You’re Not Building a Brand, You’re Filling in a Template
Not because I’m particularly smart, but because I’ve seen the same site 47 times this month. Same hero section with the aspirational lifestyle photo. Same three-benefit layout. Same pastel gradient. Same “schedule a discovery call” button that makes me want to throw my laptop into the ocean.
You know what’s wild? Most of these businesses aren’t even competing with each other. They’re in completely different industries, serving different customers, solving different problems. But you’d never know it from their marketing.
They all hired the same Webflow template. Followed the same “proven” email sequence. Adopted the same “authentic” social media voice that sounds like a life coach had a baby with a SaaS founder.
And now they’re all invisible.
The Template Industrial Complex
Here’s how it happens:
You’re building something real. Maybe you’re three years in, finally gaining traction, and you realize your DIY marketing isn’t cutting it anymore. So you do what any reasonable person would do: you look at who’s succeeding.
You study their websites. Deconstruct their funnels. Screenshot their Instagram layouts. Join the same communities, take the same courses, hire someone who promises to “implement what’s working.”
And it does work. Sort of. For about six months.
Your metrics improve. Traffic goes up. You’re doing “all the right things.” But something’s off. The leads aren’t quite right. The engagement feels hollow. Your most passionate early customers seem... quieter.
You’ve optimized yourself into irrelevance.
Because here’s the thing about templates: they’re designed to be reproducible. That’s the whole point. But reproducibility is the enemy of memorability. When everyone’s following the same playbook, the market doesn’t reward execution—it rewards deviation.
Why This Keeps Happening (And Why You Keep Falling For It)
Templates promise to solve your most painful problem: you don’t know what you’re doing.
And look, that’s not a moral failing. Most people building businesses aren’t brand strategists. They’re developers, designers, consultants, coaches—experts in their actual field who need to figure out marketing so they can get back to the work they care about.
Templates offer a shortcut. A done-for-you solution. The comfort of knowing that if you follow these steps, you’ll get results.
Except you won’t. Not the results you actually want.
Because templates strip out the only thing that makes marketing work: specificity.
They can’t account for:
Why you started this thing in the first place (and why that matters)
Who you’re actually talking to (not demographics, but the specific human with the specific problem)
What you believe that your competitors don’t
The constraints that force you to be creative
The weird thing about your process that customers actually love
All of that gets sanded down in service of “best practices.” You end up with marketing that works for everyone, which means it works for no one.
What Actual Differentiation Looks Like
Stripe didn’t look at payment processing and think, “We should make enterprise sales easier.” They looked at developers trying to integrate clunky, bloated payment systems and said: what if we just made this not suck? Clean docs. No sales calls. Code that actually works.
The result is a payments company that became the default for builders because they treated developers like humans with taste, not procurement departments with budgets.
Liquid Death didn’t look at the water industry and think, “We should do what Fiji does, but better.” They looked at energy drinks, skate culture, and heavy metal, then asked: what if water was actually cool? What if we treated it like a lifestyle brand instead of a wellness product?
The result is a water company that sponsors death metal bands and tells you to “murder your thirst.” It’s ridiculous. It’s memorable. It works.
Gong didn’t follow the sales enablement playbook of “motivational content and inspirational quotes.” They built a brand around reality-based coaching. They show you the actual calls. The awkward silences. The objections that tank deals. The shit that happens when your rep goes off-script.
It’s uncomfortable. It’s the opposite of the rah-rah sales culture. And it works because it’s true.
Patagonia didn’t follow the outdoor industry playbook of “help customers buy more gear.” They built a brand around buying less. They run ads telling people not to buy their products. They donate money to environmental causes even when it hurts their bottom line.
It’s counterintuitive. It’s deeply weird for a retail company. And it’s generated more customer loyalty than a thousand “10% off your first order” campaigns ever could.
Cards Against Humanity raised their prices on Black Friday while everyone else was racing to the bottom with discounts. They called it exactly what it was: a fuck-you to consumerist bullshit.
Their customers didn’t care. They bought anyway. Because the brand had earned the right to break the rules.
Ahrefs said “fuck your demo request form” and published transparent pricing while every other SEO tool hid behind “contact sales.” They write brutally honest blog posts about their competitors. They show you exactly what you’re getting and what it costs.
Their competitors thought they were insane. Their customers thought they were refreshing.
Pilot (the accounting/finance startup) doesn’t talk like accountants. They don’t lead with “comprehensive solutions” or “synergistic partnerships.” They say: your books are probably a mess, tax season is hell, and we’ll fix it so you can get back to building your actual business.
It’s direct. It acknowledges the pain. It sounds like a human who gets it, not a firm trying to upsell you advisory services.
None of these brands got there by following templates. They got there by having a point of view and the guts to actually express it.
So What Do You Do Instead?
This is the part where I’m supposed to give you a framework, right? Five steps to authentic differentiation. A worksheet. A helpful template for developing your anti-template.
Fuck that.
If you’re serious about standing out, you need to start by burning down everything you think you know about “how marketing is supposed to work.”
Start here: What would you say if there were no consequences?
Not the sanitized, brand-safe version. The thing you’d say to a friend over drinks when you’re complaining about your industry. The take that would get you kicked out of the networking group. The truth you’re avoiding because it might alienate some people.
That’s your angle. That’s the thing that will make people pay attention.
Then ask: Who are you actually for?
Not “our ideal customer is a 35-year-old marketing manager with a $50K budget.” That’s not a person. That’s a demographic cut-out.
Who’s the specific human whose problem you’re obsessed with solving? What keeps them up at night? What do they believe about the world? What are they afraid to say out loud?
Write for that person. Let everyone else self-select out.
Finally: What can you do that literally no one else can?
Maybe it’s your process. Maybe it’s your story. Maybe it’s the specific combination of skills or experiences that led you here. Maybe it’s just that you’re willing to be honest in an industry built on polite lies.
Whatever it is, lead with it. Make it the center of your marketing. Stop trying to be palatable to everyone and start being invaluable to someone.
The Uncomfortable Truth
Most businesses won’t do this.
It’s too scary. Too risky. What if you alienate potential customers? What if people don’t get it? What if it doesn’t work?
So they’ll keep following templates. Keep optimizing for “best practices.” Keep wondering why their marketing feels so forgettable.
And that’s fine. Because it means there’s room for you.
The businesses that win aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets or the most polished campaigns. They’re the ones that figured out what they stand for and had the guts to actually say it.
Everything else is just noise.
f you’re tired of sounding like everyone else and ready to figure out what your brand actually stands for, that’s the work I do. Not templated strategies or cookie-cutter frameworks—actual brand positioning and messaging that makes people feel something.
Work with me if you’re ready to burn down the boring and build something that actually cuts through.