The Kara Report | Online Marketing Tips and Candid Business Conversations

Raise your hand if you're tired of hearing that we're in a trust recession. Same. But authority does matter, probably more than ever going into 2026, and here's the annoying part: knowing you have experience and being able to convey that experience are two completely different skills.

You sit down to write the blog or record the podcast or send the email and suddenly it's who the heck am I to talk about this. Everyone's said this be...

Last week we covered the first four things I'd start doing today if I wanted to work less a year from now. This week, the other four. And I'll be honest, these are the ones with the most nuance in them, because this is where most people jump straight to "I'll just hire someone" and accidentally build a business that costs a fortune to run.

Here's the thing nobody says out loud: working less isn't only an operational problem. It's a ...

You've decided you want to work less next year. Maybe that's Fridays off, maybe it's a month every summer, maybe it's maternity leave, or maybe you've just been doing this long enough that you're done spending that many hours at your computer. So you open your calendar and start looking for things to delete.

That's the wrong place to start. The better question is: what am I doing right now that requires me to keep doing it f...

We all know the cycle: pushing out daily Instagram posts, scrambling to keep up with the algorithm, and wondering if it’s even worth it. The highlight reels of “overnight” wins make it seem like short-form content is the only way to grow — but if that’s your only strategy heading into Q4, your future self is going to be exhausted.

In this episode, I’m sharing the marketing play that most e...

So you didn't market your business this summer. You meant to. You had a plan back in May, and then June happened, and then it was July, and now it's the end of August and your last real piece of content went out sometime around May long weekend.

I'm joined by my first-ever returning guest, Tayler from Enji. You might remember her from episode 27, where we talked about accidental marketing and how to build an actual strategy instead....

If I could go back and talk to myself before recording episode one, there are three things I’d do differently. Not because I regret starting a podcast. Two and a half years and 100+ episodes later, I still think it’s one of the best things I’ve done for my business.

But I’d build the business around it differently.

In this episode, I’m sharing the three things I wish I’d done from d...

Two and a half years ago I started a podcast and told myself I wasn't expecting an ROI anytime soon. I just didn't know "anytime soon" would turn into two years.

For a long time my honest answer to "is this working" was somewhere between "I don't know" and "I really hope so." That's not my answer anymore.

In this episode I'm sharing the real numbers, what it actually costs me every month, how long it took to see a single lead, and th...

July was not my favorite month. There were good things in it, but personally and professionally I got hit with some stuff that was, honestly, kind of sucky.

And somewhere in the last few days of it, I realized I didn't want to spend August trying to fix all of that. I just wanted the month to feel different.

So I did something small. Before a three-hour round trip I was already dreading, I asked myself one question. The answer change...

I've had a version of the same conversation with clients for years now: someone posts a Reel, it does great, and for two weeks they're convinced they've finally cracked it. Then real life happens — a slow week, a vacation, a launch — and the whole thing goes quiet. And they think they did something wrong.

They didn't. They just built something that only runs while they're actively fueling it.

That's basically what's happe...

I've had a version of the same conversation with a friend of mine for three months in a row. She comes to me with a plan. I give feedback. A month later, she comes back with basically the same plan again — and has no idea she's already been here.

That's when I went looking for an explanation, and I found a study that stopped me in my tracks. It's about what happens to your brain when you let an AI do too much of your thinking ...

I picked up Start With Yourself by Emma Grede fully expecting to love it because I've been a fan of her podcast for a long time. What I wasn't sure about was how I'd feel after all the headlines and viral clips that seem to follow her everywhere.

After finishing the book, I realized something: you don't have to want someone's life to learn from the way they think.

I don't want to build multiple billion-dollar companies, and I'm guess...

I hear this all the time from people who are blog-curious: "I have a blog, I don't even know if it's doing anything, I'm probably not doing it right." Some version of that. And honestly? I think we can fix that today.

Here's the thing — you should know whether your blog is working. Your Google organic traffic should be climbing, and you should be getting inquiries where people say, "I found you on Google." If that's not happen...

Summer is officially here. Which means it's time to figure out how you're actually going to market your business for the next few months, when fewer people are online, your analytics dip, and everyone's outside touching grass instead of refreshing the feed.

Here's the move most people make when they see their analytics dip: double down and push harder. And honestly? That can work. But this year, I'm doing the opposite. I'm cutting m...

The online business landscape has shifted — and the strategies that are actually working right now? They're not showing up in anyone's public content.

In this episode, I'm sharing the real conversations happening behind the scenes in masterminds and private coaching rooms — the advice that business coaches are giving their highest-paying clients but nobody's talking about publicly. 

Spoiler: it's not sexy. But it's w...

Think blogging is dead in 2026?

Before you ditch long-form content for TikTok and Reels, watch this. The truth is… the biggest names in tech are doubling down on SEO, AI models are hungry for high-quality website content, and small business owners who start blogging now are about to unlock a massive advantage.

In this video, I break down why blogging is not outdated — it’s evolving. You’ll lea...

You have the ideas. You've always had the ideas. They're sitting in a Google Doc somewhere, probably called something like "Q3 Content Plan," last opened months ago and somehow nothing in it has ever actually gotten published.

Today's guest Tayler Cusick-Hollman would tell you that's not an ideas problem. It's a brain problem. And once you understand what's actually happening, you can do something about it.

Taylor is the co-founder o...

Most SEO advice assumes you have unlimited time. But what if you only have one hour? In this episode, I'm sharing exactly what I'd do with that hour (and it's probably not what you'd expect).

Spoiler: I wouldn't tell you to write a blog post. Instead, I'm walking through the specific website SEO tasks that actually move the needle, require zero technical expertise, and can realistically get done in 60 minutes or less.

 Whether y...

If you've been wondering whether Pinterest is still worth your time and money in 2026, this episode is for you (my answer will surprise you).

I run a Pinterest marketing agency — it's one of the main services I sell — and I am telling more business owners to WAIT on Pinterest than I ever have. In this episode, I'm sharing exactly why, what needs to be in place before Pinterest can actually work for your business, and how...

If you've been thinking about hiring a VA but keep talking yourself out of it… this episode is for you.

I sat down with Sarah Roberson, a virtual assistant who specializes in helping wedding pros and photographers run smoother businesses behind the scenes. She's also been on my own team since August 2024! So I knew she's be the right person to have on for this conversation.

We get into everything you've been too scared to Goog...