The Most Radical Strategy? Telling the Truth

Performative marketing is crumbling

The line has been drawn in the “digital space” sand.

Unlike most hype cycles this industry thrives on, there’s no bouncing back to how things used to be.

What’s happening isn’t just a shift in platforms or a new wave of tools.

It’s a full-on recalibration of how we make decisions, build trust, and connect with businesses online. It’s shining a big ol’ light on how hollow so many marketing strategies have become while making it crystal clear that people are ready for something better.

For years, digital marketing rewarded a very specific type of behavior: louder, faster, more.

• The more you pushed, the more visible you were.

• The more polished the funnel, the more legitimate you seemed.

But somewhere along the way, that machine began to break down—not all at once, but slowly—like gears grinding against a system that no longer fits (anyone else think, “Thank God!”).

The burnout started with creators.

Then it reached consumers.

And now, even the traditional marketing world is starting to admit it: the tools that once drove growth no longer land the same way.

I shared a few months back that I read a piece recently about a major ad agency predicting that half of its current strategies will be irrelevant by 2027. Not because the platforms are disappearing, but because people are changing. One of the cited reasons was the effect of GLP-1 medications, which are already impacting how impulsive people are.

In other words, the behaviors that much of marketing depends on—fast decisions, quick dopamine hits, emotionally reactive spending—are shifting.

And with that shift comes something deeper: discernment.

This is bigger than any one trend or tech advancement.

It’s a new phase of consciousness in how people engage with content, sales, and storytelling. They’re no longer responding to pressure the way they used to. They’re asking better questions. They’re taking a beat. They’re tuning out brands that feel off, even if the copy is “right.”

What we’re seeing now is the slow death of performative marketing.

You know the kind.

It’s the vulnerability that’s engineered to soften you before the pitch. The “value stacks” that are more about optics than value: “TOTAL Value is $14,999, but today you get it all for only $2997!” 🙄

The urgency countdowns that somehow restart every time you revisit the sales page (unless you’re using the super ninja tool that doesn’t reset). This isn’t just outdated—it’s insulting to the people we’re claiming to serve.

What’s emerging in its place isn’t revolutionary but radical because it requires a different kind of leadership. It asks you to trust something other than tactics.

To build your business in a way that prioritizes depth over noise.

And to show up without the armor of performance.

For those of us who’ve been in the game long enough to remember the early days of blogging and RSS feeds, this feels less like a pivot and more like a return—a return to story, to voice, to quality over frequency.

There was a time when consistency didn’t mean showing up daily—it meant showing up meaningfully (and I get it, consistency has always mattered, but it mattered because of connection, not algorithms).

And the creators who understand this are the ones who are thriving, not necessarily with explosive growth, but with real connection, trust, and sustainability.

The “big launch” is being replaced by something that lasts.

The truth is, most of the marketing world hasn’t caught up to this yet. There’s still a scramble to engineer relevance, and marketers still heavily lean on formulas, templates, and “proven” frameworks.

But if you listen carefully, there’s something else rising up under the noise—a quieter, more intentional approach to business. One rooted in values that don’t need to be performed.

This isn’t about tossing structure out the window or pretending you’re too “heart-centered” to care about sales. And it’s definitely not about playing small. It’s about doing all of that—creating, selling, growing—with integrity. If you’re in this for the long haul, pressure tactics won’t cut it. You’re not tricking people into a funnel—you’re inviting them into something meaningful. And when they get there, it needs to feel real.

✔️ Yes, this might mean your audience grows more slowly.

✔️ Yes, it might mean you opt out of things that technically “work.”

But it also means your work lasts. Your audience sticks around.

And your business actually reflects who you are, not just what the market wants this quarter.

There’s nothing soft about building something with integrity.

It takes more courage and requires a level of self-trust that most of us were never taught to cultivate.

Fortunately, clarity is the true disruptor in a world obsessed with hacking attention. And when you start from the truth, you don’t need urgency. You don’t need smoke and mirrors. You don’t need to “position” yourself as anything you’re not.

You’re already enough.

And the people who are ready for what you have to offer?

They’ll feel it. 😉

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I felt like a bit of inspiration this week…