Nobody Buys for the Reasons They Tell You
A few years back, I watched a senior executive spend forty-five minutes explaining, with complete conviction, why his company chose a particular software…
The Divided Brain
The Campaign That Worked for 20 Years Without Selling the Product
When Ted first walked into my office, he had a list. Three pages, single-spaced. Hours of operation, service bays, certifications, brands he carried…
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Your Team Isn’t Resisting Strategy. It’s Resisting Uncertainty
I have led change initiatives that worked and change initiatives that failed. The ones that failed were not poorly designed.
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Why Framing Changes Decisions More Than Facts
The numbers are the same. The outcome is identical. The only thing that changed was the sentence. Patients in a famous study were given information about a…
How Social Proof Can Build Trust or Trigger Panic
In March 2020, the S&P 500 lost roughly a third of its value in 33 days. Not because every company in America had suddenly become worthless.
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That Free Coffee at the Car Dealership Is Not Generosity
You walk into the dealership. Before you’ve looked at a single car, someone hands you a coffee. It is a small gesture. Completely routine. The kind of…
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You’re Not Being Lied To. You’re Lying to Yourself.
Nobody thinks of themselves as someone who lives in an information bubble. Every person who consumes exclusively one news source, or follows only voices…
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The First Number Always Wins. Here’s Why.
It was a client dinner, eight of us, at a steakhouse that understood exactly what it was doing. The menu opened with a dry-aged ribeye at $145.
Nobody Wants to Be First. The Old Brain Wants to Be Next.
Nobody actually wants to be first. We say we do. We celebrate the pioneer, the disruptor, the bold early adopter. But when it comes to actual behavior…
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Why Some Brands Get Ignored at First Glance
Raymond Loewy was responsible for some of the most recognized visual identities in the twentieth century. The Lucky Strike cigarette package.