Adam Fairhead
We’re about done with Q1 of 2024.
Feels like 2024 just started, right?
It’s around this sort of time people start panicking.
“Holy moly, I’ve barely moved on my goals, I need to speed up!”
No you don’t.
Not if you’re making steady, considered progress.
Not if you’re doing it right instead of doing it twice.
Not if you know where you want to go and are heading in that direction.
Stay the course. Enjoy the ride.
Adam Fairhead
Quick, there’s a new social platform!
Act fast, there’s another feature!
Attention! There’s an opportunity!
Woah.
There’s always something new.
There’s always another feature.
There’s always another opportunity.
And there’s always a wave of opportunists chasing it.
Know what there’s still a shortage of though?
People committed to focused, undistracted production of great work.
A body of work that makes you gasp,
Not because it’s a new opportunity,
But because they stuck at it.
...
Adam Fairhead
Effective marketing isn’t complex.
It only needs two things:
#1: To give more value than it asks for,
#2: To be enjoyable.
Without #1, people feel sold to.
They put up their buyer defences.
They interpret your creation as a ruse,
To make them do something they don’t feel like doing.
A selfish cry from a selfish person.
Without #2, people feel interrupted.
They ignore you. Skip you. Scroll past you.
Adam Fairhead
Content creation has been cursed for years.
Think about it:
“Here’s a lambo, BOOM it exploded,
Now we’re running from a hitman,
Look here’s a million dollars.”
Exhausting!
Good news:
The world’s getting tired of it.
Mr.Beast said so himself.
The “maximum quantity” race is...
Adam Fairhead
When everyone around you is rushing, You feel slow when building quality work.
When everyone around you is hustling, You feel lazy for taking a minute to rest.
When everyone around you says they’re doing great, You feel bad while comparing your truth to their lies.
When everyone around you are posting their wins, You feel ‘less than’ when today isn’t ‘big-win-day.’
And yet building quality work… Resting when you need it… Staying true to yourself… And loving the process...
Adam Fairhead
There are 3 types of video.
(Only 1 is worth making.)
Type 1: Trend-matched
Type 2: Shock-opposite
Type 3: Market-matched
Adam Fairhead
‘Killer offers’ are killing interest.
Everyone has one. Trust is gone.
(Your inbox confirms this.)
An Offer alone may be Killer but still Asks for more than it Gives.
‘Give’ people more than you ‘ask’, and make it ‘enjoyable’.
Now we’re talking.
Adam Fairhead
There are two types of work.
One type is throwaway, short-term, insignificant.
The other is perennial, long-term, significant.
Not everything we make can last forever. You still need to reply to emails. You may still schedule calls and engage in community chat.
But it doesn’t have to be the bulk of your day.
It doesn’t have to be the bulk of your life.
Want to make great work?
It starts with how you choose to spend your time.
Adam Fairhead
Productivity stole Effectiveness’ spotlight.
Because productivity feels like progress. It rewards administrative busywork. It enjoys ‘hacks’ and ‘tricks’. It favours quantity of output over quality of output.
None of which is particularly useful.
Effectiveness doesn’t always feel like progress. It eschews admin. It has no hacks. Quality is all it understands.
That’s why it’s so frequently forgotten.
As uncomfortable as it may feel… Try effectiveness on for size. Try sitting on the couch dreaming. Try single-tasking your problems on paper....
Adam Fairhead
What makes a great ad?
People spend big bucks looking for the answer.
Turns out?
The answer was under our noses all along.
But first. Let’s look at what doesn’t make a great ad:
When you see sensationalism, what do you do?
Yup. And everyone else rolls their eyes with you.
Do you subscribe, buy or refer these companies?
When industry trend data tells you to...
Adam Fairhead
When marketing remember to be…
#1 Remarkable on the front-end. For instance:
#2 Remarkable on the back-end. For instance:
Remarkable is a choice!
Adam Fairhead
What’s more important:
Impressions. Clicks. Engagement?
Nope nope nope!
Just ’cus they’re in the UI, doesn’t mean they matter.
All you need:
1) Give folks stuff to love & look forward to. 2) Invite them to get even more elsewhere.
That’s it.
Now you can focus on making great things Instead of worshipping algos. Phew!
Adam Fairhead
Social timeline: Boring!
Platitudes. Pitches. Success rah-rahs. (Yawn.)
Join me in a social media ‘spring clean’:
Follow:
Unfollow:
- Sausage-factory algothings - Those only (truly) here to pitch - Things that makes you anxious
Honestly. Which list sounds better?
Adam Fairhead
AI made one big change for creators:
And it’s this:
To be good, just use AI for everything.
To be great, master your craft for a subniche.
‘Settling for Good’ is getting very crowded.
‘Striving for Great’ is quieter than ever.
It’s not about where you are.
It’s about where you’re heading.
Which is it to be?
Adam Fairhead
Continuing the AI theme this weekend,
Good news. Everyone is flocking to AI tools.
Why’s it good news?
It creates more opportunity for you.
When AI makes clipping videos faster,
But clips them all in a similar way,
Master your own style of clipping.
When AI makes painting images faster,
But does them all in similar styles,
Master your own style of painting.
When AI makes writing content faster,
But mostly writes in popular styles,
Adam Fairhead
AI made one big change to creators:
If you’re decent, you’re done. If you’re great, you’re golden.
But what’s the difference?
What’s decent, and what’s great? How do I know which is me?
Great is:
Not prepared to be that specific?
You’re not prepared to be great.
We don’t have to like it.
But this is how it is now.
So. You get...
Adam Fairhead
"Investing in growth."
It sounds good.
But hold on. Put down the credit card.
"Growth."
We need to define this word, before it herniates our business.
Customers don’t care what computer you use, what office you work from, or if you’re "expanding".
They don’t care how many masterminds you’re in, your revenue per employee, or your net worth.
They don’t care how many books you’ve read, articles you’ve written, or comments you’ve left on LinkedIn.
They...
Adam Fairhead
You may be creating the wrong content.
Don’t be a car dealership commercial.
Don’t be a superbowl commercial.
Be the superbowl.
That which we’ll eagerly anticipate.
That which we’ll will miss when you’re gone.
It doesn’t happen every day,
That’s fine.
We’ll be waiting.
Adam Fairhead
We hear a lot about “investing in success” on social.
Most of it? Wrong.
Eleven cohorts,
Posh laptops,
New offices,
Expansion,
Hm. Do customers ask you to invest in those?
Or do they actually want:
- Service (not cheap labour) - Communication (not just your VA) - Enjoyment (’cos life’s hard enough)
Aren’t those better investments?
Aren’t those a better path to what you want?
Adam Fairhead
The point of running a business?
To make you and others happy.
Not to do what MBA students say.
Not to out-earn your Wall St. pals.
Not to impress your grandparents.
Not to ‘hustle’ into an early grave.
Not to build a prison for yourself.
Not to trade life for a front cover.
Have happy customers.
Have a happy you.
Otherwise, what are you doing?
Adam Fairhead
Lousy marketing strategies:
Great marketing strategies:
There are no other strategies.
Adam Fairhead
Two choices:
Make great things, keep costs in check, focus on customers.
Make what you hope are great things, spend the funding, focus on investors.
One is glamorous, easy to grow, until it needs to start generating its own funds to stay alive.
One is not glamorous, hard to grow, but stands on its own two feet indefinitely.
We get to choose.
Adam Fairhead
‘How they do it’ is how we structure most of our work affairs.
But ‘how they do it’ is really none of our business:
‘How they do it’ could mean:
Adam Fairhead
The things that spring to mind are not it.
They worked for a while, but things have changed:
Now, we must play an elevated game.
Good news: the elevated game is more fun, works amazingly, and best of all:
Your competitors aren’t doing it.
Here’s what a great landing page is not:
Adam Fairhead
Acquiring customers?
For digital products?
Simple…
What you DON’T need:
A “fully-attributed 7-channel lead-automation marketing machine.”
Here’s all you need (it’s just 3 things):
Need more attention? Post content they love & look forward to.
Need more conversions? Publish landing pages they really enjoy using.
Need more user retention? Deploy habit-forming UI they form an attachment to.
Instead of:
Adam Fairhead
Software is getting worse.
Fortunately, there’s a way to fix it…
If you’re good with software, you’ll have noticed:
Hardware innovation slowed, so the problem became obvious.
But the fix is easy.
REMEMBER =
You’re not in the ‘making hardware do stuff’ business.
You’re in the ‘giving hardware...
Adam Fairhead
The SaaS market is changing. A lot.
A race to the bottom is emerging.
How do you protect from that?
Turns out people aren’t paying premiums for…
…if similar code/features are cheaper elsewhere.
People pay premiums for:
…even if similar features are cheaper elsewhere.
Example:
Many enjoy paying for HEY.com email because:
Adam Fairhead
Satisfied customers don’t refer business.
Happy customers don’t refer business.
Fans refer business.
So don’t create customers. Create fans.
They’ll refer themselves, then anyone who will listen.
Adam Fairhead
Learning is a skill worth learning.
But few of us actually try to learn it!
We usually just ‘wing it’.
But you can put process to learning and learn so much faster:
Adam Fairhead
The main question creators should ask when buying tools:
“Will this help me do my best work?”
Here’s how that can show up:
“Does this have enough power? Or too much? Or not enough?”
Over-buying or under-buying doesn’t help your work. Get what’s right, not what’s biggest, and not just what’s on offer.
Example: I spec hardware based on the tasks it’s being bought for, not on ‘bigger is better’.
“Does this open doors for my work or close...
Adam Fairhead
Good news.
AI is devouring the marketing world and everyone in it.
Wait, why’s that good news again?
After all, you’re marketing your work… and you don’t want to be devoured.
Sounds painful. And wet.
It’s good news because your biggest competition is being destroyed as you read this: the low-effort content creators, crash-course ghostwriters and send-it-east-for-cheap-ers.
They’re toast. Buttered toast. AI is devouring them.
So where does that leave you?
It leaves you where you were you supposed...
I create a newsletter called GrowthCandy. Each issue shares one idea to help build and spread your work, delivered as a short comic. Fast to read. Easy to apply. Hard to forget!