You may have noticed something different.
After four years, this podcast and website has a new name.
For a long time, this brand was called Inclusion & Marketing. That chapter mattered. It reflected where the market was, what conversations were missing, and the work many brands needed to do to better serve more people.
But growth doesn’t come from staying static.
Evolution is a requirement of growth — for businesses, brands, and leaders alike. As markets shift, customer expectations change, and we learn more, what worked before doesn’t always get us where we’re trying to go next.
As we head into 2026 and beyond, this show is evolving to reflect that reality.
The new name is Frictionless Growth Marketing — and this episode is about why that evolution was necessary, what it reveals about how the market has changed, and what this moment may be asking of you in your own work.
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Enter the Conversation Already Happening in Your Customer’s Mind
There’s a copywriting principle I latched onto early in my business, attributed to Robert Collier:
Always enter the conversation already taking place in the customer’s mind.
Years ago, a client hired me to help his team better reach Black and Hispanic consumers for a specific product offering. As we talked through the work, I used the term inclusive marketing — and immediately noticed something important.
He didn’t recognize the term.
He knew he needed help reaching those customers. He just didn’t have a name for it yet. In his mind, the work might have been “multicultural marketing.” But the need was clear, even if the language wasn’t.
That was an early signal.
Later, as I wrote more articles, appeared on podcasts, and invested more deeply in SEO, the same pattern kept showing up. The content resonated. People told me it was helpful. But the language they were using wasn’t inclusive marketing.
I was ranking #2 in Google for “inclusive marketing.”
But the search volume was low.
Marketers weren’t searching for inclusive email marketing strategies.
They were searching for “email marketing strategies to grow their business”.
The issue wasn’t the value of the work.
The issue was the packaging.
Growth Is the Conversation Marketers Are Always Having
Every client I’ve ever worked with wants to grow.
Including more of their ideal customers was one way to do that — but growth was always the goal.
So instead of trying to teach the market new terminology, I began focusing more intentionally on entering the conversation marketers were already having — and adapting the framing accordingly.
When I wrote an article for HubSpot about YouTube strategies used by top channels, I didn’t call it an inclusive YouTube strategy.
I called it:
The YouTube growth strategy MrBeast, Cocomelon, and Like Nastya use to dominate the internet.
Same strategy.
Different packaging.
And it worked.
What evolved wasn’t the method.
It was how the value was framed.
Why Packaging Determines Whether Good Work Gets Seen
YouTube creators talk about this all the time.
The idea, the title, the thumbnail — the packaging — determines whether great content ever gets clicked.
Marketing works the same way.
A few years ago, I made a black bean chocolate cake for Thanksgiving. It was genuinely delicious — but no one wanted to try it once they heard what it was.
Not because it tasted bad.
Because the packaging created resistance.
If I had simply said, “Try this chocolate cake,” the outcome would’ve been very different.
The recipe didn’t change.
People’s willingness to engage did.
That’s reason number one this show evolved.
Inclusion & Marketing was the black bean chocolate cake.
Frictionless Growth Marketing is chocolate cake.
So here’s the question I want to pose to you:
Where do you have a black bean chocolate cake in your business — something valuable that needs better packaging to unlock growth?
The Market Has Changed — and Strategy Doesn’t Exist in a Vacuum
When I work with clients on future growth strategies, one of the tools we often use is a PESTEL analysis — a framework that examines political, economic, social, and technological forces shaping the environment a business operates in.
And when I look across my clients — and my own business — one thing is clear:
The environment brands are operating in today is materially different than it was just a few years ago.
Not in theory.
In practice.
In the early 2020s, many brands approached inclusion primarily through a moral lens. Some made meaningful changes. Many didn’t. And because the work wasn’t operationalized or clearly tied to performance, it was often the first thing deprioritized when pressure increased.
The problem wasn’t the method.
It was execution.
Why Friction Is the Real Enemy of Growth
At the same time, the consumer has changed.
Audiences are:
- More diverse
- More identity-rich
- More discerning
Expectations are higher. Patience is lower. And tolerance for friction — whether in messaging, experience, or brand behavior — is shrinking fast.
Customers don’t just compare you to competitors anymore.
They compare you to the best experience they’ve had anywhere.
That’s why growth today isn’t just about what you say.
It’s about:
- How clearly customers see themselves
- How easily they move through your experience
- How much unnecessary friction you remove along the way
Growth stalls not because brands lack ambition — but because friction quietly gets in the way.
When “Inclusion” Becomes a Friction Point
Last year, while working on a client project, I interviewed several executives about embedding inclusive marketing as a real capability inside their organizations.
One of them said something that stuck with me:
Do not tie inclusive marketing to DEI.
He wasn’t dismissing inclusion. He was being practical.
Once marketing gets framed as DEI, it changes how leaders evaluate its connection to business results — and that shift can derail effectiveness.
Inclusive marketing drives growth.
It’s good marketing.
But over time, I began to see something clearly: the word inclusion itself had become a friction point.
Not because inclusion is wrong — but because of the associations it triggers.
For some marketers, “inclusion” doesn’t sound like growth.
It sounds like HR.
Or compliance.
Or something “not for someone like me.”
And friction kills conversion.
What Frictionless Growth Marketing Really Means
If I ask clients to remove friction from customer experiences so they can convert more people, grow faster, and make a bigger impact — I have to apply that same lens to my own brand.
At the core, every customer — including marketers — is asking the same question:
Is this product, service, or experience for someone like me?
When the answer feels unclear, people hesitate.
And hesitation sends them elsewhere.
That’s why this evolution matters.
Frictionless Growth Marketing tells my ideal audience exactly what this work is about:
- Removing barriers
- Clarifying value
- Aligning execution with how growth actually happens today
It’s not a loss of identity.
It’s a commitment to effectiveness.
What This Moment Is Asking of You
So I’ll leave you with this reflection:
Where might language, framing, or assumptions in your own business be creating friction — and unintentionally telling the right customers this isn’t for them?
Friction shows up in:
- How you describe your work
- How customers experience your brand
- The moments where people hesitate instead of moving forward
The hardest part is that most friction is invisible from the inside.
You can’t remove what you can’t see.
How to Identify the Friction Slowing Your Growth
If you want help identifying where friction may be limiting your growth right now, I’ve created a short quiz to help you get clarity.
It will help you pinpoint:
- What’s slowing momentum
- Where customers hesitate
- What to focus on first
And if you already know you want deeper support, I also offer Friction Finder Growth Audits and focused Frictionless Growth Roadmapping Sessions to help teams remove friction and unlock performance more intentionally.
Final Thought
Evolution isn’t a loss of identity.
It’s a commitment to effectiveness.
Welcome to the next chapter — of this show, and maybe yours too.
Talk soon.
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