Alex M H Smith
About this creator
Alex M H Smith focuses on writing, rhetoric, and clearer thinking, with practical lessons on persuasion, communication, and making ideas more useful in the real world.
Why they're in the library
Included for practical guidance on writing, rhetoric, clearer thinking, and the craft of communicating ideas with precision and force.
Showing 21 digests for Alex M H Smith.
Business operating systems
YouTube
Why most business leaders harvest instead of grow
Alex M H Smith
May 14, 2026
Business operating systems
9
Pivoting
7
Creating value and collecting value are fundamentally different activities
Every harvest erodes the asset — replanting is non-negotiable, not optional
Optimising funnels and copying competitors is harvesting a crop that hasn't grown yet
Four thinking habits that separate natural strategists from everyone else
Alex M H Smith
April 30, 2026
Doing things differently beats doing things better — always.
Supply scarcity, not demand, decides whether your edge converts to money.
Real innovation only appears on the other side of deliberate sacrifice.
Why markets are oversaturated and how to escape the trap
Alex M H Smith
April 16, 2026
Business models
9
Identity & self-belief
5
Niching down makes overcrowding worse, not better.
Creating unknown demand beats finding existing needs.
Moju, Substack, Oatley all built categories nobody asked for.
Why competence is no longer a competitive advantage in the AI era
Alex M H Smith
April 2, 2026
Vision & mission
9
Identity & self-belief
6
Branding
5
AI commodifies competence — the new floor, not an edge
Charismatic businesses create desire that didn't exist before
Four traits no AI can generate: conviction, risk, expression, change
Competitive analysis
YouTube
AI makes everything easy — and that's why it won't give you an edge
Alex M H Smith
February 26, 2026
Competitive analysis
9
Identity & self-belief
5
AI strategy & adoption
5
Abundant capabilities lose value — scarcity, not quality, is what markets pay for.
Content, marketing automation, and software are already commoditising fast.
Relationships, judgment, and original thinking remain genuinely hard and rare.
Deep work & focus
YouTube
Why silence makes you smarter than consuming content
Alex M H Smith
February 5, 2026
Deep work & focus
9
Productivity & habits
7
Mental health & wellbeing
5
Constant content consumption sedates your brain, not sharpens it.
Doing one thing at a time creates silence that forces real thinking.
An unstructured chat with one trusted person unlocks strategic breakthroughs.
The four ingredients every high-growth business needs
Alex M H Smith
November 27, 2025
Business models
9
Branding
7
Communication
5
Most CEOs can't answer what their business actually does.
New value needs high demand AND low supply — not just one.
A six-beat company story turns strategy into a team rallying cry.
Why most business strategies are just goals in disguise
Alex M H Smith
November 21, 2025
Vision & mission
9
Communication
6
Goals tell you what you want; strategy is the unique move to get there.
Markets reward the most different solution, not the objectively best one.
Your existing quirks and differences are the fastest route to real strategy.
Competitive analysis
YouTube
Nine strategy secrets for building a truly differentiated business
Alex M H Smith
November 11, 2025
Being 'better' than rivals just makes you the same as them.
Sacrifice is the only source of ideas competitors won't dare copy.
Look to competitors' blind spots, not customer research, for breakthroughs.
How seemingly dumb ideas turn into billion-dollar brands
Alex M H Smith
October 30, 2025
Niche selection
9
Branding
8
Product-market fit
6
Enter boring, settled categories — weirdness stands out more.
People buy to project a life they wish they had.
Conviction, not intelligence, bends reality to fit your idea.
Pitching investors
YouTube
How to make an average idea irresistible with four framing techniques
Alex M H Smith
October 21, 2025
Pitching investors
8
Vision & mission
6
Framing accounts for roughly half of whether an idea succeeds.
Inaction is your real competitor — sell the cost of doing nothing.
This structure works on a six-out-of-ten idea, never a three.
Test your strategy by explaining it to someone who doesn't care
Alex M H Smith
September 30, 2025
Vision & mission
9
Branding
5
Disinterested outsiders give the only unbiased read on your strategy.
Recording the chat reveals what to cut, keep, and lead with.
Strategy is half the idea, half how well you can sell it.
Five business red flags that signal a deeper strategy problem
Alex M H Smith
September 11, 2025
Business models
9
Niche selection
7
Every growth plateau is a structural ceiling, not a hustle deficit.
Price pressure vanishes when customers can't compare you to competitors.
Thin margins and weak leads both trace back to positioning, not operations.
A step-by-step blueprint for building a clear business strategy
Alex M H Smith
August 28, 2025
Vision & mission
9
Product-market fit
6
Most businesses fail because they copy competitors instead of creating new value.
Three mental models — disagreement, difference, duplication — unlock non-obvious ideas.
Strategy needs two separate stories: one for customers, one for your team and investors.
Dumb vs. smart business strategy: three critical distinctions
Alex M H Smith
August 12, 2025
Business models
9
Competitive analysis
9
Goals are not strategies — a real strategy answers how, not what.
Being better makes you the same; only being different lets you win.
If your competitors agree with your strategy, it isn't one.