Marketing by Design

Andy Milligan
  • 5.0 (7)
  • Marketing
  • Updated Weekly

Marketing by Design is a narrative spotlight show for high-performing marketers and founders on how to drive real business results with design, branding, and strategy. Powered by the Columbus Chapter of the American Marketing Association, we explore how smart design and intentional strategy helps businesses stand out, earn trust, and convert the right customers.

  1. 20h ago

    Using a Personal Brand To Get Marketing Job Interviews, Best Ways to Generate Referrals, and More (Marketer Q&A Listener Mailbag)

    Got a question about job search, careers, or marketing? Submit it for a future Q&A: https://tally.so/r/A7ZYql In this solo Q&A episode, Andy Milligan answers the questions marketers have been sending him about building a personal brand, getting referrals, and landing jobs before they're posted. He breaks down why posting your work isn't enough, how to keep your voice in a sea of templated LinkedIn content, and how to make your resume, LinkedIn, and portfolio tell one consistent story. Then he builds and strategizes in public, sharing real cold outreach conversion numbers, a sales call that didn't close, and the brand stats he tracks to grow his business. CONNECT WITH ANDY 🌐 Website: https://www.mmgdesign.net/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/ 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmilligan/ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 02:17 - I did $26K last month as a solo marketer 04:14 - Nobody cares about your first post (and that's fine) 05:37 - The two-step move that built my entire business 07:28 - The post type that makes people trust you faster 08:05 - $350K from a channel with almost no subscribers 08:25 - Every LinkedIn post sounds the same. Here's the fix. 10:53 - Never gotten a job through someone you know? 14:13 - How to find jobs before they're posted 16:40 - Why I'd never use the Open to Work banner 17:02 - Your resume, LinkedIn, and portfolio are telling 3 different stories 20:25 - What happens when someone Googles you 24:17 - 30 cold videos, 2 sales calls, 0 closes (yet) 27:41 - Every brand stat I track, live TEAM 🎙 Host // Andy Milligan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/ 🎥 Production // MMG Design: https://www.mmgdesign.net/

  2. Sep 29

    How to Hire a VA as a Marketer: Step By Step

    📥 Get the full VA playbook and slide deck: https://www.columbusmarketing.org/va-workshop Recorded live for the 10x Solo community, this workshop breaks down how I built a lean remote team from the Philippines, starting for less than $200 a month. I walk through where I found each team member, what I pay and why, and the exact tasks I delegate, from LinkedIn outreach and newsletter production to podcast editing and inbox triage. You'll also get my biggest delegation mistakes, how to vet candidates, how to pay international contractors, and why your assistant should be using AI. If you've been on the fence about hiring a VA, this is your roadmap. CONNECT WITH 10X SOLO 🌐 Community: https://10xsolo.com 📰 Newsletter: https://10xsolo.substack.com 💼 Garrett Jestice: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garrettjestice CONNECT WITH ANDY 🌐 Website: https://www.mmg.studio/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/ 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmilligan/ ⚡️ High-Converting Websites Visual Swipe File: https://www.mmg.studio/visualswipefile TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Intro 01:54 The workshop begins 05:30 Solo to a team of three 10:30 Agency vs. going direct 15:30 Why $8 an hour is 7x minimum wage 18:00 Start for $200 a month 22:00 The outreach system my VA runs daily 26:00 I edited 100 episodes alone. Never again. 29:00 The mistakes I wish I hadn't made 34:30 How to spot a high performer fast 37:00 My assistant texts my mom 41:00 Live Q&A TEAM 🎙 Host // Andy Milligan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/ 🎥 Production // MMG Studio: https://www.mmg.studio/

  3. Sep 22

    The Most Impressive Marketer I’ve Ever Met: Hans Skillrud on Agency Acquisition, Website Lawsuits, and Building a SAAS

    The best community for marketers on the internet: https://www.columbusmarketing.org Hans Skillrud went from Groupon employee #100 to agency owner to acquiring a competitor to co-founding Termageddon, a privacy compliance SaaS he runs with his wife Donata. In this episode, Hans breaks down how niching down and buying out struggling competitors built his agency's growth, why he sold it to focus on Termageddon full-time, and why most website owners have no idea how much data their site is quietly collecting and sharing. He also lays out exactly what he'd do if he were starting a web agency today, from acquisitions to one-day builds. CONNECT WITH HANS🌐 Website: https://termageddon.com/💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hans-skillrud/ CONNECT WITH ANDY🌐 Website: https://www.mmgdesign.net/💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmilligan/ TIMESTAMPS00:00 - Intro00:00 - The Groupon job that started it all02:19 - The cold call that accidentally launched a web design career04:30 - 37 services down to one: the niche that changed everything06:24 - How buying a struggling competitor fell into his lap08:04 - Turning an acquisition into a six-figure pipeline with cold calls12:26 - How he met his wife and co-founder, Donata15:28 - Why he sold his agency to go all-in on Termageddon18:50 - The data your website is sharing without you knowing it21:15 - Inside the $30,000 SIPA demand letters hitting site owners27:15 - His playbook to buy agencies with zero money down33:10 - Why your current customers are your best growth channel35:51 - What's next for Hans, and the move to Lithuania TEAM🎙 Host // Andy Milligan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/🎥 Production // MMG Design: https://www.mmgdesign.net/

    The Most Impressive Marketer I’ve Ever Met: Hans Skillrud on Agency Acquisition, Website Lawsuits, and Building a SAAS

  4. Sep 15

    Exactly How My Business Performed This Month: Finances, Content, Leads, and More

    ⚡️ Join the Columbus Marketing Organization: https://www.columbusmarketing.org In this solo episode, Andy Milligan opens the books on MMG Studio's August 2026 performance — $26K in revenue, a growing enterprise client concentration problem, the studio's first-ever in-person networking event, and the exact subscriptions he's cutting to trim $700 a month in software spend. This is Andy's monthly retro format, run with full transparency on profit, loss, wins, and losses. CONNECT WITH ANDY 🌐 Website: https://www.mmgdesign.net/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/ 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmilligan/ TOOLS I USE 💰 Monarch Money: https://monarch.com/referral/z41ilq6s8l?r_source=copy 📇 Folk CRM: https://try.folk.app/17t000urnxbb TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - The August retro nobody asked for (but you needed) 01:14 - Why I run these every month 02:30 - Opening the books: Monarch Money walkthrough 03:21 - $26K revenue, $378K lifetime, and where it's going 06:14 - The client concentration problem I created 12:14 - The $700 software bill I'm finally cutting 19:34 - My first in-person event: 21 people, 0 regrets 26:33 - The mistake costing me the most: mornings 30:27 - Goals for September and what's next TEAM 🎙 Host // Andy Milligan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/ 🎥 Production // MMG Design: https://www.mmgdesign.net/

  5. Sep 8

    The 10 Signals That Prove Marketing is About To Go Horribly Wrong (Act Now)

    🔥 Learn, Connect, and Grow With Other Marketers: www.columbusmarketing.org💎 Our agency (Web + SEO): www.mmg.studio Angela Troccoli is the Head of Marketing at Revecore and an award-winning marketing executive with nearly two decades leading go-to-market strategy across supply chain, healthcare, and digital commerce. In this episode, she breaks down why marketing goes wrong so often (hint: it's rarely the tactics), what pushed her to write her new book "Signals: Common Marketing Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them," and why AI is accelerating bad strategy just as fast as good strategy for teams that skip the fundamentals. If you lead marketing, sit on a board, or just got asked to "do more with the same budget," this episode gives you language for what's actually going wrong and how to fix it. CONNECT WITH ANGELA🌐 Website: https://angelatroccoli.com💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela1morel/📖 Book: https://www.amazon.com/Signals-Common-Marketing-Pitfalls-Avoid/dp/B0H4DV7GFD CONNECT WITH ANDY🌐 Website: https://www.mmgdesign.net/💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmilligan/ TIMESTAMPS00:00 - Intro00:07 - Why marketing goes wrong more than people think01:36 - Marketing is a science, not pixie dust02:19 - Everyone has a social profile, so everyone thinks they can market02:52 - The off-the-record story about what a "campaign" actually is04:47 - Founder-led content isn't lazy, it's strategy06:03 - The monthly review and quarterly pivot process07:15 - Leaving 20-30% of bandwidth for reactive news-jacking09:18 - Building content around three personas, matched by who's speaking12:11 - The mentor conversation that started the book15:55 - Twenty interviews, one question: what mistake do you keep repeating?17:19 - Why "mistakes" became "signals" instead18:57 - The budget trap every board asks and every marketer falls for21:34 - Giving marketers a resource to point to when they're the unpopular voice22:20 - The uncomfortable chapter on restructuring and layoffs24:16 - Angela's career path from supply chain to global product marketing27:32 - Even Google, Airbnb, and Instagram make these mistakes29:18 - Customer advocacy: the most underinvested function in marketing31:39 - Rewriting the exit strategy chapter for optionality over IPO hype34:11 - AI is a tool, not a colleague37:06 - Why QA still matters even when AI is faster40:00 - Where to find Angela and the book TEAM🎙 Host // Andy Milligan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/🎥 Production // MMG Design: https://www.mmgdesign.net

    The 10 Signals That Prove Marketing is About To Go Horribly Wrong (Act Now)

  6. Sep 1

    Full Breakdown of Our First In-Person Event: Cost, Attendance, and What I Learned

    ⚡️ Columbus Marketing Community: https://columbusmarketing.org Andy just hosted his first in-person marketing event in Columbus, and this episode is the full, honest post-mortem. He breaks down every number: who he invited, who showed up, what it cost, and what he'd do differently. If you've ever thought about hosting your own event or building a local community around your brand, this is the real math behind doing it for the first time. CONNECT WITH ANDY🌐 Website: https://www.mmgdesign.net/💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmilligan/ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Introduction01:34 Venue and Logistics03:50 The Numbers: People06:45 The Numbers: Cost10:27 Time and Overall Expense12:11 Wins and Successes17:18 Lessons and Improvements21:06 Follow-Up and Feedback27:37 Next Steps and Conclusion TEAM🎙 Host // Andy Milligan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/🎥 Production // MMG Design: https://www.mmgdesign.net/

  7. Aug 25

    High-stakes leadership, navigating burnout, and the value of coaching with Dr. Lillian Emlet

    ⚡️ High-Converting Websites Visual Swipe File: https://www.mmgdesign.net/visualswipefile Dr. Lillian Liang Emlet has spent 20 years in critical care medicine and is still practicing today. After a pandemic-driven reckoning forced her to confront her own burnout, she founded Transforming Healthcare Coaching to help other healthcare leaders name what's actually happening to them at work. In this episode, we trace her path from a pre-med kid pushed toward medicine to an ICU physician and executive coach, and dig into why burnout is a workplace problem rather than a personal failing. If you lead people in a high-stakes environment, healthcare or otherwise, this one is worth your time. CONNECT WITH LILLIAN 🌐 Website: https://transforminghealthcarecoaching.com/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lillian-liang-emlet-transforming-healthcare-coaching/ CONNECT WITH ANDY 🌐 Website: https://www.mmgdesign.net/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/ 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmilligan/ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Recording rituals and pre-show nerves 02:24 What actually got Lillian into medicine 05:31 20 years in critical care and the move from ER to ICU 06:50 The pandemic reckoning that led to coaching 08:36 Being coached for the first time and not knowing yourself at 40 10:09 Linear vs. curvilinear career paths 12:04 What clinical teaching taught her about coaching 15:23 Burnout is a system problem, not a personal one 15:50 The real numbers behind healthcare burnout 18:23 What burnout actually feels like day to day 20:45 You are more than your output 22:53 Why community exists and the loneliness problem 27:35 What separates a thriving community from one that fizzles 30:26 Free community as a top-of-funnel offering 33:42 Why success looks different for a new grad vs. a 20-year veteran 36:19 Where to find Lillian TEAM 🎙 Host // Andy Milligan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/ 🎥 Production // MMG Design: https://www.mmgdesign.net/

    High-stakes leadership, navigating burnout, and the value of coaching with Dr. Lillian Emlet

  8. Aug 18

    College Professor: “Marketing is Fundamentally Changing!”

    ⚡️ Are you a marketer? Get the best jobs delivered to your inbox every Monday: https://www.columbusmarketingjobs.com Dr. Kristina Medvedeva is an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Otterbein University who spent nearly a decade as a marketing practitioner at companies like IKEA and Deutsche Post DHL before stepping into academia. In this episode, she and Andy dig into what's really changing in higher ed, why AI is both the great equalizer and the great trap for marketers, and how she's rebuilding her curriculum around critical thinking instead of prompt writing. If you're trying to figure out how to stay marketable, hire smarter, or make sense of what a marketing degree is actually worth in 2026, this conversation gives you a straight answer. CONNECT WITH KRISTINA 🌐 Website: https://www.otterbein.edu/profiles/kristina-medvedeva/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristina-s-medvedeva/ CONNECT WITH ANDY 🌐 Website: https://www.mmgdesign.net/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/ 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mindfulmilligan/ TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Intro 00:36 - Six degrees, four languages, three countries 03:15 - Why she left the industry to teach 05:56 - Nine years teaching, fifteen years as a student 06:53 - What's actually changed in higher ed 13:02 - The real ROI question every student should ask 16:03 - Is US business education really the best in the world 20:17 - How she keeps her curriculum from going stale 23:43 - What makes a marketing student marketable 28:27 - Why every marketer has to be AI literate 32:37 - The advantage, and disadvantage, of AI: everybody can use it 36:28 - Why she still grades you, not the AI 42:33 - The wrong way to pick a career based on AI 45:09 - Her honest advice for anyone considering college TEAM 🎙 Host // Andy Milligan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mmgdesign/ 🎥 Production // MMG Design: https://www.mmgdesign.net/ 🤝 Powered by // AMA Columbus: https://amacolumbus.org

    College Professor: “Marketing is Fundamentally Changing!”
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Marketing by Design is a narrative spotlight show for high-performing marketers and founders on how to drive real business results with design, branding, and strategy. Powered by the Columbus Chapter of the American Marketing Association, we explore how smart design and intentional strategy helps businesses stand out, earn trust, and convert the right customers.

Information

  • Creator
    Andy Milligan
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    182
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Andy Milligan
  • Show Website
    Marketing by Design