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My working days often unfold in either Zoom minimalist workplaces or glass-walled conference rooms with sleek windows, filled with entrepreneurs pitching ideas. As a marketing executive and startup mentor, I lead strategies for companies of various sizes, guide founders at startup accelerators TechStars and Founder Institute, and serve as an awards jury member. My calendar overflows with executive consultations, brand campaign planning, and deadline sprints. But between Christmas and New Year’s, I trade those sterile spaces for museum halls alive with color and history. It wasnt easy getting out the door the first time I did this in 2021. I was filled with fears. What if a startup stalled? What if a client bailed? Eventually, though, I did it. I carved out full days for museums. No notifications mid-visit, no news feeds. Just artand a notebook. This wasn’t a lazy holiday stroll. I didn’t set out to make this a blueprint. I just craved difference. What I didn’t expect was how profoundly it refueled me. I feared it would derail momentum; instead, it unlocked clarity. If you’re a leader convinced you can’t afford the pause, that’s precisely why you must. Here’s how to begin. What the museum ritual looked like I timed it consciously: Christmas week plus New Year’s Eve, overlapping holidays when clients slow down anyway, so I missed zero critical days. While I was out, my colleagues handled brand campaigns; an assistant triaged the rest. If a force majeure broke out, they’d route it. Christmas Eve morning last year, I headed out. Here’s a day in the ritual: Slow walk to an art gallery, followed by unhurried coffee, sketching initial impressions. Then, hours absorbing art. No music in headphones, no quick email scans. Full presence. Leaving the gallery, I wandered to the local Christmas market near the town hall. I savored warm coffee and bagels, relishing the heat of the cup in my hands. By the end of the day, the inspiration hit. I filled my notebooknot pitches, but reflections: yearly goals reframed, market blind spots, forgotten creative hunches, leadership values dusty from neglect. Insights flowed because I carved the space. They stuck. Three insights that reshaped me Here are three insights I stumbled upon while I took a moment for a pause: 1. Different lenses multiply breakthroughs. A single perspective limits you. As I moved from the Cubism hall to the Impressionism hall in one museum, I recalled a direct-to-consumer brand struggling in Asia. They were obsessed with premium customers but missing the mass market. My walking and thinking led to a simple pivot: Tailor messaging to local culture. Sales took off. Now my mornings begin with one question: “What lens am I using today?” Calm. Global. Daring. I lead from vision now, not reaction. The world meets me there. 2. Stillness trumps speed. Startups move fast. Metrics can triple in a month. But speed under pressure clouds your judgment. In one case, a data management company struggled with positioning. Their new product features were failing despite endless debates. After the Christmas pause, fresh ideas clicked. We repositioned the product and landed a major client in days. Now I always ask myself: “Is this vision or just velocity?” The pause comes first. 3. Dare to break the rules. Art thrives by breaking conventions. Picasso’s Cubism shattered traditional views, just like the best startups do. During one gallery visit in December, I thought about a tech team stuck in safe, predictable marketing. We shifted to bold, unexpected ideas, like blending AI visuals with Renaissance art vibes in January. It felt risky, but the client loved it. Sales jumped. Now I ask every team: “What’s the rule we can break?” Daring moves win in tech. Why more leaders should try a museum ritual Your mind craves depth, not distraction. We grant muscles recovery; why starve our creativity? Step into galleries, and ideas resurfacevision sharpens, you reconnect to the leader unswayed by noise. Perhaps museums arent your catalyst: Lakeside solitude, hiking trails, or a quiet café moment might move you more. The central pointthat leaders need deliberate downtime to recharge and generate catalytic ideasremains. Taking a break didn’t slow me down; it realigned me to essentials. We mistake time off for indulgence. Wrong. It’s leadership disciplineslowing down to think about what’s vital.
Category:
E-Commerce
In 2025, AI became officially unavoidable: It had been lurking in the background before, as early adapters experimented with it. But this year, companies invested more than $202 billion in AI, a 75% increase from $114 billion invested in 2024. Major tech companies fought bitterly over AI talent, offering astronomical pay packages. There was a groundswell of demand for talent, and unsurprisingly this spread to the demand for AI, data science, and engineering jobs, which increased 28% compared to 2024, according to data provided to Fast Company by IT staffing company Mondo. The firm also provided data on the top five jobs that took off in 2025, which weve listed by volume of demand. Some of the jobs are new to Mondos dataset. Others saw explosive growth in demand compared to 2024. But theyre all related to AI. Theres a spike in certain jobs growth every year, but as we wrap up 2025, its clear: This was the year of artificial intelligence. And the technology isnt going anywhere. Neither are these jobs: 1. Data Engineer (18% growth) An AI is only as strong as the data thats powering it. Accurate and reliable data is a must, and as the demand for AI increases, so does the demand for data engineers who can ensure models are fed the highest-quality data. 2. Analytics Engineer (25% growth) Analytics engineers ensure that companies can make sense of the data they have and use it to provide actionable insights. They organize data so its easier to analyze, apply software engineering best practices to analytics code, and design and maintain data models. They also collaborate with other teams inside the organization to help turn these insights into better decisions. 3. AI Full-Stack Engineer (new) AI full-stack engineers can create complete AI applications: They can build the front-end user experience, the back-end infrastructure that powers the application, and embed AI as needed. In a world where everyone wants to be on the AI bandwagon, AI full-stack engineers are the next generation of full- stack engineers. 4. AI Solutions Consultant (new) One of the largest challenges companies deploying AI are facing is understanding where the tech can make a difference. AI solutions consultants serve as a bridge between business leaders and technical teams. They identify use cases for AI, evaluate which tools to employ, and weigh in on how AI should be implemented. 5. AI Business Insights Analyst: (new) An AI business insights analyst pairs data analysis and insights from AI with the surrounding business context to help leaders understand how to shape their strategy in an ever-changing world. The fastest-growing roles sit at the intersection of AI, data infrastructure, and business translation, reflecting employer demand for talent that can deploy, govern, and operationalize AI at scale, Mondo Stephanie Wernick Barker wrote in an email. Compared to 2024, employers are hiring fewer generalists and more hybrid specialists who combine technical depth with measurable business impact.
Category:
E-Commerce
The biggest brands pour creativity into being instantly recognizable. A logo you can spot at 20 paces. A color palette that becomes cultural shorthand (think Oreo blue or Coca-Cola red). That visual obsession runs through every corner of marketing. TV, social, out-of-home, retail, and packaging. Millions go into crafting imagery, with every frame revised until it perfectly reinforces the brand. So, of course visuals matterthey always will matter. But the best performing brands arent blinded by them. They understand that a cohesive sonic identity that spans campaigns and touchpoints ensures your brand is remembered long after someone closes their phone or walks away from the TV. YOU CANT AFFORD TO TUNE OUT AUDIO Too often, sound is an afterthought. Tracks are chosen on personal taste, or even whatever can still be licensed at the end of a strained budget. But audio isnt decoration. Its not the garnish. It deserves the same rigor as visuals. Treating it as a last-minute flourish isnt a creative misstep, its a missed business opportunity. Thats because sound is one of the fastest, most powerful emotional triggers we have. Attention research shows that audio advertising generates at least 50% higher active attention and brand lift than visual formats. A drum roll can build tension. A chord can pull you into nostalgia. A single synth line can do what a thousand highly polished frames cannot. Leaving that kind of influence to chance limits effectiveness across channels. It also leads to global inconsistency, with local teams relying on instinct rather than strategy. The fix is simple. Stop treating audio as a backing track. Bring it into the creative process from minute one. HERES HOW TO FIND THE PERFECT FIT Choosing music is more than scanning the charts. A trending track isnt automatically the right choice. To score effectiveness, you need to look past taste and into the science, assessing four dimensions: 1. Engagement: Will it capture and hold attention? 2. Fit: Does it complement the narrative and the visuals? 3. Surprise: Does it offer the unexpected? 4. Recall: Will it be remembered? Take a well-known commercial track. Immediate recognition is a win. But over-familiarity can also blunt surprise, reducing impact. A better route might be a reimagined version: a cover that keeps the sentiment but feels new, distinctive, and more ownable. Often, its also more cost-effective. Look at music through both a creative and an objective lens and you give your brand cultural relevance without compromising quality. And the data backs this up. IPA research, created with MassiveMusic, shows that: Highly memorable music makes your brand four times more effective at driving brand recall Unexpected music makes ads five times more likely to drive brand fame Highly fitting music makes consumers nearly seven times more willing to pay higher prices Highly engaging music boosts ROI by around 32% on average, and the very best performers on engagement can double your return on marketing investment. SOUND ISNT OPTIONAL ANYMORE For years, music sat in the category of well know it when we hear it. That era is over. We can now quantify musical effectiveness with the same precision we apply to visuals, linking specific sonic choices to measurable gains in attention, salience, and commercial return. Its no longer guesswork. In the attention economy, where differentiation is under threat, music can be the lever that cuts through the noise. From recall to emotion to willingness to pay, its impact is too broad to ignore. Brands that embrace a scientific, strategic methodology for sound build sonic identities that are consistent, creative, and emotionally resonant. And brands that dont? If your campaign budget is in the millions, youre effectively gambling six-figure returns by not testing your music. The uplift from a well-chosen track dwarfs the cost of getting it right. Paul Langworthy is chief revenue officer at Songtradr.
Category:
E-Commerce
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