Being Better Isn't Good Enough

Sep 9, 2025 Watch on YouTube

Stop staying stuck. The real problem isn’t marketing tactics. It’s weak positioning. Quit trying to be better. Get radically different so ideal customers see you as the only choice.

You hire some marketing people to throw at the problem. You’ve got a designer and a copywriter, and a social media person, an SEO agency, and a PPC firm.

And what happens? You spend a year paying their invoices, and you’re right back where you started. Nothing’s changed.

The problem is that you keep playing the wrong game. You keep trying to get better. Getting better is what mediocre companies do.

If you want to have a business that’s iconic—a business that people know about, that they respect, that lasts, that endures—being better isn’t good enough. You have to be completely, radically, strategically different.

Over the course of your business, think about how many projects you’ve lost because the client couldn’t see what made you different from your competitors. You put your whole heart into explaining all the ways in which you’re better than them, and they still went with them. Try to calculate the total value of all those projects you lost.

Those are the kinds of costs we’re talking about. That’s where trying to be better is getting you.

Now add all of those dollars together. That’s the tax you pay for being a generalist, for being mediocre, for being one of 1,000 firms that do the same thing that you do.

For your ideal customers, you should be the only real choice. But you’re not, and it’s costing you.

I'm James Archer.This is Why Firms Hire Me.

3 Decades in Marketing 20+ Years in the C-Suite Hundreds of Firms Advised

For nearly three decades, I’ve focused on marketing strategy and business growth. My journey was forged in the real world:

  • I’ve held C-level positions for 20+ years, so I understand the pressures you’re facing.
  • I ran a successful marketing agency for 12 years, so I know the service business grind intimately.
  • I’ve helped hundreds of businesses achieve strategic clarity, from startups to Fortune 500s, so I have deep experience doing exactly this work.
  • My work has been featured in major media outlets, including NPR, The New York Times, Inc. Magazine, Fast Company, and Entrepreneur.
  • I’ve delivered over 100 speaking engagements and written countless articles on what actually drives business success.