“Imposter syndrome is a made-up concept. Confidence (even when you’re figuring it out) will take you much further. It’s OK (and sometimes necessary) to pause, pivot, and start all over. Do not marry a job, a company, a brand. Nothing is forever, and that’s a good thing! Staying open-minded has been the real game-changer for me. It’s taken me places... See more

The strategist who only understands the “front stage” of a brand: messaging, insight, positioning...will quickly hit their ceiling. The strategist who understands the backstage — how things actually get made, distributed, and measured will become indispensable.

the greatest temptation is to mistake articulation for insight.

Ultimately, the public-facing version of strategy mostly teaches presentation, vocabulary, formatting, and pattern-matching. It does not teach judgment or what to pay attention to. It does not teach cultural literacy. The hard work of cultivating those is uniquely yours to take on.

I would accept very early that strategy does not happen in theory: it happens inside organizations. And organizations are political structures, whether people acknowledge it or not. Politics here is not about manipulation or theatrics; it’s about understanding how people operate under pressure, what they fear, what they want, what they’re rewarded... See more