Devin Bramhall

Co-host: Don't Say Content. Marketing Advisor. Agency Growth Strategist. Former CEO of Animalz.

Your CEO doesn't hate marketing. They hate that you can't prove that it works.

I know because I've been the marketer pitching brilliant strategies that get shelved and the CEO wondering why marketing feels like an expensive black box.

After 15+ years building content strategies as a marketer and tripling Animalz to nearly $12M ARR as CEO, I realized the real problem:

We're optimizing for activities instead of outcomes. Checking boxes instead of driving growth.

The dirty secret? Most "content marketing strategies" are just glorified to-do lists.

My book "B2B Content Marketing Strategy" shows why "do more marketing" is killing growth and what to do instead.

Now I help companies stop doing marketing and start growing businesses as a fractional Chief Growth Officer.

If you're tired of: 
→ Defending your work instead of leading with it 
→ Following frameworks that feel like busy work 
→ Watching brilliant ideas die in committee

You're in the right place.

I help marketers ask better questions. Not “what content do we need?” but “what does the business need to grow?'"

Get weekly no-BS takes on growth: devinbramhall.com/newsletter

Chief Executive Officer

Every marketer I know has the same story right now. 

You followed the rules, the LinkedIn algorithm changed, your reach tanked, and somehow it's your fault.

So I made a carousel about it.

Shout out to Ashley Faus, Stephanie Trovato, Pranav Suryawanshi, Insiya Bharmal, and Rand Fishkin who inspired this post.

Chief Growth Officer [Fractional]. Author: “B2B Content Marketing Strategy” out now on Amazon

A survival guide for marketers

Juliana Casale

Building a Beverage Brand

Hi! I’m the founder of Balloon, a Toronto-based sparkling water brand that I launched in October of 2023.

I’m having a blast figuring out how the CPG space works. Even if the brand flops, I am learning so much along the way.

One day I would love to work on the fizz biz full time, but I have a ways to go before I can give myself a paycheck so I’m a copywriter/content marketer by day 😁.

Okay, back to the career stuff:

Once upon a time in Arlington, Massachusetts, a little girl dreamed of becoming a marketing thought leader.

Hahaha. Can you imagine? No, I wanted to be a bridal shop owner.

Like many people, I stumbled into marketing early in my career. It’s a hard gig for many reasons, but I keep doing it because it’s about people - who they are, what they think, what they need and how to give it to them. 

Marketing is also about words, and as an English major I am really into those. 

If you’re looking for someone who can growth hack, eat spreadsheets for breakfast and gain your business thousands of followers in a month, you are reading the wrong profile. 

I have 13+ years of experience working across a variety of marketing platforms with a focus on boosting site traffic organically, leading visitors down the sales funnel in a thoughtful way, creating optimized (but human-friendly) content, and maximizing retention opportunities through product marketing. 

I'm laser focused on the customer experience, dedicated to building mutually beneficial relationships between sales, product, partnerships and customer success - and I know how to get shit done. 

Skills: 

- Marketing strategy
- Copywriting (case studies, newsletters, blog posts, interviews)
- Content promotion (social media, email)
- Sales enablement (acquisition and retention/upselling)
- Co-marketing + business development
- Building customer communities
- Event management
- Social media
- Video production
- Creative direction
- Website design 
- CRO

Public speaking:

- Guest speaker at Woodbury University's Coms 360 Media Professions class, September 2021 

- Member of Shine Speaker Bootcamp class of September 2019; see attached video

- “Customer-Centric Marketing Campaign Design” MBA guest speaker at Babson and social media/content marketing at Fisher College, both in October 2018

- Guest speaker on digital media at Emerson, April 2018 

- Guest speaker on adtech at Northeastern, October 2016

Freelance Writer

Oh, hi TWELVE THOUSAND FOLLOWERS.

Now seems like a good time to re-introduce myself!

Here’s how I like to explain the jungle gym that is my life:

- I’m a former Bostonian turned Torontonian
- I’m a former tech marketer turned first-time CPG founder
- And I’m a formerly put together human being turned frazzled mom of 2 demanding (but adorable) gremlins 

I started Balloon as a fun little side hustle to keep me sane between tech job searches, but as soon as I saw it in my first retail store I was *hooked.*

Now at the start of year 3 I can’t imagine doing anything else. I have SO MANY fun ideas for the brand, and wake up every morning excited to work on it. 

If you have any Qs about starting your own CPG business from scratch, I’m just a comment or DM away ❤️.

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I spent my Saturday afternoon in CBC Studios, auditioning for Dragons’ Den.

It started with an email from a producer, which I received on Thursday morning, inviting me to show up and give it a shot.

My husband had just gotten off the phone with his mother, who had offered to take the kids for the weekend. It felt like the universe wanted this for me.

I very quickly scheduled a hair appointment for the morning of, placed an online order for balloons so I’d have something memorable to bring with me, and started watching past pitches (shoutout to Megan Silk from Gingerbug for being the perfect case study!). 

The audition window on Saturday was from 10 am - 5 pm. Plenty of time, I thought.

I got my hair done at 8:30, picked up the balloons at 9:30, got home around 10, and started practicing my pitch. 

My husband had notes (he always does 😂), so what I thought would only take a little time before we’d head to the studio turned into a full-on workshopping session. 

But it was totally worth the extra time, because we cut out words/phrases I was stumbling on, refined the angle down to one value prop (taste), really leaned into the positioning against competitors and added a few opportunities to make the listener laugh.

We left the house at 2 pm, filled out the studio paperwork around 2:30, and were assigned a producer to pitch by 3. 

It’s hard to be out of your body looking objectively at what you’re doing while you’re in your body doing it, but I really think I nailed it. 

After the pitch, I was asked a ton of questions as if I were on the real show:

- Why sparkling water when the beverage category is so saturated?

- What’s your sales revenue so far?

- How much money have you invested in the business?

- What have you sacrificed for it?

- What’s your cost to make it vs what you sell it for?

- What would your visual hook be for TV?

- Which Dragon would you want to make an offer?

- Why take Dragon money vs. other funding options?

- What would you do with the money?

I had an answer ready to go for all of these, thanks to the hours of studying past episodes.

After the interview was done the producer sampled all 5 Balloon 🎈 flavours I had brought with me, and invited other staff over to try them. I got to say hi to Molly Middleton, who is just as lovely in person as she is on Instagram. 

As we wrapped up I was told I did a great job, but the beverage category is insanely competitive and there would probably only be one slot for it out of the 12 episodes they’d be taping for the upcoming season.

So:

- I’m not getting my hopes up *too* high that they’ll be calling me back this May

- But I am really, really proud of how I did and excited to grow this thing big enough that giving me a shot will be a total no-brainer next time 

Preparing my answer about how I’d spend the money got me dreaming big about the future of Balloon, which makes the whole day completely worth it even if I never hear back ❤️.

One of the best parts of being a CPG founder is working in the trenches alongside some of the most incredible humans.

You don’t make it without a strong work ethic, scrappiness, resilience, and a hint of lunacy, and those are my favorite kinds of people. 

Often what you see in public are the wins, but in closed group chats and at trade shows I hear about the struggles, the stress, the heartaches, the misses.

Every achievement that they unlock feels extra special to me, because I know just how hard (let’s be honest, impossible) it felt at first. 

So, cheers to my hardworking, amazing Canadian founder friends. I can’t wait to see you shine even more this year. 

⭐️ Benny (Paige Cey / Julie Letizia) made it into Target  

🌱Stush Foods (Opal Rowe) is now in Whole Foods Market 

💰Beck's Broth (Beckie Prime / Domenique Mastronardi 🏔️☕️ ) hit $1M in revenue 

🛒Happy Natural Products (Jennifer Uy ) just launched in Walmart Canada 

🌴Stimmie (Steph Nightingale) is now available in Erewhon

🍓Rawcology Inc. (Megan Loach Tomulka / Tara Tomulka) has joined the party in the Sobeys snack aisle

For those who haven't been, the Canadian Health Food Association trade show is like Disneyland for snack & beverage lovers. 

The Vancouver edition will be my first time exhibiting outside of Incubator Alley, AND my first time exhibiting with a distributor! 🤩 

Catch me in the LCG Foods Distribution block at Booth #1944A, sampling all five flavours of Balloon 🎈 (even sold-out Lychee & Pink Lemonade; I kept some stock aside just for this). 

If you're a retailer who loves to be one of the first to champion a new brand and you're coming to the show, please shoot me a DM! I'd love to chat IRL ❤️ .

PS: I have a really fun booth surprise in store, so stay tuned for more...

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The Battle

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Juliana Casale

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The Battle

Devin Bramhall

Juliana Casale

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Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Devin Bramhall's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreDevin Bramhall's LinkedIn Performance