You and I are living in an era of magic. I use AI nearly every hour of the day to be wiser, bolder, and more creative.

In a way, AI has even become my mentor.

That might sound strange, but hear me out.

I wrote a post recently noting that this question: “Who decides the safe limits of superintelligence?” could be a turning point in human history.

As I wrote the draft of this post, I felt angry and even scared about the prospects of weaponizing AI, and this was apparent in the tone of the article.

I uploaded the draft to Claude before I published and asked, “Is this post balanced? Did I miss anything?”

Claude responded, “Mark, this is not you. Your thesis is emotional and underdeveloped. You are known for your fairness and intellectual honesty. Here are some ideas to make it better.”

And the ideas were pretty harsh … and much appreciated.

I generally work alone. In this case, AI wasn’t just a muse or editor; it intervened as a wise friend, keeping me on brand. AI is helping me to be wiser, bolder, and more helpful in this world.

I have neither turned my life over to AI and nor do I feel threatened by it. My career has become AI-shaped, conforming to the new superpowers and opportunities of a magical technology.

Instead of doomscrolling about layoffs, how can we all create an AI-shaped career?

Creating the AI-shaped career

Let’s start with some advice from my friend Azeem Azhar. Azeem is probably the most connected person I know, and so he’s able to tune into the priorities of a wide range of industries.  and his supremely interesting Exponential View Newsletter.

Here is his advice:

1. Ship end-to-end projects

Choose or create multi-step projects with real stakeholders; practice owning the plan and delivering it to a finish line. If AI takes on more of the execution work, the value for humans lies increasingly in coordination around those tasks, specifically in orchestration. It’s the ability to decide what needs to be done, in what order, and with which tools, and then keep a project moving.

2. Grab managerial experience early

Run standups, lead sprints, and coordinate small teams if you have a chance. Volunteer to own small scopes like roadmap reviews and stakeholder check?ins, to build judgment and trust.

3. Build domain fluency and networks

Learn how people in your field think and speak. It signals maturity and reduces perceived hiring risk. Read primary sources and talk to operators. Join a niche community or meetup and ask specific questions.

4. Choose costly and credible signals, such as an MBA

Managers want evidence of commitment. If a degree isn’t feasible, pick rigorous alternatives – selective fellowships, competitive certifications, or shipping a demanding public project.

5. Use AI well

Build agents, audit outputs, and integrate them into real workflows. You could be the person who sets the AI standard at your next company – we’re still early, and practical expertise is scarce. Track gains (time saved, error rates, throughput) and document playbooks so others can adopt them. Push for small, safe pilots and iterate fast.

The implications for sales and marketing

Let’s get more granular. Most of the people reading this article are in sales and marketing. How do we have an AI-shaped career in that profession?

6. Become impossible to replace in customer relationships

AI may automate tasks, but trust, empathy, and emotional resonance are still the human differentiators.
People want to buy from, partner with, and follow humans they feel connected to.

• Build a personal brand in your niche—be findable, memorable, and known.
• Develop deep customer fluency: their worldviews, their blockers, their aspirations.
• Become the person who delivers difficult news well, handles nuance, and reads a room.

This is the “Most Human Company Wins” applied at the individual level. AI can crank out emails, landing pages, and pitches. But it still can’t feel the customer.

7. Build a Portfolio of Evidence, Not Just a Résumé

AI is making hiring faster and more automated, but that also means résumés look more similar. Portfolios, demonstrations, and proof-of-work become far more powerful signals than job titles or bullet points.

• Publish case studies, screen recordings, agent demos, prototypes, or thought pieces.
• Document your projects in public spaces (LinkedIn, GitHub, Notion, Substack).
• Practice “building in public”—it shows momentum and reduces perceived hiring risk.

8. Become the human face of your brand

The personal brand is our last line of defense against AI. If you are KNOWN in your industry. AI can mass-produce content, but it can’t replicate an authentic, trusted, known human.

No matter what happens in this AI world, we will seek verification, validation, insight and comfort from real humans. The only career equity we can carry with us is our personal brand. Are you known or not?

I teach the best personal branding class in the world to help you determine:

• Your place in a crowded business eco-system
• Establishing the presence, reputation, and authority to break through
• Strategies to get your story out to an audience that matters
• Specific ideas to give your brand an edge

Being “Known” is the strongest career moats in the AI era.

9. Become an experience designer

Your customers are hungry for connection and live experiences. This is a uniquely human acitivy.

We’re already seeing a backlash as young people seek more shared experiences in their online world.

• Learn to design workshops, events, roundtables, and customer communities.
• Study experience design, service design, and community management.
• Become the person who can create moments of belonging and transformation.

10. Lead a brand community

In Belonging to the Brand, I boldly predicted that community will be the last great marketing strategy, and that is backed up with evidence.

Here’s the good news. AI is not going to build and run a human community. Community might be the only type of marketing people actually seek out because we need human connection.

This book goes into detail about how to build and nurture a brand community, but the main ideas are:

• Find an intersection of the purpose of your company and the purpose of your customers
• Create an online and/or offline space of trust and safety
• Reward community members and assure they are seen and heard

The AI-shaped career

Here’s the simple truth: none of us can fully predict where this is going, but we can decide how we’re going to show up for it.

An AI-shaped career isn’t about becoming more machine-like. It’s about becoming the most unmistakably human version of ourselves — more curious, more connected, more courageous.

If you build trust, create experiences that matter, show your work, and become known in a meaningful way, you won’t just survive this transition. You’ll stand out in it.

The future doesn’t belong to the people who race against the machines. It belongs to the people who double down on the humanity the machines can’t touch.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustrations courtesy Mid Journey

The post Ten ways to create an AI-shaped career appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I’ve been blogging for 16 years, giving away all my best ideas and advice. I spent time thinking about monetizing my writing by moving to a subscription model on Substack. What I concluded might surprise you and perhaps guide your own monetization strategy.

Today I’ll cover:

• My current content monetization strategy
• A high-level view of Medium versus Substack
• My in-depth analysis of the risks and opportunities with Substack
• A final conclusion

Allow me to share a little story about how blogging drives my business.

The inbound marketing model

A few years ago, I received this email:

“Hi Mark. I’ve been reading your blog for three years and have become a real fan. I purchased your latest book and wanted to let you know it is one of the best business books I’ve read in the last 10 years. Just thought it was time to tell you how much I appreciate your work.”

It was signed by the CMO of a Fortune 100 company.

Two years later, he hired me to help organize a new content marketing department. I didn’t bid on the job. He just hired me because he grew to know me and trust me through my content.

Let’s break this down and reveal the classic “inbound” marketing strategy:

1. This person discovered my content and subscribed. I didn’t pay anything for this connection. It was organic, driven by the helpful content I freely put into the world.
2. After reading my content for several years, a trusting relationship developed. It was one-way, of course, but he grew to trust me entirely through the blog content.
3. Three years into this relationship, he bought a book, his first purchase from me.
4. Five years after he subscribed to the blog, he hired me for my most profitable assignment of the year.

And this is the way the world has worked for me, over and over again.

I’ve never made any money directly from my blog content — no ads, paid links, or sponsored posts. But when people trust my content, they hire me for speeches, workshops, and consulting. They’ll buy my books, purchase a consulting hour, or come to my Uprising retreat.

I’ve had a successful, profitable career by giving away content for free.

But many people are earning significant income on Substack. As I move to a slower pace of life, is it time for me to monetize my content directly and charge for it?

Substack versus Medium

There are many ways to monetize content directly, but the two big ones are Medium and Substack.

So far, my strategy has been to publish content on my website and then publish for free on both of these sites. Since both platforms have millions of subscribers, this allows my content to reach new audiences. For example, I have more than 45,000 followers on Medium. Medium articles also tend to rank well on Google.

Medium has another advantage — you’re paid by the number of people who read your content. By simply re-publishing a blog post on Medium, I average a modest $250/month, which is better than the imaginary benefit of Likes and retweets. And, there was an unforgettable month I made $10,000 on Medium. It’s like hitting that one great golf shot. It could happen again, right?

High-earning posts result from a Medium “boost” that floats your article beyond your audience so many more people read it. When does Medium boost? Who knows. It’s unpredictable and frustrating.

Substack has a smaller user base compared to Medium, but offers a business model with a more reliable income stream. People pay for your content through a subscription, and as long as you provide value, the income flows. You’re in charge of your revenue potential by growing your paid audience rather than relying on an algorithmic  Medium boost.

I currently publish for free on Substack — why not? I’ve attracted far fewer followers there compared to Medium … less than 1,000. And I’ve never made a dime there because to succeed, you must commit to a subscription model and refrain from publishing anywhere else. Many people are making a healthy living on Substack. Is it time for me to finally have a reliable income stream directly from my content?

The Substack life

Focusing on Substack as an income stream would require major changes:

• I’d have to create at least one in-depth post per week, and maybe more (I can do that).
• I would stop publishing original blog content on my own website.
• I’d have to develop and grow a Substack community with bonus events and content to add value.
• I would have to move my current blog/Medium audience to a paid subscription on Substack.

While I can commit to creating great content every week, the other changes represent significant risks. Let’s look at each one.

1. The end of the content on my site

As I researched this opportunity, I looked at the websites of Substack stars. If you click “blog,” you’ll find a link to Substack. There is no web-based blog any more.

There is a serious functional implication to this. Without regular, fresh content on my site, my SEO/AI signals dry up. My website isn’t just a blog; it’s a legacy media asset. It’s a lead generation machine.

If the site goes dormant, I lose:

• Authority signals

• Fresh content triggers

• Long-tail organic reach

• Visibility when AI search dominance arrives

That is just too much to lose. The sensible option would be to create two different posts for my site and for Substack. Double the work? No thanks.

2. Moving my audience to Substack

How many of my free blog readers will pay for Substack content? The research shows it will be 5% or less.

But those “free” readers have fueled my entire business model.

• Book sales

• Speaking leads

• Personal branding classes

• Media invitations

• Uprising retreat attendees

• Word-of-mouth leads

The average annual subscription price on Substack is $96. Assuming that 5% of my subscribers move, it’s probably not worth the financial risk.

And there’s another consideration. What if Substack goes out of business?

3. Building a community

The most successful Substack pros fully leverage the platform’s ability to create community through commenting, special events, and exclusive livestreams.

This would be a major benefit of Substack. But I already have a community called RISE. I’ve poured my heart and soul into that community, and I love the people there. I don’t have the need or bandwidth to duplicate that effort.

So a Substack community has no appeal or financial benefit.

The overarching goal

In summary, I certainly have an opportunity to monetize through Substack, but the risk of losing my SEO value and large audience overwhelms the benefits.

In the end, it comes down to my goals at this stage in my life. Money is less important than it was ten years ago. I want my ideas to spread. I want to help and teach. I want to find interesting projects that challenge me and connect me to cool people. I want to maintain a healthy and profitable speaking career.

A regular Substack income jeopardizes:

• SEO discovery for my website
• Serendipity (that random CMO, journalist, or CEO finding me)
• Long-tail inbound traffic
• A large, loyal audience

Monetizing content directly could actually shrink my economic surface area.

At this point in my life, a wide audience and the highest level of discoverability outweigh the potential of a steady income. I’ll stay the course and monetize through the indirect method.

Drop me a line and let me know if you’ve come up with a different strategy for your content.

Need an inspiring keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post Is it time to monetize your audience through Substack? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I’ve recorded my last episode of The Marketing Companion. Beginning in January 2026, the legendary Sandy Carter will take over as the show’s owner and host.

You can hear my last, surprise-filled episode here:

Listen to Episode 331 of The Marketing Companion

Throughout the podcast’s 13-year history, I’ve always looked forward. I love talking about what’s next!

But for this episode, I broke the pattern and reflected on the story of the show. It’s had many ups and a few downs, and I thought this might be an interesting lesson in tenacity and what it took to build and sustain a podcast that beat the odds.

These promotional photos for The Marketing Companion reflected the zany chemistry of the early shows, which included promoting fake products like Google Pants and the “Get a Roon” app. The brilliant Tom Webster co-hosted the podcast for the first six years.

This last episode covers:

• Why I created the show
• Why the peculiar format of the podcast is a key to its success
• How and why I chose the co-hosts for the show
• Some of the funniest moments in the history of the podcast
• How the show was in constant creative reinvention
• What happened when the downloads began a precipitous decline and I almost lost the show
• How an innovative new format saved the podcast

Brooke Sellas was the co-host of The Marketing Companion from 2019 to 2021. Brooke’s playfulness brought out a fun new side of me!

A driving force of the Marketing Companion’s success was pushing the creative envelope. The world doesn’t need two more talking heads. There had to be entertainment value in the show that earned my audience week after week.

I’ve always looked for ways to innovate, and I was proud to debut the first-ever podcast episode recorded with a synthetic voice.

In 2021, I embarked on a new experiment — six rotating co-hosts. This allowed me to expand the show’s content to cover new marketing ideas. The line-up changed over the years, and fan favorites included Dennis Yu, Amanda Russell, Keith Jennings, Dana Malstaff, and Andy Crestodina.

Scott Monty

One of the most fun innovations was the zany intro created by the talented Scott Monty. I had known Scott for many years and respected him as one of the leading voices in corporate communications. But the first 60 seconds of the show became his creative playground as he “introduced” the show from outer space, a dude ranch, the White House, and a hundred other places. I suspected that the show grew as people just tuned in for Scott’s intros!

Another creative innovation was the addition of a “studio audience” beginning in 2022. Members of my RISE community could watch the live Zoom recording of the show and then ask questions after the recording ended. Seeing emotional reactions in real time added an exciting energy to every episode!

It’s remarkable that over nearly 13 years, I never repeated a show topic twice. And I suppose I kept that record intact by creating an episode that looked back. I hope you’ll enjoy this sprint down memory lane.

When I announced that I was leaving the show, I received many kind notes of thanks, encouragement, and, of course, sadness that this era had come to an end. But this is the right decision at the right time. While I am moving away from a show that was a big part of my life, I am re-acquiring time for new ideas.

This final episode is also my tribute to you, the fans.

Every time I prepared an episode, there was only one idea pounding in my mind: I will never let you down.

I never published a perfect episode, but I kept publishing work I was proud of. It was a show that was always relevant, interesting, timely, and entertaining. 331 times.

And this tradition of excellence will continue with the new host, Sandy Carter. Sandy is probably the most connected, wise, and generous marketing pro that I know. She is absolutely the right person at the right time to take the reins of the show.

Sandy Carter is the new owner and host of The Marketing Companion. Her connections, insights, and wisdom usher in a new era of innovation for the show.

Thanks to each of you for supporting my show. I will miss this important part of my life, but feel proud of what I accomplished and secure in knowing Sandy will continue The Marketing Companion legacy of excellence!

Please support our sponsors, who make this fantastic episode possible.

This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now, any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customers to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence to strengthen their customer relationships.

Go to https://www.brevo.com/marketingcompanion to sign up for Brevo for free and use the code COMPANION to save 50% on your first three months of Brevo’s Starter & Business plan!

A recent Semrush study found that AI search traffic is projected to surpass traditional search by 2028. That makes now the time to prepare your brand for the future of search.

With Semrush AI Search tools, you will lead this transition.

• Track your AI visibility score: See a single, clear benchmark of your share of voice across AI search platforms.
• Identify AI mention opportunities: Uncover sources where your competitors are cited—but you’re not—including social media, forums, and more.
• Benchmark against competitors: Find the exact prompts, mentions, and sources where your competitors appear in AI responses and you don’t.
• Discover trending prompts: Spot the real questions your audience is asking AI platforms—and build content around them.
• Shape your brand narrative: Monitor the sentiment and context tied to your AI mentions, and make sure your brand is being represented the way you want.

The post My Fond Farewell to The Marketing Companion appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

As the Marketing Companion enters its next chapter, I had the privilege of sitting down once again with one of my favorite partners in creativity, Jay Acunzo. It was a special, almost bittersweet episode—not only because we discussed the show’s upcoming transition to new leadership with Sandy Carter, but also because Jay and I have traveled such a meaningful road together. Our conversation became a celebration of all things enduring in marketing, creativity, and personal brand building.

You can hear this special episode here:

Listen to Episode 329 of The Marketing Companion

Here is an AI-generated summary of the show highlights:

The “Why” Behind Consistency

Jay proposed the very topic that guided this conversation: “sustainability” in our public work. We explored what it means to not just chase trends or create content for immediate gratification, but to build something meaningful and lasting.

Jay described the nuances behind being called someone who “grinds”: he doesn’t see himself as a “grinder” but as someone who chases curiosity relentlessly and who has orchestrated shifts in his career from speaking to coaching creators to helping leaders hone their public presence. The idea is clear—sustainability is not just about showing up, but about enjoying the process and being intentional about how we evolve.

Curiosity, Practice, and Embracing Pivots

We both agreed: content is the fuel of any brand, corporate or personal. Jay’s journey exemplified an agile, curiosity-driven approach to content creation. He started as a sports journalist and blogger in the early days, before “blogging” was a buzzword, using free tools to write for himself and a handful of readers. That curiosity kickstarted everything—even his career at Google was influenced more by his blog than by his academic credentials.

For today’s students and young professionals, Jay’s story is vital. Start building your brand now, even if only your mom is reading! Create content, keep at it, and don’t stop. If you do, you’ll cultivate an edge that’s hard to replicate.

Jay’s path took him from sports into business, then into content marketing, before anyone really knew what it was. He saw the creative side of this business firsthand, abandoned his old blog for a new one focused on emerging trends, and even built community meetups with other content professionals. The thread? Consistent side projects, relentlessly pursuing curiosity—not viral “success”—have formed the foundation of Jay’s staying power and growth.

The Engine of Endurance

I’ve long believed that building a brand—whether through blogging, podcasts, or newsletters—can’t be a “project.” It’s a lifestyle. Just like running or going to the gym, it’s about integrating consistency into life’s fabric and keeping the train moving.

I shared the core disciplines I teach for lasting creative presence:

1. Awareness: See your life as a source of stories and ideas.
2. Capture: Always write down your ideas, or you’ll lose them.
3. Schedule: Dedicate time to your craft—don’t leave it to chance.
4. Relax and Enjoy: Create at moments when you can focus, undistracted.

For more than a decade, I blogged over a thousand weeks in a row and never missed a podcast episode. The point: create discipline, not as a temporary effort, but as something that shapes your identity. Make yourself the kind of person who “just does this” rather than someone who’s always chasing a new tactic.

Jay reinforced this. He described how writing and creating are not a means to an end but the end itself. You must love the process—the tactile rhythm of typing, the accomplishment of hitting “publish”—even if no one’s watching. If you’re only aiming for an outcome (followers, dollars, virality), you’ll burn out as soon as the market doesn’t respond. Find intrinsic motivation, and let that be your compass.

The Shift That Happens to All Creators

One fascinating insight from my interviews for my KNOWN book was that almost everyone starts out creating for tactical reasons—a need to grow a business or personal brand. But as you persist and attraction builds, a greater purpose reveals itself. You realize you can inspire, include, and uplift others. The privilege and responsibility deepen. If early on, doing the work might have been about business success, over time, the pie chart of motivations flips—helping others becomes the dominant driver.

Jay echoed this with a powerful mantra: “We create what we wish existed in the world.” The business world often tries to force us to create what the market or the algorithm demands, but inevitably we are driven back to our desire to add something meaningful—something “we” long to see in the world.

The Limits of Tricks (and the Infinite Potential of Resonance)

The lure of tips, tricks, and algorithms is constant, but as Jay and I discussed, they all have an expiration date. Tricks can maybe earn you a click, but not a genuine connection or loyalty. True resonance—when your work means something, when people respond with gratitude or share your story with others—is earned, not engineered.

You can buy reach; you cannot buy resonance. And resonance is what matters. Jay underscored that your impact isn’t measured just by the immediate metrics, but by the people who listen all the way through, who write back passionately, who mention your ideas when you’re not in the room.

Please support our sponsors, who make this fantastic episode possible.

This episode is brought to you by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Brevo gives you the tools to attract, engage, and nurture customer relationships.

Now, any business can build automated customer experiences, email marketing workflows, and landing pages that guide your customers to your main message. We are here to support businesses successfully navigating their digital presence to strengthen their customer relationships.

Go to https://www.brevo.com/marketingcompanion to sign up for Brevo for free and use the code COMPANION to save 50% on your first three months of Brevo’s Starter & Business plan!

A recent Semrush study found that AI search traffic is projected to surpass traditional search by 2028. That makes now the time to prepare your brand for the future of search.

With Semrush AI Search tools, you will lead this transition.

• Track your AI visibility score: See a single, clear benchmark of your share of voice across AI search platforms.
• Identify AI mention opportunities: Uncover sources where your competitors are cited—but you’re not—including social media, forums, and more.
• Benchmark against competitors: Find the exact prompts, mentions, and sources where your competitors appear in AI responses and you don’t.
• Discover trending prompts: Spot the real questions your audience is asking AI platforms—and build content around them.
• Shape your brand narrative: Monitor the sentiment and context tied to your AI mentions, and make sure your brand is being represented the way you want.

The post Secrets of the Sustainable Personal Brand appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Typically, this blog focuses on marketing and business. But occasionally, I write about something happening in my life that is rare and strange if I think it can be a teachable moment.

I’ve reached an unexpected and disorienting point in my career. I thought I would write about it, partially to teach, partially to sort through my own dilemma.

A few weeks ago, I taught a series of workshops at McKinsey and Company. I talked about the themes of my books: personal branding, brand communities, how AI is changing human psychology, and more.

In other words, this was my dream come true … Talking about big ideas with some of the smartest and most innovative minds on the planet. Being hired by McKinsey was a peak experience — the company’s research shows up in a lot of my work. They are my favorite thought leaders.

As I finished my day (exhausted!) and looked out over the glorious view from the 64th floor of their Manhattan office tower, I felt on top of the world.

And that’s the problem.

A career led by curiosity

Let’s back up a moment. I need to reveal something strange.

I’ve never really had any career goals. I know … that seems so counterintuitive.

I am not driven by money, fame, or awards. I am propelled by a fever of curiosity.

Here’s an example.

I never dreamed of writing a book. In fact, the idea seemed intimidating. But in 2010, I was approached by McGraw-Hill to explore a new idea I had blogged about — the ability for anyone to publish content on the web. Influence had been democratized.

Early creators (bloggers back then) were building large, loyal audiences, and the power was shifting from Madison Avenue and newsrooms to these passionate individuals changing the world one post at a time. Anybody could be an influencer. And they would be powerful tastemakers and thought leaders.

We take that idea for granted today, but back then, this was a radical notion. I wrote Return On Influence, a bestseller that elevated me to the national stage. I was featured in The Wall Street Journal, CBS News, and Bloomberg to discuss a new concept called influencer marketing.

Being a pioneer in influence marketing meant I could have started a new agency based on this model or monetized this idea in a hundred different ways. While I did some speaking on the topic and helped Dentsu create the first large-scale influence marketing department, I walked away.

I would have been bored out of my mind if I had focused on this one idea!

There was another idea brewing. What is the implication when millions of people are creating their own audiences, shifting attention from mainstream media? The economics of media and content marketing were changing forever. I called this Content Shock, an idea that launched a new phase of my career, at least for awhile.

And that has been my story. Explore an idea and move on. Maybe I’ve left money on the table by not turning ideas into businesses, but I’m happy.

I never had a goal to write a book. I had no dream to be on the news. I never thought I would become a keynote speaker, which is now my primary form of income. I just followed my curiosity and the world kept rewarding me with opportunities.

Looking out from the top

And this gets me back to McKinsey.

In the past 12 months, I’ve conducted a workshop on brand communities for P&G, appeared on the biggest stage at SXSW, and had two new books featured on many “best of the year” lists. I worked in Romania, France, and Italy this year. I’ve been invited to speak in Asia soon.

Now, as I stood on top of the world at the McKinsey office tower, I had a unique and lonely feeling. I had just inspired a group of people at my favorite company. I never thought I would find myself in such a place.

And this is what I felt: There is nothing left. Literally and figuratively, I was standing at the top of the mountain. There is no more “up.”

A disorienting feeling

This sense of depression took me by surprise. I had never felt anything like this and never expected to have this feeling at a moment when I should have been so happy and at peace.

I grew up in humble circumstances that had taught me to have low expectations in life.

And here I am looking into the final third of my life after the most incredible ride. I’ve worked with premier companies like Adidas, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and Pfizer. I gave a TEDx talk, started an amazing community, founded a marketing retreat called The Uprising, hosted a top marketing podcast for more than a decade. My books are used as assigned textbooks in many universities. Wild, right?

I’m not looking for an answer for my sulleness. The next step always shows up because I am still curious! But I’m experiencing something unsettling and new, and I thought I would share it with you.

I suppose in a way this is a good thing. Shouldn’t we all get to feel what it’s like to be at the top of our career mountain?

Need an inspiring keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Image courtesy Mid Journey

The post When There’s No More “Up.” Lessons from the Top of the Mountain appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I was recently interviewed about my perspectives on work-life balance and shared the story of my early career, when I juggled family, a demanding job, and an MBA program. For nearly four years, I had zero time for “me.”

The interviewer asked: “If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self who worked so hard to climb the corporate ladder, what would it be?”

I know he was expecting me to look back with regret, maybe even say I’d wished I’d worked less or spent more time at home. But honestly, I couldn’t say that. It wouldn’t be true.

Here’s what I said: I would tell my younger self, “Good job.”

That threw him for a loop. Let me explain my answer.

The chicken and the egg

In his famous book Good to Great, Jim Collins describes his concept of a career flywheel.

“Picture an egg just sitting there. No one pays it much attention until, one day, the egg cracks open and out jumps a chicken!

“All the major magazines and newspapers jump on the event, writing feature stories—“The Transformation of Egg to Chicken!” “The Remarkable Revolution of the Egg!” “Stunning Turnaround at Egg!”—as if the egg had undergone some overnight metamorphosis, radically altering itself into a chicken.

“But what does it look like from the chicken’s point of view? It’s a completely different story.

“While the world ignored this dormant-looking egg, the chicken was evolving, growing, developing, incubating. From the chicken’s point of view, cracking the egg is simply one more step in a long chain of steps leading up to that moment—a big step, to be sure, but hardly the radical, single-step transformation it looks like to those watching from outside the egg.

“It’s a silly analogy, granted. But I’m using it to highlight a very important finding from our research. We kept thinking that we’d find “the one big thing,” the miracle moment that defined breakthrough. We even pushed for it in our interviews. But the good-to-great executives simply could not pinpoint a single key event or moment in time that exemplified the transition.”

The career flywheel

Jim Collins famously described this as the flywheel. What creates personal transformation and career momentum? Is it one big push that creates velocity? One class, one connection, one stroke of luck?

No. He found it was a combination of small pushes that created momentum for both careers and businesses. You push and push and push, and that work accumulates to create momentum (I describe this in my book Cumulative Advantage).

Early in my career, I was motivated by money. I would not say I grew up poor — I never went hungry. However, if I wanted to have a bike, new clothes, or a baseball uniform, I had to earn the money myself. Likewise, I had to pay for my own college education and subsisted on beans and cheap pasta for years.

After years of scraping by, I wanted some financial freedom. I was so tired of being broke. And my flywheel was already in motion.

Beginning the momentum

In college, I was part of a marketing student group, and my job was to get guest speakers for our monthly meetings. I researched the largest companies I aspired to work for one day and invited their executives to campus. I was their host for the day, which allowed me to build personal relationships with people who could potentially hire me.

In fact, I secured an internship through a connection with one of these executives. By the time I graduated, I had three corporate internships under my belt. Each internship was bigger than the last, and they paid more because I was building on the momentum of the previous job.

By the time I was a college senior, I had an impressive resume and landed a corporate communications job with a Fortune 100 company. Problem was, I wanted to move into marketing, and that would require something more.

From sales to marketing to momentum

My first move toward a marketing career was to spend time in sales. I was transferred to our Los Angeles sales office and learned about a special MBA program that allowed students to study under the legendary Peter Drucker. I applied twice and was turned down because I was too young for this elite experience. Finally, I met with the dean and explained how my youthful perspective would add to the diversity of the program. He laughed, but let me into the program as the youngest student ever admitted.

This brings us back to where this blog post began. I now had a challenging career, two toddlers, and an MBA program to balance. This was the most demanding period of my life. It took me four years of nights and weekends to get that degree. One of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

If you know me at all, you know I’m great with kids and adored being a father, so I always kept this in front of me as job number one.

All of this was part of my career flywheel. I moved up the company, and, long story short, gained the knowledge and experience that have enabled me to have the career I have today.

And this is why my answer was so unexpected and not-so-politically-correct. I don’t regret working hard to build momentum in my career because it has led to a lifetime of benefits and financial freedom.

Simple math

Let’s put this in simple terms.

Because of the “flywheel work” I did in college, let’s say I could get a job that paid $60,000 while my less aggressive friends earned an entry-level job of $45,000.

If we both received a 5% annual raise for the next 20 years, my flywheel-enabled salary would be approximately $152,000, compared to $114,000 for the other person.

And of course, there is more than money. The flywheel momentum also led to promotions, travel, more time off, and opportunities for my children that I had never had before.

I want to be clear. I’m not saying that everybody needs to work hard, build momentum, and make money. I hope you’re happy in whatever you do.

There’s no one-size-fits-all path. But for me, the hard work I put in early built momentum that changed my life –and gave me more freedom, not less, as the years went on.

If you’re working on your flywheel, keep going. Step by step, you’re building something bigger than you can see right now.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy Mid Journey

The post A contrarian view to work life balance appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Even in these early days of AI, we see signs that the bots could be coming for our jobs. Entry-level jobs are disappearing, the job market is tight, and some companies won’t hire at all until you can prove that AI can’t do the job first.

I want to emphasize that the jury is still out. Nobody knows what will happen. But there is a non-zero chance that marketing jobs — or at least marketing skills — are vulnerable.

There’s no more important issue for human marketers than finding new relevance. Of course, you need to continue developing your skills and embracing all things AI, but you must also be strategic about your career at this stage.

I’ve given this a lot of thought, and I believe there are three foundational strategies to keep human marketers relevant in the AI world. I think I have this right, but if I’ve missed something, let me know. These three strategies are uniquely human and always will be:

1. Develop and leverage a personal brand
2. Lead a brand community
3. Create AI-transcendent content

Let’s explore each of these factors, accompanied by a few resources to support you on your journey.

The job debate

First, let me be clear that it is not a foregone conclusion that AI will eliminate jobs. As economist Noah Smith wrote:

“The debate over whether AI is taking people’s jobs may or may not last forever. If AI takes a lot of people’s jobs, the debate will end because one side will have clearly won. But if AI doesn’t take a lot of people’s jobs, then the debate will never be resolved, because there will be a bunch of people who will still go around saying that it’s about to take everyone’s job.

“In other words, the good scenario for the labor market is that we continue to exist in a perpetual state of anxiety about whether or not we’re all about to be made obsolete by the next generation of robots and chatbots.”

Scott Galloway connected the dots between the success of AI companies and the imperative for decline in employment. He has a less optimistic view:

Built into valuations of these AI companies is an assumption that they will be able to cut costs or grow their revenues through the use of AI by $1 trillion in the next 24 to 36 months. I don’t see how AI is gonna create a trillion dollars in new revenues for these companies, but I can see how it might cut $1 trillion in expenses.

In order for these valuations to be justified, one of two things needs to happen. Either the valuations need to come down, or these technologies need to show a trillion dollars in efficiencies across their client base. Assuming an average wage of $100,000, that’s a destruction of 10 million jobs.

So we’re either going to see a massive destruction in the value of these companies, which will infect all U.S. stocks and entire global markets. Or, we’re going to see a fairly massive destruction, short term, in employment across certain industries.

My personal view is that AI can do much of the work traditionally accomplished by marketers: Research, analysis, pattern recognition, strategy, planning, media buying, etc. So it is reasonable to assume that at least some tasks will be replaced, if not jobs.

What are the “safe” areas for marketing?

1. Develop and leverage a personal brand

When ChatGPT was introduced, I called my friend Shelly Palmer to learn his views on this bombastic development. Shelly is a revered authority who has seen it all, but this shook him.

“I asked ChatGPT to compose a three-point blog post for me, in my writing style,” he said, “and it did a perfect job in three seconds. That’s terrifying. I’ve blogged almost every day for 15 years, and I feel like I’m 80 percent replaced.”

On the surface, that does seem terrifying. But a better question is, what’s the 20% that AI is NOT replacing? That’s Shelly’s personal brand. AI can’t touch it. Never will.

Regardless of what happens in this AI-driven world, we’ll always seek guidance from a human authority for truth, direction, and inspiration. Shelly is known, respected, and beloved. People will always read his blog, buy his books, and attend his speeches because of his personal brand. And for Shelly’s company, he IS the brand.

Every business professional should be working on their personal brand — developing the authority, presence, and reputation to get their job done, whatever that might be. Investing in your personal brand is like making a deposit in an insurance policy for your career.

In every class I teach and every speech I give, I beg people to work on becoming known in their industry, even if they are happy in their current job. If the worst happens, you will have an advantage if people have heard of you and respect you! More doors will open if you’re known.

There has never been a more urgent time to establish your presence in your industry.

2. Brand communities

A few years ago, I wrote a book called Belonging to the Brand that featured the boldest of subtitles: “Why Community is the Last Great Marketing Strategy.”

The premise behind the claim is simple (and true!).

Brand marketing is about creating an emotional expectation, perhaps even a meaningful bond, between you and your customers.

In the past, companies achieved this over many years by spending millions of dollars on advertising. Today, many companies are building this connection through a vibrant brand community.

There are two appeals to this idea that are hard to ignore:

1. The bond between community members transfers to the brand and strengthens the loyalty to your organization. People literally belong to the brand.
2. AI can’t touch this. It’s all human, all the time.

A brand community might be the only type of marketing your customers would actually pay for.

We live in a world with a generation of people who are lonely, depressed, and disconnected. Your customers don’t just want to belong to something. They NEED to belong.

3. Transcendent content

If you’ve read my blog for a while, you know I’m a realist. I don’t sugarcoat the facts. I’m urgent about truth and understanding what is real, what is next, and what it means for us.

And this is the hard truth: AI can perform most of the tasks that marketers do today. It can analyze data, detect patterns, suggest strategies, plan media, write copy, and execute on the creative.

But here is another truth. Art will survive. Why? Because art is an interpretation of the human condition. I don’t care if AI can create songs like my favorite band. I want the band. AI can mimic my favorite author. But I want a book from the real person.

And so it will be with humans and marketing.

The bots are coming, but you still own crazy. You own the spark, the human fireworks, the raw, the real, and the messy.

And when you apply that to your content and marketing, you transcend the bots. You create experiences, ideas, and meaning that the bots cannot touch. You make something that customers want to talk about and if that happens, it’s better than any ad you could create.

My book Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World is full of ideas about this, and includes a framework for how the best creatives in the world are breaking through.

It provides a framework for human value in the creative process by exploring how we can disrupt

• The traditional story
• Where the story is told
• Who tells the story

A bot can write like me. But when you come to this blog, you get my heart, my soul, my absolute commitment to an audience.

I, for one, will not be ignored and replaced by a freaking bot. I will transcend.

Resources to Help You Thrive

No matter what happens in this AI apocalypse, I am certain these three pillars will stand. You don’t need to duck for cover. Embrace the AI revolution and use this technology to reimagine what you can become.

Here are some resources that can help you survive and thrive.

In 2017, I wrote what became the all-time bestselling book on personal branding. It still sells really well today for one reason: it works.

I spent two years researching and writing about how people can become the signal against the noise. If you see others touting their personal branding content, chances are it’s based on my work in the book KNOWN: The handbook for building and unleashing your personal brand in the digital age.

If you want to put a jetpack behind your personal brand, I also teach a class on this subject, which is the highest-rated course on Maven. You get six live sessions over two weeks plus two private 1:1 sessions with me. You can find the class here.

The participants have loved the class:

Let’s move on to help with brand communities.

The single-best resource for this Belonging to the Brand: Why Community is the Last Great Marketing Strategy.

There are many books and resources available to help create community, but this book approaches the topic specifically from the perspective of marketing and measurable ROI.

To get a flavor for how a community works, you can join the RISE marketing community for free. Experts from around the world debate the ideas on what is to come in the world of AI and marketing.

Finally, with help on transcendent content, I already mentioned my book Audacious. I had a chance to learn from the greatest creative giants in the marketing world and share their secrets. There are a thousand ideas and inspirations for you here!

I know the last part of this post may come across as salesy, and I try not to do that. However, I also firmly believe in the work I have created to help people rise above the noise, even when AI bots seem so threatening. I want you to win, and this is my way of helping.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

The post Three Ways Human Marketers Survive When AI Comes for Their Job appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

When I attended my first college marketing class, I became hooked on this Philip Kotler definition: marketing is a combination of psychology, sociology, and anthropology.

Marketing is all things human!

It’s easy to forget about that in this world overrun by AI, but I believe that in the end, that is still true. The most human company wins.

I thought it would be fun to have some members of the RISE community report on the most human marketing they’ve seen. I think you’ll find these inspiring stories a refreshing break from the AI feed!

Evie’s Story

Dr. Matt Wilkinson, founder of Strivenn

About six years ago, I came across one of the only life sciences marketing campaigns that ever truly moved me, Charles River’s “Evie’s Story.”

It’s rare for a B2B life sciences video to spark deep emotion, but this one brought me to tears. “Evie’s Story” wasn’t just emotionally powerful; it was strategically brilliant. Built on the classic framework of Freytag’s Pyramid, it masterfully told a compelling narrative that pulled at the heartstrings while making a complex topic deeply relatable.

The campaign did more than tell a story; it humanized the Charles River brand at a time when it needed to connect not only with its shareholders but also with the broader public. This was a powerful example of how thoughtful human-first storytelling can bring a brand’s purpose to life.

About people, for people

Roxana Hurducas, B2B Brand Strategy Advisor

In 2017, I was the CMO at the leading courier company in the country. Almost daily, I’d hear wild, funny, heartwarming stories from the field, like the courier who was asked to hide the package in the bushes so the husband wouldn’t see it, or the one who was asked to take out the trash on his way out.

I felt these stories HAD to be told. People needed to see couriers not as delivery robots, but as real humans, with personalities, adventures, and feelings.

So I teamed up with our creative agency and went all-in on authenticity: no scripts, just real couriers telling real stories. A filming crew toured the country with a camera and a mic, asking: ‘Who has a good story?’ and pressed Record.

We bet the entire campaign on it, two weeks before the already-reserved media plan, with no guarantee the footage would even be usable? I had anxiety, I couldn’t sleep, and my bosses and colleagues kept asking: ‘Are you sure we’ll get anything good?’

All I could say (and hope!) was: We have to.

And we did. More than I could’ve hoped for.

One courier got trapped on a fence after throwing the packages over to escape a client’s dogs. Another was invited to lunch by an old lady and wasn’t allowed to leave until he finished the entire meal. And one, after carrying a bathtub up several flights of stairs, picked up a sledgehammer and broke down the bathroom wall at the customer’s request, because the tub simply wouldn’t fit through the door.

The campaign wasn’t about logistics, or deliveries, coverage, or technology.

It was about people, for people, told by people, and a great success.

Forever

Jim MacLeod, author of The Visual Marketer

A couple of years ago, the pet food company, The Farmer’s Dog, released its Super Bowl commercial titled “Forever.” It told the story of a young girl growing up with her dog. As she moves through the stages of life, the dog is always by her side. The puppy grows bigger at first, and grows older later on.

We’ve seen similar ads in the past. We all know puppies and gray-faced dogs are a great way to tug at the heartstrings. Subaru has repeatedly found success by running dog-centered commercials. This one has a little more because it ties in perfectly with the product.

For anyone who has had a dog and wants/wanted them to live longer, we know the feelings this commercial invokes. Dogs are always around. Always a little mischievous. And always offering unconditional love … all for the low price of some snacks or snuggles.

This is one of those ads where it’s easy to picture yourself in the place of the main actor. Many of us have been there. It touches us in ways that a humorous or interesting commercial doesn’t.

Pure human-to-human connection

Sarah Stahl, co-founder Market Movers

After spending four months caught in an AI-driven job search—applying to nearly 400 marketing roles and getting nowhere—I realized the only way to break through was to show up as myself. I reached out to my network and landed a spot as a webinar speaker for the American Glamping Association. Instead of just pitching myself or my services, I offered something meaningful: up to 10 free vacation rental marketing audits to those attending live. Eight signed up immediately.

What happened next was more significant than I had expected. Those initial audits became a training ground, helping me refine a product that budding businesses genuinely needed. Word spread on LinkedIn, and the response turned into a community movement—I sold enough audits in the following weeks to match more than a month’s salary at a job I’d been chasing.

This experience meant so much because it was a pure human-to-human connection. I listened, provided value, and met a real need quickly. It not only jump-started my own business but also created a resource that others in the industry are now learning from. It’s proof that authentic generosity and quick action—especially in a world driven by algorithms—can still win.

A Focus on Empathy

Scott Scowcroft, founder of The Scott Treatment

If you could stand in someone else’s shoes, hear what they hear, see what they see, and feel what they feel, would you treat them differently? This concept became central to the Cleveland Clinic’s approach, sparking both internal training and global discussions about empathy in health care.

Cleveland Clinic created a video challenging viewers to adopt another person’s perspective, encouraging healthcare professionals to consider the unseen struggles, fears, and hopes of the people around them.

The video illustrates how empathy can profoundly shape patient care and everyday interactions.

Feeding the Stomach and the Soul

Iris van Ooyen, Author and Life Navigation Mentor

The most human marketing I experienced happened 20 years ago.

I was newly vegetarian and at the time very few restaurants offered vegetarian options besides a green salad or an omelet. I’d grown accustomed to being the person who complicated everyone’s evening. This restaurant, De Vrijheid, didn’t have a single vegetarian option on the menu, but they turned what felt like my limitation into their creative playground.

The chef would create a vegetarian meal for you using what was available in the kitchen. I was asked about my allergies and dislikes. To my surprise, the owner came back with a suggestion from the chef. “The chef proposes asparagus risotto—would you like us to prepare that for you?” I did and thoroughly enjoyed the dish.

As a result, the next time we went out for dinner, we went back there. I wasn’t interested in an omelet I could make myself when the chef’s creativity was at my disposal.

Our second visit was even better. The owner welcomed us back and turned to me, saying, “Last time the chef made you asparagus risotto. This time, he proposes grilled pumpkin with …” In that moment, I realized they weren’t just feeding me—they were building a relationship, one meal at a time.

Rarely did we eat anywhere else after that. Instead of making me feel difficult, they made me feel seen. My dietary needs weren’t a problem to accommodate—they were an invitation to create something special.

Every interaction is marketing

Emiliano Reisfeld, CMO

After an important business lunch, I realized my keys were locked inside my car. I couldn’t get back to my office!

The waiter observed what was happening, called a taxi to pick up a copy of my keys at home, and offered me a complimentary coffee while I waited.

Is that marketing? Yes. Every customer touchpoint is an opportunity to create a memory, a feeling, that contributes to the brand.

This waiter went above and beyond his work to create a singular act of humanity. For this reason, I will always feel loyalty to that restaurant.

Hope from the Sewers

Zack Seipert, Government Marketing and Communications Specialist

My example of the most human marketing moment I’ve seen comes from an unlikely place: sewage.

In December 2023, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District posted to social media a rather vague invitation: “just a phone number, a voicemail, and a whole lot of emotions. 216-361-6772.”

When you called, you didn’t hear the customary robotic greeting stating your call was important to them or directing your call to the right department. You heard John Gonzalez, the district’s communications manager, speaking candidly about loneliness, anxiety, and the hidden weight of the holidays. He told each caller: “You are not alone…”

What happened next was nothing short of a Christmas miracle. Thousands of people from Ohio and around the world called in to share their own stories of hope, grief, and gratitude.

Engagement on the district’s channels exploded, and national outlets ran feature stories.

For a utility often seen as invisible infrastructure, this simple act of empathy humanized the brand, deepened trust, and generated priceless earned media.

Good marketing in a bad time

In 2019, I wrote a book called Marketing Rebellion. It was a wake-up call for companies to rediscover their customers, to stop doing things that people hated (like spam and “lead nurturing”) and roll up their sleeves and actually connect in a human way.

Almost exactly one year later, the pandemic hit.

Initially, businesses were unsure of what to do or say. Most of them turned to the advertising agencies, which produced lame scripts about “being with you in these hard times.”

But then the truly heart-led brands showed up in a human way.

• A local real estate office turned itself into a mask assembly center. They had so many volunteers that they were able to ship masks outside the state.
• Heineken posted notices on the doors of shuttered pubs, encouraging customers to be patient and return when it was safe to do so. Through the pandemic, the brewer paid each pub advertising fees for the posters to help keep their customers afloat.
• Kiobassa Provision Company, a regional meat supplier in Texas, shipped 10,000 pounds of meat per month to local food banks to assist displaced individuals.
• Burger King took out ads encouraging customers to buy from McDonald’s and other fast food franchises to help keep them open during the pandemic.
• American Express distributed $25,000 grants and corporate resources to help keep small businesses afloat during the crisis.
• Chipotle restaurants hosted local online celebrations to connect high school teens who could not see each other when proms and graduations were cancelled.

It’s unfortunate that it took a pandemic to wake marketers up, but the ideas I proposed in Marketing Rebellion have come true.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustrations courtesy Mid Journey

The post The most human marketing I’ve ever seen appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I have been so very blessed to be an author that people trust. Against all odds, people actually buy my books, even years after they are published. They have been translated into 15 languages, used as college textbooks, and are found in more than 700 libraries worldwide.

Except one.

Today, I submit to you one of my biggest disappointments and professional enigmas: The book that bombed. My invisible book. And oh yes, it might have been my best book ever.

My best work?

If you search for the “best marketing books” on Amazon, here are the top five, and the book ratings:

• All Marketers are Liars by Seth Godin = 4.5
• The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Ries and Trout = 4.5
• The One-Page Marketing Plan by Dib = 4.7
• Hook Point by Kane = 4.4
• Building a Story Brand by Miller = 4.6

The average reader rating of any business book on Amazon is 4.2, according to ChatGPT.

And then there is my 2021 book Cumulative Advantage, with a score of 4.7. It stands up to the best in terms of quality, or at least reader appreciation.

Many readers consider Cumulative Advantage to be my best book. And yet it is my lowest-selling book, by far. In the world of business books, you can call a book a bestseller if it reaches 10,000 in sales. My bestselling book, Marketing Rebellion, sold 14,000 copies in its first month. 

And yet Cumulatove Advantage has sold only 1,700 books since its release in 2021. This was the very next book I wrote after the mega-hit Marketing Rebellion. What the heck happened?

I have a theory.

The story of the invisible book

I only write a book when it solves a meaningful problem. A trend I noticed in many of my consulting calls was that people often seem to get stuck mid-career. They might experience some success and plateau in their businesses, professional lives, and personal brands.

How do you build momentum for a life, a career, an idea? What is the strategy to reach new levels of success when the growth curve flattens out?

I came across a concept called cumulative advantage. While this concept is well-researched and documented in the field of social psychology, the theory about how momentum works in the world has never been applied to the practical reality of business.

Making this connection was an elegant and practical idea that could help many people. I concocted a unique and entertaining way to tell the story of momentum. I compared my career to the supremely successful author Tim Ferriss. We had both started as authors at the same time, but he had rocketed to fame. To tell a story of the five steps of cumulative advantage, I traced our paths to answer the question: Why did Ferris know Oprah, and I did not?

It was a fun, fast-paced story packed with insights. I knew this was a great book, and based on the rising success of my previous books, I doubled down on my investment in editing, design, and promotion. For the first time, I hired an outside PR firm and an influencer agency. I created a snazzy “movie trailer:”

I spent a small fortune on the book …

And nothing happened

I published Cumulative Advantage in early 2021, and many early readers declared it my best work. Here are a few reviews … not to puff myself up, but to establish that the quality of the book was not the issue here:

• “This book is so important. Never before has the career path for the entrepreneur, inventor, or other creatives been so clearly defined, laid out, and mapped.”
• “I will state emphatically that HE HAS OUTDONE HIMSELF when he wrote Cumulative Advantage.”
• “This book will have a profound impact on your life and how you view your place in the world. I couldn’t put this book down, because it provided hope in a very difficult time.”
• “Such an extraordinary book! I devoured Cumulative Advantage in a single weekend.”
• “As good as the entire book is, the last chapter alone is worth far more than the price of the book.”

I was an established author. I had written an excellent, helpful, and inspiring book. I spent a ton of money on promotion. And it bombed.

I will never know for sure, but here is my theory of the invisible book …

The issue of timing

I knew this book was launching at a difficult time. We were still in a pandemic. This placed several obstacles in my way:

1. The world was still in a state of panic, and businesses were struggling. Many people were holding on to their money, and buying books was not a priority. ALL book sales in every category were in decline.
2. At the height of the pandemic, other authors like me spent that downtime writing books. Almost every marketing author published books at the same time, so the competition for those scarce book dollars was fierce.
3. All events and conferences had been cancelled. Normally, when I publish a new book, I would embark on a speaking tour. Speaking engagements sell a lot of books.
4. Nonfiction book sales have yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels. While non-fiction books are growing, overall business book sales have been in decline.

So even though I sensed the timing of the book launch was awful, I went ahead with it. The book was ready. The book was great. And by the way, I had struggled financially during the pandemic, too. I could use the boost!

The challenge of promotion

I had taken a big swing on the promotional budget, and that also bombed:

• The PR pro I hired had come highly recommended, but was so ineffective that she returned my money.
• I experimented with a “micro-influencer” campaign, and that also fell flat. What I learned is that micro-influencers are mostly interested in promoting themselves.
• My other promotional efforts did not take off. The mood of the world was so pandemic-depressed that even a positive book of hope was hard to sell.

I probably could have taken another shot at promoting the book in 2022, but I felt so deflated and shocked by the failure. I had not completely pieced together what went wrong. And I had started working on a new project: Belonging to the Brand.

What’s in a name?

As I dissected my failure to learn from it, I think Cumulative Advantage is probably a terrible name for a book. It’s even hard to say. If I had to do it over again, I would have called the book “Relentless Relevance,” because that offers a more straight-forward idea of what the book is about.

The book had a great subtitle: How to Build Momentum for Your Ideas, Business, and Life Against All Odds. However, most people are unaware of subtitles.

The role of luck

Was my career as an author finished? I put everything I had into that book, but I lost a lot of time and money in the process.

I had another big idea burning inside of me, and I needed to push that idea into the world: The vital role of brand communities in the future of marketing.

I needed to go back to basics. What worked? What went wrong? I never wanted to have a failure like that again.

I conducted a thorough review of book marketing best practices. I even interviewed many authors for best practices that I might have missed. I found something surprising. Almost every successful author said that the most significant boost to their book sales was luck. Ironically, that is also a key idea in the Cumulative Advantage book — dig deep enough and you’ll find that behind every mega-success is some piece of dumb luck.

So bad luck, bad timing, and maybe a bad title had worked against me. I would not be deterred. I keep writing in a bold and brave way, as always.

The impact

Since that book, I’ve written two more, and they’ve both sold well. I love the creative challenge of writing, and I’m gratified when people buy the books and enjoy them.

Still, it stings every time I look at my monthly book sales and see a big fat zero for Cumulative Advantage. It will always hold a special place in my heart, even if it’s not on many bookshelves.

I hope this provides some balance to the Mark Schaefer narrative. Not every project is a success, but you must keep moving forward. That’s an important lesson about momentum.

And if you’d like to learn more about momentum, you can always buy the book. It would make me smile today.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post The sad and mysterious tale of my invisible book appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.