Someone said to me recently that I might be putting on a happy face but Pinterest is going down. First, I would say, that might be a fair assessment as I always like to see the good. AND I have an entire community following me to understand how to view and navigate the platform. I take that very seriously so making sure i”m neither overly optimistic nor pessimistic. 

Let me address where I’m at. I think Pinterest has changed drastically in 2026 and I’ve not been shy about saying that. Maybe some people haven’t heard me mention it but I did a webinar last month where I talked about what was the same and what was different. 

I think slop has invaded the platform and while Pinterest has made some attempts, it’s not enough yet. That’s hard to watch. Users still like the platform but some are becoming more exhausted with it daily. 

It’s shifted more to products and for some of our product sellers they are crushing it – both organic and paid ads. We had a 90 ROAS on one of our ads clients campaigns. That’s incredible. 

Elliot Investments just put $1 billion into Pinterest which makes me a little nervous. If you’ve watched the massive changes on Southwest airlines and wondered who made those changes, look no further than Elliot. They won’t do anything sudden but it’s something to watch for sure over the next 2 years. 

Where does this leave content creators? In a tough spot. But do I think all hope is lost? No. But I do think each business owner has to benchmark their goals, progress, time, and investment just like they would any other platform. 

I think the entire internet has had a massive overhaul since 2022 when Chat GPT was introduced and we’re all still trying to figure it out. 

My team and I are talking daily about trying new things. We’re investigating, testing, going deep on Reddit threads, looking for articles and working to make the platform work for our clients in the best way we can. 

Do we nail it every time? Certainly not and I will be the first to say that it’s so frustrating to not be able to win for our clients. We care about their businesses just like we care about SPM. 

To those who want my deep thoughts on Pinterest, thoughtful discussions, and to be with other business owners who are troubleshooting Pinterest where it’s at, join me in SPM insiders. This group has incredible ideas and we’re all committed to finding ways to make it work. Just $9/month and you get a call with me monthly. I think it’s worth testing it out just for 1 month to see that I’m not all sunshine and roses about Pinterest all the time. 

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Here are some helpful links from the podcast:

🗒️To get full show notes, visit Simple Pin Media and click on articles. 

🗞️Make sure you grab our newsletter – Pinterest Made Simple

📌 Looking to hire the best Pinterest marketing team? Here is a list of the services we offer. Book a discovery call with our team. 

🎬 New to Pinterest → get started here with 4 videos! 

Other helpful links:

Simple Pin Insiders

Simple Pin Shop

Our YouTube channel – tons of Pinterest tutorials

Rachel Farnsworth started 2026 with an announcement that she was “quiet quitting” blogging. Not because she didn’t want to invest in the community that she had built over the last 10  years, but because she wanted to invest more. Learn why she changed course and what 2026 holds for her. 

Intro - Call to Action: 

You know, one of the questions I get asked most often is: "Kate, how do I actually make Pinterest work for my business without spending hours every single day on it?"

And here's the truth - Pinterest is one of the most powerful cold-traffic platforms out there for creators and shop owners. But it requires a consistent strategy, fresh content, and staying on top of all the platform changes. And let's be honest... most of us don't have time for that.

That's exactly why we created our Pinterest management services at Simple Pin Media.

For over twelve years, we've been managing Pinterest accounts for clients - from bloggers and content creators to course creators and ecommerce businesses. We handle everything: the strategy, the pin creation, the scheduling, the analytics, the optimization, and Ads.

And here's what sets us apart: we're constantly learning, strategizing, and pivoting our approach based on what's actually working on Pinterest right now. When the platform changes, we adapt immediately - and all of our clients benefit from that expertise.

If you're tired of Pinterest being on your never-ending to-do list, or you've tried DIY-ing it and just aren't seeing the results you want, we can help.

Head to simplepinmedia.com to learn more about our management services and see if we're a good fit. That's simplepinmedia.com.

Connect with Rachel at Stay at Home Chef

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Here are some helpful links from the podcast:

🗒️To get full show notes, visit Simple Pin Media and click on articles. 

🗞️Make sure you grab our newsletter – Pinterest Made Simple

📌 Looking to hire the best Pinterest marketing team? Here is a list of the services we offer. Book a discovery call with our team. 

🎬 New to Pinterest → get started here with 4 videos! 

Other helpful links:

Simple Pin Insiders

Simple Pin Shop

Our YouTube channel – tons of Pinterest tutorials

DM us on Instagram

Where is Pinterest going and how does it serve creators as their founding business adopters? Our team has actively been investing in e-commerce sellers, as Pinterest has given us signals since 2022 that it is headed in that direction. From the hiring of Bill Ready from PayPal and Venmo and his stacking of the C-suite team with other e-commerce-forward C-suite leaders, the writing was on the wall. But that leaves the big question of where do creators fit into all of this. Do people on Pinterest still find them discoverable? 

Lately, I’ve been playing around on Pinterest more as a user. Just to see what is coming up for me. Of course, the AI slop which is all around the internet, but products are definitely something that comes up strong the moment I give the algorithm any signal that I like.

I’m going to Spain in the fall for my 50th birthday. We’re spending 2 weeks exploring the country with friends and I cannot wait. I’ve already started looking at clothes and new swimsuits. The moment I clicked on a suit, my feed was flooded with resortware and more swim. It was hard to find content. 

But now I’'m searching for tips on Spain and it’s back. 

That being said, search is still alive and well. In fact, Pinterest in the Q4 2025 investor report, said they have more searches than Chat GPT. That’s impressive. Also, users grew to 614 million. 

But something lacked in their report and caused the stock to dip – advertisers impacted by strong headwinds due to tariffs. Those were their words, not mine. What does that mean then? E-commerce sellers on a large scale - think Target and Walmart- were hit hard and pulled back advertising dollars.

Queue a new C-suite member who is specifically targeting small and mid-size businesses for advertising. Those who are selling products are PRIME for spending money on Pinterest Ads. 

Our clients prove this out with our e-commerce sellers having some of the highest ROI in Q4 of 2025. 

Last, I’ll say this. We’re leaning into experimenting with Substack and how to leverage Pinterest for growth of subscribers. We have two accounts running the experiment now and they are eager to prove out this model by going through our accelerator model first and then transitioning into ads. Our team is so curious and excited. 

Is Pinterest dead in 2026? A question I’ve been asked every year. I don’t think so but the old models aren’t work. It’s time to think differently and creatively. 

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Here are some helpful links from the podcast:

🗒️To get full show notes, visit Simple Pin Media and click on articles. 

🗞️Make sure you grab our newsletter – Pinterest Made Simple

📌 Looking to hire the best Pinterest marketing team? Here is a list of the services we offer. Book a discovery call with our team. 

🎬 New to Pinterest → get started here with 4 videos! 

Other helpful links:

Simple Pin Insiders

Simple Pin Shop

Our YouTube channel – tons of Pinterest tutorials

DM us on Instagram

I love email marketing and think it’s really important, but other people hate it and have a hard time embracing why it’s important. Or even how to do it. 

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Here are some helpful links from the podcast:

🗒️To get full show notes, visit Simple Pin Media and click on articles. 

🗞️Make sure you grab our newsletter – Pinterest Made Simple

📌 Looking to hire the best Pinterest marketing team? Here is a list of the services we offer. Book a discovery call with our team. 

🎬 New to Pinterest → get started here with 4 videos! 

Other helpful links:

Simple Pin Insiders

Simple Pin Shop

Our YouTube channel – tons of Pinterest tutorials

DM us on Instagram

In thinking through the best Pinterest strategy, I’m going in with blinders on. What can I learn from my data, my clicks, my saves, my images, my keywords? If I really sat with that, it would go counter to what the online world has trained me to do. Look at what other people are doing, who has the right answer, and how can I follow their rules. More of my thoughts on that.

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Here are some helpful links from the podcast:

🗒️To get full show notes, visit Simple Pin Media and click on articles. 

🗞️Make sure you grab our newsletter – Pinterest Made Simple

📌 Looking to hire the best Pinterest marketing team? Here is a list of the services we offer. Book a discovery call with our team. 

🎬 New to Pinterest → get started here with 4 videos! 

Other helpful links:

Simple Pin Insiders

Simple Pin Shop

Our YouTube channel – tons of Pinterest tutorials

DM us on Instagram

This discussion with Ellen Yin was one for the books. Thought-provoking, very interesting use of Pinterest, and where to take your business in the next year. 

The Next Era of Cubicle to CEO: What's Coming in 2026

Apple Podcasts

YouTube

Winning Mrs. Oregon America (and why I decided to compete in my first pageant)

Apple Podcasts

YouTube

Hosting an Event? Our Pop-Up community Playbook to Elevate the Attendee Experience

Links:

• Join 23K+ entrepreneurs who read The CEO-StandUp, a free weekly case study newsletter: https://cubicletoceo.co
• Subscribe to the show: https://cubicletoceo.co/podcast (this will eventually be converted into a sales page for the premium podcast subscription)
• Connect with Ellen & Cubicle to CEO:
  • https://instagram.com/cubicletoceo
  • https://instagram.com/missellenyin

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Here are some helpful links from the podcast:

🗒️To get full show notes, visit Simple Pin Media and click on articles. 

🗞️Make sure you grab our newsletter – Pinterest Made Simple

📌 Looking to hire the best Pinterest marketing team? Here is a list of the services we offer. Book a discovery call with our team. 

🎬 New to Pinterest → get started here with 4 videos! 

Other helpful links:

Simple Pin Insiders

Simple Pin Shop

Our YouTube channel – tons of Pinterest tutorials

DM us on Instagram

Founders' story and the need to tell that story, how, and what it looks like. I’m so fascinated by this movement in 2026 that I’m still thinking about how it can apply to Pinterest marketing. Here are my thoughts. 

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Here are some helpful links from the podcast:

🗒️To get full show notes, visit Simple Pin Media and click on articles. 

🗞️Make sure you grab our newsletter – Pinterest Made Simple

📌 Looking to hire the best Pinterest marketing team? Here is a list of the services we offer. Book a discovery call with our team. 

🎬 New to Pinterest → get started here with 4 videos! 

Other helpful links:

Simple Pin Shop

Our YouTube channel – tons of Pinterest tutorials

DM us on Instagram

When I first learned about Work Play Branding, I instantly loved their business model, but what made me fall in love with them even more is how they are creatively using Pinterest as a collaborative tool with their clients. To surface the clients' ideals in photos and pictures, to be able to support their photographers and designers to give the clients exactly what they are looking for. We’re going to dive into an interview with their founder and CEO Lyrik Fryer. 

WorkPlay Branding 

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Here are some helpful links from the podcast:

🗒️To get full show notes, visit Simple Pin Media and click on articles. 

🗞️Make sure you grab our newsletter – Pinterest Made Simple

📌 Looking to hire the best Pinterest marketing team? Here is a list of the services we offer. Book a discovery call with our team. 

🎬 New to Pinterest → get started here with 4 videos! 

Other helpful links:

Simple Pin Shop

Our YouTube channel – tons of Pinterest tutorials

DM us on Instagram

Human connection is still needed. Trust recession and AI picking up on nuance. In this quick take, I just want to remind you that you bring something valuable to the table that AI can’t replace. Lean into that big time as you go through 2026

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Here are some helpful links from the podcast:

🗒️To get full show notes, visit Simple Pin Media and click on articles. 

🗞️Make sure you grab our newsletter – Pinterest Made Simple

📌 Looking to hire the best Pinterest marketing team? Here is a list of the services we offer. Book a discovery call with our team. 

🎬 New to Pinterest → get started here with 4 videos! 

Other helpful links:

Simple Pin Shop

Our YouTube channel – tons of Pinterest tutorials

DM us on Instagram

AI is taking over many conversations and platforms. It’s been an active conversation as it relates to Pinterest, but there is room for us to see it in a positive rather than a negative light. That’s what Meaghan Williamson and I are chatting about in this episode. 

Podcast we mentioned - The Last Intervention:

• https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-last-invention/id1839942885 
• or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvwphwviRgA 

Meagan Williamson 

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Here are some helpful links from the podcast:

🗒️To get full show notes, visit Simple Pin Media and click on articles. 

🗞️Make sure you grab our newsletter – Pinterest Made Simple

📌 Looking to hire the best Pinterest marketing team? Here is a list of the services we offer. Book a discovery call with our team. 

🎬 New to Pinterest → get started here with 4 videos! 

Other helpful links:

Simple Pin Shop

Our YouTube channel – tons of Pinterest tutorials

DM us on Instagram

Your 5-minute dose of Pinterest marketing in real time. Twice a month, Kate Ahl shares her unfiltered thoughts on the latest Pinterest trends and updates that matter to your business. Quick insights from the founder of Simple Pin Media—because you don't have time for fluff.

Pinterest Predicts 2026

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Here are some helpful links from the podcast:

🗒️To get full show notes, visit Simple Pin Media and click on articles. 

🗞️Make sure you grab our newsletter – Pinterest Made Simple

📌 Looking to hire the best Pinterest marketing team? Here is a list of the services we offer. Book a discovery call with our team. 

🎬 New to Pinterest → get started here with 4 videos! 

Other helpful links:

Simple Pin Shop

Our YouTube channel – tons of Pinterest tutorials

DM us on Instagram