Nobody cares about 'better' anymore

I ran a design agency for three years trying to out-portfolio the competition.

We were burnt out.

And still losing pitches.

It took me painfully long to admit nobody cares about “better” in a world where every product / service smells the damn same.

Maybe you’ve seen this movie, too.

Then I realized we were playing a game they invented.

The moment we stopped competing and started defining our own space, everything changed.

You're probably doing the same thing right now.

Grinding away, trying to be 10% better at something someone else already owns in your customer's mind.

It's not your fault. You were told to find your niche and crush it.

But here's what nobody mentions:

When you create the category, you write the playbook. You set the vocabulary. You decide what matters and what doesn't.

And your competitors? They're stuck reacting to you.

Here's how to start doing it today.

#1 Name the old game your audience is tired of playing.

Don't just say "design agencies are broken." Say, "Logo factories charge $50K and leave you with a brand deck nobody reads."

Be specific. Be a little mean to the old way.

This is how you allay the fear your clients have been ignoring: maybe the agencies aren't the problem, maybe I picked wrong.

You're giving them permission to blame the category, not themselves.

#2 Coin a term for your new approach.

It doesn't have to be fancy. "Brand systems" worked for agencies who got sick of one-off logos. "Strategic design" worked for studios tired of being order-takers.

Pick two words your audience already understands and jam them together in a way nobody has claimed yet.

Write it down. Use it everywhere. In your homepage headline. In every proposal. In LinkedIn posts.

Micro-action: Open a doc right now and write five two-word combinations. Pick the one your competitor would hate most.

#3 Build a repeatable content loop around your category.

Every week, publish one piece proving the old way is dying and your way is rising.

Case study. LinkedIn carousel. Email like this one.

Each one should make the same argument from a different angle.

I watched an agency founder do this for eight months. She coined "revenue-driven design." Posted every Tuesday. Landed three six-figure clients because CMOs started using her language in their own briefs.

That's the dream. And it's not luck.

It's repetition plus conviction.

You justify the failures people have had with old agencies. You confirm the suspicion the industry is lying to them. You encourage the dream of being the one who saw it coming first.

And you do it over and over until the category is simply true.

Stop trying to win someone else's game.

Build your own scoreboard.

Reply and tell me: what's one thing design agencies all agree on that you think is bullshit?

— Shashank

P.S.

The second batch of the Brand Engine Email Cohort is set to be live in two days. I still can’t believe that 30 people are in this batch.

People are building their entire brand strategy in 21 days with my help, and in case you missed it and want to be part of the next cohort, make sure you are on the waitlist.