We recently had the chance to connect with Stacy Cook and have shared our conversation below.
Stacy, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
Outside of work, the project that’s brought me the most joy is building on my farm. I just installed impact French doors, and I am now framing and plumbing a new bathroom for an apartment on the property. It is the perfect kind of progress you can feel in your hands: measure twice, cut once, and see the result the same day.
I love how the work blends design and problem-solving. Choosing the doors, setting the rough opening, getting the swing right, running supply and drain lines, and checking slope and venting all scratch the builder part of my brain. It is a quiet, focused time that balances the screens and dashboards I live in during the week.
The best part is the purpose. The apartment will host family and friends, and potentially serve as a short-term rental to support the farm. Every fixture and finish is picked with real people in mind. It is satisfying, practical, and grounding. Building something with my hands that will be used and appreciated daily brings me a kind of joy that fuels the rest of my work.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
You already know my PPC roots. This year, I shifted gears. I am transforming Vero Beach Marketing into an AI automation shop, delivering AI agents as a service. We still run great ads and landing pages, but now we pair them with agents that do real work in the background and show their impact in GA4 and the CRM.
What does that look like? Lead triage agents that summarize inbound messages and score intent. Follow up agents that draft a personal email within two minutes of a form fill. Scheduling agents that confirm time, collect details, and add notes. Reporting agents that turn weekly performance into a short owner brief. Each agent is scoped to one job, measured, and shipped in a 2-week sprint so you see value fast.
This has been the most fun and creative season of my career. The combo of ads, AI, plus agents cuts busywork, speeds sales cycles, and makes results easier to see. Teams get their time back, and nothing slips through the cracks.
I also started teaching AI classes in person and online. We build working automations together using your tools, then publish a checklist so you can repeat the process. Topics include lead intake, review replies, content repurposing, and weekly reporting. If you want speed with standards and automation you can trust, that is what I am building and teaching right now. Please feel free to contact me anytime.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. Who taught you the most about work?
What taught me most about work started on a farm in Lexington, Kentucky. Long days, real responsibility, and fixing what broke taught me grit and that last 10 percent matters most. It is not just hard work. It is dedication, finishing the job, and coming back the next day to do it better.
My first professional crucible was Host Communications with Jim Host and the NCAA. The standards were sky high. Deadlines were firm. Details were non negotiable. Quality was the baseline. Being held to that level early made everything after feel achievable because the bar had already been set.
The mix of farm discipline and elite expectations shaped my operating system. Solve problems, own outcomes, finish strong, and never let quality slip. That foundation is why new tools, new roles, and new challenges do not scare me. The work ethic is there, the standard is clear, and nothing stands in my way.
What’s something you changed your mind about after failing hard?
I failed hard by outworking a bad direction. I got so deep in the day to day that I missed how the market was shifting. That experience changed my mind about speed, focus, and boundaries.
Today I believe in slower to commit, faster to learn. Before I build, I validate the offer with real demand signals, pricing tests, and a clear path to margin. If the data is not there, I do not force it. Opportunity is everywhere, but not every opportunity is mine. Saying no early is cheaper than unwinding a bad yes. Know when to cut your losses.
I also learned to schedule regular market checks: talk to customers, review category trends, and pressure test assumptions. If the world moves, I move.
The other change is boundaries. During that failure, I let work erase family time, which made the lows lower and the recovery slower. Now I protect time at home so I can show up clear-headed at work and home.
So the shift is simple: validate before you scale, measure while you build, protect your life while you grow. With the right problem, the right timing, and real boundaries, the same work ethic produces durable long-term wins.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
The biggest lie is that marketing is cheap, quick, and anyone can do it. Agencies and tool vendors market that lie so well that busy teams believe it, hand it off, and get burned. Then, good marketers have to rebuild trust.
Real marketing is attribution, testing, and consistency over time. You need clean conversion tracking, a clear offer, and the patience to optimize. Most wins come from dozens of small improvements, not one magic switch.
Protect yourself. Hire people with a verifiable track record. Ask how they measure success in GA4 and the ad platforms. Make them explain their optimization loop, negative keyword strategy, and how they tune landing pages to match intent. If they cannot show the work, they will not show the results.
Also, accept the basics: it takes money to make money and time to optimize. If you are not ready to commit to a reasonable runway, save your budget. There is no get-rich-quick button online. There is disciplined work, measured weekly.
If you want a practical guide, I wrote the Optimizer Handbook, my playbook for Google Ads. If you are reading this and want a copy, reach out, and I will send it to you for free. And for teams that want expert help without handing over their accounts, my company Starling Support provides Google Ads help via phone, email, and chat—the first question is free. We don’t manage the account; we coach and troubleshoot so you stay in control, with support that’s faster and more practical than standard platform support (https://starling.support
).
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. If you knew you had 10 years left, what would you stop doing immediately?
I would stop working and focus entirely on my kids, 17, 15, and 11. The mission would be simple: secure their future, teach the skills that matter, and make memories that last.
I built Vero Beach Marketing and Vero Vine 14 years ago to give them a foundation and establish roots in Vero Beach. My 17-year-old already manages Vero Vine, and my 15-year-old is interested in joining Vero Beach Marketing, doing Google Ads. I would formalize ownership and operating plans, document playbooks, and mentor them directly so they can run the businesses with confidence.
Day to day, I would slow life down. Family dinners. Weekly adventures. Travel to places that widen their views. Health and fitness habits. Money basics, investing, contracts, and how to choose good people. Less screen time, more real time.
It is not about the work anymore. It is about making sure they are stable, capable, and supported. If I spend the next 10 years doing that, I will have done my REAL job.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://verobeach.marketing
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/veromarketing
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacycook
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/marketingvero
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VeroBeachMarketing
- Other: Check out my book, Optimizer Handbook, a step-by-step playbook for tracking, testing, and scaling Google Ads at https://optimizerhandbook.com
. If you want expert help without hiring an agency, Starling Support offers on-call PPC guidance for account managers and teams via text, email, and phone at https://starling.support
. We won’t manage your account; we coach you to win faster with clean attribution, smart experimentation, and clear next steps. Plans are low monthly and flexible, and you keep your stack and ownership. Use UTMs to measure impact from this post and every campaign. Have questions or want a quick audit? Reach out and I’ll point you to the right chapter or jump on support.
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