About Brave & Bold
The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing. It feels like being understood.
I’m Amanda Luft Polden, founder of Brave & Bold, and a fractional CMO for destination wellness brands.
Closing the distance
The whole job of marketing is closing the distance.
There are thousands of people who are looking for what your property offers: the unique place you occupy, the opportunity to rediscover their authentic selves in a world of noise, to move and act with intention, and return home feeling revitalized and ready to face their challenges.
- Unfortunately, they can’t find you…
- Or they skipped over your property because it looks like so many others…
- Or they found you but didn’t know you offer exactly what they need…
Solving these problems is the entire job of marketing: closing the distance between a place that changes people and the people who need changing.
The pattern I kept seeing
The most transformational places are almost always the least well-known.
All my life I’ve been developing personal wellness through body- and breathwork as a yogi and RYT-200 teacher, world travel, spiritual development, nature immersion, connection, and a love for and fascination with the world in which we live. And I’ve seen others transform through similar means.
I’ve spent my career in the businesses of health, wellness, and experiences: writing and running the marketing that gets people to show up, buy, walk through the door and—perhaps most importantly—to come back and do it all over again.
Along the way I noticed a pattern. The most transformational places are almost always the least well-known, with inconsistent or disconnected marketing and a shocking number of missed opportunities… Not because the owners don’t care, but because they’re pouring everything into the guest experience, and marketing gets whatever’s left. Beautiful properties. Word-of-mouth growth. A booking calendar that feels like luck.
Brave & Bold exists because these places deserve marketing as intentional as their programming.
Why me
A tested operating system for growth led by someone who lives in your industry.
My background is 12 years in marketing across tourism & hospitality, health/wellness/fitness, publishing, and events—including marketing strategy for W.W. Norton & Co.’s Mental Health Media division, directing tours and guest experience at Chippewa River Trolley, community engagement and events leadership across the Chippewa Valley, and more.
As a fractional CMO, I work within the Functional Marketing® Framework, a proven system for building marketing strategy, KPIs, and positioning developed through CMOx, where I trained under Casey Stanton and his brilliant team. It means you’re not getting one person’s improvisation; you’re getting a tested operating system for growth.
12 years
Marketing across tourism & hospitality, wellness, publishing, and events
Functional Marketing®
Trained at CMOx under Casey Stanton and his team
RYT-200
Yoga teacher and lifelong wellness practitioner
Certified Incentive Specialist
Certified in Incentive Travel through SITE (Society for Incentive Travel Excellence)
How I work
A few things you should know about working with me.
- I’d rather tell you a hard truth than a comfortable one.
- Strategy without accountability is just expensive conversation — so we attach a number to everything we do and track them like hounds.
- I’ll suggest offline media wherever it makes sense.
- I only take on properties I believe I can grow. If I’m not the right fit, I’ll tell you on our first call and point you somewhere better.
Off the clock
Rooted in Eau Claire, at the confluence of two rivers.
I live in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, a verdant valley at the confluence of two rivers. I love being outside, reading horror fiction and Dan Kennedy, studying environmental psychology and biophilic design, and spending time with family and friends.
