Sue Grabowski's Take On Why Your Nephew Should Not Run Your Ads

Quit a stable job, tell your boss you’re going home, then get asked if they can become your first client—how’s that for a plot twist? We sit down with communications leader Sue Grabowski to chart a three-decade journey from magazine keylining to AI-era strategy, and the common thread is relentless clarity. Sue shares how she built an agency that outlasted trends by shifting from production work to crafting precise specifications that guide both humans and AI toward measurable outcomes.

We dig into why teams waste effort without clear objectives, how “understand, plan, execute” anchors creative ambition, and what happens when leaders stop chasing the latest tool and start documenting the process. Sue explains why she now requires a yearlong commitment for social ads, how patient A/B testing compounds through retargeting, and the simple metrics that align marketing, sales, and operations so leads don’t die in the handoff. If you’ve ever blamed the channel when the real issue was your follow-up, this conversation hits home.

Crisis communication takes center stage as Sue outlines a practical, fast-acting plan: define roles, set severity thresholds, craft fact-first messages, and store the playbook outside your firewall for ransomware scenarios. Employees hear first; compassion and competence drive trust. We also talk about service—board work, township leadership, and a run for state office—as an extension of the same ethos: speak clearly, act decisively, and put people first. And yes, we end with a deceptively small habit that creates a big shift in focus: ending the day with an empty sink to start the next with a clear mind.

If you’re ready to trade quick fixes for durable growth, tune in. Subscribe, share this with a leader who needs a plan, and leave a review with the one process you’ll document this week.

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Transcript

From Corporate To First Client Overnight

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I went to Progressive Insurance to get big company experience and quit Cold Turkey to start my own firm in 1997. Told my boss at Progressive, I'm giving you a month's notice because I'm just going home. I'm not, I'm not going to another job. And two weeks into my notice, she came in and said, Could we be your first client?

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Today's guest has spent nearly 30 years helping people and organizations communicate more clearly. But what really sets her apart is how she leads with clarity, connection, and conviction. Sue Grabowski, thank you for being on the podcast today. Thank you for having me. I'm really excited. I'm excited too. Can you tell the listeners a little bit about you, your entrepreneurial journey, and your organization?

Finding Purpose Through Journalism

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Sure. So uh long story short is uh it's a very long story. But uh I was, I have to go back to to high school. I'm the first in my family to go to college uh and to to graduate from college and to to go. My my parents weren't really into it. Um, and I really was a C student, Wallflower High School person. So I went in as a music major. I took 12 years of piano and went to Malone University, really wanted to go there, but didn't know what to major in. And uh first semester, intro to communications, my it's a required class for all freshmen. The professor pulled me aside and said the following words. Dr. Kim Phipps, she said, Would you take a journalism course? I see some promise in your writing.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Oh, wow.

Early Agency Lessons And Launch

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Those words changed my life. Took one journalism course, never went back to music. Do you still love music? I still have a piano. Okay. Very rusty, but love music, just didn't go back to it. Uh and it transformed me. I went from, you know, C student to A student, president of, or I mean vice president of the student body, editor of the school paper. It it just propelled me forward. I found what I loved. So um left there, went to wanted to work in government. Okay, applied at the Ohio Statehouse for a postgraduate internship, 25 positions, 300 applicants. You are talking to number 26. Wow. First runner up in the beauty contest, nobody, I was the alternate. And so my doors closed in Columbus, and I ended up going down the business route. So I went into worked at a magazine, worked at a small ad agency, which is where I got the bug to own my own place. And I was 22, and I'm like, I could, I could own my own place. I worked for a woman named Marie Covington, who's very popular in Akron, very well known. And she was really a firestarter in those days, not many female agency owners. And I got to see everything that the agency did because it was very small. It was her, the office manager, and me. And so a few years after that, I went to Progressive Insurance to get big company experience and quit Cold Turkey to start my own firm in 1997. Told my boss at Progressive, I'm giving you a month's notice because I'm just going home. I'm not, I'm not going to another job. And two weeks into my notice, she came in and said, Could we be your first client?

SPEAKER_01 3:24

So it's like a movie.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

It was crazy. So they progressive insurance was my first client. I took about half my job home with me. And then the Timkin company, which um I did work for for Marie, I never contacted them because I never wanted to impinge on her. They found out I was on my own and they they called me and said, Would you start working for us, doing some speech writing for the CEO? And it was their centennial celebration. And so I started being on site there, and that led to, well, since you're here, could you start, could you do these things too? And the agency took off. So that was um a long time ago, almost three decades. And I have had shifts up and down through those years, but still love what I do every day.

SPEAKER_01 4:08

Yeah. So you've led the organization for nearly 30 years, and now it's evolving into something new. So, what's been that mindset shift for you as you move forward from that traditional agency to tech and consulting? Tell us a little bit about now what you're working on and kind of what the future looks like.

Tech Shift And The Future Of Agencies

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Awesome. Thank you. Um so in 30 years, I mean, when I look back at the technology, when I started out out of college, I worked at a magazine, I literally was using a key lining machine, which people wouldn't even know what that is today.

SPEAKER_01 4:40

Yeah, I don't know what that is.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

I would type my articles into a machine that would be produce out long galley strips, like a newspaper strip of the article. And those would be waxed onto paper that I would sit at my desk and lay out into pages of a magazine.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

From that to these pocket computers that we wear on our wrist or we carry in our in our you know, in our pockets, um, in terms of a phone where we can literally talk to AI now. So the that transformation is stark. Where I think um an agency life is going is that the the production, the the things that we used to be our bread and butter, we used to make the money on, uh, people don't need us for anymore. I mean, do you need me to make you a logo?

SPEAKER_01 5:34

No.

From Production To Precise Specifications

SPEAKER_00 5:34

You do you know, you people even say they don't need us to write. Questionable. I think they need us to edit, but we but they definitely can get so much farther down that line than they used to. Where I think we come in as a communications firm and as a tech firm is the articulation of plans and articulation of specifications. The the clearer your specification, whether you're doing a project or a full marketing plan or you're just trying to build up processes, the clearer your articulation, the easier it is to get the final outcome you desire, whether that be through AI or through human effort. And what I find is sloppy articulation is what causes the most rework and causes the most problems. And people just think they can just spit into AI and get something out that that's going to be useful to them. So I think that my years of articulation and message development and clarity now combined with AI. And when I say we're a tech company, we now have products in-house that can help us do that, help us build refinement, help us bring together outside sources and inside insights into documentation that then could be handed to a person to go produce or to a computer to go produce or AI to produce. And uh so I'm I work with, I bought out technology, Squawker Mobile Media, in 2015. My now business partner had shown me easy ways to present content in mobile devices. At that time, we said we're calling it Squawker with a QR. And I was called crazy by folks because QR codes are passe, QR codes aren't going to be used. No one's ever gonna use them yep. Here we are, pandemic later, nobody touches anything. Right. So uh we're trying to look ahead and say, what does the future of communication look like, not just marketing, and then building tech to support that? And so we've got several products, like I said, um, that we're using right now to help our clients uh better articulate specifications, uh, build out processes for communications, which is generally not a process-driven function within an organization. Yeah. We're just a bunch of jazz hands people.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

No, that's not true. Where do you think most people miss the mark in internal or external communications? Because that's that's your sweet spot. Where do I know that a lot of times business owners think, oh, we've got our communications figured out. We don't. Where do we miss the mark?

Planning Beats Tools And Tactics

SPEAKER_00 8:08

So a couple things. One is they don't treat it like other segments in their business. So let's talk about manufacturing, for example. In a manufacturing facility, processes must be followed, or people get injured or products are not put together properly. And so you've got you've got liability, right? But when it comes to sales and marketing, it's just like whatever we feel like doing. Uh, you know, one person handles sales a certain way and they've got their own je ne sais and they they've got their own way of doing it, and then that person leaves and you lose that. I think um documenting processes related to marketing is one of the biggest problems that organizations face, small businesses and large, because it's it's the roles that are squishy and uh are not managed properly in terms of what are our outcomes, defining our our objectives, and make sure that making sure that our tactics align with objectives instead of trying to throw things against the wall, hoping that they stick, and then complaining either about the agency or the idea that they had when it didn't work. So that same articulation that would go into building out a manufacturing facility or a manufacturing line needs to be applied to marketing and sales. And unfortunately that doesn't happen because it's a it's a feely segment of the business. And I I think we bring, at least we try to bring, a more objective approach to it. And we it forces us to get out of the, it doesn't, it does not restrict the creativity. It just focuses creativity on the outcomes that you want rather than we just need to increase sales.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

No, I love what you're saying, and that you can, it's about intentionality, being intentional and having the focus to be able to do the fun, creative things that may get individuals' attention, but there's got to be strategy intention and intention behind it.

SPEAKER_00 10:07

Right now, the other issue I see is people chasing tools. Tell me more about that. So there's a tool a minute coming up that we're gonna get you in front of more people, or we're going to um make it easier for you to get things on multiple platforms, or we're those things are great. But if you don't even understand the basis of who your audience is, taking a step back and saying, who are we actually trying to meet with? Who are we trying to connect to? Uh, that's problematic because what if your audience is best reached through snail mail? What if they're best reached through, you know, person one to one-on-one phone calls? Those things are not completely dead, but we invest in tools thinking we're gonna, it's gonna be the silver bullet. And again, we get frustrated when we don't get the results that we think we're gonna get, and then we blame the tool and we go on to the next tool. So I am a big proponent of taking the step back and planning first. So we we operate from an understand plan execute model at my firm because we got to understand where you want to go first and who you're trying to reach and what your what your deliverables are gonna be, building a plan out to match that and then execute. And right now in marketing and sales, it's a lot of execute first.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

And then go back and go, well, that didn't work. So maybe I should plan now. And you lose time, you lose momentum, and it gets really frustrating.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

What is your your thought or your expertise around, you know, patience? I know for me in the insurance space in the HR space, a lot of times it's business owners are not willing to commit for a season. They want to commit for a moment. Is that do you find that similar in marketing? Like, do they commit long enough or do we have just too short of an attention span? Oh, there's another tool, here I'm going. Is is part of the issue also being willing to commit and give the time for something to grow?

Patience And Yearlong Ad Strategy

SPEAKER_00 12:02

It is a game changer. So I we do um social media advertising, for example. I currently will not engage with a client for less than a year. And that probably sounds like, what? Well, here's what happens. We can make something happen right away, and you can get a little uptick, whether that's in engagement with your pages or traffic to your website. But the minute that you stop that, and it's you basically start from ground zero all over again. Secondly, there is this long tail effect that has great benefit because you build your audience first, find out what they like to interact with, A-B test ads, everything from colored backgrounds to headline changes and content changes. You find out what's working with the audience, then you can build on that and you can grow that initial audience through retargeting and other things. And then you can approach like-minded folks in that same way. But that takes time. And the other thing is, people will invest in well, my my nephew's kind of techie. So I'll have them buy my social media ads. You know, we have actual social media ad buyers who understand that. But again, that takes time and experimentation. People want quick fixes. And the other challenge is what if that's not the problem with your sales? You know, what happened. Uh we only control marketing drives leads to sales. That's that's our desire, is to drive leads to sales. I don't control your sales team. I'd like to. I don't know how they answer the phone. I don't know how they respond and email to inquiries. I don't know what their diligence is. I don't know what their tone is. I don't know what your operations are like. I don't know what your customer service is like.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Can they close? It doesn't matter how many doors you open if no one can close them.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Often people are like, We have trouble with sales. We're we need more sales. What if the sales aren't the problem? What if the operations are the problem? And then you call a marketing firm to fix your operations, and then again, you get frustrated at the marketing firm for not driving those sales that you want. So that's why I think you need a strong plan and you need defined objectives. What are you really trying to do? And it can't just be as simple as we just want to grow, we want to grow sales. It doesn't everybody.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Yeah. Good point. So while we're talking about communication, you know, building patience, executing on a strategy, let's talk about the other end in crisis communications. And so, how should a business communicate during crisis? And what's they, what's one thing that they should have prepared before anything goes wrong? As a communications expert, I'm excited to hear what you have to say.

Sales, Operations, And Marketing Alignment

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Thank you. This is a great topic. So uh I teach crisis communications planning to uh folks in the UAE government. Oh, wow. And have been to Dubai a couple times, and um they really care about preparing for crises. And these are government folks that are in a variety of roles and a variety of ministries within within the government. And I can tell you that most small businesses do not have a crisis communications plan at the ready. And today more than ever they need to, because social media can be the devil and a single bad post. Yeah. Um, I've had local clients have a post made about them from an average person, not an influencer. This is not a media thing, and spool out of control before they even know what's hit them. So we got a plan for when, not if, a crisis occurs. And with ransomware, I've had two clients face ransomware problems where it's total operations shut down. Yep. So you need a thorough plan that maps out what you think might be your risks. You know, um, dream up the scenarios. Everything from my building burns down to an employee commits a heinous crime. And it's kind of fun to brainstorm those because you're like, that would never happen. That would never happen. That would never happen. Um, it does happen. So uh everyone needs a crisis plan and you need to have a plan that that covers who's on your team. You literally have have minutes now. Back in the not so distant future, in my early days in communications two decades ago, maybe even a decade ago, you could have a crisis plan in place and it was in that file drawer.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Yeah.

Crisis Communication Preparedness

SPEAKER_00 16:32

And when something would go bad and you maybe the media would hit, you'd have about 24 hours to formulate what are we gonna do? You don't have that time now. So being able to reach for something that says, okay, in this kind of scenario, we need this group, we need legal, we need a subject matter expert, we need the spokesperson who's gonna be the person that's liaison with the media. We need copy editors who are gonna read everything that goes out, fact checkers. Uh, and here's how we structure our decision making regarding how severe is this. So I will say just uh some tips. If there's ever an injury or a loss of life, you are at uh DEF CON 10. And you need to be able to respond with compassion and competency at those times. And the only way you're gonna do that is to be able to calmly speak from facts. And when we don't have a plan, we will speak from emotion and we will say the wrong thing online, on camera, to other people. And we need to start with our employees really first, because employees are real your greatest advocates, your greatest ambassadors. And sometimes we don't even keep them in the loop first. So the number one thing is to have a plan. I don't care if it's even just a rough one. We build out comprehensive ones, but you you don't you want to go to sleep at night, yeah, knowing that your leadership team has something they can reach for. And when I say reach for, outside the firewall, because you could get ransomware attacked and all your systems are compromised, where all of your key leaders can get to it and somebody can take the lead. It really does bring peace of mind. And I'm all about bringing business owners peace of mind. They don't need to be thinking about these things at night. They have enough on their plates.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

No, I completely agree with you. So let's shift a little bit from crisis. So let's talk about community impact and public service. So you've served on a lot of different nonprofit boards, and now you're in public office as a township trustee. Congratulations on your win. Thank you. Why has community leadership always been a non-negotiable part of your business and your life? I feel like we share some of this. So I would I'd love to hear your answer.

Service, Boards, And Public Office

SPEAKER_00 18:42

So there's really two, several things that influence that. One, um, I I am a Christian. I believe that we're to serve other people. That's what we're here to do on this planet. So there's that. But I don't think I am well designed for all of the service that needs to be done. I think I would make a really not so great nurse. Uh, I would make a not so medical things would not be good. I don't think I'd be a great foster mom. And I'm just amazed at the people who raise their hands to do so many different volunteer things. So uh what I can do is help them from a board perspective. I can help raise money. I can help raise awareness. I can help them with decision making. As they're doing their jobs, I come in and help, you know, make some key decisions. So I've always thought that that's important. Um, I really see the government work. Well, I'll I'll say where I've served in the past is um Pathway Caring for Children, which is a nonprofit that is a foster care and mental health agency, uh, blown away by what they do and agencies like them do. Uh I worked at Mobile Meals and Akron. Again, um, just delivering food and being that human contact to people who maybe never don't have human contact. That's just gigantic. Um, but I also believe in the business community. So I'm on the board of the ac of the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce. I'm a um, I really value helping grow businesses, helping entrepreneurs. When I started, I don't know how you felt when you started. I I didn't know where to go to. No. I didn't talk to anybody. I made so many gigantic mistakes and just winged it. So let's work with organizations that help us not go down that path. Um, so I I just continue to to be part of that. And I'm on the board at Malone University, which I feel such an honor because that place changed my life so much. Um, but I the public service part of it is really, I think, the ultimate outworking of that. Because in those groups, I'm representing kind of affinities. You know, are you are you caring for kids? Are you caring for businesses? Are you caring for students? As a public official, I'm caring for 30,000 people. Uh, and they may or may not agree with me on all the decisions I have to make, but I have to try to think in their best interest. Uh, so to me, that's the natural kind of outworking, and it's taking me right back to my roots from 35 years ago, which is is crazy. So I just put my hat in the ring. I'm I'm finalizing my my signatures to run for state representative for the 48th district.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 21:21

And um, so got to win in the primary, we'll see what happens. And I feel like if the voters want me to stay at the local level, I'll stay at the local level and serve. If they think I can do more at the state level, which I believe I can, because a lot of local issues can't be solved locally, then I'll do that. But I'm really geeked about it. And I'm doing this really for me. It's something I would like to do now. Um, my business is mature, the business is changing. Yeah. But I've got a great team that's serving our clients. And I think now's the time.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Yeah. So that leads me into a question, you know, I've I've heard you. Say you don't believe in retirement. You do believe in restructuring your life. So, what does this season of leadership look like for you as you're looking at, you know, moving into a different space? But also how you've you've worked to develop your team. So, what is what does the future look like for you, Sue?

Rethinking Retirement And Leadership

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Uh how I spend my time is gonna be, you know, different. Uh, it is right now. You know, I'm I'm spending time um on township things. And uh I think so. I don't again, I don't really believe in retirement. I don't I don't see it um biblically. I just don't. I also I had a dad who lived to be 90 and a grandmother who lived to be 101. Wow. And my dad uh sold his mechanics, garages, he had a repair shop in in North Canton at age 65. And then he went to work at Stark State in the auto lab till he was 80 and he retired again. And at 82, he's telling me I should never have retired because I think there needs to be something that gets you up in the morning. So at my age of 57, almost 57, I'm I'm like, what do I want that to be? What's that path next? I think public service is that path. I think it would get me up in the morning. The business still gets me up every day. I love what I do and I will keep that going. But I think in the coming days, I think my team will take more and more responsibility for day-to-day stuff. They already do, but you know, I think, and I think they're welcoming that too. I, you know, I micro, I'm like, if I can micromanage like any crazy entrepreneur does absolutely we can be completely off in our own world. And then we come back and we're like, yeah, but what about this thing? And they're like, I've got that handled, man. Just chill. Um, I think that I'm giving freedom to the next, you know, generation to potentially take over my firm in the future. And then also, I will spend my day out with people. I love to be people. And I think uh spending time listening to the can to the constituents, listening to residents, solving problems locally or at the state level and moving the needle. I mean, I just think we need to move faster uh in everything, business and government, because I don't think we understand how fast AI and AGI is coming. Yeah. Very good point. And I think we're like, it's out there, it's not out there. No, it's here. It's right here, and it's going to dramatically shift our way of life. And I don't want to be in the back seat for that. I want to be in a driver's seat for that. So I think I'm making some moves right now because I feel the pressure to I need to move now. Or uh, if I wait, opportunities will pass me by. And as an opportunity junkie, I'm not willing to let that happen.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

No, I appreciate that. I like, I share your love of opportunity. Yeah. Most most entrepreneurs do. They do. And we get, I mean, sometimes we get bored and sometimes we get called to bigger things. So congratulations on you know acknowledging that retirement's not an option for you. You're gonna reimagine.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

We'll see. I mean, I do like to play golf. I'd like to play more golf, but I don't think I want to play golf every day.

The 1% Rule: Clear Mornings

SPEAKER_01 25:13

All day? No. No, I don't think that's a good idea. So as we start to wrap up, we have one question that we always ask all of our, um, all of our guests, and that is you know, what is the one thing that you would tell a business owner to do to get 1% better in their business every day?

Connect With Sue

SPEAKER_00 25:31

So this is a strange answer, but I think in their business, it I think as entrepreneurs, we understand that if things are not right at home, um personally with us, our business suffers. And vice versa. If things aren't going well at the business, we we drag it home. What I've found is um peace of mind drives a lot of benefit in business. And one thing that I've done in the past year is I don't have any dishes in my sink. Uh, this sounds really strange. Oh no, I love this. Tell me more. So I I tend to work in piles, not files anyway. I always kind of have been that. My my college roommates would tell you like, I don't like uh clutter around the house so much, but my desk is always piles and I know exactly what's in the piles, but it looks like chaos. And I know other entrepreneurs that operate that way. But I would also at night, you know, look, I we finish up dinner and the dishes would be in the sink. And then the morning I come out, and we work remotely since COVID, even before COVID, we were working remotely. I come out in the morning to make my coffee, and there's those dishes. And there's a study that shows that actually clutter with really affects women chemically, mentally, more even more than men. And that's your how you're starting your day. You're starting your day with something that you have to do. There's no, there's no clean way to start your day. And most of us start our day with a cup of coffee or a breakfast or something. And so you have to wash those before you go make your egg, or you have to wash those before you get that coffee cup. So started making it so that at night there is nothing on my sink and nothing, nothing in the sink, nothing on my counters. And when I come out in the morning, it's this breath of fresh air. When you talk about 1%, it changes. I come out with a smile on my face instead of that hump-shouldered, big sigh. And it's changed a lot for me. And I wonder how many of us in business, before we ever get to the business, yeah, what are we starting our morning with in terms of clarity and peace that could actually affect how we treat our employees, how we approach at first task on our list? And so I've that's what I do. I've I don't have dishes in my sink anymore. Sue, I love that. Thank you. So practical. One percent practical. It seems like such it's really changed things for me. Yeah. How can people connect with you? Uh, you can connect with so all of my social media is public. If you go to Sue Grabowski, it's Sue Dorshuk Grabowski. But uh, you can go there on Facebook, LinkedIn, uh, Instagram. They're all public. You can connect with me there. Uh, you can go to Desadar.com. Uh, and my cell phone is like out there. So um, you know, 330-608-1651 is my cell. Um during the campaign, people are like, how do I connect with you? And they're like, Oh, wait a minute, I found you. Just just call me. Uh and yeah, I still get a lot of spam calls, but so if I don't answer and you leave me a message, I'm gonna call you back. And um, would love to connect with the people want to talk.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Sue, thank you for your time today. Thank you for sharing for the opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Opportunity, junkie. Absolutely. Thanks.