5 Rules for More Effective Marketing

Patrick McFadden • October 29, 2013

Nothing mystifies small business owners, organizations and business leaders more than marketing. There are some very good reasons for that.

First, it’s part art, part science and part business. And because it’s such a subjective and vague thing, there are few hard and fast rules. But here are five rules to guide you in your journey to boost your profits with a minimum investment and avoid the traps along the way.

5 Rules for More Effective Marketing 

Rule #1. The Three Groups of Clients or Customers Rule
All indispensable business owners and organization leaders know they have three target markets. Current clients, prospective clients, and the broader market:

1. Current clients or customers.  Plan to devote 60 percent of your marketing efforts to these clients or customers. This is the smallest of the three groups but, as mentioned, “your best prospect is a current customer” and these existing clients or customers should generate the largest percentage of your profits. By investing the most in the group that produces the most profits, yet costs the least to reach, indispensable businesses and organizations maximize their total marketing investment.

2. Prospective clients or customers . Commit 30 percent of your marketing resources to win business from this group.Your goal is to nudge these people into your first market, to convert prospective prospects into clients or customers—if they fit your target profile and have problems that you can solve.

3. The broader market. Invest 10 percent of your marketing resources in the broad market. This includes everybody in the world not represented in the first two groups. Devoting resources to this group is less efficient, but it has the potential to generate important contacts and leads. The goal is to move this market into your second largest market, one that ranks in the middle for generating profits.

Rule #2. The Marketing Power of Your Own Rule
By now that you know the value of customers , and their importance as an alternative sales force. But other marketing investments are even more profitable. When indispensable business owners and organizations think growth, they also think of marketing, and they know where the real power resides and invest accordingly.

$5 spent communicating with your own staff is equivalent to $50 spent communicating with the media and $500 spent talking to your customers. Customers are great and the media very helpful, but never overlook the marketing power of your own people.

Rule #3. The Marketing Online Rule 
Every savvy small business owner is now marketing online. Indispensable business owners have learned how to budget their online marketing investment.

  • They invest 1/3 of it in the design of the website, making it look attractive and very simple to navigate.
  • They invest another 1/3 of that online marketing budget in content, creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a target audience, knowing that this the key to succeeding in SEO and becoming an trusted informational provider.
  • The final 1/3 of their online marketing budget is used to improve and maintain their website, keeping it fresh and fascinating with interactivity and content.

Rule #4. The Double Mint Rule 
I hate to be the news reporter and break the news to you, but even though technology is becoming cheaper (even almost free) and will continue to, you’ve still got to tackle head on that it will end up costing you double what you think it will cost to remain as a true competitive player online especially as technologies advance and evolve.

Rule #5. The Successful CEO Rule 
You may consider yourself just too busy to do and run your own marketing programs and have delegated the marketing function to a great marketer. Still, I think you should know that the very successful CEOs in America are deeply involved in marketing and take full responsibility for it.

David Packard, the iconic co-founder of Hewlett Packard (HPQ), famously said, “Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department.” 

The truth is that, while the marketing function can be delegated, you can’t delegate your passion and your vision. It’s important that you take command of the process and keep your eyes on it all along, even if you delegate it. Follow this rule and you’ll never be led down a foggy road by a full of fluff and mediocre, if not downright incompetent marketer whose goals may not be quite the same as yours.

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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