Alright, let’s be honest:

If you’re only planning to read one book this year... you’re probably either lying, burned out, or watching too many Instagram reels about books without actually opening one.

And hey, no judgment, we’ve all been there.

But if you are going to read one book this year? Make it Shoe Dog. Seriously. That book is a masterpiece. I’ll carry Phil Knight’s sneakers to thank him for writing it.

Now... if you decide to read two books this year?

So why did I write a book? Truthfully, it is not because I thought the world needed another book about creativity. (There are already too many that say the same high-level thing in different fonts.) I wrote it because I’ve spent 25 years in the trenches, the foxholes, the back alleys launching brands, blowing minds, and building ideas that actually work, and I wanted to finally put everything I know into one place.

It’s called The Only Creative Process That Matters. And yes, the title is pretty tame compared to the content inside.

One of the questions I get asked most is: “How do you come up with your ideas?”

The honest answer? We ask better questions than everyone else.

As I wrote yesterday, At The Idea Integration Co., we use a CIA-inspired framework called WoMBAT, short for What Might Be All The… It’s my secret weapon. It forces us (and our clients) to explore wide, weird, wonderful thinking before we narrow in on a final concept. It stops us from jumping at the first idea, and pushes us toward the right one.

People often ask me, “Saul, How do you come up with your ideas?” or “Saul, How do you think the way you do?” It’s not magic, and it’s not luck. It’s a process. A way of approaching problems that I’ve honed over years of experience in marketing, branding, and creating campaigns that grab attention and spark conversations. And the secret sauce?

It all comes down to WoMBAT.

I get asked all the time if I have kids, and I always answer the same way. "I have been traveling 100 thousand miles a year for work for a decade and often relied on the kindness of strangers to save me from boredom, so I am sure I have at least a few" (if you are an HR professional, please note that this is just a joke) but the truth is I do have babies all over North America and even a few in scattered around the UK, Brazil, and Australia.

The babies I am talking about are my ideas and my work.