AI would never smoke a cigarette with you.

Great headline, huh?

On March 22, 2026, this letter, handwritten by Shane Hegde (CEO & Co-Founder of Air), was published in the New York Times. 

It’s his argument that after nearly a decade working with 250,000+ creatives is AI can generate, resize and optimize 1,000 brand variations in seconds … but it can't decide what's worth making. That part still requires a person with judgment and taste.

Read the full text of the message below.

_________________________

For more thoughts on AI and the creative process:

Don't Let AI Kill Your Analog Intelligence

Why Every Copywriter & Content Writer Needs an AI Usage Policy 

Generative AI: TO BE (a tool) OR NOT TO BE (a tool)?

The Adolescence of Technology 

_________________________ 

The full 3/22 message:

AI would never smoke a cigarette with you.

In life we long for simple stories, and these days the headlines deliver:

“AI will replace you.”

Each week, there’s a new AI startup that claims its product will make creatives obsolete. Photographers, videographers, graphic designers, illustrators: highly specialized individuals who have spent decades turning crazy ideas into something everyone can visualize.

If anyone should be buying into this narrative, it’s me.

In 2018 my friend Tyler and I started a tech company called Air. We told investors that every company was becoming a media company. And, if true, every company would need an engine to scale their creative work.

Over the last eight years we’ve raised $70M to build this engine.

Today, nearly all of our product resources have shifted to build AI centric features. Our best engineers spend most days evaluating AI written code. But after nearly a decade working with over 250,000 creatives, I’ve built a rather rigid, shockingly unorthodox belief:

AI will never replace creative work.

Creative work starves for originality.

A person decides where the story begins, which frame feels right, or whether the work should even continue to exist. The best pieces of content require doubt and indecision.

The difference between a creative and a machine is this obsessive anxiety.

Artificial intelligence is trained to find patterns and recommend the most common answer. The machine aims for objectivity. It can generate images, resize assets, translate languages, and optimize performance.

It’s always correct, but it’s not always right.

AI would never tell you to slow down.

It would never argue that further introspection might change the work.

You won’t find AI smoking a cigarette at 9AM on Howard and Lafayette. Only a beautifully inefficient mind would believe cancerous reflection could improve its work.

Over the coming months every company you know will be reshaped into an unrecognizable form. Smaller teams. More machines.

But the organizations that survive will require human beings who are willing to take risks. These people understand that letting what they love kill them is a uniquely human trait. Their illogical texture for life is something machines can’t compute.

At Air, the value of our product is shaped by a creative’s direction.

We use AI to help them scale their work, but deciding when, where, and how to deploy this technology remains defiantly human.

The best creative work is always an argument.

I’m around if you want to share yours.

 - Shane   s@air.inc  419.902.7392

 

Promotions: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Promotions are the sugar rush of business strategy: make it fun, inviting, cheap, loud, and impossible to ignore. You dangle a deal, people show up. It’s Pavlovian. It works … but sometimes it goes horribly awry.

Baseball has two legendary reminders:

First, 10-cent Beer Night. Cleveland Indians, 1974.

Attendance was low, morale was lower, and the concept was simple: ultra-cheap beer to boost attendance. Which is a bit like solving a small fire with gasoline because it’s convenient and nearby.

Fans showed up, drank accordingly, and by mid-game fans weren’t so much watching baseball as participating in a kind of participatory performance art involving streaking, fights, and the slow unraveling of social order. The field became less a playing surface and more a battleground. Players had to defend themselves. The game was forfeited … but … attendance did  improve.

Then there’s Disco Demolition Night. Chicago White Socks 1979.

This one wasn’t about cheap beer (though, let’s be honest, beer was not not involved). It was about tapping into a cultural moment, specifically, the growing backlash against disco music. The promotion: bring a disco record, get in cheap, and watch it get blown up between games of a doubleheader.

Again, the premise feels clever in that slightly mischievous way marketers love. It’s edgy. It’s topical. It gives people a sense of participation, like they’re part of something bigger than themselves. But here’s the thing about tapping into cultural frustration: it can’t always be neatly packaged and it doesn’t come with a volume knob.

The explosion happened, and then so did everything else: fans rushed the field, fires started, and the night unraveled fast. The second game never stood a chance.

What ties these together isn’t just chaos, it’s optimism. Attendance was down, fans were not enthusiastic. So someone thought they could generate some fun and excitement. And they were, right ... up until fun tipped into something harder to control.

The variable is people. They’re like the weather: mostly manageable, occasionally unpredictable, and very capable of turning on you if you misread the conditions.

I’m not against bold ideas. Safe is forgettable. But there’s a difference between taking a risk and lighting a fuse. And those baseball promotions did work … just not in the way anyone intended. Which points out the quiet warning buried in all good promotions: attention can be easy to get ... control not so much.

Just ask Red Lobster about the “endless shrimp” promotion that helped push the seafood chain into bankruptcy.

 _________________________

 

If you’re still in the mood, here are a few more disastrous promotions:

Pepsi – Pepsi Points Harrier Jet Promotion (1990s)

A tongue-in-cheek ad suggested you could redeem points for a military jet. One guy tried. Lawsuit followed. Pepsi argued it was a joke; the court agreed … but not before the brand learned that consumers don’t always hear “just kidding.”

Hoover Company – Free Flights Promotion (1992)

Buy a vacuum, get two free airline tickets. Sounds harmless until too many participate. The cost of honoring the deal nearly sank the company’s European division. A vacuum cleaner is not supposed to come with international travel.

McDonald's – Monopoly Promotion Fraud (1990s–2001)

The popular Monopoly game was rigged from the inside … major prizes were stolen and distributed through a network. Not exactly the brand story you want when your whole campaign is built on chance and trust.

Snapple – Giant Popsicle Stunt (2005)

They built a 25-foot popsicle in New York City to set a record. It quickly melted, flooding the street in sticky kiwi-strawberry sludge that firefighters had to hose down. Nobody was happy except the rats and flies.

Don’t Be Misled By Data

 

Somewhere along the way, marketing forgot how greatness actually happens.

We started treating dashboards like oracles. We mistook metrics for meaning. And we convinced ourselves that if we just listened harder to the data, the comments, and the focus groups, we’d stumble into brilliance.

That’s not true. It never has been.

Your audience is not the source of the next breakthrough. They can only describe what already exists. They can’t imagine what they haven’t felt yet.

Data doesn’t create culture. It documents it … after the fact.

When you invite data into the creative process too early, it doesn’t sharpen ideas. It sands them down. It rewards familiarity, penalizes risk, and quietly pushes everything toward the center. Safe. Polite. Forgettable.

That’s how brands spend millions and still disappear.

The brands people believe in don’t ask for permission. They don’t optimize their way into relevance. They decide what they stand for, build a world around it, and let the right people find them.

Liquid Death didn’t win by playing it safe and Apple didn’t win by consensus. They won by conviction.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: If everyone likes your brand, no one loves it.

Love requires edges. It requires taste. It requires the courage to be misunderstood. Cult brands aren’t built by chasing approval, they’re built by expressing belief so clearly that the right people feel seen and everyone else self-selects out.

That’s not arrogance, it's leadership.

Metrics have a role, but not where most brands put them. Data belongs in distribution, not creation. Use it to amplify what you’ve made, not to decide what’s worth making.

Because algorithms don’t start movements. People do.

If you want attention, optimize. If you want devotion, decide.

Stop asking what the audience wants. Create from belief.

Stop chasing relevancy and start creating gravity (and gravity doesn’t ask for permission).

How to Respond Like a Career Politician

 

There’s a special dialect spoken in the marble hallways of power and the carpeted conference rooms of the C-suite. It’s fluent, confident, and utterly empty. 

It sounds smart. It feels responsible. It gives the comforting illusion that someone, somewhere, is in charge … while carefully saying absolutely nothing. 

This is the language of professional non-answers: a beautiful, aerodynamic form of bullshit designed to glide past accountability without ever landing on a real position. If you’ve ever listened to a politician or business executive talk for five minutes and realized you learned nothing, you’ve already heard it.

Below is a field guide to that language ... a greatest-hits list of phrases that masquerade as thoughtful leadership while doing the far more important job of protecting the speaker from risk, commitment, or reality. Memorize these and you too can sound wise, measured, and deeply engaged … without having to actually think, decide, or say anything at all.

"I'm not saying I'm for or against this - quite the opposite". 

 

"We need to have a serious conversation about this moving forward."

 

"I think we can all agree that this is a complex issue with valid concerns on both sides."

 

"At the end of the day, we have to circle back to our core values and leverage our strengths."

 

"Let me be clear: this isn't about choosing between A and B, it's about finding the right balance."

 

"We're committed to a holistic, 360-degree approach that takes all stakeholders into consideration."

 

"I'd caution against false choices here. The real question is how we move the needle on outcomes."

 

"Look, I think the data speaks for itself, and we need to let the process play out."

 

"This requires a nuanced approach that doesn't lend itself to soundbites or simple solutions."

 

"We're laser-focused on delivering results while ensuring we do this the right way."

 

"I'm not prepared to speculate, but what I can say is that we're exploring all available options."

 

"The bottom line is we need to be strategic and thoughtful as we navigate these headwinds."

 

"I hear what you're saying, and I want to be transparent: this is something we're actively monitoring."

 

"We're taking a data-driven approach while also listening to the voices that matter most."

 

"I think it's important we don't get ahead of ourselves here. We need to let the facts guide us."

 

"This is about building sustainable frameworks that create long-term value for everyone involved."

 

"We're cautiously optimistic, but we recognize there's still work to be done."

 

"I'm not going to litigate the past. What matters is where we go from here."

 

"We need to have guardrails in place while also not stifling innovation and agility."

 

"At this point in time, we're focused on aligning our priorities with stakeholder expectations."

 

"Let's not lose sight of the bigger picture while we're dealing with the tactical realities on the ground."

 

"I think reasonable people can disagree, but we all want the same thing at the end of the day."

 

"We're committed to transparency and accountability as we work through this process."

 

"This isn't a binary question … we need to thread the needle between competing imperatives."

 

"I want to be very careful not to prejudge the outcome, but we're cautiously encouraged by early indicators."

 

I’d Rather See the Mess

Periodically a client asks, “Should I run my draft through AI before I send it to you?”

I understand the impulse. It’s the same instinct that makes people tidy up before the cleaning service arrives. You want to be polite. You want to make the professional’s job easier.

But in writing, that instinct is backwards ... I’d much rather see the mess.

Give me the scattered notes. The half-sentences. The paragraph that starts with one idea and wanders into three others like a dog that just spotted a squirrel. That stuff is gold. It’s where the real thinking lives.

When people run their writing through AI, what I get back is something … smoother. Straighter. Like someone ran a steamroller over a dirt path.

Yes, it’s technically cleaner, but the footprints are gone.

And the footprints are the interesting part.

Raw writing tells me how someone thinks. I can see where they hesitated, where they got excited, where they doubled back. Sometimes a throwaway line in a messy draft is the best idea in the whole piece. AI tends to sand those off, the way ocean water rounds a jagged rock until it looks like every other rock on the beach.

Perfectly nice rock, but completely forgettable.

The other problem is that AI writes like it’s trying to win a politeness contest. Everything is balanced and reasonable and mildly enthusiastic. It’s the literary equivalent of elevator music. Nothing wrong with it. Nothing alive in it either.

Human drafts, on the other hand, are gloriously uneven. A great line followed by a clunky sentence. A sharp insight next to a weird metaphor that probably shouldn’t work but somehow does.

That’s the good stuff.

My job when writing or editing isn’t to start with perfection. It’s to find the spark in the pile of kindling and build a fire around it.

AI, bless its algorithmic heart, is very good at arranging the logs neatly, but it’s less interested in the spark. Which often makes editing AI-polished writing is harder. When something has already been smoothed into generic competence, you spend half your time trying to figure out what the writer originally meant before the machine turned it into something safe and beige.

It’s like restoring an old painting after someone painted over it with house paint. Possible, but annoying, and chances are some good bit are gonna get missed.

So if you’re working with a writer or editor, send the raw material. Send the notes that look like they were written during mild turbulence. Send the paragraph that ends with “I’m not sure where this is going.”

That’s OK. Writing isn’t supposed to start polished. It starts strange, lopsided, and a little chaotic … like most worthwhile ideas.

The Future of AI Might Depend on a Very Human Skill

Watching marketers, writers, and founders celebrating the fact that with AI they can generate 47 pieces of content before their coffee gets cold feels like handing someone a Swiss Army knife and watching them only use the toothpick.

AI has made information absurdly easy to access. One prompt and suddenly you’ve got ideas, summaries, campaign drafts, competitive analysis, a mildly inspirational quote about disruption, and 3 taglines that sound suspiciously like they came from a 2016 startup pitch deck.

It’s impressive. But it’s also revealing that the real difference isn’t the tool … it’s the thinking behind the prompt.

Two teams can use the exact same AI model. One asks it to “write a social post.” The other asks what emotional triggers actually move the audience, what language patterns dominate the category, what competitors keep saying that everyone has stopped noticing.

One gets filler. The other gets insight. Same machine. Different curiosity.

That’s why the idea of AI as marketing autopilot always makes me laugh. AI isn’t autopilot. It’s more like a telescope. It lets you see a lot farther than you could before. It can pull in huge amounts of information, connect patterns, surface ideas faster than any intern or agency brainstorm ever could.

But you still have to decide where to point it.

And that’s where things get interesting. Because curiosity, real curiosity, the slightly annoying kind that keeps asking “why does this actually work?” turns out to be the one skill technology can’t automate very well.

And curiosity is messy. It wanders. It asks the slightly inconvenient question after everyone else has already moved on to the slide deck.

It’s also the difference between using AI like a vending machine and using it like a thinking partner.

The brands getting the most out of these tools aren’t the ones with the most dashboards or the most prompt templates. They’re the ones treating AI less like a shortcut and more like a giant, slightly caffeinated research assistant.

They poke it, challenge it, and ask better questions until the output gets weird in a good way. New angles. Unexpected connections. Ideas that actually move something instead of just filling content calendars.

Which brings us to the slightly uncomfortable truth about this whole AI wave.

Soon, everyone will have access to the same tools. The novelty will wear off. The productivity charts will flatten. The “AI-powered” label will become about as meaningful as “internet-enabled.”

At that point, the only real advantage left will be how people think. Not how fast they generate answers, but how curious they are about the question.

After all the hype about artificial intelligence reshaping marketing, we may end up rediscovering something embarrassingly human: The people who win will just be the ones who never stopped asking better questions.

Start with the Struggle, Not the Solution

 

Ever notice how the best weight loss marketers don’t start with abs?

They start with pain. The before shot. The “I can’t button my jeans” moment.

They talk about the person before the transformation. They ask questions that make you nod and go, “Yeah… that’s me.”

Then, only then, do they drop the before-and-after photo.

And by that point, you’re not looking at them anymore. You’re looking at you.

So if you’re out there selling your magic beans, your killer service, your big bold solution, stop shouting about the AFTER. Start telling the story of the BEFORE.

That’s where your people live. That’s where they recognize themselves. That’s where your audience leans in.

Why Clients Hire Me (and How You Can Show Them You’re Worth Hiring Too)

 

Nobody hires me because I know where the commas go.

They hire me because I know where the work needs to go.

And if you’re a marketing writer trying to win over clients, here’s the secret. And it’s not just about turning clever phrases. It’s about showing that you can do 4 things most copywriters either can’t do, don’t do, or don’t bother to prove they can do.

1. Zoom Out Before You Zoom In

Anyone can write a sentence. Not everyone can step back far enough to see the business, the brand, the market, and the moment in time … and then figure out where the sentence fits. The “zoom out” is what lets you write words that aren’t just pretty, but profitable.

Show it: Ask questions that scare small thinkers … questions about the market, about the why, about what happens in six months if this campaign works. Clients will notice.

2. Speak More Than One Business Language

I’ve written for teams that looked like Noah’s Ark: two of everything: designers, engineers, product managers, brand strategists, and that one mysterious person who “handles the numbers.” My job? Be fluent in all of their dialects.

Show it: In meetings, translate your thinking into terms each team understands. Talk benefits with marketing. Talk conversion rates with sales. Talk technical feasibility with dev. You become the bridge they didn’t know they needed.

3. Tie It to the Bigger Prize

Every line of copy has a job to do, and that job rolls up to a bigger product goal, which rolls up to a bigger company vision. If you can trace the line from headline to quarterly revenue target without breaking a sweat, you’re already in the top 10% of writers clients will trust (and C-suite will love).

Show it: Map your deliverables back to product or business metrics in your pitch decks and project updates. Make it impossible for them to see your work as “just words.”

4. Bring Empathy to the Mess

Products are messy. Teams are messy. Projects, especially the big, high-stakes ones, are basically chaos in a 3-piece suit. Empathy is what lets you navigate that without losing your cool (or your deadlines).

Show it: When things go sideways, focus on understanding the “why” behind the mess instead of pointing fingers. This isn’t about being nice … it’s about solving a problem faster because you actually understand the people and the problem.

 

Bottom line: If you can prove you’re more than a typist with taste, you stop competing with “writers” and start competing with strategists. And strategists get hired, re-hired, and referred.

A Couple of Classic Stories

There are a bunch of classic stories that have circulated around the advertising community for years. 

One of my favorites involved Donald Trump:

When Donald Trump launched Trump Shuttle in 1989, he hired Chiat/Day, the hottest ad agency at the time, to create the ads. They delivered their signature bold, creative work, but Trump hated it.

Trump fired off an angry letter on his gold-embossed letterhead. Jay Chiat simply sent it back with a handwritten note: "Donald, I thought you should know that some lunatic has stolen your stationery."

Trump fired them the next day.

And here's one specifically for the copywriters:

A client once hired a renowned copywriter, then proceeded to rewrite all their work. When the client joked, "I guess I'm just a frustrated copywriter," the writer shot back: "No, I'm a frustrated copywriter. You're an asshole."

 

Typo?

In 2018, Visible, a cell phone service provider, advertised “unlimited massages” instead of “unlimited messages” in Denver, its hometown market.

The campaign centered on 150 outdoor ads around Denver promising “unlimited massages, minutes, and data” for $40 a month. Of course, when a company makes a “typo”, the internet attacks like a lion spotting a limping gazelle. Screenshots flew. Hashtags appeared. Snarky advice like, “This is why you proofread” was offered.

“Free massages?” they said. “Sign me up.”

Visible leaned into it. They responded with jokes on social media. “We’re all about eliminating pain points.” “Are we sending mixed massages?” That kind of thing.

Then a few days later they delivered the punchline: the typo was deliberate. And if you showed up at Denver Union Station on specific day, they’d actually give you a free chair massage. CBD oil if you wanted it. Towels, eye masks, kombucha. The whole spa-day starter pack.

The whole thing feels like a magic trick designed for social media. The typo isn’t really a typo. The mistake is the point. It’s bait, engineered to trigger the internet’s favorite reflex: “Look at this dumb thing.”

But I’ll give Visible this: at least the payoff was real.

Too many marketing stunts end with nothing but a tweet thread and a vague sense that you’ve been manipulated. These people actually gave massages. Multiple massages, apparently, if you wanted to stand back in line like a kid riding the same roller coaster.

There’s something human about that. A "typo" that becomes a joke that becomes a real-world event where strangers sit in folding chairs getting their shoulders kneaded.

Which, if you think about it, is probably the closest modern advertising gets to art: a small absurd moment where language slips, the internet notices, and suddenly a phone company is handing out CBD massages like it’s running a pop-up spa.

I’m still not convinced the world needed this … but, from my point of view, if you’re gonna manipulate my attention with a typo, at least bring a massage therapist.

The NY Times: AI vs Human

In March 2026, the New York Times ran a quiz where readers picked AI-written passages over human ones. 

My first reaction wasn’t outrage or awe. It was a long, tired “yeah… that tracks.”

Not because I think machines have suddenly developed a soul. But because I’ve spent enough years reading things online to know most writing isn’t exactly brimming with one to begin with.

We like to pretend there’s this sacred line between “human writing” and everything else, as if every article comes straight from someone’s inner life … messy, vivid, earned. But a lot of it? It’s just clean sentences doing their job. Functional. Like airport signage. Nobody cries over Gate B12.

So when people say readers couldn’t tell the difference, I don’t hear “AI has arrived.” I hear: “Most writing was already halfway there.”

And honestly, the results make perfect sense. If you strip away the author’s name, the publication, the little halo of credibility we like to place over certain bylines, what’s left?

Rhythm. Clarity. Momentum.

AI is very good at those things. It’s like a cover band that never misses a note. Tight. Polished. Slightly eerie if you stare too long.

But here’s the part that interests me more: the gap between factual and opinion writing. People preferred AI for the clean, informational stuff, but it lost ground when things got personal.

Of course it did. Because information is about getting somewhere. Opinion is about having been somewhere.

And you can feel that difference, even if you can’t always articulate it. It’s the difference between a map and a story about getting lost.

The problem is, a lot of modern writing, especially online, doesn’t really do either. It hovers in this strange middle zone. Competent. Inoffensive. About as memorable as a receipt.

That’s the writing AI is quietly replacing. Not the brilliant stuff. Not the strange, voicey, slightly unhinged essays that make you stop and reread a sentence just to see how it was built.

It’s replacing the middle.

Which, if I’m being honest, deserves to feel a little nervous.

_______________________

Who’s a Better Writer: A.I. or Humans? Take Our Quiz. March 9, 2026 Kevin Roose and Stuart A. Thompson

New Tech, Old Terms

 

Notice how much of today’s new technology is named after old technology?

Like your phone. It’s a small, hand-held computer that includes a phone app. And the actual calling part (the reason we named it a phone) might be the least important thing it does. Yet we still call it a phone.

Same with your ring tone. Nothing rings. There’s no bell, just a digital chirp chosen from a menu with choices like “Marimba” and “Cosmic Dolphin.” But we still say the phone is ringing, because once upon a time phones had little bells that actually rang.

And when we’re done with a call, we “hang up” … because in yesterday’s technology when a call was over, you’d hang up part of the phone on a little hook. A far cry from tapping a button on a handheld device.

For privacy, you can “turn” the ringer off, even though there’s nothing to turn, just a tap on a screen. Why? It goes back to the knobs and valves on gas lamps (when controlling technology required at least one minor muscle group).

Listen to podcasts on your phone? The name podcast comes from combining part of the name of the now obsolete iPod and a radio term: broadcast. And radio stole broadcast from a farming practice: to cast your seeds broadly

Technology sprints forward like it’s late for something important. Language lags behind, walking with a cane, refusing to update its software.

I’m sort of comforted that all this talk of living in the future is grounded in vocabulary from the past … like hand-me-down clothes that somehow still fit. Makes the scary part of technology innovation seem safer: stubbornly human, messy, sentimental, and slow.

An Effective "Under the Radar" SEO Booster

 

REWRITE

Why Updating Existing Articles is a Goldmine for SEO (and How to Do It Right)

If you’ve been working on your website’s SEO, you probably know how much time and effort goes into creating content. But what happens after you hit "publish"? Many people let their articles sit, gathering digital dust. But here’s the kicker: updating your existing articles can be one of the most effective ways to boost your search engine rankings, drive traffic, and provide fresh value to your readers without constantly having to churn out brand-new content. Let’s dive into why this strategy works and how you can get the most out of it.

Why Updating Content is Great for SEO

Google loves fresh, relevant content. When an article has been around for a while, the information may become outdated, or competitors may publish better or newer takes on the same topic. Regularly updating your articles shows Google that your content is still useful, timely, and relevant to searchers. Updated content can also earn a higher click-through rate because readers prefer articles that feel current.

WARNING: Content on your site that isn’t getting traffic can actually harm your SEO efforts because search engines view low-performing pages as signs of low-quality or irrelevant content. When you have a lot of pages with little to no engagement, it can dilute your site’s overall authority, signaling to Google that your site may not fully meet the needs of searchers. This can lead to lower rankings for your other pages as well. Additionally, poor-performing content can increase your site’s bounce rate and reduce the average time users spend on your site, which are also signals that can impact SEO negatively.

Regularly auditing your content to identify these low-traffic pages and either improving, consolidating, or removing them can help maintain a stronger, more authoritative site, ultimately benefiting your SEO.

Here are a few reasons why content updates can be a win-win for both SEO and user experience:

1. Improved Rankings: When you update your articles, search engines notice the new activity. Articles with new data, stats, or additional helpful information often perform better in search results.
   
   
2. Better User Experience: Outdated information can frustrate readers and hurt your credibility. Updates improve readability, usefulness, and the overall user experience.
   
   
3. Higher Authority & Backlinks: Quality, updated content is more likely to attract backlinks and social shares. And the more people link to or share your article, the more authority it can gain in Google’s eyes.

So how do you decide which articles to update and what changes will give you the biggest SEO bang for your buck?

Step 1: Determine Which Articles Need Updates

Before jumping in and revamping everything, it’s worth pinpointing the articles that will benefit most from a refresh. Here’s how:

• Check Analytics for Declining Traffic: Use tools like Google Analytics to identify articles that have lost traffic over time. Articles that once performed well but have since dropped off can often be revived with an update.
  
  
• Look at Search Console for Keywords: Google Search Console can show you which keywords your articles are currently ranking for and where they’ve slipped. Articles that rank on the second page or middle of the first page for high-value keywords are prime candidates for optimization.
  
  
• Assess the Competition: Look at the top-ranking articles for your topic. What are competitors doing that you’re not? If they’ve included new stats, added visuals, or organized their information better, make note of it for your updates.
  
  
• Focus on Evergreen Content: Articles on evergreen topics—those that don’t quickly become outdated—are usually worth the time investment. Content that’s timeless, such as guides, tutorials, and how-tos, has staying power that can benefit greatly from regular updates.

WARNING: Don’t change that URL. The URL Already Has Authority: Older URLs often have links from other websites, which brings valuable authority. Keep the URL the same, and you leverage this authority for a competitive edge.

Step 2: How to Effectively Rewrite Articles for SEO Gains

Once you’ve identified the articles you want to update, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and start rewriting. Here are some tried-and-true techniques to make your updates SEO-friendly and valuable for your readers.

1. Add New Information and Insights

Searchers (and search engines) love fresh, relevant information. You can:

• Include recent statistics or research to keep the information accurate.
  
  
• Add new examples or case studies.
  
  
• Share recent developments in your industry or trends relevant to the topic.

By including new insights, you’re not only improving the quality of your article but also giving it that “freshness” factor that Google values.

2. Optimize for New Keywords and Search Intent

When you first wrote your article, your target keywords might have been slightly different, or search intent could have shifted. Try these approaches:

• Update Your Primary Keyword: Use keyword tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Google Keyword Planner to see if there are new, high-volume keywords related to your topic.
  
  
• Consider Search Intent: If people are now looking for different types of answers than when you first published, adjust your article accordingly. For example, if “how-to” articles are trending for your topic, add step-by-step instructions.
  
  
• Sprinkle in Related Keywords: Use related keywords naturally throughout your article, especially in headings and subheadings.

3. Improve Readability and Structure

Content that’s well-organized and easy to read performs better. Here’s how to polish it up:

• Add Clear Headings and Subheadings: Help readers (and Google) understand your article by using H2s, H3s, and even H4s where necessary. This also makes it easy for search engines to grasp the structure of your content.
  
  
• Use Bullet Points and Numbered Lists: These elements make your article more skimmable and engaging.
  
  
• Enhance Visuals: Consider adding new images, infographics, or even a short video if relevant. Visual content can keep readers on your page longer, reducing bounce rates.

4. Add Internal and External Links

Strategic linking can improve your SEO and help readers find more valuable information. Here’s how:

• Internal Links: Link to other related articles on your website. This strengthens your site structure and helps with SEO by passing link authority.
  
  
• External Links: Link to authoritative sources when citing statistics or research. This builds credibility with readers and search engines.

5. Enhance the Meta Description and Title

A compelling title and meta description can lead to higher click-through rates:

• Rewrite the Title to Reflect the Update: Add phrases like “Updated for [Current Year]” or make the title more engaging.
  
  
• Refresh the Meta Description: Make sure it accurately describes the article’s new information and uses high-value keywords.

6. Focus on Speed and Mobile Optimization

With Google’s mobile-first indexing, ensuring that your content loads quickly and looks good on mobile is crucial:

• Optimize Images: Compress any new images to prevent page bloat.
  
  
• Check Mobile Layout: Preview the updated article on a smartphone or use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to ensure it looks great across devices.

7. Relaunch It Like It’s Brand New

Once you’ve revamped an article, don’t just let it sit quietly on your site. Treat it like a brand-new post: This "relaunch" can capture the attention of both loyal readers and new visitors.

• Send it out in your newsletter
• Feature it on your blog homepage
• Share it on social media

Final Tip: Track Your Results

After updating, give Google some time to re-index the content (it usually takes a few weeks to see the full impact). Use Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor changes in traffic, rankings, and user engagement. Not only will this show you the value of your hard work, but it will also help you identify what’s working best for future updates.

It’s the fastest path to improve SEO performance without the heavy lifting of new content creation.

Updating your existing articles can breathe new life into them, boosting their performance for both SEO and user engagement. By carefully selecting articles that need attention and strategically enhancing them, you’re taking advantage of a proven way to drive traffic, build authority, and improve user satisfaction. It’s not always about creating new content—it’s about keeping the content you already have valuable, relevant, and optimized.

Following up

If you’ve been staring at your inbox wondering if your email fell into a black hole, here’s a little tough-love communication lesson.

Don’t say: “I’m just following up.”

Don’t say: “I’m just checking in.”

Those phrases smell like insecurity. Like you’re peeking into the room you were invited into.

Do say: “I didn’t have the chance to reconnect with you ... what are the best next steps?”

That’s confident. That’s professional. That’s someone who believes their time has value.

Stop “just checking in.” Start sounding like you belong in the conversation.

Social Media

 Life online is a meat grinder for the soul. 

Scroll long enough and you’ll start to believe everyone else is better looking, better dressed, making more money, doing more yoga, scaling mountains, founding companies, gaining followers, losing weight, gaining muscle, and generally smashing life like it’s a video game they’ve already mastered.

Meanwhile, you’re just sitting there with a half-eaten bagel and cold cup of coffee, wondering where you went wrong.

Social media is a comparison trap wrapped in neon lights. It doesn’t matter how good your life is, two swipes in and you’ll be convinced you’re failing at everything. 

Spend too much time there and it will hollow out your sense of self until you’re little more than a reflection in somebody else’s sunglasses.

You’re Not Paying for the Hour. You’re Paying for the Decade.

 

There’s a moment that happens in every career: You’re staring at an invoice from a senior pro ... and your stomach drops.

Three times what you usually pay.

Three times the hourly rate.

Three times the tiny voice in your head screaming “Are you out of your mind?”

And yet… three days later, you’re looking at the results thinking:“Oh. That’s what I’ve been paying for.”

Experience is sneaky. It doesn’t show up wearing a badge that says “Worth Every Penny.” It shows up in the quiet stuff: the work that doesn’t need fixing ... the problems that don’t happen ... the weeks you don’t lose because someone forgot to ask one critical question.

A seasoned pro isn’t just faster. They’re cleaner. They’ve seen this movie before (the one where everything goes sideways halfway through) and they know exactly which scene to cut.

That’s what you’re really buying when you hire experience: the ability to skip the blooper reel.

The first time I worked with a  senior contractor, I worried I was overpaying. Until I realized what I’d actually been doing all along: underpaying for chaos.

Because the truth is, juniors are great. They’re hungry. They’re learning. But learning costs time. Mistakes cost time. And time? Time is the most expensive thing in the room.

The senior already paid for that education. They paid with failed projects, with late nights, with that sinking feeling of “oh no” at 2 a.m. when something breaks in production. Now, you get to rent all that experience for the low, low price of not having to live through it yourself.

So when you see a senior’s rate and think, “That’s steep,” remember this: You’re not paying for how long it takes them to do the work, you’re paying for how long it took them to get this good.

Experience isn’t an expense, it’s insurance.

And if you’ve ever been burned by the cheap option, you know that good insurance is always worth it.

Healthy Twinkies?

Here are three videos that expose some of the "tricks of the trade" used to brand and sell products:

Pepsi

 Snickers

Twinkies

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Thank you, Matt Rosenman who's focus is simplifying the world of health and fitness and cutting through misinformation in that world.

The Evolution of AI Prompting

 

Say the magic words to the AI and it behaves.

Prompts feel like control without the paperwork. Whisper the right words and the machine behaves.

The appeal is easy to understand: Prompts feel like control without the mess of actual management … no policies, no audits, no awkward accountability. Just vibes in a text box.

But as AI systems become more agentic* (less like tools, more like tireless junior employees) clever phrasing stops being governance. Vibes are not a control system.

CEOs already know how real control works. With humans, we use identity (who are you?), policy (what can you do?), and accountability (what happens when you mess up?). Nobody runs a company on tone of voice alone.

Yet with AI, we keep pretending a polite sentence is infrastructure. Like adding “be safe and ethical” is the same as locks on the doors. It’s charming. It’s also useless at scale. AI won’t be trustworthy until it’s wrapped in the same dull, necessary scaffolding we use for humans.

Trust comes from boring things: permissions, logs, enforcement. Not magic words. Which means the future of AI management probably looks less like poetry and more like compliance.

Not exciting. Just real.

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*QUICK BRIEFING: Generative AI vs Agentic AI

St. Patrick’s Day Rant

 

Ah, St. Patrick’s Day. The one day a year when the entire planet wakes up and collectively decides, “You know what would really honor Irish culture? Neon green beer and plastic hats.”

Every advertisement suddenly becomes a cultural historian. “Celebrate Irish heritage!” they say, while handing you a cup of something that looks like antifreeze and calling it festive.

I’m not an expert on Irish history, but I’m fairly confident that somewhere in the centuries of poetry, rebellion, and complicated politics, nobody said, “You know what would really capture the spirit of this nation? A beer dyed the color of a malfunctioning highlighter.”

And the outfits. Grown adults willingly dress like a kindergarten craft project. Felt shamrocks, glitter beards, suspenders with tiny leprechauns doing calisthenics. And, somewhere a marketing team decided novelty hats were the natural evolution of Celtic history.

Then there’s the leprechaun mythology. A tiny man guarding gold at the end of a rainbow ... basically the original financial influencer. “Trust me,” he says. The treasure is definitely there. Just keep chasing it.”

Meanwhile bars are full by noon. Green cocktails with names like “Shamrock Slammer” or “Leprechaun's Kiss.” People shouting “Slainte!” with the confidence of someone who hadn't learned the word 45 seconds ago from a bartender.

And the “authentic Irish celebration” includes “Irish nachos,” which appear to be regular nachos having an identity crisis because someone replaced the chips with potatoes.

Somewhere behind all this is the real history: centuries of Irish storytelling, politics, music. Complicated, fascinating stuff.

But what we ended up with is green bagels ... the cultural equivalent of putting sunglasses on a historical statue and saying, “Look how fun history is now.”

I’m not against celebration. I’m not even against absurdity. Absurdity can be wonderful. Humanity has always loved costumes and loud gatherings and an excuse to yell in public without filing paperwork.

What fascinates me is how quickly culture becomes a product.

You take a holiday with real history, run it through three marketing departments, add food coloring, and suddenly the meaning dissolves like sugar in soda.

But maybe that’s the real modern tradition: turning complicated human stories into something you can sell in bulk near the seasonal aisle.

Anyway, pass the soda bread ... preferably a loaf that has survived the marketing department and avoided the green dye.

Contractions

When I read marketing copy without contractions, I feel like I’ve wandered into “Pride and Prejudice” and someone’s about to discuss the price of lace.

“We are pleased to announce…” No one talks like that unless there’s a fainting couch nearby.

Just say it like a person. It’s, don’t, you’ll, can’t. Real words for real mouths in the real world (where we’re buying toothpaste on line while watching TV).

Formal isn’t trustworthy, it’s just distant. And distance is an ineffective way to have a conversation with a prospect.