Marketing is an argument. I help smart people make theirs.

You’re good at what you do. Really good. But explaining it to people who can’t evaluate the rigor themselves? That’s a different skill entirely.

You know the feeling. You're presenting to clients, pitching investors, or staring at your website, and you can feel the gap between what you’ve created and what people understand. The more you know, the harder it gets. Your expertise becomes a wall between you and the people you’re trying to reach.

I’ve spent the last decade working on this problem. I started in science. I spent years in renewable energy, working on the feedstock side of a Department of Energy cellulosic ethanol program, and ended up in marketing. It sounds like an unlikely path until you realize the core challenge is the same: how do you take something complex and explain it in a simple way?

I call this the smart person problem, and it shows up in all kinds of people. Creators with big audiences. Consultants and service providers. Deep tech founders, scientists, and engineers. Educators and coaches.

You’d recognize the names of some of them. Most of them you wouldn’t. They all understand their work deeply and have a hard time explaining it to the people who need it.

I help them turn what they’ve built into a clear, defensible argument.

“We worked with Billy and it changed everything for us. If you’re a technical co-founder, you’re often really good at building a product, but you still need to get good at communication and messaging. What we got from Billy trickled into all parts of our high-level decision making — not just marketing, but product and which features we build. It could change your trajectory as a company.” — John Li, Co-founder & CEO of VimCal (YC-backed)

My work

• Marketing Is An Argument (about 3,700 words, or a 24-minute listen) The moral case for marketing that builds conviction through reason.
• Simple Marketing for Smart People The book, written with Tiago Forte.
• The Five Lightbulbs The framework for building a marketing argument.

Work with me

You’re an expert at what you do. But making the case for it is another matter.

Through a series of deep interviews, I help you examine your thinking, challenge assumptions, and construct a clear argument for your work.

We can apply that argument to a website, an important sales opportunity, or wherever you need to make your case.

See how I work

Before we discuss working together, see what the process actually looks like.

In this seven-minute clip, you’ll watch me build an argument with Tiago Forte.

If you’re considering hiring me, this is a good place to start.