About - Man Bites Dog

About Man Bites Dog

Signal over noise. Substance over spectacle. Results over rhetoric.

Man Bites Dog is a publication for founders, operators, and marketers who want to grow—without losing their minds, margins, or mission.

If “work smarter” sounds like fluff to you, but you still believe in doing things on purpose, welcome home.

This isn’t business content for the dopamine crowd. It’s for the quietly dangerous—those who build in silence, win with intention, and value clarity over chaos.

We believe:

The most powerful strategies often look boring from the outside.
Most funnels, tactics, and hacks are noise dressed up as innovation.
Great business is less about what you do, and more about when, how, and why you do it.

That’s what we study—and deliver.

The Philosophy

You’ll notice something different here:
We don’t “publish to publish.” We publish when there’s leverage to unlock.

Every insight, story, and challenge is rooted in a principle that actually works—and forged in the fire of real business.

That’s because Man Bites Dog isn’t just a newsletter.
It’s a deployment layer for the deeper models developed inside The Guardian Academy.

You could say:

“The Guardian Academy is where we think clearly. Man Bites Dog is where we act decisively.”

What You’ll Get

Free Subscribers:

Weekly tactical breakdowns (marketing, retention, models, and more)
Deep dives into mental models and leverage points
“Fastest Path to Cash” experiments
Access to our archive of field-tested insights

Paid Subscribers ($30/mo or $249/year):

🎙 The Afterbite – Unfiltered audio rants, playbooks, and live insights
📁 The Client Vault – Real campaigns and frameworks from 7–9 figure businesses
🧠 Mad Genius Briefings – Monthly perspective shifters that might piss you off… or make you rich
🎯 Make-It-Rain Challenges – One move each month to shift revenue or retention
💀 Dead Strategy Cemetery – Tactics that worked… until they didn’t
🗂 Premium Archive – Discontinued issues of The Letter, private trainings, and strategic docs
💬 Hidden Dialogue – Comment access, team replies, and real conversations

And if you go annual? You get:

The Black Envelope (Founding Members Only)

A one-time package shipped anywhere in the world containing:

🧠 The R3 Source Book – Nic Peterson’s private retention playbook
📎 Print-only tools and decision aids
📝 A personal note from Nic (possibly unhinged)
🧿 An Operator’s Token – Your symbol that you were here early

You can’t buy it. You can only earn it.

Who’s Behind This Madness

Nic Peterson – The Source
Everything starts with Nic.
His models, frameworks, and no-bullshit philosophy are the root system of Man Bites Dog.
If it’s clear, it probably came from Nic.

Laurel Portie – The Amplifier
Laurel turns strategic clarity into high-converting ads, viral content, and scalable distribution.
If it’s turning heads, Laurel touched it.

Joseph Robertson – The Synthesizer
Joseph distills raw ideas into usable frameworks and stories that stick.
If you’re reading it, he carved it from the source.

Together, they form a triangle of Clarity, Signal, and Scale.

Ready to Bite Back?

Business doesn’t have to be a carnival.

Get inside, stay sharp, and build something real:

Here are three easy ways to pay for years of Man Bites Dog (or something else)

If the price is an issue, just jump on board for the free subscription.

If you actually implement the free stuff, it’ll pay for your paid subcription many times over.

Here are some other ways to get the paid subscription for free

1. Expensing the newsletter.

Good news! Man Bites Dog is highly tactical, educational, and as a result, very expensable. Joining MBD can directly help you accelerate your managerial or marketing career.

To make the expensing process as easy as possible, we’ve created a template you can use to send an email to your manager. We’d love to welcome you aboard!

2. Profits In Plain Sight With Recapture and Reallocate.

“Recapture and Reallocate” has typically been a paid program. It’s so simple to implement and only takes about forty minutes. If you do the work, you will probably find “free money”. Far more than the cost of MBD+. The data is so consistent, that we decided to make it free for everyone's benefit. Recapture and Reallocate is free, here.

Recapture the resources (in this case, money) and reallocate it toward whatever you want to reallocate it toward. We’d love to see you in MBD, but if you decide to do something else with your found money… more power to you.

3. Become An Ambassador.

Refer like-minded people you think would jive with us, get TGA+ for free. Just grab your referral link and invite your kinda people to join the journey.

More “Fastest Paths To Cash” Pieces

Basic "Recapture and Reallocate": Money In Plain Sight by the Guardian Academy
Profits Hidden in Plain Sight: Email
Two Fast Paths To Profit & Three Questions with Nic Peterson (Video & Audio)

Best of Man Bites Dog

The Problem With Funnels. Still believe you’re one funnel away? Here’s why that might not be the case.
Profits Hidden In Plain Sight: Easy Email. Convinced email is dead? We’re not so sure. A case study on getting multiplicative returns via email.
When Trying To Scale Hurts You. This also touches on the dangers of hiring coaches and consultants focused on scale.
How Jeff Transitions From Healthcare Provider To Entrepreneur [Capstone Case Study]
Try This Productivity Trick Now. This is one of the models we use to keep our clients and ourselves on track

The Laurel Corner: Learn The Ultimate Ad Strategy

Sales:

Retention, Referrals, and Product

Video and Audio:

The Man Bites Dog Podcast. Includes:
- Two Fast Paths to Profit & Three Questions
- Scaling Might Hurt You
- Laurel Portie Spotlight - Content That Works
- Building Trust Quickly
- The Most Obvious Path to Cash
- …and more

Paid Resources:

The Success Circle [high-end group to learn from and collaborate with Nic and Laurel]

Subscribe to Man Bites Dog

Marketing, Sales Product & Business Growth that works. It's not sexy...until it is.