When was the last time you drove off a cliff, hit Continue, and just tried again? If you played video games as a kid, you know the drill. You get stepped on by a giant thing. You crash into a cow. You try again. We had no idea what was around the corner back then. If we died, we didn’t freak out. We didn’t say, “The whole world is falling apart.” We just went again. Because it was fun. That’s what I want to bring back. Right now so many marketers are freaking out about what’s around the next corner. A lot of us are operating from fear instead of opportunity. So here’s the announcement: the theme for Social Media Marketing World this year is retro. We’re taking the ‘90s and gaming and applying it to the modern era of AI. A few ways we’re bringing it to life: → Badges with a ‘90s video game look → A Mario Kart station where you can fly off cliffs together (yes, I know it’s not the ‘90s) → An opening keynote with that same vibe I think we’re at a precipice. We can choose to have fun and embrace change, or we can be scared and do nothing. My hope is that injecting fun into an age of uncertainty gives us room to build things, break things, and figure out new ways forward. Now I want your ideas. How would you bring a ‘90s game theme to a marketing conference? This is Mike’s Thoughts from the Porch. Drop your ideas in the comments 👇 #SocialMediaMarketingWorld# #AIinMarketing# #MarketingConference# #SocialMediaExaminer#

Ten people a day. Every day. For seven months. That’s the math I’ve been avoiding. That’s not light math. That’s heavy math. Brick-heavy. 3,000 minus 933, divided by seven months. More than ten a day. That’s the goal for Social Media Marketing World. And “every day” means every day. Mondays. Tuesdays. Holidays. Here’s what the math did to me: it’s not going to be one big idea that moves the needle. It’s going to be lots of ideas, working together, to get this done. But here’s what I know. We’ve had well over 3,000 people at this conference before. It’s not impossible. I know it’s possible. I also know I’m going to need help. So if you missed yesterday’s video, here’s the deal: → Drop one idea in the comments, starting with “I’d...” → See an idea you’d back? Reply “yes” under it → The ideas with the most yeses are the ones I try first What can we do to move the needle on this conference? Let’s do this. This is Mike’s Thoughts from the Porch. Let me know what you think 👇 #SocialMediaMarketingWorld# #FounderLife# #MarketingTips# #SocialMediaExaminer#

Social Media Marketing World hasn’t had 3,000 people at the conference since before COVID. I have 7 months, 933 people committed, and no idea how to fill the gap. So I’m coming to you. I met with my director of marketing this week, and it became pretty obvious we need to try something different. Then it hit me: some of the wisest marketers in the world are watching this series. Why not just ask you? So here’s the favor. If this were your conference and you wanted to get to 3,000, what would you do? → Leave one sentence in the comments, starting with “I’d...” → Read the other ideas, and if you like one, reply to it with the word “Yes” → Friday I tally the results And to make it a little fun: if I use your idea and it actually moves the needle, I’ll take care of your ticket and your hotel. I’ll be talking about the winners, and all the great ideas, right here on the porch. This is Mike’s Thoughts from the Porch. So, what would you do? “I’d...” in the comments below 👇 #SocialMediaMarketingWorld# #MarketingTips# #FounderLife# #SocialMediaExaminer#

Today is the last “Mike’s Thoughts from the Porch.” For more than 60 days I’ve shown up here every single day with whatever random thought was rattling around in my brain. Here’s the truth: it’s not doing what I hoped it would do. What I pictured in my head was a show. Something you’d actually want to come back to every day. That’s not what I made. I made 60 days of thoughts. Admitting that out loud is harder than it sounds. I’ve been in marketing a long time. I’m supposed to know how this works. But that changes tomorrow. Tomorrow I’m going to ask you for something I’ve never asked for before. And then I’m going to run with it for months — in public, on this porch, where you can all watch whether it works or it falls apart. I’m not telling you what it is today. I just hope you show up tomorrow. If you’ve been here for any part of these 60 days, thank you. The next thing is going to need you a lot more than the last one did. See you tomorrow 👇 #AIinMarketing# #FounderLife# #MarketingTips# #SocialMediaExaminer#

Just got back from two days at a wedding, and the whole time I felt this little pull like I should be working on something. A fan, Sarah, recently asked me a question I haven’t been able to shake: “Who do you want to be when you’re 80, and what do you need to be now?” 80 feels far away. But I know people who are 80. So I sat with it. Here’s my honest answer. I feel like I have a lot more to build. I have friends, like my friend at that wedding, who are ready to just have fun. Travel the world, enjoy it all. And part of me wants that. But I know myself. I was engineered to be a maker. There’s so much more I want to build that could have an impact. So at 80, I still see myself building. But also bringing people together and having a lot of fun. Right now it’s building, making, building, making. Not as much fun. And going away to Joel and Erin’s wedding reminded me how much fun, fun actually is. I think this is the entrepreneurial struggle. How do you balance fun and work when work is fun? This is Mike’s Thoughts from the Porch. What do you plan to be doing at 80, and what do you need to do now to get there? Tell me in the comments 👇 #FounderLife# #Entrepreneurship# #WorkLifeBalance# #SocialMediaExaminer#

Someone just compared me to a plantation owner because I use AI. Here’s what she said: “So what you’re saying is, you know and recognize the issues and why people disapprove of AI, but you don’t care, because it benefits you.” Then she took it further — comparing my use of AI to investing in slavery. I told her, “Your logic is deeply flawed.” Think about it. Are cars dangerous? Yet you drive one. Does your smartphone depend on labor in countries with below-human standards? Yet you’re using that phone right now. You can take almost anything and stretch it into a moral indictment. “This house was built with wood. Trees were brought down in a forest, therefore...” You see where it goes. Every single one of us decides to use things that benefit us. That doesn’t mean we’re harming humanity. What I told her was this: “I don’t go around seeking the approval of other people, and I don’t even claim that other people’s opinions are valid.” And that’s the thing — it’s easy to let someone else’s opinion make you feel like the bad guy. I don’t believe her opinion is valid at all. Guard yourself against logical fallacy, folks. There are going to be a lot of people making claims about who you are and what you’re doing to the world. And they’re a lie. You can ignore the lie, or you can call it out. Sometimes I call it out. Am I wrong? Have you faced this kind of logical fallacy? Let me know in the comments 👇 Mike’s Thoughts From the Porch #AIisNotEvil# #LogicalFallacy# #AIforBusiness# #SocialMediaExaminer#

I’m at 10,000 feet, out of breath, holding a bag of Popchips that looks like it’s about to explode. I’m in Breckenridge for a wedding. This place was built in the ‘70s, it’s a ski resort, and it took hours to get up here. You sunburn fast. You lose your breath fast. And I absolutely love being here. But there’s a strange juxtaposition going on. Behind me is all this beauty. On my phone, a lot of people are reacting to ChatGPT’s Astra rollout with “Whoa, this is the beginning of the end.” So I’ve been sitting up here asking a different version of that question. Is this the beginning of the end of us being stuck in front of a computer all day? The beginning of the end of the kind of work we’ve historically had? I think so. I’m still an AI optimist. I still believe we have a chance to work with AI in a way that frees us up to go wherever we want, do whatever we want, and disconnect a little bit to enjoy nature. I also know there’s a lot of fear right now. And sometimes the best thing I can do when I’m not sure what’s coming next is get out in nature and do something fun. It’s a big world out there. This is Mike’s Thoughts From the Porch, recorded a long way from the porch. Are you scared about the repercussions of what’s happening with AI? Let me know in the comments 👇 #AIOptimist# #AIinMarketing# #FounderLife# #SocialMediaExaminer#

I’ve been the bottleneck. I’ve told myself “I’m the best person to get this done” more times than I can count. And every single time, the thing didn’t get done. This week I was working on a project with one of my employees. She was stuck. Not happy with how things were coming together. So I threw an idea over the fence: “What if you use Claude to speed this up?” “Yeah, but I don’t have time. It takes time to teach Claude.” I recognized those exact words. Because I say them too. Here’s what I think is really going on. The belief isn’t “I don’t have time.” The belief is “I don’t think anyone else can do it as good as I can.” I can’t because I don’t have time. I don’t have bandwidth. I don’t have energy. Notice what all of those have in common. It’s all about me. I believe I’m the only one who can do this, so I drop a big old boulder in the middle of the road and then wonder how I’m going to get around it. Believing you’re the best and being the bottleneck are two sides of the same coin. What I’m learning is I need to rely on other people, and sometimes tools like AI, to take it further and remove the roadblock I keep creating. So here’s my question for you: When you say you don’t have time, do you really mean you don’t trust anyone else to do it? Let me know how you handle this in the comments 👇 Mike’s Thoughts from the Porch #FounderLife# #Leadership# #AIinMarketing# #SocialMediaExaminer#

Same AI. Same week. Same guy. One was magic, one was a dead end. I’m building a deck to teach Claude Design in the AI Business Society. So I started with Claude. Asked for an outline. Perfect. Then I asked, “Can you help me figure out what I should actually teach?” Dead end. That same week, I’m leading a Bible study on Romans, and Claude was crushing it. Structure, connections, fresh ways to say things I already believed. Here’s the difference. I’ve read my Bible every single day for decades. That thinking was already in me. Claude just helped me reorganize it. Claude Design? I’ve used it. I’ve never taught it. I don’t really know the substance yet. There was nothing for the AI to find. That was the shift for me. AI is strongest where I already have deep expertise and just need a new way to say it, structure it, or show it. Where I’m a newbie, the depth isn’t there. And if I teach from a script AI handed me, I’m a hollow vessel. A thin sheet of paper. I’ve still got to put in the work. Are you using AI for things you already know how to do well, or things you don’t know how to do at all? Where are you finding the most value? Tell me in the comments 👇 More thinking out loud on Mike Thoughts from the Porch. #AIinMarketing# #ClaudeDesign# #FounderLife# #SocialMediaExaminer#

Killing fish. Stealing ideas. That’s what I’ve been told because I use AI every day. Here’s the thing: I’m a marketer. In my world, using AI is normal. A brand-new three-year study says 73% of marketers use it daily and 84% of us plan to use it more next year. But step outside marketing and confess you’re using it, and you’re going to get flak. Sometimes from people you care about. Sometimes from people you really respect. And I don’t know what to do with that. It takes me back to the early internet, when people said you were stealing jobs by using it. Now nearly every job runs on it. Same thing when social media showed up — I took plenty of heat for being active there. Now it’s AI. Just about everyone is using it in some capacity. But disclose it, which is exactly what we’re encouraged to do, and the flak comes. If we’re intellectually honest, most of us in marketing are using it every day and plan to use it more. Not because it’s trendy. Because it actually helps. We’re learning things, discovering things, doing things we couldn’t do before. So how do you handle the people who don’t understand? Are you using AI every day? Do you plan to use it more? And how do you deal with the pushback? Tell me in the comments 👇 This is Mike Thoughts from the Porch. #AIinMarketing# #MarketingTips# #FounderLife# #SocialMediaExaminer#