When’s the last time you actually trusted your gut at work, instead of hiding behind a spreadsheet? Christie reckons that’s exactly the skill most marketers are sleeping on. Not more data. Not another dashboard. Your instinct, backed by curiosity, and the guts to ask better questions.
Here’s how to think like a strategist, the AMS way.
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ABOUT YOUR TEACHER
Christie shows up in the world in every interaction with the fierce belief that everyone is deeply creative. Christie holds space for this knowledge in all of their relationships — especially the relationships that involve kindling a creative spark into its fullest form. Through their own journey, they’ve learned how to give themself inner permission to put their work out in the world.
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You gotta put on your scientist hat, but you also need to put on your artist hat. How will an artist approach this? How will a scientist approach this? Marketers meld both.
Christie Wong
Stop Drowning In Dashboards, Start Facilitating With Prompts
Christie used to do the whole “numbers assaulting your face” report. Now she leads with prompts instead, and lets the room find the story in the data together. Turns out clients don’t want another report. They want someone to help them see what the numbers actually mean.
- Swap your next report or client update for 2-3 open questions instead of a data dump (“what’s surprising about this month?” works every time)
- Present trends as a simple story arc, not a wall of metrics
- Look for the qualitative stuff too: the DMs, the shares, the actual conversations, not just the likes
Marketing Is Relationships First, Campaigns Second
Christie’s biggest unlearning? Marketing isn’t just visibility and getting your name out there. It’s a relationship, with your audience, your team, and yourself.
That’s the same thinking behind why we built our certification around real strategic thinking, not just tactics you copy and hope for the best.
- Treat every project as relationship-building, not just metric-chasing
- Get curious about what a brand or client actually wants to express, before you touch the campaign
- A thoughtful follow-up email that actually reflects what someone said beats a generic recap every time
Wear The Artist Hat And The Scientist Hat
The best strategists zoom into the details like a scientist, then zoom out and read the room like an artist. Christie calls it holding up a mirror: helping people find their own answers instead of just handing over a solution.
And she’s not afraid to say no to urgency, either. No relationship worth having gets built in a week. If you want the strategic-goals version of this mindset, this episode is a great next listen.
- Before acting on “intuition,” write down the pattern or evidence behind it, then sense-check it with a teammate
- Practice listening more than you talk on your next discovery call, then reflect back what you heard before jumping to solutions
- Notice when urgency is driving a decision. Slow down and ask if it’s a real pattern or just pressure
Get curious. Ask better questions. Blend the data with the instinct. That’s the whole job.