Fascinating... and this is exactly why I'm doing your Unity Piece course! I can technically "do" it but need someone I trust to help me refine the opportunity and validate the idea.
Brian, this WordPress analogy hits home. I was right there in the trenches with you back in 2010, starting an entirely new career on WordPress.
We’re still building 90% of our client sites on WP today, but the game has shifted exactly as you described.
Back then, the "moat" was knowing how to fix the css, or use the right plugin, or how to be profitable turning a designers layout into a well built website. Today, Claude or ChatGPT can write that code in seconds. The technical execution is becoming air.
But you nailed the missing piece: Taste.
AI can build the site, but it can’t decide why the site matters. It can’t look a client in the eye and say, "This design is generic, we need to go bolder." That strategic judgment—the "cowboy hat" factor of actually taking a stand—is the only thing we can charge a premium for now.
The Sovereign Collective isn’t just a theory; it’s the only way forward for agencies who want to survive the commodity trap. Thanks for articulating what we’re all feeling.
I was thinking of you when I wrote this Curtis, because I had a section on teamlancing for product creation that ultimately got cut for length. But you get exactly what that means.
As careers stretch to 50–60 years, more experienced professionals are stepping out of traditional employment and into sovereign models. In a world of longer lives and smaller firms, the sovereign collective feels less like a trend and more like the operating system for the second half of our working lives.
Fascinating... and this is exactly why I'm doing your Unity Piece course! I can technically "do" it but need someone I trust to help me refine the opportunity and validate the idea.
Excellent!
Brian, this WordPress analogy hits home. I was right there in the trenches with you back in 2010, starting an entirely new career on WordPress.
We’re still building 90% of our client sites on WP today, but the game has shifted exactly as you described.
Back then, the "moat" was knowing how to fix the css, or use the right plugin, or how to be profitable turning a designers layout into a well built website. Today, Claude or ChatGPT can write that code in seconds. The technical execution is becoming air.
But you nailed the missing piece: Taste.
AI can build the site, but it can’t decide why the site matters. It can’t look a client in the eye and say, "This design is generic, we need to go bolder." That strategic judgment—the "cowboy hat" factor of actually taking a stand—is the only thing we can charge a premium for now.
The Sovereign Collective isn’t just a theory; it’s the only way forward for agencies who want to survive the commodity trap. Thanks for articulating what we’re all feeling.
I was thinking of you when I wrote this Curtis, because I had a section on teamlancing for product creation that ultimately got cut for length. But you get exactly what that means.
Thanks to Tom Nixon I do know what teamlancing means. Maybe you need to just turn that into a post of it's own.
I steal all of my brilliant ideas from Brian and Mark Schaefer. The nice thing this, I actually credit them when I do!
And I try to credit you when I learn from you.
It’s the grift that keeps on giving!
LOL, ain’t that the truth.
As careers stretch to 50–60 years, more experienced professionals are stepping out of traditional employment and into sovereign models. In a world of longer lives and smaller firms, the sovereign collective feels less like a trend and more like the operating system for the second half of our working lives.