The Content Kitchen Newsletter

Hi everyone, How's your week going?   Mine has been busy, closed-door conversations with AI founders who are trying to keep the future from being swallowed by the usual giants. Big ideas. Real stakes. A quiet urgency you don’t hear on conference stages or in press releases.   In the space between those conversations, my client responsibilities, and picking up my grandkids at school. something clicked. I knew how the Shmoo Diaries needed to end Why Any of This Matters After fo

Hi everyone, how’s your week going?   Mine’s been one of those weeks where you notice the invisible rules around you. The things that feel normal, until you realize they quietly decide who succeeds and who doesn’t. I started as a gatekeeper of a small gate. As the company grew, so did the gate. As responsibilities expanded, the consequences became clearer, yet they were always measured against what the market and the system could handle. In the earlier chapters of The Shmoo D

When You're Inside the Pattern, You Can't See the Shape This is a very Personal story.  It was written after the announcement that one of the last remaining magazine wholesalers in the United States would be closing its doors, the same company that acquired my business and where I worked during my final year in distribution. It's another way of looking at abundance and the Morgan calculation. Hi, how’s your week been?   Mine’s been a little slower than usual. Snow’s piled up

How Control Actually Works Hi, how’s your week? Mine’s? Still thinking of my Shmoo and what it actually means have the power of control. Let me recap where we are. So far as the   Pattern Comes Into Focus Chapter 1 showed how we panic when abundance appears. Chapter 2 showed how abundance gets rejected when it cannot be owned. This chapter shows how control persists through quiet calculation. None of this requires bad actors. It only requires systems that prioritize stability

Hi everyone, how’s your week? Mine’s been reflective. A little unsettled. That tends to happen this time of year, and it usually means I’m circling something worth paying attention to. Every so often, a story sticks with me, and I feel the need to share it because I think it's so important. This is a story I've been sitting with for a while. Last week, I introduced most of you to the Shmoo. A creature that made food, shelter, and basic needs available for free. Lasting   Abun

Hi everyone, how was your week? Mine’s been one of those weeks where a single idea keeps tapping you on the shoulder until you finally sit down and listen.   An idea about what happens when something essential becomes so easy and so available that it quietly changes how everything else works. That idea came from something unexpected: a cartoon character from the 1940s. A stuffed creature I brought back from ComiCon in 1984 and have had in my office ever since. Most people hav

Hi everyone, how was your week? Every year around this time, I usually do the same thing. I clear space. I open the calendar. I start sketching the next twelve months. Strategy. Priorities. What we’re building. What we’re letting go of. That rhythm used to feel grounding. This year, it felt dishonest. Looking ahead to 2026, the ground doesn’t feel stable. Technology is accelerating, not evolving. Politics and economics shift assumptions overnight. Entire professions are being

How was your week? I’m still feeling uncomfortable. There’s a point where reflection stops being responsible and starts becoming a way to avoid deciding what comes next. Looking back gives you something solid to hold onto. But when the ground is shifting, it can also become a substitute for progress. A way to stay busy without committing. A way to delay the harder work of choosing direction when certainty is no longer available. That’s the moment I’m in now, and I imagine I’m

How was your week? Mine has been quieter than usual, which is often when the harder thoughts finally have room to surface. Last week, I wrote about catching myself doing the very thing I warn others about. Chasing noise. Confusing motion with progress. Letting urgency crowd out judgment. This week feels like the natural continuation of that thought. Because once you stop chasing everything, you are left with a more uncomfortable question. What actually keeps you in the work w

Hey! How was your week?   Mine has been reflective and a little uncomfortable, which is usually a sign that something useful is happening. Last week, we talked about the people who shaped our year. This week is about the work itself. Not the polished version. The real one. The parts that worked, the parts that didn’t, and what it actually cost us to learn the difference. I want to start with something simple. Some of what we believed at the beginning of the year turned out to

Hi, how was your week? Mine has been one of those where I needed to get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable. And here's why:  This is the time every year when I usually take some time to build out the strategy for the next twelve months. The team maps out priorities, spots the opportunities, and decides what we want to create.   This year feels very different, almost terrifyingly so. As I look ahead to 2026, it is clear that we are in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime tran

Hi everyone, how’s your week?   Mine was special! Very special! For the first time in a few years, I took some time off and travelled to meet a group of people I had been meeting with 2 or 3 times a week on Zoom for 2 years. There was a sereness to meeting a dozen people for the first time in person and yet feeling like you've known them all your life. We come from four continents, various ages, and cultures, yet we couldn't wait to gather in Florida to practice wellness and

Hey, how was your week? Mine ended with a song and a flash of memory. Kodachrome came on the radio just as I finished my first Medium article on understanding. Paul Simon’s line hit me hard: “When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all.” I tried telling Siri to remind me about it. She failed miserably. So I did the old-fashioned thing: I pulled over, grabbed a pen, and wrote a note to myself. It made me pause and think about wh

Hey, how was your week? Mine was... revealing. I've been thinking a lot about something I don't talk about much: my relationship with information. And how it nearly broke me. Last week, we discussed critical thinking and why we should be questioning what we're told.   But here's what I realized: before we can think critically, we have to admit something uncomfortable. We're drowning in information and starving for understanding. I know because I've been there, and I'm slowly

Hi everyone, How was your week? Ours was busy; we just wrapped our 14th DCC Roundtable on LinkedIn automation. While preparing, I had an awakening. Something I’d been sensing but couldn’t name. And then it hit me:   we’re on a more slippery slope than I ever imagined. I’m not a doomsayer, but I’ve seen this before - moments when disruption demanded our involvement. This one does too… but for how long? I’ve always admired the builders, those who turn chaos into structure and v

Hi…. How was your week? Ours? Let’s just say it’s been busy — in the best possible way. We didn’t forget the newsletter. We pressed pause. On purpose. Because we’ve been working behind the scenes on something worth the wait. Actually,   three   things that all tie together. And the first one kicks off next week. 1. The Roundtable — The Secrets of LinkedIn Next week, we’re bringing in someone who   really   knows how LinkedIn works — not just the algorithm, but the art of show

How was your week? Mine? I kept seeing the same movie I’ve seen before. Act 1:  A new tool. Big promises. Act 2:   The rush. Everyone...

LinkedIn was supposed to be the professional network. A place where business got done, relationships grew, and the “best” ideas rose to...

Hi there, Quick personal note before I get into it — yesterday was my birthday 🎉. It got me reflecting a bit, and I couldn’t help but...

Hi……………. How was your week? I'm hoping one of these days someone will answer me. But in any case, I've had conversations this week with...