The Newsletter, Issue #103November 11th, 2026 Before you plan 2027, do this.. Hi Reader, When I was at Intuit, I led social proof and brand advocacy for TurboTax in Canada. Reviews, ratings, a referral program, a community of customers who loved the product enough to talk about it. It was lovely, people-centred work. But it was also very clear about one thing. Every program I ran had to answer a question in front of the business: did this actually move something that matters? It was not "did...
about 20 hours ago • 5 min read
The Newsletter, Issue #102November 4th, 2026 Your Reputation is built after the Yes! Hi Reader, During my consulting years in the Middle East, I worked with different type of industries. In the retail and luxury brands, one of my clients was a jewelry house you would recognise from the colour of its box alone 😉. One of the things that stayed with me from working in that world is how much attention goes into the moment after someone buys. Think about what happens when you buy a really special...
7 days ago • 5 min read
The Newsletter, Issue #101October 29th, 2026 A topic is what you know. An angle is why they should care. Hi Reader, Back in my General Motors days, I learned something I still use with every single client today: a car is never just one story. Think about one new model launching. The motoring journalists want to know what's under the hood, how it handles, and how it stacks up against its rivals. The family magazine couldn't care less about horsepower. Its readers want safety ratings, boot...
13 days ago • 5 min read
The Newsletter, Issue #100October 21st, 2026 The Belief Behind "Any Customer" Mentality Hi Reader, This is issue #100. When I sent the very first one (December 2020), I wasn't thinking about reaching a hundred. I was thinking about whether anyone would open it at all 😅 And in a hundred issues, I've never once told you how many people subscribe to this newsletter. That's not an accident. I wrote about it back in July: a big following was never the goal. The goal was to be useful enough, often...
21 days ago • 5 min read
The Newsletter, Issue #99September 30th, 2026 Doing something out of FOMO is always a bad idea... but in communications, testing can teach us alot Hi Reader, Tell me honestly if something similar to this happened to you.. A few years ago, I was scrolling through LinkedIn, morning tea in the other hand (yes, I'm a tea drinker), when I saw that an industry conference had announced one of its keynote speakers. I knew the person. I knew their capabilities and their success rates and I was...
about 1 month ago • 7 min read
The Newsletter, Issue #98September 23rd, 2026 Doing something out of FOMO is always a bad idea... but in communications, testing can teach us alot Hi Reader, About a year ago, I made a decision out of FOMO. Everyone was switching to video, the podcasting scene was shifting, and I didn't want to be left behind. So I started filming episodes instead of just recording them. It wasn't a bad decision on paper. We all know that video is popular, but something quietly broke in the process. It's hard...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
The Newsletter, Issue #97September 15th, 2026 You Don't Know What You Don't Know Hi Reader, Last week, I sat down to review a client's last ten posts before our call. I usually look at their social media output in-between our planned focus sessions. What I saw was great, to be honest. The grammar was good, the structure of the caption was solid, and every post was technically correct. But, one thing stood out for me .. I couldn't tell you a single thing about the person who wrote them (I...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
The Newsletter, Issue #96September 9th, 2026 The anticipation of change Hi Reader, Out of everything happening recently, the crazy weather that we've been experiencing here in Ontario, it is the thing I need to be anything but consistent. My 11-year-old daughter would say it "gives her lowkey anxiety," always with a bit of exaggeration 😅 I've noticed the weather has been different lately. Usually, at this time of year, we still have warm summer weather. Instead, it's rain, falling...
2 months ago • 2 min read
The Newsletter, Issue #95September 2nd, 2026 It took me a decade to actually switch off Hi Reader, Back in my corporate days, I used to dread the summer months. While everything slowed down for the company, it was the time that I had to double down and do the annual forecasting and planning for the coming year (our business planning and annual budget forecasting was presented to HQ in September 😰). And to be honest, I didn't have kids at the time, so my husband and I enjoyed a noise-free...
2 months ago • 5 min read