Inside Marketing with MarketSurge | Featuring Jordan Dean Gordon

Email has been declared “dead” for years — yet it continues to outperform almost every other marketing channel when done right.

In this episode of Inside Marketing with MarketSurge, Reed Hansen sits down with Jordan Dean Gordon, a 25-year veteran of ecommerce, email CRM, and customer retention. Jordan has held leadership roles across startups, successful exits, Amazon, and Realtor.com, and today leads teams at PilotHouse while hosting the World’s Best Email and Retention Podcast.

This conversation dives deep into why email remains one of the most powerful drivers of profitability, how it improves paid advertising ROI, and what most brands get wrong about funnels, metrics, and customer experience.

If you care about retention, scalability, and building an audience you actually own, this episode is for you.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why email and SMS are more relevant today than ever before
• How email directly improves paid media ROI and lowers acquisition costs
• Why most brands chase the wrong metrics in email and CRO
• The role of abandonment, lifecycle flows, and long-term follow-up
• The 120-second psychological journey every website visitor goes through
• Which metrics matter at each stage of the funnel and which are overrated
• Why investing in the bottom of the funnel creates compounding growth

Key Takeaways:

• Email touches every stage of the customer lifecycle at a lower cost than ads
• Retention channels unlock revenue without increasing ad spend
• Conversion rate optimization can double revenue without more traffic
• Funnels fail when clarity, speed, and intent are ignored
• Brands that invest in email and CX scale faster and more profitably

Guest Links:
Jordan Dean Gordon on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordangordon/

PilotHouse
https://www.pilothouse.co

At MarketSurge, we help you turn tools into systems — and systems into growth.
If you want automation that feels personal and performs like a team of 10, you’re in the right place.

Want to talk strategy or see it in action?
Book your 15-minute Value or Free Coffee Call:
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Useful MarketSurge Links
Website: https://marketsurge.io
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/15wpKr1WmN/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio
X / Twitter: https://x.com/marketsurging
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marketsurging/
Podcast: https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/

Because your next breakthrough shouldn’t be a guess.

Inside Marketing with MarketSurge | Featuring Jeff Coleman

Google Ads should be printing leads — so why does it feel like a money pit for so many businesses?

In this episode of Inside Marketing with MarketSurge, Reed Hansen sits down with Jeff Coleman, founder of Factor Four Marketing, to break down what’s actually broken in Google Ads today — and what still works incredibly well when done right.

Jeff has been managing Google Ads since 2004 (back when it was simple, cheap, and didn’t require a 40-page dashboard) and now oversees more than $4 million in annual ad spend for businesses ranging from local service providers to Fortune 500 companies.

If you’ve ever been told to “trust the process” while your ad budget quietly burns, this episode is for you.

What You’ll Learn:

• Why most Google Ads campaigns underperform, even when managed by agencies
• The number one conversion-tracking mistake that kills ROI
• Why “trust the process” is bad advice and what to trust instead
• Vanity metrics versus metrics that actually grow your business
• How to turn Google Ads into a predictable lead engine
• When Google Ads isn’t a good fit and when it’s a goldmine

Key Takeaways:

• Focus on the right conversions, not cheap distractions
• Separate branded and non-branded traffic to see real growth
• Know your numbers or Google will gladly spend your money
• Differentiation wins — “great customer service” doesn’t
• Results beat dashboards every time

Guest Links:
Factor Four Marketing: http://factorfour.com/
Jeff Coleman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffcoleman21/

At MarketSurge, we help you turn tools into systems — and systems into growth.
If you want automation that feels per

🚀 Welcome to Inside Marketing with MarketSurge
Your front-row seat to the boldest ideas and smartest strategies in the marketing game.

In this episode, host Reed Hansen, Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge, sits down with Alan Kopelman, CEO and Co-Founder of Nationwide Payment Systems and the creator of the B2B Vault Podcast.

Alan’s entrepreneurial journey started early, working behind the cash registers in his family’s clothing stores in Miami. From there, his path took several unexpected turns — culinary school, becoming an executive chef, running food and beverage operations for major hotels, opening his own restaurant and catering company, and eventually finding his way into merchant services in 2001.

Alan co-founded Nationwide Payment Systems with a simple but powerful mission: deliver concierge-level service in an industry known for being confusing, transactional, and impersonal. Today, Nationwide Payment Systems serves over 1,000 clients nationwide across payments, fintech, SaaS, and regulated industries.

In this conversation, we dive into entrepreneurship, scaling service-based businesses, customer retention, payments risk, compliance, AI, fraud, and what Alan has learned after decades of building companies the hard way.

🎙️ Topics Covered in This Episode

• Growing up in a family business and learning the value of money early
• How hospitality and restaurant experience translate into better customer service
• Why most payment processors fail business owners
• Scaling a service business through referrals and long-term relationships
• The shift from traditional merchant services to fintech and SaaS
• How AI is impacting payments, fraud, and identity theft
• Understanding compliance in regulated and high-risk industries
• Why customer retention matters more than customer acquisition
• Using podcasts to build authority, trust, and relationships
• Lessons learned from 25+ years in entrepreneurship

👤 About the Guest

Alan Kopelman is the CEO and Co-Founder of Nationwide Payment Systems, a full-service payments and fintech company focused on transparency, compliance, and real human support.

He is also the host of the B2B Vault Podcast, where he interviews entrepreneurs and business owners about scaling, compliance, leadership, marketing, and real-world business challenges.

🔗 Connect with Alan Kopelman

Website: https://nationwidepaymentservices.com
Podcast: B2B Vault (available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube)
LinkedIn: Search “Alan Kopelman”

📈 About MarketSurge

MarketSurge is a customer relationship management platform built for service and product-based businesses focused on growth. Manage all your contacts, conversations, and automation in one place without losing the personal touch.

Website: https://marketsurge.io
Pricing: https://marketsurge.io/pricing
Photography Solutions: https://marketsurge.io/photography

🎯 Book a 15-minute Value or Free Coffee Call:
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🎙️ Inside Marketing with MarketSurge Podcast:
https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/

📺 YouTube Channel:
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📘 Facebook Business Page:
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📸 Instagram:
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👍 Like, subscribe, and share if you want smarter, faster, louder marketing strategies without the fluff.

Welcome to Inside Marketing With MarketSurge — your front row seat to the boldest ideas and smartest strategies in the marketing game.

In this episode, host Reed Hansen sits down with Skip Wilson, CEO of Draft Media Partners, to break down what actually works in advertising when budgets, expectations, and reality collide.

Skip shares his unconventional start in advertising at age 16, how a job meant to impress a girl turned into a lifelong career, and what he learned working at scale with brands like CNN, Clear Channel, and iHeartMedia. This conversation cuts through bad ads, bad assumptions, and bad marketing advice to get real about data, paid media, branding, AI, and why advertising is always a draft, never a final.

What you’ll learn in this episode:
• Why small businesses should think differently about branding versus direct response
• The real differences between six-figure and seven-figure ad budgets
• How to diagnose a “broken” ad campaign using data the right way
• Why AI is making organic marketing harder and paid advertising more important
• What needs to be in place before you should spend a dollar on ads
• The draft mentality and why great advertising is always a work in progress
• A hard truth about advertising most business owners don’t want to hear

Guest information:
Skip Wilson
CEO, Draft Media Partners

Website:
[https://www.draftadvertising.com](https://www.draftadvertising.com)

LinkedIn:
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipwilson/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/skipwilson/)

About the show:
Inside Marketing With MarketSurge is hosted by Reed Hansen, Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge. Each episode dives into what’s really working in marketing today, with unfiltered conversations, real-world insights, and strategies you can actually use.

MarketSurge links:
Website: [https://marketsurge.io](https://marketsurge.io)
Pricing: [https://marketsurge.io/pricing](https://marketsurge.io/pricing)
Book a 15-minute Value or Free Coffee Call:
[https://link.marketsurge.io/widget/bookings/15minutevalueorfreecoffee](https://link.marketsurge.io/widget/bookings/15minutevalueorfreecoffee)

Podcast:
[https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/](https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/)

YouTube:
[https://www.youtube.com/@surgingwithmarketsurge](https://www.youtube.com/@surgingwithmarketsurge)

Facebook Page:
[https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654](https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654)

Facebook Group:
[https://www.facebook.com/share/g/15wpKr1WmN/](https://www.facebook.com/share/g/15wpKr1WmN/)

LinkedIn:
[https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio](https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio)

X / Twitter:
[https://x.com/marketsurging](https://x.com/marketsurging)

Instagram:
[https://www.instagram.com/marketsurging/](https://www.instagram.com/marketsurging/)

Want to grow smarter, faster, and louder?
Visit [https://marketsurge.io](https://marketsurge.io) and see how MarketSurge helps businesses turn marketing into a system that actually works.

Welcome to Inside Marketing with MarketSurge — your front-row seat to the boldest ideas and smartest strategies in modern marketing.

In this episode, Reed Hansen sits down with Henry DeVries, bestselling author of Persuade with a Story, Forbes columnist, and one of the most influential behind-the-scenes voices in business publishing and storytelling.

Henry has helped publish and ghostwrite more than 300 business books, doubled agency revenues, increased brand awareness for billion-dollar companies, and taught leaders, marketers, and sales teams how to stop making themselves the hero — and start persuading audiences through story.

This conversation dives deep into why most marketing fails, not because the product is bad, but because the story is boring, self-centered, or emotionally empty.

What we cover in this episode:
• Why humans are hardwired for stories and how that impacts buying decisions
• The eight story frameworks that show up in great books, movies, and marketing
• Why marketers make a critical mistake by making themselves the hero
• How to position your customer as the hero and your brand as the mentor
• The neuroscience behind emotion, persuasion, and decision-making
• How to uncover your defining problem-solution stories
• Why AI can’t replace human storytelling (and where it falls short)
• The role of humor in persuasion and credibility
• Real-world examples of storytelling driving massive business growth

Henry also shares powerful case studies, practical frameworks, and actionable advice that will permanently change how you think about marketing, sales, and communication.

Learn more about Henry DeVries and book him as a speaker:
https://persuadewithastory.com/speaker/

Visit Henry’s website for articles, videos, and storytelling resources:
https://persuadewithastory.com

To stay ahead of what’s actually working in marketing today, visit MarketSurge:
https://marketsurge.io

Book a 15-minute Value or Free Coffee strategy call:
https://link.marketsurge.io/widget/bookings/15minutevalueorfreecoffee

Follow MarketSurge:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654
https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio
https://x.com/marketsurging
https://www.instagram.com/marketsurging/

Listen to the podcast:
https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/

Inside Marketing with MarketSurge is hosted by Reed Hansen, Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge, where we help businesses grow smarter, faster, and louder.

Subscribe for more conversations on marketing, growth, storytelling, and what it really takes to persuade and scale.

Welcome to Inside Marketing with MarketSurge — your front-row seat to the boldest ideas and smartest strategies in modern marketing.

In this episode, Reed Hansen sits down with David A. Pratter, co-founder of Dot Fun, a creative and growth-focused agency helping brands not just look good, but grow with intention.

David leads visual storytelling and brand execution at Dot Fun, bringing ideas to life through websites, video, and creative systems designed to convert — not just impress. Having lived both sides of the equation, from freelance web design to leading multidisciplinary agency teams, David offers a rare perspective on how creativity, performance, and growth truly work together.

In this conversation, we dive into:
• The difference between branding that looks good and branding that actually drives growth
• How Dot Fun structures services around Look Good, Feel Good, and Run Good
• Where brands get stuck between design and demand
• Why project management is an underrated growth lever for creatives and agencies
• The balance between artistic creativity and data-driven performance
• Why human-first design becomes more valuable as AI accelerates
• Lessons learned from building an agency and navigating early-stage tradeoffs
• How AI can support operations without replacing creative thinking
• Upcoming AI tools from Dot Fun, including an AI receptionist and AI-powered project management

David also shares insights on working across B2B and B2C clients, how different industries approach creativity, and why soulful, human-driven design will continue to stand out in an AI-saturated world.

Learn more about David A. Pratter and Dot Fun:
https://dotfun.co

To stay ahead of what’s actually working in marketing today, visit MarketSurge:
https://marketsurge.io

Book a 15-minute Value or Free Coffee strategy call:
https://link.marketsurge.io/widget/bookings/15minutevalueorfreecoffee

Follow MarketSurge:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654
https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio
https://x.com/marketsurging
https://www.instagram.com/marketsurging/

Listen to the podcast:
https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/

Inside Marketing with MarketSurge is hosted by Reed Hansen, Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge, where we help businesses grow smarter, faster, and louder.

Subscribe for more conversations on marketing, growth, technology, and what it really takes to scale.

Welcome to Inside Marketing with MarketSurge — your front-row seat to the boldest ideas and smartest strategies in the marketing game. Your host is Reed Hansen, Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge.

In this episode, Reed sits down with Mark Regan, co-founder of Poop Away, a pet waste management company that took one of the least glamorous services imaginable and turned it into a scalable, franchise-ready growth business.

Launched in 2018 with a single truck, Poop Away focused on one simple promise: make pet owners’ lives easier through reliability, personality, and systems that actually work. Since then, Mark and his team have built repeatable processes around route optimization, customer experience training, automation, and local marketing — and are now preparing for national franchising.

This conversation is proof that with the right brand voice and marketing systems, even the most “unsexy” service businesses can become serious growth engines.

In this episode, we cover:

How Poop Away turned an uncomfortable, overlooked problem into a scalable business
 Why leaning into humor helped break the ice and drive word-of-mouth growth
 How the company found and hired great technicians for a dirty but essential job
 The local marketing tactics that actually worked for route density and growth
 Why yard signs, wrapped vehicles, and referrals beat expensive ads early on
 What made franchising more attractive than company-owned expansion
 How population density impacts service business profitability
 The automation systems that keep operations efficient at scale
 Real-world lessons service businesses can apply to landscaping, pool cleaning, and home services
 Why reputation, trust, and consistency matter more than ad spend in service businesses

If you’re a founder, operator, or service business owner wondering how to scale a local service — even one people don’t like to talk about — this episode is for you.

CONNECT WITH MARK REGAN AND POOP AWAY

Website: https://callpoopaway.com
Facebook: https://facebook.com/callpoopaway

MARKETSURGE LINKS

Website: https://marketsurge.io
Podcast: https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio
X / Twitter: https://x.com/marketsurging
Book a Strategy or Demo Call:
https://link.marketsurge.io/widget/bookings/marketsurge/demozvwcxw

Getting fired on Day 1 doesn’t mean you failed — sometimes it means you’re just getting started.

In this episode of Inside Marketing with MarketSurge, host Reed Hansen, Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge, sits down with Apoorv Sharman — a marketer, founder, and AI discovery strategist who’s helping brands get found inside ChatGPT, AI search, and LLM-powered recommendations instead of getting buried on page 10 of Google.

Apoorv’s journey is anything but conventional:

Fired as an Amazon delivery driver on Day 1
 Freelancing nights while grinding a 9–5
 Building and selling a startup pre-COVID
 Climbing from intern to marketing manager
 Now running Derivate X, helping brands win the next discovery land grab

While most marketers are still arguing about SEO tweaks, Apoorv is focused on a much bigger shift: how people actually discover products when they stop “searching” and start asking AI.

In this conversation, we cover:

Why search behavior is fundamentally changing and where it’s going
 How ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, and LLMs are reshaping discovery
 Why top-of-funnel SEO is dying and what’s replacing it
 The “librarian” metaphor that explains AI search perfectly
 What still matters from traditional SEO and what doesn’t
 Why small businesses now have a real shot at outranking giants
 How brands can influence AI recommendations without massive backlink budgets
 What an AI discovery engagement actually looks like in practice

If you’re a founder, marketer, agency owner, or business leader asking:

How do I show up when someone asks ChatGPT for the best solution?

This episode is for you.

CONNECT WITH APOORV SHARMAN

Website: https://apoorvshrm.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/apoorvshrm/
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@apoorvshrm
X / Twitter: https://x.com/apoorvshrm
Agency: https://derivatex.agency

MARKETSURGE LINKS

Website: https://marketsurge.io
Podcast: https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio
X / Twitter: https://x.com/marketsurging
Book a Strategy or Demo Call:
https://link.marketsurge.io/widget/bookings/marketsurge/demozvwcxw

Want to stay ahead of what’s actually working in marketing right now?
 Head to MarketSurge.io and see how we help businesses grow smarter, faster, and louder.

Because your next breakthrough shouldn’t be a guess.

Welcome back to Inside Marketing with MarketSurge — your front-row seat to the boldest ideas and smartest strategies shaping modern marketing.

In today’s episode, host Reed Hansen, Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge, dives into a topic most businesses know they should care about… but often don’t until it’s too late:

AI, data privacy, and consumer trust — and how those three forces are colliding right now.

Reed is joined by Andy Sambandam, a proven entrepreneur, technologist, and privacy innovator. Andy is the Founder & CEO of Clarip, where he’s leading the charge in redefining how brands manage consumer data across digital channels. Under Andy’s leadership, Clarip has built a patent-pending, AI-driven platform that helps enterprises turn big data into smart, compliant, and trustworthy data.

Together, Reed and Andy unpack:

• Why data privacy is no longer optional — for businesses of any size
• The biggest misconceptions brands have about consumer privacy
• How AI introduces new privacy risks most companies aren’t prepared for
• Why transparency is the key to earning (and keeping) consumer trust
• How consent management can actually improve marketing performance, not limit it
• Which industries are most at risk — and why every business should care
• What the future of AI governance and privacy technology looks like

Andy also shares why he believes “privacy is freedom,” how modern data ecosystems quietly share information across hundreds of vendors, and how AI can be both a risk and a solution when implemented responsibly.

If you’re a marketer, founder, operator, or privacy-conscious leader trying to navigate AI without putting your brand (or customers) at risk, this is a must-listen episode.

🔗 Connect & Learn More

🎯 MarketSurge

• 🌐 Website: https://marketsurge.io
• 🎙️ Podcast: https://marketsurge.transistor.fm
• 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654
• 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio
• 🐦 X / Twitter: https://x.com/marketsurging
• 📅 Book a Strategy or Demo Call:
  👉 https://link.marketsurge.io/widget/bookings/marketsurge/demozvwcxw

🧠 Clarip — AI-Driven Data Privacy & Consent Management

• 🌐 Website: https://clarip.com
• 📅 Book a Personalized Demo: https://clarip.com/demo

Want to stay ahead of what’s actually working in marketing right now?
Head to MarketSurge.io and see how we help businesses grow smarter, faster, and louder.

Because your next breakthrough shouldn’t be a guess. 🚀

🚀 Who Owns Your Content When AI Gets Involved?
Welcome to Inside Marketing with MarketSurge — your front-row seat to the boldest ideas and smartest strategies shaping the future of marketing, publishing, and business.

In this episode, host Reed Hansen, Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge, sits down with Julie Trelstad, Head of U.S. Publishing at Alet.ai and a publishing industry veteran with over 30 years of experience.

Julie has seen every major shift in publishing — from CD-ROM eBooks to Amazon’s rise — and today she’s helping creators navigate the next massive disruption: AI, content ownership, and creator rights.

If you’re a creator, author, marketer, coach, consultant, or business owner, this conversation will completely change how you think about ownership, ethics, and opportunity in an AI-powered world.

🎧 What We Cover in This Episode

• How AI training models actually use books, podcasts, and written content
• The truth about content ownership when AI is involved
• Why many creators don’t own the rights they think they do
• The difference between AI “training” vs AI “output” — and why it matters
• What recent lawsuits reveal about the future of creator compensation
• How AI creates new monetization opportunities (not just threats)
• Why transparency and machine-readable copyright are becoming essential
• How creators can protect and future-proof their work today

🧠 Key Takeaway

AI can’t exist without high-quality human content — and the creators who understand this shift early will be the ones who win long-term.

👤 About Our Guest: Julie Trelstad

Julie Trelstad is the Head of U.S. Publishing at Alet.ai and a longtime leader in global publishing and digital distribution. She helps authors and creators protect, license, and monetize their work in an AI-driven economy.

🔗 Julie’s Website: https://paperbacksandpixels.com
🔗 Julie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julietrelstad/

📈 About MarketSurge

At MarketSurge, we help businesses turn tools into systems — and systems into growth. From CRM and automation to SEO, AI, and full-funnel marketing, we build growth engines that don’t rely on guesswork.

🌐 Website: https://marketsurge.io
📘 Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035121171654
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio
🐦 X / Twitter: https://x.com/marketsurging
🎙️ Podcast: https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/

🧠 Want to see how MarketSurge works in real life?
🎯 Book your 15-minute Value or Free Coffee Call:
https://link.marketsurge.io/widget/bookings/15minutevalueorfreecoffee

👍 If you found this episode valuable, like, subscribe, and share it with a creator who needs to hear this conversation.

Your next breakthrough shouldn’t be a guess. 🚀