The next few posts are going to be me talking about my book, not because I’m obsessed with myself (well, maybe a little), but because I think you’ll actually get something out of it. You knew I wrote a book, right?

Let’s be honest: the word creative doesn’t mean much anymore.

Every company says they’re creative. Every marketing deck has a section called “Big Ideas.” Every brainstorm starts with someone saying, “No idea is a bad idea!” before immediately shooting down the first one.

Meanwhile, everything looks the same. The same fonts. The same slogans. The same video that opens with “It starts with a spark…”

Let me hit you with a truth bomb: if your branding principles are holding back your creativity, your branding sucks.

Branding isn’t supposed to fence you in. It’s supposed to fuel you. It’s not a cage, it’s a springboard. The best branding doesn’t limit ideas, it sharpens them. It gives your creativity edges, so when it hits the audience, it leaves a mark

I have said similar things in previous posts but with more layoffs in the creative industry recently, it is worth reinforcing the fact that if we keep pretending that AI is “freeing creatives to be more creative,” we won’t have an ad industry in two years.

What we will have is an efficiency machine pumping out an endless scroll of generic, soulless content wallpaper that nobody wants to look at. Creativity, the messy, human, culture-making kind that built this industry, is being gutted under the polite fiction of “progress.”

And we’re letting it happen.

I have been getting slack from people over at Instagram for posting about being Jewish (I was born like this, get over it), so here I will share the other side of me... creativity. If you know me, you know I don’t shy away from speaking my mind. So fine, let’s pivot from cultural commentary to something a bit less controversial but just as personal: my love-hate relationship with constraints in creative work. Yeah, you heard that right. Today I’m going to drop some truth bombs about how having less, smaller budgets, tighter deadlines, fewer resources, you name it, can actually make you more creative...and yes this is a theme in my book, so please, go buy it!

I’ve been watching The West Wing a lot lately. I watched it when it first aired, but aside from the occasional YouTube clip, this is my first full rewatch. And let me tell you, I'm appreciating it in a whole new way.

Back then, I enjoyed it, sure, but I didn’t fully grasp the brilliance of Aaron Sorkin’s writing like I do now. The dialogue, the pacing, the depth, it’s next-level. The way Sorkin crafts conversations that are both razor-sharp and deeply human is something I completely overlooked the first time around. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right headspace back then, or maybe I’ve evolved, who knows.

Let’s get real for a second, when it comes to knowing what’s best for their customers, many brands are flying blind. They think they know. They have assumptions, gut feelings, and internal discussions that reinforce their own biases. But the truth? Some of them don’t have the slightest clue who their customers actually are, what they really want, or how to effectively connect with them.

Bringing in a consultant or agency is a big decision. I get it, it’s a serious investment. It’s not just the money, which can easily creep into six figures, but the time and energy spent getting someone up to speed on your business. Typically, it takes weeks (or months) before they’re even ready to deliver something meaningful. And honestly, who has that kind of time?

Creativity is being devalued, and it’s not just a problem—it’s a crisis. If we don’t wake up to what’s happening, we’re heading for a future where getting paid to be creative could disappear entirely. Let me explain.

Over the past few months, we’ve seen a troubling trend in industries like advertising and marketing. Agencies are laying off some of the best creatives out there, replacing them with AI-driven tools that are unproven, uninspired, and—let’s be honest—incapable of matching human insight and nuance. Yet these agencies are still charging clients top dollar, pretending the magic is still there. Spoiler alert: it’s not.