About The Debi Brief

Hi, I’m Debi.

I’m 58, and I’ve been building things online since long before “online marketing” became a phrase people used seriously. When I started, I could barely manage email.

Twenty years later, I’ve watched the internet change shape more times than I can count, from bulletin boards to social platforms to AI tools, and I’ve had to keep learning just to stay relevant.

Somewhere along the way, that turned into a career.

Over the years, my business partner, Dave, and I have worked with a wide mix of people and organisations. We’ve helped solopreneurs running things from their kitchen tables and worked with NHS Scotland. We’ve designed websites, built software, published courses, run membership sites, written books and earned through affiliate marketing.

Mostly, we did whatever was needed to keep moving forward and stay useful.

None of it has been without challenges.

I’ve chased trends that went nowhere, spent money on ideas that sounded brilliant late at night, and made mistakes I’d rather not repeat. I’ve also learned that most of what actually works has very little to do with whatever tool or tactic is popular at the time.

What I see now is that many people are making the same mistakes I did, just with newer tools and shinier language. The fundamentals haven’t changed, but they’re tougher to spot when everyone's pushing their own thing.

That’s what The Debi Brief is for.

Here, I write about online business and marketing from the perspective of someone who's been around long enough to see patterns repeat. I'm far more interested in clear thinking than hype. I'd rather show you the thinking behind a decision than just the final result.

I publish free newsletters each week. Some are practical and some are reflective. All of them are written for people who want to understand what they’re doing, not just copy what someone else says is working.

You’ll find writing here about things like:

• what tends to work, and what often doesn’t, in content and marketing

• where common advice breaks down once you try to apply it

• how trust and understanding actually get built over time

• the mistakes I made so you don’t have to repeat them

• the parts of running an online business that usually get skipped over

If you’re building something online and you’re tired of empty promises, shortcuts, and recycled advice, you’ll probably feel at home here.

You’re welcome to subscribe and read along.