On the Blog

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Your CEO Doesn’t Know What They Want & Your Job Is On The Line

Your CEO Doesn’t Know What They Want & Your Job Is On The Line Your CEO keeps saying your marketing feels “off.” But they can’t tell you why it’s off. You revise. They frown again. You revise again. Same result. This is the Trust Gap. And it’s not because you’re a bad marketer. It’s because […]

by Chad de Lisle

The 6 Issues With AI Nobody Is Being Honest About

The 6 Issues With AI Nobody Is Being Honest About Every edition of this newsletter exists to say the thing that most marketing leaders are thinking but nobody in the room will say out loud. Let’s start with the truth nobody at the AI conference is putting in their keynote: AI didn’t make marketing harder. […]

by Chad de Lisle

Should You Hire an Agency, a Freelancer, or Build In‑House? Here’s the Truth

Should You Hire an Agency, a Freelancer, or Build In‑House? Here’s the Truth Last week, I broke down the real tradeoffs of agency vs. freelance vs. in-house marketing careers from the marketer’s perspective. This week? The client side. Because if you’re a CEO, founder, or marketing leader trying to decide whether to hire an agency, […]

by Chad de Lisle

18 Years in Agency, Freelance, and In‑House Marketing: Here’s What No One Tells You

18 Years in Agency, Freelance, and In‑House Marketing: Here’s What No One Tells You I’ve been doing marketing since 2007. Four different agencies. Freelance work on the side for years. And now three years as an in-house marketing leader at Disruptive. That’s 18 years of learning the same lesson over and over: Every marketing career […]

by Chad de Lisle

Top Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Agencies In 2026

In 2026, the traditional list of blue links is no longer the primary way users discover information. We have entered the era of the Generative Engine, where AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity synthesize data to provide direct answers. For businesses, this means that “ranking #1” is no longer enough. You must now be […]

by Chad de Lisle

Top SEO Agencies In The US In 2026

Let’s be honest: the SEO industry is currently being hollowed out. Most agencies are still trying to sell you a 2022 playbook, mass-producing “SEO content” that AI engines now ignore and users find exhausting. In 2026, the game is about authority and trust. Discovery has fundamentally changed. Your customers aren’t just scrolling through a list […]

by Chad de Lisle

Confessions of a Failed Marketer: How I Stopped Pleasing and Started Leading

I have a confession to make. I’ve been marketing for nearly 20 years. Half of that at Disruptive Advertising, working directly with our CEO. And I am a spectacularly bad mind-reader. For years, I was guilty of what I call the “smile and nod.” You know the one. Your CEO walks in asking if the […]

by Chad de Lisle

Stop Being the Bottleneck: How Marketing Leaders Scale Teams

You’re Not the Hero. You’re the Bottleneck. It’s 9:45 PM on a Tuesday. You’re on your couch, laptop burning your thighs, rewriting email copy for tomorrow’s campaign. You worked a 10-hour day. Your team is talented. Your budget is healthy. Yet here you are—fixing a tracking pixel, tweaking a headline, adjusting a targeting parameter—because […]

by Jacob Baadsgaard

Stop Firefighting: The 70/30 Rhythm for Marketing Leaders

Congrats on Being the Hardest-Working Marketer Who Accomplished Nothing It’s 10 PM, and your Slack is blowing up. Again. You worked 50 hours this week. Put out a dozen fires. Answered three “quick questions” from Sales that murdered your entire Thursday. But when the CEO asks, “Is it working?” you go quiet. Because despite all […]

by Jacob Baadsgaard

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