I’ll never forget the day I decided to open a restaurant.
On paper, I had every advantage. Seventeen years on Wall Street had taught me discipline, business development, and how to manage complex teams. I wasn’t new to pressure. I wasn’t new to numbers. I wasn’t new to business. But stepping into the restaurant world was like stepping onto another planet.
The rules were different. The customers were different. The pace was relentless. And suddenly I found myself staring at the same question every small business owner faces: How do I market this thing?
The First Shot in the Arm
My brother and I did what we thought was the right thing. We went straight to the SBA website, pulled down their official marketing plan template, and got to work.
Two weeks later, we had a thick, polished binder — charts, bullet points, neat little boxes checked off. It looked impressive. It felt official. And then… nothing.
We never opened it again.
Not once.
It sat there on the shelf, collecting dust, while we scrambled every day to figure out how to get people in the door, how to pay bills, how to survive.
That was my first hard lesson: most marketing plans are designed to be written, not used.
Where Every Course Fell Short
Over the years, I kept bumping into the same pattern. Courses, teachers, and templates all promised to help me “make a plan.” But none of them taught me how to use the plan.
- How do you turn that binder into daily actions?
- How do you keep it alive after the excitement of finishing it?
- How do you make it the compass you return to — not the book you shelve?
No one taught that part.
For my restaurant, that gap was the difference between having a document and having a direction. Between theory and practice. Between wasting time and actually building momentum.
The Turning Point
That frustration lit a fire in me.
When I found myself stuck with a marketing plan that went nowhere, it hit me — if I was feeling lost, my fellow small business owners must be experiencing the same thing too.
Most SBOs don’t have two weeks to fill out a binder. They’re running payroll. Serving customers. Fixing equipment. Working in the business just to keep it alive.
And when they finally sit down at midnight to “do marketing,” they don’t need another complicated template. They need clarity. They need direction. They need something simple they can actually use tomorrow morning.
Why I Built Marketing Plan Express
That’s why I created Marketing Plan Express.
It’s not another course that tells you how to make a plan. It’s a tool that shows you how to use one.
- It strips away the clutter so you can build a plan in hours, not weeks.
- It teaches you how to follow through — how to actually execute the plan you’ve created.
- And it’s built for real small business owners, the kind who don’t have a marketing department, who don’t have time to chase every new tactic, and who need results without burning out.
Because I know exactly how it feels to waste time, money, and energy on plans that never leave the page. I’ve lived it.
My “Why”
Marketing Plan Express was born out of my own failure with that SBA binder. It’s my answer to the problem I faced as a restaurant owner — and the problem I’ve seen countless clients face since.
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, confused, or burned by bad marketing advice, I want you to feel one thing when you land here: relief. Relief that someone finally gets it. Relief that there’s a better way.
And I want you to know this: a marketing plan isn’t just something you create once and forget. Done right, it’s a living, breathing tool. It’s the compass that keeps you on track every single day.
That’s my why. That’s why I built this. Not for theory. Not for a binder on a shelf. But for you — the small business owner who needs something real.
Join the Change
If you’re ready to stop wasting time and finally take control of your marketing, I invite you to be part of something different.
Join the Change today — a community of small business owners and marketers who are tired of tactics without strategy, and ready for a new way forward.
Or if you just want to know when we officially launch, sign up here to get notified.
Either way, welcome. You’re in the right place.