LinkedIn

I'll be honest.

When I think: "fast AI adoption" I don't think of my spouse.

Sorry Georgia Hill -

I've been writing about AI for 3 years and barely a peep.

Sure - we had twins, moved house, moved jobs, and broke 3 different limbs in that time (among many other things) but never a peep about AI...

So when you told me you were using the free version of ChatGPT and "its actually good" a few months ago, I smirked.

But then something happened 4 weeks ago:

"Hey - you know how you have the paid versions of different AIs - do you think I would be able to look at one?"

And then OpenClaw happened 🦞 and the Internet melted.

I've done a lot with it already and that's a subject for another time.

But I was like - what if I set it up for Georgie, tell her to just play with it and work things out, and see where it goes.

In the space of a week:

1. Set up group chat and started looking for properties - set to send top 3 picks each Monday

2. G set it up to do the same with her part-time job search

3. Told the bot what her email was - which was DISGUSTINGLY CUTE because it already had her CV where her email was and it had to politely tell her

4. Had a specialist scan (not available at every testing centre) and delegated finding the numbers for who she had to call to the bot

5. Checking on dinner schedules for when I'm home (it's got visibility on my work calendar). Keep in mind I've offered the work calendar visibility in the past and doesn't want to see all the meetings I have - she just wants to know when I'm home

6. Asked for a private chat with the bot so she can keep doing her own thing without bothering me (done)

7. Wants a task list system and I suggested using Amazing Marvin - it has API/customisation-access and I have a lifetime deal - so while there's a learning curve it could pay off with AI.

But...

I'll need to set it up honey it needs an API key.

She then went and found it and gave it to the bot to set up the Amazing Marvin integration.

In a week.

--

I talk to EXTREMELY smart people every day who ask me "how do I get started with Claude?"

Meanwhile my loved one (who teaches people how to ride horses and things all I do for my job is "have meetings") is operating agents at a level of sophistication 80-90% of the people I interview haven't even touched yet.

So yeah - just needed to get that off my chest.

New year, more jobs.
 
For those of you new to this - we track marketing jobs in Australia as spotted on LinkedIn.
 
It's not an exact science - but we're starting to see:

- trends over time in the market

- where hires are located

- what kind of hires they are, and

- get a sense of the direction things are going
 
Some interesting bits for me:

>> An increase in entry-level roles - the whole profession seems to be "pushed down" - less executive/leader roles, more mid-senior roles, and an expectation (rightly or wrongly) that more can be done with less
 
>> Hybrid is there for a third of roles - and there seems to be a gradual reduction in pure remote. The roles we're hiring for with remote see crazy demand where businesses get their pick of the cream of the crop. So if your business can accommodate remote and you're struggling to find your growth specialist - this looks like a viable play
 
>> AI still doesn't get explicitly mentioned in many job descriptions. It's a new world after all. One way we vet for this (I think it's a must to be leaning in and experimenting) is querying what they're doing with AI both inside and outside the job. Often great candidates are investing in things outside just waiting for the pay-off to be able to bring into their roles when its ready.
 
I'll keep playing with the format of this and if it raises any questions or comments please let me know! 🙃

Presented a thing today at Founders Fest First Move by Aussie Founders Club - thanks for having me.

Here’s what I said I think:

1. Things are stupid level capable since Opus 4.5 - see chart

2. An MVP marketing stack/flywheel = regular content, distribution list, regular events, brand kit, and a newsletter

You don’t need AI for this - you can rinse and repeat the above and slay.

3. If you were to use AI - set up master document with 3-layer architecture - it fills gaps you didn’t know you had

4. Connect tools, APIs, MCPs, and LLMs as you like (people sleep on Perplexity)

5. Build your flywheel

(I look forward to pointing back to this post when Pointer is big timeby EOY 🫡)

Have fun and be good to your loved ones 🫶

Marketing jobs ✨

Compare the pair.

Same day.
Same tool.
Results on different sides of the spectrum.

Both using Clawdbot yesterday (OpenClaw isn't going to catch on guys 🦞).

Scenario 1:

Stuck in the foyer to meet a contact for a F2F.
We haven't done this before and I've got takeaway I'm trying to bolt down.

I forgot to grab his number and was waiting for him to see his LinkedIn DMz.

Spoke to my "executive assistant".

Can you get his details for me?

No his phone number - I've got the credits in my GTM stack.

Bingo, phone call made, I'm out of the foyer, we're in business.

Scenario 2:

Actually how many face-to-face things am I doing this week?

4 - and then a big event at FounderFest on Wednesday.

Wut?

FounderFest is on Thursday, no Wednesday.

My bad.

--

You can see why people are confused by AI.

One scenario felt like complete wizardry (tbf combined with my skillz too).

The other felt like my stomach dropping like the time we hired and moved someone from the other side of the world and realised it wasn't going to work out.

I do know there's advantage in keeping up with this stuff and I expect the entire go-to-market function is going to move in this direction.

But c'mon.

Unlike most senior marketers - I LOVE being on the tools.

In large organisations - that's a death sentence:

"Delegate"
"We have an agency for that"
"You wasted your time doing WHAT?"

In an early-stage - it's a matter of survival.

The "tools" in the last few years have grown exponentially - as have the capabilities.

But there's still a lot of ho-hum out there, SLOP, and more than likely overwhelm.

So come to The First Move this Thursday.

Buckle in, and I'll knowledge bomb my way through Claude Code showing you how to build your MVP marketing stack.

I don't do fluff.

And I break things down in a way that features zero hype.

Would love to see you 😘

34 days.
 
Around about now is when New Year's Resolutions start fading.
 
You might notice your motivation to get out of bed earlier fading.
That the gym is appears to be "less full" than it was a couple of weeks ago.
Or your strong career intentions are meeting slightly more resistance.
 
Well this is your call to arms.
Rattle your cage.
Ask yourself "why" they were set in the first place.
 
Was there emotion behind it?
Frustration?
Were you dissatisfied with something and set a big ambition to fight it this time.
 
Well here's the good news:
What you're feeling is the real work.
 
Get curious about that resistance, that ebbing away, and accept that motivations fade.
 
Underneath it is the REAL stuff you need to work through.
 
It's messy.
It's uncomfortable.
And that's where the breakthroughs happen.
 
Trust me, I've been there - I'm allergic to horses you know ;)

On keeping up.

This agency needs a Head of Sales to takeover from the Founder.

Blufire are firing - blufiring?
And winning business.
They also offer a unique model that connects their performance to ROI for the customers they serve.

You're probably (or know someone) from media publisher side, commercial analytics, or an emerging commercial leader at another agency.

It's an integral hire with upside that will make an amazing milestone for the right talent.

Any questions lmk or just go ahead and apply:

https://lnkd.in/gVCBaBnP

3 down, 97 to go.
 
So every Tuesday I'm coming into the city and shouting people coffees ☕️

My intention - learn more about the people I'm connected to (or soon to be connected to) and build momentum as I sail through 2026.

My goal - crank out 100 of these before EOFY.
 
One of the meets last week was with 📖 Ken Thomas.

He's an energetic networker himself (and in a few of those more formalised networking groups)!

We swapped notes on early-stage companies, the mistakes and challenges we see, and why he's fired up to help these kinds of companies set up their sales process and infrastructure before moving away from founder-led sales.

I learned heaps and we managed to chuck in some footy banter (you've been warned).

Want to be part of this sweet caffeinated deal?

You need to be in the CBD and it needs to be a Tuesday.
Have my people talk to your people and I'll sort you out with a booking link.
 
I have to run - another 4 booked today and it's going to be 40-million-degrees today so omg wtf am I doing...

Last week I shared how to set up an early GTM stack using Claude Code, terminal, and live API keys (oh no he didn't!)

You couldn't do this without a lot of pain 6 months ago.

Now you can set up an agentic workflow that takes direction, gets better with feedback, and does the orchestration required for early growth of your business.

We'll be doing a lot more of these over 2025 - join the GTM ANZ community to get first dibs.

p.s. skip to about ~5mins in as you don't need to hear me warming things up

Rant incoming 😘

655 more in December, than in November.
 
I double-taked the data.
 
That's a good English sentence, right? 🤭
 
More marketing jobs in December than November.
 
In case you didn't know -
 
We've sent up a pulse-check to see what's happening in the market and what's trending.
 
It's not an exact science, but seeing what's posted on LinkedIn each month gives me a bit of a steer on marketing job land than I would have otherwise have.
 
Other notes:

=> AI mentions still not strong, growth marketing the most AI-forward role - no surprises there

=> A lot of mid-senior roles out there - I'm guessing teams want more done with less resource

=>Project management, CRM systems, and SEO the most mentioned skills in job descriptions
 
I kinda like making this a regular "thing" - and I'm not sure what will happen with January's data but am predicting a small dip.
 
What do you reckon people?

What happened to me in 2016?
 
Well what didn't happen!?

A huge amount of things to share from - wedding (that's now ended), Bulldogs winning the Grand Final (that's definitely ended), and some audacious high-risk moves.
 
Inlcuding the decision to leave Facebook.
 
I've been watching a lot of Graham Weaver lectures lately - and he says when you leave something and do the harder thing, it gets worse before it gets better.
 
That was absolutely my experience.
 
But it also prompted some big personal questions like:

"Who are you Marshy?"

"What do you actually want?"

"Is this all there is?"
 
Which I can now answer with the utmost confidence knowing who I am, what I'm about, what I'm striving for, and who I'm serving.
 
Yet I'm still grateful for my time at the 'book.
 
I made a lot of friends and catch-up with a good portion still to this day.
 
I got to rumble hand-to-hand with executives with strong agendas and actually challenge, persuade, and befriend them as I figured out what worked being a client partner.
 
I also learned from an incredible manager in Naomi Shepherd, who seemed to strike the right balance between challenging me, letting me just run and do "my thing", and coaching me in scenarios where I just knew I could play better.
 
2016 is this weird inflection point for social media - for most of us oldies there's multitudes of content we can choose from and the idea of just "sharing what's on our mind" came quite naturally.
 
The world feels different now - there's more fragmentation, more algorithms, more AI, and much less authenticity.
 
I look back at that time with gratitude for where I was and newfound understanding of the role it played in leading me to where I am today.
 
Giddy up 🐎

Want to see me build an early GTM stack with Claude Code from terminal?

Well I know what you're thinking...

- What's a GTM?
- What's a terminal?
- What's Claude Code?

Well if you're asking these questions - I'll save you the time - DON'T come to this session.

This for growth operators, founders, technical sales people, technical marketers, and probably cybersec enthusiasts who enjoy torturing themselves.

I'll get hands-on and answer questions with the goal of demystifying what can be an intimidating tool if you didn't grow up with MS-DOS and X-Tree Gold.

https://lnkd.in/dpCjXM6r

Common sense and compassion required here.

Doing the reps 🫡

Are you one of my 100 coffee meets this side of FY26?

I want to buy coffee for:

- new faces working in growth
- leaders in fast-growth companies
- doers who GSD
- people who have their fingers in multiple pies
- anyone I’ve previously worked with
- anyone recommended by my network

Melbourne-CBD and Tuesdays only.

Let’s go 😘

Practice.

Last year I was on a sales call and I bragged to the seller:

“I subscribed to Lovable when it was called GPT Engineer and have locked in legacy pricing”

I leaned back in my chair with an air of smug satisfaction.

Seller:
“I invested in Lovable when it was valued at $15m”

Okay you win that round champ.

But I’m looking forward to winning 2026 with what’s happening at Pointer.

If you want to talk about setting up your company’s growth engine: let’s talk.

But wait until next week, right now I’m learning the hard way that no matter how much you enjoy throwing down classics on your dusty Traktor—

Your twin boys will enjoy trainwrecking them even more and are physically incapable of sharing.

Let’s gooooo 2026.

I have another week off and am back on the 13th.

I reckon I’ll be ready…

Some things I’ve done during the downtime:

- read lots of sci-fi

- plotted and schemed

- turned my phone onto monochrome, instead of keeping me off completely, it reduces my use significantly - a much better result

- eaten too much

- spent nearly all my time with family and loved it

…and getting bloody excited about nailing 2026.

See you there 👋

3, 2, 1… the year is as good as done!

A few challenges:

- going all-in on a startup - I was unable to get the outcome I wanted and moved on

- navigating the ongoing emergence of AI and separating hype from practical

- working through an abundance of opportunities with methodical criteria in order to set things up for 2026

A coupla wins:

- loved my paid speaking gigs - lighting up (and educating) a room has always been a happy place

- crossing paths with some serious founders via coaching

Focus next year:

- growing with Pointer, there’s big plans for GTM, recruiting, people, marketing, and partnerships and it’s great to go into 2026 excited to unleash plans


—


I’ll be reading, writing, hooping, Dadding, and recharging until then 💫

Great writers don’t say “here’s the thing”.

I see your slop and judge.

Mercilessly.

Fin.

2,000+ marketing jobs were advertised here in November.
 
I know because we tracked every single one of them for Pointer.
 
In my chats with Ricky Pearl - we wanted to get a sense of the market data and what's actually happening to identify what value I can add.
 
Here's some of the biggest takeaways:
 
>> AI is only mentioned in <20% of roles, and only a fraction of those are requiring this expertise.

What a folly. In the early roles I've gone to market with - I'm actively screening for it.

"Tell me a project you've done with AI in the last 12 months and what impact its had".

Crappy answers give you things like I've done some prompts in ChatGPT. With stars their eyes light up, they lean in, and cheekily share how they were able to set up XYZ for true leverage.

This tells me hiring managers and the people writing the ads are either hiding what they truly need - or don't know how to hire for it.
 
>> There's lots of mid-senior roles (45% of them).

My hunch here is because teams are shrinking/remaining flat - but the expectation is these hires will be able to do more with the same, or more with less.

Which is funny given the LACK of AI-led language in job descriptions - how are these people going to be able to do that without AI skills?
 
>> Over 50% of roles still ask for Excel skills.

LOL.

As a junior burger at a media agency we used to laugh about what our friends thought we did, versus what we actually did (There were memes IYKYK).
Our friends thought we were having lunches and hanging out with beautiful people. What we were actually doing is pivot tables and vlookups to identify what allocation should go where.

I die a little knowing that some things haven't changed.

But I guarantee you its a proxy for "data literacy" which will only increase in importance as tools keep appearing and disappearing.
  
--
 
More in the slides, and if you want a sticky beak at the full data set - comment "POINTER" and I'll hook a mofo up 👊

What do basketball, startups, and networking have in common?
 
Well it's the trifecta for me and the Melbourne community had a Christmas party yesterday to celebrate.
 
I delight in telling friends that this exists.
 
The combination of endrophins, hooping, and chats with other operators is something special and for someone who lives an alcohol-free life, it's bloody nice not networking over beers and pizza.
 
Big kudos to Brandon Burns for pioneering this in Vic and being the conduit for some great conversations.
 
I won an award for being "cool under pressure" (🤣) and love the trophy.
 
A big thank you to the sponsors that help make it happen too.
 
P.s. If anyone is looking for lots of extra hooping over the Summer lmk - I'll be visiting some pickup games on weekend nights when I can :)

I had a blast nerding out on chaotic early startup GTM with Ben Morrell.

An early hire will never fully “crack the code” for your growth engine, but a great one will help you avoid a lot of mistakes and get you the data, insights, and early traction you need to get to the promised land.

I’ve seen my fair share of challenges over the years and it was fun note-swapping with another talented operator in Europe in Ben!

https://lnkd.in/gbbBcdne

A fat and juicy secret about fractional:

I've made 6 figures worth of billings from just 6 people.

Not clients. Super referrers.

Source: 10 years of my own Xero data (may they burn in an unholy fire 🔥)

6-7 people account for most of my revenue.
All of these people have sent me 5-25+ projects.
Another is over 6 figures alone.

Here's a playbook for finding super referrers:

-> slay your initial project
-> they learn exactly what you can do
-> they know what you do, what its billed for, and how they can bill it
-> they keep you in mind when other clients/similar problems arise

Finding them is harder now than it was when I started because frActIonAL is a trend.

What I would do if I was starting again:

> 5-10 new meetings per week
> Aggressively staying in touch with old contacts/peers/people you worked with (they're the highest value)
> tracking the above until its 2nd nature

Fractional flexibility sounds amazing.

The reality of making it work is harder.

Got another question about this recently and thought I'd spread the holiday cheer 😉

(Yep that's me).

5 a week for 3 months.

I had a nice spike of inbound enquiries after announcing joining Pointer with most of them coming from senior candidates looking for work.

Rather than repeat myself, I'm going to share some "tactics" that can help (rather than me - we're still lining up businesses to work with, and the roles I'm active on are more mid).

1. Get super clear about what *you* want to do - at senior-level this requires going to places you don't want to go to.

The uncomfortable questions you don't ask yourself or only ask yourself in the safety of a therapy room.

A great coach can do this too.

I'm also told ayahuasca does this - but if you need to travel to the other side of the world to "find yourself" maybe that's the part of the problem you should be investigating.

You could also do a lot worse than reading and applying "Building a Winning Career" by William Cowen - it was recommended to me by someone I respect and admire.

2. Get active on back channel.

One way you can do this is by creating a list of 50 dream companies you admire.

Then connect with mutuals in 5 of them each week - the people you connect with will be different depending on whether you're in growth, finance, or customer success - and you should be short, specific, and ask for coffee.

You will get a response rate of 5-30% depending on what level you're at and how thoughtful you've been with your career/networking to date.

3. Repeat this for 12 weeks.

It's boring.

Predictable.

And WILL create NEW opportunities you haven't had access to before.

~~

95% of people ignore stuff like this.

And I'd say 80% of the people who ask me these questions F2F also ignore this.

Then wonder why the same things are happening to them again and again.

This isn't a "market conditions" thing.

It's a learning new skills, taking an interest in people, and creating your new destiny thing.

~~

Of course - if you're a business on the other side looking for the mercurial talent that can step-change things then there's a good percentage chance I can help you now

😘

Are photo dumps a thing on LinkedIn?

Well it's Friday so I'm doing it and happy Friday fuckers:

1. hort innovation sbc showcase with Georgia Hill - good to "showcase" some of the work we do with my number one
2. stupid old switch b0rks the internet when the weather changes
3&4. made the mistake of posting a selfie in Town Hall and got punk'd by old internet clubbing buddies in a Slack channel
5. that's a proper tea
6. have been hit and running the cbd every Tuesday for back-to-back f2f meets - 2 left for the year
7. can 3ball (when not playing in our wednesday comp)

A lot happened this week too:
- Announcing my Marketing recruiter role with Pointer
- Christmas parties with Aussie Founders Club
- Getting a call from a client making sure I'm still working with them (yes)
- Board meeting with SANE 🫶🏻
- About 25 meetings
- Conspiring with Tim Mundy 🎓 🤝

And then come out of all that to learn LaunchVic is ending.

I feel for the staff affected, but have LOVED the f*** it we'll do it ourselves energy that's happened from "the scene" in <24 hours.

Two more weeks to LFGOOOOOOOO 🔥

Christmas came early #grateful #blessed

Here's 1 reason why I'm excited about 2026:
 
I'll be joining the team at Pointer to build out their Marketing function.
 
I met Ricky Pearl years ago - one of the first questions I had asked was about the combined value proposition of recruiting tech sales teams as well as training them.
 
"Its hard" was the short answer.
 
But even harder was the belief that when you put skin in the game and take responsibility for your placement's success - with education and a placement fee that runs over 12 months - it leads to better outcomes for both clients and the team.
 
I've obsessed over such things in growth marketing land.
 
Watched as leaders are swayed to invest in this tech company's flavour of education, or make hires that are high-risk and unlikely to stay.
 
And have thought to myself "surely there's a better way".
 
Well we're keen to figure that out.
 
I'm placing a few roles as we speak and I'll be scaling my existing client work right down after Q1 2025.
 
Let's flipping go 🔥

You literally don't understand marketing until you learn this.


Pattern recognition.

Generative AI has made this worst. No question.

Great data literacy is being able to look at sets of numbers and understand what is likely to happen next.

I wrote about it in a book that was released around the same time as ChatGPT.

There's a section called "Notice" - which is laymans for measurement.

Here's some home truths:

REPEATING THE SAME THING IS ALWAYS GOING TO HAVE DIMINISHING RETURNS.

It never gets better. So that campaign that popped off will perform worse if you run it again. You need to toggle/change/improve/tweak/alter to get a better result.

NOTHING LASTS FOREVER.

Andrew Chen calls it the law of shitty clicks. You have to constantly invent and reinvent new ways to attract and retain new customers. Resting on your laurels in the online world is a recipe for diminishing revenue.

SENSE CHECK NUMBERS THAT ARE TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.

Your 25% accept rate was to 12 people. Your 8 conversions (against 5 actual sales) means the data is wrong. A sample size of your friends isn't going to equate to reality and scale.

A SMALL AND ENGAGED AUDIENCE BEATS A HOLLOW AND MASSIVE AUDIENCE EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK.

Including Blurstday. AI has made this worse. I have lost count of the amount of times I've heard: "we're for everyone". Are you better than oxygen homie? Because that's what you're competing with and even that gets its arse kicked by pollution.

Now.

Go forth and do wonders with your newfound wisdom.

Run away now.

Ta-ta.

9 months, 10 pitches, 1 night.
 
 
I loved going along to the Hort Innovation Australian-Grown Innovation Build Demo Day by Startupbootcamp last night.
 
It was even better having a warm Melbourne night and being able to get away and share some of what we've been working with my beloved G.
 
I was like a proud Dad seeing the startups pitch.
 
For some of them - this is their first dance and exposure to this world and seeing them give it a big crack was really satisfying.
 
A big congrats to all of the startups and I was glad to play a small part in coaching you through your progress 🫶🏻

OpenAI is this generation's Myspace.

It has popularised AI.
Everyone knows the founder.
It's also carrying an unsustainable business model that can only be made good through a buyout.

Myspace popularised social media.
Everyone was friends with Tom.
It sold to News and Tom is doing fine these days.

But the leader rarely wins in the long run.

Apple put MP3s on the map.
Facebook blew up social media.
And someone else will do the same with AI.

Watch this m̶y̶space 😉

here's what I do to learn about AI:

1. write about it in a newsletter - it forces me to get clear about how I'm thinking about its impact and where its fitting in

2. teach clients about it - I get paid to learn faster than them, and apply those learnings for them that's win-win

3. jump between different tools - i trial indiscrimanately, purchase discriminately, and unsubscribe/cancel ruthlessly

4. i talk to peers about it - it gives me a steer on how they're thinking about it in work and what they're doing

5. i watch a lot of youtube + listen to long-form podcasts - there's a lot to keep up with and I've found creators I trust and like

6. i save any great shares and knowledge on topics I'm into - I keep them in Reader and come back to them later

7. i play and experiment with workflows - workflows are much more rigid than agents but enable more predictable outcomes, i put different inputs in until i can get results I'm happy with

8. deliver my own thought leadership in this space - I've done keynote speaking, trained teams, and recorded the YTs

anything I'm missing?

I used to have a 5+ drink minimum rule at Christmas parties.

In agencies, corporates, tech companies... you worked hard and played hard and that was the done thing.

As a sober freelancer (5 years and counting) there's obviously not the same vibe.

Until last year when Aussie Founders Club threw a Christmas bash that was just bloody good fun for someone who has been in the "startup space" for a very long time.

I had so much fun that when Megan Luttrell 🤝 was looking for supporters I was happy to put my hand up and help out :)

LaunchVic are supporting too. Among other magnificent orgs (not Leo though - he was double-booked).

Details:
- Thursday, 4th December
- Cremorne Digital Hub
- Free entry

See you there?

😘

Want to solve your pricing problem in Melbourne?

Here’s evidence from a veteran that Kayla Medica’s pricing masterclass in Melbourne next week is a SMART PURCHASE ✅

Oh you want more?

I’m one of those sickos that actively tracks who is “great at their craft”.

This information isn’t Google-able.

It only comes from back channels and private conversations with operators who know.

One such operator talked about coming into a business and having a lot of work to do across a lot of things.

Except one area -

The product marketing side of things was LOCKED DOWN and TIGHT.

Everything documented.
Everything clear.
Everything made sense.

The operator did what any great operator did -

And sought who was responsible for such magic.

Unfortunately Kayla Medica had left the business by then but had left that STRONG an impression.

I don’t need to tell you how impressive that is nor how impressive her workshop will be.

But if you did need someone to tell you…

You want your AI and data sovereign from Day 0?

✅

No tech bros or megalomaniacs to be seen.

I used to be TERRIFIED of being weird.
 
Or quirky.

Or sharing that I used to play Warhammer as a 14 y.o. and the army I collected was the Undead (fear Nagash! 💀)
 
Obviously that's not the case any more.
 
On one level - I had to do some deeply personal soul searching, work through all my unresolved traumas, and reconnect wtih my True Self.
 
But I ain't going to talk about that sh*t on here.

F*ck that - its Friday!
 
But if you are terrified as well (or have been sometimes) I've got some good news for you.
 
You have nothing to be scared of.
 
One of the amazing things about the dramatic increase in AI slop is...
 
You can just post whatever about whatever your weird is and OWN it.
 
And instead of it disappearing into the aether and you crying because noBoDY EngaGeD witH muH ThoUGhT LeaderSHIps.
 
You are 300% more likely to stand out.
 
Because there's about 300% more crap out there.
 
And you flying your freak flag and getting your freak on is going to -
 
cough allow me to use what some of us in the professional marketing business call -
 
cut through
 
So just go ahead and post it.
 
Thanks to AI you don't have to go and do all your deep and dark mining through unresolved issues to get comfortable posting.
 
📸 friend shared this with me this morning and I am not sure how such a hat would go down at an event but I am game

9 months ago, I took the biggest risk in my career.
 
I worked for near-free on a startup for 5 months.
I banked on myself.
In return for a % of the company if I could turn around its fortunes.
 
It didn't work.
I couldn't deliver the growth we wanted.
And while I protected the downside as much as possible - I put my family at risk.
 
That's not a fun position to be in.
 
So I went back to the drawing board and started generating opportunities to work on.
 
And unlike the receiver of a freshly-minted senior redundancy...
"oh I actually work fractionally MEOW"
 
...I'm actually really good at it.
 
Today - I'm tired. But energised. And I'm seeing things click.
 
Right now - on my plate:
 
Growth systems -
I'm building automated outbound playbooks that don't feel like spam because they're researched to the wahzoo and lead with value-first.
 
Toothfairy AI -
I'm BDMing for enterprise customers who need AI sovereignty + interoperability with their existing stacks and don't want to be sold BS.
 
Probably Genius -
Helping mid-market customers get ahead of their AEO now because the market opportunity for first-movers in this space is better than its ever been for a category that's largely been locked down for the last 4-5 years.
 
Can't say yet 1 -
Helping my friend launch a a solution to a very specific niche and problem. Early signs are good.
 
Can't say yet 2 -
Helping another friend with a < different kind of venture > that's showing promise and we're off to a flyer
 
--
 
Here's my hard truth -

This is unsustainable.
There's only one of me.
I need to automate and offload some of this and by early next year because I want more wood behind less arrows.
 
But right now I'm in the messy middle.

Connecting dots, accelerating into the opportunities grabbing the most traction and taking swing after swing after swing.

Once things pop I'll be doubling and tripling the f*** down 👇🏼
 
Anyone else vibing into the end of the year? 😎

📸 of myself after clearing some of the things in the storage bungalow/office -and being at peas with my situation 💅

On Friday I got to meet a bunch of other growth leaders in a really cool setting at Fitzroy Gardens.

There was...

an air of mystery:
Who is going to be there? What's going to happen?

an air of fear:
Is it going to rain? What will we do?

an air of humour:
What did you say? Did you say PP?

A big thank you to IRL by Amber for sponsoring and the invite.

It was so fun meeting a bunch of new people and swapping growth notes like they were basketball cards at school.

🫶🏻

From a call today:
"I'm a bit long in the tooth"

Them:
"What does that mean?"

Me (sadly):
"It means I'm old."

It's been a weird and wonderful week here at Marshy™️ enterprises, and thought I'd share some good, bad, and ... asky?

Because that's what I tell founders to do all of the time.

GOOD
- Just finished the set up of a growth system for a client that's ambitious in scope + complexity and ready to rip next week with a pilot campaign
- Had a great debut helping a new client on a new venture - the stars aligned and I was able to solve their problem in record time, things aren't normally that quick and more updates on the venture in the months to come
- Our team is top of the ladder in basketball - TOP OF THE LADDER 🪜


BAD
- Productising + operationalising growth systems is obviously hard because the tech, set up, orchestration are all pretty new things combined with client education + management along the way. I had to lag my response on an interested partner while this gets solved. Working through this with my mentor


ASK
- Does anyone know a young, hungry Gen Z who wants to learn + apply AI+marketing+growth and work under one of the best in the business? (it's not me, but nooooo- Thank you!) send me their name and I'll vet them

--

Weekend is looking pretty drizzly here but at least Melbourne is finally getting warmer.

I'm going to spend it at a nice dinner meeting tonight meeting other growth leaders, take our boys to as many parks as humanly possible, and look after G who is crashing out at the wrong time of the week!

📸 from the front yard - that's more gradient all up in that nature than a sunset theme in PowerPoint 🌇

7 things you can do to "stand out" before the end of the year:

(I coached my friend's son through his internship searching and it prompted this list)

1. start posting on linkedin every week - it won't help you now, but building the habit now will pay dividends

2. create a swipe file - grab things you see online and put them in a folder, bookmark them, save to a read-it-later tool etc. getting cold DMs/emails that capture your attention are good (and rare), they will come in handy when you want inspiration later

3. book 2 coffees per week to reconnect with people you haven't been in touch with until the end of the year - it encourages serendipity which helps you stand out

4. scroll through the feed (i'm giving you permission) for 15 minutes and on each post that isn't ai-generated crapola, tag someone you know who might be able to help or can be of use - low-effort referrals like this are NOTHING for you and absolute BOONS for smaller operators you know who appreciate things like this more than you'll ever know

5. throw some broad terms into the job boards (pick one) like "digital", "design" or "ai" - even if they're not related to what you do. have a quick skim and if you think "geez Mary would be good at this one" - ping the job to Mary to reconnect with a "don't know if you're looking but thought of you! let's catch-up soon" - it will literally blow Mary's mind

6. you know those generous clients, referrals, or helpers you had in your life this year? think of 1-3 of the best ones, now message them for their address, tell them to STFU when they say that's not necessary and send them a thank you hamper from Bindle - one contact STILL talks about that hamper and it was 7 years ago - it's worth it and Bindle's an OG in this space and the founder is awesome

7. record yourself on video (<30 seconds) and send it to someone about an opportunity you are TERRIFIED about. you'll likely completely bomb (you're welcome). but you'll forever remember that hit of adrenalin that came when you pushed yourself out of your comfort zone and WENT for it. that feeling gets more familiar and one day you'll be searching for things that are harder willingly

enjoy the rest of your week you filthy animals 😘 🎅🏻

Some of the best leverage gamer energy.

What's this?

When a teenager locks in and spends 6 hours staring at a screen filled with moving colours.

They're locked in because it's engaging AF.

Some of the best operators I've seen have that background, and have been able to leapfrog it into IRL work.

My theory is they've attached that fascination with scoring and levelling up to the game of business and life and reaped the rewards.

Gaming people that fit this brief (hope I'm not outing any of you haha)

🎮 Lisy Kane 🔜 GSTAR - worked with her in the early days and she's gone on to own this energy on any number of levels and shine in the industry

Harry Sanders - former Runescape player who has now mastered SEO and launched into the US. No mean feat and GG sir

Jimmy Grant - we met playing Warhammer and LAN parties and he's now one of the best product people on the planet

Brendon Power - largely a ghost on here because he's so busy levelling up AI for one of the largest businesses in Australia - had dinner with him a few weeks ago and he all but confirmed he has transferred the gamer energy to business winz

--

Yet I'd say these people are also outliers.

I know many more that could never translate that intense interest into more professional endeavours.

What's the trick to this?

📸 check out that OG desktop - if you squint you can see gamer icon relics like Baldur's Gate and Team Fortress 2 😉

An interview question that's happened 2-3 times:

It's worded a bit like this -
"So ahh, you've been a consultant for a while hey?"

Or like this -
"Do you even WANT a job? It's very different you know"

Or like this -
"You realise you'll have to work differently right?"

I know what it's like to work a job moo-chacho.

I have walked away from eye-watering tech-titan salaries twice.

I'm like Kryptonite to the Golden Handcuffs ⛓️‍💥

What the screener doesn't realise (it's nearly always a screener) is that I've been optimising my career for interesting and high-potential for a very LONG time.

It's opened doors I didn't even know existed.

And being able to get through those invisible doors has become a skill unto itself.

Another opportunity passed by a couple of weeks ago - "(we're) leaning less on the pure growth side" - which to be fair is laser-clear feedback.

But I just moved to the next opportunity on the list and started working it.

Yes. Doing things this way is harder.
Yes. I sometimes doubt myself.
Yes. The payoff will happen.

This beast will keep growing stronger until he busts out of the cage.

From Mark's Meta Q3 earnings update:

I found this to be a really weird description of what social media content is.

Let alone - AI generated content.

I've trained my YT algo to help me binge all the latest and greatest re: growth + automation,

Yet when I look at any normie browsing social media the last thing I think is:

"This is really helping them achieve their goals"

It might be helping achieve someone else's though?

🤔

Here’s how I build growth systems:


A machine takes input and delivers output.
A growth machine takes input and delivers growth.
And because it's a system it can be continually improved.

I build them in 5 steps:

1. Discovery
2. Scoping
3. Set up
4. Campaigns
5. Maintaining

__

1. Discovery - the information needs to be uncovered and challenged.

What is the business doing to grow? Is it founder-led? 
What have they invested in already? What does and doesn't work?
What software and tools are they using? Are they using them effectively?

This uncovers how their current sales and marketing works.
It also enables me to understand their level of literacy with systems and AI.

I have been on calls where I need to explain what an API is.

I have also been on calls with CTOs-turned-sales-people and they say: "yep got it" after I show a compicated workflow on-screen.

Tools: Notepad, call recorder (I use Apollo but there's a bunch out there obvs - some of my clients love Fathom.ai)

__

2. Scoping - figuring out the approach.

What tools are needed?
What is going to work best here?
How complex is the job to be done?

Tools: Markdown editor for drafting (I use Typora), Apify, Perplexity for market research, I build my final proposals in Apple Keynote and record a talk-through with Descript

__

3. Set up - the big part.

Setting up how leads are sourced, enriched, and contacted.

The initial campaigns and motions that run initially and how they’re orchestrated.

Crafting the messaging, the offers, and connecting the bits.

Tools: n8n, Smartlead, Airtable, Google Gemini, OpenAI ChatGPT, + more

__

4. Campaigns - understanding what works.

Things rarely get hit out of the park on first swing.

The real expertise is knowing what levers to pull as data comes in to improve the swings.

Continually improving what's run and being willing to switch it up in the event of shooting blanks.

Tools: AdManage.ai, Claude (copy), Slack (comms + alerts) + more

__

5. Maintaining - passing on the knowledge.

Upskilling the team is so important, so offboarding can happen.

The organisation needs to own the system, and I don't like building reliance into an outside consultant (or software).

__

My output as a consultant has gone up dramaticaly as these tools mature, and at the back of my mind is how I can systematise and improve these approaches over time in order to be able to serve more customers.

It's a WIP and enjoy balancing that challenge against the opportunities on the table with others coming through.

Got any feedback on the aproach?

📸 There was a sick boy yesterday who came back home from daycare early - he was eager to apply himself but needs to learn to rest when unwell

I've done about 237 startup workshops. Last night - I did something I hadn't done before.

There were 7 or 8 startups as part of the Galactic Horizon Accelerator and the week before I ran through what early go-to-market looks like.

But after hashing it out with Safiollah Heidari - I asked "why don't we just let it rip and I show them what jumping on the tools looke like?"

So over about 90 minutes the "letting it rip" looked like:

- creating a professional EOI form for doctors to join as an advisor for a medtech startup

- jumping into Apify, prompting up what sorts of problems and challenges parents in neurodivergent families, gathering the pain points from Reddit, and then using AI Flow Chat to spin up ad copy and the accompanying images with NanoBanana for Meta

- finding particular industry ASX100 Annual reports with Perplexity, describing the kind of problem the founder solves to Claude Code, and then getting to batch through the reading of the reports to create angles/entry points for their startup

- finding a traditional industry is under-indexing fairly highly on SEO for software in that niche with Keywords Everywhere and advising the founders that an aggressive AEO play has near-nothing to lose for them

- finding more Head of Supply Chain & Logistics-style people and creating entry points based on a founders existing case study

It was scatter gun chaos.

Only the scatter gun was tightly focused on identifying high-leverage, low-time-spent opportunities that only early-stage startups can truly exploit.

Feedback afterwards:

"That kind of presentation is what is lacking in all startup programs"

and

"Luke shared powerful insights on how early-stage founders can build momentum, understand their audience, and use AI tools effectively to simplify and scale their marketing. His approach made complex strategies feel clear, actionable, and exciting to implement."

I might do more things like this in the future.

And just handover the complete bag of tricks for founders who want to learn quickly how to leverage marketing and AI 🪄

Just holler for a Marshy if that tickles your fancy 🤠

Most pitch decks bore the shit out of people.

There, I said it.

I was just talking to some younger founders about how to nail a 3-minute pitch.

Three minutes isn't much time — or is it?

Here's the framework I shared:

Big bold statement >
Three supporting points >
Circle back

Example:
Start: "Most people in this room are bored by pitches."

Pause. Let the silence do the work.

Then:
Point 1: Most founders lack presentation experience
Point 2: The slide content is genuinely boring
Point 3: Here's the data proving both

Close: "Remember when I said pitches are boring? Well, this one wasn't. And here's what I need from you."

BAM.
This isn't shit I'm making up.

Many moons ago, I used this structure in a presentation for a role.

I started with: "We can generate $80k/month for this company."

Then lots of slides explaining how.

Then: closed with the numbers showing exactly how we'd hit that target.

The rule of threes works because our brains love patterns.

Each point builds on the last.

Everything ladders up to your opening statement.

You get better at pitching by actually doing it (the same applies for writing lurkers).

But having a solid structure makes your practice way more efficient.

Try it in your next pitch.

Big statement. Three points. Circle back. Your ask.

Let me know how it goes.

Bonus points if you deliver a chk-chk boom at the end 💥

(Or watch the video if you want a refresher :)