LinkedIn

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.

If you are sitting there right now and thinking - what's all this AI agent business and how do I build one?

Then this is the post you're looking for.

Grab your calendar, and circle in Friday 19th September and we will literally hold your hand and build one with you at Stone & Chalk.

And the best bit?

(Other than getting to it live face-to-face with my good self).

Is that the ToothFairyAI team will sling you a month's free subscription so you can keep on tinkering, playing, and building with your new hard-won knowledge.

See you there 👋

Had our poker game with high school friends today.

It’s booked years in advance every quarter.

It’s very easy to drop the ball on social when you’re juggling business, young kids, and living further away.

But we regularly do it between Traralgon, Rowville, Berwick, and Kangaroo Ground and the fact it’s in the calendar so consistently means we’re pretty good at honouring it and planning around it.

I do a horrible job of sharing what client work I'm doing.

Someone asked the other day and referenced a post I made and I thought "geeee Marshy get your noggin into gear" - so here's some of the projects I've been running with clients lately:


👾 Building interactive value-based assets for outbound sales and marketing efforts.
I've been building outbound marketing support for a couple of SaaS and have a few more in the pipeline. There isn't really a name for this yet, but I'll review customer CRM data, build a profile of who the ideal client is, enrich it with scraped competitor and market data, and then feed it into LLMs. From that new data I can generate lead magnets like interactive calculators, create new reasons for getting in touch with customers, and create better entry points for starting conversations.

I've been billing this with a set up fee + performance incentives. This approach doesn't really have a good name or shortcut for understanding what's possible. I've just been spinning up demos and proof of concepts for suitable founders and going from there.

  
🧑🏼‍🏫 Coaching founders and emerging business owners through accelerator programs.
I love the energy that comes from founders and I give that energy back. I've been running practical early go-to-market workshops and then delivering hands-on 1:1 coaching with some of the cohorts. I've got a soft-spot for technical founders who start by telling me that they need to amend their product "one more time" and finish with comments like:

 "It's really good to get that, get that direction... And I'm glad it's not start with Facebook ads or anything like that because it's, it's much more practical and actually much more engaging with the people that [need] it."
 

🗓️ Monthly advisory retainers.
 Some clients just want me to share the answers/troubleshoot things and repeat. So I've got a monthly retainer set up where they can drop times in Mondays/Fridays and ask unlimited questions as needed.
  
  
🧚🏽‍♀️ Buddying up with ToothFairy AI.
I've been actively connecting good-fit customers to these agent builders and believe the tech is a breath of fresh air in a sea of AI hype. The agents they produce cover a lot of areas (compliance, QA, research, network administration, governance + more) but more importantly they're tightly controlled and trained only on the data that's ringfenced and allowed.

--

I'm having fun and if any of the above piques your interest I'm happy to share more.

I'm also at a point in the year where I'm wondering if I keep doing the different things with fractional consulting or consolidate into a team and do something bigger. Lots of opportunities on both fronts!

Have a great weekend-a-bobble 👋

📸 from a session I did with some of the Farmers2Founders crew last week. I think I must have said something really boring to Carl Hockey and for that I apologise 🤣

There's people talking about AI, and then there's founders shipping fast and accumulating clients serious about leveraging this tech.

ToothFairyAI have largely been flying under the radar and that changes for you if you decide to come to their live event in Melbourne in collaboration with Groq.

Here's the deets:

https://lnkd.in/gitDkU7z

I'll see you there 👋

#ai #melbourne #cloud

Covering:

- How people hack the press to boost SEO

- A neat hack for producing your website

- Building a lead generation machine presentation

+

information about tomorrow's webinar - building a funnel with AI in 2025 💫

I think part of the fun of these has been:

1. Picking a topic with no idea how it's going to finish,
2. Making it work by the time it's presented
3. Getting great feedback

If you've thought funnels are easy you're wrong.
If you thought AI will do all of the work for you you're also wrong.

What I will show you is how to leverage the living cr*p out of AI to give your funnel the best chance of success.

The other fun part has been creating these ridiculous thumbnails.

Was talking to a friend about navigating recent ADHD diganosis and was helping them understand the difference between knowing and not knowing you have the traits as it presents in the workplace.

old view
Why can't I do this [repetitious thing I've mastered] - it's so simple. This is stupid. What is wrong with me? I've done this 100X and can't do it anymore. Why am I not performing in this job any more? I don't want to leave jobs again. This looks terrible on my resume. What is going to happen next time? I have to go home and tell my... why do other people not seem bothered.

^^ that conversation track takes place in about 2 seconds and is on all of the time

--

new view
My brain goes really fast and requires novelty, stimulation, and challenge. I'm not great at repetitive tasks. I can put systems and guardrails in place for this, but also accept that things can and will slip, and I am human.

I need a long break.

I'm back, what needs to happen now? Oh lol, 16 tabs are open. *close*
Back to doing the thing.

*comes up for air when 45min timer goes off*

Oh wow, I know I want to keep pushing on this but understand I need another long break. Btw I am killing it, good job me.

--

Things are still fallible, but what's changed for me is acceptance of that and realising that's because it's the way my brain is built.

Not only that - but over time I've very actively cultivated work and projects that are challenging, novel, and stimulating and designed a business that accommodates these traits much better.

External ways this has presented itself:

- creating big fast value calls to flex the brain - even if it leads to no extra business (it largely didn't) even having my brain spit growth ideas at someone for 15 minutes is bloody good fun

- running webinars fast - I love the challenge of thinking and compiling a story and making something interesting to other people and breaking it down for them in a playful format. That's not the only way to learn (or even optimal) but the feedback I get from clients is like this:

"that was a good session. It was a fast pace and I think that's a good thing for this cohort."

- working in and around the "startup ecoystem" - founders are trying to solve a 1,000 problems at once and in the early stages they're trying to just see what sticks, over time I've cultivated a lot of IP and knowledge, and best-practice in this space and it's not by accident. It's because my brain LOVES handling 346 of those problems at once, has seen 74 different areas where this has presented before to clients, and knows that 14 different pathways have a likelihood of being successful, if only we can persuade founder personality type 59 to stop focusing on the 578 other ways they're considering to solve that problem. That shit is exhausting for a neurotypical but that same shit sets my mind on fire 🔥

(continued)

I want to talk to anyone frustrated by building lots of lots PowerPoint decks, and want to put there money where their mouth is and have this problem solved for them.

Working with a partner who has built a functioning agent that plugs into your Microsoft suite, respects IT control layers and sovereignty as needed, and gets it solved with a PPT-specific agent.

This isn't a Mickey Mouse workflow and will be going to market later in the year with more information, but if this is costing you more than:

$30k+ each year

Then I have first-dibs access to a solution from an enterprise-level operator who will fix this problem for (with me holding your hand all of the way - lucky you).

Note - I didn't say - fix your deck, help you with graphs or other individualised stuff - this is for companies who are doing this at painful volumes.

📸 this is my "death to PPT agony" face (ironically on the call with the partner)

#AI #ppt #consulting

I hate that "AI-induced psychosis" is a headline and that posts like that are going viral on social media.

Here's what actually happened:

- A doctor mentioned AI can amplify existing vulnerabilities (true)
- Social twisted it into "AI-induced psychosis" (false)
- Lots of sharing without interrogation

I can speak confidently about this because 20+ years ago - I had psychosis.

I was hospitalised and thought the TV was talking to me.

Did the TV do that? Hard no.

The real issues aren't the technology - they're loneliness, inequality, and societal problems that existed long before LLMs.

I'm a HUGE fan of making big tech accountable - but make sure you pick the right battles.

I also cover:

- Ran a packed webinar on one-shotting landing pages
- Discovered a clever hack for free AI API calls (vibe coders you're welcome)
- Speaking at DigiMarCon - Digital Marketing, Media and Advertising Conferences & Exhibitions Melbourne this Wednesday on scaling client growth with AI

Some light weekend watching for those of you scrolling on a Sunday.

https://lnkd.in/ggWS2MW9

Covering off:
- how to find good landing pages
- how to create a one-shot landing page prompt
- how to ingest a lot of information to create a better prompt
- how to set it up with automation for personalised landing pages, VSLs, or other neat things

Next one in two Wednesdays - on building a funnel with AI - because I'm doing two speaking things already this Wednesday 😇

What's more weird?

1. Posting weird and wonderful stories on LinkedIn in a consistent fashion for years

2. Scrolling on a "business" platform for 10-20 minutes a day and never posting

📸 getting my think on for a happy friday

#AskingForAFriend

Yesterday I showed some people how to build a one-shot super-prompt for building landing pages.

I then emailed it along with the slides, the recording, and the prompt to those faithful people who both attended or signed up.

Gee I wish I could pass it on to you.

But I hate those comment "IM A SAUSAGE"-style engagement traps.

Anyone got better ideas for doing this without looking like a tech-bro-influencer-bell-end?

🔔↖

This snap was taken 4 years ago. I was running a webinar for Startup Gippsland out of the back-shed.
 
I was in a back shed because we were in lockdown in Melbourne.
I was living in a small house and possess a large "phone" voice that wasn't conducive to a harmonious living arrangement with my (now) ex-wife.
 
I did a weird double-take seeing it because shortly after this was taken I:

> Separated and moved out
> Grew a beard
> Grieved the end of a 7 year old relationship
 
It was a very challenging time, and yet it was the one of the best things that could have happened to me.
 
Because now I have:
+ 5+ years of sobriety
+ A board position with a cause I deeply care about
+ A new spouse
+ Toddler twin boys
+ A business that enables me to do more webinars (I just did another today!)
 
One of the things you learn about the low-points is how you respond to them and what you're capable of.
 
I know I'm capable of great things.
 
But the more important lesson is knowing that it does get better - no matter how long things get, and no matter how low they seem.
 
It feels nice to look back at things at a moment in time, but it feels even better knowing the journey I've been on and knowing whatever lays ahead - there's been painful and valuable lessons learned along the way that have led to that growth.

(Oh and I feel the need to point out the divorce had NOTHING to do with my loud phone voice - at least that I'm aware of 🤣 - and hope they're well today too)

What's a one-shot? I laughed when I first heard it in a professional context.

The last time I'd heard it before that was one-shotting nubs on de_dust2 (IYKYK).

But in the world of AI prompts - a one-shot is getting the outcome you want from one go.

This doesn't suit every use case, and doesn't suit every LLM, but knowing how to maximise your chances of success with this is going to save you a lot of time with prototyping, proof of concepting, and even -

Dare I say it -

Landing pages.

Tomorrows' webinar will be covering how to one-shot a landing page and why it can be useful.

Some hints towards why it is:

- you can train your prompt on pages you like
- you can train the prompt on different direct response copy frameworks
- you can automate the generation of the code to match say - your paid ads or individual VSLs

Link to this and future webinars:
https://lnkd.in/gCsQG2cF

Let's get weird for a second... I've been journalling and brain-dumping since I was 17.

There are digital archives going back.

I was cheeky enough to self-publish a memoir at 29 (!?) and the paper trail of online written thoughts goes deep.

The newsletter covers AI coaching tools and some people claiming they can replace human coaches.

But it doesn't work as sold...

AI tells you what you want to hear mixed with what seems normal.

That's not the same thing.

I have tested this and more in my newsletter.

Is anyone else using coaches? Are they leaning into AI as well?

My coach - not yet.

When I coach others - transcripts and edited notes.

On my Wednesday webinar I smashed 3x live demos of things you can do with data, APIs, LLMs, and marketing tasks.

I did this over a webinar to illustrate what’s possible right now.

- paid ad competitor analysis
- content repurposing
- LinkedIn outreach

Things didn’t run 100% smoothly and that’s not important.

My goals are to cycle through these at pace, build an audience fast, and showcase just how much you can do with multiple tools strung together.

See the whole dance on YT now and next one is this Wednesday of course:

https://lnkd.in/greVeWq4

I got linked to the Clay NYT article 3 times yesterday.

And that's one of the reasons GTM engineers hit the top of my AI adoption tier list in my webinar yesterday.

There's a range of AI adoption right now and those leaning into the capabilities, embracing what's possible, and taking a systematic approach to what's working and what's not working are getting outsized gains.

Then there's laggers -
Organisations that are cautious, gatekeeping, or handing over full-decision making capability on adoption exclusively to IT.

And if your only references to AI are what Copilot, Salesforce, Meta, or ChatGPT tells you then you're not doing any better than normies and boomers.

Full recording up later and was fun to get it going.

I'll be doing Marshy's Webinar Wednesdays on rotating topics on AI, growth, and marketing as much as I can.

That was fun. #GenerateSummit dusted and the mind and energy are full.

Some highlights:

- The art director and copywriter aren’t the lead dream team any more, grab the culture nerd and savant with the iPhone

- Attribution is a zero-sum game, measure with geo-lifting (glad to hear this for my old mega clients)

- Hearing a lot of honesty and understanding from other B2B marketers about what works, what doesn’t work, and what’s frustrating - I enjoyed all of the off-session chats

Thanks to axel sukianto, Kayla Medica, and the whole Generate - The B2B Marketing Community in ANZ team + volunteers for making it all possible and run do smoothly.

🙏

Officially in the expensive epicentre for the rest of the week. Calendar near full and off to #GenerateSummit to see a whole bunch of the Generate - The B2B Marketing Community in ANZ.

Bloody looking forward to it TBH.

And feel for my beloved G who is watching the lurgy-riddled boys back at home base.

I'm very grateful to have such an awesome young family.

I don't travel for BD and learning much so will relish the opportunity and make the most of it.

Looking forward to making lots of new work friends.

✈️💨 🔥 💪🍃🛬

LFG 😘

📸 snap of me practicing my selfie game in my former home city

What are 3 things you can do with AI and marketing that you didn't know?
(That aren't generative spew.)

Well find out tomorrow with the inaugural Marshy's Webinar Wednesday.

I'll be covering demos of:

> Content repurposing in your/a brand's voice

> Competitor Paid Ads analysis

> LinkedIn outreach

There'll be a plug at the end, slides will be shared, session will be recorded and there's Q&A for anyone coming to the live version (won't be recorded).

I'm piloting this series to deliver grounded, hype-free sessions from a practitioner who describes himself as a power-user (but not a tool - I just want to make that really clear).

Because this is the pilot session (and I had to move the original time) just DM me your email address so I can add you to the calendar invite - this isn't gatekeeping it's just me doing things in "le pov MVP-mode" while we get this goodness going.

🎥 of the initial slides below with me appreciating them, by jeepers, I hope I can appreciate the rest of them in time 🤣

"Early founders think marketing is a shortcut to revenue".
 
I'm still thinking about this mention from another (older) founder last week.
 
Discussion was flying around in @generate community about what an early growth hire does.
 
The reality is that marketing is NOT a shortcut to revenue.
 
Adding marketing adds many layers of complexity to the sell:

> Who do you target
> Where do you target them
> How do you measure returns
 
And most importantly - who do we hire to help with this?
 
The reason "growth" exists instead of marketing is because a hybrid skill set is needed.
 
A growth person understands the problem being solved can change.
 
They understand the market can change too.
 
Not only this - they'll actively gather data at pace to prove what's impactful one way or another.
 
A traditional marketer doesn't do this.
 
And yes - this is the bucket an agency goes in too.
 
Agencies are amazing at blowing up and growing companies that have a clear problem and market and fit.
 
They're even better at spraying money down the toilet if the above isn't solved.
 
A traditional marketing hire isn't much better for seed stage.
 
They can scale and add a lot of necessary knowledge to growing and executing in channels.
 
But they don't know growth like their livelihoods depend on it.
 
An early stage growth person knows how to roll-up the sleeves and get the data to get the job done.
 
Pick up the phone?
Sure.

Lead prospect discovery?
No problem.

Building an audience and showing them what your startup solves?
Bring it.
 
This still isn't a shortcut to revenue, but it's the shortest path.
 
The job of the growth person is to find all the pieces that convert, that can scale into marketing that enables revenue.
 
That's a moutful but I will die on this hill.
 
I have seen it hundreds of times and am cut from agency cloth - so I know all the inside BS and games they play too (peace to my agency homies I still got you 🫶🏻)
 
📸 from the weekend, I threw down a classic progressive house mix on the weekend with my 2 y.o. boy learning what bass, middle, and treble do. DM me for a link to the mix 🎧

The latest edition covers:

- how to sell socially versus how not to sell

- reflections back to myself that are hard to hear

- productised agency blueprint (might delete later)

Enjoy your readin' 👋