I have a mildly disappointing confession about being a marketing executive:
A surprising amount of my job is incredibly boring.
Spreadsheets.
Naming conventions.
Email segmentation.
Approval systems.
Analytics.
Budgets.
Workflows.
Content calendars.
And an alarming amount of time spent figuring out which file called FINAL_FINAL_v3 is, in fact, final.
But I've started believing this is one of the biggest differences between organizations that do marketing and organizations that manage marketing as a business function.
Creativity needs infrastructure.
Otherwise your creative people spend half their time solving emergencies the organization manufactured for them.
I wrote about something I'm calling marketing debt, why my Monday-morning analytics ritual matters, and the interesting point where the CMO's responsibilities start colliding with the COO's.
Because sometimes the highest-value thing a marketing leader can do isn't create another campaign.
It's build the system that makes every campaign afterward better.
There is a big difference between tradition and “that's how we've always done it.”
I've been thinking about that a lot lately through my work with rodeos, agricultural organizations, festivals and associations.
Some things absolutely deserve protecting.
The history. The people. The community. The annual rituals. The things that make someone say, “This is ours.”
But the clunky registration system? The communication method nobody reads anymore? The process invented in 1997 because that's what the technology allowed?
Maybe not. 😉
My latest Western Insights Media article explores a framework I've started using:
Preserve the ritual. Modernize the delivery.
Because the goal isn't to make a 100-year-old organization look young.
It's to make sure it has a reason to exist for the next 100.
This article explores leadership, legacy, and community-building lessons drawn from the 100th anniversary convention of the Dude Ranchers Association. Milestone events like a centennial celebration are more than moments of reflection. They are opportunities to assess relevance, trust, and alignment within an organization.
Drawing on firsthand experience supporting this historic event, the piece examines what it truly takes to gather ranchers and operators who run 24/7 businesses rooted in land, livestock, hospitality, and people. Leaving a ranch to attend a convention requires meaningful programming, thoughtful curation, and a deep respect for members’ time and responsibilities.
The article also addresses one of the most complex challenges facing guest ranches and Western businesses today: succession planning. When a brand is deeply tied to its people, separating identity from operations becomes essential for long-term sustainability.
Through insights on leadership, strategy, and storytelling, this piece offers perspective for organizations navigating growth, transition, and the responsibility of carrying a legacy forward.
Companies aren’t just looking for marketers anymore — they’re looking for storytellers. As traditional media declines and audiences crave authenticity, storytelling has become a strategic business advantage, especially in Western, agricultural, and event-based industries where culture and community drive connection.
Nothing will boost your creator confidence like a Meta rep opening a call with: “So… how did you crack the code?” In this behind-the-scenes recap, I break down what Meta shared about the Edits app, trending Reels, real-time analytics, captions and “safe zones,” and why their best practice mirrors my own Instagram Trials Theory: test first, learn fast, and only then scale what works—without burning out or begging for likes.
Join us October 17-19, 2024, at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center for the Oregon Fairs Association's Annual Convention where the Western Insights Media team will present on Influencers Unleashed - the art of event amplification through strategic influencer partnerships. If you can't make the event, sign up to get a copy of the slides after the event and book a strategy meeting.
As a digital marketer, my obsession with Pinterest continues to grow as I continue to incorporate the platform into the strategy of many of my clients whose main digital focus' have been OTT, geofencing, blogging, influencers, commercials, print mediums, Meta Platforms, X, and TikTok. This might be the key that you've been looking for in your business strategy.
One of the things that I have loved watching lately is the uprise in women's college basketball in the media's eyes. As someone who wrote "Play in the WNBA" every single day of her journal through elementary school, seeing my friends, family, gym buddies, and colleagues as hyped about the game of basketball and the players I enjoy watching has been one of the best parts of 2024's March Madness.
As a former PAC10 (to date myself) and PAC12 (RIP to the Pac Conference), here are five ways that being a college (bench warming) athlete made me more successful in business.
A fractional chief marketing office (CMO) is an outsourced marketing executive who performs the function of a CMO without your company having to commit to a full-time, in-house marketing leader. Western Insights Media prides themselves on being one of the leaders in western based events regarding out-of-the-box marketing combined with the utilization of traditional marketing methods to reach both your current and new audience demographic.
When it comes to finding your audience where they are, it can be a bit of hard work but the rewards for that work will provide an efficiency and return on investment that social media oftentimes fails to create. Let’s dive into a case example for a country music festival where we stepped through a series of surveys to find a new-age demographic for the event post the COVID-19 pandemic to find young country music enthusiasts and curate experiential marketing around their interests.
If you're like me, you may have been holding out for as long as possible in regards to your Facebook business page staying the same as it has for the past few years but, alas, Meta won this battle by fault of ownership of the platform.
Last week, the remaining of my Facebook Business changes turned into Facebook Profiles, but not like a personal profile, a business profile. I wasn't sure what this was going to mean and here are some of my initial grievances:
Growing up as a sports kid I lived for the off season. It was my favorite time of year to get better and improve to come back in the next season at my absolute strongest and most talented. That doesn't change when it comes to the offseason for those of you producing events! Here’s a checklist of what you can do to strengthen your event during the off season!
Whether you enjoy going to the gym, have a long commute, or have loads of laundry to do every week - there’s always a time that you can escape into the world of audio whether that be in a book or a podcast. Podcast’s are a wonderful way that you can escape from the world, get your creative juices flowing, learn new concepts, or keep up with your favorite industries.
