Yo! Welcome back to The Reeder Newsletter — your weekly dose of content strategy and growth advice. First time reading? Subscribe here.
Who Will Win Big in 2026?
Quick heads up — I’m hosting something kinda ridiculous next week (in a good way).
It’s called Demand Island.
Think Love Island, but for B2B demand gen.
Here’s the point:
Instead of another “2026 predictions” webinar, we’ve got a few sharp demand gen leaders pitching one strategy they actually believe in for next year. They'll break it down so you can run it too.
My job is to moderate, stir things up, and throw real-world curveballs at each strategy.
Your job is to vote — live — on which play you’d actually run with in 2026.
If you’re rethinking demand gen going into next year (or just want to pressure-test your instincts), you’ll get value from this.
Join us live here.
I ran out of time.
This week I had food poisoning and helped my in-laws move.
Both took a lot more time (and energy) than expected. Longer than it took to make the final season of Stranger Things.
My original plan was to write up how the first 30 days of my YouTube strategy is going and share learnings and setbacks. But by the time I was back to my normal fighting weight and the last U-haul truck was unloaded, it was Sunday evening, and said write-up remains unwritten.
But I take your attention and commitment to this newsletter seriously. And no-showing you just ain't in my DNA.
So instead of half-assing it and rushing the YouTube breakdown to your inbox, I'm going to full-ass it, then send to you on Saturday.
Which leads us to today's email.
Usually, I'd re-share a fan favorite based on replies.
Today, I'm sharing one of my favorites. It was fun to write, and I want you to experience it. Like when a friend insists on playing you a new song they love.
Besides favoritism, the topic is even more relevant now than when I published it.
Plus, the subject performed better than expected.
Ready? Let's ride.
Subject: A surprising question from the men’s sauna
I decided to join a gym when I moved to San Diego last year.
Well, sorta.
It’s one of those somewhat-fancy places that call themselves a “club.” It’s a bit expensive, but I joined because I recently renewed my commitment to fight off dad bod, and they have a few extra amenities that made me “oooo” during the tour, including a sauna.
I’m told this is a highly effective way to recover and evict toxins from my body. So now I use it after every workout.
But today’s story is not about why I use the sauna. It’s about what I heard while inside the sauna.
Two days ago I grabbed the large wooden handle, opened the door, and saw a couple of the regulars.
One of them I see literally every time I’m there. He’s a tad older than me, stocky, rapidly balding, and (thankfully) always fully toweled.
He’s always chatting to various older gents about investments, real estate, and other ways “money makes money”.
Anyways.
Another guy, silver-haired and surprisingly not sweaty for having been in there for what I presume was at least a few minutes, was finishing a story.
He was going on about how restaurant owners who are about to go out of business often stiff their vendors on the way out.
They know they’re going out of business soon, and before the guillotine swoops down and puts them out of their misery, they rack up tons of debt with their food suppliers. Because a credit system is the norm in the restaurant industry, they take advantage of this and rack up tens of thousands of dollars in credit, then poof! — they go out of business and disappear.
Then the vendors are left empty-handed.
The worst part is, as the sauna storyteller says, there is no punishment for this behavior. There are no laws (or I guess, very flimsy ones) that can hold these now failed business owners accountable.
That’s messed up, I think to myself, glad to have a distraction from the heat barreling through my nostrils and into my lungs.
Before the balding toweled guy replied, I noticed an unusually long pause.
Then he responded with a question that I’ve never heard anyone ask:
“Do you know this from first-hand experience?”
My eyebrows jumped up.
“I do,” he replied.
“I used to run a business with my brother where we bought and sold businesses, and we saw it all the time, unfortunately.”
He continued on about how the Russian mob — or he thinks they were Russian — did it all the time.
But I had checked out. My attention was stuck to that question.
I couldn’t help but think about all the bullshit on LinkedIn right now
I know you see it too.
- Beautifully formatted graphics explaining “The CMO’s 90 Day Plan” — from a guy who’s never been a CMO (or anywhere close).
- “How-to build a 7-figure SEO agency” — from someone who’s been doing marketing for a whopping 10 months.
- A sales guru shouting why Sales VPs should fire all their SDRs tonight — even though they’ve never run a sales team
It got me thinking, do these people really know their stuff?
The truth is, I don’t know. And that’s the point.
But I highly doubt it.
How can you possibly coach people to be a CMO if you’ve never experienced the pressure, stress, and skill it takes to be one?
Maybe you’re a SEO savant, but a million dollars in ten months??
And it’s easy to talk a big game about firing people without, you know, actually dealing with the emotions of letting employees go.
I smell BS.
But we both know why they do this. They want attention.
So my point is this: Be skeptical. Take very little information at face value.
Unless you can confirm they are speaking from first-hand experience, I wouldn’t believe them with a 10-foot pole.
(This is also why I don’t watch or listen to any sports analyst who has never played at the professional level.)
I talked about this in depth with Eddie Shleyner last year.
And here’s another point too.
One that’ll make you an elite marketer:
Look for ways to include YOUR first-hand experience in your marketing
Everyone and their momma has ChatGPT now. So effectively, everyone can “be” an expert.
That’s why “how-to” content just ain’t cuttin’ it anymore.
It's also why I’m moving from “how-to” content to “how-I” content.
I’m injecting my real-world experience, thoughts, opinions, tips, and all into my marketing.
It’ll help me stand out, sure.
But even more so: It’s how I get people who’ve never heard of me to know, like, and trust me in seconds.
Often after just reading one post.
Why?
Because credibility = trust.
And trust is GOLD in a world where we can’t tell what’s real and what’s not.
Because only someone who has walked a mile in your Nikes can explain what it really takes — and equally importantly, how it FEELS.
So ask yourself:
Are you injecting your first-hand experience into it?
And is it strong enough for the bald toweled man to believe you?
Holler at you later,
Devin
Pen by Devin Reed
Founder, The Reeder
Follow me on LinkedIn | YouTube | TikTok | Instagram
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