We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful RANDI SKINNER. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with RANDI below.
Alright, RANDI thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
I’ve always known entrepreneurship was in my blood — I’m a third-generation entrepreneur, raised in a family where ownership, service, and hard work were just part of life. I studied entrepreneurship in college, always knowing that one day I’d build something of my own. But the timing came sooner — and more powerfully — than I expected.
When I launched my first consulting business, I was fueled by a mix of courage and chaos. I had the encouragement of my husband, Aaron, and the bold motivation that came from becoming a mom. Having my first daughter gave me a new kind of clarity — I wanted to show her what it looked like to be a business owner, to forge her own path, and to build something that gave us freedom — both in time and finances. My vision has always been about that: creating flexibility in the present and the ability to build our future on our own terms.
That said, I was scared. Scared to start, scared to fail, scared of the unknown. But I was also confident. I knew I could lean on my past experiences in sales, project management, and marketing — and on the people who had gone before me. It’s a pretty eye-opening transition to move from being the mentee to the mentor, from employee to owner. It took me a minute to settle in and truly see myself as the kind of leader I had worked for. But every bit of the nerves, uncertainty, and learning curve has been worth it. I would never have taken that leap without the support system that surrounded me — my family, mentors, and peers who believed I could do it.
That leap ultimately led me to VBM Strategy, co-founded with my longtime business partner, Heather Steele. Our paths had crossed many times before, and we shared the same frustration with how disconnected marketing often felt from strategy. Together, we built the Vision Value Model™, a framework that helps business owners connect their personal and professional vision, define their guiding values, and build goals that actually align with where they want to go and how their marketing can be a change agent to get them there.
We knew we were solving a problem that most business owners didn’t have language for yet — they didn’t need more marketing; they needed clarity. The Vision Value Model™ became our way to bring that clarity to life, helping owners rediscover purpose and direction in what they’re building.
What excites me most about this work is that it’s not just about growing a business — it’s about growing people. Watching a founder say, “I finally feel clear again,” or seeing a team reconnect to their mission — that’s when I know we’re doing what we were meant to do.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m Randi Skinner, Co-Founder and Fractional CMO of VBM Strategy, a strategy and marketing firm that helps business owners and leadership teams build alignment between their vision, values, and growth utilizing marketing as a change agent. I’ve spent my career helping organizations tell their story with clarity and purpose — but more importantly, helping them understand how that story drives real business value.
I come from a long line of entrepreneurs — I’m a third-generation business owner — so I grew up around hard work, risk-taking, and big dreams. I studied entrepreneurship in college and started my career in sales and project management, which gave me a deep understanding of how businesses operate and what causes them to grow or stall. But I found myself drawn to the storytelling side — the creativity, the problem-solving, and the way marketing could truly change the trajectory of a business when done with strategy behind it. That pull led me into marketing, and eventually, to starting my own firm.
When I became a mom, I felt a new sense of urgency to build something that not only aligned with my professional vision but also supported the life I wanted to create — one rooted in freedom of time and finances. That’s when I took the leap into entrepreneurship full-time. And later, with my longtime collaborator and now business partner Heather Steele, co-founded VBM Strategy.
At VBM, we’re known for our Blueprint Marketing Strategies, powered by our proprietary Vision Value Model™ — a framework we developed to help leaders connect what they do with what they want. Instead of starting with tactics like websites, social media, or ads, we start with purpose: What do you want your business to do for you, your family, your team, and your future? Then we build the strategy, systems, and marketing plan that make that vision achievable.
What sets us apart is that we don’t see marketing as a service — we see it as a strategic lever for change. Our clients come to us when they’re overwhelmed, stuck, or unsure of their next move. They may have great marketing vendors but no clear direction. We help them zoom out, find clarity, and create a roadmap that aligns their people, processes, and profit goals.
What I’m most proud of isn’t just the results — though seeing clients hit growth goals, sell their businesses, or step back into freedom is incredible. What I’m most proud of is when a founder says, “I finally feel clear again.” That’s the heartbeat of what we do.
If readers take one thing away, I hope it’s this: You deserve a business that supports your life, not one that consumes it. Marketing, when done right, isn’t about doing more — it’s about doing what matters most, with clarity and confidence. That’s what we help our clients build every day.
How’d you meet your business partner?
Heather and I met about ten years ago, back when she was building her website business. She’s a total WordPress wiz and has developed a website content process that is honestly unmatched. Her product was such a game-changer for businesses — and, truthfully, I was drawn in by the branding too. I’m a total sucker for good branding (and a good sales pitch). That’s how I end up buying things I don’t need — but I digress.
We met networking around Denton and just clicked. I was instantly drawn to Heather because she was inspiring — someone who prioritized family and a business owner who had built something truly valuable, with a team culture that was both positive and high-performing. I could see how intentional she was about her business and her people, and I knew I wanted to be part of that. Eventually, I became one of Heather’s employees — and honestly, I can’t remember who approached who first. I like to think it was just meant to be.
Working for Heather was one of those experiences that shapes how you lead. I really admired how she set boundaries — with clients, partners, and even herself. It’s something I deeply respected and a skill I was still growing at the time. Protecting boundaries has always been one of Heather’s strengths, and it’s become a cornerstone of how we now build businesses — not just for ourselves, but for our clients.
From the start, we were a complementary pair. Heather had the internal marketing and operations expertise that I wanted to learn from, and I brought the sales background and people skills that helped scale her vision. She wanted to spend more time working on her business instead of in it — and bringing me in was the first step in making that possible. Together, we built some incredible client resources and systems that became the foundation for how we’d later operate at VBM Strategy.
A few years later, I had the opportunity to take on what I now call my “heart work” — serving as the Director of Marketing and Development at Denton County Friends of the Family, an organization dedicated to supporting victims of domestic and sexual violence. Even during that time, Heather and I kept collaborating. She did pro bono work for DCFOF initiatives, and we never lost touch. When I was ready to launch my own consulting firm, she was one of my biggest encouragers — a mentor, even if she’d probably say peer. In fact, she gave me one of my very first projects when I went out on my own.
Over the next few years, we kept finding ourselves back at the table together — collaborating on projects, refining client strategies, and realizing how much stronger our work was when both of our brains were in the mix. Eventually, we started doing strategy work side by side, helping clients find clarity and direction, and that became the spark for what would become VBM Strategy.
One day, out of a mix of frustration and inspiration, we hit the whiteboard and started asking, “How do we help clients get better results when the problem isn’t just their marketing—it’s how their marketing connects (or doesn’t) to everything else?” Out of that conversation—and the combined decades of experience, process development, and hundreds of clients we’d both worked with—came the Vision Value Model™.
That framework has become the heart of what we do at VBM Strategy: helping businesses find clarity, alignment, and confidence so they can grow with purpose. And honestly, looking back, I don’t think either of us could have written a better story if we tried.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
Absolutely. There are a few books and frameworks that have deeply influenced both how we build VBM Strategy and how we work with our clients.
The first is 10x Is Easier Than 2x by Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan. This book completely shifted the way we think about growth. It challenged us to stop playing small and to take exponential action now instead of waiting for the “perfect” moment. The idea that it can actually be easier to go big—because you focus only on what truly matters—really resonated with us. That mindset inspired part of our M.E.S.S.Y. Goal exercise inside the Vision Value Model™: the belief that sometimes the best goals are bold, ambitious, and a little messy. When you think bigger, you move faster and skip the unnecessary steps that slow you down.
Another resource that’s been transformative for us is The 6 Types of Working Genius by Patrick Lencioni. It’s an incredible assessment that helps teams understand the six stages of work—from ideation to implementation—and identify where their natural “genius” lies. It was no surprise that I’m an Innovator, and so is my business partner, Heather Steele. That realization pushed us to be intentional about surrounding ourselves with people who thrive in the other areas of work—Enablement, Tenacity, Galvanizing, and so on. Knowing our working geniuses has helped us divide projects more strategically, avoid burnout, and hold ourselves accountable to staying balanced. It also reinforced one of our biggest values: leaning into the team.
And finally, I’d add our own philosophy—Vision First. The first step in our Vision Value Model™ is helping business owners define their integrated personal and professional vision before building a strategy. That’s not just something we do for clients—it’s something we do internally as a team. At our last team retreat, everyone went through their own Vision Value Model process to define what success looks like for them personally and professionally. It was amazing to see how each person’s goals could align with their current role and how we, as leaders, could support them on that path.
These resources all share a common thread: they remind us that growth—whether personal, professional, or organizational—starts with clarity. Once you know who you are, what you want, and how you work best, the strategy becomes clear.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://vbmstrategy.com/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/randiskinner/
