This Wednesday I wrapped up LiveHard Phase 2. One of the books I finished along the way was Reset by Dan Heath. His work reminded me of a powerful tool from solution-focused therapy that is just as useful in business and life as it is in a counseling office: the Magic Question. The Magic Question has several versions, but goes something like this: "Pretend you go to bed tonight, and while you sleep everything that is stressing you out is solved. All...
A law firm starts posting social content. A healthcare practice starts updating its Facebook and Instagram. An accounting firm starts sending regular emails. A clinic launches a podcast. An engineering firm finally updates its site after five years. In each case, the results are...probably not much. Flatline. Whatever uptick the efforts caused, the momentum fades. And leadership says: “We tried marketing this or that way. It didn’t work.” Let’s pause there. What were you expecting? It's noisy out there and no one really cares...
Jessica, the marketing director for a regional medical device company, was frozen. She had a great campaign idea for an educational video series showing how their equipment improved patient outcomes. But every draft kept coming back with notes from legal: “Needs more disclaimers,” “Cannot imply results,” “Risk of regulatory violation.” Weeks went by, and the campaign never launched. This is the Compliance Trap: the cycle of great marketing ideas stalling or dying because businesses in regulated industries can’t afford breaking the...
The Days That Do Not Go Your Way Some days it feels like nothing clicks. The sales call goes flat. The proposal sits unanswered. The inbox piles up. The people you rely on disappoint you. The scoreboard looks like a loss no matter how you read it. When you are in a stretch like this, the temptation is strong to slip into ruminating or coping. You replay conversations, dwell on failures, and numb yourself with habits that do nothing but make tomorrow...
Let’s be honest: most lead generation “strategies” in regulated industries fail. We’re talking about the dozens of downloadable guides, email funnels, and whitepapers your competitors churn out. They all look the same. They sound like every other company in your space. And they feel like they were cranked out by AI. Vague propositions. Generic content. Overly cautious or flashy messaging that satisfies no one. Your prospective clients can tell. They skim your content, roll their eyes, and leave. That’s why most lead...
Mark walked into our office frustrated. His engineering firm’s website had been live for five years, but inquiries from prospective clients were flat. The site was technically “compliant” with legal disclaimers, industry certifications, etc., but it was confusing, text-heavy, and left visitors unsure of what the firm actually did. If your website looks like Mark’s, you’re not alone. Business owners in healthcare, aviation, engineering, and legal industries often treat their website like a regulatory checklist, not a client acquisition tool. The...
If you’ve ever sat in a compliance meeting, you know how fast a “brilliant” marketing idea can die. The clever tagline? Gone. The flashy visual? Rejected. The edgy social post? Don’t even bother. For small business owners in highly regulated industries like medicine, aviation, engineering, or the law this story feels painfully familiar. You want to stand out, but every creative idea seems to hit a wall of regulations, oversight, or review committees. Here’s the truth: in your world, clarity beats cleverness...
The Rent You Cannot Avoid Every business leader understands rent. If you stop paying it, the doors close. Your storefront goes dark, people walk by without stopping, and competitors take your place. Marketing works the same way. Good marketing is the rent you pay to keep your business visible. It is the cost of showing up. Without it, you disappear. The problem is that most companies think that paying rent is enough. Many SMBs don't pay it at all or do very little....
In 1964, Bill Lear delivered his first jet to a client. It was an instant success. Shortly after, two of his planes crashed under mysterious circumstances. Lear could have looked the other way, blamed the pilots, or let the issue slide to protect sales momentum. Instead, he took a terrifying risk. He personally recreated the problem in the air to find the cause and nearly lost his life doing it. When he confirmed the defect, he grounded every plane, built a new...
Your reputation, compliance, and client trust are too important to gamble. A small but growing law firm had a relative, fresh out of college, running their website and social media. He knew design tools, posted a few graphics, and even wrote blogs using the latest AI tools. But nothing was optimized for SEO. No one checked for legal ethics violations. Worse, the content sounded like generic advice, not legal guidance from a trusted firm. When their case volume stagnated, they turned to...