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Clients pay me 6-figures for strategy. Here's what I'm telling them right now. — Transcript

by Alex M H Smith · 10,156 words · 1,444 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00Now, I have clients paying me six
0:02figures for strategy advice. And that's
0:04that's basically like over $100,000 for
0:06essentially me talking, which I will
0:09admit sounds like an insane amount of
0:12money. But, you know, there is a reason
0:14why people pay this, not just to me, but
0:17some others too. And the reason is this.
0:19The stakes in business right now, they
0:21are higher than they have ever been. You
0:24probably are feeling it yourself. I'm
0:26guessing the decisions that a company
0:29makes over the next 12 months with all
0:31this chaos and change raging around us.
0:34It could genuinely be the difference
0:35between hundreds of millions of dollars
0:37and a failure. Sometimes, you know, all
0:39it's going to take is like one insight,
0:41one realization, one counterintuitive
0:44decision that your competitors don't
0:46make and and that and that could be it,
0:48right? So, when you set it against
0:49stakes like that, it in a way it isn't
0:52really that crazy amount of money at
0:54all. If anything, it's actually kind of
0:55more like insurance, I might say. Now,
0:59unfortunately, obviously, I can't give
1:01that kind of tailored advice to every
1:02one of you watching here right now. But
1:04what I can do is give you the macro
1:06advice that sits underneath it, the
1:08patterns that I'm seeing right now out
1:11there in the market, which every
1:13business is going to have to respond to.
1:16And the thing I really want you to
1:17understand, right, is that none of these
1:19patterns and trends I'm going to
1:21describe, none of them none of them are
1:23finished, right? They are all in the
1:24process of unfolding. In fact, many of
1:27them are barely started. But what
1:29they're all doing, I'm sorry to say, is
1:30they're all speeding up. And what you're
1:32going to see as we go through them is
1:34that if things that used to work for you
1:36have stopped working or are working a
1:38bit less well than they were before,
1:39it's got nothing really to do with your
1:41performance. What has happened is that
1:43the ground has been changing underneath
1:45you. The rules have changed. Almost
1:48nobody is really thinking about this
1:51seriously. And yet at the same time,
1:52every single business is being affected
1:54by it whether they choose to think about
1:56it or not. So here's how this is going
1:57to work. I'm going to take you through
1:59basically the seven briefings that I'm
2:01giving to my clients right now. Each one
2:03we're going to start with something that
2:05you or most businesses basically believe
2:07which is now starting to kind of crack
2:09at the seams. I'm going to show you
2:10what's really going on and then I'm
2:12going to give you the move or the
2:13question or the thought experiment that
2:15I'm telling clients to make because of
2:18these changes. And if you listen to
2:19them, absorb them, and apply them to
2:21your own business, well, I'd like to
2:23think that you are going to be
2:24drastically ahead of the curve. And
2:26you're going to want to stick around for
2:27the last one because it actually goes
2:29against something that I have been
2:31telling people for years. So, I am
2:33wrongfooting my own advice here, not
2:35just the generic stuff that everyone
2:37else believes. So sit back, relax, and
2:40let me tell you what I'm telling my most
2:42valued clients right now. Now, something
2:46you hear people say and that people
2:48really believe is that it has never been
2:50easier to start and grow a business. You
2:53all have heard that a thousand times.
2:54And the funny thing is is that it's
2:56well, it's half true, right? The start a
2:58business part is definitely true. The
3:01grow the business part though, that's
3:03the bit we need to think about because I
3:05don't think people have really thought
3:07through what this idea actually means.
3:11I'm going to like just show you simple
3:13like thought experiment. If you like get
3:15out your phone for a second and you
3:16think to yourself, how many apps do I
3:17have on it? Is it 50 or like 80 if
3:20you're a bit crazy or something? So
3:22yeah, that's the kind of thing that
3:23people maybe have. Now, I want you to
3:25think, how many new ones did you
3:27actually download this year? And not
3:29ones that you were maybe forced to by
3:31like your bank or something like that.
3:34Was it more than two? Was it any? I'm
3:36I'm not sure that it would have been.
3:38Okay. So, we we we've all kind of got
3:40like a fairly static app environment on
3:42our phones for the most part. But what
3:44is happening on the other side of the
3:45screen? What is happening on the supply
3:47side? Well, I will tell you in the first
3:49half of this year, 2026, the number of
3:51new apps released on the app store
3:53doubled. Something like 560,000 new apps
3:56were launched in 6 months. And over the
3:58same period, what happened to downloads?
4:01Well, they actually did slightly go up
4:02in some ways, which is sort of
4:04surprising, but they went up by 2%. So,
4:07here we have this picture, and I don't
4:09think you need to be some sort of like
4:11master economist to see the problem
4:12here. You have this picture where supply
4:15doubled, but demand basically didn't
4:17move. And once you understand this basic
4:20pattern of flat demand and increasing
4:22supply and you start looking for it,
4:24you're going to see it everywhere. In
4:26music, around 40,000 tracks a day were
4:28uploaded to the streaming platforms back
4:30in 2019. That's already uh quite a lot,
4:32I would say. But now it's around
4:34150,000. And on Dieser, about 44% of
4:37those tracks are fully AI generated,
4:40which is kind of no surprise. When it
4:42comes to businesses in general, new
4:44business creation, Americans, they filed
4:46a record 5 67 million applications last
4:50year, which is more than 60% up on 2019.
4:54Now, you might you might look at some of
4:55these things like apps and music and
4:56just like filing for new businesses and
4:59you might think, well, okay, this is
5:00like cheap. This is just information.
5:01Yes, I can see how it's easy for there
5:03to be a supply explosion here, but that
5:05doesn't really mean anything. But the
5:07supply explosion, you know, it exists
5:09everywhere, including in things like
5:10heavy manufacturing. Like one example
5:12that I like to give is cars, which you
5:14can't just throw up, you know, you can't
5:16vibe code a new car brand. But in China
5:18alone, there are now something like 129
5:22different electric car brands, of which
5:24maybe like 10 or 11 are actually
5:26profitable. And in the second half of
5:28this year, a record 156 new models are
5:32going to be launching there. Like, but
5:34when I was growing up, there were
5:36probably what, like 10 or 11 car brands,
5:39period, globally. So you can start to
5:41see, you know, this pattern on what's
5:43going on here. So yes, it has indeed
5:45never been an easier time to start a
5:47business, but it's also never been
5:49easier for everybody else. And that is
5:51the bit that people kind of they don't
5:52seem to think about. So this means that
5:54the second that a customer problem shows
5:56up anywhere, bam, 10 companies, they pop
5:58up to solve it. And this number is only
6:00going one way. Every few months, the
6:03tools get better and the tools get
6:05cheaper. And so next year, that's going
6:07to be 20 companies. and then the year
6:09after that 50 companies it is just going
6:11to spiral and accelerate. So this brings
6:13me on to what I have to tell my clients
6:15about this like making money is it's not
6:17very complicated. It really all comes
6:18down to one idea that everyone thinks
6:20they understand but we notice very
6:22quickly that they really don't. And that
6:24idea is supply and demand. If you manage
6:27to increase demand and decrease supply,
6:30you're going to earn a lot of money.
6:32That's literally it. But unfortunately
6:34at the moment people are basically
6:36focusing on increasing supply and they
6:38wonder why it isn't working. The way
6:40that most businesses try to counter this
6:41of course is that they put a lot of
6:43energy into increasing the demand side
6:46by doing more marketing getting more
6:48leads trying to create more content just
6:50doing more more. And they don't really
6:52think about the supply side at all. But
6:53the problem is is that there's a limit
6:55to how much sometimes you can increase
6:57demand for something. Demand is actually
6:58fairly fixed for the most part. But with
7:01if the supply is outpacing the demand,
7:03it doesn't matter how good your ads are
7:05and how many like cold emails you send.
7:07That's not going to work. So what I want
7:09you to be doing is I want you to be
7:10thinking more carefully about the supply
7:12side, which is basically a way of asking
7:14how do we become something that there is
7:17less of, right? How do we build
7:21something or evolve into something which
7:23is more and more scarce? Because it is
7:25the scarcity which is going to unpick
7:28this riddle. and most of the other
7:30briefings that I'm going to talk about
7:31here, they are going to help you to
7:33increase the scarcity of what you're
7:35selling. Now, thinking about AI a little
7:37bit more, the people who are really sort
7:38of optimistic about AI, they will say
7:40things like, well, look, AI means that I
7:42can build anything now, and isn't that
7:43fantastic? And people are often talking
7:46about this like it's really good news.
7:48People still think that this is a
7:49positive thing for business. But what we
7:51have to keep top of mind instead is this
7:54simple but kind of very counterintuitive
7:56idea which is whatever becomes easy and
8:00cheap and abundant instantly loses
8:03value. It has its value eroded. Like to
8:06see why let's just think about something
8:08like water. Okay? Like water is more
8:10valuable than anything you will ever
8:12sell. There is no product in the world
8:13that's more valuable than water. Water
8:15literally keeps you alive but it also
8:16falls out of the sky. So, you can't
8:18really charge an awful lot of money for
8:19it. You see, value, it doesn't come from
8:22the inherent quality of the thing. It
8:24comes from two other things. It comes
8:25from desiraability and it becomes from
8:26scarcity. And the moment that you take
8:28away scarcity, the value goes with it.
8:31Even if the thing is actually still very
8:33desirable. Now, this is exactly what AI
8:35has been doing for the past 3 years. It
8:38has been taking things that were scarce
8:40and has been making them abundant.
8:42Terrific, right? we think research,
8:45copywriting, analysis, design, software
8:47expertise, like all these things that we
8:49know that AI is very good at. Now, two
8:51or three years ago, this stuff was gold,
8:53right? And you could really you could
8:55really sell it for a lot of money. But
8:57now AI has turned it, broadly speaking,
8:59into lead. And as each new model is
9:03released, that list of things that it
9:05turns to lead, it gets longer because
9:07each one knocks something else off the
9:10scarce pile and into the abundant pile.
9:13Now most people they understand this on
9:15paper. The problem is is that their
9:17their mental models. They haven't caught
9:20up. They are still walking around with
9:22this kind of imaginary price list in
9:24their head like it's still 2022. And
9:27this is how they are calibrating what
9:28they should be spending their time on,
9:30what they should be spending their money
9:32on, and what they think is going to help
9:33their business win. I know this because
9:35you know this has happened directly to
9:37me. So, like back in 2023, I was writing
9:40a lot of like long, thoughtful,
9:42reasonably highquality posts about
9:44strategy on LinkedIn. And they were
9:46basically a license to print money
9:47because not a lot of people could do it
9:48at the time. I got 130,000 followers and
9:51I genuinely thought that, you know,
9:53maybe at the time, well, my posts are my
9:55posts are really good. But actually,
9:56they weren't really good. I mean, maybe
9:58they were good. It it doesn't matter if
9:59they were good. What mattered is that
10:01they were scarce. And the moment that
10:02everyone else could start producing
10:04something similarish in 30 seconds, like
10:06the value had completely vanished. So I
10:09realized pretty quickly this issue, but
10:11most other people out there, they are
10:12thinking, oh well, you know, now I can
10:14write content like Alex Smith or Dano or
10:16whoever else and so therefore I'm uh I'm
10:18going to be able to have some of the
10:20success that they had. But of course,
10:22you can't because the value is gone. And
10:25content, of course, you know, it's just
10:26the tip of the iceberg. I see the same
10:27thing happening kind of everywhere right
10:29now, often on a much bigger scale. Like
10:32people are obviously using AI to build
10:34stuff gleeully that they think is going
10:36to make them a lot of money. An app or a
10:38course or a content machine or a SAS
10:41tool that they knocked up over the
10:42weekend and they're delighted because
10:44you know the thing that they used to
10:45cost them 5 grand and take them months
10:47now cost them nothing and takes like 20
10:49minutes. In fact, the other day I
10:51myself, I built some sort of like
10:53content organization machine just to
10:55sort of house all of my IP, a piece of
10:58software, which is a better piece of
11:00software than anything I have ever paid
11:02for. And I can really see I can put
11:04myself in the headsp space of the people
11:06who do that and they think, "Wow, this
11:07is so good. I've got to go and sell this
11:09thing." But it took me 20 minutes to
11:12make, right? So I like I could give it
11:14away for free. I probably will give it
11:16away for for free to people on my
11:18newsletter. But my god, like it it can't
11:21be sold. You can't sell anything which
11:23you can build in 20 minutes, right? So
11:25yes, these things, these capabilities,
11:27they can be very useful. They can like
11:30do a good job for you, but that does not
11:32the same thing as being commercially
11:35valuable. We have to be able to separate
11:36these ideas of like usefulness and
11:39commercial value. We always have to
11:40think like is this like like water and
11:43air very useful but low value or is this
11:46like actually something you know m like
11:48gold which has got sort of very little
11:51kind of intrinsic value but the value
11:53exists obviously because of the scarcity
11:55we want to be making useless gold not
11:58useful water right so obviously this is
12:00what we could see very clearly in those
12:02app store numbers that I was talking
12:04about a minute ago new apps doubled
12:06while downloads went up 2% because
12:07obviously like the whole world decided
12:10amazing, wow, I can make so much money.
12:11I can become a millionaire by building
12:13something which has lost all of its
12:15value. Obviously, this effect is like
12:17hammering all sorts of even big public
12:20companies like CHEG, you know, which was
12:21this homework help company where
12:23students paid $15 a month for textbook
12:25answers because there was no sort of
12:27like, you know, free alternative that
12:29really did the job. But then CH GPT
12:31turned up and what happened? CHEG's
12:32revenue it fell 39% in a single year
12:35from 600 odd million to around like 377
12:39million and the stock is now something
12:40like 99% off its peak elsewhere of
12:44course we know what's happened with
12:44software the SAS apocalypse on 3rd of
12:47February I think it was like $285
12:49billion wiped off those stocks in a
12:51single day because all the things those
12:54companies had sold got cheap and
12:56investors investors when there's a lot
12:58of money on the line they are quite good
12:59at updating their mental models right
13:01the problem is is that the companies and
13:02the CEOs, they are less good at updating
13:04their mental models. So, the first job
13:06I'm going to give to my clients and to
13:08you is to try and update those
13:10assumptions. I want you to go through
13:11everything that you believe is valuable
13:13about your business, all the different
13:15forms of leverage, and I want you to ask
13:16the simple question of each one. Is it
13:19still true? Is this still valuable? Is
13:21this still scarce? And the easy way to
13:24do that is to sort everything into
13:25basically kind of two piles. This isn't
13:28exact science, but it's close enough. On
13:30the one side here, we can see forms of
13:31leverage that are going down that are
13:33becoming less valuable. And on the other
13:35side, we can see forms of leverage that
13:37are going up. Going down are things like
13:40product and service on its own. Your
13:43technology technology is going down. IP
13:45is often going down. Cost structure and
13:48expertise. These are all getting easier
13:51for everyone. So, they're worth a little
13:52bit less every month. Albeit this is not
13:54sort of happening like at an even speed.
13:57On the other hand, what's going up are
13:59things like brand distribution,
14:01proprietary data, scarce physical
14:03assets. These are the things that are
14:05that were always hard and they're still
14:07hard or even things that are actually
14:08getting harder while everything else
14:11gets easy. So, you want to kind of like
14:13see which of these where is where is
14:15your uh attention placed? What do you
14:17think wins for you? And once you've
14:19sorted your business that way, there are
14:20then a couple of other questions you can
14:22answer. The first is broadly speaking,
14:24is our leverage growing or is it under
14:25threat? If your advantage sits under
14:27something that is getting easier, it's a
14:28bit like you're standing on a melting
14:30iceberg and you need to start thinking
14:33about how long has it got until you're
14:36in the water with the penguins. The
14:37Yeah, penguins go in the water, don't
14:39they? The second question is how do we
14:41start building real leverage in one of
14:43the rising categories? And you don't
14:45need all of them. You know, one or two
14:46would be fine. You just need a genuine
14:48defensible edge in places where it is
14:51quite difficult to get it. And that's
14:53where the next three years of your money
14:55and your talent and your attention
14:56should really go. Now, before we move
14:58on, I'm just going to give you a quick
14:59one. I've turned every briefing in this
15:01video into a set of prompts that
15:02basically you can just jump straight
15:03into chapter GPT or into Claude and it
15:06can work through some of these same
15:07questions kind of like how I might do if
15:09I was sitting with you. And given what
15:12I'm about to say about AI in the next
15:13briefing, I've built them so that AI
15:15interrogates you rather than just
15:17handing you the obvious average answer
15:20for free. It ain't going to give you the
15:21answer, but it is going to think you get
15:22you thinking in the right direction. The
15:25link is in the description, so check
15:26that out. But before, let's get back to
15:28it. So, you know, when people are faced
15:30with some of these pressures that we've
15:32talked about, what do they do? Well,
15:33they think, well, let's do what the most
15:34successful companies are doing. Let's
15:36follow their best practice or even
15:37better, let's ask chat GBT what we
15:39should do. A new kind of default
15:41mechanism for many, I'm sure. And
15:42because of that, people don't
15:43necessarily like what I'm going to say
15:44to them in this one. So let's be just
15:46sort of start with a question like have
15:49you noticed that everyone out there
15:51online all the gurus seem to be giving
15:53out very similar business advice sell
15:55the outcome niche down irresistible
15:57offer build a value stack find the pain
15:59point 15 years ago like nobody was
16:02saying this stuff these weren't really
16:03this wasn't really common parlons so why
16:07have we all converged on this like have
16:09we just suddenly like have we figured it
16:10all out now have we magically cracked
16:12the code of business is that why all the
16:14business advice case has coalesed like
16:16this. Unfortunately, not unfortunately
16:18the truth is far more boring.
16:20Unfortunately, what happened was the
16:22algorithm. Now, this holy algorithm that
16:25dominates our lives, it decides what
16:27information reaches you. And it doesn't
16:29decide by asking whether something is
16:31true or useful or relevant. It decides
16:33by basically popularity. Imagine that
16:35there are pre like perfectly valid ways
16:38of doing something, but one of them
16:40happens to be snappier and easier to
16:42explain in a 30-cond clip. that one is
16:45going to win the algorithmic battle and
16:46the other two are going to get buried.
16:48So what we now call best practice or the
16:51stuff that we're always seeing, we're
16:52always been given advice on is really
16:54the most engaging practice. And everyone
16:56has therefore been drinking from this
16:58same narrowing trough for a decade now.
17:01And that was even before AI. Now when we
17:03pour AI on top of that, and let's just
17:05think about what AI does. I mean, it's
17:07the same thing, right? It doesn't go
17:08looking for the best answer. It goes
17:09looking for the most likely answer. It's
17:11the only way it can really work. And the
17:13most likely answer is by definition the
17:15average. So this also has this
17:16converging effect. In fact, it's even
17:18worse because the AI was trained on the
17:19same algorithm filtered internet that
17:21you're seeing every day. So you're kind
17:23of getting a filter on top of a filter.
17:25And what's interesting is we're now
17:26getting a pretty good idea of how far
17:29this goes and what the effects of this
17:30are. There was this really interesting
17:32study at Duke University recently where
17:34they tested 22 commercial AI models
17:37against more than 100 humans on the same
17:39set of creative problems. Now,
17:41individually, the AIs did really fine.
17:43Their answers were as good quality as
17:46the humans were. That's that that's
17:47great. But as a group, here's the thing.
17:50Their answers were far more similar to
17:52each other than the humans answers were.
17:54They weren't like thinking worse. It was
17:57just they were thinking less diverse.
17:59And when the researchers prompted the
18:01models to be more creative, it actually
18:03made barely any difference. And this is
18:06a huge issue because it isn't like
18:08quality of analysis that gives you
18:10leverage. What gives you leverage is
18:12difference. Sometimes it might even be
18:14worse analysis, but because it's
18:16different than what the the competition
18:17is doing, it still makes you different
18:19and gives you leverage. So it's very
18:21very dangerous to increase quality but
18:23also increase convergence. So ultimately
18:25then it doesn't really matter, you know,
18:27what model you pick or even to some
18:29extent how you prompt it. like you and
18:31every one of your competitors are being
18:32pulled towards the same rough answers,
18:35the same strategies, the same websites,
18:37the same tone of voice, the same
18:38sentence structure, you know, the same
18:40business model. And it's only going to
18:42get worse before it gets better. As more
18:44and more of the internet is written by
18:46AI, as we know is happening, the next
18:48generation of models is going to get
18:49trained on that. So the pull towards
18:52this kind of single version of the
18:54truth, it only gets stronger. Like I
18:58said, advantage comes from difference.
19:00It does not come from quality. So if you
19:03engineer out as we are doing, the one
19:05thing that actually generates traction,
19:07don't complain when you struggle to find
19:09any. There's a second kind of corrosive
19:11effect commercially that people also
19:13don't really want to hear, which is that
19:15for most companies, and this has been
19:16pretty well established now, AI isn't
19:18actually making them any more money.
19:19When MIT looked into this, they found
19:21that 95% of organizations, they saw no
19:24measurable return from their generative
19:26AI projects. A big part of this is just
19:28because most companies are using it to
19:30answer the question of how do we do
19:32everything a little a little bit worse
19:34but a hell of a lot cheaper, which of
19:36course isn't really a revenue driving
19:38approach. But I think the bigger reason
19:40why this is happening is because
19:41basically like everyone is getting the
19:43same gains at the same time. So yes, you
19:46are gaining a lot of capabilities, but
19:47because all of your competitors have got
19:49them too, it isn't really giving you any
19:51leverage. So what really is the
19:54implication of this for us? Well, the
19:56first thing that I might tell clients is
19:57that you want to use AI for closed
20:00problems, meaning things that basically
20:02have a right answer like summarize this
20:04thing, check this thing, build this
20:06model. But what you do not want to do is
20:09outsource open questions, which is ones
20:11about what path to take, ones where
20:13there isn't a single right answer. cuz
20:15you know not everything worth knowing
20:17has been written on the internet. The
20:20like we we forget that there's more
20:21information outside of the internet
20:24uncodified information including in our
20:26own heads than there is on the internet.
20:29So don't overestimate the wisdom and the
20:31amount of knowledge that AI has purely
20:34from a context perspective. And then
20:35even if it did have that because of this
20:37convergence effect, you still do not
20:40want to be giving it too much power over
20:42you when it comes to these open
20:44problems. The second thing to do about
20:46this issue um more sort of personally is
20:48to deconverge your own knowledge. Now
20:51what do I mean by that? Well, look, if
20:52everybody's drinking from the same
20:53trough, whatever like Instagram happens
20:55to be serving them that day, you just
20:57want to go and drink from another
20:59trough. like read some books, you know,
21:01e old ones or weird off-center ones that
21:03that didn't go viral. Talk to actual
21:06experts, people who are kind of
21:08incentivized to get results rather than
21:10incentivized to get views, idiosyncratic
21:13people. But it's not that they're going
21:15to be like more rights than the stuff
21:17you're seeing online, but they're going
21:18to be different. And that difference is
21:20your advantage. That is just as valuable
21:23as knowing more things, knowing peculiar
21:25things or different things. I mean, you
21:26know, last Christmas I had a kind of a
21:28funny experience like this where I spent
21:30two hours with AI trying to crack some
21:32sort of like creative problem. I was
21:34like getting mountains of output and but
21:35it was completely I I got nowhere. It
21:37wasn't it wasn't it wasn't really useful
21:39to me. But then in the car I was with my
21:42wife who doesn't really know anything
21:43about the particular thing I was talking
21:45about but I was chatting about it and
21:46she said something kind of random and
21:49can't click my fingers and boom, right?
21:51I had it. the answer that sort of came
21:52to me because I'd sort of put that
21:54randomizing effect into the problem
21:57solving process.
21:59Now, another sort of uh truism belief
22:02that people like to take to the bank is
22:04having faith in good marketing when all
22:06else fails. If we find a way to rank on
22:09Google, we run the ads, we send the
22:10emails, we post the content, you know,
22:13that is going to get us leads and that's
22:15going to get us sales. But the big
22:18problem that we have now uh and what I
22:20have to tell clients is that nobody's
22:22listening anymore. Like you know you are
22:25talking often into the ether and the
22:27reason for this is pretty simple.
22:29Everything on the planet is sort of
22:31increasing in abundance right now except
22:32kind of one thing and that is attention.
22:35Attention in general if we can think of
22:37it as this sort of commodity as this
22:39asset. It is shrinking and every time a
22:42new tool is launched that makes content
22:44cheaper to produce and easier to
22:46distribute that shrinking accelerates.
22:48Ultimately you know your customers they
22:50have the same 24 hours in the day as
22:52they had 10 years ago or a thousand
22:54years ago and they probably have a lot
22:55less patience as well. Every brand,
22:57every creator, every news alert, every
22:59AI generated video is all fighting for
23:01that same finite amount of attention.
23:03And you know it's a real war out there
23:06and it's bloody exhausting. Let me tell
23:08you from direct personal experience and
23:11you would love to opt out of it. I would
23:13love to opt out of it. But you can't opt
23:15out of it because if you can't steal
23:17attention from somewhere, if you can't
23:19steal this most valuable of commodities,
23:21then you're not going to earn any money.
23:23People cannot buy what they don't
23:25notice. This is pretty obvious. Once
23:27again, we can see evidence of this
23:28showing up in all sorts of numbers in
23:31direct and indirect ways. Like in the
23:33first few months of this year, 68% of
23:35Google searches in the US ended without
23:38anyone clicking on anything. And bearing
23:39in mind, in theory, the whole reason
23:41that we search on Google is to find
23:42something to click on. But that actually
23:44clearly isn't true anymore. And indeed,
23:46when an AI overview sat at the top of
23:48those results, the click-through rate on
23:50whatever the number one result was, it
23:51would drop by 58%. So even if you're
23:54ranked first, right, even if you're
23:56ranked first, you can still become kind
23:58of invisible. So what do people think?
24:00They think, well, fine, no, no big deal.
24:02I'm just going to pay for attention
24:03instead. Except, of course, what is
24:05happening there? Meta's average price
24:07per ad went up 14% last quarter. And in
24:09the US and Canada, it went up 23% in one
24:12quarter. And we all know what's
24:14happening to email right now once this
24:16safe haven, but no longer. The amount of
24:18just garbage I get every day and the
24:20amount of garbage that I'm sure that you
24:21get all enabled by all of these very,
24:23very productive, high leverage agents
24:25buzzing around out there. This is why
24:28there are now 392 billion emails being
24:31sent every day. So obviously there are a
24:34lot of people competing for this finite
24:36attention. But it's actually worse than
24:37that because what do people generally do
24:39when they're overwhelmed? Well, they
24:41don't filter things more carefully. They
24:43just retreat. They fall back to the
24:45things they know and the things they
24:46trust. They fall back to that one
24:48newspaper, those two online magazines,
24:50those three creators. they fall back to
24:52a tiny closed set of names and
24:54institutions they trust because it's
24:56just too wild out there. I mean, you can
24:58even probably think about yourself for a
24:59second like how many new kind of sources
25:01of information did you find this year
25:03that you you really started trusting.
25:06So, this is why the attention actually
25:08contracts. It doesn't sort of stay
25:10static. It's because people get
25:11overwhelmed and they go back to what
25:13they know. So, we can't escape the
25:15logical conclusion of this. In such
25:16conditions of abundance, whatever is
25:18discoverable, whatever wins the
25:20attention war is going to win. And
25:22unfortunately, now just doing good
25:25marketing in the classical sense, it
25:26isn't going to do that because there's
25:28so much good marketing out there now
25:30that there is in effect no good
25:32marketing anymore. So really, what I
25:34just have to tell clients is is simple.
25:36If it isn't difficult, it isn't going to
25:39work. The moment that a marketing
25:40technique becomes easy to scale, it's
25:42going to stop working. Whereas the
25:44marketing techniques that are unfair and
25:46tedious and expensive, those are the
25:49ones where ROI is going to be found.
25:51When I say unfair, what I mean is using
25:53advantages that you have that nobody can
25:56copy. Like there's a I'll give you a
25:58little quick list on the screen of like
26:00nine examples of this that you know you
26:02can think through. Like you've got fame,
26:04you got a verifiable track record and
26:06that's got to be like a really
26:07impressive track record. Got association
26:10with big names. Genuine insight, the
26:13type of which that can't be generated by
26:15an LLM. Costly signaling is really good.
26:19Obviously, real world relationships are
26:21priceless. Showmanship sometimes, maybe
26:24live demonstration, and just physical
26:25presence, doing things offline. If you
26:28can show three of these, if you can tick
26:30three of these boxes, you will probably
26:32have an effective way to gain attention
26:34because they're all difficult. And that
26:36is exactly the point. As for tedious
26:39marketing, well, that just means
26:40choosing the stuff that everybody else
26:42can't be bothered with. Original
26:44research, your own events, 50 speaking
26:47slots in a year, like getting on the
26:49plane, hitting the trail, handwritten
26:51letters, all this kind of thing. In a
26:53world of no friction, the more that we
26:56can add friction, the more that we
26:57actually build a moat. Friction becomes
26:59the moat. The tedium is actually the
27:01point. And as for things being
27:03expensive, well, look, it's just looking
27:05at those things where the ROI just looks
27:07on the face of it kind of awful. You
27:09know, why do people buy huge advertising
27:11takeovers of Time Square or Oxford
27:14Circus Tube Station? It's because people
27:16know how much it costs and then people
27:18see that company and they think, damn,
27:20they must be super legit. Like, that is
27:23costly signaling. Like after 20 years of
27:25everyone being told how cheap and easy
27:27and quick marketing could be made, the
27:29people who choose not to go that route
27:30are really going to draw attention to
27:32themselves. Perhaps a little thought
27:33experiment you can run here is to simply
27:35say like if this piece of marketing that
27:38we're about to do, if it costs 10 times
27:40more, would we still do it? Would we
27:42still be confident in its effectiveness?
27:44And if the answer is no, then probably,
27:48you know, you're just dealing in some
27:49form of slop and you need to think more
27:52tedious, more expensive, and more
27:54difficult. Now, so many people, they're
27:57not going to pay any attention to a
27:58video like this or any attention to
28:00strategy at all because they're
28:02thinking, well, look, we've got a great
28:03track record. We've been doing this for
28:05years. We know what we're doing. We are
28:07safe. And basically what this means is
28:09they are complacent. And because they
28:11know that for the last 15, 20 years
28:13everything's been fine, they think,
28:14well, it's probably going to be fine for
28:15the next 15 or 20 years. Well, look, I
28:17have a very strong message for these
28:19types of business, even though they
28:20won't be watching this, so I don't know
28:22why I waste my breath, but whatever. And
28:24the message is the age of complacency is
28:27over. Now, to understand what I mean by
28:28that, we have to start by admitting
28:30something kind of uncomfortable, which
28:32is that for most businesses, mediocrity
28:34has always been more than enough. you
28:37could build a perfectly good business,
28:39sometimes a very, very big one, just by
28:40doing a decent job in an industry where
28:43most people were kind of not really
28:45trying that hard. You see, most
28:47industries, they're kind of like this.
28:48They run on an unspoken almost
28:51non-aggression pact between the founders
28:53within them. Each incumbent has their
28:55patch and it's a bit of a lifestyle
28:57business and everyone likes to go and
28:59play golf and everyone just kind of
29:00agrees not to rock the boat. It's sort
29:02of like chummy in these industries. It's
29:05like guys, come on. Look, we all agreed
29:07not to try too hard here, right? And I
29:09mean, I've seen so many industries like
29:12this, particularly the more sort of
29:13unsexy industries. Unfortunately, this
29:16pact is now breaking. Why? Well, we can
29:18ask a sort of very odd question to kind
29:20of like understand why this is. Did you
29:22ever wonder why there is no like Uber of
29:25school photos or no Netflix of
29:27electricians or Airbnb of of IT
29:30recruitment? like why haven't all
29:32industries been kind of taken over by
29:35these super disruptive players? And the
29:37answer is nothing to do with anything
29:39special about those industries really.
29:41It's just that they are too tedious and
29:44too low ROI for very talented people to
29:47enter. The smartest and most aggressive
29:49entrepreneurs in business, they looked
29:50at them and they thought, well, I can't
29:51be bothered with that. There's much
29:52bigger awards to be had over here. So
29:54tedium for most industries was kind of
29:57the moat that protected them from more
29:59aggressive players. Now the problem with
30:02AI and easier building and distribution
30:05and all the rest of it is that that
30:07tedium has become cheap and much easier
30:09to overcome. And at the exact same
30:11moment, the opportunities in software
30:14are shrinking because the big AI
30:15companies are swallowing them all up. So
30:18what happens to all of that aggressive
30:20talent that wanted to build a tech
30:22unicorn and now can't? Well, they're
30:24going to go looking for somewhere else
30:26to disrupt. And the obvious targets are
30:28the sleepy, underleveraged, complacent
30:31industries that have been coasting for
30:33decades may be like yours. Now, these
30:36people um these types of sharks, if you
30:38like, I call them frontier operators.
30:41They are extremely ambitious. They
30:43couldn't care less about work life
30:45balance. They have a winner take all
30:46mindset. They're on the cutting edge of
30:48tech and they have normally good enough
30:50taste and they're naturally strategic
30:53compared to the average, you know, CEO.
30:55And what these people are going to do,
30:57unfortunately, to all of these like
30:59cozy, chummy, slowmoving industries is
31:01they are just going to swarm them like
31:03locusts. We're already seeing some signs
31:05of what this looks like. Like in back in
31:08September last year, KKR they agreed to
31:10buy this garage door company, classic
31:12sleepy sleepy kind of industry called A1
31:15garage door service for around $2
31:17billion, which I can't quite believe.
31:19This is garage doors we're talking about
31:21here. The founder, he started with a
31:23single van back in 2007, but he built
31:26one of the biggest garage door companies
31:27in America, mostly by running it at a
31:30level that the industry had never seen
31:32before. So he was a frontier operator by
31:34the standards of that industry. He was a
31:35shark. He didn't actually have to invent
31:37anything. He just had to show up and try
31:39much much harder than everyone else. And
31:40then that's only the first wave here.
31:42You know, as the tools improve, the cost
31:44of walking into these sleepy industries
31:46and taking over is going to keep on
31:47falling. So you could expect a lot more
31:49of these types of stories over the next
31:51few years. And so therefore, I want
31:53clients to really think about very
31:55uncomfortable question, which is if the
31:58main players in your industry have been
31:59the sameish for the last 10, 15 years,
32:03what does that mean? It's not a
32:04reassuring sign, right? It probably
32:06feels reassuring, but it isn't. It It
32:08doesn't mean that you're so good or so
32:10special or the industry is so difficult.
32:12It just means that the ambitious people
32:14haven't thought you were attacking yet.
32:17And we need to think, is that situation
32:20going to hold? It's like you are playing
32:22high school basketball and you think
32:24that you don't have to play at Michael
32:26Jordan's level because like he's over
32:28there in the NBA and down here we're
32:29just playing high school ball. That
32:30would be overkill. I don't need to pay
32:32attention to things like strategy, stuff
32:34like that. But what are you going to do
32:36when Mike turns up in your high school
32:38gymnasium? You're going to be in
32:40trouble, right? When these people come
32:42along, they are going to start
32:43consolidating these industries. It like
32:46like in the A1 garage door example. And
32:49we can see again this showing up in the
32:51numbers because we can see that the gap
32:52between the winners, i.e. the
32:54consolidators and everyone else, it
32:56keeps on widening. like McKenzie, they
32:59looked recently at the world's biggest
33:00companies and they found that the top
33:0210% capture 80% of all the economic
33:05profit and this has actually got much
33:07much more skewed over the last 20 years
33:09because of the network effects enabled
33:11by technology. The middle 60% they make
33:15basically kind of nothing. So you know
33:17what are we going to do? What are we
33:18going to do to protect ourselves here?
33:19Well, the answer is very very simple. We
33:21have to become the frontier operator in
33:23our own space before somebody else comes
33:25and does it to us. And this all starts
33:28with ambition. I ask every leadership
33:31team the same question, which is what is
33:33the chance of you growing 3x in the next
33:3618 months? I don't I don't ask people,
33:39you know, is your strategy good or are
33:41you well set up for the future or any of
33:42this cuz everyone's just going to like
33:43talk themselves into a yes and they're
33:45going to lie to themselves instantly.
33:47But when we ask, are you on track to
33:49grow 3x? Like it's quite hard to sort of
33:51lie about that. And if the ch if the
33:53honest answer is that you know there
33:55really isn't a chance that you're going
33:56to do this the chances are almost zero
33:58then you can see that you are not being
34:00strategic enough you are not being
34:01aggressive enough you are not trying to
34:03create new value you are not trying to
34:05make a big move and therefore you are
34:06very vulnerable to someone who does come
34:09along and do that. The reason this
34:10question is so powerful is you is
34:12because you can't really triple a
34:13business just by working harder or doing
34:16better. Like effort is only going to
34:17take you to the ceiling of your current
34:19business model. But anything above that
34:21is going to require the creation of a
34:23different business. And that's why big
34:25ambition forces strategy while a small
34:28amount just lets you get away with
34:30tinkering and just managing and just
34:32turning the handle and waiting for
34:33someone to come and screw you over.
34:35Another interesting question to ask
34:36perhaps is to just imagine like what
34:39would happen if like a team of like
34:43ravenous tech bros entered your industry
34:46tomorrow if indeed they already haven't.
34:48How would they go about things and what
34:50would that mean for you? Can you picture
34:53it? Can you imagine how they might beat
34:55you? It's worth giving some thought to
34:58that and then obviously you'll start to
35:00develop a little bit of a playbook for
35:02like hm maybe actually that's what we
35:03should do instead because ultimately in
35:052026 the only form of defense is going
35:08to be attack. Now another maxim that has
35:11well and truly run its course and had
35:13its time is this idea of trying to beat
35:16your competition by being better than
35:17them by being the best player in your
35:20industry by doing essentially what
35:21everyone else is doing but just doing it
35:23to a higher level. And this is
35:25ultimately what most businesses are
35:26aiming for because it seems logical that
35:28this is the way to make your business
35:30win. But ultimately, this is now
35:32actually just a way to make your
35:34business into a commodity, particularly
35:36as people can copy and iterate faster
35:38than they ever could before. The real
35:40opportunities don't lie there. The real
35:42opportunities lie on the other side of
35:44the rules in the category that nobody
35:46ever questions. Now, here's what I mean
35:48by that. every single industry. It
35:50basically runs on a set of invisible
35:52rules like how you price, who the
35:54customer is, what the product has to
35:56include, which channel you sell through,
35:58all this stuff that is kind of the
35:59default template of the category. No one
36:02really ever sort of decided on this
36:03stuff. It just sort of developed
36:04organically. They're just kind of there,
36:06all of these norms like wallpaper and
36:09everybody copies everyone else without
36:10even realizing they're doing it. And
36:12over time, it all just becomes like the
36:14water that the whole industry swims in.
36:16Now, the trouble is that in a crowded
36:19market, those shared rules are exactly
36:21what ultimately locks everyone into this
36:24commodified battle. And what makes
36:25everyone end up seeming the same as
36:27everyone else. If you follow the same
36:29rules as your competitors, you are going
36:31to get the same answers as your
36:34competitors. You're going to be asking
36:35the same question. You're going to end
36:36up in the same place. And you're never
36:38going to escape these packed out overs
36:40supplied markets by doing that. By doing
36:42what everyone else does, but a little
36:44bit better. if that was even possible
36:47because the market right the market does
36:49not notice better. It's very unfair.
36:51Many better products have died because
36:53of this. The market doesn't notice
36:55better. It only notices power and it
36:57only notices difference. So when every
37:00market space on the map looks like it's
37:02taken, the new space can only be found
37:05on the other sides of rules that
37:07everyone are following, which makes them
37:10blind to that new opportunity. to show
37:13you what I mean. Like one of the my
37:14favorite examples of this that I often
37:16mention is the Savannah Bananas, the
37:18baseball team. Their category obviously
37:20is baseball. And if we think about what
37:21the normal rules of that category are
37:23and what people are trying to do, it's
37:25you know I mean it's a sport, right?
37:27It's literally got many many like actual
37:29written down rules. But the most
37:31important rule that baseball teams are
37:33all trying to follow is that they want
37:35to win ball games. This is how they
37:37direct their energies and their
37:39attentions and their creativity. But
37:41what the bananas did is they asked the
37:43question, well, hold on a second. What
37:44happens if we don't try to win ball
37:48games? Does that actually give us an
37:51opportunity to do something which no
37:54other baseball team ever does because
37:56we've suddenly like we've we've removed
37:58that assumption and we've seen what
38:00might lie on the other side, what this
38:02might enable. And the answer to what
38:03this enabled basically was doing all
38:05sorts of crazy stuff on the pitch on the
38:07pitch on the field to make uh it into
38:10the best fan experience of any team in
38:13the whole land. And then what happened
38:15obviously even though their team was
38:17kind of crap at baseball, loads of
38:18people came to watch them and they built
38:20this really successful business cuz
38:22ultimately you know they're still in the
38:23business of selling tickets. No one else
38:26had ever thought about doing something
38:29like this because nobody else had ever
38:31thought, well, hold on a second. What if
38:33we just don't try to win ball games? So,
38:35this is what I mean about how you remove
38:36an invisible rule and then you see
38:38something exciting lurking on the other
38:40side of it. Last year, apparently the
38:41bananas, they sold out more than 50
38:43cities, including 81,000 people in a
38:46single college football stadium. This is
38:48like baseball. It's like not normal from
38:50what I understand about the sport. And
38:52this year's world tour has got 70 stops
38:54in major league stadiums and you have to
38:56enter a lottery to get a ticket. And
38:57there's and you know there's no proper
39:00baseball team could could ever copy them
39:02because it would mean obviously
39:03dismantling the thing that their whole
39:05business is is built on. And that is
39:07strategy, right? That strategy when you
39:08make a move that your competitors are
39:10completely unable to copy. This is what
39:12this is all about. This is also what
39:14Nintendo did when I talk about the
39:15Switch when they basically made a
39:17console that was portable to dominate
39:19party gaming. But in order to do that,
39:21they had to sacrifice power. Something
39:23which Sony and Microsoft are never ever
39:25going to do with their consoles. And
39:27even on like much much smaller scales,
39:29we can see businesses being successful
39:30with this. Like a little client of mine,
39:32this company called Build Design Studio,
39:34a design agency in Birmingham, Alabama,
39:37they noticed that every single agency
39:38basically assumes that the agency and
39:41the creatives are the guardians of the
39:43brand and that they need to control the
39:45brand. And they thought, well, what
39:46actually if we make the client be in
39:50control of the brand and instead of
39:51selling amazing design and our taste, we
39:54actually sell capability. We actually
39:56showme clients how to manage and run the
39:59brand for themselves. So they can be the
40:01creative guardians and basically the
40:03agency can get out of the way. Obviously
40:05something that's quite appealing to
40:07brands if you tell this to them. Because
40:09of this move, within a year their
40:10revenue doubled and their profit margin
40:12had gone up 10x. And this is just like a
40:15very very small company, but it's just
40:16using the same techniques as what is
40:18happening with the Nintendo Switch. So
40:20what I'm telling clients here basically
40:22is that you want to start by listing
40:24your industry's sacred cows, meaning
40:25everything that is so fixed that it's
40:27basically wallpaper. And at first it's
40:29actually going to be very hard to even
40:30notice what these things are. The
40:32pricing model, the channel, who the
40:34customer is, the features, all that kind
40:35of stuff. You then want to maybe look at
40:37the ones that you are worst at, where
40:39you already don't have an advantage
40:41because that's obviously where you got
40:42the least to lose. And then you can ask
40:44the slightly psychopathic question of
40:46what if we were even worse at that
40:48thing? What if we just didn't do it at
40:49all? What when we remove that barrier,
40:52what can we see on the other side? Like
40:54what if a law firm didn't build by the
40:56hour? What if a consultancy refused to
40:58do workshops? What if your product was
41:00deliberately worse at the thing that
41:02everybody else competes on? Most of the
41:05answers at first glance that you come up
41:06with are going to be stupid, but one of
41:08them won't be all that stupid. Or maybe
41:10it will give you a clue to something
41:11else that you never thought of before.
41:13And when you see it, it's going to be so
41:14obvious that you'll feel embarrassed
41:16that you never noticed it or that indeed
41:18nobody ever noticed it. And that that is
41:20when you know that you were on to a
41:22defensible high leverage winner. And
41:25this then brings me on to our last
41:26briefing here, which is this idea that
41:29product is super important that if you
41:31build a great product, it's going to
41:33sell itself. I get very very sick of
41:35companies who try to patch over a bad
41:37weak undifferentiated product with
41:40marketing. And I'd say you need to like
41:42build as much differentiation into the
41:44product as possible and that is where
41:45you're really going to win. Don't just
41:47put lipstick on a pig. Build something
41:49truly outstanding and the rest is going
41:51to follow. Well, I don't exactly think
41:55that's true anymore cuz I'm not sure how
41:58easy or possible it is now to build a
42:00uniquely outstanding product. Like think
42:03about all this stuff that we've talked
42:04through in this video. Like if anyone
42:06roughly speaking relative to their
42:08industry can build anything and iterate
42:10on it instantly and copy things very
42:12very quickly. Then product differences,
42:14they don't really last, do they? Now
42:16there are some exceptions. There are
42:17products that get better with network
42:19effects the more people use them like
42:20Instagram. I can't just copy that. There
42:22are products that are bound up with some
42:25asset that nobody can replicate. Like if
42:27I want to make a hotel like the Ritz in
42:29London, like I can't get that piece of
42:31land. And there are obviously some
42:33products that maybe sell some kind of
42:34limited access like licensing this kind
42:36of thing. But most businesses this is
42:38not what they do. They don't have these
42:40kind of advantages. They have products
42:42which are ultimately quite difficult to
42:43defend. So I think that we are heading
42:45shockingly into almost a postroduct
42:48world where the better tools get and the
42:51faster everything becomes you know the
42:53quicker we are truly going to arrive
42:55there. And I never ever thought that I
42:57would hear myself saying this but this
42:58is what I'm seeing out there. And if
43:00this is true, which I think it is, then
43:03this means that the order in which a
43:05business wins, where it has to place its
43:08priorities to win has flipped. And I
43:10would sort of like illustrate it like
43:12this. It starts with attention. Like we
43:14said before, that is the limited scarce
43:16commodity right now. Every customer has
43:18got a limited supply of it. And that
43:20attention is basically going to go one
43:21of two ways. It's either going to go
43:22towards things that attract them, which
43:24covers most discretionary buying, or
43:27it's going to go towards things which
43:28irritate them, which covers most
43:30non-discretionary buying, you know,
43:32things that they have to deal with.
43:34Think like, you know, a jacket that you
43:36want to buy maybe versus a boiler that
43:38has just broken. That's discretionary,
43:39non-discretionary, that's attraction
43:41versus irritation. From there, the
43:44business has to hold that attention and
43:46then turn it into something. If it
43:47started as attraction, you have to turn
43:49it into desire through brand and story
43:52and content and association. If it
43:54started as irritation, you have to turn
43:56it into relief by being super relevant
43:58to the problem and being easy to get
44:00hold of and just like being kind of
44:02like, "Oh, thank God. Here's a way that
44:04I can solve this issue." And only then
44:07at the end of this chain does the
44:09product actually come in. And by that
44:11point, all the product really has to do
44:12is live up to the promise that you've
44:14made because the battle was already won
44:16further up in the customer's head. The
44:18how differentiated the product is at
44:20this point, it actually doesn't matter
44:22so much. This is a pattern that is
44:24emerging more and more with businesses.
44:25And this is why every celebrity and
44:27influencer is launching a drinks brand
44:29or a skincare brand or a protein bar.
44:31This is why because they've already won
44:33the top of that flow. The algorithms are
44:36directing attention in their direction
44:39and people will then buy basically
44:41wherever that attention lands. Like
44:43nobody is buying new tonic like James
44:45Smith and Chris Williamson's drink for
44:47its science back claims. That's like
44:49that's that's ridiculous. They buy it
44:51because of who's behind it and because
44:52they were able to direct their attention
44:54that way. In these strategy clinics that
44:56I run for sort of paid members of the
44:58rare mind community. Um link below. Uh I
45:00see a very similar thing. Like last
45:02month we like tore through like the
45:04strategies of four completely different
45:05businesses. There was an AI sales tool,
45:07there was a men's wearellier, there was
45:09a book coach, there was a solo AI
45:11consultant. We really couldn't escape
45:13the same lesson coming up every single
45:14time, which was that the value wasn't
45:16really in the product. The value was in
45:18the attention, the distributions, the
45:20relationship, and the trust. The value
45:22was in all of the stuff that has become
45:24much more difficult and which AI only
45:26makes worse, doesn't make better. So
45:30what would I tell clients because of
45:31this? I would say you might, not always,
45:34but often you might be well advised to
45:36build the business out from attention
45:40rather than building the business out
45:41from product. You want to be almost like
45:44a media business with a with a with a
45:46product bolted on rather than a product
45:48with media bolted on. You know most
45:50companies they're going to put their
45:51best people and their money and their
45:52energy into product and they are going
45:54to leave attention to some like junior
45:56marketing executive and an agency and
45:58you got to flip that right give the
46:00product to an agency even I mean I'm
46:02being a bit facitious but you get my
46:03point cuz attention is now at the heart
46:05of the business and so that is where
46:06your talent and money and your focus
46:08should go now bear in mind this doesn't
46:10mean that the product stops mattering
46:11the product can't be crap it still has
46:12to deliver fully but it's not that hard
46:15to make a product like that now so you
46:17need to stop pouring everything into
46:19making it 10% better when that 10% is
46:21just going to be copied by somebody
46:23anyway. Instead, you need to ask
46:24yourself, what is our claim on people's
46:27attention? Where is our attention
46:28leverage? And then where are we turning
46:30it to? There we have it. A marathon. But
46:33that is what I'm telling my clients
46:34right now among a couple of other
46:36things. But those are some of the main
46:37beats. There are too many businesses.
46:39Abundance is destroying value. AI is
46:42making you average. Attention is
46:43collapsing. Complacency is ending. And
46:46every industry is full of invisible
46:48rules that need breaking. And the
46:50product is not unimportant, but let's
46:53just say it is less important than it
46:55was before. None of these things are
46:58slowing down. In the next couple of
46:59years, we are going to see all of these
47:01things accelerate. And this is going to
47:03radically reshape what a fit business
47:06looks like. And I want you to start
47:09thinking about how you can reshape your
47:10business like that. And if you look back
47:13over all these sort of moves I've given
47:15you, you'll notice that they all have
47:16one thing in common, which is like I
47:18said at the outset, you pull that supply
47:21lever. You were trying to lower the
47:23supply. You're trying to build leverage
47:25in categories that are going up. You're
47:28trying to deconverge your thinking.
47:29You're trying to make marketing unfair
47:31and tedious and expensive. And you're
47:33trying to become the frontier operator
47:35in your own space by killing a sacred
47:38cow and building out from attention. All
47:40of this stuff is so hard and is still
47:43very, very, very unusual. And if you
47:46could just sort of overlay this onto
47:48most industries where these principles
47:50don't exist at all, you're going to see
47:52incredible results. This video is
47:54probably not going to get that many
47:55views. Most people are never going to
47:58hear this stuff or they're only going to
47:59hear it in 3 years time when it's all
48:01too late anyway. when they're copying
48:03like the new kind of like best practice
48:05that's being shown up by the ALGO. And
48:07even then the people who do hear this,
48:08they're not going to do anything about
48:09it because it's too hard. And of course
48:11they they miss the fact that because
48:13it's hard and tedious, that is the whole
48:15reason that it will work.
48:19But for the remainder of you, that very
48:21very small percent who are still
48:22aggressive and who are still optimistic
48:24and who still think that 2027 can be
48:26your best year ever, this is the stuff
48:28to be thinking about right now. So, if
48:31you want to go deeper on all this stuff,
48:32I write about it every single week in my
48:34newsletter, my publication, The Rare
48:36Mind. The link is below. You can also
48:38get that if you get the prompts that I
48:40mentioned taking you through all of
48:42these exercises that will also give you
48:44the opportunity to subscribe. And of
48:46course, speaking of subscribing, don't
48:47forget to subscribe to the channel here
48:50so we can continue walking this road
48:52together. to see you next time.

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