More Than A Few Words

Sixteen years ago, my very first podcast conversation was with my sales coach Matt Nettleton. So, naturally, when Matt came back to More Than A Few Words, we talked about how the fundamentals of good sales haven't changed all that much. Matt and I agree that when you're starting a business, a qualified prospect is often anyone with a pulse, a checkbook and the ability to fog a mirror. And that's okay. You have bills to pay. But eventually, you need to get a little pickier. We have talked for years about customers as deer, moose and elephants. The problem is, too many salespeople spend their days chasing squirrels and rabbits while trying to hit goals that require much bigger game. And then there's the really big elephant. What happens when you land a customer that's actually too big? Matt shared the story of a client preparing to chase an opportunity that would increase revenue by 50% in about 60 days. Sounds fabulous, right? Except they didn't have the people, cash or capacity to deliver. They walked away, f

For years, Sunday nights had a routine. Around eight o'clock, I'd start thinking about Monday. Emails. Client requests. Deadlines. That one surprise waiting to derail my plans before I'd even had my first cup of coffee. Like a lot of business owners, I figured the answer was simple. Work a little harder over the weekend and get ahead. It never worked. The more I worked, the longer my to-do list seemed to get. Instead of feeling prepared, I felt like I was starting every week one step behind.   What finally made a difference wasn't anything I did on Sunday. It was what I started doing on Friday. Back then, Friday afternoon became protected time. No meetings after one o'clock. No "just one more call." Instead, I spent a couple of hours wrapping up the week so Monday had a much softer landing. The first stop was my inbox. I've always been an Inbox Zero fan, not because it's trendy, but because I don't like loose ends. I answered what I could, delegated what I should, and filed the rest. When I shut my computer d

When you spend 17 years creating content for your business and others, you kind of have it down to a system.   You write, you post, you check all the boxes.  But what happens if one day you wakle up and realize, your content is boring.  That happened to industry veteran, Rachel Allen. One day she looked at her own freshly published Substack and thought, "I wouldn't read that." Ouch. I suspect we've all written that post at least once.   The really scary part wasn't that her content wasn't working. It was what she did next. She stopped. No backup plan. No carefully crafted pivot. She simply gave herself permission to be quiet until she had something worth saying. If that idea makes your palms sweat, you're not alone. Mine did too. What I loved was what happened when she came back. She stopped trying to "get attention" and started sharing the things she genuinely enjoyed. Some of it was marketing. Some of it was about writing a musical about her cat. I have to admit, as a fellow pet owner, I'd probably read tha

People may tell their friends they're fine. They may tell a salesperson what they think they should say. But when they open Google, they're honest. They type in the questions they're almost afraid to ask out loud. That simple idea turned into a fascinating conversation about why so many businesses miss the mark online. Stephan Bajaio one of the pioneers in enterprise SEO, and now leads Vibe Logic. After years helping some of the biggest brands in the world understand search behavior, he's convinced the real opportunity isn't chasing keywords. It's understanding people. Here are a few ideas that really stuck with me. Stop obsessing over keywords and start listening for intent. The words matter, but the questions behind those words matter even more. Don't fall in love with your own language. Customers don't care what you call your product. They search using the words they know. If you insist on inventing new terms, be prepared to spend a fortune teaching the market your vocabulary. Look beyond the bullet point

I want to talk about upselling, and when it actually works against you. Most smart companies have a core product and a menu of add-ons. The really smart ones know not to throw every extra at a customer the minute they say yes.  You listen first. You find out what they need. Then you decide which add-ons make sense. The other day, I stopped at Hardee's and ordered a hamburger. No cheese. What followed felt like an interrogation. Did I want a combo? A drink? A pastry? Was it a number one? A number seven? Meanwhile, I kept repeating the same thing: "I just want a hamburger." By the end of the conversation, I wasn't hungry. I was annoyed. And that got me thinking. Are you doing the same thing to your customers?  Are you so focused on selling the extras that you stop listening to what they actually came to buy? Don't get me wrong. Add-ons are a great way to increase revenue. But only when they're relevant. Offering everything to everyone isn't a sales strategy. It's the business equivalent of that drive-thru speak

Ever feel like your marketing plan is the rope in a tug-of-war match? The sales team is pulling one way. The owner is pulling another. Someone's daughter took a marketing class in college and has opinions. And the person who's actually responsible for the campaign is standing in the middle, trying not to get dragged through the mud. That's why my conversation with Beth Trejo really struck a chord with me.  Beth is the CEO and co-founder of Chatterkick, and she works with franchise organizations, multi-location businesses, and other companies where marketing decisions rarely come from just one person. While her examples came from large organizations, I couldn't help thinking about all the small businesses I've worked with over the years. Sometimes a "multi-layer brand" is just a family business with three generations around the conference table. A few things stood out from our conversation: Marketing isn't just about customers. Sometimes you need to market your ideas internally. Beth pointed out that marketer

I’ve watched a lot of entrepreneurs build amazing communities, only to discover that applause doesn’t always pay the bills. In this conversation with , we talked about the moment she realized her thriving podcast community needed more than goodwill and good vibes to become a sustainable business. Angel has always been brilliant at bringing people together. Her podcast networking platform created real relationships, real collaborations, and real opportunities. But somewhere along the way, she realized she was creating enormous value without building a business model around it. That’s a lesson a lot of women business owners know all too well. What made this conversation especially interesting was how intentionally she shifted from “free for everyone” to a tiered community with clear value, stronger positioning, and protected intellectual property. A few takeaways worth stealing: • Free can open the door, but it shouldn’t be the whole house. Angel discovered that even a small monthly fee changes the quality of p

Great Marketing Isn't About Being Clever. It's About Being Understood. One of the biggest mistakes marketers make is chasing creativity for creativity's sake. A clever campaign might win awards, but if it doesn't help customers understand why they should buy, it misses the mark. That was the heart of my conversation with Scott Flood, a veteran copywriter who has spent decades helping companies communicate complex ideas in ways that drive results. Whether you're selling snacks, software, or something that costs a quarter of a million dollars, the goal is the same. Your marketing needs to connect with the right audience and give them what they need to make a decision. What I Took Away from the Conversation Clarity beats cleverness in complex sales. When buyers are making big decisions, they aren't looking for entertainment. They need information they can trust and share with others involved in the buying process. Creativity isn't the same as being funny. Scott made a great point. Real creativity is finding the

Marketing Lessons Everywhere Here’s the thing about marketing—lessons are everywhere. You just have to know where to look. Sometimes it’s in the obvious places, like watching how competitors roll out a campaign. Other times it’s less obvious. Like standing on a floating dock in Santiago, staring at a mussel farm. There, I learned that mussels grow best when they have room. The farmers pull up the ropes, remove the ones that aren’t thriving, and separate the rest so they can mature. The smallest, youngest mussels are placed where the water is richest, giving them the best chance to grow. Business works the same way. Sometimes, you have too many clients. You’re trying to serve everyone, but no one’s getting your best. You may need to “thin the herd” and let go of clients that drain your time and energy. Create space for your best customers to grow with you. And when you do, you’ll have more time to nurture the next generation, the new leads with potential to become long-term, loyal partners. Not every client is

As a podcaster, you can crank out 100 episodes and still get nowhere. That’s an uncomfortable truth for many podcasters.  So how do hosts get into this situation? I sat down with Nathalie Dorémieux, who helps podcasters turn listeners into real business results, and she shared how her first podcast started as a bold experiment and stalled out just as quickly. The idea was simple. Nathalie took 100 days of Facebook Lives and turned them into a podcast. Plenty of content, plenty of consistency, and zero results. What went wrong? No strategy, no clear goal, and no path for the listener to take the next step. The content was fine, but it wasn’t doing a job. It didn’t invite connection or action, it just existed. For a long time, marketing rewarded people who knew the most and said it the loudest. Write more blogs, record more episodes, share more tips. The assumption was simple. If you show how smart you are, people will want to work with you. That worked… until everyone started doing it. Now there’s no shortage

Ever notice how often someone asks for a brochure when what they really need is something else entirely? That’s where this conversation goes, and it’s a good one. I sat down with Bill Shander, an information designer and author who calls himself a “stakeholder whisperer.” And trust me, it’s not as mystical as it sounds. It’s actually a practical, powerful way to rethink how you show up in your marketing conversations. We talked about why storytelling isn’t just about your audience. It’s also about how you communicate with the people inside your business who shape what gets created in the first place. A few takeaways worth holding onto: Don’t jump to the solution too fast When someone asks for a deliverable, a brochure, a campaign, a website, pause. That request is often just the symptom. Your real job is to figure out the problem underneath it. Your most important stakeholder isn’t always your boss It’s easy to default to the person giving the assignment. But the real priority is usually the end user. The pe

After twelve hundred episodes and sixteen years of conversations, I’ve heard a lot of smart ideas about marketing and sales. But every once in a while, one sticks with me. This one goes all the way back to the beginning, to a conversation with my very first and very frequent guest, Matt Nettleton. It’s about sales, but not the pushy, fight-your-way-in kind. It’s about something much simpler and a whole lot more effective. I sat down with Matt, a sales coach and founder of Sandler Training, to talk about what he calls “storming the castle.” And no, it’s not about medieval strategy. It’s about what most salespeople get completely wrong. Here’s the shift that matters: • Stop pitching, start asking Most sales calls fall apart because we lead with what we want to say. Matt flipped that on its head. When you ask thoughtful, structured questions, prospects don’t resist. They lean in and start talking. • Questions are a discipline, listening is an art That line stuck with me. Great questions aren’t random. They’re pl

I knew that Danielle Hughes and I were kindred spirits the first time I saw the name of her company More Than Words Copywriting. Clearly, we had the same attitude about words, but our bond was stronger than that. We agreed on so many things in marketing that it has been an absolute pleasure to get to know her over the years. And so I could not dive into my archives without sharing at least one of our conversations, this one about creating a bio that makes people want to get to know you is my favorite.  Ever read a bio that sounded like a LinkedIn résumé in a tuxedo? Polished, proper, and completely forgettable. That’s exactly what we set out to fix in this conversation. I sat down with Danielle Hughes to talk about how to turn your bio into something people actually want to read and more importantly, someone they want to work with. Danielle helps entrepreneurs and organizations uncover their personality brand so their message feels natural, not forced, and actually connects. Here’s where the conversation real

I love diving into my archive.  There are so many amazing conversations there, like this one with Deirdre Tshien.   We talked about the difference between creating fun content for the feed and functional content that starts conversations and drives prospects to your door.  If your social media feels like shouting into the wind, you’re not alone. So many business owners post, promote, repeat, and then wonder why no one responds. The problem usually isn’t the platform. It’s the approach. In this conversation, I sat down with Deirdre Tshien to talk about what it really means to be social on social media. And spoiler alert, it has a lot less to do with posting more often and a lot more to do with starting better conversations. Deirdre shares a simple four-part content rhythm that helps turn random posts into a smart strategy. Key Takeaways Start with awareness Ask a question. Share an opinion. Use a poll. Give people an easy way to jump into the conversation. If no one engages, it’s hard to build momentum. Follo

The same tool that helps you find your best customer can also be used to find someone’s fears, anger, or bias. That’s where smart marketing turns into something a lot messier. In this conversation, from our archive, we unpack market segmentation, the good it can do, and the risks that come with it.  Recorded in 2017 many of the same concerns are still valid today.  I chatted with Lydia Thurston and Sam Von Tobel about demographics, psychographics, and why every business owner should understand both sides of the story. Why this matters: Targeting helps you spend less and connect faster. But when powerful tools land in careless hands, the results can get ugly. Takeaways: Good targeting saves time and money Demographics help you narrow by age, gender, income, or location. Psychographics help you understand interests, values, and habits. Together, they help you reach moms looking for cooking classes or families searching for healthy meal ideas, instead of shouting into the void. The same data can be misused We t

Continuing the dive into my vault this week, I decided to share one of the most popular episodes of all time. And it is about video.  It turns out the biggest mistake we make with video isn’t bad lighting or awkward pauses. It’s thinking we have to be the star of the show. In this conversation, I sat down with Mechelle MacDonald, a writer, entrepreneur, and growth coach who helps people show up with confidence and clarity. We talked about why video matters and how to make it feel a whole lot less intimidating. If video has been sitting on your “I really should do this” list, this one’s for you. Here are a few takeaways that stuck with me: You don’t have to be on camera to get started Michelle shared a simple idea that feels like a relief. Start with your hands, your process, your product. Show something in action. You’re still building connection, just without the pressure of being front and center. Short beats perfect every time Aim for about 60 seconds. That’s your sweet spot. People are scrolling fast, an

Reaching 1,200 episodes feels like the perfect excuse to look back at where it all began. Over the years, there have been conversations that made me laugh, made me think, and a few that deserved far more attention than they received the first time around. So this week, I’m opening the vault. Each day, I’ll be re-releasing one favorite episode from the archives. Some are memorable classics, others are hidden gems, but every one of them still has something worth sharing today. First up: if the words Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles instantly got your attention, you’re going to enjoy this one. Originally released as Episode 19 in early 2010, this conversation with Jay Mattingly takes a fun and unexpected look at DISC profiles through the personalities of everyone’s favorite crime-fighting turtles. It’s lighthearted, clever, and packed with insights you can still use today. Some business lessons come from spreadsheets. Others come from pizza-loving, crime-fighting turtles. I sat down with Jay Mattingly, our director

Welcome to More Than a Few Words, a marketing conversation.  And today… I'm celebrating a milestone. This is episode number 1200. Yes, twelve hundred conversations, monologues, ideas, and probably more than a few opinions along the way. My mother always said I was born talking, so honestly, this shouldn’t surprise anyone. But still… 1200? That feels like it deserves a moment. Because milestones matter. They’re not just numbers. They’re markers along the road. Little signposts that say, “Hey, look how far you’ve come… and maybe take a minute to think about where you’re going next.” And I’ve been doing exactly that. I’ve been digging back into the archives, listening to some of those early episodes. Cleaning them up a bit. Cringing occasionally. Smiling a lot. And over the next few days, I’m going to share a few of those with you. Looking back is useful. It gives you a chance to celebrate what worked. The ideas that landed. The moments where you got it right, maybe even by accident. But it also gives you a litt

You’d think donuts and beer would be an easy sell. I mean, carbs and craft brews, what’s not to love? That’s exactly what Billy Sammons thought when he planned a beer and bakery pairing event. Creative, fun, and honestly, delicious. There was just one small problem. No one came. Billy knows referral marketing inside and out, which made this flop even more memorable. Because when a great idea falls flat, there’s always something to learn if you’re willing to look. And there definitely was. Takeaways: • A great idea still needs an invitation You can’t just open the doors and hope people wander in. Even the tastiest event needs consistent promotion and personal outreach. • Don’t keep all the donuts to yourself Billy partnered with a brewery and a bakery, but didn’t tap into their audiences. Big miss. When you collaborate, you share the spotlight and the guest list. • Give them more than a sugar rush One activity sounds fun, but a few extra vendors or experiences turn curiosity into commitment. More to do means m

Are Your Headlines Putting Readers to Sleep? (Let’s Fix That.) I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the polite little headlines we keep sending out into the world—you know, the ones that tiptoe into a reader’s feed, whisper “excuse me,” and then wonder why no one pays attention. This month, I’m diving into the power of bold, spicy, “oh-no-she-didn’t” titles that make readers stop mid-scroll. Because if we want people to actually read what we write, we might need to ruffle a feather or two. Ready to stir the pot with me? Why Negative Titles Win (Even When Everyone Says They Want Positivity) Here’s the not-so-secret secret: people are drawn to headlines that poke at their fears or frustrations. Negative titles stand out in crowded feeds because they tap into emotions folks already feel but haven’t said out loud yet. Sure, I could have called this piece “5 Ways to Improve Your Blog Titles,” but… yawn. If your goal is to be memorable, negativity—used thoughtfully—is your new best friend. Your Language Might Be W