What Is Scrappy Marketing

One of the things I was most excited to talk to Bianca Sprague about was her approach to growing a business in 15-minute chunks.That caught my attention immediately because most business owners I know do not have an empty Tuesday afternoon waiting around for “business development.”We are fitting this stuff in between client work, emails, school pickup, appointments, laundry, dinner, and whatever other chaos decided to join us that day.Bianca knows that world very well.She is the founder of Bebomia, an educator, author, activist, and doula who has been working in birth advocacy since 2007. Her path into entrepreneurship came at a time when she was caring for a brand-new baby, financially vulnerable, and trying to get herself and her daughter into a safer situation.She described that version of herself as scrappy.I love that word.To me, scrappy means you look at what you have, piece it together, and figure out how to make something happen.Bianca did exactly that.She built a successful doula business at a time when Facebook business pages were not even a thing yet. Social media was still the place where people posted updates like, “I ate yogurt for breakfast,” and Google was still figuring itself out.There was no magical algorithm waiting to send her a pile of clients, so she built relationships instead.And she is still using many of those same skills now.Bianca told me that whenever she forgets them, her business drops. Then she has the little realization of, “Oh right, I need to go back to scrappy 2007 Bianca.”I think a lot of us could use a little bit of that energy.We have gotten so used to waiting for the algorithm, hoping something goes viral, or trying to figure out why someone else’s reel got 80,000 views when ours got 612.Meanwhile, some of the most effective business-building work is still incredibly human.Bianca has an email list of around 24,000 people and uses sophisticated automation software. She also goes through that list, sees who has been opening her emails, and sometimes writes to those people personally.Not a fancy funnel or an automated “Hi [FIRST NAME]” pretending to be personal. She sits down and types the message.That stood out to me because I live in the digital marketing world too, but I also run an in-person networking event every month.I believe deeply in showing up online, and I also know what happens when you sit across from someone, hear their story, laugh together, and become an actual person to each other.Technology can support that connection, but it cannot replace it.Bianca has been navigating that tension for years.Her organization moved doula training online in 2013, long before online education felt normal. She talked about how clunky the technology was back then and how much work it took to make a touch-based, human profession feel personal through a screen.That challenge forced her team to get creative. Instead of trying to recreate a classroom perfectly online, they focused on helping people think, do, and feel inside the digital experience.That same idea applies to marketing now.AI, automation, social media platforms, and all the fancy tools can absolutely support us, but as Bianca put it, we need to get back to the humanness because people are craving it.So how do we do that when our schedules are already packed?This is where her 15-minute approach gets very good.Bianca suggests starting by thinking about where your clients already go.If you are a doula, your pregnant clients may also be talking to realtors, prenatal massage therapists, chiropractors, yoga teachers, dog walkers, meal delivery companies, or people who install car seats.That gives you a starting point.Set a timer for 15 minutes and find the local businesses, professionals, or organizations that serve the same people you do, then stop when the timer goes off.That part is important because we all know how quickly “I’m going to spend 15 minutes researching Instagram accounts” becomes “Why am I watching a video of someone reorganizing their fridge?”Social media would very much like your entire afternoon.You do not have to give it one.Once you have found some potential connections, spend another short block of time seeing whether there is genuine alignment.Bianca is very clear about her values. Her business is anti-racist, anti-oppressive, pro-choice, and committed to creating safer spaces for queer, racialized, and fat clients.So before she collaborates with someone or sends people their way, she wants to know whether her clients will be safe there.Your values may show up differently, but the principle still works.You are essentially asking whether you trust this business enough to connect your name and your clients to it.Once you find people who feel like a fit, you do not immediately jump into their inbox asking them to promote you.This part needs to be said because we have all received that message.“Hi, we have never met, but would you please share my flyer with your 15,000-person Facebook group?”Bianca has a word for that kind of behaviour.Crappy.You are asking someone to hand over access to a community they have spent years building without showing any interest in them first.A better approach is to start paying attention to their work. Comment when you have something genuine to add, share something useful with your own audience, or let people know about a sale or resource that genuinely helps them.That is generous, and small business owners notice.I know I do.When a new person starts showing up regularly in my comments, my curiosity is immediately piqued. I want to know who they are and what they are doing.That is how a relationship starts.From there, you can begin thinking about what a collaboration might look like.Bianca talked about giving herself time to imagine possibilities instead of forcing an idea on command. Maybe it turns into a drive, a blog series, an Instagram Live, a zine, or something neither person would have thought of alone.She plants the idea and lets it simmer while she is gardening, walking the dog, or taking a shower.I love that because creativity rarely arrives because we put “be creative” on the calendar from 10:00 to 10:30.The other part of Bianca’s approach that I loved was how she enters business conversations.She imagines all of her future clients standing behind her.She is not walking into the room asking, “What can you give me?” She is deciding whether she would trust this person with the people she serves.That completely changes the energy.If you are new in business, it is very easy to feel small when you talk to someone who has been around longer, has more clients, or has a bigger audience.You can start slipping into your Oliver Twist business era.“Please, could I have some of your clients?”Bianca’s approach puts you back into your own value.You have people you care about serving, even if your audience is still small. You also have standards and something useful to bring into the conversation.That does not mean you walk in acting like you own the place. It means you show up as a participant instead of a beggar.There are also times when the fastest route to building those relationships is to get out from behind your screen entirely.Bianca is a huge fan of volunteering.If there is a trade show in your industry, volunteering can put you in the middle of conversations you would never have otherwise.You do have to approach it with integrity. Do not show up and secretly promote yourself while everyone else paid thousands of dollars for a booth.Go there to be useful.Help vendors find where they need to go, support the event team, meet people, learn what they do, and have normal conversations.Then follow up afterward.Bianca built a huge part of her original business that way. She sat on a board, worked with public health nurses, helped people, and became known as someone who was useful and connected.Referrals followed because people knew her.I have seen this happen in completely different industries too.One of my clients has been running a community cleanup around Earth Day for years. He supplies gloves, garbage bags, and those grabber claw things, and people show up to clean the community together.That one simple event has led to local media coverage, podcast interviews, television spots, and a whole lot of goodwill.He is doing something helpful, people know him because of it, and the visibility keeps coming back around.That is scrappy marketing.It is also community.And then there is competition.Bianca told me that earlier on the day we recorded this interview, she had sat down with one of her biggest competitors in the country.Instead of guarding their ideas and glaring at each other across the internet, they talked about their industry and found ways they might be able to work together.That does not mean comparison never creeps in.Bianca admitted that she still looks at other doula organizations sometimes and thinks, “That is such a good idea. Why didn’t I think of that?”Very relatable.She also knows those thoughts get louder when she is tired, stressed, hungry, or dealing with life.So maybe that is not the moment to make decisions about your business worth or your competition.Go eat something. Take a walk. Dance around your kitchen.Then come back to the idea when your nervous system is not trying to convince you that everybody else has figured out business except you.There was so much in this conversation, but the part I kept coming back to was how simple most of Bianca’s advice is.You can move your business forward by paying attention to the people who already serve your clients, supporting them in a genuine way, and allowing those relationships to build before you ask for anything.You can also get involved in your community, volunteer where it makes sense, and use 15-minute chunks of time to keep the whole thing manageable.That is enough to get started.You do not need an elaborate growth plan every time you want to create momentum.Sometimes you need to set a timer, use what you have, and channel a little scrappy 2007 Bianca energy.That version of business-building may not be as shiny as chasing virality, but I think it feels a whole lot better.You can find Bianca and her work at bebomia.com or follow Bebomia on social media at @bebomiainc. 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