Angel Tuccy is an award-winning speaker, radio host, TV producer, media specialist. She's the author of 15 bestsellers, and hosts multiple successful online events. A recent one had 6,000 attendees. So this girl knows how to throw a party. So I was surprised, when we talked about the first party she tried to throw which didn't go the way she hoped.

Angel wanted to create a space where podcasters and potential guests could connect. In 2020, she launched the Need a Guest Facebook community. It took off like wildfire, growing to 10,000 members in just two years.

Angel built the community but forgot one very important piece: the email list. Ten thousand people in her group… and not a single email address. No opt-in. No funnel. Nothing. As Angel put it, that number was a big fat goose egg. Cue the collective groan ... and laughter.

She started by adding a Chrome extension to collect emails as new members joined and sent a personal welcome message. That simple change meant every new connection is automatically added to her CRM, where she can follow up directly. Within two years, the group grew from 10,000 to 40,000 members, and this time she captured emails from every single one.

Then came the second pivot. With the help of copywriter Jamie Atkinson, Angel went from sending no emails at all to sending a daily message. The result was immediate. Her audience, who had been waiting to hear from her, started responding. In the first month, six new clients signed on. From there, daily emails turned into conversations, conversations turned into sales calls, and sales calls turned into revenue.

Building systems that connected the dots between community, communication, and clients was a game changer.

Angel Tuccy is an award-winning Speaker, Radio Host, TV Producer, PR Media Specialist, and author of 15 bestsellers. She is known for her exceptional expertise in helping her clients with media exposure. With a track record of personally securing thousands of media interviews for her clients, she also spearheads the online podcast network needaguest.com

With over a decade in broadcasting, Angel’s accolades include being named “Most Influential Woman of The Year” and winning awards for “Best Morning Talk Show” and “Best Talk Show Team”.

Her bestselling book, “Get Discovered”, offers a step-by-step guide to achieving media exposure in under 90 days, drawing from her extensive experience hosting over 2,500 broadcasts and interviewing over 5,000 guests. Known as the Media Matchmaker, Angel’s unique approach to media engagement sets her apart in the industry.

I might have been a little late getting started today because I fell down a rabbit hole on Reddit — and let me tell you, it was worth it.

If you’ve never explored Reddit, think of it as a sprawling collection of dinner parties happening all at once. Each “subreddit” is its own table — one might be deep in marketing trends, another swapping cat photos, and a third arguing about the best way to brew coffee. You can learn a lot about human behavior (and marketing) by paying attention to what people are talking about at each table.

To explore what Reddit can teach marketers, I sat down with Flynn Zaiger, CEO of Online Optimism — a marketing agency that knows a thing or two about digital communities, employee culture, and, yes, the occasional office cat.

• Reddit as a Listening Tool: Forget the focus group. Subreddits are where your customers speak freely — unfiltered, passionate, and brutally honest. If you want to know what real people think about your industry or brand, start lurking.

• Authenticity Wins Every Time: Redditors have a built-in radar for fake marketing speak. If your post sounds like an ad, they’ll downvote it into oblivion. The brands that thrive on Reddit are the ones that genuinely engage — answering questions, sharing insights, and adding value to the conversation.

• Community Before Conversion: Flynn reminds us that on Reddit, connection comes before conversion. You build trust by showing up consistently and contributing meaningfully — not by dropping links and vanishing.

• Cats Still Rule the Internet: Yes, we took a short detour to talk about pets in the workplace. Turns out, happy office cats (or dogs) can improve morale and your Reddit karma.

1. Listen before you speak. Spend a week just reading Reddit threads related to your industry. Notice what people are actually complaining about or celebrating.

2. Be human, not a headline. When you do engage, drop the corporate voice. Talk like a real person — the way you’d comment on a friend’s post.

3. Find your people. There’s a subreddit for nearly every niche. From r/marketing to r/smallbusiness and r/entrepreneur, hang out where your target audience already gathers.

4. Share useful insights. Don’t pitch — teach. Share lessons learned, data, or stories. The value you give away becomes the credibility you earn.

5. Bring that community mindset home. Whether it’s your internal Slack, your LinkedIn presence, or your podcast audience, think like a community manager — not a broadcaster.

You can find Flynn and his team at OnlineOptimism.com — and if you want to see their agency’s blend of creativity, culture, and data-driven optimism in action, check out their blog or find them on LinkedIn.

Reddit: once the quirky cousin of the internet, now a front-row player in the SEO and LLM (large language model) game. If your carefully crafted blog posts are suddenly being outranked by Reddit threads, you’re not alone. That’s exactly what sparked this week’s conversation with Danny Kirk—musician-turned-marketer and the founder of Reddit Reach.

Lorraine sits down with Danny to ask the question on every marketer’s mind: Are we ready for Reddit? Together, they explore why Reddit is suddenly everywhere, how it’s being used to train AI tools like ChatGPT, and what marketers can do to adapt and thrive in this new digital landscape.

• Reddit is no longer niche. It’s showing up in Google’s top search results and training AI models—which means it can’t be ignored.

• Reddit’s ad platform is cheap and underutilized, making it a hidden gem for budget-conscious marketers.

• Subreddits are their own little countries. Each one has different rules, moderators, and expectations. If you want in, learn the local customs.

• Organic participation matters. You need “karma” to post effectively, and that only comes from genuine interaction—not self-promotion.

• Warm up your Reddit account. Comment, contribute, and build karma before dropping any links or promotions.

• Start small. Join subreddits that align with your interests—personal or professional—and spend one minute a day reading and commenting.

• Check your LLM rankings. Use a tool like Peekaboo to see how generative search engines (like ChatGPT) are interpreting and indexing your site.

• Map SEO to Reddit. Once you know which phrases are trending, find those conversations on Reddit and contribute thoughtfully.

• Customize your content per subreddit. A copy/paste job won’t fly here—each subreddit requires its own approach and voice.

About Danny

Danny Kirk is a classicly trained trumpet player, turned entrepreneur and small business owner. He's started and grown multiple companies over the past decade, and now does growth marketing at ReddiReach for startups and SMBs, 500+ and counting.

Learn more:

Recruiter, podcaster, and process evangelist Darren Saul returns to More Than a Few Words to unpack a painfully relatable story: the one that got away. After weeks of work, multiple interviews, and a seemingly perfect match, Darren’s top candidate vanished right after receiving the offer—without so much as a “thanks, but no thanks.” Ouch.

But this isn’t just a story about recruitment. It’s a wake-up call for marketers, sales pros, and anyone who works with humans (aka all of us). Because whether you're filling a role, closing a deal, or pitching a new client, the lessons are the same: assumptions kill deals, and skipping steps in your process will always come back to haunt you.

• Even perfect processes can fail if you don't fully qualify the people you're dealing with.

• Ghosting isn’t just rude—it’s bad business. Burning bridges happens silently and swiftly.

• Recruitment and sales are two sides of the same coin: both require curiosity, follow-through, and respect.

• Process isn't optional. Skipping steps may feel faster, but it will cost you in the long run.

• Qualify early and thoroughly. Ask the hard questions up front: Are they really ready to make a move? Who else is involved in the decision?

• Treat recruitment like sales. Whether it's a client, candidate, or customer—if you're not uncovering hidden decision-makers or motivations, you’re setting yourself up for a surprise.

• Build a repeatable process. Ad hoc might get you a few wins, but systems scale success.

• Stay professional—even when others don’t. When someone disappears, take the high road. It pays off in long-term reputation.

• Track the quiet ones. That candidate who ghosted? He’s still in the same job. You dodged a bullet.

Darren is a Serial Podcaster, Strategist, Trainer, Coach, Keynote Speaker and Student of Human Attention. He started using the Power of Podcasting to build his photography business and was so amazed with the results he never looked back! He is now a Podcast Junkie who consults with organizations to help them get serious business results integrating Podcasting into their marketing strategy.

Do you remember marketing meetups? Not the polished, sponsor-filled kind. I mean the scrappy, “grab a coffee and chat” kind. No agenda. No name tags. Just people who geek out over marketing gathering to swap stories, ideas, and maybe a slice of pizza.

Then social media distracted us. It was easier to post on Twitter and LinkedIn from the comfort of your bet then it was to get out of bed and come to a networking even . Then along came COVID... well, it cleared the calendar completely. And somehow, we never bounced back…

I missed those conversations. So I posted a note on LinkedIn and Instagram, and an event on : “I’ll be at my favorite coffee shop, Friday 3–5. Join me?” No RSVPs, no pressure. Just show up.

I was prepared to sit outside enjoy my coffee and read my book, but ... at 3:05, someone showed up. An old friend, I hadn’t seen since Covid, then along came someone who used to frequent the marketing meet ups. And that was it. The three of us, two hours, one fantastic conversation about work, marketing trends, life, and everything in between. My two friends had never met, so the connection was a win. Randy, was hoping to find a place to test his stand up comedy, and I got him hooked up. And me, I learned a great way to use Chat GPT to improve my vacation planning.

So what did I learn with my little Marketing meetup experiment.

I probably need to invite more people directly and send a reminder the day before. But honestly? The magic wasn’t in the headcount. It was in the connection.

Will I do it again? Absolutely. Before it gets too cold to linger outside with a latte and good company.

If you are in Indy, maybe you want to drop by and if it is too long, plan your meet up. Start small and have fun!

I had a conversation with Laura Chattington, a strategist who’s helped companies with enough zeros to make your head spin. We didn’t talk about prompts, plugins, or the latest hack for writing Instagram captions in 30 seconds flat. We talked about something much more important: how to make AI part of your marketing strategy instead of just your to-do list.

Laura reframed the conversation around two powerful words: speed and leverage. Yes, AI can make things faster. That part’s obvious. But where it really shines is in its ability to help you dig deeper, make better decisions, and build systems that scale without piling on more complexity.

This episode isn’t about robots taking your job. It’s about how AI can support your brain instead of trying to replace it. Think of it as your intern who works 24/7, never gets tired, and doesn’t whine about the coffee.

• AI is a wave, not a trend. Like the internet and social media before it, AI is reshaping business at high speed. This is not just a shiny new toy. It is the next normal.

• Speed helps you keep up. Leverage helps you pull ahead. AI doesn’t just cut down your to-do list. It gives you the tools to see patterns, spot inefficiencies, and make better choices across your business.

• Think 80/20. Let AI carry the load for repeatable tasks so you can show up fully where it really matters. This is how you create more impact without adding more hours.

• Your experience still matters. AI can do a lot, but it can’t replicate your instincts, your voice, or your years of experience. That’s where your competitive advantage lives.

1. Audit your workflows. Start by identifying systems you run repeatedly. These are perfect candidates for AI support.

2. Treat AI as a partner, not a tool. Go beyond content creation. Use it to analyze customer feedback, streamline proposals, and test new ideas.

3. Train your tools. Feed your AI examples, past work, and data from your business. The quality of your input shapes the quality of your results.

4. Let AI deepen your research. Whether you’re fine-tuning an offer or building a customer journey, AI can help you uncover insights you might miss on your own.

5. Stay in the driver’s seat. Use AI to scale your thinking, not to replace it. Your voice and judgment still steer the strategy.

About Laura Chattington

I had a conversation with Deanna Russo, LinkedIn pro and founder of Leverage Up, about one of those ideas that sounded great in theory—but fizzled out in practice. Her LinkedIn group community was supposed to be the perfect extension of her one-on-one coaching work. But in the end, it didn’t quite land the way she hoped.

Deanna built a network of over 30,000 followers on LinkedIn, so she knows a thing or two about creating connection. But even with that experience, launching a paid online community turned out to be harder than expected.

She tried different formats. Played with cadence. Offered recordings. Bundled it with coaching. Unbundled it. But the reality was clear: the group wasn’t growing, and more and more people kept asking for one-on-one support.

Sometimes, the business speaks for itself. And it’s not saying “try harder”—it’s saying “try something else.”

Key Takeaways from Deanna’s Story

• If it’s not growing, it’s not working. Pay attention to where your customers naturally gravitate. If one offer is thriving while another flounders, don’t split your energy trying to force both to succeed.

• Running a community is a full-time job. You need structure, support, and likely a second set of hands. A community isn’t just a cheaper version of coaching—it’s a different product entirely.

• Be careful with “easy yes” pricing. A low price point can feel generous, but if people can get similar content elsewhere for free, you’re training them to overlook the value you bring.

• Don’t confuse content with connection. Just because people watch, read, or listen doesn’t mean they’re ready to join or engage. Broadcasting and building community are not the same thing.

• You can walk away and still win. Deanna’s weekly LinkedIn Audio show gave her visibility—but when it became more burden than benefit, she stepped back. That created space for what’s working now: one-on-one coaching and organic LinkedIn engagement that’s deeply human.

More than a Few Words is a marketing podcast for marketing pros and beginners, who are building businesses, leading brands, and doing it all without the marketing BS.

Hosted by Lorraine Ball, each episode is a quick hit of practical advice, candid conversations, and marketing truth bombs from pros who’ve been there. No hype. No hustle culture. Just smart ideas you can actually use — whether you’re running a business from your kitchen table or corner office.

Subscribe for new episodes, expert interviews, and marketing tips with just the right mix of sass and strategy.

Visit https://morethanafewwords.com for more resources and downloads

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