The No Budget Marketing Toolbox: For Startups and Those About to Start

Patrick McFadden • January 9, 2019

You know, a lot of start-ups and those about to start, spend a lot of time trying to achieve conventional business goals with unconventional marketing tools and tips, and with good reason. Most of us have more  time  than we do  money.

Go figure.

But there is an amazing selection of free or low-cost marketing tactics out there that can help you market your idea, product or service better and faster. It’s just a matter of finding them.

This toolbox features strategic and practical tactics every start-up and those about to start ought to consider as he or she sets out to grow his or her business.

Tool #1: Create Something Only You Can Make

Every successful start-up has a monopoly. You must have a monopoly on what you make, that someone else can’t make it the way you make it or provide it, the way you provide it.

Brilliant business and marketing is around figuring out that product you can make or that service you can provide, that people are willing to cross the street to get, search/poke around the web to buy, visit when they’re in town, and that is only available through you.

Action Step:  Determine what you want to be “the best at” and then make that experience only available with your service or product. Remember to use off-the-shelf-software and explore becoming obsessively preoccupied with the minor details to succeed.

Tool #2: Provide Valuable, Relevant and Compelling Content

By now, if you’re interested in marketing your business online (and who isn’t at this point), you can’t escape hearing about content marketing.

Over the last 100 years, advertisers interrupted people’s attention with their advertisements. Today’s content marketing is not about interrupting the customer; it’s about attracting them with useful content.

People then grow relationships with you because they see you as the trusted source for that niche content. This can and will lead to sales.

This content must be located on a digital property you own and control. It is where your loyal listeners, fans, and readers come together. It can be as simple as a:

  • weekly podcast,
  • quarterly magazine,
  • monthly newsletter,
  • forum,
  • TV show,
  • daily blog or
  • as complex as a self-hosted community.

No matter what it is, it’s where you direct all internet traffic. Why? Because this is the place where you can best sell your ideas, services or products. You control the microphone and determine who has backstage access.

Tool #3 Follow-Up:

Let’s face it, there isn’t a business out there that couldn’t improve on their follow-up. Chances are you’ve neglected to jump on a lead received, not followed up consistently on requests by existing customers, or sent what you promised to send after an appointment with a prospect.

Your competition probably isn’t any different from you, which is exactly why you need to use this free marketing tool in a way where it’s remarkable.

Do you follow-up?

Do you ask?

Not follow-up to sell something, but just to know. Just to find out. Just to double-check. Just to ask. Just to make things right if they were amiss or make things remarkable if they were just merely good.

This tactic alone can transform your start-up when applied obsessively. When you’re obsessively preoccupied with the needs of others through follow-up—money, customers and good fortune start to show up. Money is a testament to your having served another human being.

Tool #4 Get a Podium:

Speaking, presenting or teaching is a great tactic that is underutilized by most start-ups. Getting a podium presents unique long-term marketing opportunities for you. It places you face to face with a roomful of prospective clients who have signaled their interest in you and your topic by showing up.

You have the rare chance to meet and address people who want to learn about you and what you have to say. And you don’t have to find them—they come to you. As a marketing opportunity, what could be better?

Tool #5 Partnerships:

Partnerships are one of the most underused, inexpensive, and effective methods of marketing and it doesn’t have to be complex.

In simple terms, fusion marketing is you saying, “Hey Patrick, if you enclose my business information and special offering in your next e-newsletter, I’ll enclose your  business information and special offering in mine.” or “Patrick, put up a sign for my store in your business; I’ll put up a sign for your business in my store.”

This marketing tactic expands your marketing exposure and reduces your marketing costs. Last but not least. Realize that almost everyone in your community is a potential fusion marketing partner.  Reach new audiences and new wallets!

Tool #6 Sell the Story Rather Than the Product:

Businesspeople make decisions based on logic, right? Wrong! In every product or service category, there is at least one brand that uses a story and content to convince people to pay extra for that product or service.

For example I know a Mary Kay Independent Beauty Consultant who sells for twice the times the average price because she has positioned her business as the moral doctor for companies who value the moral and health of their white-collar employees. Another example is that people pay up to $6 a quart for bottled water because (as the story goes) it’s “healthier” than tap water.

Tool #7 Develop Better Relationships:  

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”― John C. Maxwell,

If you want to grow your start-up, then start genuinely caring about people. This, again, will cost you nothing, but time and effort. Every start-up and those about to start must play the lifetime value game. And you only win that game by owning the emotional equity.

The theme of this article is simple but surprising: You can build your business around marketing ideas that are inexpensive and that work, as opposed to throwing your hands up, thinking that marketing is hard and expensive.

 

 

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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