Absolutely Inefficient I came back from Content Marketing World thinking about all the things I didn’t plan. A lunch. A conversation in the hallway. A random discussion in the expo hall that somehow ended with seeing Rush that night. None of it was efficient. All of it mattered. Which got me thinking about friction, and whether we’ve become a little too obsessed with removing it from our lives. Any questions or comments? Just shoot me a note.JP P.S.: You won’t find ads in this newsletter...
12 days ago • 4 min read
I Can't Be the Best So I Won't Do It I've been thinking a lot about experiences lately. Things we do for the first time. Things we do over and over again. Why we do some things and not others.We spend a lot of time trying to make better decisions before we act. We research, compare, optimize and increasingly ask AI what it thinks we should do. But maybe there’s a point where all that evaluation gets in the way. This week’s article is about a much simpler idea: when something interests you, do...
19 days ago • 4 min read
Hitting the Road I gave a speech this week on the Trust Portfolio, and I realize I’ve been banging this drum quite a bit lately. There’s a reason. If you work in marketing, content, communications or audience development, I think this may be the way out. AI is making it easier than ever to produce more content, which means producing more content is becoming less and less of an advantage. The opportunity, I believe, is to deliberately design human-led content franchises around the people your...
26 days ago • 6 min read
Mostly Dead A few months ago, my wife started playing Mahjong with a group of friends. Eventually, the husbands got envious enough that they taught us how to play too. I was terrible at first, mostly because I kept trying to keep every possible option open. I didn't want to commit too early and choose the wrong hand. Turns out that was exactly the problem. This week's article is about what Mahjong taught me about decision-making, action and the cost of waiting too long to choose. Any...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
No Need to Panic Listening to the reactions about the release of ChatGPT 6.0 (Astra) has an interesting effect. The more capable AI gets, the less interested I am in predicting exactly what happens next and the more interested I am in making sure I’m prepared for whatever does. That means thinking differently about debt, cash, security, privacy, work and even what I let an AI agent do for me. So I started a slightly ridiculous file called “Things to Do Before AI Takes Over Everything.” This...
about 1 month ago • 7 min read
More Trust Please I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about what content marketing looks like when AI makes content infinite. For years, most organizations have concentrated their content effort in one place: the brand itself. Maybe the CEO gets a little attention too. But if we thought about content the way we think about investing, we’d probably never build a portfolio that way. That’s what led me back to an idea I’ve been working on called the Trust Portfolio. And the more I...
about 2 months ago • 7 min read
No...thank you...really... I watched Deshaun Watson’s post-game interview from last week's football game and kept thinking the same thing: he just doesn’t see it. But the more I thought about it, the more uncomfortable the idea became, because I do this too. We all have things about ourselves we can’t see clearly, which is why the people and systems around us that are willing to give us real feedback might be some of the most valuable assets we have. Any questions or comments? Just shoot me a...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
Am I Wasting My Time? I've been writing more and more for myself lately. So much so I started to think I was wasting my time. Then my friend sent me a text that forced me to look at it differently. Now I feel like I'm onto something. Am I? Any questions or comments? Just shoot me a note.JP P.S.: You won’t find ads in this newsletter thanks to a generous donation from Lulu. Since 2002, Lulu has helped authors and creators publish, print, and sell their books. If you’re ready to publish in...
2 months ago • 6 min read
Is Love the Answer? I know...a little touchy-feely, right? Well...after reading the book Theo of Golden, I think I may have hit on the answer to what actually makes perfect content. Here's two questions that give you the litmus test to predict with certainty that you have, indeed, perfected your content.This is my shortest article in years. I hope you enjoy it. Any questions or comments? Just shoot me a note.JP P.S.: You won’t find ads in this newsletter thanks to a generous donation from...
2 months ago • 3 min read