Jesse and Phil explore why storytelling matters even more now that AI can generate content instantly.

- Ricoeur's philosophy: narrative is what makes time meaningful

- Comedy in brand storytelling — rare in B2B, more common in consumer ads

- Wendy's "Where's the beef?" as a classic differentiation story

- Why big tech brands avoid humor in their marketing

- The 12 brand archetypes, and the customer as hero

- Archetypes in action: Salesforce, Harley-Davidson, Liquid Death

- AI makes skilled writers more essential, not less

- Every business has a story, intentional or not

Perception and word-of-mouth, illustrated by "The Odyssey"

- Storytelling abhors a vacuum" — even AI companies get a narrative by default

- Archetypes map to product categories; small brands can use them to stand out

- Examples of storytelling gone wrong

- Marketing as a blend of analysis and creativity

This week, Phil sits down with Jesse to trace his winding 30-year career — from writing movie taglines in Hollywood (including Saving Private Ryan and The Talented Mr. Ripley) and ghostwriting Pamela Anderson's personal website in the early internet days, to delivering newspapers, working customer service, and eventually landing at Google, where he led a 20-person creative team on the Google Ads account for years. Jesse opens up about getting laid off on his 40th birthday, moonlighting his way into buying a house in San Francisco (and the messy fallout that followed), and the leap into founding his own creative agency after a pivotal stint at Uber. He closes with hard-won advice for young creatives: knock on doors, listen more than you talk, and love the craft.

In this episode:

• Ghostwriting for Pamela Anderson in the early 2000s
• Writing taglines for major Hollywood films
• Odd jobs: newspaper delivery, food bank supervisor, coffee sales
• Leading Google's creative team for 5+ years
• Getting laid off at 40 and the moonlighting gig that funded a house
• Starting an agency after Uber
• Career advice for aspiring copywriters and creatives

In this episode of Happy to Chat, Jesse and Phil make the case for why corporate blogs matter more than ever in 2026 — even as short-form video dominates and AI reshapes how people search for information.

Phil draws on his experience running Nokia's global blog (1 million unique visitors a month) and leading content at Equinix to break down what makes a great corporate blog: owning the industry conversation, not just your products; finding authentic voices inside the company; and using the blog as the hub that ties your entire content ecosystem together.

Jesse brings his own writing experience — from health blogs at One Medical to laser industry content at Coherent — to explore how SEO strategy is evolving into AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), and what it means to write for LLMs versus humans.

Topics covered:

• Why blogs outperform social media as a long-term owned channel
• The SEO vs. AEO debate: writing for Google vs. writing for ChatGPT
• Ghostwriting, thought leadership, and who should actually write your posts
• Using blogs at every stage of the marketing funnel — including ABM lead generation
• The authenticity problem: how AI-generated content is changing reader expectations
• Content calendars, evergreen posts, sequels, and what metrics actually matter