Marketer of the Day with Robert Plank: Business Growth & Entrepreneur Stories

Jill Lublin explains how to earn free publicity that brings clients without paid ads. Start with a clear message, spot timely angles, and say yes before you overthink. Keep a simple weekly cadence: spend 30 minutes a week on visibility building, not endless scrolling. Set Google Alerts for your name plus one keyword like "publicity" to catch relevant media mentions. Answer journalist requests on feature.com and use Pod Match to book two to four podcasts a month. Lead with a standout personal story, use everything you've got, and climb from local outlets that bigger producers watch. Do these steps consistently and persistently, and your credibility compounds into steady publicity momentum.

Larry Dodd is an executive coach and founder of Open Playbook with more than 35 years of experience helping leaders and teams reconnect to what drives real performance. His journey includes navigating career choices that were initially misaligned with his natural strengths, an experience that forced him to work harder than necessary and ultimately sparked deeper self-examination. Through setbacks, reflection, and disciplined personal growth, he developed a strengths-based methodology rooted in understanding innate talents, building confidence, and turning self-awareness into effective leadership. His career includes high-impact roles such as working with the San Francisco Giants, where a pivotal opportunity reinforced the importance of confidence, preparation, and offering value without fear of failure.

In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Larry Dodd explains how Open Playbook helps individuals and organizations rebuild connection in a disconnected, post-pandemic world. His work centers on three core concepts: the playbook you are given, the playbook you develop, and the playbook you give away. By using tools such as CliftonStrengths alongside deep, human-centered coaching, he helps people align roles with strengths, build engaged teams, and create cultures where leaders invest in others rather than operate in isolation. Key takeaways include the importance of connection over convenience, confidence built through repetition and guided reflection, and viewing setbacks as catalysts for growth. His current work focuses on developing strengths-based leaders who create lasting impact by sharing their experiences, mentoring others, and building teams that thrive rather than merely perform.

Joshua Adams explains how EOS turns a founder's scattered effort into clear priorities and steady execution. He breaks the system into six key components and uses a 90-day rhythm to create urgency without burnout. Each quarter the leadership team sets 'rocks', reviews a simple scorecard, and solves issues in a structured meeting cadence. Joshua stresses EOS pure: call things by the same names across the company so new hires are not confused by 'quarterly goals' versus rocks. After attending 100 EOS sessions as an agency owner and fractional CMO, he saw how it lets leaders step into the 'crow's nest' view of the business. That perspective stops shiny-object drift, keeps disciplines from fading, and builds accountability without the founder holding every lever. The takeaway: pause, choose one operating system, and run it consistently so traction becomes predictable.

Annie Appleby shows how alignment-focused yoga and better recovery habits can prevent injuries and boost confidence. After a serious car accident knocked her body out of balance, she created the YogaForce A-Line Mat with alignment stripes. Its shape is wider at the shoulders and narrower at the feet, guiding natural stance and symmetry. She patented the mat in 2005 and landed an early retail win with a 17,500-unit order from Sharper Image. She teaches posture as a checklist: feet grounded, knees tracking with toes, tailbone slightly tucked, shoulders up-back-down, core engaged. For longevity she prioritizes sleep, walking, and daily yoga, plus early detection work around melanoma and bone health. Takeaway: treat health as wealth and use simple alignment cues every day before small problems become big ones.

Kelly O'Neil shows how visionary CEOs break through a growth ceiling by rebuilding strategy so tactics finally work. She begins by defining your "EPIC" with three lenses: purpose, genius, and current desires, since leaders often outgrow the business they built. From there she architects a top-down model that matches the desired outcome, from a focused tweak to a full repositioning or a sale-ready transition. She says the hustle-and-grind, tactic-first playbook breaks down as remote work, algorithms, and AI keep changing the rules. Her Fusion Paradigm blends masculine structure with feminine intuition so execution feels lighter and collaboration beats competition. If results stall, the causes are usually an outside shock like COVID or inside self-sabotage, and a strategic evaluation resets the plan quickly. Takeaway: clarify your EPIC and filter every offer, role, and marketing move through that foundation instead of adding more noise.

Todd Westra explains how leadership alignment unlocks smarter scaling when revenue stalls despite a good product. After losing a year of contracts in a week, he ran 250 interviews in 13 weeks and turned the patterns into his Growth Readiness Framework. He says many firms under $5M, and even $3M to $10M, stall because leaders chase different endgames like raising capital, flipping fast, or staying lifestyle. He starts with confidential interviews, a competitor deep dive, then a four-to-five-week alignment exercise to surface intentions, exit goals, and current limiters. Next he installs reporting that shows what is working versus what is merely hoped for, making pivots toward higher-margin work easier. A free assessment scores 12 growth signals so the team can hire or deploy fractional CFOs and CMOs exactly where the gaps are. Takeaway: align leaders, metrics, and roles first, then scale with confidence.

Santiago Cortez is a process-driven transformation specialist, founder of labcortex.com, and a trusted advisor for compliance-focused, mission-driven organizations. Renowned for his ability to turn tangled, manual workflows into organized, auditable systems, Santiago partners with firms in highly-regulated industries to drive sustainable growth. He champions a process-first mindset, helping businesses clarify their goals, align teams, and eliminate inefficiency—empowering both organizations and individuals to reclaim time, reduce stress, and achieve lasting improvement.

In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Santiago Cortez joins Robert Plank to demystify the world of compliance, workflows, and operational excellence. Santiago shares his unique approach to consulting, emphasizing that tools should serve existing processes—not the other way around. Listeners will hear how Santiago and his team dive deep into their clients’ day-to-day realities, uncovering the misalignments between written policies and practical actions. He reveals the communication pitfalls that stall progress, the importance of small wins, and why embedding continuous improvement into company culture is critical. Through practical examples and actionable insights, Santiago explains how focusing on people, clarity, and collaboration drives

Karl Hughes is an agency acquisition entrepreneur, business builder, and advocate for thoughtful leadership in the digital services sector. Best known for scaling Draft.dev to seven figures and then acquiring and growing agencies such as Podcast Consultant, Karl specializes in buying, improving, and uniting niche service companies to unlock their potential. Drawing on years of hands-on entrepreneurship, personal coaching, and navigating rapid industry shifts, Karl empowers business owners with actionable strategies for growth, resilience, and financial clarity—whether they’re scaling for the first time or preparing for acquisition.

In this episode of Marketer of the Day, Karl Hughes joins Robert Plank to share his journey from building content agencies from the ground up to orchestrating successful business acquisitions. Karl breaks down how the pandemic changed agency work, what it really takes to buy and scale small companies, the realities of leadership, and why mental stability is crucial for entrepreneurs. Listeners will learn about the hidden challenges behind running multimillion-dollar agencies, the importance of financial literacy, and the lifelong work of separating personal self-worth from business performance.

Matt Rieck explains how companies can cut costly turnover by building a culture where employees feel seen and stay longer. He starts by making leaders calculate the real cost of losing a good employee, then compare it to turnover rates that often exceed the 12% national average and the 3.4-year job-hopping norm. His quickest win is a free appreciation engine: spotlight posts for birthdays, work anniversaries, sales and service leaders, shared internally and on LinkedIn in 5 to 10 minutes a day. That steady recognition improves recruiting, reinforces longevity, and nudges employees to share positive moments themselves. To connect remote, hybrid, and in-office teams, he recommends managers with 10 to 12 direct reports run a 20 to 30 minute weekly meeting that covers weekends, last-week deliverables, and this-week priorities. He also argues the biggest miss is failing to train managers, while personally modeling how to own weaknesses by hiring analytical support and doubling down on people skills. Measure what turnover costs, then institutionalize daily appreciation and weekly connection so retention becomes a system, not a hope.

Charles W Gragg shows employers how to slash employee health plan spend by owning the plan instead of renting it. He says health 'insurance' for businesses is a known-claims expense, so turning over the checkbook invites unchecked prices. After consolidation from roughly 1,000 insurers to five giants, he recommends self-funding, independent TPA administration, and stop-loss protection. Next comes transparency: track every dollar, use claims analytics plus advocacy, and actively guide employees to better providers. Tools include reference based pricing using Medicare as the floor, and centers of excellence where travel still lowers total cost. He cites a trucking firm sustaining 30% to 50% savings, and a kidney-stone ER visit billed at $10,000 but $1,200 cash. The takeaway is to measure outcomes first, then redesign access so convenience does not drive spending.