Hey Must Readers, I hope you have all been well!
How quickly did August fly by? I’ve been enjoying the lower temps here in the UK and getting back to pen and pad a bit more.

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This months Must Reads is a guide to operating in low‑trust, high‑noise environments where the answer is better guardrails, better bodies, and better taste. Challenging (i) Systems We Can’t Blindly Trust Anymore, (ii) Bodies, Boundaries, And Being Human Again & (iii) Algorithms, Power, And Who Really Wins.
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The health halo around alt-milks is cracking, while consumers quietly re-evaluating “better for you” as “less processed, more protein, fewer mystery ingredients.” Hint oil is/was the main tension point and the calories it contains. We are moving away from noise to nutrition. I predict legacy dairy will double down (again) on “simple”, “real”, or only 1 ingredient branding and storytelling while plant and alt brands struggle to reformulate, clean up labels, while trying to justify their price premium.

This “alternative” category was built on vibes over health, health was part of the messaging and packing but the shift felt more culture led rather than verifiable benefits is now on notice, because shoppers are starting to do the maths while being more informed. 

Read: Alternative Milks Tough Future 

The executive job market now runs on industrialised deception that looks and feels like the real thing, and too many smart people are walking into it half‑aware and under‑protected. This isn’t about a few bad actors; it’s a preview of how AI‑fuelled scams will clone every credible process we rely on, from hiring to fundraising to vendor selection. There is a personal story and really actionable ways to protect yourself from expensive scams.

The knock on effect will be we will see more (C‑suite) leaders losing money, IP and confidence, and less trust within the hiring process. There will be many people who question how these scams were allowed to happen. The leaders/savvy operators who win are the ones who treat scepticism, verification and IP protection as part of the hiring process job, not something to remember once the damage is done.

Read: The Exec Job Scams

Futurist Jasmine Bina delivers another great thought piece. When everything feels like a scam at the digital layer, the only durable source of truth left is our body, and people are quietly reorganising their lives, spending and loyalties around what feels real, and more often in in‑person. Markets split between those adding yet another layer between you and your own nervous system (dashboards, feeds, scores) and those stripping layers away so you can actually feel something in real space and time.

We will see this show up as more demand for in‑person formats, physical and “nervous system” language crossing into mainstream categories, and brands being judged less on what they say online and more on how safe, it will be about how brands make connection and how you feel when you’re actually in the room with them. Most brands won’t reallocate attention and budget as the ROI still isn’t showing for many brands but for those from trying to out‑optimise digital surfaces that feel fake and a push for you to open your wallet & designing more optimised (not new or better) products, services and rituals that help people come back into their bodies because that’s where trust, and therefore where future growth is about to live.

Read: We’re Being Forced Back Into Our Bodies, and It’s Changing Everything

Patents aren’t used for innovation anymore, they are incumbents using them less as launchpads and more as legal moats to freeze the market around their existing products. This points to a future where the visible pace of product change lags the invisible pace of ideas, with dominant players quietly stockpiling options while smaller firms and consumers see less genuine novelty and more defensive legal play.

Expect to see this in how big companies talk about “innovation” in earnings and PR versus what actually ships: more IP announcements, fewer truly new SKUs, and growing pressure on regulators and investors to ask, “what have you patented that you’re actually willing to commercialise?” If you’re small, you win by shipping around the gaps the giants are sitting on; if you’re big, you’re on borrowed time if your growth story is patents on paper rather than products in people’s hands.

Read: How Big Companies Use Patents to Play Defense

Ana is a luxury consultant and former high profile executive in the fashion world. Ana has a whole series on status. This short video is why “power social capital” is a scarce asset reserved for a tiny handful of brands, and it’s becoming the real moat as trust, attention, and distribution all get noisier and more commoditised.

The signal here is that the luxury game is shifting from reach and performance hacks to who can actually sit at the centre of a network, set taste, and have people voluntarily orbit around them.

Think of how brands attract you and keep you connected to them. We will see this in the brands that stop chasing follower and in most cases views and start behaving like small, dense, high‑status communities where association, not impressions, is the real currency. The future for many of the smart brands - is about building deliberate culture not social noise.  

Read: Ana Andjelic

Drone warfare isn’t just an “over there” problem anymore; it’s starting to quietly erode the safety and predictability of our aka civilian airspace, even on routine flights in places like New Mexico. The future is a world where the invisible contest for spectrum, GPS, and comms between militaries and adversaries bleeds into everyday infrastructure, and civilians are the ones flying, driving, and living under and inside those interference zones.

Jumping forward 6 months, this shows up as more scrutiny on GPS jamming exercises, louder questions for regulators about how resilient our navigation systems really are, and pressure on operators to train for and design around contested-sky scenarios as standard, not edge case. Although this is a US specific case, we are about to lose more privacy and the battle in the air with drones, drone deliveries and air taxis we will see many complexities and less privacy as a result. 

Read: A Civilian Plane Crashed in New Mexico. Was the Military’s Tech to Blame?

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Amazon’s random “3 random items on the same shelf” is so random, it’s an expectation, human surprise is the bug the algorithms expose. We aren’t as surprised by work designed by algorithms but humans are increasingly reacting to patterns they didn’t create but are forced to execute inside of and many aren’t happy about it. Humans win by quicker order to door step in 15 minutes but do we care about the hidden cognitive and physical load for the people on packing and delivering our parcels...

Pure productivity squeezes work until people break; I predict we will see more brands battle with humans in the loop having more say than less brands especially while public sentiment inevitably catches up. The anti AI movement will want to weaponise this, right or wrongly

Watch: TikTok · nasir

Scientists turning to Only~Fans for funding: I don’t get into politics much on MR but with a lot of funding cut we are going to see a lot more of these activities

Read: Calif. researchers turn to OnlyFans as their funding dries up

Leadership teams are quietly eroding their own H2 performance by over-indexing on AI, volume, and performative busyness instead of clarity, operating discipline, and fit-at-the-top. It signals a move to the future where the edge won’t come from “more AI” or “more content”, but from building AI guardrails, fixing marketing ops, and upgrading executive decision quality so humans and machines actually grow effectively together.

At the start of 2027, teams that act on this will have cleaner strategies, creating less work slop, sharper cross-functional collaboration, and leaders who can clearly explain what’s working and why.
The ones that don’t will be stuck in AI FOMO, internal distrust, confused strategies, and a leadership bench that’s misaligned for a much harsher 2027. And in some cases a leadership team who have high management turnover without fixing the real root causes. 

Read: Leadership Lessons 

Football returned this weekend and had a spotlight on the sponsorships shifting. The front‑of‑shirt deals have quietly become what I call platform plays, not just logos with some promo, and the gambling retreat has opened the door to tech, AI and finance brands that want deeper, more defensible distribution into global fanbases. This transformation signals where sport‑powered marketing is going next: long‑term, multi‑asset partnerships that blend broadcast visibility, commerce, content and data, rather than one‑off sponsorship splashes.

Into next season you’ll see more clubs plugging financial gaps with layered, shorter, “test and learn” deals while the smartest brands treat shirt, sleeve, training wear and stadium rights as part of their integrated growth work. The clubs and brands that win are the ones who design for lifetime fan and customer value across platforms, not just this season’s shirt reveal. This isn’t just a signal in football we are seeing this in American sports and traditional sports like tennis. 

Read: Premier Sponsorship

AI is highlighting the best and worst in technology but also people. “People pleasing” isn’t kindness, it’s a self-image strategy built on fear of rejection and that reframing gives people permission to prioritise self-respect over constantly saying yes. We are often living our lives now in a boundary-less environment. We don’t have as any boundaries or barriers as we used to, living every moment on social media and instant messengers.

We have also learnt via these platforms that there is micro doses of self‑help that we use the language without knowing enough about the science or the topics, so we have a name and some understanding but we don’t stop something annoying or frustrating we blame this thing we learnt. This became a mainstream social norm: at work, in relationships, and its having an knock on effect on how we value ourselves.

The second order is we increasingly judge behaviours by whether it aligns with values, not how much it keeps others comfortable. In the near future expect more leaders, managers, and creators to explicitly reward honest no’s, clear preferences, and firmer lines, because that’s how you get healthier teams and less resentment‑fuelled burnout. The third order shift is that we’re moving from outsourcing self‑worth to other people’s reactions toward a more internal scoreboard and that will quietly change how we hire, promote, collaborate, and show up for each other.

Read: The Truth About People Pleasing

Raccoon As Pets - Apparently So. We are going to see more and more non domestic animals become pets again. From raccoons in the US, to more monkeys and chimps (apparently costing over $20k) to hedgehogs, we will continue to see more exotic animals as pets and where will this move live out…on social media

Read: Expensive Pets

PR hasn’t died, it’s been rewired from pitching desks to owning culture, communities and AI-shaped reputation. Andy and I show the future belongs to brands that move fast, leverage the “go direct” movement (using founders, employees, TikTok, LinkedIn to go direct not through traditional media) and treat AI search and LLMs as a primary reputation battleground, not an afterthought.

The gap will widen between brands still “sending press releases” and thinking product updates is enough to those running always‑on reactive newsjacking, EGC (employee generated content) flywheels and AI-footprint audits as standard. The winners will be the companies whose CMOs build an ambassador army, a crisis silence protocol, and a proper AI reputation playbook before the first synthetic scandal hits their board pack. 

Read: Winning PR or My YouTube Interview

The public is finally pushing back on being unpaid extras in someone else’s entertainment/surveillance machine. This article is a sign that creator culture is maturing from chaotic authenticity to “codified professionalism”, brands, lawyers, and legislators are quietly rewriting briefs, store design, and contracts around privacy, permission, and reputation risk.

Expect luxury and premium brands to normalise “no‑filming by default, consented filming by design,” shifting more creator work into controlled environments (like after-hours, private venues, creator homes) where everyone in frame has opted in.

Whereas non luxury are making a play for anywhere anyone anytime content. The deeper shift is any brand or influencer still treating physical spaces as free backdrops and people as free props will feel the pressure of seeming out‑of‑touch, because the flex will become have you respected boundaries rather than chase reach and any views 

Read: https://archive.ph/UeUtg  & Connected Read: How to Pull Off an influencer Trip in 2026

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Join Priya from the NYT inside a Jersey City firehouse, where firefighters squeeze in elaborate, quality family style meals between their high-stakes emergency calls. This intimate look at the fire kitchen shows how cooking and sharing food builds a genuine family atmosphere for people who put everything on the line for their community. If you ask any company culture expert where the biggest wins come from its eating together 

This video gives you a close, behind-the-scenes look at the daily grind inside Manchester’s M11 Athletics Club as they shape elite talent like Keely Hodgkinson for the world stage. You’ll see the hard science, relentless repetition and fine margins that define top-level middle-distance running — and how the squad manages to balance all that intensity with a fun, tight-knit, family feel.

This takes a deep and dark dive into are our phones listening to us and serving us ads to what can brands who bid on your activities really see and learn about you

An interesting look at the world most famous growth hack the Mona Lisa (which was stolen to make it more popular and more desirable)

What leadership really is -

Got any questions or comments on any of the Must Reads shared today, hit reply or email me on [email protected]