Two people – Craig Brooks and Caitlin Smith – who do the work every day (one in brand design, one in marketing) dig into the real questions business owners are asking, with honesty about what actually moves the needle.
Everybody tells you to start a newsletter. Nobody tells you who you're supposed to send it to. Caitlin opens with the frustration every founder hits when they sit down to write to an empty list, and from there we get into why email is still worth it, what makes one worth opening, and what to do if you're starting from zero.
What We Cover:
Email isn't dead: open rates still average in the high 20s to low 30s, and you own the list in a way you'll never own a social feed
Why "an update about our business" shouldn't lead your newsletter, and what should
Caitlin's rules for an email people actually read: one to three minutes, mobile friendly, big text, white space, and clear beats clever
The newsletters we never miss (Daily Dad, James Clear's 3-2-1, Mozi Money Minute, Maker Division) and the ones that lost us
Starting from zero: pairing email with social, and why the freebie isn't dead if the thing you're giving away is actually good
The One Thing: If you have clients, you have a list. Send them something useful with no ask attached, and keep doing it. Give more than you ask, and don't fail and bail after two sends.
Craig Brooks is CEO of Clarity Creative Group. Caitlin Smith is a brand designer and strategist. New episodes dropping soon. Follow Vibe Marketing wherever you listen to podcasts.
12 Oct 2026
Just Show Up: Building Trust One Handshake at a Time
Social media and AI are table stakes now. So why is the most valuable marketing move still walking into a room and shaking a hand? We sat down with Milna Maldonado of T&G Constructors, who has spent her career in business development and now works in an industry where a lot of people have been burned, to talk about how trust actually gets built and kept.
What We Cover:
Why Milna thinks marketing runs in eras, like fashion, and why the old school tools keep coming back
Her advice for your first networking events: go to all of them, and don't try to sell anything
Marketing feeds you your leads, but brand feeds your marketing: Caitlin on core values your team can actually act on
Why existing clients need different treatment than new ones, and why happy clients and employees are the cheapest marketing you have
Joining a chamber committee: Craig kept saying no for months, and Milna explains what he was missing
The One Thing: Go to the event and leave the pitch at home. Have a real conversation, listen to what the other person has to say, and let trust do the work. Everything else follows from there.
Milna Maldonado is Client Relations and Marketing Manager at T&G Constructors, a Central Florida contractor serving clients since 1987 with offices in Orlando, Miami, Palm Beach, and Kissimmee.
Connect with Milna:
Email: mmaldonado@t-and-g.com (mailto:mmaldonado@t-and-g.com)
Phone: 407-352-4443 (tel:4073524443)
Website: www.t-and-g.com (https://www.t-and-g.com/)
Craig Brooks is CEO of Clarity Creative Group. Caitlin Smith is a brand designer and strategist. New episodes dropping soon. Follow Vibe Marketing wherever you listen to podcasts.
5 Oct 2026
SEO Is NOT Exactly Dead
People have been saying "SEO is dead" for over a decade. After his second trip to Brighton SEO, Craig thinks they're partly right this time, but AI isn't the main reason. Craig and Caitlin talk about what actually changed, the new job title that caught Craig off guard, and why knowing your customer matters more now than it ever has.
Why Craig puts Google's own changes, not AI, at about 70% of what disrupted search, and why 68% of searches now end without a click
"Marketing engineer": the new role that came out of the conference, and what it says about where marketing is going
Caitlin's carrots-in-the-spaghetti story, and what it teaches about giving customers what they need in a form they'll actually take
Using SparkToro to find the podcasts, publications and Reddit threads where your customers really spend their time
The problem with conference talks: some are six months behind the tools already in your hands
The One Thing: Redo your customer research instead of working from an avatar you made four years ago. Figure out where your customers actually look for answers, whether that's Google, ChatGPT, YouTube or LinkedIn. Focus on those places and drop the rest for now.
Craig Brooks is CEO of Clarity Creative Group. Caitlin Smith is a brand designer and strategist. New episodes dropping soon. Follow Vibe Marketing wherever you listen to podcasts.
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