Winning Stories for Standout Brands.

Image Credit: My iPhone I just moved to New York, and at this point I spend more time standing in lines or hearing about lines than I'd like to admit. I've made peace with it. Some things I've personally watched happen this summer: Fifty people outside a Greenpoint ice cream shop before it even opens. Strollers and dogs included. A multi-day encampment outside a Swatch store, with people paid to hold spots overnight. A line for a seemingly random food truck by Rockefeller Cen

Image Credit: Buckner Group In this month’s After Story, SG leaders Lesley Gold and Baxter Townsend sat down with Yvette Buckner. Buckner is the President and co-founder of Buckner Group and one of New York’s top political advisors and government relations specialists. The conversation revealed a lot: how governors communicate across different states, why engaging local communities is the key to successfully entering new markets, and how a long history of companies missing th

Image Credit: Lars Van Poucke on Unsplash Clouded Leopards are the latest (adorable) poster children of the AI resistance. National publications like People Magazine and the NY Times are covering the opposition to a proposed data center next to the Nashville Zoo as local celebrities highlight the issue, over half a million people sign petitions, and the Nashville mayor files eminent domain in an effort to stop the development. The data center and broader AI backlash have bec

Image Credit: Espa The Forethought acquisition was the headline. The more interesting story is what came after it, and what had to happen before it. In a conversation with SG CEO Lesley Gold, Deon Nicholas talks about building and selling Forethought to Zendesk, launching Espa — an AI executive assistant that just launched with the support of SG— and why the hardest thing he had to learn wasn't about business at all. SG: You're part of a very small club of founders who've had

Image Credit: The Australian Trump went after a late night comedian for telling a joke. Then the Justice Department went after someone else entirely — on the same day. SG CEO Lesley Gold writes on what's happening to free speech, why it matters, and a phrase she's known her whole life that suddenly hits differently. Who's Afraid of Jimmy Kimmel? When I was a kid, "Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke" was practically a proverb. So universal that when I asked Gemini to trace its

Photo Credit: Stephen Rose/Getty Images What happens when someone else decides to write your story? FX turned Daryl Hannah into a villain. Blake Lively watched her reputation dismantled in real time by machinery most people didn't know existed. As AI makes narrative manipulation faster, cheaper, and harder to trace, the question of who controls the story is no longer just a celebrity problem. Who Controls the Story? Daryl Hannah is the unlikely hero of her own story. Which is