Hello Reader, You don’t have to get an A+ in marketing. In all the years I’ve done this work, one of the recurring themes (and I’ve certainly been guilty of it as well) is that people believe they need to do everything perfectly. This is especially true when we’ve got a lot of high achievers that are accustomed to excelling at everything they do. This is how that A+ thinking can become a spiral that leads to inaction. Does this sound familiar? "I can’t do SEO if I can't do everything exactly...
8 days ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, As algorithms get more and more fickle (looking at you, Instagram) I see more and more folks talking about returning to their previously abandoned blogs as a marketing channel. Which is great! I love seeing smart business owners focus on an owned property (remember, the own two online marketing channels you own are your mailing list and your blog). You could most definitely fire up WordPress or Squarespace or whatever website platform you use and start posting away, but that's...
15 days ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, This week I stopped at my local art supply store (aka the second best place ever, just behind a local bookstore) and picked up some fun stuff, including a new watercolor paintbrush. (I've been taking a course on watercolor, it's fun!) I sprung for the fancier grade brush, which was about $12 USD instead of $8 USD. I got it home and, naturally, I had to test it out. It turns out this little brush solved almost all my frustrations. It wasn't me, it was the tool I was using. I...
22 days ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, As we're solidly at the halfway point in the year, it's probably time to think about the end of the year. I know, wild, right? That's because one of the truths across industries is that the end of the year happens FAST—and folks who don't plan for the last few months end up being frustrated because their marketing isn't reaching the right people and they're lost in the shuffle. That means that right now is the perfect time to get ready for the fall and winter seasons (or spring...
29 days ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, I've heard the phrase, "I love what I do but I hate marketing," more times that pretty much anything. Maybe it has slightly different phrasing, but the meaning remains the same. Believe it or not, I used to say the same thing! You see, when I worked in a regular W-2 job, I was always in "Communications," not "Marketing." We comms people thought we were somehow better than folks in marketing. We were communicating, not marketing, you see. That was noble, marketing was billboards...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, Do you ever feel like your marketing is just you standing on a crowded street jumping around saying, "Hey it's me, I'm over here, do you see me..."? It's not just you. From the hundreds of conversations I've had this year alone, a lot of people feel this way—everything seems noisy and crowded. I do, however, believe there's a way to still "do marketing" while avoiding that crowded street feeling: You can instead become a beacon of fresh ideas and spark conversations? I've...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, We sold out Summer of SEO 2024 a week before the deadline—how cool is that? Pretty freaking cool, I think! But what's even cooler is that this reminded me of something that I tell my clients, but forget to repeat to myself: This business thing? It should be fun. Sure, not every single thing (I hate admin and always will), but at it's core, there should be an element of joy. That was the attitude I had when promoting this summer program: I decided to do what was fun—including my...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, This week, I saw a great post from strategist Mark Pollard (a great follow if you're a strategy dork like me) reminding us that "Frameworks Frame Work." This concept has also been on my mind as I've been prepping for Summer of SEO 2024. In my strategic toolbox, I rely on a framework I call "Alignthority™." It's a powerful tool that helps me as a consultant pinpoint what truly matters for my clients and identify any gaps they might have missed along the way. But here's the thing:...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, Summer of SEO 2024 isn't for everyone—it's a very specific angle of SEO, which is really and truly all about using data we get from the search engine to raise our voices and grow our audiences. ❌ It's not for people who want to get an A+ in their Google Search Console scores (no one ever does, by the way). ❌ It's not for people who focus exclusively on "the techy stuff," like page speed and Core Vitals (these things are important, but just one piece of the SEO picture). ❌ It's...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read