Start Here – Welcome to Mike’s Marketing Lab

Hey there! I’m Mike, and this is where marketing lessons meet real-world experience. Think of this as your favorite college professor’s office hours—if that professor spent their time building brands, reading voraciously, and occasionally sneaking in golf metaphors.

What You’ll Find Here

The Lab is exactly what it sounds like: a place to experiment, learn, and grow. I share marketing lessons drawn from everywhere—books, sports, culture, and beyond. Everything here is open-source and free because I believe great marketing education should be accessible to everyone. You will never find me selling a course.

This Lab is built on three core principles:

Educate and Pay It Forward — I share lessons from my own successes, failures, and experiments. Here you’ll find practical insights from someone who’s in the trenches, building and testing every day. I’m sharing everything I’ve learned because I wish someone had done it for me.
Make Marketing Fun and Real — Marketing should be both playful and professional. We maintain high standards while staying endlessly curious. You’ll find insights drawn from everywhere—golf courses, sci-fi novels, classic literature, and beyond—because great marketing transcends traditional boundaries. No guru-speak or million-dollar mindset talk here.
Open-Source Excellence — We prioritize timeless principles over trendy tactics, and craft over clicks. Everything here is completely free and open-source. No paywalls, no premium tiers, no exclusive content—just carefully crafted, enduring marketing education for anyone who wants to learn.

A Quick Introduction

I’m a marketer, writer, and perpetual student who believes in learning out loud. I’ve spent the last five years building a brand from $0 to serving over 10,000 gyms worldwide, and I’m here to share every lesson learned along the way—both the victories and the shanks.

My mission? To teach marketing with the clarity of a great professor, the experience of a practitioner, and none of the guru-speak that plagues our industry.

How the Lab Works

Think of this as your marketing classroom without the tuition bill. Here’s what you’ll find:

Home: The front page of the Lab. Here you’ll find the latest essays, insights, and marketing lessons fresh from the field.
The Almanack: A running list of tips, tricks, and thoughts from my time (so far) building ANCORE’s business, brand and marketing from the ground up.
Archive: Our growing library of marketing wisdom. Every single thing I’ve ever put out. 100% searchable (something I highly recommend), from day one to now.

Is This The Lab For You?

If you’re tired of marketing advice that promises “10x growth in 10 days” or “the secret formula to instant success,” you’re in the right place. This Lab is perfect for:

The Long-Term Thinkers — More interested in building something lasting than chasing viral trends.
The Perpetually Curious — Always reading, always learning, always wondering “what if…”
The Brand Builders — Whether you’re starting from scratch or growing an established brand.
The Marketing Scientists — Who blend data-driven decisions with creative intuition.
The Renaissance Minds — Who see marketing lessons everywhere, from classic literature to cutting-edge AI.

In short, if you believe marketing deserves more than growth hacks and guru speak, you’re home. Whether you’re a seasoned CMO or just starting your journey, you’ll find insights you can actually use.

Join the Lab

Ready to join a community that values substance over hype? Get weekly insights delivered straight to your inbox:

Start Here: Essential Reading

These foundational pieces will give you a sense of what the Lab is all about:

Let’s Connect

The best part of teaching is the conversations that follow. Find me on:

Have a question or topic suggestion? Drop me a line at mikesmarketinglab101@gmail.com. I read every message and love hearing from fellow marketers and entrepreneurs.

Welcome to the Lab—let’s learn together.

Mike's Marketing Lab