SEO built the foundation—but AEO is changing how people actually find and choose businesses. As search shifts from keywords to real questions (and AI starts answering them), brands that lead with clarity—not fluff—are the ones getting picked. If your marketing feels solid but results feel soft, this quiet shift might be why.

Trends don’t build brands — consistency does. If your marketing strategy lives and dies by whatever sound, hook, or aesthetic is trending this week, your brand is running on borrowed time. Chasing trends doesn’t make you more legitimate; it makes your message forgettable. This is your permission slip to step off the trend treadmill and build a brand that actually lasts.

A Founder Reset for Women Who Carry Everything There’s a moment every founder hits where the question isn’t “What’s next for my business?”It’s “How long can I keep doing this like this?” This year is shaping up to be a year of big moves. Bigger goals. Bigger numbers. Bigger expectations.But here’s the truth I wish […]

I’m going to say something that most founders need to hear. If social media feels harder than it should, it’s probably not because you’re doing it wrong. It’s because you’re trying to do it without a system that supports your time, your energy, or your actual business. At Studio West, we see this constantly. Smart, […]

There was a moment this year where quitting felt not just tempting, but responsible. Not dramatic quitting.Not the kind you announce.The quiet kind… where your body is tired before your mind can catch up, and you start wondering if stepping away might actually be the most faithful choice you can make. I’ve been building Studio […]

Every winter, while the rest of the world sprints to the finish line, we do something that makes other business owners look at me like I’ve lost it. We close. Fully. The whole agency. For two weeks. No inbox.No Slack.No quick requests. I used to think that kind of pause was irresponsible as a small […]

Let me be the one to say it:If you don’t have email automations running in the background of your business, you’re working way too hard for way too little return. Email is still one of the highest-converting sales channels—higher than IG, TikTok, and paid ads combined. But here’s the secret most small business owners miss: […]

Every December, business owners sprint to the finish line.Final invoices. Holiday promos. Wrapping client projects with a bow.And then—finally—you log off, pour the nog, and promise yourself you won’t open your laptop again until January. But before you shut down for the year, there’s one thing you have to do. And no, it’s not revenue […]

This year stretched me, grounded me, and grew me in ways I didn’t see coming. Some decisions felt like jumping off a cliff and hoping a parachute would appear. Others felt like the quiet, steady kind of brave—choosing the long game over the quick win. But all of them, in their own ways, made SWDC […]

Every December, our feeds explode with Spotify Wrapped: the stats, the surprises, the questionable-but-relatable top artists. And somewhere along the way, business owners started doing their own version — revenue Wrapped, client Wrapped, “look how far we’ve come” Wrapped. So this year, we decided to join in…but in the most Studio West way possible. No […]