Larry Vaughn and Patrick Whelan have known each other for more than twenty years. Episode 21 of The Larry Vaughn Show runs just under an hour, so here is the shorter version of what came up.
Why print is cutting through… again
Larry asked: What are printers asking you for right now?
The most requested item from Great Reach right now, after all the digital tools, is the print newsletter. Patrick’s explanation is digital overload: LinkedIn has added a button that lets readers flag a post as AI slop, inboxes are full, and the oversized postcard with a soft-touch finish stands out when it arrives in the mail. In one week, he received three pieces of print from printers, and he noticed each one.
His advice to printers is the same advice he gives their customers: display your own wares. Die cuts, embellishments, and spot varnish do not sell from a website. They sell when someone holds them. Larry added the example of a specialty finishing company whose owner followed up a podcast appearance with a foil-stamped, handwritten thank-you card, which both agreed was stronger marketing than any automated review request.
The one-hour-a-week plan for a printer with no budget
Larry asked: If you had a small marketing budget, what would you do?
Patrick gave two answers: still do some print, and block one or two hours a week for your website.
First, still do some print, but it does not have to be an eight-page newsletter. Patrick’s 90-day rule is simple: touch everyone with print every 90 days. A postcard on stock you already have costs you the postage.
Second, block one or two hours a week, Monday morning if possible, and make your own website the page that opens when you sit down. You will find something you dislike about it every day. Ask an AI tool to analyze the site and list the ten things to fix first, then do one a week. When you finish those ten, ask for the next ten. In a year, you have a site that produces, which Patrick called a rarity in the industry. Do all of it with AI search in mind, because “The customer finds you. You don’t find them anymore.”
What keeps repeating after 700 companies
Larry asked: After working with more than 700 companies, what problem keeps repeating?
Execution. Planning marketing is easy. Most companies get two months in, and the day-to-day takes over. “There are doers and then there are not doers,” and the doers are the ones who get results.
The surprise this year is who is willing to invest in AI search. Patrick assumed only larger printers would. Instead, an eight-person company called about AEO and signed up, and a peer group of very small printers he spoke to in January produced three clients. The ones who get it are willing to spend, whatever their size. The takeaway is simple: size does not decide seriousness.
Larry asked: What should business owners stop doing in their marketing?
Stop with the AI slop, stop posting every day just because it is cheap, and stop treating LinkedIn as a volume game. Be authentic, send less, and make every post count.
Patrick also mentioned where to catch him next: an AI search webinar for the regional printing associations on October 20. Details are on our events page.
