Employee Spotlights Are Basically Free Money (And You're Leaving It On The Table)

Plot twist, I know what you're thinking. Another marketing tactic? Karl, I barely have time to pee between Zoom calls, let alone interview Brenda from accounting about her Disney obsession.

But hear me out, because Courtney Madeira just dropped some wisdom on my podcast that made me want to slap every "growth hacker" who ever told you to dump more money into Facebook ads.

The Thing Nobody Tells You About Scaling

Your competitors are spending thousands on ads that get scrolled past faster than your CEO's LinkedIn thought leadership posts. (Sorry, boss. You know it's true.)

Meanwhile, there's literally a goldmine sitting in your Slack channels right now, eating sad desk salads and wondering if anyone gives a shaet about them.

Spoiler: You should. And not in a "pizza party as compensation" kind of way.

Here's What Actually Happened

Courtney was working with a hotel group that had the classic startup problem: turnover so bad it made a revolving door look stationary. Instead of throwing money at Indeed like every other desperate company, she tried something absolutely unhinged:

She asked employees about their lives.

I know. Revolutionary. Someone call Harvard Business Review.

But here's where it gets spicy: She spotlighted these people on social media. Not their KPIs. Not their "synergistic value adds." Their actual human personalities. What they do outside work. Why they give a damn.

And then something magical happened—referrals started pouring in. Because (and stay with me here) people want to work with... other people they might actually like.

The Part Where This Makes You Money

Fast forward to her gig at the Kroc Center. They had fitness classes with names that sounded like someone had a stroke while naming yoga poses. Nobody was signing up because nobody knew what the hell "Quantum Flow Fusion" was supposed to be.

So Courtney did her employee spotlight thing again. Profiled the instructors. Mentioned that one loves Disney. Suddenly, other Disney adults crawled out of the woodwork like "OMG FINALLY SOMEONE WHO GETS MY EPCOT OBSESSION."

Class attendance went up. But here's the kicker:

A personal trainer who was ex-military? His spotlight post hit. Military folks and families flooded in. Personal training sales jumped $20,000 year-over-year.

Another trainer who'd lost 50 pounds? Same thing. People with similar weight loss goals felt seen and trusted her immediately.

All because Courtney spent 30 minutes asking questions that had nothing to do with quarterly targets.

Why This Works (The Science-y Bit You Can Show Your CFO)

We're drowning in ads. Billboards. Spotify interruptions. That thing where Instagram somehow knows you were thinking about buying new socks.

Your brain has developed ad-blindness as a survival mechanism. But you know what cuts through? Stories. Connection. The feeling that someone actually sees you as a human.

When the instructor's family shares the post, that's not marketing. That's their cousin Karen telling everyone at book club about it. And Karen's endorsement is worth 47 times more than your best-performing ad creative.

It's organic reach that doesn't cost you a dime. Just 30 minutes and giving a damn.

The "But I'm Too Busy" Excuse

Courtney runs an entire marketing department by herself. Website, social, print, email, events, photography—the whole circus.

She still makes time for one spotlight per month. Sometimes she doesn't hit that goal, and she doesn't flagellate herself about it because she's not a masochist.

One. Per. Month.

If you can't carve out 30 minutes once a month, your time management isn't the problem. Your priorities are.

How To Actually Do This (The Part You're Going to Screenshot)

1. Don't wait for perfect. Your first one will probably suck. Do it anyway. Paralysis is just fear wearing a productivity costume.
   

2. Ask 3-4 people at once because someone will ghost you, someone will decline, and someone will be INTO IT.
   

3. Interview anyone. Yes, even the janitorial staff. Their families care about them too, shockingly.
   

4. The questions:

   • How long have you been in the area?

   • What did you do before here?

   • What do you actually do here?

   • What do you love about working here?

   • THE MONEY QUESTION: What do you do outside work?

5. Photos: Take them yourself or let them submit their own if they're camera-shy. Respect boundaries because you're using their story to make money, and that deserves acknowledgment.
   

6. One at a time. Don't batch these like meal prep. You'll get overwhelmed and quit.
   

The ROI That'll Make Your Board Weep With Joy

• Reduced turnover costs (recruiting is expensive, Karen)

• Increased referral hires (pre-vetted culture fits)

• Higher customer conversion (relatability = trust = sales)

• Organic social reach (families share = free eyeballs)

• Better company culture (employees feel valued = they actually try)

And you know what it costs? The price of giving a shaet and half an hour of your time.

The Part Where I Get Real With You

Look, I started this podcast because I'm sick of watching companies treat relationships like transactional speedruns. We've optimized the humanity right out of business, and then we wonder why customer churn is high and employees are quiet-quitting their way to Friday.

Your company isn't B2B or B2C. It's H2H—human to human. Always has been.

The businesses winning right now? They're not the ones with the biggest ad budgets. They're the ones who remembered that there are actual people on both sides of every transaction.

Courtney gets it. She's out here building community as a growth strategy while everyone else is still trying to "hack" their way to success with another funnel template.

Watch The Full Episode

I could keep going (and I did, for 20 minutes), but you should watch the full conversation because Courtney drops even more gems about authentic client connections, relationship-driven revenue growth, and how to humanize your business relationships without losing your mind.

Plus, her energy is infectious and I guarantee you'll come away with at least three ideas you can implement this week.

P.S. If you're still running ads without investing in your people's stories, you're basically choosing to work harder instead of smarter. And honestly? Your employees deserve better than being invisible cogs in your "scaling machine." Start with one spotlight this month. Just one. And watch what happens when you treat humans like humans instead of resources to be "optimized."

Now get out there and ask Brenda about her Disney trip. I promise it'll be worth it.

Karl Pontau hosts The Human Connection Podcast, where we talk about the stuff that actually matters in business: the humans running it. Because whether you're B2B or B2C, it's really H2H—human to human. Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode where we probably say something that'll make your HR department uncomfortable.