In this episode of There Is No Plan B, Gabby sits down with marketing consultant and strategist Sarah Gemmell to give you a straight-up State of the Union for 2026 marketing.

If you’ve been hustling—posting on Instagram, networking, sending emails—but your revenue still feels like a rollercoaster (“I’m a bad bitch” one month, “Should I get a job?” the next 👀), this conversation is your reset button.

Sarah breaks down why the marketing you did in 2020–2022 doesn’t work the same anymore, how buyer behavior has changed, and why “just be consistent and provide value” is not a marketing plan in 2026. Instead, she walks you through how to think like a Chief Marketing Officer in your own business: looking at data, understanding buying behavior, and treating your marketing like a full ecosystem—not a random collection of posts.

• Why 2026 is a turning point for small business marketing (and why emotional FOMO-only marketing is dead)

• The difference between habitual marketing (“I just post on IG because I always have”) vs. intentional, data-driven marketing

• How to treat your business like it has a real marketing department, even if you’re a one-woman show

• Why relying only on Instagram, word of mouth, or one platform is putting your business at risk

• The three big questions:

  • Where are you getting visible?

  • How are you nurturing people?

  • How are you converting them?

• Why you should bootstrap manually at first (conversations, local networking, testing channels) before trying to automate everything

• How to decide which platforms to go all in on based on your strengths and your audience’s behavior—not what a guru says

• The real talk on courses, plug-and-play frameworks, and cookie-cutter strategies (and how to use them without handing over your power)

• Why most service providers don’t need thousands of buyers—just a few more right-fit clients per month

• Sarah’s biggest advice from “future you” in 2026: stay the course and give your strategy time to work

• Service-based entrepreneurs and solopreneurs who’ve been in the game for a bit and have proof of concept, but inconsistent sales

• Founders who feel like they’re doing “all the things” and still can’t predict their revenue

• Anyone who’s ready to stop chasing trends and start acting like the CMO of their own business

• Instagram: @sarahgemmell_

• Website: sarahjeanco.com
  Slide into her DMs or submit a contact form for a free clarity call to audit your marketing ecosystem and map out your next moves for 2026.