Bullhorns and Bullseyes

S3.E3: Customers Have Secrets to Tell, with Emily Bielak

Emily Bielak, Director at The Martec Group, returns to Bullhorns & Bullseyes to dig into the hidden costs of customer blind spots…and how behavioral research can expose them.  Building on the previous lesson with Will Leach, about the emotional nature of purchase decisions, Tom and Curtis bring  Emily in to explain what actually happens when companies think they already know their customer. Emily walks through The Martec Group’s approach to customer segmentation and journey mapping, including the Martec Emotion Score, the Peak-End Theory, and the “what, so what, now what” framework that separates actionable research from reports that collect digital dust. The conversation covers why segmentation goes far beyond the ideal customer profile, how to read the emotional signals at every stage of the buyer journey, and what a minimum viable research program actually looks like—whether you’re a scrappy small business or a company with unlimited budget. N.B.: * Learn more about The Martec Emotion Score and Customer Journey Mapping and Segmentation at martecgroup.com [https://martecgroup.com/]. * Connect with Emily on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilybielak/]. * Be sure to subscribe to our Substack [https://bullhornsandbullseyes.substack.com/] to never miss an episode! Takeaways: * The most dangerous assumption in marketing isn’t “we don’t know our customer”—it’s “we already do.” * Emotions drive 96% of decisions. Rational analysis is the post-game recap, not the game. * Segmentation goes beyond your ICP. The customers outside your ideal profile still buy—and understanding them unlocks growth. * The Martec Emotion Score quantifies the net pleasantness of emotion the way NPS quantifies advocacy—giving leaders a metric they can actually manage. * The peak-end rule says customers remember how they felt at the peak and at the end of an experience. Design for those moments, not the average. * Research that sits in a filing cabinet isn’t research—it’s a sunk cost. The “what, so what, now what” framework turns findings into a roadmap. * AI is a useful brainstorming and organizing tool, but it can’t replace the human judgment required to act on emotional and behavioral data. * The minimum viable research program is a one-on-one customer interview. No budget required—just the willingness to ask. * A qual–quant–qual approach is the gold standard: qualitative context, quantitative validation, then qualitative depth to bring segments to life. * Misaligned marketing doesn’t mean bad execution. It means execution built on the wrong foundation. Fix the strategy first. Find and Follow: * Find all episodes at bullhornsbullseyes.com [http://bullhornsbullseyes.com/]. * Be sure to subscribe to our Substack [https://bullhornsandbullseyes.substack.com/] to never miss an episode! * Follow the show on LinkedIn! [https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/bullhorns-bullseyes/] * Learn more about Collideascope [https://collideascope.co/]Creative Mill [https://www.creativemillco.com/] at their respective websites. * Connect with Curtis [https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayscurtis/] and Tom [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tnixon16/] on LinkedIn. * Check out our newsletter, Amplify and Aim [https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/amplify-aim-7281036460491751424/]!

S3.E3: Customers Have Secrets to Tell, with Emily Bielak

Emily Bielak, Director at The Martec Group, returns to Bullhorns & Bullseyes to dig into the hidden costs of customer blind spots…and how behavioral research can expose them.  Building on the previous lesson with Will Leach, about the emotional nature of purchase decisions, Tom and Curtis bring  Emily in to explain what actually happens when companies think they already know their customer. Emily walks through The Martec Group’s approach to customer segmentation and journey mapping, including the Martec Emotion Score, the Peak-End Theory, and the “what, so what, now what” framework that separates actionable research from reports that collect digital dust. The conversation covers why segmentation goes far beyond the ideal customer profile, how to read the emotional signals at every stage of the buyer journey, and what a minimum viable research program actually looks like—whether you’re a scrappy small business or a company with unlimited budget. N.B.: * Learn more about The Martec Emotion Score and Customer Journey Mapping and Segmentation at martecgroup.com [https://martecgroup.com/]. * Connect with Emily on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilybielak/]. * Be sure to subscribe to our Substack [https://bullhornsandbullseyes.substack.com/] to never miss an episode! Takeaways: * The most dangerous assumption in marketing isn’t “we don’t know our customer”—it’s “we already do.” * Emotions drive 96% of decisions. Rational analysis is the post-game recap, not the game. * Segmentation goes beyond your ICP. The customers outside your ideal profile still buy—and understanding them unlocks growth. * The Martec Emotion Score quantifies the net pleasantness of emotion the way NPS quantifies advocacy—giving leaders a metric they can actually manage. * The peak-end rule says customers remember how they felt at the peak and at the end of an experience. Design for those moments, not the average. * Research that sits in a filing cabinet isn’t research—it’s a sunk cost. The “what, so what, now what” framework turns findings into a roadmap. * AI is a useful brainstorming and organizing tool, but it can’t replace the human judgment required to act on emotional and behavioral data. * The minimum viable research program is a one-on-one customer interview. No budget required—just the willingness to ask. * A qual–quant–qual approach is the gold standard: qualitative context, quantitative validation, then qualitative depth to bring segments to life. * Misaligned marketing doesn’t mean bad execution. It means execution built on the wrong foundation. Fix the strategy first. Find and Follow: * Find all episodes at bullhornsbullseyes.com [http://bullhornsbullseyes.com/]. * Be sure to subscribe to our Substack [https://bullhornsandbullseyes.substack.com/] to never miss an episode! * Follow the show on LinkedIn! [https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/bullhorns-bullseyes/] * Learn more about Collideascope [https://collideascope.co/]Creative Mill [https://www.creativemillco.com/] at their respective websites. * Connect with Curtis [https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayscurtis/] and Tom [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tnixon16/] on LinkedIn. * Check out our newsletter, Amplify and Aim [https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/amplify-aim-7281036460491751424/]!

S3.E2: From Mind States to Messaging, with Will Leach

Tom and Curtis welcome back Will Leach, best-selling author of Marketing to Mind States and founder of the Mindstate Group, for a deeper dive into how behavioral psychology and neuroscience should shape the way marketers think, message, and measure. Building on their previous conversation, this episode moves from theory toward practice, examining why even the most intellectually convinced marketers default to feature-first thinking the moment they sit down to write copy or plan a campaign…completely misaligned with the psychology of the buyer. This episode builds and expands upon the themes from episode 1: why marketing drifts, why mirror marketing fails, and why AI can be a false prophet if it’s amplifying the wrong things. How do you know what the right things actually are? Tune in to find out, as Will demonstrates how customers make purchase decisions…and teases our next lesson: How you can find out how your customer truly feels! N.B.: * Learn more and get the book [http://mindstategroup.com/] * Connect with Will on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-leach] * Let’s continue the conversation on our Substack [https://bullhornsandbullseyes.substack.com/]! And please remember to subscribe so you never miss an episode! Takeaways: * The brain’s filter—the reticular activating system—blocks most marketing before it ever reaches conscious awareness; only pain points and genuine aspirations get through. * Marketers understand consumer psychology as individuals but abandon it when thinking as providers, defaulting to feature comparisons instead. * Short-term revenue accountability is the structural reason most marketing stays shallow; optimizing for measurable metrics crowds out deeper customer understanding. * Large language models are trained on the world’s data, not your customer’s—what they return sounds good but is essentially a very confident average. * Temporal landmarks—predictable moments in time when a specific mind state is likely active—let marketers target context without needing to identify individual psychological states. * The CFO conversation changes when you can articulate what makes customers tick and predict messaging outcomes, rather than reporting last month’s clicks. * Before any marketing meeting moves to tactics or metrics, it should start with one question: what is the customer’s pain or aspiration right now? * Review data, call transcripts, and social media all contain psychological “tells”; AI can help surface them if it’s been grounded in behavioral science frameworks first. * Brand is increasingly the only durable moat—not pricing, distribution, or operations—and LLMs will recognize and amplify brands that have earned genuine psychological meaning. * AI amplifies whatever you activate—right or wrong. Getting the customer psychology right before scaling is no longer optional. Find and Follow: * Find all episodes at bullhornsbullseyes.com [http://bullhornsbullseyes.com/]. * Be sure to subscribe to our Substack [https://bullhornsandbullseyes.substack.com/] to never miss an episode! * Follow the show on LinkedIn! [https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/bullhorns-bullseyes/] * Learn more about Collideascope [https://collideascope.co/] and Creative Mill [https://www.creativemillco.com/] at their respective websites. * Connect with Curtis [https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayscurtis/] and Tom [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tnixon16/] on LinkedIn. * Check out our newsletter, Amplify and Aim [https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/amplify-aim-7281036460491751424/]!

S3.E1: The Chaos Tax: Marketing Drift in Action

Season 3 kicks off by exploring marketing drift—the gradual (and often invisible) way businesses lose alignment with their customers over time. As AI makes it easier to execute faster and at scale, many companies are unknowingly accelerating that drift—amplifying the wrong message, chasing tactics, and increasing complexity. The result is what Tom and Curtis call the chaos tax: more activity, more spend, and less impact. This episode introduces a new framework for getting back on course, starting with a simple but critical shift: diagnosis before deployment. N.B.: * Let’s continue the conversation on our Substack [https://bullhornsandbullseyes.substack.com/]! And please remember to subscribe the Substack newsletter so you never miss an episode! Takeaways: * Warning: AI amplifies whatever you feed it—right or wrong. * Marketing drift happens gradually, then suddenly—and most teams don’t recognize it. * AI often accelerates that drift by scaling misaligned messaging and tactics. * The chaos tax is the cost of drift: increased effort, spend, and complexity without results. * Most brands rely on internal assumptions instead of real customer insights. * Diagnosis before deployment helps realign marketing before scaling it. * The path forward starts by reconnecting with the customer—not doubling down on tactics. * The four principles for modern marketing that we will explore in Season 3: → Diagnosis before deployment → Coherence before creativity → Meaning before media → Revenue before reach Find and Follow: * Find all episodes at bullhornsbullseyes.com [http://bullhornsbullseyes.com/]. * Be sure to subscribe to our Substack [https://bullhornsandbullseyes.substack.com/] to never miss an episode! * Follow the show on LinkedIn! [https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/bullhorns-bullseyes/] * Learn more about Collideascope [https://collideascope.co/] and Creative Mill [https://www.creativemillco.com/] at their respective websites. * Connect with Curtis [https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayscurtis/] and Tom [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tnixon16/] on LinkedIn. * Check out our newsletter, Amplify and Aim [https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/amplify-aim-7281036460491751424/]!

S2.E35: Season Finale — Storytelling, Algorithms & The Future of Community

In the final episode of Season 2, Tom and Curtis look back on a year filled with heavyweight guests, big marketing themes, and unexpected insights. From the power of storytelling in a hyper-automated world to the challenges of attribution and algorithmic gatekeepers, they unpack the trends that shaped 2025…and explore what they’re betting on for 2026. They reflect on standout conversations with bestselling authors, agency leaders, and AI innovators, share personal anecdotes about content creation and audience building, and offer a candid, thoughtful look at what’s next for marketers in a fast-changing landscape.  Takeaways: * Storytelling remains the most powerful differentiator in the age of AI—audiences stay to “see how the story ends.” * Algorithms increasingly gatekeep audience access, forcing marketers to balance organic strategy with paid amplification. * A look at AI driving the newest, latest digital advertising platforms and what it means for your campaigns going forward. * AI literacy is now table stakes, but adding a human layer—empathy, perspective, originality—is what keeps content relevant. * Long-form, immersive content consumption is resurging as people tire of mindless scrolling. * Brands should prioritize owning their audience—newsletters, communities, and direct channels—to future-proof against platform shifts. * The PESO model, attribution challenges, and algorithmic “math” all continue to influence how campaigns perform and how marketers plan. * SNEAK PREVIEW: Season 3 may include serialized educational mini-courses to help listeners build real skills over a structured series.  * And get ready for the Bullhorns and Bullseyes community! Find and Follow: * Find all episodes at bullhornsbullseyes.com [http://bullhornsbullseyes.com/]. * Follow the show on LinkedIn! [https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/bullhorns-bullseyes/] * Learn more about Collideascope [https://collideascope.co/] and Creative Mill [https://www.creativemillco.com/] at their respective websites. * Connect with Curtis [https://www.linkedin.com/in/hayscurtis/] and Tom [https://www.linkedin.com/in/tnixon16/] on LinkedIn. * Check out our newsletter, Amplify and Aim [https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/amplify-aim-7281036460491751424/]!