Consumers aren't buying your formula. They're buying your point of view. There's a conversation I have with almost every founder I work with, usually early on, usually when they're frustrated. They've built something genuinely good. The formula is right. The packaging is considered. The website is clean. They've done the work, all of it, the hard, expensive, unglamorous work of actually making something worth selling. And still, they feel invisible. They look at the brands ge

Why the brands winning beauty and wellness in 2026 are using AI where it adds leverage, and refusing it where it erodes trust. Image created by me in Midjourney The brands winning right now aren't the ones using AI the most. They're the ones using it where it adds leverage and refusing it where it would erode trust. That's the whole post. The rest is the working out. I've been using AI for over three years now. Long enough to have seen both the good and the bad sides, which I

Why your next growth strategy isn't about marketing harder, it's about meaning deeper. We're living in a time where people don't just buy brands; they become them. When someone chooses a skincare line, a yoga studio, or a therapy app, it's rarely about the product alone. It's because the brand reflects who they are, what they value, and the life they're creating. This is customer value creation through culture: building brands that transcend function to become symbols of mean