Stay Agile or Fade Out: Why You Can’t Stand Still
If your brand (or your business) feels stuck, slow, or just not hitting like it used to, here’s the truth: culture moved on, and you didn’t.
Agility in marketing isn’t optional. It’s the difference between staying relevant or becoming background noise. Between making moves or playing catch-up. It means being tuned in, switched on, and ready to adapt. All the time.
Because brands aren’t statues. They’re living, breathing things. They change, evolve, grow out of old shoes. Just like people. You pick up a new hobby, change friends, move cities—you change your routine. You have to. And brands need to do the same.
That might mean ditching the format you always use, rewriting your email tone, pausing a launch, or even killing a strategy you worked hard on because it no longer makes sense.
And here’s something most people forget: agility doesn’t live in your marketing plan. It lives in your mindset. And it starts with listening.
Recently, I met with someone building what I’d call a whole new way of thinking about bars. Not just the concept or the vibe—the future of it. It made me rethink an entire strategy we were planning. And you know what? We scrapped it. Rebuilt the plan from scratch. Why? Because it wasn’t about being right, it was about doing the right thing. Fast. Bold. Aligned with the vision.
That’s agility.
You can’t just be fast. You have to be sharp. Curious. Plugged into what’s happening and humble enough to know when it’s time to switch gears.
And I’ll be honest—I know what it feels like to lose that edge.
A year ago, I started to slow down. Not because of the company I was working for. The system wasn’t the problem. I was. I got comfortable. I stopped scanning the culture. I followed the process, hit the KPIs, and told myself that was enough. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. I drifted away from work that actually moves the needle.
Starting Everything Now brought that spark back. The speed. The guts. The freedom to change things fast and make things better. Not just for the sake of change, but because the world’s not waiting for anyone. So why should we?
Now I help brands do the same. We don’t just come up with ideas. We build momentum. We challenge systems. We shift gears fast. We listen. We rethink. And we don’t waste time protecting something that’s already expired.
Here are five questions to ask yourself if you want to know whether your brand is staying agile or just standing still:
1. When was the last time you changed something that wasn’t broken just to see if it could be better?
2. Are you listening to culture or just repeating yourself?
3. Do your processes empower creativity or protect comfort?
4. What’s something you’ve outgrown but are still holding onto?
5. If your brand were a person, would it still be interesting at a dinner party?
If the answer stings a little, you’re probably on the edge of your next breakthrough.
Keep moving. Stay curious. Stay human.
