Book Review : Brains On Fire by Robbin Phillips, Greg Cordell, Geno Church & Spike Jones. There’s a particular kind of optimism in modern marketing that suggests if we automate enough emails, optimise enough funnels, and post enough short-form video content, customers will eventually fall lovingly into our sales pipeline. Brains on Fire offers a…
Book Review : Alchemy by Rory Sutherland. There’s a comforting belief in marketing that people are rational. That given the right information, presented clearly enough, they will make sensible decisions. Alchemy by Rory Sutherland exists to gently, brilliantly, and repeatedly destroy that belief. The Big Idea (Spoiler: Logic Is Overrated) Sutherland’s central argument is both…
Book Review : They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan. There’s a moment in every marketing meeting where someone says, “We should create more content.” No one is entirely sure what that means, but it usually results in a blog post nobody asked for, answering a question nobody had. They Ask, You Answer by Marcus…
Book Review : Building a StoryBrand 2.0 by Donald Miller. There’s a particular kind of confidence that creeps into marketing after a few strategy sessions, the belief that if we just explain things thoroughly enough, people will understand. Add a bit more context. Refine the messaging. Maybe a diagram. Building a StoryBrand 2.0 arrives as…
Book Review : The Copywriter’s Handbook by Robert W. Bly. The Copywriter’s Handbook has long been considered one of the foundational texts of modern copywriting. First published decades before the rise of social media marketing, programmatic advertising, or AI-driven content tools, the book might easily be mistaken for a relic of another marketing era. But…
Book Review : Atomic Habits by James Clear. At first glance, Atomic Habits by James Clear doesn’t appear to belong on a marketing reading list. It’s not a book about brand strategy, customer journeys, or campaign performance. Yet that’s precisely why it deserves a place on the modern marketer’s bookshelf. Marketing is a profession built…
Book Review: Guerilla Marketing – Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business. by Jay Conrad Levinson. If you run a website called The Overthinker’s Guide to Modern Marketing, there is a certain irony in recommending a book that basically says: “Stop overthinking. Go do something bold.” And yet, here we…
Book Review: D&AD – The Copy Book If words are the atoms of great marketing, then D&AD – The Copy Book, published by Taschen, is the periodic table every creative thinker ought to have on their desk. Loaded with insights from some of the world’s sharpest copywriters, this book isn’t just a manual; it’s a…
Book Review : Pitch: How to Captivate and Convince Any Audience on the Planet by Danny Fontaine. Modern marketing loves complexity. Funnels get deeper, decks get longer, and somehow the message gets smaller. Danny Fontaine’s Pitch arrives as a welcome antidote, reminding us that persuasion is not about slides, jargon, or frameworks, but about human…
Book Review : No Bullsh*t Strategy: A Founder’s Guide to Competitive Advantage by Alex M H Smith In an era where “strategy” too often translates to corporate jargon, buzzphrases, and fluffy frameworks, No Bullsh*t Strategy is exactly what its title promises: clear, direct, and genuinely useful guidance on how to think about strategy in a…