What no one tells you about marketing until business gets quiet...

Once upon a time, in 2018, when I had just started working remotely, a client asked me a very reasonable question: “Do you have a website?”

This was after I had just designed her website.

And I said, “Erm… I don’t have time.”

To which she replied, “well the cobbler’s children had no shoes."

Three years later, I finally built my own site, out of necessity.

And suddenly, instead of explaining every single thing I did from scratch, I had somewhere to send people. My website became part of the ecosystem: a place where someone could understand my work, see my services, connect the dots, and decide whether they wanted to work with me.

Which is the point: your website is not just a digital brochure. It is one of your marketing channels. One of your touch points. One part of the path someone takes before they ever become a client or a customer.

One of the least sexy truths about marketing:

The best time to market was last month.

...because marketing rarely becomes urgent while business is good.

When referrals are coming in, existing clients are renewing, your calendar is full, and people already know your name, marketing feels optional.

You think: I’ll get to that.

And then suddenly one of your acquisition channels disappears.

Ask me how I know. 😭

Last year, Kajabi sunsetted Kajabi Experts, which had been one of my main sources of leads and clients.

For years, that ecosystem had done a lot of the discovery work for me. And after it disappeared? I was okay but not how I wanted it to be.

I had network referrals, recurring clients, past clients coming back, people who already knew me. So technically, business continued.

Meanwhile, I was sitting on calls with clients talking about marketing, funnels, nurture sequences, lifecycle marketing, customer journeys, lead generation, and audience growth.

You see where this is going.

The cobbler’s children had no shoes. Again.

My own authority engine was fairly quiet. Despite knowing I should be creating content.

I had a podcast* I was stubbornly trying not to let podfade into the abyss.

So I kept it alive. One episode at a time.

And lately, I’ve been bringing it back more intentionally.

You can’t keep selling to the same room.

A founder spends years building an email list, or starts with a substantial warm audience. I come in, help structure the course, shape the offer, map the launch, and build the email campaigns that support it.

We launch.

It works.

So naturally, they want to do it again.

...and again.

...and again.

Sometimes every couple of months to essentially the same people.

At first, the decline can be confusing, a client would ask, "why did fewer people enroll this time?"

Maybe the copy needs changing?!

Maybe the webinar needs changing?!

Maybe the price is wrong?!

Maybe Mercury is doing something unfortunate?

Or maybe…

you have been repeatedly selling the same thing to the same room (founders hate to hear this)

There is only so much demand you can extract from one audience without continuously introducing new people into the ecosystem.

And it gets worse when the campaign barely changes.

Same offer + same audience + same positioning.

Sometimes even the exact same email sequence from Launch #1 recycled into Launch #2 and Launch #3.

At some point, the people who wanted it bought it. The people who were almost ready may need a different reason, message, entry point, or timing. And the people who ignored it twice probably do not need the identical seven-email sequence landing in their inbox for a third ceremonial appearance.

It brought me back to something I’ve watched happen repeatedly across digital businesses: Audience fatigue is real(!!!)

And no, the answer is not necessarily MORE CONTENT!!! This is where I want to separate useful marketing from internet noise. Because “content is king” has become one of those phrases people repeat until it almost means nothing. Posting constantly, being everywhere, producing seven reels, fourteen carousels, and a partridge in a pear tree every week is not automatically a strategy. You’re not creating content just for the sake of showing up.

The real objective is much simpler:

Keep creating new paths into your world.

That could be:

• search

• partnerships

• referrals

• podcasts

• newsletters

• social media

• YouTube

• guest appearances

• events

• collaborations

• lead magnets

• communities

• paid acquisition

• good old-fashioned conversations

The channel matters less than the principle. You cannot depend forever on the people who already know you. And you definitely do not want to discover that your acquisition system has stopped working after you desperately need new business.

Marketing needs traction.

Alex Hormozi has said some version of this idea: when times are easy, that is when you should be going hard.

Because when business is good, marketing feels unnecessary.

But I've seen this so many times now, I have heard this so many times.

That is precisely when you have the freedom to do it well.

You can experiment without desperation. You can build relationships without immediately needing something from them. You can create lead magnets or resources for free. You can create content without mentally attaching an invoice or offers to every post.

You can grow an audience before you need that audience to rescue the quarter. You can build the second acquisition channel before the first one disappears.

That is the lesson I am taking into the next iteration of my own business.

Not: Post more

Not: Become an influencer

Not: Feed the algorithm until it finally loves you back.

1. Never allow your current success to convince you that future discovery is already handled.

2. Do not assume your current audience (or worse, cold audience) are also your future pipeline.

3. Your current mailing list is not an endlessly renewable resource (and this is also why you must increase the LTV of your current audience/customers/clients, this is for the next newsletter). Your referral network is not guaranteed infrastructure.

4. Your best acquisition channel can disappear because another company changes its strategy on a random Tuesday.

Build while things are good. Keep new people entering the ecosystem. Keep giving people reasons to stay once they arrive.

For the love of God, if you spend your days building everyone else’s business infrastructure… occasionally check whether your own children are still barefoot.