Whatever it is you’re working on and struggling with, don’t pivot too soon. Make sure you give it enough time to work. For as this episode’s guest explains – resilience pays out. Frank Spitzer, CEO, Pelecanus, shares the story of how he grew his company’s YouTube channel from zero to 100,000 subscribes, along with many more lesson-filled stories. Pelecanus has $250,000 in annual revenue. Spitzer manages a team of four employees, along with four freelancers and interns. Stories (with lessons)...

Coders are rewarded for writing new features, not for making their code as efficient as possible, Chirstopher Mims recently reported in The Wall Street Journal. According to the article, bloated software raises many risks, and costs the US alone $2.41 trillion due to cybersecurity issues, operational failures, and other problems. It would be easy for me to sit here and point the finger at software developers, but are marketers any better? As we focus on getting campaigns out the door, new...

We as marketers, we’re the ones that make the brand promise to potential customers. So it is our job to make sure our companies actually come through on that promise, are consistent with that promise. We are the defenders of the brand. I love a lesson from my next guest – don't be afraid to say ‘no’ if it serves the brand. Which of course sounds good in theory but can be incredibly hard in practice. To get underneath that lesson and hear the story behind it, along with many more lesson-filled...

Here’s something I get to do as a content writer that I never got to do as a copywriter – I sign my name to my work, and that gets displayed publicly. I’d like to think I was a conscientious writer before, but this makes me 10 times more so. And is a constant reminder that everything needs to be a certain level of awesome – no filler copy. Even when you don’t sign your name to something, it’s difficult, that commitment to always striving to make something the best it can be – whether that’s...

Rebranding. We use that term for companies. But what about for you? What is your current value proposition, and what would you like it to be…no matter where you are in your career? Because as my next guest has learned – it’s never too late to reinvent yourself. Here to share the story behind that lesson, along with many more lesson-filled stories, is Carlos Cantú, CMO, Freepik (https://www.freepik.com/). Freepik is owned by EQT, a public company that trades on Nasdaq Stockholm. It reported...

You know too much. You know too much. No this isn’t dialogue from a spy movie, I mean in your role as a marketer. You know too much about your product or service or whatever you’re asking your customer to do. And it makes it hard for you to see your advertising and your conversion funnel through the customer’s eyes. Or as my next guest put it in her podcast guest application – Be mindful of the ‘curse of knowledge’ (which could itself be a good name for a mystery movie). To hear the story...

If a podcast plays in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Bit of a cheeky thought experiment, I’ll admit, but here’s one thing I’ve noticed – we marketers don’t always create content for an audience, sometimes the audience is an afterthought. We’re too focused on an algorithm. Or a lead generation goal. Or a calendar. Or a process. So I love this lesson from a podcast quest application – ‘there is no content without an audience.’ To hear the story behind that...

Think about the last time you read a piece of content that truly resonated with you. It could have been a news article, a blog post, or even a social media update. Now, consider what made that content impactful. Was it the way it was written, the story it told, or how it connected with your experiences? This brings me to a crucial aspect of marketing – the art of storytelling and the responsibility that comes with it. In my career, I've seen how powerful content can shape perceptions and...

“We can say that. Sure we can say that.” Oh, I do not like having to utter this phrase in meetings. Because it’s not what you can say, it’s what you should say. I’ve heard so many times ‘we can say that in an ad.’ Or ‘we can write a press release about this.’ Oh, the hubris in that statement. Because we get lulled into false confidence in the four walls of our offices, when we think we can make a payment, and put whatever we want into ads or press releases or on websites. Sure, I guess...

I remember sitting next to someone at a conference, eating lunch, making small talk. And it came up that his brand had no competition. And I said, ‘wow, what a dream position to be in.’ I was used to working with a competitive sales office, hyper-focused on differentiating from competitors. You know, us vs. them. He said, ‘No, no, no. It’s not a dream position, it’s horrible. When you have competition, you know you’re going to get into a set amount of RFPs or bakeoffs, and win a certain...

When I was president of my homeowner’s association, it changed my walk through the neighborhood. Before I was on the board, it was – hey, how you doing, talk about sports, the weather, whatever.  But once I was on the board it became – I have an idea, we should have this, this should change, etc. And I’d always say – ‘Great, make it happen. We’re an all-volunteer organization, if you want it to happen, make it happen.’ The conversion rate on that was maybe 2%. Marketing organizations and...

I started my career as a copywriter, and I learned a key part of my value to any client or any employer was not just the way I shaped words or filled a block with text – it was to advocate for the customer. Take their viewpoint. To this end, being an ‘order taker’ was not going to help me create great copy. Or great marketing. I had to get underneath any requests or feedback I received from a client, to understand what they were really getting at, and hypothesize how the audience might...

Any industry, and our marketing industry is no exception, has a pack mentality. We say certain buzzwords and share certain ideas. But we can hear them ad nauseam, to the point where they just wash over us and don’t really mean anything. We nod in agreement at a networking event with a drink in our hand, but do we actually do anything about it the next day? Not really. We’re back to going through the motions executing a campaign, buried in email and Slack notifications. Here’s one such...

In 1957, Vance Packard wrote a book called ‘The Hidden Persuaders,’ about the mysterious arts of advertising, and how advertising agencies research ways to manipulate people. I don’t know about you in your career, but I don’t want to be that guy. The way I see it, companies create value. And in a capitalist society of choice, they need to communicate that value to the ideal customer in a way that helps the customer perceive it. So when I read a lesson like ‘authenticity is fundamental’ in a...

Let me confess something to you right now — I have my share of weaknesses. I’m sure you’re not shocked to hear that. We all do, right? But I don’t go ‘all in’ on improving them. Instead, I focus on my strengths. I learned this lesson from John Maxwell long ago. He said, “We’re taught to be well-rounded and to improve our weaknesses. However, in many arenas of life, we naturally perform poorly. Even with hard work, we will never become better than average in them. The reality is that people...

Here’s one thing I love about a career in marketing. I’ve gotten the opportunity to learn the inner workings of so many other industries I would have never been exposed to if I didn’t have to tell their story. So I learned that my skill isn’t necessarily to know everything about every industry. But it’s to be able to learn quickly, work with subject matter experts to get the knowledge out of their head, and clearly communicate it to the ideal customer. Or as our latest guest puts it – “You...

Running a marketing department or agency can feel a bit like being in that Jay-Z song. And I gotta admit, sometimes I feel overwhelmed by 99 problems that come my way. So I appreciate the ray of sunshine who is my next guest, who reminds us that ‘Solving problems for people is a privilege, not a burden.’ To hear the story behind that lesson, along with many more lesson-filled stories, I talked to Rich Davis, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, ThinkSpark (https://thinksparkinc.com/). In five...

In every survey we conducted for benchmark reports, one challenge consistently topped the list among marketers – the size of the marketing budget. I mean, who could argue. We would all want a bigger budget, right? And while a hefty budget is a dream for many, this episode’s guest is a testament to the idea that constraints can actually be a catalyst for innovation and creativity. I spoke with Jesse Keyser (https://www.facebook.com/JesseKeyserEntrepreneur), a franchisee of Sports Clips, Oxi...

You’re reading this podcast description right now. But are you really paying attention? I mean, really tuned in? Or are you half reading and half thinking of your upcoming deadlines, a campaign that underperformed, and a plethora of other tasks, goals, and concerns? Actually being in the moment – and wringing the most we can get out of it – is so difficult during these modern times.  Which is why I love a lesson in the podcast guest application for this episode’s guest, “Stop running to stand...

How many times have you read a company’s marketing and thought – they’re not talking to a customer; they’re talking to themselves. This is especially prevalent in B2B. I’ve seen this on homepages, landing pages, print ads, in press releases, and on and on. I started my career as a copywriter and then worked in sales enablement. So I – it is tempting to write for the person signing your check. But where the revenue for that check really comes from is the customer. Always write for the...

Get the power of 10,000 marketing experiments. Play with MECLABS AI at MECLABS.com/AI (MECLABS is the parent organization of MarketingSherpa). Good marketing isn't just about catchy slogans or flashy ads; it's about understanding the human psyche. The psyche of our customers, yes, but our own as well. So in this episode we’ll delve into a psychological concept called ‘action bias’ – this is the idea that we, as humans, often lean towards taking action, even when standing still might be the...

Get the power of 10,000 marketing experiments. Play with MECLABS AI at MECLABS.com/AI (MECLABS is the parent organization of MarketingSherpa). “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.” This is from Viktor Frankl, in the book ‘Man’s Search for Meaning.’ He learned it in a very serious way, as a prisoner in Nazi concentrations camps. But he was a psychiatrist, and he...

Get the power of 10,000 marketing experiments. Play with MECLABS AI at MECLABS.com/AI (MECLABS is the parent organization of MarketingSherpa). “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” That quote is from George Bernard Shaw, and hopefully is inspiration for anyone trying to make positive change in their organization. I thought of that quote while reading a...

Get the power of 10,000 marketing experiments working for you. Play with MECLABS AI at MECLABS.com/AI (MECLABS is the parent organization of MarketingSherpa). It is hard to make this episode of How I Made It In Marketing and share it with you. Because you are professional marketers and entrepreneurs, many of you know marketing, business, and content creation better than I ever will. So I could work on this forever just to make it better, bulletproof to criticism, dare I say… perfect. Of...

Get the power of 10,000 marketing experiments. Play with MECLABS AI at MECLABS.com/AI (MECLABS is the parent organization of MarketingSherpa). I wish I could just tell people what they should do. Whether it was people on my team who reported to me, potential customers, or even my own kids. But that approach has a major flaw – they will resist. Heck, I would resist, too. It reminds me of a lyric from Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, “The wisdom that the old can’t give away.” So what can you do? I...