Straight Talk Blog
Ted Rubin
“Talk Story” and Return on Relationship
The inspiration for this post came from a childhood friend. Recently, Jack Melito commented on a LinkedIn post about the Hawaiian tradition of "Talk Story." In his comment, he mentioned me and RETURN ON RELATIONSHIP, suggesting there was a connection between the two...
Blessed That I Got To Be Their Dad
There’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, especially with Father’s Day this weekend, as I reflect on all the posts I’ve shared over the years about hope, letting go without giving up, going where the love is, and #ThisDadWontQuit. So much of that...
The Echo of Our Fathers’ Words
As Father's Day approaches next weekend, I've been thinking about something sparked by a post from a friend who often inspires me... Mitch Slater. He shared a story about something his dad told him years ago that stayed with him long after the conversation ended. It...
The Annoyance Economy… and the Cost of Profiting From People’s Frustration
Most of us have accepted a certain level of frustration as simply part of modern life. We sit on hold waiting for customer service, click through multiple screens trying to cancel a subscription, get bounced between departments, navigate endless phone trees, delete...
Attention Heroin
Everyone, from both sides of the aisle, needs to push back on administrations that are all in on empowering Silicon Valley to unleash what I call ATTENTION HEROIN indiscriminately on our nation’s children. Not to mention on all of us. And yes, I chose those words,...
THE MOSQUE SHOOTING… The Way I See Things
THE MOSQUE SHOOTING… the way I see things, the Jewish and Muslim communities should be allies against hate, not attacking each other. Both communities know what it feels like to be targeted, feared, dehumanized, and subjected to violence simply for who they are....
Letting Go Isn’t Giving Up
It’s choosing what deserves to come with you… and what doesn’t. There’s something powerful about giving yourself permission to pause, to stop long enough to feel what hurts, acknowledge what’s heavy, and take a clear look at what you’ve been carrying, sometimes for...
Return on Relationship… Not Just Return on Productivity
What we do with the time AI gives back is what really matters. Time is our most valuable commodity. And while AI and other technologies can help us complete tasks faster, saving time in itself isn’t the real value. The value only exists if we do something meaningful...
It’s Not Just Age… It’s Environment
For a while I assumed the reason I’m not as adventurous as I used to be was simple... AGE. After all, I’ve been in my 60s for more than eight years now. It seemed like the obvious explanation. In my last post, “Letting Things Happen (Without Letting Go),” I wrote:...
Social Became Service… Until the Incentives Changed
I came across a post from Vanessa Sain-Dieguez that immediately brought me back to a moment when social media actually worked the way many of us had hoped it would. Her post is worth the read. When she helped scale social at Hilton, the shift wasn’t about content, it...
Return on Relationship… Starts With You
I’ve written before about RETURN ON RELATIONSHIP with yourself. A couple of years ago, I focused on creation... on following your instincts, leaning into uncharted experiences, and listening to that inner nudge that tells you to try something different. I still...
Letting Things Happen (Without Letting Go)
Most of the best things in my career didn’t happen because I planned them perfectly. They happened because I showed up, stayed open, and allowed the moment to unfold. I’ve reached the part of my life and career where I’m letting things happen with a little less rigid...
Why Sales May Be the Most Future-Proof Career You’re Not Considering
There’s a lot of anxiety right now about the future of work. Students in college, those about to choose a major, and even professionals a few years into their careers are all asking the same question: What jobs will still matter as AI continues to take over more and...
Religion’s Double Edge: The Connection It Creates… and the Division It Fuels
With Passover beginning this week, and all that is currently going on in the world, I’ve been thinking a lot about religion and community. Passover, for Jews around the world, is a powerful reminder of resilience. Of survival. Of a people who endured oppression and...
Social Media Isn’t Broken… It’s Controlled
WHAT A FARCE “SOCIAL MEDIA” HAS BECOME. It was supposed to democratize content… to give everyone a voice, to flatten access, to allow ideas to rise on their own merit. Instead, it has quietly reshaped itself into something far more controlled. THE PROMISE WAS...
Title-Bait Creates Credibility Debt
I want to start by giving credit where it’s due. Jeanniey Walden recently shared a thoughtful post about the craft of writing headlines and titles that actually matter—ones that draw readers in with intention and clarity. She explored how a well-constructed headline...
Speed Matters, but Trust Matters More
Speed matters. In today’s digital environment, stories often travel faster than facts. A headline appears, a clip circulates, someone posts a screenshot, and within minutes people are forming opinions about what happened. Organizations have spent years trying to close...
Evergreen Media Trade: A Smart Strategy… Turning Untapped Assets into Real Media Value
WATCH THIS VIDEO ⬇️⬇️⬇️ “Evergreen: A Smart Strategy”... it’s one of the clearest, most insightful visual explanations of the value proposition offered by Media-Trade/Media-Barter I’ve seen. AND of how INNOVATION isn’t just about new technologies… it’s about...
Employer Branding Is Built on Belief… Recruitment Marketing Is Built on Motion
A recent post by Susanna Rantanen sparked an important conversation about the way employer branding and recruitment marketing are often blurred together. Her point was simple... when we collapse strategy into tactics, we shrink the entire discussion. That distinction...
Reclaiming Attention in a World Engineered for Distraction
John Starkweather’s reflection on turning off notifications struck a nerve because it names something many of us quietly negotiate with ourselves every day. We tell ourselves the constant checking is professional vigilance, that being “always on” is part of the job....
We Built the Intent Economy… Now the CMO Needs the Power to Govern It.
AI governance is shifting from identity to intent. If CMOs are expected to safeguard brand trust in this new era, they must be structurally empowered to lead it. For a long time, identity has been the organizing principle of digital governance. We authenticated users,...
From Keywords to Credibility… Why Trust Is the New Search Strategy
As search shifts from results to responses, brands have to shift from chasing keywords to earning trust. For years, search trained brands to think in terms of rankings, keywords, and optimization tricks. Get the phrasing right, play the algorithm correctly, and you...
When Success Changes Shape
Success changes shape as life changes. That was the heart of Liz Crisafi’s recent reflection after joining Karina Jimenez on the Next in Line podcast... a conversation about leadership, adaptability, and staying grounded through constant change. In that discussion,...
Sometimes Sadness Needs Somewhere Else to Go
I’ve had sadness in my life. Who among us hasn’t. Some sadness passes through us like weather... heavy, uncomfortable, but eventually moving on. Other sadness doesn’t leave... either because we cannot shake it, or because the cause for the sadness is ongoing. It...
Half‑Right AI Isn’t Innovation… It’s Instability
I started the New Year at CES, where, as expected, AI dominated the conversation. Every keynote, every panel, every product showcase had AI front and center. But for all the noise, one thing was missing from most of the discussions... the real risk today isn’t...
Silence…
Too often we rush to fill the silence. We treat quiet as something to fix... an awkward pause to patch over with words, noise, or distraction. Not because there’s something wrong, but because we’ve grown uncomfortable with moments that don’t require us to speak. The...
The Real Challenge Isn’t Bold Ideas… It’s Bold Environments
The real challenge isn’t coming up with bold ideas... it’s creating environments where bold ideas are allowed to live. Most organizations don’t suffer from a lack of creativity. They suffer from a lack of permission. Permission to think out loud, to be unfinished, to...
The Gift of Stepping Away
Every year, without fail, I give myself a gift. Not something wrapped, not something delivered, and not something that comes with notifications. I disconnect. Starting the day after my birthday, I step away from social media for a full week. No scrolling. No posting....
Permission Is the Return on Relationship
People must still come first... especially now. In growth strategies, in marketing plans, in the systems we automate. And in every single interaction we create or allow to scale. Yet many brands are actively eroding their own equity through relentless digital...
The Only Moat That Matters… Loyalty Built on Relationships
It’s funny how business language evolves. Every few years, a new word takes over the conversation, the latest shorthand for “how to win.” For a while it was synergy. Then scale. Then LTV. Now, it’s all about the moat. Everyone’s talking about building one... a...