Navigating Niche: Lessons from Early Digital Marketing

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What happens when the agency you’ve built is just… stuck? Or when you hit a revenue ceiling, lose a major client, and start wondering if you’ve been playing the wrong game entirely? Those moments either break you or become the pivot points that redefine everything.

In this episode, you’ll hear from an agency owner who’s lived through the grind growing his agency from scratch, riding out recessions, choosing a niche that would help him get out of “no man’s land”. He’ll discuss the strategic bet that broke through plateaus, why he still refuses to hire a COO, and the million-dollar risk that could have sunk him but ended up being a worthwhile bet on his vision.

Alex Membrillo is the founder and CEO of Cardinal Digital Marketing, a 100-person specialist agency in healthcare performance marketing. Based in Atlanta, Alex launched Cardinal 16 years ago fresh out of college driven by equal parts ambition and desperation. Over the years, he’s navigated economic downturns, client churn, plateaus, and tough hiring markets, ultimately transforming it from a generalist digital shop into a niche powerhouse serving multi-site medical and dental groups nationwide.

In this episode, we’ll discuss:

• Riding out recessions.

• Breaking plateaus and choosing a niche.

• Why he still prefers not hiring a COO.

• Alex’s million-dollar bet on himself.

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Starting from Scratch (and a Hospital Room)

Alex didn’t start Cardinal with a polished business plan or a stack of VC cash — he started it the day after his first child was born. After watching his dad’s business nearly collapse thanks to a terrible SEO agency, Alex vowed to do better. With a fraternity brother on board and the confidence of having built a website once at sixteen, they left the hospital, started cold-calling local businesses, and selling websites.

That first chapter didn’t exactly go as planned. The websites flopped, but an SEO win for a kayak tour company gave them the confidence (and proof) they needed to double down on search. From there, they expanded into paid ads and built a reputation on a simple promise: If we suck, we’ll give you your money back. In the wild west of 2009 SEO, when big agencies were scrambling to go “digital” overnight, this direct, performance-focused approach gave them an edge.

Riding Out Recessions & Staying Hands-On

Recessions shaped Alex’s early leadership style. In 2009, big agencies were struggling, but lean, hungry digital-first shops could move faster and win clients. That meant Alex was doing it all—account managing 20 clients, selling new business, running QuickBooks, and hiring unpaid interns just to keep things moving.

In those early days, generalists are gold. If you’re too small for deep specialization, having people who can juggle SEO, PPC, and client management was critical. Even now, with a bigger team, Alex stays close to clients—spending hours each week on calls. To him, the job never ends, and the size of the clients is the only thing that’s changed thus far. Hence, staying in the work keeps his perspective sharp.

Breaking Plateaus by Choosing a Niche

By 2016, Cardinal had hit a wall at around $3.5M in revenue. At that stage, he realized what he had wasn’t really a business. You’re just a very good operator that probably has one or two big clients. The problem is that if those clients leave, as it happened to him when he was around $4 million, then you’re down to zero again.

They’d grown by targeting four sectors—higher ed, home services, healthcare, and legal—which did help propel the agency. However, growth stalled again at $7–8M.

Then COVID hit, and Alex decided to stop playing the “variety” game. Inspired by Jim Collins’ Hedgehog Concept, he asked: What can we be the best in the world at? What drives our economic engine? What do we actually love doing? The answer was healthcare.

They rebranded, rewrote their site, published thought leadership, and even released a book to claim their spot in the niche. They didn’t fire old clients—they just stopped marketing to non-healthcare prospects and let those accounts naturally roll off. Alex does wish he would’ve also kept a bit of focus on higher ed, another sector where the agency really shined. Nonetheless, the bet paid off: a laser focus on healthcare has helped them grow faster, build deeper expertise, and win larger multi-site provider clients.

Why Alex Still Doesn’t Have a COO

Alex firmly believes you can grow out of most problems, so every time he felt the agency was stuck, he went right back to improving their marketing, getting bigger clients, and hiring talented people. It’s a simple formula that has kept working for him throughout the years. However, here’s where he breaks from conventional wisdom: even at 100+ employees, Cardinal has no head of operations or finance. Everyone, including him, is billable.

“I’ve made the mistake 83 times of listening to experts who say ‘Go hire a COO,’” Alex says. In his view, it’s just not worth it at that point in your growth. “Do as much as you can as the owner. Have all departments report to you. You don’t need middle management pushing paper. You need smart, talented people actually doing the work.”

That lean structure only works if you market hard and keep new business flowing. It gives you the freedom to walk away from bad-fit clients and double down on growth opportunities.

AI as Your Board of Advisors

Agency owners like Alex, who see no need to hire a COO or CMO while they can still manage things themselves, can now turn to AI as a resourceful solution, treating it like an in-house advisory board.

Like fellow agency owner Chris Dreyer—who built custom GPTs for CFO and COO roles and used AI to better understand the business acquisition process—Alex is now considering feeding his P&L and monthly reports into AI to spot trends, explain fluctuations, and even validate assumptions.

The takeaway: you don’t need expensive consultants or bloated leadership teams to get strategic insight. With the right prompts, you can cut through the noise and focus on execution, the part AI can’t do for you (yet).

The Million-Dollar Bet on Himself

One of Alex’s biggest turning points came when he bought out his co-founder. His partner had lost interest in client work, and Alex saw no way forward without full control. After a year of negotiation, he signed a deal that left him $1M in debt.

For three years, he funneled $35,000 a month from profits to pay it off, losing sleep and enduring massive stress. In hindsight, it was worth it, but it took “probably 30 years off my life,” Alex says. Still, it was a defining moment—proving to himself he was willing to bet big on his own vision.

Thought Leadership as a Growth Engine

Cardinal’s healthcare niche dominance didn’t just happen—it was engineered. Alex leveraged thought leadership to own the space. From content and events to industry-specific messaging, they positioned themselves as the go-to choice for multi-site healthcare providers.

He’s quick to point out this approach has pros and cons, but if you want his playbook, he’s happy to share it—just reach out on LinkedIn.

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