Email is one of the cheapest and most direct ways to talk to your customers. So why are so many small business owners still ignoring it?

In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Luke Richey, Director of Content Marketing at Uptick Marketing. Luke and Carrie are both writers, and they both know that good writing can sell services in a way most other marketing simply cannot. They take a deep dive into newsletter email marketing, what it really does for a small business, and why most owners are sleeping on it.

Luke and Carrie talk about why newsletters build loyalty better than social media, why your email list is yours in a way your Instagram followers will never be, whether to send from a person or a brand, how to find your voice, why your subject line is the most important sentence you will write, when to use Substack and when not to, what to do with 25 subscribers, and how to keep going when people unsubscribe.

If you have a small business and you have been wondering if email marketing is worth it, this episode is a clear and honest guide to getting started.

Watch the Full Episode on YouTube ____________________________________________________________________________________

• Carrie's free newsletter and good stuff folder
• Uptick Marketing
• Infomedia
• Mailchimp
• Constant Contact
• Substack
• HubSpot
• Zapier
• Canva
• Marketing Made Simple by Donald Miller
• StoryBrand

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The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia, a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company that helps small businesses get big results online.

Contact Infomedia: https://infomedia.com/contact

________________________________________________________________________________

Localist Lab is our free live marketing event series for small business owners, held on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Each session features practical strategies you can use right away, plus free tacos and coffee.

See upcoming events and register https://infomedia.com/events

________________________________________________________________________________

Get more small business insights, resources and behind-the-scenes updates from Carrie delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign up for the newsletter: https://gmail.us20.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=9c59a060684d71f12f6e495fc&id=98cd3122b9

What does it really take to open a bookstore, survive a pandemic in your first year, and then expand twice in six years?

In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Kristen Iskandrian, co-owner of Thank You Books in Birmingham's Crestwood neighborhood. Thank You Books opened in December 2019, just months before COVID closed everything down. Six years later, they are expanding for the second time and doubling their footprint.

Kristen talks about why retail leases matter more than most people realize, how Thank You Books learned what worked by listening to their customers, and why the book business is one of the hardest small businesses to run. They get into sideline items, signed first edition subscriptions, why bookstore margins are so thin, how to host author events that actually pull a crowd, and what it really means to build community around a store.

Carrie spent years in bookselling before The Localist. She was co-founder of Church Street Coffee and Books and managed Jonathan Benton Bookseller. This conversation goes deep into the business, the dream and the reality of running an independent bookstore. Watch the full episode on YouTube

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• Thank You Books
• Shop Thank You Books merch at MAKE Birmingham
• Thank You Books First Edition Subscription
• Thank You Books on Libro.fm
• Thank You Books on Bookshop.org
• MAKE Birmingham (local goods sold at Thank You Books)
• Hannah Mills (local maker featured at Thank You Books)
• Crestwood Pharmacy
• Red Bike Coffee
• Urban Suburban (Crestwood)
• Total Joint (Jimmy from Crestwood)
• Church Street Coffee and Books (Carrie's old shop)
• Parnassus Books (Nashville)
• Ingram (book distributor)
• Paz & Associates Bookselling Bootcamp
• Co.Starters small business class (Birmingham)
• Alabama Booksmith
• Little Professor Book Center
• Bookmarked Birmingham
• American Booksellers Association
• Indie Bookstore Day
• Winter Institute
• Birmingham Mountain Radio
• Square Books (Oxford)
• Bookshop.org
• Libro.fm

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The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia, a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company that helps small businesses get big results online.

Contact Infomedia: https://infomedia.com/contact

________________________________________________________________________________

Localist Lab is our free live marketing event series for small business owners, held on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Each session features practical strategies you can use right away, plus free tacos and coffee.

See upcoming events and register https://infomedia.com/events

________________________________________________________________________________

Get more small business insights, resources and behind-the-scenes updates from Carrie delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign up for the newsletter: https://gmail.us20.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=9c59a060684d71f12f6e495fc&id=98cd3122b9

What if a few hours of part-time help would change your week?

This episode is a live recording from Localist Lab, the free monthly marketing event series for small business owners in Birmingham. Carrie Rollwagen takes the speaker seat this time to walk a live audience through how she hired a virtual assistant, what she actually has her VA do, and where AI tools fit into the mix.

Carrie covers what a virtual assistant is, how to find one, how to budget for one, and what to do before they start. She shares the documents she made for her VA, the tools they use together, and the kinds of work she does and does not hand off. She also walks through how she uses AI for tasks like building decks, transcribing meetings, organizing her desktop, and turning one podcast into a dozen reels.

If you are a small business owner who keeps thinking you cannot afford help, this episode is a clear and honest look at what part-time help actually looks like in practice.

Watch on YouTube ____________________________________________________________________________________

• Virtual Savvy
• Time Tailored
• OnePass (password manager)
• LastPass (password manager)
• Calendly
• Otter.ai (voice memo transcription)
• Carrie's Turn One Post into Ten talk
• Ohm Jiu Jitsu (Russell Marbut)
• Alabama Twisters

_______________________________________________________________________________

The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia, a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company that helps small businesses get big results online.

Contact Infomedia: https://infomedia.com/contact

________________________________________________________________________________

Localist Lab is our free live marketing event series for small business owners, held on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Each session features practical strategies you can use right away, plus free tacos and coffee.

See upcoming events and register https://infomedia.com/events

________________________________________________________________________________

Get more small business insights, resources and behind-the-scenes updates from Carrie delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign up for the newsletter: https://gmail.us20.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=9c59a060684d71f12f6e495fc&id=98cd3122b9

Growing a Business Without Losing What Makes It Special | Golden Age Wine

In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Brandon Loper and Trent Stewart, co-owners of Golden Age Wine in Birmingham. Last time Brandon and Trent were on the podcast, it was during the pandemic. A lot has changed since then. They still have their original Mountain Brook location, but they also have Golden Age Wine Garden downtown, a national wine club and their own importing company called Vins de Lieu.

Brandon and Trent talk about why they chose to scale through importing instead of opening more locations, how they think about pop-ups with local chefs, what makes Birmingham's small business community so supportive, why they hire for hospitality first and wine knowledge second, and how they keep both shops feeling personal even as the business grows.

If you own a small business and you have ever wondered what it looks like to grow without losing what makes you special, this conversation is full of honest answers.

Watch the Full Episode on YouTube

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• Golden Age Wine website
• Golden Age Wine Club signup
• Brandon and Trent's first Localist episode (2021)
• Paramount (Brian)
• Bandit Patisserie
• Chez Fonfon
• Salud
• David Baker Architects
• June Coffee
• Erin Merhar (pizza pop-up)
• Harper Snell (Golden Age photography and marketing)
• Rob Culpepper (photographer)

_______________________________________________________________________________

The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia, a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company that helps small businesses get big results online.

Contact Infomedia: https://infomedia.com/contact

________________________________________________________________________________

Localist Lab is our free live marketing event series for small business owners, held on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Each session features practical strategies you can use right away, plus free tacos and coffee.

See upcoming events and register https://infomedia.com/events

________________________________________________________________________________

Get more small business insights, resources and behind-the-scenes updates from Carrie delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign up for the newsletter: https://gmail.us20.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=9c59a060684d71f12f6e495fc&id=98cd3122b9

Your website traffic might be down. But that doesn't mean your business is.

In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Pam Darden, VP of Accounts and Revenue at Infomedia, to answer real audience questions about small business websites in the age of AI. Pam has worked with small business clients for over 10 years. She knows what actually works, and what is quietly costing you customers.

They cover why you still need a website even if traffic has dropped, how AI is pulling information about your business from places you never thought to check, what to put on your site so AI includes you in the conversation, how to track sales when analytics no longer tell the full story, and whether vibe coding is ever a good idea for a small business.

If you have a website and are not sure if it is working, this episode will show you exactly where to look.

🎥 Watch the Full Episode on YouTube

• Infomedia
• Infomedia contact page
• Pam's SEO for the AI Era talk at Localist Lab
• Laine White influencer marketing episode of The Localist
• Hattie O'Hara episode of The Localist
• Google Business Profile
• HubSpot (CRM example)
• Salesforce (CRM example)
• Tempo Websites

The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia, a Birmingham-based web strategy company that helps small businesses get big results online.

Contact Infomedia

Localist Lab is our free live marketing event series for small business owners, held on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Each session features practical strategies you can use right away, plus free tacos and coffee.

See upcoming events and register

Get more small business insights, resources, and behind-the-scenes updates from Carrie delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign up for the newsletter

What if the reason you opened a business had nothing to do with profit?

In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Cierra Lober, founder of Cha House, a community hub centered around a tea house in Avondale, Birmingham. Cierra did not set out to open a tea shop. She set out to build a community center, and she chose tea as the method — specifically the traditional Chinese practice of Gong Fu Cha, where small pots of loose-leaf tea are steeped again and again, slowing you down and making you present with the people around you.

Cierra talks about why she started Cha House, how five years of pop-up events led her to a brick-and-mortar space next to Beloved Community Church in Avondale, what it felt like to have four strangers volunteer to work for free because they wanted the space to survive, how she manages a seven-day-a-week event calendar, what she has learned about training staff for a community-first business, and what it actually takes to build a real third place in Birmingham.

Whether you are running a traditional business, a mission-driven business or just someone who wonders what it would look like to build something around community first, this episode is warm, honest and full of ideas.

🎥 Watch the Full Episode on YouTube

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• Cha House Birmingham: https://www.chahousebham.com
• Cha House event request form: https://www.chahousebham.com/events
• Burdock Book Collective (shares space with Cha House): https://www.instagram.com/burdockbookcollective
• Being Tea Chicago (Cierra's tea teachers): https://www.beingtea.com
• The Craft Room episode of The Localist: https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/how-the-craft-room-turns-creativity-into-community-blakely-oconnor/
• Beloved Community Church Avondale (Cha House landlord):http://www.belovedcommunitychurch.org/
• Alabama Arise (nonprofit that held private event at Cha House: https://alarise.org/
• Autism Spectrum Society of Birmingham (monthly meetup at Cha House): https://autism-alabama.org/

______________________________________________________________________________________________

The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia, a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company that helps small businesses get big results online.

Contact Infomedia: https://infomedia.com/contact

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Localist Lab is our free live marketing event series for small business owners, held on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Each session features practical strategies you can use right away, plus free tacos and coffee.

See upcoming events and register

What if the reason your small business marketing isn't working has nothing to do with your budget, your platform or your posting schedule?

This episode is a live recording from Localist Lab, our free monthly marketing event for small business owners in Birmingham. Marketing consultant Laine White of Uptick Marketing joined Carrie Rollwagen on stage at Saturn in Avondale to share a simple three-question framework that reveals where most small business marketing goes wrong — and exactly what to fix first.

Laine walks through the three questions every piece of marketing needs to answer: Is it clear what you are selling? Is it clear why they need to buy? And is it clear what they need to do next? She works through real examples, a live Q&A with the audience, and some honest talk about Google ads, AI in marketing and what actually moves the needle for small businesses with limited budgets.

If you have ever felt like your marketing is not working but you could not figure out why, this episode gives you a framework you can apply to everything — your website, your ads, your social media — starting today.

🎥 Watch the Full Episode on YouTube

______________________________________________________________________________________________

• Uptick Marketing: https://www.uptickmarketing.com
• Infomedia: https://infomedia.com
• Tempo Websites: https://tempowebsites.com
• Infomedia Studios: https://infomedia.com/studios
• Nielsen Norman Group (10-second value proposition study): https://www.nngroup.com
• StoryBrand by Donald Miller: https://storybrand.com
• Cala Coffee: https://www.calacoffeeco.com
• I Clean Cars (Tucker White's mobile detailing business): https://icleancars.com
• Hattie O'Hara (One Week in Birmingham) — Localist episode: https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/how-influencer-hattie-ohara-built-the-one-week-in-birmingham-brand
• Matt Robinson (Google Ads expert at Uptick — add LinkedIn/link): https://uptickmarketing.com/blog/author/mattrobinson/
• Laine's LinkedIn post: Three free things you can do to promote your small business: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/laine-white-735aba150_marketing-directors-its-that-time-of-year-activity-7394807835714437120-iH24?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAACZJCWQBuZLTu8SfILmK-EEv2IWLz7TCBsU

______________________________________________________________________________________________

The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia, a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company that helps small businesses get big results online.

Contact Infomedia: https://infomedia.com/contact

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Localist Lab is our free live marketing event series for small business owners, held on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Each session features practical strategies you can use right away, plus free tacos and coffee.

See upcoming events and register

Can a small business in Birmingham actually work with a local influencer? And if so, how do you even start?

In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Laine White, Marketing Consultant and Innovation Strategist at Uptick Marketing, to answer real audience questions about local influencer marketing. Laine made a semi-viral Instagram post about how small businesses are missing out by not working with local micro influencers, and a massive conversation followed in the comments. Now she is here to break it all down.

They cover what makes a business a good fit for influencer marketing, how to reach out without being rude, what follower count matters actually, and what it doesn't, how to think about compensation, the difference between a paid post and an authentic partnership, and how hosting an influencer event can be one of the most cost-effective ways to get started. Plus, an audience Q&A with practical answers to real small-business scenarios.

If you have ever seen a local influencer and wondered whether they could help your business, this episode gives you a clear, honest roadmap.

🎥 Watch the Full Episode on YouTube ______________________________________________________________________________________________

• Uptick Marketing: https://www.uptickmarketing.com
• Infomedia: https://infomedia.com
• Hattie O'Hara (One Week in Birmingham) — Localist episode: https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/how-influencer-hattie-ohara-built-the-one-week-in-birmingham-brand
• Bustle Gowns — Localist episode: https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/crafting-a-once-in-a-lifetime-experience-with-bustle/
• Ohm Jiu Jitsu — Localist episode: https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/ohm-jiu-jitsu/
• Cala Coffee: https://www.calacoffeeco.com
• Lady Bird Taco — Localist episode: https://carrierollwagen.com/podcast-episodes/the-magic-behind-ladybird-taco/
• Pink Lantern: https://www.instagram.com/pinklanternbham
• AMA Birmingham: https://amabirmingham.org
• Randall Porter: https://www.instagram.com/randallporter/

______________________________________________________________________________________________ 💻 Connect with Laine White

Laine White is a Marketing Consultant and Innovation Strategist at Uptick Marketing, Infomedia's sister company. She works with local businesses on social media strategy, influencer marketing and brand storytelling.

• Uptick Marketing: https://www.uptickmarketing.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imlaine_white
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/lainewhite
• Email Laine: [email protected]

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crollwagen Website: https://www.carrierollwagen.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/crollwagen YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@crollwagen

______________________________________________________________________________________________

The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia, a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company that helps small businesses get big results online.

Contact Infomedia: https://infomedia.com/contact

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Localist Lab is our free live marketing event series for small business owners, held on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Each session features practical strategies you can use right away, plus free tacos and coffee.

See upcoming events and register

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Get more small business insights, resources and behind-the-scenes updates from Carrie delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign up for the newsletter

What does it take to build a platform that actually changes the way people see their city?

In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Hattie O'Hara, the creator behind One Week in Birmingham, a weekly Instagram series that tells the story of life in Birmingham through local businesses, events and community. Over 60 episodes in, Hattie has built one of the most beloved local platforms in the city, and recently launched Your Week in Birmingham, a curated weekly newsletter to help people plan their own weeks in the city.

Hattie talks about what inspired the series, how she kept it going when nobody was watching, why she makes decisions based on her own values rather than best practices, how she manages the production process every Sunday entirely on her phone, and how she is beginning to build a real business around the brand she has been quietly creating for years.

If you are a small business owner, a content creator or just someone who loves Birmingham, this is a really honest and energizing conversation about doing creative work your own way.

🎥 Watch the Full Episode on YouTube ______________________________________________________________________________________________

• One Week in Birmingham (Instagram series): https://www.instagram.com/hat_ohara
• Your Week in Birmingham newsletter: https://www.hattieohara.com
• Carrie's episode on Word of Mouth Podcast (referenced by Hattie): https://open.spotify.com/show/1icxBH4UjcZFSrtKIJ4rDi
• Birmingham Education Foundation (Hattie's first job): https://www.bhamef.org
• Breakthrough Birmingham (Hattie's current day job): https://breakthroughbham.org
• Railroad Park Foundation (nonprofit spotlight example): https://railroadpark.org
• Balance Wine Club (Hattie's brand partnership): https://www.balancewineco.com
• The Little Red Print Shop (newsletter sponsor example): https://www.instagram.com/thelittleredprintshop
• F Up Nights Birmingham (event referenced at the start of the One Week in Birmingham story): https://en.fuckupnights.com/city/birmingham

______________________________________________________________________________________________ 💻 Connect with Hattie O'Hara

Hattie O'Hara is the creator of One Week in Birmingham, a weekly Instagram series that tells the story of her week in the city, and Your Week in Birmingham, a curated weekly newsletter that helps readers plan their own week in Birmingham.

• Website and newsletter signup: https://www.hattieohara.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hat_ohara

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crollwagen Website: https://www.carrierollwagen.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/crollwagen YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@crollwagen

______________________________________________________________________________________________

The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia, a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company that helps small businesses get big results online.

Contact Infomedia: https://infomedia.com/contact

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Localist Lab is our free live marketing event series for small business owners, held on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Each session features practical strategies you can use right away, plus free tacos and coffee.

See upcoming events and register https://infomedia.com/events

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Get more small business insights, resources and behind-the-scenes updates from Carrie delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign up for the newsletter https://gmail.us20.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=9c59a060684d71f12f6e495fc&id=98cd3122b9

What if the best place to make new friends turned out to be a craft table?

In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Blakely O'Connor, founder of The Craft Room, a creative reuse store in West Homewood, Birmingham. The Craft Room collects donated arts and craft supplies from the community and resells them at affordable prices, while also serving as a drop-in maker space, workshop venue and private event destination.

Blakely talks about why having your hands busy actually makes conversation easier, how she manages inventory she can never predict, why she chose to run The Craft Room as a for-profit small business instead of a nonprofit, what it was like to walk away from a Harvard PhD research career to open a secondhand craft shop, and how making things together is one of the most reliable ways to build real community.

Whether you are a small business owner, a crafter or someone who has ever donated a box of forgotten supplies to Goodwill, this episode is warm, honest and full of ideas. 🎥 Watch the Full Episode on YouTube ______________________________________________________________________________________________

• The Craft Room https://www.thecraftroom.co
• The Craft Room donation guide https://www.thecraftroom.co
• Seeds Coffee Co. (West Homewood neighbor) https://seedscoffee.com
• Turnip Green Creative Reuse (Nashville) https://turnipgreencreativereuse.org
• Scrap ATL (Atlanta) https://scrapatl.com
• Make and Mend (Boston area) https://makeandmend.org
• Seattle Recreative https://www.seattlerecreative.org
• Nexus Fitness (West Homewood) https://nexusfitness.com

______________________________________________________________________________________________ 💻 Connect with The Craft Room

The Craft Room is a creative reuse store in West Homewood, Birmingham. They sell secondhand arts and craft supplies at thrifty prices, host drop-in crafting, workshops and private events, and operate as a creative third space for the community.

• Website: https://www.thecraftroom.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecraftroomhwd/

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crollwagen Website: https://www.carrierollwagen.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/crollwagen YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@crollwagen

______________________________________________________________________________________________

The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia, a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company that helps small businesses get big results online.

Contact Infomedia: https://infomedia.com/contact

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Localist Lab is our free live marketing event series for small business owners, held on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Each session features practical strategies you can use right away, plus free tacos and coffee.

See upcoming events and register https://infomedia.com/events

______________________________________________________________________________________________

Get more small business insights, resources and behind-the-scenes updates from Carrie delivered straight to your inbox.

Sign up for the newsletter https://gmail.us20.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=9c59a060684d71f12f6e495fc&id=98cd3122b9