I thought I’d share a little bit of ours.

28 years ago, we went on a honeymoon that was less than ideal. It was not like a scene from a movie.

Jorge, that was the little boy my wife befriended who was trying to sell us Chicklettes. We still have a picture of that little boy who is now knocking on 40… wow.

It’s funny the things you remember.

Aside from meeting Jorge, it was a bit of a disaster.

Spoiler alert, we made it through. It wasn’t our first time facing turbulent waters; it’s how our relationship started. That story is for another day. Today I think you ALL need to hear the story about the ‘Honeymoon’; it’s a little bit of a love story and a LOTTA bit of business and life advice.

I sincerely hope this story hits some of you REALLY DEEP, your future depends on it.

I got asked one of the best questions I’ve been asked in a long time.

It came from a young entrepreneur. Smart guy. Hungry. Curious. Trying to build something real. We were having a conversation about business, sales, the technology channel, consulting, courses, coaching, and all the stuff people love to package up and sell once they’ve had some level of success.

Then he asked me, respectfully but directly, the question a lot of people probably think but never say out loud.

That is a damn good question.

Because every consultant says they were successful. Every coach has a story. Every course creator has a bio that makes them sound like they walked down from Mount Sales with stone tablets and a CRM strategy. Everybody has screenshots, testimonials, vague revenue claims, and some version of “I built multiple seven-figure businesses.”

And let’s keep it honest. A lot of them weren’t that successful. Or they weren’t as successful as they make themselves out to be. Or they had one good run, in one good market, at one good time, and now they’re teaching theory like it’s gospel.

That’s why the old saying hits so hard.

Those who can’t, teach.

I understand why people say it. I’ve seen enough of the coaching world, consulting world, sales training world, and online course world to know there is a lot of truth hiding inside that insult. There are people teaching things they’ve never really built. There are people selling strategy who have never had to make payroll. There are people telling entrepreneurs how to scale when they have never had to look an employee in the eye and tell them the business is changing, the money is tight, and the future is uncertain.

That’s not me.

I don’t teach because I couldn’t do. I teach because I did. I teach because I paid for the lessons in money, stress, sleepless nights, mistakes, wins, losses, ego, humility, and survival. I teach because I know what it feels like to build something from scratch, watch it grow, carry people with you, and then have the game change in ways that force you to become someone new.

I started my sales career in jewelry. Before that, I was a kid knocking on doors and speaking publicly before I even really understood what communication was teaching me. Sales, persuasion, storytelling, reading people, building trust — those things have been part of my life for as long as I can remember.

I got into technology in 2001 and started my first real company in 2004. It was a technology sales agency. Not an insurance agency. Not a marketing agency. Not real estate. A technology sales agency. We sold B2B technology, network access, and services in the channel long before the channel became the crowded, overcomplicated ecosystem it is today.

And we built something real.

At our largest, we had three offices and more than 50 employees. We had salespeople, project management, customer service, operations, process, structure, systems, and customers. We weren’t just a person with a book of business and a cell phone. We were building an actual business.

Were we perfect? Hell no.

Would I build it the exact same way today? Absolutely not.

That’s the point.

At one point, I was on top of the world. At least that’s how it felt. We had built a machine. We had sold thousands and thousands of customers. We had credibility. We had momentum. We had people depending on us. We were respected in our lane.

Then the business model shifted. The economics changed. The things that made us successful also made us vulnerable. We were too tied to one major partner. Too much of the business depended on a model I did not control. Too much overhead was attached to revenue that could be disrupted by decisions made in rooms I wasn’t invited into.

That’s one of the hardest lessons in business.

You can be successful and still be exposed.

You can be smart and still be vulnerable.

You can be winning and still be one structural change away from getting punched in the mouth.

And I got punched in the mouth.

Hard.

I had to make decisions I wouldn’t wish on any entrepreneur. I had to deal with the emotional weight of employees, families, obligations, contracts, debt, loyalty, pride, and disappointment. I had to accept that the thing I built was not going to continue in the same form. That kind of experience doesn’t show up in a LinkedIn bio, but it changes you.

It changed me.

I did not walk away because I failed and needed something easier. I shifted because I had learned too much to keep repeating the same model. I shifted because I could see the industry changing. I shifted because I knew the biggest gap in the technology channel was not access to products. It was education, structure, business acumen, sales process, and leadership.

So I built around that.

I started consulting. I coached. I trained. I created frameworks. I built courses. I licensed content. I worked with suppliers, TSDs, sales teams, channel leaders, and entrepreneurs. I helped other people build better sales motions, better partner strategies, better go-to-market plans, and better businesses.

That is not me being out of the game.

That is me playing a different position.

And let’s be clear, I am still in the game. I still build businesses. I still build brands. I still create sales processes for clients and for myself. I still launch offers, test messaging, structure partnerships, negotiate deals, create content, sell, consult, speak, train, and build.

Business & Bourbon was built from scratch.

SayLess Academy was built from scratch.

My consulting business was built from scratch.

My personal brand was built from scratch.

The courses, the events, the media, the partnerships, the frameworks, the content, the communities — none of that was handed to me. None of that came from theory. It came from doing the work.

That is why I take teaching seriously.

Teaching is not a consolation prize for me. Teaching is an extension of my purpose. It is how I turn scars into strategy. It is how I help the next entrepreneur avoid some of the landmines I stepped on. It is how I help salespeople stop wasting years chasing bad advice from people who don’t understand the actual business they are in.

The best teachers are not the people who read the most books or make the prettiest slides. The best teachers are the ones who have lived the lesson deeply enough to simplify it for somebody else.

That’s credibility.

Not hype.

Not a rented lifestyle.

Not “I made millions” with no receipts, no context, and no real operating wisdom behind it.

Credibility is being able to say, “I know this because I built it. I know this because I broke it. I know this because I had to fix it. I know this because I’m still doing it.”

That young entrepreneur’s question reminded me why I share my story. Not because I need to defend myself. Not because I need everybody to understand every private detail of my journey. Some things don’t need to be public. Some things don’t need to become content. Some things are better left as lessons, not weapons.

But I do think people deserve to know who they are learning from.

If you are going to hire a coach, buy a course, follow a consultant, or take advice from someone telling you how to build, sell, lead, or scale, ask better questions.

What have they actually built?

What happened when things went wrong?

Are they still creating, selling, testing, and operating today?

Do they understand the current market, or are they teaching a version of success that only worked ten years ago?

Can they teach the lesson beyond the highlight reel?

Because those who can’t may teach.

But those who did, survived, evolved, and are still building?

Those are the ones you should probably listen to.

Use code SHITTY for 50% off

I got asked one of the best questions I’ve been asked in a long time.

It came from a young entrepreneur. Smart guy. Hungry. Curious. Trying to build something real. We were having a conversation about business, sales, the technology channel, consulting, courses, coaching, and all the stuff people love to package up and sell once they’ve had some level of success.

Then he asked me, respectfully but directly, the question a lot of people probably think but never say out loud.

That is a damn good question.

Because every consultant says they were successful. Every coach has a story. Every course creator has a bio that makes them sound like they walked down from Mount Sales with stone tablets and a CRM strategy. Everybody has screenshots, testimonials, vague revenue claims, and some version of “I built multiple seven-figure businesses.”

And let’s keep it honest. A lot of them weren’t that successful. Or they weren’t as successful as they make themselves out to be. Or they had one good run, in one good market, at one good time, and now they’re teaching theory like it’s gospel.

That’s why the old saying hits so hard.

Those who can’t, teach.

I understand why people say it. I’ve seen enough of the coaching world, consulting world, sales training world, and online course world to know there is a lot of truth hiding inside that insult. There are people teaching things they’ve never really built. There are people selling strategy who have never had to make payroll. There are people telling entrepreneurs how to scale when they have never had to look an employee in the eye and tell them the business is changing, the money is tight, and the future is uncertain.

That’s not me.

I don’t teach because I couldn’t do. I teach because I did. I teach because I paid for the lessons in money, stress, sleepless nights, mistakes, wins, losses, ego, humility, and survival. I teach because I know what it feels like to build something from scratch, watch it grow, carry people with you, and then have the game change in ways that force you to become someone new.

I started my sales career in jewelry. Before that, I was a kid knocking on doors and speaking publicly before I even really understood what communication was teaching me. Sales, persuasion, storytelling, reading people, building trust — those things have been part of my life for as long as I can remember.

I got into technology in 2001 and started my first real company in 2004. It was a technology sales agency. Not an insurance agency. Not a marketing agency. Not real estate. A technology sales agency. We sold B2B technology, network access, and services in the channel long before the channel became the crowded, overcomplicated ecosystem it is today.

And we built something real.

At our largest, we had three offices and more than 50 employees. We had salespeople, project management, customer service, operations, process, structure, systems, and customers. We weren’t just a person with a book of business and a cell phone. We were building an actual business.

Were we perfect? Hell no.

Would I build it the exact same way today? Absolutely not.

That’s the point.

At one point, I was on top of the world. At least that’s how it felt. We had built a machine. We had sold thousands and thousands of customers. We had credibility. We had momentum. We had people depending on us. We were respected in our lane.

Then the business model shifted. The economics changed. The things that made us successful also made us vulnerable. We were too tied to one major partner. Too much of the business depended on a model I did not control. Too much overhead was attached to revenue that could be disrupted by decisions made in rooms I wasn’t invited into.

That’s one of the hardest lessons in business.

You can be successful and still be exposed.

You can be smart and still be vulnerable.

You can be winning and still be one structural change away from getting punched in the mouth.

And I got punched in the mouth.

Hard.

I had to make decisions I wouldn’t wish on any entrepreneur. I had to deal with the emotional weight of employees, families, obligations, contracts, debt, loyalty, pride, and disappointment. I had to accept that the thing I built was not going to continue in the same form. That kind of experience doesn’t show up in a LinkedIn bio, but it changes you.

It changed me.

I did not walk away because I failed and needed something easier. I shifted because I had learned too much to keep repeating the same model. I shifted because I could see the industry changing. I shifted because I knew the biggest gap in the technology channel was not access to products. It was education, structure, business acumen, sales process, and leadership.

So I built around that.

I started consulting. I coached. I trained. I created frameworks. I built courses. I licensed content. I worked with suppliers, TSDs, sales teams, channel leaders, and entrepreneurs. I helped other people build better sales motions, better partner strategies, better go-to-market plans, and better businesses.

That is not me being out of the game.

That is me playing a different position.

And let’s be clear, I am still in the game. I still build businesses. I still build brands. I still create sales processes for clients and for myself. I still launch offers, test messaging, structure partnerships, negotiate deals, create content, sell, consult, speak, train, and build.

Business & Bourbon was built from scratch.

SayLess Academy was built from scratch.

My consulting business was built from scratch.

My personal brand was built from scratch.

The courses, the events, the media, the partnerships, the frameworks, the content, the communities — none of that was handed to me. None of that came from theory. It came from doing the work.

That is why I take teaching seriously.

Teaching is not a consolation prize for me. Teaching is an extension of my purpose. It is how I turn scars into strategy. It is how I help the next entrepreneur avoid some of the landmines I stepped on. It is how I help salespeople stop wasting years chasing bad advice from people who don’t understand the actual business they are in.

The best teachers are not the people who read the most books or make the prettiest slides. The best teachers are the ones who have lived the lesson deeply enough to simplify it for somebody else.

That’s credibility.

Not hype.

Not a rented lifestyle.

Not “I made millions” with no receipts, no context, and no real operating wisdom behind it.

Credibility is being able to say, “I know this because I built it. I know this because I broke it. I know this because I had to fix it. I know this because I’m still doing it.”

That young entrepreneur’s question reminded me why I share my story. Not because I need to defend myself. Not because I need everybody to understand every private detail of my journey. Some things don’t need to be public. Some things don’t need to become content. Some things are better left as lessons, not weapons.

But I do think people deserve to know who they are learning from.

If you are going to hire a coach, buy a course, follow a consultant, or take advice from someone telling you how to build, sell, lead, or scale, ask better questions.

What have they actually built?

What happened when things went wrong?

Are they still creating, selling, testing, and operating today?

Do they understand the current market, or are they teaching a version of success that only worked ten years ago?

Can they teach the lesson beyond the highlight reel?

Because those who can’t may teach.

But those who did, survived, evolved, and are still building?

Those are the ones you should probably listen to.

Use code SHITTY for 50% off

Have you seen these videos going viral on Instagram and TikTok?

People are taking jars of pineapple spears, dumping Kool-Aid powder into them, letting them soak, and selling them out of coolers, trunks, and folding tables.

The videos are everywhere. Somebody pulls up in a parking lot. Somebody has a handwritten sign. Somebody is taking Cash App, Zelle, Apple Pay, and whatever else gets the money from your pocket to theirs. The jars are stacked up. The colors are bright. The customers are lined up. The seller is usually loud, Southern, unpolished, animated, and unapologetic.

A lot of them look like me.

And then come the comments.

People laughing at the idea. Laughing at the seller. Laughing at the customers. Laughing at the accents, the presentation, the hustle, the whole scene.

The internet turns it into entertainment. Another viral moment. Another thing to clown. Another opportunity for people who have never sold anything in their lives to make jokes about someone out there trying to make money.

And while the world is laughing, I’m not.

I don’t think it’s funny. I think it’s courageous. I think it’s entrepreneurial. I think it’s somebody looking at what they have, where they are, what they know, and deciding, “I can make something happen with this.”

That’s not a joke to me. That’s the beginning of something.

Around 1983, my family took a trip to Las Vegas. While we were there, people were performing with these little monkey puppets. I don’t remember all the details, but I remember my dad seeing it. When we got home, he went to work creating his own version of those monkey puppets to sell.

Now imagine social media existed back then. Imagine somebody filming my dad trying to figure out how to make and sell monkey puppets after a family trip to Vegas. Would the comments have been kind?

Probably not.

In the 80s, people didn’t have digital photography. They kept their pictures in photo albums. My mom and dad came up with an idea to create photo albums covered in fabric with music boxes built inside of them. Would that have gone viral? Maybe. Would people have understood it? Maybe not. Would they have laughed? Probably.

In 1985, my parents had an idea to start a Black hair care supply store and salon in Utah, where Black people were less than one percent of the population.

Read that again.

Black hair care. Utah. 1985. Less than one percent Black population.

On paper, that probably sounds crazy. To some people, maybe even stupid. To my parents, it was an opportunity.

Was every venture successful financially? No. But every single one was successful in a way that mattered because they showed me what it looked like to bet on yourself.

They showed me that ideas don’t have to make sense to everybody. They showed me that courage usually looks strange to people who don’t have any. They showed me that the person willing to try will always look ridiculous to the person committed to staying comfortable.

And that is the part people miss when they’re laughing at someone selling Kool-Aid pineapples out of a trunk.

They’re not just selling pineapples. They’re learning customer demand. They’re learning pricing. They’re learning inventory. They’re learning presentation. They’re learning marketing. They’re learning word of mouth. They’re learning how to hear no, how to handle judgment, how to serve a customer, and how to come back the next day anyway.

Some of y’all paid a fortune for business school and still don’t have the courage to sell a $10 jar of pineapples to a stranger. That’s not an insult. That’s a mirror.

Because most people are terrified of looking stupid. They are terrified of failing publicly. They are terrified of what somebody might say. So they sit still. They hide behind comfort. They hide behind titles. They hide behind jobs they think are secure. They hide behind opinions.

Then they throw rocks at people who are actually in motion.

There is nothing funny about a person having the courage to try. What’s comical is the person hiding behind a thin veil of security they think they have, disparaging someone who has the courage to do something they don’t.

My parents’ example planted seeds in me I didn’t understand at the time. Without watching them try, I don’t know if I become the man you’re reading today.

I don’t know if I start my first business at 25. I don’t know if I employ hundreds of people. I don’t know if I educate, train, coach, and inspire people around the world. I don’t know if I build a life through entrepreneurship that allowed me to take care of my family and educate my children debt-free. I don’t know if I become one of the most respected and influential voices in technology sales.

People have called me inspirational, motivational, and influential. Maybe that’s true. But if it is, a lot of that started long before me.

It started with two parents who had the courage to try things other people may not have understood. Monkey puppets. Music box photo albums. A Black hair care store in Utah.

Those were not just business ideas. They were lessons. They were examples. They were permission.

Permission to believe I could build something. Permission to try before I had everything figured out. Permission to look crazy to people who were never going to understand the vision anyway.

So when I see someone selling Kool-Aid pineapples out of a trunk, I don’t see a punchline. I see somebody in motion. I see somebody testing the market. I see somebody creating demand. I see somebody refusing to wait for permission.

I see somebody who may be planting a seed in a child watching from the backseat, in a niece helping pack the jars, in a nephew holding the cooler, in a neighbor who needed to see somebody try.

That seed matters.

You never know what grows from courage.

So the next time you see someone chasing a dream that looks crazy to you, maybe pause before you laugh. Maybe ask yourself what you’re really laughing at.

Are you laughing because the idea is ridiculous? Or are you laughing because their courage makes you uncomfortable?

Because whether it’s Kool-Aid pineapples, monkey puppets, handmade photo albums, Black hair care products in Utah, or technology sales training, the principle is the same.

Having the courage to bet on yourself is never failure.

That’s what success looks like.

Are you ready?

Structure, frameworks, and an operating system. 30% off with code SUBSTACK

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Two identical businesses in the same industry each have $ 1 million in annual revenue. One sells for a 3x multiple, and the other for a 10x multiple.

What’s the difference?

That’s what we’re answering in this webinar.

The Tool

Get more from Ronnell Richards in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

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They have a clarity problem.

If your business only works when you are touching every deal, every customer, every process, and every decision, you don’t have a scalable business.

You have a job with better branding.

Frameworks. Str

ucture. Operating systems.

That’s how you build something worth keeping, scaling, or someday selling.

The Valuation Tool

Register For The Next Webinar

Read more

You’re a nice-to-have.

Hold on. I know you don’t want to hear that.

It’s your business. Your product. Your service. Your baby. So of course it feels important to you. You see the value immediately. You can connect the dots without even thinking about it because you live inside your business every single day.

Your customer does not.

That’s the part too many business owners, consultants, salespeople, and founders keep missing. You are assuming the customer sees what you see. You are assuming your value proposition is obvious. You are assuming they understand why your product matters.

They don’t.

And in this economy, assumptions are expensive.

We are not selling in an era of abundance anymore. We are selling in an era of scrutiny. Companies are cutting costs. Budgets are tighter. Teams are smaller. Buyers are being asked to justify every dollar they spend. AI is creating efficiencies that reduce the need for as many people, whether companies want to admit it out loud or not.

So if your pitch still sounds like, “We help you save time, improve efficiency, streamline operations, and reduce costs,” congratulations.

You sound like everybody else.

And sounding like everybody else is how you become optional.

The problem is not always your product. The problem is the story you’re telling around your product. You may have a real solution. You may genuinely help people. You may even be better than your competitors.

But if you cannot clearly articulate how working with you helps the customer make money, protect money, unlock revenue, retain customers, increase deal flow, improve conversion, or create measurable business impact, then you are forcing the buyer to do too much work.

And buyers do not buy when they have to figure out your value for you.

They buy when the value becomes obvious.

Show me the money, baby.

That’s the shift.

You cannot just say, “We save you time.”

Time is not always enough.

You need to say, “We save your sales team 10 hours a week, which gives each seller more time to prospect, follow up, and move qualified opportunities through the pipeline. Based on your current close rate and average deal size, that creates a real revenue opportunity of X.”

That is a different conversation.

You cannot just say, “We improve efficiency.”

You need to say, “Right now your managers are spending too much time chasing activity and not enough time coaching deals. Our process gives them visibility into the right behaviors, which helps improve accountability, coaching consistency, and revenue performance.”

That is a different conversation.

You cannot just say, “We provide training.”

You need to say, “We help your sellers stop wasting time on bad-fit prospects, run better discovery, qualify with more discipline, and present solutions in a way that improves close rates.”

That is a different conversation.

This Is Where Real Consultative Selling Comes In

Consultative selling is not you showing up with a cute deck and vomiting features all over the buyer. It is not you asking three generic discovery questions and then rushing into your pitch. It is not you using the word “solution” 47 times while still selling transactionally.

Real consultative selling starts with discovery.

You have to understand what the customer is trying to accomplish. You have to understand where the pressure is coming from. You have to understand what happens if they do nothing. You have to understand how they make money, where they are losing money, where they are leaking opportunity, and what success actually looks like inside their business.

Then your job is to connect your product or service directly to that success story.

Not generally.

Specifically.

Because basic value propositions are dead.

Everybody is saying the same things. Everybody is more efficient. Everybody saves time. Everybody reduces friction. Everybody improves productivity. Everybody has some AI-powered, workflow-optimized, revenue-enhancing magic dust sprinkled across their website.

Nobody cares.

The buyer wants to know one thing:

How does this help me win?

If you cannot answer that clearly, you are not strategic. You are not urgent. You are not mission critical.

You are nice-to-have.

Here Are Five Ways to Change the Narrative

First, stop leading with what your product does. Lead with the business problem it solves.

Nobody wakes up excited to buy your platform, your consulting package, your training program, or your service. They wake up worried about missed revenue, bad pipeline, customer churn, operational drag, underperforming teams, wasted spend, and pressure from leadership.

Start there.

Second, attach your value to revenue whenever possible.

That does not mean you make up numbers. It means you do the work. Use case studies. Use testimonials. Use before-and-after examples. Use customer math. Show how your work impacts pipeline, retention, close rates, productivity, deal velocity, customer experience, or revenue protection.

Third, make the pain of inaction clear.

Too many sellers only talk about the benefits of moving forward. You also need to help the buyer understand the cost of staying exactly where they are. What happens if they keep doing it the old way? What does that inefficiency actually cost them? What revenue are they missing? What opportunities are slipping away?

Fourth, make the story idiot-proof.

I do not mean your buyer is an idiot. I mean your message has to be so clear that nobody has to translate it. Not the buyer. Not their boss. Not finance. Not procurement. Not the executive team.

If your champion cannot repeat your value internally without you in the room, your story is too weak.

That is where deals die.

Not because the buyer did not like you. Not because they did not see some value. Not because they thought your product was bad.

They die because you never made the business case strong enough to survive the internal conversation.

Fifth, know the numbers and change the math.

Stop presenting your value only through the lens of savings.

Savings matter, but savings alone can make you sound defensive. It can make your solution feel like a cost-control tool instead of a growth driver. In this market, you need to be able to show how your product, service, or strategy can create new revenue opportunities.

For example, do not just say:

“We can save your sales team 10 hours a week.”

Say:

“We can save each seller 10 hours a week. If each seller uses even half of that time to make better follow-up calls, reconnect with stalled opportunities, or prospect into better-fit accounts, that creates 20 additional revenue-generating activities per seller per month. Across a team of 10 sellers, that is 200 additional revenue-generating activities. If only a small percentage of those turn into real opportunities, this is no longer just an efficiency play. This is pipeline creation.”

That is the difference.

Saving time is nice.

Turning saved time into revenue-producing activity is strategic.

This is where sellers lose deals. They stop at the first number. They say, “We save time.” They say, “We reduce admin work.” They say, “We improve productivity.”

Cool.

Now what?

What does that productivity create? What does that saved time allow the customer to do? What revenue can be influenced? What deals can move faster? What customers can be retained? What new opportunities can be created?

That is the math you need to know.

Because when you change the conversation from “Here’s what we save you” to “Here’s what this action can generate,” you stop sounding like an expense.

You start sounding like an investment.

In this environment, your product or service might be similar to your competitor’s. That is not always the problem. The difference is the narrative. The difference is how you frame the impact. The difference is whether you can connect your solution to what the customer actually cares about.

Not what you think they should care about.

What they actually care about.

That is the work.

Do better discovery. Build a stronger business case. Stop assuming your value is obvious. Stop hiding behind generic benefits. Stop talking like a brochure.

Paint the picture.

Show the numbers.

Tell the story.

Make it impossible for the buyer to look at your solution and say, “That would be nice to have.”

Because nice-to-have gets cut.

Revenue gets funded….

Substackers here’s a REAL WORLD example of how I practice this in my business.

https://beyond.milliondollaragencyblueprint.com/private-engagements

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The only thing constant in life is change.

This past weekend, I went to a comedy show with my wife, my son, my daughter, and her boyfriend. We went to one of my favorite comedy venues, not just in Atlanta, but in the country: The Laughing Skull Lounge.

If you’ve never been, I highly recommend it. It’s a vibe.

We went for “Best of Atlanta” night, which is basically ten comics doing ten-minute sets. That is my favorite kind of comedy show because of my attention span. Give me ten minutes of your best stuff, then move on to the next person.

This weekend’s lineup was okay. Not the best. Not the worst.

Only two comics really stood out to me.

The first one stood out for a very positive reason. She checked all the boxes. She was relatable, topical, sharp, and she could tell a story. That takes real talent. Anybody can chase a cheap laugh. Not everybody can make you laugh while pulling you into a real point of view.

The second comic stood out for a completely different reason.

I’ve seen this particular comic four or five times now. The first time I saw him, I thought he was pretty funny. He had a tight set. He had a better-than-average stage presence. He clearly knew what he was doing.

You ever watch a veteran comic and just see the control?

They know when to pause. They know when to move. They know when to lean in. They know how to bring the audience back if a joke doesn’t land. You watch someone like that and think, “Okay, this person has paid their dues. They are probably one moment away from breaking through.”

That’s what I thought the first time I saw him.

Now I’ve seen him four or five times, and I’ve realized something.

He does the exact same thing every single time.

I mean literally the same thing. Same structure. Same gimmick. Same schtick. Same low-hanging vulgarity. Same penis jokes. Same predictable punchlines. It is less a performance and more a standard operating procedure.

And that changed how I saw him.

My conclusion became simple: he wasn’t as good as I thought he was.

He was just well-rehearsed.

He has done the same thing over and over and over again, so as long as he stays inside those lines, he looks pretty good. For people who have never seen him before, it probably lands. They laugh. He gets the applause. He walks off feeling validated.

But it also explains why he hasn’t transcended.

It explains why he isn’t on bigger stages.

He is comfortable presenting the same thing to the same kind of audience and getting the same kind of reaction. And that works — until it doesn’t.

That’s not just comedy.

That’s business.

That’s sales.

That’s leadership.

That’s a whole lot of people walking around with unfulfilled potential because they confuse applause with progress.

A lot of you have been doing what you’ve been doing for a really long time. And it works. Kind of. You stay in the lines. You stay in your comfort zone. You know what gets a decent reaction. You know what makes your little audience clap.

So you keep doing it.

Same pitch.

Same content.

Same leadership style.

Same excuses.

Same sales process.

Same recycled opinions.

Same “this is how we’ve always done it” nonsense dressed up as wisdom.

And because you get a little bit of validation, you convince yourself you’re crushing it.

You’re not.

You’re just comfortable.

And comfort is sneaky because it doesn’t always look like failure. Sometimes comfort looks like moderate success. Sometimes comfort looks like being respected in a small room. Sometimes comfort looks like being the best person in a room you should have outgrown ten years ago.

That’s the trap.

The more comfortable we get, the more security we build, the more addicted we become to confirmation. We want applause. We want adulation. We want people to tell us we still got it.

But there is no growth in that.

The same comedy club routinely has some of the biggest comics on the planet stop in and do sets. And you know what they’re doing? They’re not always doing their safest, most polished material. They’re trying new bits. They’re testing ideas. They’re risking silence. They’re risking failure. They’re risking looking human.

Why?

Because they know the big stage is not earned by protecting your ego in small rooms.

The big stage is earned by getting uncomfortable.

It is earned by taking risks.

It is earned by trying something that might not land.

I see this every day in my business. I see it in entrepreneurs. I see it in salespeople. I see it in leaders. People performing the same jokes to the same little audience, thinking because a few people are laughing, they’re killing it.

They’re not killing it.

They’re limiting themselves.

And the most dangerous part is they’re doing it in the name of success.

They’re saying, “This works.”

Sure. It works well enough to keep you where you are.

But does it work well enough to get you where you say you want to go?

That’s the question most people don’t want to answer.

Because answering it honestly means you may have to change. You may have to rebuild. You may have to get coached. You may have to learn something new. You may have to admit that your old material is tired. You may have to risk getting booed.

And that’s where most people tap out.

They say they want the bigger stage, but they don’t want the discomfort required to earn it.

So here’s my encouragement to you.

Take bigger swings.

Try the new material.

Challenge the old process.

Say the thing you actually believe.

Stop performing for applause from people who are comfortable watching you stay exactly where you are.

Get booed.

Fall on your face.

Learn.

Adjust.

Go back up.

Because that’s how you grow.

That’s how you earn the bigger stage.

And if all you want is safe applause, keep doing the same set.

Just don’t confuse that with greatness.

I am an unapologetic mama’s boy.

Let’s keep it all the way 100. As a child, that was not meant to be a compliment. It was not a flex. It was something people said like it was supposed to embarrass me.

And honestly, the reason I was probably called that is because I was more connected to the traits people mistakenly label as feminine. Sympathy. Emotion. Passion. Empathy. Sensitivity.

People correlated those traits with weakness, as though having access to your emotions somehow made you less prepared to succeed in a male-dominated world.

Well, let me skip to the end of the story.

They were wrong.

Not only were they wrong, those traits are a huge part of the success you see in me today. My ability to connect with people, understand people, listen, care, lead, teach, sell, serve, and build relationships all came from the same qualities some people tried to make me feel small for having.

And in no small part, I have my mother to thank for that.

She recognized those things in me. She nurtured them. She taught me that strength was not about pretending not to feel. Strength was not about being loud, cold, detached, or dominant.

Real strength is character.

Real strength is empathy.

Real strength is having enough emotional discipline to care deeply without being controlled by your emotions.

We are living in strange times right now. There is this loud push, often led by young and inexperienced men, to embrace some exaggerated version of hyper-masculinity. To me, much of it is rooted in insecurity and a crisis of identity.

They are promoting and exaggerating certain masculine traits while trying to eliminate anything they view as feminine. The result is not strength. It is narcissism. It is deeper insecurity. It is a superficial sense of power and wealth built largely on things that are ultimately fleeting.

I reject that ideology.

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And today, as we honor our mothers, I think we should pause and ask a deeper question.

Are we only honoring them with flowers, brunch, cards, and social media posts?

Or are we honoring them with how we live?

Because everyone has a mother. And whether your relationship with your mother is beautiful, complicated, painful, distant, or somewhere in between, the idea of motherhood still forces us to reflect on what it means to nurture, sacrifice, protect, love, teach, and build.

For me, honoring my mother means continuing my commitment to empathy, strength of character, self-development, and impact.

It means conducting myself in a way that would make her proud.

Not just today.

In business.

In relationships.

In how I treat people.

In how I lead.

In how I respond when things get hard.

In how I use whatever influence I have in this world.

The older I get, the more I realize that many of the qualities people once tried to label as weaknesses are actually the source of my strength.

I am strong because I care.

I am strong because I feel.

I am strong because I listen.

I am strong because I was taught that impact matters more than image.

So today, honor your mother through celebration.

But more importantly, honor her with your actions and the character you display year-round.

Ask yourself this one thing:

Are you living, leading, loving, and doing business in a way that would make your mother proud?

Everybody loves talking about relationships when things are good.

The customer is happy. The invoice got paid. The work went smoothly. Everybody is smiling, shaking hands, posting pictures, and acting like the relationship is strong.

That’s cute.

Real relationships are not built when everything is easy. Real relationships are built when there is friction. When something goes wrong. When somebody is frustrated. When there is disappointment, pressure, confusion, or pain. That is true in life, and it is damn sure true in business.

I’ve been married for 28 years. Let me give you a little relationship advice from Ronnell’s two cents. I didn’t know my wife and I were compatible because we never argued. I knew we were compatible because after we had disagreements, we could come back together, work through it, and get stronger.

That is the part people miss. The best relationships in your life have probably gone through some kind of trial by fire. There was a moment when things got uncomfortable and both people had to decide if the relationship was worth the work.

Business is no different.

So why do so many people run from customer problems? Why do they avoid the phone call? Why do they let the email sit there? Why do they hope the customer calms down before they have to deal with them?

Not you, of course.

Everybody else.

The truth is, most people don’t avoid customer problems because they don’t care. They avoid them because problems create emotion, and emotion makes people uncomfortable. The customer is frustrated. The business owner is defensive. The salesperson is embarrassed. The account manager is scared. Everybody is feeling something, so nobody wants to lead.

That is the mistake.

Customer problems are not just problems. They are opportunities to prove who you are.

Recently, I had an issue with a guy who has been doing custom work on my vehicles for almost 20 years. He’s always done great work. Fair exchange. I pay him. He takes care of me. No drama.

Then we had a problem.

One of his guys made a mistake, and that mistake led to about $1,400 worth of damage. That sucks. Nobody wants that call. I didn’t want to make it. He didn’t want to receive it. Your customer doesn’t want the problem either. That is the first thing businesses need to understand. Your customer is not excited to complain. They didn’t wake up hoping their day would get interrupted by a problem you created.

So I called him.

His response?

“I got you. I’m going to take care of it.”

And he did.

Now, that $1,400 was real money. This guy had recently gone out fully on his own. That kind of mistake doesn’t just erase the profit from the job. It puts him in the hole. In the short term, that hurt. But in the long term, he made one of the smartest business decisions he could have made.

Because I’m not just a happy customer now. I’m an advocate.

There is a big difference.

A happy customer is fine. You want happy customers. Happy customers pay you, come back sometimes, and maybe say something nice if someone asks.

But an advocate is different. An advocate markets for you. Promotes for you. Sells for you. Defends you. Tells the story when you are not in the room.

And you don’t create advocates by simply doing what you were paid to do. That’s the bare minimum. You create advocates through extraordinary experiences. You create advocates when something goes wrong and you show up in a way most people would not.

That is where trust is built.

Most businesses think the goal is to avoid problems. That’s impossible. If you serve enough customers, eventually something is going to break. Someone is going to make a mistake. A deadline will be missed. A product will fail. A communication will get crossed. A customer will be disappointed.

You are not judged by whether or not problems happen. You are judged by what you do after they happen.

And that is where most businesses expose themselves.

They get defensive. They make excuses. They hide behind policy. They explain instead of listen. They argue facts while the customer is still dealing with feelings.

That last one is important.

When a customer has a problem, they are usually emotional. That does not mean they are irrational. It means they are human. They spent money. They trusted you. They expected something. Now something has gone wrong, and they are trying to figure out if you are still the person or company they believed you were.

That moment is not the time for your ego. It is not the time to prove you are right. It is not the time to match their emotion with your emotion.

Your job is to become the calming force.

That does not mean you let people disrespect you. That does not mean the customer is always factually right. I’ve never loved that phrase, “the customer is always right,” because sometimes the customer is dead wrong.

But the customer is almost always emotional when there is a real problem.

And if you want to lead, sell, serve, and build a business people talk about, you have to remove your emotion from the situation.

Listen first. Let them explain the issue without interrupting every ten seconds to protect yourself. Acknowledge what they are saying. Reassure them that you understand the seriousness of the situation and that you are going to work toward a real solution.

Then ask for a moment to process.

That part matters.

You don’t have to solve every problem in the heat of the conversation. Sometimes the smartest thing you can say is, “I hear you. I understand why this is frustrating. Give me a little time to look at this clearly so I can come back with the right solution, not just a fast reaction.”

That little bit of time allows you to remove your emotion, think clearly, gather the facts, and come back with a sound solution. It also shows the customer that you are not dismissing them, dodging them, or giving them some lazy answer just to get them off the phone.

You are taking the problem seriously.

That is leadership.

That sounds simple, but simple is not always easy. Especially when money is involved. Especially when the customer is heated. Especially when you feel accused. Especially when fixing the issue costs you profit.

But that is the price of building a real reputation.

You can spend thousands of dollars on marketing trying to convince strangers you are trustworthy, or you can handle one customer problem the right way and create someone who will tell the market for you.

That’s the opportunity most people miss.

Your problem customers are not always your worst customers. Sometimes they are your greatest opportunity to create your strongest advocates.

Because when nerves are raw, the emotional stakes are high. If you can remove the pain, lower the temperature, and solve the issue, that customer remembers it. They remember how you made them feel when things were not perfect.

That is the real relationship test.

Not the sales pitch. Not the pretty website. Not the polished proposal. Not the “we care about our customers” language everyone loves to slap on a homepage.

The test is what you do when the customer has a problem and you have every incentive to protect yourself.

So here is my advice.

When a customer comes to you with a problem, remove your emotion first. Do not react to their tone. Do not take the first angry sentence personally. Do not rush to defend yourself before you understand the pain. The customer is already carrying the emotion. If you bring more emotion into the room, you pour gasoline on the fire.

Be the calmest person in the conversation. Ask questions. Listen. Clarify. Reassure them. Own what needs to be owned. Ask for a moment to think. Then come back with a solution you can stand behind.

You did not just solve a problem.

You may have earned an advocate.

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SEO died overnight for a lot of people. For me, it died about a decade ago.

It died the moment I realized I couldn’t compete in the pay-to-play game.

At the time, I was running a seven-figure business with aspirations of getting to eight. I had marketing people around me telling me the smart move was to invest a pretty decent chunk of money into SEO. So we did.

We combined it with a radio campaign and billboards, but SEO was the big investment. That was supposed to be the engine. That was supposed to drive leads. That was supposed to make the phone ring.

Want to know what happened?

I became pretty popular with the other parents at my kids’ sporting events. They loved my edgy radio ad. People would walk up to me and say, “Man, I heard your commercial. That was hilarious.”

Cool.

You know what it didn’t do? Generate business.

It created a little buzz and zero meaningful revenue. That was my lesson.

Traditional marketing vehicles are pay-to-play. SEO, radio, billboards, paid ads, sponsorships, all of it. If you have the resources, the runway, the agency, the team, the patience, and the stomach to keep feeding the machine, you can win. If you don’t, good luck.

And a lot of small and midsized businesses don’t. A lot of consultants don’t. A lot of founders don’t. A lot of individual experts don’t. A lot of salespeople trying to build their brand don’t. They are out here trying to compete with companies that can spend more on one campaign than they can spend in an entire year.

That was the old game, and most of you were never really in it. You just thought you were.

Now here come the LLMs.

ChatGPT. Claude. Gemini. Copilot. Perplexity. All these tools people are now using to ask better questions, research vendors, compare solutions, understand markets, and figure out who they should trust.

This changes everything.

For years, companies have thrown money at SEO trying to make sure they show up in Google. That game isn’t completely gone, but it damn sure isn’t the only game anymore.

The new question is not just, “Can people find you on Google?” The new question is, “When your buyer asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Claude, or Perplexity who they should trust, what does the machine know about you?”

That is a very different game, and this is where a lot of people are going to get left behind.

Most people are still using LinkedIn like a digital brochure, a resume, or a place to post humblebrags from conferences. They are active, but they are not building authority.

There’s a difference.

Posting a selfie at an event is activity. Commenting “great insights” under someone else’s post is activity. Reposting generic industry news with no point of view is activity. But none of that makes you a credible source.

That’s the shift people need to understand.

We are moving into the reputation age. The platforms and people that win in AI search are not just the ones with the most content. They are the ones with credible, attributable, human expertise.

That means your LinkedIn presence is not just being judged by your followers anymore. It may also be feeding the tools your buyers are using to make decisions before they ever talk to you.

That’s a big deal, and it means thought leadership is no longer some fluffy marketing phrase people throw around to sound important.

Thought leadership is discoverability. Thought leadership is credibility. Thought leadership is sales infrastructure.

But this is where people mess it up. They think thought leadership means posting more. It doesn’t. It means thinking better.

It means having a real point of view. It means teaching from actual experience. It means saying something specific enough that people can agree, disagree, challenge, remember, or repeat it.

If you are saying the exact same thing everyone else in your industry is saying, you are not thought leading. You are adding noise.

And AI is getting better at separating useful signal from recycled garbage.

That should scare some of you, because a lot of what gets posted on LinkedIn is recycled garbage.

It’s generic. It’s safe. It’s vague. It’s motivational oatmeal. It sounds like someone asked AI to “make this sound professional” and then hit publish without adding one original thought.

That might get you a few likes. It will not build authority. And it definitely will not help you become a trusted, recognizable voice in your market.

This is why I keep telling salespeople, leaders, and business owners that your voice matters. Your experience matters. Your perspective matters. Your scars matter. Your opinions matter. The stuff you learned the hard way is the stuff people actually want from you.

And now, apparently, it’s also the stuff the machines may be paying attention to.

So if you’re a business leader, this is not just a personal branding issue. This is a company strategy issue.

Your team needs to know how to show up online with substance. Your salespeople need to understand how to translate customer conversations into useful insights. Your leaders need to be visible with a real point of view. Your company needs more than a content calendar full of product announcements and event photos.

You need a credibility engine.

That means training people how to communicate clearly. It means teaching them how to write with a point of view. It means helping them understand their buyer, their ICP, their market, and the conversations that matter.

It means creating content that is useful enough for people to read and credible enough for AI to recognize.

So maybe it’s time to rethink that SEO budget. Maybe it’s time to stop spending so much money trying to hack attention and start investing in the people inside your company who actually have the expertise your buyers need.

Train them. Upskill them. Help them communicate. Help them teach. Help them become visible.

The future of B2B buying is not just happening on websites, search engines, and sales calls. It is happening inside AI tools. It is happening inside buyer research. It is happening before your sales team ever knows there is an opportunity.

And if you are not part of that conversation, you may not even make the shortlist.

That is the game now. LinkedIn is not just a platform. It is a reputation layer.

And if you are still treating it like a place just to celebrate yourself and showcase your accomplishments, you’re going to miss an opportunity you might never see again.

You should. It’s more relevant today than ever!

The Year Was 1985

Coca-Cola could feel the competition creeping in.

They had nearly a century of dominance in the soda wars, but Pepsi was doing something Coke executives could not ignore. They were appealing to a new generation of drinkers, and they were gaining ground quickly.

So Coke executives, in their infinite wisdom, decided they had the answer.

Change the formula.

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Not improve the brand relationship. Not reconnect with the customer. Not better understand why Pepsi was creating momentum with younger consumers.

Change the damn formula.

They spent a fortune developing it, testing it, rebranding it, and releasing what would become known as New Coke.

And they forgot one very important thing.

The customer.

Inside the boardroom, I’m sure it made all the sense in the world. They had a business problem. Pepsi was gaining ground. Their product was being challenged. Their market position felt threatened.

So they solved for the business.

Not the customer.

That’s the part people keep missing.

New Coke was not created because customers were begging Coca-Cola to change the drink they loved. It was created because executives were trying to solve an internal business problem with an external product decision.

That is dangerous.

And I think we are watching a very similar thing happen right now with AI.

Companies, consultants, creators, coaches, and service providers are all jumping headfirst into the AI pool. Everybody wants to create a digital version of themselves. Everybody wants an AI assistant, AI clone, AI advisor, AI course, AI bot, AI something.

And let’s be honest about why.

A lot of it is not being driven by the customer.

It is being driven by margin.

It is being driven by scale.

It is being driven by the desire to do less human work while charging the same amount of human money.

Now, I am not anti-AI. Not even close.

For years, I’ve been preaching about the adoption of new technologies and the need to integrate them into our businesses. I use AI. I teach people how to use AI. I believe AI can make us faster, sharper, more creative, more organized, and more effective.

But technology should never be adopted just because it benefits the business internally.

It should be adopted because it creates a higher level of service, delivery, access, experience, or outcome for the customer.

That is where I think a lot of people are getting this wrong.

They are building AI tools to solve their own business problems and hoping the customer accepts it as innovation.

That is backwards.

The customer should not be sitting in the passenger seat while we drive toward our own efficiency.

The customer should be the damn destination.

The question should not be, “How can AI help me make more money with less effort?”

The better question is, “How can AI help me serve my customer at a higher level than I could before?”

That difference matters.

Because customers are not stupid.

They know when they are getting better service, and they know when they are being pushed into a cheaper version of what they actually wanted.

They know when AI improves the experience, and they know when AI is being used as a wall between them and the human expertise they thought they were paying for.

This is the danger.

In the race to scale ourselves, we may accidentally strip away the very thing people valued about us in the first place.

Our perspective.

Our judgment.

Our lived experience.

Our ability to listen, interpret, challenge, guide, and adjust in real time.

The thing that makes you valuable is not just your information. Information is everywhere now.

The value is how you think.

The value is how you see the problem.

The value is how you help the customer understand what they could not see on their own.

AI can support that.

AI can enhance that.

AI can help deliver that more efficiently.

But AI should not replace the relationship unless the customer actually wants that relationship replaced.

That is the lesson of New Coke.

Sometimes the smartest people in the room get so obsessed with solving the business problem that they forget to ask the only question that matters.

Does the customer actually want this?

Because if they don’t, your innovation is just arrogance with a launch plan.

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Stop Letting AI Make You Sound Like Everybody Else

Everybody wants to use AI for LinkedIn now, and they should. AI is powerful. It can help you think faster, write cleaner, organize your ideas, create content, tighten your messaging, and stop staring at a blank screen like you forgot how words work.

The problem is not that people are using AI. The problem is that too many people are using AI as a replacement for their brain, their experience, their personality, and their voice. That is where things start to fall apart.

No matter how smart your AI-generated LinkedIn post sounds, if it sounds like every other AI-generated LinkedIn post, it does not separate you. It buries you. It makes you part of the chorus. It makes you part of the Borg Collective.

For my Star Trek: The Next Generation people, you know exactly what I mean. The Borg were efficient. The Borg were intelligent. The Borg were organized. They were also all the same. Same voice. Same rhythm. Same message. Same personality.

That is what a lot of LinkedIn content is starting to sound like. Clean, professional, structured, helpful, and completely forgettable.

In this substack, I’ve included an Operating System you can cut and paste to elevate your game with ease.

Your Voice Is the Advantage

The thing that separates you is not AI. The thing that separates you is your perspective. Your lived experience. Your stories. Your scars. Your humor. Your attitude. Your way of seeing the world.

That is the advantage.

AI should sharpen that. It should not erase it. If your content sounds like it could have been written by any sales coach, consultant, recruiter, executive, founder, or thought leader on LinkedIn, then it does not matter how polished it is. Polished and forgettable is still forgettable.

I would rather read something a little messy that feels human than some perfect AI-generated post that sounds like it came out of a corporate content blender. People do not connect with perfect. They connect with real.

Use AI Like a Thought Partner, Not a Ghostwriter

The mistake people make is simple. They open AI and say, “Write me a LinkedIn post about leadership.” Then they copy, paste, and post.

That is not content creation. That is content outsourcing.

The better way to use AI is to treat it like a thought partner. You bring the raw material, and AI helps you shape it. That means you start with your actual thoughts, stories, lessons, voice notes, rants, experiences, customer conversations, objections, mistakes, wins, frustrations, and opinions.

Then AI helps you organize the mess.

That is where the magic is. Not in having AI create the point of view for you, but in having AI help you express your point of view more clearly.

The Simple AI Operating System for LinkedIn Content

Here is the system I recommend.

1. Capture the Raw Thought First

Before you ask AI to write anything, capture your real thought first. Use your phone. Use voice notes. Use a messy Google Doc. Use whatever works for you.

Do not try to make it pretty. Just get the idea out.

Start with something like, “I was thinking about this today,” or “I had a conversation with a client,” or “This thing keeps bothering me,” or “I saw a post on LinkedIn and I disagree.”

Your raw thought is the source material. Without that, AI is just guessing. And when AI guesses, it defaults to generic.

2. Tell AI What Role It Is Playing

Do not just say, “Write this better.” Give AI a job. Tell it what role it is supposed to play.

Try this:

“Act as my editor, not my ghostwriter. Keep my voice, my tone, and my point of view. Clean up the structure, improve the flow, and make it more engaging, but do not make it sound polished, corporate, or overly inspirational.”

That one instruction changes the game. You are not asking AI to replace you. You are asking AI to support you.

3. Give AI Your Voice Rules

You need to train your AI on what you never want it to say. This is where most people get lazy. They keep letting AI use the same tired phrases, the same fake vulnerability, the same corporate motivational nonsense, and then they wonder why their content sounds like everyone else.

Teach your AI your rules.

Here are some of mine:

Never say:

“But here’s the truth”

“Quick question”

“I’m curious if…”

“Let’s unpack this”

“In today’s fast-paced world”

“Game changer”

“Unlock your potential”

“Level up”

“Thought leadership”

“Authenticity matters”

“Here’s the thing”

“Needless to say”

“At the end of the day”

“Stop scrolling”

“Read that again”

“Louder for the people in the back”

Also, be careful with em dashes. AI loves em dashes. Once you notice it, you will start seeing them everywhere. It is not that a human can never use one, but when every other sentence has that same AI rhythm and punctuation pattern, it becomes a tell.

And please stop sending an immediate pitch message the second someone accepts your LinkedIn connection request. That is not networking. That is digital door-to-door sales with bad breath.

4. Make AI Ask You Questions

Instead of telling AI to write immediately, make it interview you first.

Use a prompt like this:

“Before you write anything, ask me five questions that will help you understand my actual point of view, personal experience, and the lesson I want the audience to take away.”

This keeps your content from becoming generic. AI cannot create your story. It can only help you pull it out, organize it, and make it easier for other people to understand.

5. Use AI for Structure, Not Personality

AI is great at structure. Use it for that.

Ask it to help with hooks, flow, headlines, post variations, shorter versions, stronger endings, clearer calls to action, and turning a messy voice note into something readable.

That is where AI shines.

But your personality should come from you. The joke should come from you. The punch should come from you. The scar tissue should come from you. The opinion should come from you.

AI can help you frame the shot, but you still need to be in the picture.

The LinkedIn Messaging Problem

This applies to LinkedIn messaging too. The second someone connects with you, do not immediately pitch them.

I know some guru told you to automate the whole thing. Connection request. Immediate message. Fake compliment. Soft pitch. Calendar link. Follow-up. Follow-up. Follow-up.

That is why people hate LinkedIn.

You are not building a relationship. You are running a script.

AI can help you write better messages, but it cannot replace the actual work of giving a damn. A better approach is simple. Look at their profile. Find something real. Reference something specific. Keep the message short. Do not pitch immediately. Start a conversation like a human being.

A bad message sounds like this:

“Thanks for connecting. I help leaders unlock growth through strategic solutions. Would love to schedule time to explore synergies.”

That sounds like it was written by a microwave.

A better message sounds like this:

“Appreciate the connection. I saw your post about hiring salespeople in this market. That hit because I’ve been telling leaders the same thing. The problem usually isn’t talent. It’s the lack of a real development system.”

That is human. It is specific, relevant, and it does not sound like someone jammed a sales brochure into a LinkedIn DM.

The AI Content Filter

Before you post anything AI helped you create, run it through a simple filter.

Ask yourself whether you would actually say it out loud. Ask whether it sounds like you or like LinkedIn oatmeal. Ask whether there is a real opinion in it. Ask whether there is a story, example, or lived experience. Ask whether AI removed the edge. Ask whether it made you sound too polished.

Most importantly, ask whether someone who knows you would believe you wrote it.

That last question matters. If your friends, clients, or audience read your post and think, “That does not sound like you,” you have a problem.

My Favorite AI Prompt for LinkedIn Copy

Use this:

“Take the rough draft below and help me turn it into a LinkedIn post. Keep my voice. Do not make it sound corporate, polished, overly inspirational, or AI-generated. Keep the edge. Keep the personality. Use short paragraphs, but do not overuse single-sentence paragraphs. Make the hook stronger. Tighten the structure. Remove clichés. Do not use em dashes. Do not say ‘But here’s the truth,’ ‘quick question,’ ‘curious if,’ ‘let’s unpack this,’ or any generic LinkedIn phrases. Make sure the final post sounds like a real person with a real point of view wrote it.”

Then paste your raw thoughts.

That is how you use AI intelligently.

AI Should Make You More You

The goal is not to sound smarter. The goal is to sound clearer.

The goal is not to sound perfect. The goal is to sound like yourself with better structure. The goal is not to let AI create your voice. The goal is to train AI to protect your voice.

Because your voice is the asset. Your perspective is the asset. Your experience is the asset.

AI is just the tool.

Use it. Train it. Push it. Argue with it. Edit it. Make it serve the message.

Do not let it turn you into another polished, soulless, AI-generated LinkedIn clone. We already have enough of those.

Resistance is not futile.

Sounding like yourself is still the advantage.

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Use The Tools Below I Recommend For My Clients To Gain An Edge

The Super Bowl of technology channel sales has come to an end.

And right now, everybody is riding that familiar high. A week of networking, camaraderie, reconnection, handshakes, hugs, late nights, and probably a few too many drinks. The pictures are already flying. Smiles. Group shots. Party clips. Victory laps. All the public reminders of a good time.

And I get it. I was there too.

But in the middle of all that celebration, there are some important things that need to be said.

That’s what this video is.

My unfiltered, honest takeaways from this year’s CP Expo.

Some people may ask why I’d even do a video like this. My answer is simple. Because I love this business.

I owe a lot to this industry. More than two decades ago, this business gave me an opportunity that changed my life. It helped me build a life I never could have imagined as a kid. It gave me a platform. It gave me purpose. It gave me the ability to impact more people than I could ever count.

So I believe I owe this industry more than applause. I owe it honesty. I owe it leadership. I owe it the kind of perspective that helps us grow, not just feel good in the moment.

And sometimes leadership means saying things people do not want to hear.

That has been one of the biggest reasons I’ve been successful as a consultant. My commitment is not to comfort. My commitment is to results. My commitment is to telling the truth in service of progress, even when that truth is uncomfortable.

That is what I bring to my clients.
That is what I bring to this industry.
And I hope that is what people know and respect me for.

So whether you agree with my takeaways or not, I hope you at least consider the source. Everything I say comes from a good place, from deep experience, and from a real desire to see this industry continue to evolve and flourish.

You can watch the FULL video or jump to the topics using the links below

1. Legacy TSDs are pulling back on participation. (The opportunity this presents for Informa and others)

2. The OLD well is dying, the NEW well is being ignored.

3. The TRUTH about AI (What leaders are REALLY thinking and the threat TAs are not recognizing)

4. Culture & Conduct Women’s Safety and Advocacy

5. The TA and Channel Manager Education Gap (Frustration from the TAs)

6. AI threat to TAs

7. Ineffective AI tools and Strategies (Lots of adoption, poor outcomes)

8. New Attendees Are Overwhelmed (The opportunity everyone is missing)

9. Overseas Companies WANT IN (More presence from companies trying to expand into the U.S. Channel)

10. Specialization is the Future

Most people use LinkedIn like a damn slot machine.

Scroll. Like. Random comment. Move on.

Then they wonder why nothing meaningful is happening.

No stronger relationships.
No better conversations.
No increase in opportunity.
No real sales momentum.

That’s because most people are not using LinkedIn strategically. They’re using it reactively.

I’m not interested in being “active” on LinkedIn just to say I showed up.

I want to stay close to the people, conversations, and themes that actually matter to my business. I want to know what people are talking about, what they care about, where the market is leaning, and where I should be showing up with intention.

That’s why I built my own Channel Digest.

Not some bloated dashboard. Not some overcomplicated workflow built by a person who has never sold a damn thing.

A simple system that helps me pay attention to the right people, engage more intentionally, and use LinkedIn the way it should be used: as a relationship and sales tool.

Why this matters

A lot of people only show up when they need something.

They want the intro.
They want the meeting.
They want the favor.
They want the sale.

That’s not relationship-building. That’s taking.

Real relationships are built in the in-between.

A thoughtful comment.
A smart observation.
A relevant follow-up.
Showing people you actually pay attention.

That’s how trust gets built.

And trust makes sales easier.

Because when people know your name, know how you think, and have seen you consistently show up with value, you’re not starting cold anymore.

You’re familiar.
You’re credible.
You’re relevant.

That changes everything.

The real benefit

This system helps me stop wandering around LinkedIn and start using it with purpose.

It helps me:

• keep the right relationships warm

• stay close to the right conversations

• spot opportunities earlier

• create better content

• engage with more substance

• stay relevant without living on the platform all day

That last one matters.

Because this is not about spending more time on LinkedIn.

It’s about getting more return from the time you do spend there.

Here’s what most people miss

This is not just a content system.

It’s a relationship-building system.

It’s a visibility system.

It’s a market awareness system.

And if you know what you’re doing, it becomes a sales system too.

When you consistently show up in the right places, people start recognizing your name. They start seeing your perspective. They start associating you with substance instead of noise.

That leads to better conversations.

Better outreach.

More trust.

More inbound.

More natural opportunities to do business.

That’s the point.

Why I’m sharing this

Because too many people know they need to be more intentional on LinkedIn, but they have no system.

They’re winging it.

And winging it is why they stay inconsistent, forgettable, and disconnected from the conversations that could actually help them grow.

So I decided to break down the system I use.

The full step-by-step instructions and the PDF to build your own Channel Digest are below for paid subscribers.

If you want to stop scrolling aimlessly and start using LinkedIn to build better relationships and create more sales opportunities, that’s where it is.

Read more

I built this as a tool for authentic engagement with my prospective customers.

This is INTELLIGENT use of AI.

I’m not automating outreach, comments, or engagement with this.

Every morning, I get a digest in my inbox filled with posts in the last 24 hours from people who could be my customers.

I review that for interesting content I can leave meaningful comments on and engage authentically.

Not bullshit “nice post” or “congratulations”.

I look for content that has meat in the bone. Content I can engage with that shows my expertise and thought leadership.

I do all of this with a tool I created myself!

No funny business with your LinkedIn profile, no chrome plug-ins, no high dollar software.

Pops in my inbox every damn day like the morning newspaper 😊.

This coming week, I’m going to give my paid subscribers the exact playbook to make this tool for themselves.

FOR FREE

ONLY FOR PAID SUBSCRIBERS

Subscribe

Key Takeaways

1. What Problems Are You Solving For?

2. Activating Your Buyer Indirectly By Engaging Their Customers.

3. How Do You Remove Friction For Your Clients? Even When You Don’t Have To.

4. Using New Technologies To REALLY Serve Your Clients Intelligently And By Design.

Million Dollar Agency Blueprint

Get more from Ronnell Richards in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

Get more from Ronnell Richards in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

Read more