The Digital Bazaar: Why Your Business Is More Than a Collection of Clichés
$10k Blueprints, Templates, and Engagement-Bait, Oh My!
If you’ve spent more than ten minutes on Substack Notes lately, you’ve likely felt the “vortex.”
It’s a relentless, high-speed carousel of $10k blueprints, “limited-time” offers that never actually expire, and engagement-bait questions that feel like they were written by an AI with a caffeine addiction.
It’s the Digital Bazaar. Everyone is shouting, everyone has a “hack,” and everyone is selling a shortcut to a destination they haven’t actually reached themselves.
The Rise of the “Offer” Culture
We have entered an era where the offer has become more important than the outcome. We see headlines like: “How to design a $10k offer your audience wants, that sells for under $600.”
Think about that math for a second. If the value is truly $10,000, why is it being liquidated for the price of a mid-range lawnmower?
There is a good answer, and the offer can be that valuable, but…
Well, I’ll discuss it some other time.
In 30 years of coaching and over $100 million in sales, I’ve learned one immutable truth:
—> Price is a signal. When you deep-discount “transformational” value, you aren’t being generous; you’re signaling that you don’t trust the transformation to stand on its own feet.
I’m speaking specifically about people telling you they’ll teach you to create a $10k Offer but charge less than a 4-Star meal for you and 3 friends.
Why Engagement Seeking is Killing Your Authority
The pressure to “stay relevant” in the feed has led to a race to the bottom. We see professionals with decades of experience asking, “What’s your favorite color of Post-it note?” to trigger the algorithm.
This isn’t community building; it’s vanity farming.
True authority doesn’t need to shout to be heard. It doesn’t need to use “threads” to trick you into clicking.
True authority is built on the Encore Principle: leveraging a lifetime of expertise to provide a signal so clear that the noise fades away.
If you are tired of the “hustle” and ready for the “work,” you’re in the right place. We aren’t building a $300 version of a $10k dream. We are building real businesses for the long haul.
