The Shoestring Marketer

09/12/2025

What's your ultimate office view?

28/10/2025

When I wrote my opening for my MC speech for the Marketer's Day Conference I felt a LOT of pressure.

The first ever conference for this 3 year old, scrappy, boot-strapped community that has grown from nothing, to 13k and we (the committee) wanted to make a HUGE impression.

My job was the first impression of that HUGE impression in 7 minutes, so yes, I felt the pressure.

But deciding on what to say to 140 of my marketing peers in Auckland was not as difficult as I thought it was.

You see I ended up falling back to a content writing framework that I've used for a long time that looks a little like this...

1. Start with vulnerability
2. Demonstrate empathy
3. Zoom out
4. Set a direction

So in my opening MC speech (and for those of you who were there, I'd love for you to reflect on the words vs this framework) I simply did the following;

1. Start with my pepeha (with a small twist) - for me, in front of strangers it is still very vulnerable to talk in my native tongue.
2. Demonstrate empathy by asking the audience 3 things about being a marketer. There were laughs and cheers at the 3 because they were universal truths about being in marketing.
3. I told everyone to look around and to see that the entire room had their hands up - that actually, we were all the same.
4. I then took everyone one on a direction of telling a small story about the event and what it was all about and setting 3 goals for each person to connect with for the day.

To be quite honest, I feel that my delivery could have been a lot better, but what I am happy about is the feedback that I got all day was what I was hoping for. The feedback was along the lines of;

"I'm really comfortable here at this event."
"everyone is so loud and there are so many great conversations."
"Stu, I've done 2 out of 3 of your tasks so far!!"
"the vibe in this room is just insane."

Now I am NOT taking credit for the incredible vibes that the community has created, what I'm saying is that in a world of noise, that finding empathy is The easiest way to connect...with anyone 💜

28/10/2025

For the marketers in the room

26/10/2025

Great Marketing in a Shoestring workshop at this week.

Thanks for the pics and the invite 🙏🎤

22/10/2025

Hands up who's a marketer? 👋🙋‍♀️

I'm still coming down to earth after Marketers Day and speaking to a sold out audience of my peers, of our marketing whanau.

💜 It was an incredible day and I'm just overflowing with gratitude for, well, everything! The people who took a chance on us and bought a ticket, for the volunteer crew who dropped their lives and actually made the event, for the rock star panelists who showed up with authenticity and empathy and for the sponsors and supporters who fueled the fire and helped us create magic.

look what you/we did!!!!!

05/10/2025

My way of unwinding ifrom a work week is a little unorthodox. Basically I can relax so the best way to relax my mind involves running up and down really big hills. What do you do to relax?

12/08/2025

thanks for having me to present my Marketing on a Shoestring workshop for small business owners 🙏☕

I had a blast meeting you all🙌

👨‍🎓 If you have a group or business that holds events in NZ (or webinars/podcasts) and would like to colab, feel free to DM me.

12/08/2025

Fun times presenting twice at Auckland conference last week.

This is my 6th speaking event of the year, where should I present next?

18/03/2025

Pro tip - surround yourself with this sort of energy!

📌 Celebrating Collaboration & Women in Leadership – International Women’s Day

Co-petition over competition. Collaboration over ego. That’s what great business is built on. 💡

On Friday, Melissa Frerk caught up with Stu Lees, The Shoestring Marketer, to talk about connection, business growth, and how we can uplift one another. It was a conversation filled with insights, networking, and the power of supporting others.

💡 As we celebrate International Women’s Day today, let’s remember:
✅ Success isn’t a solo journey—strong networks create stronger leaders.
✅ There’s enough room for all of us to thrive.
✅ Lifting others up doesn’t take away from your own success—it amplifies it.

So here’s to the women leading, growing, and making an impact—and to those in our networks who champion, mentor, and support them every step of the way.

👥 Tag a woman in business or leadership who inspires you! Let’s celebrate them today. 💬👇

18/03/2025

🟪 Marketing on a Shoestring Tip #2- Do NOT listen to this advice 🟪
The following is a short list of some of the worst advice in marketing that I've ever been given, and sometimes fallen for.

1 - You MUST post to socials every day

You don't. Unless your entire business is about content, meaning that you are a professional influencer (and even then I don't think it matters that much) then you can post regularly, irregularly, sporadically and you will NOT lose your audience.

But posting on a fairly regular basis DOES help with the following things;
- When you most a lot, you can drip feed small doses of value, entertainment, appreciation and yourself in a way that people can get to know you. When people know who you are, then you are much more likely to be chosen as their provider of a service or product.

-Posting regularly gives you regular feedback on what people actually like to see on your channel. Think of this as training, you are getting trained by your results as to what to post more of and what to post less of.

-Posting regularly does help you gain a little algo reach momentum - from my experience on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook - if you've been posting regularly (2+ times per week) your posts will generally get more initial reach given to them.

2 - Be on all social channels

-So many people simply repost the same stuff that they create for LinkedIn to their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Threads. The problem with for each of these channels, people go there for different reasons - creating content that works for each of these reasons is just not practical and close to impossible for a small budget creative team.

-Each of your social channels needs much more than blind-posting. To be organically successful, you need to be engaging in a variety of ways on each channel which takes time. The real question is - would this time be better invested by posting on one or two channels and doing all of the engagement activity that will bring your profile more traffic?

3 - If business content, then it MUST have a brand/logo on it.

Ok, this one is complete bo****ks, but I still encounter people who believe that if a post is from their brand, then it MUST have a logo splashed over it.

Here's the reality - any great social media content creator will tell you that logos and branding on posts absolutely kills engagement.

Why? There are a lot of reasons why I recommend to very sparingly use branding on social, but the main one is that the humans at the other end of your social posts have their very own "I hate advertising" filter. Your branding (unless its aspirational like Nike and Apple) is a trigger for that filter.

As I'm typing this I realized that I can probably go on all day, so I won't!

🟪 Now it's YOUR turn - what is the worst business advice that you've been given?

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I'm Stu. I'm a consultant, a trainer and a coach to small businesses who want to big marketing things on a small budget