I started 2015 optimistic, but it was the kind of blind optimism that glosses over the nuances of reality. The kind of optimism more aptly described as blissful delusion, where you want something so badly that you convince yourself to believe in it even if there are too many moving pieces out of your control.

2014 was tough. At the very beginning of exam season for my final year of university, I found out a grandparent had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. (Who then passed away suddenly in October, half a year earlier than expected by doctors.) …

Content marketing has become established as one of the key pillars of a B2B marketing strategy. It’s a great tactic for goals ranging from lead generation to building brand awareness to increasing website traffic…

It’s also tricky to leverage. Using content marketing requires finesse and balance: maintaining high quality of content while meeting quantity needs; coming up with original content that cuts through noise while meeting breadth and depth expectations; providing enough value that prospects follow through with the call to action, but not so much that the cow is given away with the milk.

Most companies are doing some content marketing, but many of them could be doing it better. Here are five common pain points that I’ve noticed, as well as suggestions on how to address them. …

(and Learning to Let Go)

“What are you afraid of?”

“Mediocrity.”

I’d meant it as a joke, but once the thought had been voiced aloud, I realized it was true. My fear of ending up only mediocre in life was ranked pretty high up, nestled just underneath a fear of drowning and a little above a fear of heights.

Growing up with insanely high expectations, the mindset of always trying to do more and be more inevitably becomes internalized. Trying and failing is okay; complacency is what’s dangerous. The constant pressure to perform becomes familiar. …

There are two primary factors which dictate whether we can or can’t do something: an internal component and an external one.

The former is that which can be controlled by the self, such as active decision-making or mental fortitude, while the latter is influenced by others, the elements that are contingent on things beyond our control.

The problem is that we have a tendency to misjudge where the transition point between these two components is. To have a shot at winning the game, you need to be playing the game. Too often we assume too early that the answer is “no” when in reality it could be a “yes.” …

Instead of a checklist of New Year’s Resolutions, I’m going to focus on building better habits, integrating one new one per month. Here’s why.

Show of hands — how many of you come up with a list of New Year’s Resolutions annually?

How many of you actually manage to complete that list?

Yeah. The success rate of people who complete their New Year’s Resolutions is a meagre 8% — the vast majority, 92%, are “unsuccessful”.

Checklists are built on a complete/incomplete principle, an all-or-nothing dichotomy. And once you fall off the wagon — whether it’s to eat breakfast every morning, or to maintain an inbox zero — the automatic gut reaction is that the mission has been failed. When the end goal is to complete the task, over and over again, there aren’t enough benchmarks to measure progress by. …

How to maximize comfort and minimize hassle when flying.

1) Frequent flyer/loyalty programs

Two seemingly contradictory rules of thumb: a) sign up for multiple; & b) try to stick with one. International airline alliances (e.g. SkyTeam, Star Alliance, etc.) will allow you to rack up miles while flying with different airlines, but it’s also worthwhile to sign up with a few smaller, localized ones (e.g. VIPorter). Keep those e-mail notifications turned on too — you just might get a conveniently-timed exclusive discount code.

2) Choose a good seat (that fits your needs)

SeatGuru by TripAdvisor is your best friend when it comes to picking a seat. They have seat maps for purportedly over 800 aircraft. You can even search by airline, by flight, or by aircraft type. …

DiGiorno Pizza has become the latest example of a social media PR nightmare after an uninformed and insensitive tweet went out capitalizing on the domestic violence hashtag #WhyIStayed. @DiGiornoPizza has responded by sending out hundreds of personalized tweets, which begs the question: what is a brand? That is to say, what is its identity as an entity?

Let’s look at the givens: brands are not biotic organisms, and companies do not think/feel/tweet/etc. — people do. …

What is it about The Next Big Thing that makes it, well, the next big thing? It’s fresh, new, different, perhaps in terms of perspective, or in execution, or in its entirety. Marketing strategies are much the same — the most successful ones are those that are the disruptors, the ones that are unique and haven’t been done before, something that has a surprise value when the audience first encounters it.

One recent notable example is Cards Against Humanity’s Black Friday campaign, wherein they actually raised prices by $5 instead of lowering them. Although sales on Black Friday itself didn’t differ significantly from the previous year, the day following saw a tremendous spike in sales, and the move netted the game a lot of attention — certainly more attention than it could’ve achieved by merely having a sale and getting lost in the marketing noise. …