We recently connected with Sanarr McLaughlin and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Sanarr thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

By 2019, I had been working in digital marketing for years, both in-house and through freelancing and consulting, and I kept seeing the same pattern: chaos, burnout, and inefficiency across the board.

Teams were overwhelmed, tools were underutilized or misused, and marketing efforts often felt disconnected from actual business goals. It wasn’t just frustrating to watch, it was unsustainable.

I wanted to create a better way of working. One that allowed freelance marketers to do meaningful work on their own terms, while also giving small businesses access to experienced talent without the heavy agency retainers. That’s how digitalXmedia was born in 2020.

For a while, it worked. But a few years in, I realized something important: assigning talented marketers to a business didn’t fix the underlying problem.

Many of the small businesses we worked with were dealing with deeper issues: too many tools, unclear strategy, disorganized operations, and no real system connecting everything together. Marketing was happening, but it wasn’t working in a way that was sustainable or effective.

That realization forced me to take a step back. I spent time consulting again, working across both boutique agencies and an enterprise brand, and I paid close attention to what was actually breaking down behind the scenes.

The pattern became clear: most businesses don’t have a marketing problem—they have a systems problem. And until that’s addressed, more tools, more campaigns, or more people won’t solve it.

So I rebuilt digitalXmedia with that in mind.

Instead of focusing on execution, I shifted to a strategy-first model centered on helping small business owners simplify their marketing operations. Today, my work is focused on removing the overwhelm, identifying what’s not working, and building clear, structured systems that actually support how a business grows.

What excites me most is that the core purpose has always been there. Whether I was working in-house, freelancing, or building my own business, I’ve always been driven by the same goal: helping people create something that works.

Now, that looks like helping small business owners build a strong marketing foundation. One that reduces wasted time and spend, improves results, and gives them the clarity and confidence to grow their business the way they want to.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I’m a marketing systems strategist and the founder of digitalXmedia, where I help small business owners simplify and structure how they market their business so it actually works.

I got into marketing early on, originally thinking I’d pursue a completely different career path, but once I was introduced to digital marketing, I was hooked. What kept me in the industry wasn’t just the creativity, but the strategy and structure behind it, how everything connects and drives real results.

Today, my work focuses on helping small businesses clean up the chaos behind their marketing. That includes auditing their current setup, identifying what’s not working, and building clear, actionable systems that connect their tools, data, and processes. The goal is to move them away from guesswork and toward consistent, measurable outcomes.

What sets my approach apart is that I don’t just focus on executing marketing tactics. I focus on the foundation behind them. A lot of businesses are told to do more…more content, more ads, more tools, but without the right structure, that just leads to more confusion. I help them simplify first, so everything they do becomes more effective.

I’m especially proud of the work I’ve done creating opportunities for other marketers to do meaningful work in a way that supports balance and sustainability. That experience reinforced something I strongly believe: businesses should be built in a way that works for the people inside them, not just the output they produce.

Ultimately, what I want people to know about my work is that marketing doesn’t have to feel overwhelming or disconnected. With the right systems in place, it can become clear, efficient, and something that actually supports the growth of the business instead of draining it.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

One moment that really stands out was being unexpectedly let go from a role I had fully committed myself to. At the time, I had poured a lot into the work and was deeply invested in the success of the team and the business, so it was a difficult experience to process.

But that moment ended up becoming a turning point. It pushed me to fully step into freelancing and consulting, which eventually led to building my own business.

Looking back, it taught me an important lesson about resilience and redirection. Sometimes the path you’re on ends in a way you didn’t choose, but it creates space for something that aligns better with who you are and how you want to work.

That experience gave me the confidence to bet on myself and ultimately shaped the direction of my career in a way I wouldn’t have chosen at the time, but I’m grateful for now.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think my reputation has been built on a combination of work ethic, empathy, and the ability to see both the details and the bigger picture.

In marketing, it’s easy to get stuck in one lane, but I’ve always worked across functions, collaborating with technical teams, marketing teams, and leadership, to understand how everything connects. That’s helped me develop a more holistic perspective on how businesses actually operate.

I also take the time to truly understand the challenges people are facing, not just from a performance standpoint, but from an operational and human perspective as well. That allows me to offer solutions that are not only effective, but realistic and sustainable.

Over time, that combination of clarity, collaboration, and consistency is what has helped me build trust and a strong reputation in my field.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://digitalXmedia.co
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/company/digitalXmedia
• Other: https://linkedin.com/in/sanarrmclaughlin