Different Wars Require Different Tactics: Why Your Business Needs a Strategy Diagnosis Before a Tactical Prescription

Patrick McFadden • June 30, 2024

In marketing, just as in war, different problems require different solutions. Understanding this fundamental principle is crucial for any small business aiming to succeed. This is why it's essential to conduct a diagnosis before diving into any prescriptions.



Let’s delve deeper into this concept and explore how a diagnosis-first approach can transform your business.


The Tactical Trap: Why Tactics Alone Aren't Enough

Many business owners fall into the trap of chasing the latest marketing trends. Whether it’s the newest social media platform, a trending SEO technique, or the latest advertising gimmick, these tactics can seem like quick fixes. However, without a solid strategy, these tactics often fall flat.


Let me ask you a few questions:


  • Do you feel like you’re trying to sell to everyone?
  • Do you feel like your business is a commodity?
  • Is price always an issue with your clients?
  • Do you seem to be attracting the wrong types of clients?
  • Are you struggling to stand out from your competitors?


If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, you’re not alone. These are common challenges that many businesses face, and they indicate deeper strategic issues.


The answers to these questions are not found in tactical services like Advertising, LinkedIn, SEO, Facebook, or Web Content. These are strategy problems, and they need strategy answers.


Start with a Diagnosis, Not Prescription

For most small businesses, the real battle is a strategy war, not a tactical one. It’s crucial to steer clear of falling for the hot, new marketing tactic of the week. The key to effective marketing lies in a diagnosis-first approach.


Why is this so important?


Because tactics without strategy are like uncoordinated moves on a battlefield. They may show some action, but they lack direction, purpose, and ultimately, effectiveness.

Knowing Your Big Picture Goals

You need to know your big picture business goals. Once you have those defined, you can then put together the tactics needed to bring that strategy to life. This is where many businesses falter. They jump into tactics without a clear understanding of their strategic objectives, leading to scattered efforts and suboptimal results.


Here are some key big picture goals that can inform and shape an effective marketing strategy:


1. Increase Revenue and Profitability

  • Goal: Boost the company’s overall revenue and profitability by a specific percentage over a defined period.
  • Why It Matters: This goal drives the need for strategies that attract more customers, increase average transaction values, and improve profit margins. Tactics might include upselling, cross-selling, and optimizing pricing strategies.


2. Expand Market Share

  • Goal: Increase your share of the market within your industry or target segment.
  • Why It Matters: Gaining a larger market share often involves distinguishing your brand from competitors, appealing to new customer segments, and increasing brand loyalty among existing customers.


3. Enhance Brand Awareness and Recognition

  • Goal: Make your brand more recognizable and trusted by your target audience.
  • Why It Matters: Higher brand awareness can lead to increased customer trust and preference, making it easier to introduce new products and services. Tactics might include content marketing, social media campaigns, and PR initiatives.


4. Improve Customer Retention and Loyalty

  • Goal: Increase the rate at which customers return to do business with you and recommend you to others.
  • Why It Matters: Retaining existing customers is often more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Loyal customers can also become brand advocates, bringing in referrals and positive reviews.


5. Enter New Markets or Geographies

  • Goal: Expand your business into new geographical areas or target new customer segments.
  • Why It Matters: Diversifying your market presence can reduce risk and provide new revenue streams. This often requires tailored marketing strategies that consider local preferences, regulations, and competitive landscapes.


6. Launch New Products or Services

  • Goal: Successfully introduce new products or services to the market.
  • Why It Matters: Innovation and expansion can drive growth and keep your business competitive. Effective marketing strategies for new launches typically involve market research, targeted promotions, and strategic partnerships.


7. Optimize Customer Experience

  • Goal: Enhance every touchpoint of the customer journey to improve satisfaction and loyalty.
  • Why It Matters: A seamless and positive customer experience can differentiate your brand and foster long-term relationships. Tactics might include improving website usability, offering superior customer support, and personalizing communications.


8. Build Strategic Partnerships

  • Goal: Form alliances with other businesses or organizations that can help enhance your market position.
  • Why It Matters: Partnerships can provide access to new markets, technologies, and customer bases. Strategic alliances can also enhance your brand’s credibility and reach.


9. Increase Online Presence and Engagement

  • Goal: Strengthen your digital footprint and engage more effectively with your audience online.
  • Why It Matters: A robust online presence is crucial in today’s digital-first world. Strategies here might include SEO, social media marketing, email campaigns, and online advertising.


10. Enhance Innovation and Thought Leadership

  • Goal: Position your brand as an innovator and leader in your industry.
  • Why It Matters: Being seen as a thought leader can attract media attention, build trust, and differentiate you from competitors. This goal often involves producing high-quality content, speaking at industry events, and conducting original research.


The Power of a Strategy-First Approach

Right now, the niche landscape is changing. As service providers flood niches, competition intensifies.


Look for a digital marketing firm that specializes in HVAC, lawyers, cleaning, landscaping, accounting, for example. There's not just one; there are many, and some have truly mastered the game.


Almost every industry has a template-driven website builder that can push your site live in 48 hours for $199/month.


Ah, but now the drawbacks and horror stories start to emerge. Repetitive content, identical campaigns, and, frustratingly, a lack of ownership over content and strategies.


Businesses are discovering that by going with niche providers, some using proprietary tools and software, they must pay dearly to get out of contracts when results are non-existent or even start from scratch because they didn’t own any of the content or campaigns. But, hey, it was cheap and easy!


But herein lies the opportunity: hire a strategy-first marketing consultant or firm.


Businesses are starting to slowly grasp that marketing is not just a bunch of tactics. They need someone who can weave together the strategic and tactical strengths of specialized providers into a coherent, winning plan.


This is why strategic marketing consultants and consulting firms are entering the conversation in a big way. This role isn't about pushing tactics but about owning the strategy.


My advice for the future of niche marketing? Hire a strategic thinking or strategy-first provider. Look for consultants and consulting firms that start with a strategic engagement, and then assemble a team of experts to execute.


By focusing on strategy first, you will:

  • Attract ideal clients who are profitable and refer you to others.
  • Become the obvious choice provider, making your competition irrelevant.
  • Ensure clients expect to pay a premium to work with you.
  • Identify the best ways to attract new business.


Adopting a strategy-first approach ensures that your efforts are not just efficient but also effective, allowing your business to thrive.


Wrap Up

In conclusion, different wars require different tactics, and the same holds true for marketing.

Before you dive into tactics, you need a solid strategy. By diagnosing your strategic needs and building a comprehensive marketing strategy, you can ensure that your efforts are aligned with your business goals.


This approach will help you attract ideal clients, stand out from your competition, and achieve sustainable growth.

Remember, the answers to your marketing challenges are not found in the latest tactics but in a well-defined strategy. Start with strategy, and watch your business thrive.

The Missing Layer in AI: Why Judgment, Not Just Data, Will Define the Next Era of Intelligence

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
Everyone is scaling outputs. Almost no one is scaling judgment.

Everyone Talks About AI Judgment. We Built It.

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
Ask anyone in tech where AI is headed, and they’ll tell you: “The next leap is reasoning.” “AI needs judgment.” “We need assistants that think, not just answer.” They’re right. But while everyone’s talking about it, almost no one is actually shipping it. So we did. We built Thinking OS™ —a system that doesn’t just help AI answer questions… It helps AI think like a strategist. It helps AI decide like an operator. It helps teams and platforms scale judgment, n ot just generate output. The Theory Isn’t New. The Implementation Is. The idea of layering strategic thinking and judgment into AI isn’t new in theory. The problem is, no one’s been able to implement it effectively at scale. Let’s look at the current landscape. 1. Big Tech Has the Muscle—But Not the Mind OpenAI / ChatGPT ✅ Strength: Best-in-class language generation ❌ Limitation: No built-in judgment or reasoning. You must provide the structure. Otherwise, it follows instructions, not strategy. Google DeepMind / Gemini ✅ Known for advanced decision-making (e.g., AlphaGo) ❌ But only in structured environments like games—not messy, real-world business scenarios. Anthropic (Claude), Meta (LLaMA), Microsoft Copilot ✅ Great at answering questions and following commands ❌ But they’re assistants, not advisors. They won’t reprioritize. They won’t challenge your assumptions. They don’t ask: “Is this the right move?” These tools are powerful—but they don’t think for outcomes the way a strategist or operator would. 2. Who’s Actually Building the Thinking Layer™? This is where it gets interesting—and thin. Startups and Indie Builders Some small teams are quietly: Creating custom GPTs that mimic how experts reason Layering in business context, priorities, and tradeoffs Embedding decision logic so AI can guide, not just execute But these efforts are: Highly manual Difficult to scale Fragmented and experimental Enterprise Experiments A few companies (Salesforce, HubSpot, and others) are exploring more “judgment-aware” AI copilots. These systems can: Flag inconsistencies Recommend next actions Occasionally surface priorities based on internal logic But most of it is still: In early R&D Custom-coded Unproven beyond narrow use cases That’s Why Thinking OS™ Is Different Instead of waiting for a lab to crack it, we built a modular thinking system that installs like infrastructure. Thinking OS™: Captures how real experts reason Embeds judgment into layers AI can use Deploys into tools like ChatGPT or enterprise systems Helps teams think together, consistently, at scale It’s not another assistant. It’s the missing layer that turns outputs into outcomes. So… Is This a New Innovation? Yes—in practice. Everyone says AI needs judgment. But judgment isn’t an idea. It’s a system. It requires: Persistent memory Contextual awareness Tradeoff evaluation Value-based decisions Strategy that evolves with goals Thinking OS™ delivers that. And unlike the R&D experiments in Big Tech, it’s built for: Operators Consultants Platform founders Growth-stage teams that need to scale decision quality, not just content creation If Someone Told You They’ve Built a Thinking + Judgment Layer™… They’ve built something only a handful of people in the world are even attempting. Because this isn’t just AI that speaks fluently. It’s AI that reasons, reflects , and chooses. And in a world that’s drowning in tools, judgment becomes the differentiator. That’s the OS We Built Thinking OS™ is not a prompt pack. It’s not a dashboard. It’s not a glorified chatbot. It’s a decision architecture you can license, embed, or deploy— To help your team, your platform, or your clients think better at scale. We’ve moved past content. We’re building cognition. Let’s talk.

We Found the Missing Layer AI Has Been Waiting For

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
In every era of innovation, there’s a silent bottleneck—something obvious in hindsight, but elusive until the moment it clicks. In today’s AI-driven world, that bottleneck is clear: AI has speed. It has scale. But it doesn’t have judgment . It doesn’t really think . What’s Actually Missing From AI? When experts talk about the “thinking and judgment layer” as the next leap for AI, they’re calling out a hard truth: Modern AI systems are powerful pattern machines. But they’re missing the human layer—the one that reasons, weighs tradeoffs, and makes strategic decisions in context. Let’s break that down: 1. The Thinking Layer = Reasoning with Purpose This layer doesn’t just process inputs— it structures logic. It’s the ability to: Ask the right questions before acting Break down complexity into solvable parts Adjust direction mid-course when reality changes Think beyond “what was asked” to uncover “what really matters” Today’s AI responds. But it rarely reflects. Unless told exactly what to do, it won’t work through problems the way a strategist or operator would. 2. The Judgment Layer = Decision-Making in the Gray Judgment is the ability to: Prioritize what matters most Choose between imperfect options Make decisions when there’s no clear answer Apply values, experience, and vision—not just data It’s why a founder might not pursue a lucrative deal. Why a marketer might ignore the click-through rate. Why a strategist knows when the timing isn’t right. AI doesn’t do this well. Not yet. Because judgment requires more than data—it requires discernment . Why This Is the Bottleneck Holding Back AI AI can write. It can summarize. It can automate. But it still can’t: Diagnose the real problem behind the question Evaluate tradeoffs like a founder or operator would Recommend a path based on context, constraints, and conviction AI today is still reactive. It follows instructions. But it doesn’t lead. It doesn’t guide. It doesn’t own the outcome. And for those building serious systems—whether you’re running a company, launching a platform, or leading a team—this is the wall you eventually hit. That’s Why We Built Thinking OS™ We stopped waiting for AI to learn judgment on its own. Instead, we created a system that embeds it—by design. Thinking OS™ is an installable decision layer that captures how top founders, strategists, and operators think… …and makes that thinking repeatable , scalable , and usable inside teams, tools, and platforms. It’s not a framework. It’s not a chatbot. It’s not another playbook. It’s the layer that knows how to: Think through complex decisions Apply judgment when rules don’t help Guide others —human or AI—toward strategic outcomes This Is the Missing Infrastructure Thinking OS™ isn’t just about better answers. It’s about better thinking—made operational. And that’s what’s been missing in AI, consulting, leadership development, and platform design. If you’re trying to scale expertise, install judgment, or move from tactical to strategic… You don’t need a faster AI. You need a thinking layer that knows what to do—and why. We built it. Let’s talk.
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