There's a sentence I hear from founders and CMOs at least once a week now, usually about ten minutes into a first conversation. They say it almost apologetically, like it's an admission: "We've tried everything and nothing is working." They have, in fact, tried everything. What they haven't done is the thing that would actually move the needle.

A founder I've known for years told me she'd spent the better part of a year doing more — more posts, more email, more ads — and the needle hadn't moved. She wanted to know what she was missing. Honestly, I've been having some version of this conversation for two years now, and almost nobody is naming what's actually going on.