Authentic Stories Drive Personal Brand Success
Something new I'm enjoying: Ran a Creator Strategy Session for Trey Phills today (1.1 million followers). But we talked more Big Strategy & Life Building than ~content~ I fundamentally believe every single person is interesting & has worthwhile stories to share. Whenever I've consulted for Creators or anyone looking to build a personal brand, I've never had to fabricate a life for them—I ask a lot of questions about what they enjoy most, what's most fulfilling, what they're most proud of, and we shape their content around those answers (with a healthy dose of idea framing, hooks, and best practices). Trey's a former professional hooper, the son of a former NBA player, but he's incredibly thoughtful & philosophical about life. Honestly, I view the guy as a Director or Editor more than a hooper—his best content is when he's tying life perspective to hoops. Brands love the guy because he's professional, brand safe, & knows how to craft a worthy story that highlight products in a compelling way. The big takeaways from our day: - I'm pushing him to be more vulnerable within his content. If he wants to inspire his audience more (a big point for him), they have to know him more deeply. - I want him to sell out, A LITTLE BIT. What I mean by that: his voiceover scripts are so insightful, but don't get as many views as they deserve because the hooks aren't there. I said "sell out in the hook so you can be yourself after the first three seconds." I don't want him to change who he is, but after he writes a script, I want him to reexamine the initial hook to make sure it's working hard enough to get people to all those bright ideas he has. - His pro ball life provided more natural content opportunities than his current life. The easy answer would be to get YouTubery and just come up with wacky ideas for videos, but I believe he should focus on finding more everyday & weekend activities he personally loves, then figuring out how to make those into interesting content. - A barrier for him: making content when he doesn't feel like he knows where his life's headed. I'm encouraging him to share that exact perspective & confusion—he's 29, he's figuring out life, and just because he started from a different life context doesn't mean people won't relate to it Really enjoy doing this kind of work.
X Rebrand Flops: No Global Recognition, No Marketing
If I say “Twitter,” every person in the whole world knows what I’m talking about. If I say “X,” only the people on this app are sure to know what I’m talking about. As a rebrand, X has categorically failed, and largely...
From Battlefields to Lost AirPods: Modern Struggles
Men used to go to war Now I use the Find My app because I left one AirPod by my bed and the other in the bathroom
Brands Abandon Strategy on Threads without CMO Presence
For whatever reason, Threads is the social network where brands just decided that social strategy literally doesn’t exist. It’s bizarre and I honestly think it’s because marketing directors & CMOs aren’t on the network.
Find Three Things to Appreciate About Difficult Coworkers
If you hate a co-worker, I've got a trick for ya. Anddd let's be real, we have allllll had that co-worker who gets under our skin. You've probably heard of gratitude journaling (and don't be one of those people who rolls their...
AI Chatbots Are Dethroning Google as the Internet's Homepage
I think the craziest part of AI is that I truly never thought anything would replace Google. Google search felt like the one tech habit that was truly unbeatable. The home page of the internet. And now I ChatGPT or Claude pretty...
Think Like a Creative Director, Not Just a Designer
My career advice to graphic designers: Learn Creative Director thinking IMMEDIATELY. Basic graphic design is gonna get eaten alive by AI. It’s the graphical people who can think conceptually + in campaigns who won’t just stay employed, but become more important than...
Bad Design, Not AI, Is the Real Problem
This tweet is getting ripped for being AI. Here’s my forever pushback, tho. The problem isn’t that the image is AI. The problem is it’s a terribleee idea for an image, with absolutely no taste, that is OBVIOUSLY AI. AI graphic design is fine, you...
Anti‑AI Branding Resonates as Humans Fear Technology
This tweet has 17,000 likes in one hour. Presenting your brand as "anti-AI" really does work in 2026, when regular ol' humans feel very threatened by technology.
When Product Placement Mirrors Audience Identity Perfectly
The most perfect product placement of all-time: Diet Coke in Devil Wears Prada 2. - Millennial women LOVE Diet Coke - Millennial women LOVE The Devil Wears Prada - Millennial women LOVE Anne Hathaway's character. Andy Sacks cracking a crispy Diet Coke that is quite...
Mediocre Sequel Squanders Critique with Lazy Storytelling
The Devil Wears Prada 2 bemoans the downfall of print media, how consultants & corporations ruin everything, and how AI is taking over, with… …an incredibly mediocre script that has zero sophistication on how it addresses any of those issues, features...
AI‑generated Bulk Posts Produce Trash, Not Traction
AI is amazing for social media. But these “100 posts in 5 min with AI” guides are a path to making absolute garbage content that won’t generate engagement or sales—just useless drivel. Especially true in the video era of social.
Original Devil Wears Prada Shines; Sequel Falls Flat
The first Devil Wears Prada movie is honestly perfect & one of the most rewatchable films ever. Always loved it. Devil Wears Prada 2 is one of the most jumbled movies I’ve ever seen. The script is an absolute mess,...
Paying for Verification Fuels Anonymous Troll Blue Checks
Twitter is pretty weird. But the weirdest part of Twitter, by far, is that anonymous trolls spend $8/month to get a blue checkmark on their accounts. You're paying actual $$$ to be verified unverifiably. It's the internet version of buying knockoff designer bags...
Demand Context: Explain Why Growth Numbers Matter
I wish when people flexed their growth stats, they explained WHY the growth happen. Did Twitter increase ad spend? Did the $1 million contest work? Did the political climate affect things? Are these new users or revived users?