Toombs Creative

New headshot. Same thinking that’s helped organizations stop spinning their wheels on marketing that isn’t working.

I’m Alex Toombs — founder of Toombs Creative and a fractional CMO for small-to-mid-sized organizations that don’t have a senior marketing person on staff.

What that looks like in practice: I come in, assess what’s actually happening with your marketing, and build the strategy your team can execute against. Clear positioning. Defined audiences. A plan that connects your marketing to your revenue goals — not just your posting schedule.

I’ve worked across engineering, nonprofits, outdoor industry, food and beverage, wellness, and housing. The sectors are different. The gap is usually the same — organizations doing a lot of marketing activity with no unified strategy driving it.

If you’re leading an organization and marketing keeps landing on your plate without a clear owner or direction, that’s exactly the problem I solve.

PacificNorthwest

Had a really good conversation last week with someone who's been in business for decades -- sharp, experienced, the kind of person who can prove their results with data.

He told me he feels like he's in the same spot as people who grew up before the internet when it comes to AI. He can see it matters, he just hasn't found a way in that actually works for him.

Honestly, that's most people. The webinars and demo reels aren't doing it. What actually helps is someone showing you what it looks like with your own work.

Ended up being one of those conversations where I left genuinely excited. The entry point is everything.

True story from my neck of the woods 📍 A local public entity recently announced they're leaving a major social media platform, citing mental health research as its reason.

Here's my take: public entities are already among the hardest organizations to communicate with. There are layers, processes, and limited windows to actually reach the people making decisions that affect your community.

Facebook, for all its flaws, is where this community actually shows up. It's where conversations happen, questions get asked, and information spreads.

Leaving that space doesn't solve a mental health problem. It widens the gap between a public entity and the people it serves. And a wider gap means a weaker relationship, less transparency, and more frustration for the community trying to stay informed and engaged.

You can have concerns about social media platforms and still recognize your responsibility to be where your community is.

How are other organizations navigating this? I'd love to hear your perspective.

Someone commented on a piece of content this week: “Can you explain this like I’m five?”

Honestly, please do.

That commenter was the most useful person in the room. Because if your ideal client can’t figure out what you do in ten seconds, they’re closing the tab and moving on.
Write for the tired person on a Friday afternoon. Not the version of yourself that knows every detail of what you built.

Happy Friday. Go touch some grass. 🌿

Something I notice a lot with small business owners who feel stuck on their marketing: they think the problem is that they're not posting enough.

So they post more. And still nothing moves.

Almost every time, the real issue is that there's no clear strategy underneath the effort. They're showing up consistently -- but without a specific person in mind, or a clear connection to what they're actually selling.

A client I worked with had been posting every day for over a year. We didn't change how often she posted. We just got clear on what she was saying and who she was saying it to. Six weeks later, completely different results.

Consistency matters. Clarity matters more.