Learning From my Failed Products: Why Every Digital Entrepreneur Should Leverage Systems Thinking & AI for Their Business

Over the past 2 years, I’d built 7 different apps with my brother that went nowhere.

Why?

0 distribution.

Reflecting on my experiences, I've come to realize that we were too dogmatic in our approach.

We had learned that fast iteration of the product was key, but in practice, we did not take this to heart. Every app was built in silence until it was finally "ready". And when we stepped out on stage, it was quiet.

Something was missing: an audience.

It was only near the end of this app sprint that we truly internalized the importance of distribution with our last app, TalkFamous. At least this time, we spun up meme accounts on short-form platforms to drive traffic to our product.

But even that was a rudimentary approach to distribution. Still, the key lesson for us was that the importance of distribution could not be overestimated.

Distribution is King

In the world of digital entrepreneurship, the brilliance of a product can be overshadowed by the absence of effective distribution.

Peter Thiel, in his book "Zero to One," emphasizes that even the best product needs a solid plan for reaching customers. His thesis underlines that distribution is not an afterthought; it's a critical component of the product itself.

Everything's Connected

The true realization was that everything was connected and had an impact on everything else.

I started to study the founders and creators I admired who had successful businesses with millions of customers. They were all entrepreneurs of course, but they were also content creators whether they realized it or not.

For YouTubers like Mr. Beast who had Feastables chocolate, it was more obvious to anyone that he was a content creator. But, the successful startup founder also left a trail of content bread crumbs at the very least if not an entire bakery of content for an audience to consume.

Their content was one component of a greater system; a framework for modern entrepreneurs in the digital age.

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, the Internet has opened up the opportunity for humans to spread their ideas far and wide.

The individual has more power by becoming their own sovereign media company and brand — the rules of the game have changed. The media arm of the individual is directly linked to the success of their business because that is how they get their distribution. And the inverse is also true in most cases: the business or thing that the individual is building informs the way they present their content.

This is how people build narratives and stories that resonate with the masses, leading to their support and patronage.

A Change in Perspective

It was clear to me now that I needed to take content creation more seriously.

It seems obvious today:

• Content is our digital resume.

• Sharing our learnings and insights is valuable and attracts an audience who might later be more inclined to try any product we make.

• Ideas have an impact and the impact is multiplied relative to the size of the audience one has.

• It is a forcing function for us to keep learning and growing as humans.

I began to notice the feedback loops in my content and my product building. Each one feeds into the other. The problems I was solving for myself turned into content. The content I made about my interests and values attracted people who resonated with the content.

More recently, I've been able to leverage AI to quicken the iteration process between content and product to 10x the entire process.

Before diving into how we can leverage AI in our workflows, let's first explore content and the importance of distribution through the lens of systems thinking.

The Big Picture: Systems Thinking in Action

In the dynamic landscape of digital entrepreneurship, it's not just about creating content or products in isolation; it's about understanding the interconnectedness of every element within our ecosystem.

The adage that a great product will sell itself is a myth that too many of us have believed. Instead, we must view our products not as standalone entities but as vital parts of a larger ecosystem, which includes content creation and audience building as equally critical components.

Why Systems Thinking?

Systems thinking allows us to see the forest for the trees.

It's a holistic approach that understands that a product's success is not just about the product itself; it’s about how it fits into the complex web of interactions in the digital marketplace.

Systems thinking in this context encourages us to ask questions such as:

• How does our content strategy support our product?

• What platforms will best amplify our message and reach our intended audience?

• How can audience feedback inform our product development?

• How are current trends outside our direct scope affecting what we are focusing on?

We can also see how this mindset helps us identify patterns and causal loops within our own lives. For example, how you sleep plays a role in your effectiveness in work during the day.

Overall, systems thinking allows us to step outside of a single perspective and reframe problems to come up with different solutions.

Systems in Content & Entrepreneurship

As I mentioned earlier, I’ve learned the value of content in my entrepreneurial journey through the results of not doing enough of it before when I was building a product.

It was only after observing successful entrepreneurs that I realized the content wasn't merely a separate entity but part of a larger whole – a lever in business strategy I had neglected.

As an example, let’s look at content and entrepreneurship through the lens of causal loops in systems thinking.

Causal Loops in Understanding and Communicating Problems

Causal loops are a fundamental concept in systems thinking, illustrating how different elements within a system interact with and influence one another. These loops can either reinforce or balance the dynamics within the system, leading to a variety of outcomes.

In the context of content creation and entrepreneurship, we can identify four key elements within a causal loop:

1. Variables: The distinct components such as Product, Story, and Content.

2. Links: The connections that show how changes in one variable affect another.

3. Labels: The descriptions we assign to the links, clarifying their relationships.

4. Loops: The circular feedback that indicates the system's behavior.

In content creation, recognizing causal loops can be pivotal. Consider a content creator's ecosystem comprising the product, the narrative surrounding it, and the content distributed across platforms. Each element feeds into the other, forming a causal loop:

1. Product Influences Story: The attributes of a product shape its narrative. For instance, an eco-friendly product's design underpins its sustainability narrative, setting the tone for its story.

2. Story Shapes Content: The product's story informs the content strategy. A focus on sustainability can steer the content towards environmental impact and responsible living themes.

3. Content Feedback to Story: The audience's interaction with the content can lead to an evolution of the narrative. Feedback emphasizing transparency may lead the story to incorporate more behind-the-scenes insights.

4. Story Feeds Back to Product: The narrative's evolution, driven by audience engagement, can influence further product development, ensuring it remains aligned with consumer expectations and the brand's ethos.

By understanding the interplay of product, story, and content within the entrepreneurial realm, we recognize the importance of each component in this causal loop.

This perspective is crucial as we now turn our focus to exploring how artificial intelligence can be integrated into this system, enhancing and streamlining our approach to content creation and distribution in the digital landscape

This is just a single example of how we can view content and entrepreneurship through the lens of systems thinking. The key is to recognize that content creation, like entrepreneurship, is interconnected. I encourage you to discover and experiment with other systems thinking methodologies because understanding these principles and their application will improve your ability to create content with impact as you build a sustainable business.

Now, with this foundational knowledge in place, let’s move on to how we can leverage AI to enhance our processes and augment our entrepreneurial toolkit.

Systems Thinking Combined with AI: A Toolkit for Sovereign Media Companies and Businesses

The internet gave us the platform to create and build value by connecting us with the rest of the world.

However, the internet has also created a vast amount of information we now need to sift through to connect the dots. We need the proper tools to be as effective as possible. This is where I’ve found AI, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), to be highly effective in enhancing the processes of systems thinking I apply to my research and learning.

AI-Enhanced Learning Loops in Systems Thinking

Being a systems thinker means we must have cycles of reflection and analysis to make better sense of our reality.

I call these learning loops: iterative cycles where knowledge is acquired, assessed, and applied to refine the system.

With LLMs, we can now iterate through cycles faster with deeper insights that might have taken far longer otherwise. This quickening of feedback cuts the time it takes to form connections from the raw data we collect and draw more meaningful solutions to problems we are facing.

Pattern Recognition and Emergent Phenomena

LLMs have the remarkable ability to sift through vast datasets, identify patterns, and even pinpoint emergent phenomena that elude the human eye.

This pattern recognition superpower enables systems thinkers to:

• Identify emergent phenomena in their raw observations more quickly.

• Walk through different processes to find new ways to look at existing systems.

• Question our biases and help us identify where we may have blind spots.

Being able to see emergent systems from seemingly distinct entities is a practice of redrawing boundaries, giving way to a new perspective to look at problems; this practice of reframing lets us come up with new solutions and insights.

LLMs are perfect for this as they can supplement our own analysis, giving us more ways to look at a system.

Application to Learning Loops

As someone trying to be more diligent about practicing systems thinking in his life, I collect tons of notes, ideas, and observations.

On its face, they can look like a jumbled mess of half-baked thoughts haphazardly thrown into a Notion document. But, as I analyze them, I can start to connect the dots. Once, I’ve done this on my own, I pass my notes off to LLMs to supplement my analysis.

This has increased my ability to identify where seemingly disparate components are parts of a greater whole. It has also helped me notice where other emergent systems are that I might have missed.

Furthermore, popular models such as GPT-4 have been trained on a majority of the internet, meaning they have knowledge or context about topics I might be less familiar with. I can use this to my advantage when I need to comprehend new concepts, and also by asking the model to apply different concepts I’m less familiar with to the situation I am dealing with.

Of course, we must be careful of hallucinations — I’ve found it effective to use LLMs as a first pass in this case and later confirm the information it has provided.

Reaching Conclusions at The Speed of Light

The integration of AI into systems thinking signifies a shift in our approach to problem-solving and decision-making. AI is not meant to replace human intelligence — it is meant to augment and enhance it. It’s important to recognize that AI acts as a powerful assistant that amplifies our cognitive abilities, allowing us to reach solutions at an unprecedented pace.

Those who learn to leverage this technology will have an advantage in the digital marketplace of ideas and products. This advantage is not just from accelerated data process and analysis; It is also from the ability to foresee trends, understand consumer behavior, and predict market shifts with more confidence. In a world where information is power, AI can help us navigate the landscape of ideas more strategically.

This paradigm shift requires how we as humans operate. The future belongs to those who can effectively manage these advanced tools, see the bigger picture, and think in interconnected systems. It’s no longer just about being knowledgeable in a single domain; it’s about understanding how various domains interact and influence each other, and how AI can illuminate these connections.

From Learning to Building Value

Understanding and learning through AI is just the start for those looking to create value in this modern age. Once equipped with knowledge, the next step is content and media production. Let’s dive into how we can leverage AI to take our newfound insights into tangible output with impact

Production of Content & Products with LLMs

The key area in which LLMs help us in our output is the same as the one in which is help us with learning and understanding from the inputs: speed.

We now can produce content of all kinds in various tones, styles, and lengths — depending on who we are creating for and which platform the content is going on. AI shortens the time it takes to produce the media to attract an audience. A few examples of this could be:

• Drafting YouTube video outlines / transcripts.

• Crafting tweets to convey ideas in certain formats.

• Repurposing content to other platforms (i.e., Articles into X and LinkedIn posts).

• Stunning visuals generated from image generation models.

Again, we aren’t letting LLMs do this all on their own.

Think of it through the analogy of a football coach:

We as the entrepreneur or creator are the coach. We need to guide our AI systems in the direction of the great goal; this necessitates being a big-picture thinker (guess what systems thinking helps you do?)

Systems Thinking and AI: A Match Made in Heaven

When we apply systems thinking to problems and use AI as a tool to enhance our workflows, we unlock a synergy that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Systems thinking, with its emphasis on holistic understanding and interdependence of components within a system, is naturally complemented by AI’s capability to process vast amounts of data and identify patterns that might elude humans. This combination lets us comprehend complex systems in ways that were much harder to if not impossible to do previously.

Final Thoughts

As we incorporate AI into our creative and entrepreneurial pursuits, it’s important to hold a thoughtful and strategic approach. Like the football coach analogy, AI is our linemen and helps us get the job done, but the ultimate plan remains in our hands.

We must be systems thinkers, recognizing the interplay between different elements and guiding AI to serve our larger objectives. This allows us to leverage AI to its fullest; to use it not only as a tool for efficiency but also a catalyst for creativity, innovation, and growth.

The thoughtful integration of AI in our endeavors empowers us to push the boundaries of what's possible, blending the precision of technology with the unique spark of human creativity.

We are embarking on a journey into a new era of collaboration between humans and artificial intelligence. The key to success lies in steering this partnership with intention and a vision that seeks to enrich and elevate our collective human experience.

Enjoyed this newsletter? Forward it to a friend and have them sign up here.