⚡️ Ask Columbus Marketing Leaders a Question: www.Columbusmarketing.org/ask

In this Q&A episode of Marketing by Design, Andy Milligan answers real questions from marketers, fractional CMOs, and agency owners about what's actually driving growth right now. He breaks down why warm email beats AI-generated cold outreach, which LinkedIn content turns into client conversations, and the underused growth plays he's testing, from strategic podcasting to small, repeatable in-person gatherings. You'll also get his take on partner referral programs, how to stretch a $3,000 software and events budget, and two unpopular opinions about the marketing job market and freelancing that most people won't say out loud.

CONNECT WITH ANDY

🌐 Website: https://www.mmgdesign.net/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmilligan/

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Cold Email vs. Warm Email

03:39 LinkedIn Content Strategy

06:14 Fringe Growth Strategies

08:54 Partner Referral Programs

11:51 Software and Events Budget

15:59 Controversial Marketing Takes

TEAM

🎙 Host // Andy Milligan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/

🎥 Production // MMG Design: https://www.mmgdesign.net/

⚡️ Join a community of high-performing marketers: https://columbusmarketing.org

🔵 Our Healthcare Web Agency: MMG Studio: https://www.mmg.studio

Put your hand over the logo on most healthcare websites and you can't tell one practice from another. Matt Lee, managing director and co-founder of Strategy Collective, works with more than 30 private equity-backed healthcare platforms, and he says that sameness is about to get expensive. He breaks down why healthcare brands play it so safe, how to measure marketing against the schedule instead of the ad platform, and why phone number matching only gets you part of the way to real attribution. He also shares how Strategy Collective grew from two partners managing freelancers to a 55-person in-house team, and how they use AI as the brain of the agency without replacing people.

CONNECT WITH MATT
🌐 Website: https://www.strategyco.com
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewtlee/

CONNECT WITH ANDY
🌐 Website: https://www.mmg.studio
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmilligan/

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
00:41 - From agency partner to CMO to founder
01:33 - The board member who opened the door to PE healthcare
05:09 - Why they started as a collective of freelancers
06:00 - Scaling a vet group from 75 to 1,000+ locations
07:57 - Getting burned, then building a 55-person team in-house
10:10 - "It's not saving us people"
12:48 - Building the brain of the agency with AI
16:46 - Be the conductor, not the instrument
18:07 - How AI changed the way he answers RFPs
20:07 - Why every healthcare brand looks the same
21:45 - Outcompeting the doctor across the street
24:46 - The hardest problem in healthcare attribution
25:55 - Why phone number matching fails
27:37 - Booked, showed, paid: staging attribution
32:45 - Measure the schedule, not the ad platform
34:00 - "Physician-led" isn't a differentiator anymore
34:25 - How to use humor in healthcare marketing

TEAM

🎙 Host // Andy Milligan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/

🎥 Production // MMG Design: https://www.mmgdesign.net/

⚡️ High-Converting Websites Visual Swipe File: https://www.mmg.studio/visualswipefile

Is SEO dead now that AI search has arrived? Sophie Brannon, co-founder of StudioHawk US, says no, and she explains why the "SEO is dead" crowd has it backwards. She breaks down how AI search builds on the same foundations as traditional SEO, why those inflated AI traffic stats are misleading, and the SOURCE framework her team uses to get brands cited in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and beyond. She also shares how she went from journalist to SEO leader to co-founder, and why StudioHawk only hires "wholesome nerds."

CONNECT WITH SOPHIE
🌐 Website: https://studiohawk.com
🎓 Hawk Academy (free SEO and AI search training): https://hawkacademy.co
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophie-brannon-081bb294/
𝕏 X: https://x.com/SophieBrannon

CONNECT WITH ANDY
🌐 Website: https://www.mmgdesign.net/
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmilligan/

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
03:00 - From journalist to head of SEO
04:15 - She quit her job to live in a tent
06:35 - The phone call that made her a co-founder
08:23 - Why StudioHawk only hires "wholesome nerds"
13:37 - The biggest myth about AI search
14:55 - Ignore the 2000% AI traffic stats
15:40 - The SOURCE framework for getting cited by AI
19:37 - Voice search, featured snippets, and the shiny-object trap
28:11 - Why Americans buy SEO differently
32:32 - Why they'll never be a full-service agency

TEAM
🎙 Host // Andy Milligan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/
🎥 Production // MMG Design: https://www.mmgdesign.net/

Got a question about job search, careers, or marketing? Submit it for a future Q&A: https://tally.so/r/A7ZYql

In this solo Q&A episode, Andy Milligan answers the questions marketers have been sending him about building a personal brand, getting referrals, and landing jobs before they're posted. He breaks down why posting your work isn't enough, how to keep your voice in a sea of templated LinkedIn content, and how to make your resume, LinkedIn, and portfolio tell one consistent story. Then he builds and strategizes in public, sharing real cold outreach conversion numbers, a sales call that didn't close, and the brand stats he tracks to grow his business.

CONNECT WITH ANDY

🌐 Website: https://www.mmgdesign.net/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmilligan/

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Intro

02:17 - I did $26K last month as a solo marketer

04:14 - Nobody cares about your first post (and that's fine)

05:37 - The two-step move that built my entire business

07:28 - The post type that makes people trust you faster

08:05 - $350K from a channel with almost no subscribers

08:25 - Every LinkedIn post sounds the same. Here's the fix.

10:53 - Never gotten a job through someone you know?

14:13 - How to find jobs before they're posted

16:40 - Why I'd never use the Open to Work banner

17:02 - Your resume, LinkedIn, and portfolio are telling 3 different stories

20:25 - What happens when someone Googles you

24:17 - 30 cold videos, 2 sales calls, 0 closes (yet)

27:41 - Every brand stat I track, live

TEAM

🎙 Host // Andy Milligan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/

🎥 Production // MMG Design: https://www.mmgdesign.net/

📥 Get the full VA playbook and slide deck: https://www.columbusmarketing.org/va-workshop

Recorded live for the 10x Solo community, this workshop breaks down how I built a lean remote team from the Philippines, starting for less than $200 a month. I walk through where I found each team member, what I pay and why, and the exact tasks I delegate, from LinkedIn outreach and newsletter production to podcast editing and inbox triage. You'll also get my biggest delegation mistakes, how to vet candidates, how to pay international contractors, and why your assistant should be using AI. If you've been on the fence about hiring a VA, this is your roadmap.

CONNECT WITH 10X SOLO

🌐 Community: https://10xsolo.com

📰 Newsletter: https://10xsolo.substack.com

💼 Garrett Jestice: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrettjestice

CONNECT WITH ANDY

🌐 Website: https://www.mmg.studio/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmilligan/

⚡️ High-Converting Websites Visual Swipe File: https://www.mmg.studio/visualswipefile

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Intro

01:54 The workshop begins

05:30 Solo to a team of three

10:30 Agency vs. going direct

15:30 Why $8 an hour is 7x minimum wage

18:00 Start for $200 a month

22:00 The outreach system my VA runs daily

26:00 I edited 100 episodes alone. Never again.

29:00 The mistakes I wish I hadn't made

34:30 How to spot a high performer fast

37:00 My assistant texts my mom

41:00 Live Q&A

TEAM

🎙 Host // Andy Milligan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/

🎥 Production // MMG Studio: https://www.mmg.studio/

The best community for marketers on the internet: https://www.columbusmarketing.org

Hans Skillrud went from Groupon employee #100 to agency owner to acquiring a competitor to co-founding Termageddon, a privacy compliance SaaS he runs with his wife Donata. In this episode, Hans breaks down how niching down and buying out struggling competitors built his agency's growth, why he sold it to focus on Termageddon full-time, and why most website owners have no idea how much data their site is quietly collecting and sharing. He also lays out exactly what he'd do if he were starting a web agency today, from acquisitions to one-day builds.

CONNECT WITH HANS
🌐 Website: https://termageddon.com/
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hans-skillrud/

CONNECT WITH ANDY
🌐 Website: https://www.mmgdesign.net/
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmilligan/

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
00:00 - The Groupon job that started it all
02:19 - The cold call that accidentally launched a web design career
04:30 - 37 services down to one: the niche that changed everything
06:24 - How buying a struggling competitor fell into his lap
08:04 - Turning an acquisition into a six-figure pipeline with cold calls
12:26 - How he met his wife and co-founder, Donata
15:28 - Why he sold his agency to go all-in on Termageddon
18:50 - The data your website is sharing without you knowing it
21:15 - Inside the $30,000 SIPA demand letters hitting site owners
27:15 - His playbook to buy agencies with zero money down
33:10 - Why your current customers are your best growth channel
35:51 - What's next for Hans, and the move to Lithuania

TEAM
🎙 Host // Andy Milligan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/
🎥 Production // MMG Design: https://www.mmgdesign.net/

⚡️ Join the Columbus Marketing Organization: https://www.columbusmarketing.org

In this solo episode, Andy Milligan opens the books on MMG Studio's August 2026 performance — $26K in revenue, a growing enterprise client concentration problem, the studio's first-ever in-person networking event, and the exact subscriptions he's cutting to trim $700 a month in software spend. This is Andy's monthly retro format, run with full transparency on profit, loss, wins, and losses.

CONNECT WITH ANDY

🌐 Website: https://www.mmgdesign.net/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmilligan/

TOOLS I USE

💰 Monarch Money: https://monarch.com/referral/z41ilq6s8l?r_source=copy

📇 Folk CRM: https://try.folk.app/17t000urnxbb

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - The August retro nobody asked for (but you needed)

01:14 - Why I run these every month

02:30 - Opening the books: Monarch Money walkthrough

03:21 - $26K revenue, $378K lifetime, and where it's going

06:14 - The client concentration problem I created

12:14 - The $700 software bill I'm finally cutting

19:34 - My first in-person event: 21 people, 0 regrets

26:33 - The mistake costing me the most: mornings

30:27 - Goals for September and what's next

TEAM

🎙 Host // Andy Milligan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/

🎥 Production // MMG Design: https://www.mmgdesign.net/

🔥 Learn, Connect, and Grow With Other Marketers: www.columbusmarketing.org
💎 Our agency (Web + SEO): www.mmg.studio

Angela Troccoli is the Head of Marketing at Revecore and an award-winning marketing executive with nearly two decades leading go-to-market strategy across supply chain, healthcare, and digital commerce. In this episode, she breaks down why marketing goes wrong so often (hint: it's rarely the tactics), what pushed her to write her new book "Signals: Common Marketing Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them," and why AI is accelerating bad strategy just as fast as good strategy for teams that skip the fundamentals. If you lead marketing, sit on a board, or just got asked to "do more with the same budget," this episode gives you language for what's actually going wrong and how to fix it.

CONNECT WITH ANGELA
🌐 Website: https://angelatroccoli.com
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela1morel/
📖 Book: https://www.amazon.com/Signals-Common-Marketing-Pitfalls-Avoid/dp/B0H4DV7GFD

CONNECT WITH ANDY
🌐 Website: https://www.mmgdesign.net/
💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmilligan/

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Intro
00:07 - Why marketing goes wrong more than people think
01:36 - Marketing is a science, not pixie dust
02:19 - Everyone has a social profile, so everyone thinks they can market
02:52 - The off-the-record story about what a "campaign" actually is
04:47 - Founder-led content isn't lazy, it's strategy
06:03 - The monthly review and quarterly pivot process
07:15 - Leaving 20-30% of bandwidth for reactive news-jacking
09:18 - Building content around three personas, matched by who's speaking
12:11 - The mentor conversation that started the book
15:55 - Twenty interviews, one question: what mistake do you keep repeating?
17:19 - Why "mistakes" became "signals" instead
18:57 - The budget trap every board asks and every marketer falls for
21:34 - Giving marketers a resource to point to when they're the unpopular voice
22:20 - The uncomfortable chapter on restructuring and layoffs
24:16 - Angela's career path from supply chain to global product marketing
27:32 - Even Google, Airbnb, and Instagram make these mistakes
29:18 - Customer advocacy: the most underinvested function in marketing
31:39 - Rewriting the exit strategy chapter for optionality over IPO hype
34:11 - AI is a tool, not a colleague
37:06 - Why QA still matters even when AI is faster
40:00 - Where to find Angela and the book

TEAM
🎙 Host // Andy Milligan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/
🎥 Production // MMG Design: https://www.mmgdesign.net