Treat Content as a Branding Tactic — First, Marketing Tactic — Second

Patrick McFadden • November 6, 2022

The secret to winning the content game isn’t quantity but intention, especially for small businesses. The need to produce content in branding and marketing has grown as today is more about being found—earning attention—and less about going out and hunting. If you’re interested in branding and marketing your business effectively (and who isn’t at this point), you can’t escape hearing about content. It’s everywhere you look, or listen.


Content for a small business is educating people (with free information) so that they know, like, and trust you enough to do business with you. The best way to produce content that achieves business objectives is to have it focus on two core things and in this order:



  1. brand positioning
  2. problems and desires of prospects and customers


It’s all about branding your business as the go-to resource for ideal customers and delivering independent value with content before you attempt to make the sale.


The Framework is Simple: 

Don’t focus on making the sale or generating leads. But do focus on positioning your company as the ONLY solution for your ideal customers.


NOW, I DO use content as an SEO tactic sometimes, especially with local clients.

BUT as a tactical element for creating engaging, helpful content that resonates with ideal customers.


Experience tells me that for some of you this is going to be a challenge because content must be created for every aspect of the customer journey by matching different kinds of content with the customer life cycle.


You Must Build Loyalty and Create Relationships With Information

The Internet has disrupted the traditional sales process, allowing prospective customers or clients to begin research on their own terms via search and social media. This means savvy business owners or marketers must adapt to the information-empowered prospect in a fashion that more resembles courting than it does selling.


The Brochure Car Salesperson

Recently, I was talking to someone in the market for a pick-up truck, who was very disappointed that he knew more about this specific vehicle than the sales rep. And for him to buy, he wanted a sales rep that had deep knowledge of this specific vehicle, not a brochure-reader. (This reminds me why—even as a car salesman you should be a meaningful specific rather than a wondering generality.) 


When car buyers come into auto dealerships knowing more about the vehicles than the salespeople because of information on the internet. That creates a new dynamic because then the buyer is in control of the shopping process.


Which ultimately means, then the role of the salesperson shifts entirely. And the whole auto dealership industry is one that’s living through this “relationships created by information” revolution.


4 Important Components to Build Loyalty and Relationships With Information:


  •   Create a Blog.  Blogging is about creating, writing, recording and/or contributing information of value to your niche market (a segment of mainstream). Blogs position you as the expert. Blogs communicate ideas, expertise, news and announcements. Blogs allow for relationship-building and one-to-one relationships.
  • Understand your prospects and customers. Know their pain points, dreams, and desires. How can you create a relationship with someone you don’t understand?
  • Avoid routine common sense.  You won’t win loyalty with your breathtaking grasp of the obvious.
  • Educate, and inform before you sell. Educate your prospects, inform them, and help solve their problems. Become a trusted source of information and those prospects will more readily buy from you.
  • Have a clear call to action. Tell your prospects exactly what you expect them to do next, and remind them why it’s in their best interest to buy, click or subscribe.


You must establish positioning, trust, provide expert advice, and dish up the insights they crave.


Contact Your Marketing Consultant at Indispensable Marketing

If you’re a small service based business that needs help with developing content in a strategic manner or your business’s online presence on Google and other search engines, at Indispensable Marketing we can help. We offer marketing strategy consulting, marketing audits, monthly marketing packages, consultations, exploratory calls or monthly local SEO services. Contact us for more information.

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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