The Digital Contrarianâ„¢

Ryan Levesque

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The Digital Contrarianâ„¢

Ryan Levesque

Issue #020

| The Digital Contrarianâ„¢

Going Analog

The Ultimate ZIG ??

Ryan Levesque

11 min read

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Earlier this week, I hosted a Town Hall Event titled:
 
“ZIG When They ZAG: The Contrarian Path to Thriving in this New Digital Era…”
 
The much anticipated follow-up to an earlier Town Hall Event I hosted a few months ago titled:
 
“The Great Sea Change: Why the Digital Marketing Playbook of the Last Decade is Obsolete…”
 
Now, the REASON why I hosted this second Town Hall this week…
 
Is because after recently returning home after nearly a month of travel, spent in secret rooms in clandestine locations around the country with people much much smarter than me…
 
… As part of the personal QUEST I’ve been on to seek out answers to the question for those of us with Digital Businesses:
 
“Where should we shift our attention? Where do we go from here?”
 
I picked up a few notable insights that I thought would be valuable to share…
 
Insights from the early RESEARCH I’ve been conducting for my upcoming book, ZIG When They ZAG…
 
Now it would be impossible to cover the extent of what this book explores in this newsletter here today, but in a nutshell, ZIG When They ZAG is all about taking a contrarian approach in marketing, business – and LIFE.
 
It’s about challenging conventional wisdom, finding opportunities in unconventional places. Shining the flashlight where nobody is looking. And standing out by willing to be boldly different and ultimately become a category of one. 
 
With dozens of examples of entrepreneurs and independent thinkers who have done and are doing just that.
 
Because as my friend Sally Hogshead likes to say:
 

“Different is better than better. But only is best.”

 

Predictable Patterns & Cycles…

Now, in order to learn how to ZIG when they ZAG, we first need to get GOOD at recognizing Hidden Patterns and Cycles…
 
Because most forces in business follow a predictable cycle, once we learn to see the hidden, underlying patterns…
 
Take Marketing Channels, for instance…
 
A new marketing channel emerges because something new is developed that offers new utility for consumers…
 
(Think: Email or Search Engines)
 
Then, enterprising marketers get wind of the opportunity and work to exploit it…
 
(Think: Spam or Google Ads.)
 
Channels work for a period of time, until advertiser supply effectively outnumbers the consumer demand that’s being targeted.
 
Consumers leave because the user experience suffers – and they move onto something else.
 
Trees don’t grow to the sky and channels don’t last forever.
 
Channels Get Saturated.
 

The Fall of Google & Rise of Perplexity…

We’re seeing this play out in real time right now as we speak between Google.com and Perplexity.ai.
 
If you’re not familiar, Perplexity.ai is an AI-powered search engine that’s making a run at Google Search, and it looks like this:
Perplexity is faster than Google, (arguably) better than Google, and 100% free. 
 
But the best part, is right now – there are no ads or sponsored listings to sort through. It’s a better user experience, and people are racing to the platform right now and not looking back.
 
It’s only a matter of time before users switch their home screen from Google to Perplexity or something similar like ChatGPT.
 
Now, speaking of ChatGPT…
 
ChatGPT doesn’t have ads today, but if you think it won’t have an ad supported version coming at some point in the not too distant future, then you’re missing what’s likely to be a massive opportunity on the horizon.
Channels follow a predictable path.
 
Now, these aren’t opportunities we can take advantage of today.
 
BUT this can help you understand why crowded channels like Facebook and Instagram who are scrambling to keep users on platform – are no longer yielding the way they once did.
 
These platforms aren’t dead – they’re just crowded.
 
They don’t have the same asymmetric supply/demand imbalance that we were previously able to leverage.
 

So Where IS the Opportunity TODAY?

 
What is the LEAST crowded channel available to us right now??
 
For this, we need to open our minds to a potential paradigm shift.
 
We need to not only think outside the box…
 
We need to think beyond the screen.
 
After all, the most competitive piece of real estate that we are ALL competing for right now is that 14 square inches of screen space that fits inside your pocket and that you might be holding in your hand right now as you read this.
 
For me, the lightbulb moment went off when I had a conversation with my publisher last month about my upcoming book…
 
My publisher, Reid Tracy, is the CEO of Hay House books, which was acquired by Penguin Random House in 2023. And in my conversation with Reid, he shared with me a piece of information that stood out to me:
Ebook sales for virtually all genres right now are down across the industry. However, at the same time, audiobook sales are WAY up.
Why is that, I thought?
 
It was one of these data points that stuck with me, something I couldn’t shake but KNEW represented a clue…
 
Then a few days later, I had a conversation with Carrie Green, a long-time customer with a thriving online community, who was using small-scale, in-person meetups to drive membership to her online community…
 
Then, I had a conversation with founder of Fuzzy Yellow Balls Will Hamilton, a long-time client in the Tennis Education space, who is crushing it right now selling physical spiral-bound playbooks that players take with them on the court.
 
These playbooks use QR codes to drive people to instructional YT videos. And others are replicating this same strategy dog training, music instruction, and more…
 
In my travels, I had dozens of conversations with bits and pieces of insights like this, and what became blindingly obvious was the following:
The post-pandemic return to work movement that we’ve heard so much about in the news – has also coincided with the much larger post-pandemic return to the physical world.
Screen time may be something we limit for our kids (and increasingly, ourselves) and which now should come with a Surgeon General’s warning…
 
But time in the physical world?
 
That’s something we all want more of right now.
 
That’s something we crave.
 

Less Time in Front of a Screen, More Time with Hands in the Dirt.

So it makes sense that audiobooks are on the rise right now… Something we can listen to while we’re existing in the physical world.
 
While we’re raking fall leaves in the yard. While we’re baking cookies in the kitchen… Or going on that hike…
 
Audiobooks are a way for us to reach our audience outside the limited screen time that more and more advertisers are fighting for and which we as consumers desperately want to limit…
 
(Supply / demand…)
 
And on top of that…
 
Audiobooks – and more broadly audio in general – is arguably the most intimate medium we have available to reach our audience.
 
Video is consumed in all sorts of different ways on all sorts of different devices for a few distracted minutes here and there.
 
But when we consume audio – and audiobooks specifically – if we’re not listening in our car, we’re most often listening with earbuds deeply embedded in our ears – often for hours at a time…
 
It’s the closest we can be to getting our voice directly inside our prospect’s brain…
 
ZIG When They ZAG.
 
Now, it’s not to say that audiobooks are anything new.
 
It’s just where we are in the cycle right now. We have to recognize where things with our desire as consumers to be spending less time in front of a URL screen, and more time interacting within the IRL physical world…
 

Speaking of URL vs. IRL and the Physical World…

As I mentioned earlier, I recently returned home after nearly a month of physical travel – presenting the findings of my “Great Sea Change” research to multiple IRL rooms – which I wrote about in one of my recent newsletters: Issue #016 – 10 Strategic Thoughts from My Recent World Travels…
 
And I’m slated to speak at two more in-person events in London next month (stay tuned for that), as part of the ScoreApp acquisition Bucket – the software company my co-founder and I recently sold, and which I wrote about in Issue #017 – Lessons from a Software Exit (Part 1)…
 
Now with this newsletter (which you’re reading right now), 20 weeks ago I made the decision to start writing this weekly newsletter myself by hand… No team of writers… and No AI…
 
Real, raw and vulnerable.
 
With damning admissions, lessons learned, mistakes made, imperfections.
 
All of it.
 
Often responding to replies myself – focusing on the “un-scaleable” and the “un-fakeable” in an effort to focus on not new connection – but re-connection with past clients, customers, students, and colleagues.
 
What I can tell you from that experience is that I’ve had more opportunities come my way in the last 3-4 months than I have in the last 3-4 years…
 
Including the opportunity to sell my software company… Become involved in a $100M venture fund… And incredible partnership offers nearly every single week.
 
And it’s come from not just sharing the “highlight” reel, but the “lowlight” reel as well.  The REAL reel as I like to call it. Like for example when I publicly shared a private journal entry I wrote titled:
 

The Oscillation Between Self-Loathing & Self-Love…

I was having a real tough time a few weeks ago. I had reached an emotional low. I was experiencing some type of micro-depression, and I couldn’t snap out of it.
 
I didn’t want to be around my wife or my kids or anyone else for that matter. I wanted to be alone.
 
But at the same time, it felt like I needed a Serotonin hit.
 
And for some reason, I felt compelled to hike out to our pastures, to just “be” with our herd of cattle. So I surrendered to that.
When I made the long walk out to our pastures, I got down on one knee. Hands in my head, and I just started crying. I started sobbing uncontrollably – until one of the heifers came up to me (like in the photo you see here).
 
A yearling – whose name is Athena. One of the shy ones who had never walked up to me like that before….
 
When she saw me in this sobbing state in a way she’d never seen me before, she must’ve instinctually known something was wrong – because after she approached me, she started rubbing her neck and face all over my body…
 
The neck rubs quickly became face rubs, and I quickly became covered in cow boogers all over my face…
 
(I felt like got hit by Slimer from Ghostbusters…)
 
And as sat there, down on one knee completely covered in cow mucus all over my face, I just started laughing…
 
I started laughing uncontrollably at how silly I must’ve looked in that moment.
 
And that is what finally snapped me out of it…
 
So after cleaning myself up, I came back home and wrote the following journal entry:
“The Oscillation Between Self-Loathing & Self-Love…”
 
Fresh from a morning hike, reflecting on the nature of life…
 
I sit here typing this with some raw (and vulnerable) thoughts to share:
 
If you’ve ever experienced feelings of worthlessness…
 
Transient or otherwise…
 
If you’ve ever felt like a failure…
 
If you’ve ever had everything figured out…
 
Only to have everything fall apart…
 
Temporarily, or otherwise.
 
If you’ve ever found yourself slipping into the GAP vs the GAIN…
 
If you’ve ever oscillated between self-loathing and self-love…
 
Understand that somewhere within…
 
Somewhere in the middle sits…
 
Acceptance.
 
—
 
And if you ever struggle with feelings of not measuring up…
 
Of not being enough…
 
Of feeling your own self-worth is tied to the value of your accomplishments…
 
And if you ever find your self-talk and introspection…
 
Slipping into questions like:
 
“What’s wrong with me?”
 
Instead of questions like:
 
“What can I learn from this?”
 
Understand that it’s OKAY.
 
And YOU are not alone.
 
Understand that this is part of the full spectrum of human existence…
 
And that what you are doing…
 
When you stop HIDING from what you’re hiding from…
When you stop RUNNING from what you’re running from…
When you stop DISTRACTING yourself by being so BUSY…
 
Is giving yourself the opportunity to SLOW down…
 
To take a moment to REFLECT…
 
And actually FEEL.
Because for people to TRUST you they need to see three things:
Your Heart, Your Humor, and Your Humanity.
So what is this ZIG when they ZAG move that’s in front of us right now?
 
What is The Contrarian Path to Thriving in this New Digital Era…
 
It’s what I’m describing right now as:
 

Going Analog.

What do I mean by that exactly?
 
Well, it’s everything we’ve been talking about:
 
An email newsletter – written by your own hand…
 
An audiobook – spoken in your own voice…
 
Artisanal, not artificial.
 
Intimacy at scale.
 
Traveling the world and spending time with people IRL.
 
Analog is the antidote to AI and Automation and the Commoditization of your brand.
 
Because when you think about the “moats” in your business and what you can actually protect…
 
Technology is no longer a moat.
 
AI is ubiquitous.
 
The only real moat that exists is in the high-end, high-touch aspects of your business…
 
Real relationships with real human beings.
 
That’s where loyalties lie.
 
And that’s where the opportunity exists.
 
The problem is, people are stuck in a digital paradigm that worked and made sense for the last decade, but which is now largely obsolete.
 
So we need to change the way we think.
 
And the way we think about our relationship with the digital world.
 
And that’s why I believe ONE answer…
 
Or at least part of the answer…
 
Is Going Analog.
 
In fact, in this New Digital Era…
 
It may be the ultimate ZIG when they ZAG move that we all have…
 
But I’m still very much in the research phase of this journey…
 
And the book is still being written.
 
So I’m very curious to know what you think.
 
I’d love to hear from you.
 
Please shoot me a short note with your thoughts.
 
(They may even make it in the book.)
 
And in the meantime, if you’ll excuse me…
 
I’ll be stepping away from the screen for a bit.
 
Because I’ve got a farm-fresh breakfast to be cooked for my family…
 
And a hike to be had in the forest on this fine autumn day…
 
Until next week,
 
Ryan :-)

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The Great Sea Change

The Great Sea Change diagram from Return to Real