My Weekly Marketing

Entrepreneurship makes marketing feel like a hundred disconnected tasks, and fear can push us into scattered efforts that do not add up. In this episode, I walk through five common small business marketing mistakes and the simple fixes that create a clear Trail to the Sale™ from stranger to customer. 

1. Trying to be everywhere at once. 
2. Making it about you. 
3. Selling the offer instead of the outcome. 
4. Jumping from ...

A robot answered the phone when I called a local shop, and it instantly reminded me how fragile trust is in small business marketing. That very first “hello” is not a throwaway moment, it’s a brand promise. When we automate the front door of our business, we might save time, but we can also teach our best customers that they don’t matter enough to reach a real person.

I walk through the question that ...

They told you they were interested. They showed up for the call. They maybe even said, “This is exactly what I’ve been looking for.” Then the DM goes quiet and the email thread dies. 

If you’ve ever stared at your inbox wondering what you did wrong, I walk you through a more useful truth: most of the time, they didn’t reject you. They just never made a decision.

In this episode, we u...

Marketing is starting to look the same everywhere, and AI is accelerating the slide toward safe, average choices. But that's not what good marketing is. In this episode, we dig into what the data says about email performance and what we can change right now to make our messages connect on a human level. 

I’m joined by RJ Talyor, Founder and CEO of Backstroke, who’s spent decades in digital marketing and emai...

We are wired to love stories and they are a powerful marketing tool. In this episode, we talk with storytelling and branding expert John Elbing about why most marketing falls flat when it starts with the business instead of the buyer. We share a simple three-step framework that helps people recognize themselves, trust what they see, and picture the outcome before they commit. Click to listen!

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Your sales email can be perfectly written and still not sell. If it reads like an inventory list of what's included in your offer, people will skim it, shrug it off, and move on–even when your offer is genuinely good. 

In this episode, we'll dig into the real reason this happens: buyers don’t get excited about modules, coaching calls, and workbooks. They get excited when they can picture a better version of ...

In this episode, I talk with Jermaine Ee, founder of Heirlight, about how to market products and services people actively avoid, using will creation and estate planning as the clearest example. 

We dig into trust, storytelling, and small first steps that help customers move from “I’ll do it later” to real action. We also cover:

• problem aware versus solution aware buyers and why education alo...

Pricing can feel like the simplest lever in a small business, but it’s also the one that messes with your head the fastest. When a prospect disappears after you send a proposal, it’s easy to assume the number is the problem and start discounting, adding payment plans, or stuffing your offer with bonuses. I take a different angle here: I’ve become convinced that pricing often wears a mask, and until we name what&rs...

What happens when AI starts deciding who gets seen, trusted, and recommended?

Whether we like it or not, tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews are already shaping how people discover businesses. The question is this: when AI goes looking for information about you, what story is it finding?

In this episode, I sit down with PR strategist Cindy Woolley, founder of C2 Communications, to talk about the surprising conne...

What if a big slice of your ad budget never reaches a real human? 

If you've ever stared at your digital ads dashboard thinking “the clicks are there, so why is nobody buying?” you’re not alone and you’re not crazy. You might think there's a problem with your content or creative. But sometimes the problem isn’t your offer or your copy. Sometimes it’s ad fraud, click fraud, and invalid...

In this episode, we unpack why standard marketing advice fails when you’re starting a consulting or service business with a short runway and deep experience. I share three practical moves that help you get traction faster by leaning on relationships, focusing your effort, and pricing like the expert you already are. It includes:

• why most marketing advice assumes infinite time and why that doesn't work for midlife founders ...

Trust becomes the real sales gate in a world full of AI content, fake reviews, and copycat marketing. We break down how to build a resilient brand by tightening what happens inside the business before we try to persuade anyone outside it.  <br>• losing control of the narrative as AI and social platforms reshape reputation  <br>• differentiation as a trust strategy, not a slogan  <br>• internal cultu...

Ever “fixed” your marketing by blowing it up and starting over… then felt worse? 

If you’ve ever felt the urge to start fresh with a new website, a new lead magnet, a new niche, or a totally new strategy, this is your reminder that the problem is often not that you need something new. The problem is "scattered marketing" and the quiet habit of reinventing before anything has time to be tested an...

Your dream client is on the couch, ready to hire, and instead of Googling, she asks ChatGPT for “the best” person to solve her problem. If your name never appears, it may have nothing to do with your skill and everything to do with visibility in AI search. We break down what it takes to get recommended in a world where Google Gemini, ChatGPT, Claude, and other answer engines are shaping buying decisions.

I’...

If you’ve ever watched someone speak and thought, “Why is their message so magnetic?”, the answer usually isn’t louder marketing or a prettier color palette. It’s clarity. 

Janice sits down with Kelly Schoenick to unpack what personal branding actually means and why it’s one of the fastest ways to build trust, stand out in a crowded market, and make your marketing feel less like a gri...

In this episode, I sit down with Heather Johnson to talk about how trade shows and in-person events can actually work for small businesses. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by crowded booths or unsure how to stand out without being pushy, this conversation will give you a clearer way to approach it.

We walk through what makes a booth memorable, how to create real conversations that build trust, and what to focus on before, duri...

In this episode, I sit down with David Wachs to talk about a simple, overlooked way to stand out in a crowded marketing world. We explore why handwritten notes still work, even with so much automation, and how they can create a more personal connection that digital messages often miss.

We also walk through where handwritten notes fit in your customer journey and how to use them without making them feel forced or salesy. David shares...

In this episode, I sit down with Tracy Beavers to talk about why email marketing still matters, even in a world dominated by social media. If you’ve been focused on growing followers while your email list stays flat, this conversation will help you rethink where real control in your marketing actually lives.

We talk through how organic list growth really works, why many lead magnets fail to convert, and what it takes to turn v...