More than a Few Words

Andrew Laws has back in my guest chair (if you missed our first conversation, find it here) it, you’ll find the link in the show notes). This time we shifted away from SEO tips and took a different route—down a bumpy road lined with good intentions, disastrous mistakes, and a hacker with way too much free time.

Andrew’s story is packed with humor, hard-earned lessons, and a healthy reminder that if a business idea sounds too easy, ...

If you've been around here for a while, you already know—I’m an email marketing geek. Not the kind of geek who builds robots in her basement, but the kind who gets excited about subject lines and open rates the way some folks get excited about the first tulips of the season. That’s why chatting with Ellen McDowell Strauss felt like talking to an old friend who also happens to alphabetize her spice rack. Ellen and I first connected ...

You know, I’ve spent years telling business owners to get laser-focused. Find your niche, talk to your niche, sell to your niche. It’s like that old saying: “You can’t please everyone, so pick your people.” But every once in a while, someone comes along and flips my perfectly organized marketing world on its head.

That someone was Matt Diamante, founder of Hey Tony, a marketing agency that helps small business owners tackle SEO and...

We've all had those “seemed like a good idea at the time” moments. Hers involved a Voxer coaching program, and in the spirit of learning from those detours, we unpacked what happened, what she learned, and how there might still be life in that idea yet.

Main Points:

1. Great ideas don’t always land the way you expect. Danielle created a Voxer-based coaching program for personal brand support between sessions. Despite promotions...

In this edition of What Went Wrong, I got a chance to explore mistakes, missteps, and the humbling reality that even seasoned pros can land flat on their face with repeat guest Robin Waite. This time, he didn’t come with a polished pitch or a shiny success story. He brought a cautionary tale about Facebook ads, cold leads, and a £9,000 lesson in what happens when you trust the algorithm more than your instincts.

You know, I’ve always believed marketing should feel more like a warm hug than a high-pressure sales pitch. So when Alesia Galati and I got to chatting about social media burnout (oh yes, that nagging, energy-draining beast), it was like she reached into my cluttered content calendar and whispered, “There’s a better way.” We laughed, we nodded, and somewhere between SEO tips and podcast rants, I found myself ready to trade reels fo...

When a Great Idea Doesn’t Get a Second Chance

This is another one of my What Went Wrong? conversations, and I love these because we all have ideas that don’t turn out the way we hoped. Sometimes, they’re just bad ideas. Other times, we give up too soon. That’s exactly what happened to Nina Froriep, who had a smart, scalable concept for video production—but abandoned it after a rough first attempt. Years later, she watched someone e...

Yes, we’re talking about AI again because, let’s be honest, it’s everywhere, everyone is using it and most people are using it wrong. It’s easy to feel like you’re just throwing AI at problems without a real plan. That’s why I was excited to talk to Melissa Reeve, an expert in agile marketing, about her TRISS framework—a simple way to decide where AI can make the biggest impact in your business.

If you’ve ever caught yourself bounc...

Most small business owners dream of growing our small businesses into something bigger. But scaling comes with challenges—hiring, infrastructure, and managing processes without losing control.

I sat down with Anthony Franco, a serial entrepreneur who has launched, scaled, and sold multiple businesses. He’s also the host of How the Founder, a podcast where he and his co-host dive deep into the challenges business owners face. In thi...

My guest today is Iris Goldfeder, founder of Gas Stove Creative. Iris and I are two out-of-sync New Yorkers who somehow ended up in Indiana, crossing paths in the small business community for years. But today, instead of swapping stories about pizza and city life, we’re talking about something every business owner faces at some point: the growing pains of change.

Iris recently had a lightbulb moment—she’d evolved her business, but ...

We’ve all done it—Googled ourselves or our businesses, only to find something outdated, inaccurate, or just plain wrong. And the scary part? Most people believe whatever Google tells them. If Google says you’re permanently closed (even when your business is booming), potential customers won’t bother double-checking. They’ll just move on. That’s why it’s so important to take control of what Google says about you. I sat down with And...

Marketing is all about connections, but too often, we skip over the most important piece—people. Sure, we love talking about product, price, place, and promotion, but what about the humans behind the strategy? That’s why I brought back Dave Dave Charest, Director of Small Business Success at Constant Contact, for a lively chat about the Four P’s of People—peers, pros, patrons, and promoters. Spoiler: your next marketing breakthroug...

Tina Bakehouse is living proof that even the best teachers are always learning. As an intuitive communication coach, she’s built a reputation for helping others communicate with confidence and authenticity. But as she shares in this conversation, her early days in business were filled with valuable lessons—especially about getting clear on her offers. Like many of us, Tina learned that trying to be everything to everyone only leads...

A few years ago I sat down with Wayne Mullins, founder of Ugly Mug Marketing, to dive into his unique “3-5-3” formula for turning your website from a static space into a real business driver. If you missed the original release of this episode, you want to be sure to catch it now. 

His approach is all about honing in on what users need, and it starts with capturing attention in the first three seconds. The truth is, visitors aren’t ...

Sometimes, as business owners and marketers, we get so wrapped up in what excites us about our products or services that we lose sight of what matters to our audience. That’s exactly what Brad Koch, a coach and business strategist, discovered the hard way.

Brad talks about what went wrong as he shared a story of a marketing campaign that fell flat—and the lessons he learned about crafting messaging his customers really cared about....

Let’s face it: whether it’s a middle school rumor or a scathing online review, negative feedback stings. As business owners, those harsh words often hit close to home because they’re not just about our work—they’re about us. In this episode of More Than a Few Words, I chatted with David Oates, a seasoned crisis communications expert, about how to handle negative reviews and comments with grace. David shared practical advice on how ...

We've all been there, when a great idea turns out to be, well, not so great? We’ve all been there, right? That lightning bolt moment where we think, “This is it! This is the idea that’s going to change everything.” And then reality sets in. To share her own “What Was I Thinking?” moment, I’ve invited my friend Jen Edds, the head brassy boss at Brassy Broadcasting Company. Jen had a vision of launching a daily podcast—short, punchy,...

Let’s face it—if you’ve been in business for a while, you’ve got knowledge people would pay for. Years of experience, hard-won lessons, and insights that could save someone else time, money, and frustration. But turning that wisdom into a profitable business? That’s where things get tricky. It’s not enough to just “know stuff.” You need a structure, a system, and a way to package your expertise so that it delivers real transformati...

As a business owner, decision-making comes with the territory. But some people do it better than others. What sets them apart? That’s what I talked about with Andrea Liebross, a business and life coach who helps female entrepreneurs think and manage like CEOs. She shared insights from her book She Thinks Big: The Entrepreneurial Woman’s Guide to Moving Past the Messy Middle and Into the Extraordinary, breaking down what it really t...