Your marketing strategy isn't broken. Your workflow is.

If growth feels stuck, most people reach for a new strategy. Beth Trejo says that's the wrong move and she has 14 years of running a social media agency to back it up.

Alyssa Nolte and Beth Trejo dig into why "strategy" has become a catch-all excuse for workflow and ownership failures and what to fix first.

Why listen? If you lead a marketing team, own a business, or keep wondering why your strategy isn't working, this episode will reframe the problem entirely. The answer is probably not what you think.

3 Key Takeaways:

1. Clear ownership is step one. If nobody knows who owns what and what "done" looks like...no strategy will save you.
2. Operational strength isn't optional. The brands that do the most, test the most, and grow the most are operationally excellent. Not just strategically clever.
3. Give it time. Three to four months is the minimum before pulling the plug on a campaign. Changing too fast creates brand whiplash - not results.

People and Resources Mentioned:

• Beth Trejo — CEO of Chatterkick | chatterkick.com | LinkedIn: Beth Trejo
• Will at SEER Interactive — Chief Innovation Officer, recommended follow for AI and marketing insights | LinkedIn: search Will at SEER Interactive
• Alyssa Nolte — alyssanolte.substack.com | linkedin.com/in/alyssanolte

AI will not fix a broken process.

Sawsan Hamawandy joins Alyssa Nolte to rethink how companies build better buyer experiences before they rush into AI. Too many teams want the shiny new tool, but their lead forms, demo process, sales handoffs, and follow-up steps are already full of friction.

Sawsan makes the case for getting the basics right first. If your process is hard for people to follow, AI will not magically make it better. It may just help you break things faster.

Alyssa and Sawsan talk about what today’s buyers expect, why form fills are higher intent than many teams realize, and how small points of friction can cost you real pipeline. They also dig into why clear beats clever, how AI can support better customer experiences, and why teams need to stop asking buyers for information they could easily find themselves.

If you care about B2B marketing, sales process, customer experience, AI strategy, or pipeline conversion, this conversation will make you look at your buyer journey differently.

Key takeaways:

1. Fix the process before you add AI AI works best when the process is clear. If your team cannot explain the steps, your AI tools will not save you.
2. Remove friction from the buyer journey Long forms, extra emails, required phone numbers, and slow follow-up can turn strong leads away before they ever talk to sales.
3. Treat buyer data like currency Every field you ask for has a cost. If the value exchange does not feel fair, people will leave.

People and resources mentioned:

• Neil Patel
• Laura Costa
• Sam Dunning
• Breaking B2B
• Alyssa’s Substack: alyssanolte.substack.com
• Alyssa on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/alyssanolte

Most people think the best referral is a direct introduction. Joel Miller thinks that might be the worst kind.

What if the strongest leads come from people who discovered you on their own, trusted you before they ever reached out, and showed up already knowing your story? Joel joins Alyssa Nolte to rethink the future of customer relationships and explore why building an audience may be more valuable than chasing referrals.

If you create content, run a business, sell services, or want more opportunities to find you, this conversation will challenge how you think about trust, visibility, and growth.

Alyssa and Joel discuss:

• Why direct referrals often fail to convert
• How "soft referrals" create stronger buyer trust
• The power of blogging, podcasting, and sharing ideas in public
• Why your first content should be imperfect
• How AI can help amplify your voice without replacing it

Key Takeaways

1. The best referrals often happen without you in the room. People trust recommendations more when they feel they discovered you themselves.
2. Building in public creates opportunities. You do not need a revolutionary idea. Sharing your thinking consistently helps people get to know, trust, and remember you.
3. Followership matters more than leadership. The people who attract attention are often the ones willing to lean into their strengths and share what makes them different.

Resources Mentioned

• Marcus Buckingham - Nine Lies About Work
• Seth Godin - Purple Cow
• Connect with Joel Miller - TheSkyFloor.com

Connect with Alyssa Nolte

• alyssanolte.substack.com
• linkedin.com/in/alyssanolte

The Growth Signal is rethinking the future of customer relationships through conversations with entrepreneurs, marketers, sales leaders, and business builders.

Most businesses are fighting the wrong battle. They cut prices, offer discounts, and race to the bottom hoping to win more customers. But what if the better strategy is to stop competing on price altogether? Alyssa Nolte sits down with John Dwyer to explore a simple idea that has helped businesses generate more leads, increase conversions, and stand out in crowded markets: give buyers a reason to choose you that has nothing to do with price.

John shares why he believes most companies are leaving money on the table by focusing on discounts instead of incentives. From McDonald's Happy Meal toys to vacation giveaways and lead generation contests, he explains how businesses can create offers that grab attention, build demand, and protect their margins. If you're tired of lowering prices to win business, this conversation will make you rethink the future of customer relationships.

3 Key Takeaways

1. Stop competing on price: The moment you lower your price, a competitor can lower theirs too. Strong incentives are often harder to copy and create more perceived value.
2. The best bonus isn't more of what you sell: John argues that incentives work best when they are valuable to the buyer but separate from your core product or service.
3. Contests can attract highly qualified leads: People enter contests for things they actually want. That makes contests a powerful way to identify prospects who are already interested in buying.

Resources and People Mentioned

• John Dwyer
• The Institute of Wow
• theinstituteofwow.com
• Vacations Incentive
• vacationsincentive.com
• Seth Godin
• Purple Cow
• Jerry Seinfeld
• Richard Branson

Want more conversations about customer behavior, growth, and rethinking how people buy?

• alyssanolte.substack.com
• linkedin.com/in/alyssanolte

Customer success teams are drowning in admin work while customers expect more personalization than ever. Abby Hammer says AI is about to change that. Not by replacing relationships, but by finally making real customer relationships possible again.

Alyssa Nolte and Abby Hammer dig into what autonomous customer success actually means, why most companies are thinking about AI the wrong way, and how customer success became more about process than people. They also unpack the growing gap between customer support and customer success, the risks of bad AI implementation, and why the future belongs to teams that rethink how humans and AI work together.

If you lead customer success, sales, marketing, product, or operations, this conversation will challenge how you think about AI, automation, and the future of customer relationships.

Key Takeaways:

1. Why AI could make customer success more human, not less
2. The biggest mistakes companies make when implementing AI
3. How better customer data and context create better customer experiences

Resources and People Mentioned:

• Abby Hammer
• ChurnZero
• ZeroIn by ChurnZero
• Mel Savage
• Salesforce
• CRM and customer success platforms
• AI and automation in customer success

Connect with Alyssa Nolte:

• alyssanolte.substack.com
• linkedin.com/in/alyssanolte

Good speakers do not just talk more. They listen better.

Alyssa Nolte sits down with Lynn Neillie to rethink what great communication actually looks like in sales, leadership, and business relationships. If you have ever felt awkward speaking on camera, struggled through sales calls, or wondered why some people instantly make you feel heard, this conversation will click immediately.

Lynn shares why silence is one of the most powerful communication tools we have, why asking better questions changes everything, and how trust is built long before a pitch ever starts. Alyssa also opens up about starting podcasting because of her fear of public speaking, and how practicing in public changed her career.

This episode is for anyone trying to become a better communicator without sounding fake, scripted, or salesy.

Key Takeaways:

• Great speakers ask great questions. Communication is not about talking nonstop.
• The best sales conversations feel personal, not transactional.
• Trust is built when people feel heard, especially when things go wrong.

Alyssa and Lynn also talk about:

• Why silence matters in presentations and sales calls
• The “Texas Two-Step” approach to selling
• How to personalize demos and client conversations
• Why accountability builds confidence
• What comedians understand about audience engagement
• The difference between lecturing and teaching
• Why saying “I don’t know” can actually build trust

Resources and People Mentioned:

• Patrick Lencioni - The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
• The Ideal Team Player - Dr. Andy Neely
• The Golden Principles: Life and Leadership Lessons of a Rescue Dog
• Red Rocks Austin
• Lynn Neillie on LinkedIn
• alyssanolte.substack.com
• linkedin.com/in/alyssanolte

You can’t build great AI on top of bad customer behavior. And sometimes… businesses are the ones creating the behavior.

After a frustrating moment in a dentist waiting room, Alyssa unpacks how outdated systems, unnecessary friction, and “required” fields are quietly training customers to give incomplete, inaccurate, or fake information.

Because when the process feels like busy work, people stop trying to help you.

This Field Note explores the connection between customer experience, operational design, and the future of AI powered businesses.

What happens when the systems designed to collect better data are actually making your data worse?

If ChatGPT had to recommend one person in your industry tomorrow… would it say your name?

Alyssa Nolte and Chris Panteli unpack why personal branding is no longer just for influencers, authors, or celebrity CEOs. AI search is changing how people discover businesses, experts, and service providers. Instead of showing a list of companies, tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity are starting to recommend actual people.

That changes everything.

From real estate agents and lawyers to consultants and local business owners, your online presence now shapes whether AI trusts you enough to recommend you. Chris explains how personal brands, SEO, podcasts, reviews, social profiles, and media mentions all work together to influence AI search results.

If you care about marketing, SEO, AI, customer trust, or the future of discoverability, this conversation will make you rethink how customer relationships are built online.

Key Takeaways:

1. AI search is shifting from companies to people ChatGPT is starting to recommend specific experts instead of just linking to websites.
2. Your online presence needs consistency Your website, LinkedIn, social media, reviews, and bios all help AI understand who you are and what you do.
3. Local businesses are not exempt Realtors, lawyers, contractors, and small business owners may be impacted faster than they think.

Chris Panteli shares practical advice for building a personal brand that AI can recognize and trust, including:

• How to optimize your digital presence
• Why podcasts and media mentions matter
• What AI tools actually “know” about you
• How to influence AI search results without paid ads
• Why reputation and trust signals matter more than ever

Resources & People Mentioned:

• Martin Lewis / Money Saving Expert
• OpenAI ChatGPT
• Perplexity
• Claude
• Sam Altman
• linkify.io/cheat-sheet

More from Alyssa Nolte:

• alyssanolte.substack.com
• linkedin.com/in/alyssanolte

AI can write faster than you. But it might also erase what makes you worth listening to. Alyssa Nolte and Dave Gulas dig into what happens when everyone uses the same tools and starts to sound the same... and why that’s a real risk for your brand, your content, and your customer relationships.

This conversation challenges the idea that more content equals better results. Instead, it pushes you to rethink how you show up, how you use AI, and what actually builds trust with real people. If you’ve ever felt like your content is starting to sound generic or you’re relying too much on AI, this one will hit.

Alyssa Nolte and Dave Gulas share real examples from building businesses, running podcasts, and testing AI in the wild. Some of it works. Some of it backfires. All of it points to one thing... you can’t outsource being human.

Why you should listen: If you create content, lead a team, or care about how customers experience your brand, this episode will help you rethink where AI fits and where it doesn’t.

Key takeaways:

• AI is a tool, not a replacement. It should support your thinking, not replace your voice.
• More content isn’t the goal. Better, more human content is what stands out.
• Bad AI experiences can damage trust fast, especially in sales and customer interactions.

People and resources mentioned:

• Dave Gulas
• Alan Lazarus
• Next Level University podcast
• Beyond Fulfillment podcast

Follow Alyssa Nolte:

• alyssanolte.substack.com
• linkedin.com/in/alyssanolte

Progress beats perfection. Especially in sales.

What if growth is not about doing more, but doing small things better? Alyssa Nolte and Ben Wright rethink customer relationships through a simple but powerful idea: progress creates momentum. Perfection creates delay. If you lead a team, run a business, or want to improve how you sell, this conversation will challenge how you think about growth.

Ben Wright shares why the best sales teams do not win by chasing flawless execution. They win by making small improvements, staying close to customers, and building trust in every interaction. Alyssa and Ben explore why many businesses overcomplicate growth, where sales processes break down, and how better customer experiences can drive more revenue without adding more leads.

Why listen:

If you have ever felt stuck trying to “get it right” before making a move, this episode is for you. You will walk away with practical ideas to improve sales performance, strengthen customer relationships, and rethink how progress actually happens.

3 Key Takeaways:

• Why progress over perfection can unlock faster business growth
• How small improvements in your sales process can compound over time
• Why customer experience often matters more than price in winning deals

Resources and People Mentioned:

• Ben Wright - Stronger Sales Teams
• Sold Out Sales Teams Academy
• Moonshots podcast with Peter Diamandis
• Alex Hormozi
• Atomic Habits by James Clear
• Connect with Ben Wright: strongersalesteams.com
• LinkedIn: Coach Ben Wright

Connect with Alyssa Nolte:

• alyssanolte.substack.com
• linkedin.com/in/alyssanolte