Humans of Growth: Stories & Strategies Behind Business Growth & Business Development

Humans of Growth: Stories & Strategies Behind Business Growth & Business Development

By Aly HathcockBusinessEntrepreneurshipMarketing
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Humans of Growth: Stories & Strategies Behind Business Growth & Business Development episodes

  • How to Optimize Google Business Profile & Local Service Ads for Home Service Marketing

    During COVID, a lot of home service businesses got fat and happy. The phones were ringing, the leads were rolling in, and marketing budgets quietly disappeared into other line items.


    Now those same companies are watching their leads dry up and wondering what changed.


    Their competitors didn't get lazy.


    In this episode of Humans of Growth, I sit down with Megan Bedford, co-founder of Home Services Marketing Hub, to break down what actually works for home service marketing in 2026 — Google Business Profile, Local Services Ads, the review strategy most contractors are botching, the comeback of direct mail, and how AI search is changing the way customers find local plumbers, HVAC techs, and contractors.

    In this episode, we cover:

    ✔ Why home service businesses that "got fat and happy" during COVID are struggling now
    ✔ Google Business Profile optimization: categories, descriptions, posts, and the "treat Google like a kindergartner" rule
    ✔ Local Services Ads strategy: budgets, cost per lead, and why LSAs outperform paid search
    ✔ "LSA purgatory" — the mistake that gets your Google ads silently throttled
    ✔ Why direct mail is returning 15–30X for home service companies right now
    ✔ Review strategy: why job type and location matter more than star count alone
    ✔ How AI search is changing local SEO for plumbers, HVAC companies, and contractors
    ✔ Why your website needs to mention the towns you actually serve (and why most don't)
    ✔ Price transparency, "good, better, best" quoting, and what belongs on your website
    ✔ How to start marketing a home service business from scratch in 90 days

    If you're a home service owner, contractor, or local business marketer trying to figure out why your phone isn't ringing the way it used to — or you're starting from scratch and need a real playbook — this conversation is the reset you've been looking for.

     

    ______________________


    RESOURCES:
    Get help finding the right marketing partner.
    Learn more about Home Services Marketing Hub here.

    46 min
  • Why Selling Harder Is Killing Your Client Relationships

    Scott Armstrong lost a major AT&T deal by selling the big idea while his client was trying to ask about the budget. Her CEO had cut her budget 30 minutes earlier. She asked three times to see the numbers. Scott kept pitching — and walked out down 60% of his agency fees.


    That meeting reshaped how he runs an agency 30 years later.


    In this episode of Humans of Growth, I sit down with Scott Armstrong, CEO of BrainRider, to unpack his "win the question, not the answer" philosophy, why being an ally beats being a vendor, and how some of BrainRider's biggest wins came from pitches they lost.


    In this episode, we cover:


    ✔ Why most agency-client relationships go transactional (and how to reset them)
    ✔ The "win the question, not the answer" framework for client conversations
    ✔ Charles Duhigg's three types of business conversations and how to spot which one you're in
    ✔ How losing a major RFP can grow your business if you stay an ally through the transition
    ✔ The hard-conversation playbook: how to handle "moment of truth" client meetings
    ✔ Why most agency pitches are 90% about the agency (and what the best ones do instead)
    ✔ Trust as a growth engine: how to build it before, during, and after the close
    ✔ Why fewer, better pitches outperform a packed pitch calendar
    ✔ How to read what your client isn't saying — and why it matters more than what they are


    If you're an agency leader, business development pro, or marketing lead whose client relationships keep drifting transactional — or you've just lost a deal you thought was yours — this conversation will reset how you think about trust, listening, and what it actually means to be an ally.

    ______________________


    RESOURCES:
    Get help finding the right marketing partner.
    Learn more about BrainRider here.

    37 min
  • Is SEO Dead? What Actually Works in AI Search and Google Rankings

    Paid ads are renting. SEO is buying.


    Most business owners pour their marketing budget into Google Ads and Meta because the math feels obvious — drop in a dollar, pull out five. But the channel that actually compounds, the one that builds lead generation you don't have to keep paying for, usually gets pushed to the back of the budget.


    And that's how most businesses end up funding Mark Zuckerberg's next yacht instead of building real long-term traffic.


    In this episode of Humans of Growth, I sit down with Sophie Brannon, CEO of StudioHawk US, a global SEO agency that's been ranking businesses on Google for over a decade. We get into the SEO strategy that actually works in 2026 — what early traction really looks like, why paid CPCs are about to skyrocket, and how to think about SEO when AI search is rewriting the rules of discovery.


    Sophie breaks down the three core pillars of SEO (technical, content, and authority), why "chunkable" content is the new ranking advantage in ChatGPT and AI Overviews, and the outdated black hat tactics making a quiet comeback — and getting penalized hard.


    In this episode, we cover:

    Why SEO is the most underrated lead generation channel for small businesses, and what it actually costs you to ignore it


    ✔ The renting vs buying analogy: paid ads vs SEO and how to think about real marketing ROI
    ✔ Realistic SEO timelines: what to expect in your first 90 days vs the full 6–12 month curve
    ✔ The three pillars of SEO strategy: technical foundation, content, and authority
    ✔ How to know if your website is technically set up to rank (and the free tools that flag issues)
    ✔ Keyword intent vs search volume: why high-intent, low-volume keywords often beat the obvious targets
    ✔ What actually makes a blog post rank on Google in 2026
    ✔ How AI search is changing SEO — and why "chunkable" content is now a ranking factor
    ✔ Why Google is now penalizing AI-generated content under its latest quality guidelines
    ✔ The black hat SEO tactics making a comeback — and the December update that's killing them
    ✔ Link building and digital PR: where to start when agency minimums are $5–10K a month

    If you're a founder, marketing director, or small business owner trying to figure out where SEO fits into your growth strategy — or you've been told SEO is dead and aren't sure what to believe anymore — this conversation will reset how you think about long-term, compounding traffic.
    Because the brands that build real search visibility eventually stop renting their leads from anyone.


    ______________________

    RESOURCES:

    Get help finding the right marketing partner.

    Learn more about StudioHawk US here.

    33 min
  • Brand Storytelling That Actually Converts

    Most brands start scrappy, hungry, and a little bit weird. Then they grow up — and somewhere on the way to becoming a "real" company, they lose the thing that made anyone care in the first place.


    Campaigns get safer. Tone gets stiffer. The marketing starts to sound like every other brand in the category. And customers quietly stop showing up.


    In this episode of Humans of Growth, I sit down with Brad Casper, CEO of Heart & Soul Marketing and a P&G veteran who's spent his career building real, wallet-opening brand love at companies of every size. We dig into why so many businesses lose their spark as they scale, what it actually takes to keep emotional connection at the center of your marketing, and why a challenger brand mindset matters even when you're the market leader.


    Brad also shares the disruptive Japan campaign that took a brand-new dish soap from 0 to 25% market share in six weeks, what "courageous creativity" looks like when most CMOs are too scared of losing their job to greenlight it, and how the Reasons to Believe framework helps brands stand out without trashing the competition.


    In this episode, we cover:

    ✔ Why legacy brands fall into safe, stale marketing — and what that complacency actually costs them
    ✔ How to keep heart, humor, and humanity in your brand culture as you scale a team
    ✔ What "courageous creativity" looks like in practice, with real campaign examples
    ✔ The Reasons to Believe framework: turning product features into emotional benefits that convert
    ✔ How challenger brand strategy can beat market leaders 15x your size
    ✔ Why putting competitors down is a weaker play than lifting your own customers up
    ✔ The rise of the "kindness economy" and what it means for modern brand strategy
    ✔ How to shift brand perception by listening to insiders before outsiders
    ✔ Why your weekly team meetings should feel like the best part of your people's day
    ✔ The future of emotional connection in branding — and what's not going anywhere

    If you're a founder, marketer, or CMO trying to scale without losing the soul of your brand — or you're working with a legacy brand that's gone a little quiet — this conversation is the reset you've been looking for.


    Because the brands worth scaling are the ones whose heart only gets louder along the way.

    ______________________


    RESOURCES:
    Get help finding the right marketing partner.
    Learn more about Heart & Soul Marketing here.

    35 min
  • Customer Connection: The Metric Most Brands Are Missing

    Most CEOs and CMOs are staring at dashboards that make them feel productive while the business quietly pays the price.


    Because clicks, impressions, and pretty reports can make it look like the marketing is working…

    …even when growth is flatlined and your audience does not actually feel connected to your brand.

    In this episode of Humans of Growth, Aly Hathcock sits down with Tiffany Wade, Media Director at Hunter BluMedia, to unpack the uncomfortable truth: a lot of brands are measuring what is easy instead of what actually drives results.

    In this episode, we cover:

    ✔ Why vanity metrics can create a false sense of marketing success
    ✔ How marketing measurement has shifted from mass reach to real connection
    ✔ Why audience research matters more than assumptions
    ✔ The difference between short-term KPIs and long-term brand growth
    ✔ How customer connection and community shape modern marketing performance
    ✔ Why brands need to stop treating themselves as the target audience
    ✔ How siloed teams distort marketing attribution and business decisions
    ✔ What it looks like to pursue growth beyond the dashboard
    ✔ Why stale, “safe” campaigns often underperform
    ✔ How ad fatigue, frequency, and overexposure can actively hurt your brand

    If you care about marketing measurement, vanity metrics, customer connection, brand growth, and building campaigns that actually resonate, this episode will challenge the way you think about success.

    ______________________


    RESOURCES:
    Get help finding the right marketing partner.
    Learn more about Hunter BluMedia here.

    39 min
  • Off-Page SEO: The Backlink Strategy That Moves the Needle

    You can write all the content you want and still lose to someone with worse copy and stronger backlinks.


    Because SEO is not just about what lives on your website.

    It is also about who on the internet is pointing back to you, vouching for you, and helping Google decide whether your business matters.

    In this episode of Humans of Growth, Aly Hathcock sits down with Adam of Tork Media to break down the side of SEO most business owners and even a lot of marketers overlook: off-page SEO.

    They unpack what backlinks actually are, why they matter so much for search visibility, how they influence authority, and what it looks like to build them without wasting time or money. They also get into the real difference between PR-driven backlinks and paid backlinks, what makes a backlink worth buying, and the mistakes agencies make when trying to scale link building.

    In this episode, we cover:

    ✔ What off-page SEO is and how it differs from on-page SEO
    ✔ What backlinks are and why they matter for Google rankings
    ✔ The difference between digital PR backlinks and paid backlinks
    ✔ How to evaluate backlink quality using authority, traffic, country, and topical relevance
    ✔ Why domain authority matters — and why it is not the whole story
    ✔ How many backlinks businesses should be building each month
    ✔ Common link building mistakes that waste money or create weak results
    ✔ How to structure backlink content so it looks natural and gets indexed
    ✔ Why Google indexing matters and how to make sure your backlinks are actually seen
    ✔ How AI content writing can support backlink campaigns when paired with human editing

    If you care about off-page SEO, backlinks, link building, Google rankings, and building real search authority, this episode will help you understand the part of SEO that too many businesses ignore.

    Because better content alone will not always win.

    Sometimes the brands that rank are the ones with more people pointing back to them.

    ______________________

    RESOURCES:
    Get help finding the right marketing partner.
    Learn more about Tork Media here.

    35 min
  • Brand Strategy: Why Most Brands Feel Forgettable

    Most businesses are forgettable simply because they don't make people feel anything. There's no true depth of feeling and emotion behind the brand.


    In this episode of Humans of Growth, Aly Hathcock sits down with John of Human Design to unpack what actually makes a brand feel human — and why emotional connection matters far more than polished messaging, feature lists, or surface-level aesthetics.

    They explore why people do not choose brands based on logic first, how emotional resonance shapes both B2C and B2B buying decisions, and what business owners need to change if their brand looks good on paper but still gets ignored.

    In this episode, we cover:

    ✔ Human-centered marketing and what it actually means
    ✔ Why emotional branding drives faster decision-making
    ✔ The difference between brand features vs brand benefits
    ✔ How storytelling in marketing creates stronger customer connection
    ✔ Why brand identity and belonging build long-term loyalty
    ✔ What makes some brands feel real while others feel performative
    ✔ A simple brand audit business owners can do right now

    If you care about human-centered marketing, brand strategy, emotional branding, storytelling in marketing, and customer connection, this episode will help you think differently about what makes people actually care.

    Because people do not remember the most polished brand.

    They remember the one that made them feel something.

    ______________________


    RESOURCES:
    Get help finding the right marketing partner.
    Learn more about Human Design here.

     

    41 min
  • Build a Community & Personal Brand that Drives Revenue

    Posting more isn’t the strategy.


    Connection is.

    In this episode of Humans of Growth, I sit down with Hannah Olivas, co-founder of She Rises Studios, to talk about what actually drives trust and revenue in 2026. From publishing and media to large-scale women’s events, Hannah has built a global ecosystem by focusing on real relationships — not vanity metrics.

    We unpack what it truly means to build a personal brand that feels aligned, how your founder story can either anchor your growth or keep you stuck, and why the businesses that win long-term are the ones that build a community, not just an audience.

    Inside this conversation, we cover:

    ✔ Why relationship marketing outperforms transactional sales
    ✔ How to build a community both online and in person
    ✔ The difference between visibility and credibility
    ✔ How to tell your founder story without turning trauma into your marketing plan
    ✔ Why authentic marketing beats perfect and polished every time
    ✔ How to choose the right platform to build a personal brand that scales

    If you’re building something real — and you’re tired of fluff, filters, and chasing algorithms — this episode will help you rethink how you grow.

     

    ______________________


    RESOURCES:
    Get help finding the right marketing partner.
    Learn more about She Rises Studios here.

    46 min
  • Operations Systems: How to Delegate Without Losing Control

    You’re not too busy to grow.


    You just don’t have the right operations systems in place.

    In this episode of Humans of Growth, I sit down with Brandon Bowers, COO of SMB Team, to unpack what actually keeps founders stuck in the day-to-day — and how to fix it. We break down delegation, documentation, hiring triggers, and the systems required to scale without burning out.

    Inside this conversation, you’ll learn:

    ✔ How to create standard operating procedures without overcomplicating them
    ✔ Why Loom videos are the cheat code to documenting your brain
    ✔ The role of capacity planning in knowing exactly when to hire
    ✔ How to build hiring triggers based on real data, not panic
    ✔ Why recruiting is sales & hiring KPIs matter just as much as revenue KPIs
    ✔ The CEO/COO dynamic that makes sustainable growth possible

    If you’re a founder who feels like growth requires more hustle…
    If you’ve hired too late (or too fast)…
    If your business can’t run without you in the room…

    This episode is your blueprint for building a company that scales with clarity instead of chaos.

    ______________________

    RESOURCES:
    Get help finding the right marketing partner.
    Learn more about SMB Team here.

    46 min
  • Reputation Marketing & Thought Leadership: The Growth Lever Most Brands Ignore

    Most B2B companies invest in visibility before they invest in credibility.

    That’s backwards.
    In today’s market, attention is cheap — but trust is rare. And if your brand reputation isn’t strong, no amount of ad spend will fix it. That’s where reputation marketing comes in.
    In this episode of Humans of Growth, I’m joined by Katy Hendricks, CMO at Powell Communications, a B2B PR agency that helps creative and marketing-driven companies build authority in their industries.


    We talk about…


    ✔ How intentional PR planning and focused thought leadership strategy shape long-term credibility
    ✔ Why brand reputation compounds over time
    ✔ The difference between visibility and authority
    ✔ How to structure PR planning across a 12-month cycle
    ✔ Why earned credibility outperforms paid reach in B2B
    ✔ How executives can turn expertise into influence


    If you’re thinking about growth beyond clicks and impressions, this conversation will challenge how you approach your brand reputation — and what it actually takes to build authority in your industry.

    ______________________


    RESOURCES:
    Get help finding the right marketing partner.
    Get help acquiring business funding.

     

    29 min

About Humans of Growth: Stories & Strategies Behind Business Growth & Business Development

From the publisher's feed

Behind every business & its growth is a human in the trenches.  On Humans of Growth, host Aly Hathcock interviews CEOs, CMOs, and marketing executives driving business development, demand generation, and brand strategy. These aren’t surface-level chats about lead funnels and KPIs. They’re raw, insightful conversations that reveal how real leaders build marketing engines, scale revenue, and create lasting customer relationships.