I recently became a grandfather. My grandson is a year old now — beautiful, smart, and strong (obviously!). I am mesmerized by how he meets the world with all his senses. Every blade of grass. Every beam of light. Pure, unguarded wonder.

I can’t help but look at him with immense pride and joy. But if I’m honest, there is fear sitting right next to the joy. A quiet, persistent fear about the kind of world ahead of him. An unknown, AI-dominant world.

So I’ve thought a lot about this — what it means to raise a child (or grandchild) — in a world filled with malignant uncertainty and unsettling change. How is parenting different now? What kind of world can we expect? And how do we prepare the people we love most for what’s coming next?

Let’s start at a very high level and dive down to baby level — what parents should know about AI.

Navigating the Poly Crisis

My friend Jola Burnett of Ipsos presented at The Uprising retreat last year and described our age as one of “poly crisis.” It is unique in that we’re surrounded by concern on all fronts. Environmental, political corruption, economic, and now this AI thing lurking in the shadows.

Perhaps this is small comfort, but we can recognize that the world has always been a shit show.

Who would have wanted to live in the Middle Ages? The World Wars? Through slavery, or the American Civil War, or Covid? Every generation has looked at the horizon and seen something that felt unsurvivable.

And yet. Here we are.

Humans found a way through. Overall, the world is becoming safer, healthier, and more prosperous, despite the parade of shit shows throughout history.

Humans don’t just endure hard times — we build institutions, laws, and social norms specifically designed to prevent the worst from happening again. That’s not naive optimism. That’s the solid truth of human history.

Whatever happens next, it’s just another opportunity for a resilient human race to conquer chaos.

Opposing the non-human world

We live in a deeply polarized and angry world. But here is one thing (mercifully!) we can all agree on — nobody wants to live in a non-human world.

Human beings want safety. We would like to have meaningful work. We want to have agency and the freedom to choose. And we don’t like to be bossed around.

If we reach a point where our livelihoods and families are threatened by AI, progress will certainly come to a screeching halt. Whether through legislation or resistance, we will not tolerate a non-human world. Human self-interest is a guardrail against AI dystopia.

A survey of 2,400 knowledge workers found that 44% of Gen Z employees admit to actively undermining or sabotaging their company’s AI strategies.

This isn’t dysfunction. It’s democracy working at the ground level.

This is people saying: not like this.

Watch the news for the signs. The direction of AI is now radically unpopular. The revolution, my friends, is already beginning.

The messy middle

AI will transform our lives for the better. I genuinely believe that. But we will have to earn it. We’ll have to walk through the messy middle first.

The Industrial Revolution offers us an example. It wasn’t just about job disruption, though that was real and brutal. There were many other negative outcomes through this cataclysmic economic transformation.

Foremost was pollution. In my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA, the smoke from steelmaking operations was so thick that streetlights would come on midday.

And the mills were unsafe. The city had a “death calendar” during the early 1900s tracking the daily fatalities from industrial accidents. The Industrial Revolution enabled an incredible concentration of wealth (the robber barons) built on the backs of workers who risked their lives to build the country. And there was rampant political corruption.

But these were transitional setbacks that ultimately led to a better future. We cleaned up much of the pollution, created laws about working conditions, benefited from higher wages, and so on.

The AI Era will have its own messy middle. Career insecurity. Environmental costs. Misinformation. Algorithmic bias. Surveillance creeping into corners of life we haven’t yet thought to protect.

These are real. I am not asking anyone to minimize them. I am asking us to hold them alongside something else: the possibility that we are moving toward a world in which AI delivers medical, environmental, and economic miracles for society.

By the time my grandson is ready for college or is entering the workforce, I think we’ll be through the messy middle and live in a dramatically different and better world. He will take for granted that we have abundant free energy, longer lifespans, and unimaginable new work opportunities untethered from a desk, a wrench, or a computer screen.

Our fear is not their fear

As I thought through what I wanted to say in this post, I realized that I’ve been projecting my fear onto a one-year-old who has no idea any of this is happening.

AI has turned my professional world into a daily negotiation with irrelevance. The skills I spent decades building are now, in some form, available to anyone with a prompt. That’s disorienting, and it seems unfair.

My fear is about losing the status quo that I built my identity around. Reliable truth. Professional value. The sense that what I know matters. I grew up in a world that rewarded intelligence. Now, intelligence is a commodity.

But here’s the thing I keep coming back to: that fear is mine. It belongs to my generation, my context, my particular moment in history.

Our children are walking into a different story entirely. They’re not losing something. They are inheriting a new normal, and they’ll adapt to it the way every generation adapts — with a natural fearlessness that will astonish us.

We cannot protect them from their own new, unique anxieties. But we can refuse to hand them ours.

Let’s show them the world of hope that is ahead.

Easing into the future

While we watch the new world reveal itself, there are some things parents (and grandparents) can do to help our children navigate this future.

Curiosity

As I researched my book How AI Changes Your Customers (which many have told me is a parenting book!), one thing became clear: The future belongs to the curious.

If you’re curious, AI will feed you and educate you.

If you’re not curious and just want to get the answer and move on, you will wither.

So, encouraging curiosity is an important life skill. Maybe, the most important.

Comfort with ambiguity

The messy middle I described isn’t just economic — it’s psychological. While my baby grandson has time to ease into a new normal, teens who crave certainty will struggle. The skill of tolerating “I don’t know yet” while still moving forward is increasingly valuable.

When I watch my grandson play, he doesn’t need to understand something to engage with it. Eventually, AI will surround us like the air that we breathe. But in the messy middle, tolerance for ambiguity will be a plus.

Basic human skills

Perhaps I should write an entire post about this, but I am seeing research and personal evidence that young people addicted to screens for companionship are not developing basic human skills.

Empathy, storytelling, ethical judgment, the ability to read a room. These aren’t consolation prizes for people who can’t code. They’re what AI can’t replicate and what leadership increasingly requires.

These are also the skills being eroded by screen addiction and a preference for non-human relationships.

Will our children need “AI skills”? Probably not in the way we imagine. I can already do nearly anything with AI just by talking to it. It will be even more intuitive for our kids. What they will need is the ability to be human in a room full of humans. That will always matter.

Make tech part of the parenting process

Technology is an important part of life, and it needs to be an important part of the parenting process.

A view from my friend Anna Bravington:

“My son is a gamer. He’s grown up with Roblox and Minecraft, and I made a conscious decision to learn those platforms myself. I play Roblox with him. We use Minecraft Java Edition, download mods, install them, and explore it together. I wanted to understand not just what he was doing, but how these platforms work, where the risks are, and what opportunities they offer.”

If you are alongside your child as they learn about technology, you can help guide them into the world of AI in a healthy and balanced way.

The courage to be known

In a world where AI can generate anything, the people who build real relationships and a genuine reputation will have compounding advantages. Teach kids to show up as themselves, not to hide behind a screen.

Encourage your child to create and publish. I know that sets off some alarms, but the person who is “known” in their chosen industry will always have more doors open in a competitive world.

A human personal brand is our last, best defense against AI. Authenticity still sells. Real still matters. Eventually, we will need to talk to a person to navigate our world.

Grit and determination

I’m sure you’ve seen lists of jobs likely to be replaced by AI: legal, marketing, copywriting, etc.

I know it sounds trite … and I am anti-trite … but I do believe you should follow your dream, even in the face of troubling news.

If you are deeply and sincerely passionate about a career choice, go for it, but be prepared to sacrifice. To compete against AI, you’ll have to be extraordinary, and that costs something.

Side note: Law school graduates hit a record level this year. I see that as a sign that people are doubling down on a dream.

Community

For most of my life, I was a lone ranger — head down, self-sufficient, convinced I could figure it out alone. I was wrong about that. The AI Era, with all its isolation and disruption, is not a problem to be solved in isolation. I’m in the RISE community of forward-thinking marketers, and it has made all the difference.

My daughter and son-in-law have already figured out what took me decades. They are love magnets — always surrounded by people, always building something with friends. My grandson will grow up inside that. He will know, every day, that he is not alone.

That is not a small inheritance. In a world this uncertain, it may be the most important survival skill.

A world of awe

As I said, my grandson is one now. Every single movement is an exploration for him. Every leaf, stone, and stick is a new experience. Picking up a flower is a revelation. Just wait until he discovers stars!

We have a choice, every single day. We can tune into the painful world like a police scanner, absorbing the steady frequency of crisis and threat and crime. Or we can tune into it the way this boy does — as a place overflowing with miracles, where every bird and bug is a joy to behold.

The boy will be OK. And maybe I will be OK too … if I can just be more like him.

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 What parents should know about AI and their kids appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I’ve recorded my last episode of The Marketing Companion. Beginning in January 2026, the legendary Sandy Carter will take over as the show’s owner and host.

You can hear my last, surprise-filled episode here:

Listen to Episode 331 of The Marketing Companion

Throughout the podcast’s 13-year history, I’ve always looked forward. I love talking about what’s next!

But for this episode, I broke the pattern and reflected on the story of the show. It’s had many ups and a few downs, and I thought this might be an interesting lesson in tenacity and what it took to build and sustain a podcast that beat the odds.

This last episode covers:

• Why I created the show
• Why the peculiar format of the podcast is a key to its success
• How and why I chose the co-hosts for the show
• Some of the funniest moments in the history of the podcast
• How the show was in constant creative reinvention
• What happened when the downloads began a precipitous decline and I almost lost the show
• How an innovative new format saved the podcast

A driving force of the Marketing Companion’s success was pushing the creative envelope. The world doesn’t need two more talking heads. There had to be entertainment value in the show that earned my audience week after week.

I’ve always looked for ways to innovate, and I was proud to debut the first-ever podcast episode recorded with a synthetic voice.

One of the most fun innovations was the zany intro created by the talented Scott Monty. I had known Scott for many years and respected him as one of the leading voices in corporate communications. But the first 60 seconds of the show became his creative playground as he “introduced” the show from outer space, a dude ranch, the White House, and a hundred other places. I suspected that the show grew as people just tuned in for Scott’s intros!

Another creative innovation was the addition of a “studio audience” beginning in 2022. Members of my RISE community could watch the live Zoom recording of the show and then ask questions after the recording ended. Seeing emotional reactions in real time added an exciting energy to every episode!

It’s remarkable that over nearly 13 years, I never repeated a show topic twice. And I suppose I kept that record intact by creating an episode that looked back. I hope you’ll enjoy this sprint down memory lane.

When I announced that I was leaving the show, I received many kind notes of thanks, encouragement, and, of course, sadness that this era had come to an end. But this is the right decision at the right time. While I am moving away from a show that was a big part of my life, I am re-acquiring time for new ideas.

This final episode is also my tribute to you, the fans.

Every time I prepared an episode, there was only one idea pounding in my mind: I will never let you down.

I never published a perfect episode, but I kept publishing work I was proud of. It was a show that was always relevant, interesting, timely, and entertaining. 331 times.

And this tradition of excellence will continue with the new host, Sandy Carter. Sandy is probably the most connected, wise, and generous marketing pro that I know. She is absolutely the right person at the right time to take the reins of the show.

Thanks to each of you for supporting my show. I will miss this important part of my life, but feel proud of what I accomplished and secure in knowing Sandy will continue The Marketing Companion legacy of excellence!

Please support our sponsors, who make this fantastic episode possible.

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 customers to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence to strengthen their customer relationships.

Go to https://www.brevo.com/marketingcompanion to sign up for Brevo for free and use the code COMPANION to save 50% on your first three months of Brevo’s Starter & Business plan!

A recent Semrush study found that AI search traffic is projected to surpass traditional search by 2028. That makes now the time to prepare your brand for the future of search.

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The post My Fond Farewell to The Marketing Companion appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Typically, this blog focuses on marketing and business. But occasionally, I write about something happening in my life that is rare and strange if I think it can be a teachable moment.

I’ve reached an unexpected and disorienting point in my career. I thought I would write about it, partially to teach, partially to sort through my own dilemma.

A few weeks ago, I taught a series of workshops at McKinsey and Company. I talked about the themes of my books: personal branding, brand communities, how AI is changing human psychology, and more.

In other words, this was my dream come true … Talking about big ideas with some of the smartest and most innovative minds on the planet. Being hired by McKinsey was a peak experience — the company’s research shows up in a lot of my work. They are my favorite thought leaders.

As I finished my day (exhausted!) and looked out over the glorious view from the 64th floor of their Manhattan office tower, I felt on top of the world.

And that’s the problem.

A career led by curiosity

Let’s back up a moment. I need to reveal something strange.

I’ve never really had any career goals. I know … that seems so counterintuitive.

I am not driven by money, fame, or awards. I am propelled by a fever of curiosity.

Here’s an example.

I never dreamed of writing a book. In fact, the idea seemed intimidating. But in 2010, I was approached by McGraw-Hill to explore a new idea I had blogged about — the ability for anyone to publish content on the web. Influence had been democratized.

Early creators (bloggers back then) were building large, loyal audiences, and the power was shifting from Madison Avenue and newsrooms to these passionate individuals changing the world one post at a time. Anybody could be an influencer. And they would be powerful tastemakers and thought leaders.

We take that idea for granted today, but back then, this was a radical notion. I wrote Return On Influence, a bestseller that elevated me to the national stage. I was featured in The Wall Street Journal, CBS News, and Bloomberg to discuss a new concept called influencer marketing.

Being a pioneer in influence marketing meant I could have started a new agency based on this model or monetized this idea in a hundred different ways. While I did some speaking on the topic and helped Dentsu create the first large-scale influence marketing department, I walked away.

I would have been bored out of my mind if I had focused on this one idea!

There was another idea brewing. What is the implication when millions of people are creating their own audiences, shifting attention from mainstream media? The economics of media and content marketing were changing forever. I called this Content Shock, an idea that launched a new phase of my career, at least for awhile.

And that has been my story. Explore an idea and move on. Maybe I’ve left money on the table by not turning ideas into businesses, but I’m happy.

I never had a goal to write a book. I had no dream to be on the news. I never thought I would become a keynote speaker, which is now my primary form of income. I just followed my curiosity and the world kept rewarding me with opportunities.

Looking out from the top

And this gets me back to McKinsey.

In the past 12 months, I’ve conducted a workshop on brand communities for P&G, appeared on the biggest stage at SXSW, and had two new books featured on many “best of the year” lists. I worked in Romania, France, and Italy this year. I’ve been invited to speak in Asia soon.

Now, as I stood on top of the world at the McKinsey office tower, I had a unique and lonely feeling. I had just inspired a group of people at my favorite company. I never thought I would find myself in such a place.

And this is what I felt: There is nothing left. Literally and figuratively, I was standing at the top of the mountain. There is no more “up.”

A disorienting feeling

This sense of depression took me by surprise. I had never felt anything like this and never expected to have this feeling at a moment when I should have been so happy and at peace.

I grew up in humble circumstances that had taught me to have low expectations in life.

And here I am looking into the final third of my life after the most incredible ride. I’ve worked with premier companies like Adidas, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and Pfizer. I gave a TEDx talk, started an amazing community, founded a marketing retreat called The Uprising, hosted a top marketing podcast for more than a decade. My books are used as assigned textbooks in many universities. Wild, right?

I’m not looking for an answer for my sulleness. The next step always shows up because I am still curious! But I’m experiencing something unsettling and new, and I thought I would share it with you.

I suppose in a way this is a good thing. Shouldn’t we all get to feel what it’s like to be at the top of our career mountain?

Need an inspiring 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 When There’s No More “Up.” Lessons from the Top of the Mountain appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I was recently interviewed about my perspectives on work-life balance and shared the story of my early career, when I juggled family, a demanding job, and an MBA program. For nearly four years, I had zero time for “me.”

The interviewer asked: “If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self who worked so hard to climb the corporate ladder, what would it be?”

I know he was expecting me to look back with regret, maybe even say I’d wished I’d worked less or spent more time at home. But honestly, I couldn’t say that. It wouldn’t be true.

Here’s what I said: I would tell my younger self, “Good job.”

That threw him for a loop. Let me explain my answer.

The chicken and the egg

In his famous book Good to Great, Jim Collins describes his concept of a career flywheel.

“Picture an egg just sitting there. No one pays it much attention until, one day, the egg cracks open and out jumps a chicken!

“All the major magazines and newspapers jump on the event, writing feature stories—“The Transformation of Egg to Chicken!” “The Remarkable Revolution of the Egg!” “Stunning Turnaround at Egg!”—as if the egg had undergone some overnight metamorphosis, radically altering itself into a chicken.

“But what does it look like from the chicken’s point of view? It’s a completely different story.

“While the world ignored this dormant-looking egg, the chicken was evolving, growing, developing, incubating. From the chicken’s point of view, cracking the egg is simply one more step in a long chain of steps leading up to that moment—a big step, to be sure, but hardly the radical, single-step transformation it looks like to those watching from outside the egg.

“It’s a silly analogy, granted. But I’m using it to highlight a very important finding from our research. We kept thinking that we’d find “the one big thing,” the miracle moment that defined breakthrough. We even pushed for it in our interviews. But the good-to-great executives simply could not pinpoint a single key event or moment in time that exemplified the transition.”

The career flywheel

Jim Collins famously described this as the flywheel. What creates personal transformation and career momentum? Is it one big push that creates velocity? One class, one connection, one stroke of luck?

No. He found it was a combination of small pushes that created momentum for both careers and businesses. You push and push and push, and that work accumulates to create momentum (I describe this in my book Cumulative Advantage).

Early in my career, I was motivated by money. I would not say I grew up poor — I never went hungry. However, if I wanted to have a bike, new clothes, or a baseball uniform, I had to earn the money myself. Likewise, I had to pay for my own college education and subsisted on beans and cheap pasta for years.

After years of scraping by, I wanted some financial freedom. I was so tired of being broke. And my flywheel was already in motion.

Beginning the momentum

In college, I was part of a marketing student group, and my job was to get guest speakers for our monthly meetings. I researched the largest companies I aspired to work for one day and invited their executives to campus. I was their host for the day, which allowed me to build personal relationships with people who could potentially hire me.

In fact, I secured an internship through a connection with one of these executives. By the time I graduated, I had three corporate internships under my belt. Each internship was bigger than the last, and they paid more because I was building on the momentum of the previous job.

By the time I was a college senior, I had an impressive resume and landed a corporate communications job with a Fortune 100 company. Problem was, I wanted to move into marketing, and that would require something more.

From sales to marketing to momentum

My first move toward a marketing career was to spend time in sales. I was transferred to our Los Angeles sales office and learned about a special MBA program that allowed students to study under the legendary Peter Drucker. I applied twice and was turned down because I was too young for this elite experience. Finally, I met with the dean and explained how my youthful perspective would add to the diversity of the program. He laughed, but let me into the program as the youngest student ever admitted.

This brings us back to where this blog post began. I now had a challenging career, two toddlers, and an MBA program to balance. This was the most demanding period of my life. It took me four years of nights and weekends to get that degree. One of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

If you know me at all, you know I’m great with kids and adored being a father, so I always kept this in front of me as job number one.

All of this was part of my career flywheel. I moved up the company, and, long story short, gained the knowledge and experience that have enabled me to have the career I have today.

And this is why my answer was so unexpected and not-so-politically-correct. I don’t regret working hard to build momentum in my career because it has led to a lifetime of benefits and financial freedom.

Simple math

Let’s put this in simple terms.

Because of the “flywheel work” I did in college, let’s say I could get a job that paid $60,000 while my less aggressive friends earned an entry-level job of $45,000.

If we both received a 5% annual raise for the next 20 years, my flywheel-enabled salary would be approximately $152,000, compared to $114,000 for the other person.

And of course, there is more than money. The flywheel momentum also led to promotions, travel, more time off, and opportunities for my children that I had never had before.

I want to be clear. I’m not saying that everybody needs to work hard, build momentum, and make money. I hope you’re happy in whatever you do.

There’s no one-size-fits-all path. But for me, the hard work I put in early built momentum that changed my life –and gave me more freedom, not less, as the years went on.

If you’re working on your flywheel, keep going. Step by step, you’re building something bigger than you can see right now.

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 Mid Journey

The post A contrarian view to work life balance appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

This summer has been a grand experiment.

For the first time since I was 13 years old, I took the summer off. I’m still blogging and podcasting, but I had no deadlines, no business trips, no customer responsibilities. I was determined to explore this concept known as “slowing down.”

This hiatus was self-imposed. I’ve had some health issues creep up on me, so I needed to spend more time relaxing, exercising, and healing.

Well, that was the plan, anyway. I’ve been partially successful. My health issues are under control. I’ve read a few books. I took some magnificent hiking and kayaking trips. I painted a few (not very good) watercolor pictures.

And then, the weirdest thing happened. This unfamiliar shudder came over me. I felt bored.

I do not believe I have had this feeling in over a decade. When you’re building a business, there is always something to do! But for a brief shining summer, I put that entrepreneurial frenzy aside, and I felt this paralyzing and scary feeling.

My moment of boredom was followed by a massive wave of guilt. How dare I feel BOREDOM! Am I wasting my life?

I was unprepared for this shock of emotion.

Can you be happy and bored?

Perhaps I am part of the last generation to have truly known chronic boredom. As a kid, there was no internet, let alone TikTok, YouTube, Netflix, or Candy Crush. I was always bored, especially when I was in the back seat of the car.

Does anybody feel bored anymore, ever? I mean, can’t you always pick up Wordle or something? The second we feel the tiniest lull, we dive into our phones like we’re rescuing a drowning puppy.

I began to think a lot about boredom.

How did people in pioneer days keep from going crazy during winters on the prairie?

As you get older and can do less, see less, and hear less, is boredom inevitable? How will I handle that?

Can I be happy and bored at the same time?

I began to wonder … is there any benefit to boredom? 

I went down the rabbit hole to figure out if boredom is just a waste of perfectly good oxygen or if it actually has some merit. Turns out, science has been poking at boredom for years — probably because some researchers got bored and thought, “Hey, this is publishable.”

The case for boredom

On the plus side, there’s scientific evidence that boredom is a springboard for creativity. A study found that participants who performed a mind-numbingly dull task (such as copying numbers from a phone book) performed better on creative tasks afterward.

Why? Boredom can give your brain space to wander, connect dots, and hatch weird, wonderful ideas you wouldn’t have had while bingeing The Bear (love).

I came up with this idea that boredom is “psychological fasting.” Clears the decks.

Boredom can be a signal, like your brain’s low-battery warning. Psychologists refer to it as a “self-regulatory emotion,” prompting you to seek meaning or a challenge. That restlessness is your brain saying, “You are built for more than scrolling Instagram.”

And boredom might even make you a better person. Research suggests boredom can push people to volunteer, donate, or help others, because they’re looking for something fulfilling to do.

Maybe the whole world needs to be bored for a day or two.

The case against boredom

Before we start handing out “Bored and Proud” bumper stickers, let’s be honest — boredom can also be the fast lane to bad habits. Boredom eating? Check. Impulse online shopping? Double check. Endless YouTube spirals leading to“How to Survive a Moose Attack”? Don’t ask.

In extreme cases, boredom isn’t just annoying — it’s linked to higher risk-taking, reckless driving, and substance abuse. A study found chronic boredom can correlate with depression and anxiety.

It’s not that boredom causes these issues, but left unchecked, it can create a nasty loop of “nothing feels interesting, so I do nothing, so nothing feels interesting.”

Plus, in our hyper-connected world, boredom tolerance is at an all-time low. This robs us of the chance to sit in stillness long enough for our minds to do anything useful with it.

My boredom breakthrough

I realized my unexpected feeling of guilt wasn’t because boredom is bad. It was because I’d forgotten how to do it. It was literally a shock to my system. My default mode is perpetual motion: write a book, launch a project, book a flight, repeat. Slowing down felt like driving a Ferrari in first gear.

Here’s the amazing part. The moment I dipped into boredom, I launched into a creative frenzy. All these new ideas just came flowing out.

And I wrote a book. Not kidding. Three weeks.

But that’s a story for another day.

Boredom as a luxury?

Like anyone, I feel a range of emotions every day. Except boredom. If you have YouTube in the palm of your hand, there is just no excuse, right?

But shouldn’t we want to feel bored sometimes?

I think boredom has gotten a bad rap. Until this century, boredom was a common fact of life. I’m beginning to think God wanted us to be bored every now and then. It’s a fertile little re-set. You never know what will happen.

I have a new practice of sitting outside with no distractions, no books, no technology. At least an hour per week. Doesn’t that seem weird … boredom is a luxury?

Curing boredom with Wordle is a bit like sating hunger with M&M’s. Give boredom a chance. Take it for a walk. Ask it what it’s trying to tell you. You might just find your next big idea hiding in the quiet.

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 Mid Journey

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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}.

Each year, I read Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl. It is one of the greatest books ever written and a reminder of the best and worst of the human condition.

The central premise of this famous book is that “to be human is to suffer,” and that how we handle our suffering defines us.

This became an unexpected topic of conversation with my friend Dana Malstaff. We were speaking at the same event recently, and I took advantage of the opportunity to bring together some friends for dinner. When the other two people paired off in conversation, Dana had a chance to say something to me privately—she was going through a gut-wrenching and stressful period.

The deep sadness on her face resonated with something buried in my own heart. For a moment, we were connected by the quiet acknowledgment that suffering, as Frankl taught, is universal—sometimes the greatest comfort is knowing you’re not alone in it.

The private moment passed as the server brought our food, and the four friends resumed a more public conversation. I felt inadequate as a friend, knowing that an opportunity to comfort her in the moment had passed.

The next day, I flew home to the other side of the country, but I could not get that look on Dana’s face out of my mind. I wrote some words of encouragement to her based on my own experience with suffering. I knew how hard it was to keep operating as a human and a business professional when the world crashes around you.

She appreciated my advice and suggested that our next Marketing Companion podcast episode could explore the theme of “persisting through suffering.” How do you keep going as a business leader when your mind and body want to quit?

I could not imagine a scarier topic. Which means … I should do it.

Meaning in Suffering

I didn’t know how this would go as a podcast episode, but I’ve learned that when something is out of my comfort zone, I need to pursue it. This is when I grow as a person.

So Dana and I talked openly about our suffering and our strategies to persist when the world won’t let us step off to catch our breath.

Before I turn to this conversation, I want to emphasize that I am in no way comparing myself to Viktor Frankl and the horrors he experienced in a Nazi concentration camp. I started this post with his quote because it is part of my psychological approach to life, and to introduce you to this book if you did not know it.

As this podcast enters its thirteenth year, this episode certainly stands out as a unique and gripping human tale. While it might seem like “suffering” has nothing to do with marketing, it has everything to do with marketing, a profession that runs on empathy and understanding.

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion Episode 313

The illustration on this post is “At Eternity’s Gate” by Vincent van Gogh.

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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 to strengthen their customer relationships.

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The post Finding Meaning in Suffering: Business Leadership When Your World Is Falling Apart appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

The debate over AI and its role in creative industries often centers on one question: Can AI ever be as creative as humans? While it’s tempting to philosophize about inspiration and ingenuity, this line of inquiry misses a crucial point for anyone tasked with making practical decisions about content creation: If the audience can’t tell the difference between AI-generated and human-generated content—or if they don’t care—then, for all practical purposes, there is no difference.

The solution to this is obvious — MAKE. THEM. CARE.

There are many ways to do that (outlined in my book Audacious). And last week, I wrote that our marketing content needs to approach the level of art, displaying our unique story and interpretation of the human experience.

But in a discussion last week with the brilliant and ever-so-human Joseph Jaffe, another key principle of this new business reality struck. me: Strategic Imperfection. Sometimes, the most humble human content outshines AI’s polished results. Let’s look at this extremely important lesson.

The Jaffe surprise

Joseph hosts a YouTube show called Joseph Jaffe is Not Famous. He was inspired to create something uplifting and fun in the dark Covid days and never stopped. I’ve never seen a person put more care and craft into video interviews, so please check it out (here is my episode!).

For each show, Joseph digs out obscure “fun facts” about his guests. These tidbits are often embarrassing and always weird to get a rise out of the guest. For me, he discovered that as a young man, I had danced with JonBenét Ramsey’s mother. This is true, and if you make it to the end of this post, I’ll spill the story.

Back to Joseph. He turned to AI to create an image of me dancing with Patricia Ramsey to poke fun at me. As a reference, this is what these two people actually look like:

Here are the AI-generated results of the two of us dancing from MidJourney, ChatGPT, and Grok:

As you can see, none of these images really hit the mark. Joseph became exasperated. He had spent too much time trying to coax AI prompts into something polished and perfect, and out of frustration, just whipped together a crude cut-and-paste image:

This final result looks like something from a grade school art class, yet it is awesome, and a great example of strategic imperfection. It’s funny and foolish and captures the spirit of Joe’s show. It made me laugh out loud.

This is not just a one-off observation about humanity and creativity. The rawness and playfulness of imperfect humans is a significant content trend that can help you cut through the pandemic of dull that is marketing today.

The science of strategic imperfection

This phenomenon of exposing human flaws has deep psychological roots. The Pratfall Effect, discovered by psychologist Elliot Aronson in 1966, demonstrated something counterintuitive: people who are perceived as highly competent become more likable when they make (and admit) a minor mistake. Think about that for a second. The perfection we’ve been chasing might actually be pushing our audiences away.

Research by Baba Shiv at Stanford further suggests that imperfections create cognitive “hooks” in our brains. When we encounter a flaw in otherwise polished content, it creates a moment of surprise that enhances memory and engagement. Our brains, wired to detect patterns and anomalies, pay special attention to these inconsistencies.

In Audacious, I profile the king of viral video, Michael Krivicka, who explained that his key to success was out-of-focus shots, poor audio, and camera dust. It makes his videos look REAL … and he never uses AI.

The trend across media

A fascinating article in The New York Times explained that after years of seeking perfection, developers realized that gamers often prefer low-fidelity graphics. It’s not about the Hollywood experience. It’s about hanging out with friends over a simple and fun game.

Developers are now deliberately stepping away from the hyper-polished visuals that dominated titles for years. Studios like Ninja Theory have embraced imperfect motion capture and raw voice acting to create more emotionally resonant experiences in games like “Hellblade.” The intentional shakiness of the camera, the imperfect lighting – these elements create a sense of presence that polish efforts often fail to deliver.

In social media, the rise of “casual posting” and “photo dumps” represents a similar shift. Even celebrities and influencers are posting unedited, unfiltered content that would have been considered unprofessional just a few years ago. The most successful TikTok creators understand that a slightly messy room in the background or an unscripted laugh creates more connection than a perfectly staged setting.

In podcasting, the shows topping the charts often maintain conversational tangents, verbal stumbles, and authentic reactions rather than editing for perfect flow. These “mistakes” signal authenticity to listeners, making the content feel like a genuine conversation rather than a performance. All of my Marketing Companion podcast episodes are done in one take with no editing.

If you want to see a great example of the lo-fi digital aesthetic, check out this website from musician Mabe Fratti. It’s lo-fi, interactive, and WILD.

Strategic imperfection

This trend toward strategic imperfection isn’t just aesthetic – it’s a rational business response to deeper cultural shifts:

1. Trust Erosion: In an era of deepfakes and AI-generated content, audiences are developing a healthy skepticism toward anything that looks too perfect. Visible imperfections signal human creation.

2. Digital Fatigue: After years of curated feeds and polished content, audiences crave the refreshing authenticity of unfiltered humanity.

3. Connection Hunger: Post-pandemic, people are seeking genuine human connection, even through digital media. Imperfection creates intimacy.

Here’s the critical distinction for marketers: strategic imperfection is not the same as poor quality. The most successful practitioners of this approach maintain high standards while selectively allowing human elements to show through.

Apple’s recent “Shot on iPhone” campaigns perfectly illustrate this balance. The photos and videos showcase impressive technical capability while maintaining the slightly imperfect framing and timing of real human photography. They’re professionally imperfect – and that’s the sweet spot.

Proof of Human

In a world where AI can generate seemingly perfect content with ease, human imperfection becomes a powerful differentiator. The subtle flaws in human-created content may soon be the most reliable indicator that a real person was behind it. “Proof of Human” is a significant trend for all of us going forward.

As marketing professionals, our job isn’t to achieve perfection – it’s to create connection. And sometimes, the quickest path to that connection is through the strategic embrace of our wonderfully human imperfections.

The brands that understand this paradox – that flaws can be features rather than bugs – will cut through the noise and build the authentic connections that drive lasting engagement.

Because in the end, we don’t connect with perfection. We connect with humanity. And humanity, by its very nature, is gloriously imperfect.

The rest of the story

Since you’ve made it this far, I’ll reward you with the dancing story.

Patsy Ramsey was JonBenét Ramsey’s mother and a key player in one of the most notorious unsolved murders in American history.

But when I knew her, she was Patsy Paugh, a Miss America contestant from my home state of West Virginia.

My mother was involved in community theater and performed in a show with Patsy. She became a family friend and would visit our home. I scored major cool points when I brought Miss West Virginia to speak at my high school.

Somehow my mom dragged me into a community theater Christmas show and I danced with Patsy while we sang “Let It Snow.” I am not a great singer and a terrible dancer, but it was OK because nobody was looking at me anyway.

Once Patsy graduated from college, we lost touch with her and never saw her again. Her life was full of tragedy and pain, but to the teenage me, she was a beautiful, shining star.

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 Why strategic imperfection is your essential strategy to beating the bots appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

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}.

Somebody in my community asked me, in the coming year, what are your plans to grow your business?

This question stopped me in my tracks for a moment because this year, I have no plans to grow my business. Isn’t that a strange and unexpected answer?

Might make a good story. So here it is.

A different view of success

I used to be a corporate pig-dog, climbing the corporate ladder. I was a high-flying executive being groomed for an executive position. And that meant quite a bit of stress along the way.

One time, I was in a corporate training program. We were out in a lodge in the middle of the woods, and we were supposed to talk about our feelings. But all I could think about was stress at the office. I didn’t want to talk about feelings.

The program trainer (who later became an important mentor and friend) sat beside me and said, “Mark, I can see you’re struggling with this. What would you say is the feeling you experience most of the time?”

That was easy. I answered, “Anxiety.” And I was certainly feeling it at that moment!

I decided to be a smart ass and ask him, “Well, what’s the feeling you have most of the time?” Without missing a beat, he said with twinkling eyes, “joy.” I knew he was right. He had a constant serenity about him.

This moment changed my life forever because I was ashamed to be living a life ruled by anxiety. From that moment on, I vowed to make more decisions based on joy, rather than career opportunities or money.

If you ever see me at my desk in a video or Zoom call, you’ll see big silver letters that say JOY right above my head. That’s why.

Starting my own thing

That was also the moment I started stepping down from the corporate ladder and more toward a life that would help me be a better husband and father. Eventually, I decided to go out on my own and start my own business.

I want to emphasize that I had a fantastic corporate career. I always had an entrepreneurial bent, but I was very happy in the corporate environment, where I benefited from great leaders and friendships. But I got to a point where I couldn’t keep growing down the joyful path on the corporate track.

From the start, when I went out on my own, I made choices for joy. I wanted to keep it small and focus on meaningful work instead of managing employees. I found great people to work with who became like family to me. Personal chemistry can increase joy or destroy it faster than anything.

I don’t look at the books

I did not have a master plan to grow my personal brand into what it is today. I just made smart decisions along the way, and it led to business growth. That’s a story for another day. I want to stick to the theme of joy.

I’ve now had my own business for 15 years. About seven years ago, I made another unusual decision. I stopped looking at QuickBooks, the program I use to track sales. I was becoming too obsessed with beating the numbers, and this was making me unhappy. So I stopped.

To this day, I only look at the accounting statements one time — at the end of the year — to see how we did. I know the rhythm of the business. I know how the money is flowing without obsessing over it. I make decisions to work with people I love on rewarding projects.

My keyword

Here is word I dwell on a lot, especially since the pandemic: Contentment.

When the pandemic hit, my business went to zero, as did a lot of vacation plans! I was miserable, but I still had so much to be grateful for.

I thought a lot about my grandfather, a plumber. He never had a new car or a color TV. As far as I know, he only went on one vacation in his life, to the beach — which he hated. And yet, he was one of the happiest men I’ve ever known. He loved a good bowl of soup. His rose garden. Having a beer with friends.

He never complained, even in the hard times, and always smiled. He was content. He is still my role model in that way. It’s a way to infuse joy into daily life.

The zero growth strategy

This brings us to today when I no longer care how much my business is growing.

Here is one of the worst quotes in all of business: “If you’re not growing, you’re dying.”

Man, we’re all dying. I think a lot of people are probably dying faster than the rest because they’re focused on growing a business instead of growing a life.

People come to me with new business opportunities all the time, I usually say no. While I am grateful, new levels of activity will probably also lead away from contentment. I leave a lot of money on the table. I’m not bothered. I’m OK.

Reality check

I don’t want you to think I’m some Zen Master who stares into candles all day. I work hard on my business, but I love every minute of it. I have fun every day.

There’s really no work-life balance. It’s all life. You just pick and choose your priorities.

I also want to emphasize that I am in a phase of life that might be different for you. In fact, I’m probably the oldest person in the room. I had to save for my kid’s college, I had to pay off the mortgage, and healthcare bills.

I didn’t arrive at this place all at once. Remember, I started as a corporate pig-dog. It was a trajectory based on a decision to choose joy. I’m still evolving.

If you’d like to hear more about this journey, please listen to my podcast conversation with the amazing Keith Jennings. Together, we dissect the five stages of careers and how it has applied to our lives. Every conversation with Keith is a gift and you’ll learn a lot from this!

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion episode 279!

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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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The post From Paycheck to Purpose: Why I Stopped Growing My Business appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.