Vibe Marketing

Craig Brooks
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Marketing
  • Updated Weekly

Two people – Craig Brooks and Caitlin Smith – who do the work every day (one in brand design, one in marketing) dig into the real questions business owners are asking, with honesty about what actually moves the needle.

  1. 3h ago

    The Local Story Advantage (with Chip Colandreo)

    Everyone's chasing a million followers. But if 99% of them will never walk through your door, what did that number actually buy you? Chip Colandreo has spent 23 years proving the opposite bet: a small, passionate local audience beats a viral one every time. He joins Craig and Caitlin to talk about why local storytelling is harder than going global, and why it's worth it. What We Cover: Why the only metric that matters is whether the cash register is ringing, not your follower countHow Chip's team builds a genuinely local audience of 30,000 and why "local is hard" in the age of viral everythingGoing in cold: why Chip has writers interview subjects with almost no background, and how that mirrors Caitlin's brand discovery processGenerative vs. assistive AI, and Lake Mary Life's commitment to zero generative AI in their published contentThe Ice Capades realtor and the carpet installer who escaped Cuba: how the best business story is usually the one that has nothing to do with the businessThe One Thing: Don't just promote your business, promote you. The stuff people remember is personal, the hobby, the family history, the wild detail that came out in passing. That's what turns "some guy who sells widgets" into the person they drive across town to buy from. Be your authentic self, and don't be afraid to make it a little personal. Chip Colandreo is Publisher of Lake Mary Life Publishing and CEO of Lifeline Media. Reach him at Chip@LakeMaryLife.com or 407-383-4520, and find the magazine at www.LakeMaryLife.com. Craig Brooks is CEO of Clarity Creative Group. Caitlin Smith is a brand designer and strategist. New episodes dropping soon. Follow Vibe Marketing wherever you listen to podcasts.

  2. Jul 20

    AI That Saves You Hours a Day

    Most people are still typing one-off prompts and wondering why AI gives them generic answers. The problem isn't the tool. It's that you never gave it your context. In this one, Craig and Caitlin open up their actual AI stacks, the tools they pay for, the ones that saved real hours this week, and how each of them built a thinking partner that knows their business well enough to push back. What We Cover: Why a thinking partner is only as good as the context you feed it, and how Craig loads his with team roster, financials, and real business dataCaitlin's "second brain" setup in Claude Cowork: a markdown brain file, a memory file, and a session-audit skill that holds her accountable when she's procrastinatingThe daily brief that reads your email and Notion for you, and how it surfaced a brand opportunity Caitlin had completely missedCraig's tool-by-tool breakdown: Poke as the $10 pocket assistant, Claude as the thinking partner, Perplexity as the researcher, plus Higgsfield for scary-good AI videoWhy orchestrators like Perplexity Computer can replace nine subscriptions, and where the real cost barriers kick inThe One Thing: Start with the thinking partner, and feed it your context. Set it up as a project, give it your real business data, and update it regularly. You do not need code or full automation to get value. Even the "training wheels" version saves hours a day, whether you are the owner, second in command, or an assistant. Craig Brooks is CEO of Clarity Creative Group. Caitlin Smith is a brand designer and strategist. They love talking about marketing, talking to people that do marketing, and marketing themselves.

  3. Jul 13

    The Chef's Kiss Client (And How to Find More)

    Ask a business owner who their customer is and you'll often hear "everyone." It feels safe. It's actually the thing quietly costing them money. This episode is about getting narrow on purpose, and why the right customer does more for your bottom line than a bigger net ever will. What We Cover: Why "I want everyone" is the answer that keeps you stuck, and how to get narrow enough to actually winThe one-to-one coaching analogy: aim at your single ideal customer and you still catch everyone around themHow to build a real persona from your values first, the actions that match them, and the actions that don'tThe hidden marketing that shows up when you nail it: better reviews, more referrals, and staff who sell for you without realizing itFor established businesses: how to look back over 5, 10, and 15 years to find the projects that were a "chef's kiss" and reverse-engineer your ideal client from themThe One Thing: Before you chase more leads, figure out which past clients felt good for everyone, the work was strong, the team enjoyed it, and it was profitable. That trifecta points straight at your ideal customer. Reducing that friction is how you make more money and spend less doing it. Craig Brooks is CEO of Clarity Creative Group. Caitlin Smith is a brand designer and strategist. They like talking about marketing and biz stuff.

  4. Jul 6

    Refresh or Rebrand? How to Know Which You Need

    Most business owners think they need a rebrand. Most of them don't. In this one, Caitlin and Craig take opposite corners on refresh versus rebrand, then land somewhere that actually helps you decide which one your business needs and which one would just break what's already working. What we cover: The real difference: a refresh evolves your look and messaging while keeping your core intact. A rebrand fundamentally changes who you are.The "Frankenstein" test: how five years of tweaks, trend-chasing, and one-off logos turn a brand into a mess you can't read or measureWhy a converting website you hate is a refresh problem, not a rebrand problem (and why you might just need to deal with the look)The one situation that actually forces a rebrand: a rotten core you can't fix, like the outdoor business undone by a former partner's reputationHow to test changes without risking what's working: adjust slowly, change one thing, give it 30 daysThe One Thing: Before you touch anything, ask why. List your problems, name what you think the fixes are, then decide. If your business is doing well and you just can't pinpoint the frustration, you almost certainly need a refresh, not a rebrand. A rebrand means you're speaking to the wrong people entirely, and if you were, you'd already know it. Craig Brooks is CEO of Clarity Creative Group. Caitlin Smith is a brand designer and strategist. New episodes dropping soon. Follow Vibe Marketing wherever you listen to podcasts.

  5. Jun 29

    You Might Be a Font Criminal (Here's the Fix)

    You picked a font because you liked it. That might be the problem. In this episode, Craig and Caitlin get into "font crimes," the typeface choices that quietly cost you customers without anyone ever telling you why. Craig even confesses his own past as a font criminal, the kind David used to call out years ago. What We Cover: Why your brain recognizes typography the way it recognizes a circle, triangle, or square, and why consistency creates subconscious brand recallThe case against using the same fonts as every competitor in your space (if they zig, you zag)Why scripty and cursive fonts can tank your search visibility, since Google can read a typeface but not an image of oneThe declining-cursive problem: entire generations can't read it anymore, so it belongs in accents of four words or less, never full sentencesThe two-to-three typeface rule, and why more than three makes the brain work to figure out what to read firstThe One Thing: Your audience is the one who has to live with your font, not you. Your brain already knows what your copy says, so legibility was never your problem. Pick the typeface that reduces friction for the person trying to read you, choose what works for your audience over what you personally love, and you've done the job. Craig Brooks is CEO of Clarity Creative Group. Caitlin Smith is a brand designer and strategist. Got a font crime to confess? Reach out and tell us what you've been getting away with.

  6. Jun 22

    Stop Trying to Sound Professional

    Most roofers fight an uphill battle on trust. Carrie Moreau decided the answer was a cape. As "the Roofing Wonder Woman" behind Certified Best Roofing in Central Florida, she runs a business that pulls 90% of its revenue from in-person networking, in an industry where most companies spend 10% of revenue on SEO. What we cover: The two-business-card system: when the cosplay card comes out, when the standard one does, and why both belong in her walletWhy "Wonder Woman" works as a trust signal in an industry that gets lumped in with used car salesThe 8-minute rule Carrie uses to stay open to every entrepreneur without burning outWhy referrals "have babies, grandchildren, and great grandchildren," and how she tracks tier 1 through tier 4Caitlin's reframe: Carrie didn't try to become someone she wasn't, she just paired who she already was with something the world already recognizedThe One Thing: You don't have to become someone else to stand out. Find one thing that's already true about you, pair it with something universally recognized, then lean in with conviction. The detractors will be loud. The opportunities will be louder. Carrie Moreau is co-owner of Certified Best Roofing and host of the Wonder Women Who Build podcast, serving all of Central Florida. Call or text the Roofing Wonder Woman at 407-602-3363. If this one got you thinking about how you show up, send it to a business owner who's still blending in.

  7. Jun 15

    What AI Still Can't Do (And Why It Matters for Your Business)

    AI can spin up a working website in an hour. The real question is what happens when you need a careers page, a CRM integration, or a fix at 2 a.m. David Forman, Co-Founder of Clarity Creative Group, has been coding since he was 11 and has been building agencies with Craig for 17 years. He joined us to talk about where AI actually helps a business, where it quietly leaves you exposed, and how to tell when a tool is making things up. What we cover: Why this tech cycle feels different from the ones that came before, and the parts that are just hype in a new jacketThe muffin shop problem: how AI gets you to a minimum viable product while leaving architecture, security, and scale on the tableA real example of AI confidently sending David toward a WordPress setting that has not existed for over a decadeThe tools each of us actually uses (Perplexity Computer, Claude, ChatGPT, Notebook LM, Cursor) and where every one of them breaksCaitlin's pushback prompt: how she keeps Claude from being her hype man and gets honest answers with sourcesThe One Thing: Open the AI tool you trust and ask it to count how many hours you have spent going back and forth on a single decision in your business. The number is your answer. Caitlin found out she had burned 37 hours questioning her own positioning, hired a copywriter that week, and was done. Use AI to tell you when it is time to stop using AI and start buying your time back. David Forman is Co-Founder of Clarity Creative Group, where he leads custom development, integrations, and architecture. Craig Brooks is also Co-Founder of Clarity Creative Group. Caitlin Smith is a brand designer and strategist.

  8. Jun 8

    You're Not Your Customer

    Most business owners are quietly making brand decisions based on what they personally like, and paying for it in ways they never measure. This episode gets honest about the gap between owner taste and what the market actually responds to, plus the questions that help you tell the difference before you spend money in the wrong direction. What we cover: The tax of personal taste: what "I like blue" actually costs in lower conversions and slower growthThe Sally test: how Caitlin reframes taste arguments by making every decision about the customer instead of the ownerWhen your ideal customer should shift: why Caitlin gives clients a four-year checkpoint to re-audit who they're really servingThe Cracker Barrel lesson: why hard stop rebrands backfire and the bridge approach Caitlin uses with clients insteadVanity metrics, reframed: what 500 followers would actually feel like if they all showed up at your houseThe One Thing: Before making any brand or marketing decision, put your customer persona in front of you and walk through it with their frustrations and priorities in mind. Ask: how would they respond if I put this in front of them? It won't replace a strategic thinking partner who can call you on your crap, but it forces you out of your own head long enough to see the decision from the other side of the table. Craig Brooks is CEO of Clarity Creative Group. Caitlin Smith is a brand designer and strategist. New episodes dropping soon. Follow Vibe Marketing wherever you listen to podcasts.

See All (17)

Trailer

About

Two people – Craig Brooks and Caitlin Smith – who do the work every day (one in brand design, one in marketing) dig into the real questions business owners are asking, with honesty about what actually moves the needle.

Information

  • Creator
    Craig Brooks
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    17
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026