Clear thinking for when the
right move isn't obvious.
Notes, frameworks, and field-tested insights on making better marketing decisions — without chasing trends or tools.
Latest Thinking
Strategic observations, technical notes, and conversion frameworks from the field.
The #1 Profit Leak in a Service Business
A Full Schedule Doesn’t Mean a Profitable One This one stings because it contradicts everything that feels like progress. A packed calendar looks like success. But look closer. Drive time between jobs — unpaid. Your tech tracking down parts at the supply house — unbilled. The estimate that took 45 minutes to build and never… Continue reading The #1 Profit Leak in a Service Business
An Inactive Google Business Profile Is Killing Your Local Visibility
How inactive Google Business Profiles cost contractors booked jobs — and what to fix first You set up your Google Business Profile once — probably two or three years ago. Filled in the address, picked a category, added a phone number. Maybe threw in a few job site photos. Clicked save and moved on. Here’s… Continue reading An Inactive Google Business Profile Is Killing Your Local Visibility
The “More Leads” Trap: Fix Your Home Service Booking Rate First
Slow week. The phone hasn’t rung like it should. You’ve got a guy sitting idle, a truck parked, and a schedule that looks thin three weeks out. So you do what feels obvious: call your lead service, bump up the spend, maybe sign up for a new directory or run a Facebook ad. More leads… Continue reading The “More Leads” Trap: Fix Your Home Service Booking Rate First
Marketing Attention Is the Scarce Resource (And That Changes Everything)
Marketing feels harder because the constraint moved. It used to be “can we produce enough?” Now it’s “can we earn a few minutes of real attention from the right people?” When information explodes and time doesn’t, attention becomes the bottleneck. That’s not philosophy. It’s a budget problem. Supply goes up, time stays fixed, and the… Continue reading Marketing Attention Is the Scarce Resource (And That Changes Everything)
5 Marketing Tactics Small Businesses Should Stop Using in 2026
5 Marketing Tactics Small Businesses Should Stop Using in 2026 Small business marketing in 2026 rewards focus over volume. If a tactic creates work but doesn’t create decisions, drop it. Save it for later. Generic SEO and content bloat If your “SEO strategy” is publishing thin, generic posts because a tool told you to, stop.… Continue reading 5 Marketing Tactics Small Businesses Should Stop Using in 2026
AI Search Visibility: Why Local Businesses Are Disappearing
If you’ve driven Highway 12 toward Lolo Pass in January, you know the moment. The sky and the road turn the same color. Trees blur. Mileposts vanish. When that happens, you stop looking for options. You look for one thing: a signal you trust. Search is moving in that direction. Over the last two decades,… Continue reading AI Search Visibility: Why Local Businesses Are Disappearing
Why Digital Marketing Fails Early
Why Digital Marketing Fails Early A few weeks back, I was walking through campaign data with a Montana-based client. Local service business. Solid offer. Decent spend. Their Facebook ads had stalled, and they were convinced something changed behind the scenes. “The algorithm’s just not showing our stuff,” they said. But the problem wasn’t the platform.… Continue reading Why Digital Marketing Fails Early
The Digital Inversion: Why Your Business is Vanishing from AI Search
What is AI Search Visibility? AI Search Visibility is the measure of how effectively Generative Engines (like ChatGPT, Google SGE, and Perplexity) can parse, understand, and recommend your business data to a user. Unlike traditional SEO which ranks links, AI Visibility ranks answers based on the structured confidence of your digital footprint. The Missoula Fog Effect If you’ve… Continue reading The Digital Inversion: Why Your Business is Vanishing from AI Search
Clear marketing decisions for Montana business owners
Clear marketing decisions for Montana business owners Walking across the Higgins Avenue Bridge on a winter morning, you’ve seen the fog thick enough to hide the Clark Fork below. You know the water is moving. You can hear it. You just can’t see where it’s going. That’s how most Montana business owners feel when they… Continue reading Clear marketing decisions for Montana business owners
How Apple Business Connect Turns Local Searches Into Customers—If You Move Fast Enough
On a sleepy stretch of Main Street in a mid-sized town—the kind with one genuinely good coffee shop and a hardware store that still cuts keys—there’s a little bakery called Juniper & Rye. It’s not much to look at from the outside. The sign’s faded. The front window is usually fogged over. If you walked… Continue reading How Apple Business Connect Turns Local Searches Into Customers—If You Move Fast Enough
What AI Can’t Replace: The Surprising Value of Experience
I’ve been watching AI transform how work gets done, and it’s been striking to see. It digests massive amounts of data in seconds, automates routine tasks that used to eat entire afternoons, and can mimic human language and artistic styles well enough to make people stop and wonder. The pace of it is real. So… Continue reading What AI Can’t Replace: The Surprising Value of Experience