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INSIGHTS

INSIGHTS

Yearly Archives - 2025

17May

I Talk to Dead People—But Here’s Where I Draw the Line With AI

I talk to dead people. Not literally—but close. I’ve asked AI to help me think like Carl Jung, Emerson, Teddy Roosevelt, or Peter Drucker. I use AI to summarize old blog posts. Punch up headlines. Tighten strategy decks. So —if talking to a machine trained on the ghosts of the internet counts as talking to dead people, I’m guilty. But there’s a line. And this is it: I don’t let AI write my emotional responses to people. Ever. The Real Problem → Outsourcing the Most...

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10May

How I Got Arrested (and What It Taught Me)

I once got arrested for swimming when I was 17. Not streaking. Not fighting. Not drunk driving. Just… swimming. In a pool. Here’s what happened: It was one of those hot Amarillo nights where your brain melts and you think, “You know what would really solve all my problems right now? Trespassing.” So my buddy and I jumped the fence of an apartment complex pool after hours. No big deal — we were staying with someone who lived there. We made a verbal contract:...

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03May

Stop Pitching. Start Hitting.

In 1914, George Herman “Babe” Ruth entered Major League Baseball as a pitcher. And not just any pitcher—he was elite. In 1916, Ruth posted a 1.75 ERA and won 23 games for the Red Sox. He was one of the best arms in the league. But something didn’t sit right. Because even then, when he wasn’t on the mound, Ruth was crushing balls in batting practice. He knew he had more to offer. Not just as a good pitcher, but as a...

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26Apr

Your Marketing ROI is Confusing. Here’s a One-Page Reset.

"THINK." The word that built IBM's early culture. And right now, it's what small businesses need to do more than ever when it comes to their marketing. A few days ago I finished reading Making Numbers Count by Chip Heath and Karla Starr. The subtitle is “The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers.” Like most people, I don’t naturally love numbers. They feel abstract. Cold. Easy to misunderstand—or worse, easy to ignore. Turns out that's normal. “Numbers are like foreign language. You need to translate...

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19Apr

The One-Word Expectation That Built a Billion-Dollar Company

"Think". One word. No fancy strategy deck. Just a sign. And that sign transformed a dying company into IBM. Sometimes, clarity isn’t just a value—it’s the entire difference between growth and confusion, trust and resentment, momentum and stall-out. And most businesses don’t lose because they’re lazy. They lose because expectations are fuzzy, assumptions are silent, and no one wants to ask the awkward questions. Before returning to the IBM story. Consider this: Misalignment Kills More Deals Than Mistakes Most relationships don’t break because of bad...

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12Apr

Marketing Moves to Make No Matter What Happens in Washington

Blindsided About 12 years ago, a couple of years after starting Expio, I was working on a new marketing campaign launch with a client. Everything was lined up—creative was approved, content scheduled, budget locked in. As a marketing company of barely over a year old at the time this was a large campaign for us. I was naive, excited, and not expecting what happened next. The day before launch, I got a call: “We have to pause. Our packaging and shipping costs just...

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05Apr

Are We Marketing to Impress Ourselves or to Move the Market?

The Most Embarrassing Day of My Life I was in the zone and running as fast down the field as I could. NO ONE could catch or stop me. It was 10th grade football and a day I'll never forget. I caught an interception and sprinted down the field—wide open, no one in sight. I was locked in, fully committed, adrenaline pumping. There was a ton of yelling from the sidelines that I assumed was cheers. It wasn’t. I was running the wrong way. Before I...

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29Mar

Why Doing Hard Things Is the Easiest Way to Live

Problem → The Exhausting Trap of Easy Most think the goal is ease. Less resistance. More comfort. Fewer constraints. But chasing the easy path often creates the hardest life: Decisions stack up unmade. Habits slide. Guilt builds. Health and appearance declines. Confidence fades. What looks like relief can end up costing you everything that matters. The irony? Doing hard things—on purpose—is the easiest way to live (also the happiest way) Quote → The Power of Hard Choices “Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life.” –...

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28Mar

Pip the Penguin: A Marketing Parable

Meet Pip.Pip felt lost in the noise of a chaotic penguin colony. All the constant squawking sounded the same, and Pip could barely understand any of it. Pip didn’t like squawking, but he went along with it. That’s what everyone else was doing. But he could never be heard. Pip knew he had a different song to sing. One day, while all the other penguins were going through their daily routine of meaningless squawking, Pip went to a quiet corner of...

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