The Power of Thought Leadership for High-Stakes Decisions
One thing B2B marketers often get wrong—they use generic, mass-market tactics for small-to-mid-sized businesses when their buyers are large enterprises. They put traffic ahead of trust. This mistake seems more common among smaller and newer providers, but it happens elsewhere, too. The thing is, the buying decision for a high-stakes, high-ticket purchase doesn’t work like […]
Attracting the Right Audience Through Your Approach
How you do marketing reveals a lot about what you value and how you see other people. It also sends signals about how your company views and treats others—above and beyond the surface-level messaging in your marketing collateral. And finally, those signals attract like-minded, similarly oriented prospects. Market with big ideas, focused on advancing the […]
AI Content Creation: Good Enough vs. Crafted Communication
Using AI to create is just fine for creating content that only needs to be “good enough.” I recently used a tool that automatically assembles stock video clips based on keywords in a given script. Clips are well-rendered, transitions are smooth, the background music and automated voiceover are fine. A videographer or professional editor would […]
Unmasking the Battle for Genuine Communication in a Formulaic Content World
A few thoughts about generative AI and LinkedIn “bros.”* * LI bros: Heavy LI posters (essentially always men of a certain generation) who promise to 10x everything, and provide you with frameworks, templates, courses, etc. ** Heat death: A hypothetical end state of any system, up to and including the Universe, in which energy is […]
Disagreement Should Not Be Upsetting
Disagreement should not be upsetting. I come from an academic background where people could disagree in public vehemently and then go out for collegial dinner and drinks afterward. Not as an exception but as a norm. It’s just how debate happened when people had different approaches to a text or topic. Of course, there were […]
Brevity Doesn’t Matter
Brevity doesn’t matter. Neither does length. What matters is whether the work you are asking your readers to do to understand your point is commensurate with the amount of work your readers are willing and able to do. If brevity actually mattered, we’d just say wu (無) and go on with our lives. If length […]
How to Write Marketing Emails
Before you write your next marketing email or newsletter… Spend two hours reading as many of the marketing emails and newsletters you’ve received as you can. Everything you’ve let languish in your inbox. I mean, actually read them. Don’t just open them. Was it a good use of your time? How do you feel? How […]
Fundamental Principles of Marketing and Communication
“Two fundamental principles of marketing and communication: Attention is a limited and non-renewable resource. Communicators have a moral obligation to earn it and use it well. Transgression is generative. New thinking requires crossing the lines of old norms.” Read my full interview with Genius X for more.
Thought Leadership and AI
Thought leadership consulting is like skin care. At least that’s what this surreal cold email suggests. And since surrealism invites us to consider unexpected correlations, I figured I should give it a go. ✅ Attentive care to client needs ✅ Helping tighten, brighten, and remove blemishes ✅ Easy to commoditize but rate to excel ✅ […]
Asking Powerful Questions
Such a powerful question for leaders and planners: “Would I want this outcome even if I didn’t know my role within it?” It’s a bit abstract, but think of it more concretely as “Would I design this process or organization this way if I didn’t know what my role would be?” The question surfaces issues […]