The Economics of Marketing Leadership: A Buyer's Guide for $5M-$20M Businesses
You're scaling. Revenue is somewhere between $5 million and $20 million annually. You've outgrown the founder-led
Hayden Bond
20+ years in digital strategy. Based in Honolulu, specializing in AI discoverability and helping businesses build marketing that converts customers, not just followers.
Beyond the Click: Measuring Marketing Success in the Age of AI Retrieval
Your keyword rankings are up. Your SEO agency sends you reports showing position #1 for high-value search terms in your
From Town to Country: Navigating the Marketing Nuances of Hawaii's Island-to-Island Economies
Hawaii has the highest cost of doing business in the United States and the 4th highest first-year business failure rate
The Click Is Dead and You're Still Counting Corpses
On this page
Your analytics dashboard shows 4,200 visitors last month. Google Analytics confirms they stayed an average of
2026: The De-Branding of AI and the Consolidation of the Retrieval Layer
Introduction: From Thesis to Mechanical Reality
In January 2025, we established the Retrieval Layer as the foundational architecture for AI-mediated
The Modular Content Debate Misses the Actual Problem
On this page
On January 9, 2026, the industry experienced a brief, frantic collective shiver. Danny Sullivan, speaking from within
The Messy Middle: Why Hawaii Businesses Outgrow Agencies and When to Hire a Fractional CMO
On this page
You're growing. Revenue is up. You've hired a social media agency, brought on
BrandLight vs Evertune: AEO Platform Comparison
🚨January 2026 Update: Market Maturation and Platform Evolution
The Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) market accelerated dramatically in Q4 2025, with
AEO/GEO Tools Analysis: 24 Platforms Compared Beyond Marketing Materials - Because You've Been Searching for Them
Updated: 01/04/2026
🚨January 4, 2026 Update:
Comprehensive verification of all 24 AEO platforms reveals significant Q4 2025 market
When Impulse Stops Being Automatic: An Operator Brief on Marketing's Shifting Baseline
I. The Unnoticed Shift
The cart stays full. The checkout never happens.
Traffic holds steady. Engagement looks healthy. The email
What AI-Native Means in 2026 and Why Plate Lunch Collective Was Built for the Retrieval Layer
Table of contents
* What AI-Native Actually Means
* How Traditional Marketing Disciplines Feed the Retrieval Layer
* GEO, AEO, and Retrieval Mechanics
How to Get Your Business Found by AI: The 2026 Guide to Staying Visible in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Beyond
A software buyer sat in a quiet office with a legal pad half full of notes. They asked ChatGPT to
Why Advertising Got Emotional in 2025
The Ten-Day Problem
It was rainy season on Oahu, the kind where the clouds move sideways and the light can&
Generative Engine Optimization Framework for Shopify Merchants: What Actually Works
People no longer search the way they used to. Short clipped queries have turned into something closer to a confession.
The Farm & Agritourism Guide to Generative Engine Optimization
A Valley Where the Fields Set the Pace
I grew up in the Santa Maria Valley in California. Agriculture was
Generative Engine Optimization: Field Notes for Early Adopters
Someone at Webflow was looking at attribution data when they noticed something. Eight percent of their signups were coming from
The Rental Agreement You Never Signed
At 7:12 a.m., the analytics dashboard refreshes and the floor disappears. Yesterday, Hessel Broekstra’s YouTube channel had
The Loneliness Economy: How Solving for Human Connection Became a Marketing Strategy
The Surgeon General called loneliness an epidemic in 2023. That line should've rewritten every marketing plan in America.
Loyalty Slithered: What AI Teaches Us About Trust, Reciprocity, and the Brands That Keep Their Promises
Loyalty slithered through my childhood, changing shape in every room of the house.
My grandfather was a union grocery worker
When Half of Everyone Stopped Drinking
I wrote about payday cycles a while back. How most businesses market like everyone has the same amount of money
When Your Customers Have Money (But Your Competitors Don’t Know When That Is)
BoohooMAN didn’t rewrite a single ad. Didn’t touch their targeting. They just stopped spending when people were broke.
The AI Citation Arms Race: Why Your Optimization Tactics Have an Expiration Date
There's a coding bootcamp somewhere that lost 80% of its revenue because someone got mad at them on
Nobody's Scrolling Your Feed Anymore. They're Searching.
I was talking to a friend today about the recent Instagram changes. Users can now choose interests to fine-tune their
Stop Competing on Price: Why Authentic Brand Stories Beat Algorithm Hacks
Shadowbanned. Stuck in 300-view jail. Algorithm murdered your reach overnight.
Every business owner has a reason their social media or
Farm-to-Forgotten: When Your Web Marketing Catches Vibe But Misses Everything Else
A picture is worth a thousand words, they say, but your customers are scrolling past looking for the hundred words
Why SEO, Social Media, and AI Search Are Now Business Infrastructure (Not Marketing Tactics)
What business owners need to know about discoverability in 2025
There was a time when search engine optimization meant keywords.
How Many AI Agents Will Be Last-Minute Shopping This Holiday Season?
I grew up in the Santa Maria Valley, long before it became famous for BBQ tri-tip and wineries. Both had
Instagram Cracked the Spam Problem. Here's What It Means for AI Search
Last April, Mark Zuckerberg testified under oath during the FTC's antitrust trial against Meta. Kyle Chayka, writing in
SEO: No Digital Divide When AI Mediates Search
If you reached this post outside of a social share, you probably typed four keywords or less into a search
Social Proof in 2025: What Actually Works
Trust became a metric somewhere along the way. Engagement rates. Conversion velocity. Funnel optimization. As if people are water.
42%
Why 98% of Your Interested Customers Never Buy: Fixing Creator Conversion Funnels
You see a post from a creator you follow, someone whose judgment you trust about coffee makers or running shoes
The Impossible Math of Authentic Trust: A Business Owner's Guide to the Creator Economy
You open Instagram and there's someone, maybe 47,000 followers, maybe 180,000, holding a water bottle with