DesignRush Podcast

Discover how to accelerate your brand’s discovery and growth at https://www.designrush.com In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, host Kia Johnson sits down with Steve Turner, Founder of Solomon Turner PR. We break down the practical business blueprints used to launch tech brands, establish top-of-mind awareness, and drive direct sales revenue. You will learn: Why building early market trust i...

M&M’s did not just place a product inside Love Island USA. It stepped into the villa, borrowed the show’s confessional format, and turned its iconic Spokescandies into part of the drama. In this episode, we break down how M&M’s Hideaway campaign became a modern marketing masterclass by blending reality TV, fandom behavior, social media, pause ads, watch parties, and on-demand delivery into...

Your next buyer may form an opinion about your brand before they ever visit your website. In the age of ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, companies are no longer judged only by what they publish, but by how AI systems interpret, summarize, and recommend them. In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, host Kia Johnson sits down with Jordan Brannon, President and Co-Foun...

Discover more marketing insights and top agencies at https://www.designrush.com Local search is no longer just a visibility channel. For franchise systems and multi-location brands, weak local SEO, missing content, fragmented data, and disconnected tech stacks can quietly drain revenue before leaders see the problem in performance reports. In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, host Kia Johnso...

Discover more brand insights and top agencies at https://www.designrush.com Social media is no longer just a content channel. For modern brands, public conversations in comments, DMs, replies, and customer complaints can reveal churn risk, buying intent, customer trust issues, and missed revenue opportunities. In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, host Kia Johnson sits down with Brooke Sellas...

Discover more marketing insights and top agencies at https://www.designrush.com Sales, customer service, and trust are critical to business growth, especially in trucking and logistics, where customers feel every delay, communication gap, and service breakdown immediately. For growing companies, the challenge is not just finding more customers. It is building the systems, training, and accountabil...

iscover more marketing insights and top agencies at https://www.designrush.com Customers do not always buy because of logic, price, or product features. In marketing, the real challenge is understanding how people make decisions, what stops them from taking action, and which behavioral triggers can turn attention into trust, response, and sales. In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, host Kia...

AI is changing customer support faster than most companies are prepared for. In 2026, the real challenge is not just automation or job loss. It is how AI is reshaping attrition, hiring, retention, and the human skills support teams now need to succeed. In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, host Kia Johnson sits down with Funmi Mide Ajala, Head of Customer Support & Digital Operations at H...

Discover more marketing insights and top agencies at https://www.designrush.com Social media is no longer just a branding channel. In 2026, it plays a direct role in how brands build trust, shape buyer perception, and influence pipeline long before a sales conversation begins. In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, host Kia Johnson sits down with Amore Watters, Content Marketing Director at De...

Discover more marketing insights and top agencies at https://www.designrush.com AI can generate content faster than ever, but speed means very little if brands cannot actually use that content consistently across channels, formats, and markets. In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, host Kia Johnson sits down with Simon Davis, Co-Founder and CEO of wearemighty, to explore why faster AI output...

Most agencies say they understand multi-location marketing. Then your brand scales, and everything breaks. Matt Powell, CEO of Moroch (the agency behind McDonald's, Planet Fitness, and Midas), reveals why most agencies fail when complexity hits, what separates talk from execution, and the exact moment brands realize their partner isn't built for growth.👉 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:- Why agenci...

Most companies focus on customer experience. But what if the real problem starts before the customer even exists? In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, host Kia Johnson sits down with Janell Scott, Vice President of Talent and Delivery at Hugo Inc., to explore why your first customer is actually your new hire, and how onboarding directly impacts performance, retention, and revenue. Janell exp...

Finding an agency should be simple. So why is it a nightmare for most founders? 📉In Episode 132, Cathleen Vermaak, Head of Marketplace at DesignRush, pulls back the curtain on why agency selection is more complex than it appears. From "analysis paralysis" to the hidden costs of low-budget quotes, Cathleen shares the data-driven reality of what makes a partnership actually work in 2026.I...

Is AI killing brand authenticity or are marketers using it the wrong way? In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, host Kia Johnson sits down with Pam Didner, Founder of Relentless Pursuit, global B2B marketing leader, AI keynote speaker, five-time author, and former Intel marketing strategist, to unpack one of the biggest challenges in modern marketing:How do brands use AI without losing their...

Discover more marketing insights and top agencies at https://www.designrush.com/Your ads may be getting clicks. But your website could still be killing conversions. In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, Jeff Finkelstein, Founder & CEO of Customer Paradigm, explains why reliable technology consistently beats flashy marketing when it comes to real business growth. Many brands invest heavily...

Discover more marketing insights and top agencies at https://www.designrush.com/More leads do not always mean more revenue. In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, Rohit Bhateja, Director of Digital Engineering Services and Head of Marketing at SunTec India, explains why modern lead generation strategies powered by AI can actually damage business growth when demand outpaces operational capacity...

Advertising doesn’t work the way it used to. Attention does. In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, Andy Willers, Co-Founder & CEO of Favoured, explains why brands are no longer competing with ads, they’re competing with Netflix, creators, and TikTok for time. Marketing hasn’t just changed formats. It has changed expectations. We discuss:• Why entertainment-first platforms changed marketin...

You can build something incredible and still struggle. Not because it’s bad. Not because the market is saturated. But because nobody finds you. In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, Deepak Shukla, founder of the Pearl Lemon Group, breaks down a hard truth most founders ignore: visibility beats reputation. Deepak shares how he went from running ads on Gumtree to building multiple profitable co...

Is doing great work enough to grow your career in 2026?In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, host Kia Johnson sits down with Goldie Chan — keynote speaker, LinkedIn Top Voice, bestselling author of Personal Branding for Introverts, and Founder of Warm Robots, to unpack why visibility, trust, and reputation are becoming essential professional skills. Goldie explains why most professionals alre...

Why do smart organizations miss problems until it’s too late?  In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, host Kia Johnson sits down with Dr Phillip Meade, former NASA engineer and senior leader at Kennedy Space Center, to unpack how organizational culture shapes what teams notice, what gets raised, and what ultimately gets acted on under pressure.  Drawing on more than three decades inside missio...

Traditional B2B marketing is losing its impact. Experiences are replacing content. In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, host Kia Johnson sits down with Lee Odden, Owner and CEO of TopRank Marketing, to unpack why experiential content is becoming essential as buyer attention fragments and trust becomes harder to earn. Lee explains why B2B buyers no longer respond to volume-driven content stra...

Most founders don’t fail because of bad ideas. They fail because the build takes over. In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, host Kia Johnson sits down with Keith Shields, co-founder and CEO of Designli, to break down what he calls the Founder’s Build Trap and why so many software projects turn into expensive agency horror stories. Keith explains the earliest warning signs that a build is hea...

Most cybersecurity threats today do not start with dramatic hacks. They start quietly inside the browser.  In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, Nishant Sharma, Head of Cybersecurity Research at SquareX, breaks down how invisible browser-level decisions shape trust, risk, and long-term competitive advantage for businesses and individuals.  Nishant explains why browsers have quietly become the...

Traditional SEO used to be about rankings and traffic. Today, success is defined by lead quality, relevance, collaboration, and strong foundations across design, UX, and content.  In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, Kara Jensen, Co-Founder and Creative Principal at Bop Design and Andrea Soldat, SEO Specialist at DesignRush, discuss how SEO is evolving in the age of GEO, AI-powered discovery...

Luxury brands do not win by being louder. They win by making people feel something. In this episode of the DesignRush Podcast, Shelley Pratt, Marketing and Communications Lead at INFINITI, explains how modern luxury brands rebuild desire through restraint, confidence, and emotional clarity instead of noise or trend chasing. Shelley breaks down how INFINITI shifted away from feature-heavy, volume-d...