A long-form series drawn from interviews with marketing leaders, grouped by theme. Start with the overview, then follow the thread that matches your problem.
A 70/30 activation-to-brand split feels eleven times worse than 90/10. Not because of strategy, because of how the brain evaluates losses under constraint.
You can name the bias as it happens. You can feel the loss aversion operating in real time. It doesn't help.
Your funding model, reporting cadence, and stakeholder expectations are producing the patterns you're trying to think your way out of.
More prior experience produces better pattern recognition and worse calibration when the domain changes. The GPS is confident. The map is wrong.
Startup natives and corporate transplants don't just know different things. They think differently, and the gap shows up before the first decision is made.
The leaders who build durable marketing capability under constraint don't do smaller marketing. They operate with a fundamentally different logic.
Most startup marketing capabilities never fully crystallise. Here's why they get stuck, and the four mechanisms that cause them to collapse.
Your network isn't just a resource you draw on. It's the bundling mechanism through which marketing capability is assembled.
12 of 13 leaders learn exclusively by doing, and their learning system is actively misleading them about what would work if they gave it time.
Stop having brand conversations. Start having legitimacy ones. A framework for disaggregating brand into three distinct, sequenceable processes.
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Derrick's extensive digital marketing expertise has been a great resource for the company. Thanks to his strong knowledge and experience in this area, we were able to launch a new website, new branding, and new marketing channels that we had previously not maximized.
Collaborating with Derrick has been instrumental in shaping Datavillage's initial growth strategy—from definition to execution. His structured and insightful guidance enabled us not only to clarify our direction but also to lay the essential groundwork for expanding our sales reach and strengthening our market positioning.
Derrick consistently delivered a commendable performance, embodying the qualities of dedication, creativity, and strategic thinking. His ability to navigate the rapidly evolving fintech landscape has been instrumental to our organization's success.
I want to emphasize again how well you are doing on LinkedIn, your CTR rates are in the top 1% of our clients! In fact, it's incredibly rare to see this performance on LinkedIn, with the benchmark being between 60% and 70% lower—so congrats on this success!
