The Argonautic: 0026

The biggest change AI brings to marketing isn't how we use tactics, but how buyers make decisions. The neat, linear buyer journey we've mapped for years is being scrambled by AI-powered search and discovery. Your prospects are now asking AI to do their homework for them, and you might never even know you were in the running.

As John Jantsch explains, a potential client can ask an AI to shortlist vendors, get a synthesized "best of" list, and compare options based on sentiment analysis, all without visiting a single website. This shift from search engine results pages (SERPs) to direct answers means that being findable by AI is the new SEO. It's no longer just about ranking; it's about being a citable, credible source in an AI's response, a concept that Launch Consulting calls the new "rules of discovery."

To adapt, you must create content with both humans and machines in mind. Duct Tape Marketing suggests building "answer-first" web pages that AI can quote, creating dual-layer content with both story and machine-readable facts, and measuring your "AI share of voice." The battle for visibility is moving from the SERP to the prompt box.

"Growth is a constant requirement for all living things." We hear this and instinctively nod, but what if our definition of growth is wrong? For many firm owners, the pursuit of growth becomes a hamster wheel of chasing ever-larger metrics, leading to burnout and unhappiness.

In a thoughtful essay, Blair Enns argues that we often chase the metrics of growth—revenue, headcount, client logos—instead of growth itself. He provocatively suggests that "the concept of 'enough' is a misunderstanding of growth, a misunderstanding of the purpose of a business... and a misunderstanding of the nature of the universe itself." This reframes growth not as a destination, but as a continuous process of becoming.

This philosophical lens has practical applications. It might mean focusing on profitability and sustainability over raw expansion. As Stacey Hylen discusses, this can involve finding "hidden profits" and confidently raising prices. It pushes you to ask: is this activity contributing to healthy, sustainable development, or is it just inflating a vanity metric? Project-based businesses, for example, can find sustainable growth by packaging services into recurring revenue models.

If your firm bills by the hour, you might feel it's the only way to protect yourself from endless scope creep. But what if the hourly model is the very thing that's causing the problem? It's a paradox that keeps many small firms trapped in a cycle of trading time for money.

As Jonathan Stark points out, hourly billing creates a direct financial incentive to welcome, or at least tolerate, scope creep. More hours mean more revenue, which is a powerful motivator, especially during a slow month. This leads to a vicious cycle: you bill by the hour because of unpredictable scope creep, but you experience unpredictable scope creep because you bill by the hour.

The alternative is to move toward fixed, value-based pricing. Pricing creative services this way requires a shift in thinking. Instead of selling time, you're selling an outcome. As The Futur explains, this means you must understand what your client truly values—often, it's a specific business result. The moment you offer a fixed price, your incentive flips. You're now motivated to define scope clearly, work efficiently, and focus on delivering the promised value, which is what clients wanted all along.

Are we overthinking customer relationships? In a world saturated with talk of community, emotional bonds, and brand trust, it's easy to get caught in a cycle of "navel-gazing." We spend so much time planning elaborate client experiences that we forget the simplest truth of commerce.

Mark Schaefer captured this frustration perfectly: "Sometimes, I want to buy a banana and be left alone." This isn't a rejection of good service; it's a plea for transactional simplicity. Not every interaction needs to be a deep, meaningful moment. Sometimes, the best client experience is a frictionless one.

This doesn't mean neglecting clients. It means providing the right level of interaction at the right time. For B2B services, this involves a "tailored client experience," as Retainr.io describes, focusing on personalization, convenience, and trust. It could be as simple as changing one word to de-escalate a frustrated customer, a technique Jeff Mowatt recommends. The goal is to be helpful, not intrusive.

How do you get your firm cited by AI search engines? The answer might seem counterintuitive: stop focusing on AI. The real strategy is to become a go-to source for humans, especially journalists. AI, in its current state, heavily favors professionally vetted information.

"Journalism is now the most cited source in AI-generated responses to current event queries," writes Amanda Natividad of SparkToro. The takeaway is simple and powerful: if you want to be visible in AI summaries, you need to be quotable in the press. This shifts the focus from technical SEO to old-fashioned PR and thought leadership.

Building this kind of authority requires a consistent point of view and a willingness to share it. That could mean publishing articles, as Lisa Nirell has done for decades, or simply injecting your unique perspective into everyday conversations. As Seth Godin aptly puts it, being "unreasonable in service of your customers" is a practice that gets you noticed. The goal is to be so valuable and distinct that people—and by extension, the AIs that learn from them—have to talk about you.

If you're an agency owner, you may have noticed an uptick in acquisition inquiries from private equity. It's not just you. There's a new calculus in the agency world, and it's driven by a combination of AI-fueled efficiencies and owner burnout.

Wil Reynolds of Seer Interactive has been getting a lot of these calls and has a theory. PE firms see an opportunity to roll up agencies that have lagged in AI adoption. The playbook: buy a laggard agency, give the burned-out owner an exit, and then apply the automation and efficiency models of an AI-fluent agency to instantly boost profits. This makes AI proficiency a key driver of an agency's valuation.

This trend is amplified by a growing desire for an exit. Karl Sakas notes that while half his new clients wanted to exit pre-COVID, that number is now closer to 75%. The intense pressure of the last few years, combined with the rapid pace of technological change, has many owners looking for a way out.

In times of uncertainty, a leader's silence is never neutral. It creates a vacuum that employees will fill with worst-case scenarios and speculation. As organizational psychologist Dr. David Burkus says, "Silence in uncertainty isn't neutral. It's dangerous."

The impulse for many leaders is to wait for clarity before communicating, but this is a mistake. Your job isn't to have all the answers. It's to control the narrative by sharing what you do know, admitting what you don't, and keeping your team included in the process. This approach builds trust, which as Yoram Solomon explains, is the foundation of an innovative and productive culture.

A strong culture is also one that encourages healthy dissent. Burkus suggests two diagnostic questions: "When was the last time someone disagreed with the leader? How did it go?" and "Do people complain to decision-makers—or about them?" The goal is a complaint-responsible culture where issues are brought to those who can solve them.