<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Clever Jay]]></title><description><![CDATA[Clever Jay]]></description><link>https://www.cleverjay.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 28 Aug 2026 20:41:06 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.cleverjay.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[Marketing™ vs marketing … and How it’s All Marketing]]></title><description><![CDATA[There's Marketing and marketing, and both are the responsibility of Marketing(TM). A lot of people think of capital M Marketing, when they think about marketing, and mostly that means they think about advertising or paid demand gen. Digital, social, display, print, broadcast, syndicated ads. The M here actually stands for Money. But lower case m marketing, as practiced by Good Marketers(TM) is more than a monthly ad commitment. It's about going to market, one way or the other, and filling...]]></description><link>https://www.cleverjay.com/post/marketing-vs-marketing-and-how-it-s-all-marketing</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8e4e28836b1f3da5f9d033</guid><pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2026 02:24:59 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Doug Johnson</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[When You are Spec’ing Your First Pilot Deployments, Think Like a Seller]]></title><description><![CDATA[When you're setting up your first customer pilots, and establishing your success measures, try thinking like a seller. "If I could prove to you that this product could do XY and Z," (slaps hood) "would you drive this baby away?" (please, don't ever talk like this) An early-stage customer pilot can help a start-up test UI, features, and validate or challenge assumptions on product / market fit. But it’s also when you should start getting into a seller's mindset -- because that makes you think...]]></description><link>https://www.cleverjay.com/post/when-you-are-spec-ing-your-first-pilot-deployments-think-like-a-seller</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8e4db2b23c95114c722fa7</guid><pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2026 02:23:05 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Doug Johnson</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Scaling a Business Means Building the Right Team…. Again, and Again and Again]]></title><description><![CDATA[Scaling a business means constantly assembling the right team for the right time, to support your next step up. Over and over again. This doesn't always mean hiring new people onto your team, though you will need to do plenty of that. Assembling the right team for what's next should mean helping team members develop the skills they're going to need in order to excel in new or more specialized roles going forward. It should also mean inviting team members from other business units to bring...]]></description><link>https://www.cleverjay.com/post/scaling-a-business-means-building-the-right-team-again-and-again-and-again</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8e4d5476a0a4a55f35f401</guid><pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2026 02:21:06 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Doug Johnson</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Let’s Hear it for Builders!]]></title><description><![CDATA[Let's hear it for builders! They're the pioneers who join a startup in its early days, who rally around the vision, the promise, and the founders, and who want to do the work of building something new. They're that breed of curious, problem solving Swiss army knives that founders rely on to keep the plane in the air while they're still building it. In a startup, everyone is doing everything for the very first time, at exactly the same time. Maybe some on the team will have more experience...]]></description><link>https://www.cleverjay.com/post/let-s-hear-it-for-builders</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8e4ccfb23c95114c722dd7</guid><pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2026 02:18:48 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Doug Johnson</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[You are not In where you’re From]]></title><description><![CDATA[I  was about two years into my marketing leadership role at my last company, when my perspective took a sudden mental shift. Up to that point, I had the perspective that I was working for a software company that sold safety solutions to trucking companies. And then suddenly, everything shifted, and I realized that actually, I was in trucking. That mental shift made me realize a few really important things: Trucking is a fantastic industry, with great people, and a million problems that are...]]></description><link>https://www.cleverjay.com/post/you-are-not-in-where-you-re-from</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8d1a7a91ea1d0846e38e8a</guid><pubDate>Tue, 25 Aug 2026 04:32:30 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Doug Johnson</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Sometimes, Marketing Works]]></title><description><![CDATA["Sometimes, marketing works." I don't say this as a coin-flip of a promise, but as an operational sanity check: what if this works? Because sometimes, marketing works. Are we ready for it if it does? Sometimes a marketer will be asked to launch a lead gen campaign -- to promote a special offer, or attract customers through a new partner, or maybe drive downloads -- by putting up a link somewhere and driving traffic to a landing page. And the answer should generally be yes, we can absolutely...]]></description><link>https://www.cleverjay.com/post/sometimes-marketing-works</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8d19b68c800d51388dfbf0</guid><pubDate>Tue, 25 Aug 2026 04:28:59 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Doug Johnson</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Marketing is Like Flocking Birds]]></title><description><![CDATA[There are three things about marketing: Sometimes, marketing works. Marketing is like flocking birds. There are more than three things about marketing. I've been in marketing for a big chunk of my life, and often when I work with small or scaling companies, I'm approached for marketing help because a company thinks they have a marketing problem. But often, they don't. Marketing is like flocking birds. You wave your arms in the air and yell, to grab the attention of birds flying by. "Hey! Over...]]></description><link>https://www.cleverjay.com/post/marketing-is-like-flocking-birds</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8d18068c800d51388df7c3</guid><pubDate>Tue, 25 Aug 2026 04:26:05 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Doug Johnson</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>