Episode #
The Best Marketing Is Free. Almost Nobody Does It.
September 02, 2026

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/
Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire

Eric brings the DHH question — outspend or outteach? — and the hosts take sides on the cheapest marketing that almost nobody has the patience to do. Then it gets personal: why Bezos Expeditions invested in Basecamp, whether pressure makes winners, the hairy reality of agency M&A (data rooms, earn-outs, and numbers that never survive diligence), a tale of two agency contractors, and why revenue beats views every single time. A candid operator’s episode on teaching, buying, and building agencies.

Key takeaways
◾Outteaching compounds — it’s the free marketing nobody commits to
◾In agency M&A, the seller’s numbers never survive the data room
◾Optimize for revenue, not reach

Chapters
00:00 Outspend vs outteach: the DHH question
01:12 Bezos and Basecamp
02:21 Pressure makes winners
05:48 The agency M&A trap
09:55 Managing mistakes properly
12:09 A tale of two agencies
18:33 Revenue over views


Discover Latest Episodes

Episode
The Rule of 7 Is Dead: Why You Need 28 Touches Now
October 22, 2026

Eric and Neil say the rule of 7 has grown toward the rule of 28, and that buyers touch a brand 8 times for a sub-$100 B2C buy and 23 times at $10K-plus. A gelato shop stranger who knew them from diffe...

Episode
Do NOT Sleep on X Money!
October 20, 2026

Eric and Neil start with X Money, which pays 3% cash back and 6% interest, and argue that the offer is under marketed and would get more people investing. They test an AI-written blog post on a client...