Wabash & Lake Consulting

06/26/2026

Quiet on set!🎬

The W&L team recently had an amazing time working on set with one of our awesome clients, Window Depot USA of Richmond, Virginia!

We’re so grateful to work with such a great team that stuck it out with us through the heat, rain warnings, technical difficulties, and overhead planes that made entirely too much noise! A huge thank you to Frank, Laura, & the whole incredible Window Depot team, PLUS the folks over at Showcase Richmond for making it all possible!

06/10/2026

You’ve hit the ceiling. Doing marketing yourself — or splitting it among your sales and ops team — is costing you time, focus, and probably real revenue. The obvious next move feels clear: hire a Marketing Director.

You look at a salary range of $85,000 to $130,000 and think it’s workable. But here’s what most people don’t account for: the true, fully-burdened cost of a full-time marketing hire in 2026 is typically $50,000 higher than the number on the offer letter. That $107,500 midpoint hire almost always crosses $160,000 once you add up everything it actually takes to support a full-time marketing leader.

Before you post the job listing, it’s worth doing the real math.

You’ve hit the ceiling. Doing marketing yourself — or splitting it among your sales and ops team — is costing you time, focus, and probably real revenue. The obvious next move feels clear: hire a Marketing Director.You look at a salary range of $85,000 to $130,000 and think it’s workable. Bu...

05/27/2026

Summer has a way of sneaking up on businesses that were too busy to plan for it. One week you’re in the middle of a solid spring, and the next you’re looking at a calendar full of gaps and wondering where the momentum went.

For many small businesses, particularly in service, home improvement, legal, financial, and B2B industries, summer brings a predictable softening in demand. Decision-makers are on vacation. Budgets are under review. The sense of urgency that drives Q1 and Q2 activity tends to ease up. Maybe you are familiar with this summer marketing seasonal swing?

The businesses that handle this well aren’t the ones who panic in July. They’re the ones who used May and June to get ready. They also don't pull back and put their head in the sand from December to February, they have a plan that holds them up. Here’s how to do that.

Summer has a way of sneaking up on businesses that were too busy to plan for it. One week you’re in the middle of a solid spring, and the next you’re looking at a calendar full of gaps and wondering where the momentum went.For many small businesses, particularly in service, home improvement, leg...

05/13/2026

The word “funnel” gets thrown around a lot in marketing conversations. Draw a triangle, label the top “awareness” and the bottom “conversion,” and suddenly it looks like a plan. But for most Richmond small businesses, the concept of the funnel isn’t the problem. What’s missing is the strategy to fill it, connect it to sales and operations, and actually measure whether it’s working.

The word “funnel” gets thrown around a lot in marketing conversations. Draw a triangle, label the top “awareness” and the bottom “conversion,” and suddenly it looks like a plan.

05/01/2026

Back in February, this article from Retail Dive caught our eye, which now feels like it is defining the 2026 customer landscape: the Functional but Fragile consumer.

We’re not talking about consumers who CAN’T afford to spend. These are real people who are tired of spending and waiting for the other shoe to drop. Two months since we first ran into this idea, the data from our clients in Home Improvement, Auto Repair, and SaaS is clear: if you want to win today’s consumer, you have to lean into the M.O.M. Method.

Back in February, this article from Retail Dive caught our eye, which now feels like it is defining the 2026 customer landscape: the Functional but Fragile consumer.We’re not talking about consumers who CAN’T afford to spend. These are real people who are tired of spending and waiting for the ot...

04/30/2026

Most companies reach a point where they outgrow "DIY" marketing but aren't quite ready (or have the resources) to hire a full time CMO or a massive agency.

That is exactly why we built Wabash & Lake.

We step in as your fractional senior marketing team. We handle the strategy, the media buying, and the ex*****on so you don't have to manage five different freelancers or wonder if your ads are actually working.

We’re a group of real people who love what we do. We take the work seriously, but we try not to take ourselves too seriously (as you can see from our Pixar alter-egos).

If you feel like your marketing has hit a ceiling, we’d love to help you break through it.

Send us a Message or visit our website ---> https://lnkd.in/eSy-DKrV to see if we’re a good fit for your team!

04/29/2026

I want to be upfront about something: I own a marketing agency. So when I say the traditional advertising, media, and marketing agency models are broken, I’m not throwing stones from a safe distance. I’m saying it as someone who spent years inside it, watched it up close, and eventually decided the only way to fix it was to build something different from the ground up.

When I say the traditional advertising, media, and marketing agency models are broken, I’m not throwing stones from a safe distance.

04/21/2026

🦁 Spotted: W&L in the Wild (and in 804 Travel Gear!)

There’s nothing we love more at Wabash & Lake than getting out from behind the desks and onto the front lines with our clients. On Friday night, we traded our "suits" for 804 Travel - Sports Team Travel & Accommodations to celebrate the Chesterfield Sports Hall of Fame, and let’s just say we wore it with pride.

From the moment we walked in, it was clear that Chesterfield County (shoutout to J.C. Poma) has built something special. The room was packed with the future of sports leadership.

It was an electric night, and being there to witness the impact our partners at 804 Travel - Sports Team Travel & Accommodations and SINA Hospitality are making in the community was a massive highlight for our team.

We had a blast representing the brand in the crowd. It wasn’t just a "great event" it was a reminder that when you combine top-tier hospitality with a passion for youth sports, you create something unstoppable.

We are honored to be in the corner of 804 Travel and SINA Hospitality as they continue to redefine what the sports travel experience looks like.