. “What’s going to make us stand out in 2026?” You know it's coming. Leadership will crunch the numbers. Compare last year’s wins. Default to the safe bets. If we don’t shift our mindset, content will get boxed again as a cost center again. Let’s do things differently this year. Let's review the data: Here’s what’s not being said out loud — from multiple studies I pulled together: 97% of leaders say humanizing their brand with storytelling is important. 94% of are experimenting with...
14 days ago • 2 min read
_ Just 26% of producers thought their company "didn't have the skill" to produce high quality content according to research by LinkedIn and Edelman. But then again, the deck is stacked. In my last few emails, we found that: 97% of leaders believe in the importance of humanizing the brand through storytelling 65% admit they don’t know where to start Less than 1/3 of CMOs think their organizations have a shared definition of ROI in the C-Suite Only 11% of leaders believe narrative structure is...
21 days ago • 4 min read
In my last email we saw that 100% of business leaders said they want marketers to push back, tackle risk aversion, and lead the conversation about storytelling.So, why then are so many quick to listen to a random internet guru than the people they hired? Why would they rather copy competitors than set the pace? One word: Trust. Here's what marketing agency Alison found: 97% of leaders say humanizing their brand with storytelling is important 60% believe it drives sales Yet 65% admit they...
29 days ago • 4 min read
Here's the deal. A few years back, the agency Alan asked 200 business decision-making leaders how they felt about B2B marketing, and 82% of them agreed that B2B marketing was "boring, predictable, and repetitive." Many even agreed that even though they fell into that category, they didn't know how they could break out. From my experiences consulting with Fortune 1000, and working in-house at companies like Shopify Plus and QuickBooks, this is for 3 reasons. Marketers aren't confident enough...
about 1 month ago • 7 min read
For years, I was a freelance writer. People would give me a brief. I'd churn out some words, get traffic, get paid. And though everything I produced was well written, and people did find it genuinely helpful, I'd constantly look back at the final draft and think... ...well, you saw the subject line. Fortunately, I got a regular gig at CXL, then Shopify, and eventually moved to Shopify Plus as employee 14 and the first marketing hire. And that's when I encountered a problem I never had...
3 months ago • 3 min read
When I was a freelance writer, I can't tell you how many times I wrote about the same topic over and over again. Same when I was an in-house editor, and global content lead. One topic that comes to mind—and I think it's a rite of passage for anyone who works in Martech—is "How to build a landing page." I counted recently, and I've been involved with that topic no less than 7 times. Yet... every time it's been an entirely new perspective that feels nothing like what I did before, or how anyone...
3 months ago • 6 min read
25 narrative principles Live workshop option Early bird sale starts June 27th, 2025 The problem with most content programs Most content marketers are stuck "playing content." You know the cycle: Write "good enough" content. Get vague feedback ("I don't like this"). Make random changes. Repeat until exhausted. Publish anyway. Wonder why it underperforms. Sound familiar? In the two decades I’ve worked in content marketing, I hear the same frustrations over and over again: "Leadership doesn't...
4 months ago • 6 min read
Hey Reader,We don't think in keywords. We think in arcs. We wrestle with big, layered problems and go down rabbit holes when we think we’re onto something. We binge. We compare. We revisit. We want to make sense of things, and we want to be taken seriously while doing it. So when your content is structured as disconnected articles, you’re forcing the audience to do the heavy lifting of stitching the narrative together. What Narrative Planning Changes A narrative-driven content calendar treats...
4 months ago • 1 min read
Ever watch a show with a killer premise... that you gave up on halfway through? For me, it was Heroes. The first season built tension. It hinted. It layered. It pulled you forward. Season 2? It just fed you information. No tension. No hook. I watched it — but I didn’t care.That's what most B2B content does.It just kind of starts, presents a bunch of information, then... ends.It presents info, then ends. You skim it, forget it, and deep down, you know your reader will too.If that's you, don't...
4 months ago • 2 min read