Toniq

Once I realized I didn’t have to make small talk, or sound a certain way, or explain my life choices, I was able to let my mind go and really think about why I was there and what I was doing with my life — and the best part is, I didn’t have to explain it to anyone. I could sit by the river in silence, allow nature’s voice to fill the air, and just be present with myself.

I know this isn’t new territory; there are literally hundreds of blogs, articles, white papers that touch on this subject: being dry, having a block of sorts. I myself have personally written a few dozen blogs on the subject of drying up, of writer’s block or creative stutters, so no, dear reader, this is not a new subject, and this won’t be the last time I write about it, sad to say.

The AI website never had a room. It had a prompt. It looked like a website the way a stand-in looks like an actor until you ask it to do something under pressure, and when it didn’t convert, there was nothing to rework, because nothing had been decided on purpose in the first place.

We’ve spent so much of our lives trying to eliminate friction that we’ve forgotten some kinds of friction are productive. The discomfort of not quite understanding something forces us to stay with it. It asks us to turn an idea over, look at it from different angles, wrestle with it until it finally becomes our own.

Storytelling is really big in branding. Everything has a story, an arc, a main character, and on and on. Brands don’t say to customers, “Here’s a story, buy this product or service, or you’ll get your ass kicked.” Why? Two reasons. One, that’s not something you say to a customer. Threatening has never been a good sales technique. Two, because it’s not really a story.