I lost a client after three months. I know exactly why. Another Mexican sparkling mineral water brand hired me to replicate what I'd built over thirteen years at the last one. My contract said I had final say. In practice a trade marketing manager in Mexico held veto power over everything I made, and her feedback came back negative every single time. Two weeks in they were already anxious about the numbers. Then the extra asks showed up. Seven were already in the statement of work. The rest were table tents, menu signs, and pay-per-click management. I don't do those, so I offered to recommend firms that do. They wanted a week of shooting in central Mexico that wasn't in the scope. When they asked for a Dallas shoot with talent, I sent three budgets and offered to give up my day rate. I still wasn't going to find five camera-ready people to work for free. I told the CEO I'm not an employee. I'm a vendor, and I'm his equal. Four days later he canceled on the last day of the month with zero notice and didn't pay my last invoice. If an agency burned you before, look at what got promised. I'll tell you what I don't do and point you to people who do. The statement of work is the deal, on both sides. . . . | Strategy and creative are mine. AI helps produce it.

Late nights don't equal good content.

@chuhmatcha CHUH Matcha went from a few stores in Maine to more than 500 doors in just over a year. They landed in UNFI's UpNext Program on the climb. Their founder puts category velocity at three to five cans a store a week. Every door earns its next order. . . . | Strategy and creative are mine. AI helps produce it.

Distinctive art makes a small brand look big.

Kid products sell to parents. Talk to parents.

Courvoisier built the house-party film to be cut up. Every guest is already a clip that works alone. Do it with a jar of your own. Ask each regular one question, "what's the best thing you've put this on?", skip the script, keep the first take. Empty jar back on the counter goes up last. Small food or beverage brand gets a month of posts with real faces from one afternoon. . . . | Strategy and creative are mine. AI helps produce it.

Wick Fowler tied for first at the first world chili cook off. Terlingua, Texas, 1967. The brand says so on its own website. On the box, all of that gets one word in a small red tag under the logo: FAMOUS. Here's the fix. Free. No brief. Just the box. Credit first. That box is one of the easiest things to spot in the spice aisle. Fire-engine red, a giant yellow 2, the black oval logo with the little Texas star on top. And the kit itself is a smart product. Six separate packets, so you season to taste instead of dumping one pouch and hoping. None of that moves. Three reads, all off the brand's own photo of its own box. FAMOUS never says what for. It's a small tag under the logo, and the answer (a tie for first at the first world chili cook off) lives on a web page. TEXAS STYLE gets the widest band on the box. Those are two words any chili kit in the aisle can print. The brand whose namesake, in its own words, set the standard for Texas-style chili says it exactly the way everybody else does. The man is missing. Wick Fowler's is a script signature inside an oval. Nothing on the front tells a shopper Wick Fowler was a real chili cook, much less one with a first-place finish. The fix is one band, in the brand's own words, built like the TEXAS STYLE band above it: WICK FOWLER TIED FOR 1ST PLACE, and under it, 1967 FIRST WORLD CHILI COOK OFF, TERLINGUA, TEXAS. The logo, the red, 2 ALARM, TEXAS STYLE, FAMOUS and the season-to-taste box all stay put. The lesson is for every heritage food brand with a person's name on the front. If the founder's name is the logo, the shopper should know why that name is worth anything. FAMOUS asks them to take it on faith. A year, a town and a result give them a reason to reach for your box over the one next to it. This redesign is a concept. It is not affiliated with Reily Foods Company or Wick Fowler's and was not requested by them. Got a box, bag or jar with a story it isn't telling yet? DM me the product and I'll send back a free front-panel teardown.

Day two at Rooted Expo Texas. I walked the floor with one question for every founder: if you could snap your fingers and fix one thing about building your brand, and you can't say money, what would it be? Almost every answer came back to reach. Getting the word out. Getting in front of the right buyer. Being in more places than a small team can physically be. I talked to Meltö (@eatmelto), a premium frozen bar with 10 grams of protein and no sugar. A pastry chef built it after she found the freezer aisle short on better-for-you desserts. She and her partner ran chocolate and ice cream businesses in Mexico first, and she says launching a frozen brand in the US is the harder road. Scott at Vato Blanco (@vatoblancoproducts) finally locked in his five-chile salsa during COVID after 40 years of the recipe. It's made in Grand Prairie with no added sugar and no seed oils, and it's already on Market Street and United shelves across West Texas. MAGNETiC (@magneticbeverage) makes magnesium sodas that play on nostalgic flavors like grape, root beer, and orange cream, with lower sugar and clean ingredients. It is a Louisiana brand at its very first trade show. Primal Eats (@primaleats) makes whole brisket meat sticks, smoked low and slow over 24 hours by a Wisconsin family that missed Texas barbecue enough to make their own. Their one fix was getting in the door with buyers, because once people taste it they're sold. Grubb's Gourmet (@grubbsgourmet) is a brother and sister from Lubbock. Jonathan is a chef who made a salsa for a client, she told him to bottle it, and now they sell out at farmers markets. Rooted was their first trade show. Ventures Food and Beverage makes Nature's Twist (@drinknaturestwist) and Klēn. Nature's Twist has been on shelves about 14 years and just expanded into Puerto Rico. Klēn, their new hydration line with a protein version on the way, hits retail in a couple of weeks. Happify (@happify_bar) is an Australian brand built on certified organic ingredients and 20 grams of fiber, coming to the US after a big first year back home. Rooted was their first American show. Barritt's (@barrittsmixers) is a Bermuda ginger beer with more than 150 years and five generations of family ownership behind it, sold at Total Wine, H-E-B, and Publix. Their answer was getting the word out. I'll admit those cans pulled me back to the booth three or four times. Tierra Negra (@tierranegrasalsa) does premium Mexican salsas cooked in olive oil, led by a dark salsa with a smoky, mole-like depth. Central Market carries it here, Meijer and Mariano's carry it in the Midwest, and they just launched at Wegmans. Their fix is sampling in markets a two or three person team cannot get to. Great product was never the problem at any of these booths. Reach is. That's the part I love working on. . . . | Strategy and creative are mine. AI helps produce it.

In September 2015 I put these rules into a deck for a social media showcase in Dallas. The slide titles were plain: post like a fan, include your fans' content everywhere you can, spend time offline and in the field. The music plan had two more lines I'd still steal today. Collect email addresses from well-connected industry people. Build a brand ambassador program. And the most-liked photo on the dashboard I showed? A pool in Marfa, 333 likes. This is a real past client. I don't name them publicly, but I'll walk you through the original deck and the analytics on a call. If your brand needs a social plan this short, send me a DM. . . . | Strategy and creative are mine. AI helps produce it.

Eleven brands posted the same Tesla joke in McGregor, Texas, and I can't name one of them. When eleven brands can make your joke, it isn't your joke. Reacting puts you at the back of the line. Planting something real puts you at the front. For a small food or beverage brand that means a bar, a cafe counter, or a farmers market table where your buyer already stands. Give it two weeks. Not two hours. A fake leak won't work. Catch that audience lying once and they don't show up for the reveal. . . . | Strategy and creative are mine. AI helps produce it.

Meta says nearly 45% of the Reels Instagram recommends are less than a day old. Your content-day batch is losing to this morning. Shoot one thing before noon, post it before five, grade it on the first 24 hours. giovanni-gallucci.ghost.io/p…

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26. That's 36 days. The brands that land on the table in people's feeds started shooting in October. Pick the one product that earns a seat at the table. Shoot it being poured, cut, spilled. Get samples to ten creators who actually cook by November 2. After that they've already planned the menu. Tell your retail buyer what you're posting before they have to ask. Schedule the countdown. Answer every "what should I bring" comment. Post the day-of story at 7:00 AM. Which one on this list is your brand skipping?

Day two at Rooted Expo Texas (@rootedexpo). I walked the floor with one question for every founder: if you could snap your fingers and fix one thing about building your brand, and you can't say money, what would it be? Almost every answer came back to reach. Getting the word out. Getting in front of the right buyer. Being in more places than a small team can physically be. I talked to Meltö (eatmelto.com ), a premium frozen bar with 10 grams of protein and no sugar. A pastry chef built it after she found the freezer aisle short on better-for-you desserts. She and her partner ran chocolate and ice cream businesses in Mexico first, and she says launching a frozen brand in the US is the harder road. Scott at Vato Blanco (@vatoblancoproducts) finally locked in his five-chile salsa during COVID after 40 years of the recipe. It's made in Grand Prairie with no added sugar and no seed oils, and it's already on Market Street and United shelves across West Texas. MAGNETiC (@magneticbeverage) makes magnesium sodas that play on nostalgic flavors like grape, root beer, and orange cream, with lower sugar and clean ingredients. It is a Louisiana brand at its very first trade show. Primal Eats (@primaleats) makes whole brisket meat sticks, smoked low and slow over 24 hours by a Wisconsin family that missed Texas barbecue enough to make their own. Their one fix was getting in the door with buyers, because once people taste it they're sold. Grubb's Gourmet (@grubbsgourmet) is a brother and sister from Lubbock. Jonathan is a chef who made a salsa for a client, she told him to bottle it, and now they sell out at farmers markets. Rooted was their first trade show. Ventures Food and Beverage makes Nature's Twist (@drinknaturestwist) and Klēn. Nature's Twist has been on shelves about 14 years and just expanded into Puerto Rico. Klēn, their new hydration line with a protein version on the way, hits retail in a couple of weeks. Happify (@happify_bar) is an Australian brand built on certified organic ingredients and 20 grams of fiber, coming to the US after a big first year back home. Rooted was their first American show. Barritt's (@barrittsmixers) is a Bermuda ginger beer with more than 150 years and five generations of family ownership behind it, sold at Total Wine, H-E-B, and Publix. Their answer was getting the word out. I'll admit those cans pulled me back to the booth three or four times. Tierra Negra (@tierranegrasalsa) does premium Mexican salsas cooked in olive oil, led by a dark salsa with a smoky, mole-like depth. Central Market carries it here, Meijer and Mariano's carry it in the Midwest, and they just launched at Wegmans. Their fix is sampling in markets a two or three person team cannot get to. Great product was never the problem at any of these booths. Reach is. That's the part I love working on. #RootedExpo #CPG #FoodAndBeverage #TexasMade #FoodBrands

Expertise claims need proof.

Nobody meets your food brand at the start. They hit it mid-feed, wedged between a breakup video and a weeknight recipe, and they pick a feeling in about two seconds. Eugene Healey (@eugbrandstrat) said it clean, and every founder in food and beverage needs it. The shelf has to carry that feeling alone. Same for the can, the comment reply, the creator post, the demo table. None of them get to lean on the rest of the story. Go follow Eugene if you care about brand in the post-social mess we're actually in. . . . | Strategy and creative are mine. AI helps produce it.

Rory and AJ Vaden's Wealthy and Well-Known sells personal branding to experts. I build content for food brands. Here is what its Goodreads readers caught.

One unpaid Lisa photo got a fast BOGO, a fan nickname and, 15 months later, a global Heytea drink. How a small food brand answers its own fans that fast.

Scenery adds story to product shots.