Friction pushes your ideal customers away long before you realize what's happening
You’ve worked hard to reach more customers and grow — and you’ve done many of the right things.
You’ve modernized your strategy — you’ve:
- refined your messaging
- tapped into culture
- shown up for key cultural moments like Pride and heritage months
- made your imagery more representative
- tested and optimized
- partnered with influencers
- leaned into UGC
- translated your content into Spanish to reach more people
You’ve followed the evolving playbook. And yet, growth still feels harder than it should.
Ads don’t perform the way they used to.
Acquisition costs rise.
Market share slips.
What once landed now falls flat.
Despite your best efforts, the results aren’t matching the intent.
And the reason isn’t your effort – it’s that consumers have evolved further than most marketing playbooks solve for.
Today’s consumers aren’t who most brands imagine.
They’re people of all ages, sizes, backgrounds, abilities, and realities — and those differences shape how they experience the world and your brand. Who they are influences both consciously and subconsciously, what they click, buy, trust, and return to.
When brands overlook the ways in which their ideal customers are different (most brands do), friction fills the gaps. Trust erodes. Conversions stall. Growth slows.
I built Frictionless Growth Lab to change that.
I didn’t set out to find friction — it’s been present throughout my life.
Growing up left-handed, I felt friction every time I picked up a pair of scissors. The product wasn’t designed for me, and the outcome showed it — jagged, crumpled paper, and a constant frustration my mostly right-handed peers didn’t have. My identity shaped my experience and my success, even at that young age.
I felt friction again as a woman traveling solo, as a Black woman building a business with blueprints that weren’t created with someone like me in mind — where my identity sometimes influences how others see and respond to me.
Friction showed up again when I became gluten-free for health reasons and simply wanted to eat out, when I lived outside the U.S. and couldn’t get my favorite products delivered, and now as I navigate life with my Spanish-speaking Argentine husband, and our bilingual mixed-race child.
Over time, the pattern became unmistakable:
Friction isn’t occasional — it’s predictable.
And it shows up whenever the customer isn’t part of the default assumptions built into an experience.
Most customers don't tell you when friction shows up
Many tolerate a less-than experience, but they’re not happy about it. The frustration builds, and the moment they find an alternative, they leave.
And then there are the customers you never even get to meet.
Friction turns them away before they ever click, buy, or sign up — long before you realize they were considering you at all.
We cannot leave it to the customer to resolve the friction on their own.
It’s the brand’s responsibility to recognize — and remove — the barriers people face in their experience with you. It’s essential for earning sustained trust, relevance, and growth.
That’s why I created Frictionless Growth Lab.
That’s why I created Frictionless Growth Lab — to help brands achieve the impact and growth they’re capable of by identifying and removing the friction that frustrates customers and obstructs business performance.
Here’s how I can help:
Friction Finder Growth Audits™
A comprehensive audit of your marketing and customer experience that uncovers the friction blocking trust, conversion, and growth.
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Frictionless Growth Roadmapping Sessions™
A strategic deep-dive to diagnose your biggest growth opportunities and build a frictionless path forward.
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Frictionless Growth Retainers™
Ongoing strategic advisement and execution support to help your team implement, optimize, and sustain frictionless growth.
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A bit more about me
Hi, I’m Sonia Thompson — a Growth and Customer Experience Strategist who helps brands remove the friction that frustrates customers and slows business performance. For more than a decade, I’ve helped brands deepen connection, strengthen loyalty, and build marketing that actually performs with today’s identity-rich consumers.
Before consulting, I spent nearly a decade in marketing at Johnson & Johnson, where I learned how major brands build trust at scale — and where friction tends to hide. I also hold an MBA from Florida A&M University and a Green Belt in Six Sigma, which grounds my work in both strategic insight and systems thinking.
Since 2017, I’ve partnered with organizations across healthcare, consumer goods, finance, tech, and professional services — helping them modernize their customer experience, strengthen internal capabilities, and make frictionless growth a competitive advantage.