San Diego | Billy Broas

Why San Diego

I didn’t plan on living in San Diego. In 2020, COVID upended my plans, as it did everyone’s, and it brought me here. It turned out to be one of the best things that has ever happened to me.

I met my wife here. Our kids are growing up here. I’ve gotten involved with the universities, the startups, and the businesses around town. And I’ll admit it: I love the sun.

So San Diego was a happy accident during an otherwise dark time, and I’m grateful for it. I try to live by a simple rule: leave everything a little better than you found it, whether it’s something you touch, something you work on, or somewhere you spend your time. San Diego has given me a lot. Whenever my time here is done, I want to leave it a little better off. That part is up to me.

What I do here

I work with founders, scientists, and business owners who have built something serious and need to explain it to people who can’t easily evaluate it: customers, investors, partners. My job is to help them find the argument for what they’ve built.

I came to marketing from science. Before I did this work, I spent years in renewable energy, on a Department of Energy bioenergy program, so the lab-to-market problem is familiar ground. More about that on the About page.

Speaking and teaching

I speak and teach here in San Diego.

Billy Broas speaking at Traffic & Conversion Summit in San Diego — Speaking at Traffic & Conversion Summit, San Diego, 2021.

Billy Broas teaching at a marketing mastermind in Little Italy, San Diego — Teaching at a marketing mastermind in Little Italy, San Diego.

A laptop showing a BJCP beer scoresheet next to a cup of American pale ale at the National Homebrew Competition, judged at AleSmith Brewing Company in San Diego — Scoring an American pale ale as a certified beer judge at the National Homebrew Competition, judged at AleSmith Brewing Company in San Diego, 2023.

At the Scalable.co mastermind in San Diego, co-founder Richard Lindner gave every member a copy of Simple Marketing for Smart People.

My work has also taken me further afield. I’ve given a guest lecture on argument-driven marketing at HSLU in Lucerne, Switzerland, spoken at Ryan Deiss’s M3 mastermind in Austin in 2023, and talked about the ideas in Simple Marketing for Smart People on podcasts including Social Media Examiner, Marketing Speak, Everyone Hates Marketers, and The Digital Marketer Podcast.

The Five Lightbulbs — San Diego

The Five Lightbulbs is the framework I’ve taught since 2020, to clients in more than 20 countries. Here in San Diego, I’m starting to teach it in person, in small sessions for founders and business owners I invite.

Building something in San Diego?

If you’re working on something here, or hosting something here, I’d like to hear about it.

Get in touch