Hello Reader,

Welcome to another edition of AI versus Marshy.

I’m fired up today.

Spring is in the air and there’s simmering dissatisfaction with the status quo.

I’m talking to more partners who “get it” and I don’t have to spend multiple calls justifying why I'm different from a digital marketing agency, a lead gen agency, and whoa— why am I bothering here?

Here's what I want to unpack this week:

• Increasing market caps as a way to pay off debt
• Scratching my own itch - lead generation
• If I were to start paying attention to AI today, here’s where I would start…

Lots to unpack today so let’s make like an ecommerce brand and deliver the goods 🚛

-Marshy

High-stakes capital games

If you’re a regular reader - you might notice I’m quoting and finding a lot of content through LinkedIn.

I don’t love the platform, and more see it as a necessary evil as someone running their own business.

But it is getting better at serving up the things that interest me algorithmically.

Here’s a recent take I liked:

Less the commentary of the original post.

It reads like it was AI-optimised (if not generated).

But I do marvel at the idea it portrays:

Solve debt by juggling debt and the appearance of debt

Yet even better is the point from the founder Michael I’m connected to:

I don’t have a seat at these tables and have nothing to add other than:

1. It’s a level and stratosphere almost of all of us will never reach
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2. The stakes are alarmingly high. With knock-on impacts on global economies, financial systems, energy consumption, government reach, equality, and environmental impacts to name a few
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3. I have zero faith that blindly following what is being advocated for in big tech circles is the right answer and it will take sustained resistance to this advocacy to get to a net better outcome for the world

The other smaller point is that this kind of thoughtful stuff appears in my feed more regularly now.

I hesitated at the word “thoughtful” though.

Is it?

Or is it algorithms cosplaying as intellectuals?

I actually messaged Michael to find out:

I don’t know how you’re doing it, but your thoughtful posts and comments on LI are at another level.

Will let you know if I get an answer.

(Post-script: I did before deadline!)

I won't screencap it (private conversation and all) but in a nutshell - he doesn't use any other social media and uses this one to express - massive kudos Michael!

Scratching my own itch - lead generation

In news to nearly no-one - I’m a father to twin boys.

I’ve also been consulting as freelance growth strategist for 10+ years.

This work has evolved over time, from deep-dive strategies, coaching, fractional employment, and more recently - more skin in the game with more potential upside.

Something that frustrates the f**k out of me, and has frustrated the market, is lead generation has become harder.

So rather than just accept that reality, I’ve been swotting hard on solving my own problem.

What this education process has looked like:

• talking to the best performers in-market at growth
• bingeing YouTube deep-dives on the subject
• filtering out the crap (there’s a lot of it) and extracting the good stuff
• Then applying a layer of understanding that comes from being a top-perfomer in the digital space for 20 years

What this output looks like:

• more conversations with people having the same problem
• more pitching on building the solutions for them

And while I wait for the two above things to mature and convert from pipeline to signed off deals:

• Building my own solutions in this space, experimenting, and seeing what works

Over the last week I’ve contacted 100 founders with a campaign that looks like this:

I’m not expecting instant responses its my first stab in a while, and it’s going to take some testing of different offers and ways of delivering the offer.

But what’s surprising is just leaning into the whacky:

Just gets results.

I’m also getting a lot of requests from bigger companies who want the same thing, but with full-blown sales + marketing operations that are not leveraging all you can do right now.

Some of the things possible right now with AI, automation, and business development nous:

• tracking employee movement, hiring, and departure by company, role, department or buying data that gets you this information historically
• looking up a competitors 3+ year old case studies, researching the decision makers, and pitching them on your product because counter points A, B, and C
• creating a list of 500 executives, overlaying it against media mentions of social causes they care about, and then inviting them to a private dinner for aforementioned cause

Another element to the deals I'm working through is simply choosing to work with people I enjoy working with (so some of them are receiving pitches similar to this):

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I’m out in-market building pipeline with this knowledge and accelerating towards locking things in one way or another in order to make hay and provide for my family.

It’s wild how much opportunity is out there for this kind of skill-set and knowledge and one of the problems I’m solving for is where do I focus it (I have decision criteria for that too.)

If I was going to start paying attention to AI today, where would I start…

There’s a few of these content hooks out there, and given I’ve been hyperfocused on this space for a while I want to offer some suggestions on getting started.

Think about this as a mindset thing.

The tools are going to get better and better, and arguably - the market will have access to the same capabilities.

So don’t get caught on Tool X vs Tool Y debates - that’s a fools errand.

Instead - focus on the thing that can be changed the most, how you use AI.

Play and experiment.

Find something you have a strong and emotional opinion on, and then ask the AI to come up with counter-points.

It’s job isn’t to change your mind, but hopefully it opens your mind.

Try and learn a new skill, but get the AI’s help with it - this could be designing a page, asking for a raise, or learning how to mix 🎧

Learn how to break things down into steps and systems.

Everything in life is a system, but we’re often not looking at life through this lens.

Now use AI with that systems lens.

If I’m doing these things and getting these results, what steps in the process need to change and how can I do that?

This doesn’t come naturally - but the more you force it, the easier it gets.

I’ll give you a concrete example.

I live far away from Melbourne’s CBD.

I understand the benefit of face-to-face meetings.

Scheduling face-to-face meetings is a headache.

So I created a link with Cal.com for Melbourne face-to-face meetings.

Friends/work chats can drop time in and it makes everyone’s life easier.

It’s a system.

I learned about Cal.com by virtue of looking for scheduling tools that support outbound email at scale economically.

I found out that information while search Perplexity.

The “F2F booking system” transpired by simply being curious about AI and tools and continually improving my overall knowledge of things.

It’s a by-product of starting.

I can wax lyrical about this more but am looking at the word count and for the length I apologise.

Let me know if that answers some questions or creates more of them! I’m happy to answer them!

Or in my Skool that I’m still figuring out how to use.

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That’s a wrap!

This weekend we’re off to a 40th (kid-free!) and then I’m solo with my boys and their cousin the following day.

Another great reason why I don’t drink any more!

Thanks,
-Marshy

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p.s. The pony escaped and came to say hello to the wheels last week