When You Redefine What's Possible, Impossibilities Become the New Standard

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I was up until 2:00 AM last night, completely glued to the screen. As a huge fight fan, watching the UFC pull off a live event on the White House lawn was absolutely surreal.

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I know combat sports aren't for everyone, and I know this venue choice landed differently for different people. This isn't a political post, I don't make them.

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I am looking at last night purely through a business, branding, and vision lens. What we witnessed was a complete rewrite of the sports marketing playbook and many other playbooks.

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Almost every fighter interviewed said some version of the same thing: I would have never dreamed this. It was easy to believe them. I don't think Justin Gaethje ever pictured himself walking out of the Oval Office, or any of the fighters envisioned walking down the West Wing, and straight into a fighting cage built on the South Lawn?

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Last week I wrote a post that said: You don't know what you haven't seen until you've seen it.  

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After last night, I'm updating that formula: "You don't know what you haven't dreamed until you've actually dreamed it."

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The Business Takeaway:

In corporate sales, media, and agency life, we routinely let industry norms quietly define the ceiling of our ambition. We build strategies based strictly on what's already been done, afraid to pitch anything that sounds too disruptive or out of reach.

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My friends thought I was crazy when I resigned from a great GSM role at a local CBS affiliate to start a Connected TV advertising business back in late 2017. It didn't fit the traditional media playbook either.  Until it did.

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If an entertainment organization can successfully negotiate placing an asset on the most secure lawn in the world and turn it into a premium global product, your business can challenge its own limitations too.

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Stop letting traditional boundaries dictate your execution.

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Dream bigger. Execute with precision. Rewrite the script.

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