Royalty / Martin Bihl
Greetings, ladies and gentlemen (the term is to be voluminously applied),
Welcome to those new to Serendipity. If you are reading this for the first time, the premises of these musings can be found in the provenance email all the way back from August 2023. (In short, it's decisive thought leadership that's both directionless and incoherent.)
Thank you to all those who sent honest and thoughtful notes last month. My five favourites were:
I much prefer your LinkedIn content so I can ignore it without you knowing
Please could you expedite the faking it until you quit process
I agree with Steph. You are overconfident and under-talented
You make me want to invest in the inverse of Substack where you are paid to not write
On with Microsoft, how are you beating my spam blockers?
This type of feedback is a goldmine of valuable insights and helps reaffirm my goals.
I usually find that writing this letter is easiest when I am pissed off about something. Observations give birth to complaints, which roll into flippant remarks, thus compounding into circumstantiated rants concluding with a smirky relief. But lately, I can't shake my trademark grizzliness. (Bet you didn't know that was a real word.)
My current thesis is that I have finally depleted my brain of all its dopamine. None of my old tricks are working anymore. My old sources have abandoned me.
Watching Liverpool this season is like drinking that liquid 24 hours before your colonoscopy
Tacos Apson, next to Costco, closed for good, thus making grocery shopping unbearable
Food prices are so high that steak night has been replaced with “let’s use up what we have in the freezer night.”
Even gloating about the glorious Tucson weather doesn't work because the heat won’t piss off this year.
I know this is a time for grit and resilience. The losses are stacking up, and it's in these moments that we define who we really are. But, seriously, since I lost my 423-day Duolingo streak, my million-dollars-a-year-in-repairs 2004 Chevy Tahoe was rear-ended by a Sherman tank and now has a scratch on the bumper, and season five of Slow Horses is utter garbage, I think the universe needs to send me a signal that I should still have hope in the future.
I suppose the fact that Sir Paul McCartney is still selling out stadiums at 813 years old helps me keep the faith that if you can just hang in there through the tough (Wings) years, it will all work out in the end. Live and Let Die was an ok song before you start - the rest was rubbish.
Moving on.
This month’s ‘Serendipitous moment’:
There were technically no serendipitous moments this month, except for learning that the multi-talented feature from March of 2024, Nick Shakinofsky, in addition to being a wildly talented marketer, is also a registered hypnotherapist. That’s inception shit right there. Follow his content if you dare.
Moving on, on.
This month, it was essential to highlight someone who brings light into every room they enter. Someone who is never in a bad mood and devoid of any cynical positions. Since I don't know anyone like that.
Please meet the exquisite Martin Bihl.
Martin Bihl
Martin is an advertising aficionado. Wait, no, make that advertising royalty. His father was one of the original Madmen in NYC during the heyday of mass manipulation. Martin’s insight into the history and evolution goes beyond books and shows to dinner-time stories and vintage creative briefs.
Throughout his illustrious career, Martin has defined and redefined some brands you can probably look around your home and pick up and say, “shit, I didn't know this company even existed anymore.”
His razor-sharp wit and intelligence have been studied by scholars, but both are surpassed by his non-paril kindness. (I know many of you have seen jars of capers and always wondered what the words non-paril meant.) Martin is generous with his experience, always insightful, and abundant with his humor. Every text I get from him reminds me that I need to Google how to text friends back using a chatbot that they won't detect.
Martin is the founder and editor of The Agency Review, which brings the brightest minds in advertising together. He is the host of the podcast “You’re on mute,” which explores the humans behind advertising who will soon be replaced by AI, and he is also, and most importantly, a creative director for hire.
To be connected and entertained by Martin, go here.
Finally, thank you for enduring these messages. I know your time and attention are precious and that reading is hard in the world today. But, here you are at the end of something longer than a 45-word humblebrag on LinkedIn. You rock. Please stay away from the unsubscribe button - that is linked to cyber criminals who will steal your identity