TikTok and Meta ads for DTC Brands | Creative Strategist | UGC Producer|Founder of Tok-Vibes.com

Hi, I’m Oli!  a creative strategist who helps DTC brands turn scrolls into sales. I blend storytelling and data to build ads that not only grab attention but also drive growth. Here’s what I do best: I dig deep into your ad data and customer psychology to find out what truly makes your audience click. Then I craft fresh ad concepts (often leveraging UGC and AI content) grounded in those insights. The result = Campaigns that lower your CAC, boost ROAS, and scale your revenue sustainably. Over the past 5+ years, I’ve helped startups and global brands alike smash through growth plateaus:🔹 Scaled Loop Earplugs to exceed a $18M Q4 sales goal by 33%. (Yes, we overshot the target by a mile!)🔹 Drove 3.5X ROAS on $150K ad spend for a DTC accessory brand by reinventing their creative strategy (20% above benchmark performance)🔹 Cut CPA by 18% for a skincare client and found new customer angles that led 5 out of 50 test ads to drive 70% of their online revenue.I’m a founder, too... I launched an accessory brand with an innovative first product that I designed myself. I partner with you, founder-to-founder, treating your business like my own. If something isn’t working, I’ll tell you. If I spot an untapped opportunity, I’ll seize it. My approach in a nutshell: Test, learn, iterate. 📊 I run structured ad tests (thanks to my nerdy side that loves numbers) and then double down on the creatives that perform. No fluff, no ego.. just actionable insights and winning ads. And because I started as a content creator myself, I excel at producing ads that feel real and relatable (not like those stiff “agency” ads). On a personal note, I’m a bit of a nomad and nerd: I’ve lived on 3 continents, speak English &amp; French, and once grew a fitness Instagram to 15k followers just by talking about protein pancakes. 🥞 (Turns out, authentic content really does attract an audience...a lesson I carry into my ad strategies!). When I’m not optimizing campaigns, you can find me in a Reformer Pilates class and having lunch on a terrace with a friend.Ready to scale your DTC brand with ads that convert? Let’s chat. 😊 Send me a DM or book a call through my profile link, and let’s spark your next phase of growth.

Oli Cimet

Just had a client cancel because I used AI.

No joke.

New brand outside the US.
Was excited. We aligned on scope.

 I did a deep dive into their product + audience, like I always do.

Then I sent them a doc with early concepts + angles. 
Raw directions to align on strategy.
Spent 3 hours on that strategy work.

Client replies:
“Wait... was this made with AI?”

Yeah. It was. 
I use AI but I tweak, I sharpen, I test..
 But yes, I use AI in my process. Always.

 Reassured him this wasn't "lazy AI spam" 
This was research-backed strategy + ideas I’ve seen work before.

Still said he was “gutted” that it wasn’t 100% written by a human and cancelled the contract. 

🤷

Listen 

You shouldn't care how the idea came to life.
You should care whether it PERFORMS.

I've had ads scale past 6fig using this exact strategy workflow. multiple times.

AI isn't the enemy. Mediocre thinking is.

There’s a huge difference between:

“I let AI do the work for me”
vs
“I use AI to go deeper, faster and then I still do the work.”

If you’re hiring creators, strategists, marketers and banning AI just know:

You’re not being more “pure.”
You’re just slowing down the people who could win you your next best ad.

Do you want your team to use AI, or are you weird about it too? 
Be honest.

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QuickFrame Creator: Meta Platform Expert

QuickFrame Creator: TikTok Platform Expert

Certified Personal Trainer & Nutrition & Postnatal Coach

Visual communication -  Front End 

Back-End Web Developer

Fashion Styling and Editorial Certification

Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce

Meta & TikTok ads for DTC Beauty & Health brands | Performance Creative Strategist | Ecom | Startups to Fortune 500s

Tok-Vibes is a small creative strategy team that crafts ad campaigns rooted in psychology and boosts performance. 

I'm an expert in growing DTC businesses, but outside of work I've:

Lived on three different continents, built a holistic health brand, and became a Pilates reformer lover.

DTC Creative Strategist & Growth Partner Scaling 7-8 Figure Brands with Data-Driven UGC + AI Creative for FB & TikTok Ads | Founder of Tok-Vibes | Entrepreneur for Life

How to scale ads in 2026?

 Use this creative stack:

No scripts. No guessing. Just this:

Pick 1 persona

Pick 1 problem they obsess over

Write 3 angles that hit that pain/desire

Pair each with different creative formats (POV, demo, testimonial)

You don’t need 50 ad variations.
You need 3 angles that actually matter to your customer.
That’s how you scale with less.

Francesca J.

🚀 My 2026 Creative Stack (So Far)

Every few weeks I try to audit the tools I use the most
because AI is moving faster than most teams can test.

Right now, this is my go-to stack for creative strategy & ad production:

🧠 ChatGPT (duhh!) for research, persona ideation, and rapid testing
🔎 Poppy.ai – for deep research and strategic insight
🗣️ Eleven Labs – for AI voiceovers (almost scary good now)
📽️ Heygen & Arcads – for fast AI avatars + lip sync
✍️ Claude – for copy
🖼️ NanoBanana – for image gen + prompt-based static ad concepts
📊 Atria– for swipe inspiration & moodboarding
🎥VEO3/FLOW/Kling for b-roll generation


These tools help me move faster, prototype smarter, and test wider.
But I know I’m probably late to a few.

👉 What tools are you using right now that I should be paying attention to?

Not just AI but anything helping you move faster or think clearer.

(Especially curious about what people are using for trend mining, brief validation, or market research.)

Let’s build a better 2026 stack together. 💻⚡️

Happy New Yearrrrr

He scaled to $1.5M... and now wants to quit. Here’s why...

Recently spoke to a founder who hit $1.5M in 18 months.
Bootstrapped. No outside help.
Now he’s completely fried... and thinking of walking away.

Why?
Because everything in the business still runs through him.

→ He’s still the one coming up with angles.
→ He’s still the one editing ads.
→ He’s still the one deciding what to launch.
→ And now that growth has slowed... he's out of ideas.

He doesn’t need more team calls or SOPs.

He needs leverage

💡 That’s where a creative strategist changes everything.

Not by building systems or managing teams.
But by doing the one thing that actually moves revenue:

→ Giving clarity on what message needs to be said, to whom, and how.

That’s how you go from being a founder who’s “doing ads”…
to a founder who finally has room to run the business.

Stopped writing hooks. Started stealing them.

Best-performing ad angle I’ve tested in 6 weeks.

Here’s what happened:

I was working with a fragrance brand.
Instead of brainstorming hooks with ChatGPT (or overthinking it in a doc), I just read their reviews.

Not marketing copy.
Not competitor scripts.
Just... actual things people say when they love the product.

I found this gem:

👉 “I smell like a CEO now.”

We tested it. It crushed. Lowest CPA in 6 weeks.
No ad rewrite. No 30-minute brainstorm.

Just a sticky line straight from the customer’s mouth.

Now I do this for every client:

– Read their reviews
– Read competitor reviews
– Cluster the copy
– Extract hooks and benefits
– Build angles from real words real humans use

Because the truth is:
Your next winning angle is already written.
You just haven’t gone looking for it yet.

Once you hit $50–100k/month in your DTC brand, it gets loud real fast.

Not from growth... from problems.

Ads stop working

You’re cycling through UGC too fast

You're stuck making creative decisions based on vibes instead of data

I’ve worked with multiple brands right at that inflection point. 

And here’s what I’ve seen work every time:

Install a creative testing system that maps angles → formats → outcomes

Create ads for different stages of awareness, not just a shiny front hook

Treat statics like angle tests, not just filler

Build modular creative libraries (you’ll thank yourself later)

Most brands at this level don’t need more media buying hacks.

They need clearer messaging and smarter content systems.

If you’re at this stage, what’s been breaking for you?

If your ad or your landing page makes me think too much?

I scroll. I bounce. I click out.

Not because I’m dumb!!! because I’m busy.

You’ve got 2.02 seconds.

If your message has a high cognitive load (aka: it takes effort to “get it”) you lose me.

That’s why the smartest marketers write like they’re talking to a 7th grader.

Stop trying to sound clever. Start making sense.

If I have to think? I scroll.

Every. Single. Time.

Saw someone turn their mom’s hoarding problem into a $4k/month side hustle.

Not because they had a genius product.
But because they nailed the angle.

It wasn’t "junk removal."
It was emotional decluttering.

That’s the power of positioning.

It’s what I do every day for brands:
take a basic product → find the real problem it solves → craft messaging that cuts.

You’re not selling a product.
You’re selling a narrative your customer already believes.

Get that right, and you’ll print.

Founders, read this if you're trying to scale in 2026.

A few highlights from this week’s ecom news:

Amazon is bleeding influencer talent (they're underpaying creators)

TikTok is dominating DTC sales, especially impulse buys

Meta’s pushing deeper into product tagging & AI tools

Facebook Marketplace ads are evolving fast

AI-generated UGC is getting indistinguishable from real creators

What this actually means if you're a founder:

UGC costs are going up. Good creators know their value now. If you’re not building a system for performance-based testing (AI + UGC + hooks), you’ll burn cash fast.

Impulse is everything. TikTok isn’t for branding — it’s for “scroll → stop → click.” If your creative doesn’t hit a pain point in 1.2 seconds, you’re invisible.

Meta is still king... if you play smart. But that means creative built for systems not just volume.

 Angles that go deep. Testing across age splits. Copy-first.

I work with brands scaling in this climate and the ones winning aren't the loudest. 

They're just better at understanding the customer and speaking directly to them.

Are you building creative for today’s platforms or still stuck in 2021?

Most brands think they have a creative strategy.

But if I ask them to pull 5 ads from their account right now...

🛑 They all speak to the same person
🛑 They all hit the same awareness level
🛑 They all push the product the same way

That’s *not* a strategy. That’s copy/paste.

Let me break it down for you real quick and you can **test this on your own brand** in 2 minutes:

🔥 **Level 0: You’re only running statics or UGC
You’re not testing formats. You’re testing vibes. That’s why your ads fatigue in 3 days.

🔥 **Level 1: You changed formats but not the message**
Cool. You’ve got a green screen and a meme now. But every ad still says the same sh*t. Congrats, you added “creative diversity”.

🔥 **Level 2: You’re only targeting product-aware people**
If your ad says “Here’s why our product is better...” guess what? That person already *knows* the problem.


🔥 **Level 3: No one’s buying from desire**
Are you writing ads that tap into real psychology? Or are you just listing features and calling it a day?
Because “8 hours battery life” doesn’t compete with “never miss your kid’s call again.”

🔥 **Level 4: You think everyone buys for the same reason**
You’re selling one offer to one person in 40 variations.
Different personas = different angles = different creative. 
That’s how real brands scale.

🔥 **Level 5: You built a system that fuels all of this**
Your content engine hits every part of the funnel, every persona, every motivator and your team can actually deliver it. 
That’s when paid and organic *both* pop off.

👉 If you’re a founder pull up your ad account right now.
Ask yourself:

→ Do these ads speak to different stages of the journey?
→ Are we tapping into real desires, not just benefits?
→ Are we hitting different *types* of buyers?
→ Or are we just posting UGC and hoping for the best?

Want to scale in 2026? Get your strategy past Level 2.

😘

The old way of making ad creative is dead.
If you're still thinking like it’s 2022, you're bleeding money.

Let’s talk about what’s actually working in paid right now:

1. You’re making ads for humans. But AI decides what they see.

You write a hook and hope people click.
But Meta doesn’t care. 

It’s pulling signals from Reddit threads, YouTube tutorials, Amazon reviews, and training its algorithm to match what real people are already saying and searching.

If your ads don’t reflect that, they don’t scale.

2. Funnels are dead. Messages win.

Nobody follows your TOF > MOF > BOF funnel anymore.
They see an ad, Google you, come back 3 weeks later. Or they binge your ads in one night.

If your content only makes sense “in funnel order,” it’s not converting.

Every ad needs to hit. Standalone.
Make the message punch even if it’s the only ad they ever see.

3. Your problem isn’t scary enough.

Better product? Nobody cares.
Cheaper? Cool. You still lose.

Make the pain worse.
Expose what’s actually broken in their life if they don’t buy.
That’s what gets clicks. That’s what sells.

Don’t talk about your “solution” until you’ve built the monster.

4. Your positioning is too soft.

If I don’t know who it’s for in 2 seconds, I’m out.

Good positioning sounds like:
→ Skincare for hormonal acne
→ Watches for guys who destroy everything
→ Planners for ADHD business owners

Nobody wants “premium quality.” They want “this is for me.”

5. Your creative has no energy.

2026 is all about energy. Opinions. POV.
Not polished UGC. Not founder videos that sound like a podcast.

Be raw. Be direct. Show real moments. Make people FEEL something.

If your video doesn't grab in the first 3 seconds, it’s dead.

Paid ads right now are 80% creative, 20% media buying.
If you’re still only testing formats or hooks, you’re behind.

Start testing:
→ Real problems
→ Real beliefs
→ Real pain
→ Real people

That’s what scales now.

What are you testing lately?

How long does it really take to "make it"?

Saw a post where entrepreneurs who hit $10M+ were asked how long it took.

Most said:
→ 7-10 years
→ Multiple failed businesses
→ Years of eating sh*t before things clicked

Not 6 months.
Not your first course launch.
Not your first “big idea.”

That part matters because a lot of people are out here thinking they're behind when really... they're just early.

No one posts the 4 years they made $0.
No one brags about the failed Shopify store.
No one tweets about the 80-hour weeks before the team existed.

But it’s all part of the path.


Detach from timelines.
Solve the next problem in front of you.

🚨 A watch ad just did something wild:

No influencer.
No studio shoot.
No hypey CTA.

Just a voiceover + B-roll.

Here’s the setup:

“15,000 watches are about to be destroyed because the logo is off-center by 0.2mm. They work perfectly. So we’re selling them at 50% off before they hit the dumpster.”

Sounds stupid, right?

That’s why it works.


✅ Loss aversion: “You’re saving something from the trash.”
✅ Curiosity trigger: “They’re flawless... but being scrapped?”
✅ Human POV: “I convinced management to let us sell them.”
✅ Real urgency: Not a timer. A policy.
✅ Show, don’t tell: Drop tests. Mud. Water. Still works.

Lesson:
You don’t need a fancy story.
You need one, told well.

This ad’s been running for 9 months straight and scaled to 6 fig...

Here is what *actually* makes it work.

It’s not the visuals.
(It’s just a girl cutting fruit.)

It’s not the polish.
(She’s in a kitchen, talking to camera.)

It’s the psychology.

What makes this a killer ad?

1. Built-in credibility (without flexing)

“My sister is an environmental scientist...”

We immediately trust her *without* her needing to list credentials.

This is *borrowed expertise* one of the most persuasive techniques in DTC.


2. Specific, sensory language

> *“She looked at me like I was bathing in battery acid.”*

It’s not just shampoo = bad.
It’s *visceral.*
It paints a mental image.
You *feel* the guilt, the ignorance, the shift.


3. Anchored in **real-life tension**
She’s skeptical.
She uses $30 shampoo.
She doesn’t want to change.
But she’s *nudged* by someone she trusts.

This is what makes the resolution feel earned — not forced.

**4. Introduces the product *after* the problem feels personal**

She only mentions the product after the emotional tension is maxed out.

This creates *pull*, not push.
You’re not being sold... you’re just watching a personal transformation unfold.

**5. Closes with social proof + logic**

> “Now my hair feels better... it’s cheaper… and my sister approved it.”

✓ Product benefit (hair)
✓ Financial benefit (cheaper)
✓ Emotional benefit (peace of mind)
✓ Environmental benefit (plastic-free)

All layered in under 60 seconds.

---

This is what happens when you blend:

✔️ A great hook
✔️ Clear tension
✔️ Conversational writing
✔️ Psychological triggers
✔️ Zero “salesy” energy

study **why** they work not just *what* they say.

Let me know if you want more teardown posts like this.


### CTA suggestion:

💡 Drop a comment if you want the full swipe of this ad — happy to share.

---

Let me know if you want this formatted for a carousel or want a few headline variants too.

Most founders think they have a content problem.

You don’t.

You have a clarity problem.

Talked to a brand spending $150K/month.
They’re pumping 40+ videos a week.
Zero winners.

Not one ad scaled.

The problem?

→ No one’s actually doing deep research
→ Strategy is vibes
→ Team's executing without clear direction
→ Their only “winner” was a static from 4 weeks ago

It’s not a production issue.
It’s a thinking issue.

I told them to stop the spam.
We dropped it down to 10 sniper-level briefs a week — high intent, fully mapped to angles that actually matter to their audience.

Most of you are trying to scale quantity.
But quantity without direction just burns money.

In 2026, the only ads that work are the ones that:

Speak to real pain

Are built on data

Are tested like scientists

And made for the platform

Stop copying frameworks.
Stop listening to every “creative strategist” with a Canva template.
Slow down. Get sharper.

Clarity > volume. Always.

You don’t need a ‘new’ ad.

Everyone's out here trying to make the next viral ad like:

“Let’s reinvent the script. New hook. New angle. New concept.”

Just do what’s already working... but better.

The format doesn’t need to be new.
The message just needs to hit harder.
The voice needs to feel real.
And the target audience needs to go, “yo that’s me.”

Original is overrated. Effective wins.

If you want to grow fast stop talking about what you sell.

Instead, own the problem. Own the hole your customer is in.

Think about it like this:
No one wakes up wanting your product.
They wake up trying to solve a problem.

So your job?
Repeat that problem over and over until you’re the only name they associate with fixing it.

You don’t sell “carpet cleaner” you sell “the solution to 15-year-old pee stains.”
You don’t sell “a budgeting app” you sell “never worry about money again.”
You don’t sell “ads” you help people stop burning $10K/month with no returns.

Whoever owns the hole, wins.

👉 What hole does your product own?

You don’t need more content, you need more control.


Most teams are just “creating ads” not designing systems that let them scale predictably.

Don’t just brainstorm random concepts.

Use a repeatable messaging system:

✅ Angle (strategy)

✅ Hook (attention)

✅ Creative format (expression)

✅ Persona (target)

✅ Pain/desire/motivation (psychology)


Great creative doesn’t just start with a cool visual it starts with a clear plan.

What do we really mean when we say an ad needs "storytelling"?

→ It’s not about writing a Pixar movie.
→ It’s not about having a beginning, middle, and end.
→ It’s not even about narrative structure (most of the time).

In performance marketing, storytelling = context + emotional relevance.

That’s it.

The real job of storytelling in ads is to:
✅ Make the product make sense in someone’s real life
✅ Reframe the product around something they already care about
✅ Deliver emotion before features

No brand copywriter would’ve come up with that line.
But it hits because it’s true, visual, and emotionally loaded.

That’s what storytelling really is.

So next time someone says “this needs more storytelling,” ask:
❓ What moment in the customer’s life are we dropping into?
❓ What feeling are we anchoring the product to?
❓ What tension are we resolving?

If you can answer that you're doing it right.
If not, you’re just writing filler copy.

We scaled this ad past $60K in spend in under a month.

No talking head.
No polished script.
No creator.
Just POV text + 3 simple b-roll clips.

That’s it.

Why did it work?

Because we stopped thinking like marketers and started thinking like her the actual buyer.

📍Targeted the right avatar
📍Used her exact inner dialogue
📍Made it feel like her story, not an ad

“You gave up crash diets, trusted your DNA, and the weight finally came off — for good.”

It’s not hype. It’s recognition.
She sees herself in the story and that’s why she clicks.

Most ad accounts are over-scripted and under-relatable.

Founders: if you’re testing new angles, try this instead:
→ Write a POV in 1 sentence.
→ Build around her shift in belief, not your product’s features.
→ Layer it over b-roll that feels natural, not staged.

That’s what’s working right now.

Curious who else is scaling with super simple ad formats like this?

Managing Partner, Thinking Dimensions ► LinkedIN Top Voice 2024 ►Bold Growth, M&A, Strategy, Value Creation, Sustainable EBITDA ► NED, Senior Advisor to Boards,C-Level,Family Office,Private Equity ► Techstars Lead Mentor

LinkedIn Top Voice 2024/2025

Harvard Business Review Advisory Council Member, Strategy Tools Best Partner Award 2023  for outstanding work in Corporate Strategy, Transformation, and Growth. Annual Award Winner 2019, 2020 and 2024: Business Consultancy Professional of the Year from Corporate LiveWire. Executive Education Professor of the Year Award for 2021, 2022, and 2023 at CIMBA/University of IOWA, Techstars All-Star Mentor Award for 2024.

I am a Managing Partner at Thinking Dimensions, and an N.E.D.

I work with boards, CEOs, private equity, family office, senior leaders and owners in Fortune 1000 businesses to impact future sustainable growth and profitability.

As managing partner in Thinking Dimensions- an international management consultancy renowned for its problem solving & decision making processes- I am part of a global team delivering EBITDA impacting outcomes to clients through 3 distinct offerings:
 
•	Strategy Definition and Execution
•	Digital Transformation
•	Sustainable Value Creation

Thinking Dimensions has locations and expertise with a network spanning 17 countries of which I have conducted business on 5 continents.

With 30+ years of international experience in advisory activities balanced between both multinational and family controlled enterprises, I've had the unique opportunity to assist over 250 CEO’s and Senior Business Leaders globally.
  
Issues companies are focused around include:

Digital Transformation
Succession Planning
Corporate Venture Capital
AI Governance/Integration 
Internationalization including Early Stage Markets
Value Creation through non-organic growth (M&A, platforms)
Group and corporate reorganization/organization design
Go To Market/Sales 
Business plans/Industrial plans
Develop new business models
Funding of New Market development and commercial opportunities
Executive and board alignment
Platform and Ecosystem Design
Long-Term Sustainability 
Circular Economy and the Business Decisions necessary for the future

The organizations my teams and I work with achieve speed, alignment, and practical results with a future long term view.  

In summary I am working as a trusted advisor assisting leaders with the big decisions necessary for the future. 

I continue to publish at:
 
http://www.thinkingdimensions.com/resources/blog/strategy

As a Non Executive Director, I bring an international perspective focused on new business models, innovative approaches to Strategy, and Diverse capabilities required for sustainability. 

Specialties: Strategy, M&A, PE, VC,Non-Organic Growth, Emerging Markets, Family Office

Scott Newton

Why did the 2024 Mac Mini suddenly sell out on Amazon?

It's not people replacing their desktop machines.

It rather is a new viral trend. So big now that the memes are everywhere, including here.

In one word: Clawdbot

Clawdbot?

Yes, Clawdbot is an AI Assistant that is taking the (nerdy) tech world by storm. 

What does Clawdbot do? If you listen to the early adopter "evangelists" of the bot, everything.

It is an open-source AI tool. Silicon Valley techies are all over the internet, showing off their adaptations. You run it locally on your device, the most popular way at the moment (and of the easier approaches) to set up a Mac Mini and run it as a dedicated server for Clawdbot.

The reason it has become so virally popular is it's very impressive demonstration of Agentic AI. It can autonomously take complex multi step operations and actions on your behalf. 

And because it is Open Source, you can download and install Clawdbot straight from Github.

Is it safe to use?

Well, that's where it gets a bit more scary. Clawdbot has full read/write access to your entire drive, and users are giving it access to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, email, calendars, slack, teams....

The tech professionals, and the founder of Clawdbot are very clear: "Don't use Clawdbot without understanding the risks." 

"Clawdbot is an experiment" and as such there is no "perfectly secure" setup the founders explain. 

I certainly wouldn't encourage you to run it on any business machine in your company, unless you have an IT and Cybersecurity department who are fully aware and have built a sandbox to run this. It can easily go out of control. 

The users brave enough to let the bot be your "eyes and hands" to manage tasks 24/7 are using this Agentic AI to prepare morning briefings, write daily reports, set alerts when high priority messages arrive, read and write files, execute terminal commands, run scripts. 

The bot also controls Chrome to handle web tasks, managers calendars, "triages" email, and interacts with Notion and Todoist for example. 

It is a self learning tool, and can write its own code to create entirely new capabilities. 

Because it runs on your local hardware, it could (theoretically anyway) provide better privacy as compared to cloud-based services.

Hence why the little Mac Mini is sold out everywhere, as techies around the world begin to test out what is truly possible with Agentic AI, especially in open source. 

Fun last fact: Clawdbot are changing their name after a legal action was threatened by Anthropic (imagine why?) As of 01 February, the company will be know as Moltbot, and the cute little crustacean formerly known as "Clawd" will be know as "Molty."

One last warning. The creators of Clawdbot (soon to be Moltbot) refer to it as "Spicy," and what they mean buy that is that the agent does have the ability to "potentially destroy valuable files and leak confidential data if not properly secured."

You have been warned.

Strategy is Mastery.

Managing Partner, Thinking Dimensions ►Bold Growth,M&A, Strategy, Value Creation, Sustainable EBITDA ► NED, Senior Advisor to Boards,C-Level,Family Office,Private Equity ► Techstars Lead Mentor ► LinkedIN Top Voice 24/25

How do you show up?

What you wear, and how, communicates a LOT to those in your environment.

Where you are in terms of context is so important. 

Until recently, world famous organizations such as Lloyds would politely stop men coming in to the office without a tie. Mandatory dress code. Airlines have published detailed dress codes for employees since the inception of flying.

Why you chose to where a specific outfit and style will immediately set the tone as to how you are perceived. This is not always a positive by the way:

I famously went once (many years ago) to a corporate retreat and board meeting in the Rocky mountains with my case full of usual suits and ties. That was not my best decision to put it politely.

What are your "go to" outfits for business, and how have they changed over the years?

Until 2020, I wore a tie six days a week. I still have a collection of hundreds of my very favourite ties, yet now I am more likely to use them at most twice a week. Even now though I always pack 2 or 3 versatile beloved ties in my carry on.

Standards and expectations change.

How do you adapt to the times, and what are your favourite choices for business meetings and events? What do you find is the impact of your business attire on outcomes?

Is it time to bring back dress codes for the office?

Strategy is Mastery.

What do you think?

Palantir Technologies currently has a vending machine in its Washington, D.C., office, with nicotine pouches free for anyone 21 and older. 

Industries including Media, Finance, Big Law, and Technology have users in professional roles choosing to use Nicotine pouches for increased concentration.

As a former smoker (many decades ago now,) I can appreciate the draw: caffeine and nicotine together lead many people to note their concentration is improved for hours. I know this worked for me when the days exceeded 18 hours or more straight.

And pouches are noted to have lower negative health impacts as compared to smoking a cigarette. 

The Financial Times have noted this weekend that "Big Tobacco is turning into Big Nicotine." 

British American Tobacco (owner of pouch brand Velo) shares have risen over 90% in the past two years, and with a market cap of £92 Billion are now the 6th most valuable company in the UK.

Certainly a well designed pouch that removes unnecessary chemicals and additives can cause less harm than smoking. I support thoughtful technology that can help people to reduce harm. It wasn't that long ago that people were chain smoking in offices (especially in Media, Entertainment, and Finance for example.)

Will other companies follow in the footsteps of Palantir and Silicon Valley Tech in offering this amenity in their offices?

How well does your Strategy address changing trends and social norms?

Strategy is Mastery.

Photo credit: The Hustle

I love Minneapolis.

A great city. Beautiful area. I have had the opportunity to visit many times, both for business and leisure. A major hub for Delta airlines (used to be Northwest.)

Minneapolis is major corporate centre, with one of the highest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the world. The city is known globally for innovation, health technologies, advanced manufacturing and food production.

Some of the largest multinational companies headquartered in Minneapolis include

Target (retail)
UnitedHealth Group
Best Buy
General Mills
3M

and Cargill, which is the largest private company in America.

Minneapolis also is home to “Medical Alley,” which is the number one ranked centre for healthcare medical technoogy in the world.

Currently with unemployment at just 3.7%, Minneapolis is an economic success story globally envied, even as 59% of businesses cite it is difficult to hire due to competitive conditions for labour.

Minnesota is ranked sixth in the nation for business, is home to over 1200 foreign owned companies, and has business taxes below the national average. The economic contribution of the state is $472 Billion in GDP for 2023 and growing. In the past two years the state has experienced tens of billions of dollars in new investment, including significant projects for AI Data Centres and Sustainable Aviation Fuel.

Award winning innovative industry leaders in Minneapolis include Ameriprise Financial (Fortune magazine’s most innovative company for 2026,) Gravie, Flywheel, NetSPI, Ascent Solutions, and Medtronic, as well as the others I have listed above. 

In Venture Capital, Minneapolis is ranked as a global ecosystem leader, and the tech sector contributes $28 billion to the local economy while accounting for 10% of the total workforce. The city is in the top 50 worldwide for both SaaS and Hardware/IOT.

This article is part of a series I share on Sunday of cities I have visited and conducted business in all around the world. Pictured below is me flying into the international hub at MSP, a major Delta operations centre.

My thoughts and support today are with all the kind hard working people living in Minneapolis, and their Constitutionally Protected Rights. Let us all ensure that the Constitution is respected, human rights are protected, and transparency and goverance are the cornerstone of every decision and action in the USA in the future.

How well does your Strategy address the opportunities in Minneapolis in a future that is not x+1?

Strategy is Mastery.

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Back to the Future?

A trend which started on TikTok has taken over digital media this month. People posting photos of January 2016, with a tag of "2026 is the new 2016."

Celebrities, Entrepreneurs, Executives, Sports Heroes, and everyone in between... are all posting pictures from their digital camera rolls of 2016.

It has now spread worldwide, and while social media viral trends are often odd (remember the Ice Bucket challenge,) this one particularly so.

Why?

Because as humans we tend to look optimistically forward, and think about the future, while this trend is purely nostalgic to rewind back time by a decade.

2016 was a good year. As was 2025. And there is much to look forward to in 2026.

Yet a more interesting question than to rewind to 2016 is to think ahead to 2036.

What world will you create in 2036 which, while making you look back fondly to 2026, excites you even more about 2037, 2046, and beyond?

In your Strategy (both personal and corporate,) what key assumptions do you hold about the future, and where are your decisions and actions prioritizing and addressing your critical implications?

Because in a future that is not x+1, Strategy Is Mastery.

Photo: January 2016, speaking at a business conference, Ernie Els Winery, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

When were you last in Rome?

One of the most powerful impacts I feel in Rome is the history. You are walking through what was the headquarters of the first global empire.

History can teach us so much, and I take the opportunity to consider and study what it means in our current context and looking towards future scenarios.

I studied Latin, and still today recall translating passages related to Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, known as Caligula.

Gaius was Roman emperor from 37 to 41 CE, initially adored but later remembered for extreme cruelty, tyrannical behaviour, and eccentricity. 

In his initial reforms, Caligula destroyed previous legal records of treasonous criminals, recalled exiles to Rome, and bringing back the public spectacles (held in the Colosseo which I have taken a picture of below.)

A year into power, Caligula fell ill and began to behave very erratically: killing for pleasure, claiming divine status, and attempting to make his horse, Incitatus, a consul.

Caligula had a fondness for grandiose, costly building projects, many of which were intended to benefit or entertain but are described in Roman history sources as wasteful. The projects drove the powerful Roman empire into financial disaster, after spending vast sums of money on lavish building projects dedicated to himself. 

More disturbingly still, he took great pleasure and power in humiliating the responsible Roman senate, and replaced their legally binding power with his own absolute personal authority. In the course of 39, Caligula's increasingly tense relationship with his Senate deteriorated into outright hostility and confrontation.

History has not been kind to legacy of Caligula and summarizes his rule as: "increasingly self-indulgent, cruel, sadistic, extravagant, and sexually perverted thereafter, an insane, murderous tyrant who demanded and received worship as a living god, humiliated the Senate, and planned to make his horse a consul."

Of all the manifestations of wild and extravagant behaviour exhibited by Caligula during his brief reign, "nothing has better served to confirm the popular notion of his insanity than his apparent demand to be recognised as a god." 

Caligula sold priesthoods for his unofficial "genius cult" to the wealthiest nobles, for a per capita fee of 10 million sesterces, and made loans available to those who could not afford immediate full payment. 

Caligula is also remembered for his disastrous military invasions in CE 41, where he had to abandon an attempted invasion of Britain, and the installation of his statue in the Temple in Jerusalem. In personal life, Caligula divorced three times in his short stay on Earth. Historians also note that "the extreme stresses and strains of Imperial rule, for which Caligula was temperamentally ill-equipped, lead to considerable health complications."

In your Strategy, how effectively do you consider how past historical events coincide with future possible scenarios?

Strategy is Mastery.

You may not at first think that a story beginning with Venetian global explorer Marco Polo in 1285 connects to modern day strategy, M&A, and branding.

Yet it was in 1285 that Marco Polo first visited the port city of Xiamen in Fujian province. He was most interested in trading silk, porcelain, spices, and precious stones and metals, while he transferred knowledge about manufacturing, paper money, and gunpowder.

Fast forward seven centuries, and you had the leading performance footwear brands from Montebelluna in Italy looking for locations to scale their production to meet the global requirements of top technical brands including NIKE.

In 1991, Ding Shizhong of Fujian launched a small outsourcing factory, beginning to build shoes for Nike and Adidas. Yet anyone who has ever met Ding will note that while he remained humble and focused, the vision he shared was global. 

Ding understood early on that the brands held the power with the customer, and to become a strong player he too would need to leverage his company Anta Sports with a Go To Market approach that included well known brands. For this reason, Ding famously pledged to build "not China's Nike, but the world's Anta."

Starting in 1999, Anta sponsored table tennis champion Kong Linghui, the first step towards building a consumer recognized company. In 2009 Anta acquired the rights in China to Italian brand Fila. 

In 2025, Fila accounted for 33% of total revenues for Anta, while the Anta brand reached 44%.

My first business visit to PRC to assess the opportunities in outdoor sports and technical brands was in 2002. Already you could see that there was a buzz building. It has only increased, steadily moving towards a crescendo.

In 2019, Anta lead a €4.9 billion acquisition of Amer sports, the Finland based group of high performance technical brands including Arc'Teryx, Salomon, Wilson, Atomic, Peak Performance, Armada Skis, ENVE Composites, Louisville Slugger, EvoShield, ATEC, and Luxilon.  

Anta relisted Amer in 2024 on the NYSE, and retains 39% of the group.

In 2025, Amer acquired German outdoor brand Jack Wolfskin for $300 million.

This week, Anta made M&A headlines again, purchasing 29% of the German brand PUMA for €1.5 Billion from the Pinault family office, with Anta becoming the largest shareholder.

“Anta gained so much experience in managing production for Nike, Adidas, and Puma”  explains Yu at Kanter Worldpanel.

Anta said it expected the Puma stake to “enhance its presence and brand recognition in the global sporting goods market, thereby strengthening its overall international competitiveness.”

Just as Marco Polo transferred knowledge centuries ago, entrepreneur Ding Shizhong is learning and building a global outdoor activewear empire.

How well does your Strategy embrace new partnerships, developing and learning from your customers, and building global M&A programmes for long term value creation?

Strategy is Mastery.

Photo (author:) Arc'Teryx Store, Ningbo China

Do you want to go "behind the scenes" at Davos?

Our ever capable Strategy technology colleagues were able to monitor the camera system of the first "Bored of Peace" meeting which took place yesterday evening, and actually capture the moment when the tie breaking vote for withdrawing the invitation to Canada was resolved.

To validate the accuracy of this photo, the posting by Trump on his social media page immediately following the meeting last night: “Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining, what will be, the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time.”

How well does your Strategy track leading indicators and the weak signals that indicate changes in your global operating environments?

Strategy is Mastery. 

Fun quiz Friday: Which movie was this photo from? Year?? ;)

What happens when this happens?

As pension funds, governments, sovereign wealth funds, UHNWIs, Family Offices, insurance companies, alternative investors, and financial institutions confront a future that is not x+1, what will be the  key trigger that kicks it all off?

How close are we to crossing the red lines?

Where does your Strategy test your key Strategic assumptions for a future that is not x+1?

What weak signals are you regularly testing, and Why will you know when the data is changing in advance of monumental shifts?

In my experience, it is precisely in times of extreme volatility when a proven tested Strategy system delivers the most exceptional positive results.

Strategy is Mastery.

We all know that through every series of cycles, "Winter is Coming." 

Are you ready for it?

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