The Mission Never Changed

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.