I had to part ways with my marketing guy. We worked together for over a year and it was an experiment from which I learned a lot. At first, I wanted him to come in and bring his system and make it work for us. But without a clear vision of what we stood for, no system could fill that gap.

What I know for sure: clarity of vision has to come from inside the business, not from outside. You can hire great people to execute, but the direction has to be yours. Before you hand off marketing, make sure you know your “why,” your audience, your voice, and your message. Then the right person can amplify it. Without that clarity, even the best marketer is building on sand.