Thinking
Shorter observations from operating. Patterns noticed. Problems encountered. Lessons learned in real time.
The first business to respond wins more often than the best business to respond. This is uncomfortable because it suggests that operational speed matters more than operational excellence. Both matter. But if forced to choose, choose speed.
January 2026
Underfunding Google Ads is worse than not running them at all. You pay for the learning but never reach the scale where the learning pays off. Either commit to competitive spend or redirect the budget entirely.
December 2025
The bar for AI follow-up is not perfection. It is better than the alternative, which for most businesses is inconsistent or nonexistent follow-up. The 80% solution that happens reliably beats the 100% solution that happens sometimes.
December 2025
The desire to measure everything often leads to measuring nothing useful. Pick the three numbers that would change your behavior if they moved, and ignore everything else. The clarity is worth more than the coverage.
November 2025
Buyers do not experience funnels. They experience problems, searches, conversations, and decisions. The funnel is a useful accounting fiction, not a description of buyer psychology.
November 2025
Most landing page tests fail because they optimize the wrong variable. The page is rarely the bottleneck. The targeting, the offer, and the follow-up matter more. Test those first.
October 2025
Local search is the purest form of demand capture. The intent is explicit. The location is known. The need is immediate. If you cannot convert local search traffic, the problem is almost certainly downstream of the ad.
October 2025
Call tracking reveals what dashboards hide. The lead that looks perfect in the CRM is often confused, unqualified, or already working with someone else. Listen to the calls before optimizing the campaigns.
September 2025
For longer explorations of these ideas, see the essays.