I stayed up late last night reading through the notes from a fascinating podcast conversation about FIFA’s financial transformation, and I’m still thinking about it this morning. Not because of the numbers themselves, though a jump from $7 billion to $13 billion in one World Cup cycle is certainly eye-popping, but because of what those … Read more
Here’s a delicious irony for you: sometimes the best way to win attention is to be told you can’t have it. I’ve been thinking about the Levi’s Stadium debacle at the World Cup. You know, the one where FIFA forced them to cover up their branding. Instead of fading into obscurity, they turned that awkward … Read more
For years, I’ve watched startups, telecom companies, SaaS providers, and platform businesses obsess over one thing: differentiation. The pitch usually goes something like this: “We’re faster.” “We’re cheaper.” “We have more features.” “We’re AI-powered.” That’s all well and good, but being different and being relevant are not the same thing. In my years helping companies … Read more
“Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.”–Mark Twain There’s a moment in every crisis when the subject of the story gets to make a choice. Get ahead of it, own what’s true, and let the story burn itself out in a news cycle or two. Or dig in, go to … Read more
Remember the “Soup Nazi” in Seinfeld. He would say, “No soup for you.” Well, it sounds like the Los Angeles Dodgers just became the “Ticket Nazis.” From an experience standpoint, I’ve crossed the lines of sports and tech for years. I’ve also handled crisis management for brands large and small. Those who avoid controversy do … Read more
Sports Marketing used to be a clean loop: buy rights, build a campaign, measure impressions, renew. That loop is breaking. In 2026, the winning sports marketers are treating sports less like a media buy and more like infrastructure—a system where content, distribution, identity, and commerce run together. The shift isn’t subtle. It’s structural. Here are … Read more
I’ve been thinking a lot about the invisible dance happening in sports these days—the one between tradition and innovation, between the purity of athletic competition and our insatiable appetite for enhanced experiences. Have you noticed how technology keeps creeping closer to the action? It’s fascinating, really. VAR (Video Assistant Referee) has transformed football from a … Read more
For more than two decades, I have watched social media evolve—from the early days of blogging to launching the Nokia Blogger Relations Program, and through the rise of every platform that promised to democratize influence. Throughout it all, one principle has remained true to me: it is not how many followers you have, but who … Read more
Here’s something that would have sounded like science fiction five years ago: I just had three AI tools—Claude, Perplexity, and Manus—build comprehensive biographical websites about my work and thinking. Not from scratch. Not from thin air. From five decades of actual data, scattered across the web and buried in my personal files. The result? Three … Read more
How Shadow, Cleft, TimeOs, and Grain Are Redefining Mental Real Estate While Hedy and Granola grab headlines with their meeting-focused wizardry, a different revolution is brewing in the shadows. The real game isn’t just about better meeting notes—it’s about capturing human intelligence the moment it sparks. Four platforms are pioneering distinct approaches to thought processing … Read more
