Unseen Unknown

Staying professionally curious sounds simple, but it is one of the hardest disciplines of strategy. It is not about reading more, saving more, scrolling more, or building an infinite pile of references. It is about developing a mind that knows what to feed on, what to reject, and how to metabolize information into original thought. Information is food. We digest ideas, chew on thoughts, sit with raw facts, and let things simmer. If strategists are bodybuilders of the mind, the diet has to be intentional. Social feeds, books, podcasts, conversations, lectures, old histories, fiction, academia, and side projects each have a different nutritional profile. Some inputs raise adrenaline or cortisol. Some restore oxytocin. Some provide breadth, but very little depth. The question is not just whether an input is good or bad. It is what that input does to your nervous system and whether it can become useful thought. Consumption is only half the work. The more important part is digestion. You have to chew the information by slowing down, reflecting, talking about it, writing through it, and turning the jewel with other people. Conversation adds emotional stakes and intellectual rigor. This episode also looks at the instinct behind great strategy: the ability to notice what is weird and know when the weirdness matters. The strongest insights rarely come from the average box of shared information. They come from rare places, from the edges of fields, old books, sci-fi, academia, history, other professions, and strange moments where trend and countertrend rhyme. That is where AI becomes complicated. It can help us go wide and find more material. But when it starts deciding what is interesting, it can weaken the very muscle strategists are trying to build. Professional curiosity is not passive openness. It is disciplined exposure. And when everyone is consuming the same feeds and asking the same tools for answers, the rare insight belongs to the person who still knows how to get lost. Links to interesting things mentioned in this episode and further reading: How To Create a High Performance Information Diet (Concept Bureau) Metaphors We Live By (George Lakoff and Mark Johnson) Digital Being: social media and the predictive mind (Ben White, Andy Clark and Mark Miller) Make Noise: A Creator's Guide to Podcasting and Great Audio Storytelling (Eric Nuzum) Why we stopped making Einsteins (Erik Hoel) Check out our Substack for more brand strategy thinking, and our community Exposure Therapy.

Conversation about how old visions of progress and achievement are collapsing as AI reshapes meaning. They explore shifting values from doing to feeling, and how collective problem-solving narratives have been replaced by tech mythology. They examine motherhood and beauty as examples where incremental fixes no longer suffice and cultural signals fragment into competing futures.

A cultural split between people doubling down on tech and those opting out into slow life and homesteads. How status shifts from money and stuff to intangible distances like embodiment, joy, and sovereignty. New languages of ambition emerge around content, community, and emotional states. Brands must learn to sell feelings not possessions as the old social grammar collapses.

Trust has always been the invisible architecture beneath brands, institutions, and markets. But today, that architecture is shifting. For the past decade, we’ve moved through distinct eras of trust. First came consequence brands, which positioned themselves around measurable moral impact. Then came emotion-led brands, where what felt right became the guiding force. Now we appear to be entering a third era, where trust is built not on credentials or transparency, but on visible sacrifice and embodied virtue. As institutional continuity weakens and shared reality fragments, credibility reorganizes around individuals. “Proof of knowing” carries less weight than “proof of doing.” Degrees, affiliations, and institutional endorsements are no longer sufficient signals. Instead, audiences look for lived experience, personal risk, and skin in the game. At the same time, many of the platforms designed to increase transparency have reduced everyday vulnerability. But true trust requires vulnerability. As a result, trust is reemerging in smaller, more intimate spaces where shared stakes and emotional exposure create safety. In this episode of Unseen Unknown, Jasmine and Jean-Louis explore how trust systems evolve, why incremental positioning feels insufficient in the current cultural climate, and what this shift means for founders and brands trying to remain credible. When trust becomes the product itself, the rules change. Links to interesting things mentioned in this episode and further reading: The Futures That Just Died (Concept Bureau) We’re Desperate For Potency (Concept Bureau) Edelman Trust Barometer Reports (Edelman) Who Can You Trust?: How Technology Brought Us Together and Why It Might Drive Us Apart (Rachel Botsman) Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right (Arlie Russell Hochschild) Gallup is stopping its Presidential Approval tracking (The New York Times) The great nonpartisan divide that's plaguing Americans (Axios) Check out our Substack for more brand strategy thinking, and our community Exposure Therapy.

The podcast delves into the rise of noetics, where intuition and inner wisdom are valued over science and religion. It explores the meaning crisis in society, discussing the impact of scientific progress on spirituality. The evolution of beliefs and knowledge is examined, including topics like trauma, psychedelics, and community living. The interplay between personal truths, AI, and diverse forms of cognition is also explored.

In this house episode, we speak with Concept Bureau strategist Rebecca Johnson about the concept of "weirdness" and brands. All humans are weird, and brands that are willing to venture into strange and bizarre territories have a chance to connect with their audiences in a deeply emotional way. From Puppy Monkey Baby to the Pet Rock, we analyze brand weirdness's impact on consumer engagement and differentiation. Weird is risky, but it’s also highly relatable when it’s done right. It can engender a form of trust that brands don’t usually experience with their users, while also signaling a brand’s values and vision. It’s also a strong force of creativity. Everything new feels weird at first. Instead of shying away, Rebecca talks about how to lean into the odd side of human nature and create something novel.Links to interesting things mentioned in this episode and further reading:Drawing Wisdom from the Weird: Understanding the Influence of Weird on Brands and the Future (Concept Bureau)Goodbye Relevance, Hello Relatability: The New Industry of Brand Connection (Concept Bureau)Interview: Kevin Kelly, editor, author, and futurist (Noahpinion)Private Dinner Party: Clothing Not Allowed (The New York Times)The Tube Girl is selling confidence — and her audience is lining up (The Washington Post)This Man Married a Fictional Character. He’d Like You to Hear Him Out. (The New York Times)Check out our website for more brand strategy thinking, and come connect with us on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Discover the art of strategic thinking and how to hone your skills for better problem-solving. From questioning assumptions to embracing intuition, stress-testing strategies, and understanding knowledge levels, this episode dives into the crucial aspects of thinking strategically. Learn how to unlock your strategic mind and apply these concepts to elevate your outcomes.

Brands get lucky once, maybe twice every generation, when the rules of status change and social equity is suddenly up for grabs. Our Concept Bureau Senior Strategist Zach Lamb believes we are in the midst of one of those rare shifts right now, where we are moving from the self-indulgence of conspicuous consumption to the self-denial of what he calls “conspicuous commitment”.Public figures are devoting themselves to difficult new modalities, diets, spiritual quests, life practices and ideologies. Your friends are going on arduous, painful, yet revelatory, psychedelic retreats. All around us, wellness brands, food brands, medical brands, lifestyle brands tell us that self-denial is the new flex.No longer are we obsessed with flaunting material possessions and extravagant experiences; instead, we're witnessing the rise of people showcasing their unwavering dedication to self-work, vulnerability and personal growth.In a time when nihilism is literally everywhere, when pessimism gets clicks on headlines, when post-capitalist hopelessness is a trending aesthetic on TikTok and every meme deals in absurdity, conspicuous commitment stands out.In this episode, we also speak with W. David Marx, author of “Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change” who has an alternative view of how status is tied to money more than ever, and what that means for an increasingly flattening culture.If you deal in any premium or luxury category, this is a must-listen. The ways we seek to distinguish ourselves have dramatically evolved as we prioritize discipline and personal growth over material success.That means everyone has to play by new rules.Links to interesting things mentioned in this episode and further reading:Conspicuous Commitment Is the Next Era Of Status (Concept Bureau)Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change by W. David Marx (Amazon)Money Can’t Buy Happiness. It Can’t Even Buy Status, a New Book Says. (New York Times)‘The Most Measured Man in Human History’ (Vice)High Fidelity Society is Reorganizing the World (Concept Bureau)Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid by Jonathan Haidt (The Atlantic) Brokenism (Tablet)Futurist Predicts Humans Will Achieve Immortality By 2030 (IFLScience)How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan (Amazon)Check out our website for more brand strategy thinking, and come connect with us on Instagram and LinkedIn.

What happens when the world suddenly reconfigures itself around a very different kind of relationship? The last 20 years of social innovation has leaned into weak ties: distant social relationships that allowed us to trust and extract value on platforms like Yelp, LinkedIn and Facebook. But the next 20 years are already shaping up to look very different. Strong social ties, our close-knit relationships with frequent interactions, are starting to emerge as the dominant threads of the social fabric. In this new era of increased intimacy with our immediate network, what we value and what we create move in a markedly new direction. We co-buy homes with friends, form politically aligned living communities, go deep into conversational chambers and band together in vision-led DAOs. The way we relate to one another is more profound, but also more narrow. What we demand of our network communities, and the brand landscape in general, becomes more high stakes.In this house episode, we’re talking to Concept Bureau’s Chief Strategist Jean-Louis Rawlence, about the huge implications for tech innovation, community building and business. When strong ties become the future of community, community becomes the new brand.Links to interesting things mentioned in this episode and further reading:Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid (The Atlantic)We Went to Anti-Vax Burning Man (VICE News)Friends are buying homes together. Here's why. (NBC News)The New Get-Rich-Faster Job in Silicon Valley: Crypto Start-Ups (New York Times)Community ≠ Marketing: Why We Need Go-to-Community, Not Just Go-to-Market  (Future, a16z)Shareholder Democracy Is Getting Bigger Trial Runs (New York Times)The Community Garden: The Case for Leaving FAANG Companies for Crypto (Paradigm)Crypto millionaires are pouring money into Central America to build their own cities (MIT Technology Review)The Town That Went Feral (The New Republic)Meet Moxie, a Social Robot That Helps Kids With Social-Emotional Learning (IEEE Spectrum)Check out our website for more brand strategy thinking, and come connect with us on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.

Cults make effective brands, and today, they’re all around us. We engage with them on some level every day, and cult experiences have come to define so much of who we are as a society that you have to ask, how did we get here?Perhaps the most insidious way cults have influenced the world around us is in everyday language that’s meant to control behaviors and change perspectives. It’s language we use with friends and colleagues, language in our media and content, and language we hear coming from today’s most powerful CEOs, on branded websites and in keynote addresses. In this episode we’re talking with Amanda Montell, a language scholar and author of the critically acclaimed book, ‘Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism’ to understand why cults have had a resurgence in branding and in real life. You’d be surprised to know that some of the successful brands of our time were either founded by, owned by, or closely tied to cults. There’s a very good chance that some influencer you’re following has at least borrowed from cult culture or knowingly created a radicalized cult around themselves. There are the cults we joke about like SoulCycle or Supreme, but they use the same dynamics and tools as the cults we like to gasp at in documentaries. Cults and businesses have always been intertwined, and understanding how they use the power of language to move people is the first step to decoding how they work.Links to interesting things mentioned in this episode and further reading:Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell  (Amazon)What LuLaRoe and Other MLMs Have In Common With Cults (Bustle)Elon Musk Is Not Just a Celebrity (The Atlantic)Five tactics used to spread vaccine misinformation in the wellness community, and why they work (Washington Post)Check out our website for more brand strategy thinking, and come connect with us on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.