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Top of Mind Thursday Memo Archive
Top of Mind Thursday – September 10, 2026: The Day the World Changed
In every generation, there are likely one or at most two key events that have such an impact on our lives they create a dividing line that never disappears: There is Before the Event and then there is After.
For many of us September 11, 2001 was such a day.
Before then, we went about our lives thinking that violence and terror might affect other parts of the world, but here in the US, we were somehow sheltered from such events.
After, our sense of security vanished. We watched videos of planes hitting buildings, of towers disintegrating—even desperate people jumping from the Twin Towers in a last-ditch effort to get away from the devastation.
After, we learned of the heroism of many of those who perished that day—either on the doomed planes or in the towers. . . and of the ongoing tragedy faced by first responders who continue to suffer severe health maladies from breathing the toxic dust as they helped with rescue and recovery.
After, we learned to live with intensive airport screening practices, and realized that one man trying to detonate a device from his shoe caused us to remove our own footwear before boarding a plane for nearly two decades.
After, we watched American troops go to war for extended periods of time in Iraq and Afghanistan—only to find out the mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attack had been hiding in Pakistan all along.
After, we learned many attempted attacks were thwarted, but some terrorists still get through. And, unfortunately, we continue to see the terrible effects of such events quarter of a century later.
After, we watched some immigrants be unfairly punished for their ethnic backgrounds, while other groups continue to be targeted for who they are and what they believe.
Tomorrow is 25 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Over 3000 people died that day. To honor their memory, we need to keep remembering what happened, why it happened, and to take steps to see it doesn’t happen again. We need to support those who suffered from losing friends, colleagues, and family, and those who remain traumatized by the experience.
We forever live in the After of September 11th. May the memory of those who were lost that day forever be for a blessing.
Check out our marketing leadership podcasts and the video trailer for my book, Marketing Above the Noise: Achieve Strategic Advantage with Marketing that Matters.
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Let us help your business rise to the top.
linda@popky.com
(650) 281-4854
www.leverage2market.com
Top of Mind Thursday – September 3, 2026: Dead. Locked.
For the last several weeks, the media has been obsessing over the case of Lindsay Clancy, a mother who admits to killing her three young children.
There’s no argument that Clancy killed her children: the only question is whether she should be convicted of murder or acquitted because she committed these acts while suffering from postpartum psychosis.
The defense has put on a compelling argument: Lindsay asked for help and didn’t get it. She never would have done this if she were in her right mind, etc.
The jury appears to be somewhat swayed by the arguments. As of this evening, they said they were deadlocked as to whether or not to find her guilty of murder. Many women have come out in support of Lindsay, saying they, took have suffered from postpartum depression and believe this should be taken into account.
Here’s the problem, though. It’s estimated that nearly half a million women a year suffer from serious postpartum depression. Postpartum psychosis occurs in 1-2 cases per thousand women. Yet very few of these people harm their children—let alone murder three of them!
If everyone who suffered from some sort of serious mental problem went around killing their loved ones, we would have a serious breakdown of society. But, thankfully, that doesn’t happen.
Yet in today’s world, it appears violence and even murder can be condoned for the “right” reasons…such as Luigi Mangione gunning down the CEO of United Healthcare.
Mangione pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and will likely serve a long sentence. Lindsay Clancy will either spend the rest of her life in jail or in a mental treatment facility. But as a society we have to be clear that there are rules that must be followed, and when they’re not, there are serious consequences.
The jury may be deadlocked. But the verdict on society for recognizing violent crime and punishing it must be clear: If we allow these kind of crimes to go unpunished, we are guilty of not punishing violent criminal acts when they occur. And that’s not a pattern we want to be locked into.
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 – August 27, 2026: End of an Era
This week, in less than 24 hours, we lost two generational performers. . . the singer Dolly Parton and the actor/musician Tim Curry.
Those of us of a certain age grew up with these two incredible talents. Dolly Parton made country music accessible to a wider audience, took us along for the 9 to 5 ride, and even had her own amusement park. What I didn’t realize was what a prolific song writer she was—writing more than 3000 songs, nearly half of which have never been commercially released.
But beyond that, Dolly was incredibly generous—sending millions of books to school children and funding the development of one of the key COVID vaccines. And she never took herself too seriously.
Tim Curry threw convention to the wind with his incredible portrayal of Dr. Frank-n-Furter, the “sweet transvestite from transsexual Transvlyania” in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
But that was only one role. Curry’s credits range from Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island to King Arthur in Spamalot, and included roles in Annie, Clue, and Home Alone, as well as playing Mozart in the film Amadeus.
Yet behind the scenes, their off-screen lives were stressful. Dolly was the main caregiver for her husband of more than 60 years before his passing. Curry suffered a major stroke 14 years ago, which left him partially paralyzed, but didn’t stop him from continuing to do voiceover work.
In a world where celebrities come and go quickly, these two outstanding talents created amazing performances for decades that will be remembered decades into the future.
I imagine they’re working on a duet right now: “Let’s do the time warp again, Jolene!”
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 – August 20, 2026: Culling the Flock
The furor in America continues to build dramatically. Not about gas prices or affordability. Not about tainted lettuce at Taco Bell. Not even about UFOs or data centers. No, the greatest threat to democracy today has been declared to be . . . . Flock cameras.
If you haven’t been following this, Flock Safety has deployed somewhere around 100,000 devices across the US that use cameras, image recognition, and machine learning software to identify license plates, quickly locate gunfire, and provide video surveillance.
The concern is that these devices are causing dangerous intrusion into personal privacy. This has reached near-hysteria due to recent revelations that in at least 12 states, a number of police officers—who are the audience these devices are intended to help—have made unauthorized use of the devices to track their own personal targets. In one case, an officer in Massachusetts is accused of accessing Flock cameras hundreds of times to track his estranged wife’s location. In Milwaukee, an internal affairs officer supposedly tracked 10 individuals who were not under criminal investigation—while investigating the inappropriate use of technology by other officers.
Flock says the cameras store only limited information for a finite amount of time, and that they have been responsible for catching all kinds of criminals and solving cases that would have gone cold without this technology.
While there’s no question there has been unacceptable abuse, it’s not clear why the anger is directed at Flock and not at the local jurisdictions who have allowed their police officers to misuse the system without repercussions. It’s likely not the first technology to be misused by bad actors, nor will it be the last. Perhaps we should be asking why these abuses were allowed to continue for so long unabated? Where are the safeguards in the law enforcement community to note these abuses and put a stop to them?
Flock is facing a PR nightmare right now. They’ve already announced they are limiting the time any collected data can be stored (and they never store names or personal data—only license plate numbers, which are public information). It behooves the company to come up with a system that uses their AI technology to look for patterns that might suggest abuse and flag these to customers sooner rather than later.
But for those who believe vandalizing these cameras will solve the lack of privacy problem, let me remind you of something you may find more disturbing:
There are currently 100,000 Flock cameras deployed in the US, but more than 300 million smart phones in use by over 90% of the American population today. We voluntarily use these devices to share much more data (including location, personal information, and financial data) on an ongoing basis—and much of that data is stored and used by third parties to target messages to users.
Are those upset by license plate readers looking at culling the wrong flock?
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