u/AndesAndAlps

My immediate thought is fuck off.

Of course I'm a bit more diplomatic. I can't help but think though... "If someone offered YOU a deal where you do months of your expert work for free, with the promise of maybe getting paid later based on factors partly outside your control would you take it?"

No? Then don't ask me to.

Revenue share really means that they don't understand your expertise enough to pay for it, and I'm they're not confident enough in their own business to invest in it."

There's a stage in building a successful small business that many of us know too well. That frustrating part where you realise how much you don't know. Where the whole operation gets more challenging the more you understand it, your confidence plummets before it rises, imposter syndrome grips you at every turn.

IMO, that stage is uncomfortable, slow and absolutely necessary because it's the thing that produces genuine knowledge and a will to succeed. It's the way you cut your teeth in an unforgiving way to make a living.

I have been wondering whether other small business owners feel that LLMs as they exist today, remove that stage entirely.

I've spent 15 years getting to a point where I feel like I know what I'm doing. So many shitty jobs, failed deals, rejected pitches, being undervalued, underpaid, incorrect positioning, poor hiring, you name it.

That non-linear journey has been crucial to my growth. It's where I learned to read a room, walk the talk, fail upwards etc.

Now I'm not saying you need 15 years to get it right, or 10 shit jobs to finally create a space where you're comfortable, but by and large, you can't shortcut lived experience.

Am I alone in thinking that way, or just a Luddite with a grudge against the future?

For ages I avoided personal branding at all. I never saw the point really unless you could convey EXACTLY who you are in the real world online with no filter. However, that level of exposure, even for someone who is comfortable in their skin is hard to do. Your friends and family see that shit. Once you go balls deep it's hard to go back

Where do you draw the line? Do you go absolutely ham and say "if people are repelled by me, so be it, there will be a few who like honesty." or do you hedge for fear of being trolled, voted down, or ignored.

Is it warts and all? Or is it piecemeal?

Luckily it went straight down, and the X-ray showed it making its way to her bum hole.

Told that we would have to come back in 3 days if it didn't come out, My wife and I diligently stood vigil for every potential bowel movement, in the hopes it would make a star appearance in the toilet bowl.

On the final morning, just as we were preparing to take her back, she announced "I need to poo" and we both raised our eyebrows and the prospect of a last minute reprieve.

"Was that it... I'm sure it was." My wife exclaimed. I wasn't so sure, though. What if she was wrong? I needed to know.

So, I went pearl farming... deeper...deeper still...until there it was. The offending object in the palm of my hand.

It reminded me of the importance of never taking something at face value. Because in marketing, just like in parenting, you can think something has passed through the system cleanly, but unless you're willing to get your hands dirty and verify the output at every stage of the funnel, you might just end up back at square one (or the hospital) with a problem that's gotten a whole lot worse.

Nah, I'm just fucking with you. I was too busy scrubbing my fingernails with bleach to think about marketing.