I saw a post today from Stephanie Agresta talking about SXSW and how they have reimagined the footprint of the festival. The post caught my eye because SXSW is a big part of my career.

I’ve been to SXSW eight times and seven of those were in a row, mostly with FreshBooks , but also tagging along with two other startups hellbent on making noise. And every damn year we managed to stir things up so well that we’d get a polite (but clearly annoyed) email from the organizers: "You got us this time, but we’re closing that loophole for next year."

For me, it happened last week.

I was talking with my cousin. She’s cool. She’s fun. She’s wildly successful in that effortless “Oh, I didn’t realize you were on that board” kind of way. We were bouncing around ideas about travel and food and all the things that make life feel like more than just a to-do list.

Then she said this.

“Do you know why they call things better? Because better is better. That’s why they call it better.”

I swear to you, time froze for a second.

Here’s the rule I live by: If your idea doesn’t make someone nervous, it’s probably not good enough.

The best marketing ideas don’t live in the middle of the road, that’s where roadkill happens. They live on the edge. They make people feel something. They make people talk.

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.

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?

If you have ever seen me speak at a conference or listened to any of my podcast interviews, you will know I am a little bit of a broken record when it comes to my belief that brands need to stand out and be different. There are a lot of ways to be different, but no matter what anyone tells you, meaningful difference is the cornerstone of brand value.

Many years ago, working with a data research client, we conducted an experiment where we created 3 new brands. These brands were over the top "offensive" and were supposed to turn people off and insight rage. The three bands (pictured) were a beer brand for older men who love barely legal women, a soda for women who were victimized by #MeToo, and my favorite, Thong Diapers.

Disruption is an overused word. It can mean a lot of different things, but at its heart it’s a catch-all for pushing the limits of something. In the case of disruptive marketing, it can mean pushing the limits so you can be where your customers or prospective customers are. Sometimes that means going to a competitor’s conference (or any conference) with or without permission.