POV: This is My Jeb Bush Moment
Advice for Anyone Making Stuff in 2025
Alright. Let’s talk about everyone’s two favorite words: “content” and “strategy.” This is my Jeb Bush moment. Instead of “please clap,” it’s “please keep reading.”
Good News, Bad News
The good news for people like me is that companies still have an appetite for making interesting content that grows and connects with their audience. The bad news is that most of them have been burned.
And honestly, I get it. There’s been a trail of disappointment and confusion in this space. Consultants and agencies charge a fortune for experiments that never hit the bottom line. The CEO's nephew who's a TikTok influencer can’t understand why your B2B claims company isn't as well. And there’s the ever-changing all-powerful algorithm.
No wonder we’re at the point where somewhere in the middle of every Zoom call, a voice eventually says, “I bet we can just get AI to do that,” like a Pavlovian cue.
This isn't a you problem or a me problem, by the way. It’s a culture-wide thing. Disney/Pixar just spent $200 million on Elio, a movies critics called creative, interesting, and ambitious. It bombed at the box office…hard. There’s a disconnect we’re all very much feeling between what gets made and what happens next.
Why This Keeps Happening
From where I sit, there are three big reasons brands keep tripping over content strategy.
The first is alignment. Comms, sales, ops, and leadership often think they are rowing in the same direction, but in reality they are on different rivers. Marketing wants storytelling, sales wants leads, and ops just wants everyone to stop using the word “vibes” in pitch decks.
The second is that strategy itself has become a BS term. It gives off very pre-COVID TED-talk vibes (Agggh I just did it!). “Strategy” gets thrown around so casually that no one trusts it anymore. Everyone says they have one, but press them to explain it and you end up with a dozen slides that could apply to any company in any industry. Strategy has become corporate wallpaper.
The third reason is KPIs are a hall of mirrors. When it comes to content, most teams are afraid to admit they don’t actually know what success looks like. Should they measure views, conversions, shares, retention, or something else entirely? The ambiguity creates a void that gets filled by the loudest opinion in the room (which is always TikTok-nephew. His name is Madison).
The Consultant/Agency Problem
This is the part of the movie where the cavalry shows up. The consultants. The agencies. The pitch decks with moody stock photos of city skylines all shot in 9x16 portrait mode. They promise clarity, momentum, and metrics that will finally make sense.
Sometimes they deliver. A lot of times they don’t. But even when they do deliver, the client often doesn’t follow through. The budget runs out, leadership moves on, or the KPIs were never defined clearly enough to know if the campaign was actually working. Both sides walk away frustrated, muttering about how the other side “just didn’t get it.” Meanwhile, Madison is choreographing the HR department through the latest dance trend.
So…what can be done?
For all the false starts and missteps, here’s what I’ve seen does work…
The First Shall (Hopefully) Be Last.
Whether you’re an individual creator, small business, IPO, or entertainment studio, content strategy does not start with platforms. Let me say that again. Platforms come last.
First comes your point of view: what you stand for, what you are trying to say, and why anyone should care. Legendary producer Rick Rubin talks about “clarity of intention” in his book The Creative Act. That is where you begin.
Next comes audience: who you’re talking to and in what context. Are they in a boardroom? In line at the grocery store? Sitting at home at midnight? Until you know the backdrop, your content is homeless.
Only after those two pieces are nailed down do you move to formats and platforms (TikTok, podcasts, LinkedIn, email, etc.) Not because they’re irrelevant, but because they only matter once you know the message they are carrying.
When you flip that order, you end up with noise and cynicism. When you get it right, you create the communities you’re hoping for, ones that build trust, spark joy, and occasionally inspire awe.
Better > More
The future does not belong to brands making more content. It belongs to brands making better content. Content rooted in clarity of message, not just whatever platform happens to be hot this quarter.
If you lead with platforms, you’re at the mercy of algorithms, trends, and Madison’s whims. If you lead with message, you build something deeper: content that aligns your team, earns trust with your audience, and still has life six months later.
The idea is not to post more often. The idea is to nurture a garden where every video, podcast, email, or live event flows from the same well: your actual positioning and point of view. That is what audiences can feel. That is what makes the difference between noise and resonance.
So here’s a provocation: stop asking “Should we be on TikTok?” and start asking “What do we stand for, and how do we want people to feel when they hear from us?” Platforms will follow. Formats will follow. Most importantly, people will follow.
Please clap.