FOUR SESSIONS ON POSITIONING
Registration is now open for the Positioning Intensive workshop starting July 15 and Autonomous Strategy course
We are very pleased to announce the return of our workshop series Autonomous Strategy: a curriculum for strategic thinking in the age of machine intelligence. We haven’t done one of these since 2025 (some very interesting yet rather absorbing client work got in the way), and we’re stoked for the dialogue and intellectual stimulation that comes from connecting with this group.
There are two new things you can sign up for now:
Our Positioning Intensive live virtual workshop, four sessions which begin on July 15. In short, it’s all about how to gain ultimate relevance in a convulsive world where meaning and legibility just don’t work the same way. More on positioning in just a moment, and full workshop information here.
The Autonomous Strategy online course, which is an asynchronous video course capturing our best lectures and workshop material on strategy fundamentals, frameworks and anti-frameworks, and how to be creative and approach working thoughtfully in a volatile landscape. This one you can do at your own pace (and it’s instantly available when you sign up, in case you are curious to see some of our thinking in action right away).
(If you emailed us about waitlist, are a returning student or are a paid Nemesis Memos subscriber, check your email for special discounts).
With that in mind: thank you, to the hundreds (!!!) of people who have joined our waiting list over the last six months. The group for this round is already shaping up to be something really special. We would absolutely love to have you join us.
A big thank you as well to our friends at Are.na and Fuser who generously are offering bonus sessions and some free premium access to workshop participants.
As always, paid Substack subscribers and previous students get a discount on the workshops.
Our new web site and workshop fliers were designed by the legendary Michael Oswell.
Here is the description of the Positioning Intensive:
Positioning is the territory you occupy in someone else’s mind.
Positioning is remembered difference.
Positioning is what you’re known for rather than what you are.
Positioning is the answer people give when you’re not in the room.
Positioning is a monopoly on an idea.
Positioning is the lens through which everything else is interpreted.
Positioning lets the world work for you rather than the other way around.
Positioning is a practical yet somewhat mystical marketing concept from the 1970s about how to seize real estate in the public imagination. Perhaps you may have heard of it in a conventional marketing education, though possibly in a somewhat neutered variation, as the thing that happens after segmentation and targeting phases. Luckily, nobody at Nemesis has a conventional marketing education (we studied literature and architecture, respectively). Pattern recognition is not really a skill that you learn in school, least of all in conventional marketing courses, and positioning has a lot to do with pattern recognition – both practicing it and encouraging it in others.
Positioning has surged in relevance lately as companies struggle to penetrate an increasingly saturated and chaotic marketplace. We are navigating a landscape defined by volatile economic, demographic, and environmental shifts, compounded by a media environment in total convulsion as AI integrates into nearly every layer. Needless to say, the very significance of language itself is in question, conventional search and SEO tactics no longer work the same, and imagery is generally fake across the board. Meanwhile, we all live in parallel-universe media splinters where you might not have heard of your country’s most massive celebrity and you continue to have no clue what your mom is talking about. All these things affect what makes positioning so relevant today. The context is volatile and (luckily) there is only so much you can force feed people.
In simple terms, positioning is about figuring out the most advantageous way to describe whatever it is you’re bringing to market in a way that people can easily locate and understand it. It has a lot to do with the conventional marketing and branding ideas by Jack Trout and Al Ries from the 1970s, but it also has to do with ideas of metaphor, semiotics, legibility, and mimetics - the very building blocks of communication itself.
At Nemesis, positioning is one of the dark arts with which we are the most familiar; it’s part of our special sauce. We’ve done positioning for big fintech and AI players most recently; iconic media properties and museums in the past. In a way, it is a form of strategy that requires the most thoughtfulness and cunning of them all, a form of commercial poetry that relies mostly on brilliant thinking and language. And as AI makes production increasingly cheap, this practice becomes more and more significant. In other words: where brute force and sheer compute end, positioning begins.
Just to be clear: this is a moment of major historical transition in which to learn about positioning. It’s not really about how to be tactical in reaching a customer. It’s about understanding how ideas become legible and relevant in the world right now, and in that sense it also has to do with memetics and information theory. Whether or not you are actively strategizing for an organization, learning how to scale relevance and achieve targeted significance will help you.
In this workshop, we are going to look at the fundamentals of positioning and its historical background, as well as the philosophical, literary, and media studies topics that are related to it (and help provide an enriched and updated perspective). We’re going to learn the nuts and bolts of how to do positioning for your organization, project, or brand. We’re also – quite significantly – going to look at the ways that the media landscape and AI are shifting, and how SEO and writing for LLMs has changed the way products, projects, and ideas have to be positioned to break through into mass consciousness. We’re going to think about what relevance and legibility mean today, both philosophically and practically, and we’re going to look at the future of how all these things are going to develop.
This intensive workshop will include lectures, hands-on group exercises, take home assignments and discussions. You will also receive a workshop syllabus, dedicated resources, and a Telegram chat connecting you to the Autonomous Strategy community. Participants in this workshop will also gain access to the full Autonomous Strategy online course and asynchronous library of recordings, as a bonus. By the end of this workshop, you’ll leave with a positioning framework for your company, project, practice, or idea – and a clearer understanding of how relevance is produced in a machine-mediated world.
More information and sign up here
Workshop Modules
1. Positioning
What is positioning?
The origins: Al Ries and Jack Trout
positioning as strategy
adversarial environments
blue ocean / whitespace
positioning statements and frameworks
genericide
semiotics and metaphor
Live session + hands-on challenge
2. Relevance
What makes something matter and spread today?
narrative
semantic mapping
cultural context
legibility
relevance vs differentiation
mimetics
3. Legibility
Discoverability in the age of agents
Legibility then and now
Brand anxiety matrix
AEO and SEO after search
Discoverability
Writing yourself into LLMs
Mental real estate
Agent-facing brands
4. Navigation
What comes next?
Grey Ocean Strategy framework
Max pain landscape dynamics
Optionality vs. optimization
Hofstadter loops for positioning
Applying Autonomous Strategy concepts to real businesses
How to place asymmetric bets
Future scenarios
How to build a 12-month plan
More information and sign up here
What people have said about past workshops:
“Emily and Martti have the unique ability to consistently create advantage in an impossibly chaotic operating environment. Their workshops introduce the frameworks, perspectives, and rituals that have earned them a place as indispensable cultural interpreters and guides to some of the world’s most visionary founders, companies, and investors.”
“It’s honestly been really insightful. The practical stuff (tools, exercises, walkthroughs) was great, of course. It was also inspiring to hear and see Emily and Martti present and engage with each other. You two were so chill, casual, also open to learning. Thanks for showing us all that strategy isn’t about being the smartest or most intimidating person in the room—just the most curious.”
“I learned several things about AI strategy that I immediately implemented in my work. Also helpful to learn more about your process from 10k feet.”
More than 1,300 people from 20+ countries have participated in Autonomous Strategy workshops. More testimonials here
More information and sign up here
If you have any questions, or would like to bring a larger team to the workshop, please feel free to email us at info@nemesis.global
For more of our thoughts on positioning, check out our recent memo:
GREY OCEAN STRATEGY
Our workshop series Autonomous Strategy is coming back next month with a positioning intensive. More details soon. Email us to get on the waitlist.