Positioning Your Firm with guest Joel Pilger
Joel Pilger on positioning.
Joel Pilger on positioning.
Talking Points
- The importance of outcome-based positioning
- The democratization of tools (and the resulting commoditization of services)
- How Rails damaged the business of web development
- The types of value that creative firms can deliver (if they would just stop talking about their tools)
- Why creative firms accidentally devalue themselves in their marketing
- How jargon destroys client trust
- Why it is a bad thing if your clients understand your jargon
- The difference between building something nobody hates vs something someone loves
- The difference between between appealing to peers vs appealing to buyers
- Why SEO attracts price sensitive buyers
- Why great positioning attracts better clients
- Why niching down attracts more AND better leads
- How the "addiction to cash" wrecks your sales efforts
- Joel's AMAZING positioning hack (a vs the)
- Joel's "Three P" positioning exercise (i.e., purpose, power, personality)
Joel's Bio
Joel Pilger helps great creatives run great creative companies. As a RevThinker, Joel has advised hundreds of creative firms based in 23 countries around the world. He is the host of the RevThinking Podcast as well as the host of regular QOHORT retreats and dinners for creative entrepreneurs in New York, Los Angeles, and London.
Related Links
- Joel's website
- RevThinking Podcast
- RevThink email course
- QOHORT
- Joel's bad positioning meme
- Jonathan's soggy positioning collection
- The Introduction Game
- The Rolodex Moment
- The Why Conversation
- First Fight website
- First Fight interview
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Do you know you need to niche down, but keep hesitating because you're afraid of picking the wrong niche, cutting off good opportunities, or boxing yourself in?
You DON'T need more convincing that vague positioning is a problem.
You DO need a way to make positioning feel less risky so you can finally choose a direction, test it in the market, and adjust without blowing up your business.
On Tuesday, September 8th, 2026, at noon Eastern Time, I'm running a live workshop called Positioning For Soloists Having A Hard Time Niching Down.
That's what we'll tackle in this workshop.
It's the second session of my Fall 2026 Soloist Growth Workshop series for expertise-based business owners just like you.
Live attendance is limited to 20, so don't wait.
Learn more at: https://jonathanstark.com/sgs
Enroll in Positioning For Soloists now »
Hope to see you live in Zoom on Tuesday.
Do you know you need to niche down, but keep hesitating because you're afraid of picking the wrong niche, cutting off good opportunities, or boxing yourself in?
You DON'T need more convincing that vague positioning is a problem.
You DO need a way to make positioning feel less risky so you can finally choose a direction, test it in the market, and adjust without blowing up your business.
On Tuesday, September 8th, 2026, at noon Eastern Time, I'm running a live workshop called Positioning For Soloists Having A Hard Time Niching Down.
That's what we'll tackle in this workshop.
It's the second session of my Fall 2026 Soloist Growth Workshop series for expertise-based business owners just like you.
Live attendance is limited to 20, so don't wait.
Learn more at: https://jonathanstark.com/sgs
Enroll in Positioning For Soloists now »
Hope to see you live in Zoom on Tuesday.
Creators and Guests
Host
Jonathan Stark
The Ditching Hourly Guy • For freelancers, consultants, and other experts who want to make more and work less w/o hiring
