A lot of entrepreneurs start the same way.

They see a large market.
They see a path to make money.
And they go build.

It works for a while.

But often, it is not deeply aligned. It is just effective.

And then, for the ones who figure it out, a second question emerges:

What do I actually want to build?

That is the second mountain.

A place where money still matters, but meaning matters more.

Where impact, identity, and curiosity start to take the lead.

For whatever reason, I did not wait.

In my mid-20s, I went straight into that second mountain.

Less certainty.
More ambiguity.
An industry that was still forming in real time.

And the truth is, I never set out to build in personal branding.

But I did know two things about myself:

1. I valued self-expression.
   I believed it was how you find your people and your path.

2. I found deep fulfillment in helping others unlock their potential.

So instead of chasing a category, I chased what felt aligned.

That took shape in ways that, on the surface, looked disconnected:

• Building a writing platform in college, Wish Dish, to bring people together through content and community

• Creating a six-figure ticket sales program for the Atlanta Hawks and Braves across hundreds of student organizations

• Building a founder community inside a venture ecosystem

• Running a book launch for a CEO in transition, helping him activate his voice, his message, and his next chapter

Individually, those experiences do not look related.

But they were all driven by the same thread:

Helping people express who they are and connect that expression to real opportunity.

On the Personal Brand Industry

Personal branding (to me) was never about:

A LinkedIn post.
A newsletter.
A podcast.
Short-form video.
Outbound campaigns.

Those are just artifacts.

What matters is the connective tissue. The system that ties identity to visibility, and visibility to opportunity.

That realization clicked for me during a book launch project.

It opened my eyes to adjacent worlds like speaking, publishing, and PR, and I saw something clearly:

Personal branding sat at the center of it all.

Not as a tactic.
But as infrastructure.

On the Opportunity

What is interesting is this:

Personal branding might be one of the largest total addressable markets because it applies to everyone.

Every up and coming leader and professional.
Every executive.
Every founder.
Every operator navigating what is next.

And yet, despite its scale, there has not been a truly scalable system to help people:

• Understand who they are

• Express it clearly across platforms

• And translate that into real-world outcomes

That is the gap.

For the past eight years, we have been deep in it.

Learning how these fragmented pieces of brand, content, distribution, reputation, and relationships, actually work together.

And more importantly, how to make that system:

• More accessible

• More structured

• And far less manual

What’s Ahead

Next week, we will start sharing what we have been building and the consumer level.
We’ve also been building at the enterprise level.

The goal is simple:

Make personal brand infrastructure scalable.

To reduce friction.
To increase clarity.
To help more people turn who they are into something that works for them.

Looking back, none of this was obvious.

It only happened because I trusted the pull toward what interested me and stayed in it long enough for the dots to connect, without realizing I was swimming in a world, with tons of opportunity, problems to solve, and a market made up of billions of people.

Community Note

A few years ago, I sat next to Andy Hilger, one of the most thoughtful leaders I have met.

He helped build Allegis Group into one of the largest recruiting companies in the country.

He also recently released a TEDx Talk on career development, especially relevant in a world shaped by AI.

His message is simple, but important:

Do not over-index on what you do today.
Focus on how you position yourself for what is next.

Worth the watch.

Let’s Stop Lying to Ourselves

For years, I heard the same polite rejection:

“Bryan, I really like you. It’s just not the right time.”

That’s not feedback.

That’s a soft no designed to protect the relationship.

Here’s the truth no one says out loud:

They didn’t reject me.
They rejected how we charged.

—

The Real Problem Was Never Demand

I spent too long diagnosing the wrong issue.

I thought:

• Maybe we weren’t clear enough

• Maybe the market wasn’t ready

• Maybe we needed better sales

Wrong.

There was demand.

There was trust.

There was even urgency (for the early adopters).

But the model created friction where there should’ve been momentum.

The Model Everyone Pretends Still Works

Let’s call it what it is.

This industry was built on a model that made sense… eight years ago.

• High-cost content creation

• Slow production cycles

• Heavy upfront strategy

• Long timelines before anything shipped

So firms charged for it:
Big retainers
Long contracts
Expensive “build phases”

That was the game.

But here’s what nobody wants to admit:

That game is over.
Or will be over by the end of the year.

What Changed (And Why Most Firms Are Stuck)

Creation is now cheap.
Speed is now expected.
AI collapsed old models.

But most firms?

They have kept:

• The same pricing

• The same process

• The same friction

Still charging for effort, “hours”, and process.
Instead of outcomes, momentum, and distribution.

And the market is starting to notice.

—

The Hidden Tax You’ve Been Paying

When you say “not the right time,” what you’re really saying is:

“I can’t justify the upfront cost for something that might work.”

That’s not hesitation.

That’s rational.

Because the traditional model forces you to:

• Pay (a lot) before you see value

• Commit before you see traction

• Trust before you see proof

That’s not a demand problem.
That’s a broken incentive structure.

And a model that can finally be fixed.

—

The Decision Most Firms Won’t Make

Last fall, we made a call that—frankly—most firms in our position won’t have the stomach to make.

We didn’t "tweak" pricing or offer a “discount”.

We tore the model down.

We eliminated the upfront barrier and extended out the agreement structure.
And took out typical "agency margin" to test on new customers to start.

Everything that used to be:

• manual

• slow

• expensive

…we systemized . . . Big shout out — thank you Eli Wright.

Years of iteration → compressed into workflows
Dozens of moving parts → turned into repeatable systems
Overly Expensive Contractors → More effective resourcing

Not to make it “cheaper”.

To make it make sense, with the same quality, for our customers.

—

The Part People Get Wrong About “Efficiency”

There’s this assumption:

“If you remove friction, you lose quality.”

What actually happens:

You reallocate quality.

We didn’t reduce the human layer.

We concentrated it.

Less time on setup, coordination, and busywork

More time on insight, story, distribution, and relationships.

The things that actually drive revenue.

—

The Moment It Clicked

THEN . . . At the start of this year, I went back to hundreds of people who had told us “no.”

Same people.
Same trust.
Same respect.

But . . . Now . . . with a new model.

The response?

Immediate.

That’s the line. And I've heard it so many times now for the people we have moved across the line.

—

There Was Never a Sales Problem

We didn’t suddenly become better closers.
We aligned the model with reality and what is good business. Thank you Tim Springer!

And when that happens:

• Sales compress

• Cycles shorten

• Trust converts

The results?
We’re off to the fastest velocity in company history.
Because we removed resistance.
And now are getting to work with some very special people who were holding out.

—

The Category Is Breaking (Whether People Admit It or Not)

Zoom out.

Look at the landscape:

• A traditional publishing marketing that’s worse than a bad VC deal

• Large PR retainers with no attribution

• Custom everything, repeat nothing

It’s fragile, doesn’t scale, nor compound.
And increasingly — It doesn’t convert.

What Replaces It

A new model is emerging.

• Systemization, with craftsmanship

• Low-friction, not front-loaded risk

• Built to scale across people, not projects

This isn’t about content.

It’s about alignment between value creation and value capture.

And eventually a scalable platform that defines people and gets personalized content out effortlessly.

—

The Line You Shouldn’t Ignore

So if you’ve ever said:

“Love it… just not right now.”

Pause. Because what you’re really reacting to isn’t timing.

It’s structure.

And if the structure is wrong…

No amount of liking the person will save the deal.
I experienced this first hand.

—

Final Thought

You may like me. You may trust me.
You may even believe in what we do (or my competitors).
But none of that matters if the model doesn’t make sense.

Now, for the first time, it does.
And it's going to get even better, even faster, and even cheaper. 

Not because I want to just compete on price, but because I want to compete on what's best to scale your voice, so it does not cost a fortune, and so you can monetize your expertise before your burn a hole in your pocket. If we do that, we will win long term.


If you resonated with this message, and it hit a nerve, you should watch this video (click this paragraph). I showed our leadership team last week, to drive this point even further home.

You can also reach out to me to talk about this too. I would be more than happy to tell you what this means for your voice and your future.

—

🍻 Cheers to the future🍻

Last week, a handful of conversations stretched my thinking in ways I didn’t expect.

The kind that don’t just give you answers, but change how you see the question.

I’m constantly reminded how much proximity matters.
Being around sharp, honest thinkers compresses years into moments.

This is my attempt to pass a few of those moments along.

If something hits . . .sit with it.
If something challenges you . . .even better.

Let me know what sticks.

1. Engineers vs. Creatives (and why decisions matter)

A conversation with a good friend Preet reframed something simple:

• Engineers reduce friction

• Creatives expand possibility

Example: Preet shared with me an example about building a window

• Engineer: “Give me dimensions.”

• Creative: “How do you want it to look?”

Both matter. But only one moves things forward quickly.

The unlock:

• The goal is to reduce the steps to a decisions

• Progress > perfection

• Speed compounds learning

Where creatives fit:

• Not to slow things down

• But to define why it matters and what it should become

Which brings me to Raj Singh…

He’s building the product behind Mark Manson’s work (Purpose app).
Check it out . . .super neat.

• He knows how to build

• What he needs is clear, pre-defined thinking (which Mark provides + a direct channel for media and distribution, which Raj is working to build)

Takeaway:
Great builders don’t need more ideas.
They need structured context.

2. The Quiet Misalignment in Creative Work

A conversation with a writing/publicity attorney sparked this:

Many professionals should be using AI more.

They aren’t.

Why?

Because their business model punishes efficiency.

• Lawyers bill hourly

• Freelancers bill hourly

• Writers bill per output

If they get faster → they earn less (unless demand is infinite)

So the system resists improvement.

This is the real shift happening:

• The hourly model is breaking

• Incentives are misaligned

• Speed is no longer optional

3. Where Creative Work Is Actually Going

A friend in Northern California . . .

• Built 17 AI agents using OpenClaw

• Mid 5-figure revenue in 4 months

• ~$200/month in operating expenses

• On track for 7 figures by EoY

This isn’t normal yet. But it’s directionally obvious.

The shift:

• From doing the work → to designing the system

• From producing → to directing

• From skill → to taste + judgment

The people who win won’t be:

• The best writers

• The fastest designers

They’ll be the ones who:

• Know what good looks like

• Build systems that consistently produce it

On Lenny’s podcast, a woman shared she has bought a ton of Mac Mini’s, named them like “new pets”, and operates her dynamic life using them. Listen here.

Heading into the Week

A few questions worth sitting with:

• Where am I overthinking a two-way door decision?

• Am I optimizing for output… or for leverage?

• Does my business model reward efficiency . . . or fight it?

• Am I executing tasks… or building systems?

Final Thought

Most people are trying to do better work.

Few are redesigning how the work gets done.

That’s the gap.

If you're thinking about starting a newsletter, or evolving how you show up with your voice, I've been experimenting with different styles over the past year as we continue to build a system to help people like you, do this work at scale.

More on that soon.

Reader Warning: If you scroll slowly all the way to the bottom, you may find this *very* triggering. Just remember, it’s not you, and it’s not your fault. And it’s going to be okay.

—

In 2016, I was in Finland at the SLUSH conference, watching the founder of Shazam.

It stuck with me—not because of what it became, but because of how long it didn’t work.

For years, the idea was right… but the world wasn’t ready.
No distribution. No infrastructure. No place for it to live.

And yet, he kept building.

He believed in a simple future:
You hear a song → you press a button → you know what’s playing.

That future didn’t exist yet.
But he stayed long enough for it to arrive.

Then the iPhone happened.
The App Store happened.

And overnight, what once felt impossible became obvious.

He didn’t get lucky.
He was positioned when the system caught up.

—--

I think the “brand” world is entering that same moment.

Here’s why.

Moments before the breakthrough

The App Store Moment

Distribution

During a time not so long ago . . . in a world not so far away . . .

This already happened once.

(Shazam — a product before its time)

(App Store — distribution arrives, adoption explodes)

It didn’t look obvious then.

Until it did.

The same is happening in the brand world.

But first, this is where it breaks.

Reflection:

We agree with all of it.

That’s why for the past 8 years, we’ve been in the mud—figuring this out.
Adapting to every shift. Technology. Distribution. Business models.
Not chasing trends… building toward what this should become.

Because this was never about creating another agency.

It was about solving the system.
Looking at all the individual parts.
And seeing how they connect.

What happens next is inevitable.

In the next 3–5 years, the company that wins will do one thing:

Collapse all of this into one system.

• Production Cost → near zero

• Execution → automated

• Distribution → embedded

• Content → aligned to your voice, done for you

• Relationships → built and nurtured without friction

• Attribution → clear, provable, compounding

Not more tools.
Not more work.

A layer that replaces the chaos.

This is the iPhone moment for our industry.

Not because of a new idea.
but because the infrastructure is finally catching up.

And when it does, everything that felt hard… becomes obvious.

We’re building for that moment.

Not the next campaign.
Not the next quarter.

The system that makes all of this work.

So when you invest in Arcbound,
you’re not hiring an agency.

You’re stepping into the system that’s replacing them.

And if we’re right.

This won’t just build a company.

It will unlock:

• better businesses

• better distribution

• and a world where more people can actually express what they know

Because your voice was never the problem.

The system was.

And now . ..

It's finally catching up.

1. This moment, described above, is only possible because of AI. If you’re interested in this AI Wave, here’s the Webinar Link to watch the recording from our webinar last week, with Charlene Li and Deb Liu, two incredible women at the forefront of this space. So many insights for you to takeaway.

In early 2023, I was reading Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography.

There’s a moment where Jobs describes his 30th birthday. Not just who showed up, but how he designed the room.

It stayed with me.

Within minutes, I decided to host a two-day event for my network, for my own birthday.

Then reality hit.
“How am I actually going to pull this off?”

The answer came quickly. Start with the right people.

Great speakers attract great people.
Great people create rooms that matter.

At the time, we had just started talking with Charlene Li.

So I thought, maybe Charlene would do it. She didn’t hesitate, said yes, and showed up fully both days. Then led the opening talk.

That moment stayed with me. Not because of the event, but because of how clearly she understood what leadership looks like in moments of change.

And that is exactly the moment we are in right now with AI.

Most people are waiting to feel ready.
Waiting for clarity.
Waiting for a roadmap.

But moments like this do not reward hesitation. They reward movement.

Charlene stepped in before the path was clear. That is what leaders do.

Sometimes you do not get certainty.
You get a signal.

And if it is directionally right, you go.

Not because you know the outcome.
But because standing still is the bigger risk.

Why Charlene Li Matters

First, her new book Winning With AI is landing at exactly the right moment.

Second, I spend a lot of time studying how thought leadership actually works. Not at the surface level, but what creates real, lasting visibility and credibility.

Charlene is one of the clearest examples of how to do it right:

1. The brand is bigger than the book
Her books (see her published work here) extend her thinking. They do not define it.

2. A message that evolves without drifting
She is anchored in disruption, but adapts as technology and markets shift. That is why she stays relevant and never gets boxed in. (See her website here.)

3. Long-term consistency over short-term wins
15+ years of showing up. Not for immediate ROI, but to build reputation, trust, and opportunity over time.

4. A real content ecosystem
Newsletter (close to 10k subscribers), LinkedIn (281k+), and soon expanding across podcast and video channels. This is not random. It is intentional visibility.

5. Staying ahead of the curve
She is leaning into AI with clarity, not noise. And teaching others how to do it.

What this means for you

Most leaders think they have a visibility problem.

They don’t.

They have one of three gaps:

1. No clear narrative
They are sharing content, but it is not anchored in a core idea.

2. No consistency
They show up in bursts, then disappear. Nothing compounds.

3. No ecosystem
They rely on one channel instead of building a system that reinforces itself.

Charlene has all three.

Most people have none.

Why Winning With AI Matters Now

Most leaders are still trying to answer a basic question:

“What is our AI strategy, and how do we act on it?”

When ChatGPT first came out, most people hesitated.

Charlene did not.

Most companies are still treating AI like a tool upgrade.

The ones who win will treat it like a leadership shift.

She had already been thinking about this shift, and now the market has caught up.

Her work meets leaders exactly where they are today:
→ How to define an AI narrative
→ How to build an actual roadmap
→ How to implement it in a way that drives real outcomes

Given her background in leadership and disruption, the timing could not be better.

Check out her book here (and see below for a special invite).

A Special Invite | March 26 at 10 AM PT

Charlene Li + Deb Liu

AI is changing how companies operate.

But the real shift is happening at the leadership level.

We are bringing together Charlene Li and Deb Liu (former CEO of Ancestry, longtime Meta executive) for a focused conversation on what it actually takes to lead at this moment.

We will break down:

• Where AI creates real leverage (and where it does not)

• How leaders can elevate decision-making without losing judgment

• What it takes to scale influence while protecting culture

This is not about hype. It is about clarity.

If you are thinking seriously about where you need to go next as a leader, you should be in this room:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_G9RX_cD0SSitPLiuR7tauw

41 people are registered.
2 book giveaways.
Should be a packed event!

A trip down memory lane.

In 2018, I launched BryanWish.com. What began as a personal site eventually evolved into BWMissions.com as the work started to outgrow me as an independent consultant.

Eight years later, that early vision has grown into Arcbound, which recently enabled us to spin out our sister company, Graviten, to support individuals across enterprise brands in commoditized spaces.

Looking back, I’m not sure we would be where we are today had I not started with a brand foundation—and a name that gave the work room to grow and breathe.

Below are a few reflections and lessons from that journey. Whether you’re just starting out, feeling trapped in a company name, or thinking about evolving a website that’s named directly after you, I hope this perspective is helpful.

🎂 PS, it’s my birthday today, so expecting a full read and share of this newsletter with someone in your life who needs to hear this the most. 🎂

. . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Most people pick brand names with the wrong logic.

They treat a name like a label.

But the best names aren’t labels.

They’re architecture.

And when you get the architecture wrong, you end up boxing yourself into something that eventually stops fitting the work you want to do.

I’ve seen this happen over and over again.

The first place I really noticed it was with authors. An author writes a great book.

The book becomes successful and build their entire brand around the book title.

The podcast and website becomes the book name.

Their speaking title becomes the book name.

Then five years later they wake up and realize something uncomfortable.

“I’m more than my book.”

But by then the brand is already boxed in.

Everything they built is tied to a single product instead of the career they wanted to build.

The exact same thing happens with entrepreneurs building a company.

The company name becomes their entire identity.

Then the day comes when they sell the business… or step away… or the company evolves.

Suddenly they realize:

“I’m more than my company.”

Now they need somewhere for the rest of their work to live.

A place where:

• new ideas can exist

• new companies can be built

• media can be created

• frameworks can be developed

• partnerships can grow

This is where most people run into a problem.

They don’t have brand architecture.

They only have a name.

When the Name No Longer Fits

A great example of this is my friend Tim.

For years he built a company called Level Access.

That name worked perfectly for that company and that chapter of his career.

But eventually Tim reached a point where he was stepping into a new phase.

Different projects. Different companies. Different ideas.

And the realization became obvious:

“I’m graduating from Level Access.”

The name didn’t break.

It just wasn’t big enough anymore.

So he built something new.

1to100

Not a company tied to a single product or a single service.

A platform for building companies, where multiple ideas can live under it.

The name supports the architecture.

That’s the difference.

Most People Start With the Wrong Question

When people try to name something, they ask:

“What should I call my company?” But that’s not the right question.

The better question is:

“What structure should my work live inside?”

Because once you understand the structure, the naming becomes obvious.

The Five Layers of Brand Architecture

Over time I’ve come to see strong brands as having five layers.

If you understand these layers, you’ll never get boxed in by a name again.

1. The Identity Layer

This is the person.

For most professionals, this is where trust starts.

Examples:

Sean Magennis
Carrie Freeman
Charlene Li
Tony Lillios
Amy Norman

This layer matters because in trust-driven markets people buy people first.

That’s why starting with your own name is often the smartest move.

It removes friction.

It makes you easy to find.

And it aligns your reputation directly with your work.

2. The Umbrella Brand

This is where your career architecture lives.

It’s the parent brand that can hold multiple things underneath it.

Examples:

Arcbound
Graviten
1to100
Silver Mangos

These names work because they aren’t tied to one specific service.

They represent a bigger idea . . . and create room.

And room is what you need if your work evolves over time.

3. Media Properties

Once a brand grows, it usually develops media.

Things like:

Podcasts
Newsletters
Online Communities

The mistake many people make is naming these generically.

But the strongest brands give these assets their own identities.

For example:

Graviten Podcast: First Call (about being the first person think of for you in your industry) . . . coming out soon!

Newsletter: The Signal (about what you do to create a signal for people to buy from you) 

When you name your media properties, they become real assets. Speaking of which, need to name our Arcbound newsletter. Any ideas?

What this unlocks?

-Sponsors can attach to them.
-Partners can reference them.
-Audiences remember them.

A good example of this is the Mortgage Scoop Blog.

4. Products and Services

This is where the business actually makes money.

These might be:

-Consulting
-Software
-Advisory Programs
-Services

Or Product Feature Examples:

-BrandBuilder
-Content Master
-Channel Intelligence
-Attribution

These names live under the umbrella product (and brand) but serve specific purposes that speak to the higher order architecture.

Think of them as the tools inside the system.

5. Intellectual Property

The most powerful brands eventually own ideas.

Frameworks, Concepts, Ways of thinking.

Examples:

-Personal Brand Operating System
-Arc Launch
-Simon Sinek Start With Why / Golden Circle

These ideas become the foundation for:

-Books
-Keynotes
-Courses
-Research

Ideas travel faster than companies.

Which is why naming your intellectual property matters.

The Real Test of a Brand Name

A great brand name should do one thing above all else.

It should create room for the future.

If the name locks you into one format, one service, or one moment in time…

It’s probably the wrong name.

A strong name lets you build things like this:

Parent Brand

    ↓

Podcast

    ↓

Newsletter

    ↓

Frameworks

    ↓

Products

When you get the architecture right, the ecosystem grows naturally.

The Telephone Test

There’s also one practical rule I always come back to.

A good name should pass the telephone test. At least, that’s what my very good internet entrepreneur friend told me in college.

If someone hears the name once, they should be able to:

Say it.
Spell it.
Type it.
Find it.

That means:

Short, simple, and clear names win.

Complex names lose.

The Naming Strategy Most People Should Follow

If you’re building a personal brand or a founder-led company, the most logical path usually looks like this:

Step 1 — Start with your name 

FirstNameLastName.com

This builds trust.

Step 2 — Build media

Podcast

Newsletter

Content

These build audience.

Step 3 — Develop frameworks

Ideas that represent your thinking.

These build authority.

Step 4 — Launch products

Tools, services, or companies.

These build revenue.

Step 5 — Build an umbrella brand

Eventually you may create a higher-level brand that holds everything together.

This becomes your long-term platform.

The Takeaway

Most people pick names like they’re labeling a product.

But the best names don’t label products.

They support careers (and global companies).

They create a place where your work can grow and where new ideas can live.

A place where the next chapter of your work doesn’t require starting over.

If you design your brand architecture the right way, the name you choose today won’t trap you tomorrow.

It will give you room to build the things you haven’t even imagined yet.

And that’s the real goal of a great brand name.

Not to describe what you do today.

But to support everything you’ll build next.

1) Yes, it’s my 33rd birthday today. My one ask is that you send this newsletter to someone you think would like it and ask them to subscribe.

2) If you liked this article, the next article you should read is The Brand System

Your heart says:
“I know I need to put myself out there. I need to build my visibility.”

Your head responds:
“You’re not ready. You don’t know what to say. You don’t have the authority to say it.”

Your heart says:
“Okay. I’m going to do it. I’m finally going to put myself out there.”

Your head pushes back:
“Who are you to define yourself? Wait until you have more time. Wait until you’re ready.”

Your heart says:
“I know I can help people. It will have an impact. It will move my current and future work forward.”

Your head whispers again:
“You’re going to run out of ideas after you start.”

Your heart pauses.
“What do I do? If I keep listening to my head, the voice inside me will only get quieter.”

This is a conversation many of us live with.

The truth is you’re never ready.

There is never a perfect moment when the clouds part and a voice from above says now is the time. Starting anything meaningful is uncomfortable. When you do it authentically it requires something even harder. You have to quietly decide that the opinions of people watching from the stands matter less than the courage it takes to step into the arena.

That is not easy.

But here is what most people miss.

This work is a muscle.

When you start using your voice, something interesting happens. Your thinking expands. Your ideas expand. Your clarity sharpens. The act of expressing something forces you to understand it more deeply.

You either do the work yourself, or you find someone who helps you pull those ideas out. Either way, the muscle grows through use.

Progress rarely arrives before the work begins.

And I would argue this is one of the most important muscles you can build.

Because we live in a strange and remarkable moment in time. We have the ability to gather the people we care about into a single place. An email list. A platform. A community.

We can tell them what we believe.
We can share what we are learning.
We can rally people around ideas that matter to us.

A few decades ago that was nearly impossible.

Today it sits in your pocket.

When you metaphorically jump into the abyss of your own voice, you are doing something deeper than building a platform. You are giving respect to the thoughts that have been pestering you for years.

The ones that keep showing up.

The ones you keep pushing aside.

And if you follow those thoughts long enough, something interesting happens.

Sometimes they lead to a new product idea.
Sometimes they lead to a partnership.
Sometimes they lead to unexpected business.

But even when they don’t, something more important happens.

You grow.

Declaring readiness, even when you do not feel ready, accelerates your emotional and intellectual growth as a person. The more consistently you show up, the more the world begins to respond.

Consistency compounds.

Not overnight. But inevitably.

A story to leave you with.

Recently a friend texted me. She told me she felt like her voice and her dreams had to be put on hold.

She said something that stuck with me.

“My dreams are going on my someday shelf. And I’m not sure when I’ll get to my someday shelf.”

Her words stayed with me.

The longer we leave our dreams on the someday shelf, the easier it becomes to ignore that quiet whisper inside us. But more often than not, that whisper is pointing us toward our north star.

Sometimes that path can slowly drift away from the life we actually want to build.

It also made me think about something else.

What if it became easier for people like her to take their dreams off the someday shelf?

What if she had a ghostwriter in her pocket. Someone who understood her voice. Someone who could help translate her ideas into words and share them with the world.

What if it felt like having a CMO in your pocket. Agents quietly spinning up your brand, your writing, your ideas. Sending out emails. Shaping your platform.

Your job would not be to do all the work.

Your job would be to direct it. To shape it. To build the relationships that make it matter.

I believe we are entering one of the most creative periods of our lifetime.

Tools are emerging that will make it easier than ever for people to express who they are and what they believe. The friction that once prevented people from having a voice is starting to disappear.

One day it will feel incredibly simple to represent yourself authentically across the platforms around you.

But even when that world arrives, one thing will still be required.

You.

At some point you still have to say:

“I’m ready. I can do this. It will be uncomfortable. But it’s who I am.”

And sometimes that quiet declaration is the moment everything begins.

If personal brands were traded on a stock exchange, what would your chart look like over the last ten years?

A slow climb?
A flat line?
A few sharp spikes — and long quiet stretches after?

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

The market is always pricing you.
Even if you never asked to be traded.

People assign you a valuation based on:

• What they believe you can do

• What they’ve seen you do

• And how clearly they can explain you to someone else

It’s not ego, but positioning.

And nobody made this clearer to me in a recent interview than Jason Feifer, Editor-in-Chief of Entrepreneur and someone who has turned his career into a compounding asset over time.

Below is the journey of how he’s done it and his philosophy so you can do it too. This might be the most interesting intellectual read of the year.

1. The Moment the Market Repriced Him

Jason became Editor-in-Chief in 2016. And he expected it to be… a job.

Same work. New title.

But then something happened: invitations started showing up: podcasts, stages, interviews. And with them came an expectation he didn’t feel ready for:

“For the first time in my career, people had this expectation of me. They expected me to be an authority… and I did not feel like an authority.”

That gap matters.

Because the market doesn’t price you based on your private self-image.
It prices you based on what it expects from you (and what it sees from you).

In investing terms, Jason had a new ticker symbol, and suddenly analysts wanted guidance.

So he made a decision that most people don’t:

He didn’t shrink to match his old identity.
He chose to grow into the valuation the market was assigning him.

“If I could become the person that everyone thought that I was… a world of possibility would open up.”

That’s not “fake it till you make it.”

That’s strategic becoming.

2. Opportunity Set A vs. Opportunity Set B

Jason names the fork we all face.

Opportunity Set A is what’s asked of you.
Your job description. Your customers. Your boss. Your current lane.

Opportunity Set B is what’s available to you that nobody is asking you to do.
The experiment. The new skill. The content. The relationships. The adjacent bet.

And he’s blunt about which one compounds:

“Opportunity Set B is always more important… Because if you only focus on Opportunity Set A, you’ll only be qualified to do the things you’re already doing.”

This is one of the cleanest definitions of personal brand compounding I’ve heard:

• Set A maintains valuation.

• Set B expands it (and you can do this as an employee too).
  

Because Set B is where you create future upside.

3. The Tolerance for Discomfort That Creates Repricing Moments

When I asked Jason how he uncovers new opportunities, he didn’t talk about vision boards or master plans.

He talked about something more practical and more rare:

“A high tolerance for discomfort and for exploration… I’m going to embark upon something that I don’t fully understand… knowing I’m going to suck at it for some period of time.”

Then he drops the line that should be printed on every creator’s desk:

“To be good at something, you have to be willing to be bad.”

This is what most people miss.

They think the difference between “unknown” and “in-demand” is talent.

It’s not.

It’s the willingness to live inside the excruciating gap between:

• Knowing what good looks like

• And not being able to do it yet

The gap is the gym.

Most people quit before the reps start working.

4. “I Am Owned by Other Companies” and the Move to Wholly-Owned Assets

Then Jason says something that quietly reframes the entire idea of career strategy:

“The problem for me… is that I am owned by other companies.”

Meaning: he’d work, publish, build equity and leave with nothing.

No audience.
No IP.
No portable leverage.

So his North Star became simple:

Build things wholly owned by me.

“I need to create things that feel wholly owned by me… I can turn myself into an asset that I own.”

That’s the personal brand stock exchange in one sentence.

If you want to increase your personal market cap, you don’t just “get better.”

You build owned assets that compound:

• Audience you can reach without permission

• Intellectual property you control

• Relationships that aren’t tied to your employer, or can compound after you leave

• A narrative that doesn’t reset to zero when you change roles

  
  
  

  

  
  

5. The Penny Stock Era (and Why It’s Not a Problem)

When I asked Jason what he would’ve looked like as a stock 10 years ago, he didn’t pretend it was glamorous:

“Ten years ago… I would have been a penny stock.”

Why?

Because it wasn’t clear what he was.

He was experimenting:

• A tech history podcast

• Speaking to a niche audience

• Trying directions that didn’t fully “fit” yet
  

But then he said something critical:

“The beautiful thing about growth as a human being is that you can discover or make conscious decisions about the purpose and function of things… and then make shifts.”

That’s the investor mindset.

Early-stage careers aren’t supposed to look clean.
They’re supposed to produce signal.

The job of the “penny stock” phase is not certainty.

It’s data.

6. The Customer Journey of Self (The Part Most People Skip)

Here’s the twist that turns this from a clever metaphor into an actual strategy:

Jason didn’t guess what the market wanted.

He interviewed it and what people thought about his work.

He hired a research consultant. They called listeners. And what came back surprised him:

“People are not listening… because they’re interested in history or technology… They’re listening because… it helps them feel more resilient about the future.”

That insight changed everything.

Because he realized:

• What he was making (tech history)

• Wasn’t what people were buying (resilience in change)
  

That’s positioning.

People don’t buy your format.
They buy the emotional outcome.

Once he understood the outcome, he repositioned:

• From “history of technology”

• To “how to navigate change”

• To “practical frameworks for entrepreneurs”

• To a market that pays for outcomes
  

This is the customer journey of self:

1. Create signal in public

2. Talk to the people responding

3. Identify what they actually value

4. Reframe your narrative around that value

5. Build assets that let you deliver it consistently
   

That’s how you raise your multiple.

What Stage Are You In?

If your personal brand were a stock, which phase are you in right now?

Stage 1: Penny Stock (Early Signal)

• You’re experimenting publicly

• Your narrative is still fuzzy

• Your value is real, but unclear

Goal: Create signals and collect data.
Best question: What’s getting a disproportionate response — and why?

Stage 2: Growth Equity (Clear Positioning)

• People can explain you in one sentence

• You’re building owned assets

• You’re getting invited into rooms you didn’t ask for
  

Goal: Narrow focus and expand distribution.
Best question: What do people already think you are — and can you become it?

Stage 3: Investable Asset (Market Pull)

• You’re sought out for specific outcomes

• Your reputation carries across contexts

• Opportunities come from optionality, not chasing
  

Goal: Systemize your value and protect your time.
Best question: What is the repeatable promise people associate with you?

Stage 4: Value Stock (Stability + Choice)

Jason hints at this evolution too:

“In 10 years… my stock might be less exciting… maybe I decided I created a really good stable foundation… and I want to spend more time doing other things.”

This stage is underrated.
It’s freedom.

It’s choosing when to grow and when to live.

A Final Prompt

Jason’s advice was simple:

“Bias towards action. Optimize for yes.”

So here’s the practical version:

In the next 30 days, what is one “Opportunity Set B” bet you can take, knowing you’ll be bad at it at first, that could raise your multiple a year from now?

Pick one. Do it in public.
Talk to the people who respond.
Let the market teach you what it’s pricing.

That’s how you compound.

Community Notes

1) Speaking of Jason, subscribe to his newsletter. https://www.jasonfeifer.com/newsletter/

2) Amazon Unbound, by Brad Stone, might just be the best business book I’ve ever read. If you like expansive thinking on building an empire, great storytelling, this book is for you. Rumor has it, he sometimes shows up to your birthday party, if you bombard his X account with thoughtful video messages and provide books for attendees. 🤫

3) Rich Keller, a special person in my development, launched his new website, helping people uncover their “One Word”. His work is rooted in identity, facing yourself, and walking away with a clearer picture for how you show up in the world. He might just be the most insightful and thoughtful person I’ve ever met.

4) My friend Mike Lisovetsky recently launched a Snooze-Proof Loud Alarm Clock. He’s never coded before, until now, and his only constraint was “Use AI for everything”. Now he’s in the app store, building a great brand in the personal development space. Download it.

5) We’ve had 15 new clients officially sign up for our more accessible offer that rolls out later this spring. If you’re curious to learn more about what this means for you, and get on the waitlist, happy to speak! Broader platform rollout coming in the next few months as well!

“Bryan, do you still want to be part of the family?”

My dad asked me that about five years ago.

I don’t think he ever imagined he’d ask me that.
And I never imagined I’d make him feel like he had to.

. . . 

I’m writing this for anyone who doesn’t want to wake up one day with regret about the people closest to them.

You never know what one honest conversation might change.

. . .

Growing up, my dad and I built our relationship around sports.

Throwing the baseball in the backyard.
Basketball games.
Shooting sporting clays.
Fishing.
Buffalo wings.
College football — Florida Gators (his alma mater), of course.
Sunday “Russian breakfasts” with my grandparents.
Hiking in National Parks. 

He was the kind of father who was always there. Even after my parents split.

Not the kind who disappeared and started a “new life”.

And I never had to question him being around.

. . .

Then I went to college.

I broke his heart by choosing Georgia over Florida — which, if you understand the SEC, is not a small betrayal.

But that wasn’t the real shift.

The real shift was ambition.

I became obsessed with building something.
Internships. Work. Long-term thinking.

I wasn’t interested in college nightlife.
I was interested in not waking up at 40 doing work I didn’t believe in.

When I graduated, I passed on the agency job in New York and doubled down on my own path.

“If not now, then when?”

From 22 to 32, I have stayed on that road — trying to build something meaningful. Trying to make it commercially viable. Trying to prove it wasn’t naive.

I wanted support.

He wanted security for me.

Neither of us were wrong.

. . . 

Almost five years ago, I left D.C., sold nearly everything I owned, and moved west.

What I didn’t expect was how much of my past would surface when I slowed down.

Things I hadn’t processed.
Expectations I didn’t know I carried.
Needs I didn’t know I had.

And when you start seeing things clearly, you can’t unsee them.

Some of that clarity turned into resentment.
Some of it came out sideways.

And one Christmas, after tension came out one day, he asked:

“Bryan, do you still want to be part of the family?”

. . .

There’s a phase many of us go through.

As kids, our parents wear capes.

Then one day we take the cape off them.
Sometimes harshly.

If we’re lucky, we reach a third phase, where we see them as human.
Doing the best they knew how to do.

That Christmas was our inflection point.

Because it forced honesty.

. . . 

At a lunch in 2021, I told him what I had never clearly said:

I didn’t need him to understand every decision.
I needed to feel championed in them.

I needed to know that even if my path looked risky, I wasn’t walking it alone.

I was scared as hell going into that conversation.
I expected resistance.

What I felt instead was something quieter.

I felt heard.

And that changed everything.

Not overnight. But steadily.

Today, our relationship is the strongest it’s ever been.

We talk multiple times a week.
He supports the work I’m building.
And I see more clearly the sacrifices (he made) and steadiness that shaped me (and him).

The man I wanted to be championed by had been there all along.

We just had to learn how to talk as two adults instead of father and son stuck in old roles.

. . . 

Yesterday he turned 66.

Last year he flipped a golf cart, cracked his tailbone without knowing it, and hit a hole-in-one a few holes later.

I told him he went to hell and heaven on the same day.

Our relationship has felt a little like that over the past five years.

But sometimes you have to hit bottom — no pun intended — before you build something stronger than what you started with.

I keep thinking about one question:

What would have happened if I never asked for what I needed?

How many relationships quietly drift because no one is brave enough to define what they want?

If you’re lucky enough to still have your parents…
Or a sibling…
Or someone who matters deeply…

Maybe the most loving thing you can do isn’t to avoid tension.

Maybe it’s to run into it thoughtfully. 

You never know.

It might just turn into the relationship you always wanted.

Happy Birthday Pops . . .thanks for letting me tell the world (assumptive green light) about how special you are to me today.

Community Notes

1) If you missed our last 2 newsletters, they had strong reactions from the audience, given the disruption we are taking to the thought leadership industry. Give them a read if you’re tuning in for the first time.

Why Your Voice Should Not Cost A Fortune
The Mission Never Changed

2) Check out 2 new Arc Launches hot off the press. Both Luis and Amy have moved into the second phase of our activation work, but the positioning, strategy, and design were very strong!

Amy Norman Arc Launch
Luis Pagan Arc Launch

Super proud of our team right now.
The best is ahead. 🚀🚀

And next week . . . you are in for a real treat. I sat down with the Editor and Chief of Entrepreneur Mag, Jason Feifer, where we discussed his brand through the lens of it growing on a stock exchange. It was fascinating (thanks to him). 🤯 🤯 🤯

February 2024 almost broke us.

It felt like I had entered a dark, dark hole. Crawling forward.
Not sure where the light was, or if we’d ever find it.

We were on our back foot. And by the odds, we had a very logical reason for going out of business.

Revenue pressure. Operational strain. Big questions about direction. The kind of season that forces you to ask:

Why are we doing this?
What do we need to “rethink”? … Turns out everything needed a rethink.
Can we build something durable long term, or are we grinding our gears for nothing?

Every month, I’ve been sending an update to a close community I trust. In the February internal memo, I ended it by saying:

…

Here’s what has become clear through that season, and thank god.

The world changed.

AI infrastructure models have given us a new world of superpowers.

We’ve also learned a credible digital footprint isn’t a vanity project anymore.
It’s blocking and tackling. It’s table stakes.

If you don’t show up with clarity and consistency, you’re invisible.

And the market will decide what to think of you before you can tell them.

And invisibility compounds.

So, last week, when we shared we are taking the first steps to democratize our space, creating a more accessible offering, tightening pricing, building software alongside services, I understand why it created thought-provoking conversations with a few people who I know love and trust.

One of those conversations was with Scott Case, who is hands down one of the biggest and best thinkers in the network. Someone who will challenge you and force you to get better.

On one hand, he understood the direction. Why we were doing this, and how it accelerated the mission. But I think he also saw how others might interpret it and whether we’re diluting the reason we started.

Is this about more volume?
Is this about margin?
Is this about going downmarket?

No.

This is about durability.

And building a mission that can reinvest in itself, its specialized labor, and expand its services so our work becomes more accessible for all.

Publishing Has Been Commodified. Clarity Has Not.

Substack. AI tools. These platforms are everywhere.

Now, everyone can publish.

Very few people have done the work to define:

Who am I for?
Why would they care?
What do I actually stand for?

We are not replacing strategy with automation.
We are not replacing “no inputs with AI slop”.

We are building infrastructure around strategy, brand, and content generation so it compounds. With a managed service behind it.

So these publishing platforms that exist can be harnessed to their fuller potential.

The first weeks still matter.
Positioning still matters.
Narrative still matters.

We’re still investing deeply upfront, compressing our margin, because the long-term value only emerges if the foundation is strong.

This isn’t AI slop.

It’s durable alignment. That benefits the customer long term and gives us the ability to serve their mission and ours, creating more value on the J-Curve in a more predictable fashion.

Why This Actually Increases Impact

If Arcbound stayed purely bespoke forever, two things would happen:

1. The work would remain unpredictable.

2. The team would burn out.

Unpredictable revenue erodes mission.

High prices at a base level creates resentment.

Burnout of team and the client erodes the craft.

Predictability fuels reinvestment.

Into better talent.
Into stronger systems.
Into reducing friction for the people we serve.
Into building infrastructure that outlasts us.

In my last newsletter, I also wrote about how the industries around brand, publishing, speaking, PR, and content are a cottage industries, protecting their own, and the high prices that serve their business model.

That’s great.

But the truth is, there’s been no model that can velocitize in our industry in a predictable way.

Technology hasn’t been implemented to create scalability or predictability. So these industries have remained the same.

With a predictable model that scales, velocitizes, and increases personalization because of technology, you have the ability to scale revenue, absorb extended parts of the market that are siloed, bring them into your core infrastructure, and keep flattening the cost structure for everyone else.

However, the first mission is to have individuals buy into a long-term model.

Because they’re not just serving Arcbound anymore.

They’re serving a better way for their voice to carry forward, given our plans for the industry at large.

Simply, this shift isn’t away from purpose.

It’s how we sustain purpose at scale.

2025

Last year we cemented our brand arm of the business after spending the first years in our business building up the recurring side and learning how to work with clients in a repeatable way.

We produced amazing brands like lillios.com, carrie-freeman.com, debliu.com, seanmagennis.com … so those brands can move forward.

But the business model was too clunky.

Some clients were recurring. Other clients were project.

Which forced us to ask:

How do we streamline this, reduce friction, and make it easier for people to do both over a longer period of time?

The answer wasn’t higher prices.

It wasn’t selling projects, then trying to sell recurring.

The answer was clarity, trust, consistency, and long-term positioning for the people we support.

The model matured.

The mission did not change.

We still believe your voice compounds when it’s aligned.

We are just building a more durable engine to support it.

Exciting future ahead as we keep serving the mission.

Join us.

Community Notes

1) Jules Lambries, a friend in Utah, who has a ton of depth, soul, and care is doing a lot of work with EO and YPO Forums. He has supported aligned organizations like Business Outside with his talents, and is someone you should get to know if you need a forum facilitator. Connect with him on Linkedin and follow him.

3) We’ve been producing an awesome show with Vital Discourse that is picking up some great traction. If you want to learn about all things health, subscribe and let us know what you think.

My one ask: read this to the end.
There is an announcement at the bottom.

But first, the education, and Happy Super Bowl Sunday if you celebrate.

For the past eight years, I have been obsessed with a single question:

Why does marketing cost so much, and why does that price silence so many people who should have a voice?

Not bad ideas. Not weak thinking.
Just economics.

Where this question started

In 2017, I was brought in to help launch a book for an author who also happened to be a marketing technology CEO.

Behind the scenes, the operation looked like this:

• A writer

• A graphic designer

• A website developer

• A podcast team

• A videographer

• A performance ads specialist

And me, stringing it all together. Project managing. Driving speaking opportunities. Building partnerships. Mobilizing people around the launch.

When I stepped back and looked at the model, something felt off.

Not creatively.
Economically.

It looked something like this:

• Bryan (PR, outreach, speaking, project management, reporting): $4,500 / month

• Writer: $2,500/month

• Website: $15,000 (one-time)

• Podcast production: $2,500/month

• Ads budget: $10,000/month

• Book ghostwriting/editing: $20,000

• Videographer: $2,000/month

Does this look vaguely familiar?

Does it feel a little painful just reading it?

Yeah. Same.

The real problem was not the talent, it was the structure

What I saw firsthand was not waste. It was friction.

Friction to:

• Assemble the right talent

• Coordinate them

• Maintain consistency across creative and project management

• Keep everything running long enough to actually see ROI

My first instinct was simple, and naive:

That instinct turned into a service business.

And yes, every agency book, like Built To Sell, will tell you not to do this.

“You are doing too much.”
“This will not scale.”

They were right in the short term.

But I believed there was a better long-term model hiding underneath the mess, if we were willing to build through the inefficiency (and find it).

So we did.

Piece by piece.
Customer by customer.

Very similar to how Tesla did not start with a mass-market car. They started with the Roadster, built it for people who could afford it, learned everything the hard way, and used that knowledge to work backward.

To everyone who trusted us early, thank you.

Then I saw the same problem everywhere

Once you understand how individual brands are built, you start seeing the same economics (and dysfunction) repeat across industries:

• Publishing

• Speaking

• Public relations

Different labels.
Same issue.

These are cottage industries protecting their own, with price structures that quietly exclude about 95 percent of people who want to participate.

And here is the part most people miss:

To have a real brand, you must define it, then activate it, then maintain it over years.

This is not a 90-day experiment.
It is a long, deliberate compounding effort.

Which makes the cost structure even more brutal.

Let’s talk publishing . . .

Traditional publishing is often pitched as “making it.”

In reality, I would argue getting a bad publishing deal is worse than raising venture capital on terrible terms.

Typical economics:

Hardcover Royalties

• Author: about 10 to 15 percent

• Publisher: about 85 to 90 percent

Paperback Royalties

• Author: about 5 to 8 percent

• Publisher: about 92 to 95 percent

You wait one to two years (sometimes more).
You give up control.

And 95 percent of people never even get the deal, especially if they do not already have a platform.

So what do people do instead?

Hybrid publishing.

Remember, If you are already maintaining a brand today, you are likely spending $3 to $5k per month just to stay visible.

Now add:

• $20k or more for publishing

• $30k to $50k for ghostwriting and editing

You are easily $50k to $100k in just to ship a book that may or not do well.

And you are still on the timeline of the hybrid publisher.

This is the gross financial problem that keeps bothering me.

It is not that people do not have ideas.
It is that the system prices them out before they ever get momentum.

“Okay, but what about PR and speaking?”

Same pattern.

Podcast booking agencies: $1k to $3k per month
Traditional PR firms: $3k to $5k or more per month (minimum!)

So now you have:

• Built the platform with a team of specialists

• Published the book

• Hired PR help

• Burned six figures

And you are asking:

“When does this start paying me back?”

So you try speaking.

Speaking can pay well.

Three thousand dollars on the low end.
Twenty thousand dollars or more on the high end.

But it is:

• Inconsistent

• Competitive

• Lifestyle-heavy

• Not recurring

Only about 5 percent of people can sustain this full stack long term.

And yet we are entering an era where more people want independence, ownership, and a voice.

There is demand.

There just is not a sustainable cost structure.

The gap I could not unsee anymore

The market will pay for help.

But most of the market cannot afford to pay for it long enough to see returns on the J-Curve.

So they stop.

Their voice disappears, not because it was not valuable, but because it was not financially survivable.

That is the failure mode.

The shift, and the news

I believe this can change.

I believe you can have:

• Low-cost

• Premium-quality

• Long-horizon brand and voice activation

Without hiring an entire marketing team.
Without burning out your runway.

And after seven years of building every piece manually, learning every inch of this ecosystem, we are finally seeing how a better long term solution can exist.

Tentatively timeline, but towards the beginning of Q3, we are rolling out a new model more broadly for individuals called Arcbase.

It is designed to:

• Amortize our best services over a 24 month period at an accessible price point

• Focus on core brand definition and activation

• Support voices over years, not months

• Deliver ROI before budgets collapse

And if you eventually need more (write and publish the book, launch the podcast, short and long form videos, GTM support and do PR), you ideally will still have budget to pay for it. And that's not all, as there will be a software rollout before years end, that pairs well with our service model.

This is the first time I have felt like the original vision, the one that started this whole journey, is actually within reach.

Thanks for reading all the way through. I hope you resonated.

1. If you want to get on the Waitlist, reply to this email and let me know.
   Happy to talk in March.
   

2. Oh, and if you know anyone facing this conundrum, send this to them. I’d love for this piece to be shared with those who need it most (many do).

Warning: I wrote this at 3 AM the other night. I couldn’t sleep. I hope it resonates.

And when I ran the subject line by Blaire on my team, she said, “We’ll that’s universally true for me.”

—-

People don’t buy what you do first.

They buy why you care.
Then they buy how you think.

Only after that do they care about what you’re building.

Silicon Valley can be very head-y.

Numbers.
Data.
Product.
Scale.
Technology.

All of it matters. Deeply.
And is very exciting.

But it’s not where belief starts.
Belief starts when people understand why you care—and how you care to help them.

One of the most interesting things about Silicon Valley is how emotionally underdeveloped feels (at times).

That’s not a critique.
It’s an observation.

It’s also part of why I like it here.

(That, and the weather, and the raw incubation energy.)

If I were optimizing purely for familiarity, the obvious choice would’ve been New York.

Storytelling.
Creatives.
Hustle.
Fast pace.
Emotional fluency baked into the culture.

But San Francisco gives me something better.

It gives me what I lack—deep technical rigor.

And it lets me contribute what’s often missing: mobilizing people, content that strikes the heart before the head, and a bold vision for disrupting an industry that desperately needs re-imagining.

Why not have the best of all worlds?

Because that requires self-awareness.

And self-awareness requires knowing your strengths and your blind spots.

Which is what allows you to engage people not just intellectually—but emotionally.

Here’s something I’ve seen play out many times:

Money follows energy.

And energy is almost always established emotionally first.

Strategy and intellect come second.
People love to say they’re “data-driven.”

But data is downstream of decisions.
And decisions are downstream of humans.

When ~95% of human behavior is driven by subconscious and emotional forces, we have to ask a deeper question:

What creates the pull behind the decisions that generate the data in the first place?

Most of the time, the answer isn’t logic.
It’s resonance.

So if you’re thinking about how to bring your life force into the world — your work, your ideas, your company, and your voice . . .

Start with why.
Then clarify how.
And trust that the what will take care of itself.

I’m linking an article below from a conversation I had with Simon Sinek, when I had a much fuller head of hair, that explores this more deeply.

Community Resources

1. I listened to this great episode on 0-1 with Tyler Denk. Pretty amazing that Tyler shared the early success to Beehiiv has come down to “brute force, working harder than most, caring about the people on his platform, shipping faster” and much much more. Similar to eating your vegetables daily. Easy to say. Harder to do. Consistently.
   

2. Marisa Messana is launching a Next-Gen Leaders program designed to support rising leaders who are highly driven and motivated by their goals, yet navigating the internal pressures, adversity, and uncertainty of this rapidly changing modern world.
   

   Drawing from decades of experience as a 4.0 Division 1 student-athlete, professional golfer, and entrepreneur, Marisa developed a Personal Operating System that empowers leaders to thrive without compromising their character or physical, mental, and relational health.
   

3. After Arjun Dhingra led a sold-out first year that left attendees laughing, crying, and experiencing real internal shifts, The Better Human Project returns for Year Two—bigger and more impactful than ever.
   

   Last year proved what’s possible when high-performing professionals are given space for honest conversations and real stories: people didn’t just feel inspired—they left clearer, more confident, and free from beliefs that had been holding them back.
   

   This year builds on that momentum with powerful speakers, audience panels, and immersive experiences designed to break limiting beliefs and help attendees step forward with renewed clarity and purpose.
   

   Early Bird tickets end Friday 2/6: www.mylfgenergy.com
   
   Also, give Arjun Dhringra a follow on IG. He’s the man.
   

4. If you’re interested in why you should start a podcast, our last newsletter struck a deep chord. Give it a read, share with a friend, and properly digest!
   

5. Last Call: Come hang out with us for our next webinar on Feb 12 with Amy Norman! We are closing in on our 50

The Podcast Philosophy System

A Q&A with Puneeth Shenoy, Head of Podcasts at Arcbound (and the guy behind 3,000+ episodes).

Puneeth didn’t grow up dreaming of podcast production.

He grew up producing music and DJing in India, until COVID forced a pivot. Then a single episode (Joe Rogan interviewing Naval Ravikant) rewired his trajectory.

He fell into podcasting in 2021, never climbed out, and over the last 4–5 years has edited 3,000–4,000+ episodes, helped launch 40–50 shows, and consulted across dozens more.

Today, as Director of Multimedia at Arcbound, he oversees podcast production across audio, video, and design, while obsessing over the systems and quality standards that turn a “podcast idea” into a real media engine.

What follows is Puneeth’s framework: clean Q&A on his journey, the underlying philosophy that makes Arcbound dangerous at this craft, and clear takeaways.

—-

PS, this was last night in San Francisco, interviewing Puneeth.
He was in India, answering live questions.
Fun fact: we also happen to share the same birthday . . . March 15.

Which feels fitting, because conversations like this are their own kind of gift.
And who knows,  maybe you’ll help me with a few blind recommendations as an early present.

Q1) Puneeth, give us the quick origin story. How did you get here?

Puneeth: I’m Puneeth, from India. Podcasting was never part of my plan, I started as a music producer and DJ. COVID happened, I had to pivot, and one day I randomly listened to Joe Rogan interviewing Naval Ravikant. That episode completely changed my life. I started producing podcasts in 2021 and I haven’t looked back.

Now, 4–5 years later, I’ve edited 3,000–4,000+ episodes, produced and helped launch 40–50 shows, and built my own business (Podcast Pundits) doing end-to-end podcast post-production and social content.

I found my way to Arcbound after reaching out to Bryan through his podcast called The One Away Show. At Arcbound, I started as an editor in late 2023. Around this time last year, I was promoted to Director of Multimedia, so I oversee podcast production, audio/video, and some design across clients.

Key takeaway: Podcasting isn’t a “content tactic” for Puneeth—it’s applied production craft + systems + taste, built under pressure.

Q2) What’s been your biggest growth at Arcbound?

Puneeth: Leadership. Patience. Resilience.

This is a high-pressure role because we work with so many clients and types of content.
Nothing is one-size-fits-all. We personalize content to match each client’s personality and goals.

What I’ve learned is the forward-looking nature of leadership: taking care of people, balancing being a friend and manager, doing what’s emotionally right while also doing what’s right for the business.

Key takeaway: Creative departments don’t break from lack of talent, they break from lack of leadership maturity.

Q3) You came into the role and said “we need change.” What did you actually change?

Puneeth: One word: systems.

For a company like Arcbound with multiple clients, 10x types of content, systems are the only way it works:

• Asana-only project management (no Slack/WhatsApp chaos)
  

• Weekly check-ins (what’s moving, what’s stuck, how we unblock)
  

• Team involvement in improving workflows and creative standards (creatives can feel isolated—this pulls them into the mission)
  

• Quality checks that are borderline obsessive (yes, I’m the comma-and-period guy)
  

Key takeaway: Systems aren’t bureaucracy. They’re how you protect quality at scale.

The Podcast Philosophy System

Q4) If someone is starting a podcast, what are the core pillars they need to get right?

Puneeth: Four pillars:

1. Purpose
   
   Why does this show exist? Who is it for? What value does it provide?
   And the hardest question: “Why you?” Why should your podcast exist in a world flooded with podcasts?
   

2. Host Identity
   
   People subscribe to people, not just information.
   What’s the uniquely human factor you bring—personality, quirks, tone, point of view?
   

3. Production Quality
   
   This isn’t 2010 anymore. If you want commercial outcomes, you need baseline quality, especially audio.
   
   That doesn’t mean a $10K setup. It can be a solid USB mic + good lighting + clean environment.
   

4. Distribution Strategy
   
   You can’t just upload and pray.
   Where are you posting? How often? What’s the plan for discovery?
   

Key takeaway: A podcast succeeds when purpose + personality + polish + distribution reinforce each other.

Q5) Give the CEO version. One minute. What do you tell a busy founder?

Puneeth: First question: is this an internal podcast or external podcast?

• Internal: audio-only can work.
  

• External: you need video.
  

And if you’re a CEO, you probably have a budget, so the smartest move is to outsource the full production system and keep your time focused on the conversations.

Key takeaway: The podcast format is dictated by the audience and use case—not by what’s trendy.

Q6) If a wealth manager, insurance agent, or mortgage banker, want to do a podcast, how do they stand out from 10,000 other people just like them?

Puneeth: Don’t copy another host. It’s inauthentic.

Bring your real traits into the format. Add a twist:

• comedy / sarcasm

• bold contrarian takes

• “what not to do” using real-world scams

• even a crime angle if it fits

Then decide how you want to position yourself through guests and structure:

Three positioning strategies:

1. Authority: you’re the expert and you interview other experts

2. Network Power: you feature strong operators to show who you’re connected to

3. Student/Coach Hybrid: you learn publicly or coach real people through real problems

Key takeaway: Differentiation isn’t aesthetic, but it’s positioning + tone + point of view.

Q7) How do you define show success when ROI can take years?

Puneeth: The host defines success.

Some shows are hobbies.
Some are community engines.
Some are commercial machines.

You can’t design a strategy until the host decides the outcome.

If you start as “interesting conversations,” you can’t suddenly complain later that you don’t have a million downloads, unless you’re willing to redesign the concept.

Key takeaway: The goal isn’t to hit a number. The goal is to stop the goalpost from moving.

Q8) Where should podcasters distribute today?

Puneeth: Video podcasts are the thing now, even though podcasts weren’t originally meant to be video.

Distribution depends on audience:

• Instagram / TikTok: stronger for casual, personality-forward shows
  

• X / LinkedIn: stronger for founder and exec audiences
  

• YouTube: the anchor platform for video discovery
  

• Spotify/Apple/Amazon: audio distribution via a hosting platform (upload once → distributed everywhere)
  

Key takeaway: Distribution isn’t “everywhere.” It’s “where your audience already lives.”

Q9) What do you see as the future of podcasting?

Puneeth: Communities and offline events.

Less about information. More about connection.

Podcast → community → offline events become the flywheel.

He also believes we’re moving away from over-produced “influencer energy” toward simpler, calmer, meaning-driven content (even “anti-editing”).

Key takeaway: The show is the conversation. The brand is the community.


Speaking of events and community . . . Here was an event we recently did offline for the Founders in Arms Podcast we produce. Thanks to the partnership with Catalyst Bay, and strong leadership of Juliana Chyzhova, we had 100+ people show up to a great event and get meaningful feedback from a few great founders in the community.  

Q10) What are the best post-production techniques?

Puneeth: There is no universal best practice. It depends on the show vibe.

• Founder/exec shows: simple, elegant, minimal movement
  

• Comedy/high-energy shows: memes, fast cuts, heavy motion
  

• Science/education shows: sober, clean captions, light supporting visuals

Key takeaway: Post-production is brand design. If you edit against the brand, you weaken the show.

For example, below is a show we produce called Vital Discourse. Two incredible doctors, very “brain-y” in the best ways, who are also super fun sharing really impactful and nuanced health information. The way the show is visually designed, produced, and everything in between is about the hosts and their vision and their respective companies. 

Subscribe!

Q11) What does a successful podcast launch look like?

Puneeth: Don’t expect 10,000 downloads out of the gate unless you’re already famous.

Two launch essentials:

1. Build an episode buffer
   
   Have 3–4 episodes fully produced before the first release so missed recordings don’t break momentum.
   

2. Win the first 2–3 hours
   
   Platforms reward early engagement. The first couple hours after posting matter: comments, shares, saves, downloads.

Then use analytics to learn:

• best posting times

• best days

• best formats
  
  Trial and error for the first few weeks.
  

Key takeaway: Consistency beats hype. Data beats guessing. And Podcasts are a long game.

Have you heard of The Acquired Podcast? As you can see in the graph below. It took a few years to gain any meaningful traction. 

Q12) Do reviews matter?

Puneeth: Reviews are bottom-of-funnel behavior.

Social engagement is top-of-funnel. Social growth drives people to audio platforms.

Reviews are like Amazon: 1,000 buyers → 10–20 reviews.

People leave reviews when they’re either:

• extremely happy, or
  

• extremely upset
  

Key takeaway: Don’t chase reviews first; build attention and community first.

Q13) How do offline events grow a show?

Puneeth: Offline events solidify trust.

He compared it to dating:

• Content is the texting phase.
  

• Events are meeting in person.

Events also unlock:

• sponsorship (table products, ad reads, brand stalls)
  

• deeper brand relationships
  

• real monetization paths

Key takeaway: Events convert attention into belonging—and belonging into durable growth.

Q14) Where does podcast fit inside thought leadership?

Puneeth: Podcast is the best origin format for a content waterfall.

One episode can produce:

• Newsletters

• blog posts

• clips (short + long)

• carousels
  

• Threads

• LinkedIn posts

And you need format variety because algorithms shift:

• Instagram sometimes favors carousels over reels

• LinkedIn cycles between favoring video vs text/image
  

Also: the podcast can’t be the host’s entire identity. Great hosts are multi-dimensional. They are typically running newsletters, companies, investing, or leading a community. At Arcbound, we believe the show is an extension of the brand.

Key takeaway: The show is a pillar. The brand is the ecosystem.

Q15) How should people use data without becoming obsessed with vanity metrics?

Puneeth: Numbers aren’t the point, signals are.

Compare performance side-by-side:

• why did one get 5,000 views and another get 500?

• How did channel followers grow and what inflection points caused them to grow?

• what changed? hook, format, length, posting time, topic?

Here’s an example below of a weekly show report with a few metrics.

And yes: use tools (even ChatGPT) to interpret analytics and generate actions.

Key takeaway: A “viral post” is only useful if you can explain it, understand the variables behind it, and repeat it.

Q16) What counterintuitive advice would you give to podcast hosts?

Puneeth: Don’t over-index on outliers like celebrity guests.

If you have Taylor Swift on, it’ll go viral, because of Taylor, not because of you.

So don’t use that episode as your baseline for strategy.

Key takeaway: Outliers inflate ego and distort strategy. Build for repeatability.

Q17) Why do you do this? Why podcasting?

Puneeth: It started as an economic pivot. But the deeper reason is that podcasting is one of the last places where authenticity can win.

I’m repulsed by fake, inauthentic behavior. Podcasting pulls people toward real conversation.

Key takeaway: Puneeth isn’t producing “content.” He’s producing authenticity, with structure.

Closing: The Arcbound Point of View 

This interview isn’t just about Puneeth. It’s a snapshot of how Arcbound thinks:

• Authority comes from systems, not vibes.

• Taste + standards are a business advantage.

• Community is the real distribution engine.

• A podcast is not the brand. It’s the generator that feeds the brand.
  

That’s the philosophy system.

And Puneeth is the leader who makes it possible.

Community Notes:

1. My good buddy Brent Freeman is hosting a great retreat in Tahoe. He is truly a stellar guy, whose work has impacted me profoundly at a somatic level. Learn more here.
   

2. Come hang out with us for our next webinar on Feb 12 with Amy Norman!

I know firsthand the feeling.

The tightness in the chest.
The sense that the walls are closing in.
Being locked in place, unable to move, while knowing, deep down, that something has to change.

I’ve felt it in my body.
And I’ve felt it in my business.

This all came to a head about two and a half years ago.

And when you’re someone who likes to perform at a high level—who likes to move fast, make progress, build—there’s no magic switch that flips you back into feeling strong, clear, and capable of taking on the world.

Instead, you have to sit in the mud.

You have to unwind.
Slow down.
And honestly look at how you got there in the first place.

For me, in business, it was death by a thousand decisions:

We stuffed in too many services.
We hired ahead of revenue.
We operated without real profitability mapping.
We tried to solve operational chaos with more sales—and more hustle.
We sold a vision before it was fully ready to stand on its own.

Hard to see when you’re in the middle of the build.
Painfully obvious in hindsight.

(PS—Reignition is a fantastic book on this.)

With my health, it followed the same pattern:

Three years of strength training with little mobility or stretching.
Ignoring warning signs.
Pushing through pain because I didn’t yet understand what it was trying to tell me.

Until eventually, I had to stop everything.

Ironically—or maybe inevitably—both breakdowns happened at the same time.

Looking back, I’ve started calling that period “the oak tree chapter.”

Strong.
Rigid.
Impressive from the outside.

But unable to bend.

And in the stillness that followed—in the sitting, the reflecting—it became clear to me:

That’s not the lifeform for the future.

So what is?

For me, it’s bamboo.

Flexible.
Nimble.
Able to move freely with the wind instead of resisting it.

In both my body and business, the work has now become about building structures that support adaptability—not rigidity. Systems that allow growth without brittleness. Strength without stagnation.

A friend of mine, Dan Lubeck, who thinks deeply about life through the lens of gardening, said something to me recently:

“Bamboo is scalable.”

He’s right.

Bamboo grows in clusters.
Stacked together.
Collectively powerful.

Oak trees stand alone.
Thick.
Immovable.
And vulnerable when the storm is strong enough.

I think, if we’re honest, what we really want is a life where the wind can blow, and we can move with it.

Not stay frozen and absorb the damage silently.
Not wake up afterward trying to understand the wreckage.

Have a great day in the spirit of bending and growing freely.

If you missed our last two articles:
The Newsletter System
The Webinar System

Join us for our next webinar on Feb 12 with Amy Norman!

Good Morning! ☕️

If you missed last week’s edition, we shared The Newsletter System about how to create content people actually want to read.

Next week, we’ll release The Podcast System, built from everything we’ve learned producing great shows.

This week is about something quite nuanced.

The webinar that actually builds trust, attention, and long-term brand equity.

Why Webinars Are Harder Than They Look

Hosting a webinar without an audience is like jumping into Calc II after Algebra I.

You can technically do it.
But you’re missing the foundations that make it work.

Here’s the math most people ignore:

• ~50% of registrants actually show up

• Of those, maybe half are meaningfully engaged

So if 50 people register, you’re realistically speaking to 12–15 people who are actually present.
That means webinars require:

• Volume of Registrants

• The right audience

• Thoughtful promotion

• Real follow-through

The ROI isn’t always immediate, which is exactly why most people don’t put in the work to do them well.

As they say, Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work

Why Do a Webinar in the First Place?

When done right, webinars are additive, not extractive.

1. Brand Awareness (the right kind)

A webinar creates an event experience.

It lets people spend time with your thinking, not just scroll past it. You’re giving value to people who already trust you and people who are just starting to.

2. Trust Before Conversion

Great webinars don’t force a sale. They allow prospects, especially those already in consideration, to experience:

• Your point of view

• Your community

• Your depth

Sophisticated buyers don’t want to be sold.
They want to understand how you think before they decide to engage.

How to Think About Content Themes

Strong webinars usually fall into one of three lanes:

1. Directly related to your work

These are rooted in your core philosophy or methodology.

Last year, we hosted webinars on our approach to building a brand; sometimes self-hosted, sometimes with partners like Flourish Advisory Forums or YPO.

In some cases, we brought the audience.  In others, we borrowed it.

Both work.

2. Indirect, but deeply relevant

Some of our best-performing webinars weren’t “about branding” on the surface.

We hosted conversations on:

• Scaling to $100M ARR

• Building trust and operational fundamentals

• Living a bold life

• Creating board opportunities

• Authenticity and self-reflection
  

Insight: Professional and personal topics can coexist if they serve the same audience journey.

3. Paired expertise

When you collaborate with someone outside your immediate lane, the key is shared relevance.

This does two things:

• It avoids the feeling of selling

• It introduces your brand to a new, aligned audience

Strategic Advantage of Doing a Webinar with a Co-Host

A great co-host doesn’t just “fill airtime.”

They add:

• A different lens

• Different questions

• A different kind of credibility
  

In one webinar with Case Kenny, the conversation went places I couldn’t have taken it alone, because Ben, my Co-Host, had lived experience that mirrored the guest’s in ways mine didn’t.

In other cases, co-hosting is about delivery.

For a dual-format webinar last May, I partnered with Blaire from our team so we could move seamlessly between strategy and execution.

The result felt dynamic.

The Email Sequence (This Matters More Than You Think)

Last year, we didn’t rely on a newsletter list.

We sent direct emails to get initial sign ups.

It took longer. But it felt human, like an invitation, not a blast.

That’s how we built our list to 400+ attendees.

This year, with a list in place, we’re testing more traditional promotion—but the principle remains the same:

Make it feel personal.

The Communication cadence:

• Initial invite

• A “few spots left” nudge

• A reminder the day before

• A thoughtful follow-up with the recording

Template Example Emails Below:

Initial Invite:

A “few spots left” nudge

You can do this in multiple ways:

1. To drive scarcity
2. Because you’ve capped the webinar at a certain amount of people to attend

A reminder the day before

A thoughtful follow-up with the recording

Webinar Promotion

Webinars shouldn’t live in one channel.

We promote:

• Direct Outreach Over Email
  

• In newsletters (like this one)

  • Well well well, we do have an upcoming webinar with Amy Norman, on Thursday, February 12, at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST. Come Join Us!
    
    

• On social: often through the guest’s voice, not ours

  • One of the most effective posts we’ve seen came directly from a guest sharing why the conversation mattered to them personally. That authenticity travels further than any graphic.
    

Formats That Actually Work

There are two we return to again and again:

Interview + Q&A

Ideal when:

• The guest has a strong story

• The audience can relate to their journey

You give context first—then let the audience engage directly.

Solo presentation + Q&A

Best when:

• You have a repeatable talk

• The audience already trusts your perspective

In both cases, 45 minutes - 1 Hour tends to be the sweet spot to hold attention span.

Tools (and Watchouts)

We host Zoom Webinars.

A few things to watch closely:

• Enable chat, Q&A, recording intentionally

• Prep your speakers on flow and tone

• Avoid the last-minute “Buy from me” slide
  

If you’ve given real value, people will raise their hand when they’re ready.
You don’t need to force it.

The Underrated Upside: Your Email List

Every webinar we’ve hosted added new, high-intent people to our ecosystem.

Not cold subscribers. People who chose to show up.

That’s one of the most organic, and respectful, ways to grow a list over time.

Final Thought

There is no perfect webinar recipe.

There is:

• Preparation

• Respect for the audience

• Clarity of intention
  

When those are present, webinars stop being a tactic and start becoming a trust-building system.

NOW COME JOIN US FOR OUR NEXT WEBINAR with Amy Norman!

In May 2025, after we launched the evolved Arcbound brand, I committed to publishing a newsletter every week.

My first thought was anxiety.

That’s a lot of content. People are going to unsubscribe.

The opposite happened.

The newsletter quietly became our most effective channel for moving people from top of the funnel into real consideration.

Here’s what surprised me: almost anyone can write a passable LinkedIn post. Some people can record a decent video with the right prompts. But a good newsletter, the kind people actually read, requires a different level of thought, intention, and discipline.

It’s slower. More deliberate. And because of that, it builds trust in a way most other formats don’t. For instance, this newsletter took me 2 hours to write beginning to end.

Doing an omni-channel approach (posts, video, newsletters), works because people consume differently. The medium dictates the message.

But today, I want to isolate the newsletter itself, because not all newsletters are created equal.

Most feel interchangeable. Same structure, tone, and outcome. I didn’t want ours to feel like that.

Ours also hasn’t been about growing a massive list. I’ve always cared more about who is on it than how many. What mattered was the thinking behind why the newsletter existed in the first place.

There’s a saying I’ve come to believe deeply: writing is thinking. When people understand how you think, clearly, consistently, and over time, they form a durable impression of you. Not just what you know, but how you arrive there.

This was the first time I slowed down enough to examine my own thinking around the newsletter itself. How I approached it, why I structured it the way I did, and what made it work.

So I want to break down the strategy, approach, and system I use.

Creating Novelty

When I first started the newsletter more than five years ago, every issue followed the same structure and format. I needed the guardrails. They gave my creativity somewhere to land.

Over time, as I became more comfortable in my voice and started having ideas show up at inconvenient hours, usually around 3 a.m., I began loosening those guardrails. Not abandoning structure, but expanding it. Letting the format breathe and letting the delivery change when the insight demanded it.

I wanted content that did three things at once.

1) Hit people in the heart.
2) Make them think.
3) Give them systems they could actually apply to their lives and work.

Purely regurgitating actionable takeaways and recommended reads, packaged the same way every time, rarely creates an emotional connection. It might be useful, but usefulness alone doesn’t build intimacy. And if you want an audience that actually follows your thinking over time, you can’t afford to get stale.

Here’s how I approached it.

Newsletter Content Themes 

Posts about systems to show subject matter expertise 🎤

If someone is going to buy from you, they need confidence that you actually know what you’re doing. Not just in theory, but in practice. They need to see that you’ve done the work, lived the mistakes, studied the edge cases, and built a repeatable way of operating.

That means more than opinions. It means case studies. It means tradeoffs. It means a clear process for how you approach your work.

For us, that clarity started to form last year through a series of system-based newsletters.

Unexpectedly, those pieces did two things at once. They helped move deals over the line, and they forced me to articulate what we’ve actually been building for the past seven years. Writing them required me to slow down, name the patterns, and turn intuition into something explainable.

That alone made the exercise worthwhile.

Here’s what the audience consistently responded to most.

The Thought Leader Operating System | The Brand System | The Relationship System

Highly relevant pieces that turn someone’s head up and to the Right 🧠

I never took a philosophy class. But I care about writing that interrupts autopilot.

These pieces weren’t meant to teach. They were meant to slow people down just enough to notice something they’d been skimming past, or finally put words to a thought they hadn’t named.

Most content optimizes for clarity or utility. These optimized for reflection.

They asked questions without rushing to answers. They challenged assumptions without tying things up neatly. The goal wasn’t to tell people what to do next, but to make it harder to keep thinking the same way.

If someone finished one of these and kept thinking about it in their next meeting, on their commute, or right before sleep, it did its job.

Response from the Newsletter: Who Holds You Up?

Here’s what consistently resonated most.

You Life is a Jewish Wedding | My AI Bar Fight |  Portability > Visibility > Obscurity | The Board Seat Fantasy | Why Marketers Shouldn’t Defend Their Value 

Data Driven Pieces 📈

Some pieces called for a different approach.

For these, I went deeper. I spent time researching, pulling data, and using charts to support the writing. Not to prove a point, but to remove guesswork.

What stood out wasn’t the engagement volume, but the people who responded.

The replies came from operators and builders. People who don’t comment often, but read closely when something is grounded in reality.

Data shifts the conversation. It moves readers from whether they agree to what this changes about how they operate.

Here’s what the audience consistently responded to most.

The Hot Button Inside You | Why Big Ideas Are Built in Temperate Climates

Vulnerable: personal pieces about my life ❤️

Over the years, I’ve tried to use vulnerability in a way that’s actually useful to other people. Not venting or oversharing. And definitely not writing something that makes readers feel like they need to send a tissue box.

When done well, vulnerability is a skill. A strategic one.

It makes you human without asking for sympathy. It makes you relatable without turning the focus inward. And in the right context, with the right audience, it gives people permission to reflect on their own lives without being told to.

That’s what these pieces aimed to do.

Here’s what the audience consistently responded to most.

When You Outgrow Your Life’s Container | The Value in Not Seeing Your Value 
Your Self Worth & Your Professional Identity |  The Value of Smart Friends

Vision pieces 🏰

Life gets more interesting when you can connect with people around where they’re headed, not just where they’ve been. I’ve always been drawn to those conversations. Talking about direction. Possibility. What someone is quietly working toward.

But to be invited into other people’s visions, we had to be clear about our own.

These pieces were about naming the direction we were moving in and explaining why it mattered. Not to convince, but to orient. To help people decide whether they wanted to walk alongside it, contribute to it, or simply watch it unfold from a distance.

When vision is articulated well, it gives people something to align with, build upon, even if the timing isn’t immediate.

Here’s what the audience consistently responded to most.

The Infrastructure of Influence | Why Every Rainmaker needs a personal brand OS |  From Ferrari to Honda

Interview Style 🎙️

Recently, we did an interview with Puneeth, who leads our AV department. He is fantastic, and shared his authentic thoughts on what makes a great podcast and why.

The Podcast Philosophy System

Weekly Learnings and Insights 💡

Some newsletters recap learnings from the week, in a consistent style, in a more bullet. form framework, that connect to what they’re working on, and their audience, in a concrete way.

Some readers prefer long form, others may prefer more bullet that they can skim through like the news.

The newsletter from April 5 (not linked here yet) demonstrates exactly this spirit.
You also see this in newsletters like Brain Food with Shane Parrish with split sections and short thoughts under each one.

Cartoon Style 🥳

You also may want to have some fun, tell ChatGPT a story, and instead of delivering it in words, you deliver it with images that tell a story, with few words.

This Isn’t Working



Surprisingly effective newsletter frameworks and Communication Hacks:

The problem–solution framework

This one surprised me.

Last year, the team at 1to100.com subconsciously pushed me to communicate almost everything through a simple problem–solution lens. Vision decks. Live conversations. Writing. Newsletters.

It sounds basic. It isn’t.

Framing thinking this way forces clarity. It gives readers a place to locate themselves before you ask them to follow you somewhere else. Over time, it became one of the most reliable ways to make complex ideas feel obvious without oversimplifying them.

Some of our most effective newsletters followed this structure exactly.

The Thought Leaders Operating System  
The Pain of Visibility 
Portability > Visibility > Obscurity 

Same backbone. Different insights.

Write to one person

Sometimes I wasn’t writing to an audience at all. I was writing to one specific person.

I’d picture a single reader. Someone I knew well. Someone stuck on a real decision. Someone I wanted to be honest with. And I’d write directly to them.

More often than not, those were the pieces that sparked the most replies.

Someone once told me: if you can write to one person, one hundred times over, it will resonate with far more people than trying to write to everyone once.

They were right.

Here was that moment in action:

Cadence and follow-up 🎯

A weekly newsletter builds trust

Consistency compounds.

When you show up regularly and the thought quality stays high, the return matches the effort. We saw this firsthand. New clients came in warmer. Engagement deepened. Speaking and event opportunities started to appear automatically.

The newsletter became proof that we could think clearly and show up reliably over time.

Follow up with people who are already paying attention

Reaching out to people who consistently open your newsletter works because the relationship isn’t cold. They’ve already been spending time with your thinking.

For example, we’ve set up close to 30 meetings just in January with amazing people off our newsletter list.

You don’t need to reference the newsletter or call out their engagement. The door is already cracked open. You’ve been showing up with value, and that changes the tone of the conversation before it even starts.

Most newsletter platforms (like Beehiiv) make this easy to see. The real work is deciding to act on it thoughtfully.

Features of Community at bottom:

Often, in the course of normal conversations throughout the week, it becomes clear what people are working on and what actually matters to them.

Last year, we started featuring some of those people and the work they were doing. Not as promotion, but as acknowledgment. A way to reflect their momentum back to them.

It turned out to be one of the simplest ways to create value. Low friction. High utility. No overcommitment required.

And it strengthened relationships in a way no forced outreach ever could.

Growing our Newsletter List Through Webinars 

Last year, we added a meaningful number of high-quality people to the newsletter by hosting webinars with clients and close collaborators. On average 40-60 people came to each one, sometimes more. Then, those people were added to our newsletter!

We hosted them with people we already respected, clients, or others we were in active conversation with. Tim Springer. Sean Magennis. Bob Arciniaga. Sheila Gujrathi. Case Kenny. And others.

Even doing a webinar with Case Kenny, made my co-host, Sarah Moody, vouch for him for a paid speaking engagement.

What I learned was inviting their communities into those conversations proved far more effective than chasing attention directly. Outreach felt natural because it was rooted in shared context and genuine interest, not cold promotion.

As a side note, we’ll break down our strategy and process around webinars in a future newsletter, but we did a lot of outreach over email and Linkedin to drive engagement and had 400+ attendees in the few that we did in the backhalf of the year . . .More to come.

Community Notes

1. If this spoke to you, and you now want to think about a newsletter for yourself, please reach out if you have questions. Always down to bounce around fun ideas.
   

2. We are doing a webinar with Amy Norman on February 12 at 10 AM.
   Amy is the CEO of Go Nellie, and former founder of Little Passports. She’s an incredible soul and you’re in for a treat with her amazing story.
   
   Sign up here!

3. On January 14, at 5 PM PT, Immad Akhund and and Rajat Suri are doing their first podcast event for Founders in Arms at Mercury HQ. They’re picking 50 awesome founders to join. If you’d like to join, apply by clicking this link.
   
   125+ have applied.

   

   
   

4. Alex Bratton is hosting a great AI workshop details below:
   
   Build an Agent in 90 Minutes - Hands on for Leaders on Jan 20 3-430pm ET:
   
   This session is for owners & entrepreneurs - feel free to invite any team members you'd like to expose too. Tech folks are welcome but this is about all of us building a practical comfort level with agents, not geeking out.

   -What the heck is an agent really and how is it different than ChatGPT?

   -What would I use them for?

   -Keys to succeeding with agents

   
   Let's build some agents on 2 different agent platforms to see strengths of each for n8n & RelevanceAI

   
   RSVP here for connect info

I walked into Le Diplomate a little early.

I was meeting Blaire, my colleague, after work. I slid onto a barstool, ordered nothing yet, and opened my laptop for one more Zoom call. Taxes. Important, but not interesting.

What was interesting was the man to my left.

I overheard phrases drift through the bar noise: real estate, content modules, platform. The kind of language you only half-notice until your pattern recognition kicks in.

After my call, I leaned over.

“What are you working on?”

“A marketing platform for high-end real estate professionals.”

Neat, I thought.

Then the real conversation started.

To my right sat a woman I had never met before, with the unmistakable posture of someone sharp. Seasoned. Educated. Confident. She was eating French onion soup like she knew it was good and did not need validation.

“So,” she asked, “are you in tech?”

“I suppose you could say that.”

She told me what she did: branding, marketing, messaging, identity work at the intersection of policy and public affairs. Serious work. Human work.

Somehow, inevitably, we landed on AI.

And that is when her tone shifted.

She talked about fear.
About jobs disappearing.
About artistry being hollowed out.
About friends at her company already feeling the ground move under their feet.

So I asked her the question I cannot stop asking lately.

Isn’t the new skill taste?
Isn’t it understanding something so deeply that you can get to the right outcome faster because the machine executes what you already know how to see?

She bristled.

“I think AI is incredibly deceptive,” she said. “I take a lot of pride in my work.”

Fair.

So I pushed a little.

“If you are truly great at what you do, and you know how to use your tools, wouldn’t that make your company more money? Wouldn’t efficiency plus judgment actually increase your value?”

She paused.

“Well… what if that takes people’s jobs?”

And there it was.

The real fear is not AI.
It is replacement.

I told her something that probably did not make me popular.

“Survival-of-the-fittest environments are not inherently bad. Learn to use the tools better than the people next to you. That is how you stay relevant. That is how you win.”

She stared into her soup.

Then she said she was waiting for doomsday. That when AI finally takes over, she would "move to an estate in Massachusetts and read and write all day.

I could not help myself.

“That is going to take a lot of money,” I said.
“So you either need to make the tools work for you… or marry someone very wealthy.”

At that moment, Blaire arrived, right on cue.

As the conversation wound down, the woman smiled and said,
“This has been a very stimulating conversation.”

She was not wrong.

What stuck with me afterward

Later, talking it through with Blaire, as she and her daughter ordered dinner, three things crystallized.

(But first, . . . c’mon)
Blaire her daughter a couple weeks ago.

1. I have never been more excited about AI.
I have always been good at getting ideas to 70 percent. AI gives me superpowers to take them to 100 percent. Not instead of me, but because of me.

2. AI adoption is wildly regional.
Living in San Francisco skews your reality. Here, AI seeps in through osmosis. In D.C., and many other places, the tooling in some areas may not be embraced at all. Same tools. Completely different mindset.

3. The resistance is not about age.
I expected a younger, smart, highly educated professional to be all in. She was not. Charlene Li said it well in her piece yesterday. Resistance to AI has nothing to do with generation. It has everything to do with identity, power, and fear of displacement.

I also keep coming back to Dan Martell’s framing.

AI is the new electricity.

But it is also not.

Electricity changed how we lived.
It did not learn you.
It did not compound.
It did not get better every time you used it.

AI does.

Which means this moment is not about tools.
It is about orientation.

Are you waiting for doomsday?
Or are you learning how to conduct the current?

Because the future is not replacing people with machines.

It is replacing people who refuse to evolve with people who have taste, judgment, and the courage to learn in public.

And that conversation, over a bar at Le Diplomate, made that clearer than any headline ever could.

Community Notes:

1) Holiday Shopping? Support Anya Emerson and Jonah Staw

Mightly, Inc is a women-founded and women-led team of brands - Mightly, Of an Origin and Italeau, committed to thoughtful design, ethical production and everyday essentials. Across kids’ apparel, women’s clothing, bedding and footwear, we build our products the right way—from GOTS-certified organic cotton and Fair Trade factories to small-batch, artisan craftsmanship—so customers never have to choose between style, comfort, and values. Our community cares because every purchase supports a more just, transparent, and sustainable supply chain, proving that better business models can win.

www.mightly.com

2) Order Jonathan’s Bloom’s book, Blindspots, great for founders and CEO’s to see around corners they otherwise wouldn’t!

🇬🇧 UK: https://amazon.co.uk/dp/B0G53X5ZS7
🇺🇸 US: https://amazon.com/dp/B0G53X5ZS7

A few years ago, someone close to me shared something important—really important—and I completely missed it. Not because I didn’t care, but because my mind was somewhere else. They felt it. I felt it. And it kept happening.

Call it lack of empathy, lack of presence, or lack of relational skill.

I took it personally. Because when you fail to see the people in front of you, the things that matter most quietly deteriorate behind you.

I didn’t want that to be my story.

Learning to Listen by Necessity, Not Talent

Around that time, I launched The One Away Show. In the early episodes, I was stiff and robotic. Someone would share a heartfelt moment, and I’d jump straight to the next question. No pause. No reflection. No space for depth.

But then I began practicing something simple and transformational:

Listen. Reflect back what they just said. Pause.

Then let the silence do the work.

And slowly, something shifted.

One day a guest cried, not because I asked something profound, but because they finally felt heard. That moment changed me. It showed me that listening isn’t just a skill; it’s a form of recognition. It's a way of saying:

“I see you. You matter.”

Presence Leads to Brand Presence

(Why This Is at the Core of Arcbound)

Someone once told me a quote I’ll never forget:

“We only have the capacity to see in others what we see in ourselves.”

If you’re self-aware…
If you actually know who you are…
It becomes easier to hear what someone else is really trying to say.

You notice their desires. Their fears. Their ambitions. Their contradictions.

And suddenly conversations become richer, cleaner, more aligned.

This is true in friendships.
It’s true in marriage.
And it’s absolutely true in building a personal brand.

Because if you, the leader, can’t see yourself clearly,
You’ll never see your audience clearly.
And if you can’t see your audience clearly,
Nothing you say will resonate.

This is the bridge between presence and brand presence:
When you understand yourself, you understand others.
And that’s where meaningful content, leadership, and influence start.

That’s the essence of what Arcbound does.
We help leaders see themselves so others finally can.

The Shift Into Business (Jan 2024)

Early 2024 was a steep climb.
We needed revenue. We needed precision. We needed a turnaround.

And unexpectedly, the skill that mattered most wasn’t persuasion.
It was presence.

Every call, I took notes, not just on the problem, but on the person.

Where they were today.
Where they wanted to be tomorrow.
What they were running from.
What they were running toward.

The follow-ups were deliberate, specific, and caring.

People felt something rare:

They felt seen.

And once people feel seen by you, they trust you.
And once they trust you, they follow your lead.

This approach became a foundational part of Arcbound’s sales process. It's one of the core reasons we form long-term partnerships built on confidence, clarity, and alignment.

Leadership in an AI-First World

We’re entering a world where AI will write faster, think faster, and produce faster (and often butter)
But speed isn’t the differentiator.

Discernment is.
Interpretation is.
Human insight is.
Nuance is.

AI is an extraordinary tool, but . . .
Humans made AI. Humans train it.
So it’s our responsibility to refine its output into something deeply human.

Tools don’t create connections.
Presence does.

And the leaders who can see people, and see themselves, will be the ones who win in this new era.

One Micro-Tactic You Can Use Today

In your next conversation, try this:

Listen.
Reflect back what the other person just said.
Pause.
Let them respond without you steering the direction.

You’ll be shocked where the conversation goes when you stop trying to control it and start letting someone reveal themselves.

Then, after the conversation, send a thoughtful follow-up:
A note.
A book.
An article that connects to what they shared.

It communicates two simple things:

“I listened.
You matter.”

And that’s a leadership act.

Seeing People Also Makes You a Connector

Something else happens when you truly see and listen to people.
You don’t just hear their words, you understand their context.
Their needs. Their style. Their inflection points.

And that understanding makes you an incredible connector.

The best introductions I’ve made weren’t random. They were rooted in presence.
When you notice who someone is, it becomes obvious who they need to meet.

You can match ambition to opportunity.
Struggle to support.
Idea to builder.

That’s not just networking. That’s leadership.

Tools That Help Me Capture What I See

These don’t replace presence, they amplify it.

• Granola: Our team loves it. Plus, Jack Cully’s personality is a brand in itself.
  

• ChatGPT: Plugging in Granola notes to get to the root of what you’re trying to capture

Two Quotes I Come Back To Again & Again

“Two ears, one mouth.”
A reminder that listening is leverage.

“The extra mile is never crowded.”
Because most people won’t go there. That’s why it works.

The Real Transformation

Today, I’m proud to say listening is one of my best skills.

I’m still human. I still wander into the future.
But when it matters. I know how to dial in, focus, and show up fully.

And that ability has changed my life, my relationships, and our company more than any strategy ever could.

If this resonated, forward this to a friend that you “see”.