Guest Post: 5 Principles That Shaped My Marketing Philosophy

Welcome To The Orbit Marketing Newsletter 🪐 

This Week We’re Diving Into:

• 🧠 Guest Post from our Co-Founder, Louis Shulman: What I Learned From Wes Kao, A Conversation That I STILL Think About 5 Years Later.  

• 🎙️ Podcast: Generating $15M in pipeline from LinkedIn. Learn the exact content cadence, connection strategy, and positioning framework that generated $15M.

Read time: 4 minutes

At Orbit Marketing, we’ve helped 50+ businesses launch weekly newsletters. If you are struggling to nurture your prospects, stay top of mind, or publish consistent content, click here to learn more about how we can help.

Guest Post: An Interview I STILL Think About 5 Years Later

Five years ago, I interviewed Wes Kao (co-founder of Maven and Seth Godin’s altMBA).

In many ways, that one conversation formed the foundation for how I think about marketing.

5 years later, these 5 principles STILL stand out as foundational to my marketing philosophy.

Let’s dive in 👇

A guest post from Orbit Marketing Co-Founder, Louis Shulman.

1. Spiky Points of View Are a Shortcut to Trust

A spiky POV is something people can disagree with. It's specific. It's rooted in conviction.

Wes put it perfectly: "If everyone agrees with you, it's not a spiky point of view. It's just a fact."

Most B2B marketers is too safe. Buyers don't trust bland.

When you take a stance, you signal expertise. You show you've thought deeply enough to form an opinion worth defending.

Your move: Write down three things you believe that your competitors wouldn't say publicly. That's your starting point making content stand out.

2. Teach Something They Didn't Know Before

Wes had a simple rule: If your content doesn't change how someone thinks, it's just entertainment.

The goal isn't to confirm what people already know. It's to make them pause and think, "I've never considered it that way."

The best marketing creates those moments. It reframes familiar problems in unfamiliar ways.

Instead of writing "Why email marketing matters," try "Why your email list is your only real marketing asset." Same topic. Very different impact.

3. Brand vs. Performance Isn't Either/Or

Before Wes, I thought you had to pick: brand marketing or performance marketing.

Long-term trust or short-term conversions.

Wes taught me it's a spectrum, not a binary choice.

Performance tactics drive immediate results but can feel transactional. Brand marketing builds trust but takes time to pay off. Most teams lean too hard one way, then try to measure everything by that lens. That's where they go wrong.

The key? Know your bias. Then pick tactics that match your timeline and goals.

Building for the long haul? Invest in brand.

Need revenue this quarter? Focus on performance.

Just be honest about what you're optimizing for.

4. Increase Desire, Don't Just Remove Friction

Most marketers over invest in removing friction.

Shorter forms. Bigger buttons. More discounts. Easier checkout flows.

Wes flipped this completely: "People will jump through hoops for something they really want."

Look at Superhuman. Their onboarding process was full of friction in the early days.

You needed an invite. You had to schedule an onboarding call. You had to pay an extra $30/month for email. But people LINED up for it.

Why? Because they've maximized desire, not minimized friction.

Before you A/B test another button color, ask yourself: Have we made this offer feel like a no-brainer?

If people aren't converting, the problem might not be your form or button color.

It might be that they don't want what you're selling.

5. Rigorous Thinking vs Being a Copycat

Everyone copies what works. We see a competitor's pricing, their email templates, their launch sequence. We think if we replicate the surface, we'll replicate the success.

Wes taught me to go deeper. Don't copy the what. Understand the why.

Those tactics worked because of specific constraints, assets, and strategies you can't see. Maybe they had a huge email list. Maybe their audience skews premium. Maybe they optimized for something completely different than you are.

First principles thinking means asking: What problem are we solving? What assets do we have? What's the actual job to be done?

The Framework That Stuck

That interview didn't just give me marketing tips. It gave me a lens for thinking.

Five years later, Wes Kao's frameworks still shape how we build newsletters and create content at Orbit Marketing. Her ideas work because they're rooted in human psychology, not short lived tactics.

If you want to stand out, start by thinking harder. Build conviction around ideas that many will disagree with. Create content that changes minds, not just confirms biases.

Most importantly, stop copying what you see. Start understanding why it works.

…

Want to go deeper? Watch the original interview (5 years ago!) here.

🎙️ The LinkedIn Strategy That Generated $15M in Pipeline

Tommy Clark breaks down the LinkedIn playbook that scaled his business to $1M+ in revenue and helped Austin Hughes generate $15M in pipeline from LinkedIn content alone.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• 🎯 The Golden Question Framework: How to find your ideal customer profile (ICP) and turn it into a positioning statement that attracts qualified leads.

• 📊 The 1-3-1 Content Funnel: Post five times per week using this exact split: 1 top-of-funnel post, 3 middle-of-funnel posts, 1 bottom-of-funnel post.

• 🔗 The 20/20 Connection Strategy: The simple routine puts your content in front of your highest-value prospects.

Whenever you are ready, here’s how we can help you:

1. Done-For-You Weekly Newsletter - Start a weekly publication to nurture your prospects on autopilot, build authority, and stay top of mind. Learn more.

2. Tune Into The Orbit Marketing Podcast - Actionable tips and insights on email marketing, directly from industry leaders. Listen now.

3. Join The Orbit Marketing Partner Program - Learn more about how to partner with Orbit Marketing. Get more info.