I'm going to say something that might piss some people off. Your business doesn't need to be the best to win. Every business coach out there is telling you: Be the best in your industry. Have the best customer service. The best product. The best reviews. But here's the truth: When someone's searching for a service, they're not looking for "the best." They're looking for someone they know, like, and trust. And that comes down to one thing: who stayed top of mind. Real scenario that happens every day: Meet Danny. 34, works in finance, hasn't been to the dentist in 3-4 years. Sees a friend's teeth whitening post. Thinks "I should get a cleaning." Searches "dentist near me." Five practices pop up. All have 4+ star reviews. All look professional. All seem fine. Then his boss Slacks him about a report due at 3pm. The dentist search? Totally forgotten. Sound familiar? This is happening to YOUR business right now. Someone's interested, but the urgency isn't there yet. You get bumped to the bottom of their mental priority list. What happened next changed everything: Two days later, Danny's scrolling Instagram before bed. Video ad from Dr. Gurki Malhi at Onyx Dental pops up. He's explaining why checkups matter even when teeth feel fine. Plaque buildup, early cavity detection, oral health connecting to heart health. Danny watches half the video. Doesn't click. Doesn't book. Just absorbs it and keeps scrolling. Next morning, coffee in hand, scrolling Instagram again. Another ad from Dr. Malhi. This time showing their office - clean, modern, comfortable. TVs mounted above every chair so you can watch Netflix during cleanings. Plus free teeth whitening for new patients. Danny thinks: "That's actually pretty cool." By lunch that day? He's booked. Here's the question: Was Dr. Malhi the "best" dentist Danny could have chosen? Maybe. Maybe not. But here's what he definitely was: Top of mind. The lesson for every business: When Danny searched, he saw five practices. All qualified. All could clean teeth just fine.

I get 15 cold pitches every single day on LinkedIn. Every. Single. One. Goes straight to trash. You know what gets my attention? The person who authentically commented on my AI tools post last week. The one who had something interesting to say about the Harlequins' rugby match. The entrepreneur who asked if the Jays will win the world series. That's not selling. That's being human. I just published a new blog breaking down why cold pitching is dead and what actually works in 2025. Here are the key points: The Visibility Goldmine Everyone Ignores: Your comments on other people's posts are free real estate. When you drop a thoughtful comment on a post from someone in your niche, hundreds (sometimes thousands) of people see your name, face, and headline. But "Great post!" doesn't cut it. You need to bring something real to the conversation. The Familiarity Formula: My warm outreach response rate? Over 95%. Why? Because people already know who I am before I reach out. They've seen my content. They've engaged with my ideas. By the time I message them, it's not cold - it's continuing a conversation we already started. The 5-Step Play: 1. Post valuable content consistently (4x per week is my recommendation) 2. Engage authentically on posts from people in your space 3. Build visibility through thoughtful comments 4. Notice who's engaging back 5. Reach out with context - not a pitch The Time Reality: I'm at a point where I'd rather spend Saturday morning coaching my kids' rugby than sitting on a 3-hour sales call for "extra cheese." My Saturdays are for family. My time is non-negotiable. When you ask for a 30-minute meeting, you're not asking for 30 minutes. You're asking me to give up something I can't get back. That better be worth it. Bottom line: The relationship comes first. The business comes second. LinkedIn isn't a slot machine. You can't automate your way to relationships or cold pitch your way to trust. Drop your worst cold pitch from this week below. 👇

If you had to pick ONE marketing skill as your superpower, what would it be? And more importantly... how are you using that power to take over the world? 😈 Are you the Copy Whisperer who can make anyone buy anything with just three sentences? The Data Detective who sees profit in spreadsheets that make others cry? The Creative Genius who turns random Tuesday thoughts into viral campaigns? The AI Wizard who's basically a human-robot hybrid at this point? Drop your superpower below AND shamelessly plug what you do!

I just audited a digital agency that had a 'ghost town' social media presence (37 Facebook followers, months-old Instagram posts) while trying to sell social media services to clients. It got me thinking about my own blind spots...

The Barrier to Video Creation Just Dropped to Zero Had a podcast episode with Dani Dufresne, an Emmy-winning producer who literally started her career cutting physical film by hand. And it got me thinking about where we are right now with AI video tools. I've been experimenting with Sora 2 lately, and I gotta tell you—it's wild what's possible now. I pulled out some old lyrics I wrote back when I was fronting a rock band in Japan (yeah, that was a thing). These songs never got recorded. Never saw the light of day. Just notebooks full of words that used to mean something. So I started creating short music videos for them using Sora 2. And here's what hit me: We're living through the death of gatekeeping in video production. What This Means for Your Brand Ten years ago, if you wanted video content for your business, you had two options: 1. Hire a production company (expensive, slow, requires lots of planning) 2. Do it yourself with whatever camera you had (often looked amateur) Today? You can create video content that looks professional without: - Hiring a crew - Booking a studio - Learning complex editing software - Spending thousands on equipment The Tools Are Here. Right Now. I'm not saying AI video replaces high-end production for major campaigns. Dani's team will still create work that blows AI out of the water for big brand projects. But for the rest of us building our brands? The barrier just vanished. You can now: - Turn blog posts into video content - Visualize customer testimonials - Create product demos without filming - Make educational content without being on camera - Test creative concepts before investing in full production What I'm Learning Playing around with Sora 2 has taught me a few things: 1. Your creative ideas have value, even if they're old. Those lyrics sat in a notebook for years because I didn't have the resources to do anything with them. Now they're becoming something visual and shareable. 2. Experimentation is easier than perfection I can try 10 different visual concepts in the time it would take to plan one traditional shoot. That means I'm learning faster about what resonates.