Invest small to win long

Would you do the same thing for 50 years?

The Rolling Stones, U2, and so many others do.
Same job. Same songs.

What if you could repeat what you love doing every day?

For me, it might be speaking, teaching, writing.
What might it be for you?
If you could do anything you want?

In today’s Storyletter:

Here’s what I believe.

A business needs to scale to get better.
A healthy funnel is what allows you to choose the right clients and grow at your own pace.

Most companies treat marketing as something they have to do, instead of something they use to build the business.

When work is good, they stop marketing.
When work isn’t good, they expect marketing to save them.

That’s backwards.

Marketing is about spending time or money.
If you don’t have the time, you need to invest the money.

Marketing compounds, but only if you give it time.
And when you’re busy delivering work, it’s much harder to build.

If you spent $100 and doubled your sales, why wouldn’t you keep going?

The problem is that most people try for a month or two, hope it works, and when it doesn’t, they stop.
They look at marketing month to month instead of building something that works over time.

Small investment.
Long-term profit.

I had a call with a client who wants to scale but is only willing to spend $3K a month for two months.
The average sale is worth over $100K.

Another client makes $45K profit on each sale but has a $1K marketing budget.

You see the gap.

So make a list:

From there, define your minimum marketing budget, not your dream one.

Think in 3–6 month cycles.
Budget for both the work and the ad spend.
Build content knowing this is a learning curve.

Focus on two things:

And for everyone proud of their organic lead generation, kudos. That takes work.
But when a company lacks brand power, paid marketing is the fastest way to build that equity.

Imagine scaling your marketing, building a real engine, and controlling your industry and location.

That’s how brands are built.
That’s how opportunities show up.
That’s how growth becomes predictable.

I live for moments like this.
Early morning. Coffee. My usual hype playlist. Setting up my office studio to give a talk.

Someone asked me this week how I’d rate my happiness level from 1 to 10. I said probably an 8. I’m happy and excited about what’s ahead.

But when I get to teach and speak about my passion for business storytelling, that’s when it shoots up to 10.

Thank you, Denzil, for inviting me to speak to your sales team. As I develop the Pitch to Win sales workshops, it’s great to see how much value can be delivered in a short amount of time.

Two new pitching clients joined this week, and I’m proud of what these founders are building.

My Lovable landing page for the new service is almost ready.
With two new speaking engagements booked, it’s been a great week.

On social media, with an average of eight posts a week, most of them shorts, I’m seeing a slight improvement. It’s a long game, so we keep going.

Book update: This week I plan to write the introduction chapter for my upcoming book and see where it takes me.

Next week, I’ll also focus on content creation in Hebrew to help my speaker agency promote my talks. My goal is to rank in the top three speakers in Israel by the end of 2026.

I’ll start with five blog posts around business storytelling.

Next up: filming a workshop on February 22 and having eight new shorts ready for promotion.

We’re also working on paid ads to generate more leads. I’ll keep you updated on how that goes.

Have a great week.
Keep sharing what you’re working on. I love hearing from you.

Every week, I collect things I enjoy online. This is my curated top three: playlists to work with, trailers, videos, or just fun stuff.

🎧 Music
This week’s Storyletter was written while listening to Classic 1985 music
👉 🎧 Listen

🏍️ When a motorcycle flies
👉 🏍️ Watch

🕵️ A young Sherlock Holmes
This is what happens when Guy Ritchie meets Holmes
👉 🕵️ View