This is a live recording from Localist Lab, the in-person version of The Localist, where specialists come in to talk to small business owners about the work everyone's trying to figure out. This month Carrie Rollwagen was the speaker, talking about the thing that finally made AI click for her: using AI well isn't a tech skill, it's a management skill. Anyone who has trained an intern, written an SOP, or told somebody how to cover their desk while they were out already has most of what they need.

The session walks through how to build an AI skill start to finish, first using Infomedia's new hire Emery as the comparison and then using the podcast as the working example. It covers the 70-30 rule for deciding what to hand off, why a skill is really just a standard operating procedure written in plain English, why the context window works like a meeting whiteboard, and the eight things a good set of instructions has to include. Carrie also shows the skills she actually uses to make The Localist: a researcher, an interview writer, a title writer, a social media writer, and a strategic advisor skill that the others pull from.

There's also a story about an espresso machine named Richard that will convince you to read your AI's research before you sit down at a microphone. Then the audience asks questions on whether skills are just fancy form letters, whether you need to pay for an AI account, and what actually happens to your data once you put it into a chatbot.

If AI still feels overwhelming, or if you've built a skill and it keeps handing you mediocre work, this session gives you a real process for fixing it.

Watch the Full Episode on YouTube

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• Infomedia

• Uptick Marketing

• Tempo Websites

• Caravan (AI training)

• Infomedia AI training and upcoming events

• 1Password

• LastPass

• Trattoria ZaZa

• "The AI Daily Brief" podcast

• "The Localist" book by Carrie Rollwagen

• Laine White on local influencer marketing (next Localist Lab speaker)

• Saturn in Avondale

Carrie Rollwagen is Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning at Infomedia and the host of The Localist. She is a former bookstore owner, a career writer, and the author of "The Localist: Think Independent, Buy Local, and Reclaim the American Dream."

• carrierollwagen.com

• Carrie on Instagram

• Carrie on LinkedIn

The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia. They are a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company. They help small businesses grow online.

• Contact Infomedia

Localist Lab is a free event series for small business owners. It meets on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Free tacos and coffee too.

• See upcoming events and register

Want more small business tips from Carrie? Sign up for her newsletter.

• Sign up here

How to Use AI Without the Internet Turning on You | Laine White of Uptick Marketing

AI can save your small business a lot of time. It can also get you dragged into your own comment section. This week Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Laine White, Head of Client Strategy at Uptick Marketing, to figure out where the line actually is. Laine uses AI every day, and she still has real ethical concerns about it, which is exactly why she is the right person to ask. Her rule is simple: use AI to plan, strategize, organize, and analyze. If you are using it to make the content people actually see, either make sure nobody can tell, or be ready for the fallout.

We get into why people come for small businesses harder than they come for big corporations, how one angry comment thread turns into a Reddit thread and then into what your neighbor thinks about your business, and what 'burstiness' has to do with why AI captions read as bland. Laine breaks down what captions actually need on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok, why she does not want you generating images at all right now, how a brand kit makes AI design look less like AI, and why ChatGPT keeps quietly editing your photos and giving you away.

She also answers the question every business owner is afraid to ask: you already posted the AI thing, people are mad, now what? Laine walks through what to say, what not to say, and why saying nothing is the worst option you have.

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• Uptick Marketing

• Infomedia

• Uncle G's Pizza

• Uncle G's Pizza on Instagram

• Saturn Birmingham

• Cala Coffee

• Cember Studio

• Hattie O'Hara on Instagram

• The Localist episode with Hattie O'Hara

• Laine's first Localist episode: A Practical Guide to Influencer Marketing

• DJI Osmo Pocket 3 Creator Combo

• The Birmingham subreddit

Laine White is Head of Client Strategy at Uptick Marketing, the sister company of Infomedia. She works with small businesses on social media, websites, and strategy, and she has a psychology background that shows up in how she thinks about reputation and word of mouth.

• Uptick Marketing

• Laine on Instagram

The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia. They are a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company. They help small businesses grow online.

• Contact Infomedia

Localist Lab is a free event series for small business owners. It meets on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Free tacos and coffee too.

• See upcoming events and register

Want more small business tips from Carrie? Sign up for her newsletter.

• Sign up here

In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Malissa Davis, the founder of Best You Ever, a Birmingham-based personal styling and image consulting firm. Malissa spent nearly 10 years at Nordstrom before launching her own business, and now works with clients in Birmingham and virtually across the United States. Fun fact: Malissa is also the mom of Taylor Davis, the showrunner for The Localist. If you've ever seen Taylor on camera and thought she looked great, that is Malissa's work.

Malissa opens with how she starts every client relationship: tell me your story. She talks about why building trust in a dressing room feels a little like being an unlicensed therapist, and what she learned in a decade at Nordstrom that shaped how she works today. She walks through her closet cleanout process (take out anything that does not fit, including the clothes you keep to shame yourself into losing weight), her style assessment quiz, and why her four-hour shopping cap is really about respecting your capacity.

The second half is about the business side of things. Malissa gets into why she specializes in curves and tall women, why tailoring is worth the extra $15 every time, how she styles for speaking events and camera, and the SOS package for special occasions. She also shares one of her favorite client stories: styling a Biggest Loser finalist for the show finale. If you are trying to build a personal brand, style yourself for a speaking event, or just tired of your closet saying no to you every morning, this episode is a warm, practical guide. Watch on YouTube _______________________________________

• Best You Ever

• Nordstrom

• Infomedia

The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia. They are a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company. They help small businesses grow online.

• Contact Infomedia

Localist Lab is a free event series for small business owners. It meets on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Free tacos and coffee too.

• See upcoming events and register

Want more small business tips from Carrie? Sign up for her newsletter.

• Sign up here

In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Austin Senseman and Robert Hill, the co-founders of Caravan. Caravan is a Birmingham-based AI training company that teaches business owners and their teams how to actually use tools like Claude Code and Claude Cowork. Austin is also co-founder of Birmingham AI, the 501(c)(3) that puts on free monthly AI events at Innovation Depot, and is a Claude Ambassador for Birmingham. Infomedia hired Caravan for a full team training earlier this year, and Infomedia also sells the class to clients.

Austin and Robert talk about how Caravan started with a listening tour of 20 Birmingham businesses at the end of last year, and how the answer they kept hearing was not build me a product, it was teach me how to use these tools. They get into why they think Claude Code was the moment agentic AI became real for non-technical professionals, why every AI class is also a little bit of therapy, and why they update the curriculum every single week to keep up with what the tools can do.

The second half is where the conversation goes deeper. Carrie, Austin and Robert all get honest about the ethics of AI, the anxiety it creates, and the reality of being a writer or a small business owner trying to navigate this moment. They talk about why anger is a common emotional home for people right now, why disengaging from AI often means leaving the conversation to bad actors, and why Robert thinks 2027 is going to get weird. They also talk about James Clear's identity framework, why buying local-ish beats buying local perfectly, and why Austin's favorite AI story is a Birmingham pastor who uses AI to save four hours a week on sermons so he can visit more people in hospice. If you are grappling with AI in your own work, this is a rare honest conversation.

Watch on YouTube _______________________________________

• Caravan

• Birmingham AI

• Infomedia

• Claude

• Claude Code

• Anthropic

• Innovation Depot

• Hardware Park

• Sloss Tech

The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia. They are a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company. They help small businesses grow online.

• Contact Infomedia

Localist Lab is a free event series for small business owners. It meets on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Free tacos and coffee too.

• See upcoming events and register

Want more small business tips from Carrie? Sign up for her newsletter.

• Sign up here

What actually makes a photo shoot go well, and what makes an expensive one go sideways?

In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Katey Beck and Taylor Davis, producers at Infomedia Studios. Katey is a chef turned producer. Taylor is a film major from Auburn with a background in commercial acting and wedding videography. Together they run photo and video shoots for small businesses and brands in Birmingham, and Carrie regularly goes to them for the questions she cannot answer herself: what to wear on camera, how not to freeze up on video, whether her Zoom background looks weird.

Katey and Taylor talk about what really goes into a shoot. Why one hour of production equals one minute of finished content. Why a full day realistically nets you 80 photos and a 90 second video, not a highlight reel. Why hospitality matters more than gear. Why you should never book a photographer without asking about lighting, focus and their ability to direct posing. When you actually need a stylist on set, and why food is the one category you always do. How to make people comfortable on camera when they are not used to being there.

The second half is a practical guide for anyone shooting on their own. What a shot list is and why the whole team needs one. Why brand shoots often fail because the photos were not planned against the content they would live in. Why you should not wear the same blazer in every frame. How to build a good background at your desk. Why the iPhone is a legitimate tool in 2026, and how to hold your exposure to get better footage in any light. Katey and Taylor also answer listener questions on why video is so much harder than photos, whether there really is a good side of your face, and what budget you actually need to hire a producer.

Watch on YouTube _______________________________________

• Infomedia Studios

• Infomedia

• Uptick Marketing

• @pinklanternbhm

• Spindle Photography (Kelly Cummings)

The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia. They are a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company. They help small businesses grow online.

• Contact Infomedia

Localist Lab is a free event series for small business owners. It meets on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Free tacos and coffee too.

• See upcoming events and register

Want more small business tips from Carrie? Sign up for her newsletter.

• Sign up here

If you live in Birmingham, you already know Trattoria ZaZa.

In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Bryan Stanfield of Trattoria ZaZa in downtown Birmingham. Bryan started at ZaZa as a server in 2010 while he was a student at UAB. Five years later, he and his former business partner bought the restaurant from original owners Brian Somershield and Geoff Lockert. Today ZaZa is one of the most beloved lunch and brunch spots in the city, known for Roman-style square pizza, daily pasta, and coffee program.

Bryan and Carrie get into the name (it was ZaZa Trattoria in 2009, became Trattoria Centrale after a legal issue, and eventually went back to ZaZa when the community never stopped calling it that). They talk about how Bryan bought the restaurant instead of opening the ramen shop he had been planning. Why the pandemic pushed ZaZa to include tips in the menu price, and what the reaction has actually been. What it was like to close for eight months in 2019 for a renovation forced by Orchestra Partners' redevelopment of the Frank Nelson Building, how the space grew from 20 seats to 60, and how Bryan worked with Creature and designer Andrew Thomson to figure out every sconce and paint color.

The second half is about the food and the philosophy. Why the menu changes daily and how a chef comes in at 3 p.m. and rebuilds a dinner menu from scratch by 5. Why brunch became such a phenomenon. Why the pizza is a hybrid of Roman pizza al taglio and focaccia, and why Bryan describes his food as second-generation Italian cooked with Alabama ingredients. Why he still calls Brian Somershield and Geoff Lockert regularly for advice, and why the downtown restaurant community is genuinely a community. If you love ZaZa, run a restaurant, or care about what has been happening in downtown Birmingham food for the last 15 years, this conversation is for you.

Watch on YouTube _______________________________________

• Trattoria ZaZa

• Paramount

• El Barrio

• Brick & Tin

• Helen

• Punch Love Coffee

• Orchestra Partners

• Creature

• The Localist episode with Uncle G's Pizza

• Andrew Thompson Design Studio

The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia. They are a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company. They help small businesses grow online.

• Contact Infomedia

Localist Lab is a free event series for small business owners. It meets on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Free tacos and coffee too.

• See upcoming events and register

Want more small business tips from Carrie? Sign up for her newsletter.

• Sign up here

If your digital ads feel broken, it is because they are.

This episode is a live recording from Localist Lab, the free monthly marketing event series for small business owners in Birmingham. Matt Robinson, Director of Advertising and Analytics at Uptick Marketing, takes the stage to walk a live audience through what has actually changed with Google Ads and Meta Ads in 2026, and what to do about it. Matt oversees digital advertising at Uptick Marketing and also serves as President of AMA Birmingham.

Matt breaks down why you may be spending the same amount and getting less. Why cheaper cost per click is not the win it used to be. Why the platforms now treat your website as a data source just as much as your ads. What AI Max, Performance Max and Advantage Plus are actually doing on the back end, and why bad website content will burn your ad budget on them. He walks through what kinds of Facebook ads the platform is actually rewarding right now (us versus them, face to camera, product demos, testimonials, web experience, positioning tests, founder story), and why the answer is 20 plus ads a month, not a single perfect one.

The second half covers tracking and AI-generated advice. Why tracking is broken and getting worse. Why to think directionally, not in exact dollar amounts. Why cutting your budget is the wrong reaction to rising costs. And why AI advice from Claude or ChatGPT can lead you off a cliff if you do not tell it your budget, your goals, what has worked and what has not, and demand it push back. If you run digital ads for your small business, this is a practical field guide.

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• Uptick Marketing

• Infomedia

• Tempo Websites

• AMA Birmingham

• Google Ads

• Meta Ads

• Claude

• ChatGPT

• Google Gemini

• Uncle G's Pizza episode of The Localist

• Lady Bird Taco

The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia. They are a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company. They help small businesses grow online.

• Contact Infomedia

Localist Lab is a free event series for small business owners. It meets on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Free tacos and coffee too.

• See upcoming events and register

Want more small business tips from Carrie? Sign up for her newsletter.

• Sign up here

In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with David Fleming, president and CEO of REV Birmingham. REV is the nonprofit that works to grow downtown Birmingham and the Woodlawn neighborhood, and David has been doing this work for 30 years. He is a self-described building hugger, a Bessemer native, and a walking encyclopedia of Birmingham history.

Carrie and David open with a Birmingham history lesson. Why the city was founded as an entrepreneurial response to the collapse of the Southern slave economy, why the immigrants who came here to open dry goods stores and furniture shops mattered as much as the industrialists, and why understanding that DNA is critical for anyone leading the city into the future. Then they get into the last 30 years of downtown revitalization. Why 2010 was the pivotal year. How Railroad Park and Regions Field changed people's belief in what downtown could be. Why Second Avenue North became a corridor and how Urban Standard lit the fuse.

The second half is a practical guide for small business owners. What REV actually does (place management, economic development, marketing and storytelling, advocacy and policy), the CAP program you see downtown in the blue shirts, the Business Improvement District, the historic preservation easement program, and the real estate advice REV offers for free to any business owner trying to figure out where to open. David also shares what a 2000-person survey revealed about what people actually want to see downtown, and why the answer is not what most people expect. If you own a small business in Birmingham or love the city, this conversation is full of practical resources and Birmingham history you should know.

Watch on YouTube

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• REV Birmingham

• Downtown Birmingham

• Sloss Furnaces

• Birmingham Historical Society

• Railroad Park

• Regions Field

• Pepper Place Farmers Market

• Alabama Theatre

• El Barrio

• Filter Coffee Parlor

• Church Street Coffee & Books

• Gus's Hot Dogs

• The Localist episode with Gus's Hot Dogs

• The Localist book by Carrie Rollwagen

The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia. They are a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company. They help small businesses grow online.

• Contact Infomedia

Localist Lab is a free event series for small business owners. It meets on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Free tacos and coffee too.

• See upcoming events and register

Want more small business tips from Carrie? Sign up for her newsletter.

• Sign up here

If your ads aren't performing the way they used to, if you keep hearing about AEO and wondering what it is, or if you have a Google Business Profile you haven't touched in a year, this episode is for you.

In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with Alan Harned, Director of Account Services at Uptick Marketing. Alan works with small business owners every day on digital ads, SEO, AEO and analytics. He's honest about what has changed, what still works, and what small business owners can do right now, even without a marketing budget.

Alan and Carrie talk about why AI has accelerated changes in marketing analytics, why pausing keywords based on an AI report can actually hurt your campaign, and why platforms need 30 to 60 days to learn what a good lead looks like for your business. They get into hard conversions versus soft conversions, why Google Ads is now prioritizing conversion data more than ever, and how small changes to a website (like adding a schedule button) can turn analytics into a real business insight.

The second half of the episode covers small-business AI use cases: how to use ChatGPT and Claude to analyze your own analytics, build an AI advisory board, critique your website, and catch things like spammy backlinks you did not know existed. Alan also answers audience questions on whether customers are actually finding businesses through ChatGPT and Perplexity, whether SEO is dead (spoiler: no), how to handle a Google Business Profile you have neglected, whether Google Ads are still worth the money, and what budget you actually need to start working with a marketing agency.

Watch on YouTube

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• Uptick Marketing

• Infomedia

• ChatGPT

• Claude

• Perplexity

• Google Business Profile

• Google Analytics

• Google Ads

• StoryBrand

• Yelp for Business

• Bing Places for Business

• Ohm Jiu Jitsu

The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia. They are a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company. They help small businesses grow online.

• Contact Infomedia

Localist Lab is a free event series for small business owners. It meets on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Free tacos and coffee too.

• See upcoming events and register

Want more small business tips from Carrie? Sign up for her newsletter.

• Sign up here

How do you compete with Domino's when you are running a small pizza shop with two food trucks and a brick and mortar?

In this episode of The Localist, Carrie Rollwagen sits down with George Gilliam, owner of Uncle G's Pizza in Birmingham. George is honest about the journey. He has pivoted his business more than once, from food truck to brick and mortar to takeout-only with a commissary kitchen. He has built one of the most engaged social media presences of any small business in Birmingham. And he has been openly using AI to give himself back the time he needs to run the business and create good content.

George and Carrie talk about why pizza parties for first responders perform better than product shots, why short form video has been a sea change for his business, why the social videos that perform best are the ones he throws together quickly, and how he uses CapCut to build them. They also nerd out on AI: where George uses it for the back end of the business, where he avoids it, why he believes it can level the playing field for small business owners, and why the AI conversation feels risky to even have publicly right now.

If you are a small business owner trying to figure out where AI fits, how to use social media without being self-serving, and how to make small business work in 2026, this is an honest, funny and useful conversation.

Watch on YouTube

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• Uncle G's Pizza

• Donate a Pizza Party

• Hop City Birmingham

• Trim Tab Brewing

• Ghost Train Brewing

• CapCut

• Adobe Premiere Pro

• Google Gemini

• A. Studio That Works / Andrew Thomson (designer of the King Pep mascot)

• Noah Stalcup (illustrator of the King Pep mascot)

• Andrew Jackson Hood (designer of Ohm Jiu Jitsu branding)

• The Camel music venue (Richmond, VA)

The Localist is sponsored by Infomedia. They are a Birmingham-based web and digital marketing company. They help small businesses grow online.

• Contact Infomedia

Localist Lab is a free event series for small business owners. It meets on the third Thursday of most months at Saturn in Avondale. Free tacos and coffee too.

• See upcoming events and register

Want more small business tips from Carrie? Sign up for her newsletter.

• Sign up here