In this episode of The Best Dam Podcast, Jill sits down with the multi-talented Remso Martinez, the strategic mastermind behind Marketer on the Run and a seasoned fractional Chief Marketing Officer. Together, they pull back the curtain on the confusing world of digital marketing and explore how a basic plan can transform a chaotic, never-ending task list into a highly manageable roadmap for small business growth.

The discussion dives deep into the high-stakes world of modern business operations—from dealing with shifting consumer behaviors and inflation to adapting to massive technological changes like artificial intelligence search summaries. Remso also breaks down the eye-opening results of his newly launched local digital audit, sharing how he balances high-profile political consulting with helping bootstrapping, mom-and-pop storefronts thrive right here in Boulder City.

DISCUSSION

The Core Definition of Marketing: Remso simplifies a heavily overcomplicated industry by establishing a clear boundary: marketing is you talking about yourself, whereas advertising is paying someone else to talk about you for you.

1. The Danger of Paralysis by Analysis: Many business owners experience an endless pit of anxiety because they feel they are never doing enough online. Without a solid blueprint, entrepreneurs get overwhelmed by the fear of the unknown and completely abandon their marketing, leaving their revenue to the "will of the universe".
   
   
2. The Trap of the"E-Myth": Referencing the classic business book The E-Myth Revisited, Remso warns how easily passionate experts—like a master baker—can grow to absolute hate their businesses once they get buried under the endless logistical quicksand of taxes, payroll, and unexpected operational tasks.
   
   
3. Making Professional Guidance Accessible: To break down the financial barriers for small storefronts, Remso offers a highly accessible $55-a-month group coaching program. This low-commitment mastermind gives local entrepreneurs a collaborative space to ask blunt questions alongside peers like Ashley Gill of Fiber Salon.
   
   
4. High-Stakes Political Strategy vs. Main Street: Remso shares that whether he is consulting for a high-profile gubernatorial candidate navigating a fierce 13-person primary or advising a local home services company, the foundational question remains identical: Is the upfront investment worth the long-term result?.
   
   
5. The Fractional CMO Growth Model: For businesses hitting a consistent growth stage, Remso highlights the "golden rule" of reinvesting 5% to 10% of gross profit back into marketing. Utilizing a fractional model allows fragile, scaling businesses to access executive-level leadership and cross-industry insights without the crushing overhead of a full-time senior hire.
   
   
6. The Invisible Threat of Zero-Click Searches: Remso points out a massive shifts in user behavior where up to 70% of Google queries now result in "zero clicks". Because platforms instantly display data via AI summaries and direct query answers, businesses without optimized sites are becoming entirely invisible to research-heavy consumers.
   
   
7. The"Eat a Rock" ChatGPT Reality Check: Warning against completely outsourcing human critical thinking to artificial intelligence, Remso shares a hilarious test where a free version of ChatGPT fell victim to user confirmation bias and actively gave him instructions on how to coat a rock in Vaseline to swallow it easier.
   
   
8. The 2026 Boulder City Website Audit: Prompted by the economic psychological shift of the November 2025 government shutdown, Remso's team audited 99 registered Boulder City businesses. The shocking data revealed that while 61% maintained a digital footprint, only 51% possessed a fully functional, complete website free of generic GoDaddy or Wix filler text.
   
   
9. Brand Journalism and On-The-Ground Lessons: Moving away from standard, boring SEO blog posts, Marketer on the Run now produces weekly "brand journalism" pieces and video case studies. This includes on-location breakdowns from Primm, Nevada, detailing the harsh business survival lessons small communities must face when local revenue streams suddenly dry up.
   
   
10. Remaining"Bullish on Boulder City": Despite the unique vulnerabilities of a tourism-dependent economy, Remso fiercely proclaims he is incredibly bullish on the upcoming decade of private and federal investments flowing into the local ecosystem.
    
    
11. The Unbeatable Value of the Chamber: Jill and Remso highlight how vital local networking and professional collaborations are to the community’s shared financial security, reinforcing that when individual Boulder City businesses succeed, the entire economy elevates together.

LEARN MORE

• Marketer on the Run: Visit the official digital hub to explore fractional CMO services, dive into weekly brand journalism blogs, and watch operator-focused strategy videos. https://marketerontherun.com.
• 2026 Boulder City Small Business Website Report: Head over to the store tab on Remso’s website and use the exclusive podcast listener code REMSOISRIGHT to download the comprehensive, 99-business local digital audit completely for free.
• Remso on YouTube: Subscribe to Remso’s official media channel to watch real-world video breakdowns of GEO vs. SEO, macroeconomic trends, and marketing lessons filmed right around the Southern Nevada landscape.
• Boulder City Chamber of Commerce: Head over to the Chamber website or stop by the office to discover how joining the local network can help jumpstart your business marketing and connect you with trusted industry experts. https://www.bouldercitychamber.com.

KEYWORDS

Remso Martinez, Marketer on the Run, Digital Marketing Strategy, Fractional CMO, Search Engine Optimization, Generative Engine Optimization, Small Business Website Report, Boulder City Chamber of Commerce, The Best Dam Podcast

#RemsoMartinez #MarketerOnTheRun #DigitalMarketing #FractionalCMO #SEO #GEO #SmallBusinessSupport #BoulderCity #TheBestDamPodcast

Podcast Transcript

Jill: Important information today. We are talking to Mr. Remso Martinez, and I know that, for many of you, you have heard that name before, Marketer on the Run. He has not only been, presented at two of our different Lunch and Learns, but he's also been on the podcast before because this information is so important and because the, the topic is something that every business owner should be looking at.

So thank you very much for being here today. We're glad to have you back, Remso.

Remso: Jill, it's a pleasure to be on as always.

Jill: So you and I have had many, many conversations, some very deep and go totally off topic, but, those are always the fun ones. But in the most recent Lunch and Learn, we had quite a few people that were there that attended that had a lot of questions about marketing because I think in this day and age, in everyone's mind, the word marketing is purely social media.

I'm gonna put a post on social media, now I am marketing. And so yes, component of, but there's so much more to this. Can you give us the 20,000 foot level and then let's dive a little deeper?

Remso: Yeah. So I try and define marketing as you talking about yourself and advertising as somebody else talking about you for you.

Jill: Oh.

Remso: And where a lot of people are starting to get really anxious right now is, is this feeling that they're never doing enough. And I'll make you feel great and I'll make you feel pretty horrible. I'll make you feel horrible first. There's always more you could be doing. It's an endless pit of constant tasks and things to consider and things to keep up with.

However, the good thing is that when you get a plan in place it doesn't seem so monotonous. It doesn't seem so tedious. a lot of stuff you can start to establish, and then it's pretty easy to get certain systems going, whether you have a content calendar, whether you know what your ad spend for the year is going to be.

So a lot of the reasons why people panic is because they don't have their basic marketing blueprints down. they think, once I get the website set up and once I,pay for some ads to bring in my initial group of customers in, it's pretty much going to be, easy swimming from there.

But it also depends on whether or not, you're a brick-and-mortar business, and then based off that, location matters and everything. there are a lot of folks like myself who run fully remote businesses. So a lot of stuff goes into deciding the blueprint, but at the end of the day, it's who am I?

What value am I providing to my customers? Who is my ideal customer, and how is my ideal customer most likely to find me? Then you follow it up with this. Are they just coming here to purchase something one time from me, or are they people that I can develop a relationship with so they understand that when they need, widgets or whatever, I'm their guy that they're gonna come to continually?

So a lot of people try and overcomplicate things because of the first part, which is I don't have a plan, and it seems like every time I look into this, there's always so much to do. There's always a never-ending task list of things I should get done. But, when you get the basics down, it seems to be more of like a long-term, never-ending task like anything else that you typically do as a business owner, and you just accept it as part of being in business, as part of running a company, and not something that's a one and done.

Because what stresses a lot of people out is they think, it's like launching a firework. It goes off, it flies, it looks really cool, goes really high, and then it blows up, and then it's over. And then what you have to do is, you have to launch another one. it's never just that.

It's more of a long-term marathon, and ultimately, the finish line is ultimately when you wanna sell or retire. And what does that look like? Because it never ends until you say, "I'm done." And by the time you're done with marketing, you're usually, at the end of your career, and now it's gonna be somebody else's- responsibility if you pass it down to family or if you sell it, to a business partner, to another business. So I think people get overwhelmed because of the fear of the unknown, and what I stress to a lot of business owners is that, you spent a lot of time, money, and effort, and passion becoming a master at whatever you're doing.

And then you suddenly had to get involved in marketing. And I say this as not just somebody who's a professional marketer, but somebody that had to learn all the ins and outs of business my first year, and that certainly stressed me out. There's a book called The E-Myth Revisited, and I know a lot of business owners have read that book, and there's a story in there about, the woman who becomes a baker because her friend said that, "You're so good at baking these cookies and these pies and these breads and everything, you should start a bakery."

And she loves it. She's "Oh, man, if I could leave my, my, my dumb job that I hate and I could just bake all day, it'll be awesome." And then she starts the bakery, and then she's shoot, I need to get the space for it. I need to get the permits for it. I have to... Oh my gosh, I have to buy all the equipment and everything."

And then by the time she does that, she has to, do payroll, and she has to take care of taxes, and she has to take care of insurance. And then she has to wake up at 3:00 AM to bake all the stuff that she needs for the day, which is gonna take hours, and then she has to do all the sales. and you get where I'm going.

Where it's like eventually in that book, at the end of that chapter, she's "I hate this now." "This thing I loved, I absolutely hate." the more people take on, the more they begin to forget why they got into the business that they did. And ultimately I don't think that marketing should be as complicated as people make it out.

What I think they do is they get so far ahead of themselves that they get paralysis by analysis. And when it comes to that, fight or flight type of response, a lot of people would rather just say, "I'm not getting involved in this at all, and I'm just gonna leave it to the will of the universe."

And then they look later when they're not bringing revenue, and they're like, "Shoot, I should've done some marketing instead of just leaving this on that Post-it note of do it for months and months."

Jill: But even then, it's not too late, right? 

Remso: Never. 

Jill: Even then it's not too late. So I love your premise that it's really not as difficult as it tends to seem in our mind.

It's taking it in bits and pieces. But so initially in your consultation with businesses, you just need them to identify, stop worrying about, down the road. Let's talk about just this component. Let's create a blueprint. Let's get your game plan. Let's talk about what that looks like. And then once you have the plan, then we can go to implementation.

But all we're talking about right now is the plan. Let's not talk about what you have to do next because I think you're right. I think it is just so overwhelming. People don't know where to start or they think, I'm doing this one little thing, it's good enough. And so your skill set to come in and just chitter chatter and understand, let's get some feedback going here.

Let's understand what it is you want to accomplish. Okay, what have you already done? What do you foresee as being, your end goal? And then I'm gonna give you some tools to get to that point. So my next question to you is, we've been talking about this for a lot. You and I, have had many conversations.

We've done it with lunch and learns. We have done it with industry nights. So I think that people are afraid to even contact because they're, either you or any other marketer, because it's gonna cost me money and I should already know this. I would imagine you're really good at making sure people don't feel dumb.

You're not dumb, you just don't know where to go. Or analysis by paralysis. They're just frozen 'cause they have too many things going on in their head. It would be advantageous for them to hire you, utilize your services, get them kick-started. Now, they can continue that and that's what your hope is as well, and hopefully you've done something great that allows them to do that.

But really, you're, you just need to get your foot in the door to show that it is so much better when you have a partner and a professional that knows what they're doing. And what is that cost? is that super expensive? Is that something that's very manageable for business owners?

Remso: So I've tried to make it as accessible for everybody because my ultimate goal is that I wanna see more business owners.

I think that entrepreneurship is great for many people. Their fear is that they aren't gonna be guided in the right place. And whether you're a multimillion-dollar business or a high six figure, six-figure business, I think that everyone should try entrepreneurship at some point.

And the marketing is obviously one of the first things that you're gonna have to tackle. So I'll just lay it out. Like a consultation with me for an hour is $250 an hour, just one-on-one. However, I do a group coaching program- ... where you can get involved with other business owners. We just had our first, member join. her name is Ashley Gill. She's out of Henderson, and she owns Fiber Salon.

Great small business that just opened up. She had multiple salons in the Los Angeles area, and now she's, a Nevada-based entrepreneur and she joined. So it's like you can join for 55 bucks a month, and you can come on and you can talk to me and you can talk to her and you can talk to a lot of people.

And I think that is sometimes a good way for people to dip their toe in 'cause it's low commitment. The cost to entry is really minimal because you're sharing time with other people. And I think that sometimes entrepreneurs need a place where they can get together and just ask the blunt questions.

It's one of those things where I have to have really the same conversation with folks who are either bootstrapping completely or, they're already running businesses and they just hit a wall at some point. I'll give a small example, and I'll give a big example.

Big example is that I'm consulting for a gubernatorial candidate outside of Nevada. I won't say who or where, but, they're running in a 13-person primary. 

Jill: Oh, geez. 

Remso: And, their challenge is that, and you can do this, you can provide a loan to yourself before you start fundraising money. So after you go through all the FEC compliance and everything, you can loan your entity the initial cash, and then you can pay yourself back, like anything else. 

Jill: Okay. 

Remso: A political campaign operates much an LLC in that sense. she went ahead and, She loaned herself the amount that she needed to get going. She's slowly starting to bring money in. Her challenge is that, she had a good amount of name recognition in her state.

She was previously a statewide official. so that's there, but she's going in with people who are objectively very skilled on social media. they have a good network of, publications and radio outlets that they can go on. So she went ahead and brought me on with her campaign manager to talk about how I could assist them in some of their public relations and other stuff, and there was a little bit of sticker shock on the price tag.

And, this person, compared to me, like I'm like 7-11 pizza broke compared to her. Like she's ordering like Papa John's, let's put it that way. But it was one of those situations where I'm not gonna try and push people to do business with me if they're not comfortable with it.

But what I try and remind people is like anything else, is the investment worth the result?

And if the answer is yes, then the cost shouldn't matter at that point. the same conversation I have with somebody who's running for governor is the same conversation I have with somebody that's running a home services business.

And I think business owners have to ask themselves that. It's, is the result... Is the investment worth the result that you want? And, I say this having made many mistakes and, put money towards projects and tests for stuff that didn't work. But at least that way, like I'd rather spend $5,000 making a mistake and never spend that money again than have to worry and wake up at 3:00 AM wondering, "Should I have paid for that campaign?

Should I have hired that person?" and I'm not like some businesses where my goal is to just really get you on the hook and keep you going. Like I had to...I'll say this, like I worked with a great marketer out of Henderson recently. He specializes in content marketing, but he's been a business owner for so long and been in different industries.

He does consultations for business owners. And I needed to do some work on my own recently, so I hired him, and we went through a month-long process together. His name is Jeff Fargo at Fargo Factor. Shout out Jeff. You should give me a discount next time. But Jeff was, Jeff was 

Jill: Join the chamber.

Remso: Jeff was... Jeff should join the chamber. Jeff was great. Jeff helped me out a ton and, you know, like I didn't argue about his fee. I thought his fee was perfectly fair. But I know people who would argue with it, 'cause they argue with me, and I'm cheaper for what I do for, not exactly similar, but for a consultation.

I worked with Jeff for about a month. He gave me all the homework that I needed to do to get him the answers. He went ahead and provided me a couple reports before our call, and really the goal was, can we get what you need done during this call, or do we need to schedule a follow-up?

And at the end of it, we had... I had done all the homework, he had done the reports, I reviewed the reports. When we got on the call, by the end of it, he was like, "Ramsey, you're fine."

you've already done the majority of the stuff between when we started and when we had this call.

Here's my recommendations of next steps, and I don't think you need to do another one unless there's something big that you wanna talk about later.

Jill: Interesting.

Remso: And that's somebody who's looking out for the value and the benefit of a business owner.

Jill: And the value and the benefit of what he just provided you.

Remso: Yeah.

Jill: He's feel strong enough in what he provided you that he doesn't need to keep it going. He just flat out knows, this is the information you need, and I see the potential in you, and I trust that you can make that happen.

Remso: Yeah. And it was worth the investment. Was the cost worth the investment? Absolutely.

Jill: Yeah.

Remso: And I needed to get that done. So a lot of times, I think people need to stop focusing on the amount, and they need to focus on that question, is the investment worth the result? Because far too often they get to this point when things are already going downhill, and then, I'm not really giving them a consultation, I'm telling them how to file for Chapter 11.

Jill: I think, though, that there's value in me asking that question. Because I know many of our mom-and-pop locations out here in Boulder, $250 is still, that's a sizable amount of money when maybe somebody didn't even make that in one day. But the reason they didn't make it is because they're probably needing you.

And so that sacrifice of putting that money up front so that they get the long-term result, on the backside, I think is smart for them to understand. I don't believe that really is that expensive to give. It's an investment in yourself and in your business. Why would you not want to at least give it a try and find out that, you know what?

There are people who have more skill sets. it was Howard Hughes that always said, "Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you." He didn't need to know all the information, and he claimed to not know all the information, but he was smart enough to hire the right people that gave him the right information for him to make great decisions.

Remso: Yeah. it's why I like the fractional model. a year ago, I really built Marketer On The Run as a full service digital marketing agency, which we still are, but I've done a restructure to really emphasize the fractional CMO component, which is that for a lot of businesses, especially when they're in that growth stage where they're starting to make profit regularly and they need to know how to reinvest that, the golden rule is 5 to 10% gross profit you put back into marketing and advertising.

Jill: Okay. 

Remso: That's where it makes sense to probably bring someone like me in. Because you could hire a senior level marketer- But that's gonna cost you quite a bit. A lot of businesses can't do that, especially when they're in that growth stage where they're still pretty fragile. you could bring on somebody who's fractional, and you're getting access to me, and because I'm working with multiple clients across industries, I'm able to provide you insights and experience that I'm collecting from a lot of different people.

Jill: Good point.

Remso: But that's, that's one of those things where you don't know what you don't know. at the marketing and tourism industry night, a- and I commend everyone who was there for that. That was really, it was really nice to get to speak to some of the folks.

But, a lot of them are just afraid to say, "I don't know something." and I asked a basic question you'd asked me about, not just SEO and what people need to do for that, but now we're dealing with the part where we're dealing with agentic search results. So GEO, generative engine optimization.

So when you go on Google, you have the Google AI summary, you have Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity, all that stuff. I just ha- I didn't wanna talk at people and have them not walk out of there with the actual answer they needed, and I just had to ask because I wanted to make sure they were getting something out of it. Who knows what I'm talking about?

Jill: Yeah.

Remso: And then I rephrase the question: "Who doesn't know what I'm talking about?" Suddenly, all the hands go up. It doesn't... I don't... You're not going to impress me if you know it. and the funny thing is even if I ask people, if I point it out, it's like, "Tell me what it is."

Really? Because it's such a nerd topic, really that I love, but I don't expect a lot of people to. You're probably gonna give me the wrong answer. So we might as well just get on the same page about it because my whole focus is servant leadership. I want to provide value at all costs to people, so that way they can, they have the knowledge and the ability to make the best decisions they can for themselves.

And it doesn't help to not ask the questions out of fear of being foolish. You know what happens to 100% of foolish people that don't ask or seek help? They all go out of business.

Jill: when you asked that question the other night, it was one of those that I think everybody in the room was like, I don't know."

But it, it absolutely defined the fact that AI is moving so quickly, much like when the internet was released. It's just moving so quickly that business owners don't have the time. They don't have the time to sit and take an AI class. I have, a forced, a four class AI program that I'm going through right now, and I still have to go back and re-listen to one of the initial presentations because I just haven't had time to fully understand it.

And so there's just so much to take in. But these business owners, they're trying to open doors, keep, employees working, get inventory in, get inventory out. So they're so busy with that, but they also have to go home, and then they've got to take care of parents or children or whatever. We need people like you that can help define that, educate us, and weed through all of the extra fluff that we don't really need, 'cause there is a lot of that going on.

Speaking to AI- Is there a concern that people will just assume, "Oh, I'm finding so much, insight with chat. It's helping me out so much with this, and that, so why would I need a marketer? I'll just get ChatGPT to tell me what I need to do"?

Remso: ChatGPT once told me I ate a rock one time, to eat a rock one time.

Did I tell you about that?

Jill: No. To eat a rock?

Remso: I ran a test on confirmation bias. So I'll rewind a little bit. You have a alarming trend, and Cody Sanchez from the Big Deal podcast, I highly recommend people subscribe to that podcast. I've been a Cody Sanchez fanatic for several years.

She brought on an expert that was looking at the behavioral habits of entrepreneurs, and they went on this tangent about the different, interactions and activities among the sexes, and what they found is that women are by and large more likely to use AI as a therapist than men are. But then here's the problem that you're getting from that.

It's that AI is built in with a confirmation bias for the user. So I ran a test with, the... I have the paid version of ChatGPT. I've got Chat Plus. But I went on, a different browser, and I used the free version, which is a little bit slower and dumber, and I asked it, "What is the best way to eat a rock?

It feels too rough when I try and swallow a rock. Somebody told me to do this." I'm like, "This sounds like a dumb test."

Jill: That does.

Remso: It was like, "Have you tried coating it in Vaseline?"

Jill: Oh, disgusting. 

Remso: And I'm like, "What?" "This is... What? It should say, 'No, don't do that.' that's stupid." It was like, you should try ketchup or something."

I'm like, "What is happening?"

Jill: It's just a reminder that it is only as smart as the information that's fed to it, and we're still running a little bit slow on getting that information in there.

Remso: Yeah, and people use AI like a search engine, I use it more like a unpaid intern or something.

Which is why I always say thank you and please to my ChatGPT agents, because in case they gain sentience and wanna kill us, maybe they'll show me mercy. They're like, you were polite to us, human. You may live as our slave."

Jill: But- You know, I still do Yeah ... yes, please-

Remso: Just in case. Just in case

Jill: Could you please do this for me? And I'm like, "Oh my gosh, why am I even doing that?" But

Remso: I just can't- you do a good job. Thank you.

Jill: Yes. And I do. As soon as "That was perfect. Thanks." And I'm like, "Why am I doing this?"

Remso: You'll survive the robot apocalypse.

Jill: I don't know. Let's hope. I hope.

Remso: Well, But, but yeah. I mean, there's a confirmation bias built in naturally. I have my own separate agents I've made, for myself and people I work with, and I intentionally tell it to, give me harsh feedback if necessary- ... and to validate against what the most common subject matter experts say and to give me the consensus opinion.

And there are times where it gives me answers and I'm like, "I don't like this answer," or, "I think this answer is wrong." I build a lot of my own prompts and a lot of my own, SOPs that I plug into these agents, because I'm like, "I want you to go by my standards."

And my standards might not be typical, but they're my standards for how I do things.

Or they're unique to a certain situation or case that I'm working on. So you know, if you go in- Most of the time, it's gonna give you the most sensible answer because it's pulling from what it knows. But we're not at a point, and this is where, people... I've met people who have completely outsourced their thinking to ChatGPT. It's a very, nerve-wracking trend. I see this with, Gen Z especially-

Jill: That scares me

Remso: Where they've just completely outsourced their thinking. it's like that Bruce Willis movie from 2007, Surrogates. but without going on a tangent on that, yeah, you can go ahead and get the answers, but you don't know whether or not you can really rely on it like you can a person.

case in point, law firms across the country have gotten in trouble for trying to use ChatGPT for case law and stuff, and for, tort cases and things like that. And ChatGPT gives them answers. It gives them hallucinated answers. It creates case material that never existed.

Jill: Oh, no.

Remso: It improperly cites procedures and laws. You cannot take it as face value. I say this as somebody who's delivered stuff to clients when I was getting into it at first, and I thought that, oh, this is great. All the data's good and everything like that. And there are, there are things in there that I, as I was about to give it to them, or in one case I gave it to them, and there was something that was very obviously wrong.

If it can happen to me, it can happen to anybody.

Jill: Oh, yeah.

Remso: You're seeing this, it's one of the reasons why it's such a epidemic in universities right now, and why universities are spending millions of dollars on proprietary AI fact checker tools to make sure that, the work that you're getting is authentic.

This isn't to say don't use it. I use it all the time. I could not run the business I do if I did not have access to these things. But I'm still, at the end of the day, the person who has to verify it because I'm delivering it to somebody. it creates an issue. Besides, like- Am I going to just go to chat for everything, or do I wanna go talk to somebody who at least has the experience?

We trust each other. We don't trust machines as much. So am I worried that it's going to impact me, for example? I can certainly see it, it happening because it has, but it's just changed the conversations I'm having, and it's changing my approach. So a lot of what I wanted to do, and it's why I went through a restructure of sorts recently, is I wanted to find the biggest deficiency for a lot of the people in Southern Nevada that I'm working with.

And what I found is that a lot of it just comes down to ignorance. They just don't know what they don't know. So I looked at what a lot of, agencies and firms throughout Southern Nevada and parts of California that service the Las Vegas area, were doing, and I realized that a lot of them aren't doing, what I consider sufficient teaching and knowledge sharing to help people make better informed decisions.

They're writing blogs, and they're writing articles and stuff mainly for SEO. So that way they're likely to come in, but it really doesn't look at things from like an on-the-ground operator perspective. So with my team at the end of twenty twenty-five, we sat down, and we were like, "How can we not only stand out as thought leaders and subject matter experts in Southern Nevada, but how can we best serve, you know, people nationally and internationally by using, Las Vegas, Henderson, and Boulder City as a backdrop?"

So part of what we have on our blog, we have a new blog that comes out every Monday at least. Sometimes we do more. we do brand journalism-

Jill: Oh ...

Remso: That looks at real cases in entertainment, business, politics, and media, and we apply the lessons learned and the principles to what business owners should take from those situations.

Jill: Interesting.

Remso: So it's a lot of news style pieces. 

Jill: Yeah. 

Remso: Recently I launched a YouTube channel.

Jill: Oh, cool.

Remso: And like for example, we've done a couple episodes. We've got one coming up,by the time this comes out it'll already be out, but like this Friday, what is it, like the 20- 22nd? We've got an episode coming out about GEO versus SEO.

Jill: Oh, great.

Remso: Which is a general one. it's a question that needed to be asked, but I actually went out to Primm last week and I filmed around, Buffalo Bill's and Whiskey Pete's and Primm Valley Casino, and we've got a video coming out about what happens there, in Primm. And why that whole community, I feel bad for the employees. They have until July 6th to vacate. So not only are they out of a jobs, but they're also out of a home.

I basically went down there and I showed people and I did a lesson on the marketing lessons that people need to take from this, because what happened to Primm could very well happen to many communities and many small areas throughout the country, where you just took things for granted. You did not adapt, and quickly before you know it, your revenue just dried up.

Jill: Interesting. 

Remso: So it's that. I did my first video, which is available, is about how the conflict in Iran is going to impact the Las Vegas economy.

Jill: Interesting. 

Remso: So we're trying to take these real world examples and get people to understand them and see them from how an operator looks at them.

Jill: And so what, how do we find that YouTube channel?

Remso: Just go to Hey Remso, H-E-Y R-E-M-S-O on YouTube. that's my channel handle. You could d- also just search, Remso Martinez, R-E-M-S-O Martinez on, YouTube, but you can just check out marketerontherun.com. The videos are posted alongside the blogs.

Jill: Okay.

Remso: The blogs go into details. the videos also do that. I'm taking some extra time out. I'm an expert contributor for The Blaze which is Glenn Beck's website. 

Jill: Yeah

Remso: So I've taken examples from politics nonpartisanly and, I looked at the New York City mayoral race with Mamdani.

I think that, Zohran Mamdani, in my opinion, I don't think that he's good for the city of New York policy-wise, but I think as an example of somebody who knows how to message and communicate, I think he's the millennial Barack Obama. I think what Obama was to YouTube and Facebook at the time, Mamdani is to the TikTok crowd.

Jill: Oh, interesting.

“emso: And I think to give him credit for this, I think he's one of the most talented political communicators in America today, and I think he surrounded himself with the best team of political marketers in America today. That's an objective opinion of mine. don't like the policies, but the man knows how to get people talking, and he knows how to connect to the least common denominator of the average voters who don't look into the stuff that nerds like I do, but they are like, "I don't wanna spend $5 extra on food."

"I don't want, I don't want rent to go up," that type of stuff. So I try and take those examples, and I try and really communicate it to people in a way, because we're consuming everything around us. We might as well look at it from an operator view and understand, "Okay, what is a lesson I can take out of this?"

Jill: Right. Right, right. I love that. So So much. There's so much I have so many questions, but as we wrap it up, I really wanna make sure that we visit on the report that you shared at the industry night the other night. It was phenomenal, the information. 

Remso: Thank you. 

Jill: And, the idea that you just put that together because you felt it was necessary, absolutely highlights who and what you are, so we're very grateful that you're an asset here in Boulder City.

Remso: Thank you. 

Jill: But that report really speaks to the fact that we have become so, enamored by social media, thinking that in and of itself is going to solve the world's problems, and we're ignoring the original premise, the foundation, the very piece that gave us that presence on the websites.

If people are not maintaining and updating their own website or even have a website, speak to the detriment that is and maybe how they can get access to that report so they can better understand what they can do to improve their own websites.

Remso: I'll answer that last question first, and then I'll justify the rest of it afterwards.

But you can go to, marketerontherun.com to access the report and some of our other digital products. you go ahead and click on the store tab. It'll take you to my Gumroad page. That's our digital e-commerce platform. And if you use the code REMSOISRIGHT, R-E-M-S-O IS RIGHT, you can get the $20 report completely for free.

And, it's the, 2026 Boulder City Small Business Website Report. I'll be doing this report annually, b- between Q1 and... between Q2 and Q3 of every year, so this is just the first report we'll be doing. But, what we wanted to do was I'd already seen from many examples in town, speaking of business owners, that, they're essentially invisible online, and a lot of them are very social media dependent because they try and go to where people are immediately are, because that's where they spend their time, so they make the false assumption that, I'm here all the time, so obviously my customers are here all the time."

Not always true, especially since the meta platforms, Instagram and Facebook, are largely pay to play now. But, a lot of them don't have websites, and when you don't have that, one, Google doesn't treat social media accounts the way they do websites, so you're already putting yourself at a disadvantage for search.

But secondly, you're essentially, invisible, particularly to very price-conscious, you know- Consumers, and we're seeing this with millennials especially, who, out of fear of overspending or not getting the best experience with their dollars spent, they're doing a lot more research and planning when they go to places.

So this report, I wanted to go ahead and provide to the community because the best, worst thing happened last November 2025. great for me because it gave me something to talk about and it gave me something to really address with people, and no one can say, you're just fear-mongering on this."

But the worst part of it was that we had a government shutdown. And you being in Boulder City, like everyone else listening here, you saw what happened when the government shutdown happened, and it was a couple of weeks that went by. How many... like genuinely, give me like a rough number.

How many, Boulder City residents are either federal government employees or contractors tied to the federal government? Specifically, I think it's Department of Interior-

Jill: Yeah 

Remso: that has an office here.

Jill: So Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, City of Boulder City, and the school district are our largest employers, and the Bureau of Reclamation being the largest.

But you are absolutely right. They and the National Park Service are two fifty percent of the largest, employer bases. We're looking at shutdowns and, some were essential, some can still be out there, but for the most part, it not only impacts them, their families, and the cycle of the dollar that they are spreading in the economy, but it also impacts the community when they start worrying about what that looks like, the tourists that can't come, the different programs that are not available, services that are not av-not available.

But it also starts, impacting us psychologically. When we know that fifty percent of our community is out of work, it starts changing how they spend their dollars as well. They become a lot more conservative and economical.

Remso: I used to, and I still say this, I use the pandemic as the big primer for why a lot of people need to, get their house in order.

I say very intentionally, I'm like, "You're two weeks away from going out of business in most cases." That's right. And I think a lot of people, it's 2026 and I'm still having these conversations with people. I'm like, "Yeah, you survived the pandemic, but are you doing any better than you did then?"

And if the answer is no, and sadly, with a lot of my small businesses, the answer is no. It's like they survived and they're like, "Oh, okay, back to normal." normal is what got you into that situation and everything has changed. Consumer spending habits are different. Inflation is different.

Everything is different now, and in some cases, it's a little bit better. I would argue that, standard,the standard average middle class lifestyle is much more difficult to obtain and keep than it was prior to 2020. But for Boulder City, especially, like it was like a twelve-day shutdown or something like that.

Hey, like I saw the news reports. I was in Pennsylvania at the time, so obviously I had to like cancel my Delta Airlines flight- ... because that, that just made getting back really difficult. But I saw the news reports, I saw people panicking and everything. And, Henderson and Las Vegas are different than Boulder City in the sense that largely when you remove the tourist factor out, they can largely sustain their own business ecosystem.

That's not necessarily the case of Boulder City- ... which is largely tourism dependent. And it's much more susceptible to situations like that. So I took this as an opportunity, and I was like, I... the most basic thing you can do, the most basic thing you could do is have a functional, completed optimal website.

That's like the... That's one of the first things you should do, and people just completely duck over that step, jump over it. They completely leave it. That report, which people can find at marketerontherun.com, they can click on the store tab, go to 2026 Boulder City Small Business Website Report and download it for free with the code REMSOISRIGHT.

R-E-M-S-O-I-S-RIGHT. what we found is we surveyed 99, businesses registered in Boulder City. we audited all 99 sites. What we looked at were three criteria, which is one, do they have a website? Two, is it a functional website, meaning you can scroll around, it, the load times aren't crazy, it works, you can click on stuff and it'll take you places.

And the third, was it complete, meaning to have the basic customer inquiry information that a person would need to learn about you, like contact information, address, store hours. And then was it void of, templated filler information- ... like the Coming Soon pages and the Lipsum, Ibim, whatever- ... basic gobbledygook that you get when you go on GoDaddy or Wix or any of the drag and drop sites.

Is it free of that? What we found... I knew it was not gonna be perfect. I didn't know it was gonna be as bad as I found. And I'm not saying this to shame anybody. I'm saying this as an opportunity, because if you're listening to this and you're a Boulder City business, you're probably in that report, and you're probably in there by name.

So it's in your best interest to look at that because there are some places that are called out for being the leaders of the pack that are doing very well, and the folks who have an opportunity to improve for their own sake, who hopefully this is a wake-up call for. But what we found is of the 99 businesses that were audited, somewhere around, and I don't have it in front of me, so I'll pull the numbers out, out of thin air.

But like it was something roughly around 60% had- 61. 61%? Okay, I was close. Good. That would be really embarrassing- ... if I was really off. 61% had a website. 51% had a website that was functional and complete Which basically means that 49% of businesses in Boulder City are lacking in either having a website or having a website that is most likely going to bring you money.

And I'm, I love saying that I'm bullish on Boulder City because it sounds cool to say that, but it's true. When you look at the federal investment coming in, when you look at the private investment coming into Boulder City, I see this as a decade possible bull run of opportunity- ... that makes me as a business owner really excited.

But I see a lot of people not being able to take advantage of that because they're largely invisible to search. And the problem that we're seeing right now, and this goes back to, the SEO stuff we were talking about earlier, what we're seeing right now for Google searches specifically is that up to 70% of your average Google search are zero clicks.

Jill: Really?

Remso: Which means that people aren't even clicking on

Jill: to places. Yeah, because they're getting it from the AI center.

Remso: 'cause they're doing that, or in most cases, And this, people could see this as a benefit if they have a really good site, and they have their pages laid out. Sometimes the answer is just in the query. 

Jill: Oh, interesting.

Remso: Sometimes the answer is there. But, you're losing on opportunity. And I want everyone to make money, hire people, give bonuses, have security in their job, and have enough to take home to buy a nice car and go on vacation. I want people to have access to the quintessential American dream, and it bothers me to high heaven when I see people who are intentionally punching themselves in the face with this.

So please rewind this. Go get the report. I gave you the code to make it free. I'm charging everyone else out in Vegas 20 bucks. Oh. don't tell them that. But, this is a big thing, and it's why I wanted to give it to you, Jill. It's why I wanted to give it, to one of the folks who's in the city, and,you know, he's encountering business owners every day.

It's like we have an opportunity to help each other out because when Boulder City succeeds, I succeed. I hope that when I succeed, Boulder City succeeds. We're in this together, and that's the only way that we're going to get money coming in.

And I don't want somebody to open up, a parallel corporate town somewhere near the, proposed data center, and then suddenly they're just siphoning it off or whatever. I'm just pulling that out of thin air, but, that's the type of stuff I worry about-

Jill: That is something that- ... happening ... others have had concern about in the past as well. I really appreciate you, Ren, so I appreciate you- 

Remso: Thank you, Jill 

Jill: and your beautiful wife, Juliana, for, being such great supporters, being bullish on Boulder City. We're grateful for that because we need people like you that are looking out for us.

Remso: And- We should make T-shirts I'm bullish

Jill: on Boulder City Bullish on Boulder City That'd be cool. Yeah, I think I'll start ... I'm gonna market that.

Remso: Do it. You can have that one.

Jill: I appreciate you. thank you so much.

We'll have in the show notes all of that information as well so that people can go and not only get that report, but find out other, ability that they can have with you to learn more about marketing, to learn more about what it is you do, but to also learn more about what they can do to better themselves in business.

And so we are very grateful for you. so glad that you're part of the Boulder City Chamber, so thank you for being here today.

Remso: Thank you, Jill, and thank you to everyone who was listening. If you want, get in touch with me and learn more, it's marketerontherun.com. Thank you.