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Top of Mind Thursday – July 10, 2025: Washed Away
Last weekend, flash floods in Texas washed away homes, RVs, and campsites. Over 120 people are dead—many of them children—and more than 170 are still missing.
This disaster was tragic. It was also likely preventable.
My family lost everything we owned in a hurricane and flood over 50 years ago. The population impacted in our area was more than six times as large as the flooded counties in Texas, yet the deaths from Hurricane Agnes in our area in Pennsylvania were just a small fraction of the people killed this past week.
Both locations were known flood zones, having experienced severe flood events in the past. Both places received National Weather System alerts at least 12 hours in advance of the expected flooding. Both suffered catastrophic property losses in their respective events. But in spite of the fact that there were no cell phones or social media in 1972, the population in PA was evacuated safely, which was not the case in Texas.
The exact timeline of what happened in Kerr County will come out over time, but right now it looks like a combination of several factors led to this disaster:
- Local officials decided against spending the funds for a county-wide alert system, saying this was a waste of money.
- The desire to “get back to nature” overrode common sense. Phones were taken away from both campers and counselors—in spite of the knowledge that this area was known as “flash flood alley.” As a result, many people didn’t get the overnight alerts to leave until it was too late.
- Plans to evacuate areas in case of flooding were inadequate or nonexistent. No one thought to develop realistic scenarios of how to handle rapidly rising flood waters in a rural setting with limited access.
Was this week’s tragedy unique to Texas? Absolutely not. In fact, it bears many similarities to what happened to the massive wildfires in Los Angeles early this year. Fire department budgets had been cut and homeowners neither trimmed sufficient brush near their homes nor invested in pool pumps to provide an additional source of water to fight fires.
In 1972, people listened to government warnings of danger (delivered on their old fashioned home telephones). They didn’t invoke the “Deep State” or ask whether this was all a scam perpetrated by those with an opposing political view. They followed the direction of those who were there to protect them—the way our parents and grandparents lined up for polio and smallpox vaccines, rather than deciding to opt out, as too many people do today.
This kind of “It can’t happen here” mentality seems to be showing up more and more. I’ve decided to call this Ostrich Syndrome: If we put our heads down and hide, we won’t have to pay attention to what’s going on around us and everything will be fine.
Except ostriches survive by outrunning what’s chasing them. Humans can’t outrun wildfires or flash floods or dozens of other hazards.
Maybe it’s time we start thinking differently before disaster strikes?
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – July 3, 2025: These truths we hold self-evident
Tomorrow, July 4th, is Independence Day in the US.
While the day is celebrated with parades, barbecues, and fireworks, it’s important not to lose focus on why this is even a celebration.
Two hundred forty-nine years ago, America declared its independence from Great Britain. The Founding Fathers set high goals for their new country:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
We often hear politicians ask, are you better off today than you were 2 (or 4) years ago? But maybe the question we should be asking is, are we doing better or worse today on the goals we declared as a country in 1776 than we did 2 or 4 or 10 or 20 years ago?
We are so polarized today–with special interest groups out to promote their own cause and extremists on both sides. It seems like we’ve forgotten something that was critical in 1776, and again became the focus a century later during the Civil War: Unity.
The Declaration of Independence ends:
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
It’s up to us to decide where we go from here.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – June 26, 2025: Blasted
Last Sunday, after much speculation of, “Will he or won’t he?” Donald Trump sent B2 bombers to Iran to bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities.
No one else could have done this, because the US is the only country with “bunker busting” bombs and the planes to carry them. There’s disagreement about exactly how much damage was done to the sites (Iran says very little; the Israelis and American military say enough to put back the bomb making effort for years).
On Monday, Iran aimed a few missiles at the US base in Qatar—after telling both Qatar and the US exactly where and when they would strike. We now have a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, although Iran continued to lob ballistic missiles at Israel—killing 4 people and injuring dozens more—even past the time the ceasefire was supposed to begin.
Will this last? Who knows. Will it end hostilities between Iran and the Western world? Probably not, but perhaps it will slow things down for awhile. Did this engage the US in a new never-ending Middle Eastern war? Doesn’t appear so. Criticism of the attack was missing from most of the Arab world—probably because they all considered Iran a threat to their own sovereignty and were secretly glad this has been taken care of.
Is the world just a little bit safer with the knowledge that Iran won’t be arming missiles with nuclear warheads for some time? Yes. Are the Iranian people free from a violent, repressive terrorist regime? Not yet.
Does this attack signal the end of the conflict? Probably not, but in this round, it’s Western World 1, Iranian Terrorists 0. And that’s a better score than we’ve seen in a long time.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – June 19, 2025: The World Watches
Dear Linda,
Last Friday, after 20 months of ongoing attacks from Iran and its proxies, Israel finally struck back—hitting Iranian military officers, drone and missile launchers, and nuclear sites.
What caused the IDF to move now? The consensus that Iran was extremely close to having nuclear weapons. In fact, there was concern, they were about ready to add nuclear warheads to the ballistic missiles they have been lobbing at Israel since the weekend.
In retaliation, Iran has send over 400 missiles and 1000 drones into Israel. Amazingly, all of the drones and about 94% of the missiles were intercepted or failed to hit their targets. Some, however, did land in civilian areas, killing 24 Israelis (including Israeli Arabs), and injuring more than 200 people. In addition, missile hits to residential buildings have left over 5000 Israelis homeless.
Yesterday, a newer missile, containing cluster munitions (illegal according to international law) severely damaged a civilian hospital in Be’er Sheva. Luckily, the hospital had been evacuated so there were no deaths.
As bad as the Iranian attacks have been, the thought of what would have happened had these missiles been carrying nuclear warheads is frightening.
While Israel has focused on military targets and warned civilians to leave potential target areas, Iran’s attacks have been almost entirely focused on civilian residential areas, businesses, and a hospital—and they come without warning. In Gaza, hospitals are often used as cover for Hamas headquarters and munitions storage underneath. In Israel, a hospital really is just that—only a hospital.
Since October 7, 2023, the media and world leaders have pushed back on Israel’s efforts to root out Hamas, without noting that Hamas uses its own people as human shields. When Iran hit Israeli civilian targets this week, the response from the world was at best subdued, and in many places nonexistent.
While the world sits back quietly watching and waiting, Israeli forces are working hard to dismantle a threat not just to their country, but to the entire Western world. Donald Trump may send in American forces to help eliminate the nuclear threat. . . or he may just sit back and watch Israel do their thing.
Meanwhile, the Iranian people are watching too. After nearly a half century of a repressive regime that has slaughtered too many of its own people, they’re ready for a new day. Let’s hope the world does not disappoint them.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
.
Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com