Episode 17: The First Year of Going Solo (Good, Bad, and Ugly) with Dom Odoguardi

Episode 17: The First Year of Going Solo (Good, Bad, and Ugly) with Dom Odoguardi

Most people who have gone solo come on podcasts to tell you how their revenue is up 50%. Dom Odoguardi came on seven months in to tell you his pipeline is looking rough, he has lost four clients in a month, and he is still figuring out what he is actually selling. That is the episode. We cover: • Why Dom started with employee-generated content, realized almost nobody knew what that meant, and had to rethink the whole offer • The nest egg strategy he used to give himself six months of runway before jumping • How warm outbound actually works when you refuse to use sequences and just vibe it • The existential spiral that hit in December and what snapped him out of it • Why pricing too low got him clients he spent every day regretting • What his month-to-month revenue curve actually looks like, including the number • The margin reality of video work when you have to hire shooters and travel • Why he lost four clients in the same month he had his best month ever • The question he still cannot answer on camera because the client is still active If you are in the messy middle of year one wondering if you are the only one going through it, this one is for you.

Episode 16: How Tim Bradley Went From DMs and $4K Projects to $300K Deals

Tim Bradley spent 12 years as the first creative hire at a PR agency, growing to lead a team of 25 across every type of project, channel, and industry imaginable. Then he looked in the mirror and realized he was running a business for someone else's passive income. In this episode of The Marketer's Exit, he breaks down how he built Pennant Video Co. from scratch, including the exact DM strategy that kept him buried in client work before they even officially launched. We cover: • Why spending 12 years inside an agency was the best and worst preparation for going out on his own • The business partner model that gave him a financial and mental safety net from day one • How the video marketing trifecta framework came before the midfunnel positioning did • Why he hired a brand person and an ops person before he ever hired a creative • The DM strategy that generated months of work before the website even went live • How average deal size grew from $30K in 2024 to $55K in 2025 • The snail projects that taught him to trust his gut when everything in him said no • Why cold email outreach was a $12K mistake and what worked instead • What he misses about the old job and why he is still paying himself less than he used to If you are inside an agency right now doing everything for someone else, this one is going to hit different.

Episode 15: The Marketer's Exit Playbook. How to Go Solo Without Blowing Up Your Life

Going solo does not have to mean quitting cold turkey and hoping for the best. In this episode, Tas and Tim walk through every step of what smart preparation actually looks like, from building a quiet client pipeline to figuring out your first offer to knowing when you actually have enough runway to jump. We cover: • The leverage framework that tells you how risky your specific situation really is • Why posting on LinkedIn is a long game and should not be your first move • How to find clients in communities without blowing your cover at your current job • The Trojan horse networking strategy that generates referrals without ever pitching • What your first sales deck needs to include and what it absolutely does not need • Why you are going to underprice yourself anyway and why that is actually fine early on • How to structure your first few engagements to create income stability before you leave • What happened when someone asked their employer to be their first consulting client • Why the safe approach can also be the reason you never actually go

Episode 14: From Free Shoots to $30K Deals. How Ding and Jake Built Event Shark

Most B2B events have speakers, sponsors, and a budget. What they almost never have is someone with a camera documenting any of it. Ding and Jake saw that gap and built a whole business around it. In this episode, they pull back the curtain on how Event Shark went from free shoots and $500 gigs to a full production company with eight employees, a new office in Austin, and deals ranging from $10K to $30K. We cover: • How a failed rap career and a LinkedIn parody video accidentally started the whole thing • Why logistics companies were their first real clients and what a blue ocean actually looks like • The moment they realized events were the offer worth building around • What custom scoping looks like when your deals range from one-day shoots to three-day conferences • Why inbound through personal brand has been their biggest growth lever • The cash flow scare that almost had them walking back office plans • What it actually looks like to scale from founder-led delivery to a team you trust • Solo vs. co-founder, the real answer from someone who has done both • The worst advice people give marketers who want to go out on their own If you are thinking about going solo or building something with a partner, this one is worth the listen."

Episode 13: From Burnout to $650K As a Solo, Winning $1M from Perplexity

You don't have to do everything right to build something that works. Kaylee Edmondson has no scheduling link on her website. She barely posts on LinkedIn. She has a conflict bot built in Claude because she's bad at hard conversations yet she's one of the most sought-after fractional Demeand Gen operators in B2B SaaS. This episode covers: - How she went from a 230K W2 to beating that number in the first four months solo - The audit-to-retainer pipeline that quietly became her best business development tool - Why she considers her exit strategy for every client before she even starts - How a portfolio model, two senior hires, and a hard cap at two clients each changed everything - The Perplexity million-dollar sweepstakes and what she actually did with it If you're early in your solo journey and feeling like you're doing it wrong, this is the episode to listen to. 🎧 The Marketer's Exit is hosted by Tim Davidson and Tas Bober.