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We make zombies here.

— OR — The unbearable lightness of zigging while the world zags ... FWD 124 Hold tight, chickadees while I briefly take you back to the roaring 1990s. Friends is the biggest show in the world, Rose is kicking Jack off that floating door as the Titanic sinks, and the world is waking

The conversations inspiring me

Fewer Marketers | Touch Grass | Better Workers | Authenticity

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.