Vol. 4, Issue 6: Drive For Show, Putt For Dough
Precision, Patience, and the Occasional Mulligan
I’m a golfer.
I was in Branson, MO* the past few days with some old friends on a trip that’s somehow lasted in its current form for 17 years (I’ve been going on some incarnation of this trip for 25 years). What you’re picturing in your head is exactly what it is: a bunch of middle-aged men playing golf during the day, eating and drinking their weight in whatever the local food and drink is and laughing uncontrollably for 4 straight days. It’s beautiful and amazing and exactly what I need every time I go.
I’m a good golfer in the way that I’m a good runner or a good swimmer, which is that if you give me some time and a distance, I can finish. If you give me clubs and 18 holes, I won’t embarrass myself. But I’m not a great golfer for a lot of reasons. For starters, I don’t play often enough to get any better than I already am, which is probably a metaphor of its own. But also, golf requires a level of concentration across every single facet of the game that I simply don’t possess.*
*I asked ChatGPT to roast me and then give me advice and one of the more telling lines of the thing, which was so spot on that I was uncomfortable at how well it knows me, was “You’ve got the ambition of a Fortune 500 CEO and the attention span of a raccoon with a glitter addiction. You’re one Google Doc away from global domination—but you’ve got 74 of them, all titled ‘Final-Final-USE-THIS-ONE-v3.’”
The best golfers don’t just have concentration; they also have thousands of hours of practice under their belt. They have a team of people helping them get better. But probably most importantly, they have a plan - on how to play the course, on what to do in every viable scenario, what to play and how to play a shot based on distance and weather conditions and where the ball is sitting and all manner of other factors.
As I was snap hooking another shot into the woods this weekend* and trying to manifest abundance from my game, something felt familiar to me about all of this.
How does this relate to advertising you ask? By now, you realize that just about everything in this newsletter is preamble. Golf forces you to think strategically, stay patient, and adjust constantly - just like building and executing an advertising strategy that actually works.
*JK, I *only* slice the ball
Let’s look at it through 5 different points:
Club selection
It’s extremely important. Even the worst golfer knows you can’t use a driver for everything*. The same goes for marketers. Just because you can use TikTok, DOOH, or a human being with a sandwich board outside of the local car wash doesn’t mean you should.
*Although sometimes it’s fun to putt with one
The best marketers - like the best golfers - understand the topography they’re looking at. They choose the right tools for the situation, not just the flashiest or trendiest ones.
It’s about matching intent to context. A short putt doesn’t need power. A niche B2B campaign doesn’t need a Super Bowl ad.
Know your clubs. Know your channels
The mental game
90% of golf is in your head. Advertising is no different. You launch a campaign and … crickets. Or worse, backlash. The landing page breaks, the client panics, the metrics are all pointing in the wrong direction.
The traits that separate professionals from Sunday drivers: staying calm under pressure, staying curious when things go wrong, and staying humble when they go right - these are the things that come together to drive success.
It’s not about perfection. It’s about your ability to bounce back.*
*One thing I try to carry with me in all facets of my life is Tiger Woods's allowance to himself - he gives himself 10 steps to be angry with his last shot. On the 11th step, he puts it behind him and focuses on his next move. 10 steps. That’s it.
The art of the Mulligan (and giving yourself some grace)
Mistakes happen. A creative misses. A strategy flops. A budget gets misallocated.
In golf, that means you need a mulligan - a do-over. And in advertising, sometimes you need them, too.
The key is not pretending it didn’t happen. It’s acknowledging the miss, learning from it, and adjusting your grip or your stance next time.
Everyone slices one into the woods now and again*. What matters is your recovery, your leaning and your next shot.
*And again and again and again
Play your own game
This is tied to club selection. One of the hardest lessons in golf is learning to play your own game. You possess skills and talents and abilities that other golfers don’t - just like they possess skills that you don’t. The key is playing to your strengths while avoiding falling into the trap of trying to adopt things that work for others, in spite of your own strengths.
In advertising, it’s very tempting to chase competitors, copy category leaders, or jump on every new platform as soon as possible. But the best brands win by staying true to who they are, sticking to their strategy and aligning new platforms or strategies to their strengths - not the other way around.
Just because Nike does something doesn't mean you should. Just because your competitor is on Threads doesn't mean it's your next move.
Stay in your lane. Trust your swing.
You’ll never master it
One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Vince Lombardi: “If we strive for perfection, we may not find it. But we may find some excellence along the way.”
No one masters golf. Not even the greats. Every round is different. Every course presents new challenges. Every week brings new obstacles to overcome. No one wins every time they go out.
Same for advertising.
The landscape shifts. Platforms evolve. Consumers change. What worked six months ago might fall flat today.
The goal shouldn’t be mastery. It’s improvement. Curiosity. And the ability to learn from each swing.
So as not to overwhelm everyone with the maniacal stream of consciousness from my brain, I’ve settled on an every 10 day publishing schedule, effectively every other Tuesday and Friday offset from one another. In other words, you’ll see another one of these a week from this Friday.
In other news, I’m doing some really fun and exciting work on getting the media business going, and if you’ve got interest in collaborating with me - writing something together, an interview of some kind, a video series - let’s talk!
That’s all for this week. Until next time, friends.