Debunking Industry Myths

𝗗𝗲𝗯𝘂𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵𝘀  Kicking off a five-part series that busts the sustainability myths I run into every week. Starting with the biggest mix-up of all: ESG versus sustainability. 𝗠𝘆𝘁𝗵 #𝟭 – “𝗘𝗦𝗚 𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆” It sounds right and slips into slide decks everywhere, yet the two concepts look at the world through completely different lenses. 𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀, 𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝗟𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲𝘀 🔍 𝗘𝗦𝗚 = 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲-𝗶𝗻 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗸 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 “𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘦𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘭, 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘳 𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘰𝘮 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦?” Investor- and company-centric. A glorified early-warning system. Nothing “woke” about it, just good business hygiene. 🌱 𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 = 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲-𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 “𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘰 𝘸𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘣𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘰𝘯 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘦 𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦?” People and planet-centric, opportunity-rich, messy in all the right places (yes, the world is complex...). 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝘅-𝘂𝗽? For years ESG was marketed as doing good with your money. Investors happily surfed that feel-good wave until the current backlash hit. Headlines now frame ESG as "woke", while in reality it’s a spreadsheet exercise trying to protect the financial bottom line. That mismatch between image and intent is blowing back in surprising ways. 𝗗𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗮𝗽? 𝗔𝗯𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆. Climate often comes up in both, your ESG assessment and Life Cycle Assessment. But heavy-footprint issues like water stress or deforestation often stay invisible on an ESG scorecard, written off as “low financial risk,” even while your supply chain is draining rivers and clearing forests. This is why you can have a high ESG score despite having a massive social or environmental impact. That’s exactly why the EU talks about 𝗱𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 → risk to the company (ESG). 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 → risk from the company (sustainability). --> Same planet, different questions. Language matters. 𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲: ESG is like getting your cholesterol checked, essential for spotting early warning signs that could threaten the company’s health. Sustainability is the balanced diet, the exercise, the good sleep that keeps the whole system thriving for years to come. You need both, but we shouldn’t confuse them.

Eli Schwartz is a leading SEO advisor and has helped industry giants like Zapier, Tinder, Coinbase, Quora, LinkedIn, and WordPress craft their SEO strategies. He's also the author of Product-Led SEO: The Why Behind Building Your Organic Growth Strategy. In our conversation, Eli shares: - How AI and LLMs are reshaping the SEO landscape - Why you should be focused on mid-funnel SEO strategies - How to determine if SEO is the right approach for your business - Why SEO should be treated as a product rather than just a marketing tactic - Common SEO myths - The future of search in light of recent legal challenges faced by Google - Much more Listen now 👇 - YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gwDWNpXX - Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gyZu2FKv - Apple: https://lnkd.in/g2B_wx_q Some key takeaways: 1. Contrary to popular belief, AI and large language models (LLMs) have transformed SEO, not rendered it obsolete. AI now dominates the start of the search process—top-of-funnel—but SEO remains vital in mid-funnel search, where users seek various options. 2. Common SEO myths to avoid: a. Assuming every business needs SEO b. Focusing solely on link-building c. Thinking Google is a black box d. Overemphasizing technical SEO for small websites 3. Consider alternative growth methods outside of SEO if: a. Market competition: In highly competitive markets (e.g. cloud services), traditional SEO may be less effective. Explore targeted ads, thought leadership, and partnerships. b. Low search volume: For industries with minimal search volume or complex conversion paths (e.g. B2B SaaS), other strategies might be better. 4. In the AI era, SEO is more like a product than a marketing tool, requiring deep understanding of user journeys for effectiveness. To guide your SEO efforts, collaborate with PMs and ask questions like “What does my user need?” and “What kind of experience should I create for them?” 5. The goal is to position your product in a way that fits the user’s self-discovery journey. Trying to shoehorn your product into search rankings won’t lead to long-term success. For example, most SaaS companies shouldn’t rely on traditional SEO because their customers’ decision-making process is longer and involves multiple stakeholders—and can’t be solved through a single search.

Intimidating is not another word for assertive. Difficult is not another way to say problem solver. Outspoken is not a substitute for courage to speak up. Direct is not how to describe being able to tackle conflict head on. Cold doesn’t equate to confident. Early in my career, I was accused of being too soft, not confident enough, and too feminine (whatever that means). So, I had to practice being a clear and real-time problem solver. I had to become more assertive to be seen and heard. I had to find the courage to speak up in a sea of faces and genders that looked nothing like mine. I had to be direct to deal with conflict situations. And I’ve had to calm my nerves to have the outward appearance of confidence. I have seen too often that women in leadership roles, who display the same characteristics as a strong male counterpart, are viewed differently. But, I just don’t understand why. All the women I know in senior positions have at some point been accused of being intimidating, difficult, too direct, cold and too outspoken. And it baffles us all because we aren’t trying to be those things. We are simply trying to effectively lead (with the same leadership traits every mba or exec. course teaches). It’s time to lose these labels; they are unfair, unattractive, demoralizing and sexist. That woman you might call “difficult” has likely had to work twice as hard over her career just to be seen, heard and, if she’s lucky, respected.

THE FETISH OF "INNER DEVELOPMENT" From leadership retreats to global frameworks like the #IDGs, we’re told the path to a better world begins “within”: better mindsets, deeper presence, more empathy. The premise sounds benign—even noble. But it rests on a profound misconception: the idea that inner transformation is apolitical, a private operating model upgrade rather than a socially and historically situated process. This is not a harmless mistake. When we detach “the inner” from structures of power, institutions, and justice, we turn human development into a technology of adaptation. Instead of transforming the world that produces alienation, burnout, inequality, or ecological collapse, we train individuals to cope with it more gracefully. The inner becomes a buffer—an emotional shock absorber for systemic dysfunction. The result is a politics of self-improvement that masquerades as societal change. Popular leadership development frameworks recycle this logic. They present virtues—humility, empathy, openness—as acquirable skills, stripped of moral and political context. But genuine virtues are not free-floating traits. They are formed within communities, contested through conflict, and oriented toward substantive conceptions of justice and the good. Without this grounding, “inner development” collapses into meditation classes and ethical minimalism: feeling good, relating better, collaborating smoothly—while entrenched institutional patterns and structural injustice remain untouched. This depoliticised turn inward reflects a deep cultural anxiety. When systems feel too large to change, we retreat into the self. But positive psychology is not political transformation. And a framework that treats human beings as self-optimising monads cannot address the structural absences—unjust property regimes, broken democracies, extractive finance systems, exploitative legal norms—that impede genuine flourishing. The truth is: The "inner" is always political. Persons are formed within ideological social systems, not in spite of them. If we simplistically develop our "inner world", we are already taking sides in a moral space that is left fundamentally unexamined. Any developmental model that ignores ethical, institutional and political complexity becomes, inevitably, a tool of status-quo maintenance: a moral placebo, a wellness add-on to a world in flames. Critical judgment is replaced with performative empathy. True development is not the incremental scaling of competencies. It is the deepening of practical wisdom and the ability to craft narratives, build institutions, and sustain relationships that uphold shared moral horizons in which people can become good. The task is not to regulate the psyche to fit a broken world, but to transform the world so that our inner lives no longer shrink beneath the weight of its failures. #leadership #transformation

80k orders into TikTok Shop, here's what I've been surprised to learn.   1. Samples have only driven 7% of our TikTok Shop sales.   40% of orders come from product card. Of the 60% are driven by videos.   Product card: Customers organically finding our product on TikTok. These orders aren't charged commission. 🤌   Video: Most video sales are from affiliates who already have our product or they show our product image. On samples sent to affiliates, we get a 3 ROAS. Factoring halo sales on Amazon & DTC, it's a 6 ROAS (more in point 3). Half of our revenue from samples are from one affiliate. If you remove them, omni-channel ROAS is closer to a 3.   Product drop video posts from our own account can really work. Without commission owed, we can afford to put ad spend behind them.   2. TikTok Shop sales haven’t driven meaningful Simple Modern TikTok followers.   In the 6 months we sold 80k units on TikTok Shop, Simple Modern's TikTok follower count grew less than the previous 6 months.   Surprising to me considering we've driven 186m product impressions.   3. Over 100% halo effect between Amazon and Website.   When a product has a successful video driving TikTok Shop revenue, the bump on other eComm channels is clear. Typically we see more sales driven by TikTok videos on Amazon + DTC than TikTok Shop.   Customer trust is higher on Amazon and brand's websites.   The real magic is when TikTok videos goose Amazon listing placement permanently.   4. Revenue/video is flat once affiliates have more than 50k followers.   Followers: Revenue/video 0-1K: $13 1k-5k: $25 5k-10k: $40 10k-50k: $75 50+: $100   Affiliates with 50k followers have performed the same as 1m follower accounts. We have not engaged multi-million follower accounts with highly engaged audiences (celebrities).   5. Amazon best sellers don't drive our TikTok Shop business.   Products that have worked have had at least one of these qualities:  - Interesting  - New  - Relevant to culture or season  - Niche cult following (ex: Winnie the Pooh)   Our best sellers in retail typically don't have these qualities. These factors make inventory planning for TikTok Shop challenging.   6. Affiliates asking for 4+ samples are taking advantage of you.   We've sent 51 affiliates 4+ samples. Only one generated a sale.   13% of our total samples have been sent to grifters. 🙃   ************* TikTok Shop is a uniquely valuable channel since it's also a marketing engine.   It has required a different strategy from us and has been fun to learn.   I'd love to read what others have learned in the comments.

You're too outspoken." "You should be more likable." "You're coming off as aggressive." Sound familiar? Women in the workplace hear these phrases far too often. These comments, whether subtle or overt, are attempts to silence women and limit our potential. From being talked over in meetings to being passed over for leadership roles, or even labeled as "too emotional" or "too aggressive," the message is clear: shrink yourself to fit in. But here’s the truth: If your voice didn’t have power, no one would care to silence it. Playing small has never changed the world. So remember to never allow anyone to dismiss your confidence as arrogance. There’s a difference: 👉Confidence is knowing your worth and owning your expertise. 👉Arrogance dismisses others. Too often, women are made to believe their confidence is arrogance to keep them small. Don’t fall for it. So, what can we do differently? 👉Speak up—even when it feels uncomfortable. 👉Take space—your presence is invaluable. 👉Advocate for yourself—promotions, raises, and opportunities don’t just come; they’re claimed. 👉Support other women—amplify each other's voices.

You are probably not ready for Enterprise Sales. I’ve led teams closing $1M deals but also seen CEOs fire half their teams after their enterprise push failed. While your board might be right about ACV, trying to go upmarket can kill you. Here are the 5 biggest lies companies tell themselves about enterprise sales (and how to really grow ACV): 1. “We’ll Just Use the Same Product Up Market” Enterprise introduces new buyer personas, new competition, and new business needs—all of which force you to change your roadmap. InfoSec teams will make you implement SSO, ISO, SOC2… Meanwhile, higher product usage will break your architecture or create chaos in implementation. Your product won’t scale. 2. “Our Current Sales Team Can Close Bigger Deals if We Just Book Apple” Enterprise AEs are a different breed. They’re strategic, detail-oriented project managers who are experts in buying (not just selling). Even if your current reps can learn, there’s no way they’ll successfully juggle between fast (1-3 month) and long (12+ month) cycles effectively. It’s just a completely different world. 3. “If We Hire Rockstar Enterprise AEs from Oracle We Will Crush 2025 Targets” Hm… Goodbye 2025 targets. Most likely you’ll hire them in March, they’ll ramp until September, shift 30% of your roadmap, take 20% of your team’s time for RFIs/RFPs, and require management’s involvement at every step. You might see progress with big logos but end up closing only 1–3 low-ACV pilots. 4. “We Just Need Meetings with Bigger Logos” Easier said than done. A brand and demand-gen motion that attracts enterprise executives is not the same as the one that attracts SMB buyers. Your SDRs will also get mostly low-level meetings that waste everyone’s time. You’ll probably need partnerships for executive referrals, ABM strategies, and relevant events to reach the right people. 5. “We Just Have to ‘Level Up’ Sales” Wrong. Good luck transferring a $1M account to a CSM who’s used to juggling 70 small accounts and holding casual syncs. Your CSM must be AS SKILLED as your enterprise AE, or you risk losing a major logo. Imagine that board meeting. —— 2025 ACV plan: Instead of trying to punch above your weight. Create a strategic plan of incremental changes that drive ACV up: - Level up complex selling skills - Update your pricing tiers or model - Split AEs to SMB and MM/Small Ent - Prioritize enterprise deal-making features - Build a playbook on involving your management - Invest in Buyer Enablement tools (e.g. Deal Rooms) —— Enterprise isn’t just bigger deals. It’s a whole new GTM motion. New company. New set of risks. Growing ACV over time is critical. But try it too fast, and you will get burned. Learn what this GTM means–first. Communicate back to your board. Then move. No shortcuts. P.S. We built Aligned to help manage the deal complexity of Enterprise Sales. A 100% FREE Deal Room used by 30,000 sellers. You can try it here:  https://lnkd.in/dwX_Zizk

Women’s hormone cycles impact far more of our working lives than we were ever taught. I've struggled with PCOS, PMDD and suspected endometriosis for most of my adult life. No one tells you how your hormones affect your ability to show up, get work done, and succeed professionally. I spent years struggling against pain and all of the sh*t that hormonal changes throw at you. Although these things will never disappear, I've found that there are ways to work with your cycle, rather than wasting time fighting against it: Week one (period): Uncomfortable, but strangely clear-headed. It’s often the best time to do focused work, make practical decisions and plan ahead. Emotions feel more stable, even if the physical symptoms aren’t. Week two (follicular): High-energy week. Confidence rises, motivation is easier, and resilience is stronger. This is when big pitches, strategy, difficult conversations and anything that needs bravery and energy suddenly feel far more achievable. Week three (ovulation): Bloating and soreness. A noticeable shift in empathy and social awareness. It’s a great week for one-to-ones, coaching, collaboration and anything that benefits from being more attuned to other people. Week four (PMS): The worst week, but it’s often when intuition is sharpest. You can spot issues quickly, simplify messy ideas and do early-stage creative thinking. Avoid big conflicts, high pressure meetings, or emotionally detached decisions. None of this means women have one “good” week and three bad ones. It means our strengths change, yet we were never taught to recognise that. Most workplaces still treat hormonal health as a taboo topic despite the fact it affects how millions of women work every single month. Work is better when we design it around how people actually function and we have empathy for something 50% of our working population goes through. ___________________________ 👋 I'm Molly and I run Flexa, the platform that enables you to filter for your next employer based on what you really care about (like companies that support women's health) 🔔 Follow me for musings on the future of work and equality

My client fired their entire SDR team on Tuesday By Friday, their pipeline had grown by 60% This sounds impossible It's not After auditing 50 B2B sales organizations over 10 years, I've uncovered the most expensive myth in modern selling: → The belief that MORE activity at the TOP of your funnel will fix conversion problems at the BOTTOM Let me share what actually happened: This mid-market software company was spending $350,000 annually on their 4-person SDR team - 100+ cold calls per rep daily - 17 meetings booked weekly - "Incredible metrics" according to leadership - But their close rate? A devastating 1.2% The VP of Sales was convinced they needed MORE outreach, MORE automation, MORE top-of-funnel I suggested something different: pause all prospecting for 7 days Instead, we had their account executives do something radical - engage with the 215 prospects already in their pipeline who'd gone cold after initial meetings Using a framework we developed: - 65 prospects responded within 24 hours - 41 booked follow-up meetings - 23 re-entered active buying cycles - 6 closed within 14 days (total value: $212K) The shocking revelation? - Their pipeline wasn't empty - It was overflowing with neglected opportunity. This company didn't have a lead generation problem. They had a lead nurturing catastrophe. By reallocating resources from mindless prospecting to strategic engagement, they've now: - Reduced CAC by 60% - Shortened sales cycles by 30% - 2x their close rate The counterintuitive truth: Sometimes the fastest path to growth is to stop chasing new opportunities and start converting the ones you've already earned. What percentage of your marketing and sales budget is focused on prospects who've already shown interest vs those who haven't? That ratio reveals everything about your future growth trajectory P.S. If you need help with your sales, send me a message

One of the biggest misconceptions about innovation is that success comes from avoiding failure. In the age of AI, the opposite is even more true. We’re seeing this in real time with AI models, released in rapid succession, each one improving through continuous iteration and real-world use. The organizations producing the best products are those that experiment the most, now at a scale and speed that wasn’t previously possible. AI dramatically lowers the cost of testing ideas, generating variations, and learning from real-world feedback. What once took months can now happen in days, or even hours. That shift changes the role of failure. In earlier eras, mistakes were expensive and information was scarce, so management systems were built to minimize risk. Today, intelligence is abundant and iteration is cheap. The constraint is no longer access to data or tools, it is how quickly organizations can learn. Failure is still not useful when it is careless or repeated. But in an AI-enabled environment, well-structured experimentation, testing, measuring, refining, turns failure into a compounding advantage. Each iteration improves not just the product, but the system that produces it. The organizations that innovate consistently understand this. They build cultures and workflows designed for rapid learning, where teams can test ideas, incorporate AI-driven insights, and move forward with better information almost in real time. Innovation still doesn’t emerge fully formed. But in the age of AI, the cycle of attempt, feedback, and improvement is accelerating, and those who embrace that loop will outpace those still trying to avoid it. #SchmidtSights