Look, I've been doing this for nearly 15 years. My team and I have helped companies generate well over $300 million in revenue. And here's what I've learned: the most challenging part of what we fix isn't the tactics, the channels, or even the technology, it's the belief systems of the founders, CEOs, and heads of marketing.
Things are changing at a speed that's honestly obnoxious right now. ChatGPT has just launched Atlas, its brand-new browser. Perplexity dropped Comet. AI overviews are completely transforming how search shows up on Google.
And social media? It's not really "social" anymore, it's interest media.
If you don't address these false beliefs before we head into the new year, you'll likely remain stuck. Or worse, you'll decline.
I'm not suggesting all 12 of these apply to you. But stick with me, because at least one of these is costing you real money and momentum right now.
This is the AI trap everyone's falling into right now.
With tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini making it easier than ever to pump out content, business owners are sending their marketers to... create. More posts, more videos, more blogs.
But here's the reality: outputs don't equal outcomes.
You can post three times a day on LinkedIn and get zero clients if you're not thinking about:
I'm not anti-content. I'm anti-strategy-less content that wastes your time and energy.
Almost everyone who reaches out to our agency says this. "Darrell, we need more leads."
But when we dig in, here's what we find most of the time: it's not a volume problem, it's a conversion or follow-up problem.
You've got:
This is why we believe in a bottom-up optimization approach. Start at the bottom of your funnel:
Work your way back up. Optimize what you already have before you pour more leads into a leaky bucket.
It's easy to get distracted.
You see someone crushing it on TikTok, or a competitor's YouTube channel blowing up, and you think, "We need to be there too!"
But here's the truth: you must have a strategy and messaging framework that's right for YOUR brand first.
Complexity is the enemy of progress. Even the most prominent brands shouldn't be trying to win on all 7, 8, or 9 platforms available today.
The goal is to narrow it down to one or two channels that actually make sense for your business and dominate there.
Stop chasing shiny objects. Double down on what works.
I've sat in too many strategy sessions where the CEO tells me they wrote a check, signed a contract with an agency, and then... disappeared.
Listen, I get it. You've got a business to run. You may be practicing law, running operations, or handling the technical side of things. But here's what I need you to understand: you can't abdicate leadership, even to the best marketing agency in the world (including ours).
You don't have to understand every tactic. What you do need is a captain on your team working with us.
If you don't want to be that person, fine, but you have to assign someone.
At our agency, when a CEO is too busy, we have a cadence and rhythm to keep you informed of every decision we're making. But you can't just write the check and ghost.
You know the old saying: "If you build it, they will come."
It's not true. And you already know it.
I'll never forget this soul food restaurant that was literally two and a half minutes from my apartment. Amazing food. Phenomenal. And I didn't know it existed until they were going out of business.
If you don't have a model for making people aware of who you are, what you do, why you do it, and where they can get it when they're ready, it doesn't matter how good your product is.
The market doesn't care about quality if they don't know you exist.
I hear this all the time. Business owners brag about how little they spent on marketing. Or worse, they cut marketing when things get tough.
Here's what I believe: if marketing is done right, it's a growth engine, not an expense.
I think it was Henry Ford who said, "The person who stops marketing to save money is like the person who stops their clock to save time."
If you don't have a consistent line item for marketing, whether it's working perfectly or not, it tells me you're not genuinely invested in growth.
Branding is important. Don't get me wrong.
However, here's what I've observed repeatedly: obsessing over your website redesign or logo refresh can delay your growth and keep you stuck.
One of the most significant mindshift moments we bring to clients is this: spend your time and money working on your offer and your customer acquisition journey, not on colors, pixels, and fonts.
We often postpone a website redesign for 6-12 months so we can prove that the offer, buyer's journey, and conversion model actually work. This approach has saved clients tens of thousands of dollars. In one case, we saved a client over $100,000.
Get the fundamentals right first. Then make it pretty.
AI is moving at an unreal speed right now. The pace of change is obnoxious.
But we can't put our heads in the sand. When ChatGPT launched and we went all-in starting in 2023, we saw unbelievable improvements:
You've got to learn where to integrate AI into your business right now. I get it, you need help, and it can feel overwhelming. You also need to ensure it's not siloed in one department.
The companies that delay will be left behind. Period.
Here's the reality: salespeople are great at converting demand, not generating demand.
Some rare individuals can go out, build relationships, do the marketing, and close the deal end-to-end. But most salespeople? They're closers. They convert existing demand.
That's where marketing and sales must work together. We spend a significant amount of time on marketing and sales alignment with our clients, as that's where the magic happens.
Over the last 14-15 years, approximately 80% of people reaching out to our agency have asked us to drive more traffic.
Back in the day, it was all about SEO, "Get us on the first page of Google for these keywords!"
However, here's what they don't understand: simply ranking or increasing traffic, whether through paid media or organic efforts, isn't necessarily going to drive more business.
Why? Because there are four different reasons people search the internet:
If you're only optimizing for transactional keywords without having the right message at the right time for the right person, more traffic won't save you.
I've seen this too many times. Founders and CEOs built a sales engine, perhaps a frontline sales team pounding the pavement, cold calling, and making drop-bys, so they put marketing on the back burner.
Here's the hard truth: if you don't prioritize digital marketing today, you'll stagnate and ultimately decline.
By the time you realize you need to take it seriously, it could be too late. Your competitors who started earlier will have a massive head start.
I just had a meeting with a company that's been in business for over 20 years and has multiple eight-figure assets.
They've done everything the traditional way, and when they say "marketing doesn't work in our industry," what they really mean is: "We don't know how to do it effectively online."
Here's what I tell them: every industry has a buyer's journey that starts online today. The goal is to understand the psychology behind what your buyers are doing now that they weren't doing in the past.
It doesn't mean your offline strategies don't work. It means you need to adapt.
After nearly 15 years and enough client meetings to fill a warehouse, here's what I know for sure: we're fighting mindset more than we're fighting tactics and strategy.
We've got enough to deal with, Google's changes, Perplexity, ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Meta, Instagram, Bluesky, X (Twitter), you name it. There's enough chaos on the platforms we don't own.
We'd better be aligned on these mindset issues in our own room when we're building strategies to execute together.
I've thrown a lot at you. Twelve false beliefs that I see holding back even the most innovative founders and CEOs.
My question for you is simple: Which one resonates with you the most?
Maybe it's the "I need more leads" trap. Perhaps you're guilty of thinking you can outsource everything and walk away.
Or maybe, just maybe, you've been putting off figuring out AI because it feels overwhelming.
Whatever it is, the first step to growth is recognizing the belief that's holding you back. Once you shift your mindset, the tactics get a whole lot easier.
These 12 false beliefs aren't just theoretical. They're real obstacles I've encountered in thousands of conversations over nearly 15 years of running a marketing agency.
The good news? Mindset shifts are faster than tactical overhauls. Once you recognize the belief that's holding you back, you can start making different decisions immediately.
Whether you work with us or not doesn't matter. What matters is that you challenge these beliefs before they cost you another year of growth.
A: Look at your CRM and pipeline. If you have leads that haven't been properly followed up on, or if your close rate is below 20%, you have a conversion problem, not a volume problem. Start there.
A: Start small. Use ChatGPT or Claude to help with content ideation, email drafts, or ad copy variations. Don't try to overhaul everything at once. Select one workflow that's consuming time and automate or augment it with AI.
A: Run ads first. Test your offer and messaging with a simple landing page. Once you've proven the model works and are converting leads profitably, then invest in the whole website overhaul.
A: It depends on your industry and growth goals, but most successful companies allocate 7-12% of revenue to marketing. If you're in growth mode, that number can go higher. The key is consistency, not cutting it when things get tight.