Slowing down or speeding up?

Hope you’ve had a great first week of December!

For this week’s edition, I’ve compiled several reflections and insights that I recently shared on social and expanded them for you here.

I invite you to scroll through, and let me know what stood out most to you…

Partners, not pyramids.

The future of consulting isn’t less human, it’s more.

The big firms are pulling back on hiring and have frozen starting salaries again for a third straight year. (We're talking massive consulting companies, including the Big Four, McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, and Bain & Company).

With AI taking over the classic “analyst pyramid” work (data crunching, decks-on-decks, repeat), the machine that powered those massive junior cohorts doesn’t run the same way it used to.

Graduate recruitment could drop by half. Ambitious hiring targets are being walked back. The model seems a bit wobbly.

I think this will soon reset the playing field for the experts who go deeper, think sharper, and build real relationships (not to say none of the employees in those firms are doing this).

If the high-volume, junior-heavy consulting engine is slowing down, the value of true expertise rises.

The strategists, consultants, and subject-matter folks who aren’t only assembling slides and re-scoping projects — they're helping clients figure out what actually matters now (and what to look out for next).

We're inside the business, not circling it from 10,000 feet. We understand nuance. We ask the uncomfortable questions. We see opportunities humans see, not just patterns a model spits out.

Clients still want guidance (maybe now more than ever), but they’re becoming more discerning about who they trust. They want partners, not pyramids.

The more AI automates the surface-level stuff, the more space there is for work that’s insight-driven, creative, and deeply human.

If you’re a strategist, creator, or consultant who cares about your craft like me, this is your moment to go deeper, learn faster, and build smarter. Invest in the relationships and capabilities that tech can’t replace.

The future of marketing belongs to brands people trust.

Why belief is the new brand advantage.

That's the theme that stood out in conversations hosted by SocialNext Marketing Alliance. Over the past few months, they gathered marketers from across Canada to explore what it takes to build a brand that truly earns belief. While they host weekly webinars covering everything from AI tools to community strategy, the team said that the brand-focused sessions have delivered some of the most powerful insights yet.

The SNMA Mini Brand Playbook, defined by leaders shaping modern brand-building in 2025, includes insights like:

• Trust is the new performance metric. “Every touchpoint either compounds trust or drains it,” shared Kate Brown, CMO at Insurely, whose team saw a 425% lift in engagement through radical simplicity.

• Community is the new funnel. Christina Garnett reminded marketers that true loyalty begins with empathy and action, not discounts.

• Brand compounds; campaigns decay. I urged marketers to rebalance the mix, because campaigns fade, but brand equity compounds. (That’s me).

• Define your core. Camille Moore shared a 4P’s framework that keeps brands consistent and clear.

• Brand is a verb. As Chad Hason writes, “How you do one thing with your brand is how you should do everything.”

You can read the full article with our insights on Marketing News Canada for all 10 lessons from SNMA’s top voices and the complete Brand Playbook.

You are more than one thing.

Talking identity, self-expression and impact.

While I’ve created content about this before, this is the first time I got to share it with high school students (3000 of them). Young people don’t simply check one box like “athlete” or “artist”. It’s about embracing our own unique combo — what I call The Ecosystem of You. Here’s a clip from my talk for teens, From Posts to Purpose: Turning Self-Expression into Real Impact, as presented at RALLY 2025.

Brand-Building for Social Impact in the AI Era

Join me at SocialNext Ottawa next month.

After an awesome experience at SocialNext: Ottawa earlier this year, I’m happy to share that I’ll be back in January 2026. This time, you can hear me speak on Brand-Building for Social Impact in the AI Era — sharing insights and recommendations on how to build trust and get found.

This event is designed for mission-driven leaders, fundraisers, and marketers who are ready to navigate the future of digital strategy and drive meaningful change, especially those working in nonprofits and the public sector. Tickets are available here for the January 26 edition of SocialNext: Ottawa (prices go up on December 12).

Here’s a quick recap from last year’s conference, where my topic was Lead Out Loud: Personal Branding & Thought Leadership for Impact.

Always more to learn.

On teaching advertising, using AI as a thought partner, and staying nimble.

As we get ready to wrap up the semester (and the year), I thought it’s time to highlight this interview I did earlier this year.

From teaching advertising and branding to building a personal brand and leveraging AI for thought leadership, there’s always more to learn.

Earlier this year, on the Campaign Gen-C podcast, I spoke about teaching advertising in college and university, and shared insights on building a personal brand, staying nimble in a changing industry, and making AI a collaborative thought partner. Campaign Canada is on a mission to help the marketing, advertising and media industry achieve growth and recognition on the international stage, and to help support the production of inspirational creative work.

Here’s the full episode on Apple Podcasts here. Article from Campaign here.

Coming together to learn and make an impact.

The intersection of innovation and social good.

You can’t really make an impact if you’re not aware of the issues.

It's energizing to see people come out for a morning event centred around an important cause. As part of the Save the Children Canada Campaign Cabinet, I co-hosted a Networking Breakfast that brought together people from many different communities and industries.

BetaKit's Siri Agrell led a powerful conversation with Nikki Whaites from Save the Children Canada. Major foreign-aid cuts across the US, Europe, and now Canada are forcing impossible choices — responding only to the “emergency of emergencies” instead of addressing root causes like education, nutrition, and livelihoods. Nikki shared a small but tragic example from Uganda where a $100K shortfall meant halting antibiotics that prevent trachoma-related blindness. Cuts like that ripple as today’s “non-emergency” becomes tomorrow’s crisis.

Despite the headwinds, Save the Children Canada is modernizing by listening to communities and scaling what works, often with tech. Innovation isn’t only born in labs — it’s co-designed with teachers, farmers, and frontline teams, then scaled responsibly.

It’s an honour to be part of this, at the intersection of innovation, impact, youth and social good (and more).

Slowing down or speeding up: Efficient or effective?

Your final weeks of the year are here.

Whether you’re sprinting to the end of the year or just trying to slow down and focus more, I hope this is a reminder to be mindful and do what works for you.

There are only a couple of weeks until the holiday season, and you may be thinking about how much is left to do in 2025. While efficiency and productivity hacks were never a priority for me but I’ve always found (creative) ways to make things happen even when overcommitted.

The last semester of this year for me has actually been about doing less, to do more (or going slower, to go further).

Deciding what to focus more on will always be a challenge.
Based on what I’ve learned so far, my basic advice is:

• Try to think ahead

• Group tasks together

• Outsource what you can

• Keep up momentum

• Plan around your energy

• Question arbitrary deadlines

• Don’t be afraid to reprioritize

Here’s a video I shared recently about this (recorded before snowy season, of course).

See you soon, 2026!

Thanks so much for reading.

— Daniel