Dive deep into business, brand and strategy.
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How to get clients (A system)
(Note: This is from the Digest newsletter I send out every Tuesday. Sign up below.) Stop Building Websites. Start Building Relationship Capital. Relationship Capital is the only growth system that matters in service-based businesses (consulting/advisory). Not leads. Not traffic. Not brand awareness. Relationship Capital is the compound value of trust,…
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Air India’s Performance of Safety
This post is about the gap between what companies say and what they do. I wrote it to help you see the difference between a polished crisis response and a real commitment to change. You will get a look at the mechanics of corporate messaging versus the reality on the…
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The Lego turnaround story gets told wrong
The Lego turnaround story is often told. It is rarely understood. Most see operational discipline. Cut costs. Focus on the core. CEO saves company through efficiency. That reading mistakes tactical fixes for strategic architecture. 2003: Lego bleeds $1 million daily. Specialized pieces overflow warehouses. Star Wars sets rot after movie…
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Great Jeans, Not Great Genes
American Eagle’s “Sydney Sweeney Has Great Jeans” campaign triggered outrage, applause, and (crucially) 700,000 new customers. Everyone thinks they know why. They’re wrong. In this moment, we’re going to do three things: 1) The Hook: “It worked because celebrity + controversy” American Eagle hired a famous person, made a cheeky…
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Why Most ‘Positioning Experts’ Don’t Actually Understand Positioning
Let’s break down what’s really happening here, because Sara and Fletch have fundamentally misunderstood positioning while claiming expertise in it. What Sara Thinks She’s Describing Sara believes she’s making a sophisticated critique of strategic narrative. She thinks she’s being practical and buyer-focused by saying companies need to explain “what you…
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The $50B Homepage Optimization Scam Destroying B2B
The Beautiful Lie We’ve All Agreed to Believe Last year, B2B companies spent approximately $50 billion on website optimization, digital marketing platforms, and homepage redesigns. They hired consultants who promised “positioning breakthroughs” that mysteriously always culminated in a new hero image and a rewritten H1 tag. They ran thousands of…
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Brand: Where Executives Hide from Hard Decisions
When Tribune Publishing renamed itself “tronc” in 2016, the internet collectively cringed. But the real tragedy wasn’t the name it was what the rebrand concealed: a newspaper empire bleeding $14.8 million quarterly while its CEO had secretly paid $2.5 million to hide a racial slur scandal. The rebrand lasted two…
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The Autopilot Corp 2: Eight Warning Signs Your Company is Drifting
Your company’s doing fine. Revenue’s up. Stock’s steady. Everyone’s busy. So why does it feel like you’re all just going through the motions? I’ve spent years studying companies that seemed invincible, only to find out they weren’t. Kodak. Blockbuster. Sears. General Electric. Nokia. They didn’t fail overnight. They drifted into…
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The Autopilot Corp 1: Why Most Companies Drift (And How to Take Control)
Most businesses run on autopilot. They hit their numbers, serve customers, and keep busy. But they’re drifting, optimized for what worked yesterday, blind to what’s needed tomorrow. This isn’t about bad execution. It’s about something deeper: companies that mistake motion for direction, tactics for strategy, and busy work for meaningful…
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Becoming: The Architecture of Identity-Driven Positioning
Becoming is the quiet engine that moves every person and every company. It begins as tension: “What I am now” pulls against “what I could be.” When that tension is acknowledged and addressed, growth begins. But this tension is more than discomfort. It’s the fundamental force that drives all meaningful…
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Beyond the Positioning Facade: Why 95% of Companies Stop at Level 1
The Great Positioning Delusion We live in an era where every marketing consultant has become a “positioning expert.” LinkedIn overflows with thought leaders coining new terms for old concepts, calling storytelling “narrative positioning,” rebranding customer segmentation as “micro-positioning,” or confusing brand messaging with strategic positioning. The result? A marketplace drowning…
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What You Can Learn About Positioning from a Neuroscientist and Behaviour expert
For over two decades, I’ve taught that positioning is not what you say, it’s who you become. It’s not messaging. It’s not brand. It’s not storytelling. It’s the gravitational core of your business. The noun you own. The mental territory you occupy. The identity you help your customer step into.…
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