The Art of Mindful Living
When do your lights flash red? Do you have a way to manage them? People often describe me as calm, reassuring, steady, focused, unbothered, and empathetic. It’s not inaccurate, but almost no one knows about my clenched fists and feet, my tight jaw muscles, my hypervigilance, my inner hermit always looking for the exits and […]
How Marketing Can Embrace Conservation Science Wisdom
Marketing could learn a lot from conservation science.
Humanizing Marketing
Marketers have a basic humanity problem. They see people as targets. They talk about people as targets. This mindset must end. The sad part is that most marketers I know are fantastically good people. Warm, humane, and thoughtful. I’m honored to work with them. But all of those qualities get lost in the mix of […]
Serving Up Success
Not every content strategy you read about is healthy or nutritious. Sometimes, it’s just gross—chewed-up scraps that won’t make anybody feel good. You might think you’re being thrifty or efficient by serving up your leftovers with some chips, but it’s not often all that appetizing. Or nourishing. Regurgitation often just makes people gag (just like […]
Decoding Decision States
Something unexpected happens when you market at very small scales. Many of the rules change. Your buyers exist in a superposition of decision states until they are engaged, at which point they collapse into a single state.
Against the Ideology of Stupid
I was bullied through most of school. A lot. Not just for being a non-conformist—eyeliner, torn clothes safety pins, as early 80s as you can imagine. Not just for being gay. Not just for coming from a single-parent household. There was a much deeper stigma… I was effortlessly, unstudiously, and unapologetically smart (i.e., good at […]
The Anti-Intellectual Cult of Writing Advice
Too much writing advice is just good old-fashioned tent-revival anti-intellectual crap. Writing experts intone their points with the cynical piety of anyone who broadcasts truisms—cynical because it positions those experts as having the solution to redeem people from their doomed attempts at thinking. I’m old enough to remember when dogma dictated we should write for […]
Lead With Why: How to Position Yourself as a Thought Leader in Your Industry
Founders, innovators, product managers: When you’re building something new, it’s easy to start ignoring the why. It’s even more likely that you forget to be vocal about why. Then you finally have something ready for investors or the market—but you feel like you’re starting at zero again. Your idea of what is new and better […]
Authenticity in a World of Thought Leadership
Nothing is new. Nothing is true. This dictum may seem strange when advocating for thought leadership, but hear me out. Let’s take the Pythagorean theorem, for example. In one sense, what better “thought leadership” than having a fundamental principle named after you? But: Back to thought leadership, what does this all mean? If becoming a […]
The “Graceful” Approach to Thought Leadership
The “Graceful” Approach to Thought Leadership Thought leadership is a challenge. Both people and companies get lost when trying to find meaningful ideas, focus on making them relevant, and figure out how to share them in compelling ways. It becomes awkward and uncoordinated. To overcome the challenge, you can approach thought leadership with ease and […]