THINK Creative Intelligence / Think Webstore : Ridgeland, Mississippi

10/15/2026

When your product or service is a commodity, focus on something outside the product or service to create an add-on or added interest. A personality. An attitude. A belief. Or, maybe just a clown or a king to sell your hamburgers. Or a cool can to hold your water.

But what you really want is not to be a commodity. Your best bet is being different at your core offer. Have the thing that people can’t get anywhere else. And almost always, you have to figure out what that core thing is and communicate it so that people get it. And doing that is hard.

Off to market we go!

10/08/2026

You always have a choice to try to win.

Just because you can’t easily measure the best thing does not change it from being the best thing.

Big ideas and big strategies require change, which means leaps of faith and risk.

Change nothing—do the safe thing—focus on easy metrics—and expect nothing meaningful.

Choose change—choose strategy—choose big ideas—expect different.

Take no shots—never win.

or

Take your shots until you win.

You always have that choice. You are empowered to take a chance for a win.

When you do you just might be standing next to a THINK Creative Intelligence / Think Webstore or a CEO like Tycho Luijten or Mark DiMassimo or a worldclass transformation and design agency like COLLINS who understands that the idea matters more and is in the business to find it and execute it.

09/29/2026

How to get in touch with very busy people?

Many people are busy all week with appointments and obligations and mired in a muck of endless email that they can never climb on top of.

For us, new clients call our office to set an appointment.

We give clients that we get to know our phone number so they have a direct line to us.

Clients who get to know us call to make appointments. We're always reachable.

It’s funny how the easiest way sometimes turns out to be the way you started with all along.

Once again, the muddle is always in the middle.

09/28/2026

The joyous donut hole.

You walk into a donut shop. You order a dozen hand-picked, beautiful and beyond tasty donuts. Chocolate, glazed, Bavarian cream, pink and vanilla frosted adorned with Homer Simpson sprinkles. An amazing box of donuts.

The owner is about to close the box, and then pauses. He looks up and smiles. Then he spills a half dozen donut holes on top and winks. “Have a blessed day!”, he says.

What are you think about now? The donuts or the donut holes?

It is the donut holes.

This is the Lead and the Follow.

You were happy to get what you were paying for, the donuts. It was what you expected.

You were excited by the donut holes. They were not expected. And, they drove an emotional response. Joy.

Folks in Louisiana call this lagniappe. It is the extra. The bonus. The part that puts a smile on a sale.

You have to lead with your primary offer. Your core. And people will rarely get excited about it. No matter how great it is, it is the transaction. The contract. The expected.

But the lagniappe…now that is exciting.

What is your Lead and your Follow? Plan for it and use it intentionally. That is strategy.

09/25/2026

Is AI enabling more than Lazy?

This is probably my favorite “AI future” post we've seen. We fully agree with arming the imagination.

But, we want to talk more about the middle. To survive, we need to monetize our talents. We need to produce what people are willing and want to pay for.

Sure, there are those that will always pay for the best, but the middle always holds the greatest earning opportunity.

When the middle does not know the difference between great and mediocre, mediocre becomes the go to.

You can also throw in the cheap who don’t care as long as they spend as little as possible.

We are talking, “acceptable.”

Yes, AI unlocks. It provides ways to execute at speed for those developed minds of taste, armed with the new skill of manipulating AI.

Which brings us to the crutch dilemma.

How is the AI generation going to develop their creative mind? You can argue that there is an infinite AI universe to learn in. But, humans do offer something different.

Once a generation lives AI, what changes? What is lost? What is gained?

We hope that this next generation does not get lazy in the wrong ways. That they just grow into an efficiency model.

Calculators, spell checkers, Google maps, grammar checkers, word processors, the internet, powerful phone cameras, frozen and instant foods, self driving cars—have any of these diminished our skills to drive, to develop an eye, to manage visual layouts, to spell, to find information, to calculate, or to cook?

We feel like there are some big NOs in there, but also some yeses.

Every generation has to manage lazy and mediocre. We are just adding to the list of enablers.

But is there more growing and becoming enabled than is submitting to lazy? What human qualities are we adding to take the place of those that are sacrificed?

Do we lose our next generation of painters and artists because they develop their talents differently?

Which creative endeavors are financially supported? Because, without a living, many doors are shut to those who have to feed themselves and their families.

One thing is for sure, the human imagination does not go away. And, that may be the biggest point of all, in AI.

09/24/2026

Success only teaches you what worked. It narrows possibility to one.

Failure teaches you what didn’t work and lets you examine all of the reasons why, and examine all of the possibilities ahead with greater wisdom.

To reach the greater win with wisdom by your side, you have to do the work of learning.

Do not put your faith in success. Do not put your trust in failure. Put your faith in learning and trust in its wisdom in order to succeed.

But always strive to succeed.

09/23/2026

Today George Lucas opens his new museum to the public. And, it looks amazing!

People expect a Star Wars museum, and it certainly has some. But only 7% is dedicated to the Sci-fi franchise. The rest is about creation, story telling, and design.

You can almost feel the space in the photos!

09/22/2026

We believe advertising is like NASCAR.

We all expect “drive fast turn left” but what we are watching for is the boom.

Real people making blunders is a boom. AI doing anything is drive fast turn left.

If AI takes over advertising, people video, and more, and it will or at least try for a while, we are in for a whole lot of drive fast turn left.

Time to crawl out from behind screens and start shaking hands again. And, work out how to scale with bs-ads or get innovative.

We truly look forward to the next version of innovation and hope it is human-based. Humans are way more interesting.

Recently I reposted a stinky crap sandwich of a post. Those of you who know me, know that this was an egregious misuse of what little time I have left before I inevitably stroke out and find myself in some endless afterlife of stacked status calls and late-night deck reviews. The....

09/21/2026

We believe you should enjoy doing business. Even to the point of fun.

You should be fulfilled by the purpose of your work.

Your work should provide a net gain. It should contribute and add value.

Ideally, the work you do should benefit from the best you have to offer.

Be the best you can be at whatever role you take on.

The work you do is between you and the work. Not you and your company.

You are always an entrepreneur, even if you have a j-o-b. You have an agreement with your employer and you can leave for another opportunity or they can let you go at any time. Entrepreneur.

You own the work you do and your life. Quit pretending otherwise.

You have talents. Exercise them to your greatest potential. Grow. Learn. Love. Achieve. Share.

Ignore any crappy, out-for-me, us against them career advice. It is always you against you. Own it. Live it. Learn from it. Help others. Don’t play the victim. You are fully empowered to be you.

If your take is, “I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed.” Then don’t.

Be anything. And, earn a living and a life along the way.

09/18/2026

Burnout is not only real, you may not even be aware it is taking hold.

If you are highly driven and have a mental pain tolerance that is actually higher than your capacity, you may slam head first into symptoms such as exhaustion, depression, or even involuntary shut down.

Mental fortitude is an asset. But it can mask things you should be attending to.

Imagine two amazing creatives taking you on retreat to unwind, breakthrough, and recalibrate.

Enter James Victore and Brian Collins

If you are to deep in to imagine it, then just jump in. The water’s just find.

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