Tag Archives: content marketing

When HiveLLM Pitches an Anti-Fraud Professional

I received a suspicious email from “Sara Romano,” a “scout” with HiveLLM who wanted me to bid on a biometric content calendar with a budget of “75000” (no currency specified).

HiveLLM has no corporate address, no LinkedIn presence, a website only a couple of months old, and an advertised business model in which you can ask a question for 10 cents.

Oh, and “Sara Romano” also cold emailed Danie Wylie, who also found the pitch sketchy: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0nvmhyuLpn3jwMv8K8sbK5EXfS4kcpjfWHicgj4BJhdFLMme87P5fvPSYf9CwjRH7l&id=100001380243595&mibextid=wwXIfr

A clear case of the need for Know Your Business (KYB).

And as you can see, HiveLLM failed a rudimentary KYB check.

But let’s ask some questions anyway.

“Sara, to confirm that HiveLLM is not a fraudulent entity, please provide your corporate address, registration information, and the identities of your owner(s) and corporate officers.”

UPDATE. At midnight Pacific Time, “Sara” sent a long response. Buried toward the end: “I’m unable to provide corporate registration or ownership details.”

Ubiquity Via Focus…On Where?

So Bredemarket’s talking about “ubiquity via focus”?

Focus on where?

On the Bredemarket blog, your source for the latest identity/biometric and technology news.

And your source for the most up-to-date information on Bredemarket’s content-proposal-analysis services.

Be sure to visit https://bredemarket.com/blog/

Or better yet, subscribe at https://bredemarket.com/subscribe-to-bredemarket/

Ubiquity Via Focus

Well, that’s done and over with.

So let’s move forward with the third year of the revived Bredemarket.

In case you missed it, Bredemarket provides content-proposal-analysis services for identity/biometric and technology firms by means of standard writing offerings.

And Bredemarket will improve its capabilities to serve you…by the means of ubiquity via focus.

No, Bredemarket isn’t ready to reveal what “ubiquity via focus” is yet…but I think you’ll figure it out.

Ubiquity Via Focus.

Two Years

On May 30, 2023 I wrote a post in the Bredemarket blog, announcing an increase in Bredemarket’s business hours to full time.

I also announced a change in scope.

“If you need a consultant for marketing or proposal work, and your company is involved in the identification of individuals, Bredemarket can accept the work.”

Because…I learned at 7:30 that morning that my individual identification employer was no longer my employer. Several of us lost our jobs that day.

As it turns out, my view of my employment future was overly optimistic.

“Maybe I’ll find a new full-time position in a couple of weeks, and I’ll again have to reduce hours and scope.”

As it ended up, I didn’t…and I haven’t.

Your credentials are too impressive, so we are moving in a different direction.

And I’m paying full price for my healthcare—no employer subsidy.

Your opportunity remains.

Bredemarket has openings.

(Pictures not from Craiyon, but from Imagen 4.)

Who Runs Your Company’s Marketing?

I found an open marketing position at Company X. 

Why was I looking at Company X?

Because I knew two people (long gone) at Company X, so the company came to mind.

Who runs marketing at Company X?

Because the open position was not an executive position, I searched LinkedIn for the company’s Chief Marketing Officer, or what the cool kids call the CMO. Anyone applying for the open position would want to talk to the CMO.

But I found:

  • No CMO on LinkedIn.
  • No Head of Marketing on LinkedIn.
  • No marketing head on Company X’s About Us page.
CMO-less.

But they’re hiring…a marketing manager.

Normally companies hire a marketing head, then let them build out their team. But in this case, Company X is starting in the middle by hiring a non-executive marketing manager.

Or maybe not. 

The CxxO and double duty

There’s a chance that one of the other executives at Company X is wearing the marketing hat, in addition to their other duties. 

This isn’t unusual in small startups, after all.

CxxO.

Now this makes it difficult for people outside the company who want to speak to the marketing head.

But who cares if it’s difficult for outsiders?

  • Yes it makes it hard for a marketing jobseeker to determine who the hiring authority is for an open marketing position.
  • And yes (because this blog is all about me) it makes it difficult for a product marketing consultant to pitch their services…especially when the two original contacts have left the company.

Making it hard for outsiders is actually GOOD for the company. Pesky outsiders can be pesky, especially if they’re calling at all hours and bumping their emails.

Who runs marketing at Company U?

But what’s happening on the inside of Company X, or at Company U (your company)?

  • Who determines what the marketing manager is supposed to do?
  • Who determines if the marketing manager is a success or failure?
  • Who determines the company’s marketing strategy?

And (again because this is all about me) who determines when the company needs outside consulting help, and who can answer the questions that the consultant will ask?

From the perspective of Bredemarket, I am much better off when a prospect company has a clear plan of how it can use my content-proposal-analysis services.

Does your company know what it wants to do?

(Imagen 4)

Bredemarket Writing Offerings as of May 29, 2025

Bredemarket’s current (as of 5/29/2025) writing offerings are listed below. To discuss, book a meeting at https://bredemarket.com/cpa/

Bredemarket 400 Short Writing Service
Bredemarket 2800 Medium Writing Service
Bredemarket 4000 Long Writing Service
Bredemarket 4444 Partner Retainer

You Missed Out By Not Creating Content Sooner

I just saw an ad for one of those smartphone apps that claims to make money for you.

The normal pitch is that if you install the app today, then you can make money in the future (pay for your next coffee).

But the ad I just saw had a much more effective hook.

The woman in the ad regretted that she hadn’t installed the app two months ago, because then she would have money TODAY.

Fear of missing out (FOMO)? This woman was paying the price for ALREADY missing out. Two months of extra income gone…forever.

So naturally I wanted to adapt this “you already missed out” message to Bredemarket content creation.

But there’s a problem.

Unlike the money apps, Bredemarket does not promise that its content will deliver sales to identity, biometrics, and technology firms this month.

In fact, it may take up to 17 months for my content to generate sales.

“It takes longer than three days for content marketing to yield results. One source estimates four to five months. Another source says six to twelve months. Joe Pulizzi (quoted by Neil Patel) estimates 15 to 17 months. And all the sources say that their estimates may not apply to your particular case.”

But…

…What if you were around back in June 2023 when I revived Bredemarket?

And what if you saw my June 1, 2023 updates post?

And what if you acted on its call to action?

“Which reminds me…if you need Bredemarket’s services:

“Send me an email at john.bredehoft@bredemarket.com.

“Or go to calendly.com/bredemarket to book a meeting with me.

“Or go to bredemarket.com/contact/ to use my contact form.”

And what if we met and I created content for you by June 30, 2023?

That content could have delivered sales throughout 2025…if not earlier.

But…YOU MISSED OUT.

Don’t make that mistake again. Let Bredemarket help you create content now: https://bredemarket.com/cpa/

Solving Problems vs. Problem-solving

Marketers, let’s return to school and talk about the difference between solving problems and problem-solving. Afterwards we’ll go back to work.

Marchetti SP and P-S

Some time in 2008 or earlier, Carolyn Marchetti heard this:

“Problem-solving is what you do when you don’t know how to solve a problem.”

She contrasts this with solving problems, where you apply known techniques to a problem that has already been solved.

Marchetti approaches this from an education perspective, where students ideally learn solving problems AND problem-solving.

Shah SP and P-S

This distinction is not unique to Marchetti’s anonymous speaker. Sam J. Shah, also dealing with students, notes the need for problem-solving in certain scientific disciplines:

“[M]ost of the work done in fields as sterile as combinatorics or as messy as molecular biology involves navigating corridors of inquiry, trying (and often failing) to draw connections, and coming up with new lenses with which to look at problems. Frustration and dead ends are part and parcel of working in these fields.”

Bredemarket SP and P-S

We encounter these issues outside of school when we go to work.

  • For businesses, Bredemarket usually solves problems: your prospects don’t know about you, your prospects don’t know why they should care about you, your prospects lack information. There are known solutions.
  • Occasionally, Bredemarket engages in problem-solving, where there are questions without clear answers, and you and I work together to determine how to move forward.

Your company probably needs to both solve tactical problems and perform strategic problem-solving.

How?

I’ve worked on both the strategic and tactical levels. Let’s talk. https://bredemarket.com/cpa/

(Imagen 4)

What’s Your Opinion of My Performance?

A lot of U.S. identity, biometric, and technology marketers like baseball. But some of you don’t know about the time that Paul Olden asked losing Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda a now-infamous question, “What’s your opinion of [Dave] Kingman’s performance?” (Lasorda’s response—edited—can be heard here.)

(Incidentally, while the picture of Lasorda looks realistic, it is not. Imagen 4 generated it.)

But any of us who write online worry about our own performance, whether we publicly admit it or not.

Why do the wrong things enjoy stellar performance?

Take Becca Chambers, who like the rest of us wants to perform well, but observed:

“There’s a direct inverse relationship between how much time I spend on a post and how well it performs.”

It’s happened to Becca, it’s happened to me, and it’s probably happened to you. Chances are that this post and its social reshares will NOT reach tens of thousands of views, but my trivial observations about silly stuff will. 

For me, these random posts delivered big numbers.

The performance that matters

But in the end, do impressions matter? I constantly remind myself not to chase impressions, and to that end offered this comment on Chambers’ post:

“Depends upon how you measure “performance.”

“If you measure performance based solely on impressions, then you can realize great performance by random succinct thoughts on ghosting or the em dash or whatever.

“But if you measure performance by your paying consulting client saying that they liked your post on an obscure topic that only you and the client care about…then say what you need to say to your hungry people (target audience) and don’t worry about getting 20,000 impressions or 500 likes.”

And if we need any confirmation about the temporary nature of impressions, let’s look at Dave Kingman’s performance for the Chicago Cubs on May 14, 1978. “Three homers, 8 RBI,  3 runs, 4 hits, 1 walk, 13 Total bases.” Plus an uncountable number of expletives from manager Lasorda.

By 1981 Kingman was a New York Met.

What about your performance?

So how do you create content that truly matters to people who will buy from you? By asking yourself some important questions and then developing the content.

And if you’re an identity, biometric, or technology firm that needs help to get content out now (rather than never), talk to Bredemarket. Not about bridges, but about your prospects. Book a free meeting: https://bredemarket.com/cpa/