Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Does ChatGPT Mention You at All?
For years, Google Search Console has been the mirror every business owner checked. How many times did we show up? How many people clicked? Now ChatGPT is building its own mirror, and a handful of other changes this month tell you a lot about where AI search is headed. Here are five updates worth knowing, […]
HMBT #315: 1,000 Five-Year-Olds with a 160 IQ
We have all been there. You look at your quarterly dashboards, see a spike in sales, and someone in the room immediately claims credit for their favorite marketing campaign. But what would have happened if you never ran that campaign at all? In this episode of the HMBT podcast, I sit down with James Sun, […]
HMBT #314: Email Is Still King
Every few years, someone in the marketing world tries to declare that email is dead. After knowing each other for over a decade and working through the trenches of digital marketing, my friend John W. Hayes and I are still here, we are both a little grayer, and email is stronger than ever. John is […]
5 Ways to Get Your Email Marketing Ready for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Black Friday and Cyber Monday show up on the calendar at the same time every year. Somehow, they still catch a lot of businesses off guard. Every brand under the sun hits the inbox at once, and the emails that get thrown together the week before tend to get buried, or worse, land in spam. […]
HMBT #313: Leveraging Other People’s Audiences
Leaving corporate America after 16 years taught me a big lesson: having an existing network and diverse income streams is essential. With so many professionals navigating career changes, layoffs, or launching their own consulting gigs, finding proven ways to grow without blowing a massive ad budget is critical. To help break this down, I sat […]
HMBT #312: Your Cookie Wiretapped Me
Business law might not sound like the spiciest topic we tackle on the podcast, but it might be one of the most critical. Too many entrepreneurs rush into the market excited to build, only to rely on advice from a friend or a quick prompt from an LLM. Before they know it, they are facing […]
In-Person Etiquette That Drives Long-Term Leads
Attending local events always reminds me why relationship-building is the real engine behind business growth. Yesterday, I attended the Alamance Leads group in Burlington, North Carolina. The group is celebrating its 18th year, led by Dick O’Donnell, known to everyone in the room as “the Man in Green.” There were 33 people in attendance, including […]
HMBT #311: Call Claude by its Government Name
On episode 311, I sat down for round two with Rion Haber, CSO of Catalyst Marketing Agency. We originally recorded this conversation earlier, but a tech hiccup meant the video did not capture. Rion was kind enough to return for a mulligan, and honestly, this conversation turned out even better. We walked away from rigid […]
Why Your Personal Brand Is Your Greatest Asset in 2026
For 16 years, I gave my time, energy, and passion to the corporate tech world. I helped thousands of businesses fix broken automations, understand email deliverability, and optimize their digital marketing strategies. During that entire stretch, something else was quietly happening on nights, weekends, and early mornings. I was building my own brand. I launched […]
Why Trust, Judgment, and Real Relationships are Winning in 2026
The other day I stopped at my local Panera to pick up my sip club drink and get some work done. I passed by a strip mall that had a travel agency in it. While the business signage was still there, there was a for lease sign in the window. When is the last time […]