Brennah Davis is the Founder of The Marketing Matchmakers, a service that helps small businesses connect with the right marketing agencies. With over a decade of experience running her own agency and scaling teams, she has developed a proven process for creating successful partnerships across North America and the Caribbean. Brennah combines her financial savvy and people-centered approach to build strong, mutually beneficial relationships.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- [0:35] Brennah Davis shares her journey of building two successful agencies from scratch
- [4:15] How budgeting lessons at age twelve shaped Brennah’s money mindset
- [7:53] What Brennah learned about starting a marketing agency in the Cayman Islands
- [9:03] The power of applying external marketing knowledge to capture new markets
- [13:35] Why most businesses struggle to find the right marketing agency
- [22:05] How agencies and clients are adapting to the AI marketing revolution
- [25:15] The importance of setting realistic marketing expectations
In this episode…
The marketing world is changing fast, and many business owners struggle to keep up. With agencies making big promises and results often unclear, choosing the right partner can feel risky and overwhelming. Is there a better way to navigate the maze and find the right marketing partners without getting burned?
Drawing on a decade of agency experience, Brennah Davis witnessed the common frustrations of mismatched expectations, unclear deliverables, and outright disappointments. This inspired her to create a more transparent and supportive process by founding The Marketing Matchmakers. She describes how her background — from a childhood shaped by entrepreneurial parents to running her own agencies — provided unique insights into both the business and relational aspects of marketing. Brennah’s approach centers on deep, empathetic listening and asking probing questions to ensure a true understanding of a client’s goals, rather than simply matching them with the most convenient agency.
Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Brennah Davis, Founder of The Marketing Matchmakers, about how she helps companies find the right marketing partners, what to watch out for when hiring an agency, and how clear communication can prevent costly mistakes. They also discuss the impact of AI on marketing and why Brennah believes transparency is key to lasting business relationships.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- John Corcoran on LinkedIn
- Rise25
- Brennah Davis on LinkedIn
- The Matchmaking Marketers
- Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO)
- EO Accelerator
Special Mention(s):
Quotable Moments:
- “I wanted to be the advocate that was there to say, hey, this agency I’ve worked with, and I know they’ll deliver.”
- “I try really hard to make sure that they know that I’m there for them at all times.”
- “If I hear of any bad behavior in a client towards an agency, I won’t match them again.”
- “I pride myself on really understanding people and what they’re looking for and asking the right questions.”
- “The expectation that you’re going to sign up with SEO today and see something happen tomorrow is unrealistic.”
Action Steps:
- Clarify your marketing goals and needs before seeking agency help: Define your objectives and reasons to establish a clear foundation for finding an agency that aligns with your vision.
- Vet agencies beyond online reviews by having real conversations: Ask in-depth questions and learn about their processes to ensure they fit your specific needs and values.
- Maintain transparent, ongoing communication with your agency: Use regular check-ins and open dialogue to address issues early and build mutual trust.
- Set realistic timelines and expectations for results: Recognize that marketing strategies take time to show outcomes, allowing your agency space to deliver effectively.
- Stay curious and keep learning about marketing trends and technology: Keeping up with new tools empowers you to make informed decisions and demand accountability from agencies.
Sponsor: Rise25
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Episode Transcript
Intro: 00:00
All right. Today we’re talking about the changing face of marketing and how to organize the chaos of the marketing world, how to make sense of it all in today’s day and era, where marketing is more important than ever. My guest today is Brennah Davis. I’ll tell you more about her in a second, so stay tuned.
John Corcoran: 00:18
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 here. I’m the host of this show. And, you know, every week we have smart CEOs, founders, and entrepreneurs from all kinds of companies.
And if you check out the archives, we’ve got Netflix and Grubhub and Gusto, Redfin, Kinkos, Ypo, EO, Activision Blizzard, lots of great episodes for you to check out. And of course, this episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25, we help businesses give to and connect with their dream relationships and partnerships. How do we do that? We do that by helping you run your podcast and content marketing.
I believe that everyone should have a podcast. My guest today is launching a podcast, which is awesome, and we do that by helping to be the easy button for you. So if you want to start a podcast in your B2B business, go to our website at rise25.com, and we’re happy to help. You can also email our team at support@rise25.com. All right.
Our guest today, Brennah Davis. She’s the founder of The Marketing Matchmakers, where she serves as a dedicated advocate for businesses that are seeking marketing agency partners. She has over ten years of experience running a marketing company herself. So she has that background, and she’s witnessed firsthand the recurring frustrations that clients face that businesses face, such as over promising to misaligned expectations, misrepresented capabilities, that sort of thing. And so she created a new business model where she helps to match companies with marketing companies that are good fit.
So it’s really interesting and we’re going to dive into that. But first Brennah. Such a pleasure to have you here today. You grew up in a neck of the woods that I’m familiar with, Northern California. Yeah, outside of Sacramento.
And unlike me, though, you grew up with lots of entrepreneurs around you. Your father was a general contractor. Your mom had an architecture firm. You have all these parents around you that were entrepreneurs. So what was that like for you?
Were you just kind of like an expectation that I’m going to own my business one day and not be an employee? What was that like?
Brennah Davis: 02:27
I don’t think my parents ever had that expectation. My parents are very supportive of following your dream. They’ve been so supportive of each of us to follow our dreams. There was never an expectation, but it was all that I knew, right? So I saw the hustle.
I saw the grind. I saw the ups and downs of the markets and how it caused stress in our family and things like that. But I think that’s all I ever knew. And I also saw the benefits of owning your own business and what that’s like. So I had parents that were very involved in my life due to them.
John Corcoran: 03:07
Being there too. And that’s impressive too, because, you know, I, you know, witnessed firsthand because I was an attorney practicing law during the big economic recession. And your you said your your father, general contractor, your mom’s an architecture. So a lot of businesses that were overindexed on real estate got pummeled during that time. Was that a really difficult time for your family?
Brennah Davis: 03:35
It was very difficult, but I think my parents did a really good job of sheltering us as children to know what the stresses that they had going on. I think as adults, we now understand and are very grateful for our parents keeping us in the dark and just being there for us in all the capacity that they were.
John Corcoran: 03:55
Yeah. And you also had an experience where, when you turned 12, your parents basically put you on a budget, said like, okay, here’s what it’s going to cost to raise you from here on out. Here’s your money. And that kind of inspired you to start working at a young age to pay for nice things that you wanted to have. So talk a little bit about that.
Brennah Davis: 04:15
Yeah. So once I turned 12, it was each of my siblings. Once we turned 12, we got our age times ten, and we were responsible to buy our birthday presents for our friends. We were responsible to pay for our movie ticket. If we went to the mall and wanted to buy clothes that were outside of, you know, new school stuff that my parents would provide, like new shoes and things.
But it was just out of the ordinary things that we just wanted. We were fully responsible for it, and it taught me a lot to budget. And then once I turned 16 and had a car, I then was like, well, I want to spend more money on gas to see my friends, and I want to buy nice things, so I took three jobs in high school just so that I could kind of do whatever I wanted in that sense of having the money and financial freedom to buy what I wanted when I wanted.
John Corcoran: 05:10
Yeah. So how do you end up starting your first company, then after that experience, was it just kind of something you figured you’d always do?
Brennah Davis: 05:19
I, you know, I had I went to art school, I went to a private art school in Los Angeles for college, and I went to school to be a painter. Realized that I did not want to paint for anybody, that it was just not my calling. It was a hobby that I loved for me. And then from there, I decided to go be a graphic designer. And I loved doing it.
So I imagined having an agency, and I ended up marrying a man who was in the film and television business, and he very much wanted to own an agency. So when the time came Shame that it worked out. We started our own agency and it was kind of just him and me helping. And I was the director of marketing for a real estate company at the time. And so I did part-time with our agency.
He did full-time. And then as soon as the opportunity arose that I would be full-time with the agency, I was full-time, and we grew it to have 27 people.
John Corcoran: 06:17
Wow. So it was big.
Brennah Davis: 06:18
Yeah. Yeah, it was awesome.
John Corcoran: 06:21
And then you get divorced. He did. And so what happened? In what order? With the agency.
How did you manage getting divorced and also splitting this agency that you’re running together?
Brennah Davis: 06:35
Yeah. So the divorce, we dissolved the agency during the divorce. And that was very hard on me. Just because I loved all our clients and I loved my team. And it definitely took a toll on me.
But I was still so passionate about helping people and that agency that I had with my ex-husband was a full-service agency. We were in Canada, Cayman Islands, here in the States, and we serviced businesses all across the United States. And we were a yes man company. And from that I learned so much. I think that there was a fire every day where it was like flying by the seat of my pants, trying to figure it out, just hustling.
And someone would say yes to something. I’m like, we don’t. We’ve never done that. Like, what are we saying yes to? And so it was very stressful and there was a lot of anxiety.
And when I dissolved it, I really reassessed what I loved doing and what I was good at.
John Corcoran: 07:40
So before we get to that, can I ask one clarifying question? Yeah, I’ve been to the Cayman Islands before. It is amazing. It is beautiful. How does one set up an office in the Cayman Islands?
Brennah Davis: 07:53
Of course. So we had a client that there was a client here in Arizona that the they sold the business and they ended up their wife was from the Cayman Islands. And so they ended up moving their whole family to the Cayman Islands and took a job there. And the owner of the company that they worked for, they ended up telling the owner about our business and asked us to move there. And at first I was like, no, no way.
And they finally gave an offer that like, we just couldn’t refuse. So we ended up moving there and starting our own marketing agency there, and had, I want to say, about 20 clients on Island. So it’s definitely not easy. I will tell you that as far as getting a business on that island and living there, but it was.
John Corcoran: 08:47
Definitely funny because the like, I remember we went on a cruise there and I remember walking off the ship and there’s people handing you leaflets about like how to set up a bank account in the Cayman Islands. Right? Like it’s like that thing. So it’s funny to hear that it’s was difficult to set up a business there because it seems like it would be easy.
Brennah Davis: 09:03
It’s much harder than you think, way harder than you think. But it’s it was an experience that I’m very grateful for. And I also learned a lot from because the Cayman Islands is so far behind in marketing. So when we were doing marketing on Island, it was so easy because nobody had done on online advertising, there’s no such thing as every door, direct mail, like they just started credit card transactions.
John Corcoran: 09:28
Like, okay.
Brennah Davis: 09:29
It was insane.
John Corcoran: 09:30
Yeah, yeah, that’s always great, right? It’s like taking knowledge you have from somewhere else and then bringing it to a new place that doesn’t have that knowledge. Then you’re suddenly the wizard. So then. All right, so getting back to the topic of you are trying to decide what you want to do next, and you have this experience of running this agency.
You’re stressed out by all the fires you’re all having to put out every day. And so what do you do?
Brennah Davis: 09:54
I knew that if push came to shove, I could do anything design wise. So I was like, I want to be a design firm. And then I at the time met this gentleman who is he very much aligned with my values as a person. And I was going through my divorce and I approached him and said, hey, I don’t know what’s going to happen to my agency, but I have these amazing clients that I love and adore, and I can just tell by who you are as a person that you really care. And I wanted to know if if I need to transfer clients.
Are you open to having clients or are you? Do you have capacity and what is your expertise. And so we had that conversation and he he his response was not what I expected, which was let me think about it. And I was like, oh, okay. So he came back about.
John Corcoran: 10:50
People are like, yeah, I’ll take your clients, right?
Brennah Davis: 10:52