A small hardware store facing a new Bunnings across the road went on to have the biggest two years of its owner’s career. It didn't try to win by lowering its prices, the owner changed the game.
Direct response marketer John Dwyer joins Charly to share practical campaigns that helped smaller businesses attract leads and compete without discounting:
✅ A value-added incentive gave customers a reason to choose the local hardware store over Bunnings
➡️ A Facebook contest generated 917 leads for a water filtration business in its first week
⚡ A restaurant built a database of 90,000 people and used it to fill otherwise empty tables
⭐ Matching the offer to the right audience helped turn promotions into genuine sales opportunities
There are plenty of ideas here for business owners who need to stand out without becoming the cheapest option.
What could your business offer that would take the customer’s attention away from price?
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Life is busy and there's just so many things to remember. What tools do you use to help you keep on top of ALL the things?
It’s important to know what an AI Agent can do in your business systems and who’ll deal with it if something goes wrong. An ongoing series of AI experiments, called Project Vend, have been conducted over 2026 and the results raise some interesting questions into AI Agent behaviour and what Small Business needs to consider.
Todays Firewall Friday showcases Project Vend and discusses
✅ Understanding exactly what an AI Agent can access in your business system
➡️ If an agent gets a request outside its instructions, what can it actually do in the system?
⚡ Whether human signoff without system restraints is possible.
⭐ Planning for the Christmas period, when it's busy and when you want to take off.
What do you think the lessons learned from Project Vend are for Small Business?
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If your web developer needs access to your Google Search Console, don't give them your Google account login. Best practice is to give them access to Google Search Console using their Google account.
Charly walks through the settings so you can:
✅ Add a team member using their own Google account.
➡️ Choose the permissions they need without handing over ownership.
⚡ Change or remove access if their role changes or they leave.
If you’ve given someone access before, would you know where to check what they can still see?
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AI search is changing how people find your business, and keeping up can feel a lot like the early days of SEO. The advice keeps changing, measuring results is still a challenge, and you’re left deciding where to spend your time and marketing budget.
Nicole Baker has spent more than 30 years helping businesses adapt to changes in how people find and choose them. She joins Charly to discuss the Wild West of AI search and some questions worth asking:
✅ Do good SEO practices still matter?
➡️ Are reviews and mentions really that important?
⚡ What’s the Reddit effect?
⭐ How can businesses take advantage now?
Listen in, then share your experience in the comments: are you using AI search to find businesses, and how do you decide which recommendations to trust?
Connect with Nicole
Website: bakerstrategylab.com
LinkedIn: @nicolebakerpdx
Instagram: @bakerstrategylab
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