Why Your Marketing Sucks
Why Your Marketing Sucks
How can business owners simplify complex challenges?
I believe my strength lies in simplifying complex challenges in business, marketing, and sales. As people often say, “Perception is reality”—how people perceive you becomes their reality of what you represent. Although it’s not something I set out to do, I’m often told I have a way of breaking down the “smoke and mirrors” of marketing.
What I do best is help business owners get organized. I put systems in place that minimize failure, and if there’s an issue, it’s visible immediately, allowing for quick optimization and better results.
How can business owners attract and retain top talent?
In industries like med spas, where margins are incredibly high—for example, they may pay $8 for an IV bag and charge $250–$300—scaling the business always comes down to talent. Attracting and inspiring talented people is essential. Beyond that, it’s about implementing processes that allow these skilled individuals to fill roles effectively, enabling you to step out of those roles and focus on growing other parts of your business.
Talent is always the key factor, but retaining talent becomes easier when your margins are strong.
What key steps help business owners create a strong, differentiated brand strategy?
Here’s a quick tip that applies to any business. If you’re about to spend money on a vendor or service, ask for proven case studies and results. Request details about the agency’s own revenue and how they achieved it. If they can’t run a successful business, how will they run yours?
When it comes to differentiating your brand, there are two essential steps. First, understand who you are as a brand, and second, understand your target audience in detail. Many business owners think they know these things, but when questioned, they struggle to give clear answers.
Ask yourself why you exist for your customer, beyond transactions. How do you make a real impact in their life? Can you sum up your brand’s uniqueness in one sentence? Better yet, can your employees do the same? Inconsistent answers reveal fragmentation in your brand strategy.
Identify your core brand attributes. If you don’t have these documented, you lack a strategy—you’re still in the concept phase. While hitting $1 million in revenue is an achievement, you won’t reach $10 million or $50 million without a solid, long-term strategy.
This is a common issue with companies that experience initial success. They start seeing revenue, feel like they know it all, and just want quick tactics like landing pages or ads to bring in more. But true growth to $10 million or beyond requires a strategic approach. The “quick-fix” mentality leads many to cheaper agencies that promise 10x returns and then fail to deliver, costing the business more in the long run.
Why should business owners build a personal brand?
This is the most valuable advice I can share: there’s nothing more powerful than your personal brand. If you’re not invested in establishing yourself as a thought leader in your industry, you’re missing an opportunity for rapid growth, attracting top talent, and building stronger connections to expand your business.
Many business owners are hesitant to step in front of the camera and connect online. They prefer to stay behind the scenes, but my question is, how big do you want to get, and how fast? Before hitting $5 million or $10 million in revenue, people are buying you, not just your product or service. They’re buying trust in an individual. Once you reach a large scale, like Starbucks, you might not need to be as visible, but even Starbucks has Howard Schultz as a brand ambassador.
Creating a strong personal brand serves as a template for your leaders, inspiring them to follow suit. This way, even if you step away, you have other leaders driving connection and commitment in the business. If you rely solely on Google reviews or ratings without a personal connection, you’ll stay transactional, achieving only marginal success. If you want to grow, you need to create content and share your story, building a richer, more trustworthy brand that converts faster.
And remember, when you eventually sell your business, the one thing buyers can’t take is your personal brand. That equity stays with you wherever you go.
What are the biggest marketing mistakes business owners make?
My career developed in reverse. I started with iHeartRadio on the TV and radio side, running my own radio show syndicated to over 60 markets and co-hosting with Ryan Seacrest in Los Angeles pre-American Idol. I learned valuable lessons in building a community and engaging people, but I lacked business strategy and data understanding. It wasn’t until later, when I started a small agency, that I had to learn business basics—P&Ls, taxes, margins—all the hard way.
There’s no single school for mastering marketing, sales, and business. There are great programs like Cardone University for sales or Ryan Serhant’s real estate sales training, but many entrepreneurs figure it out through trial and error. The biggest challenges I see business owners face are (1) not understanding data, (2) not investing strategically for the long term, and (3) focusing too heavily on transactional conversions rather than nurturing.
Here’s a key data point: 70% of a campaign’s success comes from nurturing, not just pushing for immediate conversion. Attraction is easy—running ads, going live on Instagram, grabbing attention—but many marketers skip the middle step of nurturing. It’s like going on a first date and immediately asking to “hook up” before even having dinner. Instead, nurture your audience: listen, make them feel understood, and they’ll ask you how to buy.
*This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.*
