Maybe you’ve clocked up 50 videos, or 95 articles … or something else.

Either way, you’re making progress as a content creator.

You’re building and stretching your comfort zone.

However, there is a dangerous trap we all fall into when we start building a body of work.

We get obsessed with our own archives.

We scroll through our early blog posts, look at the clunky design of our first videos, or wince at the shaky cadence of our initial podcasts, and we think, “I need to fix that.”

But here is the hard truth: your past is not a draft to be constantly edited; it is a foundation that has already served its purpose.

As a content creator, the temptation to look back is often disguised as “polishing your brand” or “maintaining quality control.”

But let’s be honest—it’s just procrastination fueled by insecurity. When you spend your time agonizing over a post you wrote two years ago, you aren’t creating for your future audience; you are trying to impress your past self.

The myth of the perfect archive

Life is messy, confusing, and occasionally awkward. Get used to it.

We live in a culture that treats the internet like a permanent record.

Because everything we publish is technically searchable, we feel a strange pressure to make sure every single piece of content we’ve ever produced aligns perfectly with who we are today.

Stop it.

If your content has evolved, it means you have grown.

That early, “imperfect” work is actually the most valuable evidence of your progress.

If you go back and sterilize your archive, you are removing the evidence of your journey.

You are sanding down the edges of the very process that makes your current work authentic.

What’s done is done (and should stay that way)

Think about the time you lose when you spiral into the “what if” phase of content creation.

• “What if I had phrased that tweet differently?”

• “What if I hadn’t used that particular graphic style in my first campaign?”

Every second you spend mourning a past mistake is a second you are not investing in your next idea.

The most successful creators I know have one thing in common: they have a high “publish-and-pivot” rate.

They ship the work, they learn the lesson, and they immediately turn their gaze toward the horizon.

Focus on the “next,” not the “previous”

If you want to be a serious creator, you have to treat your past like a successful launch. Once it’s in the atmosphere, your job is to focus on the next mission.

1. Stop the audit: Unless you are doing a deep-dive content audit for SEO purposes, stop reading your own old stuff. It isn’t for you; it’s for the audience you had when you wrote it.

2. Accept the “cringe”: If you look back at your work from last year and don’t feel a little bit of embarrassment, you haven’t grown. Treat that feeling as a badge of honor, not a reason to hit “delete.”

3. Invest in velocity: Take the energy you use to obsess over past mistakes and redirect it into your next project. Innovation requires forward momentum, and you cannot accelerate while looking through the rearview mirror.

Your audience doesn’t care about the typo you made in 2024. They care about what you are going to teach them, inspire them with, or build for them TODAY!.

The past is a graveyard of lessons. Visit it, learn from it, but for heaven’s sake, don’t try to live there!

Your future content is waiting for your full attention.

Does this perspective shift how you’re feeling about your current archive, or are you currently stuck on a specific project that feels like it needs “fixing”?

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: Your future is calling …

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

The real enemy for beginner content creators these days isn’t algorithms or the fear that your latest post won’t go viral.

It’s the implied need to play it safe, to not rock the boat, and to fit in.

The problem with this approach is that get lost in the volume of dull, beige, sterile, “me-too” content flooding the market.

Too many content creators are terrified of what other people think; that, and they’re waiting for some mythical, perfect roadmap to fall into their laps.

Traditional approaches come across as stale. To thrive, you have to be willing to reframe, retool, and shake things up.

Without some sort of guidance it’s difficult to know how to go about being different, and rather than give you my opinions about standing out, here are three books that do a better job.

These books won’t teach you how to trick an algorithm, but they will teach you how to build a creative foundation that lasts.

1. Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon

The Big Idea: Generosity trumps genius. Stop hoarding your process.

Most beginners get utterly paralyzed by the “expert myth.” They think they can’t start creating until they’ve achieved master status or won some prestigious award.

Total nonsense.

Austin Kleon’s Show Your Work! completely dismantles this fear. He argues that you don’t need to be a genius; you just need to be an amateur who is willing to learn in public.

• Why it matters: Content creation isn’t just about the polished, final masterpiece. It’s about the process.

• The takeaway: By sharing your daily drafts, your failures, your influences, and your behind-the-scenes struggles, you invite people into your journey. That is how you build an authentic community. Don’t just show the art—show the studio.

2. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

The Big Idea: Resistance is real, it’s lethal, and it wants to keep you small.

You sit down to write a newsletter, edit a video, or design a graphic, and suddenly your brain decides it’s the perfect time to clean the kitchen baseboards. Welcome to what Steven Pressfield calls Resistance.

The War of Art is a swift, no-nonsense kick in the pants for anyone struggling with creative blocks, imposter syndrome, self-doubt, or procrastination.

Pressfield treats creativity like a battle. You are either a professional who shows up and does the work regardless of how you “feel,” or you are an amateur who lets Resistance win.

• Why it matters: Other people are not going to do the work for you. If you’re waiting for inspiration to strike, you’re going to be waiting a very long time.

• The takeaway: This book reframes your internal struggles. When you feel that heavy anxiety before hitting “publish,” you’ll realize it isn’t a sign to stop—it’s proof that the work matters.

3. Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday

The Big Idea: Stop chasing temporary hype. Build things that endure.

We live in a world obsessed with the immediate ROI, the quick hit, and the next 24-hour news cycle. But if you want to build a brand that actually sustains a business, you have to stop thinking about the next ten minutes and start thinking about the next ten years.

Ryan Holiday’s Perennial Seller examines what it takes to make work that survives—books, products, or content that people continue to recommend year after year.

• Why it matters: It forces you to look at your content creation from a macroscopic level. Are you making disposable mental junk food, or are you creating something deeply useful, beautifully designed, and seasoned with your unique perspective?

• The takeaway: Success requires being okay with zero ROI for a while as you hone your craft. This book teaches you to focus on the intersection of great execution, positioning, and marketing to ensure your work doesn’t just launch, but lasts.

Inspiration is as elastic as it is eclectic, but it requires a catalyst.

If you leave your creative education to random social media feeds, your output will look exactly like everyone else’s.

Stop playing it safe.

Grab these books, consume them, and then—most importantly—put them down and go make something noteworthy.

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: Never let your past trip up your future

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

Sometimes, cheering someone on can be the difference that’s needed between someone carrying on and quitting.

Think about that for a second.

Then think about a time when you received a sudden congratulatory note, or a kind word, or an unexpected influx of subscribers or buyers, simply because someone else saw something in you that you didn’t.

I’m not talking abouit compliments, even thought they’re niche things to get as well.

I’m talking about solid support.

I’m talking about encouragement.

Even if it’s from an unexpected direction.

Every day, millions of people post something or other online: a blog post; an article; a video, a podcast. It doesn’t matter what the material is about, what does matter is how well it’s received and, more importantly, how much it helps someone.

So, as much as it’s great to recieve words of encouragement, it’s justa s important to send words of encouragement … even if those words are going to someone you don’t know, or have never met, or with whom you disagree on certain issues.

Because a rising tide floats everyone’s boat.

And while it’s so tempting to write a comment that tears someone down, it’s better to write something that lifts someone up. Because at some point in time, the pertson on the receiving end of the message is going to be you.

Kindness costs nothting.

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: Three books worth your time …

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

Spend any amount of time scrolling through any major social platform, reading modern corporate blogs, or skimming through the endless sea of newsletters, and you will quickly realize something alarming:

The internet has become a bland place.

Everything looks, tastes, sounds, and smells the same.

It’s the digital equivalent of eating plain, unsalted white rice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

It’s functional.

It fills a void.

But it is entirely, aggressively flavorless.

Many creators today are so terrified of offending a hidden algorithm or alienating a single potential follower that they serve their ideas completely raw, boiled, and unseasoned.

Either that or they are planning on thinking about considering the possibility of doing something: making a video; writing an article m, recording a podcast. But they never get around to it because, well, it’s easier to talk about it than to do it.

But to build anything worthwhile, whether it’s a brand, or a business, or a creative legacy that actually sticks to people’s ribs, you have to start treating your content like a master chef treats a signature dish.

You need to season the mixture as you’re cooking.

The base ingredient vs the spice rack

Information in whatever form is just the base ingredient for whatever you’re creating.

Fact sheets, “how-to” steps, and generic industry updates are just the raw potatoes.

Nobody goes to a five-star restaurant to eat a raw potato.

They go for what the chef does to those spuds.

Your unique perspective, your scars, your weird obsessions, and your hard-won philosophies—those things are your spice rack.

When you leave those things out, you’re not being careful or mindful, you’re being boring.

Let’s break down what the essential seasonings actually look like in practice:

1. The salt: raw life experience

Salt’s role isn’t to make food taste like salt; its job is to enhance the natural flavors that are already there.

In content, salt is your real-world mileage.

It’s the story of the business you crashed in your twenties, the grueling client interaction that taught you how to set boundaries, or the decade you spent mastering a craft.

I’ve been writing about this stuff now for three years on this website in its current incarnation and with each new article I write I like to think that a part of my experience comes through.

When you sprinkle genuine experience onto an instructional post, you instantly elevate it from theoretical textbook nonsense to authoritative, grounded truth.

2. The pepper: friction and contrast

A dish without a little bit of bite is a dish you forget. Pepper is your willingness to introduce elements of disagreement, shock, awe, and confession.

It’s your counter-intuitive opinion.

It’s taking a stand against the prevailing best practices of your industry and explaining exactly why you think they’re misleading garbage.

You don’t need to be completely outrageous or contrarian just for the sake of it, but there’s nothing wrong with introducing a little heat to surprise the palate because this kind of pepper forces the reader to pay attention.

3. The herbs: your personal philosophy

Herbs add brightness, aroma, and distinct identity to a dish.

Think of herbs as the underlying worldview, as the ethic ms and philosophies that guide your life.

Are you obsessed with craftsmanship and heritage design over cheap, disposable trends?

Let that bleed into your commentary.

Do you believe individual sovereignty is the ultimate human pursuit?

Let that framework shape how you analyze industry news.

Your philosophy gives your content a distinct aroma that people can recognize from a mile away.

4. The spice: the exotic and the unexpected

Spices are the unexpected pairings that make a dish unforgettable—like adding a dash of cinnamon in a savory chili. In your writing, spices are the lateral connections you make between completely unrelated worlds.

It’s using a lesson from 19th-century industrial history to explain modern SaaS marketing, or referencing a classic film to dissect a modern corporate scandal.

I’m a huge fan of this kind of connectivity because it helps people think about things in a different way.

When you add spices you demonstrate a breadth of mind. You show you don’t just consume the same digital slop as everyone else, you stand apart from it, which means you stand out.

Stop serving hospital food!

I spent multiple days in hospital in 2025 which time-wise was long enough to develop something of a loathing for instant scrambled eggs and instant mashed potato.

The fear with content creation of course, is that someone won’t like the flavor.

Some people can’t handle the heat.

Some people prefer things bland.

And that is exactly the point.

When you season your work aggressively with who you actually are, you will inevitably turn some people off.

Good.

Let them leave the table.

The goal of creating content isn’t to build a massive, lukewarm audience of people who mildy tolerate you.

The goal is to find the people who have been starving for exactly your kind of flavor.

Stop publishing hospital food.

Open up the spice cabinet, lean into your convictions, and cook something worth remembering.

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: Championing other people’s success

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

Stop caring what other people think!

I’ve been writing online consistently now for three years, showing up twice a week.

My first 50 posts or so were pretty lame. The viral growth I thought I’d earn didn’t materialize, and on several occasions Ive thought about giving everything up.

But then an odd thing happened. Although my audience was pretty small, the moment I stopped caring what other people thought about my content, everything changed.

I stopped thinking I needed anyone’s permission and instead I started writing the kind of stuff I’d like to have read when I set out on my current journey.

If you’re struggling right now and you’re not seeing the results you thought you would see, this article is for you.

Let’s be honest for a second. Most of the content being churned out today is lifeless, bloodless dross.

While much of it is smooth, polished, and perfectly optimized for the algorithms, it’s also devoid of soul.

There are no scars.

There enough warts or typos or stumbles.

Too many beginner content creators have traded creative conviction for community consensus, and it’s killing the very thing that makes their content worth consuming in the first place.

If you’re a content creator, writer, or designer, I have a single, brutal piece of advice for you: Stop caring what other people think.

The “Feedback” Trap

We are obsessed with validation. Before a post goes live, it passes through a gauntlet of anxiety: Will this offend someone? Will my peers think I’m a fraud? What if it only gets three likes?

So, what do we do?

We sand off the sharp edges.

We tone down the opinion.

We use the same corporate-approved adjectives and the same recycled templates. We make our work “safe.”

But “safe” is just another word for invisible.

When you create content designed to please everyone, you create something that moves no one.

You become an echo, not a voice.

The moment you let the hypothetical judgment of an anonymous internet crowd dictate your creative choices, you hand over the keys to your sandbox.

The Illusion of the “Target Audience”

Every marketing guru tells you to focus on your audience. And yes, you should understand who you are talking to. But there is a massive difference between serving an audience and pandering to them.

True creative authority doesn’t come from giving people what they say they want. It comes from giving them what you know is valuable, presented through the lens of your unique, unfiltered perspective.

Think about the creators you actually admire. The ones whose newsletters you open the second they hit your inbox, or whose videos you watch all the way to the end.

Do they feel like they ran their ideas through a focus group?

Absolutely not.

They have a viewpoint.

They take a stand.

They risk being disliked by the many to be deeply loved by the few.

How to Reclaim Your Edge

If you want to survive the deluge of AI-generated, commoditized noise flooding the internet right now, you have to lean into the one thing code can’t replicate: your raw, human perspective.

Here is how you start building that creative immunity:

• Publish before you’re comfortable: If a piece of content doesn’t make you feel a little bit naked right before you hit “publish,” you probably haven’t pushed hard enough.

• Mute the critics (and the fans): Rudyard Kipling famously wrote about meeting with “Triumph and Disaster” and treating those two impostors just the same. The same goes for internet comments. Praise can make you lazy; criticism can make you timid. Ignore both and focus on the work.

• Create for an audience of one: Write the article you needed to read two years ago. Design the graphic that makes your eyes light up. If it resonates with you, it will resonate with someone else.

The Bottom Line

The internet doesn’t need more echo chambers, and it certainly doesn’t need more people playing it safe.

It needs conviction.

It needs flavor, verve, and character.

Stop waiting for a green light from people who don’t have the skin in the game to create anything themselves.

Your audience isn’t looking for a perfect, sanitized version of you.

They are looking for you.

So, stop asking for permission.

Stop checking the temperature of the room. Just say what you mean, mean what you say, and let the chips fall where they may.

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: Why your content needs seasoning

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

By trade and training, I’ma graphic designer.

Or at least, I started out as a graphic designer. I’ve worked in visual communications now for 40 years and as I approach the end of my career, and looking back on the number of projects I’ve been involved in that got out of hand, now seems like just as good a time as any to share a few thoughts about what happens when design input gets overly complicated.

There is a distinct, quiet horror that occurs when a perfectly elegant idea gets handed over to the department of “More.”

Or worse, when the project receives review by committee, and worse still, when someone with no design experience or acumen decides they’re qualified to do the job themselves.

You’ve likely witnessed it. It starts with a clean, high-salience concept—a digital product, a newsletter layout, a piece of brand strategy—that does exactly what it’s supposed to do. It commands attention and it drives action because it is sharp, focused, and clear in its role, purpose, presence, and intent.

The idea gets presented to someone in a position of influence because they are a managerial decision maker. The design probably gets approved. But then, just before something goes off to print or production, someone else decides they’re not happy with the design and the itch begins.

Someone suggests adding a gradient.

Another person insists on a bigger headline.

A third person decides that if one font works well, then surely four fonts will work miracles (they won’t).

Then someone else decides the logo needs to be bigger.

And on it goes, as one person after another has their say and junks up what was originally something pure and simple and beautiful.

And before you know it, hey presto! the essence of the original intent is buried under a landslide of aesthetic noise and uninformed decision making.

The design hasn’t simply changed or gone off track; it’s gone completely rogue.

With each new application and with every updated, plug-and-play design application, the landscape of unprecedented creative abundance widens and grows.

And with that growth comes an ever increasing sense that simply by virtue of having access to typefaces and clip art and Canva or Microsoft Publisher, anyone can be a graphic designer.

Apply the same sort of logic and rationale to dentistry, or flying a commercial aircraft, or the law, or medicine and you will swiftly find yourself being shut down.

But design? Ah! That’s different.

Anyone can be a designer, can’t they?

In short, no.

Not without some element of understanding of visual balance, space and weight, overall composition, and hierarchy.

The tools at our disposal these days are astonishing, capable of generating complexity at a few clicks of a mouse. But in unleashing this capability we have confused the capacity to create complexity with the necessity of doing so.

In content creation and strategic design application, the ultimate test of sovereignty over your craft isn’t how much you can add—it’s in knowing what to take away and what to leave out.

The Tyranny of the Blank Space

The urge to over-complicate some element of design usually stems from one of two underlying vulnerabilities: fear and ignorance.

When beginner content creators find themselves gazing at a clean, minimalist, well-balanced layout, the negative space feels less like a deliberate design choice and more like an unfinished assignment.

The space terrifies them. They see an empty space and they immediately want to fill it with something.

They worry that if a page, an article, or a product isn’t bursting at the seams with visible effort, the audience will think they got lazy.

So, they tinker by decorating.

They fill the voids with visually confusing, low-value elements to fill the gaps and to prove they were there.

The reality is the desire to decorate stems from a lack of core conviction and from a lack of confidence in visual perception and decision making skills.

When you don’t have a singular, powerful message to deliver, it’s tempting to dress up a weaker idea in expensive, convoluted clothes.

True design literacy means understanding that blank space isn’t empty; it’s functional.

It’s the oxygen that allows your central message to breathe. When you crowd the canvas, you aren’t delivering value—you are demanding that your audience do the heavy lifting of filtering out your clutter just to find the point.

The Economy of Attention: Less is More

Every element you add to a piece of design or content carries with it an invisible, visual tax that costs the audience a fraction of a percentage point in their cognitive energy balance sheet.

That tax comes at a cost to you by slowing down your audience’s ability to follow your direction of intent.

If your layout features an arresting headline, a stark color palette, and a clear path forward, the user’s brain registers the priority instantly.

The salience is high.

The direction is evident.

The action being asked for is simple and straightforward.

But the moment you introduce needlessly competing banners, unnecessary decorative icons, and secondary sidebars, you ramp up the tax rate, you split the audience’s attention, and you confuse people long enough for their hesitation to gain the upper hand.

Their urge to decide in your favor wavers.

And indecisive people do not take action.

When you practice the discipline of “less,” you aren’t shrinking your footprint; you are magnifying your impact. You are declaring that your core premise is robust enough to stand on its own two feet without needing a scaffolding of gimmicks to keep it upright.

Editing as an Act of Sovereignty

To stop good design from going rogue, we have to shift our metric of success.

We must stop measuring production by what we have assembled, and start measuring it by what we have refined.

The next time you are working on a digital printable, a landing page, or a content strategy, look at it through the lens of radical subtraction. Ask yourself:

• What is the absolute minimum amount of UI required to deliver this value?

• If I remove this element, does the core utility collapse?

• Am I adding this feature because the user needs it, or because I simply can?

Every element on the page needs to earn its visual keep. If it does not do that, it does not belong on the page and it needs to go.

Design goes rogue when we forget who we are serving.

We aren’t creating monuments to our own technical capabilities; we are building bridges to another person’s understanding.

Keep the bridge clear, keep the lines clean, and let the substance do the heavy lifting.

Anything less is just visual noise—and the world has more than enough of that already.

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: Stop caring what people think

Share Shaking the Tree

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

I spent 30 years of my career working in museums.

I’ve seen all sorts of things displayed, much of which has been classed as art.

In my last piece, I challenged you to rethink the physical medium and look at Mail Art zines as a way to bust through the digital noise.

The response was fascinating. Half of you were ready to run out and buy a printing press, while the other half asked a very fair, slightly panicked question:

“Gary, I’m a marketer/copywriter/entrepreneur. I have a business to run. I’m not an artist. Why should I spend time making art?”

It’s a classic trap that we’ve been conditioned to believe that if an activity doesn’t have a direct line item in the quarterly budget, it’s a waste of time.

We treat creativity like a utility bill—something to be optimized, minimized, and kept strictly functional.

But today, I want to argue the exact opposite. If you want to survive the automated content apocalypse, you need to be making more art. Not less. And you need to start doing it now.

The Death of the “Good Enough” Content

Let’s look at the reality of the market.

Right now, the barrier to entry for creating acceptable content is exactly zero.

Anyone with an internet connection can push a button and generate a perfectly structured, grammatically correct, 800-word blog post about “5 Ways to Optimize Your SEO Strategy.”

Because of this, the internet is being flooded with a massive wave of homogenized, generic, soul-crushing mediocrity.

When efficiency is maximized, uniqueness becomes the only true currency.

If your content looks, and sounds, and feels like it was assembled by a committee of algorithms, your audience will treat it like background noise, which means hey will learn to tune you out.

This is where art comes in.

Art is, by definition, inefficient. It requires friction, personal risk, and an individual point of view. When you make art, you are forcing yourself to make choices that an algorithm never would—choosing a jarring color palette, writing an uncomfortable metaphor, or structuring a layout with an intentional, asymmetric rhythm.

The Creator’s Paradox: The more you focus on purely functional, “optimized” marketing, the more invisible you become. The closer your marketing looks to art, the more magnetic it becomes.

Three Reasons Making Art Makes You a Smarter Marketer

When I talk about making art, I’m not saying you need to quit your day job and move to a loft to paint abstract canvases (unless you want to, in which case, go for it). I’m talking about engaging in creative acts where the primary goal isn’t immediate commercial conversion, but expression.

Here is what happens to your professional brain when you start making more art:

1. You Reclaim Your Visual and Verbal Autonomy

When you spend all day analyzing data and performance metrics, your creative instincts get lazy. You start relying on templates and “best practices.” Making art—whether it’s sketching, photography, poetry, or manual collage—forces you to exercise your taste. It sharpens your eye for composition, texture, and emotional resonance. That taste directly carries over into how you design your next campaign or write your next headline.

2. It Teaches You to Embrace the Imperfect

Marketing frameworks hate mistakes. They want predictable, repeatable outcomes. But true inspiration is chaotic and elastic. Art forces you to work with constraints and happy accidents. When a smudge of ink ruins a perfect line, an artist doesn’t hit “Ctrl+Z”—they reframe the entire piece around the smudge. That adaptability is exactly what you need when a marketing campaign hits an unexpected snag in the real world.

3. It Deepens Your Empathy for the Audience

Art is an exchange of human emotion. When you create something raw and original, you feel a moment of vulnerability before you share it. Remembering what that feels like is the best antidote to writing clinical, disconnected marketing copy. It reminds you that on the other side of that screen or mailbox is a living, breathing human being who wants to feel something, not just be sold to.

The Art-to-Business Pipeline

The most successful brands right now don’t look like software companies; they look like media empires and design studios. They understand that consumers are starving for visual integrity, distinct voices, and a sense of genuine human presence.

Look at your current output. If everything you produce is a straight, transactional line from “Problem” to “Solution,” you are vulnerable to being automated out of existence.

Stop asking if a creative project will scale. Stop worrying if it fits neatly into your current funnel.

Give yourself permission to make something weird, beautiful, or totally non-commercial this week.

Write a short story.

Build a crazy mood board.

Design a poster you have no intention of selling.

Shake up your routine.

The muscle memory you build while making art might just save your business.

Over to you: When was the last time you made something just for the sake of making it?

Has the metric-driven grind put your creative instincts to sleep, or are you actively fighting back?

Let’s talk about it in the comments.

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: When good design goes rogue …

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

In my last edition, I asked if I should shake things up and change direction.

I questioned whether my unfiltered takes on content creation were hitting the mark, or if I was just screaming into the digital void.

Well, the feedback was a wake-up call. It reminded me of why I started this newsletter: to challenge the status quo, rattle your understanding of how things are “supposed to be,” and look at the mechanics of attention a little differently.

So, instead of pivoting to something dull and expected, let’s lean right into the friction. Today, we’re looking at an old-school medium that is quietly mounting a rebellion against our hyper-automated, algorithmic existence.

Let’s talk about Mail Art zines. Are they really coming back?

We are drowning in a sea of frictionless content. AI-generated text blocks, automated social media feeds, and algorithmic engagement loops have turned the digital landscape into a smooth, predictable conveyor belt. It’s efficient, sure. But it’s also completely devoid of soul.

When every piece of content can be optimized, distributed, and forgotten in a millisecond, the saddest phrase in marketing becomes true: “We’ve always done it this way.” We have optimized ourselves into obscurity.

Enter Mail Art and the humble zine.

For the uninitiated, Mail Art (or “postal art”) started as an avant-garde movement in the mid-20th century. Artists used the international postal service to exchange handmade postcards, collages, and altered objects. It bypassed galleries, ignored curators, and was explicitly anti-commercial. Combined with the punk-rock, photocopied ethos of the independent zine, it represents the ultimate antithesis of a LinkedIn carousel.

And yes, it is absolutely staging a comeback. Not because it’s efficient, but precisely because it isn’t.

Why Mail Art Zines Matter Right Now

As an award-winning graphic designer who cut his teeth long before the internet became a series of corporate monopolies, I look at the aesthetic revival of the zine with a mix of nostalgia and immense professional respect. This isn’t just a hipster trend; it’s a masterclass in modern brand differentiation.

Three specific things make Mail Art zines a potent tool for creators looking to stand out right now:

1. Visual Integrity and Tactical Weight

A zine demands your hands. It utilizes textured paper stocks, deliberate imperfections, mismatched typography, and archival collage layouts that force a reader to slow down. You can’t skim a zine while scrolling past three other notifications. The physical weight translates to intellectual weight.

2. High Signal-to-Noise Ratio

On Substack or Medium, you are competing with thousands of voices for a fraction of a second of screen time. In a physical mailbox, a hand-addressed envelope containing a beautifully weird, limited-run zine isn’t noise—it’s an event. It converts a passive “consumer” into an active “custodian” of your work.

3. The Power of Intentional Curation

The digital world tells us to publish daily, chase the algorithm, and use automated workflows. Mail Art zines throw that out the window. They rely on the beauty of curation—forcing the creator to make hard choices about layout, spacing, and rhythm because paper and postage cost real money.

Shaking Up the Marketing Mix

Am I suggesting you abandon your digital funnels, stop using AI tools as brainstorming partners, and buy a warehouse full of stamps? Of course not.

That would be commercial suicide.

If your marketing strategy relies entirely on automated engagement, your brand is effectively invisible. True inspiration is elastic. It stretches across mediums. The most innovative creators this year won’t be the ones writing the most efficient prompts; they’ll be the ones blending high-tech scale with low-tech intimacy.

Think about a high-value campaign where your top 100 prospects don’t get another generic email sequence, but instead receive a limited-edition, vintage-inspired mini-zine that spells out your philosophy. It feels like a gift. It looks like art. It acts like a trojan horse for your ideas.

If you want to stand out, you have to be willing to reframe and retool what you think you know. Stop chasing frictionless engagement and start creating something memorable, noteworthy, and real.

Go drop something weird in the mail. Or leave something at your local coffee shop or independent bookstore (ask for permission first), and see what happens.

What do you think? Are you ready to trade a few pixels for paper, or is the pull of the digital feed too strong? Let me know in the comments.

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: Should you be making more art?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

This edition is late because I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.

Last week I published nothing although really, I’m wondering if anyone noticed.

My main question is: should I change direction?

Should OI be writing about something other than content creation, sticking with it, and getting started? I’ve been wondering this because I’ve been writing online now as a regular thing for three years and I’ve made little progress.

I don’t think I’m practiving what I preach, which for me is something of a problem.

So, of my 300 subscribers, only 80 of whom read any of my stuff on a regular basis, what is it that I’m writing about at the moment that attracts you?

Is my stuff dull and uninspiring?

Am I wasting your time and mine?

Let me know in the comments.

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: Are ‘zines making a comeback?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

Following up on my last piece about leaving the Substack Wild West, I’ve received a few emails ask: Gary, is it really just about the spell checker?

Not really. I mean, for what it is, Substack does a great job. It’s helped me make writing and publishing a regualr habit, and it’s helped me build a small though loyal group of regular readers.

While having basic 21st-century editing tools is a baseline requirement, my move to Beehiiv has been driven by a need for a platform that treats me as a creator like a business owner rather than just as a casual diarist.

If you’re serious about your digital footprint at garybloomer.com, you need a toolkit that scales with your ambition.

Here are the specific tools within the Hive that made this a no-brainer.

1. The growth engine (referrals that actually work)

Substack’s “recommendations” are fine, but they rely on other writers liking you. Beehiiv’s Referral Program is a different beast entirely.

It’s built-in, automated, and allows me to reward you—the readers—for sharing the newsletter.

Whether it’s exclusive content or physical swag, the system tracks everything without me needing to hire a developer to bridge three different apps together.

2. Precision analytics (going beyond the open rate)

In the old world, an “open rate” was the holy grail. Today, it’s a vanity metric.

Beehiiv provides 3D Analytics that show me exactly who is clicking what, where they’re located, and how they’re engaging over time.

For someone like me who values intentional communication, knowing which topics actually resonate allows me to stop guessing and start delivering more of what you actually want to read.

3. Native ad network and boosts

Let’s talk about the “B” word: Business. Beehiiv has a native Ad Network that connects quality newsletters with relevant sponsors.

No more “crypto bro” banners or sketchy links; it’s about curated, professional partnerships.

Additionally, their “Boosts” feature allows creators to get paid for recommending other high-quality newsletters. It’s a clean, transparent ecosystem that actually rewards quality over noise.

4. Advanced segmentation

Not every reader wants to hear about every topic I cover. With Beehiiv’s Audience Segmentation, I can tailor emails based on your interests.

If I’m diving deep into a specific design project, I can send that to the folks who care about the “how-to,” while keeping the high-level strategy pieces for the broader group.

It’s about respect for your inbox—something that’s sorely lacking in the current newsletter landscape.

5. Customization that doesn’t look like a template

Finally, there’s the aesthetic.

Substack has a “look,” and after a while, every newsletter starts to feel like a carbon copy of the next.

Beehiiv gives me the keys to the design lab. From custom headers to unique typography and layout structures, it allows the brand identity of garybloomer.com to shine through, rather than being buried under platform-specific formatting.

The bottom line

Transitioning platforms is a chore—there’s no way around it.

But staying on a platform that has plateaued is a risk I’m not willing to take.

Beehiiv feels like it was built for the next decade of digital publishing.

It’s fast, it’s professional, and yes... it even tells me when I’ve made a typo.

Welcome to the upgrade.

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: Is it smart to change direction?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

The digital neighborhood has changed in recent months.

When I first started sharing my thoughts on Substack back in the spring of 2023, it felt like a clean slate for independent creators—a place where the writing came first and the platform just… worked.

But lately, the vibe has shifted from a quiet workspace to a chaotic street corner I no longer want to stand on.

If you’ve been following garybloomer.com, you know I value a certain level of intentionality.

So, I’m making it official: I’m moving the newsletter to Beehiiv. Here’s why.

1. The company you keep

There is a difference between free speech and providing a megaphone and a monetization engine for the fringe.

Recently, and in my opinion, Substack has become a playground for a very specific, very loud demographic.

Between the radicalized and the relentless crypto-evangelists, and—most concerningly—factions that lean into the darkest parts of political extremism, the platform’s hands-off moderation policy has started to feel less like a principle and more like a liability.

I want my work to live in a place that prioritizes growth and professional communication, not a place where my articles sit adjacent to content that belongs in a digital fever dream.

2. Tools that actually help (like, say, a spell checker)

This is my biggest technical gripe. We are living in 2026, not the era of the Commodore 64.

I sat down to draft a post the other day and realized—not for the first time—that Substack’s editor lacks a basic, native spell checker in the post setup.

Why is this? I mean, come on! Seriously?

In an era of AI-driven productivity and sophisticated CMS tools, why am I still squinting at text, hoping a browser extension catches a typo? It’s a small detail and perhaps this is super petty … and yet, it’s an issue that speaks to a larger problem: a lack of focus on the actual craft of writing and publishing.

Beehiiv feels as if it’s been built by people who actually send newsletters for a living.

The interface is slick, the analytics are actually useful, and—shocker—the editing tools feel like they belong in this decade.

3. A better way to grow

Beyond the cultural shift, Beehiiv offers a suite of growth tools that Substack just hasn’t matched.

From custom referral programs to better audience segmentation, it allows me to treat my newsletter like the professional publication it is, rather than just a blog with an email attachment.

The transition is about more than just moving a mailing list. It’s about ensuring that the environment where you read my work reflects the quality and standards I aim for.

I’ll see you over at the new hive. Same insights, better neighborhood.

So, a move is coming. When, exactly? Soon.

The domain name remains the same and I’ve already migrated articles and subscribers to their new home. When will I make the switch? Soon.

Certainly by mid-June. Stay tuned.

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: Why Beehiiv is the upgrade you’ve been looking for.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

Pssst!

Want to know a secret?

Your 50s, 60s, and 70s are your creative prime.

There. I’ve said it.

I’ve been hearing a lot of chatter lately—whispers of “Is it too late?” or “Have I missed the boat?” … and all sorts of other mind-numbing nonsense.

Usually, these questions come from people in their 50s, 60s, or 70s who feel like the world of content creation, marketing, and entrepreneurship has become a young person’s game. They see the 22-year-old TikTok stars and the “30 under 30” lists and feel like they’re running out of runway.

I’ve been thinking about this myself of late after being passed over for a job that I’m way over qualified for … and I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that the role will go to someone in their mid-thirties.

Such is life. Is it fair?

No.

But it’s the reality and the only way it’s going to change is by people like us (people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s) MAKING THE CHANGE.

Let’s get one thing straight: You aren’t “shifting gears” because you’re slowing down. You’re shifting gears because you’ve finally reached the terrain where your engine can actually perform.

If you’re reading this and feeling the itch to start something new—a Substack, a consultancy, a book, a brand—I want you to stop looking at the clock.

You aren’t late.

In fact, you’re right on time.

The myth of the early start

We’ve been sold a lie that innovation is the exclusive province of the youth. But here’s the reality: youth has energy, but it often lacks context.

When you’re in your 50s, 60s, and 70s, you possess something that no algorithm can replicate and no “growth hacker” can shortcut: earned scars. Those scars are your credentials. They represent decades of seeing patterns, surviving market cycles, and understanding the messy, beautiful complexity of human nature.

In today’s world of AI slop and surface-level content, your depth is your greatest competitive advantage.

While everyone else is going an inch deep and a mile wide, you have the capacity to go an inch wide and a mile deep.

That’s where the authority lives.

The confidence of “enough”

One of the most powerful things about “shifting gears” later in life is that you’re often operating from a different set of motives.

You’re likely done chasing the “money script” just for the sake of a bigger number.

You’ve reached, or are reaching, the point of “enough.”

When you aren’t desperate for validation or a quick buck, your work changes. It becomes more honest. It becomes more daring.

You stop asking for permission because you realize you never needed it in the first place. This is the decade of the Generalist with an edge—someone who can connect the dots because they’ve seen more of the map.

Why now is the perfect time

1. The Bar is Lower Than You Think: Don’t let the polished “influencers” fool you. Much of what is being produced today is stale and derivative. If you show up with a unique perspective and a genuine voice, you will stand out simply by being real.

2. Technology is a Partner, Not a Barrier: You don’t need to be a coder to build a digital empire. Tools like Substack, Loom, and even AI are there to amplify your wisdom, not replace it. Use them to do the heavy lifting so you can focus on the “Shaking the Tree” part—the thinking, the reframing, and the connecting.

3. Your Audience is Waiting: There is a massive, underserved audience of people exactly like you who are tired of being talked down to by creators who haven’t lived. They want to hear from someone who has been in the trenches.

Shaking the Tree

If you’ve been waiting for a sign to get moving, consider this it.

Don’t worry about being a digital native. Be a wisdom native. Your life experience is the ultimate secret weapon that the 20-somethings haven’t earned yet.

Stop looking back at what you should have done. Look at the 36 months in front of you.

They matter more than you can possibly imagine.

You have the pace, you have the perspective, and you finally have the permission—the permission you gave yourself.

You aren’t late to the party.

You’re the guest of honor, and the conversation is just getting interesting.

It’s time to crank up the volume.

And finally: for years I’ve thought I should write a book! and for one reason or another I’ve always put it off. But now, as I approach my 63rd birthday, I’m in the process of writing FIVE books: a fictional memoire, a work of fiction, and three non-fiction works.

And since the beginning of the year I’ve made progress on all five projects, three of which are in final editing, one of which is in final writing, and the rest of which are in in flux. So, if I can do this, so can you!

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: Why I’m moving to Beehiiv …

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

There is a quiet threat in the workplace these days for anyone over the age of 50: the empty calendar

We spend a lot of time talking about burnout. We treat overwhelm and burnout like a modern plague, wearing our overstuffed inboxes and back-to-back Zoom calls like badges of exhausted honor. We think the greatest risk to our well-being is having too much to do.

But if age-wise you’ve crossed the half-century mark, I want to suggest a shift in perspective. Overwhelm is messy, yes. It’s loud. It’s tiring.

But overwhelm is a sign of life; it’s the friction of being in the game.

The real enemy—the one that actually erodes your edge and dims your spirit—is boredom.

Boredom isn’t just “having nothing to do.”

For the experienced professional, boredom is a slow-motion retreat from relevance. It is the decision to stop being curious because you think you’ve already seen the movie.

If you want to stay sharp, you have to stop fearing the fire and start fearing the frost. Here is why boredom is the true adversary and how to fight it.

1. Recognize that comfort is often a trap

We spend the first half of our lives striving for a plateau—a place where things are easy and predictable. But once you arrive, you realize the air is thin and nothing grows there. Boredom masquerades as peace of mind, but it’s actually the beginning of professional and mental atrophy. If you aren’t feeling a little bit of healthy pressure, you aren’t growing.

2. Distinguish between being busy and being engaged

You can be busy and still be bored to tears.

Rote tasks and repetitive meetings are just boredom in a suit.

Overwhelm usually comes from a diversity of challenges; boredom comes from a monotony of the soul.

Reclaim your time by ditching the repetitive and seeking out the novel problems that actually require your unique history to solve.

3. Seek out the friction of new technology

It is tempting to say, “I don’t need to learn that.” That sentence is the first nail in the coffin of your relevance.

The overwhelm of learning a new AI tool or a new social platform is exactly the stimulus your brain needs.

The friction of learning keeps the gears from seizing up.

Choose the frustration of the new over the safety of the known.

4. Audit your inner circle for “same-think”

If everyone you talk to has the same 30 years of experience as you, you are living in an echo chamber of boredom.

True vitality comes from intergenerational friction.

Find people who challenge your assumptions and force you to defend your proven methods.

If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room—and you’re likely bored, even if you won’t admit it.

5. The best mindset youi can adobt is what if …?

The greatest casualty of experience is curiosity.

We think we know how the story ends, so we stop paying attention to the plot.

To fight boredom, you have to intentionally adopt a beginner’s mind.

Ask the questions a novice would ask.

You’ll be surprised how often our expert certainties are actually just habits that have outlived their usefulness.

6. Lean into the messy projects

Overwhelm often comes from high-stakes, high-uncertainty projects.

These are exactly the ones you should run toward.

Boredom lives in the sure thing.

Give me a project with a 50% chance of failure and a 100% chance of learning something new over a guaranteed, boring win any day of the week.

7. Reframe your stress as a sign of vitality

The next time you feel overwhelmed, take a breath and reframe it.

That racing heart? That’s your engine running.

That long to-do list? That’s a list of people who still need your perspective.

Stress is a byproduct of being meaningful. Boredom is the byproduct of being ignored. Choose the stress.

The bottom line: We don’t grow old because we do too much; we grow old because we do too little of what matters.

Overwhelm can be managed with a better calendar; boredom can only be managed with a better mindset.

Keep your hands on the wheel, keep the revs up, and for heaven’s sake, stay curious. The quiet life is for people who have nothing left to say.

And you? You’re just getting to the good part.

Does this focus on relevance over retirement hit the right note for your audience, or should we lean harder into the creative side of fighting boredom?

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: Shifting gears in your 50s, 60s, and 70s

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

There is a good deal of value in your rearview mirror.

Why?

Because there is a pervasive myth in our digital-first economy that speed beats depth.

We are often told that the world belongs to the digital natives, but this overlooks a critical competitive advantage: context.

By the time you cross the 50-year mark, you haven’t just accumulated a CV; you’ve built a massive internal database of patterns, human behaviors, and hard-won resilience.

You can read minds and see around corners that others don’t even know exist.

If you are ready to stop being the veteran and start being the most valuable person in the room, here are seven simple ways to leverage your experience right now.

1. Focus on being a master of synthesis

While younger colleagues may be faster at learning a new software interface, you possess the ability to connect disparate ideas. Leverage your experience by looking at the big picture—take three separate departmental issues and synthesize them into one cohesive strategy. Your value lies in connecting the dots, not just collecting them.

2. Become the emotional anchor in the room

In a high-pressure corporate environment, anxiety is contagious. However, so is calm. Having seen this before—whether it’s a market crash, a failed product launch, or a leadership change—allows you to be the steady hand. Use your history to provide a sense of proportion and perspective when others are spiraling.

3. Translate complex jargon into human wisdom

The world is drowning in buzzwords. Use your decades of communication experience to strip away the fluff. Whether you’re writing a marketing plan or leading a meeting, your ability to articulate the wh” behind the what in plain, impactful language is a rare and highly billable skill.

4. Lean into the power of high-trust networking

Social media is about reach; experience is about depth. Leverage your long-term relationships by becoming a super-connector. You don’t need 10,000 followers when you have 10 people you can call who actually pick up the phone.

5. Mentor others to scale your own influence

Mentorship isn’t a charity project; it’s a force multiplier. By teaching the next generation the soft skills of negotiation, empathy, and ethics, you embed your methodology into the culture of your organization. It ensures your influence continues to grow even when you aren’t the one doing the tactical heavy lifting.

6. Curate information rather than just consuming it

Leverage your experience by becoming a filter for others. Instead of just passing along news, add your analysis: “This reminds me of the shift we saw in 1998, but with a twist.” Your curation saves others time, and in business, time is the only currency that matters.

7. Productize your “failures” into a roadmap

The most valuable thing you own is the list of things that didn’t work. People will pay a premium to avoid the mistakes you’ve already made. Whether through consulting, blogging, or internal leadership, turn your “scars” into a guided map for others. Preventative wisdom is often more valuable than curative effort.

The bottom line: Your age isn’t a shelf life; it’s a library. Stop trying to compete on the basis of raw, youthful energy and start winning on the basis of seasoned, surgical precision. The world has enough experts; what it needs are people who actually know what they’re talking about.

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: The enemy isn’t overwhelm, it’s this.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

The second mountain is higher—and the view is better

After three or four decades in the trenches, most people in their 50s and 60s are starting to look for the exit. Perhaps this is you.

By this time in your life the narrative says you should be winding down, playing more golf or tennis, or finally mastering the art of the afternoon nap.

But for those people who spent those years in roles that felt like ill-fitting suits, 50 and 60 isn’t the end of the book; it’s simply the point at which the plot finally gets interesting.

While retirement might seem attractive, so does doing something new. Starting again in your 50s and 60s isn’t about reckless reinvention; it’s about the strategic pivot.

You aren’t a beginner. You are an operator with 30 to 40 years of pattern recognition, a thick skin, and a Rolodex that actually means something.

The goal now is to align your output with your agency.

Here are seven ways to switch gears, find fulfillment, and ensure your second act is more profitable than the first.

1. Monetize the wisdom you take for granted

After 30 years or so of real world problem solving, you’ve forgotten more about your industry than a twenty-five-year-old MBA has ever learned. What feels like common sense to you is actually high-value intellectual property to someone else.

Stop selling your hands and start selling your head.

Consulting or high-level advisory work allows you to extract maximum value from your experience without the 60-hour work week.

2. Solve a problem for your younger self

The most fulfilling businesses are often born from personal friction.

Look back at the roadblocks you faced in your 30s and 40s—the tools that didn’t exist, the services that were poorly executed, or the advice you wish you’d had.

Building a solution for that past you ensures you have an immediate, deep understanding of your target market.

3. Lean into the sovereign creator economy

You don’t need a permission slip from a HR department to be heard anymore.

Whether it’s through a Substack newsletter, or via a specialized YouTube channel, or through a niche community, you can build a platform around your unique perspective.

At 50 or 60, you have the voice and the smarts that younger creators are still trying to find. Use these things to build an audience that values substance over hype.

4. Optimize for salience rather than just presence

In your earlier career, success was often about being there—showing up, clocking in, and being seen.

Now, success is about being salient.

You want to be the person who comes to mind immediately when a specific, difficult problem needs solving.

Narrow your focus until you are the undisputed expert in a tiny, profitable corner of the market.

5. Pivot to a portfolio career

The one job, one paycheck model is a relic. Fulfillment at this stage often comes from a portfolio of activities: maybe two days of consulting, a few hours of writing, and a small e-commerce project or investment.

This diversification doesn’t just protect your income; it keeps your brain engaged across multiple disciplines.

6. Trade your ego for agency

Many people over 50 get stuck because they are attached to their previous titles.

To start again, you’ve got to be willing to let go of the Senior VP badge if it means gaining total control over your Tuesday mornings.

Sovereignty—the ability to choose your work and your collaborators—is the ultimate currency. If a project doesn’t offer agency, it’s probably not worth the time you have left.

7. Focus on durable engineering in your business model

Build something that lasts.

Whether you are designing a physical product or a digital service, aim for the Dualit toaster standard: precision, durability, and classic design.

When people are surrounded by disposable hustles, there is a massive, underserved market for things—and people—that are built to work ten thousand times without complaint.

The world might tell you that you’re past it, but the reality is that you are finally ready.

You have the experience to see the pitfalls and the maturity to ignore the noise.

The second mountain is waiting.

Pack light, keep your eyes on the horizon, and start climbing.

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: 7 ways to leverage your experience

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

You may not know this but your ability to create hyper-local authority represents the the last stand against the pending wave of AI content.

If you’re concerned that AI is going to steal your content creator job: good. You should be concerned.

Because if most of your content is writing generic top 10 lists, you should be terrified. Well prompted AI systems are better, faster, and cheaper than you will ever be in terms of being general.

But fortunately, AI has a massive blind spot: the ground truth of community.

While AI can explain the mechanics of labor relations, or grocery shopping, or healthcare, what it can’t understand is the specific pulse of these things in your neighborhood or in your specialist niche.

It can’t replicate the localized impact, which, if you’re smart right now and in the coming months, creates an opportunity for you.

This is the moat of relevance.

By 2027, the most valuable creators won’t be the ones with the global reach, they’ll be the ones with the deepest local roots and the widest niche-based reach.

If you want to be “AI-proof,” stop trying to win the world and start trying to own your ZIP or post code.

Authority isn’t built in the cloud; it’s built through being authentic.

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: Winning at being 50 and over

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

The marketing playbook for the last decade has been obsessed with the frictionless transaction.

We’ve optimized every page view, tweaked every sales letter, and redesigned every button; we’ve tracked every pixel, and we’ve chased every buy now click and abandoned cart until the soul of the brand has been buried under a mountain of data, much of which never leads to meaningful change.

But here’s the reality: by 2027, the transaction as we know it will be starting to become a commodity.

If you’re just selling a product or a ticket to an event, you’re competing on price and convenience—this is a race to the bottom of the attention pool.

To survive and thrive you have to move toward shared mission.

Marketers and particularly nonprofits that don’t wrap their heads around this rish losing out.

Look at the work many businesses are not doing: they’re not cheering on their competitors because doing so is bad for business, right?

Not really.

I think the reponse to COVID gave a good look behing the curtain when brand after brand rolled out the same “in these torubled times” and “We’re all in this togeter” messaging. All of those some-old-same old messages meant little stood out.

Meanwhile, nonprofits are doing something different, particularly in their social media in terms of championing the causes of other nonprofits.

They aren’t just selling sponsorship packages; they’re championing the efforts of their partners as they solve real issues in their local area. It’s time to ditch the corporate bios and instead, it’s time to focus on positioning yourself as a trust asset.

In 2027, consumers won’t just ask “What do you sell?” They’ll ask “What do you stand for, and does it cost you anything to stand for it?”

If your brand doesn’t have a heartbeat, the algorithm will eventually stop it.

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: Looking at hyper local authority

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

Well, this is awkward.

This post should have gone out last Friday. Whoopsie.

Anyway, and oddly, let’s talk about planning (oh, the irony).

And specifically, let’s talk about next year. Or, better yet, the next three years.

Yes, I get that we’re not even halfway through this year yet, but now’s the time to be getting your content ducks in a row, so to speak.

In the whirlwind of daily uploads, trending audios, and the relentless churn of the now, looking ahead just a few weeks feels less like strategy and more like science fiction. But three years? Yikes!

Here’s the thing though: if you’re waiting until December 2026 to figure out your 2027 roadmap, you’ve already lost the race.

As someone who obsesses over the intersection of technology, narrative, and brand longevity, I’m telling you that the creators who will thrive in 2027 and 2028 will be those creators who start planting their content seeds today.

Here is why the three year vision is the new survival metric for the modern creator.

1. The Ppost-algorithm era

By 2027, the recommendation engines we know today will have evolved from content matchmakers to personal curators. We are moving away from broad discovery toward hyper-niche, AI-synthesized feeds.

If your content is generic, AI will summarize it, and no one will click. To survive in 2027, you need to build Equity of Persona. That takes years, not weeks. You aren’t just planning topics; you are planning the evolution of a voice that an AI cannot replicate and a community won’t trade for a bot.

2. Hardware dictates form

We’re currently seeing the awkward teenage years of Spatial Computing. By 2027, wearable AR and refined VR ecosystems won’t just be for tech enthusiasts; they will be the primary way a massive segment of the Gen Alpha audience consumes presence.

The shift: moving from 2D rectangles to 3D environments.

The preparation: If you aren’t thinking about how your set or your story exists in a 360-degree space, you’ll be a silent film creator in a world that just discovered talkies.

3. The curation fatigue rebound

We are reaching peak saturation. By 2027, the pendulum will swing violently away from more and toward meaning. The creators who win won’t be those who covered 500 topics in 2026, but those who spent 2025 and 2026 positioning themselves as the definitive authority on one thing.

You need to decide now what you want to be the world’s leading expert in by 2027.

That authority isn’t granted; it’s built through a consistent archive of thought leadership.

The 2027 content audit

Ask yourself these three questions today:

Is my niche AI-proof?

If a LLM can generate your script, you are a commodity.

Am I building a platform or a community?

Platforms can vanish; communities (email lists, private hubs, direct-to-fan) are portable.

What is the “long Ttail” of my current work? Will what you post today still be a foundational pillar for your brand in 36 months?

My take is this: stop playing the weekly lottery of viral hits. Start playing the legacy game. 2027 isn’t a date on a calendar; it’s the destination of the bridge you’re building right now.

Are you building a bridge to nowhere, or are you building the destination?

How far out does your current content calendar actually stretch?

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: Why branding in 2027 will be about shared missions

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

We are almost a third of the way through 2026.

A third! Already!

Heavens. How time flies.

So, where will you be six months from now, as we gaze into the headlights of 2027?

Will you be prepped and ready? Will you be on your way, with a plan and a goal and a vision? Or will you still be spinning your wheels?

The most dangerous lie you’ve been told is that there is a “waiting room” for success.

You’re waiting for a gatekeeper to nod; top tell you you’re in.

You’re waiting for a specific certification, or a certain follower count, or perhaps a metaphorical “tap on the shoulder” from an industry veteran to tell you that you’ve finally arrived.

You think you need a license to speak, a permit to lead, or an invitation to innovate.

I’m here to tell you: the door isn’t locked. In fact, there isn’t even a door.

The permission paradox

We spend years in a school system that trains us to raise our hands before we speak. We enter corporate environments where we wait for “buy-in” before we act.

By the time we decide to build something for ourselves—a brand, a business, a body of work—our default setting is to wait for a green light that is never coming.

If you wait for everyone to agree that you’re ready, you’ll be waiting in the terminal while the plane takes off without you.

Full steam ahead

There’s a famous naval command: “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” It wasn’t a call to be reckless; it was a realization that the risk of sitting still in a minefield was far greater than the risk of charging through it.

In content creation and business, the “torpedoes” are the critics, the potential for a cringe post, or the fear of a technical glitch.

• The torpedoes of judgment? They only hit stationary targets.

• The torpedoes of perfectionism? They are disarmed by the momentum of “good enough.”

When you move with conviction, the noise of the skeptics becomes background static.

You don’t have time to worry about who is judging you when you’re too busy outrunning them.

Build your own table

Stop looking for a seat at the “established” table. If the industry leaders aren’t inviting you in, it’s because they’re afraid of the chair you’re about to build.

The internet has democratized authority.

You don’t need a publisher to be a writer. You don’t need a network to be a broadcaster. You don’t need a gallery to be an artist. You just need to start.

The “Permissionless” future

1. Stop asking “Is this OK?”: Start telling yourself that you’re taking action, and then follow through.

2. Embrace the messy Start: Your first few attempts will be clunky. Good. That’s the sound of the engine turning over.

3. Validate yourself: If you believe your knowledge has value, that is the only validation required to hit Publish.

The world is moving too fast for you to play “Mother May I.”

The “visibly less qualified” people we talked about last time?

They never asked for permission.

They just showed up and claimed the space while you were still looking for the application form.

Stop waiting. Start driving. Full steam ahead.

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: What’s your plan for 2027, Stan?

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.

You’ve seen them.

You know exactly who I’m talking about.

You know the type: big on volume, small on substance.

The social media influencer with 15 followers on Instagram.

The Facebook expert with no posts on Facebook.

The Linkedin guru with no profile image on Linkedin.

The social media management company with links to their social media on their website that don’t lead anywhere.

You’re scrolling through your feed, and you see someone in your niche—someone with half your experience and a quarter of your technical depth—commanding an audience of thousands.

They’re getting the clicks, the shares, and the “expert” labels, while you’re sitting on the sidelines, meticulously polishing a draft you’ve been too intimidated to publish for three weeks.

You think, “If that’s what it takes to be successful, I must be missing something fundamental.”

Actually, it’s the opposite. You’re overthinking the gatekeepers. Here’s the cold, hard truth: The bar for entry isn’t a high jump; it’s a hurdle that’s been knocked over.

There is a peculiar phenomenon in the digital age where people become successful in spite of themselves. They might have subpar lighting, questionable grammar, or—most frustratingly—information that is barely surface-level.

So why are they winning?

Because they showed up.

While you were researching the perfect $2,000 camera setup or worrying if your thesis was “academic” enough, they hit ‘Record’ on an iPhone 11 and just started talking.

They aren’t successful because they are better; they are successful because they are visible.

Your superior knowledge is a competitive edge

If you’re sitting there with deeper insights, better data, and more nuanced perspectives, you have a massive competitive advantage. But that advantage is currently worth exactly zero if it’s locked in your head or a private folder on your desktop.

The market is currently being fed a junk food diet of content because the gourmet creators (that’s you) are too afraid to open the kitchen.

• Accuracy vs. volume: You don’t need to match their volume, but you do need to enter the arena.

• The authority gap: Audiences are starving for substance. When someone who actually knows what they’re talking about enters a sea of mediocrity, the contrast is blinding.

Stop waiting for the “expert” permission slip

Many new creators suffer from a version of Imposter Syndrome that I call “Competence Paralysis.” You know enough to know how much you don’t know, so you stay quiet. Meanwhile, the person who knows nothing is unburdened by that self-awareness and shouts from the rooftops.

Don’t let their lack of quality be your excuse for lack of quantity.

The strategy for the “qualified” creator

1. Lower your production expectations, not your intellectual ones. Your value is in your brain, not your color grading.

2. Pick one “messy” platform. Whether it’s LinkedIn, a raw blog post, or a quick video, get the idea out while it’s fresh.

3. Compete on Value. Use your “superior knowledge” to debunk myths or provide the “why” that others are missing.

The digital world is not a meritocracy of talent; it is a meritocracy of action. If the bar is truly as low as you think it is, then stepping over it should be the easiest thing you do today.

Stop watching the less qualified win by default.

Start putting your work out there and give the audience a better choice.

As always, thanks for reading.

—Gary

Feel free to follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn

P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.

Next time on Shaking the Tree: No, you don’t need anyone’s permission

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.