“Changes create enormous opportunities if you understand the new playing field.” — Jeff Walker

I’ve always been fascinated by massive changes that altered the trajectory of the world.

I love reading stories about the people who saw an opportunity in front of them and profited, while almost everyone else waited to see how things would turn out.

For example:

​Sir John Templeton, who bought 100 shares of every NYSE-listed company trading below $1 per share in 1939—at the start of World War II. His contrarian strategy paid off handsomely when the U.S. economy rebounded after the war.

Or, Michael Burry, who’s known for his bets against the subprime mortgage market, which were pivotal in the lead-up to the 2008 financial meltdown. Burry's strategy is explained in the movie The Big Short, which I highly recommend watching.

But I was either non-existent or too young to be affected by either of those changes in the world. (Sorry if the 2008 crash negatively affected you. I’m not trying to be insensitive… I was still in high school at the time.)

But AI is one of those world-altering changes.

And you have the chance to get ahead of the curve. So don't just watch from the sidelines—use it to your advantage!

I Used to Feel Guilty About Using AI…

That was back when I was writing blogs for Copyblogger’s marketing agency.

I’d use it to help me outline and organize my opening and closing paragraphs.

It felt like cheating...

So I was genuinely surprised when they told me that my writing was some of their best content—even using some of my work as examples to train new writers.

I’d frequently get messages like this:

Here’s the thing…

I wasn’t just blindly prompting the AI to give me content in hopes of doing less work…

That’s the kind of content no one needs—what my friend Russ would call “boiled chicken content”.

No thanks.

I had studied how to get the most out of AI. I was using it as a tool to help me get a better output.

I’d do things like:

• Train it on the persona I was writing to
• Tell it what copywriting formula I wanted
• Ask it to brainstorm different ideas based on pain points and goals

Then I’d meticulously polish it so that it sounded like the founder of the business.

The Three Hats 🧢 a Small Business Owner Wears

You might be wondering why I’m sharing this story with you, and how it relates to growing your small business.

At the core of it, there’s an empowering belief… but I’ll come back to that in a second.

First, let’s start with a book I’m reading called the “E-myth Revisited”, by Micheal E. Gerber.

It’s a about how to grow a small business.

In it, Gerber explains that one of the biggest reasons why so many small businesses fail—is because the owner spends too much time working “in” the business, instead of “on” the business.

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He breaks down the different roles you need to play, in order to be successful. I like to think of them as the different hats you can wear.

They are:

1. The Technician: Does the actual work
2. The Manager: Creates systems for the business
3. The Entrepreneur: Innovates and plans for the future

The problem?

Most small business owners ONLY wear the Technician hat. 🧢

Which makes sense if you think about it… we generally like doing the work ourselves. (Unless it’s filing taxes, then we’ll hire someone.)

The whole point of starting your business was to do something meaningful, that gives you the lifestyle you want.

But this approach can lead to burnout, overwhelm, and losing the passion that started your business in the first place.

The Power of AI in Marketing Your Business

So, how can you make marketing and running your business easier?

Four words: AI. Powered. Marketing. Hub.

Imagine having a marketing consultant who works for you 24/7, trained on your specific business needs.

Here are just a few benefits:

• It solidifies your marketing strategy, helping you to feel confident in your decisions
• It can give you tailored marketing advice based on your specific goals, so you feel less overwhelmed with all the marketing tactics
• It can help you overcome creative blocks by generating ideas that will actually engage your audience (most of the time)
• It can save you a TON of time so you can focus on other day-to-day activities
• It helps keep your marketing messages consistent if you decide to scale and hire some help

Here’s the deal.

You can build a meaningful business that gives you the freedom and flexibility you want with an AI-powered marketing plan.

Building an AI Marketing Hub: The Secret to Unlocking Business Growth in 2024

AI-powered marketing is based on a concept called “fine-tuning”.

Another way to think about fine-tuning it is like training AI on your business.

The best part…

It's a timeless concept because even though newer and better AI models will emerge, they will ALWAYS need to be trained on your business.

Here’s what a fully fine-tuned AI marketing hub looks like:

On the right-hand side, notice how I’ve uploaded all my “data”.

Things like my personas, offers, business profile, and even some copywriting guides.

Here’s what you'll need to build a basic AI marketing hub for your business:

1.Claude​

As of this moment, Claude outperforms ChatGPT and their new “Projects” interface is what makes it a “marketing hub” for your business.

2. Personas

If you don’t yet have a document with all your buyer persona’s details, you can learn how to build a persona in 15 minutes here.

3. Offer

I like to think about an offer using these 10 elements. Click here to access the Irresistible Offers guide.

4. Business Profile

In a nutshell, this is a summary of your business. You’ll want to include:

• Your mission statement
• Your offers
• Personas
• Marketing assets (i.e. How you generate new leads, sales, and keep your customers engaged)
• You business goals

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Here’s what to do once you have all those things:

Step 1: Open a Claude account. (The free version is fine.)

Step 2: Create a new “project” by clicking in the top left hand corner.

Step 3: Turn your data (personas, offers, business profile) into PDF documents.

Step 4: Upload them into the “project knowledge base”

You now have a basic AI Marketing Hub that understands your business inside and out.

The best part is that you can talk to it like you would a human.

No epic prompts required.

You can ask it questions like:

• Help me plan a 4-part webinar series
• Help me outline a sales email sequence
• Help me create a content calendar for LinkedIn
• Based on my [offer] for [persona], what would be some good lead magnet ideas?
• Etc…

Exclusive Offer: Personalized AI Marketing Hub

Would you be interested in building your own AI marketing hub that’s fine-tuned to your business?

This is a new service I’m thinking about offering. 🤔

I’d work with you 1:1, over 4 sessions, and help you organize and optimize your personas, offers, and business profile.

You’ll gain access to the prompts I use to get the best outputs from AI.

Including the ones I use for copywriting and building a brand voice guide so that you can have AI create engaging and persuasive content faster.

The first group of people I work with would get a serious discount, in exchange for a testimonial of your experience.

If you’d like to learn more about it, or if you have any questions about AI in general, just reply back to this email.

I love hearing from you all and seeing what you’re working on.

Thanks So Much for Reading!

Speaking of boosting productivity and efficiency…

I just bought the Panda Planner and I’m really loving it. (Not an affiliate link)

If you want to try it out, here’s a code for 10% off: [ PANDAFAM ].

I went with the 6-month planner.

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Keep Learning,

Nicholas

P.S. Do you know a small business owner struggling with marketing? Forward this newsletter to help them discover the power of AI in growing their business.

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