🔵Small Business Marketing Success Secrets w/CEO of Constant Contact Frank Vella🔵 | Ep. 485

Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson

GURU Media Hub

Education, Marketing, How To, Business, Entrepreneurship

4.9 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2026

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Check out Constant Contact and use the special URL constantcontact.com/jay for a discount. You can also catch Frank speaking at the upcoming GURU Conference and connect with him directly on LinkedIn.

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Read the Small Business Now Report from Constant Contact.

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Ever wonder how someone goes from getting fired at KFC to running one of the most iconic digital platforms in the world? Jay Schwedelson sits down with Frank Vella, CEO of Constant Contact, to talk about the real grind of small business ownership. They get into why artificial intelligence is the ultimate equalizer for small teams and how shifting your mindset from doing marketing to simply telling your story changes everything.

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Best Moments:

(02:30) Frank shares his first jobs working at a carnival and getting fired from KFC for eating too much chicken

(03:30) Why AI is the single biggest advantage small businesses have ever had to compete against massive companies

(06:48) The biggest mistake small business owners make when trying to take on the entire burden of marketing themselves

(09:48) How shifting the focus from marketing to simply telling your story completely changes the dynamic for business owners

(11:00) A surprising stat showing that 68 percent of small businesses plan to increase their marketing spend despite inflation fears

(15:36) Frank gives his top career advice on capitalizing on opportunities and acting like you already have the promotion you want.

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Partner with Jay: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/contact

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Pre-order Jay Schwedelson's new book, Stupider People Have Done It (out June 9, 2026).

All net proceeds are donated to The V Foundation for Cancer Research, let's kick cancer's butt: https://www.amazon.com/Stupider-People-Have-Done-Marketing/dp/1637635206

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Subscribe to Jay's newsletter for weekly marketing tips and tactics: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/newsletter

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Connect with Jay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/schwedelson/

Check out Jay's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@schwedelson

Check out Jay's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jayschwedelson/

Ask Jay anything: https://www.jayschwedelson.com/ask

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Leave a comment and follow the show, it really helps us out!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Do This, Not That, the podcast from marketers. We share quick tips, things you can do right now, and then we add a little bit of chaos at the end of every episode. We also keep it short, like this intro. Let's check it out.
0:15.8	We are back for what might be one of my favorite episodes that we are ever putting out there because we have
0:21.8	an incredible human being here we have a friend of mine here so who is here we have the CEO of
0:29.0	constant contact frank bella it's constant contact is one of the most iconic platforms in the history of
0:37.3	digital marketing they help over a half a million
0:41.0	businesses and nonprofits power their marketing since 1995. Now, when you're in 1995, like,
0:47.8	oh, they've been around forever. What's the big deal? No, they are the wildest growth story.
0:54.0	They got this injection of $400 million
0:56.2	in private equity money from clearly capital and serious capital. And Frank is leading this company
1:02.8	into the future. And the platform is not just, oh great, I know what they are. No, they do all
1:08.8	the stuff on social media, but in email, they have 97% deliverability.
1:13.7	For a company at that scale, helping hundreds of thousands of companies, sending out billions of emails,
1:18.7	to have 97% deliverability is bonkers, and Frank is also bonkers.
1:23.8	Okay, his roots, okay, is from an immigrant family, a blue-collar immigrant family.
1:29.4	And this guy disappointed his family massively.
1:32.2	They wanted him to be an accountant.
1:33.8	He said, screw that.
1:35.3	I'm going into sales.
1:36.7	And he worked his way up the ladder.
1:38.5	And he had leadership positions at HP Enterprise and Xerox and GE Capital and Microsoft.
1:44.0	And now he's the CEO of this amazing
1:46.8	growth engine. I am so excited to have him here. Frank, welcome to the show. Jay, it's a pleasure.
	...

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