I use Leonardo.ai as my go-to image generator, and recently their Senior Creative Technologist published a 27-page paper on “vibe marketing.” As a technology partner for creatives, when Leonardo publishes something that in-depth, it is worth paying attention. Seeing it explored at that level of detail piqued my interest and pushed me to dive deeper into the idea.
Continue reading
Hook (3 seconds)
Most product messages fail because they start at the end. They lead with facts before earning the right to be heard. But people need something to grab their attention first.
Tease (30 seconds)
That’s why I work with something I call the 3-30-3 Rule. It isn’t a formula carved in stone, but a useful guide. The premise is simple:
Continue reading
How We All Missed the Crimes, Trauma, and Weirdness in Classic Kids’ Books
When you’re a kid, you just roll with the plot.
When you’re an adult, you realize half the books we grew up with are basically crime dramas… they just hide behind bright colors and rhymes.
Exhibit A: Curious George
Continue reading
I was asked an interesting question the other day by a senior marketer. She wantd my opinion on how to decide it’s time for a brand to start a new channel, as well as how I keep up on social trends.
It’s an interesting question, because here we are 20 years into this social media phenomenon, and there’s never been a perfect answer. If you rushed right into MySpace, or even Friendster, back in the day, you had to decide when to leave. Then came all the others, Shoot, remember when Google was trying to make everyone do Circles on Google+?
The good thing about social is that trends don’t go hide under a lot of research. They are literally blasting you in the face to the point you can’t ignore them.
So my opinion is that trends can be monitored constantly, but investment only happens when data shows audience fit, potential ROI, and brand alignment. And tofigure that out, we look at a few things:
Continue reading
Early in my career, I was a tactician. Email campaigns, SEO, SEM, building landing pages, hacking together A/B tests. Whatever the job needed, I’d figure it out.
Then I got older. Took on bigger roles. Strategy became my thing. I got an MBA, which basically teaches you how to never do real work again. Just make PowerPoints and use fancy terms like “ubiquitous” and “leveraging synergies.” Just kidding. Kind of.
Then I taught at UW. Strategy-heavy, theory-driven. But not much time for learning how to troubleshoot a broken Meta ad pixel or chase down why TikTok didn’t like the file format you uploaded.
Fast-forward to a recent client gig. A small, scrappy brand with big potential. I figured with AI at my side, I could go back to being a full-stack marketer. The headlines promised that AI was like hiring a 12-person team. All I had to do was show up and prompt. Well, that’s what I thought would happen…
Continue reading
TL;DR Version
Twitter used to be a platform for discovery, curiosity, and real conversations. Over time, it shifted, to a space for customer complaints, then into a political battleground, and eventually into something stranger. Today, much of what passes for “debate” is driven by bots, automated replies, and talking points that feel like they were built in a conspiracy theory factory.
Research backs this up. Bots have been responsible for a disproportionate amount of political content for years, up to 30% or more, depending on the topic. The result is a platform where real engagement is harder to find, and actual people seem increasingly absent.
Continue reading
Eventually, the list gets away from you.
You sit down ready to work, but nothing moves. Your brain stalls. You’re not even procrastinating. You’re just stuck. The list looks like a mountain, and instead of climbing it, you stare at it, waiting for something to change.
The anxiety and stress don’t come from the list itself. They come from the pressure we put on ourselves to catch up. That pressure builds, and the spiral begins.
Continue reading
I drink a lot of coffee. Usually a full pot by the end of the day, and sometimes I throw in three or four Cascade Ice caffeine drinks just to round things out. It’s not that I think I need that much. It’s just what I do. Part habit, part coping mechanism.
But I’ve been feeling the effects lately and I don’t like them. Anxiety, restless sleep, a sense that my nervous system is running slightly off the rails even when nothing’s happening. So I’ve decided to do something about it. Not some dramatic life overhaul. Just one thing: cut back on caffeine with the goal of a total abstinence. Seven to ten days of tapering. Let’s see what happens.
The plan is to mix decaf into my coffee grounds, tart with half and half, then taper it down. That will remove about 1/3 and gives me a few days to fool myself before things get more difficult. Next, drop the Cascade Ice drinks and try to replace them with pure water and electrolytes. That’s 1/2 of the current state so 2/3 total.
Then, it’ll just be cutting down the pot to 1/2, then one cup, then none at all. Sounds easy. I mean, I’ve done much harder things.
Why now? Because I want better sleep. Less edge. More clarity. And I want to see what my face and gut look like without all the hidden water retention and stimulant drag. Ten days without caffeine should be enough to know whether any of that’s real or just a theory I invented while over-caffeinated.
So this is Day 1. No big declarations. Just an experiment. I’ll check back in if things get interesting.
An old lecture from Father Hobbs:
“Baseball is a metaphor for how to practice restraint.You can’t out-hustle the pitcher. You can’t rush the at-bat. You have to wait for the game to come to you. And in that waiting, everything gets quieter.”
Entrepreneurship, marketing, the tech world – they all teach us how to sprint, to go chase the game. But baseball taught me to stop swinging at bad pitches.
Now I use that same mindset to handle distractions, deadlines, and overthinking.
Stay in the box. Watch the ball. Swing when it matters.
Does the 3-30-3 Writing Framework Still Work?
There is a writing model I’ve followed for years. I swear I stole it from someone else, but whenever I try to find the article that taught it to me, I can’t locate it. Maybe I dreamed it. Maybe it was a late night conversation at Ad Club.
Regardless, the idea is simple:
- You get 3 seconds to grab someone’s attention and earn 30 more seconds.
- You have that 30 seconds to earn their interest and earn 3 more minutes.
- Only then, in that 3 minutes, do you get to earn enough trust to shift their mindset, earn a response, or close the deal.
So, does it still work today?
Read more: Does the 3-30-3 Writing Framework Still Work?1. 3 seconds to stop the scroll
The Nielsen Norman Group says most users decide whether to stay or leave a page within 10 to 20 seconds. But if you can keep them for the first 5 seconds, the odds of them staying longer go up significantly.
Mobile is even less forgiving. A Meta study found people make up their mind about content in just 1.7 seconds while scrolling. First impressions matter. A lot.
2. 30 seconds to hook curiosity
The average reader doesn’t get far. According to Chartbeat, more than half of visitors spend less than 15 seconds actively reading a piece of content. But if someone makes it to 30 seconds, their chances of continuing to the 1-minute mark nearly double.
That’s where interest turns into attention.
3. 3 minutes to actually do something
If someone spends 3 minutes or more with your content, they’re in it. A Nielsen study showed that readers who stay that long are more likely to subscribe, share, or convert. Heatmaps from Crazy Egg show that serious purchase intent tends to happen after the 2-minute mark, when people have read enough to feel confident.
So yes, the 3-30-3 model still works.
It lines up with how attention works in real life. People make fast decisions, scan quickly for value, and only commit when they feel something is worth it. If you can clear those three checkpoints of attention, interest, evaluation in one piece of content, you’re doing more than getting clicks. You’re actually getting through.