Resources · Writing
Field notes on
getting found.
SEO, GEO, AI systems, branding, and the craft of becoming the brand people choose and AI recommends. Practical playbooks, teardowns, and round-ups for premium brands in complex, regulated, or restricted markets.
How cannabis & restricted brands get found inside AI search
Answer engines don't rank pages - they synthesize from sources they trust. Here's the four-move playbook to become the one they cite.
why AI names directories, not your clinic
Ask an AI for the best med spa in Austin and it returns Yelp and DiscoverMedSpa. Why aggregators win the answer, and the ninety-day fix.
Read → Beauty · Paid Socialwhen Meta restricts your before-and-afters
The rule is not arbitrary and you cannot appeal your way out of a format problem. Five channels that work instead, from a decade in restricted categories.
Read → Beauty · Reputationeveryone has 4.7 stars. now what?
Austin has about 68 medical spas averaging 4.7 stars. When ratings saturate they stop separating anyone. What actually differentiates.
Read → Cannabis MarketingCannabis marketing in 2026: what actually moves product
The strategies that sell when Meta and Google won't run your ads - owned audience, local discovery, AI citation, and brand. From an operator, not an agency.
Read → Cannabis · DispensaryDispensary marketing that fills the store
The local growth playbook - Google Business Profile, reviews, loyalty, and AI search - from an operator behind 100+ dispensary openings.
Read → Wellness · AIWellness marketing in the age of AI automation
How to personalize at scale with AI without losing the human trust wellness runs on - data, content, retention, and privacy.
Read → Retail StrategyWhat shopping in Japan taught me about retail
Compliance keeps you in the game; experience is why customers come back. A lesson from ten days in Japan - and the philosophy of omotenashi.
Read → AI & WorkflowI run a dozen AI agents. I just audited all of them with one prompt.
What the audit killed, merged, and rebuilt - plus the full audit prompt, free and copy-paste ready.
Read → FrameworksThe Two-Rulebook Test
Every regulated campaign has to clear two rulebooks - state law and platform policy - and the platform's is always stricter.
Read → FrameworksThe Six-Week Open
The launch sprint system behind 7 retail openings in under 2 years with a team of 5 - backwards from opening day.
Read → FrameworksThe Loophole Pivot
When a channel is blocked, take the closest legal alternative that still sells. Three worked examples from regulated retail.
Read → Brand StrategyThe future of cannabis branding is not potency. It's emotional relief.
WGSN's 2027 forecast points to an emotional shift - Strategic Joy, Witherwill, and Suspicious Optimism, and what they mean for strategy.
Read → Paid MediaThe 10 best PPC ad networks in 2026
Reach, audience, formats and AI across all ten - plus the column nobody publishes: which ones will actually take a cannabis or regulated advertiser, and on what terms.
Read → GEOReddit is the most-cited site in AI search
It's the top source across ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews. How to earn those citations without astroturfing - and why it matters most when the ad platforms have shut you out.
Read → GEOGenerative engine optimization: the 2026 guide
Structure, citability, and consistency - the on-page work that gets you into AI answers.
Read → CannabisCannabis advertising rules by state: a 2026 guide
Two rulebooks - your state's and every platform's. The framework for clearing both, every campaign.
Read → CannabisHow to market a dispensary without getting banned on Meta
The audience you own vs. the account you rent - four moves that grow a dispensary Meta can't take away.
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