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Slow & Steady — A Podcast by ARTILLERY

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Rating
★★★★★
5
from
1 reviews
This podcast has
24 episodes
Language
English
Explicit
No
Date created
2025/09/16
Latest episode
2026/10/22
Average duration
54 min.
Release period
19 days

Description

For way too many people, "website" is a scary word. If that's you, don't panic! Just press play. Join Jake and John, co-owners of ARTILLERY, as they walk you step-by-step through the process of creating design that actually works. From buying your domain to launching your site (and everything in between), Slow & Steady breaks down each phase into clear, relatable episodes that are packed with real-world examples. Stories from hundreds and hundreds of clients, tools we've picked up along the way, ope… and a few dad jokes. Business owners, marketers, and creatives alike, this is for you. You'll leave each episode feeling just a little more empowered to make better decisions online. Because when it comes to your website (just like your business), progress beats perfection. And momentum is built slow and steady. "It does not matter how slowly you go … as long as you do not stop." – Confucius

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Check latest episodes from Slow & Steady — A Podcast by ARTILLERY podcast


Ep. 23. Human in the Loop: How We Use AI to Run Our Small Business
2026/10/22
No guest this time. Just Jake and John, about a year into using AI every day. Back in Ep. 18, Jake went through SiteGround's report on AI in WordPress by himself. This time John joins him, and they get specific about their own work: what they've built with AI and where it still gets things wrong. John built a support app in Lovable that logs client hours, sets new clients up in FreshBooks, and sends his late-payment emails in his own words. It saves him 12 to 16 hours a month and cost under $100 in fees. Jake walks through Project CORE, the brand document their copy starts from, and the marketing engine it now runs for a construction development company. They also get into Arty, the ARTILLERY Slack bot, and Scooter, a fantasy football bot that roasts one league member a day. This episode is for business owners who already use AI for a few tasks and want to know where a person still has to check the work. In this episode: A daily Grok search for Porsches, and a lead list missing four of twenty contacts The day ChatGPT got basic math wrong on a sneaker collection John's support app: client setup, billing notes, and overdue invoices in one place A violin rental form built on Gravity Forms and Stripe through Claude Code Project CORE, and a marketing engine that runs on weekly meeting notes The AI-isms on our banned list, from "delve into" to the em dash Why AI-built wireframes come back with three buttons and two menus AI as fast food, and why you always check the bag 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. 22. Schema Markup in Plain English (And Why AI Makes It Matter More), with Eric Franzon
2026/10/01
Guest episode of Slow & Steady — A Podcast by ARTILLERY. Eric and Jake got connected through a mutual client, and Eric has done the schema work on ARTILLERY sites since. In this episode, Jake sits down with Eric Franzon of Smart Data Websites in Missoula, Montana, for the clearest hour on schema markup you'll hear all year. Eric has been working with structured data since 2004, seven years before schema.org existed. He was an Advisory Committee rep at the W3C. He ran the first non-academic conference on commercial semantic technology, and schema.org was announced from that stage in 2011 with Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex standing on it together. He has done this work for RAND, Intel, Wondery Podcasts, the official website of The Simpsons, and a labrador breeder in Montana. The story that convinced him it worked for small businesses: 45 minutes of code on his wife's nail salon website, and a month later they cancelled a $1,500 Google AdWords bill. This episode is for business owners who have heard the word schema, maybe flipped it on in an SEO plugin, and never knew whether it was doing anything. In this episode: What schema actually is, in plain English: classes, properties, relationships Why schema is a delivery system for ranking factors rather than a ranking factor itself The $1,500 ad bill a nail salon cancelled after 45 minutes of structured data Where Yoast and Rank Math defaults stop, and why WordPress calls your bio page an "article" Why wrong schema is worse than no schema The three-page, fifteen-minute test with validator.schema.org and Google's Rich Results Test What LLMs do with structured data, and why hallucinations make it matter more The time AI wrote him schema and invented three classes that don't exist About Eric Franzon Eric runs Smart Data Websites, where he builds sites, manages them, and does the structured data work most agencies skip. Twenty-five years in web development, a W3C Advisory Committee seat, and a client list that runs from Fortune 500 brands to one-person shops. He has also taught improv, blues harmonica, early childhood education, and gender studies, and he credits improv for how he explains technical work to non-technical people. His mantra: "The web guy you wish you'd hired in the first place." Smart Data Websites: https://smartdatawebsites.com/ Free 30-minute consult for Slow & Steady listeners: https://smartdataseo.as.me/slowandsteady Email Eric directly: [email protected] 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. 21. The Copy-Paste Confession, with Hans Skillrud of Termageddon
2026/09/03
Guest episode of Slow & Steady — A Podcast by ARTILLERY. This conversation started on Josh Hall's Buy or Sell series in July, and Jake invited Hans on before the mics even cooled off. In this episode, Jake and John sit down with Hans Skillrud, co-founder and VP of Termageddon, the auto-updating website policies and consent solution with over 10,000 agency partners. Hans ran a 12-person web design agency in downtown Chicago for seven years. While running it, he started dating a privacy attorney and admitted, over dinner, that his clients' privacy policies were copied and pasted from the internet. She's now his wife and co-founder. He sold the agency in 2019 and went all in on Termageddon, and ten years in, the joke of a company name has turned serious: privacy laws are multiplying, and opportunistic attorneys are sending thousands of demand letters to ordinary websites that load trackers without consent. This episode is for anyone whose privacy policy came from a template, a plugin, or ChatGPT, and anyone who wants their website protected while it does its job. In this episode: The dinner confession that turned into a company Why a contact form alone means you're collecting data SIPA: the 30-year-old California wiretap law behind thousands of demand letters What a properly working cookie banner actually does Privacy policy vs. terms of service, in plain English The step most people skip: finding out which laws apply to you The trust case for respecting visitor privacy Support tickets, managing growth, and a farm in Lithuania About Hans Skillrud Hans is the co-founder and Vice President of Termageddon, an auto-updating website policies and consent solution. Before Termageddon, he ran a 12-person web design agency in downtown Chicago for seven years, then sold it in March 2019 to focus on Termageddon exclusively. His definition of slow and steady: "Managing growth! I never want to lose the level of customer service we provide." Termageddon: https://termageddon.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. 20. Selling Your Business to Your Own Student, with Josh Hall
2026/08/06
Guest episode of Slow & Steady — A Podcast by ARTILLERY. In this episode, Jake and John sit down with their friend of eight-plus years, Josh Hall. Josh spent a decade building In Transit Studios, his web design agency in Columbus, Ohio. In 2020 he sold it to one of his own students and went all in on teaching. Today he runs Web Designer Pro®, a community of 2,000+ web designers, and hosts the #1 podcast in web design. Josh calls himself an accidental entrepreneur. Metal-band drummer. Cabinet maker. Laid off in 2009. He picked up Photoshop for album art, someone at a festival asked who made it, and a business started. One step at a time, slow and steady, all the way to a sale. His whole message fits in one line: a web design business should give you freedom and a life you love. And no one wants to buy a job. This episode is for anyone building a business on the side and wondering if it could ever carry the whole load. It's also for anyone spooked by what AI means for their work. In this episode: The Slow & Steady name Josh wishes he'd grabbed first From metal-band drummer and laid-off cabinet maker to agency owner The coffee with Elegant Themes' content manager that started his teaching career Why "freelancer" is a fancy term for a job Selling the agency in 2020 to a student who was leaving his role as a pastor Two secret weapons: genuine care and better communication than anybody Why the five-out-of-ten designer who communicates beats the ten-out-of-ten who doesn't AI as "the new nephew," and what the Wix panic of 2016 predicts about it About Josh Hall Josh is a web design business coach, podcast host, and web agency founder based in Columbus, Ohio. He built and scaled his own agency for over a decade before selling it in 2020 to focus full time on teaching web designers how to build businesses of their own. Through his podcast, YouTube channel, courses, and his community Web Designer Pro®, he's helped thousands of designers build toward freedom. He's a proud work-from-home husband and father of 3 littles, 5 if you include the 2 Golden Retrievers. His definition of slow and steady: "Few fun tasks/projects per week and a pretty open calendar." Web Designer Pro®: https://webdesignerpro.com/  Josh's podcast: https://joshhall.co/podcast Josh on YouTube: https://joshhall.co/youtube  All of Josh's links: https://joshhall.co/media 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. 19. People Give to People: A Hope Venture Story with Josh Petersen
2026/07/02
Guest episode of Slow & Steady — A Podcast by ARTILLERY. In this episode, Jake and John sit down with Josh Petersen, Hub Director at The Hope Venture, a Lincoln-based nonprofit that connects donors to health and education projects for people in extreme poverty across South Asia and Africa. Fifteen-plus years, thirty-plus projects, and more than 100,000 people helped. Josh is an almost-trained architect who learned graphic design, video, web design, and event design along the way. He built the website the whole giving operation runs on. So it's worth hearing him say it plainly: the website is the tool, but it's not what turns a visitor into a donor. People give to people. This episode is for founders, marketers, and anyone who's ever over-invested in a clever feature and under-invested in the human follow-up that actually converts. It's also for anyone who needs permission to rest. In this episode: The 100% model, and why donors get excited about funding overhead Why every new partner starts with about $1,000 and a single project From 50-cent meals in India to a water pipeline serving 10,000 people in Kenya The website as the primary giving hub, and the quiz that got zero donations Why people give to people, not annual reports and data The life-size mud hut that fell off the trailer on the way to the event "Unforced rhythms of grace," and the monthly day of space for the whole team The first-ever $1M donation that came right after a missed goal About Josh Petersen Josh is the Hub Director at The Hope Venture, a Christian nonprofit in Lincoln, Nebraska that connects donors to health and education projects for people in extreme poverty. He leads its fundraising and marketing, and he's worked his way from graphic designer to creative director to marketing director to Hub Director over roughly ten years. A maker at heart, and dad to two boys. His mantra: "The unforced rhythms of grace. We inquire and leap, but then we wait and see what happens. Oftentimes the next best step is to rest." The Hope Venture: https://thehopeventure.org The Heart Behind the Risk (Hope Venture's new podcast on generosity): https://open.spotify.com/episode/5Js2F7NpEcHsYfXfhiapx7?si=c607654a4dc14333 Reach Josh directly: [email protected] / 402-770-6310 Instagram + YouTube: @thehopeventure 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. 18. AI in WordPress: What It's Good At, and Where You Still Need a Human
2026/06/18
A solo episode. Just Jake, a 31-page report, and a few thoughts on the matter. SiteGround, the hosting company behind all 500-plus ARTILLERY sites, published "AI in WordPress: The 2026 Landscape for Small Businesses." Jake read the whole thing and walks through it with a practitioner's eye, keeping in mind that SiteGround also sells its own AI tool. Some of the data is genuinely useful. Some of it is worth pushing back on. The big picture: WordPress runs about 43% of the internet, and roughly a third of the people running it are small business owners who never signed up to be web developers. Over half now use AI daily, mostly for research and content. But 41% say it takes multiple tries to get a usable result, and 22% don't trust its accuracy. AI saves time, and somebody still has to know whether the answer is any good. This episode is for business owners who have a website, use AI for the easy wins, and want an honest read on where it actually helps and where it quietly creates more work. In this episode: Why a hosting company's report is worth reading, and reading skeptically Why almost 60% of owners say WordPress itself is the hard part What business owners actually use AI for (research and content win) The plugin monster, and why 96% of WordPress security problems start there Where AI is great: structured, repeatable, bounded work Where you still need a human: strategy, brand, and what the homepage says "Start with the workflow, not the tool," and keeping a human in the loop 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. 17 — From Wrestling Mat to SaaS Founder: How Keenan McCurdy is Building GearLocker Slow & Steady
2026/06/04
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 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. 16 — Cost Signal, the Corn Belt, and Not Burning Out Chasing Virality with JT Martin
2026/05/21
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
2026/05/07
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.
2026/04/23
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 Links The 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)
2026/04/09
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, Instagram, and Facebook Website: 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
2026/03/26
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
Ep. 11 — Decluttering Your Marketing (and Finding What Actually Fits) — with Brittany Downey
2026/03/12
Third guest episode of Slow & Steady — A Podcast by ARTILLERY. In this episode, Jake and John sit down with Brittany Downey — marketing coach, copywriter, and host of the Do Less Marketing podcast — to talk about why most small businesses are doing too much marketing, not too little, and what to do about it. Brittany has worked with small businesses, nonprofits, and lean marketing teams for years, helping them cut through the noise and focus on what actually fits. She's also been part of over 150 website projects with the ARTILLERY team, so this conversation is personal. She walks through her "Three Ps of Minimalist Marketing" framework, explains the marketing wobble that traps so many businesses, and makes a case for treating your marketing strategy like a closet that needs a good cleanout. This episode is for any business owner or marketing lead who feels overwhelmed by all the things they think they should be doing — and is ready to figure out what actually deserves their time. In this episode: * Why every organization — small nonprofits to large companies — hits the same marketing wall * The Three Ps of Minimalist Marketing: Positioning, Presence, and Pathways * What causes the "marketing wobble" and how to find your base pace * Why your website needs to feel as human as your storefront * How to use AI to sharpen your thinking without outsourcing it * The marketing closet cleanout: getting everything out on the table to see what actually fits * Why having someone else interview your clients reveals things you'd never hear yourself * Marketing should be fun — and what happens when you find the version that fits you About Brittany Brittany Downey is a marketing coach, writer, and host of the Do Less Marketing podcast. She helps small businesses and nonprofits focus on what works for them — not what everyone else says they should be doing. Her background spans nonprofit marketing, agency work, and hands-on consulting with lean teams. Brittany's website: https://downeystrategy.com/  Do Less Marketing podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/do-less-marketing/id1806109083  Brittany on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittany-downey  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. 10 — From Employee #7 to a $2B Valuation (Nick Small, CompanyCam)
2026/02/26
Second guest episode of Slow & Steady — A Podcast by ARTILLERY In this episode, Jake and John sit down with Nick Small, a SaaS marketing leader and co-founder of Driive, to talk about what real, sustainable growth looks like when you zoom out and play the long game. Nick shares his journey through building and managing websites, leading marketing at Nonprofit Hub, and scaling CompanyCam from under $1M in ARR to a nine-figure valuation. Along the way, he reflects on what he's learned about consistency, learning through failure, and why "slow and steady" is less about moving slowly and more about moving intentionally. We talk about how websites function as far more than marketing assets, acting instead as storefronts, concierges, and often the hardest-working salesperson in the business. Nick also opens up about returning to founder mode with Driive, building in public, and being honest about what's still under construction. This episode is for founders, marketers, and business owners who care about building something that lasts, not just chasing short-term wins. In this episode: What "slow and steady" actually means in high-growth SaaS Lessons learned scaling a company from early ARR to nine figures Why consistent action beats "all at once" effort How your website serves as your storefront, concierge, and salesperson The role of humility and curiosity in long-term growth Why being a student matters more than being an expert Building while things are still unfinished (product and website included) About Nick Nick Small is a SaaS leader with over a decade of experience building mutual value for employees, customers, and shareholders (in that order). He describes himself as "never the expert, always the student." Nick has built and managed websites across agencies and freelance work, served as Marketing Director at Nonprofit Hub, and was VP of Marketing at CompanyCam during a period of massive growth. Today, he's a co-founder at Driive, a booking and scheduling platform for field sales teams, where both the product and the website are still very much under construction. Links Nick on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nixmall/ Driive: https://getdriive.com CompanyCam: https://companycam.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. 09 — The Sound of Humankindness: A Client Success Story with Jennifer Clark
2026/02/12
First guest episode of Slow & Steady — A Podcast by ARTILLERY In this episode, Jake and John sit down with Jennifer Clark, a professional voice actor, podcast host, and Artillery Client of the Month, to talk about what real, sustainable growth actually looks like. Jennifer shares her journey into voice acting, the realities of building a creative business, and why "overnight success" is usually just consistency, grit, and grace in disguise. She walks through how she intentionally uses her website as a business tool, not just a portfolio, sending prospective clients and agents to genre-specific pages that answer their questions quickly and clearly. Since launching her new website, Jennifer has seen a 200% increase in revenue, and while many factors contributed, she explains why having a site that matches the level of service she provides has played a major role. Jennifer is also the host of the Humankindness at Work podcast, where she shares stories of people making a difference through service, creativity, and genuine human connection. That same philosophy shows up in how she does business, how she serves clients, and how she thinks about growth. In this episode: Why "overnight success" is usually slow, steady work behind the scenes What it really takes to build a sustainable creative business How genre-specific website pages save time and build trust Using your website to attract better clients and new agents Why clarity beats flash when it comes to conversion The human side of business: service, consistency, and connection How focusing on the right audience leads to meaningful growth About Jennifer Jennifer Clark is an empathetic, inquisitive, dream-chasing woman. She's a wife to her college crush, mom to three driven and compassionate kids, and a professional voice actor who brings the sound of humankindness to everything she voices. She is a multi-award nominated voice actor specializing in TV, radio, and digital commercials, web videos, corporate training, eLearning, and documentaries. Her voice has been trusted by brands like Walmart, Pinterest, PBS, Sam's Club, Hilton, LEGO, and Starbucks. She finds joy in a good cup of chai, long walks with her dog, skipping small talk in favor of deep conversation, and using her voice to contribute to the world in meaningful ways. Links Jennifer's website: https://jennifersvoice.com Jennifer on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jennifersvoice Jennifer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-clark-vo/ Jennifer on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennifers.voice/ Jennifer on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennifers.voiceVO Humankindness at Work Podcast Podcast home: https://jennifersvoice.com/podcast-home Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/humankindnessatwork_podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HumankindnessAtWorkPodcast YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HumankindnessatWorkPodcast 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

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