LinkedIn

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 :)

Tell me you live digital marketing 24/7 without telling me what you do.

Well that's a first.

But I know what it's like to do a goof.

One of my favourite stories is about the time the Chief Creative Officer of Google APAC took the team out for drinks and food in Tokyo.

He was a classic "old-school" ad man and was enjoying himself regaling the team about a "shoot" he was on.

Picture me:

A digital nerd with a media buying background that hailed from country Victoria on the other side of the world with some Heavy Hitters™

My question:
"What were you hunting?"

The withering look was enough to fell a tree.

We never hit it off and I remember reacting really emotionally when things got unfair (see: angsty online outburst).

But it takes all sorts -

And some people legit work with physical magnets in the startup space.

Here’s 3 things that didn’t go together in the ecosystem a decade ago -

Startups
Basketball
Networking

And now…like an unfurling blanket getting laid out in anticipation for a picnic:

ITS ON.

I won’t tell you how much I love it.

Or that there’s great chats.

Or that the endorphins do wonders for your rizz.

What I will say is there’s some spots left for this Thursday morning and I’d love to see you there.

I will be running a Farmers2Founders workshop straight after from my laptop so make the sweat worth it 🙌

I have 528 books sitting on my Kindle.

Over 300 of them have been completed (by me).

Now I'm going to give you one sentence reviews of 10 of them.

See if there's any we disagree on:

1. My Cat Is More Impressive than Your Baby - Matthew Inman - a comic tour de force by one of the Internet's best illustrators

    
2. Reboot - Jerry Colonna - successful tech leader learns it all leads back to childhoods and passes on this knowledge to other tech leaders

  
3. Mollys Game - Molly Bloom - smart woman crafts underground games of poker in order to win big (and almost loses everything)
  
  
4. Turning Pro - Steven Pressfield - I remember reading this 8 years ago and can still remember the goosebumps induced from a sentence that spiked into my soul

  
5. The 28 Day Alcohol Free Challenge - Andy Ramage & Ruari Fairbairns - a playbook for getting through the early period of sobriety (I've done significantly more than this now)
  
  
6. Loving What Is - Byron Katie - every time I think I know better than someone I think of this book and ask "is it true?"
  
  
7. Conspiracy - Ryan Holiday - during the promotion of this book, Ryan said "this is my best work yet", I'm glad he was wrong
  
  
8. Built to Sell - John Warrillow - I have read and thought about this book an inordinate of hours since and I'm still not there
  
  
9. Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier - Kevin Kelly - I am sure this impactful as a coffee table book - but as an ebook the pithy quotes make for a deeply unsatisfying read
  
  
10. Bird By Bird - Anne Lamott - a meditation on writing delivered through the lens of a mother's life lessons


The invitation to disagree wasn't legitimate.

It was only device to engage in order to keep the good times scrolling.

Go read a book instead 😘

I'm serious.

I talk to a lot of founders who say "I can't write on LinkedIn"

And the way you learn to write is by reading.

And the way you learn to read consistently is through practice.

📸 old snap of me filming content next to old books, that I have not read as its not my study

adding "marshy" to my LinkedIn name was to make it easy for new meets to decide whether they want to call me by my name or my nickname...

what's now happened in new meets:

"do you prefer marshy or Luke"

I do not care.

If I had a preference I wouldn't have added it right?

Why don't you put your neck on the line and ROLL WITH A CHOICE?

of course -

this can backfire

I was an interview recently

and kept referring to naomi as Megan -

I realised afterwards and corrected myself and Naomi said it was fine

so if referring to someone by the WRONG NAME is fine in an interview, I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be bothered by being called Luke or Marshy when both are in the linkedin naming field.

But dear reader,

there has been another unexpected victory from deploying this method.

those sneaky scraping people are now callling me Luke "Marshy" in their outreach playbooks

and that is very helpful because I can quickly relegate to a bin named "automated and low-effort"

in you go!

🚮💨

has anyone else played with their moniker and reaped unexpected benefits?

I'm looking at you - emoji crew 🥷🏾 ✨🕺🏼

p.s. still in the interview loops on that one so *ahem* better mind what I say

I'm 42. I started consulting after quitting Google 13 years ago. I've worked in Singapore, Sydney, and Melbourne. I live semi-rurally with my young family and I love it.

I do more consulting than jobs. But have held great roles at Facebook, Tiger Pistol, Whispir, and Vizeum.

Recent projects:
- fractional engagements building growth systems for customers with a set up, monthly fee, and performance component
- coaching founders through Startupbootcamp and Farmers2Founders
- board responsibilities and advocacy on behalf of SANE

~

Here's my day2day:
- 6am - wake and meditate first thing
- 6:30-8:30am - getting breakfast for our twin boys, dressing them, doing a workout (strength or running)
- 8-11.30am - deep work with no meetings - usually client work or content creation
- 11.30-3.30pm - meetings, short lunch
- 3.30-5.30pm - more shallow work - email responses, chasing, proposal writing
- 5.30pm-8pm - family time with baths, dinner, play, reading, pyjamas and toddler-wrangling
- 8-9.15pm - check in with G, watch a show (shout out Slow Horses), read/scroll/play Slay the Spire
- 9.30 - bed

Every month:
- I'll have about 20 "random" meetings - friends and randoms reaching out with questions, requests for help, and networking
- 5-7 new business meetings a month - I'll close 20-30% of them
- about 15 posts a month on LinkedIn,
- 3-6 speaking engagements depending on capacity

~~

Where I get my business:
social connects - spotting things in communities I'm active in and connecting the dots
referrals - people know what I can do and send it my way
inbound - people find me and ask for something
networking like a mofo

What my funnel/sales process looks like:
Day 1: Connect online and chat - I send booking link
Day 2: Do a chat, I ask a tonne of questions and interrupt kindly to do my best to help
Day 3-14: Back and forth, follow-up meetings, proposal (there's a heavy education piece to what I do)
Day 15-28: Sign off or ghosting depending on the lunar cycle

What typical engagements look like:
- 3-6 months
- scope and outcome agreed to
- set up fee, monthly fee, software costs, and performance goals - ranging $5-15k depending on complexity needed
- offboarding encouraged with monthly retainer for advisory

~~

The toolkit (couldn't fit all)
Xero - my finances
Kit - my newsletter
Apify - where we have more fun
n8n - what make fun scalable and spicy
Airtable - rapid databases for the above
Webflow - my site
Smartlead - my outbound goto
Lovable - vibe coding assets
Claude / Perplexity / Gemini - my LLM go to depending

~~

Why I work like this:
.. I get more interesting opportunities - there aren't many jobs that fit this skill set (senior and hands-on)
.. flexibility for working at home and being present with my family
.. keeps me sharp - I'm one of the best in ANZ and like staying that way

~~

P.S. Happy to answer anything - I'm an open book.

P.P.S. Thanks to Matteo Tittarelli ⚡️ for this one - I told you I would steal it (GTM) bro 👊

Let's start the week with a fun rant on an easy target -
a 20 y.o. trying to sell AI + automation in Portugal.

Here are some numbers:

- built an AI voice solution
- 9k video views
- nearly 1k cold emails
- zero responses

Their conclusion - it doesn't work.

The funny part is - I could talk to an executive leader or technical operator in the AI space who saw these numbers - and there's a good chance they would arrive at the same conclusion.

But that's not how pushing a new solution works.

The new solution is about 5% of the job.

Anyone can hawk flavour of the month: see crypto.

It takes an experienced listener to marshall a solution through.

How you actually do it (applies to cold selling, change management, pushing a new initiative through, and just about anything that requires significant change and discomfort):

1. Seek to deeply understand the problem
2. Listen deeply
3. Interrogate the problem and unearth as much information about the problem as you can as succinctly as possible
4. Make sure the person/prospect/company feels heard
5. Replay your understanding of the problem back to them and focus on uncovering any gaps in understanding
6. Interject intelligently in a way that guides them towards your solution (most newbies start here - and it's not intelligent)
7. Remove all of the obstacles that arise along the way (if you are experienced you will anticipate and be ready for these)
8. Sell the solution and deliver

That's a skill.

That's something that can be developed.

That's why it's hard to sell these things (not because it doesn't work - it does).

And that's why people who are suddenly freelancing are in mountains of pain right now because they haven't had to focus on the above much before (oooh didn't see spicy throwdown coming did you?)

Am I wrong?

Given recent OpenAI movements - the chess pieces on market evaluations seems even more prescient than before. They're playing the monopoly game.

I also look at my own growth experiments and what's working, and what I would do if I wanted to start learning AI today (psssst, there's still time 🤣)

3 shares on work, opportunities, and job chats for a Friday:

1. A traditional company posted one of the best throw downs I’ve seen in a job ad. We want the best, build a growth engine from scratch, relocation on offer and prove it. I threw my hat into the ring and got auto-rejected. I know how these things work. I emailed them asking them to reconsider and why, and followed up on the phone. Went into the interview loop and they’re going in another direction, okay byeeeee you don’t want the best 🫶

2. A prospect saw I posted about looking for meaty opps and naturally it came up next chat. I said I can’t control the outcomes of those. I’m just clear about the security I’m looking for and the care and diligence I treat my clients with independently of those events. They signed last week.

3. I had a small technical project blow back in my face with data manipulation challenges, and a spanking by a certain platform for playing in the grey. It’s sucked but I am doing everything I can to make good on the project and that’s the game.

—

We also got clapped on the court this week with our first match back but at least I can run in the sun now.

Go get it.

Why relying on just your best case and worst case are horrible examples to unlock your best marketing.

Embrace the messy middle.

Personal assistant AI content on YouTube is spew central 🤮
 
I know this because every week I trawl through content looking for interesting angles, topics, and things to cover in my weekly newsletter.
 
They feature ornate multi-prong spiderweb workflows that act like Jarvis for reviewing emails, researching things, and booking meetings.
 
I scratch my head when I watch these things because there's nothing about the presenter's demeanour, delivery, or direction that conveys to me that what they built is grounded in utility - it's just a cool thing they built.
 
Then there's the work that ToothFairyAI does.

Robust, secure, completely customisable, and built with the needs of enterprise systems in-mind and from the ground up.
 
It can do personal assistant things - but it's not easy to set up without knowledge of how IT systems work.
 
Well I've been playing with Factory and it's kind of doing the things I've wanted to do with agents and AI but in a way that just clicks.
 
I've set up different channels in my personal Slack for:

# Automations
# Content ideas
# Braindumps
# Meeting notes
# Coding projects
 
Factory connects into this, as well as being accessible via the web, and my IDE (VS Code).
 
I have an agents file set up against each of these, and a master agents file for sorting and managing.
 
Right now I can just dump things in as I'm on the move, think of something, or want to save something for later.
 
Ways this unfolds:

~ Talking into my phone after a face-to-face and recording the actions into the channel. It can check for names and details, and attempt to update my CRM if it recognises mentions
 
~~ Make amends and adjustments to things I've spun up in Lovable, exported to Github, and then continued to tweak (such as a quiz app and cost calculator)
 
~~~ Captured ideas and thoughts and braindumps that I've word-vomited (superwhisper) so that I can see if there's any patterns or recurrent problems coming up (it's also great to just let it out)
 
~~~~ I wanted to investigate "content types" and find out if there's a library of these available, it researched what was available, and then sent me some ideas for improving such a thing while I watched a movie at the cinema (One Battle After Another is awesome and deserving of the hype btw)
 
It's all linked and coordinated through my GitHub, it isn't a perfect system.
 
But it's my system, and I keep seeing ways I can make this better for my newsletter, consulting projects, and managing my day-to-day life.
 
The capabilities are all there, and the only thing holding it back from improving is time, my imagination, and my ability to continue thinking of ways to improve the system and apply them.
 
There's no need to rush here, and given how deep I've gone learning this stuff in public, I feel like the benefits they bring to me and my business will continue to compound from here.
 
Is anyone else nerding out in this way?

This is what hustle looks like. Coffee chat, straight to the next call.

I was chatting to someone new to freelance consulting and loved working with them in the past.

So I tried to help them with hunting, BD, and what the "chase" looks like and why it's important.

It is learnable, and helps you in absolutely everything.

It's not for everyone though and I try to manage newbie expectations!

One thing that came up is packaging up what this is and offering it to people so I thought I would throw it out there and see if there's demand for this.

I'll run a recorded workshop and teach everything I know about hunting and business development for new consultants.

My asks:
- do you know anyone who wants this?
- have you got any questions you want answered?

Rather than pitch - I'll try and answer the questions in-thread as best I can without chasing you.

It's hard enough being brave enough to ask the questions let alone have an experienced hunter chase you down for engaging 🤣

I have nfi if this will work or not but happy to put it out there !

There's more competition for attention than ever before.

We have the proliferation of AI tools and capabilities to thank for that.

And since putting out there "hey - a marshy-sized role would be nice universe because I'm interviewing"...

My consulting clients have come back enmasse.

Go figure?!

So let me share what I'm seeing -

FIRST:
Competition is great, if you are great.

One offshoot of being inundated with crap as a decision-maker, is that when you do make the effort, and demonstrate value thoughtfully -

You are going to cut through!

The top sales professionals know this already - and have been working angles for years.

At Whispir - I went through a nonprofit tech company's documentation, terms, and what they were on-billing their customers for SMS (a part of their solution they didn't own).

The opening - I notice you're charging your clients this many cents, I'm guessing you're paying that many cents, and would you like to explore a deal where we can do it for this many cents?

He took the call because it made sense.

SECOND:
Tools make it possible to deliver this kind of value - but it needs the expertise and oversight.

Just because you can find a singing competition demo video online that the prospect did as a kid, doesn't mean you should reference it (actual example).

A seasoned operator knows the market, knows what's important, and can flex that knowledge against new capabilities to stand out.

I'm adding that expertise to the capability and having a blast with it.

THIRD:
The market in AU is way behind.

I speak to operators about AI and talk about capability and am often met with a bemused look.

Oh I didn't know that.
What's that called again?
Why would you do that when you can use this?

The literacy is low.

There's a part of me that hates all of this unfolding, but a larger part that goes hard on the learning because that's what you need to do.

If you're in a function that touches customers you need to be learning as you go.

Continually.

--

So that's what's funking with my jive of late and I'll keep helping partners who "get it" or want to get it.

Never underestimate the power of clear communication when the world is receiving anything but.

One of the most important skills my coach works with me on is pattern recognition.

He says that you can solve 99% of problems if you know what's coming, can anticipate it, be prepared for it, and maximise upsides while reducing downsides.

The way he refines this is through contstant introspection.

I am definitely better at spotting patterns than I was two years ago, and I think it's gone up even more over the last six months as I dig into it more and more.

One thing about spotting things is that you get good at linking one disparate thing to a thing from a completely different area.

That's also how innovation works.

But never in a million years did I believe that one day my terrible watermelon joke would cross paths with a bonafide watermelon tech startup.

Sometimes you just have to follow the juice 🍉 💦

If you want to get a sense of hype versus winning in AI, I revisited startups that started with a bang...

and are no longer operating.

A lot can happen in 2 years.

Grow where others don't.

One thing I grapple with a lot is:

Marshy - you're an expert on early growth, how do you go to sleep at night knowing you're accelerating capitalism and one of the very problems you resent?

My answer to myself:

Very well.

It's not either/or or black/white.

Learning how to beat players at their own game requires learning and application of the game to find where the leverage it is.

I wish it wasn't this way but desire does not equal reality.

The example in the video was an extremely climate-friendly alternative where the gorilla in the room simply doesn't care.

Instead of just selling/trying to work with a gorilla - I found some other pathways she can explore and still win.

It was clearly a fun conversation.

That feeling when you say you’re looking for the right job and all your freelance ghosters come out of the woodwork 👻

There's an open role at Who Gives A Crap for a GM, Global Growth Marketing.
 
This video is not an application for that role.
 
It's an application for a similar role in 2016.
 
I was post-Facebook, post-CHEP stint - and trying to figure out what I wanted to do next while throwing my hat into the ring at a cool company.
 
It never went anywhere and I'm not sure I was a great fit at the time.
 
I've learned a tonne more about myself, grown more into a leader, and I'm in a far better spot than then (which was still okay to be honest!)
 
Because I have zero shame, I'm sharing it in the hope it will attract your eyeballs.
 
I want to do that because I'm in-market for a meaty Marshy-sized role right now.
 
I'm talking to a number of organisations already (and threw my hat into the ring for the aforementioned crap crew role) and wanted to open up a bit more in case there's other great fits.
 
Here's what I'm great at:

> Relationship building
> Learning cutting edge technologies and turning them into experiments and projects that lead to growth
> Taking data and information of all sorts and synthesising it down into actionable moves
> Finding and unlocking opportunities
> Getting people around me excited about the direction we're going in
 
What I'm looking for:

-- A part-time or full-time role that works in or with exciting technology
-- A novel, interesting, and hard-to-solve challenge
-- A chance to work with and build out a high-performing team
-- An opportunity to be part of something much bigger than me
-- An opportunity that connects to impact in some way (helps make the planet better, improves people's health, or creates wealth in a way that opens up more opportunities to create that impact)
 
What I can bring to your business:

+ Best in-market growth nous - I have worked on such a broad range of businesses that I see patterns and ways to lever things open that other people can't see

+ A real desire to invest in and develop the best people - the vast majority of talent I've worked with I have left far better off than when I started working with them, and the people I've let down in the past were painful lessons that I've worked hard at addressing and ensuring I can do better by people like them next time

+ Executive-level leadership with the ability to get on the tools and GSD - I'm a bonafide full-stack marketer who is just as comfortable building new systems as he is addressing boards and reporting on numbers
 
I to'ed and fro'ed about putting this out to the universe because I'm an active freelance consultant and have current clients and prospects in pipeline who may see this.
 
The reality is the bar is high - I want to work with people and high potential, and I'm comfortable continuing my consulting for as long as I need to get the above.
 
If you're reading this and know something then let me know, and if you really want to help and have worked with me feel free to leave some sweet social proof on this call-to-arms.
 
Thanks 🫶🏻

Different Friday today.

G and I are off to do a course to learn how to mend fences.

We’re likely going to be living in Kangaroo Ground a while longer so I need to learn this stuff and it’s a welcome change from rabbiting on about tech, growth, and automations.

I can feel the nods of approval from my Gippsland family from here.

Wondering what the deal is with agent optimised content?
Want to see what a good father's day looks like?
Wondering why I'm mentioning such day 11 days later?

All is revealed in the latest (LinkedIn edition) of AI versus Marshy.

Most posts are written by AI.

And here’s the thing:

^^ no that’s the tell…

The number of posts with those 3-4 words strung together in the last 12 months has gone up 372%

But let me tell you what they’re not telling you—

They wrote the post with AI.

Let me ask you this though:

How many thoughts leadershipz posts feature kangaroos.

That’s where the real gains are gained.

What’s your marsupial appreciation strategy for Q4?

I've spoken to 100s (if not 1000s) of founders.

And have been a full-time consultant for 6+ years (10+ if you include on/off between roles).

It's 2025.

And I still smile when a founder tells me "and a new website is on its way".

... and pray tell - where do you think all of your traffic coming from?

Things that are more useful than a website for an early-stage business:

- volume of conversations
- a list
- a google business profile (it gets 300% more traffic)
- a personal linkedin profile popping off
- an email newsletter or distribution list
- partnerships
- a coachable mindset

etc
etc

A website is a shiny business card and one of 101 different signals an interested party *might* look at in deciding whether or not to buy from you.

There are extremely valid ways to get more traffic to a website but if you're early stage you're unlikely to have the budget or expertise for it.

📸 me signing off from another coaching call with founders - who I am not referring to about the above btw you guys were great!

Marketers will be looking for a new job in 3 years.
 
There's too much change.
 
I speak to people all day and they say things like:
 
"How do I keep up?"

"I don't even know where to start..."

"I didn't know you could even do that"
 
Case in point - I presented at DigiMarCon - Digital Marketing, Media and Advertising Conferences & Exhibitions a month ago and the commentary was like this.
 
One person afterwards:
 
"I didn't follow any of that but it sounded good"
 
Now:

I'm not proud of presenting complex information and losing some of my audience.
 
So let me break it down:
 
1. The online world is changing thanks to generative AI, spam, AI slop, and increasingly cheaper to use tools

2. Traditional online marketing (see: paid ads, SEO, social media, email) is getting hit hard by the above

3. Marketers are scrambling to solve 2 but the goal posts keep shifting because of 1
 
Here's what I did instead: learn new skills and applied them.
 
The slides you see are a crash course on how you can go about applying things if you're stuck.
 
What kind of job do you want to be looking for in 3 years time?

Yesterday I snuck away from the house to visit the launch of Rob Gerrand’s latest book: The Green Job.

It’s a detective mystery that starts with a poisoning, and unfolds from there into travel, corporate espionage, and intrigue.

3 things I took away from the visit:

1. Being in a book store feels lovely

2. It’s fun seeing a colleague light up with something else dear to them (Rob’s a fellow board member @ SANE)

3. If you’re ever in Acland St Kilda grab the Baby Kugel cake from Monarch, ask them to heat it in the microwave, then gorge yourself stupid with one of the meltiest and chocolatiest delicious you have ever put in your face 🤤

Well done mate and it prompted some idea babies for this wordsmith too 🙏

How do I get more leads?

Some food for thought.

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Growth Partner at ToothFairyAI!

Have been collaborating with the team for a couple of months now and am pleased to be helping roll out AI agent solutions that respect the market's desires for secure solutions that protect data.

Any questions lmk :)

Neat ADHD tricks, good build in public-ers, and vibe coding and what it has to do with lead gen.

I was in two different worlds yesterday.
 
So if you'll humour me, pull up a pew, and gather round as Marshy regales you about his Big Day™️.
 
5am - my brain wakes up because it knows the alarms are going to go off in 15 and 16 (precise) minutes and the taxi is coming in 45 minutes so hop to it and get dressed and get going
 
7.10am - flight taking off for Brisbane because I'm headed to TheMHS Learning Network Inc. conference to speak on a panel
 
9am-ish - touchdown - yes please, cab to the conference centre and away we go
 
9.30am - bump into the ever spritely Gayle McNaught from SANE and swap notes and talk about how her presentation went. In case you didn't know - there was some revolting language coming from mainstream media in the wake of the Bondi Junction stabbings and the team were on the front foot about what it actually means to live with complex mental health, what it doesn't mean, and why this is very important. Gayle's presentation was a deep-dive on how that unfolded and it went very well.
 
10am - I had a pesky data challenge that was requiring some deep focus so I put on my Anthony Pappa Balance Festival Croatia set and pounded through it in with earphones in, I must have been in a weird position because a passerby suggested there is a "working area" but please - when I'm zoned in, pesky things like seating positions, time of day, and ergonomics are tertiary concerns to this hyperfocused brain (FYI I solved the challenge).
 
11am - saw our CEO Rachel Green and asked "hey - while we're F2F is there anything we should catch-up on?" turns out there is metric ship tonnes and I'm constantly in awe of the work SANE does and I'm very grateful to have her steering the ship
 
11.30am - the team is on. Presenting the Digital Navigation report results alongside Nous Group. This is through, co-designed thinking that breaks down why health supports don't need another silo'ed program or initiative, why it's weird to have this fragmented system that delivers different flavours of service depending on whether people are arriving from a hospital, support service, primary health network, or online search, and just how alienating discovering the right kind of help can be. Do you want to know what the % of mental health support directories that are manually maintained by staff is? It's 83%. In 2025. When an ecommerce company has so much data on you it can predict when your next outfit splurge is coming down to the day.
Imagine, if that same energy and resource was expended on you know - helping people recover and thrive in our society when they need help the most?

Imagine. So that's what I ranted about on stage.
 
1pm - thank you and out the door to the airport. I'm not a cut it fine guy normally.
 
4.30pm - but made sure I was back in Melbourne by about now to make it to ToothFairyAI's event co-hosted with Groq. Which was a big deal.
 
(continued)

I wasn’t expecting to read this on Reddit this morning.

I especially didn’t expect to read it in /r/sales.

But game sees game.

A high stakes deal.
The champion leaving the business.
And getting ghosted on everything for 90+ days.

Then they throw caution to the wind.
I imagine the protagonist mumbled something to themselves like “not today”.
And they threw a Hail Mary to get the cut through in the form of a thoughtful, scribbled, handwritten note.

They played it back to the CFO.
Used the customer’s language, their challenges, and signposted why this gets rid of problems 1, 2, and 3.
They closed and wrote an anonymous story because the people around them don’t understand it.

I shared it with the Tech Sales ANZ community run by Pointer.

Some of the comments:

"This is awesome."
"In a sea of same sh*t this brings the humanity back. Loved reading."
"First time I've heard anyone say that about a reddit post."

I've been there. Being told you don't have what it takes. That maybe you're not cut out for this sort of thing. You can't handle the risk.

But you don't know what good game feels like and reading stories like it reminds me why I'm not doing a full-time job with a salary and working for a boss I can't stand.