Slow & Steady — A Podcast by ARTILLERY

Ep. 16 — Cost Signal, the Corn Belt, and Not Burning Out Chasing Virality with JT Martin

Guest episode of Slow & Steady — A Podcast by ARTILLERY. In this episode, Jake and John sit down with JT Martin, founder of Loudr and the creator behind The Corn Belt, the hyperlocal Nebraska channel with 50 million organic views and 140,000 followers. JT spent over a decade in corporate media in San Francisco and at Time Inc. in New York before coming home in 2020 and building a new kind of media company from scratch. The Corn Belt now functions as a state-wide attention engine. Departments of state government, tourism boards, campgrounds, observatories, a 2024 presidential campaign. They don't run their own social, they rent attention from the channel JT built one piece of content at a time. JT has also coached five Nebraska towns to run their own versions, and quarterly works with a real estate developer in the Cayman Islands using the same hyperlocal formula. His framework is simple but counterintuitive. Stop trying to be good at social media in general. Pick an interest category and commit to winning it, or rent attention from someone who already has. The decider between forgettable video and video that actually moves people is what he calls "cost signal": effort the viewer can see. A 30-foot monopod. A printed map and a dart. Counting to a million on camera. This episode is for any small business owner who has been told they need to "do more on social" and wants the plain-English version of what actually works, and what to stop doing. In this episode: * What "cost signal" really means and why it decides every short-form video * Why JT optimizes for shares, not likes (and the goat yoga test that proves it) * The Reddit shortcut for finding your interest category: the 50k-sub rule * Build vs. rent: two valid paths to attention, and how to pick yours * Why ARTILLERY ranks for "web design Lincoln" using the same logic * The Northern Lights story: how one video pulled 1,000 people to an observatory * Why events are tough and destinations are gold * Sponsorship value lives in the media, not the activation * Jake's wrap on every business becoming a media company About JT Martin JT is the founder of Loudr, a short-form video and social media agency based in Nebraska, and the creator behind The Corn Belt. He came home to Nebraska in 2020 after a decade in corporate media in San Francisco and New York City. Today he works with destinations, tourism boards, departments of state government, and small businesses across the state, plus quarterly engagements in the Cayman Islands. His mantra: "Not burning out while trying to chase virality." Loudr: https://weareloudr.com The Corn Belt on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecornbelt/ Corn Jam (concert series in cornfields): https://cornjam.com Artillery Links Podcast page: https://artillerymedia.com/podcast/ Contact us: https://artillerymedia.com/contact/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artillery_media/?hl=en Jake on X: https://x.com/jakekramer15?lang=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artillerymedia

Ep. 15 — How AI Search Actually Works (And Why Slow, Steady SEO Still Wins) with Michelle Bourbonniere

Guest episode of Slow & Steady — A Podcast by ARTILLERY. In this episode, Jake sits down with Michelle Bourbonniere, PhD, founder of Words on the Rise, to demystify how AI search actually works under the hood. Michelle is the SEO consultant behind ARTILLERY's own SEO audit (broken down with Brittany Downey back in Ep. 12), and she has spent six months reading Google patents, antitrust filings, and research papers so the rest of us don't have to. Michelle is a historian by training (PhD in African history, of all things). She fell into SEO through editing words on websites, and noticed that when the words changed, Google noticed. Nine years and 288 client sites later, she's built a thriving solo business from a website, an email list, and a few private communities. No social media for six years. No retainers that disappear into the abyss. Her core message in this conversation: AI search is not a new playbook. It is built on top of regular Google search. The same boring, foundational moves still win. Google Business Profile rankings, recent five-star reviews with keywords in them, clear words on your services pages, real engagement on your site. Google does the Googling for you, then summarizes the results. This episode is for any small business owner who has been told they need to "do something different for AI" and wants the plain-English version of what's actually happening, what to ignore, and what to focus on. In this episode: * Why AI search is built on traditional search (and what that means for small sites) * How chatbots actually answer questions: live searches, summarized in real time * The Google Business Profile as the real "front door" for local businesses * Why blogging matters less than it used to (and what to write instead) * Entity pages, services pages, and being literal about what you want AI to say about you * Michelle's "three Rs" of AI search: Brand Recognition, Brand Reputation, Brand Recommendation * Why Michelle has been off social media for six years and why it works * The one thing every business should add to their contact form right now * How a Vancouver wine brand found ARTILLERY through ChatGPT looking for a Divi designer About Michelle Bourbonniere, PhD Michelle is the founder of Words on the Rise, an SEO consultancy specializing in small site SEO. She works with solopreneurs and small teams to develop smart SEO strategies that get their websites and brands in front of the right audience. She specializes in keyword research, content planning, and helping brands show up (and show up well) in AI search results. Her mantra: "Doing things at a human pace. I'm all about work/life balance and doing things well, not quickly." Words on the Rise: https://wordsontherise.com AI search cheat sheet + newsletter: https://wordsontherise.com/ai Michelle's AI search podcast playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6n3yl03K5u2lpqzU52M4Ht?si=83ec938757cc4bdd Michelle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-bourbonniere/ Michelle's Three Rs framework (full breakdowns): Brand Recognition: https://ckarchive.com/b/n4uohvhx68x5zt7q339qeh68g4oxxtlhv7904 Brand Reputation: https://ckarchive.com/b/k0umh6h566lznc6n33wn4ao9qk346b8h6g73e Brand Recommendation: https://ckarchive.com/b/n4uohvhxrvzd9s7q339qeh68lvvkgflhv7904 Artillery Links Podcast page: https://artillerymedia.com/podcast/ Contact us: https://artillerymedia.com/contact/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artillery_media/?hl=en Jake on X: https://x.com/jakekramer15?lang=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artillerymedia

Ep. 14 — Out of Medical Purgatory: How Rachel Huston Traynor Built The Body Lab Slow & Steady.

Guest episode of Slow & Steady — A Podcast by ARTILLERY. In this episode, Jake sits down with Dr. Rachel Huston Traynor, the founder of The Body Lab in Lincoln, Nebraska, to talk about what "slow and steady" actually looks like in a healthcare practice. Rachel opened The Body Lab in 2020 — a year out of Palmer, business loan signed, lease signed, pandemic breaking out. She opened anyway because she didn't have a choice. Five years later, she's grown it into a multidisciplinary wellness collective with chiropractic, physical therapy, personal training, nutrition, and a 24-hour self-service recovery studio — and her patient book is full. She also runs a cash-pay, flat-rate model with all pricing posted on the website, has 340+ five-star Google reviews, and gets roughly 90% of her new patients through word-of-mouth referral. None of that happened by accident. In this conversation, Rachel walks through the early chaos of opening during COVID, the concept of "medical purgatory" and why conservative care is often the better first stop, the case for cash-pay pricing, how she built her team (including the Instagram DM that landed her first PT hire), and the personal review ask system that compounded over five years into 340+ five-star reviews. This episode is for anyone building a service-based business — healthcare, wellness, consulting, agencies — and trying to grow the right way instead of the fast way. In this episode: * Opening a physical-touch business in 2020 and the marketing pivot that forced her onto digital * Medical purgatory — the broken loop most back-pain patients get stuck in * The case for cash-pay, flat-rate pricing (for the patient *and* the provider) * Why 90% word-of-mouth is a feature, not a problem to diversify away from * Building a team from a cellular-burnout year-and-a-half of doing everything solo * The personal review ask system that got The Body Lab to 340+ five-star reviews * How StoryBrand copy on the website turns visitors into booked appointments About Dr. Rachel Huston Traynor Rachel is the founder of The Body Lab, a multidisciplinary wellness collective in Lincoln, NE that brings together chiropractic care, physical therapy, personal training, nutrition services, and recovery amenities like infrared sauna and cold plunge — all under one roof. She's passionate about creating a transparent, collaborative, and whole-person approach to healthcare that empowers people to feel and function their best. Her mantra: "Doing the foundational, often boring things in your business that work, doing them well and often, and being really patient." The Body Lab LinksThe Body Lab: https://thebodylablnk.com The Body Lab on Instagram: @thebodylab_lincoln The Body Lab Recovery on Instagram: @thebodylab_recovery Artillery Links Podcast page: https://artillerymedia.com/podcast/ Contact us: https://artillerymedia.com/contact/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artillery_media/?hl=en Jake on X: https://x.com/jakekramer15?lang=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artillerymedia

Ep. 13 — Slow Is Smooth, Smooth Is Fast: Building a Program from Zero (Hunter Boe, Standing Bear)

Guest episode of Slow & Steady — A Podcast by ARTILLERY. In this episode, Jake sits down with Hunter Boe, the founding vocal music director at Standing Bear High School in Lincoln, Nebraska, to talk about what it actually looks like to build something from nothing. Standing Bear opened in August 2023. No traditions, no alumni, no existing program. Hunter was hand-picked to build the entire music department from scratch — choir, show choir, musical, unified music. His show choir, the Renegades, started with 52 students. 49 of them had never done show choir before. By the end of year one, they were making finals and hosting their own invitational. Hunter shares the early chaos, the decisions that set the tone for everything that followed, and why he believes community has to come before competition. He also talks about what "slow is smooth, smooth is fast" looks like in practice — and why frantic effort rarely compounds the way steady, intentional work does. This episode is for anyone building something new — a program, a business, a team, a brand — and trying to make decisions today that still hold up in five years. In this episode: * What "day one" actually looked like at a brand-new school with unfinished walls and no traditions * The STAND framework — Supportive, Tenacious, Ambitious, Novel, Disciplined — and how it became the department's ethos * Why Hunter waited a full year before starting show choir * What happens when competition results become the goal (and relationships get transactional) * How grizzlypaw.org serves as the program's hub for recruiting, fundraising, and storytelling * The challenge of scaling from 25 students to 120 while keeping culture intact * Unified music and why it's the most joyful part of Hunter's day About Hunter Boe Hunter Boe is the founding vocal music director at Standing Bear High School. He built the school's entire music program from zero — choir, show choir, musical theater, and unified music — starting with students who had never performed in an ensemble. Previously directed programs at Norris and Wahoo. His mantra: "Slow is smooth, smooth is fast." Standing Bear Vocal Music on Twitter [https://x.com/lsbvocalmusic], Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/lsb_vocalmusic/], and Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/lsbvocal] Website: https://www.grizzlypaw.org/ [https://www.grizzlypaw.org/] Artillery Links Podcast page: https://artillerymedia.com/podcast/ Contact us: https://artillerymedia.com/contact/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artillery_media/?hl=en Jake on X: https://x.com/jakekramer15?lang=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artillerymedia

Ep. 12 — What Google Actually Sees: A Real SEO Audit of artillerymedia.com

Part 9 of the "Perfect Website" Series. In this episode, Jake sits down with marketing coach and copywriter Brittany Downey to walk through a real SEO audit of artillerymedia.com — paid for, delivered by outside specialist Michelle Bourbonniere, PhD from Words on the Rise, and opened live on the podcast. The results are honest and a little humbling. Artillery ranks #1 for web design in Lincoln, Nebraska. But 76% of their organic traffic comes from searches with nothing to do with websites or branding — including a 2017 post about how to sign a PDF on a Mac that's still one of the top-performing pages on the site. This is a practical, no-fluff conversation for any service business owner who's wondered what their website is actually doing on Google — and what to focus on next. In this episode: * What an SEO audit actually tells you — and what it doesn't * Branded vs. unbranded search, and why the distinction matters * Why your Google Business Profile is more important than your homepage * The "one page, one keyword" rule for building searchable service pages * How to think about backlinks as PR (not a technical game) * Why business strategy should drive SEO — not the other way around * Entity-optimized about pages: what they are and why they matter for service businesses * What Artillery is actually changing on their new website as a result About Brittany Downey Brittany Downey is a marketing coach, writer, and host of the Do Less Marketing podcast. She works with small businesses and nonprofits to get clear on their positioning, show up with intention, and build real pathways to connect with the right people. She's also collaborated on 150+ website projects with ARTILLERY. Brittany on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittany-downey Do Less Marketing podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/do-less-marketing/id1806109083 Downey Strategy: https://downeystrategy.com/ Artillery Links Podcast page: https://artillerymedia.com/podcast/ Contact us: https://artillerymedia.com/contact/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artillery_media/?hl=en Jake on X: https://x.com/jakekramer15?lang=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artillerymedia