TIPOFF The San Antonio Spurs led the Knicks by 29 points in Game 4 of the NBA playoffs. They lost. Three nights later, they lost again, and the series with it. Here's what actually happened, because it has very little to do with basketball. The Spurs had a story that only worked when the shots were falling. They hit 17 threes, built the lead, and looked unbeatable. Then the shooting cooled, and there was no second story. No backup plan. The lead was gone, and so were they. The Knicks had...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
The bravest thing I'm doing lately: not trying to talk to everyone at once. When Aaron Strout walked away from a 14-year run as chief marketing officer at Real Chemistry in early 2025, he said the first six months on the other side were disorienting. Not depressed. Not regretful. Disoriented. He told me when I interviewed him for a profile that every day could theoretically be a weekend, and that turned out to be its own kind of problem. I’ve been thinking about that since the call. Not...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
STARTING LINE Mistakes. I've made a few, as I've learned over the past month. I recently interviewed a founder for an article and had a list of questions for him. At one point, Scott referred to his fundraising as "professional begging." Did I stop running through my questions? Sadly, no. So I missed an opportunity for something special (more on that later). If you've been interviewed for a podcast, profiled in a trade publication, or recorded a sales call this quarter, you're sitting on...
3 months ago • 5 min read
Does Your Website Has Spinach in Its Teeth? A consulting firm hired me because its pipeline had dried up. Great reputation. Strong client work. Nobody calling. I looked at its website. Its “About Us” page still called them “a fast-growing startup.” They’d been in business for 15 years. The home page didn't tell me what they do, how it will make the reader's life better, and what the reader needs to do to get it (Donald Miller's Grunt Test). Their services page listed three different value...
8 months ago • 4 min read
If you're a recent grad who's been job searching for months—or a parent watching your graduate collect rejection emails—this message is for you. Maybe you're over 50 and getting passed over yourself. Maybe it's your kid who can't land that first role despite a stellar GPA. Or maybe (and this is the brutal reality for some families) it's both. You've sent out dozens, maybe hundreds, of applications. You've tweaked resumes. You've applied to jobs you're overqualified for and jobs that are...
9 months ago • 2 min read
I'm shamelessly stealing from Chris Orzechowski for this quick post (with a tip of the hat to Josh Spector for sharing this idea). I'll have a meatier post on conducting a quick review of your website and/or LinkedIn profile in the next few days, but I'd love to get feedback from each of you today. Imagine you could hire me to help you with your individual or corporate brand messaging for $0. What would you have me do for you? What problem would you want me to solve for you? How could I help...
9 months ago • 1 min read
I'm shamelessly stealing from Chris Orzechowski for this quick post (with a tip of the hat to Josh Spector for sharing this idea). I'll have a meatier post on conducting a quick review of your website and/or LinkedIn profile in the next few days, but I'd love to get feedback from each of you today. Imagine you could hire me to help you with your individual or corporate brand messaging for $0. What would you have me do for you? What problem would you want me to solve for you? How could I help...
9 months ago • 1 min read
They're not ghosting you. They just don't see you. A 50-year-old exec posted this on Reddit after months of job searching: “154 resumes sent. 48 rejections. Nothing from the rest.” If you’ve felt that silence, you know how brutal it is. But here’s the truth most career advice won’t tell you: 👉 It’s not your age. It’s your positioning. You’re fishing with 2015 bait in 2025 waters. And that’s why you’re invisible. The good news? Visibility isn’t luck. It’s a skill. And you can fix it. Here are...
11 months ago • 1 min read
They're not ghosting you. They just don't see you. A 50-year-old exec posted this on Reddit after months of job searching: “154 resumes sent. 48 rejections. Nothing from the rest.” If you’ve felt that silence, you know how brutal it is. But here’s the truth most career advice won’t tell you: 👉 It’s not your age. It’s your positioning. You’re fishing with 2015 bait in 2025 waters. And that’s why you’re invisible. The good news? Visibility isn’t luck. It’s a skill. And you can fix it. Here are...
11 months ago • 1 min read