Field notes from the trenches

The Grimoire

Marketing truths, teardowns, and the occasional spell. The thinking behind the sequence, written down. No fluff.

SEO Essay

Cult of the New: Google Chased the Shiny Thing and Handed Your Spot to a Stranger

Google did not get hacked. It chased the new, and now a stranger in the comments outranks the page you built to answer the question.

July 16, 2026 · 5 min read Read →
Brand Strategy Essay

Earn the Weird: Why the Stunt Is the Reward, Not the Strategy

The fridge in the toy box is not the strategy. It's the reward for already having the room, and the entry fee is depth, not size.

July 9, 2026 · 5 min read Read →
AI & Search Essay

The Most-Mentioned Wins: AI Counts Citations, Not Rankings

Search crowned one winner. AI counts mentions. Stop chasing a rank you can't hold and become the answer the model keeps finding.

June 29, 2026 · 5 min read Read →
AI & Marketing Essay

Effort Is the Art: What You're Buying When Anyone Can Make Anything

AI made capability free. So the value moves to the one part a machine can't fake: a human chose to put the effort in, and only one of these exists.

June 25, 2026 · 5 min read Read →
AI & Marketing Essay

Don't Outsource the Handshake: Why the First Conversation Is Your Brand

An AI agent can answer every question and still lose the sale. The first conversation is the experience, and the experience is the last thing the next guy can't copy.

June 22, 2026 · 5 min read Read →
Messaging & Strategy Essay

How to Knock Down a Skyscraper With a Pen

Most businesses don't have a reach problem. They have a sequence problem, and they keep paying to push harder on a chain that's out of order.

June 18, 2026 · 5 min read Read →
AI & Sales Essay

The Average Is Lying: AI Didn't Kill Cold Email

Everyone says AI killed cold email. The famous collapse stat is two populations stacked into one misleading number, and only one of them is failing.

June 15, 2026 · 4 min read Read →
AI & Search Essay

Rent the Trick, Own the Truth: AI Search Has a Shelf Life

Everyone's chasing the AI-citation trick of the month. Google just smashed the people who chased the last one. Rent the trick. Own the truth.

June 14, 2026 · 5 min read Read →
Brand Strategy Essay

Brand Differentiation Case Studies: 3 Brands That Refused to Compete

Most brands fight for a sliver of the same hill. The ones that win pick a different hill. Here are three that did it, with the numbers to prove it.

June 11, 2026 · 5 min read Read →
Local SEO Essay

Customer Reviews Are Now a Local Ranking Factor You Can't Fake

Reviews stopped being a vanity stat. They're a ranking input the algorithm weighs and the AI reads aloud to your next customer. Most businesses are still collecting them wrong.

June 11, 2026 · 4 min read Read →
Local SEO Essay

Google Business Profile and Local SEO: The Map Is the Storefront Now

You don't have a homepage problem. You have a Google Business Profile problem. The map is the storefront now, and most local businesses are still decorating the wrong window.

June 11, 2026 · 4 min read Read →
Local SEO Essay

NAP Consistency for Local SEO: The Boring Signal That Still Decides Who Shows Up

Your name, address, and phone number aren't a ranking hack. They're the cost of admission. Get them wrong and every other tactic works twice as hard.

June 11, 2026 · 4 min read Read →
Paid + Organic Essay

SEO and PPC Together: One Search Result, Two Weapons

Most companies run paid and organic as two strangers fighting over the same screen. The result is wasted budget and a search page that AI is quietly hollowing out.

June 11, 2026 · 4 min read Read →
Brand Strategy Essay

Share of Brand Voice: The One Metric Most Businesses Ignore

Impressions and likes are a comfort blanket. There's one metric that predicts whether you'll still be here in three years, and your competitors are ignoring it.

June 11, 2026 · 3 min read Read →
Case Study Essay

400 to 110K: What Building a TikTok Following Actually Took

Everyone wants the viral video. I posted to 400 people for a month first. The real timeline from 400 to 110K followers, and the part that actually generated leads.

June 11, 2026 · 3 min read Read →