Field Notes

Client Portal

Field Notes

Working notes on brand, marketing, positioning, websites, and the problems I run into when working with businesses.

Featured Notes

Featured

Why Your Website Isn't Getting You Clients

Most business websites are brochures. They describe instead of convert. The ten-second test your site is probably failing, and the fix that doesn't require a redesign.
Read Note
Featured

Marketing Problem or Clarity Problem? How to Tell

A marketing problem means the right people never hear about you. A clarity problem means they hear about you and nothing happens. Most businesses have the second one.
Read Note

Every Note, Every Thought

I Sell It in Pieces Because I Have to Keep the Lights On

A friend pitched me the idealistic version of brand strategy, defining the essence of every person in a company and letting the brand emerge from that. Beautiful idea. Basically impossible to sell.

Read Note

Type the Client Before You Pitch Them

At my old agency, every new lead got typed as intuitive or sensor before the first real conversation. That one distinction decided the entire pitch.

Read Note

It's Not My Fault Your Product Wasn't Wanted

Good agency work and a failed business aren't contradictions. Sometimes the work was solid and the market simply didn't want what the client was selling.

Read Note

You're Not Paying Me to Execute, You're Paying Me to Think

You should pay people to think through a problem and then apply creative solutions. Not the other way around, creative first, problem figured out after.

Read Note

Some People Are Unemployable by Design, Not by Flaw

I once lost a $15,000 project because I refused to build on top of illegal software. That instinct is the same reason I've never been a good employee.

Read Note

The Client Who Cried, and What It Taught Me About Purpose

I've always been allergic to purpose-driven marketing as a phrase. Then a client cried during a brand presentation, and I had to admit I might be exactly that.

Read Note

Anyone Who Guarantees an ROI Is Lying to You

An ROI isn't something a marketer produces, it's something a market decides. If a guarantee sounds confident, that's the tell something's off.

Read Note

Unsolicited Advice Isn't the Problem, Timing Is

The same advice lands as an insult or a gift depending only on when it shows up, not what it says. What that means for how you give it and how you take it.

Read Note

What a Fractional CMO Actually Does (and Who Shouldn't Hire One)

A fractional CMO runs your marketing strategy part-time for $5K to $12K a month instead of a $200K salary. The real job, who it's for, and who should skip it.

Read Note

What Working With a Brand Strategist Actually Looks Like

A real brand strategy engagement is decisions, not deliverables. The phases, what it costs, and the one thing that decides whether it works.

Read Note

The best business I ever ran, started from breaking a toy

A $500 box of drone propellers outsold everything we ever picked on purpose. What I knew holding a broken toy that I didn't know reading a spreadsheet.

Read Note

Why Hiring a Marketing Agency Didn't Work

Failed agency engagements almost all skip the same step. From someone who ran an agency: how it happens, the part that's on you, and how to fix the next one.

Read Note

What to Fix Before You Spend a Dollar on Ads

Ads amplify what's already there. Four things that need to hold weight before you buy traffic, in order, or ad spend just proves your problem faster.

Read Note

Do You Need a Rebrand or a Better Offer?

Most businesses asking for a rebrand have an offer problem. One question sorts it out before you spend $30K on new paint for a store people still walk past.

Read Note

I Need Marketing Is Not a Strategy

When growth stalls, we need marketing is a symptom report, not a diagnosis. What's usually underneath it, and the order of operations that works.

Read Note

Talking Is How I Think

I started a podcast because working alone was making me duller. Some people think by talking. If that's you, your solo setup is starving you.

Read Note

How Much Should a Small Business Spend on Marketing?

The 5 to 10 percent of revenue rule is useless without one condition. Spend in the right order: clarity, conversion system, then fuel.

Read Note

Why Your Website Isn't Getting You Clients

Most business websites are brochures. They describe instead of convert. The ten-second test your site is probably failing, and the fix that doesn't require a redesign.

Read Note

Marketing Problem or Clarity Problem? How to Tell

A marketing problem means the right people never hear about you. A clarity problem means they hear about you and nothing happens. Most businesses have the second one.

Read Note

Why Your Leads Aren't Converting

Leads coming in but not turning into customers? The break is in your system, not your traffic. Where leads actually die and how to find your break.

Read Note

How to Connect

Email

Send me an email—it’s the easiest way to avoid spam calls.

Text

Seems like this is the new normal. Go ahead and text—I’ll reply.

Call

If you call, I won’t answer. Leave a voicemail, I’ll get back. Thanks.
Contact