Humans of Growth: Stories & Strategies Behind Business Growth & Business Development

The Biggest AI Mistakes Businesses Are Making Right Now

Everyone is talking about whether AI will replace jobs. The better question is: what happens if you refuse to learn it? In this episode of Humans of Growth, I sit down with Jason Neman, CEO of Good Brand, to discuss how AI is changing marketing, branding, business growth, and the future of work. We break down how successful companies are actually using ChatGPT, Claude AI, and other AI tools to become more productive, without replacing human creativity. In this episode, we cover: ✔ AI marketing vs. human creativity ✔ Using AI for business & how to train it on your brand ✔ AI prompts that produce better content ✔ AI automation vs. human strategy ✔ Why AI integration is becoming essential ✔ The future of marketing jobs & marketing agencies ✔ How content marketing is changing ✔ Why brand voice still matters ✔ CEO leadership in the AI era ✔ The future of digital marketing Whether you're a CEO, founder, marketing leader, or agency owner, this episode offers practical advice for using AI to grow your business instead of fearing it. ______________________ RESOURCES:  Get help finding the right marketing partner. [https://perissonnetwork.com/] Learn more about the Good Brand here. [https://goodbrandcompany.com/]

Influencer Marketing: How to Make Paid Creator Partnerships Actually Work

Influencer marketing is not “send free product and pray they post” anymore. Creators know their worth. Consumers know when they are being sold to. And brands that still treat creator marketing like a one-off transaction are usually the ones wondering why the campaign looked good on paper but did not actually move the business. In this episode of Humans of Growth, I sit down with Tommy Johnson, Senior Director of Partnerships at Open Influence, to unpack what modern influencer marketing actually takes to drive awareness, trust, engagement, and real business results. We talk about the shift from gifting to paid creator partnerships, why bigger creators are not always better, and how brands can build influencer campaigns that feel real instead of over-scripted. In this episode, we cover: ✔ Why influencer marketing has moved beyond free product gifting ✔ How creators and influencers actually build trust with their audiences ✔ The difference between macro influencers, micro influencers, and niche creators ✔ When brands should focus on awareness versus bottom-funnel results ✔ How to measure influencer marketing campaigns using impressions, engagement, affiliate, brand lift, and smart commerce links ✔ Why over-scripted influencer content usually performs worse ✔ How much creative control brands should give creators ✔ Why paid amplification matters in creator marketing ✔ How to build long-term creator partnerships instead of one-off campaigns ✔ Why consumers trust creators who show up consistently with the same brand If you care about influencer marketing, creator marketing, influencer marketing strategy, UGC creators, paid creator partnerships, social media marketing, TikTok marketing, brand awareness campaigns, and measuring influencer marketing ROI, this episode will help you think more strategically about how creators can actually support business growth. Because the future of influencer marketing is not just finding someone with followers. It is finding the right creator, the right audience, the right message, and enough trust to make people care. ______________________ RESOURCES: Get help finding the right marketing partner. [https://perissonnetwork.com/] Learn more about Open Influence here. [https://openinfluence.com/]

Pet Influencer Partnerships: A Marketing Crash Course

Pet influencers are adorable but not always profitable. A lot of brands see a cute dog with a big following and assume they’ve found the perfect influencer. But just like with humans, follower count is one of the least useful numbers on its own. The real value comes from audience demographics, engagement, platform fit, usage rights, content quality, and the person behind the pet. In this episode of Humans of Growth, I sit down with Colleen, founder of Pets on Q, to break down what brands need to understand before hiring pet influencers, animal talent, or UGC creators. In this episode, we cover: ✔ Why follower count is not enough when choosing pet influencers ✔ How audience demographics can make or break an influencer marketing campaign ✔ The difference between pet influencers, animal talent, and UGC creators ✔ Why pet accounts often drive brand awareness more than direct sales ✔ How usage rights, exclusivity, and platform choice affect influencer pricing ✔ Why Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Facebook all carry different value in creator partnerships ✔ What brands should evaluate before spending money on pet influencer marketing ✔ Why the human behind the pet often matters more than the pet itself ✔ How trainers, vets, groomers, and working-animal owners are changing pet marketing ✔ Where AI-generated creators fit, and why pet content is harder to fake convincingly If you’re a brand, marketer, or business owner trying to understand influencer strategy, social media marketing, UGC, creator partnerships, or how to work with pet influencers without wasting your budget, this conversation will help you see what actually makes a campaign work in the pet space. ______________________ RESOURCES: Get help finding the right marketing partner. [https://perissonnetwork.com/] Learn more about Pets on Q. [https://www.petsonq.com/]

Personal Branding & Founder-Led Marketing in an AI Trust Recession

Most founders are wrong about personal branding. They think it’s about ego, selfies, and posting your life story online. But according to Rachel Gogos, CEO of The Brand ID, your personal brand is not about being louder. It’s about making your business feel more human, more trustworthy, and more real. In this episode of Humans of Growth, Aly Hathcock sits down with Rachel Gogos to talk about the role of personal branding in modern business growth, why every company brand starts with the founder, and how leaders can build trust without turning themselves into full-time influencers. Rachel breaks down why founder branding matters even when the founder is not the public face of the company, how AI marketing is making authenticity more valuable, and why businesses need to move away from faceless, generic content. They also discuss the difference between being personal and being too personal, how to make your ideal customer feel seen, and why your website should feel less like a brochure and more like a real-life experience with your business. This conversation also digs into brand strategy, content marketing, website copy, customer pain points, and the importance of creating a consistent customer experience across every touchpoint — from your social media content to your sales calls to your website. If you’re a founder, CEO, marketer, or business owner who wants people to trust your company before they ever get on a call, this episode is for you. In this episode, we cover: ✔ Why personal branding is not about ego ✔ How founder values shape company branding ✔ Why faceless marketing is losing power ✔ How AI is changing authenticity in marketing ✔ What CEOs misunderstand about branding ✔ How to balance professionalism with personality ✔ Why your website should focus on the customer, not just the company ✔ How to make your ideal audience feel seen ✔ Why branding is more than fonts, colors, and logos ✔ The underrated power of in-person connection If you've been thinking about building a personal brand and not just a company, this episode is for you. ______________________ RESOURCES: Get help finding the right marketing partner. [https://perissonnetwork.com/] Learn more about The Brand ID here. [https://thebrandid.com/]

The ROAS Trap: Why Better Numbers Don’t Always Mean Better Growth

Your best-looking marketing campaign might be the one quietly killing your growth. Most businesses look at ROAS, cost per lead, and in-platform ad reports and assume they know what’s working. But those dashboards are often rewarding the easiest conversions, repeat buyers, retargeting, brand search, while the campaigns actually creating new demand get ignored or killed too soon. And that’s how companies end up recycling the same customers instead of growing. In this episode of Humans of Growth, I sit down with Scott Desgrosseilliers, founder of WickedReports.com, to break down why most businesses are using the wrong scoreboard for marketing attribution, and how to figure out which campaigns are actually driving revenue growth, new customer acquisition, and long-term customer lifetime value. Scott walks through part of his Five Forces Framework for measuring marketing performance, why in-platform ROAS can mislead business owners and agencies, how to think about top-of-funnel marketing, and why the cheapest customer is not always the most profitable customer. In this episode, we cover: ✔ Why most businesses are measuring marketing attribution with the wrong scoreboard ✔ The problem with in-platform ROAS, and why Meta, Google, and Amazon often take too much credit ✔ Why new customer acquisition needs to be measured differently than repeat purchases or retargeting ✔ How cheap customers can quietly hurt customer lifetime value and long-term profit ✔ Why the first product someone buys can determine whether they become a high-value customer ✔ The difference between first-click attribution, last-click attribution, and multi-channel attribution ✔ Why top-of-funnel marketing gets under-credited, and why killing it too early can stall growth ✔ The “scale, chill, kill” framework for deciding when to increase, maintain, or cut ad spend ✔ How AI can help analyze marketing data, and where it still needs human guardrails ✔ Why brand search may be one of the most overrated marketing channels right now If you’re a founder, CEO, CMO, agency owner, or marketing leader trying to figure out why your ads look good on paper but revenue still feels stuck, this conversation will reset how you think about marketing measurement. ______________________ RESOURCES: Get help finding the right marketing partner. [https://perissonnetwork.com/] Learn more about WickedReports here. [https://www.wickedreports.com/]