More than a Few Words

Marketing Lessons Everywhere

Here’s the thing about marketing—lessons are everywhere. You just have to know where to look.

Sometimes it’s in the obvious places, like watching how competitors roll out a campaign. Other times it’s less obvious.

Like standing on a floating dock in Santiago, staring at a mussel farm.

There, I learned that mussels grow best when they have room. The farmers pull up the ropes, remove the ones that aren’t thriving, and separate the rest so they can mature. The smallest, youngest mussels are placed where the water is richest, giving them the best chance to grow.

Business works the same way.

Sometimes, you have too many clients. You’re trying to serve everyone, but no one’s getting your best. You may need to “thin the herd” and let go of clients that drain your time and energy. Create space for your best customers to grow with you. And when you do, you’ll have more time to nurture the next generation, the new leads with potential to become long-term, loyal partners.

Not every client is worth your attention. Some are just taking up space. And some, like those thriving mussels, are ready to become something really special

As a podcaster, you can crank out 100 episodes and still get nowhere. That’s an uncomfortable truth for many podcasters.  So how do hosts get into this situation? I sat down with Nathalie Dorémieux, who helps podcasters turn listeners into real business results, and she shared how her first podcast started as a bold experiment and stalled out just as quickly.

The idea was simple. Nathalie took 100 days of Facebook Lives and turned them into a podcast. Plenty of content, plenty of consistency, and zero results.

What went wrong? No strategy, no clear goal, and no path for the listener to take the next step. The content was fine, but it wasn’t doing a job. It didn’t invite connection or action, it just existed.

For a long time, marketing rewarded people who knew the most and said it the loudest. Write more blogs, record more episodes, share more tips. The assumption was simple. If you show how smart you are, people will want to work with you.

That worked… until everyone started doing it.

Now there’s no shortage of good content. Your audience isn’t sitting there thinking, “I wish someone would explain this better.” They’re thinking, “Who do I trust? Who gets me? Who feels like my kind of person?”

That’s where connection comes in.

Connection is what makes someone stop mid-scroll and actually listen. It’s your point of view, your stories, your voice, the way you frame a problem. It’s the moment when a listener thinks, “That’s exactly what I’ve been struggling with.”

Content delivers information. Connection creates momentum.

And here’s where Nathalie’s mistake really shows up. She had plenty of content, but there was no intentional path to deepen that relationship. No invitation to continue the conversation. No moment where the listener moves from “that was interesting” to “I want to talk to her.”

So yes, keep creating content. Just don’t stop there.

Make it easier for people to connect the dots… and then connect with you.

Ever notice how often someone asks for a brochure when what they really need is something else entirely?

That’s where this conversation goes, and it’s a good one. I sat down with Bill Shander, an information designer and author who calls himself a “stakeholder whisperer.” And trust me, it’s not as mystical as it sounds. It’s actually a practical, powerful way to rethink how you show up in your marketing conversations.

We talked about why storytelling isn’t just about your audience. It’s also about how you communicate with the people inside your business who shape what gets created in the first place.

A few takeaways worth holding onto:

• Don’t jump to the solution too fast When someone asks for a deliverable, a brochure, a campaign, a website, pause. That request is often just the symptom. Your real job is to figure out the problem underneath it.
• Your most important stakeholder isn’t always your boss It’s easy to default to the person giving the assignment. But the real priority is usually the end user. The person who will read, click, buy, or ignore what you create.
• Influence comes from expertise, not opinion “I like this better” won’t get you far. But “data shows this performs better” changes the conversation. Bring evidence, not just ideas.
• Ask one better question You don’t have to challenge everything. Start small. One thoughtful question can open the door to a smarter solution and a deeper conversation.
• Stop being an order taker The people who grow in their roles aren’t the ones who say yes to everything. They’re the ones who think, question, and guide.

The real magic here is simple. When you shift from doing what people ask to understanding what they actually need, everything gets better. Your work, your results, and how people see you.

About Bill 

Bill Shander is an information designer, helping clients turn their data into compelling visual and often interactive experiences. He teaches data storytelling, information design and data visualization on LinkedIn Learning, and in workshops around the world. Clients include the World Bank, Starbucks, multiple U.S. Government agencies, Big Four firms, and many more household names across a spectrum of industries. He is a keynote speaker and has lectured for graduate and undergraduate students at Harvard, Northeastern, UVM, and other universities across the United States.

LEARN MORE: https://billshander.com/

After twelve hundred episodes and sixteen years of conversations, I’ve heard a lot of smart ideas about marketing and sales. But every once in a while, one sticks with me. This one goes all the way back to the beginning, to a conversation with my very first and very frequent guest, Matt Nettleton.

It’s about sales, but not the pushy, fight-your-way-in kind. It’s about something much simpler and a whole lot more effective.

I sat down with Matt, a sales coach and founder of Sandler Training, to talk about what he calls “storming the castle.” And no, it’s not about medieval strategy. It’s about what most salespeople get completely wrong.

Here’s the shift that matters:

• Stop pitching, start asking Most sales calls fall apart because we lead with what we want to say. Matt flipped that on its head. When you ask thoughtful, structured questions, prospects don’t resist. They lean in and start talking.

• Questions are a discipline, listening is an art That line stuck with me. Great questions aren’t random. They’re planned. When you know where the conversation is going, you can actually listen instead of just waiting for your turn to talk.

• Guide the conversation, don’t force it Matt shared a simple flow. Start broad, narrow it down, and uncover the real issue. By the time you get there, the prospect has basically invited you in and handed you the problem to solve.

The big “aha” for me was this. You don’t have to fight your way into the conversation. If you do it right, they lower the drawbridge for you.

And honestly, that’s a lot more fun than storming the castle.

I knew that Danielle Hughes and I were kindred spirits the first time I saw the name of her company More Than Words Copywriting. Clearly, we had the same attitude about words, but our bond was stronger than that. We agreed on so many things in marketing that it has been an absolute pleasure to get to know her over the years. And so I could not dive into my archives without sharing at least one of our conversations, this one about creating a bio that makes people want to get to know you is my favorite. 

Ever read a bio that sounded like a LinkedIn résumé in a tuxedo? Polished, proper, and completely forgettable. That’s exactly what we set out to fix in this conversation.

I sat down with Danielle Hughes to talk about how to turn your bio into something people actually want to read and more importantly, someone they want to work with.

Danielle helps entrepreneurs and organizations uncover their personality brand so their message feels natural, not forced, and actually connects.

Here’s where the conversation really landed:

• Your bio isn’t about you, it’s for them Yes, it’s your story, but your reader is scanning for one thing. Can you help me? Shift the focus from “here’s everything I’ve done” to “here’s how I make your life easier.”
• Personality beats perfection A great bio makes someone feel like they already know you. Danielle calls it becoming a “fully formed human on the page.” That means sharing just enough of who you are to spark a connection, not your entire life story.
• You have permission to leave things out This one hit home. Just because you did it doesn’t mean it belongs in your bio. If you don’t want to do it again, don’t highlight it. Your bio should point toward where you’re going, not where you’ve been.
• Give them something to grab onto A hobby, a quirky detail, something you love to talk about. It doesn’t have to be relevant to your work. It just has to be interesting enough to start a conversation.
• Make it easy to skim Most people won’t read every word. Front-load the good stuff, break it up, and don’t be shy about including results or even a well-placed humblebrag.

If your bio is making people yawn before they meet you, it’s time for a rewrite. Wake it up with a little personality, a dash of honesty, and just enough of you to make someone think, “Okay, I want to talk to her.”