> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://kelfordinc.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # How to get better marketing by getting better at marketing — Kelford Labs Weekly - URL: https://kelfordinc.com/how-to-get-better-marketing-by-getting-better-at-marketing-kelford-labs-weekly/ - Published: 2026-10-01T11:09:53.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-01T11:09:53.000Z - Description: Keep your hand on the wheel. - Author: Joel Kelly - Tags: accountability, ai, attention, avoidance, commentary, connection, control, effort, experience, feedback, measure, practice, process, tools, thinking, tradeoff, Weekly Labs Many of my most positive memories from childhood are about driving go-karts at various amusement parks on Prince Edward Island. Our family vacations back then were two-week camping trips, and when we’d head out for family adventures, we’d often end up at [Sandspit](https://www.maritimefun.com/sandspit/) or [Burlington](https://www.tourismpei.com/attractions/burlington-go-karts-and-amusement-park) (iykyk). Trouble was, for a few years I was too young to drive the “good” karts at one of those parks. They had the ones for kids, but those were slow and sad and no fun to drive. **I wanted to drive the *big* karts.** So, one year, we were so excited to see that they’d gotten new karts, and these ones were both big *and* had another seat for a kid, with its own steering wheel! My dad was excited, too, because he was as annoyed as I was that I wasn’t allowed to drive the good karts, and this solved that problem. But you can already guess where this is going: **The kid’s steering wheel wasn’t attached to anything.** It just spun in place. Halfway through our first lap around the course, my dad pulled the kart over and we switched places so I could drive the real thing. We got a few dozen feet before the teenagers attending to the track stopped us and told us that wasn’t *at all* allowed. I don’t have a ton of fond recollections from back then, but my dad insisting I was old enough and responsible enough to drive the kart is one of them. But, alas, rules are rules. So we switched back and finished our laps, disappointed and frustrated. **I remember my dad saying, “How is he going to learn to drive it if the steering wheel doesn’t even work?”** It’s kind of a basic point, but you don’t learn how to do something by *not* doing it. You learn from the feedback of [practice](https://kelfordinc.com/practice-before-you-perform-kelford-labs-daily/). Sometimes I think about AI or offloading all your marketing to a third party as steering with that kids’ steering wheel. **It looks like you’re driving, but you’re really not.** And you’re not learning anything important about *how* to drive if you ever got behind the real wheel. That’s why I’m always going [on](https://kelfordinc.com/how-are-you-dewing-kelford-labs-weekly/) [about](https://kelfordinc.com/you-cant-steer-standing-still-kelford-labs-daily/) [marketing](https://kelfordinc.com/commentary-secret-marketing-performance/) [*practice*](https://kelfordinc.com/what-would-you-do-to-prepare-kelford-labs-daily/). It, like driving, is a type of *performance*. And performance is the type of thing you get better at by practicing, not by someone or something doing it all for you. But why does that even matter? Why *can’t* you just offload it all, if it’s working, if it’s easier, if it’s faster? **Because the feedback you get on your *marketing* is** [**feedback**](https://kelfordinc.com/measurement-is-a-loop-not-a-line-kelford-labs-daily/) **you’re getting about your** [***offering***](https://kelfordinc.com/know-what-to-say-know-what-to-sell-kelford-labs-weekly/)**.** The only question is whether anyone’s there to receive and act upon that feedback. When we focus our marketing on doing more, or on doing it faster, or on doing it with less of our own involvement, we’re disconnecting our steering wheel from the action of the vehicle. We’re just sitting off to the side, letting the AI or the third-party make all the decisions, and they might not be in a position to actually integrate that feedback into the rest of the business or its offering. **Getting better at marketing, then, requires having a hand on the wheel.** So that we notice the responses, the feedback, the results. And we can change what we offer, and how we offer it, based on how people respond to [what we *say* about what we *do*](https://kelfordinc.com/what-you-do-is-what-you-say-kelford-labs-daily/). I’m not saying you *mustn’t* use AI for your marketing but I *am* saying you should be able to do marketing without it. You don’t want to lose that skill, because once it goes it may be gone for good. **And then you’re perpetually in the other seat, spinning a wheel that doesn’t do anything.** To have new ideas, to have novel thoughts, we need to receive outside feedback and stimuli and *experience*. We need a connection to the work and who it works on. Seeing it as a task to outsource or a chore to avoid removes our ability to improve it, and the only thing that makes it better is a new model from Anthropic or OpenAI, or our third-party marketing partner improving their own process. **But is it good to be so dependent?** I get the desire to avoid marketing, to put it off, but as Peter Drucker wrote, “Most executives have learned that what one postpones, one actually abandons.” When we put off our marketing we put it away. If we want to get better at it, to even become an expert at it, we need to approach learning it intentionally. I love how Gary Klein puts it in *Sources of Power:* “After reviewing the literature, I identified a number of ways that experts in different fields learn: - They engage in deliberate practice, so that each opportunity for practice has a goal and evaluation criteria. - They compile an extensive experience bank. - They obtain feedback that is accurate, diagnostic, and reasonably timely. - They enrich their experiences by reviewing prior experiences to derive new insights and lessons from mistakes.” The question is, how much does your *marketing* process look like the *learning* process Klein suggests? - Are you engaging in deliberate practice? - Are you compiling extensive, first-hand experience? - Are you getting timely feedback? - Are you able to learn from your mistakes? I know this sounds inefficient and slow, and that’s because it is, in a way. It will slow you down. But was the goal to do more, worse? [Or less, better](https://kelfordinc.com/do-less-better/)? Like David Epstein wrote in *Range*, “the most effective learning looks inefficient; it looks like falling behind.” Claude can output more tokens faster than I can. That’s for sure. **But I can still get my work done when Claude is down. My marketing doesn’t stop when the AI does.** Does yours? Could it? AI and third-party outsourcing partners are like an overflowing jar of water. They may give us seemingly endless outputs at our convenience, whenever we want them. But like Leonardo da Vinci put it, “He who can go to the fountain does not go to the water-jar.” **Or perhaps more appropriately, the marketer who *practices* their own marketing doesn’t need someone else to *perform* it for them.** My dad couldn’t convince those go-kart attendants to let me drive the big kart, and I probably can’t convince anyone all-in on AI to put their hand back on the wheel. But if you’re worried that your marketing is moving and you’re not steering it, that might be a sign to start practicing more of it yourself. So that you get the feedback, you get the learning, and you get the results you’re looking for. **Instead of spinning the wheel in place, and hoping your marketing goes where you want it to.** *Reply to this email if you’d like to talk more about how to do just that.* --- [***Kelford Inc.***](https://www.kelfordinc.com/) ***are content marketers for expert advisors. If you’re struggling with what to say and where to say it to attract your ideal clients,*** [***we’ll show you the way***](https://kelfordinc.com/contact/)***.***