Marketing Happy Hour Podcast

Send us Fan Mail You can start from scratch in a brand-new industry and still build something real, as long as you stay coachable and keep showing up. Shelby McFarland sits down with Chelsea Todd from Revolution Financial Management, who openly shares how she went from having zero finance background to becoming a trusted resource for families, without cold calling or door knocking. The thread runn...

Send us Fan Mail Marketing can be a punch in the gut when the numbers refuse to move, even when you know you’re doing the work the right way. I’m sharing a story that was hard for me to admit out loud: I landed an exciting out-of-state client, built a full digital marketing plan, and still watched the results fall flat. You’ll hear what it’s like to market a software product in a competitive niche...

Send us Fan Mail A customer tells you they won’t pay a deposit, they’ll pay “when they see it and like it.” Another tries to cancel a project halfway through. Somewhere in the middle, you’re answering emails, keeping clients happy, and wondering why it feels like a full moon every day. We’re getting honest about what that pressure does to your brain, and how you can respond like a seasoned busines...

Send us Fan Mail Loneliness does not always look like being alone. Sometimes it looks like running the meeting, leading the team, keeping the home calendar in your head, and still lying awake at night thinking, What did I miss and what do I need to do next? We get into the loneliness of leadership for women and why it hits differently when you are also carrying motherhood, boundaries, and the invi...

Send us Fan Mail “Reasonable” sounds harmless until you’re the one paying rent, utilities, supplies, insurance, and self-employment taxes while still trying to deliver flawless work. Shelby McFarland  sits down with Rachel Harris for an honest, funny, and deep talk about what customers don’t see behind the chair and behind the screen. We dig into the real economics of a service-based small busines...

Send us Fan Mail One ad. A clear hook. A budget that actually makes sense. That’s how you stop throwing money at Facebook and Instagram and start getting results you can measure. We’re talking Meta ads with the practical perspective of someone who used to avoid paid social completely, then spent the last two years running campaigns that consistently improve ROI for real clients. We walk through wh...

Send us Fan Mail You know that feeling when you finally sit down to work and you’re already wiped out and all you’ve done is make choices for everyone else? That’s what Shelby and Kayla unpack, honestly and in real time, as we talk about decision fatigue and the mental load that quietly runs your day. From sick kids and last-minute school messages to travel recovery and the constant “Where is it?”...

Send us Fan Mail Most marketing advice falls apart the moment you ask one question: who are you trying to reach, and where do they actually make decisions? Shelby McFarland and Mattie Loomis pull questions straight from a recent local marketing panel and give honest, small business friendly answers you can use immediately, especially if your budget feels tight and your to-do list is already overfl...

Send us Fan Mail The fastest way to lose momentum in business is to hand your confidence to people outside your company. A quiet inbox, a declined proposal, or a slow month can feel personal, but we’re not in the feelings business, we’re in the action business. We’re digging into a simple truth that changes everything: as the business owner, marketer, or salesperson, we control the effort, and the...

Send us Fan Mail Recruiting can feel like a completely different world than marketing until you realize they run on the same engine: clear positioning, consistent visibility, and trust built one conversation at a time. Shelby McFarland sits down with Demi Mathis, a business development officer at Northwestern Mutual in Arkansas, to unpack how she finds and attracts high-potential advisors and inte...

Send us Fan Mail Everybody can post now, which is exactly why real marketing has never been harder to spot. We’re Alexis and Mattie, and we’re stepping in this week to talk about a trend we see nonstop: people calling themselves marketers when what they’re really doing is just uploading content. The gap between “a cute post” and a working marketing plan is massive, and if you’re a small business o...

Send us Fan Mail Doing everything yourself can look like dedication, but it often feels like a slow chokehold on your time, your focus, and your revenue. Shelby sits down with Leia, an adult ADHD and executive function coach, to talk about the real moment entrepreneurs hit: keep taking clients and risk burnout, or start delegating and build a team that can actually scale. We get specific about wha...

Send us Fan Mail You’ve heard the advice: post everywhere, grow fast, go viral, and let a great product sell itself. We don’t buy it and we explain why. We’re doing a quick, focused deep dive into the marketing myths that quietly derail small business growth and leave people feeling like “marketing doesn’t work.” First up: the pressure to be on every social media platform. We talk about choosing o...

Send us Fan Mail $48,000 in 14 days sounds like a book sales fairy tale, until you hear the real numbers: Shelby has sold about $710 worth of books. The twist is the point. She writes “Market Like a Boss” to make money through her business, using the book as a lead magnet, a credibility shortcut, and a trust-building sales asset that walks into every room with her. We talk through the mindset shif...

Send us Fan Mail AI is not waiting for anyone’s comfort level, and small business owners feel that tension every day. We talk through the good, the bad, and the ugly of AI marketing from a real-world perspective, including what’s changed as of June 2026 and why “it knows too much” isn’t a strategy. The goal is simple: use AI to move faster and think clearer without letting it erase the thing that...

Send us Fan Mail I opened a second sign shop location, got three months in, and then lockdown hit. Suddenly my calendar meant nothing, my assumptions about growth got tested, and I had to figure out how to keep two employees paid while the world argued about curfews, safety rules, and who was “bringing COVID” into town. What kept us afloat wasn’t luck. It was a fast pivot to the unglamorous work e...

Send us Fan Mail Your LinkedIn isn’t broken, it’s just missing you. Shelby McFarland sits down with LinkedIn specialist Katie Rasure to get radically practical about what actually grows a personal brand, drives B2B leads, and builds a reputation people remember. We start with the real-world moment that proves the point: meeting someone in person and instantly recognizing them from their LinkedIn p...

Send us Fan Mail You can feel the energy of a real networking floor in Conway, Arkansas as we bounce from booth to booth at a Women in Business Showcase, asking one simple question at a time and letting the answers stack into a blueprint for modern entrepreneurship. Founders and leaders share what helps them recover from burnout, how they set boundaries when business feels all-consuming, and why “...

Send us Fan Mail Most business owners don’t need another marketing “hack.” They need the uncomfortable truth about why visibility does not automatically turn into sales and what to do when the phone is not ringing. Shelby McFarlane talks with Arkansas insurance agent Nick Tuberville about the gap between marketing and selling, especially in service businesses where you are not shipping a product,...

Send us Fan Mail You can study marketing for years and still feel unprepared the first time a real client and a real deadline land on your plate. Mattie and Alexis step in for Shelby and tell the honest version of what it looks like to break into a marketing career when your path is not perfectly linear, from a creative background to an esthetics business owner who fell in love with the marketing...

Send us Fan Mail One painful week in a 500 square foot apartment changed everything for Shelby McFarland and it eventually became the foundation for how she leads, sells, and builds. Shelby shares the part of her story she rarely tells, then connects it to a simple framework she uses to guide decisions when life feels messy and business feels heavy. We break down her BOSS mindset acronym: Bold, Op...

Send us Fan Mail Your best marketing content is already happening, and it sounds a lot like the questions people keep asking you. We take the everyday conversations from sales pitches, client meetings, and team chats and turn them into a simple, repeatable content engine. When you notice the same 10 to 15 questions showing up over and over, you’re not stuck for ideas anymore, you’re sitting on a r...

Send us Fan Mail People don’t choose the “best” service on paper. They choose the person they trust with their money, their time, and their expectations. Shelby McFarland sits down with Alexis Valenti to talk about what we’re both seeing right now in sales and why buyers feel more cautious, especially when they’ve had a bad experience with a past provider. We break down the real differentiators th...

Send us Fan Mail Marketing can feel like a black hole: you post, you pay, you wait, and somehow nothing changes. We get real about why so many small business owners reach the point of saying, “I don’t think my marketing is working,” and why that feeling is often a signal that the strategy, expectations, or partner relationship is off, not that your business is doomed. Shelby brings Mattie onto the...

Send us Fan Mail You can post every day, run Google Ads, perfect your Google Business Profile, and still wonder why revenue feels stuck. The missing piece usually isn’t another platform or another funnel, it’s sales. We talk through a hard truth for small business owners and service providers: digital marketing creates interest, but it doesn’t replace the face-to-face trust that closes deals. We d...