One-Hit Wonders (And the Agency Who Loves Them)

How not to be a one-hit wonder in marketing.

One-Hit Wonders in PR.

Regular

Living Generically with Olivia: The Final Part

Living generically.

Not While I’m Peeing: The Science of Unwelcomed Marketing

How to make your marketing presence less intrusive.

The Science of Intrusive Marketing

“I love you, but you have no idea what you’re talking about.” PR Lessons from “Moonrise Kingdom”

The parallels of Moonrise Kingdom and marketing.

What Moonrise Kingdom taught us about PR.

Rebels lead the way: more solid advice from our favorite historical game changers

Lessons learned from inspirational game changers.

Advice from historical rebels.

Father knows best: PR lessons from our dads

Father knows best.

Help! My mom won’t quit liking my Facebook posts and other social media crises

Good Advice from our favorite Baaaaad Asses

Advice from game changers.

Signing On: Getting the Best Agency for Your Buck

Things to consider when hiring an agency for the first time

Hiring an agency

How $20, a pair of boots and a letter changed my worldview

how a simple interaction changed perspective

how $20 changed perspective

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Facebook: Marketing Love Songs

love songs that explaing real-life situations

Valentine's Day Love Songs

how to use prose as inspiration for copywriting

Copywriting 101

‘Twas the week before Christmas over here at Black Sheep
Where carols were playing over loud email beeps
The lights were all hung reminding us to be cheery
But with much to be done, we started to grow weary

The clients were restless, hoping to check out soon
As the Black Sheep worked hard by the light of the moon
One last release, a few more lines of copy
We had to act fast, but we couldn’t be sloppy

Then, in a twinkling, we heard something outside
A fat man in a suit hollered, “Hop in my ride!”
We looked at each other, not sure how to respond
But he seemed pretty nice, so we shrugged and jumped on.

He yelled “Ho, ho, ho!” but it wasn’t offensive –
And somehow, we all felt less apprehensive
But where were we going? And would there be elves?
We couldn’t help wondering in spite of ourselves.

This ride, how mysterious! This old man, how hairy!
As we sped through the night, we felt twinges of merry
We noticed that time was no longer an issue
And as we turned a corner, St. Nick passed a tissue

On South By, On TEDx, on Creative Mornings and tweeting
On press conferences, clippings, on last-minute meetings
Viewing the past year with this red-clad historian
We sped through the year on his festive Delorean

He spoke not a word, as we flew near Downtown
Then over to Montrose, soon we were Heights-bound
As we saw all the things that inspire Black Sheep
That old guy was right, we all started to weep

But the tears were not sad ones, no they were quite happy
(and readers, we’re sorry, this is where things get sappy)
For a very brief second we’d let our brains forget
That the things we accomplish are worth all the sweat.

That all the experiences – big ones and small
Are really the very best present of all
And ideas, like popcorn exploding in our heads
Are better than mistletoe and a warm bed

Feeling revived and ready to spring into action
Santa dropped us off, smirking with satisfaction
But as we opened our laptops, we heard o’er the roof
“Happy holidays, Sheep!” and we all raised a hoof.

You see, we thank Santa for showing us how
All it takes is remembering what came before now
But when making a list of the naughty and nice
There’s no doubt that old man will be checking it twice

We left him a gift – to remember the night
And pasted our logo in very plain sight
On the door of his shiny time-traveling sleigh
We couldn’t resist – it’s the true Black Sheep way.

Despite our rebellion, we hope you all know
How much you have helped this ol’ company grow
Each time we make toasts to celebrate this season
We hope that you realize that YOU are the reason.

New year goals

Don’t Speak: The Top Four Ways to Brand a Body (Without a Hot Iron)

Different ways marketers can show brand loyalty

Top Four Ways to Brand a Body (Without a Hot Iron)

Coffee Talk: Ellipses— Fascist Punctuation of Insipid Insult?

Ellipses etiquette

Penguins, Monkeys and How to Leverage Your Business

leveraging your business

There’s a particular kind of project that doesn’t feel like a project.

It feels like something else entirely. Over Black Sheep’s 16 years, we’ve learned to recognize these engagements — the ones where the stakes are real, where the mission is load-bearing, where getting the story right genuinely changes what’s possible for the people an organization serves. We’ve also learned that these are the projects we want to fill our days with.

Right now, our roster is full of them. I want to talk about that — not as a highlight reel, but as a reflection of what we believe this work is for. And if you’re leading one of these organizations right now and it feels heavy or uncertain or like your story isn’t keeping pace with your mission, this is for you too.


Some projects aren’t a single scope — they’re a relationship, built over time, through the kind of trust that only comes from doing hard things together.

Houston Arts Alliance is in one of the most pivotal moments in its history. A new CEO — the first woman and person of color to lead the organization — has stepped into a role that carries both enormous expectation and extraordinary possibility. We are building alongside them from the ground up: immediate messaging and leadership transition tools, a mission and vision refresh, a public education campaign, a community engagement process and a full brand foundation. Long, layered, listening-first work. Some of our favorite kind.

Houston Parks Board is marking its 50th anniversary at the start of an exciting new chapter — bold new leadership, a visionary strategic plan and a future that has been a century in the making. We’re evolving their brand to match the scale of that moment. Being trusted when the foundation is strong and the future is wide open is its own kind of honor.

Good Reason Houston is an organization we know well — we built their original brand in 2018, and they’ve called on us at several points of strategic inflection since. This is one of those moments. The world these leaders are navigating looks almost nothing like it did seven years ago, and our work together right now is about finding language that tells their story with clarity and confidence for where things are today.

Civic Builders finances and develops school facilities across the country, making excellent schools possible in communities where the need is greatest. We completed a full messaging and positioning strategy with them, and we’re now deep into their visual identity system — in genuine collaboration with their extraordinary internal team. This partnership is the kind we aspire to: the work belongs to all of us.

The Greater Houston Partnership is building an AI-powered tool to connect educators, employers and community partners in ways that expand workforce opportunity. We’re building the brand that makes it accessible and credible from day one.

Fervo Energy is redefining what clean energy looks like. We are their strategic design agency — giving visual and creative form to the complexity of what they’re building, because a breakthrough technology deserves a story told with equal craft.

The University of Nevada, Reno trusted us to direct a digital campaign for their Black Youth Mental Health Initiative — designed to reach young people at the right moment, in the right channels and keep them connected to support that can change the trajectory of their lives. This follows our branding and strategy work for their CDC-sponsored Safer Nights opioid overdose prevention campaign last year.

The Center for Civic and Tech Life is now publishing a magazine for local election officials — the people who make democracy function at the ground level. We named and developed the publication’s visual identity, because this community deserves tools that reflect the seriousness of their work.

In collaboration with January Advisors, we’re working with the League of Women Voters Houston on a set of core values and a strategic plan built for what comes next. The League has been doing this work longer than most organizations have existed. Helping them articulate where they’re headed is not something we take lightly.

Much of this work is happening in Houston — the city where Black Sheep was founded, where many of us live and where we feel the stakes of these institutions personally. When you’re a Houstonian working on Houston, it stops being a client list and starts being something else.

It takes something to make this call. The leaders we work with aren’t doing it because things are easy — they’re doing it because they’ve decided that a story that can’t carry the mission is a liability they can’t afford. That takes clarity about what’s actually at stake. It takes a willingness to look honestly at the gap between where you are and how you’re being perceived. And it takes the kind of courage that doesn’t always get named as courage — the quiet decision to invest in something foundational when there are a hundred urgent things competing for the same resources.

But the thread running through all of it — local and national — is the same: find the organizations doing the most necessary work, and make sure their story is strong enough to carry their mission forward.

If your organization is in a moment that demands more clarity, more confidence or a story that finally matches where you’re headed — we’d love to be in that room with you.

A reflection on 16 years of learning which projects are worth our days — and the mission-driven organizations we're building alongside right now.

The Work That Doesn't Feel Like Work | Black Sheep Agency

What it takes to build a story strong enough to carry a mission forward.

A reflection on the partnerships filling our roster right now — and what it takes for mission-driven organizations to build a story strong enough to carry their work forward.

The Black Sheep blog is turning up the volume on community engagement, social media strategy, Houston happenings and what it means to lead a purpose-driven life.

The Black Sheep Agency | Social impact and nonprofit blog

We like to type as much as we like to listen.

We're not shy.

The Work That Doesn’t Feel Like Work