Dustin Slightham — Research-led marketing & strategy advisor

01 — About

Build it. Fix it. Repeat.

Pragmatic, data-literate, and not afraid of calculated change.

Born in Milwaukee, raised in Toronto (go Leafs!), and now living in Lynchburg, Virginia, I'm an entrepreneur and operator who's spent most of his career building and fixing B2B marketing machines.

Today, I lead and advise B2B marketing teams — most recently driving 125% organic pipeline growth at a mid-market HR-tech company. Before that, I founded and ran 434 Marketing, growing it to a seven-figure agency and a team of 14. It's been a crazy ride so far, but my approach has stayed consistent.

Give me a P&L, cashflow, balance sheet, or a Google Sheet full of messy data and I feel at home. This site is where I share how I think, how I work, and how I try to show up for the people around me.

$0→$1.2M

Agency built from scratch

200+

Customer interviews

125%

Pipeline growth driven

02 — What I'm good at

The work I do best.

01

Turning noise into decisions

Taking scattered data, opinions, and ideas and turning them into a clear next move.

02

Talking to customers

Using interviews and analytics — my Bookends approach — to ground strategy in real behavior.

03

Building high-trust teams

Creating environments where people feel safe to tell the truth, try things, and own outcomes.

04

Modern organic, content & LLM-era visibility

SEO, content, and how brands show up across AI search and assistants — visibility work that respects the humans on the other side.

Fig. 02 — One blue series. Grey is noise; blue is the decision that matters.

I'm the one asking "what do customers actually say?"

03 — How I think about work

Four rules I keep coming back to.

Principle 01

The Stewardship Lens

If I wouldn't spend my own money on it, I won't recommend you spend yours.

Principle 02

Clarity over theatre

I care more about clear reasoning and honest tradeoffs than impressive decks.

Principle 03

Calm over drama

High-stakes doesn't have to mean high-anxiety. Someone should be the grounded one; I try to be that person.

Principle 04

Learning loops

Ship, listen, adjust. Don't pretend we'll get it perfect on the whiteboard.

Dustin SlighthamToronto, CAN → Virginia, US

04 — A bit more human

Off the clock.

At the end of the day, I'm a husband and a dad first. Time is the most valuable asset I'll ever have, and I try to spend it where it matters most. Right now my kids are in the thick of their activities, and it's been a joy to be fully present with them.

Be humbleWork hardStay strongBe kindLove others

I've always been drawn to things that feel real — authentic relationships, meaningful work, honest conversations. My faith shapes a lot of that. For me, it's simple: be humble, work hard, stay strong, be kind, and love others. Those five things guide how I try to show up every day.

Outside of work, I'm usually chasing something that gets me outside or lets me disappear into a different world — mountain and gravel biking, being in the woods, and pretty much any genre of music. I also love reading, especially the kind of books that pull you into new places and perspectives.

I don't have much patience for the superficial. I'd rather build things that last, make decisions with intention, and surround myself with people who value honesty over noise. Maybe that's the Swiss heritage showing up.

05 — Articles

Things I've written down.

01 LLM-Era Strategy · May 2026 What three working marketers actually told me about AI Three working marketers — not pundits — on what AI actually changed in their work over six months, and the hype they quietly ignored. Read 02 Operator Mindset · Jul 2025 Cash flow survival kit: 7 essential strategies to weather economic uncertainty Eight in ten small businesses fail on cash flow, not demand. Seven practical strategies to keep a 1–15 person business solvent through uncertainty. Read 03 Leadership · Sep 2021 Leading through crisis What running an agency through a record year and then a crisis taught me about leading a team when everything you planned for changes. Read 04 Leadership · Jul 2020 Why I show up The honest version of why I keep going after failure — what breaking down, and getting back up, taught me about showing up for the people who count on me. Read 05 Operator Mindset · Jul 2019 If you want to succeed in business, stop being an imposter I spent years performing competence instead of admitting what I didn't know. Why dropping the imposter act is what actually lets you succeed. Read 06 Research · May 2018 Research is a great first step A client swore his core customer was male. Ten interviews and 750 surveys later the data said otherwise — why research belongs at the start. Read