u/Nice_Paramedic4055

Spent the first two years (or very close to it) of my last company obsessing over the company brand, logo, voice, website (it was really nice) and content. Everything had to feel polished and legit. Thought that's what you were supposed to do.

Meanwhile, a guy in a similar space was just posting from his personal account. Rough videos and honest takes. No production value whatsoever, and his face became the brand. People bought from him because they bought into him.

Fast forward eighteen months and he's got a waitlist. I had a nice-looking Instagram page with three comments per post and a logo I paid too much for, and, frankly, spent too much time on it.

Looking back I think I hid behind the company brand because putting myself out there felt uncomfortable, I honestly hate being in front of the camera. The company felt safe and professional. But safe doesn't build trust, and professional doesn't make people care.

I just wanted to write this to let people know that a personal brand is worth your time. Now I do have one, and if I built it years ago, I think I'd be miles ahead!

I'm curious to hear from someone who is in the same boat or looking into building a brand!

I know what you're thinking, but honestly, I believe Justin is going to win. Current odds have him at +450 to win outright with Topuria being the heavy favourite at -600 to -1000.

I just bet $1,500 on Justin to win in round 2. The prop odds are around +800. Justin just needs to survive the first round, then just go for it in round 2.

I'm a bit nervous but I have a good feeling about it.

I know this is random, but I was actually thinking of this today. Growing up, I used to love Hamburger Helper! I know it is bad for you, I get that, but it is actually so good.

We used to have that during our family nights when my dad was at home, not because we were broke or anything. It just somehow became this unspoken rule that a pound of ground beef + a magic powder packet = a complete dinner. We all loved it, and nobody questioned it.

Now, as an adult who can cook actual meals, I try to be healthy, and I do dinners at least once a week for my daughters at home, but every few months... I get the craving. That salty, slightly weird, totally nostalgic taste.

My wife thinks it's disgusting, she hates it! But I don't care. I cook it at least once a year!

What's the one food from your childhood that you secretly (or not so secretly) still love?

Been watching this debate play out and people seem completely split down the middle.

Some founders are now saying that personal brand is the only thing that matters anymore. People buy from people, and trust comes faster when there's a face and a voice behind the thing, I mean it makes sense.

Now, other founders say build the company brand because you can eventually sell it. Your face attached to everything makes exiting harder. Plus, plenty of founders are basically invisible, and their business still prints money.

Then there's the weird middle ground where someone has a huge personal following but their actual company sees almost none of it. All that engagement and trust, barely any customers.

From your own experience or watching other founders. Anyone gone all in on one direction? Anyone tried balancing both and figured out a good rhythm?

Okay we all know that Google I/O 2026 just happened, and they announced a major change to Search. Gemini 3.5 is now fully integrated which is VERY important and If you run ads or care about SEO, this matters.

Obviously, there is a big difference depending on where you are.

If you are in the EU or UK, full AI Mode is not even available in many countries yet due to local regulations. On top of that, ads are not showing inside AI Mode responses in the EU because of privacy laws. So the US and the rest of the world are seeing a very different experience compared to Europe.

1. What to expect with your ads

A few things are likely to happen once AI Mode rolls out where you are.

First, you need to produce more content. Videos, images, written content on your site. Both quality and quantity matter more now.

Second, if you are not running Performance Max, AI Max, or Demand Gen campaigns, your impressions will probably drop. Those campaign types are becoming the standard.

Third, your click through rate will likely go down while your cost per click goes up. If the AI answers the question directly in the search results, fewer people need to click an ad.

Fourth, expect more top of funnel traffic. People will use Search more for exploring and learning, not just for buying. If you only target bottom of funnel keywords, that will need to change.

2. New features to watch

Google introduced a metric called Attributed Brand Searches or ABS. It shows you how many people search for your brand name after seeing one of your ads. Keep an eye on that.

They also launched something called AI Brief. Instead of writing exact headlines, you give Google instructions on how you want your ads presented. You lose some control, but that is where things are heading.

3. What experts are saying about content

Industry folks have noticed that Google is now treating community content like Reddit threads and forum posts as a form of expert advice inside the AI answers. So your brand should be active in those places, answering questions and getting mentioned. That matters for visibility now.

A few things to do now

Start shifting your focus toward brand mentions rather than just exact match keywords.

Increase your content production, especially rich media like images and short videos.

Budget a little more for branded search terms. You may need to pay for traffic you used to get organically.

And check if AI Mode is live in your region yet. The timeline varies by country.

To wrap it up

We are losing some control and some visibility into how our ads perform. That is frustrating. But user behavior is changing. People want fast answers, not always a website visit. Google is just following that trend.

If you are in the EU, enjoy the older version of Search while it lasts. For everyone else, start adjusting your approach now.

Been looking at what different people in my network are pulling in and the gap is insane.

One guy runs a service business. One hour a week. One!!!! Fifteen grand a month. No churn, no server costs, no support tickets blowing up at midnight. Just a skill people value and a handful of clients who pay without blinking.

Another friend has a SaaS. Over a hundred users with a really solid product, works great. By the time you factor in churn, hosting, support, and the never ending feature requests, he's walking away with maybe two grand a month? Maybe? just doing the math here. 2K for a whole month! not a week!

Service gets called boring and SaaS gets called the dream. But the numbers I'm seeing lately tell a completely different story. Both can make you money, sure. Both can drain the life out of you. Neither is as black and white as Twitter makes it sound.

Are you running a service and loving it? Building a SaaS and wondering when it actually pays off? What's your take on this?

I'm also a founder and I can tell you that most founders I come across validate their SaaS all wrong. They hop on calls, explain their idea, and ask some version of "would you use this?" The person on the other end says sure, sounds cool, and the founder walks away thinking they just got validated.

They didn't. They just got someone being polite.

People don't want to hurt your feelings. They'll tell you your baby is beautiful even when it's ugly. So you build the thing, launch it, and silence. Nobody converts, nobody pays, because nobody cares TBH. And you're sitting there confused because everyone "loved" the idea.

Here's what actually works. Stop asking for opinions and start asking about behaviour.

Ask them when the last time they had this problem was. What did they do about it? How much did it cost them, in time or money? Have they tried anything else to fix it? If the answer is "I haven't really looked into it" or "I just deal with it," they're not your customer. No matter how nice they were about your idea.

The only signal that matters is evidence they already tried to solve the problem without you. If they've cobbled together spreadsheets, if they've tested a competitor, if they've complained about it publicly, that's real. That's demand. Everything else is just someone being nice.

One more thing. Ask if they'd pay for a solution before you tell them what yours costs. Not "would you pay for this?" because that's another politeness trap. Say "we're figuring out pricing, what feels fair to you?" If they lowball or go quiet, they're out. If they name a number that actually works for your business, congrats, you might have something.

Hey everyone, I own a small coffee shop and we like to shift the vibe every so often based on what we actually see our customers wearing and responding to.

I've always liked the Japanese baggy / loose-fit streetwear, like 90s, think oversized silhouettes, Issey Miyake pleats, chunky loafers, that kind of calm but intentional look. Less Harajuku, more… Sapporo on a quiet weekday.

At the same time, I’ve had this lighting mood stuck in my head for our interior and social media photos: dusk right after golden hour. Not bright sunset. Not dark neon night. That deep blue, quiet, slightly melancholic light where the sky is indigo but there’s still a soft glow from streetlamps and convenience stores.

So I’m trying to find photography samples that combine:

• Tokyo/Sapporo baggy streetwear
• Shot during the blue hour (after golden hour)
• Mood: calm, contemplative, urban solitude

Does this actually exist as a niche? Or is this just something I’ve dreamed up in my head?

We change our shop’s vibe every so often and right now this feels right. I just need some real visual references to show our team.

Where can I find this kind of photography?

• Photographers?
• Pinterest / Instagram keywords?
• Specific Reddit communities?

Thanks in advance, and if you’ve worn this kind of fit into a coffee shop before, you’re exactly who I’m trying to design for.

Ran a little experiment over the past few months. Anytime I met a founder who'd been at it for more than three years, I asked them one question. "If you could go back to day one, what would you do differently?"

Expected a mix of answers. Pricing, hiring, product decisions. But almost every single one said some version of the same thing. They waited too long to talk to actual customers, which to me is INSANE!

We're not talking about surveys or forms, we are talking about real conversations with strangers who had no reason to be nice.

One guy told me he spent eleven months building a product before a single conversation with someone outside his network. Eleven months!!!!! When he finally did, he found out the problem he was solving ranked very low on his customers' priority list. Not first. Not second. Almost none existent. They had bigger headaches and his product addressed none of them.

Another founder said she kept putting off customer calls because she was scared of hearing no. So she stayed busy with stuff that felt productive. Redesigns, feature tweaks. Anything that kept her away from the thing that actually mattered.

Made me wonder how many people reading this are doing the same thing right now. Building, tweaking, polishing, and avoiding the one conversation that might change everything.

When was the last time you talked to a customer who wasn't a friend or a friend of a friend?

I follow Justin Gaethje and saw him post a clip from the ONX page about Trevor Wittman breaking down some handfighting sequence from standing to ground.

I didn't even know Trevor was pushing daily tips. But the video was actually clean, no selling sh*t or anything like that, just a quick breakdown.

Anyway, I fell down the rabbit hole and watched like 20 of them back to back. I train a lot but I actually found this useful, so I thought I would share!

Ps: look at the videos on their IG or TikTok. It is worth it!!

I’ve been noticing this lately. I was scrolling through my feed the other day and honest to god, I couldn't tell you which brand was which. Same hook, same script, for all I know it’s the same product as well.

Somewhere along the way we really stop creating good advertising for fast advertising, no? Just crank more variations, launch quicker, let the algorithm sort it out.

I get why, the platforms push for volume. But man, when's the last time you saw an ad and actually stopped to watch it because it was just damn good?

Maybe I'm being dramatic. Maybe volume is just the game now and I need to accept it. But I swear we lost something when everyone decided speed mattered more than craft.

What do you think? Am I the only one who thinks this way?

I've read Atomic Habits. I know about implementation intentions. I understand cue routine reward. I could explain BJ Fogg to you. I have notes, HUNDREDS of notes full of summaries!

None of that matters IMO.

Knowing how habits work has not helped me do my morning routine one single time. I understand the science of why I should reflect on my day. I still don't do it. The gap between knowing and doing is the entire problem, and no book seems to actually close it! At least not for me?

Therapy helped some. At least I stopped beating myself up about it. But I still wake up, know exactly what I should do, and then do something else.

Has anyone actually found something that closes this gap or is the gap just the thing we all quietly live with forever?

Not the generic stuff. Not "it's hard to raise money" because sadly everyone already knows that part. But, I mean the specific, weird, frustrating things that only became obvious once you were in it.

Maybe it's how you get talked to in pitch meetings compared to male co-founders. Maybe it's the assumptions people make about your role before you even open your mouth. Maybe it's something completely different that caught you off guard.

I've spoken to MANY female founders who said the hardest part wasn't the business. It was constantly being underestimated in rooms full of people who'd already made up their minds, which is fuc***ing sad, because tons of talented women out there.

Others said the real challenge was finding other women at the same stage who just got it without needing to explain.

What's been your experience? What surprised you, good or bad? And for those further along, what actually helped? I want to hear it!

Everyone talks about warm intros like it's the only way. Then you try it, and it feels like asking a friend to set you up with their rich uncle. Cold DMs? nah, that doesn't work, does it?. The whole "provide value first" thing? kinda BS if you ask me, you just gave free consulting to someone who was never writing a check.

Half the fundraising advice floating around sounds like it worked exactly once in 2018.

So what's actually working right now? Cold emails? Twitter DMs? Showing up at random events and praying the person next to you runs a fund? Some weird backchannel nobody talks about?

What's your move?

Saw a bunch of founders announce they're "building in public" and what they actually meant was they tweet once a week about their journey and post a monthly revenue update. That's not building in public. That's content marketing with a trendy label, so not sure why they even call it that?

Real building in public is uncomfortable and that's why most founders don't do it. It's sharing your churn numbers when they suck. It's admitting you almost ran out of money last month. To me is also about sharing the failed experiments and the moments you genuinely weren't sure you'd make payroll. Sounds familiar? Because like many, I've been there. That stuff helps other founders. The polished "here's what I learned" threads help nobody except your ego.

I think we've diluted the phrase so much that it's basically meaningless now. Everyone wants the clout of being transparent without actually being transparent about anything that matters.

So be honest. Are you actually building in public or just performing progress for an audience? Where's the line?

I see this pattern constantly. The founder has zero marketing background, limited budget, and a product they're still figuring out. Yet they're the ones writing the ads, building the funnels, posting the content. but WHY??

Why is this so common? Is it a money thing? Trust thing? Or just nobody knows the business well enough at this stage to market it properly except the person who started it?

I've seen founders who stayed hands on with marketing way longer than they planned and swear it was the best decision they made. Others handed it off too early and the messaging went sideways immediately.

If you're a founder still doing your own marketing, why haven't you handed it off yet? Is it working better than bringing someone in? And if you did finally hire or outsource, when did you know it was time? Curious what pushed you over the edge.

This is my training gear. I think it's solid... anyone in Miami wanna train?

https://preview.redd.it/i02ei4af5w2h1.jpg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ee72e00af30c8632613c3414351065c458f8f8e6

Was at dinner last night and someone mentioned an approach I hadn't heard before. Instead of the usual "free beta, please give feedback" thing, they're offering their first 50 users the chance to invest early and own a piece of the business.

Thought it was pretty different from the standard approach, no?

The idea makes sense. If someone has actual skin in the game, they're not just a user poking around. They give real feedback, stick around, bring other people because now it's partly theirs, and they want it to win.

I've seen founder tiers on crowdfunding platforms, but never at this stage. I mean and IMO 50 people, super early, before the product is even fully baked. Sounds interesting but I can see it getting messy too.

I do have two questions here.

As a user, would you even want a piece of something this early?

And, if anyone actually tried this or been on the user side of something like it, How did it play out?

Not sure if this is smart or risky tbh.

I've been thinking about this because I talk to a lot of founders and the small business path always sounds simpler than it really is.

On paper it's great. You can reach the owner directly. No procurement hell. Decisions happen in days, not months. But the reality is way messier. One slow month and they cancel. They need more support than you planned for. Sometimes they don't fully understand what they bought and you end up being part consultant, part therapist.

I've seen founders stack up a bunch of small business clients and still feel like the whole thing could collapse any week. Others have figured out how to make it work and love it.

Where are you at? Are you targeting small businesses with what you're building? What's been harder than you expected and what's actually working? Would love to hear from people in the trenches on this one.

Wonder if people's brains are the same as mine! I did this daily routine for 47 days, then I got sick, missed one day, and just never opened one of those productivity apps again tbh! I just decided to stop and I felt like the streak was the only thing holding it together, and once it broke, I was like, what's the point of this?

I've done this maybe ten times with different habits. Same pattern every time, perfect streak for weeks, one slip, then nothing!!

The common advice is to just not miss two days in a row. But that assumes the problem is discipline. It's not. The problem is my brain treats the streak like the habit itself. When the streak dies, the habit feels dead too. Does anyone feel the same?

Has anyone found a way to track progress that doesn't fall apart after one off day? Not looking for "be kind to yourself"- I'm looking for a system that actually works for people who think this way.