David Meyer is a Partner at Spoke Marketing, LLC, a full-service marketing agency specializing in sales-driven brand storytelling and scalable marketing strategies. With a career spanning over 16 years at Spoke Marketing, David has been instrumental in guiding the agency through various economic challenges, including the 2008 financial crisis. An early adopter of Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), he now leverages his expertise to help clients implement the same framework, focusing on goal-setting, accountability, and achieving meaningful results.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- [2:56] David Meyer reflects on his early exposure to entrepreneurship through family
- [5:55] Why young David took on labor-heavy jobs
- [12:11] How a creative idea failed due to market mismatch
- [17:34] The motivation behind launching Spoke Marketing during the 2008 financial crisis
- [21:48] How David and his partners divided roles within Spoke Marketing
- [26:11] COVID-19’s impact on Spoke’s operations and the permanent shift to a remote-first mode
- [29:31] Why strategy still matters more than tactics in today’s AI-driven marketing world
- [32:31] What is VTO, and how does Spoke use destination mapping to define client strategy?
- [35:18] David talks about the decision to buy out his partners
In this episode…
Effective marketing often begins with a symptom: weak lead generation, under-engaged prospects, or uninspiring messaging. But without digging deeper, many companies jump straight into tactics — emails, ads, automation — without understanding the root cause. Could the misalignment between brand story and strategy be the real issue?
David Meyer stresses the importance of diagnosing the real marketing problem by asking probing questions and uncovering the “why” behind symptoms. He guides companies to align messaging with their vision, values, and customer motivations. Through practical frameworks — like leveraging EOS structure, developing story-driven brand identity, and implementing sales‑ready tactics — David provides a clear pathway from introspection to measurable marketing outcomes.
Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews David Meyer, Partner at Spoke Marketing, LLC, about crafting story‑first strategies. David shares frameworks for asking the right questions, aligning messaging, planning campaigns, utilizing marketing automation, and measuring lead‑to‑sales impact.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- John Corcoran on LinkedIn
- Rise25
- David Meyer on LinkedIn
- Spoke Marketing, LLC
- Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)
- Entrepreneurs’ Organization
Special Mention(s):
Quotable Moments:
- “It’s not what you want to say; it’s what your customers need to hear.”
- “Owning a third of the company still meant worrying about 100% of the problems.”
- “Strategy should always come before tactics; it’s the diagnosis before the prescription.”
- “People buy with emotion and justify with logic. That hasn’t changed.”
- “Voice of the customer is a mirror; what they say shapes the message you need to hear.”
Action Steps:
- Start with a strategy audit: Before launching any new campaign, assess whether your messaging aligns with your business’s core vision. Without this alignment, even the best tactics will fall flat.
- Leverage customer interviews: Conduct “voice of the customer” calls to gather authentic language and insights from your audience. This ensures that your messaging resonates and builds real trust.
- Align marketing with EOS or another framework: Use tools like the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to guide strategic focus. It ensures marketing efforts support overall business goals.
- Build a foundational brand story: Develop a clear and concise narrative that defines who you are, what you do, and why it matters. This story should inform all future communications and campaigns.
- Use AI as an enhancer, not a replacement: Tools like ChatGPT can speed up ideation and execution, but human insight is still essential for strategy and emotional resonance.
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Episode Transcript
John Corcoran: 00:00
All right. Today we’re talking about why you should always start when you start your business by focusing on strategy. And then get into tactics and plans and implementing all of those things later. It’s about strategy. First, My guest today is David Meyer. I’ll tell you more about him in a second, so stay tuned.
Intro: 00:19
Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where we feature top entrepreneurs, business leaders, and thought leaders and ask them how they built key relationships to get where they are today. Now let’s get started with the show.
John Corcoran: 00:35
All right. Welcome, everyone. John Corcoran is the host of the show. And you know, if you’ve listened before, you’ve heard me say this, that we’ve got a great archive of 15 plus years of interviews with smart CEOs, founders and entrepreneurs from all kinds of companies. And if you check out those archives, you will see we’ve had Netflix and Grubhub, Grubhub, Redfin, Gusto, Kinkos, Activision Blizzard, LendingTree, lots of great episodes for you to check out.
And before we get into this interview. This episode is brought to you by Rise25, where we help businesses to give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. How do we do that? We do that by helping you to run your podcast. We are the easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast.
We do three things: strategy, accountability, and full execution. In fact, we invented what some are calling the Wix a B2B podcasting. It’s our platform Podcast Co-pilot. And you know, David, you know, I know that looking at your background, preparing for this interview, that for you relationships are incredibly important, just like they are for me. And that is why I love bringing someone like you a new friend.
We don’t know each other all that well, bringing you onto the show and sharing with others your journey, your stories. And so I’m really excited about that here today. So if anyone wants to learn about how you can do that as well, you can go to Rise25.com or email us at [email protected]. All right. In a quick shout out to Ami Kassar of MultiFunding.
He’s a friend who led to my connection with David here, because David and I are in a group that is led by Ami, and he does a great job with that. But first my guest is David Meyer. He’s the partner at Spoke Marketing. It’s a full-service marketing agency based out of Saint Louis, Missouri. He’s got over about 16 years at Spoke Marketing, and he has been instrumental in designing and executing sales driven marketing strategies tailored to entrepreneurs and emerging businesses.
Before that, he worked at a number of different agencies, had some different fits and starts with different businesses. He started over the years, and we’re going to get into those as well. And David, I’m excited to have you here today. And I always love to start by asking people a little bit about what they were like as, as a kid and you were out there, you were mowing lawns and, and shoveling driveways, grew a, you know, a midwestern kid keeping score in a basketball league at 14 years old. Tell us about young David and the types of jobs you had as a kid.
David Meyer: 02:56
It’s just always doing something. I think my maternal grandfather, both my grandparents, grandfathers were business owners, entrepreneurs. One of them had a furniture and clothing store. So these are both first generation immigrants that had furniture and clothing stores throughout town. I think he started by selling newspapers on the corners in, you know, the early 1900s.
And the other one was a pharmacist, who had a pharmacy down in the north side of Saint Louis. And what was interesting about him, he had polio as a child. So he had, you know, one arm was a little bit more than decorative. And at the time, you know, there was a little mortar and pestle.
John Corcoran: 03:56
Where they grind the stuff. Yeah.
David Meyer: 03:59
So when he started they’re like, yeah, you can’t be a. Yeah. But he could. Wow.
John Corcoran: 04:07
Made it work. Did you as a kid, do you recall looking up to them? Do you sometimes see people, when they grow up around a family business, or they see parents or grandparents running a business, they see the downside of it. And so they don’t want to have their own business. What was it like for you?
David Meyer: 04:24
Well, my dad was a solo practitioner, doctor, Jewish brain surgeon, psychiatrist.
John Corcoran: 04:33
Okay.
David Meyer: 04:36
So I saw him firsthand as basically an entrepreneur. You’re a practitioner. You’re running your own business. Yeah. And I don’t. There’s no class in med school about running a business. So it was an interesting thing watching that.
John Corcoran: 04:58
Did you see a struggle or did you see him being challenged by it.
David Meyer: 05:03
For the long hours I saw? So I’ve learned some things not to do, but like exceedingly long hours. But a love of what he did. So the combination. I don’t know if he loved working.
He retired when he was 80. Wow. So he wanted to retire before he was one of those doctors that should have retired a few years ago. He didn’t want to be that guy. So yeah, at that point I think insurance dealing with health insurance companies probably factored into it.
John Corcoran: 05:42
And were you driven to go shovel driveways and cut lawns and work in this basketball league because you wanted to make money, because you wanted to get out of the house, because you wanted to stay busy? What drove that?
David Meyer: 05:55
I think it was. It was money having some independence, not having to ask my parents for whatever it is like. I remember my first purchase that I saved up for was a Pentax K1000 SLR.
John Corcoran: 06:16
And this is a camera.
David Meyer: 06:19
Yeah, it’s a.
John Corcoran: 06:20
Okay, okay.
David Meyer: 06:21
But it was like and I don’t know that I ever told anybody that I wanted it. Like I’m like looking back I never I don’t think I told my parents that’s really what I wanted or ever asked for it or anything, but that was just like, that was my goal for when I, you know, saved up enough money. That’s what I was going to do.
John Corcoran: 06:42
Yeah, yeah, sounds similar to me. For me, it was when I turned 16, my parents gave me one of the worst cars that was on the road, a car that just would break down as I pulled into my high school parking lot. I mean, just embarrassing as heck. I mean, I should be grateful because it was wheels, but it was equal. Equal amounts of embarrassment.
And that motivated me to drive by myself, to save money, to buy a car, which I did at about age 19 with cash. Now, I wish I’d taken that money, and instead of buying a car for cash, I’d put it into Apple stock or something like that. That probably would have been a wiser decision. But you know, hindsight is 2020, so you and you also ended up starting a business after your freshman year in college. You wanted to see if there was something you could do to get yourself outside and be on hot asphalt for the summer, in the summer heat. So you’re tarring driveways?
David Meyer: 07:40
Isn’t that everybody’s dream?
John Corcoran: 07:42
It. God, it sounds atrocious.
David Meyer: 07:45
It was. It was an awful, awful job. It was a buddy of mine, and I went door to door, knocking in neighborhoods, tarring driveways for the summer. We knew nothing about it.
John Corcoran: 08:01
How’d you get into it?
David Meyer: 08:04
I’m pretty sure it was his idea.
John Corcoran: 08:06
Okay.
David Meyer: 08:07
And he approached me and I’m like, yeah, let’s do that. Yeah. And he knew nothing about it. And it took us a while to figure out how to estimate jobs and do them and make a profit and upsell. So by the end of summer, we had it sort of figured out, but it was still just incredibly horrible.
Just work. It was. Yeah, like a slog. Hottest summers. It was, you know, one of those 100 degree humid Saint Louis summers. And you’re working with just stuff that’s sticky material, like. And the smell permeates everything. I don’t recommend it. Couple summers, but made good money. But
John Corcoran: 08:54
Yeah. And you did one thing that you mentioned there that I think is incredibly valuable, which is knocking on doors. So were you knocking on doors and, and asking people if they wanted them.
David Meyer: 09:06
Oh, yeah. Door to door sales.
John Corcoran: 09:08
Yeah.
David Meyer: 09:09
And we also would put up signs after we, after we did the job with our phone number on it. No cell phones back then. And like in between coats of. So we do one coat and then we’d knock on neighbors doors as well.
John Corcoran: 09:32
Then while it was drying or something.
David Meyer: 09:34
In hindsight we looked awfully pretty. Yeah.
John Corcoran: 09:39
Yeah. You’re sweaty, you’re hot, you’re dripping. Yeah.
David Meyer: 09:43
It’s like, I don’t know, like, I think we just must have looked desperate or like, sad or whatever. Enough that some people opened the doors, But yeah, I wouldn’t have opened the door for me.
John Corcoran: 09:55
You probably help you realize that maybe doing something indoors with a computer would probably be a better idea here.
David Meyer: 10:02
Yeah, we didn’t have any. Yeah.
John Corcoran: 10:04
So we teased this at the beginning, saying that it starts with strategy. And a lot of times people focus on tactics. So do you think that there are maybe kernels that influenced what you do now? Like when you look back at this, you think about this, you know, sealing driveways. It sounds very tactical, like, you know, you just thought, okay, well, we’ll just go out and we’ll, you know, sell people. But it seems like there’s maybe kernels of, you know, now what you do, there’s so much thought that you put into what you do.
David Meyer: 10:37
I think, I mean, we would. I can’t believe we’re talking about sealing driveways, but.
John Corcoran: 10:44
There’s great lessons in this stuff.
David Meyer: 10:46
I mean, you know, the pitch was that it’s going to make your driveway last longer, so it makes the cost of owning a driveway. It reduces the cost. You slap some tar on it every couple of years. You don’t have to replace it. You seal the cracks.
They don’t get worse. I don’t know if that’s the real strategy. But the. I had another business. I bought my first house in 99. And I remember, you know, realtors give you a gift or something after you buy your house. My realtor gave it to me, I think it was a mop and a galvanized bucket. Like.
John Corcoran: 11:35
Like, not the most thoughtful. Yeah.
David Meyer: 11:37
Like, it was just so odd. Yeah. Thanks. And then shortly after that, I realized that I knew nothing about home ownership. And I. You buy a car and it gives you a manual on when to change the tire, or when to rotate the tires, or change the oil or the belts, or all the things that I know of, whatever’s in a car, and they give you the care and feeding of this car. But the minute you drive off the lot, it depreciates.
John Corcoran: 12:10
Yeah.
David Meyer: 12:11
And here I was. I bought a house which is supposedly a great investment, and I, I didn’t know right away which one was the furnace and which one was, was the water heater. So I knew nothing about taking care of a house. I mean, just as little as I did about taking care of a car. So I created a homeowner’s manual with what to do, when to do, how to do, and I sold it to the idea of selling it to realtors.
John Corcoran: 12:47
Not a bad idea.
David Meyer: 12:48
As a closing gift.
John Corcoran: 12:49
Yeah.
David Meyer: 12:50
And then follow up like you get. And it’s still today. I get postcards or mailers from realtors with, like, the local, you know, Saint Louis Cardinals baseball schedule on it or the Blues hockey schedule on it. And that doesn’t really tell me that you’re an expert in real estate.
John Corcoran: 13:08
Yeah.
David Meyer: 13:10
Or where the art fairs are this summer. Like. Yeah.
John Corcoran: 13:12
Yeah.
David Meyer: 13:13
Professional. So it was. And I learned that it was really hard to sell to realtors. I don’t want to disparage the profession, so I won’t.
John Corcoran: 13:27
Why do you think they were a hard market to sell to?
David Meyer: 13:34
The ones who were. Doing well, didn’t have time to meet with me. And the ones who weren’t doing well and had time with me would sell 5 or 10 homes a year. So they weren’t really good clients. And I think nobody, no kid and this is nobody grows up wanting to be a realtor like, no kid.
Like, you know, the Phil Dunphy in Modern Family might be the exception. They’re not, I don’t know. And this is, you know, you don’t want to generalize, but not business people. Marketing isn’t their strong suit. So having that long term, you know, the pitch there was at the time, people were staying in their homes 5 to 7 years was the average.
So it was when this person sells their home at 13, 13 Mockingbird Lane, they’re going to call you, you know, you say, hey John, you, this is a great investment. This is going to help you take care of your home. It’s going to keep your maintenance costs down, but it’s going to help your resale value. So we know, when you. I know you think this is your forever home, but it probably isn’t.
And if that’s the case, you know, when you call me when you’re ready to sell, I’ll be able to go through this book and get you more money for your house than your next door neighbor, because we’ll be able to show how well it was maintained.
John Corcoran: 15:04
So to me, it sounds like a solid idea, but you said that.
David Meyer: 15:08
Yeah.