You can have a million followers on TikTok and still play to an empty room. Trevor Grimes talks to Wanda Wesolowski about the reality of building a career versus chasing a viral moment. Wanda explains that if you can find 100 people who will always buy your record or merch, you have a sustainable career. She breaks down her approach to "physical" branding with the Wanda Van and why she refuses to rely solely on 15-second clips to prove her talent.

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This conversation bridges the gap between B2B strategy and the raw, emotional approach of an independent artist. Wanda discusses the anxiety of hitting publish, the importance of longevity over quick hits, and how she took advice to lean into her queer identity to finally find her true audience in the South.

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Guest Bio

Wanda Wesolowski is a singer, songwriter, and the manager of The Wanda Band based in Huntsville, Alabama. Known for her "iconic" and "catchy" Southern pop-rock sound, she has been a fixture in the local music scene since she was 14. She is a "spacemaker" who co-founded Boardman HSV and recently released the album Only Feeling. Wanda champions DIY production, sobriety, and queer joy through her music and community work.

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What We Cover

1. The Wanda Van as branding: How painting a Ford Transit Connect became a moving landmark in Huntsville and a better use of free will than driving a standard car.
2. The trap of viral metrics: Why getting 300,000 followers from a single viral video often leads to empty venues because the audience doesn't actually know who you are.
3. Performance vs. Content Creation: Wanda argues that recording a perfect 30-second take for social media does not prepare you to hold a room's attention or handle a soundcheck professionally.
4. Finding your specific crowd: How leaning into her identity as a gay woman helped Wanda connect with a dedicated audience that needed a space, rather than alienating listeners.
5. Longevity requires consistency: A look at Wanda's digital footprint from 2005 vlogs to today, proving that showing up over time matters more than immediate perfection.
6. Overcoming posting anxiety: Why you have to sit with the discomfort of vulnerability after posting and realize that 60% of the internet is just bots anyway.

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Resources Mentioned

1. The Wanda Band
2. Patreon
3. Pomplamoose & Jack Conte

What if your content isn't failing? It might just be unemployed. It lives online, but it doesn't have a job. It isn't creating conversations, leading to opportunities, or building toward anything specific.

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That aimlessness is scary. It is also wasteful because it looks like you are doing everything right from the outside. You are consistent. You are showing up. Yet, you are left asking what it was all for.

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In this solo episode, Trevor Grimes argues that content needs a job, not just better vibes or more polish. He explains why posting without purpose quietly burns people out and how to shift your focus from performance metrics to creative curiosity.

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Trevor explains how to use content pillars as boundaries to save your energy. He also covers how to set goals that actually support your business—such as having thoughtful conversations or clarifying your thinking—rather than chasing follower counts that stifle creativity.

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What We Cover

1. Why content needs a job: Every piece of content should answer the question: "What is this here to do?" It could be to start conversations, clarify thinking, or attract a specific type of person.
2. The real cause of burnout: Burnout doesn't usually come from doing too much. It comes from doing things that feel aimless or from putting effort in without direction.
3. Content pillars as boundaries: Pillars aren't just topics. They are how you decide what not to spend energy on. Ideas must earn their way into your story.
4. The Note Card Method filter: Before turning an idea into content, ask one question: "Does this belong in the story I'm telling right now?"
5. Goals that don't kill creativity: Avoid goals that suffocate you, like arbitrary follower counts. Choose goals such as deepening your understanding of a topic or aligning yourself with a specific problem you solve.
6. Performance vs. Curiosity: Performance asks, "How did this do?" Creative curiosity asks, "What did I learn?" The latter keeps you moving.
7. The Creator Transformation: Becoming someone who notices ideas instead of forcing them, and creates without waiting for permission.

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Resources Mentioned

1. Previous Episode: How to Create More Content (referenced for volume strategies).
2. The Note Card Method: Referenced as a tool for filtering ideas (Check previous episodes/videos).
3. 30-Day Content Sprint: Available in the show notes (referenced in outro).

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Low-Tech, High-Impact Account-Based Marketing

If you’re ready to trade expensive, tech-heavy account-based marketing for a repeatable, revenue-driving ABM program, check out Scrappy ABM. Led by a team of Scrappy ABM experts, they specialize in low-budget plays and programs that deliver high impact—no shiny tools required. Scrappy ABM has built account-based programs that have delivered millions in revenue,...

What was the reason that you kinda sucked at creating content in 2025? Not fear, not imposter syndrome or perfectionism, not a lack of confidence—just friction. The moment you finally have time to create, you sit down, and you don’t know what to work on. Doubt creates delay, delay creates guilt, guilt turns into avoidance, and suddenly weeks go by, and you haven’t even opened LinkedIn or Instagram.

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Trevor Grimes keeps it simple: create more content in 2026 by designing systems that make creation the default. The note card method is a thinking tool—one idea per card, organized and labeled so you reduce decision-making anxiety later. Then the 30-day Content Sprint replaces overthinking with movement: proof that you can finish things, publish things imperfectly, and survive low engagement. Finally, design your environment so content is always one decision away—sit down and press record.

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What We Cover

1. The real reason that content dies: you finally have time to create, you sit down, and you don’t know what to work on
2. Fear shows up after something else fails: doubt → delay → guilt → avoidance → weeks go by
3. “That’s not necessarily a confidence problem… that’s an idea storage problem.”
4. The note card method: physical note cards, one idea per card—thought, question, frustration, something you learned, something you disagree with
5. Label and organize cards (story, lesson, hot take, how-to, question, behind the scenes) to reduce decision-making anxiety later
6. “You’re not building content… you’re just building inventory,” so the inventory removes panic for later
7. The 30-day Content Sprint: proof you can finish things, publish imperfectly, survive low engagement, and replace overthinking with momentum
8. Designing your environment so content is “always just one decision away”: keep the tripod ready, use the window/light, don’t negotiate with yourself—press record

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Resources Mentioned

1. Episode 19: “the note card method for endless content ideas”
2. The 30-day Content Sprint (Trevor says it’s free and he’ll link it in the episode description)
3. Platforms/tools mentioned: LinkedIn, Instagram, Notion doc, Excel, AI prompt library (as examples of what the note card method is not)
4. Set up tools mentioned: tripod, phone/camera, good lighting/window, multicolor pen/highlighter for color coordination

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Low-Tech, High-Impact Account-Based Marketing

If you’re ready to trade expensive, tech-heavy account-based marketing for a repeatable, revenue-driving ABM program, check out Scrappy ABM. Led by a team of Scrappy ABM experts, they specialize in low-budget plays and programs that deliver high impact—no shiny tools required. Scrappy ABM has built account-based programs that have...

Everything has to have a caveat. Every circumstance has to be accounted for. That’s the tension Trevor Grimes and Greg Toler keep coming back to: how to make content that actually matters, while still being practical, structured, and worth someone’s time.

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Greg talks about shifting from managing content teams to actually writing again—and realizing how different that muscle is. Trevor shares how Greg’s “context sandwich” changed his own writing: if you stop in the middle, you should know where you’re at and why you’re there. They go from open loops and closed loops, to flowcharts and yes/no questions, to the “cost of entry versus the benefit of entry.”

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Through it all, Greg’s two tenets remain simple: content should build trust and give value—and people buy from people.

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Greg Toler is a consultant on operations and go-to-market and the founder of BoostIdeal, an early-stage startup. He’s been consulting for almost 10 years and has worked in and out in a few different ways—most recently as the fractional COO at Scrappy ABM, transitioning into full-time, then back into fractional. He’s kicking off the new year doing full-time consulting and also full-time work on Boost.

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1. Why writing “very strategically” feels different than actually being in the writing seat—and why the same piece can take “hours” for one person and “days” for another
2. The context sandwich: “context to details, context,” so the reader knows where they are
3. “Open loop and closed loop” writing—mention it, close it, and don’t leave the reader hanging
4. “Write the way that I talk” vs. “structured and organized” content—and making a “boring blog” a “joy to read.”
5. Creativity as tone and style vs. creativity as “constructs,” “organization,” and “solving problems.”
6. Turning subjective decisions into objective ones: yes/no questions, flowcharts, and finding the bottleneck
7. Getting started with personal content: topic → subtopic → type, building something repeatable, and the “shame bone.”
8. “Content should build trust,” and “content should give value”—plus the conversion theory of cost of entry vs benefit
9. A real experiment that didn’t land: a bot with “super high value,” and the feedback that changed everything—“I didn’t come to work with your bot. I came to work with you.”
10. “Not playing tennis” with clients and why “awkward working sessions” are the point

Why would we spend time recording audio and leave it there when you can easily turn on your camera and start? Trevor Grimes is here with Benji Block to talk about video podcasts, trust building, and feeling like you’re a “fly on the wall” while Trevor and Benji are talking.

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Benji shares a simple content strategy: record a full season every six months, plus 30 minutes once a month to answer questions, cut video clips, and turn the rest into LinkedIn posts. The through line is pre-production: the stuff you do before you hit record—why you’re creating what you’re making, the first 30 seconds, titles, and thumbnail—so it’s less of a headache and more “you,” not an arms race for people’s attention.

Benji Block says he helps companies build impact through video. He’s spent the last five years helping build 55+ podcasts from scratch, and he’s coached 100+ business leaders on communication and using video to grow their businesses. Before that, he spent years in the agency and nonprofit church sectors, leading creative teams. In 2025, he launched his own venture through Signature Series, producing numerous video podcasts.

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• Podcasts in the business world skyrocketed when COVID happened, and a lot of people thought audio-only was “really easy.”
• Video is not for everyone—it depends on your strategy.
• “As soon as they can see your face,” there’s personalization: it feels like being a fly on the wall in the conversation.
• Two 30: record long-form content in a two-day sprint, then a 30-minute recurring meeting to ask 10 to 15 questions, cut clips, and turn the rest into LinkedIn written posts.
• “Your brain turns into mush” after too many topics—most people can’t record more than four in a day.
• Pre-production is the most important and often overlooked thing: hook / first 30 seconds/thumbnail/three to five different titles for YouTube.
• Three-by-three method: three main points and three mini points for each.
• Fear, curiosity, and desire drive people to click—and it’s not clickbait if the content is actually helpful and you deliver after that one line.

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• Scrappy ABM
• Chat GPT
• CapCut
• LinkedIn
• YouTube + YouTube Shorts
• TikTok
• Creator Hooks (Jake Thomas)
• My First Million (Sam Parr)
• Alex Hormozi + MrBeast
• iTunes
• Facebook
• Series of Unfortunate Events
• Jesus (parables)

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Low-Tech, High-Impact Account-Based Marketing

If you’re ready to trade expensive, tech-heavy account-based marketing for a repeatable, revenue-driving ABM program, check out Scrappy ABM. Led by a team of Scrappy ABM experts, they specialize in low-budget plays and programs that deliver high impact—no shiny tools required. Scrappy ABM has built account-based programs that have delivered millions in revenue, and you can build your first...

Content that actually resonates starts with telling the whole truth about what you can and cannot do right now. In this conversation, Trevor Grimes sits down with Tylor Jones, Director of Digital Acquisition at SIB Fixed Cost Reduction and 3X demand gen leader, to talk through category busting content, flopped campaigns, and building something that really matters.

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Tylor shares the long journey from 35 years of fixed cost reduction data to Spend Brain, a niche LLM that lets you “have a conversation with your spend,” plus how he borrows the B2C playbook, spends $100,000 a month on Meta, and uses UGC videos to make a complex offer feel simple.

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They walk through painful PLG and FBA reimbursement flops, the almond milk story, Reddit threads, cults, The Wandering Home Podcast, and why most teams under $20 million should stop chasing podcasts and ebooks and move the needle with honest structure, clear distribution, and real communities.

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Elder Emo, 3X demand gen leader, and self-described Gandalf of growth marketing, Tylor Jones is Director of Digital Acquisition at SIB Fixed Cost Reduction, a private equity–backed cost reduction and spend management firm. He builds and scales modern demand generation engines across high-growth B2B SaaS and B2B e-commerce, owning pipeline targets, budget, multichannel strategy, and executive-level reporting.

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Tylor also leads growth marketing for Getida, the largest FBA reimbursements auditor on the globe, and helps drive 3X inbound and 2X marketing-sourced pipeline. Outside of work, he co-hosts The Wandering Home Podcast, where a former pastor and a secular friend talk church, cults, and everything in between.

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• Content that actually resonates vs. content that just talks: why “stop mimicking and start making content that actually matters” is the starting point for both personal brand and company brand.
• Productizing fixed cost reduction into Spend Brain: how 35 years of enterprise spend data, an in-house AI and LLM, and “a conversation with your spend” turned a gray-hat-feeling service into extreme clarity for $100M+ businesses.
• Category busting content and the almond milk example: putting yourself “next to milk in the refrigerator” even when you don’t have to be there, fighting for that position, and using competitors’ categories as the comparison point.
• Borrowing the B2C playbook for B2B: why Tylor spends around $100,000 a month on Meta, runs UGC videos, blends product led and sales led motions, and treats category creation like a busy experiment instead of a static play.
• Two big flops and what they changed: a 10-video PLG onboarding series nobody watched, and an Amazon FBA reimbursement launch with a great deck, landing page, and CGO video—but weak distribution and wrong message order.
• UGC talent vs. “just use your webcam”: how Billo actors, stable spokespeople, consistent lighting, strong audio, and screen-cap product tours set the quality standard brands can’t drop below—while BDRs still use lo-fi 1:1 video in outreach.
• PLG, support, and that...

Free thing or paid thing? That tension sits at the center of this conversation about what makes content resonate and how to stop mimicking others and start making something that actually matters. Host Trevor Grimes and fellow marketer, content creator, and Scrappy ABMer Evan Cox walk through real examples of templates, guides, workshops, email sequences, and “ABM in a day” offers to figure out when to gate something, when to charge for it, and when to just give it away.

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Evan shares a simple line that shapes everything: “the highest motive brings the greatest motivation.” From lead gen CTAs that don’t default to “book a call,” to free products that unlock bigger, more expensive problems, they zoom in on relationship and revenue, quick wins, and logical reasons to ask for an email address. You’ll hear how to create the kind of content you want people to expect from you, why different is better than better, and how to move through crowded spaces like YouTube, Threads, and X without burning out or watering down what you do best.

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Evan Cox is a fellow marketer, content creator, and Scrappy ABMer who spends a lot of his time writing, creating, and designing content so brands stay well connected with their audience based on the content they produce. He and Trevor have worked together in a couple of settings and share a love for dogs (especially pugs) and back-and-forth riffs about Vietnamese food. Evan is also a huge football fan and brings that “different plays for different moments” mindset into how he thinks about account-based marketing, lead gen, and content offers.

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• How Trevor and Evan rethink traditional lead gen so every CTA doesn’t have to be “book a meeting” or “schedule a demo”
• Why a conversion can be as simple as a reply to an email, a question before a webinar, or a visit to your site—not just a booked call
• Different plays for free vs paid: starting with a free thing and turning it into a paid thing, or starting with a paid thing and later making it free
• How solving an immediate pain point with a product can unlock a bigger problem where you become the go-to problem solver
• Evan’s line: “the highest motive brings the greatest motivation”—and what that means for roofing guides, ABM workshops, and everyday content
• Trevor’s YouTube cohort story: offering a free email sequence template, then getting asked for a proposal and paid project from the same group
• Using logical reasons to request an email address (pre-registering kids, podcast Q&A, better estimates) so it feels like a benefit, not a trap
• Standing out in crowded spaces with “clear, compelling, and relevant” content and the idea that “different is better than better,” plus the “whereas our competitors…, we prefer to…” framing

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• Scrappy ABM (sponsor and ABM framework / “ABM in a day” workshop reference)
• StoryBrand (book and “StoryBrand guide” framework referenced by Trevor)
• Petfinder (used in Evan’s dog adoption example)
• Coke / Coca-Cola (Santa Claus and polar bear holiday billboard example)
• Amazon (as an example of a site with lots of paid products)
• Stand store (mentioned as a place to sell small guides)
• Gumroad (mentioned as a place to sell guides and products)

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Low-Tech, High-Impact Account-Based Marketing

If you’re ready to trade expensive, tech-heavy...

You block out time, sit down to batch content, open a blank document or camera app… and suddenly you’re deep diving on a Wikipedia page about soup spoons. That isn’t about talent. As Trevor Grimes says, creativity doesn’t die because you’re not talented. It dies because you sit down to create something and believe you have absolutely nothing to say yet.

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In this solo episode of The Content Crowd, Trevor shares the NoteCard Method, a simple, wildly tactical pen to paper system that became an absolute game changer for his content creation life and a fix for that “I’ve got nothing to post” panic. He walks through how a notebook and a stack of 3x5 or 4x6 cards can give you endless content ideas, make your process smoother, and help you stop treating content like a last minute chore.

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From perfectionism and procrastination to weekly brain dumps, categories, and deck sorting, Trevor shows how to hand yourself 20+ ideas in 10 minutes, recycle and remix posts that pop or flop, and destroy blank-page syndrome with a scrappy, no-tech, high-impact method.

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• Why creativity doesn’t die because you’re not talented, but because you sit down to create and think you have absolutely nothing to say.
• The real reason most creators quit: not content creation, but idea generation mixed with procrastination and perfectionism.
• How Trevor uses a notebook plus a stack of 3x5 or 4x6 note cards to move ideas from his brain to paper and never start from a blank page.
• The weekly 10–15 minute brain dump: one idea per card—stories, questions, lessons, frustrations, hooks, hot takes, tactical breakdowns, and behind-the-scenes moments.
• Using a legend card and simple labels like story, lesson, hot take, how-to, question, and behind-the-scenes (with highlighters or numbers) so you remember you need more than one type of content.
• Deck sorting: pulling specific mixes of cards (story, lesson, hot take, hooks, how-to) to build podcast scripts, long form videos, short form clips, blogs, emails, and posts on LinkedIn, Facebook, Threads, X, or Blue Sky.
• Recycling and merging cards so one or two “mediocre” ideas can turn into huge hits once everything is out on paper and you let yourself find a narrative arc.
• Using prompts like questions your audience always asks, mistakes you made early in your journey, stories from your work or creative life, things that annoy you about your industry, and skills or tools you wish somebody told you about sooner to instantly create a 25-card deck.

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• Scrappy ABM – Sponsor that helps you build repeatable account based marketing plays and teaches you how to do them so that you can bring ABM in-house when you’re ready.
• “Do Over” by John Acuff – The book where Trevor first saw a note card method used to create a personal job network and categorize people, resources, and ideas on cards.
• “Chris Talks Cash Flow” with Chris Brown – Conversation about budgets where the note card method for money helped Trevor see how note cards could map content.
• 30-Day Content Sprint / Content Creation Sprint – Trevor’s sprint that helps you come up with 20+ ideas in about 10 minutes and feeds directly into your NoteCard stack.

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Tools & Supplies Mentioned

• Notes app in your phone
• A physical ideation notebook or planner
• A stack of 3x5 or 4x6 note cards
• Sharpie pen and regular pen
• Highlighters or binder tabs for color coding and sorting

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If you struggle with running out of content ideas, the NoteCard Method is your no-tech,