Everyone Blames Marketing with Lara Schoisman

Marketing is full of complex acronyms, empty promises, and expensive strategies that fail to deliver. But according to Lara Schoisman, the real problem in marketing isn’t a lack of strategy – it’s a lack of execution.

In this episode, Lara brings her extensive agency and educational background to break down why so many brands fail at the fundamentals. We discuss the critical shift from traditional SEO to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), why your tech stack might be quietly killing your website’s heart, and why hiding your product’s flaws is costing you your true niche audience. If you are tired of wasting money on paid traffic while your organic foundation crumbles, this conversation is for you.

Key Takeaways

• Execution Beats Strategy: You can learn marketing strategy from a YouTube video, but execution is where businesses actually succeed or fail.

• The Website is the Heart: Pumping money into paid ads is useless if your website is bogged down by a bloated tech stack and a lack of organic presence.

• The Era of GEO (Generative Engine Optimization): Consumers no longer search with clunky keywords. They ask AI engines conversational, problem-focused questions. Brands must adapt their content to match how real people speak.

• AI Cares About Press Releases: While traditional PR has become “pay-to-play,” press releases on official newswires have a renewed purpose: they establish the non-paid authority that AI algorithms look for when citing brands.

• Own Your Product’s Quirks: If your product has a polarizing feature (like a strong fragrance or tough packaging), do not hide it. Address it in your marketing and sell directly to the niche that actually wants it.

• The Celebrity Trap: A celebrity endorsement will not move the needle if your underlying marketing foundation, website conversion, or product quality is broken.

Core Discussion Topics

1. The Execution Gap and Tech Stack Bloat

Lara’s core philosophy is to make marketing simple and strip away the confusing jargon. When brands come to her wanting to invest heavily in paid ads, her first stop is always the website.

The website is the heart of the business. Unfortunately, many founders fall in love with platforms and keep adding plugins and “bells and whistles,” which bogs down site speed and ruins the user experience. Paying over and over for paid traffic while ignoring organic growth and website health is a massive waste of resources.

2. From SEO to GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)

Search behavior has fundamentally changed. Previously, consumers typed clunky phrases into Google (e.g., “eye de-puffer for mature skin”) and received a list of blue links. Today, they ask AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini highly specific, conversational questions (e.g., “My eyes are puffy, what should I do?”).

To survive this shift, brands must adapt to Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). You must niche down and answer concise, problem-focused questions without keyword stuffing, or AI models simply will not rank or cite your brand.

3. Retail Pitches and Knowing Your Numbers

Getting into a major retailer is not a charity case—retailers only care if you can make them money. Lara likens retail pitching to walking onto Shark Tank. You cannot pitch hoping a buyer simply “loves” your product. You must come prepared with hard data: your current revenue, engagement metrics, existing brand collaborations, and proof of industry trust. If you pitch before you are ready to deliver, you burn a permanent bridge.

4. Authenticity and Niching Down

A common mistake founders make is ignoring the flaws that cause customer returns. If your packaging requires an impossible seal due to shipping regulations, don’t hide it—create a tutorial video showing customers how to open it.

If customers complain that a product’s fragrance is too strong, don’t ignore the feedback. Instead, realize there is a niche audience actively looking for a strong fragrance, and market directly to them. Unless you are a massive conglomerate like Heinz Ketchup, you must niche down to win.

5. P&L over ROAS

Lara and Joey agree that Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) can be highly misleading. Marketers need to dive into their P&L, understand their margins, and focus on Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) and true profit. Because of the “halo effect” across platforms like TikTok, Amazon, and Instagram, you won’t always know the exact first touchpoint—what matters is where the sale happens and whether it generates bottom-line profit.

Quote of the Episode

“I feel there are so many lies in marketing, and people use acronyms to make it difficult for the other side to understand. My whole philosophy when talking to clients is: let’s make marketing easy. It’s not that difficult; the main problem in marketing is execution. You can learn strategy from a YouTube video, but execution is where things succeed or fail.”

— Lara Schoisman

Actionable Steps for Brands Today

1. Audit Your Tech Stack: Review your website’s plugins and third-party apps. Remove anything that isn’t strictly necessary to improve your site speed and conversion rate.

2. Rewrite for GEO: Look at your product descriptions and FAQs. Rewrite them to answer the exact, conversational questions your target demographic is asking, rather than stuffing them with traditional SEO keywords.

3. Address the Friction: Identify the top reason customers return your product or leave bad reviews. Create a piece of content (like a video or unboxing guide) that directly addresses and solves this point of friction before the customer experiences it.

About the Guest

Lara Schoisman is a former educator turned marketing powerhouse. After experiencing burnout while working with big agencies, she built her own agency model focused on profitability and execution rather than team size. She is the founder of The Darl and the host of the Coffee N°5 podcast.