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Remso Martinez’s lawyer told him one word: RUN
Remso is a marketer, founder, and political commentator who now leads Marketer on the Run. He left Parler, the controversial social media platform, days before app stores and AWS took it offline. To avoid being dragged into a partisan subpoena hearing while headlines still mentioned his name, he went off-grid for six months and rebuilt quietly in the Midwest.
When the next challenge arose, he refused to hide.
He started an agency, chose clients aligned with his values, and bet on a crucial Pennsylvania push. That bet gave him something stronger than headlines: proof.
Keep reading—next I’ll break down his four-part rebuild so you can pick the right clients, move upmarket, run a five-day pipeline sprint, and make clean decisions under pressure.
Learn from this investor’s $100m mistake
In 2010, a Grammy-winning artist passed on investing $200K in an emerging real estate disruptor. That stake could be worth $100+ million today.
One year later, another real estate disruptor, Zillow, went public. This time, everyday investors had regrets, missing pre-IPO gains.
Now, a new real estate innovator, Pacaso – founded by a former Zillow exec – is disrupting a $1.3T market. And unlike the others, you can invest in Pacaso as a private company.
Pacaso’s co-ownership model has generated $1B+ in luxury home sales and service fees, earned $110M+ in gross profits to date, and received backing from the same VCs behind Uber, Venmo, and eBay. They even reserved the Nasdaq ticker PCSO.
Paid advertisement for Pacaso’s Regulation A offering. Read the offering circular at invest.pacaso.com. Reserving a ticker symbol is not a guarantee that the company will go public. Listing on the NASDAQ is subject to approvals.
The dragnet and the decision
Parler imploded across a single weekend.
Reporters still linked his name to a brand he had already left. A House committee began searching for witnesses, and his attorney remarked, “If they can’t find you, they can’t serve you.” He disappeared for six months, resurfaced in the Midwest, and honed his skills. On April 19, 2024, he was fired over Zoom, with his wife’s health insurance about to lapse.
By the next morning, he had a name, a mission, and one rule: every choice had to reclaim freedom.
If you want to make big money, solve big problems for big people
What he was really after
Money solved the immediate panic, but freedom set the direction.
He wanted to choose clients by values, not by fear. Pro-capitalism. Pro-free speech. Tangible community impact. He wanted to stop juggling dozens of tiny retainers and start solving bigger problems for fewer buyers who valued time over money. Most of all, he wanted to be defined by delivery instead of headlines. When a friend asked for help on a must-win Pennsylvania push, the ask landed like a test.
One client, one state, one shot. If it worked, he would have proof. If it failed, the business might die in its first month.
🧠 Did you know? 💡
The Parler takedown really was a whiplash cascade. It hit #1 in Apple’s U.S. App Store on Jan 9, 2021—then Google pulled it (Jan 8), Apple removed it (Jan 9), and AWS issued a 24-hour suspension notice that pushed the site offline by Jan 10; it resurfaced about a month later on new infrastructure. (learn more)
Americans talk about boycotting over politics—but most still do business across the aisle. Post-election polling shows nearly 2 in 3 Americans want companies to stay out of politics; only ~1 in 5 report actually boycotting or “buycotting,” and just 30% follow through when they say they will (Democrats are more likely to act than Republicans). (learn more)
Value-driven brands win on the scoreboard, not just in slogans. Unilever reported its purpose-led “Sustainable Living Brands” grew 69% faster than the rest of the business and delivered 75% of company growth; more broadly, Edelman finds nearly two-thirds of consumers are “belief-driven buyers” who buy or advocate based on a brand’s values. (learn more)
The cost of stigma and how he paid it
Washington went cold.
Old colleagues stopped replying. Recruiters treated “used to work at Parler” like a scarlet letter. Starting an agency in that fog meant building trust from zero. He borrowed two guardrails from mentors. First, ask one filtering question for every problem: is it a big deal or not? If not, ignore it. If yes, address it now. Second, do not worship problems. Worship solutions. That mindset forced speed.
He traded venting for shipping, speculation for booked segments, and outrage for a pipeline metric he could control every day.
Watch the full podcast:
One shot in Pennsylvania
He refused to be a footnote, so he made the headline.
Naming the agency Marketer on the Run wasn’t pity; it was pace—move fast, ship daily, don’t look back. He focused on serving free-speech, owner-led, outcome-driven clients and targeted fewer clients with bigger stakes and clear success metrics.
He established a reliable rhythm:
ten meaningful outreach efforts,
one asset shipped,
One blocker removed daily.
By November, he was in a cramped Harrisburg war room booking media hits while adapting creative and messaging in real time. The campaign delivered measurable outcomes rather than opinions to defend. This proof overshadowed years of headlines. His wife joined the company; they moved to Las Vegas and scaled this approach into a successful business.
The motto stayed the same: freedom first, delivery always.
The On the Run playbook (use it this week)
Four steps. One week per step. Run the loop for ninety days.
1) Choose your hill (values plus ICP filter).
Write three non-negotiables for who you serve. Example: pro-free speech, founder-led, measurable impact. Add three offer filters: minimum project value, decision speed, and success metric. If a prospect fails either list, say no. Replace “any revenue” thinking with “right revenue.”
Deliverable today: a one-page filter you can apply to every lead.
2) Trade minnows for a whale (upmarket in thirty days).
List your last twelve clients by revenue and headache. Circle the bottom three. Replace them with one larger buyer who values time. Build a five-slide win story deck: problem, process, proof, plan, and price. Ask for three warm intros this week.
Deliverable today: a short deck and a target list with three intro requests sent.
3) Run a war-room week (execution beats anxiety).
For five business days, track three numbers and nothing else. Pipeline: ten meaningful outreaches or bookings. Creative: one asset shipped daily (email, ad, landing, booking doc). Ops: one blocker removed. Hold a fifteen-minute stand-up each morning. Report, do not rationalize.
Deliverable today: a simple scoreboard and a calendar block for the daily stand-up.
4) Install the decision ritual (kill drama fast).
When a problem hits, open a blank doc. Write three options, one recommendation, and one next step. Ship the next step within thirty minutes. Pair this with a Friday twenty-minute peer check-in. Share scores, one win, one miss, and next week’s plan.
Deliverable today: a decision template and a recurring Friday call on the calendar.
Run the loop once and you will feel calmer. Run it for ninety days and you will have proof: a cleaner pipeline, fewer low-fit clients, faster decisions, and a story that travels further than the headlines ever will.
That’s a wrap!
Talk soon,
Roman
Struggles? Good.
I help founders turn their story, values, and experience into a high-trust newsletter that attracts the right clients and drives consistent growth.
It’s all backed by real scars. I built and scaled a 7-figure nanotech business, sold over $10M in sales, lost it all, and rebuilt from scratch—twice.
If you’re ready to scale your business, let’s talk.
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