LinkedIn

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' 👋

I caught up with an old friend earlier in the week and we talked about career and life direction.

We have both been blessed with amazing opportunities over the years and now our lives look pretty different.

She's studying her PhD in design theory and I'm Dad Mode 2,000 and consulting and coaching lots of interesting companies.

One thing I shared with her is something I would call the Edge, Beast Mode, or just going full ham.

That dark energy you draw from as a high performer that you know when you set your mind to it nothing is going to get in your way.

Something I've been frustrated by in more recent years is not having "it".

I've softened, my life's more balanced, and I don't even know if I want "it" - I love my life, and the people I have around me.

But I do know that edge is there, ready to uncoil and spring out at something with tremendous force.

I don't know when or if that thing will materialise and I'm quite happy doing what I'm doing and grateful.

But there's something highly energising about looking at something and knowing "it doesn't have to be this way".

📸 from this morning, it's really cold and our famliy has been beset by RSV.
Before this week I didn't know what it was, and if you don't - keep it that way - it's like having a bulldog clip attached to your nostrils and breathing and coughing through sandy gravel

Who do I work with? I got asked this yesterday do let’s reduce, reuse, and recycle ♻️

- Seed-stage, post-seed tech companies with a B2B focus and mid-to-high touch sales process

- are about to hire or have made an unsuccessful sales/marketing/growth hire or investment in an agency

- usually led by a technical founder (they’re more open to help)

I come on fractionally either on a project with a very specific outcome that we negotiate and agree to, or to clean up a systemic mess to get their business back in shape to make that next successful hire.

Things I love doing:

- rolling up the sleeves and generating momentum

- bringing in junior or mid talent who can be shaped into long-term leaders or team players

- setting up automated workflows that leverage what AI is actually capable of right now

What I have been told:

> you break down hard-to-understand concepts and make it simple Marshy

> you turned things around with that client and you could see their whole energy change

> you can’t say that! (but did anyway)

Why I’m not down for a long-term relationship:

- 95%+ of salaried roles underpay me and price me out of more interesting opportunities

- I am neurodivergent and get bored by one thing

- I really, really want to be paid long-term via performance-based incentives like commission and equity

🎥 from LaunchVic Startup Gala last week - it was fkn sick ☺️

There's a tension between old and new worlds in AI.

> Individuals are witnessing more and more capability - while enterprises are slow on the take because: complexity

> You can farm marketing data at lightspeed to understand what works now - but is that valid marketing strategy?

> A great example of old illustration meeting generative video

This is the LinkedIn version of my newsletter that went out to inboxes last week 👋

Free advice - yay or nay?
Because I got read the riot act last night.

By Claude.

Over the last month I've been doing uploads and downloads each working day updating a project focused on self-reflection.

One of the project's key instructions:
 
You are my expert personal and business growth coach with access to nearly 10 years of my personal and business journals. Your role is to maximize self-awareness, identify patterns, and accelerate my personal and business growth through systematic execution.
 
I was driving home last night and did a download by testing voice for the first time.
 
And it unloaded at me.
 
It said:
 
👏 You have a recurring revenue goal of $20k per month but you keep training potential clients to solve problems with you
👏 Your positioning yourself as a helpful friend instead of a paid expert
👏 You created a competitor
 
🤣
 
That's a fun message to receive while driving back to Kangaroo Ground through roadworks and post-MCG football traffic.
 
But it's giving me what I asked it for - uncovering patterns to maximise my growth.
 
Do I need to stop giving away free advice or do I say GFY Claude and give out some more freebies to everyone next week?
 
I write about this kind of stuff weekly in something that's subscribable.

Just met Sawyer Kisken and nerded out on attribution, measurement, and growth marketing.

He's built Roadway - a way to stich together the measurement story in a way that makes sense for higher volume, no-touch/low-touch software conversions.

I don't go deep on measurement as much anymore, but scored brownie points for dropping Avinash Kaushik's name - the OG measurement nerd IMHO.

I’m in bed with diverticulitis. And here’s a damning example of why marketing is rapidly becoming a game of zero clicks.

(Yes I will get back to rest).

My search:
“Low residue diet”

On a mobile phone.

Followed by more scrolls than a bakery to get to anything clickable.

If you’re a brand or marketer that’s not paying attention to this you will need to find a new job soon.

It’s a good thing you’re on LinkedIn already - scroll away and start looking!

something that's bothered me as a content creator (newsletter, blogs, webinars, podcasts, my exceptionally high-calibre LInkedIn posts) is that they're often "one and done".

meaning I put thoughtful effort into it - because its something I enjoy doing and believe it brings value - and then it disappears into the algorithm void

this has always put me off creating more as I don't have a team behind me, and the economics of remote freelancers has never worked effectively for me either (there's a ramping up cost, teaching cost, and lack of immediate ROI outside of just their rate)

but the capabilities of AI workflows is getting better and better, and I'm right in there building them and creating value for my clients

with all of the above in mind, I'm going to dogfood my own webinar series, creatively named:

marshy's webinar wednesdays

here's how they'll work*:

- run most weeks
- 30 seats
- slides + recording available afterwards
- (non-recorded) free Q&A for live attendees at the end

the time/effort/energy required to do it is high, but by practicing what I preach I'm pretty sure I can net this out into more channels and showcase what's possible

first one is this week and sling me a comment if you'd like the link 🔗

The number one skill for staying up-to-date with AI and marketing isn't consuming the "right" kind of content - it's learning how to filter it like ruthless killer.

A common question I receive:
"How do you stay up to date? What courses should I take?"

They're asking the wrong question.

Here's a better one:
"How do I filter through massive amounts of information and only take in what's going to help?"

Here's how I do it:

(Bonus points if you picture me looking like Josh Hartnett in the lift with Alexis Bledel at the end of Sin City)

Newsletters

Set a Gmail rule to put anything with "unsubscribe" in the body to go to a separate folder

I agonised over doing this "what if I miss something" but the reality is if its urgent/important they will find a way to get to you and you'll be okay

Skim through things in batches (few times a week is fine)

Be generous with your subscribing for anything that piques your curiosity - but unsubscribe even faster and more judiciously

Example - MKT1 newsletter is frequently referred to as a go-to in my field - I killed it, too Silicon-Valley-esque and not serving my day-to-day - be brutal

Communities

The bar is high - most free communities are hot garbage and the influx of Skool communities (inc. some paid) are either people engagement farming, or consultants upselling

I'm selective but once I'm in one, I'm in - and give freely and skim for knowledge (and thank people when they drop it on me) looking at you Generate and Pavilion 🫶🏻

YouTube

The school of YouTube is my #1 information source right now

I can binge podcasts, and a lot of leaders in my niches are going HARD on long-form content that lets me swat up on AI, APIs, marketing, no-code, workflows, outbound, prospecting, scraping and automation

Just my humble opinion - but Nick Saraev is walking the talk and producing content out there of an extraordinarily high quality, and wouldn't be surprised if people are talking about him like they do Hormozi in 5-10 years time

I resisted paying for YT premium and then bit the bullet - offline listening + no ads + a watch later list and I am golden

Secret weapon - Reader by Readwise

Reader is a "read-it-later" app for nearly anything web-based, you can bookmark articles, links, posts, YouTube videos, and then highlight and clip the good stuff

It becomes like a personal knowledge database, and because I was a heavy user of Pocket before migrating I have... (checking)

995 high quality pieces of content in there

The tool keeps getting better, and when I need examples/evidence for something I'm writing it's the first spot I check

Reddit for niche intelligence

I'm a weirdo and rabbit hole things like you can't believe, and so am regularly diving into subreddits for the latest and greatest information

There's not one sub that outperforms others (and the main ones are whingey ignores) but special shoutouts tor r/ClaudeAI, r/amazingmarvin, r/n8n, r/vibecoding, and r/slaythespire

look character limit 👀

I'll tell you what I'm sick of:

> Housing prices in this country AND

> The levels of income and hoops you have to jump through to be approved for a home loan

So earlier in the year I decided to do something different.

A couple of weeks ago I wrapped on a project where the money-load was tied directly to hitting specific targets.

I negotiated hard.
Consulted with my spouse.
De-risked as much as I could at home while pushing for a high reward outcome.

And guess what?

It didn't pay off.

Does that mean I shouldn't have done it?
No.

The market is changing, and here's why I'd do outcome-based consulting again:

- There's a ceiling as a freelancer and I'm at it - I'm not interested in trading hours when I can make it positively rain and want to share in the win-win upside

- Skin in the game makes the stakes higher - I want to work with true partners rather than be a gun for hire

- I want to be able to tell the business owner they are full of sh*t when they need to hear it - not kowtow to their ego to protect my cushy fractional income

I'm not going to "bet the house" every time I play, I but I don't see any other way to get one unless there's something I'm not seeing.

Anyone else playing with this approach and backing themselves? I'm all ears.

Because it's open season against service providers who think they can charge fat retainers and not be responsible for their client's success.

📸 me absolutely "slumming it" on the way to garbage bin as I wait to buy our house

I caught up with Dave King last week and it was good to spitball what's happening in AI.
 
A few thoughts worth sharing:
 
> Consulting is really interesting right now.
The big groups were early winners in profiting of AI, but I'm seeing a lot of value to be gained with broad knowledge + tech literacy + and being willing to get your hands dirty. The output you can generate as an individual compared to 6 months ago is immense
 
> There's still a yawning gap between this and enterprise solutions.
Large companies are stuck between a willingness to test and prototype, < insert yawning chasm here >, and leverage capabilities across a department or organisation for real and measurable impact
 
> Have you got that old startup idea list?
It might be time to dust off the Markdown file and have another look, it's a hell of a lot easier to build than it used to be
 
For example - 18 months ago I was prototyping and exploring an ADHD desktop companion that nudged you when you went off-task, now you can grab open-source tools like Pickle by Glass and set up some notification triggers based on these behaviours happening.
 
Fun times 💫

Have you ever been to a business event, hear a voice that makes you CRINGE, and want to curl under the table into the foetal position and go back to a warm blanket, some snacks, and a lactose-free hot chocolate?

Well...

Let me tell you about the time I was in Krabi, Thailand.

I'd completed a running workout, had our gear packed and was wearing a "BLERCH" t-shirt by Matthew Inman.

It decries:
"I do not believe in the wall, I believe in THE BLERCH"

Then, cuting through my humidity and post-workout fugue:
"Is that about OUR wall?"

What the actual F?

I turn around and its an American tourist asking me whether this amusing in-joke about running in t-shirt form is about her world, her politics, and her CRAP.

I politely explained that no - it's a t-shirt from a comic artist I like and that's all and moved on.

But do you know what reminded me of this jarring experience?

The appearance of an AI mascot in the Western Bulldogs supporter FB group.

Our boys are red, white, and blue.

The AI decided to super impose that schtick onto an American Flag and create a mascot called Barkus Montempelli.

What a horrific, jarring, and godawful use case for AI and it reminds of that unwelcome voice at a work event and that unwelcome American tourist in Thailand.

In the bin you go 🚮

📸 of me slaying the Two Bays Trail Run in 2020 on the left, and offensive AI mascot on the right

--

you can find more takes like this in my newsletter

Watch me fit 3 A's into a video about AI in under 60 seconds.
 
Or just read this...
 
ADHD - this flavour neurodiversity helps think laterally, connecting disparate concepts together in a way that's intuitive to you - but is wild magic to neurotypicals

Aphantasia - is the inability to visualise things in your mind's eye, this comes in handy for thinking about and connecting abstract concepts in tech because a lot of it is stuff we can't see

Abstraction - is the ability to zoom into and zoom out of different kinds of concepts on different levels, this is incredibly handy for the interconnected nature of software, builds, workflows, APIs, and data patterns
 
These all come in handy when engaging with and thinking about AI's capabilities - it's a weird technology that benefits from being able to conceptualise, prototype, and remix things with your existing data.
 
--
 
follow my newsletter for more like this

Here's a fun life hack when exploring working with a senior leader:

Ask them to tell you something they felt strongly about a year ago, and that they've changed their mind on today.

-

There's no right or wrong answers to this question, but in looking at the nuance and the way they answer it - you can get a strong sense of what they're like to work with and whether you will gel.

Well I changed my mind on something friends.

For 59 editions I covered AI in my newsletter and grew progressively more frustrated by the doom and gloom.

Once I read more about energy consumption, water consumption, and data warehouses with pollution that literally deletes small US towns into oblivion...

It was really hard to muster the energy to contribute anything to this weird tide of change.

And so about a year ago I stopped writing about it.

Did I stop using it?
No.

Do I still think it creates very real problems for the planet?
Yes.

So pumped out a new edition this week and opened with a quote from Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power:

"If the world is like a giant scheming court and we are trapped inside it, there is no use in trying to opt out of the game.

That will only render you powerless, and powerlessness will make you miserable.

Instead of struggling against the inevitable, instead of arguing and whining and feeling guilty, it is far better to excel at power.

In fact, the better you are at dealing with power, the better friend, lover, husband, wife, and person you become."

Make no mistake - AI is a power game on multiple levels and it's better to be aware of what is happening than trying to stay out of it.

#ai #newsletter