Venveo

Successful, impactful online marketing doesn't just happen. I work with home and building products companies to understand their business goals and help them better understand the needs of their audiences in the channel. Our team creates tailored, data-based strategies to build brands that speak to the direct pain points of their audience. I work with our team to oversee those strategies carried out and ensure that we deliver not just good-looking work, but that the efforts of the Venveo team are bringing in more leads and increasing sales through a strong digital presence.

Director of Digital Strategy

At Venveo, I'm responsible for helping our clients nail down the right brand persona, the right voice and the right content to align with their business strategy and attract the right customers. I help brands recognize the importance of spending as much time and effort on the copy of their website as they do on the design. 

Venveo also has two great blogs. Venveo.com and diyconsumer.com Part of my responsibility at Venveo is to help us determine what content should be posted, who should write it and what our clients and readers want to know about our industry.

Content Strategist for Building Materials Companies

Advance Auto Parts

Edited web content, wrote emails, articles and other written works for digital publications. Created and successfully completed communication plans for multiple company initiatives. Coordinated large meetings with WebEx and InterCall.

Communications and Web Content Coordinator

Radford University

While working as a Graduate Teaching Fellow, I was the lead instructor for Core 101 and 102 classes. I created full lesson plans based around reading assignments, teaching writing skills, research skills and literary analysis. I was responsible for teaching students the writing and reading skills they would need to progress to the next level of their college courses.

Graduate Teaching Fellow

The right marketing strategy doesn't pitch your brand or sell your product. It clearly states the problems you solve. It connects your solutions to your customer’s pain in a way they can immediately understand and can't resist. 

At Venveo, we're intentional experts in the intersection of who your customer is and where they interact online. I lead our team in creating data-based strategies to build brands that resonate with their audience and cut through the noise so they can be where their customer is when they're researching, sourcing and purchasing building products. 

Throughout my career in digital marketing, I've sat in almost every seat in our agency, and all of that experience has taught me that obsessing about our customers and our customer's customer is the only way to get the results no one else thought possible.

I believe in leading companies to dream bigger, reject the status quo and unlock their potential.

What our clients are saying about Venveo: 

"Knowledgeable and competent from top to bottom." - Founder of an online architecture videos company

"Venveo went above and beyond in many cases to help us determine the best path forward." - Executive for a bathroom fixtures manufacturer

"Their results are consistently better than their projections." - President at a construction company

Beth💥 PopNikolov

So here’s my hot take on the very normal and not at all unhinged idea of a 50-year mortgage, floated by the White House this month. (I’m not even going to get into that right now.)

As a marketer in the building materials space, it did remind me of a deeper tension we live with in this industry every day.

📉 In the short term, we’re constantly reacting. Tariff whiplash, pricing instability, interest rate chaos. 

It’s exhausting.

If you zoom out, it’s hard to ignore the one macro truth we keep coming back to:

👉 We have a massive housing shortage. And we’ve barely made a dent.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says we’re short 4.7 million homes in the U.S. 

Some call it a crisis, and the numbers clearly back it up. 

I see manufacturers out there every day driving hard after innovation to help solve this problem. 

I see partners and leaders going hard after bringing the next generation into the trade. 

So once in a while, it’s worth reminding yourself:

✅ Not everything is about this quarter’s chaos (or shortfalls)
✅ If you’re in building materials, your work matters
✅ The long-term tailwind is very, very real

You’re not just pushing product or trying to tack AI onto a SaaS tool that doesn’t need it. You’re helping solve one of the defining problems of the next decade.

So give yourself a pat on the back … and get back to work! 






#buildingmaterials #housing

Your marketing should be a revenue maker—not a revenue taker. Marketing is Sales. Period. | CEO @ Venveo | Brand Champion & Strategy Expert for highly complex B2B industries

Most international brands underestimate the U.S. market before they ever set foot here.

EuroCave didn’t.

Recently on Smarter Building Materials Marketing, I sat down with Camille Frey-Syren, Brand Director at EuroCave and the strategist behind Goguette 🍷, their new wine fridge line built specifically for the U.S.

What impressed me most was how disciplined their approach was. They took a smart, measured path to market research and brand development, the kind of groundwork almost any company could learn from before launching into a new category or geography.

Here are a few insights that stood out to me:

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔.𝐒. 𝐛𝐮𝐲𝐞𝐫.
EuroCave is a legacy brand in Europe, but the U.S. consumer is younger, more casual, more design driven. Goguette was built for that mindset.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐔.𝐒. 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭.
Camille’s team started in specific cities, learned fast, and adapted their message instead of assuming one approach would work everywhere.

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬.
Instead of trying to reach millions of homeowners on day one, they started with the people who influence kitchen and living-space decisions.

𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫.
Wine fridges used to live in basements. Now they live in kitchens and living rooms. Goguette treated the appliance like furniture, not an afterthought.

If you’re expanding into the U.S. or repositioning a legacy category, this episode is a blueprint for doing it intentionally.

Please pour a glass of your finest and give it a listen! (link in the comments below)

It’s been a few weeks since BPCW wrapped, and I’m still thinking about the conversations that happened in those rooms.

Too many people to thank for attending, speaking, debating, challenging, pushing, and promoting the work this industry is doing. If you were there, you felt it. This year had a different energy.

Here are the three themes that stood out to me that point to some fundamental shifts in our space:

1. The buyer journey has officially changed hands.
Every segment is doing deeper online research before making a decision. Contractors, Builders. Architects. DIYers. Everyone.

The BPCW report confirmed what we’ve been seeing all year: if your digital presence isn’t built for research and validation, you’re invisible during the most important part of the sale. 

2. YouTube is King.
Across categories, YouTube is the top platform for learning how products work, how they install, and how they compare.

This isn’t a “nice to have” content format anymore. It’s the new jobsite rep.

3. Brand loyalty is real, but it’s conditional.
The room was full of legacy brands, but the data was clear. Quality and availability drive loyalty.

Everything else is optional.

Trial is up. Satisfaction with new brands is high. Your product has to earn its place every time.

Here’s the hill I will die on: If manufacturers only change one thing going into 2026, it should be this. Make it effortless for customers to validate your product online. Everything else gets easier when you do that well.

If you were at #BPCW, what stood out to you this year? What conversations are still bouncing around in your head?

And if you missed it this year - check out our shameless promo video to start building the hype so you remember to buy a ticket next year…

Just a gentle, annual reminder to C-Suite executives. 

You simply cannot replicate Spotify Wrapped. No matter how hard you try. 

So please don’t ask your marketing team to do that for your own brand. 

That’s it. That’s the post.

The U.S. has a shortfall of more than 4.7 million homes. 

Despite rising demand, we're not building fast enough to catch up.

If you've followed me for a minute, you already know I'm all in on modular housing. Faster timelines. More predictable cost. Greater scalability. It’s one of the few paths that can actually keep up.

On a recent episode of Smarter Building Materials Marketing, I spoke with Galiano Tiramani, co-founder of BOXABL, one of the most visible names in the modular space.

We talked through:

▪️ How they’ve leaned into social (1B+ views) to build demand
▪️ What it takes to market and sell a high-ticket modular product
▪️ Why they’ve pulled back from the dealer model
▪️ The realities of going viral—trolls, scrutiny, and SEC investigations
▪️ And how their recent IPO move fits into a long-term growth plan

It’s not easy. There’s plenty of learning along the way—for BOXABL and anyone else in this space. Regulatory hurdles, red tape, and execution risks are real. 

But the industry can’t afford to wait for perfect. It has to keep moving forward. 

And with a newly filed SPAC merger proposal that would take BOXABL public at a $3.5B valuation, the company is betting big on its next chapter.

Give the full episode a listen below 👇




#modularhousing #innovation #housing

Brimstone Coaching Group

I help growth-minded leaders break through barriers to live fully and lead authentically through 1:1 and Group Coaching.

Co-Founder & Leadership Coach

Rock Publishing, Sole Proprietorship

Local weekly newspaper that my wife and I operated for 25 years. We owned and operated several other newspapers over the years in Iowa and South Dakota, selling the Rock Valley property July 1. Sales, news & sports reporting. Numerous journalism awards early in my career when awards mattered to me.

Publisher

Synod of the Heartland - Reformed Church in America

Spent a decade serving 40 churches in the RCA helping them be healthy and multiply. Led Pastoral Search processes, leadership development processes, conflict resolution, and various trainings.

Classis Leader

You're showing up for everyone else - but something inside you feels like you're running on empty!

You're successful by most standards - leading teams, caring for people, managing the pressure. But deep down, you often wonder: "Is this all there is?"

I know that tension. I've lived it, led through it, and now I help others break through it.

As a coach, pastor, and author of Live Fully. Lead Authentically., I work with leaders who want more than just success - they want significance!

I help people rediscover who they are, realign with their purpose, and lead with clarity and conviction. My coaching combines Family Systems Theory, IFS, practical insight, spiritual grounding, and honest accountability - so you can move from stuck to strong, from burnout to breakthrough.

My clients are often asking questions like:
• "I've been running hard for years...now what?"
• "I'm leading everyone else - who's guiding me?"
• "Is it possible to live fully and still lead with strength?"

The answer is yes. But it requires intentionality.

If you're ready to live more fully and lead more authentically, let's talk. I offer 1:1 coaching for growth-minded women and men who want to live aligned and lead with impact.

DM me or schedule a 30-minute conversation here: https://calendly.com/cgodfredsen/initial-inquiry

Let's rediscover what is possible - together!

Chris Godfredsen

The hardest lesson I learned this year → isolation is insidious. 🫤

You’ve likely heard the phrase, “It’s lonely at the top.”

The phrase infers that loneliness in leadership is mandatory.

My lived experience tells me that it sure can be.

As a leader, I have long said that I will never ask someone to do something I am not willing to do myself.

But then it hit me a few months ago – loneliness isn’t the cost of leadership. It’s the warning sign.

I had been white knuckling my way through a situation. I was trying to solve an intractable problem on my own. Keeping to myself. Hiding.

My preferred promise regarding leadership says: “I lead with authenticity, integrity, and courage – that makes me a person worth following.”

Sounds great, right?

My authentic self is curious, open, desiring connection. When I stay silent and am too proud to ask for help, I am inauthentic.

Integrity is doing what I say I’m going to do, when I say I’m going to do it, and doing whatever it is in the way it’s intended to be done. White knuckling my way through life and this situation had me out of integrity.

Not only that, but another way I think about integrity is workability – when something is as it should be, it works! I was making the situation unworkable.

Finally, my authentic self is courageous. I take risks, I acknowledge that I need help and don’t have all the answers. Reflecting one day, it occurred to me that I had not been courageous at all. 🧭

This is what makes isolation insidious. The research shows isolated leaders become more self-protective, more likely to justify questionable decisions, and less likely to lean on shared values.

Isolated leaders often signal to their teams that they don’t want to be bothered, want to handle everything alone, and are not open to feedback.

I found myself in the same spot as many of my clients:

Most leaders aren’t tired from the work — they’re tired from carrying work alone.

One weekend, I made a conscious decision to open-up about the struggle – to let two trusted teammates in on my isolation because I believe shared leadership isn’t weakness. It’s wisdom. 🤝

I really do lead with authenticity, integrity, and courage – but I get to re-promise myself that I will whenever the impulse to isolate returns. 

Through reflection, I was able to realign with my values and reset. 

When you believe leadership equals isolation, burnout will become inevitable.

Reflection: What’s one thing you need to stop carrying solo this week?👇

***

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Author I Helping growth-minded leaders break through burnout & rediscover purpose. I 1:1 Coaching I Author of Live Fully. Lead Authentically.

Isolation Island

Last year I was chasing validation. This year I am pursuing peace. ✨

It’s a conversation I’ve had on more than one occasion with leaders I coach.

If we’re honest with ourselves, everyone wants to be seen – noticed – celebrated for what we do or for the value we bring to the team. It’s human nature to value validation. It seems we’re “doing what comes naturally.”

Honestly, it’s a story that dates all the way back to the beginning of time in Genesis 3 in the Bible when Adam and Eve did the one thing they were not supposed to do. The result found them hiding in the garden, naked and ashamed.

“You had one job” may be ringing in your ears as you reflect on that story, but here’s the thing about leadership in the 21stCentury – we’re all still working more than one job.

We curate a persona. We fake it ‘til we make it. We hide. We pose. 

At least I know I have – and still can – when someone or something threatens my leadership. 

I learned how to cope and protect myself as a younger human. At times, as a leader in my mid-50s, those coping mechanisms still rise to the surface. And when they do, I had better attend to them.

✨ This is what I have learned: Leadership isn’t just a mind game. It’s a soul game.

That tension in your chest? That irritability? That fog? 
They’re invitations, not inconveniences. 🌱

You may finally realize that you react in ways that betray who you really are and who you want to be. I call these anxious responses. 

Anxiety is neither good nor bad. It’s neither right nor wrong. It just is. They intense emotional response to an actual or perceived threat.

There was a time when I lurked for a compliment after a presentation, a workshop, or a retreat. I’d linger, seeking validation. 

Validation is loud. Peace is steady. One grows your ego – the other grows your soul.

When those feelings surfaced, I reacted anxiously – distancing from some, triangling with others – not from my best thinking.

Now, my pursuit of peace rests in my preferred promise – “It’s okay and I’m okay.” 

I can’t control another person’s thoughts of me. What I can control are my responses to anxiety that swirls with me. You can too!

Here’s how: It’s MAGIC. 

Managing Anxiety Generates Irresistible Calm…
Clarity. Compassion. Confidence. Connection. Courage. Creativity. Curiosity.

When leaders manage their anxiety, it generates irresistible peace in the system – and the other C’s follow suit.

When leaders value validation over pursuing peace, they drift. Leaders who pursue peace live fully and lead authentically. 

If you could choose one today, which C would you like to experience through MAGIC? 👇

***

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Pursuing Peace

What I’d do if I had to start from zero on LinkedIn again.

I would spend more time and energy focusing on things I love and the people I love.

For it’s the things we love – our work, our passions, our people – that we communicate most clearly.

And it is the people we love who help us see ourselves most clearly. 💡❤️

I had a cup of coffee with my partner, Kurt Bush, on Friday. We celebrated the growth in our coaching practice and looked into the future. ✨

The work we get to do with our clients is a gift – unique people, unique situation, unique opportunities to help others get unstuck.

And sometimes, we need that gift for ourselves. 
Friday afternoon? I needed coaching. Saturday morning? Kurt did.

If you’re feeling exhausted, frustrated, or overloaded, you don’t have to be a victim. You can be ridiculously in charge of your life and leadership. 💪

For me, doing something I love with the people I love helps me reflect, realign, and reset every time. 🔄

What works for you? Share your reset in the comments – let’s inspire each other. 👇

***

♻️ Re-post or share so others can learn about emotional maturity.
🔔 Turn on notifications for daily posts
🤓 Follow me Chris Godfredsen to live fully and lead authentically.

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Chris Godfredsen

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The Battle

Beth💥 PopNikolov

Chris Godfredsen

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