Do Less Marketing

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...

What if AI could help you move faster and make better decisions, without adding more noise? Ruth Favela is the AI Marketing Manager at Tomorrow.io, where she helps a four-person marketing team support a global tech company. In this episode, Ruth shares how her team uses AI to speed up content workflows, cut marketing costs, and focus their energy where it actually moves the needle. We talk about h...

What if the secret to smarter marketing wasn’t more ideas — but better operations? Hayden Florom is a marketing operations analyst at Hudl, where he helps teams move faster by building systems that make campaigns smoother, results clearer, and decisions more grounded. In this episode, Hayden shares why small teams often have an edge when it comes to marketing operations. He explains how thinking l...

What does it really mean to show up authentically in your business? In this conversation, voice actor Danielle Famble shares what she’s learning as she grows multiple businesses. We talk about how she’s come to recognize the difference between discomfort that’s part of growth and the kind of “ick” that signals misalignment — and how that distinction changes the way she approaches marketing. Daniel...

Not everything that helps you grow can be measured on a spreadsheet. Carli and Josh work at The Hope Venture, a nonprofit focused on fighting extreme poverty through education and health projects around the world. In this conversation, they share what it looks like to grow in two directions at once — supporting more people overseas while also helping individuals become more generous in their every...

Artillery Media builds over a hundred websites a year — without a marketing team, an ad budget, or outbound hustle. So what’s actually driving the growth? In this episode, Jake Kramer walks us through how Artillery Media has quietly built a reputation through responsiveness and constantly looking for ways to add value. We talk about what it means to “stir the pot” with past clients, how basic SEO...

When you’re building a business from the ground up, it’s easy to feel like you have to be everywhere, doing everything. In this episode, Dr. Rachel Huston shares what helped her early growth, how she built momentum, and why she moved away from chasing “shoulds” in her marketing.  We talk about how she uses Instagram to teach and connect. She also shares the value of knowing your ideal client and h...