#162: Everyone is trying to keep up. Nobody is.


Issue #162

Reader

Everyone is trying to keep up.

With the changing ways to get discovered. With staying relevant. With winning the game of attention, which rewrites its rules every quarter while we're all still playing the last version.

It's exhausting. And honestly, it's a trap.

Because the brands actually winning right now aren't the ones chasing every new platform or algorithm shift. They're playing a simpler game. One that doesn't require keeping up with anything except what actually matters.

I just published a brand new piece that breaks it down into two lanes. That's it. Two.

The framework is called Found or Fed.

It's the clearest way I've found to cut through the noise and figure out exactly which game your brand should be playing to win.

Not the one everyone on LinkedIn says you should play. The one that matches how your customers actually move.

There's a diagnostic at the end that tells you which lane you're in and which one you ought to be in. No theory. No fluff.

​Read Found or Fed: The Two Ways Anyone Discovers Your Brand (And Why You're Failing at Both)​

Stop trying to keep up with everything. Own the one lane that will move the needle for your business.

Do me a favor:
Let me know which lane is yours after you've read it.

David

If you're wondering whether your brand is leaving money on the table, let's find out. I do an UNdiscovery Call — just you and me, nobody else. No junior strategist. No gatekeeper screening you first. It's a Brand Assessment to isolate exactly where you're leaving money on the table. Not a pitch. A diagnosis. [Schedule yours here.]

The Saturday email your competitors hope you never find. (One coffee. Zero fluff.)

I'm David Brier—the guy CEOs call when they've burned so much cash on marketing, their spouses think they have a coke habit. I'm like rehab for your brand, except instead of getting you clean, I get you profitable. Think of me as the Betty Ford Clinic of branding, but with better ROI and no group hugs. (Explains why I wrote the bestseller Brand Intervention that Daymond John calls "Genius.")

Read more from The Saturday email your competitors hope you never find. (One coffee. Zero fluff.)

Issue #170 Reader Frank Zappa once described improvising a guitar solo like this: He didn't know what he'd play. He knew how long he had to do it. In his words, "You have a piece of time, and you get to decorate it." That's branding, in one line. Except instead of a piece of time, I'm handed an opportunity for change. The first thing I do is question everything we've been told that opportunity is supposed to look like. Which is exactly the move that separates a brand people remember from a...

Four rebrands that grew revenue, from symptom to outcome, explained. Issue #169 Reader Rebranding Gets a Lot Easier When You Stop Thinking in Logos During a recent session with Mark Schaefer’s community, Matt Wilkinson, author of The Buyer in the Loop, asked a great question: "What's your favorite brand intervention you've done recently?" I couldn't answer immediately. Not because I don't love the work. Because there isn't one favorite. A handful have floored me well after the discovery...

Today's edition is completely different. Issue #168 Reader Ten questions. Ten minutes. One point each, no partial credit. Score yourself honestly, because nobody else is watching, and the market already knows your number. 1 THE AI TEST (20 seconds, do it before you read item 2). Want to see your brand exactly the way a buyer sees it? Open ChatGPT. Type: “What makes [your company] different from its competitors?” Read what comes back. Generic, wrong, or could describe three of your rivals?...