Maybe you’ve spent more than you planned.
Maybe you can’t stop now, but you’re not sure you can keep going either.
And you’re still wondering what you’re doing wrong, because everyone says the funnel works if you just execute it right.
“Be remarkable—be worth talking about.” — Seth Godin
Apple transformed me, and I didn’t notice for an entire year.
It wasn’t until I lost it that I understood what they’d built. That realization changed how I saw my own business, and eventually led me to a completely different way of thinking about marketing.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Ten Projects a Day
A few years ago, I was chasing survival.
I had my Fiverr app notifications on 24/7. I’d wake up whenever I received a new message, no matter the time, just to make sure I was the first to reply and stand a chance of landing the project. A new $5 gig I could knock out fast enough to stack into something resembling a living.
If I could do 10 projects a day at $5 each, that would be $50. Multiply by 30 days, and I’d have $1,500, enough to survive another month.
So that’s what I optimized for: speed. Volume. Getting in, getting out, moving to the next one.
I wasn’t thinking about whether I was delivering value. I wasn’t thinking about the customer’s experience. I was thinking about hitting my number and staying afloat.
Then something happened.
I got stuck on a project I couldn’t deliver. The work was beyond what I’d promised, and I realized I’d have to either fake it or admit I couldn’t do it.
Faking it wasn’t an option. That’s not who I am.
Not delivering wasn’t an option either. I had a reputation to hold.
So I took responsibility, and it forced me to change. If I were going to do this, I would actually need to get good at it. I needed to become someone worth hiring.
That shift, from chasing volume to building capability, started everything.
A Book That Wasn’t About Marketing
Around that time, I came across a book called Be Like Amazon.
It wasn’t about funnels or marketing tactics. It was about how Jeff Bezos built Amazon on a foundation of customer experience. About unifying principles that aligned every facet of the company toward one goal: making the customer’s life better.
One line stuck with me:
“Continuous optimization is a byproduct of caring.”
Another:
“Word of mouth triggers when a customer experiences something far beyond what was expected.”
I started to see my Fiverr work differently.
What if, instead of racing to finish, I slowed down and made the experience remarkable?
So I changed everything.
Instead of chatting with clients over text, I offered calls. Honest conversations where I could understand what they actually needed.
Instead of just delivering the work, I created video overviews explaining what I’d done and why.
Instead of bare files, I sent branded PDFs with documentation, access checklists with instructions, and bonus resources they didn’t ask for: UTM builders, dashboards, and other tools that would make their lives easier.
I stopped competing on speed and price. I switched my focus to quality, becoming the opposite of my competitors. Projects took longer, but I gave each one more attentive care.
And then something strange happened.
Something Started Changing
People started saying things I hadn’t heard before.
“This is very professional.”
“I’ve never experienced anything like this.”
The reviews changed. They became longer, more thoughtful. People weren’t just rating the deliverable. They were describing the experience.
My Fiverr ranking went up. New projects came in—not from my hustling, but from the reviews themselves.
Then the referrals started.
“Hey, I was referred by someone who worked with you. They said you’re good.”
My revenue climbed. $500 a month became $1,000. Then $3,000. Then $4,000.
I wasn’t marketing more. I wasn’t running ads or building funnels. I was making the experience good enough that people talked about it.
The customers were doing the marketing for me.
The Year I Didn’t Notice
That’s when the Apple thing happened.
My Lenovo laptop started to crash, and I needed an upgrade fast.
A client offered to sell me his old MacBook Pro for $750, payment in two installments, deducted from the monthly retainer we’d just started.
I’d always been a Windows person and thought Apple was overpriced and overhyped, but there weren’t any affordable Windows laptops at the time, and I definitely didn’t have much savings.
So the deal was too good to pass on.
I got the MacBook. It was used, a few years old.
And it just… worked.
It started up fast. I could have five applications open without lag. Everything was smooth, responsive, and intuitive.
When I compared it to the Lenovo, it was a huge step forward. With the Lenovo and Windows, I needed to wait 15 minutes for the laptop to start and another 15 minutes for Zoom to open for a meeting.
Imagine getting home 5 minutes before a meeting. I’d be done.
So I was happy.
After that, I didn’t think much about it. I just did my work.
Fourteen months later, the screen broke. I had to switch back to a Dell laptop running Windows.
That’s when I noticed.
The startup was slow. The applications lagged. I found myself worrying about performance, will this freeze if I open another tab? In a way, I hadn’t for more than a year.
All the friction that Apple had removed… I hadn’t noticed it was gone until I went back to Windows.
I realized that, with Windows, I worked on one project daily. With the MacBook, I’d worked on at least 3 projects a day.
That was the transformation Apple had created. Not a feature I could point to. Not a marketing message I remembered. Just the quiet absence of everything that usually gets in the way.
The product was so good that it became invisible. It let me focus on my work instead of fighting with the tool.
And I realized: that’s why people become Apple evangelists. Not because someone marketed to them. Because they experienced something worth talking about, even if they can’t articulate what it was.
I started looking at other companies through this lens.
I’m a lifelong learner, so I read a lot of books. But taking notes in physical books isn’t always easy, and reading on my phone or laptop isn’t pleasant either.
So I bought a Remarkable Paper Tablet for reading and thinking.
No notifications. No browser. Just the book and my notes. My ideas and my frameworks. The product disappears so that thinking can happen.
I love using Amazon for ordering my stuff, even living on an island in the Caribbean.
Amazon doesn’t have the prettiest website. But their delivery is unmatched. Their returns are effortless. The experience is so smooth, you don’t think about it.
I like hiking trails on my island. So I bought myself some Nike trail running shoes, which made my hiking life much more enjoyable.
Nike doesn’t just sell shoes. They position the customer as the hero of their own story, someone battling their limitations and becoming who they’re meant to be.
And then I saw what they all had in common…
Where the Energy Actually Goes
Apple doesn’t spend its energy making a fancier website. They spend it on the product, the iOS, their CPU, and the seamless integration across devices.
Amazon doesn’t obsess over landing page conversion rates. They obsess over logistics, delivery speed, and customer service.
Nike doesn’t just run better ads. They partner with athletes who embody transformation, and make sure the shoes actually perform.
Most people spend 80% of their energy on how they sell, and 20% on what they sell.
What would happen if you flipped that?
When Nike Forgot
Here’s the cautionary tale.
In 2024, Nike stumbled. Their stock dropped 31.7%. Analysts estimated $200 billion in lost revenue opportunity.
What happened?
They abandoned what made them great.
Nike had built an empire on emotional storytelling—the Hero archetype, the transformation narrative, the “Just Do It” ethos that made every customer feel like a warrior.
But somewhere along the way, they shifted. Algorithm-driven marketing replaced emotional connection. Data optimization replaced brand building. Efficiency replaced meaning.
They started optimizing the wrapper. And they lost the core.
Even the best can fall when they forget what made them remarkable.
The Question Nobody Asks
You’ve optimized the landing page. The email sequence. The ad creative. The checkout flow.
You’ve been told that if you just work harder, test more, and tweak longer, results will come.
But what if the thing you’re optimizing was never the thing that mattered?
A Different Kind of Engine
There’s a different way to think about this.
The traditional funnel says: Marketing is something you do TO customers, a mechanical process of pushing people through stages toward purchase.
You create awareness. You nurture consideration. You optimize for conversion. You hope for advocacy.
And you, the business owner, are the engine. You push. You nurture. You optimize. You burn out.
But what if the model itself is misaligned?
What if, instead of marketing done TO customers, you built something that runs WITH you?
What if, instead of pushing people through stages, you created experiences that made them want to pull others in?
Four Powers, One Loop
I started calling this framework “The Four Engines.“
Here’s the definition:
The Four Engines are four interconnected, self-fueling powers that create so much value, your customers naturally do your marketing for you.
The engines are:
Attract — Draw people in through empathy, not interruption. Show them you understand where they’ve been. Make them feel at home before you ask for anything.
Connect — Build trust through attentiveness, not manipulation. No scarcity tactics. No false urgency. Just genuine care for their situation.
Commit — Create mutual commitment, not forced conversion. When someone buys, it should feel like a promise from both sides, not a trick that got them to click.
Transform — Make them the hero of their journey, not just a buyer. Your product or service should leave them better than you found them, capable of things they couldn’t do before.
Not Just Relabeling
These aren’t just renamed funnel stages.
The engines work differently in three fundamental ways.
Simultaneous, not sequential. All four engines run at the same time. You’re not moving people through stages. You’re creating value across all four dimensions at once.
Self-fueling. Each engine generates its own power. When Attract is working, when your content genuinely resonates, people share it without being asked. That sharing becomes fuel for more attraction. The same is true for Connect, Commit, and Transform. Each one creates its own momentum.
Interconnected. The engines feed each other. When Transform is working, when customers are genuinely changed by what you deliver, they become the fuel for Attract. They tell others. They bring people in. The fourth engine powers the first.
Funnels show you where people drop off.
Engines show you where value is created.
One diagnoses leaks. The other builds something worth staying for.
“But I Still Need Customers”
Maybe you’re thinking: “This sounds nice, but I still need to get customers somehow.”
I understand. That’s what I thought too.
But here’s what happened to me: when I stopped chasing $5 gigs and started optimizing what I delivered, I didn’t lose customers. I went from $500 a month to $4,000 a month. The customers found me—through reviews, through referrals, through people who experienced something worth talking about.
The engines don’t ignore customer acquisition. They just change the source. Instead of your hustle, the source becomes their experience.
Maybe you’re thinking: “Easy for Apple and Nike—they have billions. What about me?”
Apple started in a garage. Nike started with a waffle iron.
They didn’t begin with billions—they started with a relentless focus on making the thing itself undeniably good. The billions came later.
They came because of the focus.
You don’t need billions. You need one customer. One transformation. One person who experiences something worth talking about.
Start there.
The Lie You Were Told
The traditional funnel trained you to believe you were the problem.
You weren’t testing enough. Your copy wasn’t sharp enough. Your audience targeting was off. Your nurture sequence needed more emails.
So you tweaked. You tested. You hired experts. You bought courses. You spent thousands.
And still, 79% of your leads never converted.
The funnel’s logic was elegant. The framework was teachable. The software was sophisticated.
But the model was built for a world that no longer exists.
A world where customers moved predictably through stages. Where information was scarce, and you controlled the narrative. Where comparison-shopping required effort.
That world is gone.
Now customers loop chaotically through Google’s “messy middle,” exploring and evaluating in patterns no funnel can predict. Now two-thirds of touchpoints are consumer-driven, not company-driven. Now your competitors are one tab away.
The funnel didn’t become wrong because you failed.
The world changed. The model didn’t.
You’re not broken. The model is.
The Answer
Your customers will do your marketing for you when you give them something worth talking about.
Not through tricks. Not through funnels. Through four interconnected powers that create so much value, talking becomes natural.
Attract. Connect. Commit. Transform.
Each one fuels itself. Each one feeds the next.
And when the fourth engine runs—when your customers are genuinely transformed—they become the first engine for someone else.
You came here exhausted, wondering what you were doing wrong.
But you’re still here.
That tells me something.
You’re not looking for another hack.
You’re looking for something that actually works.
This is it.
Not because it’s easy—but because it’s true.
This is the first engine turning.
Where it leads is up to you.
P.S.
The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.” — Seth Godin