Yaro

Yes of course I know @lkr! We've even hung out IRL can you believe it. I think it's safe to presume that good content, regardless of source will be popular. In the end we won't even know what is AI and what is not. I bet there will also be a trend of deliberately telling people that your content is not AI as a sort of 'mark of distinction', but it's not going to matter when it comes to consumption. Right now there may be an uncomfortable feeling with AI content, especially when you can tell because some of it stands out as non-human, but that would be the same as just 'bad editing' or 'bad writing' or 'bad animations' in content created by humans, in other words, content that is not quite up to a certain standard. I'm currently playing with business histories powered by AI research and writing, first as an audio podcast, but once I finish the first season's 12 episodes I'm going to turn them into Youtube documentaries as well. You can check them out at corrp.com

@lkr @yarostarak is grappling with this question too right now… you guys know each other right?

I prefer real content like documentaries and memoirs, but I can (of course) enjoy films and fiction as well. This makes me think about AI content - maybe people will prefer human-created, but if AI writes something first-person and we know it, can't we just enjoy it the same way that we enjoy any fiction?

You can listen or read on here: app.patric.ai/yaros/the-yaro…

I love referrals because the conversion rate is the highest. They come ready to buy. They already know what you do, what you stand for. Most importantly, someone told them: "I got good service from this company. If you want the same solution, you should get it too." That's powerful. Referrals strip away the competition. A person coming from a referral often isn't even considering other options. They might know other options exist, but they hate making decisions. A referral makes it easier, they just go with what their friend did. We're wired to do this. Humans naturally reflect what our peers are doing, especially when choosing suppliers. It's ridiculous in some ways, but it's also reality. As a business owner, you need to accept it and leverage it. What makes someone refer your business? Read on...

@awilkinson The line that made me chuckle in this was 'Google had finite resources'. I suspect that wasn't the case. They only went after a few verticals because they only go after the biggest upside opportunities where their moat of search could be applied.

Software is about to look a lot like ecommerce. Shitty margins. Unlimited competition. A hard way to make a living. Why? Because over the next few years, Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI are going to drink the software industry's milkshake 🥤 If you were looking for a hotel in 2010, this is how it went: 2010: Google "hotels in New York" → Google links you to TripAdvisor. But by 2020... 2020: Google "hotels in New York" → Google shows its own hotel booking system integrated directly into the search results. RIP TripAdvisor 🪦📉 (check their stock price 2015 vs today) Google made a fortune by building products that captured demand on the keywords where they had the most traffic, like travel. But Google had finite resources. They only had so many developers to build these products, so it only made sense to do this for the largest categories: hotels, flights, shopping. This same thing is about to happen to most digital services and software products. Except this time, the constraint that protected smaller categories is gone. 2025: Ask ChatGPT for the best CRM software → It directs you to Attio, Pipedrive, and Zoho. 2028: Ask ChatGPT for the best CRM → It builds one, imports your data, and runs it for you at a fraction of the cost. The difference between OG Google and today's frontier models is that OG Google needed human engineers to build each vertical product. OpenAI, Anthropic, and the Google of today (Gemini) won't have this constraint. When the cost to build and maintain software approaches zero, there's no reason to stop at hotels and flights. You do it for everything, on demand. Right now, vibe coding is still fiddly. It requires a human in the loop, it's insecure, and it depends on third-party hosting and infrastructure. But I expect the frontier model companies to build out their own vertical infrastructure to run the software they generate, removing the current friction entirely. Think Claude's artifacts, except full-fledged digital products—hosted, maintained, and updated by the same AI that built them. The moat for most software companies isn't the code. It's the switching cost and the ecosystem lock-in. When an AI can rebuild your tool in seconds and migrate your data automatically, that moat disappears. Everyone understands that vibe coding = infinite competition. But this is different. They're taking your customer before they can even get to you. So, software becomes a lot like ecommerce. Near zero margin unless you own distribution and aren't reliant on Google/Meta for customers. TLDR: They drink your milkshake. They'll drink it up.

I do think time horizons have to be considered here. Population decline requires generations to be properly felt. It seems marginal at first, then suddenly there are no people to tax, consume or create. This kind of population decline is not something we've ever dealt with before. We just don't know how it plays out when people choose not to have families. Sure we've lost large chunks of people to war and disease and famine before, but we were still having big families then. Now we're choosing not to so there's big gaps that aren't going to be filled.

How Long Should You Keep Looking For A Breakthrough? app.patric.ai/yaros/the-yaro…

Last night I was researching YouTube faceless channels 📺 I was curious about the tools and strategies people are using. I ended up diving deep into YouTube growth strategies in general, and I kept seeing this advice repeated: Just keep going until you get that breakthrough video. A breakthrough isn't some magic moment where everything changes overnight. It's simpler than that. What you're looking for is to get that one outcome that reinforces what you're doing is going to lead to that kind of outcome on a regular basis. That's it. You need proof that the algorithm works. That people care. That your strategy isn't just hopeful thinking. I've experienced this myself with blog posts that started getting traffic and email optins, and with podcast episodes that started getting listens. The problem with never having a breakthrough? Emotionally you're running on faith. You're living off "I hope this works." You've done your research. You've got the right tactics. But without that first sign of life, you're just hoping. Hope eventually needs reinforcement from tangible results. One successful video doesn't make a business. Let's be clear about that. But it shows you something critical: the algorithm is surfacing your content. People are engaging. You're on the right path. Motivation is more important than the breakthrough itself. Because what kills most progress? The founder giving up. You keep going because you're searching for that feeling of success. That's the reward that matters most. That feeling gives you the energy to keep going and chase more of it. Of course hope is one thing, but how long should you keep going looking for a breakthrough? Getting no results forever is not a plan. I answer this question in my update for today. Find the link in the comments...

Maintenance vs innovation energy: app.patric.ai/yaros/the-yaro…

Are you spending your days ticking boxes or chasing breakthroughs? 😵‍💫 😵‍💫 😵‍💫 I've found myself moving between two different modes of work, and I suspect you do too. One keeps the business running. The other searches for what's next. 1. Maintenance Energy: Keeping the Machine Running 2. Innovation Energy: The Search for Breakthroughs When I ran my education business, maintenance energy looked like: - Writing blog posts every single day - Creating newsletters to nurture my audience - Scripting and recording videos for products and marketing materials Today with my agency 50hrs, where we provide executive assistants to busy professionals and have a team 70 people, my maintenance activities have shifted. I wake up most mornings to tasks related to coordinating the marketing team. They come back to me with questions, things to approve, feedback requests. Sometimes I need to create a new landing page or work on a lead magnet. These are all tasks that are part of systems we've built to keep growing. Maintenance energy is what keeps your business alive. It's the compounding effect of doing the right things repeatedly. What if you don't have systems yet? Then you're probably operating in innovation mode most of the time. You're experimenting. Trying something completely new. Waking up each morning not entirely sure what will work. That's normal when you're just getting started. You don't know what to maintain because nothing's proven yet. Even established companies need innovation energy. Innovation energy is searching for a breakthrough, but it's also untethered to a predictable outcome.... so far! You're wowed by what's possible (for example, with AI right now), but you're not sure how to turn it into tangible results. It's exciting because it's new and does amazing things, but it's not bringing in customers yet. That's the gap. You innovate to find new things that work. Then you turn those things into repeatable processes. The breakthrough becomes the machine. You experiment until something produces customers, then you systematize it so it keeps producing customers without requiring constant innovation energy. The Right Balance A stable company needs a majority of repeatable functions with people running them. Innovation should be a smaller percentage component. However, innovation could be your job. Maybe you're the leader who decides where to turn the ship. You have to stay on top of what's new. You need to know what's coming next. But if innovation isn't contributing to forward movement, you might need to focus more on core tasks. Build to compound. Get long-term stable results. Reduce random innovation. That's a habit that is sometimes very difficult because entrepreneurs are dynamic in nature. Doing the same tasks day in and day out doesn't gel well with your personality. It might be what your business needs. If you're not sure what to focus on, I invite you to listen to my 10-minute podcast update for today. Link is the comments...

Here's the full update: app.patric.ai/yaros/the-yaro…

Your content marketing funnel is a sequence designed to move people from strangers to customers. 💡 First you get attention. 💡 Then you build trust. 💡 Then you demonstrate value. 💡 Then you handle objections. ☎️ Finally, you invite them to book a call or make a purchase. That's a sales funnel, with content marketing front and center. Let's break this down some more... Step One: Get Attention Everywhere The entry point is exposure. You need to show up where your audience already is. That means multiple channels with high-quality media. You can't just pick one platform and hope it works. The algorithm gods are fickle. Diversification isn't optional anymore. Step Two: Convert Attention Into Leads Once you've got someone's attention, you need a next step. That's your call to action. Usually a lead magnet. Back in the day, lead magnets were long PDF reports. Fifty-page guides. Exhaustive checklists. I'd stay away from that now. Most of the lead magnets I'm creating are small. Faster to consume. More immediately useful. But here's what's new for me, and I think this is the best way forward: Create simple apps that you give away for free. These are things you would have charged money for in the past. Little SAAS tools. Mini apps that actually do something valuable. Thanks to tools like Replit and Lovable, you can build an app in a couple of days. Not months. Not thousands of dollars. Days. You publish it. You give it away. People have to join your email list to use it. The app is designed to attract the same people who would buy what you're selling. Other Lead Magnet Formats That Still Work You don't have to build an app. Here are other options: - Short videos: Quick tutorials or walkthroughs - Visual documents: Graphics, flowcharts, one-page guides - Automations: Zapier templates, workflow blueprints - GPT prompt series: Custom prompts for their specific use case It really depends on your industry. If you're in something visual, you might need a more visual experience. But for most people, these formats work. You don't have to spend three months creating one lead magnet anymore. You can test a new one every week if you want to. Step Three: Build Trust With a Big Experience After someone downloads your lead magnet, they're on your email list. Now you need a deeper experience. Something that builds trust and demonstrates your expertise at a higher level. A workshop, webinar, or training -- call it whatever you want, is what I recommend. This is your main 'content asset', an in-depth experience designed to give people more support, more help towards something. This is also where you invoke a human connection. Video. Live stream. Something that lets people see you, hear you, connect with you. Why this matters: People buy from people they trust. A PDF can't build trust the way a live training can. You're showing up. You're answering questions. You're proving you know your stuff. At the end of that presentation, you invite people to book a sales call, sign up for a free trial or directly purchase what you're selling. Step Four: Convert With Calls or Direct Sales At the end of your big experience, you're making an offer. If you're selling something lower-priced, people can purchase directly. If you're selling something higher-priced or more complicated, you invite them to book a sales call. For most coaches, consultants, and service providers like freelancers and agencies, that means calls. This is a compounding long-term strategy. The more content you put out there, the stronger your presence becomes. You get better at it. You figure out what hooks and messages work better. When you find hooks and messages that work, you bring them across to all your channels. Because creating lead magnets is so much quicker and easier now, you can test constantly. You can have an idea and build it overnight. That gives you a lot of flexibility. You test. You learn. You iterate. And over time, you build a system that reliably generates leads and customers. I go deeper into this in today's podcast and blog post....

@ianncushing Offer is too low for that profit. 2.5m then I'd seriously consider it.

If you started a business 3 years ago with less than $1k and have the opportunity to sell it for $1.5M, would you do it? Factors: 1. You work 20-30 hours per week 2. The business profits $400-500k per year 3. You are fully remote - you can work anywhere

Why Brand Presence Is the Only Marketing Strategy That Still Works app.patric.ai/yaros/the-yaro…

You'd think AI would make branding easier🧐 It doesn't. It makes it more critical. Right now, I can go into Claude and generate a great blog post in five minutes. I do this regularly. The quality is solid. It's valuable content. The problem is everyone else can do the exact same thing. AI is magnifying an abundance problem on top of the abundance probably we already had. There's so much content now that standing out based on content quality alone is nearly impossible. If everyone can produce good content, good isn't enough anymore. The same thing is happening with paid ads: - AI generates endless ad variations: platforms will just keep testing more and more creative - Ad costs go up: when there's more inventory to show, you pay more to get your ads seen - Performance goes down: people are overwhelmed and trust fewer sources It's a bidding war where the only winners are the platforms themselves. What actually breaks through? When content is abundant and attention is scarce, people default to sources they already trust. They don't have time to evaluate every option. They don't want to research twenty different solutions. They go with the brand they've heard of, the person they've been following, the company that keeps showing up. That's brand presence. It's not about having the best SEO or the cleverest ad copy. It's about being in the conversation when someone needs what you offer. It's about being the name that comes up on a Reddit thread, in a Slack channel, at a conference, in a casual conversation. At my company we're going all-in on brand presence. Quality over volume: We're a premium service, so everything we put out needs to reflect that level Multiple touchpoints: Social content, email nurture, podcast presence, lead magnets, content assets Long-term thinking: This isn't a quick win strategy, it's a compounding investment What's beautiful about focusing on brand presence is that it makes everything else work better. Your ads convert better because people already know who you are. The ad becomes a reminder, not a cold introduction. Your search results improve because you're getting: - Incoming links from press coverage and interviews - More mentions across the web - Better engagement signals - References that help with AI search results Your sales conversations get easier because trust is already established. You're not starting from zero. It's a compounding effect across all marketing channels. IMHO, brand presence is the only marketing strategy for the future. More...

Try Patric AI here: Patric.ai

We made something! My friend Alice and I have been vibe coding and designing a new voice-to-content marketing tool. It's called Patric AI. It's designed for business owners who don't have time or don't like making videos and sitting at your computer writing for hours. Instead, you just need to record 5 to 10 minutes of you speaking audio, and Patric will create all the content assets you need for marketing. Patric will instantly publish: - Podcast (and RSS feed to connect to Spotify, Apple, YouTube) - Article which you can use as a blog post or email newsletter - A website that hosts your podcast and articles - Social media posts for LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and X - Cover graphics for every piece of content you publish We have spent quite a bit of time tuning the writing engine. You should try it to see how Patric can write amazing content based on just the words you speak. There's lots to do still. No doubt bugs will surface, but I'd love you to try Patric today. Just spend five minutes, drop an audio, and see all the amazing content you get. You can use your phone or laptop to record the audio. Then you can make it a daily habit to start growing your content brand online for you or your company. Link to Patric in the comments...