Iâm speaking at CreatorCon 2026 and I am SO excited about this one.
May 14th, Covington, KY. Full day. Incredible lineup.
And I get to talk about the creator economy, my role at Manychat, and paid media just down the road from where I went to school. Full circle moment.
If you work in brand marketing, performance marketing, or creative strategy, this is the room you want to be in.
Early bird tickets are 15% off until April 10th. Donât sleep!
Comment CREATOR below and Iâll send you the link.
See you there. đ
Finding the balance of volume and quality is a constant push and pull. I get it.
But the brands pushing for more volume at the expense of quality (*cough cough AI UGC*) will sacrifice trust in the long run.
On the other side, the brands pushing to only have perfect assets in market (they donât exist) will sacrifice performance - there wonât be enough signals for your ad platforms to read.
Find your perfectly curated menu. That volume and quality benchmark will differ brand to brand (but is worth exploring).
Follow along for more easy to digest performance marketing advice đâď¸
The more you test, the more winners you find. The more winners you find, the less risk your account carries.
The healthiest ad accounts I've worked on all do two things. They backfill creative constantly, even when the account is at its peak. And they keep testing, even when it tanks short-term ROAS.
The accounts that pause testing when things are working are the ones that fall off a cliff six months later.
You just don't see it coming.
Every creative test used to feel like a verdict on whether I was good at my job.
I used to lose sleep over a single ad. Itâs midnight, Iâm trying to fall asleep. âWhy the f*ck didnât that ad work?â
Imposter syndrome on loop (still happens on occasion. But hey, Iâm human.) After a couple years, something finally clicked.
Strategists who donât feel overwhelmed arenât smarter.
They just think differently about the work.
đ Never get too high when things are running smooth.
đ Never get too low when things are looking bleak.
It took me a couple years in the industry to realize.
Here are the 5 beliefs that flipped it for me:
â One ad canât do everything
â Hooks are necessary, not sufficient
â A failed test is a paid lesson
â Data wins, ego loses
â Fatigue is the system, not your failure
Which belief was hardest for you to shake?
nmjc, u?
Bring back AIM. There's a real business case for it.
Every messenger we use now is a productivity tool - a means to an end.
None of them feel like your friends. AIM did.
The buddy list. The away message. The door creak when someone signed on.
No ads. No LLM integrations. Just the thing that made the internet feel like hanging out.
This is Post Mortem. Every Monday I bring a dead brand back from the grave.
What was your screen name? đ
I wish someone wouldâve told me this earlier in my career. My first role in performance marketing was at an agency that was truly sink or swim. Culture wasâŚ. well, there was no culture.
It was deliver or else. It made me feel like that was just performance marketing in general. I didnât know how to best operate as a strategist.
Iâm so fortunate to work in an environment that couldnât be more different. Collaborative, supportive. Learnings > cutthroat deliver at all cost.
But, these learnings are universal. Itâs helped me from role to role. I learned these four things the hard way (so you donât have to!) âď¸
Adults are buying more "toys" than ever before.
The kiddult economy is exploding and one of the largest companies making up the market is none other than LEGO.
Have you walked through a LEGO store lately? Half the sets aren't for kids anymore. They're for the adults who used to be kids.
$850 Millennium Falcons. Botanical collections that look like art. Architecture sets sitting on coffee tables in apartments with no children in them.
LEGO figured out the cheat code: the kid who loved your product 25 years ago has a credit card now, and they want to feel something on a Tuesday night that isn't another screen.
Adults now make up over a third of LEGO's revenue. The kiddult economy is just nostalgia with disposable income. The brands that win the next decade are the ones who grow up with their audience.
Have you bought a toy for yourself recently?
#lego #brandstrategy #creatoreconomy #kiddult
Raise your hand if youâre your own harshest critic đââď¸
âââ
Yeah, same.
@synsation_ wants you to stop being so damn hard on yourself (and sheâs right).
12 months ago she was laid off from her full time role.
Fast-forward to this now:
đ¤Sheâs a successful, full-time content creator and cofounder of a software consulting agency.
You never know whatâs on the other side of just giving things your best shot without (harsh) critique.
Forgot about a roll of 35mm in a drawer. It felt like a mini capsule from some of last yearâs highlights. I may start intentionally leaving film in drawers to discover years later đ
1. Trip to Brazil with friends for @my_insta_lam and @rczzon âs wedding
2. Brand shoot with @manychat with @evanmrogers , @stonefoster and our amazing on-camera talent @anooshadraws
3. Manychatâs offsite in Spain
4. Port Aransas with @addiechavs đŚ
5/6. Disneyland with @addiechavs and her nephew âşď¸
Work washing: the trap of choosing your career based on salary and prestige instead of who you are and what lights you up. đĄ
This was one of my favorite conversations of the day. Colinâs work, as a career creator and community builder, pushes against that. Career advice that goes beyond resume tips, LinkedIn hacks, and interview prep.
His mission?
To equip and inspire other first-gen professionals to create their own careers and uplift their families and communities.
