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

I used to think being a good marketing leader meant I had to be the smartest person in the room.

Spoiler: I wasn't. And trying to be made me worse at my job.

Here's what no one tells you about the shift from doing to leading, it's not about working harder or knowing more. It's about letting go of being right.

When I first moved into leadership, I apologized constantly. "Sorry, I don't have that data yet." "Sorry, let me circle back on that." I thought humility meant admitting what I didn't know.

Turns out, that just made everyone nervous.

The shift happened when I stopped apologizing and started owning my stance—even when I couldn't prove it yet. "Here's what I'm seeing. Here's the direction. Let's course-correct if we're wrong."

(Confidence isn't about being right. It's about having a POV and moving forward.)

But here's the part that actually broke me: letting go of execution.

I was still writing the copy. Still building the decks. Still the one "who could just do it faster." Classic Cinderella syndrome, if you're scrubbing the floors, you're not running the house.

And leadership? That's selling the strategy internally. Pitching to the CEO. Shaping the narrative before anyone else does. Your team can execute. You need to build the conditions for them to win.

The hardest lesson: You're not an IC anymore. Stop asking permission.

Don't say "I'd like to try this approach." Say "Here's what we're doing and why it's going to work."

Your CEO doesn't ask permission to make calls on incomplete data. Neither should you.

Marketing leadership isn't about having answers. It's about having conviction when no one else does.

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

Your CEO is asking you to "do more content" because they don't know what else to tell you.

They don't understand demand generation. Or brand positioning. And they definitely don't understand why the leads aren't converting.

So they default to: "We need more content."

And you? You're drowning in a backlog of blog posts no one will read, social posts that get 12 likes, and webinars with 3 attendees.

This is a leadership problem.

When leadership can't articulate strategy, they ask for activity. When they can't measure what matters, they count outputs. When they can't defend marketing to the board, they ask you to "do more" and hope something sticks.

I've watched this destroy marketing teams. The CEO who demanded 50 blog posts a quarter but couldn't tell me what outcome we were driving. The VP who obsessed over social followers while pipeline sat at zero. The board that wanted "more brand awareness" with zero patience for how long that actually takes.

When executives don't know how to evaluate marketing, they measure what's easy to count.

Stop asking for permission to do less. Defend focus instead.

The next time someone asks for "more content," I ask them:

More content to achieve what outcome? What are we trying to change about the business?

If they can't answer that, you have a strategy problem. No amount of content will fix it.

Ask me to be on your podcast, and I'll say yes.

Here’s why I’m saying that out loud.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the conversations I actually want to have this year and the rooms I want to be in. And when I look at most marketing podcasts, there’s a gap.

A lot of them talk about the work without ever having had to own it. Same advice, different guest. And most of it has never had to survive a CEO, a board, or a real budget.

I’ve been a marketer, then a CEO, and now I work as a fractional CGO. I helped grow a content business from $1.8M to $12M. I’ve had to explain why things failed, not just why they should work. I’ve had to decide what to stop doing when the math didn’t work.

And that changes how you talk about growth.

I know why leadership doesn’t trust marketing. I know why good strategies get shut down. And I know what actually changes those conversations. It’s not more activity, and it’s not better decks.

I’m not interested in checklist episodes or framework tours. I care about how growth actually works inside companies. Where it breaks. Where marketing loses credibility. What it’s like when you’re responsible for the outcome.

So yeah. That’s the ask.

If you run a podcast for B2B marketers or founders who want a real conversation and not another playbook recap, I’d love to join.

DM me if it makes sense.

For B2B marketers feeling overwhelmed...

Don't do more.  
Do less.  
That's strategy.

I was on IN CLEAR FOCUS with Adrian Tennant talking about my book, and this keeps coming up. Marketers asking what to do with shrinking budgets, impossible timelines, and pressure from all sides.

My answer pisses people off: Stop.

Don't add one more thing. Don't optimize one more channel. Don't layer on one more tactic because some newsletter said you should.

Think for yourself.

Look at what's actually in front of you. The resources you already have, the people inside your company, the relationships you've already built.

Work with that.

When I was CEO, I turned "outcomes over activities" into our operating mantra. When clients said "I want thought leadership," I'd ask: "Why? What outcome are you trying to achieve?"

Sounds obvious. But most marketers skip this because they're too busy executing someone else's playbook.

Here's what I know after growing a company from $1.8M to $12M:

The smartest strategy is the fewest actions that deliver the greatest results.

Not the longest content calendar.  
Or the most channels.  
And not the busiest team.

The question isn't "What should I be doing?"

It's "What outcome am I trying to drive? And what's the simplest path there?"

Keyword-based content plans? Those worked when you had growth-at-all-costs funding and could throw money at ranking.

That model died in 2023.

But most marketing teams are still operating like it's 2019. Writing more articles. Posting more content. Cranking the wheel harder.

And wondering why nothing's moving.

Because activity doesn't equal impact.

Your CEO doesn't care how many blog posts you published. They care whether those posts influenced pipeline, shortened sales cycles, or reduced CAC.

So if you're drowning right now, here's your permission slip:

Do less. Think more. Start with what works.

Don't go to playbooks. Don't look at what anyone else has done.

Look at what's physically in front of you and build a strategy to do less and accomplish more.

That's the shift I cover in 𝘉𝟚𝘉 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘺 (you can find it on Amazon). Moving from predictable, exhausting activity loops to strategies that actually create leverage.

If you're tired of running in circles, maybe it's time to stop running.

Full episode is linked below if you're curious.

(Thanks to the Bigeye team for having me on.)

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Here's everything I'm using to build my business.

People keep asking how I'm managing the consulting, the newsletter, the courses, the membership I'm launching.

The answer: eight tools and a clear hypothesis about what you need.

What I'm testing:

Courses on Maven using the frameworks I use with clients (how to get C-suite buy-in, how to build a growth strategy, that kind of thing). A newsletter. And advisory sprints for people who need focused help right now. A membership for marketing leaders who want strategic coaching without agency pricing. 

I'm not guessing. I'm testing with real people and iterating based on what I learn.

The 8 tools:

-Zoom – client calls, meetings
-Granola – meeting notes (I know Zoom does this, but the UI is better)
-Squarespace - for my core website 
-beehiiv – newsletter, courses, membership platform
-Stripe – cuz payments
-Ordinal – where I collaborate and schedule my LinkedIn content
-PhantomBuster – LinkedIn growth
-Alertmouse – tracks when people mention my name or key phrases

That's it. No complex funnels. Just what I need to get products in front of people and learn what resonates.

Most people spend months planning in private, then launch to crickets because they built what they 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 people wanted.

I'd rather build fast, test real demand, and adjust based on what works.
That's what building in public gets you: immediate feedback instead of assumptions.

I'll share what I learn as I go.

Anything you're curious about?

Here I am reading Glassdoor reviews about me out loud.

Yes, really.

From 2020-2022, when I was CEO of a content marketing agency, my former employees had *opinions* about me.

So I pulled out the meanest ones and decided to read them on camera.

At the time? I was devastated. Rookie CEO. Didn't know this was normal.

Now? I can giggle about them.

Some of these were harsh but fair. Others... well, you can decide for yourself.

If you've ever been the villain in someone else's work story, you'll get it.

Stay tuned for part 2.

Taru Bhargava

Hey there! 

Thanks for stopping by 👋🏾👋🏾👋🏾

Call me— Taru (pronounced Ta---roo, like the Kangaroo) 🦘🦘

I'm a content marketer and strategist who has worked with rapidly growing B2B tech SaaS companies and agencies that power them for over a decade now.  

Prior to going “all in” on content marketing, I’d spent several years climbing the corporate ladder as a banker, only to realize that once I neared the top, the ladder I was hastily climbing was propped against the wrong wall…

Thank goodness for some smart bets, here I am...enjoying the world of B2B SaaS content marketing and loving every bit of it. 

What I’m exceptional at: 

🔧 Building content marketing strategy for tech SaaS companies from the ground up
✍🏽 Consistently writing articles that rank on page #1 of SERPs 
🧠 Sharing my learnings on prominent platforms. My work has appeared on MarketingProfs, G2, Mention, TrustRadius, TheNextWeb, and more
💪🏽 Building tried and tested framework for content marketing and SEO processes that consistently bring results
🧑🏽‍💼Hiring and grooming freelancers for success 
🕸️ Building and managing a solid network of individuals - community is everything! 
💀 Ghostwriting for prominent CEOs 
🎩 Donning the hat of a speaker to share all things content with other marketers 

I'm both strategic and tactical and have a bias for action. 

Why people like working with me: 

🎉 Team Player: One team, one dream, is the mantra I live by
🐎 Achiever: I have always worked hard in life. At work, nothing gives me more joy than being productive and hitting my goals
🧠 Independent thinker: I constantly strive to learn and improve my skill sets. The process of learning, rather than the outcome, excites me
🔧 Doer: I love feedback and can take direction and make the corrections necessary to stay on track

The two quotes that I live by: 

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade (in my version make a mojito 🍸🍹)
If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room 🧠

💼 Tool Stack: Ahrefs, Clearscope, Autopilot, Instapage, Asana, Trello, Descript, Google Analytics, Google Search Console & more.

Want to brainstorm an idea or collaborate on an interesting project or just want to chat about content marketing? DM/ InMail me here! 



Senior Content Marketing Manager

Ok, ok, a tad late for a year-in-review and not the perfect day to post this engagement-wise, but we are gonna do it!



Partly for accountability, and partly so future-me remembers why 2025 was worth it. So here we go: 

The myths I unlearned, the realisations that stuck, and the numbers that shaped the year.

Myths I had to let go of: 

🔥 If you’re doing good work, clients will naturally want to keep working with you
I wish this were true, but fractional work doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Budgets shift, priorities change, people leave, and sometimes great work still ends for reasons that have nothing to do with performance.

🔥 Visibility equals opportunity
Some of the strongest conversations this year came from people who never liked or commented on my posts. They were watching quietly and reached out when the timing aligned.

Realisations that shaped how I work: 

🔥 Referrals remain the most reliable entry point into fractional and consulting roles, and that changes the entire nature of the conversation.

🔥 Not every client will align. Walking away earlier, or not pursuing every “good on paper” opportunity, preserved energy and made space for better-fit work.

🔥 There’s no cheat code to networking. The relationships that mattered most were maintained long before there was any upside.

🔥 Sharing the behind-the-scenes isn’t dramatic, in fact, some of my highest engagement this year came from being open about uncertainty, trade-offs, and work-in-progress with fellow peers, not from polished outcomes.

📊 What this led to: 

💥 10 clients across the US, Europe, and Australia
💥 Busiest period: April–May
💥 Lightest month: September

Work shipped:
 
✅ 50 thought leadership pieces
✅ 4 data-led ebooks
✅ 2 content-led campaigns
✅ 2 large-scale content refresh sprints (200+ briefs)
✅ Product-led content + editorial and ops management
✅ Continued investment in SME, AI, and content systems

Have you shared your year-in-review anywhere? I’d love to read it and celebrate you!

🌟 Content partner for growing B2B SaaS teams 🚀 | Helping brands own their voice, and the SERP | Founder taru & Co.| Mum

1st working day of the year and I'm already pumped! Happy New Year, folks 🚀 



If you know me, you will know that I’m usually the one to make a bucket list of goals, shout them from the rooftops, and be a little extra at the start of the year 🙂

But over time, I’ve learnt that big declarations don’t always help me move forward in the way I want them to.

That’s why, for years now, I’ve chosen a word of the year instead of resolutions.
It’s a practice I keep coming back to because it feels grounding.

My words have shifted with the seasons I’ve been in — courage and growth, progression, and flow. Some years, I’ve lived those words fully. Other years, not quite. And I’ve made peace with that too.

This year, my word is Bold ⚡

Not bold in a loud, performative way, but bold in the choices I make and the way I show up.

⚡Bold bets on people, ideas, and work that feels aligned.
⚡Bolder decisions and saying yes faster when it’s right, and no without over-explaining.
⚡Bold clarity in trusting my instincts instead of sanding down edges to make things palatable.
⚡Bold ownership of the work I do, the value I bring, and the direction I’m heading in.

After a year that was busy, chaotic, and a little messy, Bold feels less like pressure and more like permission.

Do you choose a word of the year? I’d love to know what’s guiding you into this next chapter ✨

One of the questions I get asked most by client teams is:

“How do we create more content for our audience?”

And most of the time, what they’re really asking is: how do we decide what to say next without guessing?

I’m very much in the optimisation camp. I’d rather double down on what’s already proving its worth than chase volume for the sake of feeling productive.

Most of the time, the answer isn’t more ideas, its better use of the ones you already have. But there are moments where you genuinely hit a wall (read when you’ve refreshed the obvious winners, when competitor research isn’t surfacing anything new, and the editorial calendar starts to feel… tentative.)

In those moments, this is where I tend to look instead. Here are six ways I go about it( swipe the carousel →)

Curious which of these six ways you’ve already tried, or which one you’ll test next?
.
.
.
👋 I’m Taru—I work across content strategy, creative execution, content-led campaigns, and on-page SEO to help brands show up with clarity and impact.

Follow for thoughtful takes on creative consulting, content strategy, and the real work behind great content

📌 Save this post if you’re rethinking how you work (or who you work with)

How to create more content when everything fails

I heard 2016 was trending….




(Ok, y’all, but would it even be LinkedIn if an Instagram trend didn’t make it here?)

I could write essays about that decade of marketing: scrappier tools, looser playbooks, and a lot more “let’s just try it.”

It felt slower, messier, and somehow more fun. At 33, still figuring out what kind of marketer I am, I got to play in a brilliant sandbox at AppVirality as their first marketer.

Laxman encouraged weird experiments, fast tests, and ideas that looked silly on paper but taught us how to think. Little did I know that stretch would quietly become a turning point for my career. Working along with Manohar Kiran, Jatin M. was such a hoot.

Looking back now, here’s what I’d tell my 33-year-old marketer and now a business person:

⚡ You don’t need to be across every channel. Depth in a few is worth more than “full-stack” vanity.

⚡ Not every experiment has to scale. Some are just there to teach you how to think.

⚡ Your reputation will matter more than your metrics long after this role is gone.

⚡ The clients who want speed over thinking will rarely be your best work, or your best revenue.

⚡ Saying “I don’t know yet” is not a weakness.

⚡ You’ll grow faster by picking great collaborators than chasing impressive job titles.

⚡ Boundaries are not a career risk.

⚡ Your best ideas won’t come from templates, but from talking to real people.

⚡ You don’t have to be “always on” to be successful. Consistent beats visible.

And lastly...the messy years you’re in right now will make total sense later.

Where are my millennials at? What would you like to add here?

I know, I know. January’s barely started and your content team already has big plans.

New pillars, new keywords, new thought leadership series, a fresh cadence, maybe even a new CMS or AI workflow. I see this every year across my clients and why not...this is exactly what January is for 🤩 

But today I want to share a task I always champion in January — a content audit, but one with an exclusive focus on pruning. 

Not 404, not deleting content wholesale, and not starting from scratch, but taking the time to actively maintain a content library that reflects your most up-to-date thinking, messaging, and offering rather than letting outdated or overlapping content quietly dilute it.

The fastest way to do this is to keep it practical and slightly ruthless:

💥 Start by mapping everything you already have so you can actually see the full surface area of your content, not just what’s top of mind or ranking well.

💥 Group pages that target the same themes or keywords and decide which one deserves to lead, and which ones should support, merge, or step aside.

💥 Update what’s already earning attention so it reflects how your product, positioning, and language look today, not when it was first published.

💥 Retire anything that no longer serves a clear purpose, whether that’s traffic, education, or sales enablement.

💥 Document the final state so your team has a single source of truth to work from going forward, not a messy backlog they inherit by accident.

This is the kind of work that rarely makes it onto roadmaps, but quietly lifts everything you publish after it.

New human on the market. Someone you’ll want on your radar...



Ladies and gentlemen, meet Gigi Rodgers 👋

Gigi and I first crossed paths years ago when we were both moderators for HubSpot's INBOUND marketing community. Even back then, she stood out, sharp, generous with her thinking, and genuinely fun to work with (still is).

I’ve followed her journey for 9+ years now, and marketers like her are genuinely rare. 

She’s one of the most switched-on content and video-first marketers I know. The kind who doesn’t just make things look good, but understands why they work, where they should live, and how they should scale.

If you’re looking to grow your content function with creative flair and commercial sense, Gigi’s your person.

She’s an incredible content partner (seriously, look her up), a distribution gun, and someone who can take your video content from zero to anywhere in record time.

As if that wasn’t enough, she’s also an entrepreneur building her own creative sneaker kingdom — because of course she is.

Anyway, enough from me.  If you’re hiring and need someone exceptional in the US, Canada, or remote timelines, she’s your girl. 

On a side note: Can we bring the community back Dharmesh Shah Yamini Rangan?

When your unrelated content has more impressions than your meticulously crafted posts. 


Well then…Toby Hilliam (Skilton) 😂

Calling all freelancers, solopreneurs, and fractionals: My beloved invoicing software is retiring, and I need your wisdom 😭



(If you're on a company payroll and have never sent an invoice in your life, you can skip this one.)

Friends! It's time to find a new home for my freelance finances. Here's what I need:

✅ Intuitive setup (I don't have patience for clunky interfaces)
✅ Automated/scheduled invoicing (because I forget things)
✅ Unlimited clients without price gouging
✅ Payment reminder options for the stragglers
✅ Read receipts straight to my inbox
✅ Monthly billing 

I've got an exceptional accountant who handles the real magic, so I just need something that gives me clean data and a dashboard that doesn't require a finance degree to interpret.

What are you using? And if you've got a referral code, drop it in the comments. I'll love you forever (or at least until next invoice cycle) 🤩

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The Battle

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Taru Bhargava

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Engagements

Likes

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