Trendy Words

Episode 13: "Exclusive" with Sarah Stiffin

Far too often, "exclusive" isn't exclusive. It's a word that *sounds" good, which leads some to thinking that sounding good is all that is required to sell something. That probably worked at a time when exclusive usually carried meaning. But if that that time existed, it's long past. It's slapped on every marketing email, flyer, and phone pop-up, and there is almost never anything exclusive, nothing to feel special about. But that doesn't mean exclusive can't be rehabilitated. I sit down with email marketing strategist Sarah Stiffin on where it all went wrong for poor little 'exclusive,' and what we can do to restore real meaning to the word. Sarah's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahstiffin/ Sarah's Instagram: @sarahstiffin

Episode 12: "2025" with Jon McGreevy

2025 has been a right year for absolute nonsense. We name things using marketing words that aren't factually accurate. Critical thinking across the industry is at all-time low. Things that aren't marketing are being called marketing. And what's left is being used to focus on things that marketing often has the least influence. Jon McGreevy and I round out 2025 with a highlight of AI, digital literacy, and the realities of businesses in the B2B and tech sector, and what we think needs to change if 2026 is going be better. SaaSy as Fuck Podcast: https://saasyasfuck.substack.com/ Jon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thatwriterjon/ Jon's website's: jonmcgreevy.com

Episode 11: "Elevate" with Olga Pope

So much of our culture and formal education has encouraged and rewarded us to use "fancy" words when explaining things -- words that show off our education, make us feel sophisticated and important. But almost all of this notion fails when it comes to marketing, and it's a challenging process to unlearn that way of thinking about words. Olga Pope has raised picking fights over this kind of overly ornamental language to almost an art form, and today she's taking aim at one of the common and bland words you see, especially in ad marketing: "Elevate." It sounds elegant, but in usage, often means almost nothing more than "better in some kind of fuzzy way" Olga's website: https://www.olgapope.com/ Olga on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olga-pope-436b...

Episode 10: "Best Practices" with Samar Owais

Best Practices in marketing are often a lie. At least, they are far less useful and relevant than best practices in other professions and disciplines.  Samar Owais, known for her stellar writing and penchant for picking fights with people online over how to compose an email, explains how, more often than not, marketing "best practices" are usually nothing more than herd behaviour, at best a starting point for developing marketing and content, but are so often used while avoiding listening to customers and using real data to make your message effective.  How to find Samar:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samarowais/ Emails Done Right: https://emailsdoneright.com/

Episode 9: "Personal Brand" with Jo Watson

Personal Brand. This might one of the silliest and most pointless phrases in modern marketing. It means almost nothing beyond "things about myself" and it's questionable if committing to the idea has helped anyone market or sell anything. In this episode, I talk with copywriter Jo Watson CMgr MCMI (the extra letters are important) about why personal brand is mostly irrelevant and how to better approach the challenge of marketing oneself to the world. Jo Watson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-watson-agoodwriteup/ Jo's website: https://agoodwriteup.com/