Duct Tape Marketing

09/25/2026

A $50,000 engagement might make a prospective client hesitate. Jody Grunden shared on the podcast this week how his firm sidesteps that hesitation entirely.

Instead of one large upfront number, clients sign up for a weekly fee and start the following Monday, with the option to cancel anytime.

Removing that big number is what turns a maybe into a yes.

Would splitting your pricing into a weekly fee change how prospects respond to your offer? Tell me in the comments.

Full episode with Jody Grunden: https://ducttapemarketing.com/why-profitable-agencies-still-struggle-with-cash-flow/

09/24/2026

Everyone agrees relationships matter. Zvi Band pointed out on the podcast this week that agreement is exactly where most people stop.

He tied his own reason to something concrete: Building his last company depended on staying close to investors, hires, and customers. That specific reason turned relationship-building into a habit rather than a hope.

What's the specific reason relationships matter to your business right now? Tell me in the comments.

Full episode with Zvi Band: https://ducttapemarketing.com/building-better-business-relationships-in-the-age-of-ai/

09/16/2026

On the podcast recently, Don Yaeger asked me a question I couldn't answer: What job or relationship doesn't get better when you're good at telling stories?

And that's exactly the point. Sales, leadership, parenting, all of it gets better.

It's a skill that pays off everywhere you show up.

What's one story you've told recently that changed how someone saw you or your business? Tell me in the comments.

Full episode with Don Yaeger: https://ducttapemarketing.com/how-business-storytelling-builds-trust-and-drives-results/

09/15/2026

I spent 30 years around agencies and consultants, and I've never heard this much quiet exhaustion from good marketers. It's exhaustion from good work stuck inside a business model that's breaking.

This week, I walk through 9 shifts I think every marketing advisor has to make right now.

Two shifts to audit for: charging for outcomes rather than hours, and stepping into leadership instead of babysitting ex*****on. Clients pay for confidence in the result.

I also break down where AI belongs in a marketing business, and why doing this alone costs more than you'd guess.

Full episode now live: https://ducttapemarketing.com/9-shifts-every-marketing-agency-needs-to-make/

Of the 9 shifts, which one have you already made, and which one is next?

09/11/2026

Sara Nay, CEO of Duct Tape Marketing, joined Heidi Ellsworth on the Roofing Road Trips podcast to talk about where marketing budgets go to work.

Contractors often open with the same ask: how do we get more leads? Nay starts somewhere else, with who their buyers are, and what their journey looks like before that click ever happens.

Then she checks whether the site is built to earn a sale once someone lands on it. Skip that step and ad spend just buys more clicks to a page that was never going to convert them.

Watch the full episode → https://www.rooferscoffeeshop.com/podcast/sara-nay-building-a-marketing-strategy-that-lasts

When's the last time you audited your site before spending more on ads?

09/08/2026

People ask me all the time what separates a side hustle from a real business. Beth Mazza and Victoria Sivrais have built and sold two of them, and they answer it head on.

Catch the full episode → https://ducttapemarketing.com/how-to-build-a-business-that-can-grow-without-you/

09/04/2026

Jermane Cheathem built a $50 million referral business without ever making a cold call, and this is the belief he built it on. If a relationship takes convincing, scratching, clawing, or nonstop follow-up, he says it was never going to work in the first place.

What's the one relationship in your business that just came easy from day one?

Catch the full episode → https://ducttapemarketing.com/building-a-referral-network-with-strategic-partners/

09/03/2026

I sat down with Kipp Bodnar, CMO at HubSpot, for this episode of the podcast. He said most solopreneurs know their competitors cold but rarely stop to write down why their own company exists.

That question is part of what he calls brand taste, the second half of building a taste profile. It means getting clear on what your product actually solves and what you believe about your industry that nobody else is saying out loud.

He gives specific questions to work through it, and says the ones who take the time see it pay off fast. It's the difference between AI-generated content that sounds like everyone else and content that sounds like you.

If you had to answer "why does my company exist" in one sentence, what would you say? Drop it below.

Full episode → https://ducttapemarketing.com/how-inbound-marketing-is-changing-in-the-age-of-ai/

08/29/2026

This week's guest, Blue Melnick, runs Sage Event Management with his wife Barry Baumgartner. They've produced live events for Tony Robbins and ClickFunnels, and lately Melnick's been building an AI co-producer called Obi.

Since adding it, his program's renewal rate jumped from 30% to 45% with zero changes to the pricing or offerings.

His take: if AI can close the distance between knowing something and initiating the action to do something with it, clients will get results that keep them around.

Listen to the full episode here: https://ducttapemarketing.com/how-ai-is-changing-online-courses-coaching-and-client-results/

What's the last thing that had you up at 2 am, and who or what did you end up turning to?

08/25/2026

From the vault, and it's aged well: my conversation with Cornelia Choe on why more data isn't the same thing as more clarity.

Cornelia has a term for a problem I see in almost every business I work with: perspective blindness. It's believing you've got the whole picture when you're really only holding your own piece of it. She backed it up with a stat that stopped me mid-sentence. 39% of CIOs in one survey believed their company was ready for change. At those same companies, only 7% of COOs agreed.

Her fix isn't complicated. Get closer to the people around you. Build a real relationship instead of a quarterly check-in. Update your map instead of assuming everyone's looking at the same one you are.

Whose view of your business have you stopped asking about?

Full episode →

Catch The Full Episode Overview Back from the vault because the AI angle has only gotten sharper since it first ran. John Jantsch talks with leadership expert Cornelia Choe about a concept she calls perspective blindness. Choe explains the common phenomenon of believing you see the whole picture wh...