Mah oh man, Reader, have I been on a frickin' journey!

When I started B2BWI in 2019, I went to a conference and came away completely swept away by the idea of authenticity and "being myself" instead of this neutral version of an institution I thought I needed to be.

I wrote this line down every day for months:

"Authority does not come from neutrality."

This was my rejection of the buttoned-up way we report on and study the way we write for business, particularly in B2B.

It was the high-dive jumping off point of my whole B2BWI brand: Sarah, unleashed, sassy, and making tons of money leading the next gen of writers also making tons of money.

But as I grasped the full picture of the B2B marketing ecosystem, I realized something...

B2B marketing is not a high-dive into a pool. It's a closed water cycle.

Do you see my name and your name in there? I don't.

I don't see AI, either. Or any specific technology or company or person. This is all an impersonal system that we can choose to tap into and out of, and the only measure is profit and the demands of the market.

Is that the only thing you CAN measure? No.

But it is the only measurement built into the way this world works right now.

If you decide to make choices based on values, flexibility, justice, relationships.... just know this system doesn't work FOR you. You are building your business DESPITE the system.

And right now, AI is meeting the demands of the market (our clients) even if it is not meeting our demands for values, justice, relationships, creativity, meaning, connection (OK I have to stop the list it would just keep going).

How are YOU feeling?

I've wrestled with this for months. I've found myself firmly on both sides of it at different times. I've felt grief, fear, anxiety, excitement, and finally peace.

And B2BWI is going to evolve to meet B2B marketing where it is right now.

How can you and I work, with our ethics intact, within a system like this? What does it mean for our livelihoods, literally? Our clients, figuratively?

And furthermore... who is our client now? What do they need, considering the technology available to them now — and is it something we already know how to do?

​Here's my mission. These are the questions I intend to ask, answer, study, and answer again.

What does this mean for you and me?

[intimidating French horn toot] There is no writer in B2B marketing. There is now only marketer and strategist with a writing background.

I never could have thought I'd say these words. I still deeply identify as writer inside (and coach and teacher and artist). And those identities will follow me into this new phase of B2BWI.

But, as far as how we fit into this B2B marketing cycle, we are experiencing a dramatic flip in the freelance needs of the market from two years ago (95% writers, 5% marketers) to today (5% writers, 95% marketers).

I can count on one hand the people I know who are confidently just writing right now and not experiencing a significant slump/ghosting of "the usual" freelance writing work.

I don't recommend the space for newbies anymore without a deep niche of experience to lean on (essentially being a SME in your buyer's audience).

And I don't see a future ahead for purely writing instruction, as much as I deeply believe that pursuing such a thing is a glorious expression of and investment in our own humanities.

... 💔

Buttoning up my suit

So, will I now try to couch my authority in neutrality like all the other buttoned-up slop-buckets in the marketing space that want to "innovate" and "disrupt" and "provide value"?

A little.

B2BWI is shedding layers, growing into a gap in that B2B marketing cycle where those of us with a gift for words need to reskill with marketing and strategy and other marketing-adjacent services and offers we can bring to the new needs our new clients have.

I hope you will join me on this journey, I hope you will give yourself a chance to grieve and process what's happening, I hope you will tease out the inner layers so you can choose your next step instead of reacting yourself into a corner.

Simply put — I hope.

To the recycled demands of the market,

Sarah G.

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