RecomMONDAYtions ~ 2026.10.19
Recommended Reading
Answer the Worry Before You Answer the Question
Somebody types a question into Google. Ann Handley wants you to think about what’s going on in that person’s head while they type.
Her example is a buyer searching for software. The query is about features. The moment behind it is about the fear of making an expensive mistake. Her line: “Don’t just understand the query. Understand the moment behind the query.”
AI Overviews now answer a lot of those questions before anyone clicks. So the pages that still earn the click are the ones that make a worried buyer feel seen.
She gives you three steps to get there. Ask your customers and your front-line people what worries buyers right before they decide. Read the places where they vent, like Reddit, LinkedIn and industry groups. Then rewrite one important page so it answers those worries at the top, not in an FAQ buried at the bottom.
Pick the page. Do it this week.
Read: TA #219: A secret. (And an invitation.)
The Unofficial LinkedIn Algorithm Guide, October 2026 Edition
If you post on LinkedIn, Chris Penn did your homework for you.
He reads LinkedIn’s own engineering updates and turns them into a playbook. This edition sorts everything into two buckets. The words you write. And the things you do.
There’s a free version with the what-to-do steps, and a $20 deluxe version with the technical detail and AI tools that audit your profile, content, engagement and measurement. He calls those tools “auditors, not authors.” He also says plainly not to hand your LinkedIn over to AI, because it will hurt your results.
Write your own posts. Let the guide tell you what’s working.
Read: The Unofficial LinkedIn Algorithm Guide, October 2026 Edition
Podcast (The Story Power Marketing Show)
How To Create a Brand That Stands for Something and Why That Matters (with Justin Ricklefs)
Justin Ricklefs spent eight years in the Kansas City Chiefs front office. What he took from it was simple. Growth follows relationships.
In 2017 he founded Guild Collective, a human-first brand-building agency. He’s also the author of Give a Damn: The Catalyst for Caring Companies.
Justin doesn’t think of a brand as a logo or a tagline. He thinks of it as an operating system. It shapes how your people make decisions and how they treat your customers. We talk about the Savannah Bananas and their “fans first” approach, why care is an edge that AI can’t easily copy, and where to start if your brand doesn’t stand for much yet.
His starting point is to get clear on why your company exists. Then boil it down to a phrase your team can remember.
DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE
~02:36 — Chiefs Kingdom Lessons
~05:29 — Brand Under Pressure
~07:04 — Brand Operating System
~07:33 — Fans First Story
~11:05 — Human First Framework
~13:03 — Care Beats Scale
~19:06 — Where To Start
~22:12 — Resources And Book
~22:29 — Closing And Outro
LISTEN ON: Apple | Spotify | Amazon
Recommended Viewing
How Do You Compete with Free?
Somebody out there is giving away a good chunk of what you sell. A podcast. A YouTube channel. A chatbot.
When that happens, most of us reach for one of two fixes. Add more. Or cut the price.
Robert Skrob says there’s a better answer.
He cites two advantages a free competitor has a hard time copying. The first is speed to certainty, how fast a new client knows they made the right call. The second is value that compounds, so year three is worth more than day three.
It’s ten minutes. Watch it, then ask yourself what your clients feel on day three.
Watch: How Do You Compete with Free?
Recommended Podcast
Your Website Is A Trust Test (with Kristin Adkins)
Kristin Adkins spent eight years as an event planner, hiring speakers for conferences. Now she runs Crash Design Co and builds websites for professional speakers.
So she’s seen the buyer’s side. And she says most speaker sites read like a cross between a resume and an obituary. A list of accomplishments, written for the audience, when the person deciding is the one writing the check.
She has a test I love. Take your name off your website and put someone else’s on it. If it still fits, it isn’t specific enough.
You don’t have to be a speaker to use this. If you sell your expertise, your website is taking the same test. Stuart Bell’s interview with her is worth the listen.
Listen: Your Website Is A Trust Test with Kristin Adkins
Words to Ponder
“Always enter the conversation already occurring in the customer’s mind.”
— Robert Collier
Don't go away yet..
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