Insights
Notes on visibility, reputation, and the new shape of B2B trust
Editorial notes and longer pieces from It’s a Shovel. Senior strategic perspective on AI search, reputation work, founder-led growth, and how buyers now find, shortlist, and hire.
Ten Things Every CEO Needs to Know
The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. Mark Twain In…
Reinvent the Office Library
Every business needs smart and empathetic employees so use the multiple benefits of reading as a wellness tool.
The Economics of Purpose
Let’s start with the facts: The economic costs of the lack of purpose exceeds £130bn a year Purpose improves financial performance by…
Radical Honesty and Crisis Communications
If you had $658 billion at risk would you make a plan? With two thirds of companies unprepared for a crisis and a far…
About this publication
A few notes on what we publish, and what we do not
We do not write listicles. There is enough “five ways to improve your LinkedIn presence” content in the world already.
We do not write hot takes on industry news unless we have something genuinely useful to add.
We do write longer pieces on the structural shifts in how buyers find and shortlist B2B providers, and shorter pieces on what we are seeing in client work, in the research, and in our own AI visibility data.
We do write pieces that take a clear position, sometimes a slightly contrarian one. We try to be useful rather than safe.
The senior strategic communications discipline has, in our view, been under-served by online content in recent years. There is a great deal of tactical material on individual channels, and very little serious commentary on how reputation actually compounds across them. We aim to write the second category.
Most engagements start with the free AI Visibility Heatmap
If anything you have read here makes you want to know how your own business shows up in AI search, that is the simplest place to begin.