Adaptable, profitable, and sustainable businesses are built with the scientific method, psychology, and a willingness to do things differently.
Business strategy that only works in the vacuum of perfection isn't a viable strategy.
Build a sales page. Design a client avatar. Map out your offerings. Are all good parts of business, but you can’t create what you don’t understand. And like throwing spaghetti at a wall, some things might stick, but that doesn’t mean they’re supposed to be there.
But what is supposed to be there?
Well, that’s a giant can of nuance that we have to open. Is it messy and uncomfortable to confront? Absolutely. But it’s in that discomfort that businesses make it or break it. Because there’s no single “right” answer to what your business is supposed to be. No two businesses are ever the same. It’s always a combination of your story, your clients, your data, your needs. It’s never one-size-fits-all, but an ever-evolving organism that requires routine evaluation and support.
If you've been thinking of sales like an upside-down triangle, we need to rethink that to make real strides in your marketing.
When we think in sales funnels, it assumes there’s only one path to conversion: someone enters, reads the page, buys. Anyone who doesn’t isn’t seen as a fit. But that describes one type of person, not the majority of people actually interacting with your brand.
But a yarn ball is closer to the truth (and probably a more accurate description of what already exists) Multiple pathways, no single correct order. Just what it looks like when you’re building for humans instead of robots. But the disconnect happens when the places you are putting effort into don’t align with where real humans are already interacting with your business.
When you stop thinking in funnels and start thinking in yarn balls, marketing makes a whole lot more sense.
The chaos of a yarn ball looks a lot like the human experience, and every knot is a place where someone actually interacts with your brand. Your marketing plan’s job is to align what you’re doing with where people are interacting and use the yarn ball to your advantage. No single thing tips someone toward conversion. It’s the layering of marketing efforts, over time, that gets you there.
Ignorance in business is not bliss, but blunder. Here's what I mean.
For the past decade, I’ve watched and supported many businesses work through finding their edge, their ‘special sauce,’ whatever you call it. But it wasn’t until I looked back at what worked and what didn’t that I realized the businesses that refused to be uncomfortable, to allow time to happen, and to let the business breathe ended up in failure. Not because they weren’t strong leaders or good at what they did. But because they were forcing the business, and themselves, to be something it wasn’t.
The flip to that? The ones who leaned into the process, who faced their insecurities and “weaknesses” instead of running from them, were able to shift, evolve, and change for the better. They didn’t let predetermined “shoulds” or unrealistic expectations keep them stuck, and because of that, they built businesses that actually worked, for them.
Along the way, a pattern emerged. Six steps that I found myself repeating over and over that always worked regardless of deliverable, industry, or experience. I call it The Amoeba Method™.
I may typically talk in pastries and sci-fi analogies, but nothing better explains what a business should be than an amoeba. Blob-like, with no specific required form. An amoeba is constantly adapting, taking in what works, evaluating what’s in front of it, absorbing and moving on, always changing shape, always adapting. Exactly what your business should be doing. Let’s investigate these steps together.
Listen to the Story.
The way you navigate the world is unique, and it shapes how you perceive everything around you. It's why even if you found another person who does exactly what you do, it wouldn't be the same. Same goes for who your business serves. So this step is where I shut up and listen with my whole self. And absorb who you are, how you came to be, what you struggle with, and the same for who you serve. Because without them, your business would be an idea with no one to help.
Uncover the real questions.
With an understanding of how you think, who you serve, and where you struggle, we can start to find patterns and form hypotheses. These are the real questions, the ones that surface uncomfortable truths, and the ones that get to what's needed most. This is where we make sure we are measuring the right data points, looking in the right places, and really finding the gaps in what we know.
Analyze the Data
A hypothesis is useless without data to prove or invalidate it. Same here, we can't assume something will work without some factual indication that what we suspect is true. Otherwise, we risk marketing to the entirely wrong person, for reasons that don't hold up. This is where we learn how people move through your business, how you operate, and where the adjustments need to be made.
Establish the guardrails.
Between your story and the data, we combine them into guardrails that keep the business true to itself: boundaries, reasonable expectations, and confirmed truths. Without them, the business is like a ship lost at sea, sailing in circles with no current to guide it.
Map Out What’s truly needed.
The solution to the struggle isn't always as obvious as you think. With our hypotheses either proven or invalidated, and guardrails in place to keep us on track, we can finally see how to fill in the gaps and smooth out the inconsistencies. Everything is designed to fill a specific role, never built just to build or to appease a trend.
Build the Deliverables
Website copy, brand systems, funnels, whatever the real need calls for, can finally be built, now that the real work's been done. But even here, the process doesn't fully stop. Sometimes building surfaces a question we previously didn’t catch, and when that happens, we loop back. That's not a failure of the method, it's the method working exactly as it should. An amoeba doesn't move in a straight line either, it senses, adjusts, and moves again.
Finality is a safety net that some people need.
But businesses never stop evolving.
At the end of this amoeba there is always another why, another question that needs answering. Because it's always changing and adapting. And that lack of finality isn't for everyone. The Amoeba method works best for people who...
Know that humans aren't robots, and expecting people to follow a plan with no room for their humanity is an exercise in futility.
Understand that businesses were never meant to fit in a box, and that adapting over time isn't optional, it's constant.
See their capacity as a business owner as a vital piece of what's actually possible, not an afterthought.
Think of their business as an interconnected web, not a standalone system or a leap of blind faith, no deep expertise required, just a working understanding of how the pieces connect.
Understand that audiences change, and adapting alongside them is how a business survives.
Are bottom-up thinkers who need every fact, with zero gaps, before anything clicks into place.
Struggle with executive function and need help connecting the dots between where they are and where they're trying to go.
Have tried concept after concept, program after program, and never once felt like the person on the other side actually understood how their brain works.
Have invested in people who looked like they had it together, only to end up stranded with something polished on the outside and broken underneath.
