Most managers in scaling tech companies (100–1,000 FTEs) hit the same wall:
Your team doesn’t take real ownership – not consistently, and not at the level you need. Decisions escalate to your inbox that shouldn’t. Meetings multiply just to clarify what should already be clear. You spend your week refereeing instead of leading.

You know something in how your team operates is broken. You just don’t have the time, or headspace, to diagnose it.

The Real Cost
This isn’t a motivation or personality issue.
It’s an infrastructure gap.
Without clear decision architecture, ownership frameworks, and feedback loops, even strong teams default to:
- Vague commitments that create rework
- Decisions escalating instead of resolving downstream
- Hard conversations avoided until they reach you

The math adds up quickly: 10-15 hours per week lost to preventable escalations and clarification meetings, plus the strategic work that slips because you’re stuck in reactive mode.

This is the growth alignment tax.

Why I Built This Work
I’ve spent 20+ years designing execution systems, first as Manager of Worldwide Training at Apple, then with 200+ tech companies across SaaS, healthcare, and enterprise software.

My background includes computer science (RPI), technical communications (Drexel), and executive education (Wharton). More importantly, I’ve lived these problems firsthand: leading teams through scale, navigating M&A transitions, and watching decision bottlenecks derail critical initiatives.

I built these systems because I needed them first.
Leadership without systems requires constant heroics.
Leadership with systems produces repeatable results.

Where Is Your System Breaking?
I built an 8‑minute diagnostic that shows exactly where leadership alignment is leaking time and leverage:
Decision Placement: Are decisions happening at the right level?
Ownership Architecture: Do commitments translate into execution?
Feedback Effectiveness: Does behavior actually change?
Strategic Bandwidth: Are you reactive or proactive?
Alignment Quality: Does the team know what matters most now?

Nearly 100 tech managers have taken it. The pattern is consistent:
> Below 65/100 on Strategic Bandwidth, leaders are drowning.
> Above 80, teams scale with far less friction.

Take the Executive Escalation Assessment
 → 8 minutes
 → Personalized peer benchmarks
 → Your top 2 systemic gaps
 → Immediate results
 https://learnwell.com/eea-leader

Ready to pilot with 3–5 managers? I can install the decision, ownership, and feedback systems that eliminate constant escalation – typically within 90 days.

Bill Ringle

The right marketing strategy doesn't pitch your brand or sell your product. It clearly states the problems you solve. It connects your solutions to your customer’s pain in a way they can immediately understand and can't resist. 

At Venveo, we're intentional experts in the intersection of who your customer is and where they interact online. I lead our team in creating data-based strategies to build brands that resonate with their audience and cut through the noise so they can be where their customer is when they're researching, sourcing and purchasing building products. 

Throughout my career in digital marketing, I've sat in almost every seat in our agency, and all of that experience has taught me that obsessing about our customers and our customer's customer is the only way to get the results no one else thought possible.

I believe in leading companies to dream bigger, reject the status quo and unlock their potential.

What our clients are saying about Venveo: 

"Knowledgeable and competent from top to bottom." - Founder of an online architecture videos company

"Venveo went above and beyond in many cases to help us determine the best path forward." - Executive for a bathroom fixtures manufacturer

"Their results are consistently better than their projections." - President at a construction company

Beth PopNikolov

The year is 2026. 

Protein creeps into building materials. 

Your driveway suddenly starts making gains 💪. 

No product is safe. Neither is your house. 





#buzzwords #branding #protein

Beth💥 PopNikolov

Your marketing should be a revenue maker—not a revenue taker. Marketing is Sales. Period. | CEO @ Venveo | Brand Champion & Strategy Expert for highly complex B2B industries

New year. Same economic uncertainty for the building materials industry.

I don't need to recap the tariff whiplash or cryptic jobs reports from last year.

But here's what we're actually seeing from folks in the industry: cautious optimism.

Construction spending is projected to exceed $2.2 trillion in 2026, continuing a trend of modest, steady growth.

Most manufacturers and dealers we're talking to expect this year to match or slightly exceed last year's performance.

What's changed isn't the unpredictability or the policy ping-pong, it's how companies are defining success.

In 2026, success means value over volume. Your customers are more selective than ever. They're operating under the same pressures you are: tighter budgets, rising costs, the expectation to do more with less. Add in pricing uncertainty and labor shortages, and every decision carries more weight.

As a result, buyers have less patience for friction and higher expectations for expertise. They want partners who help them make confident decisions without adding unnecessary complexity.

The manufacturers gaining ground are responding by investing in brand clarity, customer service, and digital marketing that builds trust earlier in the decision process.

From a marketing perspective?

Make yourself the obvious choice, faster. In a year where every buyer is being more selective, the brands that win will be the ones customers understand quickest and trust soonest.

The headlines will keep coming. Your job is to keep executing on what moves the needle.

And if you've been doing the work: building trust, reducing friction, staying consistent. You're already positioned to win in this environment.

Are we hitting peak AI Slopification in marketing?

I think so. 

Maybe you’ve seen the headlines: 

❌ McDonald's Netherlands pulled an AI Christmas ad after viewers called it "soulless" and "creepy." 

❌ Coke’s attempt to remake its classic "Holidays Are Coming" spot with AI was roasted for glitchy physics and zero emotional resonance.

❌ And if you spend any time on YouTube, you’ve definitely been served those bizarre, deep-faked "Tai Chi Walking" ads promising 8-pack abs for seniors.

We are getting dangerously close to a world of indistinguishable, infinite content. But right now? It’s mostly just "slop."

This brings up two massive issues every marketing leader needs to face:

1. Your Brand Reputation Is On The Line

Marketers are racing to use these tools for efficiency. But most current AI-generated creative isn't just "not quite there” … it's decidedly mediocre.

Your reputation is built on trust. Quality is what earns that trust. And a lack of quality (say, in your shoddy AI slop ads) is a surefire way to lose that trust. 

So, why are we racing to crank out subpar creative?

90% of buyers  (including those who use AI tools!) say they want media created by humans.

Customers aren’t flocking to your brand because you saved 6 hours making your ads.  

2. Speed Is Not Strategy

Here's the real temptation with AI: quantity before you've nailed quality.

Yes, you can now pump out five social posts a day. But should you?

For most brands, the answer is no.

Focus on creating the content your customers actually need—not a massive volume of content nobody's asking for.

If you don't have solid how-to videos yet, start there. Not with churning out daily reels.

If you're already doing content well, ask: How can I make what I'm doing even better? How can I increase engagement, quality, and conversions before I worry about volume?

AI's real value right now isn't in doing more. It's finally having the bandwidth and resources to do the basics right.

The fundamentals you've been putting off because you didn't have the people or budget? Now you can tackle them. Thoughtfully. Strategically.

Not by trying to become TikTok-famous as a lumber brand.

Are you seeing AI slop infiltrate your industry? What content fundamentals are you finally tackling now that AI can handle the busy work?

Garage doors aren’t just a checkbox anymore for builders. They are a major selling point.

We sat down with Tina Mealer, Director of Marketing at Haas Door, to talk about what builders actually care about right now, and how to shift the perception of a category most homeowners and contractors still treat like tires on a car: required, unremarkable, and replaceable.

Here are a few takeaways worth your time:

➡️ Garage doors as a real ROI lever (268 percent return)
➡️ Why dealers are often the strongest voices in the room
➡️ Builders getting savvier about curb appeal, energy performance, and even wind ratings
➡️ And yes, how influencer content is showing up in builder conversations more than you’d expect

It was great to hear firsthand how a building materials brand is approaching influencer strategy, but even more interesting to hear how closely builders are watching.

They’re not just looking to influencers for inspiration, but for specific materials, finishes, specs, and trends they can apply to real projects. They’re paying attention and turning that insight into real product decisions.

Huge thanks to Tina for joining us and sharing her perspective.

Highly recommend you check out the work she’s doing at Haas Door.

Full episode linked below ↓

And just like that, we’re back on the road. 

Who’s going to be at the Builder’s Show in Orlando? 

After that, we’re onto JLC Live in March.

What’s on your trade show schedule this season? 


#IBS2026

Gensler just released its annual design forecast, and it names what a lot of architecture firms are experiencing: 

AI is dramatically accelerating the parts of architecture that have historically absorbed billable hours: concept generation, massing studies, layout exploration, rapid iteration.

Work that once required large teams and long timelines now happens in a fraction of the time.

That doesn't make it unimportant. It makes it less scarce. And when time-based expertise stops being scarce, its value changes.

When AI compresses production work, value doesn’t disappear, it relocates.

It concentrates around judgment, synthesis, and decision-making. Helping clients understand trade-offs. 

Connecting design choices to outcomes. Taking responsibility for direction, not just generating options.

This isn't unique to architecture. AI compresses production-heavy work across marketing, product, and creative teams and exposes a bigger question: what are you actually being paid for?

For building materials brands, this matters. Faster early-stage design means decisions happen earlier. Influence moves upstream. Products enter the conversation when direction is still being shaped, not after choices are locked in.

AI raises the floor on execution. It also raises expectations around clarity and expertise.

The firms that win won't defend their process. They'll be explicit about their thinking.

Curious how others in architecture, AEC, or building materials are experiencing this. Are you seeing value move earlier in the process?

If 2025 was the year of AI panic, 2026 is where we actually (start) to figure this out.

Marketing Brew just asked CMOs from Intuit, Adobe, BetterHelp, and Zappi how they're thinking about AI for the year ahead.

Their biggest themes are exactly what you’d expect: How to show up in consumers' AI tools (AEO, GEO, LLMs) and training teams to actually use these tools effectively. 

Here's what stood out to me most.

These leaders are calling for the need to draw a clear line between what AI should do … and what marketing still requires from humans.

Intuit's CMO put it perfectly: "Execution is increasingly automated, so our teams' value comes from what AI can't do: deep customer insight, strategic judgment, and creative curiosity."

That's the actual strategy right there.

AI handles the execution. Humans own the insight, the strategy, the judgment calls that move the business forward.

If you've felt enormous FOMO this past year about mastering AI, here's the reality:

Every marketing team is still figuring this out. 

Adobe's VP of integrated marketing says her top priority is "giving people permission to experiment" and helping teams "test various tools, summarizing documents, refining messaging." 

We're all in the learning phase. But the direction is becoming clear.

Stop trying to be an AI expert. Start building teams that know when to use it and when human judgment matters more.

What's your AI strategy for 2026? Are you focused on the tech or the humans using it?







#AI #marketing

Last week when I predicted that TikTok's new owners would break the platform, I didn't think it would happen THAT quickly 🤔. 

While I'm not a software engineer, I know enough about marketing and algorithmic feeds to be skeptical that a simple 'power outage' could cause such a radical change to the entire user experience. 

This is the exact reason we diversify our channels. If TikTok is a part of your 2026 marketing plan or you’re already there and this is making you jittery, here are a few tips to hedge your bets: 

⬩Cross-promote aggressively: Use your TikTok profile (while it functions normally) to direct people elsewhere. Pin a video telling followers where to find you next, update your bio with links to YouTube/Instagram, create a simple landing page with all your channels. Do it today, so that if you need to make a transition, you’ve already laid the groundwork. 

⬩YouTube Shorts: If you're already making short-form content, this is a no-brainer. Just remember, YouTube is a search engine first, so optimize your titles and descriptions like you would a blog post. SEO principles matter here.

⬩Keep an eye on emerging platforms: Marketers love shiny objects, so don't bet the farm yet … but UpScrolled is emerging as a possible contender depending on how this transition shakes out. Stay curious, test small.





#TikTok

If you were enjoying Christmas with your family instead of obsessively tracking TikTok news, here's what you missed:

TikTok's getting new American owners. Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX are taking a combined stake in the U.S. operations. The deal's supposed to close late this month. 

Here's what matters for marketers:

The algorithm stays, but it's getting retrained on U.S. data. What does that actually look like in practice? We don't really know yet.

Could be a minor hiccup. Could be fundamentally disruptive to content performance. Hard to say until we see it play out.

Here’s my unfounded but most likely accurate prediction: they’re gonna kill it. 

Is there anything about Oracle that screams "fast, high engagement, trendy, understands Gen Z"? No. 

Everything about them is enterprise software. Giant, bloated, sterile. Unless they're smart enough to hand this over to people who actually understand the platform and stay out of the way, this could go sideways fast. Time will tell. 

If TikTok is a key channel for you, just keep an eye on your metrics over the next few months. Watch for any shifts in engagement or reach patterns.

One thing worth noting: TikTok seems to be pushing LIVE hard. They hosted their first-ever awards show as a live stream and gave major recognition to LIVE creators. If the new ownership doubles down on this, LIVE could become a much bigger growth lever in 2026.

Might be worth testing if you haven't already.






#tiktok #aquisitions

Trying to get a real read on the housing market heading into 2026?

It’s tough to know which headlines and data points actually matter. 

One data set worth paying attention to is the latest Employment Markets to Watch Index from Zonda. 

It highlights metros where population growth and employment trends are still supporting housing demand.

Their top three markets this year:

📍 Charleston
In-migration remains strong, demand hasn’t cooled evenly, and supply is still tight. That imbalance is beginning to show up in pricing and product mix.

📍 Columbia
Not flashy, but steady. Employment stability and relative affordability are keeping activity consistent while other markets swing.

📍 Columbus
Population growth paired with long-term job investment. Less about short-term spikes, more about staying power.

The bigger takeaway isn’t which city wins. It’s that national averages can hide what’s actually happening market by market.

A high-level view can hide where momentum is actually building, and bellwether cities like these tend to show it first.

If you’re in building materials or construction, this kind of market-level view is becoming less optional. Strategy, inventory, and sales alignment all change when growth isn’t evenly distributed.







#housing #construction

$60 per 1,000 views and very little performance data.

3X the CPM of Meta.

These are the early numbers coming out on what it will cost to advertise on ChatGPT.

On the surface, that's a fortune. But there’s never been an ad platform with this level of contextual relevance before.

This is par for the course for a new platform testing pricing and what people are willing to pay. 

And we should expect to see their ad prices flex way up and way down in the coming months as they figure out just how much people are willing to pay. 

Eyeballs are one thing. What businesses are really willing to pay for, is actions. 

Conversions from ChatGPT ads is the metric to watch to see if they’ll be able to justify the premium pricing over the long term. 

If intent is truly that high, the math might actually work …






#ChatGPT #Ads

In honor of the Builder’s Show being right around the corner, I’m resurfacing this slightly sarcastic but important reminder ⬇️

And this year, I’ll add one more tip: follow up.

The most important thing you can do after a conference is follow up with the right connections while the conversations are still fresh.

If nobody on your team uses a CRM, use a shared Google Sheet. Jot down names, companies, what you talked about, and why the conversation mattered.

Every business card you collect is an opportunity to nurture a relationship.

And that opportunity gets weaker by the day if you don’t act on it.

You’ve flown out, paid for your booth, printed the collateral, booked the hotels.

If the follow-up doesn’t happen, you didn’t attend a conference.

You took an expensive field trip.

 #IBS2026

Friendly reminder to all the exhibitors heading to IBS this week, posting your booth on social with just the caption “come see us at booth #” is not going to drive foot traffic. 

See you guys out there 🫡

#buildersshow #nahb

National Association of Home Builders

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Bill Ringle

Beth PopNikolov

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The Battle

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Beth PopNikolov's LinkedIn Performance

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