Humans of Growth: Stories & Strategies Behind Business Growth & Business Development
Behind every business & its growth is a human in the trenches. On Humans of Growth, host Aly Hathcock interviews CEOs, CMOs, and marketing executives driving business development, demand generation, and brand strategy. These aren’t surface-level chats about lead funnels and KPIs. They’re raw, insightful conversations that reveal how real leaders build marketing engines, scale revenue, and create lasting customer relationships.
Expect candid stories about leadership, growth marketing, sales enablement, brand positioning, content strategy, customer acquisition, and everything in between. From scrappy startups to enterprise marketing teams, we explore the playbooks, mindsets, and human decisions behind business growth.
If you care about branding & positioning, marketing strategy, sales & customer retention, or the future of growth, this is your podcast.
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Episodes
5 days ago
5 days ago
We put clients first” is meaningless… unless you can prove it.In this episode of Humans of Growth, host Aly Hathcock sits down with Ben VerWys, founder of Fiduciary Financial Advisors (FFA)—a wealth management firm that has scaled to 40+ advisors without spending a dime on traditional marketing.
Ben shares the strategy behind FFA’s organic growth engine, built entirely on clear positioning, brand values, and referral-based momentum. Instead of flashy funnels or paid ads, Ben focused on building a value proposition that’s fact-based, legally enforced, and transparently client-first—in an industry where most messaging is vague and undifferentiated.
Whether you’re a founder, marketer, or scaling a professional services brand, this episode is a masterclass in how to turn your internal values into external growth.
You’ll Learn:
Why “we put clients first” is meaningless without proof
How to create a differentiated brand in a commoditized market
Why fee transparency and fiduciary-only models are winning
How FFA built an inbound growth engine with zero ad spend
The marketing power of operational decisions (not slogans)
Why most “top 10 firm” lists are SEO plays, not value indicators
How FFA turned tax planning into a scalable referral lever
Why advisor experience can be as important as client experience
The mindset shift that took Ben from reluctant founder to growth CEO
If you're ready to build a brand that grows through trust & differentiation, this episode is for you.Learn more about Fiduciary Financial Advisors at forfiduciary.com.
Need marketing support? Head over to PerissonNetwork.com for a free strategy session.
5 days ago
5 days ago
Can a brand go from total obscurity to industry recognition in just one year - without a huge ad budget or big marketing team?Ray Huang, Senior Director of Marketing at Canopy Connect, joins the show to unpack exactly how he did it.
When Ray joined Canopy Connect, the company was a 12-person insurtech startup with zero brand recognition, no real marketing infrastructure, and a fragmented market.Fast forward 12 months: they’d saturated their niche, dominated industry events, and flipped their cold-start problem into pipeline momentum.
In this deep-dive, Ray reveals his full B2B go-to-market strategy—how he prioritized brand awareness over bottom-funnel lead gen, why memes outperformed traditional creative, and how Facebook outpaced LinkedIn in ad ROI by 10x. He also shares how he transitioned from solo marketer to team leader, built a paid media engine from scratch, and used list-based targeting to run smart, scalable ABM-style campaigns.
We cover:
Building brand awareness in a niche B2B market
Paid media strategy: Facebook vs. LinkedIn for insurance tech
Content marketing and early-stage demand gen
Why low-funnel attribution often misleads startup marketers
Using first-party data to scale ABM campaigns
Growth marketing vs. brand marketing tradeoffs
Hiring sequence: content, demand gen, partner marketing
How to justify brand spend to the C-suite (and get buy-in)
If you're a Chief Marketing Officer looking to increase market saturation or a startup CEO needing to get your company off the ground, this episode is your roadmap.Want to learn more about Canopy Connect? Check out usecanopy.com.
Need help with marketing? Go to perissonnetwork.com for a free strategy session.
5 days ago
5 days ago
In this episode of Humans of Growth, host Aly Hathcock interviews Ryan Duitch, CEO of Arro Finance, to explore how a fast-growing fintech startup scaled through organic growth, partnership marketing, and bold brand positioning—without relying on traditional paid media.
Whether you're a growth marketer, startup founder, or marketing strategist, you'll get a behind-the-scenes look at the startup marketing strategy that helped Arro acquire thousands of users with under $12K in ad spend. Ryan breaks down how his team leverages B2B2C growth, affiliate partnerships, and funnel strategy to reduce CAC (customer acquisition cost) while boosting LTV (lifetime value).
Inside, you'll learn:
How to drive user acquisition through partnership marketing instead of paid ads
The role of brand strategy in lowering CAC and improving retention
Why customer trust and brand messaging beat traditional performance marketing
How Arro Finance uses financial education and AI to improve conversion rates
Why smart marketing automation and product marketing fuel growth at scale
Lessons in crafting a scalable marketing funnel without breaking your budget
This episode is packed with real, tactical insights for anyone building a brand in a competitive market—especially in fintech, SaaS, or mission-driven startups.
Learn more about Arro Finance at arrofinance.com.
Looking for the right marketing partners to grow faster?Head to perissonnetwork.com for a free strategy session.