I love this episode's poem:

If marketing works,

Why do I spend so damn much

To be this pissed off?

It’s a joke… but it’s also not.

In this edition of Poetry In Marketing, I dig into the very real frustration so many CEOs and business owners feel when marketing doesn’t deliver, especially when they’re spending real money. The problem isn’t the budget. It’s how the money is being used. I dig into this issue and try to reframe the frustration in a constructive way.

In this episode of Poetry In Marketing, I get into one of the more controversial issues modern marketers are dealing with, in a poem that may hit a little too close to home:

Our content is great…

At least that’s what I hear from

My ChatGPT.

AI is powerful. It’s fast. It’s affordable. And if we’re not careful, it’s going to drown us all in a sea of content that says a lot, but means very little.

In this episode, I talk about how we got here, from the “content is king” era to today’s flood of AI-generated posts, and what marketers and business owners need to think about before handing their brand voice over to a $25/month tool. Spoiler: it’s not about rejecting AI, it’s about using it intelligently.

In this episode of Poetry and Marketing, we dive into one of the great clichés of creative work, captured in a single poetic line:

Just quit your whining

And make the logo bigger.

Design’s subjective.

Except… it’s not.

As someone who’s done a fair share of design over the years, I’m here to tell you: design is not about personal taste: it’s about purpose. Whether you’re building a website, a brochure, or a logo, the goal isn’t to please the CEO, it’s to connect with the customer.

In this episode, I unpack why design should be judged by its function, not by internal opinion, and how companies can make more strategic creative decisions that actually move the needle.

In this episode of Poetry and Marketing, I’m digging into something that might change how you think about your entire marketing plan:

The budget isn’t

For buying marketing tactics—

It’s to fund success.

This is one of the most common mistakes I see: businesses build a budget based on what they want to buy (a website, some SEO, maybe an account-based campaign) and then assume the job is done once they’ve made the purchase. But what we really want isn’t a website or some ads… We want results.

In this episode, I talk about how to flip your thinking: set your sights on what success actually looks like, figure out how to measure it, and then fund that outcome.

Today’s poem is a love letter to one of the most overlooked metrics in business:

Oh, lifetime value

How I long to see you grow

Our retention sucks.

In this episode of Poetry and Marketing, I break down what Lifetime Value (LTV) actually is, how to calculate it in plain English, and why it’s one of the most powerful (and underused) ways to grow your business. Spoiler: it’s not just about getting more leads. It’s about making the most of the customers you already have.

I walk you through a simple example and share why small changes to your retention or average transaction can unlock big profits—again and again.

In this episode of Poetry and Marketing, I’m wearing a tie, so you know we’re getting classy. Today’s haiku goes like this:

Marketing can be

Unintentional, but it’s

Never optional.

Let’s talk about that.

I run into folks all the time who say, “Oh, we don’t do marketing.” They think handing out business cards, grabbing coffee, and working the referral game somehow exists outside of marketing. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.

In this episode, I break down how every sale, no matter how informal, follows a predictable journey from awareness to opportunity to close and how even casual networking checks every marketing box, whether you know it or not.

So the question isn’t “Are you doing marketing?” It’s “Are you doing it on purpose?”

In this episode of Poetry and Marketing, I read you a haiku about branding:

If my love for thee

Could be expressed as a brand,

Of course it’s Apple.

Apple is the brand business owners mention nine times out of ten when I ask, “What brand would you want to emulate?” But here’s the catch: Apple, Nike and others in that echelon are legacy brands, built over decades with billions in investment. Most of us don’t have that runway.

So instead of chasing the impossible, I make the case for setting realistic benchmarks. I talk about why it’s smarter (and far more useful) to look at local or regional brands doing great work, especially those serving similar audiences. Let’s be aspirational, yes...But let’s also be grounded in reality.

In this episode of Poetry and Marketing, I’m sharing a haiku I wrote just this morning:

Marketing planning

Needs more than authority;

It needs a leader.

I use this poem as a jumping-off point to talk about something I see all the time in small and mid-sized businesses: a massive leadership gap in marketing.

I walk through a typical (and deeply flawed) setup where a young, often underprepared marketing manager is thrown into the deep end, reporting to a CEO or a VP of Sales with no real marketing background. These folks may have authority, but they’re not equipped to lead. And that disconnect? It’s killing marketing outcomes.

If you’ve ever wondered why marketing feels like a mess or why you’re not seeing results, I think this episode will help connect the dots. It’s not about blaming anyone, it’s about recognizing the underlying issues and starting to fix them.

In an age of advanced analytics it's surprisingly easy to lose the scent of what's really important: results that matter to the company's bottom line. If you want to be successful in pay per click, you need to focus on the needs of the customer before the cost of the campaign; otherwise you're just paying to get more people to content that doesn't work.