You Liked Me

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🍻