authenticity

Be a Flower, Not a Butterfly Net

  I hosted a men’s circle earlier this year and a young man said something brilliant: be a flower, not a butterfly net. It reminds me of something I heard colleagues say for years: be a lighthouse, not a searchlight. Butterflies run away from nets. People run away from searchlights. Of course, it’s dangerous to

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On Promises

The purpose of marketing is to make promises. The purpose of your business is to keep them. Most traditional cultures in the world are overflowing with proverbs around the importance of keeping your word and doing what you say you will do. It’s certainly true for my own Scottish and Celtic ancestry. “If I break

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Marketing Feels Bad Because We’re Ashamed Not Because It’s Shameful

The other day, I was wondering about why there was such an appeal to marketing courses that taught secrets of unconscious persuasion, stealth tactics, invisible influence, secret closes, ninja strategies etc. The implication of all of these approaches was that no one would notice what you were doing. No one would notice that you were

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Stop Trying To Be So Authentic

Authenticity is not a goal. It’s a byproduct of something else. It’s not something you can put on like a coat. It’s not a strategy. It’s not something you can posture at. It’s not even the goal. It’s the result of something else that you’re doing. There’s the old story of the archer who misses

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80 Minute Video: Conversation on Transparent Marketing with Simon on the Sofa

  I just had an 80 minute google hangout with a dear friend and colleague in the UK who’s known as Simon on the Sofa. We spoke about how marketing often feels ‘off’ even, sometime especially, when it’s called ‘conscious marketing’. We spoke about how dating and marketing were intimately connected and about the importance

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