JL On Why Strategic Silence Can Be the Smartest Move Businesses Make
Recent trends show that 40% of marketing spend is ineffective, Julie Lynn “JL” Try suggests this is higher. JL, founder of Upturn Coach, a business coach and CMO consulting, is helping businesses rethink how they approach marketing, branding, customer acquisition, and strategy.
According to JL, the philosophy for today’s businesses should be ‘Stop Marketing, Start Profiting’. She says, “My mission is simple. I want to help businesses stop wasting money on marketing that does not work and start building systems that drive profit.”
For JL, the question businesses should be asking is whether marketing actually drives profits. She believes it is the foundation of everything she teaches. “Too often, businesses treat marketing as a reflex rather than a strategy. Sales slow down, so they run ads. Engagement drops, so they post more content. Competitors launch campaigns, so they scramble to keep up. In many cases, businesses are following a script they never stopped to question,” she explains.
She adds that businesses are so programmed to think that marketing is a single channel. She emphasizes, “If a company stops a campaign, posting, or spending for a moment, what happens next? If the answer is panic, confusion, or no clear direction, then the problem is a lack of foundation, not marketing.”
That foundation, according to JL, starts with understanding four variables that never change. “The four variables of communication are audience, offer, timing, and message. These four variables don’t change,” she explains. “What changes is the formula for how you connect meaningfully with your customer.” She adds that early-stage businesses often believe the first step to success is getting noticed. While visibility matters, JL notes that awareness without a customer journey leads nowhere.
She emphasizes that for small businesses, the issue is often an emotional disconnect. They know they need customers, she says, but they struggle to capture attention because they do not fully understand the deep need their customers have to motivate them. She notes, “Today’s consumers no longer respond to yesterday’s messaging. They will gravitate to the business that demonstrates an understanding of their core problem and can fix it. This is where conversion psychology can make a difference.”
JL says her work focuses on conversion strategy through human behavior, helping businesses understand why customers do what they do. Emotion, trust, timing, and relatability all influence whether a message converts or disappears.
“For mid-sized businesses, however, the challenge shifts. Companies often face pressure to maintain momentum and keep marketing simply because they feel they should. The danger is losing alignment with the company’s original mission. Do not force marketing for the sake of keeping up with marketing,” JL advises.
Instead, she encourages businesses to stay grounded in their ethos and ensure every campaign reflects the brand’s values and long-term objectives.
She explains, “For large corporations, the challenge is different again. They often have awareness. They have customers. They have infrastructure. What they may not have is intimacy. As companies scale, it becomes harder to stay connected to the customer experience. Messaging can become diluted. Campaigns can feel corporate rather than personal. Over time, brands risk losing the emotional connection that built loyalty in the first place.”
JL works as a Fractional CMO and provides one-on-one coaching and workshops to help companies stay aligned with their brand and customers. She teaches business owners, startups, and enterprise marketing leaders how to build marketing programs that compound impact on the bottom line.
JL notes, “Businesses are talking without listening. At the heart of it all is alignment. Alignment with the mission, customer needs, and alignment with the real journey buyers take before making decisions.”
According to her, this matters now more than ever because consumer behavior is changing. Generational shifts are reshaping how people interact with brands. Younger audiences are more skeptical of hard selling and more responsive to authenticity, values, and personalized experiences. They are quicker to tune out to what they consider irrelevant messaging.
She says, “The generational shift means that businesses cannot rely on old formulas. What worked five years ago may not work today. And what works today may not work tomorrow. The smartest move a company can make today is to ask better questions. Who are we talking to? What are we really offering? And perhaps most importantly, does it pass JL’s ‘so what?’ test.”
For JL, the businesses willing to answer those questions honestly are the ones most likely to turn marketing into what it was always meant to be.
As she puts it, “Marketing should be about creating connection, building trust, and guiding people toward something meaningful. When businesses stop long enough to listen, align, and understand, profit becomes the outcome of purpose.”
