rbitrary thoughts

• A camera has never taken a photograph. Only people have.
• Marketing and sales are kind of like an air conditioner. Marketing's job is to remove the heat and humidity while sales is to bring in the cool air.
• Creating content is a lot like growing a garden. It's a terrible idea if you need dinner tonight but a great idea if you want cheap, healthy, fresh food in the future.
• I should really try to let myself be bored more often.
• Creating creates creating.
• When I was a consultant, many of my clients, when looking for best practices, asked what other clients I worked with were doing. I would tell them, 'they're asking the same question about you'.
• My three favorite writers are Derek Sivers, Keenan, and Seth Godin.
• In this day and age, it's funny how many job postings have education requirements but rarely will mention anything about being self-taught or ongoing learning .
• "Favorite," "best," and "popular" differ in meaning: "favorite" is subjective, "best" blends opinion with some justification, and "popular" is purely objective, backed by data. Many artists are popular but that doesn't mean they're the best because that is the judgement of the audience.
• One day Goldilocks was walking through an office when she came to three desks that had projects on them. The first plan was too messy. There wasn't enough thought put into potential pitfalls and resources required. The second plan was too rigid and would never get off the ground. The person working on it is a perfectionist. This project will stay in plan mode indefinitely or be seriously delayed as it will never be perfect.The third plan had potential flaws but it was a really good start with potentially huge benefits. It could be easily refined later and it was something that should be released into the world. Sloppy and perfect are more closely related than we think. They both will consume a lot of time either in fixing issues or in delays in delivering. The third plan was just right.
• Grandmas are the ultimate brand. My kids went to my mother-in-law's house and they had ice cream while they were there. They couldn't stop talking about how good the ice cream was. As a special treat, I surprised my kids with the same ice cream. Same brand. Same flavor. Same container. Same size. My kids claimed it wasn't as good as the kind at Grandma's.
• In our jobs, people often treat everything like a heart attack—urgent and immediate—when some tasks need a steady, preventative approach, like managing high blood pressure. Quick fixes are costly and chaotic, while long-term, consistent efforts yield lasting results, reinforcing that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
• Hook by Blues Traveler is a brilliant, satirical, and meta song that makes me think about how the lyrics apply to a lot of what is posted on social media and in particular, LinkedIn. It's about a thin façade where nothing is really being said but it is wrapped in a pretty package and made to believe it is deep. It pulls us in and the hook brings us back.
• How long should a blog post be? It should contain as many (or few) words as it takes to deliver value, get your point across, or make an impact.
• If you're worried about "bothering" your prospects and customers with your marketing; you're probably not doing a very good job.
• Imposter Syndrome and the Dunning–Kruger Effect seem to be two sides of the same coin. With imposter syndrome, brilliant people don't believe they are and live in fear of being exposed as frauds. Dunning-Kruger, on the other hand is a cognitive bias where people lack awareness of their skills and the less skilled they are at something, the more they believe that they're good at it.
• Watching my daughter's soccer game, I noticed kids crowding the ball, getting stuck and kicking each other's shins, while one player outside the scrum had a clear path to score. Many marketers behave the same way, flocking to common tactics like gated content and webinars, getting lost in the noise. But like the player outside the group, those who break away from the crowd have a clearer shot at success.
• Most of what we work on today won't actually matter.
• Much of the marketing reporting I've seen over the years is like Bernie Madoff—always positive, month after month. By glossing over failures and cherry-picking data, these reports mislead. True growth includes setbacks and honest learning. Without objective analysis, reporting becomes self-justification, masking gaps and risks. Endless "success" reports can hide stagnation, raising questions about real progress.
• Rebrands often follow a shallow formula: survey the market, adopt popular beliefs, and repackage messaging—without real change. Brands trying to please everyone end up sounding alike, lacking true authenticity. Real impact requires genuine values, not just buzzwords, or else credibility fades, leading to yet another rebrand cycle.
• All refrigerators keep food cold, so why does Lowe's have over 1,000 results on their refrigerators page? Because keeping food cold isn't what people are actually interested in.
• Ten percent off isn't the same as a 10 percent bonus. With 10% off a $100 purchase, the customer pays $90. With a 10% bonus, they pay $100 and receive a $10 coupon to use later to make yet another purchase. This difference in framing taps into "mental accounting"—the bonus feels like free money, often leading customers to make purchases they wouldn't otherwise consider. How offers are framed can influence spending behavior.
• True competition isn't always obvious. Netflix, for example, competes more with Fortnite than HBO. In marketing automation, other agencies could be allies, while the real competition might be in-house teams or companies undervaluing the platform. Marketers compete across channels, not just industries, and sometimes our biggest competitor is ourselves, constantly challenging us to add value and adapt. Competition is often the one we least suspect.
• Here's a movie plot you'll never see: the main character has a perfect life—great childhood, top school, steady career, easy retirement. We root for underdogs, yet social media pressures us to hide our flaws and project success, creating insecurity and resentment. Vulnerability may be scary, but sharing struggles makes us relatable and shows others they're not alone. In a world of perfection, we need real stories.
• Listening to The Office Ladies podcast, I learned that The Office faced uncertain renewals in its early seasons, and cast members even had backup plans. Seinfeld went through something similar. This highlights that revolutionary ideas often take time to resonate. It makes you wonder—how many brilliant shows were cut before they were truly appreciated? Success and failure are often a matter of timing, not brilliance. Narratives are funny that way.
• Threats and opportunities: Change can be resisted or embraced as an opportunity. When the internet threatened traditional revenue models, media companies overloaded web pages with ads and gated content rather than seeing it as a chance to gather data on customer interests—they could have become Google.
• I really enjoyed "A More Beautiful Question" by Warren Berger. Great ideas stem from great questions. Turning ideas into "what if" questions opens up new possibilities. For instance, a coach's question about hydration led to Gatorade, and a child's curiosity sparked Polaroid cameras. Instead of brainstorming ideas, try "question-storming" to uncover questions that drive true innovation.
• Most brands focus on making themselves the hero instead of their customers.
• Would you charge people to read your content? If not, why?
• No matter your job, you should work on writing and sales.
• When I worked for a web design agency, I'd often hear clients say they wanted to update their "dated" website. Looking back, I wish I would have told most of them to save their money. Redesigning a site with low traffic is like redecorating an empty restaurant. Instead, focus on driving visitors to the site otherwise a great looking site doesn't matter.