Do Less Marketing

You can spend a year and a lot of money committing to a message before you find out if it's connecting. Chase Pickett is the co-founder and CEO of Precision Social, a Chicago social media agency. He believes community building is the most sustainable way to market a business. We dig into what social media can tell you that a brainstorm session can't, and the one belief Chase says you need before y...

What if the marketing for your business had to fit in ten minutes a day? Dr. Phil Boucher is a pediatrician in Lincoln, Nebraska, and a self-described multi-passionate entrepreneur. He runs Frontier Pediatric Care, a direct primary care practice, and he helps other private practice owners get in front of their ideal new patients who desperately need their help. We get into why he's happy to reach...

What's keeping your marketing stuck? More often than not, it isn't your strategy. It's psychology. As marketers, we think a lot about the psychology of buying. We rarely turn that same lens on ourselves when we're trying to get things done. In this solo episode, I dig into three of the most common marketing blockers I see, both in my own work and in the work of the people I've partnered with. I sh...

Could your business run without you for two months? Liz Wilcox left hers to go on Survivor, and it kept humming along without her. That's thanks to her intentionality, which is something that gave her momentum from the start. Liz helps people write weekly newsletters that folks open, click, and buy from. She runs a $9 email membership with more than 4,000 members. And she got there without constan...

Can you build a business without being chronically online? Natalie Gates is a website copywriter and brand messaging strategist. In this episode, Natalie shares the low-lift SEO strategy that brings in many of her clients, as well as how she gets referrals through relationships. We get into what it's like to be marketers with mixed feelings around marketing, why we love websites, and whether or no...

What if the systems you set up once could keep selling for you while you're off doing a jigsaw puzzle...or another 9-5? Jordan Gill is the founder of Systems Saved Me, where she helps business owners build the templates and automations that take them out of the day-to-day. After ten years running her own business, she recently joined the team at Kit as their senior affiliate marketing manager, and...

Amanda Natividad is a marketer, writer, and Chief Evangelist at the audience research company SparkToro. She also helped coin the term "Zero Click Marketing," and co-wrote a book by the same name with SparkToro's Rand Fishkin, coming out this fall. In our conversation, Amanda shares how she pitched herself for a dream job that didn't exist, and how she brought her natural proclivity for audience r...

In this solo episode, I share five specific ways I'm using AI in my solopreneur business...and three ways I don't. Margin (the capacity planner I built): https://www.marginfor.com/   Website: https://downeystrategy.com/   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittany-downey/  

Kate is proof that you can grow a business on your own terms (without paying Meta a dollar). Kate Assaraf is the founder of DIP, a sustainable haircare brand now in 800+ independent retailers across the country. She's redirected over $5 million to those local economies. Kate went total analog when everyone else went digital and built a cult following on word of mouth alone. We get into how she ref...

How much marketing do you really need to build a thriving solo business? Laura Fenton is a journalist and author who's been writing about home design and sustainability for more than 20 years, with bylines in Better Homes & Gardens, New York Magazine, and The Washington Post. She's the author of The Little Book of Living Small and The Bunk Bed Book, and she writes Living Small, a top newslette...

Most of the advice about AI right now is about speed. Very little of it is about intention. Prerna Malik is an AI Sales Strategist, Fractional CMO, and Conversion Copywriter. She's the co-founder of Content Bistro (soon to be Profitably Yours), a business she's been running with her husband Mayank since 2011. Fifteen years in, Prerna is still excited about her work. She's fully booked months out,...

What if "small" wasn't a stepping stone? Kevin Shinn is a chef, writer, and musician. I first experienced Kevin's work years ago, when I went to The Portico Experience: his one-table, backyard micro-restaurant in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was an absolute delight. One of my all-time, top dining experiences. The Portico just kicked off its seventh season and books up, season after season, almost entirel...

What happens when you stop trying to fit the mold of your industry and start building around what you're actually good at? Branden Lower is the founder of Build Design Studio. He started Build after realizing most businesses get a great logo and brand guidelines — and then have no idea what to do with them. Branden opens up about the fictional narratives he told himself early on and what shifted w...

In this episode, I sat down in person with JT Martin at Hurrdat Media’s studio in Omaha, Nebraska. JT is the creator of The Corn Belt, a Nebraska-focused social media account with over 60 million views, the host of the Social Media Is Dead podcast, and the founder of Loudr, where he works with businesses on social media strategy and content. We talk about how social media has changed, what JT is s...

What does it take to grow a business past its early stages? And how does your role change as the company gets bigger? In this episode, Jonathan shares what it looked like to take his business from a very small team to a company of more than 500 people. He talks about the early days of building traction and how nearly 200 conversations helped shape the product, messaging, and direction of the busin...

How do you grow a medical practice without chasing every marketing idea? Dr. Elise Atkins is the founder of Coastal Vitality MD, where she focuses on lifestyle medicine and weight management. In this episode, she shares how she built her practice from scratch by starting with real relationships that became the foundation for her growth. We talk about the simple strategies that helped her stay focu...

Growth doesn’t always come from pushing for more. Sometimes, it’s learning to work in harmony with your capacity. In this episode, photographer Nikki Moore shares how she’s built a thriving, referral-driven business by focusing on a few marketing channels that work for her. She talks about transforming the dreaded “office headshot day” into something people look forward to, and how she helps clien...

What if small businesses could actually benefit from the rise of AI search? Out of all the overwhelm in marketing, figuring out what’s going on in AI search might be one of the most confusing (and cluttered) topics out there. In this episode, Michelle Bourbonniere, PhD, founder of Words on the Rise, shares a simple way to understand how AI search really works—and what you can do about it. Michelle...

For Lauren Flowerday, success isn’t about scaling faster. It’s about building a business that adds to who she is and what she wants to do in the world. Lauren is founder of Flowerday & Co., where she does literary marketing for ambitious authors.  In this episode, Lauren shares how she went from social media freelancer to personal branding strategist for authors. She shares what it looked like...

You may not need a new video every week to make YouTube work for your business. In this episode, Marc Koenig shares his experience helping businesses use YouTube to grow, like bringing a channel from 19,000 to 200,000 subscribers in just 18 months. He reflects on what he learned when the team stepped back from constant output to a slower, more deliberate approach.  Marc explains why YouTube can be...

Katie Day is a habit coach who knows firsthand how the right systems can keep creativity strong. She shares how experimenting with consistent marketing practices opened unexpected doors for her business. In this episode, Katie shares what it looks like to find a marketing channel that lights you up. She talks about developing rejection resiliency and why it’s important for growth, and she shares h...

It’s one thing to make a great product. It’s another to stick it out when things get tough — and to build a culture and brand people want to be part of.  Jackie Wachter is the co-founder of FOUNT, a company known for fine leather bags made to be by your side for years. She shares the journey from selling at a flea market to national TV to opening five locations in three states. In this conversatio...

Do you ever feel like your ads are just lighting cash on fire? Maybe it’s time to go back to first principles.  Adam Bell has grown agencies and guided clients from startups to multinationals. Through it all, he’s focused on wasting less, connecting spend to revenue, and building the systems that make it all work. In our conversation, we talk about why most ad waste happens before a campaign even...

What if some of the best connections can come from the places you least expect? In this episode, Susan Vaughn shares how she’s grown her project-based business by being thoughtful about where she shows up. She talks about building trust through connection — not by chasing every opportunity, but by choosing the ones that feel aligned. We explore how she approaches networking as a long game. She sha...

This episode is a look inside a business built on value, not velocity. Todd Dawalt is the founder of Construction Leading Edge, where he helps construction business owners create more freedom, impact, and wealth through better systems. We talk about what it looks like to thrive without building a big team. Todd shares how his CRM and systems keep things running smoothly — and how he’s shaped the b...