We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michelle Merz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Michelle, so happy to have you with us today and there is so much we want to ask you about. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others developed certain skills or qualities that we are struggling with can be helpful. Along those lines, we’d love to hear from you about how you developed your ability to take risk?
I think my ability to take risks really comes from how I was raised. My mom genuinely believed there was nothing I couldn’t do and that belief shaped how I saw the world. From a young age, I was encouraged to try things, even if I wasn’t ‘ready’ or didn’t know exactly how it would turn out. That built this mindset in me that there’s no such thing as failure, just feedback.
I take risks knowing I will mess up at some point, but I also know I’ll learn fast, course-correct, and come back stronger. It’s not reckless like most people think it is. It’s calculated. I look at the upside, prepare for the downside, and move forward either way. That ‘fail forward’ mentality has helped me grow way faster than if I’d waited until things felt safe or perfect.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I help small business owners win their lives back. That’s the heartbeat behind everything I do.
Most of the founders and small teams I work with didn’t start their business to spend their days making content or chasing leads. They started because they had a skill, a mission, or a message they believed in. But somewhere along the way, that freedom they were chasing got buried under client delivery and nonstop marketing. They became the bottleneck in their own growth and burnout was right around the corner.
I help them build what I call a Marketing Machine: layered ads, simple funnels, and smart automations that bring in leads and sales consistently without them having to be “on” 24/7. It’s not always sexy. It’s not always viral. But it’s honest, sustainable, and built to give them back the two things they started their business for: time and freedom.
What makes this work special to me is that it’s not just about revenue growth (though that definitely happens). It’s watching someone go from surviving on referrals and random Instagram posts… to having systems that support them when they’re tired, on vacation, or just need to focus on their zone of genius again.
That’s the shift I live for.
I believe small business owners deserve access to the same strategies big businesses use but tailored to their reality: limited time, limited team, and a need to see ROI fast.
Everything I build is rooted in transparency, real results, and systems that actually scale. No smoke and mirrors and no half-assed guru nonsense. Just clear, honest strategy that helps real people grow real businesses and get their life back in the process.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back, the three most impactful things in my journey have been resiliency, discipline, and a deep understanding of psychology.
Resiliency is what got me through the messy middle. Building a business will test you…financially, emotionally, creatively. Things will break. Launches will flop. There will be seasons where nothing feels like it’s working. But being resilient means learning to see failure as part of the process, not the end of the road. Every “no,” every misstep, every pivot was a lesson that moved me forward faster than success ever could.
Discipline gave me momentum when motivation ran dry. Especially when you’re building solo, no one’s holding you accountable but you. Discipline is what kept me moving on the days when I didn’t feel inspired, when results were slow, or when the to-do list felt impossible. It’s what helped me create structure, build consistency, and stay focused on the long game instead of chasing shiny objects.
And psychology, honestly, that might be the most underrated business skill. Understanding how people think, what motivates them, what keeps them stuck, and how they make decisions has shaped everything from how I build offers to how I write copy and show up online. When you understand behavior, you stop guessing and you start communicating in a way that actually moves people.
If you’re early in your journey, my advice is this:
Embrace the hard parts. They’re not a sign you’re failing. They’re a sign you’re building. Build habits that support the version of you you’re becoming, not just the one you are now. And get obsessed with understanding people. Strategy is important, but connection is what actually converts.
You don’t have to do it all perfectly. You just have to keep going and keep learning as you go.
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
The biggest challenge I’m facing right now is overcoming the skepticism and burnout so many small business owners feel toward marketing and toward marketers, honestly.
Most of the people I work with have been sold half-solutions wrapped in wild promises. They’ve paid for courses that tell them what to do but not how. They’ve been promised overnight results from strategies that were never designed for their stage of business. So now they’re stuck in analysis paralysis, unsure who to trust or where to start. And I don’t blame them.
They’re burnt out. Overwhelmed. And deeply cautious because they’ve been burned before.
So my job is to rebuild that trust from the first interaction. I do that by being radically honest about what it takes, what it costs, and what’s actually possible. I don’t promise instant wins. I don’t offer magic bullet strategies. What I do offer is a complete, transparent approach that treats marketing like the system it is, not a pile of one-off tactics.
Instead of chasing the next tactic or trend, we build what I call a Marketing Machine; just three simple parts working together: layered ads that bring in the right people, funnels that guide them to take action, and automations that keep things moving behind the scenes.
We skip the flashy hacks or high-pressure launches and give small business owners a way to market that respects their time, uses the budget they actually have, and works even when life gets messy. Because most of them don’t have a team. They’re doing client work, running the backend, answering DMs, trying to post consistently and somewhere in there, they’re expected to also be a full-time marketer. We build something they can trust to do the heavy lifting. Something they don’t have to babysit.
It’s not always shiny, but it’s sustainable and it actually frees them up to do the work they started their business for in the first place.
And the more I keep showing up with proof, clarity, and empathy, the more I help people finally break out of the cycle of chasing quick fixes and start building something that lasts.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.automate-and-scale.com/marketing-machine
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/silience_and_sonder/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-merz-151b5a157/
Image Credits
Ashley D Photos
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