What happens when you gather a bunch of nerdy voice actors and one badass Dungeon Master, then have them all roll a natural 20 in showmanship? You get Critical Role, the show that has made Read more…
Auto mechanic. Boxer. Insurance salesman. Carpet cleaner. Letter carrier. These are just a handful of the odd jobs that Steve Harvey, the famous comedian, and host of Family Feud, worked before he became a household Read more…
Your mission, should you choose to accept it: make passwords fun. Not easy, right? That’s what Anthony Collette at Loistava Information Security is determined to do. He and his team are creating physical cybersecurity products Read more…
Almost 85 million shoppers. That’s how many people poured into retail stores across the United States on Black Friday 2019. Americans everywhere barreled into department stores to snatch up the best deals like lions taking Read more…
“We don’t make mistakes. We just have happy accidents.” These are the words of Bob Ross, arguably the most recognizable painter in the United States. It’s an astounding accomplishment to become as popular as Bob Read more…
Do you remember in your childhood, when there was always milk in the fridge? You could always add it to a bowl of overly sugared cereal. You could find it with every school lunch, where Read more…
Imagine getting your hands on a rare $200 board game. Now imagine your friend spilling an entire can of Coca-Cola on it minutes after you start to play. This is the kind of problem that Read more…
Someone is collecting your personal data right now. Maybe it’s a government agency, maybe it’s a hacker. But most likely, it’s some corporation trying to sell you something. That’s why a lot of people are Read more…
What if I told you that you don’t have to be in the same room with someone to play board games? It’s true – and that’s how Kenny Goodman, owner of Overboard Games, was able Read more…
Basic facts are easy to find. Remembering them when you need them? That requires a different approach, and that’s why we created the Weird Marketing Tales Podcast. In this podcast, Brandon Rollins will be interviewing Read more…
If you’re a sports fan, you probably know Jim McIngvale. But you probably don’t know him by that name. You know him as “Mattress Mack.” He sells mattresses for a living, but you don’t know Read more…
Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary was not a place you wanted to live. Until 2009, it was home to the hardest, worst criminals in the southeast, including the man who killed Martin Luther King Jr. In Read more…
The game is a fantasy, but the money is all real. “Maria, can I come over and borrow some movies? Your father is going to be busy all week with fantasy football drafts.” It’s that Read more…
Chainsaw Man. It sounds like a cheesy horror film you would get from B-movie Hollywood, but it’s far from that. In fact, Chainsaw Man is a Japanese manga that is getting a full-blooded anime adaptation Read more…
To say that Bangtan Soneyondan – better known as BTS – is a popular band is a massive understatement. In the US alone, BTS has landed 26 songs on the Billboard Hot 100, 6 of Read more…
You know what drives me nuts? People who blame “the algorithm” when their content doesn’t take off. Now I know that sounds like a personal attack, but I don’t mean it that way. Content creators Read more…
The YouTube algorithm. Never before has there been such a complicated labyrinth for content creators to navigate. It doesn’t help that there’s no exit. Every social media platform uses an algorithm to decide what to Read more…
On the first day of 2007, John and Hank Green started Brotherhood 2.0. The idea was simple – send each other video blogs back and forth every day for a year. The mission was simple Read more…
What would you do if you had one year left to live? What would you leave behind in memory? These are the questions that Mark Fischbach (Markiplier) and Ethan Nestor-Darling (CrankGameplays) asked their viewers when Read more…
If you’ve been to IKEA, then you have a strong opinion on it. It’s impossible not to. IKEA stores are five times the size of a football field, arranged like dense mazes with thousands of Read more…
Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory is a chaotic, absurd movie. The 1971 version seemed to run all the time on TV in the 1990s and 2000s, becoming – against all odds – a staple Read more…
The machines are taking over! AI is going to replace us all! If I only had a dollar for every time I heard some version of that. Even in its early stages, artificial intelligence, or Read more…
Have Google searches felt…off to you lately? A lot of people think so, and you likely know someone who adds the word “Reddit” to the end of Google searches to get better results. Just look Read more…
Gam·ers | ˈgā-mərs (noun): a subcategory of the species Homo sapiens that sits upon gaming chairs of varying colors and sizes. They are known for playing games for hours on end, often into the dead of night. Read more…
“It’s not the heat that’ll get you, it’s the humidity.” Such are the words of wisdom spoken by Rand, an American suburban white man in his 50s, and a recurring character on the Middle Class Read more…
Reasons for hope seem to be in short supply these days. Politics are a mess, everything is getting expensive, and the modern internet built on social media seems to only inflame these tensions. Yet there Read more…
In 1977, Dungeons & Dragons created the alignment chart – a simple two-axis where characters could be classified as good or evil, lawful or chaotic. Sometime in the 2010s, the idea of the alignment chart Read more…
In 1999, Scottish video game developer, Chris Sawyer, chased a pipe dream. He was fascinated by amusement parks, and he wanted to create a game that captured the joy of being in one. Despite the Read more…
Do you dream of being a massive jerk to people around you? Well, of course, you do. We have all had moments where you want to speak your mind or simply get stuff off your Read more…
If you spend any amount of time on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Reddit, odds are, you’re going to run into at least one of these SpongeBob memes. These memes along with the fact that search Read more…
Ever try to get away to a quiet cabin in the country, only to have to fight with your demon-possessed hand as the house itself laughs at you? Well, I hope you brought along a Read more…
What do ancient military tactics and social media marketing have in common? Apparently a lot, according to anime Ya Boy Kongming. You might be surprised to know how much, in fact, as both have been Read more…
Imagine building one of the most culturally significant bands of the 21st century. Now imagine doing that while experimenting radically in a genre where copying others is a proven path to success. While never showing Read more…
Fancy vacationing on a cartoon island dressed as John Wick? What if I told you that you’d have to fight with Spiderman with a lightsaber and Ariana Grande with a grenade launcher? Well, you are Read more…
Every nation has its great past-time. For the USA, it’s baseball. For the UK, it’s football (soccer). Getting people to pay attention to a new sport is a tall order – and that’s why Formula Read more…
A few years ago I was filling out some paperwork and it asked for my job title. I remember asking, “do you want my actual job title? Or just my field of work?” At the Read more…
Released in 2003, The Room is widely considered to be one of the worst films ever made. It holds a score of 3.7 out of 10 on IMDb and an astounding 9 out of 100 Read more…
Of all the meetings, I have, my morning meeting with Mr. Cup Of Joe is the one I never miss. It’s a warm welcome to the morning and has always been a delicious and dopamine-inducing Read more…
In a logical world, Costco would suck. Low prices, spartan settings, and immense crowds. That’s an unholy trinity that should ruin just about any shopping experience. But it doesn’t, and I think that’s remarkable. Costco Read more…
Have you seen the images of empty store shelves lately? They’re all over social media and the news. You might think that it’s the result of people panic buying, but the problems run deeper than Read more…
You have probably heard of the popular video game, League of Legends. At a minimum, you’ve heard the distant screams of someone losing a match. It’s unavoidable because League It is an insanely popular game Read more…
Metaverse. Web3. NFT. The year 2021 introduced the world to a lot of really complicated new technological ideas. In February and March 2021, people started talking about NFTs. Then chatter about the “metaverse” started to Read more…
Ron’s Gone Wrong is a film about the friendship between socially awkward middle-schooler, Barney, and his friend Ron. But there’s a twist: Ron is a Bubble Bot, produced by the Bubble Company, which is basically Read more…
Wrestlers put their life on the line in the ring, day in, day out to make their audiences happy. They live larger-than-life lifestyles because they want to make captivating TV with their stunning wrestling moves. Read more…
Few movie characters are as iconic, controversial, contradictory, and enduring as James Bond. It doesn’t matter who’s playing him because you recognize the character immediately. Handsome man, sharp suit, smoking gun, vodka martini in hand, Read more…
Taylor Swift might not have a college degree, but she has been working on her Master’s in Marketing since she was nine. And when I say “you could argue” I mean “that is what I’m Read more…
Redheads only make up 2% of the world’s population. And the recessive gene jackpot of a redhead with blue eyes is even smaller, at 0.17%. So what would you call someone with red hair, blue Read more…
John Cena. The Rock. Hulk Hogan. The world of wrestling has cemented these names into the minds of kids and adults alike. Their names are known worldwide as are their spider webs of wrestling moments, Read more…
What do Christmas, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and action figures have in common? If you guessed Star-Lord (or even The Terminator for us older peeps), you are only half wrong. The real answer is the “classic” Christmas Read more…
Hello, ladies. Look at your man, now back to me, now back at your man, now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me, but if he stopped using ladies scented body wash and switched to Read more…
We all have fond memories of playing with toys when we were young. Whether it’s trading Pokemon cards or snuggling a favorite stuffed animal, it’s hard not to have at least one happy childhood toy Read more…
Did you know every copy of Super Mario 64 is personalized? Well, at least that’s the theory. It’s said that even back in 1996, Nintendo was able to create an AI that adapted to a Read more…
“If you know you know.” So said the billboard in yellow block capitals on a stark black background as I was passing through my hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was advertising Buc-ee’s, a gas station Read more…
Do you have a favorite movie that not many people have heard of? Or do you go to a coffee shop that you wouldn’t substitute for anything else? Or, perhaps, do you have a favorite Read more…
Facing a $140 million legal judgment, the leaders of Gawker had to face their sins. Perhaps it wasn’t a good idea to out billionaire Peter Thiel as gay in 2007. And maybe the world would Read more…
Anime. You know it in one form or another. Maybe you watched it when you were young, or your kids watch it, or you’re watching it now. It’s a universal and ageless media that caters Read more…
It was 21 years ago when I got my first American Girl Doll. As any typical 10 year old does on a July summer day, I was curled up behind my bed doing some summer Read more…
Drawing attention to your business is tough! Or at least it can seem that way if you’re not well-versed in the art of outreach. We talk a lot about customer retention, customer experience, and consumer Read more…
Imagine you walk into the bar and you order a beer. Something brushes up against your leg. You hear a meow. No, it’s not Mardi Gras and you’re not in New Orleans. You are in Read more…
Business is picking up, and we need a minute to catch our breath! We’re wrapping up season two of the Marketing is the Product Podcast, and we’ll be back in a few months with season Read more…
The airline industry is an unspeakably difficult one. As of 2021, there are 18 major passenger airlines in the United States. The list of airlines that have died is so long that it takes up Read more…
SEO and SEM expert, Eric Seropyan, is the founder of This Is My South Bay. Eric’s expertise is unique in that he specializes in international hyperlocal SEO helping founders, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and small business Read more…
The marketing world is full of strange jargon and acronyms. One of the most common acronyms you’ll see people use is SEO. The internet is full of articles telling you that you should improve your Read more…
Maureen Mwangi grew up in Kenya where entrepreneurship was not the norm. In fact, her mom and dad were the only entrepreneurs she knew. As a little girl, Maureen listened with fascination as they discussed Read more…
Minecraft was created by a solo developer with a day job in 2009. The graphics are 8-bit and servers will boot you for no reason sometimes. By all accounts, Minecraft should have crashed and burned Read more…
Parker Stevenson is a Partner and the Chief Business Officer at Evolved Finance. Evolved Finance is a bookkeeping and business education company dedicated to helping online entrepreneurs create profitable and healthy businesses. Join us this week Read more…
Ever heard of renting chickens? This isn’t just some far-fetched idea, it’s a business – and a very successful one at that. Homestead Phil and Homestead Jenn are the founders of Rent the Chicken. They Read more…
I was shopping with my wife at the gardening store, looking – in true millennial fashion – for plants we can’t kill. Suddenly, apropos of nothing, I wondered “what the hell happened to Aeropostale?” Aeropostale Read more…
We’re slammed with client work this week, so here’s an episode from the vault. Join us this week as Pierson interviews Brandon on the formation of Pangea Marketing Agency. Find out how we, as a Read more…
If you build it, they won’t just come. Your small business needs a product distribution strategy if you want to make sales. This is so important, in fact, that one of the 4 P’s of Read more…
James Breakwell is a comedy writer and self-described amateur father. Coming June 8, he will be releasing, or perhaps unleashing, his new book: How to Be a Man (Whatever That Means): Lessons in Modern Masculinity Read more…
Aaron Franklin is an Insurance Broker at State Farm in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Insurance is a tough industry to understand, and tougher still to make exciting. Yet Aaron finds meaning helping people through his work. In Read more…
Public relations! The phrase conjures up images of spin doctors working for evil megacorporations or politicians conspicuously pretending to be folksy in an effort to win voters. That first impression is definitely not wrong, but Read more…
Kyle Orth came straight from the sky and onto our show – literally. While meditating at a local park, I opened my eyes to Kyle paragliding down right next to me. After chatting for a Read more…
“We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little, we went insane.” Originally spoken by Francis Ford Coppola about the filming of Apocalypse Now, I think this statement applies just Read more…
Shelli Tripp-Norvell is a Psychotherapist in Nashville, Tennessee. In this episode, Shelli walks us through her journey to becoming a therapist, as well as detailing various aspects of the journey that we go through to Read more…
Leaders win through logistics. Vision, sure. Strategy, yes. But when you go to war, you need to have both toilet paper and bullets at the right place at the right time. In other words, you Read more…
Getting things started with the first episode of season two, we are joined by Chari from Faithful Friends Pet Crematory. Chari Buckner is the owner of Faithful Friends, working with countless pet owners to make Read more…
Influencer marketing is a relatively new way for companies of all sizes to market their products. Today, we are going to dive into all things influencer marketing. We’ll answer questions like: What is influencer marketing? Read more…
How do people find your business? Vague question, I know. But take a moment and really ask yourself the question. Is it through outbound marketing? Do you have a steady stream of organic traffic coming Read more…
Tattoos are just about everywhere you look these days. Whether you are in a hospital, library, or even on a college campus, odds are, you can find someone who has a tattoo. A recent Ipsos Read more…
As we wrap up our first season of the Marketing is the Product Podcast, a few changes are in order to help make the show that much better for you guys. In this episode, we Read more…
When you’re marketing your small business for the first time, advertising is just plain intimidating. Effective advertising requires you to understand both complex marketing ideas and the ins and outs of software like Facebook and Read more…
Kicking off our first interview of the new year, we are joined again by our friend Kenny Goodman from Overboard Games. Kenny owns and runs Overboard Games. He is now running a successful business that revolves Read more…
I’m glad 2020 is over, and I’m not alone. We’ve all been tested in every aspect of life in the last year, right down to the cancellation of sports. There was only one shining exception: Read more…
We did it – we made it through 2020! As we close the door on one of the most chaotic years in history, it is important to take the time to reflect on the good Read more…
Relationships matter. There are a million ways to say this simple fact, and a million ways to prove it too. Good relationships lead to customer retention, partnerships, referrals, and – ultimately – a big payday. Read more…
As 2020 comes to a close, we wanted to offer up this last podcast as one final reflection of this year. The year 2020 has been one of the most challenging years for all of Read more…
Without hyperbole, Pierson and I can say that Jamison Colston is one of the most well-rounded people we have ever met. Jamison owns and runs Scenic City Mobile Detailing. He’s a real estate investor, fitness Read more…
Have you ever walked into a restaurant and waited forever to be seated, only to be treated rudely and have your food served cold? If so, it’s safe to say that you’ve had a bad Read more…
As we approach the end of the year, it is time to phase out two of our blog series in lieu of a new one: Weird Marketing Lessons. Over the last year, we have published Read more…
Are you thinking about starting a business, but want to know what you’re getting into? If so, this podcast is for you! This week, we talk extensively about the ups and downs of running a Read more…
Up until June of 2017, I had always used iTunes / Apple Music. It was all I knew. I went through various iPod models, transferring music from my laptop to my iPod, making new playlists Read more…
Are you thinking of starting your own business, but still working a day job? If so, you are in luck. This week, we talk extensively about the pros and cons of quitting or not quitting Read more…
John is preparing to launch his game, The Runelords, on Kickstarter, but is in a very interesting position. With a launch planned for earlier this year, due to the global pandemic, they were forced to Read more…
As technology continues to improve, people will spend more and more time with products, systems, and services. This can be very good, too, since technology removes irritation and inconvenience from day-to-day life. But ultimately, systems Read more…
Marketing can be incredibly confusing. That’s why we ask people to send us their hard questions when entering our biweekly giveaways. In this podcast, we answer 20 real marketing questions! Listen in as we answer Read more…
Hundreds of millions of businesses exist. At any given moment, hundreds are vying for your attention in subtle ways. Yet as we’ve adjusted to the ubiquity of logos and branding in our everyday life, it’s Read more…
Starting your first business is brutally difficult. Even though Pangea was founded in 2019, I can hardly imagine how much harder it would be to launch a business in 2020! Yet some brave souls are Read more…
The title of this post may seem contradictory at a first glance. How can product returns become a source of revenue? The very act of handling returns means not only giving up revenue, but also Read more…
Imagine that you’re creating a board game right now. Unfortunately, you can’t gather a crowd of people at your house to test it out, and all the conventions are cancelled. But there is still one Read more…
Think about the companies you most admire. Odds are, when you do that, you don’t just think about the products or services themselves, though they may be very good. You probably think of all the Read more…
Marketing can be incredibly confusing. That’s why we ask people to send us their hard questions when entering our biweekly giveaways. In this podcast, we answer 20 real marketing questions! Listen in as we answer Read more…
The world is a big and noisy place. As a small business, it’s easy to get lost in a sea of megacorporations, left unable to make a real impression. Many businesses need help looking professional Read more…
When you think of a small business you probably have images of the diner down the road or the coffee shop around the corner. But what about your local tattoo parlor? English and Christopher Cousins Read more…
Products come and products go, but businesses stay around for much longer. That’s because most businesses that succeed in the long-run don’t sell a single product or service. Indeed, successful businesses often rely on a Read more…
Here’s a riddle for you: imagine you’re starting up a shop selling a brand new kind of product. It’s poorly understood and a lot of people mistakenly associate it with illegal drugs. Yet every day, Read more…
People judge books by their covers. They judge products by their covers, too. It’s no secret that packaging affects whether people will purchase your small business’s products. That’s why we’ll be talking about how to Read more…
Good marketing comes down to creating great experiences for your customers. This is known as UX, or user experience. In this week’s episode, we’ve brought on Sean Fallon, longtime UX consultant and owner of Smunchy Read more…
When asked to define marketing, many people think of advertising. They talk about how marketers use different tools to make money. Yet the job doesn’t stop there – marketing isn’t just about making money. It’s Read more…
Marketing is one of the most misunderstood disciplines. A lot of people think that it’s about pushiness, hard selling, and sleazy ads. In reality, though, it’s all about figuring out what people want and finding Read more…
To succeed in business is the dream of many people around the world. Becoming competent and making a lot of money is deeply satisfying on a number of different levels, so it’s no wonder that Read more…
We have exciting news at Pangea! Starting today, we have launched a brand new podcast. The goal is simple: find small business owners and ask them how they built their businesses. By sharing others’ stories, Read more…
Sometimes you wake up in the morning and you don’t want to do anything. It happens to everyone. If you wake up every morning and don’t want to do anything, then something more sinister could Read more…
Fifty percent of small businesses fail. Or maybe it’s 66% or 70% – depends on who you ask. Failure – on a small scale or a grand scale – is a part of doing business. Read more…
When creating the perfect product for your customers, you have to ask yourself a lot of questions. What do they need the most? How can you best meet those needs? For whom is this product Read more…
It’s difficult to find your place in a noisy world. This is even truer for small business, where competition abounds. As if crafting the perfect product or service wasn’t hard enough, you have to craft Read more…
For a small business owner, wise use of marketing can tremendously improve the odds of meeting big goals. After all, the main goals of marketing are to improve customer satisfaction, generate profit, find or create Read more…
When you walk into a store, you are surrounded by different products. As you traipse down the aisle, you make thousands of tiny decisions. You purchase some items and pass on others. Sometimes you stick Read more…
If you want to make money, you need to sell something with good product-market fit. There is no way around this. It is an essential truth of business. If you searched through our entire blog Read more…
Last week, we took a closer look at the importance of finding your target market. This is the first step in being able to execute marketing plans effectively. Now we are going to take this Read more…
Finding a target market is critical to success in business. Focusing on a specific group of people helps you pursue clear goals and make excellent products or services. This week, we are going to talk Read more…
Every small business owner asks themselves the same question at some point. “Should I sell services or should I sell products?” The battle of services vs. products has no clear victor. In this article, we Read more…
Pet Rocks. Tamagotchis. Fidget spinners. Some products become very successful very quickly, only to fade in prominence after a short period of time. Fads are remarkable because of how quickly this happens, but the simple Read more…
Businesses develop new products to grow and thrive. That means developing new products well is one of the most important things a business can do. Fortunately, no matter what business you’re in, the process of Read more…
Ah, the bliss of creating new products. Many small businesses live and die on their ability to make new products and services to delight their customers and meet unmet needs. Yet when we see other Read more…
“What is a product?” This question can be found in every business or economics book from elementary school onward. The answer seems obvious, but the truth, as often happens, is a good deal more complex. Read more…
Researching your competitors is one of the most valuable things a small business can do. To succeed in business, you must be able to create products that fit market needs. This is borderline impossible to Read more…
For businesses big and small, customers expect businesses to have a social media presence. In fact, 63% of customers expect customer service through social media. An online presence has gone from being the frontier to Read more…
Email is one of the most effective marketing tools you have at your disposal. Many find this to be surprising at first, but the value of building a mailing list to grow your small business Read more…
Many businesses are beginning to understand the power of creating online communities. The Holy Grail of all marketing is to make it where customers really like and trust your business and they buy everything that Read more…
We’ve had market research on the brain lately! A few weeks ago, we wrote about what market research is. Shortly thereafter, we wrote about how you can do market research cheaply and made a long Read more…
Want to know what your customers really think of you? Sometimes, the easiest way to find out is to just ask! In many cases, market research is really that simple, though it helps to go Read more…
Conducting quality market research is one of the best ways to ensure the long-term growth of your business. Just last week we talked about exactly what market research is and how it can help your Read more…
Building a small business for the first time is really difficult! You have to create a product or a service that’s perfect for your audience. Then you have to tell people you exist. These two Read more…
Ethical marketing may seem like a paradox. The whole reason for marketing, after all, is to sell more products. It’s easy to cast aside the very real problems that marketing can create. Marketing deals with Read more…
Every small business wants to sell big. The desire to earn a lot of customers is deeply ingrained into business culture. However, to do so, you need to create products and services that people are Read more…
On this blog, we’ve talked almost exclusively about business-to-consumer marketing so far, also known as B2C marketing. This doesn’t reflect the whole truth, though, because business-to-business (B2B) is a significantly bigger market than B2C. As Read more…
The 4 Cs of Marketing are a newer marketing model that helps us to understand the “set of marketing tools that a firm uses to pursue its marketing objectives in the target.” You may also Read more…
The 7 Ps of Marketing is a classic marketing model that helps us understand the “set of marketing tools that a firm uses to pursue its marketing objectives in the target.” You may also hear Read more…
Crafting a small business marketing strategy can seem awfully complicated. Many business owners have to be convinced that marketing is worthwhile in the first place. Among the converts, many more struggle to choose a coherent Read more…
No business is an island. Competitive analysis is vital to the success of your small business. If you’re not able to read the competition, a lot of doors start closing. How can you find a Read more…
For many small business owners, finding a niche is a daunting task. For many of us, our small businesses are a form of self-expression, and focusing on small business marketing forces us to answer two Read more…
Globalization is one of the defining forces of our era. As the world becomes more connected, we find our small businesses competing in a bigger arena than ten or twenty years ago. In some ways, Read more…
Marketing philosophies change how we approach marketing as a whole. No matter which one you subscribe to, marketing is all about crafting the right experiences for the right people. This objective is deceptive in its Read more…
As small business owners, we like to imagine ourselves immune to market forces. After all, we have the willpower to run the show. Why should we have to answer to anyone else? The truth, as Read more…
Decision-making styles are different for every customer. Understanding why customers arrive at their decisions is crucial for your small business’s success. To know why someone makes a choice empowers you to create beautiful experiences for Read more…
Consumer decisions can seem mysterious. Last week, I wrote at length about consumer behavior. How do we understand why consumers do what they do? Nowhere is consumer behavior more important than the decision-making process itself. Read more…
Consumer behavior is the study of why and how people buy things. It’s a mix of psychology and economics, blown up on a massive scale. To understand it is the dream of prophets, wisemen, and Read more…
Learning small business marketing is hard. In fact, running a small business, in general, is hard. Oftentimes it takes years of hard work and dedication before you even seen a dime in profit. You’re constantly Read more…