, because digital is only part of what we do, right? And we do many other things. And also, I think it puts it, it puts blinkers on things right? Because if you know, supposing, supposing you go to a Facebook marketing agency, of which there are many. Now, if you go to a Facebook marketing agency and you say, Okay, I want to do some ads. Where should I advertise? What are they going to tell you? Right, maybe Facebook, right? So there's, there's a thing called Maslow's hammer. Okay, in Maslow, as in the hierarchy, the Hierarchy of Needs Maslow. Okay to say, Maslow. He came up with this idea of Maslow's hammer. It's also known as the law of the instrument. And basically what it means, we can distill it down, is, if all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail, okay? And what that means is, you're looking to solve any problem that comes along by the tools that you have in your toolbox, regardless of whether that's the best way of moving forward, which I think is a very short term and myopic view. So that's why we we don't like to think of ourselves as the marketing agency, because there are many other there are many ways of solving a particular problem, and it doesn't necessarily have to be   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:50 digital,   Gee Ranasinha ** 1:02:51 digital or promotional or, you know, it's, it's like, you know, are we a video marketing agency? No. Does that mean we don't do video, not at all. Of course, we do it, right? We're not an AI marketing agency, right? In the same way, okay, when we're not a we're not a YouTube marketing agency,   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:11 you're a marketing agency. We're a marketing agency, right? What are some of the biggest mistakes that small businesses make when it comes to marketing?   Gee Ranasinha ** 1:03:21 I think the single biggest mistake, and I speak to business owners pretty much on a daily basis, right? I think the single biggest issue that comes up again and again and again is something which I call self diagnosis, which is the business owner, approaches the marketing agency, or even digital marketing agency, approaches the marketing agency, and says, You know what, I need you to do this for me. Whatever that this is, okay. So you know, maybe it's some digital ads, maybe it's some videos, maybe it's a website, maybe it's a whatever. It doesn't matter what it is, but basically, the business owner is coming to us, coming to the marketing agency, dictating what the tactic is to be, which presumes a number of things, not least, that they think they have come to the conclusion that this particular tactic is going to solve their marketing problem based upon usually waving a wet finger in the air, yeah, or they've seen a YouTube video or something, okay, it's not based on any marketing knowledge experience or education, because, with the greatest respect, these people do not have any marketing knowledge experience. Into education, right? And why would they? Because they're running a business, right? They don't, you know, they it doesn't mean that they've had to do this marketing stuff. So they're, they're, they're presuming that a particular tactic is going to solve a business problem, a marketing tactic is going to solve a business problem. And so what what happens is the the particular tactic is is executed. Nothing changes revenue wise. And so the business owner says, well, that marketing agency was crap. Let's go to another marketing agency and ask them to do something else. So it's playing pin the tail on the donkey. Really, just trying stuff and hoping so. The point is that. The point is that if you're going to pay somebody who does this for a living, the idea that you know more than they do is already setting the relationship on a uneven kill, right? Yeah, you know, if I, if I go, if I go and see my doctor, and I say, and I wake up in the morning and I've got a pain in my chest, and I thinking, oh my goodness, I go and see the doctor, right? So on the way to the doctor's office, I do the worst thing possible, which is go on the internet and say, Okay, what does pain in my chest mean? Right? And I go into the doctor's office, and I sit down and I say, Okay, I've got a pain in my chest, doctor, that means I've got angina. Can you give me some heart medication, please? What's the doctor gonna tell you? Doctor's gonna tell you, shut the hell up. Yeah, I'm the doctor in the office. I'm the actually, where's, Where's, where's your medical degree doesn't exist, does it? No, and   Michael Hingson ** 1:07:00 just because you have a broken rib, we're not going to talk about that. Are we right?   Gee Ranasinha ** 1:07:04 So, What? What? So what's the doctor going to do? The doctor is going to ask you a bunch of questions, right? What did you do the last couple of days? Right? What did you eat? Did you go to the gym and over exert yourself? What's your history? Do you is there a history of heart disease in the family, you know, maybe there's is going to he or she is going to take some blood, maybe they're going to run a few other sort of tests. They're going to do a diagnosis, and at the end of this diagnosis, the doctor is going to come back to you and say, You know what? So, based upon all the questions that you've kindly answered, and based upon the blood work and all these other tests and scans we've done, it turns out that the the pain in your chest is nothing to do with angina. The reason you got a pain in the chest is because you had some spicy food last night. So you don't have you don't have Anjali, you have gas. Yeah, right, right, so I prescribe you a couple of packs of Tums. Yeah, sorted, right. And that's the point. The point is the doctor knows what he or she is doing, and you have to have confidence in that particular medical practitioner to diagnose the issue and prescribe a solution to that issue, right? Your job is not to say what you think is wrong with you at this stage of the conversation. Your job is to tell me where it hurts. That's it right now, I'll come back to you with a list of things which I think we need to do to move forward. Now you can go and get a second opinion, just like at a doctor's office. You may think I'm full of crap, which is absolutely your prerogative. Or you may say, I know better than you. I'm going to do my own thing, which, again, it's your time Absolutely. But if it all goes to crap, you can't turn around and say, well, if only this person had said this, or, you know, If only, if only, if only, and play the victim, because that's also just not going to wash. And I see this time and time and time again. You know, we've tried, well, we've tried a number of different agencies, and none of them have been able to help us. And then you sort of dig a bit deeper, and it's because they're never allowed to do what they're supposed to do, because they've always been second guessed. Yeah, that is probably the single biggest issue that I see coming up again and again and again with small business in market now, if and if it's a question of not having faith in that. Uh, agency, then you shouldn't have been employed. You shouldn't have that agency in the first place.   Michael Hingson ** 1:10:05 Get a second opinion.   Gee Ranasinha ** 1:10:07 You know, not all, not all agencies are great, just like not all plumbers are great. Not all mechanics are great. Same thing, right? It takes time to find the good ones, right? Um, but just because you found a bad one, because I don't know they were cheap, or they were local, or they were whatever, you know, whatever, whatever criteria you tend to use to base your decision upon, right? You can't, you can't criticize what they did if you didn't allow them to do what they were actually being paid to do.   Michael Hingson ** 1:10:47 Well, speaking of that, if people want to reach out to you, how do they do that?   Gee Ranasinha ** 1:10:53 Best way to get hold of me. Gee is on LinkedIn. I spend most of my time on LinkedIn. I post twice a week. I post videos about some of the sorts of things that we've been talking about today, and they're only sort of 60 seconds long, 90 seconds long. It's not sort of taking up anybody's time very much. You can find me there. Would you believe, Mike, there is only 1g runner scene on LinkedIn. Can you imagine fortuitous? How fortuitous is   Michael Hingson ** 1:11:27 that? Yeah, really, and G is spelled G, E, and how do you spell your last name?   Gee Ranasinha ** 1:11:33 You could eat. I'm sure all of this still, the stuff will be put in. It will, but I just figured it we could. But yeah. G, renasina, you can find me there. Otherwise, obviously you can find us on Kexino, k, e, X, I, N, o.com, which is the website, and there's plenty of information there textual information, there are videos, there are articles, there are all sorts of bits and pieces that you can find more about us   Michael Hingson ** 1:12:04 there. Well, this has been absolutely wonderful, and I really appreciate you taking more than an hour to chat with us today. And I hope this was fun, and I hope that people will appreciate it and will reach out to you and value what we've discussed. I think it's been great love to hear from all of you out there. Please feel free to email me. Michael H, i@accessibe.com so that's m, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I at A, C, C, E, S, S, i, b, e.com, and love to hear from you wherever you're listening. Please give us a five star rating. We value those ratings very highly, and we'd love to to to hear and see you rate us and get your thoughts. If you know of anyone else who might be a good guest for unstoppable mindset. Gu as well, we'd sure appreciate your referring them to us. Introduce us. We're always looking for more people to to chat with, so please do that and again, gee, I just want to thank you one more time for being here. This has been great,   Gee Ranasinha ** 1:13:02 absolute pleasure, delighted to be invited.   Michael Hingson ** 1:13:10 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

Hedy & Hopp CEO & Founder Jenny Bristow, along with Director of Data & Technology Mark Brandes, Director of Activation Lindsey Brown, and Marketing Analyst Cassie Haxton, discuss Hedy & Hopp's experience becoming the first marketing agency to achieve Epic certification and the various opportunities for healthcare marketers to leverage Epic tools in their daily work.Our Epic certification journey, spanning four years of relationship-building with Epic, was driven by Epic's recognition of marketers' importance in patient experience and the demand from clients for certified partners. Marketers can effectively use Epic tools to enhance patient experience and communication strategies, with messaging capabilities that engage both current and prospective patients. Epic offers a wealth of data for demonstrating ROI, tracking patient acquisition, and showing the impact of marketing campaigns. While the platform itself has a visually-outdated interface, its structure and depth is highly sophisticated. Implementing features in Epic is not an easy undertaking, but having an overall understanding of the system has the potential to be extremely valuable to healthcare marketers.If you are interested in learning more about using Epic for your marketing, we are hosting an in-person Learning Lab on Epic and marketing analytics at The Healthcare Interactive Conference (HCIC), with registration opening soon. We are also offering a free virtual session covering the same content from HCIC shortly after the conference. Sign up at HedyandHopp.com/EpicWebinar. Connect with Jenny:Email: jenny@hedyandhopp.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennybristow/If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love to hear your feedback! Please consider leaving us a review on your preferred listening platform and sharing it with others.

Are you struggling to drive traffic from social media to your website? Wondering why your carefully crafted content isn't generating the clicks it once did? To learn zero-click marketing strategies to build influence and reach your audience when traditional click-based tactics are becoming increasingly ineffective, I interview Rand Fishkin.Guest: Rand Fishkin | Show Notes: socialmediaexaminer.com/685Review our show on Apple Podcasts.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We're breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use.In this episode, Elena and Rob challenge the common myth that 80-95% of new products fail. They reveal that while failure rates are significant, they're about half as bad as widely believed, with context and resources playing crucial roles in determining success.Topics covered:   [01:00] "How Common is New Product Failure and When Does It Vary?"[02:00] One in four fail within the first year, 40% by year two[03:00] Why big, competitive categories have higher failure rates[04:00] Growing categories surprisingly show more failures than stable ones[05:00] Brand size and trajectory impact new product survival[07:00] Why retail creates natural barriers that improve odds  To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter.  Resources: Victory, K., Nenycz-Thiel, M., Dawes, J. et al. How common is new product failure and when does it vary?. Mark Lett 32, 17–32 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-021-09555-x   Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Marketers are under constant pressure to prove impact. Often with smaller teams and tighter budgets. The challenge? Balancing brand building with demand generation while keeping content fresh and effective.In this episode, Jess Cook, Head of Marketing at Vector, shares how she's tackling that balance in real time. Jess talks through practical ways to get more value from every piece you create, without burning out your team. She explains why “minimum viable content” can help you move faster, how repurposing can multiply your reach, and why even unexpected moments (like a CEO going rogue on LinkedIn) can become brand building opportunities.We also cover:How to establish authority in a new category.Why repurposing can be your most effective growth strategy.The benefits of testing fast instead of chasing perfection.How to turn unpredictable moments into authentic brand stories.The evolving relationship between brand and demand.

Evan Kirstel, tech influencer and founder of eViRa Health, has built one of the largest B2B social audiences by showing up consistently, curating conversations, and turning digital presence into measurable influence. He joins the Be a Marketer podcast to explain why small businesses shouldn't obsess over going viral and what really matters when building an audience that drives results.In this episode, you'll hear how showing up as a person, not just a logo, helps build trust online, why consistency and community outweigh follower counts, and what Evan recommends if you only have 15 minutes a day to market your business. You'll also discover why documenting your journey, highlighting others, and focusing on trust over trends can be the difference between noise and real impact.If you love this show, please leave a review. Go to RateThisPodcast.com/bam and follow the simple instructions.Additional Resources:Create a Social Post and schedule it to publish on social mediaUse the Content Generator to write email, landing page, social, and SMS content for youAllow Constant Contact to publish to your social media accountsMeet Today's Guest: Evan Kirstel of eViRa Health

Jeremy Mittler is the Co-founder and CEO of Blueprint Audiences. With nearly two decades in healthcare, advertising, and privacy, Jeremy has shaped how marketers reach patients and providers. At Blueprint, he is creating a new, privacy-safe way to build health audiences that ensures compliance across HIPAA and state privacy laws. In this episode… Healthcare marketers face mounting pressure to deliver personalized ads while ensuring compliance across the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the growing list of state privacy laws, where gray areas around sensitive and consumer health information make compliance especially complex. Marketers who rely on broad targeting and legacy ad tech tools are finding that old methods no longer meet legal requirements. So, how can companies target health audiences in a way that is effective and aligns with privacy obligations?  Rather than treating privacy as a trade-off with precision, healthcare marketers can start by building a privacy-safe experience for consumers who see their ads, and optimizing for business goals from there. Proven methods, such as contextual advertising and using opted-in consented data and aggregated insights on personal information, ensure effective and privacy-forward campaigns. Yet these methods alone are not enough. Marketers and companies alike need to perform due diligence on their vendors and third-party ad tech platforms, especially as AI introduces new risks. Marketers can take simple steps, such as testing consumer opt-outs and exercising their privacy rights on vendor sites, to ensure the technology works as intended.  In this episode of She Said Privacy/He Said Security, Jodi and Justin Daniels talk with Jeremy Mittler, Co-founder and CEO of Blueprint Audiences, about how companies can create privacy-safe healthcare audience segments. Jeremy explains why relying solely on HIPAA is no longer sufficient in meeting compliance obligations and outlines challenges companies face while navigating the patchwork requirements of evolving state privacy laws. He details practical methods that allow marketers to reach the right audiences without compromising privacy and describes why vendor due diligence must go beyond checklists, urging marketers to test vendor ad tech platforms and to think like consumers when assessing ad experiences. Jeremy also discusses how AI complicates the boundary between aggregated and personal data and how emerging regulatory trends are reshaping healthcare advertising.

Sumit Virmani has been at Infosys for over two decades. Now, he's global CMO for the tech giant. He told The Drum why a long tenure is an advantage, why attribution should still be a focus for everyone in the marketing world, how to approach the marketing mix in a world of uncertainty, and how close we really are to the golden goose of AI-enabled personalization at scale. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this powerful conversation, Richmond Dinh reveals the tiny challenge method that's disrupting traditional marketing, how he scaled from optometrist to 8-figure entrepreneur, and the mindset shifts required to break through income barriers.Episode Timestamps0:00 Trailer0:29 Introduction0:48 Russell Brunson's Endorsement0:58 What is a Tiny Challenge?1:16 The Problem with Traditional Marketing1:37 Why Marketing Methods Need Specialized Skills2:27 Tiny Challenges Require Zero Skills3:32 What Do You Pitch at the End?4:46 Highest Priced Tiny Challenge - $100K5:42 Why This Method Works So Well6:32 How to Get Started Today8:36 100% Show-Up Rates9:04 Close Rates: 3 Out of 109:44 Making $10K in Your First Month10:31 Scaling Beyond the Bottleneck11:16 Shadow Sales Strategy12:42 Richmond's Background Story13:39 Rock Bottom: $1.2M in Debt15:07 Investing Last $50K in Personal Development18:44 Identity Shift: Blue to Orange Consciousness22:26 Relationships: Reason, Season, or Lifetime25:13 Journey to First Million26:30 Self-Sabotage at 7 Figures28:02 Scaling from 1M to 10M29:22 Zero Employee Turnover Secret33:16 Work-Life Balance with Family35:17 Learning from Russell Brunson37:04 Done vs Perfect Philosophy38:54 Starting Over Strategy40:50 Final AdviceAbout Richmond Dinh Former optometrist turned 8-figure entrepreneur specializing in the "tiny challenge" method. Built a team of 17 with zero turnover while scaling multiple businesses and travelling globally.Connect with Richmond Dinhhttps://www.instagram.com/richmonddinh/Connect with Mehttps://www.youtube.com/@morgantnelsonhttps://www.instagram.com/morgantnelsonJoin the Dream Out Loud Facebook Communityhttps://bit.ly/49QXClWDownload the FREE Life By Design Productivity Plannerhttps://planner.morgantnelson.com/optinplanner

In the exciting kickoff of Season 9 of Making a Marketer, we welcome back the brilliant Goldie Chan, an award-winning branding strategist and author.This episode dives into the nuances of personal branding, especially from the perspective of introverts (which also apply to ambiverts and extroverts!). Goldie shares her insights on how to navigate the world of networking and visibility without feeling overwhelmed.With her upcoming book, "Personal Branding for Introverts," set to release on October 28, 2025, Goldie discusses the importance of owning your narrative and providing permission to be authentic in your branding journey.Learn About...- Defining Personal Branding: Goldie clarifies the difference between personal branding and reputation, emphasizing the story you tell when you're in the room versus what others say when you're not.- Strategies for Introverts: Discover manageable first steps for introverts to build a personal brand without feeling burn-out, including the importance of starting small and setting realistic goals.- Networking Tips: Goldie shares effective networking strategies that introverts can use to connect authentically, including how to prepare conversation starters and the power of body language.- Protecting Your Energy: Learn how to maintain boundaries and energy while showing up for your audience, even when feeling vulnerable.- The Journey of a Cancer Survivor: Goldie opens up about her personal experiences and how they have shaped her approach to vulnerability and confidence in her branding.Our Guest...Goldie Chan is an award-winning branding strategist, author, and speaker with over a decade of experience. Known as the "Oprah of LinkedIn" by Huffington Post, she leads strategy at Warm Robots, working with Fortune 500 executives. A recognized LinkedIn Top Voice, her content boasts over 80 million views. Goldie is a top-rated LinkedIn Learning Instructor and ex-Forbes writer, and she has penned a book: "Personal Branding for Introverts." Her past roles include digital strategist at Legendary Entertainment and being on the Board of Directors at the Producer's Guild of America. Reach out to her for speaking engagements or brand partnerships through goldiechan.com.Scoop up her book - HERE.Listen to her past Making a Marketer episode - Personal Branding on LinkedIn - Episode 145 - season 7.~._.*._.~Making a Marketer is brought to you by Powers of Marketing - providing exceptional podcast experiences & online and in-person events since 2013. Check out episode 178, and if our show moves you, please share it and let us know your thoughts!Take our LISTENER Community Survey!!! HERE** Our editor

Data-driven marketer Tim Gilford shares which metrics and data points he's watching in order to track progress and make strategic decisions.Special Recording: Live at the NTCA Sales and Marketing Conference

Creator marketing is a huge part of Blizzard Entertainment's strategy. As the developer of properties with global appeal, such as World of Warcraft, Overwatch and Diablo, it has no trouble finding fans in all corners of the world, including basketball player Luka Dončić, who plays at one of the highest possible ranks in Overwatch. CMO Monica Austin discusses a recent partnership with Dončić, plus why Blizzard sees value in partnering with creators who are vocal critics of its work. She also discusses balancing Blizzard's global marketing strategy with region-specific campaigns.

AI isn't just a tool — it's a leadership challenge. This session is about how marketers can step up, influence adoption, and set the standard for responsible use.- How to make the case for AI to senior stakeholders- What good AI leadership looks like in practice- Building confidence in your team to experiment with and adopt AI*************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.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.NOAN - your superhuman business partner. Easily build your strategy & control your business knowledge with AI, then use it to manage your tasks, create content & supercharge your marketing.Wistia - a complete video marketing platform that helps teams create, host, market, and measure their videos and webinars—all in one place.0:00 – Two types of people in AI 0:35 – The truth about most companies 1:10 – What “Mindhunter” taught me 2:40 – AI ≠ tools, it's knowledge 4:00 – Why facts matter more than stories 5:05 – Marketers can lead the AI shift 6:10 – The secret power of semantics 7:35 – The real blockers to change 8:52 – Start small, not safe 9:50 – Final thoughts on AI strategy

Next in Media talked to Selina Sykes, Global Marketing Transformation Leader for Beauty and Wellbeing at Unilever, about the company's ambitious goal to allocate half of its media budget to creators. The conversation explored how a legacy CPG giant is reimagining its marketing model to stay relevant in a social-first world.Sykes discussed Unilever's shift from traditional broadcast advertising to a "many-to-many" model that harnesses communities and creators. She shared insights on building authentic creator partnerships, the success of campaigns like Vaseline Verified, and how AI is being integrated into their content supply chain. The conversation also covered social commerce opportunities, the balance between scaled operations and authentic creator relationships, and the future of AI-driven shopping experiences.Join us for this insightful discussion on how traditional brands can successfully navigate the creator economy while maintaining authenticity at scale.

A German professor compiled a list of 55 questionable Cannes award entries. And he's far from the only one. Yet the industry keeps creating marketing to win awards over actual performance.This week, Elena, Angela, and Rob are joined by Nick Asbury, creative writer and author of The Road to Hell: How Purposeful Business Leads to Bad Marketing and a Worse World. Nick challenges brand purpose, arguing it produces formulaic campaigns while the research supporting it is fundamentally flawed. Topics covered: [04:00] How the 2008 financial crash sparked the purpose movement[12:00] The real story behind Dove's "Real Beauty" campaign data[18:00] Why for-profit companies lack social license to lead causes[21:00] Nick's crowdsourced fact-checking of Cannes award entries[26:00] Debunking the Gen Z purpose myth after the 2024 election[29:00] What respectful marketing looks like without purpose  To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast or subscribe to our newsletter at marketingarchitects.com/newsletter.  Resources: 2024 MarketingWeek Article: https://www.marketingweek.com/good-intentions-lead-to-bad-marketing-why-purpose-is-missing-the-mark/Nick Asbury's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-asbury/?originalSubdomain=uk Nick's Substack: https://nickasbury.substack.com/Get more research-backed marketing strategies by subscribing to The Marketing Architects on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

A baby blowout, a bird bomb, and a masterclass in making people click “yes.” Jay and Daniel go over parenting woes, bird mishaps, and how to get people to actually fill out your forms. Ever heard of a no-scroll tactic? Jay shares how it boosted conversions by 60%. Daniel also shares how his two-step tactic is more effective than forms with 4-5 steps.  Ever felt like filling out a form takes too much time? As Marketers, you can always use microcopy like “this takes 30 seconds” to reassure your audience. Plus, how do you create the best CTA possible? If you're a Marketer looking to come up with better forms AND have them convert, this is the episode for you.

It's easy to assume that paid ads are the magic fix, but without understanding your numbers and setting clear business goals, you're just throwing money into the void. But you're not alone! Most marketers and business owners misunderstand what it really takes to scale, and it starts with customer conversations.Today, we're sharing how many businesses, especially when strapped for cash, need to refocus their energy not just on digital ads but on getting back to the marketing basics. You need to connect with your audience, learn what broke, and rebuild trust to scale your business.Ready to take control? The path forward requires patience, data, and strategy. Stop focusing on quick wins and start investing in your business's long-term growth. In This Episode:- Understanding Media Efficiency Ratio (MER) in marketing- Strategies for businesses with limited marketing budgets- Why setting clear business goals is critical- The importance of marketing and experiential play- Case studies and practical applications- The role of customer feedback & how to get itResources Mentioned in the Episode:Get Your Marketing Performance Indicators (MPI) Checklist: https://www.tiereleven.com/mpi Oren Klaff's book, Pitch Anything: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B004AN5OJA?ccs_id=afc782d8-f4ac-4f26-80f6-243a19b471d4 Previous episodes on maximising your marketing budget: https://perpetualtraffic.com/podcast/episode-726-how-to-get-sales-in-your-first-year-of-a-digital-business-with-just-10k/ https://perpetualtraffic.com/podcast/episode-715-maximize-your-profits-with-these-6-brilliant-cross-sell-plays/ https://perpetualtraffic.com/podcast/episode-716-7-secrets-to-explode-your-profits-with-upselling/Read more about Cadillac's bid to join F1: https://www.autoweek.com/racing/formula-1/a64218356/cadillac-will-pay-450-million-anti-dilution-fee-join-formula-1/ Learn more about F1 bids and partners:https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/45531327/thailand-approves-123-billion-bid-2028-bangkok-f1-race https://www.formula1.com/en/information/formula-1-partners.2shz7bIVhGgS3ovP69N3Rs Listen to This Episode on Your Favorite Podcast Channel:Follow and listen on Apple:

Most marketers treat YouTube like Facebook or LinkedIn - posting content and hoping to drive traffic back to their website. This approach fails because YouTube is fundamentally different. It's a recommendation engine, not a traditional social platform.In this episode, you'll learn why successful YouTube creators think differently than marketers, discover the research strategy that reveals what content YouTube actually promotes in your niche, and get the framework for creating videos the algorithm wants to recommend.If you've been frustrated with YouTube or haven't started because it seems overwhelming, this episode gives you the strategic foundation to succeed in 2024.What You'll LearnWhy thinking like a marketer kills your YouTube successThe "ghost account" research method from Derral Eves' YouTube FormulaThe 3 elements that determine if someone clicks your videoWhy your first 15 seconds make or break retentionHow YouTube success improves your Google rankingsThe 5-video format strategy for finding what worksResources MentionedDerral Eves' "The YouTube Formula" bookMy interview with Derral EvesYouTube Analytics and YouTube StudioLearn More: Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazon Buy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazon Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/ Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

In this episode, author and storyteller Will Cady shares a reading from his book Which Way Is North: A Creative Compass for Makers, Marketers, and Mystics.Through the myth and legacy of bluesman Robert Johnson, Will reflects on the profound choices we make with our creative gifts. Johnson's hands carried him from the fields of Mississippi to a San Antonio hotel room where he recorded 29 songs that became the foundation of rock and roll. His story—woven with myth, music, and mystery—raises timeless questions about inspiration, sacrifice, and what it means to leave a mark on culture.Will explores how Johnson's influence echoes through generations of musicians, from Muddy Waters to Led Zeppelin, from Bob Dylan to Amy Winehouse, reminding us of the delicate dance between creativity, commerce, and the soul.This reading, “Robert Johnson's Hands,” invites us to consider what we give, what we create, and how our choices ripple far beyond our own lives.To learn more about Will Cady and his work, visit willcady.com.The 5 Minutes of Peace podcast is created by The Peace Room, Boise. Learn more at www.ThePeaceRoom.love

Today I'm joined by Jason Swiech, Product Marketer at CDK Global. We discuss what top-performing dealers are doing in the F&I office, why double-entry data is crushing customer satisfaction, the add-on products flying off the shelves and much more. Read CDK Global's 2025 F&I Shopper Study mentioned in the episode here: https://www.cdkglobal.com/insights/new-report-shows-shifts-fi-trust This episode is brought to you by: 1. Repair360 - If you're in the used car business, you know wasted time is wasted money. Check out Repair360—the first and only reconditioning software that connects every function in the dealership to tighten recon and help you sell more cars — No more hounding vendors. Goodbye endless texts and hallway chases. Repair 360 connects all the dots. See where every car is and what its recon is costing minute-to-minute in real time. Go to ⁠⁠https://www.repair360.com⁠⁠ 2. Cox Automotive - Omnichannel isn't a buzzword anymore—it's the playbook winning dealers are running. In a world where the buyer journey is more fragmented than ever, the most successful dealers are connecting the dots—online, in-store, and everywhere in between. The result? Smoother deals, faster turnarounds, and serious lift at the bottom line. Nearly 80% of omnichannel dealers are seeing higher close rates, and you can too. Want in? The Omnichannel Dealership—a new guide from Cox Automotive—breaks it all down. Click the link to download it now free. @ ⁠⁠https://www.coxautoinc.com/retail/omnichannel-dealership⁠⁠ 3. CDK Global – Managing inventory doesn't have to be a grind. Backed by over 50 years of CDK know-how and powered by next-gen AI tools, you'll price with confidence, merchandise like a pro, and move cars off the lot faster — all while boosting your bottom line. Learn more about the CDK Vehicle Inventory Suite: https://www.cdkglobal.com/cdk-vehicle-inventory-suite Check out Car Dealership Guy's stuff: For dealers: Industry job board ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://jobs.dealershipguy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Dealership recruiting ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgrecruiting.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Fix your dealership's social media ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.trynomad.co⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Request to be a podcast guest ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgguest.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For industry vendors: Advertise with Car Dealership Guy ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgpartner.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Industry job board ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://jobs.dealershipguy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Request to be a podcast guest ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.cdgguest.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Topics: 00:08 What is Jason's role at CDK? 01:24 Current F&I trends in dealerships? 02:03 Why is F&I process critical? 04:29 Digital retailing's impact on F&I? 06:11 Key F&I survey insights? 07:14 Solving F&I workflow challenges? 18:59 F&I manager compensation structure? 22:33 Digital vs paper in F&I? 25:42 Future predictions for F&I? Car Dealership Guy Socials: X ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠x.com/GuyDealership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/cardealershipguy/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠tiktok.com/@guydealership⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠linkedin.com/company/cardealershipguy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Threads ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠threads.net/@cardealershipguy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077402857683⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Everything else ➤ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠dealershipguy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Marketers' roles are changing, but their goals are still the same: reach and engage customers, meeting them where they are, and for better or worse, often needing to do more with less while delivering greater value. Agility requires both adapting to change quickly while also having the wisdom to know which changes truly matter. It demands a delicate balance between embracing new technologies and staying laser-focused on core business objectives. Today, we are here in New York City at Opticon25. We are going to talk about the growing role of AI for both marketers and consumers, how organizations can leverage an agentic platform to create better internal and external customer experiences, and how marketers can both do more with less while delivering exponentially greater value. To help me discuss this topic, I'd like to welcome Rupali Jain, Chief Product Officer and Kevin Li, SVP Product at Optimizely. About Rupali JainRupali Jain is the Chief Product Officer at Optimizely. Previously she has held product leadership roles at several SaaS software companies, including Microsoft's PowerBI and Qualtrics. Throughout her two-decade career, Rupali has shared Optimizely's vision of prioritizing the end user's daily needs. Rupali is committed to advancing practical, growth-driving applications of AI and machine learning to help marketers take control of their workflows, experiment at scale, and deliver digital experiences that meet and exceed customer expectations Rupali Jain on LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/rupali/⁠ About Kevin LiAt Optimizely (previously Episerver before rebrand), I describe my job as a "tale of two mirrors" with one being a telescope and one being a microscope. On the telescope side of product strategy, I own long-term strategy covering build/buy/partner, M&A (thesis, due diligence, etc.), new product launches (SaaS CMS, Personalization, etc.), analyst relations (leader in 11 categories across Gartner, Forrester, and IDC), etc. On the microscope side of product operations, I own the product commercialization process, product operations, product analytics, documentation, and competitive intelligence. Kevin Li on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinsyli/ Resources Optimizely: https://www.optimizely.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow Don't Miss MAICON 2025, October 14-16 in Cleveland - the event bringing together the brights minds and leading voices in AI. Use Code AGILE150 for $150 off registration. Go here to register: https://bit.ly/agile150 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