Marketing Makes the Difference

AI-generated post sourced from my transcribed voice notes.

Back in my 20s and 30s, I was married, and my then-husband and I had a series of entrepreneurial adventures. The one that took off—the one that made the most money and felt like the culmination of our skill sets—was a window company. He had years of experience in construction. I had a background in business admin. Together, we built something that scaled fast.

In less than two years, we became the largest distributor of glass block in the entire region—not just the city, not just the state. We swallowed up competitors. Pittsburgh Corning visited our shop. And by that point, our competitors were literally copying our signs and just swapping in their phone numbers. That’s how effective our marketing was.

It wasn’t complicated. It wasn’t expensive. It was intentional.

We had a web presence early. We were in the Yellow Pages and all the online directories. We had yard signs and flyers and commercials. We were based inside Detroit proper, which many competitors weren’t, and that helped too. But the truth is—we were just better at visibility. And that was marketing.

We didn’t call it that then. I didn’t know the term “brand awareness.” But that’s what it was. Our ability to show up and stay top of mind is what helped us grow.

And that’s when I learned: Marketing is the difference. It’s the one thing socially and economically disadvantaged businesses tend to skip—not because they don’t care, but because they’re busy trying to survive. They’re running lean. They’re focused on finding customers and serving those customers. They don’t have time to learn complex strategies or decode industry jargon. But the impact of even simple marketing can be massive.

That was the seed that planted my desire to get into marketing—to help Detroit entrepreneurs and artists stay visible. I wanted to come back and help my people.

Life happened. Fourteen years passed. I forgot why I started. I just kept going. I “did marketing.”

But now, coming back into this space with clarity, I remember: I’m here because I believe that small businesses—especially Black and brown businesses—deserve visibility. They deserve to be found. They deserve more than vague reports and expensive consultants who make marketing sound like rocket science.

That’s why I create so much marketing content. Because someone out there is me from five years ago—searching, hacking, trying to figure it out on their own. I didn’t go to school for marketing. I went to YouTube University. TED Talks. LinkedIn. Case studies. Blog posts. Real talk from real marketers. And now, I’ve mastered enough of this to turn around and hand it back.

When I say I’m an AI and search advocate for socially and economically disadvantaged businesses, I don’t mean I’m trying to make a living off of those communities. I mean I want to resource them. Share frameworks. Build shortcuts. Leave breadcrumb trails. Not every entrepreneur can afford to bring in a marketing team—but they shouldn’t be left in the dark either.

I’d rather give than gatekeep. I’d rather be useful than impressive.

Sometimes you start a thing for the right reasons at the right time—and forget. The mission gets buried under the weight of the work. But I remember now.

Marketing makes the difference. And I’m here to make that difference visible.