GOOD THINKING

Phil Cook, the CMO of the fricking WNBA (or the W as we are now calling it) and I have been friends online for a while. Honestly, writing this letter has really changed my life. What a ridiculous sentence to write.

Anyway, we digress. Phil was lovely enough to agree to come on the pod to discuss, what has to be, one of the biggest brands in marketing at the moment.

We get into his journey from Bauer Hockey to Nike to the W, moving fans from ‘support’ to real fandom, why you should take big swings when there’s disruption.

If you’re a CMO of anything, or care about culture, or just want a lot of wisdom dropped on you, this one is for you.

This episode is sponsored by Othership.

Enjoy!

Meet Phil Cook

Phil Cook is the Chief Marketing Officer of the WNBA, and the league’s first. Born and raised a couple of hours north of Toronto, he got his start at Bauer Hockey. Then Nike bought Bauer, and he fulfilled his lifelong dream of working at Nike.

25 years in the Nike ecosystem followed, including leading the North America basketball brand, and partnerships with the world’s greatest leagues, teams, and athletes. He joined the W in 2020, and has been along for a great ride since.

Give him a follow on LinkedIn.

Hit the links to skip to the bits you fancy

02:06 — FRIENDS, IRL // It started with Phil consuming our Substack. Wild.

03:34 — THE JOURNEY TO THE W // Bauer Hockey, a lifelong Nike dream, and six years at the W.

05:47 — THE PINNACLE OF CULTURE // “Our athletes lead culture. They don’t just represent it or follow it.”

10:13 — GOOGLE DOUBLED THE GAMES // Access was the problem. 25 more games on national TV powered by a brand that was willing to believe changed it.

12:17 — HOOPERS FIRST // Switching gears post-bubble and reminding fans how good they can hoop.

14:31 — SABRINA VS STEPH // The three-point contest that changed everything.

17:08 — IT WAS ALL STRATEGY // It felt organic. It wasn’t.

17:55 — BYE, ORANGE HOODIE // From ‘support’ to fandom. Shifting from WNBA tees to jerseys with someone’s name on the back.

21:34 — GET OUT OF DEMOCRACY // Not 288 stories about 144 athletes. A couple of stories about 10.

24:09 — TURNING 30 // Loyalists, new fans, and a little lore.

27:26 — 18 MILLION FANS // The W is actually still in the awareness phase.

31:00 — NOT JUST THE LEAGUE’S JOB // Teams, partners, and broadcasters, all needed to be telling the same story.

36:16 — MANY DOORS TO THE HOUSE // You don’t have to come in through the court-sized door.

43:36 — HIRE EXPERTS, NOT FANS // Hire complementary skill sets, then convert them to fandom.

45:50 — EVERYONE BUILDS THE BRAND // The thing he wishes he’d done better.

48:45 — QUICK FIRE // Experiment, get internal alignment, and be consistently premium.

51:45 — BASKETBALL NEVER STOPS // Take big swings when there’s disruption..

54:46 — A PHYSICIAN ON MY WRIST // The industry about to get disrupted next.

Huge thanks to Phil for coming on and pulling back the curtain.

That’s all, folx.

– Chris

If you listened and liked it, that little heart is there for that. The algo and I appreciate it.

PS — Find us on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

To become a sponsor, email [email protected] for our media kit.

ABOUT

Chris and Kirsten are the founders of IN GOOD CO, a consultancy that ignites challenger brands with fearless positioning.

Chris writes a weekly newsletter for +17K subscribers that shares the best-of-the-best on culture, trends, marketing, etc. What she’s dropping to friends on Slack or finding useful in meetings with brands | Follow her on Substack

Welcome back to 10 THINGS: ten things standing out to us this month, one from each category we cover in the letter. If the Sunday letter is sometimes a lot to keep up with, consider this the sampler platter.

The gist of this entire episode is about caring more. Every business right now can figure out how to dial up the human 1% to100%

This month we get into: SolidCore’s founder paying Y7’s staff out of her own pocket, 7-Eleven’s mahjong set and FamilyMart’s socks, $150 wines going for the price of Erewhon water, Netflix’s K-Pop Demon Hunters zone, Ralph Lauren’s PoloFest, Substack’s new feed dials, Unrivaled’s $100M raise, flossing, and why people return to hotels. Plus the Capella Kyoto amenities drawer.

This post has bonus content for paid subscribers. Upgrade to get full access.

This episode is sponsored by Othership.

Enjoy!

Hit the links to skip to the bits you fancy

02:57 — CULTURE // SOLID TO THE CORE // With all of these, the left link will help you skip to the timestamp in the pod. The ‘Read more’ will take you to the letter and segment that we’re discussing. Read more.

07:24 — F&B // MERCH > PRODUCT // Read more.

11:50 — DRUGS & BOOZE // TOO MUCH WINE // Read more.

16:35 — ALPHAS, SILVERS & ZS // K-POP ZONES // Read more.

20:48 — FASHION & RETAIL // DESTINATION SHOPPING // Read more.

28:50 — TECH // STACKING UP // Read more.

37:20 — SPORT // UNBOUND HOOPING // Read more.

41:33 — WELLNESS & BEAUTY // WHOLE MOUTH // Read more.

45:07 — TRAVEL // WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE // Read more.

51:37 — FUN FOR THE MONTH // AMENITIES DRAWER // Read more.

That’s all, folx.

– Chris

PS — Find us on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

To become a sponsor, email [email protected] for our media kit.

ABOUT

Chris and Kirsten are the founders of IN GOOD CO, a consultancy that ignites challenger brands with fearless positioning.

Chris writes a weekly newsletter for +17K subscribers that shares the best-of-the-best on culture, trends, marketing, etc. What she’s dropping to friends on Slack or finding useful in meetings with brands | Follow her on Substack

This one is Kirsten’s bucket list episode. A few weeks ago we were sitting on a boat in Croatia, looking out at the sparkling blue water, and all she could talk about was Cindy Gallop coming on the pod. And now we’re live.

For anyone in our industry, Cindy is an icon. She was an icon before she created MakeLoveNotPorn. And from a culture perspective, from a GOOD THINKING perspective, the conversation she started 17 years ago with MLNP couldn’t be a bigger conversation now. We get into living your truth, why she cannot wait to die alone, the formula for business success that virtually nobody follows, funding female founders, and how she ended up teaching at Kai Cenat’s Streamer University. It’s a great story, unsurprisingly.

There are personal lessons in here, and for sure brand lessons. Stay to the end, because she keeps dropping wisdom until the very last minute.

Bucket list. Check.

This episode is sponsored by Othership. About 2 years ago, I dragged Kirsten to an 8am sound bath, sauna, and cold plunge in New York, and we haven’t stopped going back since. They now offer corporate memberships at their location in New York and Toronto. If you’re looking to support your team with an employer benefit that actually benefits them. This one is it.

Enjoy!

Meet Cindy Gallop

Cindy Gallop is the founder and CEO of MakeLoveNotPorn, which she launched at TED in 2009. The huge response led her to turn MakeLoveNotPorn – ‘Pro-sex. Pro-porn. Pro-knowing the difference’ - into the world’s first user-generated, 100% human-curated social sex videosharing platform. If porn is the Hollywood blockbuster movie, MakeLoveNotPorn is the badly-needed documentary: normalizing and destigmatizing sex to promote consent, communication, good sexual values and behavior, as sex education through real world demonstration, with a mission to help end rape culture globally.

Before that, she spent 40 years in brand building, marketing, and advertising. And she and her team have just launched MakeLoveNotPorn Academy, ‘the Google of sex ed’ in early stage beta - a global aggregator hub that makes the best of the world’s sex education easily searchable and accessible for every age.

In her words: “I like to blow s**t up. I am the Michael Bay of business.” Find her on LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok, read her Substack, Dear Cindy, and head to cindygallop.com.

Hit the links to skip to the bits you fancy

01:56 — THE BUCKET LIST // Cindy. Gallop. Kirsten is fangirling all the way.

03:33 — 66 YEARS OF LIFE // Where the fearlessness comes from. And she’d never call herself bold or loud.

05:38 — PURE LUCK? // Cindy says her ad career was entirely down to luck. We’re not so sure.

07:32 — WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR? // The secret to happiness? Take a long, hard look inside yourself.

09:36 — I CANNOT WAIT TO DIE ALONE // Never married, no kids, and one of the happiest people she knows.

11:32 — WHAT’S UNDERNEATH // Stripping down to her underwear at 62 for StyleLikeU. “I have seen my future and it is bright.”

14:34 — INTERESTING THEORY // Do interesting things and interesting things will happen to you.

16:47 — PORN WORLD VS REAL WORLD // A tiny clunky website, a TED talk in 2009, and thousands of people pouring their hearts out.

18:05 — THE BADLY NEEDED DOCUMENTARY // If porn is the Hollywood blockbuster, MakeLoveNotPorn is the documentary.

19:17 — ENDING R*PE CULTURE // The single biggest issue holding girls and women back worldwide.

21:00 — HOW DO WE GET VCS TO FUND IT? // Your willingness to fund it is entirely a function of your own sexual journey.

23:37 — THE GOOGLE OF SEX ED // Parents are asking for a family plan. MakeLoveNotPorn Academy is live in beta.

27:17 — THE FORMULA FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS // It’s that simple, and virtually nobody does it. Trust.

31:14 — RTO IS A TRUST PROBLEM // Return to office mandates, AI-forward mandates, and Shopify’s AI slop.

33:00 — THE MARKET OF HUMAN HAPPINESS // Take the shame out of sex and watch productivity shoot up.

36:07 — FUND FEMALE FOUNDERS // The solution to every problem you can cite.

39:28 — A UNICORN IN WAITING // White men get funded on potential. Women don’t. We have to fix it.

41:42 — QUICK FIRE // The thing most brands are afraid to say out loud, and no one’s coming to save you.

43:50 — STREAMER UNIVERSITY // Teaching at Kai Cenat’s Streamer University. Twice. Our industry is sleeping on streaming.

Thank you again to Cindy. Follow her in all the places!

And, before we go: Paid readers, wee’re hosting another LIVE session. Thurs, Oct 29 12pmET / 9amPT / 5pmCET. It’s all about the world of PR and new media.

As someone who receives 100s of pitches a month, I can tell you: PR needs help. This will give you a peek behind the new media curtain: which pitches are working, which are very much not. We’ll also talk press releases, press trips, and more. If you’re in PR, comms, or brand and own the PR budget, you should join.

PR teams: If you need this expensed as a “class” versus a “newsletter”. Hit reply. It will come with a free yearly subscription so you won’t lose out.

Paid readers can see the details on Substack.

ABOUT

Chris and Kirsten are the founders of IN GOOD CO, a consultancy that ignites challenger brands with fearless positioning.

Chris writes a weekly newsletter for +17K subscribers that shares the best-of-the-best on culture, trends, marketing, etc. What she’s dropping to friends on Slack or finding useful in meetings with brands | Follow her on Substack

We’re back with another edition of GOOD SIGNS — a monthly round-up of the last month of letters, looking at what’s bubbling up.

These are signals, patterns, counter-trends. Stuff that’s emerging, continuing, sticking out, or simply what we’re finding interesting in the last month.

This episode is sponsored by Herman Miller.

Now onto the episode. Enjoy! And let us know what you think in the comments.

Skip to the bits you fancy

1.

04:18 — PARTY OF ONE // Americans are not hosting. Having people over is down from 42% in 1975, 12% now. Why? Being alone is more fun than ever. And the pressure is real. Yes, there a sad side here. But for a sec let’s look at the fact that the night in is becoming a category.

Places it’s showing up:

* Prepared food is now more than half of Butterfield Market’s business.

* 28% of shoppers buy grocery deli instead of a restaurant meal.

* Workouts took over irresponsible Tuesday nights, so beauty is being built for sweat. Mowe has a concealer that handles it.

Pendulum Swing → The bar isn’t going out without a fight. Claudette is offering free loosies to whoever asks. Anarchy lives on.

2.

12:41 — POST-PREGGERS // Pregnancy and parenting products have spent years tracking the baby. The new ones are finally paying attention to the person having it: her appetite, her friends, her partner. This is what paying actual attention to what people want can deliver.

Places it’s showing up:

* Frida and Gopuff deliver a “No Longer Preggers Platter.” Cold cuts, smoked salmon, champagne, caffeine, and a peri bottle. So brilliant.

* Coterie teamed up with Peanut on a 6-figure fund for girls’ night dinners, coffee catch-ups, and park playdates. The village is getting amenities.

* Paternal moves to-be-dads from “helpers” to fully equipped partners.

* Fertility is a two-person game. Bird&Be is going after the duo together.

Pendulum Swing → The part we don’t like to share is getting boosted too. The new Ad Council spot on the secrets we keep about motherhood is intense, but it’s an important conversation. (Trigger warning: postpartum depression.) Bobbie and @sallyforth did a very powerful piece this week on infant loss too.

3.

23:01 — MIDDLE GROUND // Luxury cranked the price so far that it left a gaping hole. While many mass brands looked at SHEIN and tried to compete, others looked at the other opportunity that was right there waiting for someone to step in.

Places it’s showing up:

* Galliano’s Zara collection is getting rave reviews, and people are praising the quality. Zara made a conscious choice to move up in the world.

* Zara Home is becoming a real alternative to CB2.

* Monica Vinader repositioned vermeil, which is gold-plated, with a Sam Youkilis campaign of exquisitely aged hands. Profits look very healthy.

Pendulum Swing → The very top still pays the bills. 50% of luxury revenue comes from 4% of customers, and Net-a-Porter is wooing its VICs back with dinners. Meanwhile, luxury is charging “$14,500 [for] silk/viscose blend,” and even loyal customers call shopping there an act of humiliation.

4.

33:30 — SAME-SAMING // When everyone can build, everything starts to look the same. Institutions, packaging, products, even agencies. The same-saming is an epidemic. The only way out is thinking about mattering.

Places it’s showing up:

* They yassified St. Paul’s Cathedral. And made it look like its literal neighbor.

* Muse took on Instinct. A week later, OpenAI’s dots rolled out. Anthropic is surely being vibe-coded as we speak.

* Four brands launched identical “innovative packaging” in the same week. And Fenty Skin answered the packaging pile-up with a joke. Humor works, folx.

* Bobbi Brown’s Jones Road gave a new product the same name as a YISE Beauty one.

Pendulum Swing → Alexandr Wang’s unhinged tweets are a type of humor no LLM could manage.

5.

45:27 — ROCK BOTTOM // At SXSW in March, I said we were hurtling towards the end of influencers. People gasped. Some laughed. I was just early. In the last GOOD SIGNS, consumers were doing the checking. Now the fakes are flooding in from all sides. If trust was the word of 2026, credibility will be the word of 2027.

Places it’s showing up:

* Big influencers are finding full AI clones of themselves online.

* Jean Phil, clearly AI-gen’d, blew up and is now shilling a meme coin. And duping freestyle dance videos from real artists with no credit.

* Aqua Voice is openly paying for false UGC ads.

Pendulum Swing → NASA’s David Rager: “If we start to use AI imagery, people will question every image NASA has ever made.”

Related: Wild Wild Space was an interesting documentary. Worth a watch.

Letters referenced:

* Dior x A24. No provincial product.

* Hermès is playing movie theaters

* Columbia is paying for foot pics

* Churches are being yassified

ABOUT

Chris and Kirsten are the founders of IN GOOD CO, a consultancy that ignites challenger brands with fearless positioning.

Chris writes a weekly newsletter for +17K subscribers that shares the best-of-the-best on culture, trends, marketing, etc. What she’s dropping to friends on Slack or finding useful in meetings with brands | Follow her on Substack

I met Kara Redman a while back, and we had one of those conversations you walk away from thinking: this lady is something. She’s funny, has built something from scratch, and drops wisdom effortlessly. We just got along. Naturally, as it often does, it led us here because I knew Kirsten would love this chat. And thought you would too.

We chat about resilience, where it actually comes from, why the anticipation of a hard thing is always worse than ‘the thing’, the micro decision-making, how to deliver hard truths, and really vast amounts more.

If you’re looking for a job, looking to change your job, or looking to stay in your job and be better at it, this one is for you. It’s basically one gigantic leadership PSA.

Enjoy!

This episode is sponsored by Herman Miller.

Meet Kara Redman

Kara Redman is the CEO and founder of Backroom, and the creator of the Brand Pressure Index.

She has spent 15 years walking founders and marketing leaders through the brand decisions that are expensive, political, and hard to reverse. Launches, M&A, resets, you name it. That work spans Hellmann’s, StubHub, Pepsi, and the U.S. Department of State, alongside a lot of early-stage startups. She did it without going to college, which she’ll tell you about herself.

She writes Brands Under Pressure, and she is a must-follow on LinkedIn. You can also find her on Instagram and at kararedman.com.

Hit the links to skip to the bits you fancy

03:02 — QUITE A YEAR // “Will I be done by June?” On her cancer diagnosis, and not willing to give up her summer.

05:55 — RESILIENCE AND DRIVE GO HAND IN HAND // Is resilience built or is it how you’re wired? Answer: It doesn’t live in a vacuum.

08:47 — JUST BE COLD? // Skip the walk, brace against it, or just be cold. Three ways to handle a hard thing.

11:12 — WHY NOT ME VS WHY ME // Drive is a little selfish. Wanting the whole of the thing, not the sum of its parts.

12:20 — A LITTLE SLICE OF IT // Time to change how you see money.

14:49 — THE VOICE IN YOUR HEAD // The most dangerous voice is often your own. And how women are the meanest to themselves.

18:45 — MICRO DECISIONS // Talking to yourself and the unsexy things that work.

22:57 — WE ARE THE DRAMA // The Brand Pressure Index at Backroom surfaces the tensions companies hide from. Spoiler: it’s always people.

25:29 — FAT IN A BATHING SUIT // More hard truths talk.

34:14 — GOOD GOOD GOLF // Stadiums full of people saw that Good Good Golf ad. Follow the money to find who overruled the room.

36:36 — MORE MONEY THAN TALENT // Her mentor’s line, and why principled and talented people tend to land on their feet.

38:25 — FOLLOW IT UP // Can’t rock the boat? Document the dissent.

44:50 — HEAD TRASH // Chris on the sales training that did more for her mental health at work than anything else. Every team should do it.

50:11 — QUICK FIRE // Emotionally regulate your leadership, the advice book she keeps for future Kara, and the unsexy category about to blow up.

Huge thanks to Kara for coming on and being so open about all of it.

That’s all, folx.

ABOUT

Chris and Kirsten are the founders of IN GOOD CO, a consultancy that ignites challenger brands with fearless positioning.

Chris writes a weekly newsletter for +17K subscribers that shares the best-of-the-best on culture, trends, marketing, etc. What she’s dropping to friends on Slack or finding useful in meetings with brands | Follow her on Substack

Welcome back to 10 THINGS: ten things standing out to us this month, one from each category we cover in the letter. If the Sunday letter is sometimes a lot to keep up with, consider this the sampler platter.

This month we get into: people reading their Substack essays live, the Girl Scouts’ dog biscuits, the new sober, a16z’s Academy, J.Crew’s barn jacket, Instacart’s Clementine, Peloton x Miley, Dyson’s toothbrush camera, and the hotel gym glow up. Plus Meta’s Muse (and Zuck’s T-shirt).

Also, this Thursday, October 1, Kirsten is opening Liberty Road LIVE 2026: The Midlife Summit in Downtown LA, with the amazing Nada Jones. The Hell Yes Life workshop is everything Kirsten learned the hard way, handed to you in 20 minutes. Use code WAITLISTER for $100 off!

And next week, I’m in NYC moderating a panel at Unplugged on Culture at the Speed of Now. I’m there 4-8th, coffee? And let’s meet for GOOD DRINKS. Tuesday. 6:30pmET.

This episode is sponsored by Herman Miller.

Enjoy!

Hit the links to skip to the bits you fancy

02:30 — CULTURE // IMMERSIVE ESSAYS // With all of these, the left link will help you skip to the timestamp in the pod. The ‘Read more’ will take you to the letter and segment that we’re discussing. Read more.

10:16 — F&B // GIRLS’ GOT GAME // Read more.

13:48 — DRUGS & BOOZE // NEW SOBER // Read more.

18:51 — ALPHAS, SILVERS & ZS // ACADEMY VS ACADEMICS // Read more.

23:37 — FASHION & RETAIL // FLOOD THE FEED // Read more.

26:12 — TECH // SWEET CLEMENTINE // Read more.

27:42 — SPORT // TREADING ON SOLID GROUND // Read more.

31:51 — WELLNESS & BEAUTY // A MOUTHFUL // Read more.

34:05 — TRAVEL // HOTEL GYM GLOW UP // Read more.

37:08 — FUN FOR THE MONTH // CHAOTIC GOOD OR A-MUSINGLY BAD? // Read more.

That’s all, folx.

ABOUT

Chris and Kirsten are the founders of IN GOOD CO, a consultancy that ignites challenger brands with fearless positioning.

Chris writes a weekly newsletter for +17K subscribers that shares the best-of-the-best on culture, trends, marketing, etc. What she’s dropping to friends on Slack or finding useful in meetings with brands | Follow her on Substack

Last year I went to Paradigms in Marrakech, and it was epic. This year, Kirsten made it, and we joined the speaker roster (!!). And yes, if you saw my stories, you know it was on a private island in Croatia. Gorge.

Paradigms is, for all intents and purposes, a B2B conference. But it’s anything but. From the very first email to the massively varied and inspiring talks to the sunset cruise sendoff, every detail is considered. What struck me is that when an event is executed at this level, it removes the burden of thinking, so you’re just in awe. And that awe lets you connect with people on another level. We walked away with dozens of takeaways, as you’ll see below, but even better, we walked away with loads of new friends. There’s no higher praise.

If you’re running a conference, giving a talk, or building a B2B brand, you'll find plenty of lessons here.

This episode is sponsored by Herman Miller. They’re not affiliated with Frontify, which kindly flew us out and hosted us as speakers, but they did not sponsor this pod (maybe one day!). All thoughts are our own. As always.

Enjoy!

Hit the links to skip to the bits you fancy

ROGER DUDLER // FRONTIFY

01:47 — PUT YOURSELF IN THE BACKGROUND // Yes, we ambushed Roger at the afterparty, and he kindly agreed to chat with us at 8am. We talk about how Paradigms came to be, why its approach is nothing to do with sales, why scaling it isn’t the goal, and why the best networking is not networking. And of course we talk about how you top a private island and why you need your own Becky.

“Bring your people, put yourself in the background because it’s not about you.”

THE EXPERIENCE

15:42 — IN AWE // The location changes every year, the curation is incredible, and the swag game is supreme.

JAY CURLEY // BEN & JERRY’S

21:11 — BRAVERY IS A DISCIPLINE // Jay didn’t get up there and say, look at our work, you should do it too. He said you as a brand, a company, a human can do this too.

“Bravery is a discipline, not a stunt.”

MAX OTTIGNON // RAGGED EDGE

26:27 — SAY THE WORD // Our industry is having a crisis of confidence. Everyone wants a rebrand. But nobody’s allowed to call it one. Backlash be damned, though. The numbers are what you should watch. Brand success is measured in years, not days.

“We’ve been substituting creativity for clicks.”

“No one gets passionately angry about something they are indifferent to.”

TOSH HALL // JKR

31:51 — THE A24 MOVIE OF TALKS // There’s no way to summarize this talk. It wasn’t a presentation on being creative. It was a performance that made the experience of making the work come to life. Weird, funny, and stuck in everyone’s memory. A little lesson in having a perspective.

SHANE HAGERTY & AUSTIN MCKENNA // YETI

34:11 — ANATOMY OF A LIGHTNING STRIKE // Yeti is now bigger than Patagonia. In only 21 years. This brand has been doing storytelling and “brand shows” since well before they were cool. Our takeaway: Figure out your positioning, then make the right content for it.

NU GOTEH // ROOM FOR MAGIC

39:34 — THE COST OF TASTE // If you listened to our pod together, you know we love Nu. His talks are also impossible to summarize, but he gave us the wisest take on the popular topic of taste.

“The cost of taste is accountability.”

“The cost of community is inconvenience.”

SETTING THE STAGE

44:07 — MOON SET // More on the details of the actual event. From Alex Bec of It’s Nice That, the host with the most. (We’d hire him any day.) Dinner with a side of moon setting and stargazing. Morning yoga with Vish Kapoor, who set us up for success in the most serene way possible. He later closed his talk by leading the whole group in breathwork. Love.

BRIAN COLLINS & ALEX ATHANASIOU // COLLINS

46:11 — BRAND AS HOST // Yes, there were legendary references that inspired the crowd, but these two delivered the provocation of the day that everyone repeated: brands today should be hosts. We love it so much I changed the intro of our talk to mention it.

“Nobody falls in love with a brand framework.”

ELIZABETH AZEN ANDIA // WSJ

48:18 — MORTADELLA // At dinner, we had at least 10 conversations about Christoph Hänsli’s Mortadella book that appeared in Elizabeth’s weird and wonderful talk. Elizabeth reflected on the conditions it takes to make good work, with very cool references that belong on an episode of Figma’s Source Material.

“Always go a little further into the water than you feel you’re capable of being in.” (David Bowie, via Elizabeth)

CHRIS NOTT & CONNIE WEMYSS // STUDIO DRAMA

48:46 — THE SANS-DEMIC // Friends of the pod, and true talents, Studio Drama got up and reminded us about the brand asset most are sleeping on: fonts. How much of your brand is made up of logo appearances? 12%. Product? 18%. Photography? 25% Type? 28%. Think about that.

“We may have democratized communication but we also standardized it along the way.”

DAVID RAGER // NASA

49:05 — NASA MADE US CRY // David could have just shown the work, and we’d have been impressed. Instead he shared how NASA makes the incomprehensible incredibly human. The entire amphitheater shed tears. It was a lesson for others at the frontier today. There were so many quotable moments, but we wrote none down. We were too busy wiping our tears.

BIGGER LESSONS

50:41 — DO, BE, OR FEEL SOMETHING // Paradigms has some of the most creative and forward-thinking humans. Here’s what the best talks had in common:

* They used humor.

* They balanced a great presentation format with the human delivering it.

* They inspired the audience to do, be, or feel something.

* They were edited, with a tight focus.

* They were clearly having fun.

* They asked, does the audience care, or just me?

IN CLOSING

51:30 — AND DOLPHINS // We deliberately didn’t spend much time on our talk, which included a little preview of our new Age of Authorship talk. It was humbling to be in this line up to say the least. And we got lots of very kind words about it as the event came to a close. Boats were sailed, dolphins were spotted, and we all floated around in the world’s happiest recreation of the scene from Titanic. The night ended. The memories have not.

Massive thanks to Roger, Digge, Becky, and the whole Frontify team for having us. It sold out this year. Make sure you’re following for a jump on next year. We’ll see you there.

That’s all, folx.

ABOUT

Chris and Kirsten are the founders of IN GOOD CO, a consultancy that ignites challenger brands with fearless positioning.

Chris writes a weekly newsletter for +17K subscribers that shares the best-of-the-best on culture, trends, marketing, etc. What she’s dropping to friends on Slack or finding useful in meetings with brands | Follow her on Substack

Hi all,

We’re back with another edition of GOOD SIGNS — these are signals, patterns, counter-trends. Stuff that’s emerging, continuing, sticking out, or simply what we’re finding interesting in the last month.

This month’s episodes are sponsored by Herman Miller.

Kirsten’s house is basically a MillerKnoll showroom at this point. We both now have the pleasure of sitting in two Herman Miller chairs for every podcast that we were fitted for (a service they offer in all their stores!). I can safely say mine is a wellness investment. My back is my weakest link, and after a month of travel in the US, being back in my chair is a true delight. If you spend eight hours a day in a chair, make sure it fits you perfectly. Get fitted or order yours here.

Now onto the episode. Enjoy! And let us know what you think in the comments.

Skip to the bits you fancy

1.

04:48 — EXHAUSTIVE CHECKS // The question used to be whether something was good. Now the first question is whether it’s real, and we’re all doing the checking ourselves. I wrote “I checked. Not AI.” under a stunt I liked this month. ZINE & YouGov found that “Americans now default to ‘This is fake’ six times more often than they default to ‘This is real.’” ANU has a great read on it, calling the age we’re entering ‘post-reality marketing’. This Sentimental Garbage note Anu shared really explains the exhaustion. But as I said in the 2026 predictions, the question now is how long before we all stop showing up to platforms that we can’t trust?

Places it’s showing up:

* Stan Lee’s estate sold his voice and likeness to ElevenLabs. Nobody is asking for this IMO.

* Oblist’s ad is lovely conceptually, but AI-gen’d. Does it matter? Maybe.

* Louis Vuitton built a car to look like its own bag and got trolled as “AI slop IRL.” But it was real.

Pendulum Swing → Bobbie rolled out its own Substack called Sally Forth. It’s full of real stories, from real people, with real unvarnished takes on parenthood. Belmond appears to have bought out Sam Youkilis’s IG stories. He’s a trusted, real photographer, and every story is saturated in his credibility.

2.

22:47 — WHICH ALPHA? // Brands keep guessing at what kids want, missing, and then wondering what’s happening (often coming to incorrect conclusions). The kids are extremely clear about what they want. Just go talk to one.

Places it’s showing up:

* Build-A-Bear downgraded its outlook and the CEO blamed overdoing it on innovation. Wrong analysis. They misunderstood the innovations Alphas/Zs are looking for.

* Skylrk beat Apple to the punch. Everyone wants an MP3 player. They made one.

* J.Crew’s cropped roll neck felt confusing when Alphas openly want baggy and have for years.

Pendulum Swing → Aiming at whoever’s paying could work. Maybe. Maisonette’s new tween brand Neon Rebel reads like a gifting site for adults for tweens.

3.

31:44 — HOME CLINIC // In the SILVERS 2026 predictions, I said distrust in medical institutions, thin infrastructure, and the cost of care would push people to handle it at home. That part happened. What’s new is the hardware finally got good, and it finally looks good.

Places it’s showing up:

* Strolll built AR glasses that walk patients with neurological disorders through physical therapy on their own.

* Luffu launched a wearable that does the Life Alert job and looks vastly cooler. Martha Stewart had the right instinct first with her Life Alert challenger.

* Dyson made a toothbrush with a camera in it, arriving right as the dental health to brain health conversation gets loud. Ick, but it will take off. Humans love gross things.

Pendulum Swing → Katie Stone and I got into the death of expertise on the pod, where GLP-1s might be the miracle and DIY peptide cocktails are very much not.

4.

40:29 — SOURCE CODE // Everyone has the same tools and the same Pinterest boards, so the work all looks the same. Sources and good choices matter again.

Places it’s showing up:

* Figma launched Source Material, a show where the creatives share their references.

* Andrew Chen is predicting Adversarial Creativity: make something specific, timely, weird, and useful right now, then make the next thing.

* Nordstrom’s series with Recho Omondi gives instant clout back to a brand that had fallen off.

Pendulum Swing → Not a true pendulum but an adjacency. People are now reading their Substack essays aloud on Instagram. We keep leaning harder into what makes us us.

5.

48:13 — THE FUTURE OF NO // Is the affliate link era over. Likely not. But “no” is becoming a differentiator. Credibility, uniqueness and a curated guest list are a positioning statement.

Places it’s showing up:

* Shop Rat by Emilia Petrarca is done with affiliate links, press trips, free product, and sponsored posts. Credibility is worth protecting at almost any cost.

* Pellicano’s Marie-Louise Sciò says scaling and standardization aren’t worth what it would cost.

* Wimbledon will not accredit creators. Who you allow in is a positioning statement now.

Pendulum Swing → The pendulum here is just the other side of the misunderstanding. Katie Stone made the same case on the pod. Rigid press trip itineraries kill the story. There’s a whole deep dive to be done on the new frontier of PR.

Letters referenced:

* Brand love or trust? Bobbie says trust

* Science is getting Substacked

* Justin Bieber is one-upping Apple

* The sauna bubble, GLP-1s and the death of expertise

* Dior x A24. No provincial product.

And for paid readers, in case you missed it, our first-ever quarterly GOOD TRENDS.

Hit the links to skip to the bits you fancy

BOLD CAPPED links jump to that moment in the recording. Brand names take you to past letters where they were mentioned.

03:11 — CULTURE // HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT // The trust collapse has brands and businesses having to respond. Ramp · Vittles · Shop Rat

11:40 — F&B // MOMENT MAKING // Food has always been an experience. But it’s not all dinners. Goop Kitchen · Fortnum & Mason · Oatly

17:02 — DRUGS & BOOZE // MODERATING MODERATION // The wellness anarchist, a term coined by Tom Garland, is underrepresented. Diet Coke · Cannes · Columbia · Romanticized hangovers

20:42 — SILVERS, ALPHAS & ZS // HELLO, ALPHA // Alpha zones were the 2025 prediction. Alpha agency is 2026. Here they merge. Tututu Space · Claire’s · Comme’N

25:19 — FASHION & RETAIL // VALUES VERSUS VALUE // Showing what you’re invested in is the right investment. Chanel · Aritzia · Greenrow

29:32 — TECH // AGE OF AUTHORSHIP // The age of authorship isn’t about AI. It’s about mindset. Jeff Dean · Lovable · Age of Authorship

37:04 — SPORT // EXPANSIVE GAMES // Sport has been unbinding. Not all unhinged, but many of the rules aren’t welcome anymore. Exercise Snacks · Salomon x Pas Normal · $1 Ultra

41:48 — WELLNESS & BEAUTY // DATA DON’T DO IT // Measurement isn’t the goal. Improvement is. Dumbo Health · MyFitnessPal · WHOOP

45:38 — TRAVEL // LUX NOT LUX-ING IT // We’re questioning what luxury is, and most isn’t cutting it. United · The Stanza · Anagram

50:52 — FUN FOR THE QUARTER // B2B UNBOUND // B2B marketing has evolved. Most brands just haven’t caught up. Frontify · Okta · Air

That’s all, folx.

This post has bonus content for paid subscribers. Upgrade to get full access.

That’s all, folx.

-Chris

We’ve been trying to get Katie Stone on the pod for ages. It all started in a freezing January Herman Miller headquarters in deep-winter Michigan.

Katie writes @Plant Based, one of our favorite Substacks in wellness (and honestly just a fave overall), and she consults for a who’s-who of wellness and beauty brands.

We get into wellness travel, the sauna bubble, peptides and GLP-1s, what wellness even means once it becomes an industry, branded Substacks done right, and a very heartfelt PSA for United and Delta.

If you work in wellness, build brands, or just want to travel and live a little more intentionally, this one’s for you.

AND! New perk for yearly paid members!

September 9th, at 5pmGMT/12pmET/9amPT we’re introducing a QUARTERLY 10 GOOD THINGS interactive session. A masterclass for the quarter. Become a paid member and then sign up here!

This month’s episodes are sponsored by The Keva Dine Agency.

Enjoy!

Meet Katie

Katie Stone writes Plant Based, one of the most-read wellness Substacks, covering wellness, beauty, and the culture around them (don’t miss her Into the Fridge series). She’s also a brand consultant for wellness and beauty brands — content strategy, Substack, copywriting, brand building — with clients like Soft Services, Earthbar, and west~bourne, plus past work with The Farmer’s Dog, Sakara, and Jolie. She studied journalism at USC Annenberg and still writes for The Strategist, Vogue, and WSJ. Find Katie on Instagram, on LinkedIn, and at katie-stone.com.

Hit the links to skip to the bits you fancy

05:23 — JOURNALIST TURNED BRAND BUILDER // Katie’s origin story. She wanted Condé Nast, realized journalism wasn’t going to cut it, and made a pivot.

09:57 — CHANGE IN PUBLIC // “No one is paying you enough to feel bad about changing what you’re doing.” All about evolving in public.

12:34 — WELLNESS TRAVEL // Not eat-pray-love retreats. We chat wellness travel: Tech-free resorts, lymphatic everything, and land you’re actually a guest on.

17:24 — GIVE THE WRITER THE REINS // Rigid press-trip itineraries kill the story. Guardrails yes. Rules, no thanks.

21:04 — THE SAUNA BUBBLE // We all 3 love a sauna, but is this bubble about to pop?

22:38 — THE TEMAZCAL // A call for real deal experiences.

27:33 — PEPTIDES & THE DEATH OF EXPERTISE // GLP-1s might be the miracle drug, but DIY peptide cocktails not so much? We discuss the death of the expert.

34:03 — WHO’S ACTUALLY DOING IT RIGHT // Wellness is how you live, not something you buy.

37:24 — A BRAND MADE FOR NOBODY // You can’t build a brand if you don’t know who it’s for.

39:38 — EVERYONE WANTS TO BE A FOUNDER // But how you adding value is the question everyone should be asking.

44:30 — HOW TO ACTUALLY WRITE A SUBSTACK // Consistency over everything, and get creative about value. It’s a publication, not a newsletter.

50:44 — QUICK FIRE // Three things every brand should do, the best advice she’s ever gotten (“stop thinking about yourself so much”), and the category Katie would love to disrupt.

55:47 — PSA FOR UNITED & DELTA // The airline rant about cheese plates.

Huge thanks to Katie for coming on. Subscribe to Katie Stone and follow her on Instagram.

ABOUT

Chris and Kirsten are the founders of IN GOOD CO, a consultancy that ignites challenger brands with fearless positioning.

Chris writes a weekly newsletter for +17K subscribers that shares the best-of-the-best on culture, trends, marketing, etc. What she's dropping to friends on Slack or finding useful in meetings with brands | Follow her on Substack

New series alert.

Welcome to 10 THINGS: ten things standing out to us this month, one from each category we cover in the letter. It’s not GOOD SIGNS. SIGNS is about the cross-pollination of signals. 10 THINGS is more of a fly-on-the-wall to the conversations we are naturally having about the letter when we’re hanging out.

This month we get into secret accounts, Fishwife’s tin-on-the-side Sweetgreen collab, the bowls of cigarettes lying around everywhere, a kids-only entrance, Sézane slowing down, the great Google exodus, StudBudz, scalp wellness, and airlines finally having some fun. Plus one just for FUN FOR THE MONTH.

If the Sunday letter is sometimes a lot to keep up with, consider the sampler platter for the drive to work or while doing dishes.

AND! New perk for yearly paid members!

September 9th, at 5pmGMT/12pmET/9amPT we’re introducing a QUARTERLY 10 GOOD THINGS interactive session. A masterclass for the quarter. This is only available to yearly paid members. Our yearly membership is $111, so that’s just over $25 per quarterly session. Plus, you get the full archive to read everything we talk about (including all the links we’ve added below). You can ask questions prior to and during. And you get to laugh with us live. It’s a steal, no?! Become a paid member and then sign up here!

This month’s episodes are sponsored by The Keva Dine Agency.

Enjoy!

Hit the links to skip to the bits you fancy

06:16 — CULTURE // SECRET ACCOUNTS // With all of these, the left link will help you skip to the timestamp in the pod. The ‘Read more’ like this one will take you to the letter and segment that we’re discussing. Paid members have access to the full archive.

16:41 — F&B // DIY TUNA // Read more.

23:52 — DRUGS & BOOZE // BOWLS OF CIGARETTES // Read more.

33:45 — ALPHAS, SILVERS & ZS // ALPHA ENTRANCE // Read more.

41:23 — FASHION & RETAIL // NOT SO FAST SEZANE // Read more.

49:42 — TECH // GOOGLEY EXODUS // Read more.

54:27 — SPORT // STREAMING BUDZ // Read more.

58:15 — WELLNESS & BEAUTY // SCALP WELLNESS // Read more.

1:01:52 — TRAVEL // AIRLINES DELIVERING // Read more.

1:06:34 — FUN FOR THE MONTH // MOM & POP POP-UPS // Read more.

ABOUT

Chris and Kirsten are the founders of IN GOOD CO, a consultancy that ignites challenger brands with fearless positioning.

Chris writes a weekly newsletter for +17K subscribers that shares the best-of-the-best on culture, trends, marketing, etc. What she's dropping to friends on Slack or finding useful in meetings with brands | Follow her on Substack