The conversations inspiring me
Fewer Marketers | Touch Grass | Better Workers | Authenticity
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For the love, do less
FWD 123: Why leaders so rarely produce leaders
Not much keeps me up at night. Other than chronic pain, that is. Living with chronic illness is a really fun time, but that's a newsletter for a different day. One of the side benefits of living with years of
Hope IS a Strategy
Right now, a lot of businesses are operating from a place of contraction. Taking what they can from a shrinking pie. But the winners? The ones who will make it through this moment and thrive? They’re not focused on getting a bigger slice—they’re focused on making a bigger pie
The only two things I require of a leader
Catalytic leadership is the one requirement for any meaningful change. And growth is always change.
It's not you. It's the *gestures broadly* this 👉
This polarization and degradation of trust at scale is incontrovertible and organizations that ignore its effects on how buyers buy and clients trust do so at their peril. Leaders say, "We don't know what happened. We used to have no problem getting new clients, now... if we're honest..."
You have to choose
Leaders imagine deep impact while running a business on "wide" actions. Margins are consumed. Prospects are confused.
You can't be both broad and deep without spending ungodly amounts of usually someone else's money. It's time to decide.
Gratitude is magic
2025 Week 5: Headlines, Hubris, and Happy Places
💡Upcoming Opportunity: If there is one place where firms need to check their ties to the status quo its in content strategy. I'm laying out my rules for content and answering all your related questions in our second online forum
What's the best advice you gave this week?
Most founders/CEOs convince themselves that if not for them, the entire growth enterprise would collapse into itself, but the truth is, the executive suite is the primary reason why content operations fail and why brands underperform. Good news is, they can fix it.
Finding your client in a house of mirrors
The Internet is shattered, leaving nearly every adult human dangerously dependent on accessing what to buy, where to buy it, what to think, and who to trust, through portals with no allegiance to truth or value, only to the highest bidder.
Mapping Distrust
Your success depends on trust. And we are in a post-trust society. The post-trust society snuck up on us slowly and is now urgently here. Wherever the business of trust is in play, pivots will be required.
The Good List 2024
FWD 114: Things I loved in the year that was
One of the things you loved--most viewed, most commented, most shared, etc.--was the series of posts over the last six weeks framing the fundamental change in the marketing/media landscape, where we are and what happens next. One friend
2025: Love is for the ones who love the work
Leading in 2025 will be the product of passion, of vulnerability, of joy. It will belong to those who still believe in something worth making. Growth is a required feature of 2025. This is where we think you'll find it.
Weaponized nostalgia: Four things I finally learned in 2024
The fundamental culture that produces reliable business growth has dramatically changed. And it means we've got to learn lessons we've been avoiding for years. These were my hard lessons in 2024.
Better boats in a bigger storm -OR- what 2024 taught us about trust
The fantasy that you could just podcast-SEO-blog-social media your way to a community of happy customers has ended. But the storm is just beginning.