Ep. 17 — From Wrestling Mat to SaaS Founder: How Keenan McCurdy is Building GearLocker Slow & Steady

Ep. 17 — From Wrestling Mat to SaaS Founder: How Keenan McCurdy is Building GearLocker Slow & Steady

Guest episode of Slow & Steady, a podcast by ARTILLERY. In this episode, Jake sits down with Keenan McCurdy. He's a 15-year wrestling coach at Lincoln East, two-time state champion, science-turned-gym teacher, (former) group fitness gym owner, youth club founder, and co-founder of GearLocker, a SaaS platform that helps schools and programs track every singlet, helmet, and jersey they own. Keenan didn't come out of tech. He came off the mat. GearLocker exists because he spent 15 years living with the same Google Sheet nightmare every coach knows: equipment going home, never coming back, parents never charged, and hours of back-office work nobody wants. He vented about it for three Thanksgivings in a row to his software-entrepreneur brother-in-law. Eventually they built it. Several years and ~500 programs later, he's stepping away from teaching to run GearLocker full-time. His framework is built straight out of the wrestling room. Stop riding the roller coaster of short-term wins and disappointments. Stack small efforts. Show up. The same award he gives his wrestlers, the Guts Club, for the kids who simply make it to every practice, is the model he's running his company on. This episode is for founders, coaches, athletic directors, and anyone building something that won't pay off until year three. The compounding is the whole point. In this episode: * The 15-year frustration that became GearLocker (and the Thanksgiving table where it started) * How QR codes on every singlet turned 90 minutes of checkout into 20 seconds * The Guts Club: why showing up beats almost everything else * The Bennington HS football coach who helped shape the product * Purchase requests: the feature nobody asked for that became the most-used part of the platform * Why the K-12 sales cycle is longer than youth clubs (and what to do about it) * Selling without feeling salesy when you actually believe in the product * From Lincoln East to all 50 states, and maybe Camogie sticks in Ireland About Keenan McCurdy Keenan is the co-founder of GearLocker, a SaaS platform for managing the full life cycle of school- and team-issued athletic equipment. He's the head wrestling coach at Lincoln East, where he wrestled under his dad and won two state titles before coming back to coach. He's also a science teacher, a group fitness gym owner, and the founder of a youth wrestling club. He's stepping out of the classroom to build GearLocker full-time. His mantra: "Don't ride the roller coaster of short-term wins and disappointments. Meaningful progress is non-linear." Keenan / GearLocker: https://gearlocker.com [https://gearlocker.com/] Artillery Links Podcast page: https://artillerymedia.com/podcast/ [https://artillerymedia.com/podcast/] Contact us: https://artillerymedia.com/contact/ [https://artillerymedia.com/contact/] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artillery_media/?hl=en [https://www.instagram.com/artillery_media/?hl=en] Jake on X: https://x.com/jakekramer15?lang=en [https://x.com/jakekramer15?lang=en] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artillerymedia [https://www.facebook.com/artillerymedia]

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