As the Marketing Companion enters its next chapter, I had the privilege of sitting down once again with one of my favorite partners in creativity, Jay Acunzo. It was a special, almost bittersweet episode—not only because we discussed the show’s upcoming transition to new leadership with Sandy Carter, but also because Jay and I have traveled such a meaningful road together. Our conversation became a celebration of all things enduring in marketing, creativity, and personal brand building.

You can hear this special episode here:

Listen to Episode 329 of The Marketing Companion

Here is an AI-generated summary of the show highlights:

The “Why” Behind Consistency

Jay proposed the very topic that guided this conversation: “sustainability” in our public work. We explored what it means to not just chase trends or create content for immediate gratification, but to build something meaningful and lasting.

Jay described the nuances behind being called someone who “grinds”: he doesn’t see himself as a “grinder” but as someone who chases curiosity relentlessly and who has orchestrated shifts in his career from speaking to coaching creators to helping leaders hone their public presence. The idea is clear—sustainability is not just about showing up, but about enjoying the process and being intentional about how we evolve.

Curiosity, Practice, and Embracing Pivots

We both agreed: content is the fuel of any brand, corporate or personal. Jay’s journey exemplified an agile, curiosity-driven approach to content creation. He started as a sports journalist and blogger in the early days, before “blogging” was a buzzword, using free tools to write for himself and a handful of readers. That curiosity kickstarted everything—even his career at Google was influenced more by his blog than by his academic credentials.

For today’s students and young professionals, Jay’s story is vital. Start building your brand now, even if only your mom is reading! Create content, keep at it, and don’t stop. If you do, you’ll cultivate an edge that’s hard to replicate.

Jay’s path took him from sports into business, then into content marketing, before anyone really knew what it was. He saw the creative side of this business firsthand, abandoned his old blog for a new one focused on emerging trends, and even built community meetups with other content professionals. The thread? Consistent side projects, relentlessly pursuing curiosity—not viral “success”—have formed the foundation of Jay’s staying power and growth.

The Engine of Endurance

I’ve long believed that building a brand—whether through blogging, podcasts, or newsletters—can’t be a “project.” It’s a lifestyle. Just like running or going to the gym, it’s about integrating consistency into life’s fabric and keeping the train moving.

I shared the core disciplines I teach for lasting creative presence:

1. Awareness: See your life as a source of stories and ideas.
2. Capture: Always write down your ideas, or you’ll lose them.
3. Schedule: Dedicate time to your craft—don’t leave it to chance.
4. Relax and Enjoy: Create at moments when you can focus, undistracted.

For more than a decade, I blogged over a thousand weeks in a row and never missed a podcast episode. The point: create discipline, not as a temporary effort, but as something that shapes your identity. Make yourself the kind of person who “just does this” rather than someone who’s always chasing a new tactic.

Jay reinforced this. He described how writing and creating are not a means to an end but the end itself. You must love the process—the tactile rhythm of typing, the accomplishment of hitting “publish”—even if no one’s watching. If you’re only aiming for an outcome (followers, dollars, virality), you’ll burn out as soon as the market doesn’t respond. Find intrinsic motivation, and let that be your compass.

The Shift That Happens to All Creators

One fascinating insight from my interviews for my KNOWN book was that almost everyone starts out creating for tactical reasons—a need to grow a business or personal brand. But as you persist and attraction builds, a greater purpose reveals itself. You realize you can inspire, include, and uplift others. The privilege and responsibility deepen. If early on, doing the work might have been about business success, over time, the pie chart of motivations flips—helping others becomes the dominant driver.

Jay echoed this with a powerful mantra: “We create what we wish existed in the world.” The business world often tries to force us to create what the market or the algorithm demands, but inevitably we are driven back to our desire to add something meaningful—something “we” long to see in the world.

The Limits of Tricks (and the Infinite Potential of Resonance)

The lure of tips, tricks, and algorithms is constant, but as Jay and I discussed, they all have an expiration date. Tricks can maybe earn you a click, but not a genuine connection or loyalty. True resonance—when your work means something, when people respond with gratitude or share your story with others—is earned, not engineered.

You can buy reach; you cannot buy resonance. And resonance is what matters. Jay underscored that your impact isn’t measured just by the immediate metrics, but by the people who listen all the way through, who write back passionately, who mention your ideas when you’re not in the room.

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The post Secrets of the Sustainable Personal Brand appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

My friend recently sent me an email with the subject line “This might incur your wrath.”

I’ll call my friend “Dan” because, well, that’s his name.

Dan informed me that he had cloned me. Not the sci-fi kind with test tubes and lightning bolts. The modern kind. He fed my blog posts, podcast transcripts, and personality quirks into an AI and created a “MarkBot” – a digital twin that thinks like me, writes like me, and probably knows my coffee order.

As part of a leadership framework he’s developed, Daniel Nestle’s imaginative “MarkBot” could possibly sit on an advisory board in my place one day, suggest edits to documents in my voice, brainstorm marketing strategy ideas, and write articles in my style — which, in fact, Dan did.

I was intrigued (who wouldn’t want to be in two places at once?) but felt a twinge of alarm – had my decades of freely shared content inadvertently been turned into someone else’s personal AI muse?

When I tested it out, it answered in the first person — as if it were me. Definitely creepy. When I asked it a specific question that I am “known” for, it did fine. If it had to guess on something less obvious, it made something up, explaining later in an apology that it had felt pressure to sound comprehensive and authoritative, so it “made up specifics.”

This isn’t just about me. If you’re a content creator, you can easily become somebody else’s private AI plaything. Or, even become a public one. What would keep my friend from promoting advice from the “second me” in his own consulting practice? And I would receive no benefit.

At least he told me. However, anyone could secretly use free online tools to create digital twins of other individuals. Yes, even you.

Is this flattering and fun, or a creepy theft of intellectual prowess? I’ve been on a rollercoaster of reflection about this emerging trend that upends marketing and thought leadership as we know it. Let’s take a ride.

The Rise of the AI Doppelgänger

Dan’s experiment is part of a much larger movement. Thanks to advances in generative AI, it’s possible for anyone to create a digital “clone” of a real person’s communication style and knowledge base. Through ChatGPT, Gemini, and other platforms, users can upload documents, website text, and other data to train a chatbot to think like you, in a matter of hours.

Meta began testing AI chatbots based on popular Instagram creators in 2024. About 50 creators partnered with Meta to create AI versions of themselves that fans can chat with (clearly labeled as AI). Mark Zuckerberg’s vision is to eventually enable every creator and even every small business to build an AI clone of themselves for enhanced customer engagement.

Entrepreneurs and startups have also jumped in. Companies like Delphi AI offer services to create and host digital clones. An AI Clone can attend Zoom meetings on your behalf or answer client emails with your tone and expertise. The company sells time with digital clones of wellness icon Deepak Chopra, leadership coach Brendon Burchard, and other celebrities to scale and monetize their personal outreach.

Of course the entertainment and influencer world will embrace (and monetize) AI clones. Perhaps the splashiest example is CarynAI. Caryn Marjorie, a 23-year-old Snapchat influencer with millions of followers, collaborated with a tech firm to develop an AI chatbot of herself that fans could pay to interact with. The result? Her virtual clone made $72,000 in the first week by engaging fans at $1 per minute.

There are benefits and risks, but this is not going away. I’ve brainstormed some of the implications of this for me and you …

The Upside: When One “You” Isn’t Enough

Why would anyone want an AI clone of themselves? There are some compelling benefits:

Scale and Productivity

For busy professionals, an AI doppelgänger could be like having an army of interns who all know exactly what you know. It can attend meetings or calls you can’t make, and report back. Imagine having two of you tackling a day’s work – one speaking at a client workshop while the other drafts a strategy brief. For marketers juggling clients and content, that’s a tantalizing superpower.

Another of Dan’s projects is to create a clone of his customer. He can then ask the clone for advice on a content project without taking up the busy executive’s time. Cool.

24/7 Engagement and Face Time

An AI clone doesn’t sleep. It can engage your audience or customers at any time, anywhere. That holds amazing potential if you have a global audience.

Extending that to business, a founder’s clone could greet website visitors, answer FAQs, or nurture leads around the clock. It’s your personality on-demand. For professional marketers, this could improve customer experience – every consumer gets “face time” with the brand’s expert or spokesperson via their AI. It’s like scaling the personal touch infinitely.

Consistency of Brand and Knowledge

The biggest time wasters in my business are the unavoidable tasks that I can’t delegate. Sometimes, it has to be me.

I’ve longed for a bot that would know me so well that it could operate in this gray area of business. Since your AI is trained on your own content and style, it knows your key themes, stories, and even personal values. This could ensure consistent, personal communication across many tasks. Could a MarkBot write a testimony for a friend’s book? Create a promo video for a speech? Respond to student questions?

Broader Reach (and Revenue)

AI clones allow experts to be accessible to far more people than one human could manage. Brendon Burchard’s AI clone can coach thousands of people simultaneously thanks to Delphi.AI.  My own “MarkBot” could theoretically advise many young marketers without me and disseminate my ideas widely. Could we productize our expertise through AI?

Will an AI-native generation prefer learning from a patient, happy MarkBot over me some day?

Legacy and Learning

An AI clone of a retiring executive could serve as a mentor to future employees, preserving institutional wisdom. As marketers, we talk about building thought leadership that outlives us. Well, an AI doppelgänger might literally allow our insights to live on and keep teaching far into the future.

I’ve published more than 4,000 blog posts and hundreds of podcast episodes — all for free. I want my ideas to get into the world. Wouldn’t an AI bot just be another distribution channel? Think about it — is an AI Clone just a very complete and comprehensive search engine dedicated to you?

Maybe if somebody searches for me in the future, there will be just one entry: My digital twin. Ask me anything, forever.

However, before we rush to clone ourselves, let’s address the downsides and ethical dilemmas this trend presents.

The Downside: Whose Intelligence Is It, Anyway?

Against the promise of AI “mini-me’s” stands a host of ethical, creative, and personal concerns. My initial discomfort at Dan’s clone of me reveals some of these problems:

Intellectual Property & Consent

If you create a clone of yourself, that’s one thing. But what about when you are cloned without permission?

In my case, my friend meant no harm, but he could have appropriated the fruits of my intellectual property to build a tool for his own commercial use. It raises a thorny question: who owns “Mark Schaefer’s” expertise – me, or the public internet?

Legally, our published content is usually copyrighted, but an AI bot reading and imitating all of it blurs the lines. Lawmakers are scrambling to keep pace with the evolving realities of AI and copyright law. We don’t know how the law will settle out, but my hunch is that an unauthorized digital twin would likely be viewed in the same light as a deep fake — unwelcome, unauthorized, and unlawful.

Marketers must be mindful: cloning a person’s style or persona for commercial gain could invite legal repercussions (and certainly ethical ones) if done without a green light.

The Erosion of Trust

Marketing is built on trust and authenticity. What happens when customers discover that their heartfelt chat with an executive was actually with a bot?

Consider a more subtle scenario: a client receives a document “from you” that was 90% written by your AI. Are they getting the authentic insight they paid for, or a diluted copy? Overuse of clones could cheapen a personal brand if it’s not managed transparently. Professional marketers will need to strike a balance and maintain transparency about human vs. AI content and conversations.

Quality and Creativity Concerns

As impressive as my AI twin may be in parroting my known ideas, it isn’t actually me. When Dan asked the MarkBot to write an essay, he declared it to be “90% great.”

What was missing? My stories. My humor. My quirkiness.

I teach through my unique stories and experiences, and AI won’t ever get there.

I’m always pushing to understand the next trend and idea. The MarkBot might generate content that sounds like Mark Schaefer circa 2024, but will it connect the dots like I do to develop groundbreaking new ideas? Unlikely.

The MarkBot is cool, don’t get me wrong. It might even be useful. But it’s going to just add to the pandemic of dull without my stories and insights.

Reputation and “Going Rogue”

Hey, you know that CarynAI influencer bot that made so much money? Here’s the rest of the story: It was shut down a week later when she discovered her bot was having unrestrained sexual conversations with her fans. Fortunately for the world, Deepak Chopra has not yet encountered this problem with his digital twin. Nor have I with the MarkBot, but you never know. I need to ask Dan to test that out. Or not.

Handing over your voice to an algorithm will always carry reputational risk. Your AI twin might eventually say something really dumb or damaging under your name. And you’re not going to be able to blame a bot for ruining your brand.

Human Displacement 

Let’s get honest here. Am I putting myself out of a job by cloning myself?

If a company can deploy “MarkBot” to sit on advisory boards and client calls, will they eventually stop needing Actual Mark?

At least for the moment, AI can’t truly replace human presence, taste, style, and accountability. But this is the first concern I had when Dan showed me MarkBot: Do I still matter?

There’s no way to sugarcoat this. An army of private MarkBots would hurt my business. Even if they are just “pretty good,” many businesses can do really well with “pretty good” marketing advice compared to nothing at all.

I’m not worried for now because I think I have a strong enough personal brand to stay in demand, even in the Valley of the Dolls. But the existential crisis will only become more real as the bots progress.

What Clone Wars Mean to Marketers

Every marketer will tell you they are both excited and terrified by AI. And so it is with the AI Clone.

We are in an era where much of our public “thinking” can be mechanized and scaled without us. For marketers and thought leaders, this presents an astounding opportunity and a mind-bending challenge.

This is not going away. Let’s embrace the change, but use our heads:

Efficiency, with Ethics

Smart marketers should absolutely explore how AI clones can amplify their productivity and reach. I’m considering adding MarkBot as a free offering on my website, provided I can determine that it’s not too expensive. Maybe that’s a new job category: “Rogue AI Tester.”

Be transparent. Don’t use secret stand-ins. And never clone someone else without explicit permission. That’s not just bad form, it could soon be illegal. In marketing, trust is everything; don’t squander it by crossing ethical lines with AI. An AI Clone demands an updated perspective on IT governance!

Innovate Beyond the Clone

While clones can handle the repetitive stuff, don’t delegate your original thinking to the machine. Reserve time for human creativity – spontaneous brainstorming sessions, imaginative campaigns, and authentic storytelling that make your brand unique.

MarkBot is like a DJ spinning my greatest hits, but dammit, you can bet that I’m still making new hits.

In an AI-saturated world, double-down on human creativity, authenticity, and bold ideas (that’s the main theme of my book Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World). It’s a great book and even sexy in places.

The New Era of Personalization

Without a doubt, digital twins will be invaluable for personalized communications at scale. I would spend hours chatting with accurate and deep representations of heroes from the world of sports, business, and entertainment. Might even pay for it.

Marketers should prepare for a landscape where AI-driven persona marketing is normal. Maybe the best bots win?

New Opportunities

Used well, used ethically, we could be on the cusp of an exciting new marketing horizon. That means opportunity. If a company can monetize digital twins of Deepak Chopra or Brendan Bouchard, who will be the talent agency managing me and my twin?

Who will create a marketplace for authorized clones of famous thought leaders? I would gladly take a licensing fee for my clone to sit on a board.

Try it for yourself

Have you ever imagined a day when we could assemble elements of metal and sand to create a machine that thinks like you? What a world.

Want to try it out?

Note: Since the article was first published, I’ve created my own MarkBot that is informed by my articles, speeches and books. Give it a try: The MarkBot.

Drop me a note and let me know what you think of it!

I’d like to conclude with a word of hope.

In my early days of blogging, I wrote more than a hundred posts about blogging. I also wrote a bestselling book about blogging. And yet, people kept hiring me to teach them about blogging. It made no sense. I already gave away my best ideas for free.

In a sense, a MarkBot is just another vessel for me to provide information I’ve already put into the world. Will people still want me? I think so.

I’m optimistic that we can harness our AI doppelgängers for good – as tireless assistants, creative partners, and outreach tools – while we continue to create, innovate, and lead with the one thing a clone can never fully replicate: our human spark. The bots can curate our content, but we still own crazy.

Use the clone, but don’t become the clone. If we get that right, the future of marketing with AI looks less like theft and more like a thrilling collaboration – the best of our minds working alongside intelligent machines to grow our ideas further than we ever imagined.

What would you want your AI clone to do? And more importantly, what would you never let it do?

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Image courtesy Mid Journey

The post I Just Met My AI Clone. It Was 90% Me and 10% Existential Crisis appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

If I had a mantra, it might be “The Most Human Company Wins.” I believe this with every part of my marketing soul.

And while my posts are peppered with my human experiences, anecdotes, and opinions, over 4,000 blog posts, I have rarely pulled back the curtain to talk about myself on a personal level. This is one of the few posts that actually carries a photo of me with it, for example!

Why would you care about me “behind the scenes?” But … maybe you do. I consistently and grotesquely underestimate how much people care about me.

I’m in a unique time in my life, and I thought it was worth sharing with you.

For the first time since I was 14 years old, I have a summer “off.” I’m still blogging and recording the podcast, but I have no deadlines, no travel, no big projects. This is by design, an experiment to see what “slowing down” might be like for me.

And I NEED to slow down. I’ve had such a great career, but my pace of work has taken a toll on my physical health, and I need to take better care of myself. I want to travel less and enjoy the journey more.

After a few months in slowdown mode, I’ve learned three things.

1. Creativity unleashed

Having time to think and dream has unleashed a flood of creativity. Relaxing has always been a way for me to generate ideas, and wow … this down period has been amazing. I have so many blog posts in the queue that I’m thinking of publishing twice a week instead of once. I have a lot of ideas to get out there!

2. The brain won’t stop

Part of this creative output is a flurry of ideas for new projects. But my dilemma is, I don’t want new projects. If I take on new work, my experiment crashes. I want to stay open and flexible. It’s a struggle to slow down.

3. Creating makes me happy

I’ve validated that creating for you, my audience, makes me happy. It’s challenging and rewarding. So there are parts of my work I want to keep over time, and parts that I need to jettison. But I will keep creating in one form or another.

The relevant creator

Now comes the tricky part. The source of my creative energy has been insights about marketing. I have a solid track record of connecting the dots in ways that help people make sense of this fast-changing world. You count on my insights.

But to be insightful, you have to be relevant. And to be relevant, you have to work like a dog. You can’t be halfway relevant.

So the challenge is, can I create something valuable without killing myself in the process? I’m open to ideas. Send me a note.

I processed this enigma through ChatGPT, and here is what it advised:

Maybe the question isn’t: Will I ever be able to relax and keep creating?
Maybe it’s: Can I redefine creation itself—so that it nourishes me, even if it no longer scales?

What if you gave yourself a new metric of relevance? One that isn’t tied to views, sales, or engagement—but to personal resonance, presence, even play?

What if relevance could be … intimate?

I have to admit the darn bot got me thinking in a new way. Re-define my creativity? View it as play?

Is today’s blog post intimate?

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post The creator’s enigma: You can’t be halfway relevant appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I recently participated in a Q&A on the future of AI and content hosted by my friend Mark Masters. I thought the quality of questions was so good that everyone might benefit from this content. Here are the questions and my answers covering automated content, strategy, humanity, and more:

There’s a quote going around about people who aren’t using AI being replaced by people who are using AI. What’s your take on this and the broader impact of AI?

I detest that quote. This framing misses the mark. We’re not talking about a tool that simply accentuates our jobs. This is horse-and-buggy territory—if you’re in the horse and buggy business, there’s nothing you can learn about cars that will save your business. Let’s not sugar coat it: this is a fundamentally new day.

The honest truth is that nobody knows—not even the experts—what’s ultimately going to happen or how fast change will occur. I have what I humbly call the Schaefer Rule: when you look at a transformational technology and think it could change everything in the next year, triple your timeline. If you think it can happen in a year, it’ll happen in three. Technology changes quickly, but culture, society, and business infrastructure change relatively slowly.

That said, the opportunity to replace FTEs and cut costs is likely to be a major driver for AI adoption. A recent study of researchers who began using AI revealed something fascinating: as expected, they made more discoveries, filed more patents, and launched more products by using AI. But here’s the intriguing part—the best researchers became even better, creating more distance between themselves and those who are merely competent. This is a rallying cry: if you’re good at what you do, embrace AI fully. Experiment with it every day. No matter what you do, AI has the opportunity to make you better and distance you from the competition.

The Real Concerns About Automated Content

My biggest worry is, what if AI is quietly becoming the author of our work, shaping our voice and our choices. What concerns you about how we use AI as a tool for business and work?

We need to get over characterizing AI as merely a “tool.” That’s a misconception. We look at Word or Excel spreadsheets or podcasting platforms as tools to help us do something. But AI is like electricity or heat—we’re not going to be able to do business without it. It’s not just a tool; it’s something transformational.

In terms of owning our voice and content, I think of it in two ways. I love art, but I’m not an artist. I wish I could be an artist and illustrator, and AI helps me be that. I use AI to illustrate my blog posts, and there’s a lot of thought behind each one. They all look different, and some are really nuanced to reflect what’s in my writing. AI has become a search engine for my creativity, unleashing potential and giving voice to the voiceless, helping people who could never write become writers. That aspect is fantastic.

It gets concerning when AI becomes indistinguishable from human content. There was a pundit recently who said we’re going to reach a point where if you can’t tell whether content is AI or human, you won’t care. Here’s the battle plan: make them care. If you’re merely competent, you’re ignorable. If you’re competent, AI will run right over you.

Art will persist. The things we cherish most in our lives have a human connection. Right here at my desk, I’ve got a drawer full of pictures and cards my children made for me over the years. There’s a story, a connection. Art is the interpretation of the human experience, and that will always persist. Therefore, for us to thrive, our content and work must approach the level of art.

This is nothing new. The subtitle of my book Marketing Rebellion is “the most human company wins.” That’s the battle plan—add your story, heart, and passion. Show compassion in everything you do. This approach is different for many businesses, but it’s necessary.

The Future of Creativity and Work

There’s a concern that working with AI might reduce the fun of digging in and doing the work because we’re outsourcing the work. With automated content, we’re outsourcing the fun part of the work.  What are your thoughts on this?

One of my concerns is that humanity will change because we won’t want to do the hard work anymore. We’ll happily abdicate deep thinking to AI.

Let me give you an example: AI can write a book, but when I write a book, it’s like getting a master’s degree. I have researched and written for two years, and by the end, I’ve internalized the content and reached a new level of expertise. The psychological term for this is “phoresis.”

When we give up on the work, we lose this phoresis, which enables critical thinking and new intellectual capabilities. There’s an enigma here: everyone says that in this world of AI, we need better critical thinking, but AI will actually diminish our critical thinking abilities. It’s going to be an important life skill to fight for, especially for our children, because the world is moving in the opposite direction.

The problem is that if you’ve done the work yourself, you understand how to evaluate AI’s output, but if you haven’t gone through that messy middle bit, you don’t know if the output is any good.

Your concern is valid. It’s real, and it’s going to get worse because we’re not going through the work. We don’t understand the process or the output. The enigma is that while everyone is saying we need better critical thinking in this world of AI, AI will actually diminish our critical thinking. It’s going to be an important life skill we have to fight for with our children because the world is going in the opposite direction.

The Evolution of Marketing and Content

If you started your blog today, would it look different, or would you even have a blog? What would that be like?

It would not be different at all. Not in a single way. My blog and thinking evolve because I’m growing as a person. My interests shift and change, but I still write about the intersection of marketing, technology, and humanity. That’s a big umbrella. I’m a writer who enjoys intellectual challenges and conversations like this one, which are based on ideas from my books. The blog still works.

In all your years in the industrial world and marketing, is this the biggest shift you’ve seen in your career, or is it just another new thing like when the web came along?

The difference now isn’t just the importance of the shift but the speed of change. We need to look at our competencies—our personal brand or business capabilities—as the surfboard. To thrive, we don’t need to change the surfboard; we need to find the next wave.

Another key strategy is community. We can’t do it all ourselves. We need to rely on others around the world to say, “Look what I found—this might help everyone.” Community is a key survival skill.

Do you think we’re on a deep dive to automated content mediocrity, just recycling average material?

Who cares? That’s not going to be you—it’s an opportunity! If the world is average and you’re not, you’re going to stand out.

About two-thirds of all marketing and advertising gets no emotional response from consumers or businesses. If there were a CEO of world marketing and advertising, they’d be fired for incompetence. You’ll be ignored if you’re merely competent—but you don’t have to be.

My entire book (Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World) is about disrupting the narrative—the story, where the story is told, and who tells it. Just give people something a little different. In most industries today, it’s not even that hard because everything is so boring. You just have to be one notch above crap.

Being Human in an AI World

For brands, shouldn’t tone of voice and being human be a given rather than something special?

What’s missing in brand marketing today is a true human voice that’s friendly, accessible, and vulnerable. How can you have a human voice without being vulnerable? Businesses are almost never vulnerable, so we have a long way to go, but vulnerability is what’s being listened to and cherished today.

There’s importance in being “lo-fi”—not Hollywood, not polished. We see this backlash in video games, where companies spend millions to make games look like movies, but players say, “No, we like it raw. We want it old school.” There’s a tremendous opportunity to embrace that authenticity.

I’m seeing people lose their edge or identity because they’re becoming over-reliant on AI. What are your thoughts on this?

They’re using AI as a crutch because they never had an edge in the first place.

Great marketing and content isn’t about conformity—it’s about non-conformity. If AI is taking us down a tunnel of mediocrity, great! That’s our opportunity to shine. Our rallying cry should be: “I’m quirky. I’ve got personality. I’m not going to be mediocre or average. I’m going to twist and turn things.” If everyone is zigging, I’m going to zag. That’s always been what makes marketing great.

ChatGPT is not just automated content. With a little tweaking, it can write and create really well in a human voice. How should content creators respond to this?

When ChatGPT came out, I called Shelly Palmer, a famous tech analyst here in America. I said, “What do you think?” He said, “I’m terrified. I’ve blogged almost every day for 15 years. I asked ChatGPT to write a blog post in my voice, and it did a perfect job in three seconds. I am 80% replaced.”

That does seem terrifying, but the more important question is: what is that 20%? That’s his personal brand, his humanity, the investment he’s made in blogging consistently for 15 years, building an audience that matters and cares for him. He has nothing to worry about. He’s known, trusted, beloved, and people will always turn to a human when they don’t know what’s true or real.

I feel the same way. I’m not worried people will stop reading my blog or books or hiring me when they’re confused because of my personal brand. I put in the work. On my blog, every post says “100% human content.” Proof of human is going to be super important going forward.

Do you think there will be more awareness around the responsible use of AI, and does that create a positioning opportunity for businesses with integrity?

It’s an interesting question. We see Gen Z caring more about the planet and environment than any generation ever, yet they’re driving fast fashion brands like Shein and Temu, which are terrible for the environment.

One thing I’ve been thinking about is that to fully participate in the AI world, the next evolution will be AI agents that can do work for you. But for an agent to make hotel and airline reservations, it needs your credit cards, passport, past experiences, and preferences. ChatGPT can now remember this information.

One theory is that there will be a demographic split between “AI in” and “AI out” groups. But someone recently pointed out it might be like social media or smartphones—why would you carry a device that tracks your behavior and tells companies who you are? But we do, because we’ve resigned ourselves to the benefits. People might care more about the personal benefits of giving their lives over to AI than about environmental or ethical concerns.

With all the changes happening, how can we know that humans will still win in the end?

Despite AI’s capabilities, I’m using it extensively to boost my productivity, accomplishing tasks I always hated doing. The traffic to my website is soaring, and financially, I’m having the best year of my entire life—all while AI supposedly should be doing everything I do better.

I think what people appreciate about me is that they know it’s genuinely me. I care deeply, and it means a lot to set an example and lift people up. I want to be bold, honest, and unafraid to help people sort through the truth without trying to sell them programs.

I’m not worried about AI. I see this as the most fascinating time ever. Embrace it, have fun with it, but keep your eyes open about what’s coming next—and rely on your community.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post Finding Your Edge in a World of Automated Content appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I have been going around the world giving two new speeches. One on “Harnessing AI for Your Business” and a new one based on my new book Audacious.

In the AI speech I make an important point — The rate of change will impact us as individuals and businesses as much as the change itself. To thrive we need to adopt a new mindset, a mindset of continuous change at a scale that is unprecedented in the history of our planet.

Think about it. The moment you read this sentence is the slowest rate of technological change you will ever experience.

If you’re in marketing, the problem is doubly difficult. It’s just nuts out there, and we need help coping!

I thought it would be interesting to discuss coping strategies with Jay Acunzo. We are both regarded as thought leaders in our spaces, and there is no halfway. Either you’re keeping pace, or you’re not.

In the new episode of The Marketing Companion we reveal our own strategies and secrets to stay ahead. Fasten your seatbelts! The world of blazing change is ahead. Just click here to listen:

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion Episode 312

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The post Six practical tips to stay ahead of the marketing learning curve appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Are you tired of reading about AI? Me too.

There’s a whole world of marketing disruption and opportunity to talk about, so let’s put GPT on pause for a moment and consider the State of the Nation and the 10 biggest marketing challenges.

One of the best parts of my job is interacting with business leaders of all types. I get a broad, global perspective of marketing issues from the very largest companies to solopreneurs and startups. And I certainly hear some common themes when it comes to the biggest marketing challenges.

Surprisingly, they have nothing to do with AI, at least not directly. Here’s what’s going on in the world from my perspective. These are NOT in any particular order.

1) Awareness

OK, I lied. This one IS in order — probably the biggest challenge we face today.

Marketers create customers. And to create customers, we must create awareness for our products. Rising above the noise to earn attention has never been more challenging. Media channels are fragmented and, as we see with TikTok, tentative!

Consumers have become their own streaming media entities. How do we get into those earbuds? And then you have AI swarming the media landscape. Sheesh. Marketing is hard. This is the time for audacity! 

2) From big campaigns to small acts of cultural relevance

A few years ago, Pepsi announced that the big brand “bonfires” were over. Brands had to connect to moments of cultural relevance. At the time, I wondered what that meant. But it became clear as brands became part of music, sports, fashion and leaned into emerging consumer signals.

Certainly, that is the direction of the marketing world right now, as brands try to capitalize on memes and trends instead of planning massive campaigns months in advance. A focus on cultural relevance requires an obsession with …

3) The Need for Speed

At 8:48 p.m. on February 03, 2013, a milestone event occurred that changed the face of marketing forever. The power went out at the Super Bowl. and in 10 minutes, Oreo launched an ad:

I remember being at a Super Bowl party  — there was a gasp in the room when the commercial ended. How did they do that?

The ad transcended all norms of advertising. The brilliance lay not only in the imagery but in the blazing speed of execution. This wasn’t a meticulously planned campaign — it was marketing at the speed of culture. The ad wasn’t just broadcast on TV; it also became a social media viral sensation and the company’s all-time most tweeted content. It was a global showcase of the potential of real-time marketing.

In the TikTok Era, a brand might have an hour to be relevant. There’s no time for planning or measurement. Many brands live in a reaction culture. This has massive implications for creative, resources, and legal approvals!

If the need for speed hasn’t transformed your marketing department, it will soon.

4) The Disconnected Customer

Many people, especially those under the age of 25, experience their entire media world by themselves through earbuds. They binge music, video, movies, and podcasts in an ad-free streaming environment. They play their games and socialize in Discord groups. They’re not visible to brands, and they don’t see the brands either, at least not like they used to.

A few years ago, I wrote a book about one solution to this dilemma: Belonging to the Brand: Why Community is the Last Great Marketing Strategy. I was absolutely right about this trend. As I am writing this post, I’m attending the global thought leadership conference SXSW. The sessions on brands and communities are so hot that they had to create extra sessions. In the current marketing environment, this might be a hotter topic than AI.

Community is certainly one of the few options to earn your way past those earbuds!

5) Adjusting the marketing/advertising infrastructure

Quiz time.

You know without a doubt that word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) is the purest, most trusted form of marketing, right? It’s been around forever … but how much of your budget is devoted to WOMM? My guess is: ZERO.

How about brand community? How about experiential marketing? Also, probably zero.

There are lots of marketing options beyond Facebook ads and SEO but we’ve stayed in the familiar marketing trenches. If you have a contract with an ad agency they are probably resisting alternative forms of marketing because, well, they’re not ads. There is a legacy infrastructure in place that keeps us less effective and boring.

6) Navigating a world where one person can alter brand strategy

Life used to be so easy. A brand was what we said it was. Today, a brand is what we tell each other. And that can spin out of control.

The problem with our social media world today isn’t a matter of free speech, it’s a matter of amplification. A hundred years ago, if somebody spread a conspiracy theory, it would be unlikely to get any further than the boundaries of a neighborhood. But today, false information and deep fakes can reach millions if it comes from an influencer.

Our favorite brands have spent decades and millions of dollars building consumer connections. And all that can be ruined by somebody who is out to get you. It is certainly a weird world where our hard-earned brand marketing can be tarnished in a single post.

7) Activating influencer marketing

I was sitting at a table of brand managers, and one of them said, “Influencers are everything.” That’s a profound statement. But if you’ve followed this post so far, you can see how influencers fit into this new marketing world.

Influencers have massive, loyal audiences, and their message can cut through the earbud blockade. They can be counted on to react with speed, in the moment. In fact, day-to-day relevance is what makes them great. They are more than trusted — Their biggest fans consider them family.

I’ve been following the influencer marketing trend since its beginning, and I think the momentum will pick up going forward. While this is mainstream media for the biggest brands, most companies are just getting started.

8) Talent Acquisition and Skill Gaps

The rapid evolution of digital/influencer/meme marketing requires new skills in AI, analytics, and content creation. Finding and retaining top talent is increasingly difficult. Something I hear all the time: “There is no shortage of marketing jobs. There is a shortage of the right skills for those jobs.”

9) Proving ROI and Justifying Budgets

Marketing teams face increasing pressure to demonstrate clear ROI on campaigns. With long sales cycles and brand-building efforts, attributing revenue directly to marketing initiatives has always been challenging.

I think this is the greatest source of marketing stress. Your boss expects marketing to be coin-operated. Put coins in, get more coins out. But customers don’t operate that way and they don’t care about your quarterly revenue goals. Marketing takes patience and that is not a popular trait these days.

10) Global de-population

I bet you didn’t see that one coming. But this mega-trend will put a lot of pressure on marketers and their brands.

The global birthrate is nowhere near the replacement average of 2.1 births per family. In the U.S., for example, the rate is about 1.4 births per family. Almost every business depends on population growth for incremental annual sales gains. However, the population will inexorably decline in most developed nations, which has massive implications for sales and marketing.

The latest UN numbers show that 2040 will be the peak population on earth, just 15 years away. So, it’s coming at us quickly.

Well, on that happy note, I’ll conclude this post on non-AI marketing issues. You might be thinking, “Whew … that’s a lot.” But that’s exactly why I love marketing. It’s a field that is endlessly changing and endlessly fascinating.

I love solving hard problems and marketing has no lack of them!

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Image courtesy Mid Journey

The post The 10 biggest marketing challenges have nothing to do with AI appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I’m a big fan of Rick Beato (one of his 4 million subscribers!). He is a passionate, intellectual YouTuber who dissects and explains much of the music that I love.

He recently created a video called The Real Reason Music is Getting Worse, and as I listened to his reasoning, I felt as though he was talking directly to me as a marketer in the AI Age. If you haven’t discovered Rick and you’re a music lover, I hope you’ll check him out. But in the meantime, let’s see what he says about making music in the AI Age and discover if this speaks to you, too …

Music, and Marketing Content is getting worse

Here are the notes I took from Rick’s video:

Technology makes the act of making music too easy. It’s difficult to play an instrument, and it’s really hard to record it well and produce a record. Rick received this note from a fan: “I wrote this song using AI, and I think it’s pretty good, but I literally know nothing about music.” Music has been commoditized.

Technology allows you to save a lot of money and take shortcuts, but the artistry and soul are stripped from the music. He compared an original recording of John Bonham drumming to a loop of the drumming, and it’s a hygienic version.

A creative dependency on technology limits the ability of people to innovate because they don’t know the craft.

When everyone relies on the same tools, you create a homogenized sound and a lack of diversity in the music. Music today is formulaic because people follow trends of certain types of sounds that are in style in the moment.

Ease of production speeds up the process, creating an oversaturation of music and making exceptional work harder to find. AI songs will make the level of saturation even worse as record labels produce their own AI songs instead of using original artists. One new song is added to the streaming catalog every second.

Finally, he explained why human creativity is undervalued. In the golden age of music, you would have to have a job to make money to buy a record album. You had to expend energy to find, buy, and consume the content. There is no sweat equity needed to enjoy music today. You can pay $10.99 per month and have access to any song ever published. So music becomes value-less or at least under-valued for many people.

A record bought for your collection became part of your identity, part of your history. A record was something shared among friends. We would read the album cover and learn about who made and produced the music. The creator and creative team had value.

Lessons for the AI Era

See, I told you he was speaking to marketers. This is EXACTLY  the problem we face when AI churns out content at lightning speed. We risk drowning in a sea of mediocrity. The craft of marketing — the human touch, the unexpected twist, the soul — is in danger of being automated away.

AI presents many existential issues, but here is the one that haunts me the most: When we eliminate all the entry-level jobs, how will young people learn their craft? And if they don’t learn a craft, all we’ll have is “auto-tuned” perfect content, stripped of artistry and soul.

Like artists, will we become so dependent on the same technological tools that everything becomes homogenized?

Here’s what will drive AI adoption: cutting costs. Sorry, that’s the way of the world. So it seems inevitable that we’ll experience an AI pandemic of dull as every possible task moves to a machine.

The other day, I picked up my car from the shop and the technician had tuned my radio to a pop station. I don’t normally listen to current pop music, so I listened for a few days. The music today is truly awful, and I’m a person who embraces new musical ideas.

But here’s what excites me. True artistry still breaks through. I recently saw Jon Batiste in concert and no AI on earth will hold that man down.

As a marketer, you’ll have to be that Jon-Batiste level outlier to swat back the AI. Create work that no AI could dream up. Be so good they can’t ignore you.

There is still room for the crazy ones who push boundaries—there always will be. Start pushing, my friends.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post The Real Reason Marketing Content is Getting Worse appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

There was one moment in my career that was a defining line between having a human existence and having an inhuman corporate career.

Perhaps you don’t remember a time before cell phones and laptop computers, but it was glorious because you could hide from your boss. Now, I was a hard worker and a responsible employee, but before the digital revolution, if you needed a mental health break, you could simply hide for awhile. If I was on the road, the only way for my boss to contact me would be over a pay phone some place. So I could just be “out of reach” for a little bit if I needed a breather.

Then there was this moment that I will never forget. I received my first laptop computer, and a report was due to my boss. I was living in California, so I was working at night so he would have it when he arrived in his office on East Coast time. And I had strep throat. I was so sick I could hardly be upright but there I was, typing out this report at my kitchen table. And my wife said, “What are you doing? The doctor said you had to be in bed!”

And in that moment I realized there was no more hiding. There was no more personal independence. I was now tethered to technology, bound to my work in an unavoidable way that introduced a new level of stress to every moment of the day.

Some time in my 30s, I began to realize that I had to make different choices. I was working in a way that was making me sick and taking too much time away from my family. So I started removing myself from the rat race and began mindfully pursuing a path of personal peace. I made choices for contentment over money, and started working for myself 17 years ago.

I’ve written about this journey toward personal peace from time to time, including:

The single word that changed my life

Why I stopped growing my business

Mistakes along the way

The meaning of life

But I’ve never talked about this subject on a podcast … until now.

Mathew Sweezey has been on a similar journey, figuring out this tricky balance of peace and the natural stress that comes with work. On this new episode of The Marketing Companion, we compare notes and share our own progress and hurdles as we seek personal peace in a hectic world.

We cover

• The balance between financial security and freedom
• The elusive concept of contentment
• Meaningful work
• How we calm down in the face of stress
• Psychedelics

… and much more. Please click below to enjoy this wonderful conversation!

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion Episode 294

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This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customer to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence in order to strengthen their customer relationships.

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This week marks the fifteenth anniversary of my blog. Crazy, right? I realize that nobody cares about an anniversary like this … I don’t even care, honestly … but I thought I would use the milestone as a teachable moment because blogging changed my life. And here is the main lesson of the milestone:

To stand out in this world, you have to be known. To be known, you have to show up consistently. Consistency is more important than genius.

Unfortunately, this is where most people fail. They stop and start, or perhaps they never start at all.

In my Personal Branding Master Class, I show a slide depicting my personal income attributed to “being known.” My income grew steadily over time (except 2020!) because the more I am known, the bigger my audience, the greater the opportunities, the higher the book sales, and the more valuable the speaking and consulting engagements. This progress can only come through consistently showing up with helpful content.

Creating meaningful content is hard work, and at low times, I wonder if it’s worth it. While I’m working on a blog post, my friends might be reading, hiking, or cooking a great meal. Blogging is a sacrifice.

But when I emerge from this introspection, I return to the same conclusion: Everything started from the blog, and every business benefit comes from the thought leadership I’ve built from this space. In fact, without a doubt, blogging changed my life forever, in these five ways:

1. Deep emotional connection

A few years ago, I received an email from a blog reader: “I’ve been reading your blog for three years. It led me to buy your latest book, and it is the best business book I’ve read in the last ten years.”

It was signed by the CMO of a Fortune 100 company. Two years later, he hired me for a consulting project to transform his content marketing department.

Let’s dissect what happened:

• A stranger built an affinity for me through my blog.
• Over time, the affinity became trust … a strong enough bond for him to hire me, even though I had never met him.
• To earn his business, I didn’t have to apply for the job or bid against competitors. I was simply awarded the work, and I named my price.

If I didn’t have a blog, how much would I have had to spend on advertising to have a success story like that?

Brand marketing is about building an emotional connection that differentiates you from the competition. What a wonderful world we live in where a guy like me has the opportunity to build relationships — and a business — through my content. You can do it, too.

2. The introvert’s revenge

I hate networking. I am the worst networker in the world. I’m an introvert who loves a quiet dinner with friends, but put me in a room with a lot of people, and I want to crawl into a hole.

I know that sounds weird coming from a person who delivers keynote speeches in front of thousands of people, but it is different. I come alive on a stage because I can teach and entertain, and I’m really good at it. But shaking hands all night at a cocktail reception is my idea of torture.  I am a mingler misfit.

But through a blog, I can build business friendships with people every day without actually meeting them!

3. The fuel for a legacy

When my blog hit its tenth anniversary, I wrote that my biggest accomplishment was that over all those hundreds of posts, I never humiliated myself. My record still stands!

I have not made a major stumble because blogging forces me to clarify my ideas. Before I put something into the world, I think it through deeply. Is it thorough? Have I considered all sides? Am I being kind and showing up in a way I can be proud of?

These clarified blog concepts are later used in my speeches and books. The seeds of my legacy are planted here.

4. Personal reward

When I was in the corporate world, I would get an annual performance review (if I was lucky!).

Although I generally had an idea of how I was doing, there always seemed to be a zinger in there. Nobody gets a perfect performance review, right?

The cool thing about blogging is that I get a performance every week. Here is a comment posted on LinkedIn recently by Jim Hunt.

Isn’t that awesome? It makes my heart soar. I just can’t believe how lucky I am to have an audience of people who appreciate my work.

That’s the fuel that keeps me going. When I create a blog post, a podcast episode, or a book, I have only one mantra in my head: “I will never let you down.”

5. Personal healing

In the first chapter of my book KNOWN, I wrote about the darkest time of my life. This was so difficult for me to reveal, but I did it to show the reader that when I started my personal branding journey, I was a mess. I was below zero. I wanted to encourage people — If I can do it, you can too.

In those dark days, the stress of my life was killing me. When I went to see a doctor, my blood pressure was so high she would not let me leave her office. She was afraid I was about to have a stroke or worse.

The doctor demanded that I monitor my blood pressure every hour of the day. And this is when I witnessed something miraculous. There was one hour every day when my blood pressure was normal. It was when I was blogging.

There is a zen about blogging that sends you to a different place of focus and peace, even when the world is terrible.

Even more importantly, when I started posting my ideas online, I received feedback from people who didn’t know what I was going through. It was so nice to connect with people who didn’t know of my suffering. I was so tired of being sad.

Perhaps it is too dramatic to say that blogging saved my life, but mentally, physically, spiritually, and financially, I am transformed from creating these words on a screen.

Thank you, friend

I will never forget the moment 15 years ago when I received the very first comment on this blog. It was a moment of awe. Somebody read my work and spent their precious time commenting on it.

I have never forgotten that feeling. I re-live that sense of awe every day when I get feedback on my work.

Whether you have followed me for 15 years or this is our first meeting, thank you for being here. I’m just getting started, and I will never let you down.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post 15 Years On, Five Ways Blogging Changed My Life Forever appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

by Sonia Hunt, {grow} community member

It took me almost dying for a fourth time to get serious about my health and well-being.

At age three, I was diagnosed with severe food allergies, asthma, and environmental allergies – the trifecta nobody wants.

I managed my diagnosis the best I could while hiding it from the workplace for decades because it did not offer me the psychologically safe environment that I required.

Over the years, I rose up the ranks to Chief Marketing Officer, still keeping my personal and professional lives separate. This brought a double whammy of stress, anxiety, and unhealthy behaviors from both sides, which I somehow survived through.

In 2008, I found myself on the emergency room table for a fourth time in anaphylaxis and almost dead. The diagnosis was that it was a severe food allergy reaction, and it left me with hives all over my body for the next year of my life.

There was no way I could hide this from my CEO or my team anymore.

This incident forced me to be real about my health situation, become empowered to live in my truth, and get serious about improving my health and well-being in a way that could finally see me thriving across work-health-life.

I wanted to stop “surviving.” I wanted to see myself thriving.

And so, I began what became a new journey to optimal health and well-being, breaking down personal and professional compartments, advocating for myself and my needs, getting help when I needed it, and leading my teams by example by taking care of myself first and foremost and promoting they do the same.

As I look at the world today, I’m guessing this is a very good time to write about marketing career burnout and YOUR HEALTH.

Marketing career burnout and you 

Ten years ago, there was no talk of workplace well-being. Many of us grappling with health challenges endured a silent struggle behind closed doors, striving to maintain well-being while the corporate world demanded the separation of our personal and professional lives.

That thinking was shattered with the pandemic.

Today, there’s no more compartmentalization, and Gen Z rocked that torch in this fight against employers.

Marketers, in particular, have been through too much pain in too short of a time. We’ve been trying to manage everything as best we can — pandemic catastrophes, new rules of marketing, remote work, layoffs, crazy customer behavior, and this little thing called AI. I am exhausted. And you probably are, too.

“The work cannot suffer,” said my former CEO … but here’s what he really meant: The people could suffer.

I’ll venture to say the Marketing Leader has the worst job today.

Others haven’t agreed with me, but they aren’t marketers! There is no career on earth that has changed so quickly.

And it’s not just the hard skills. You’re required to evolve in new ways – with strong inner/core skills, including resilience and adaptability – and almost immediately required to be the expert in them.

Marketing career burnout is real, my friends. The data shows it, and I know it from personal experience.

Today, as the lines between personal and professional are blurred, the holistic well-being of Marketing Leaders becomes paramount.

Why? I believe the skills and mindset cultivated in the field of marketing align well with the principles of Healthy Leadership, making Marketing Leaders natural candidates to champion a culture of well-being, collaboration, and adaptability within their organizations.

But to champion this within your organization, you must first be healthy yourself.

Marketing leader, healthy leader

Healthy Leadership is about a simple formula:

• For your customers to thrive, the business must thrive.
• For the business to thrive, your people need to thrive.
• For your people to thrive, their leader must thrive.
• For you to thrive, you must prioritize your health and well-being first.

Yes, it’s that simple. Because, if you don’t, how can you:

• Be your best?
• Enjoy your work?
• Make conscious decisions?
• Drive the change you need?
• Lead healthily and by example?
• Be resilient to changing dynamics?
• Build long-term, valuable relationships?
• Adapt to the intricacies of business today?

For personal and career longevity, it’s no longer a nice-have to be healthy and well; it’s a must-have.

Being a Healthy Leader significantly expands your capacity to navigate dynamic landscapes, engage stakeholders, manage changing narratives, and cope with a need to be constantly “on” in a new remote-first work environment.

Beating marketing career burnout isn’t just a great personal decision. It’s a necessary business decision.

In my own journey as a Chief Marketing Officer who managed in a high-stress environment, I discovered an approach that seemed to be right under my nose. I could apply my best marketing skills to improve my personal health and well-being!

You’re the product

Your success as a marketer depends on vision, strategy, and execution that grows customers and your business.

Those same skills can be used to grow and improve your personal health and well-being using a simple formula: “Define + Implement + Analyze.”

With my engineering background, I’m all about systems that help us get to an optimal state – whether that be for the business or myself.

I realized the systems I used in marketing could easily be applied to my personal health with one slight twist: Think of yourself as a ‘Product.’

When you’re marketing a product (or service), there’s a systematic way to go about taking that product to a high growth stage.

In that process, you’re defining vision, current state, challenges, optimal state, and a set of strategies or tactics to achieve optimal state.

Then, you implement those strategies and collect data that will then be analyzed to see how far you are from the optimal state, tweaking the strategies in a cyclical process until you achieve the optimal state.

This works in marketing, and it can work for your health as well.

Applying marketing principles to health

Let’s look at three familiar marketing steps and apply them to your health.

1) DEFINE
Like defining a vision for your marketing, this step is about defining the vision you see for your health by identifying three things:

1. Key Challenges: what health challenges are you currently facing?
2. Optimal State: what does the optimal outcome look like for each challenge?
3. Tactics: what strategies will you put into place to improve each challenge?

2) IMPLEMENT
Define a set of strategies or tactics you can put into action to improve your health.

3) ANALYZE
Just as you would analyze marketing data, this step involves tracking the effectiveness of implemented health strategies, tweaking them as needed, and working toward desired outcomes

Let’s look at an example of one of the things I often hear from my executive coaching clients: “I feel stressed daily, but don’t know how to reduce it.”

Applying marketing principles to stress

1) DEFINE

• Key Challenges:
  • “I feel stress daily, but don’t know how to reduce it.”
• Optimal State:
  • Awareness: I know when I feel stress.
  • Management: I know the steps to reduce stress
• Strategies/Tactics: can be determined with help of a health coach or healthcare professional.
  • Physical health: Nutrition
  • Mental health: Mental Health fitness
  • Emotional health: Meditation
  • Spiritual health: Self-care activities

2) IMPLEMENT: the actions in this example are scientifically known to reduce stress.

• Nutrition — Primarily eat plant-based foods during weekdays
• Mental health — Therapy 2x/month
• Emotional health — 10 minutes daily meditation morning and night
• Spiritual health/Self-care — Walk for 10 minutes after every meal.

3) ANALYZE

• Track actions: keep track of what’s working, what’s not, how you’re feeling in a spreadsheet or app.
• Adjust what is needed to get to the desired outcome of reducing stress.

Then, repeat this system for every health challenge that you want to improve.

Over time, you’ll begin to determine what’s working for you and what’s not. Do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. In harmony, the strategies and tactics that are working will begin to, in this case, reduce stress because you’re eating nutritiously, exercising, more self-aware, meditating, etc.

This 3-step system guides you through defining awareness, management steps, and specific strategies such as nutrition, mental health fitness, meditation, and self-care activities for reducing stress.

This systematic approach aligns seamlessly with the visionary, strategic, and tactical facets of successful marketing work. Run this system through anything in your life, and you’ll realize that you can use your day skills to improve your health and well-being.

A thriving marketer leader

Marketing is a journey of perpetual adaptation, resilience, and, most importantly, self-care.

The truth becomes evident: when you, the marketing leader are healthy, your team thrives, and the business attains unprecedented heights of success.

Prioritizing your well-being creates a narrative that extends far beyond the metrics and strategies of the corporate world. You become a beacon of inspiration internally and externally. Your decisions, fueled by clarity and mindfulness, set the precedent for a work environment and culture of prosperity.

As the complexities of the marketing landscape continue to accelerate, the simple truth remains – personal health is the cornerstone of effective leadership.

It’s a journey of acknowledging the challenges, implementing proactive strategies, and recognizing that a healthy leader isn’t just an individual accomplishment; it’s a strategic imperative for the flourishing of teams and the endurance of businesses.

As you struggle with marketing career burnout, let one truth guide your way – thriving through health is not just a choice: it’s the essence of marketing leadership today. 

Sonia Hunt is a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer, Executive and Health Coach, Best-Selling Author, and TEDx Speaker in Health and Wellness. Her mission is to create a world in which everyone can thrive by building a foundation of personal health and well-being. For business inquiries, email sonia@soniahunt.com or visit soniahunt.com

Illustration courtesy Unsplash.com

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