Hey friend – Rob here.

If you're receiving this, it means you've invested in Salmon Theory+, either recently or from the start.

For that, i will be forever thankful, and working to make this the most valuable resource i possibly can.

As a reminder, on top of the content we publish, we have a private community with a 96.57% response rate.

​I'd love to see you there.

Now, let's get onto this week's slices.

ICYMI, recent guides include:

1. ​How to discuss cool but off brief ideas​
2. ​How to think about message takeout on social​

I'm also working on two new guides:

• How to write a social value proposition (looking for collaborators, if that's you, let me know!)
• Everything i know about marketing effectiveness (this might become a series, otherwise it's unwieldy)

Hope to get those ready over the next couple of weeks.

​

The potential of strategic polytheism

The greatest problem with advising brands to be known for one thing?

We might over-follow this advice on our own careers.

Specifically, we start assuming what’s important is to specialise on overly technical areas.

I say technical, because the opposite of a technical specialism, is a topic-related one.

(Kudos to Matt Muir for this distinction!)

Possibly useful definitions for these:

1. Technical specialists offer horizontal value, by specialising in specific platforms or disciplines
2. Topic-based specialists offer vertical value, by specialising in topics regardless of platforms or disciplines

Even better, i find huge value in folks whose point of difference is having an eclectic way of interpreting the world.

I increasingly see this as the future of the strategy and creative careers, with some references being folks like:

• ​Zoe Scaman​
• ​James Whatley​
• ​Jess MacIntyre​
• ​Joe Burns​
• ​Amy Kean​
• ​Ryan O'Kane​
• ​Theophilus Wells IV​
• ​James Sandrini​
• ​Pollyanna Ward​
• ​Joel Stein​
• ​Fran Docx​
• ​Johnny Brock​
• ​Nick Myers​

These are folks who navigate cross-sections of disciplines and combine things in fresh new ways.

In simple terms, they’re not dogmatic.

They adopt many gods of the brand and business kind, with some of them being makers in their own right.

And they get all of these sometimes-contradictory thoughts to co-exist as a powerful collective.

One other aspect is also important.

It’s not just the quantity of gods that matters, but our relationship to them.

Because the other thing all these folks have in common is the fact they don’t seem to serve their gods.

Rather, their gods serve them depending on the problem at hand.

And that may pack more growth and meaning than we might assume.

​

The balancing act of brand and business building

If nothing else, this is one of the truly significant reasons for starting your own business.

You learn by experience things that otherwise would have taken you years to understand through knowledge alone.

Simply put, it’s a steroids injection on your ability to grow as a person and a professional.

One of the big lessons i’ve been learning, for instance, is to properly respect marketers and CEOs who question the value of brand building when in fact they need to survive Q4 first and foremost.

Of course, the evidence tells us you need both, but the pressure to deliver revenue overnight (instead of just reputation over time) becomes extremely salient once you make it a matter of your own financial survival.

Even though i've secured work until November, i'm currently pitching for Q4 and Q1 projects (hit me up if you want to work together!), because i have to in order to keep the Salmon Labs pipeline going.

All while doing my best to add value through a newsletter, private community, LinkedIn, and new product ideas.

It’s hard to work on your product while selling it, but this is the nature of the beast.

Which means that the next time someone shows doubt about brand building activity when they have pressures to deliver returns now, we shouldn’t just shrug it off as people being stupid, ignorant, or opportunistic.

The ability to balance what happens over night with what happens over time is hard, especially when you need to juggle on top it the political machinery that is called an organisation.

So before judging, try walking a few steps in your clients’ shoes.

You might learn something about your own beliefs that otherwise you'd miss and lose out on.

​

A tiny testament to time and trial

I've recently started exploring a new way of productising social strategy.

The catch-22 i notice goes as follows:

1. Most clients want a social strategy
2. But most clients can't always identify when they've got one
3. The problem is it's hard to buy a social strategy until you've seen how it plays out in the work
4. But typically agencies don't brief the work until a social strategy is signed off

As a result, you end up with loads of circular conversations that seem to obsess more about words than the work.

So, i've started discussing with some smart folks what some interesting solutions for this might be.

A possible idea: combining a channel specialist with a social creator, who operate as a "Social R&D Sprint" team.

A dynamic duo of strategy and execution, built on social-first comms prototypes developed rapidly as you go.

Each pillar or tonal consideration quickly executed through proof of concepts, to see where it works or it doesn't.

In short, a testament to both time (through strategic consistency) and trial (through creative experimentation).

I'm early into thinking about this, but i'd love to discuss with more of you where its strengths and weaknesses are.

If you got views, builds or past experiences on this, hit me up.

​

That's it for this week, i hope you enjoyed this edition of Salmon Theory.

On top of writing newsletters while watching Hit Man, Ford vs Ferrari and Zombieland, these past 7 days i've been:

• Writing and editing case studies for a global tourism client
• Consulting on a social strategy and tone of voice project for a non-alcoholic beer brand
• Discussing scopes for an experiential and social activation for a B2B startup in the employee wellness space
• Updating Salmon Labs' portfolio of projects so far (hashtag proud!)
• Exploring two new product ideas as i am looking to expand to US clients
• Interviewing two CEOs for my upcoming Salmon Theory Talks video series
• Advising a Salmon Theory reader, past client (and IMO a friend) on how to grow their writing confidence

If you'd like some help finding clarity at speed for your brand, comms or social projects, let's talk.

Rob

Ps. Pretty good Instagram ad by Pip Decks.