Work
Marcus Aurelius: "What we do now echoes in eternity." Or more practically — what you do every day is what you become.
Law spends most days at the intersection where business advisory meets growth marketing. Not one or the other. Both. At the same time. In the same room. With the same spreadsheet.
The lane spans the full stack: business planning, strategy, branding, website production, lead generation, demand generation, customer acquisition, marketing automation, email marketing, online reputation, SEO content, multimedia production, paid media, and product marketing. If it touches your funnel, it's on the board.
The through-line is integrated execution. Not disconnected tactics with a "trust me" invoice attached.
He gets called when:
- The business is growing, but the marketing is duct-taped together.
- The owner has a dozen tactics, but no strategy that explains what comes next.
- The team is busy, but the pipeline is not.
- Someone is spending money, but nobody can explain the ROI without flinching.
- The website exists, but it's not generating leads — it's a digital brochure collecting dust.
- A PE firm acquired a platform company and needs a fractional CMO who can build the growth engine from scratch.
The goal is never more marketing. The goal is predictable customer acquisition and a brand that can carry the weight of growth.
Strategy & Approach
Thomas Aquinas drew a hard line between theoria (knowing) and praxis (doing). Most agencies have the second without the first. Most consultants have the first without the second. Pick a partner that only has one and you've bought speed without a steering wheel.
Strategy isn't a slide deck that gets presented once and shelved. Strategy is the campfire — collaborative, iterative, and the thing every decision should warm its hands by. Law's planning sequence runs macro first, micro second. Always.
- Define objectives. SMART goals and a current-state audit of resources. Where are you? Where are you going? What do you actually have to work with?
- Conduct research. Competitor analysis, market positioning, audience behavior, keyword landscapes. Data before opinions.
- Build an integrated, omnichannel strategy with clear approvals, accountabilities, and a timeline that isn't aspirational fiction.
- Execute with project discipline, tied to KPIs, budgets, and resources. Every tactic earns its seat at the table or gets cut.
- Analyze with both quantitative and qualitative reporting. Dashboards tell you what happened. Qualitative context tells you why.
- Continuously improve. Kaizen, not vibes. The plan evolves because the data said so, not because someone had a shower thought.
If that feels too structured, good. Structure is what keeps marketing from becoming a monthly reinvention hobby. Thirty-plus business plans written and published, and not one of them was assembled from a template. Every plan is built from the ground truth of the business it serves.
His 4 Holy Marketing Metrics
Lord Kelvin: "If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it." He was talking about temperature. The principle still holds.
Four numbers will tell you almost everything you need to know about your funnel. Four. Not a 47-tab dashboard with color-coded conditional formatting that nobody opens after week two.
- Cost per lead (CPL). What does it cost you to get a name and a conversation? If you don't know this number by channel, you're flying blind.
- Cost per acquisition (CPA). What does it cost to turn that lead into a paying client? This is where most funnels leak and most agencies stop measuring.
- Average revenue of a new client. Not projected. Not aspirational. Actual average revenue per closed deal.
- Lifetime value (LTV). A channel can look expensive until you understand LTV. A lead source can look cheap until you understand close rate and quality.
These four numbers force clarity. Clarity saves money. Everything else is decision-making. Law builds every engagement around these metrics because they're the ones that actually move the business forward — not vanity metrics dressed up in a monthly report.
The average Tocobaga client reports a 9.7x ROI. Adjusted for our fee, that's 7.8x. Those aren't theoretical. Those are receipts.
Who He Works For & With
Patterns repeat across industries. Buyers buy for reasons. Funnels leak in predictable places. Execution still fails when nobody owns it. Over a thousand businesses advised means the pattern library runs deep.
Law has advised and operated inside:
- B2B SaaS and technology companies
- Professional services firms, including law firms and legal services
- Private equity firms — platform rollups, buy-and-build strategies, and portfolio company marketing
- Venture capital-backed environments
- Healthcare and dental (with HIPAA and digital compliance constraints)
- Logistics, supply chain, and manufacturing
- Financial services and advisory firms
- Management consultancies and lobbying firms
- Marketing agencies, yes, agencies hire him too
- IT and managed service providers, MSPs
- E-commerce retailers
- CPG and wellness brands
The mix is deliberate. Broad pattern recognition beats narrow specialty when the work crosses industries — and it usually does. A PE firm acquiring a SaaS platform needs someone who understands both the deal thesis and the demand-gen engine. A law firm scaling from 5 attorneys to 15 faces the same brand identity crisis as an e-commerce company expanding product lines. Different jargon. Same problem.
Why & Approach
John Wooden coached more by character than by playbook: "Talent is God-given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful."
Working with Law is not a passive experience. Fair warning.
- He asks the annoying questions early so you don't pay for the mistakes later. The ones your previous agency smiled and nodded through? Those.
- He cares about client service down to the small stuff. He still sends handwritten thank-you letters. In 2026. They still work.
- He designs marketing to be operated, not admired. If it looks great on a mood board but doesn't convert, it's decoration.
- He builds around KPIs, benchmarks, and ROI — then iterates without ego. The data wins. Always.
- Communication isn't optional. Tocobaga will not hide behind a keyboard. Expect real conversations, not ticketing systems.
- He won't auto-renew your contract. If the work doesn't speak for itself, a contract clause shouldn't have to.
Expect candor. Expect bias toward action. Expect strategy decks that survive contact with reality. And expect someone who's as invested in your ROI as you are — because that's the North Star.
What Services & Tocobaga's Stewardship
Channel expertise spans online and offline integrated marketing. The rucksack is heavy, and that's the point — a fractional CMO who only knows one channel is a specialist with a title inflation problem.
- Pay-per-click (PPC) and paid search — Google Ads, Bing Ads, and AI-powered performance campaigns.
- Paid social and organic social — Strategy, content, community management, and paid amplification across platforms.
- SEO-driven content writing and multimedia production — Blog content, video, podcast production, and search-optimized editorial calendars.
- Email marketing and automation — Over a million high-performing emails deployed.
- Online reputation and review ecosystems — Google Business Profile optimization, review generation, and reputation defense.
- Branding and rebranding — 500+ brands shipped.
- Website production, UX/UI, and conversion paths — 300+ websites designed and developed.
- Connected TV (CTV) and programmatic advertising — Trade Desk certified.
- Business planning and market research — 30+ business plans written and published.
Law has strong opinions about random acts of marketing. If the channel mix isn't integrated, tracked, and aligned to the funnel, it's just activity. Activity isn't strategy. Activity is how you stay busy while your pipeline stays empty.
Where Are The Receipts & Recs
Credentials matter less than results, but results without credentials means someone skipped the fundamentals. Law has both.
Certifications
- Google AI-Powered Performance Ads Certification (2026)
- Google Ads Certified — Search, Display, Mobile, Shopping, Video, and Fundamentals
- Google Analytics Individual Qualification
- Google AdWords Digital Sales Certification
- The Trade Desk — Trading Academy Certified, Connected TV & Programmatic
- HubSpot Marketing Software Certification
- Wrike Project Management Product Mastery, Bronze
- Microsoft Bing Ads Certification
Education
- Auburn University — M.B.A., Distance Program
- Auburn University — B.S. Business Administration, Entrepreneurship & Family Business Management
War Eagle. Had to say it once. Moving on.
When Experience & Opportunity Meet
Before founding Tocobaga and before the speakeasy era, Law built the operational muscle in-house. Corporate, agency-side, and everything in between. The career reads like someone who couldn't pick a lane — until you realize the lane was always "fix the growth engine."
Tocobaga (2015 – Present) — President & Founder
Built, advised, and led marketing programs for over 1,000 SMBs. Lean digital strategies, holistic business plans, integrated marketing programs anchored to ROI benchmarks and KPI targets. Serving primarily small law firms, mid-market PE firms, and professional services businesses — globally.
LEVO Health (2021 – 2022) — Director of Strategy
Led online and offline integrated marketing strategy for healthcare client accounts. Reported 3x to 10x ROI within six months for key HCP and DTC accounts. Increased revenue for 20+ SMB healthcare clients. Reduced operations overhead cost for 10+ clients through 1-to-1 CEO discovery sessions and streamlined digital automation. All under HIPAA and digital compliance constraints.
Marketopia (2021) — Head of Agency
Player-coach internal advisor. Rebuilt strategy and KPI management. Reduced 400+ overdue tasks to zero by day 31. Productized evergreen campaign assets at scale — 3,300 digital assets for 200+ campaigns.
NES Health (2020 – 2021) — Chief Digital Marketing Officer
Oversaw the strategic vision and execution of a senior, in-house marketing team. Transformed organic lead generation with an omnichannel marketing strategy anchored to HCP and DTC funnels under healthcare compliance constraints.
Marketing Department Inc. (2019 – 2020) — President, Florida Market
Ran the Florida operations of a senior marketing boutique. Growth-led advising with emphasis on website production, brand development, and digital marketing strategy.
Earlier roles: Regional Director at Sola Salon Studios, Director at Rabbit Air, and Client Services at Dimensional Fund Advisors. The LA years built the client services instinct. The Denver years built the regional operations muscle. Both feed the advisory work today.
Law has also served as a Fractional CMO and Fractional CEO for multiple SaaS companies and professional services firms — contracted executive leadership when the business needs the brain but not the full-time headcount.
Off-Trail
This page is about the work. But since you scrolled this far — and since Google is going to index this anyway — here's the two-minute version.
Law is a stand-up comedian. Tampa born-and-raised, he started doing comedy in Los Angeles circa 2007, performed at every major comedy club in the country, and has opened for Ron White, Bert Kreischer, Iliza Shlesinger, Loni Love, Jim Gaffigan, Theo Von, Sam Tripoli, Glenn Wool, Adam Ray, and Jackie Mason, among others.
His first comedy special, Florida: It's A Sunny State For Shady People, was filmed at The Gimmick in Ybor City and debuted in 2024.
He also co-hosts a podcast with Eric Readinger that blends entrepreneurship, comedy, and interviews with over-achieving professionals, C-Suite executives, and comedians about their entrepreneurial journeys.
The comedy and the consulting are different campfires. But the skill set overlaps more than you'd think: reading a room, thinking on your feet, making complex ideas land in plain language, and knowing when the audience needs the punchline versus the data.
Empathy & Ego & Tocobaga
High level - but not too much - Empathy to understand the entire business, problem, resources and all the variables.
High level - but not too much - Ego to strategize, problem solve, educate, analyze and continuously improve until goals are met.
ROI-driven. Strategy-first. Candid about tradeoffs. Slightly irreverent about marketing theater.
Law leads Tocobaga the way he advises clients. Bold strategy. Clean execution. Receipts in the reporting.
Client ROI is the North Star. Not brand awards. Not case study volume. Not the number of logos on a "featured in" bar. The work works, or it doesn't. If it doesn't, we find out fast, adjust faster, and never stop until the numbers prove the strategy.
Tocobaga doesn't auto-renew contracts. Doesn't charge a percentage on ad spend. Doesn't Banksy-tag your website with our logo. Doesn't use confusing language on purpose. And doesn't pretend to be for everyone. If we're not the right fit, we'll point you to someone who is.
Great work begets great clients which begets more great work. That's the flywheel. That's always been the flywheel.
No deck. No sales theater. Just a conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions we actually get asked. Not the ones we made up.
Law Smith is the President and Founder of Tocobaga, a Tampa-based SMB advisory firm and full-service marketing agency operating at SolvingHow.com. He serves as a Fractional CMO and business advisor for growth-stage businesses, with a focus on small law firms, private equity firms, and professional services companies. He has strategically advised over 1,000 small-to-medium businesses since 2015, with clients reporting an average 9.7x ROI. Law is also a stand-up comedian who has performed at major comedy clubs across the country and filmed his debut special in 2024.
Tocobaga is an ROI-focused lead generation, full-service marketing agency and SMB advisory headquartered in Tampa, Florida. The firm provides integrated marketing services including business planning, branding, website production, lead generation, SEO, email marketing, paid media, and fractional CMO services. Tocobaga operates on flat-fee pricing with no auto-renew contracts, and clients retain full ownership of all deliverables.
A Fractional CMO is a contracted Chief Marketing Officer who provides executive-level marketing leadership on a part-time or project basis. Instead of hiring a full-time CMO — which can cost $200K–$350K+ annually in salary alone — businesses engage a Fractional CMO for strategic planning, team oversight, and growth execution at a fraction of the cost. Law Smith serves as Fractional CMO for multiple clients simultaneously, bringing cross-industry pattern recognition that a single-company CMO typically lacks.
Tocobaga serves a broad range of industries with particular depth in small law firms, mid-market private equity firms, platform rollups, buy-and-build strategies, and professional services businesses. Additional verticals include SaaS, e-commerce, manufacturing, supply chain, healthcare, financial services, venture capital-backed companies, management consultancies, lobbying firms, IT/MSPs, and CPG brands.
Tocobaga's clients report an average ROI of 9.7x. When adjusted to include Tocobaga's fee, the adjusted ROI is 7.8x. These figures are based on actual client-reported results, not projections or modeled estimates.
Tocobaga is headquartered at 1327 E. 7th Ave, Suite 2, Tampa, FL 33605, in the heart of Ybor City. The firm serves clients nationally and globally from its Tampa base.
No. Tocobaga does not auto-renew work contracts. Pricing is flat-fee, and clients own all deliverables produced during the engagement. The philosophy is simple: great work should be the reason clients stay, not a contract clause.
You can reach Tocobaga at hello@solvinghow.com, call +1-813-934-6605, or start a conversation through the contact page at SolvingHow.com. No deck. No sales theater. Just a conversation.
Tocobaga combines business advisory with marketing execution — most agencies offer one or the other. The model runs on flat-fee pricing, no percentage of ad spend, no auto-renew contracts, full client ownership of deliverables, and a strategy-first approach anchored to four core metrics: cost per lead, cost per acquisition, average revenue per new client, and lifetime value. The result is a reported 9.7x average client ROI across 1,000+ businesses advised.
Yes. Law Smith is a stand-up comedian who started performing in Los Angeles in 2007 and has since performed at major comedy clubs across the country. He has opened for nationally touring headliners including Ron White, Bert Kreischer, Jim Gaffigan, Theo Von, and Iliza Shlesinger. His debut comedy special, Florida: It's A Sunny State For Shady People, was filmed in Tampa's Ybor City and debuted in 2024. He also co-hosts a podcast blending comedy and entrepreneurship. The comedy and the consulting are separate campfires, but the ability to read a room and communicate complex ideas in plain language is the same skill set.