The day Aashna Makin's employer offered her a promotion, she quit, a decision that has looked more strategic with every year since.

She's gone on to manage over $75 million in paid media across 150+ niches, building a full-time practice from the ground up and recently sharing a panel stage with Danny at SMX Advanced in Boston.

In this episode, Aashna breaks down what separates paid ads that actually grow a business from ones that just burn budget, why lead gen is a fundamentally harder problem than e-commerce, and the one habit she wishes every junior media buyer would build from day one.

Episode Highlights:

• Aashna and Danny discuss why paid ads that drive real growth require a predictable, documented system, not just a well-structured campaign, and what happens to accounts built on checklists instead of strategy.
• She gives the B2B team-building example: how a campaign performing perfectly on every platform metric was creating a lead-quality problem that had nothing to do with the ads and everything to do with calendar availability.
• The reveal why lead gen is fundamentally harder than e-commerce in paid media, from messaging precision to seasonality to the scarcity of quality resources for practitioners working in the space.
• Aashna makes the case for pinning headlines, explaining why she hasn't been convinced by Google's arguments against it, particularly for businesses where a single wrong audience segment can poison the entire pipeline.
• The conversation details the ownership mindset: treating every dollar of ad spend as if it's leaving your own bank account, and why she considers it the single most important habit a new media buyer can build.

Episode Links:

• Aashna Makin on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/aashnamakin
• Website: reachaashna.com
• Sell Like Crazy by Sabri Suby: Available on Amazon
• SMX Advanced 2026 Panel, "Agentic PPC: What's Real, What's Hype, What's Next": searchengineland.com

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• Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com
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Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family:

• Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations.
• ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

This week’s guest, Sophie Brannon, details her first big move to London at 18 to chase a career in music journalism, landing concert tickets and festival passes as pay for her reviews at Kerrang Magazine. When the economics stopped working, she moved into a copywriter role at a digital agency and never left the industry, eventually becoming co-founder and director of StudioHawk US, one of the world's most respected specialist SEO agencies.

In this episode, Sophie traces that winding path from rock journalism to SEO leadership, breaks down the real signal inside the AI search noise, and makes the case for why genuine relationships remain the foundation of everything that works in this industry.

Episode Highlights:

• Sophie shares why the fundamentals of SEO, technical health, authoritative content, and brand signals are exactly what drive performance in AI search, and why the numbers never supported the "SEO is dead" narrative.
• Sophie details her initial refusal to move into an SEO role at 20 years old, explaining how her managers, who insisted she could do it anyway, set the entire trajectory of her career.
• She makes the case for treating AI search as an additional channel rather than a replacement, and explains why the real fix is to pull SEO into a holistic brand strategy it should have been part of all along.
• This conversation shares why StudioHawk turned away significant revenue by being honest about client fit, and why that honesty has become one of their strongest marketing assets.
• This episode illustrates what adaptability looks like in practice for an SEO agency leader as the search landscape changes in real time.

Episode Links:

• Sophie Brannon on LinkedIn: Sophie Brannon
• Sophie on Instagram: @sophiebrannonseo
• StudioHawk US: studiohawk.com
• Product Led SEO by Eli Schwartz: Available on Amazon

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Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor:

• Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com
• Instagram: @thedmmentor
• Linkedin: @thedmmentor
• YouTube: @thedmmentor

Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family:

• Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations.
• ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

In this solo episode, Danny Gavin reveals how he automated his Google Ads Search Query Report process using Claude Cowork and Windsor.ai, eliminating the 3-4 hours per account it previously took to complete manually. The system pulls live metrics, merges them by keyword and ad group, and outputs a structured Excel file with an ad group summary, KPI-focused observations, and pre-populated negative keywords.

It's a must-listen for those looking to systematize time-consuming account analyses and free up time to tackle other tasks.

Episode Highlights:

• Search query reports are one of the highest-leverage tasks in Google Ads management, and doing this job manually can eat up three to four hours of work per account per cycle.
• Danny shares how he connected Claude Cowork to live Google Ads data through Windsor.ai and turned Optidge's entire SQR methodology into a repeatable automation.
• He shares what the six-tab Excel output actually contains, including auto-generated observations, pre-populated negatives, and an ad group summary that flags structural problems before anyone looks at individual search terms.
• The 80/20 split: See what Claude handles automatically versus where human judgment still makes the final call.
• This episode gives four practical lessons for building AI automations in an agency context, from documenting your process first to understanding why the ROI compounds over time.

Episode Links:

• Digital Marketing Mentor Podcast
• Danny Gavin on LinkedIn
• Optidge
• Claude Cowork
• Windsor.ai

Send us Fan Mail

Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor:

• Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com
• Instagram: @thedmmentor
• Linkedin: @thedmmentor
• YouTube: @thedmmentor

Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family:

• Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations.
• ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

One bold "yes" rerouted Ashley Segura's career from local journalism into digital marketing, eventually leading her to Search Lab after 15 years across agencies, in-house teams, and companies she built along the way.

In this episode, we get practical about what actually makes marketing work, why the "one-stop shop" promise breaks agencies, how niching down improves delivery, and what real mentorship looks like beyond just inspiration. Ashley breaks down her tactical approach to ICP and persona development, using marketing audits and sales call transcripts to align stakeholders and prioritize revenue-driving channels.

If you're thinking about leading a marketing team in 2026 or building a marketing department from scratch, you'll walk away with frameworks you can apply immediately.

Episode Highlights:

• This episode tells the tale of how saying yes to an insurance agent's website request launched a 15-year career in digital marketing, and why fear is often a signal you're on the right path.
• Ashley shares the hard-knocks lessons from running four agencies: being a one-stop shop burns you out, and the narrower the focus, the better the results and the happier the clients.
• Ashley details the ICP development process she uses at SearchLab: pulling real customer language from call transcripts and letting the data replace gut-feeling arguments in stakeholder conversations.
• The conversation affirms that the best evergreen content serves multiple personas through an accessible, step-by-step structure, rather than trying to be everything to everyone.
• Ashley explains how to keep the ROI engine running while doing the invisible operational work that takes months but changes everything downstream.

Episode Links:

• Ashley Segura on LinkedIn
• SearchLab Digital Website

Send us Fan Mail

Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor:

• Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com
• Instagram: @thedmmentor
• Linkedin: @thedmmentor
• YouTube: @thedmmentor

Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family:

• Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations.
• ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

A lot of teams hit January with energy and end Q2 running on fumes. In this Office Hours episode, Danny opens the doors to Optidge's internal playbook with Operations Director Kelly A. Garcia and Head of People Operations Lauren Friedman.

Together, they break down how the agency prevents midyear drift, what it actually looks like to build a culture of transparency in a remote-first environment, and the frameworks Optidge uses to keep teams unified and accountable year-round.

An Optidge "Office Hours" Episode

Our Office Hours episodes are your go-to for details, case studies, how-to’s, and advice on specific marketing topics. Join our fellow Optidge team members, partners, and sometimes even 1:1 teachings from Danny himself, in these shorter, marketing-focused episodes. Get ready to get marketing!

Episode Highlights:

• This discussion unpacks why momentum fades mid-quarter, not mid-year, and how Optidge builds intentional reset points four times a year to reignite it.
• Lauren details the “Share the Legos” concept: why giving away knowledge and process is the only real way to scale, and how to shift the team mindset to embrace it.
• Kelly shares the two key KPIs she watches every day, and what they tell her about when a mid-year pivot is actually necessary.
• The pair reveals how and why Optidge uses letter grades, single quarterly rocks, and clearly defined "done" criteria to keep goals from becoming noise.
• This episode emphasizes why context is non-negotiable in a remote agency, and what happens when leaders fill the silence instead of leaving teams to fill it themselves.

Episode Links:

• Digital Marketing Mentor Podcast: Optidge.com/tdmm
• Connect with Kelly A. Garcia on LinkedIn: Kelly A. Garcia
• Connect with Lauren Friedman on LinkedIn: Lauren Friedman

Send us Fan Mail

Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor:

• Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com
• Instagram: @thedmmentor
• Linkedin: @thedmmentor
• YouTube: @thedmmentor

Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family:

• Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations.
• ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

Purna Virji is back on the Digital Marketing Mentor for a second round, and this time she's talking about the intersection of AI strategy and executive content, two elements of content marketing that are transforming consumer trust and loyalty.

Since Episode 62, Purna has expanded her role at LinkedIn to Applied AI Strategy Lead, and she brings that lens to a conversation about why human storytelling has never been more valuable. Plus, she details how AI fits into the equation without replacing the voice behind it.

Episode Highlights:

• Purna shares why the rise of AI has made human storytelling more valuable, not less, and what the salary data on executive content roles actually signals about where the industry is heading.
• This discussion uncovers specific stats behind well-executed founder-led marketing: more leads, larger deal sizes, and faster pipeline when executives show up consistently.
• Purna shares three executive story types that work across all stages of the buyer journey, from completely unaware to ready to buy.
• She gives insights into extracting high-quality content from a time-strapped executive without asking them to write a single word.
• Purna revisits a topic she shared in her previous episode with Danny, diving deeper into why repurposing content isn't repetitive, and why reformatting content across channels is both an instructional design principle and a practical reach strategy.

Episode Links:

• Episode 62 with Purna Virji: The Queen of Content Solutions
• Purna on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/purnavirji
• High Impact Content Marketing: Amazon
• Founder-Led Sales and Marketing Never Ends (Playbook): Download on LinkedIn

Send us Fan Mail

Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor:

• Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com
• Instagram: @thedmmentor
• Linkedin: @thedmmentor
• YouTube: @thedmmentor

Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family:

• Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations.
• ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

A stalled ad account. A two-year pause. Then, a rebuild that turned careful testing into a record quarter.

In this episode, Optidge Paid Media Specialist Sara Reinhold walks through how we revived paid media for FamilyTreeDna by stripping back to intent, stabilizing with a feed-only Performance Max strategy, and expanding product availability to give the algorithm room to win.

We chat about how we made adjustments along the way, setting a realistic ROAS floor, pausing underperforming channels, and rebuilding search around present-day demand rather than yesterday’s assumptions.

The result? By choosing time over speed and prioritizing reliable conversion signals, the Optidge team was able to validate their structure and prove the value of their advice, ultimately extending the partnership and increasing loyalty.

An Optidge "Office Hours" Episode

Our Office Hours episodes are your go-to for details, case studies, how-to’s, and advice on specific marketing topics. Join our fellow Optidge team members, partners, and sometimes even 1:1 teachings from Danny himself, in these shorter, marketing-focused episodes. Get ready to get marketing!

Episode Highlights:

• This case study example illustrated how just because something worked in the past doesn't mean it works now, as market conditions, platform algorithms, and auction dynamics shift constantly.
• Patience in scaling compounds trust. By choosing six months over three, Optidge rebuilt reliable conversion signals and created the foundation for a 5.7x budget increase.
• Budget pacing is as important as budget size. Aggressive spending without a validated structure wastes money; sustainable scaling with clear milestones delivers results.
• Full-funnel thinking measures the whole system, not just the middle click. Upper-funnel awareness (YouTube, Demand Gen) feeds lower-funnel conversion (search).
• This case proves that long-term partnerships outperform short-term wins. The 2.59 ROAS and 100% client satisfaction came from working through highs and lows together, not from a single tactic or campaign.

Episode Links:

• Episode 084: From NICU Nurse to PPC Pro: A Career Pivot Story with Sara Strickland (Office Hours)
• Sara Reinhold on LinkedIn
• The Digital Marketing Mentor
• The DM Mentor on Instagram
• Optidge Paid Media Services

Send us Fan Mail

Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor:

• Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com
• Instagram: @thedmmentor
• Linkedin: @thedmmentor
• YouTube: @thedmmentor

Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family:

• Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations.
• ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.

This episode offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at what a CRM implementation actually costs and what it truly delivers, all from the client’s perspective.

Maggie Segrich, founder of Sesh Coworking, was ready to walk away from HubSpot after multiple failed attempts until the right support helped her rethink how systems should work.

Over six months, her team shifted from resistance to buy-in as chaotic operations became streamlined and automated. This episode is a candid conversation about how the right systems don’t replace human connection, but rather create the space for it to thrive.

Episode Highlights:

• Systems fail because nobody helps you use them. The software isn't the bottleneck; adoption, training, and ongoing partnership are.
• Maggie believes that automation (like sequences and segments) doesn't replace human work; it instead frees up time for the human work that actually drives retention and growth.
• A CRM is the central hub where websites, email, social, phone calls, and customer data converge. Maggie’s story proves that if your CRM is broken, everything downstream is broken.
• Trust in agency partnerships forms through in-person connection first, transparent communication second, and proven results third.
• Maggie’s gym membership analogy is real: you can buy the best tools in the world, but clients have to show up and do the work. It's a partnership, not a magic solution.

Episode Links:

• Optidge Hubspot Services
• The Digital Marketing Mentor
• The DM Mentor on Instagram
• SESH Coworking
• Maggie on LinkedIn

Send us Fan Mail

Follow The Digital Marketing Mentor:

• Website and Blog: thedmmentor.com
• Instagram: @thedmmentor
• Linkedin: @thedmmentor
• YouTube: @thedmmentor

Interested in Digital Marketing Services, Careers, or Courses? Check out more from the TDMM Family:

• Optidge.com - Full Service Digital Marketing Agency specializing in SEO, PPC, Paid Social, and Lead Generation efforts for established B2C and B2B businesses and organizations.
• ODEOacademy.com - Digital Marketing online education and course platform. ODEO gives you solid digital marketing knowledge to launch/boost your career or understand your business’s digital marketing strategy.