Bob Batchelor's Blog

Get Your Book Project Started (or Finished) with Help From Experts!

Watch the on-demand replay of “Write Your Book,” which outlines the steps from brainstorming through publication.

For more information, check out the conversation I had with EY Entrepreneur of the Year honoree Donald Thompson. Then, see the recent livestream we recorded at https://youtu.be/tGiNRqWGh4Q?si=1wOaFvbLm4dV2KBe

We share expert insights for leaders, entrepreneurs, and executives ready to turn their ideas into a published book. Whether you’re starting with a spark of inspiration or a rough outline, you’ll gain practical advice, motivation, and the tools you need to take the first step toward authorship.

Roadblocks and Challenges Keep Many People from Writing Books. Overcome these Doubts and Get Your Project Off the Ground

Despite the clear benefits, many executives and senior leaders hesitate to write a book. The resistance is rarely about skill. The real challenge is often focused on fear, time, and clarity.

Photo by Tom Hermans on Unsplash

These mental roadblocks often present themselves in familiar refrains:

“I’m not a writer.”

“I don’t have time.”

“What if no one reads it?”

“It’s too late to start.”

These objections are understandable, but often shortsighted. The truth is, you don’t need to be a professional writer. You need to be a professional with insight: someone who has seen, solved, and led through challenges worth learning from.

The BIG Secret…

You don’t have to be a writer to get your ideas into the body of knowledge. As a matter of fact, some publishing insiders estimate that upwards of 60 percent of bestsellers are actually ghostwritten. Therefore, the research and writing can be supported by expert collaborators. In other words, let a professional writer put their expertise to work for your ideas or storytelling.

What matters is your willingness to own your narrative. Savvy leaders never win by themselves, so don’t think that writing your book means holing up by yourself for a year, hovering over the keyboard, and slowly driving yourself bonkers.

 Teams make winning possible, so crafting your book with the best available resources should be your goal.

The greatest risk is not writing. Executives who stay silent lose control of their story. They allow competitors, markets, or algorithms to define their leadership brand. Worse, they miss the opportunity to document their unique thinking in a way that benefits their organization and inspires their team.

 “Leaders often underestimate how much their story can inspire others. That’s not ego—it’s impact.”
 —Kurt Merriweather, Vice President of Global Marketing, Workplace Options, and co-author, The Inclusive Leadership Handbook

Many people view writing a book as a personal win. That’s fine, since everyone will have different reasons for crafting their book. Here’s another way to look at it, though. Think of your book as a strategic tool for clarity, alignment, and growth.

Your book forces you to ask:

What do I really believe?

What do I want to be known for?

How do I want to be remembered?

Answering those questions? That’s where great leadership begins.

For more information about writing your book, ghostwriting, or executive-level thought leadership, visit the team at ExecBrand Authority or email me directly: bob@bobbatchelor.com.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth about tone: it isn’t “soft.” Tone is strategy.

Tone is how a leader’s intent becomes lived reality. It signals what’s important, sets the boundaries of debate, and determines whether hard truths surface in time to act. People don’t just hear your plans, rather they feel your posture, how you frame trade-offs, acknowledge impact, and keep (or break) promises.

With the proper tone, felt experience becomes culture.

Brett Jordan, Unsplash

Tone is an operating system, not a vibe

Authenticity isn’t a mood or mystique. It’s observable behavior—human language, owned responsibility, and promises kept. When tone and ethics align, organizations allocate power more fairly and earn consent more easily. When they don’t, leaders don’t connect, which leads to skepticism that compounds with every all-hands, email, or media quote that doesn’t match reality.

Ask yourself: “If a frontline employee only had access to your words and your cadence (not your title), would they infer your true priorities?”

What tone does in chaotic environments

Uncertainty increases the premium on tone. People are looking for presence. In volatile moments, tone should do three things:

Reduce fear: Name what’s known, what’s unknown, and when you’ll update.

Create safety: Invite dissent on purpose and thank the first tough question.

Show care: Acknowledge human impact before issuing directives.

Leaders who do this consistently build trust faster than leaders who try to be “right” in every meeting.

Leaders who use tone properly (and consistently) build trust faster than leaders who try to be “right” in every meeting.

Make authenticity observable

If you want to create a culture people can feel, make your tone measurable. Here is a straightforward five-move pattern:

Open with a value sentence: “Here’s the principle guiding this decision.”

Acknowledge impact: “This will help X, and it will be hard for Y.”

Explain the why in plain language: no jargon, acronyms, insider language, or euphemisms.

Invite challenge: “What am I missing? Who’s affected who isn’t in the room?”

Close the loop publicly: “Here’s what changed (or didn’t) because of your input.”

Repeat those moves in town halls, one-on-ones, and written updates. Consistency is the point.

Tone builds (or breaks) psychological safety

Your tone either widens or closes the leadership chasm—the gap between how you see yourself and how people experience you. A curious, steady tone turns “risk” into “experiment,” “failure” into “learning,” and “reporting bad news” into “doing your job.” A defensive tone does the opposite. When leaders normalize candor and early confession, teams solve problems faster and innovate more often.

The messaging portfolio: get tone fit for purpose

Executives need a full “messaging portfolio,” not one generic voice. Your tone should flex by audience and context without losing integrity:

Strategy tone: succinct, principle-led, non-defensive.

Change tone: transparent, empathetic, specific on next steps and timing.

Crisis tone: calm, accountable, frequent, free of spin.

Recognition tone: generous, specific, share the credit.

External thought-leadership tone: insight-driven, human, not self-congratulatory.

When these tones contradict each other, people default to the least generous interpretation. Practice the transitions.

A practical lens: the 6-M communication checklist

I created the 6-M Communications Model to provide leaders with a easy method for evaluating their efforts. Use the 6-M Model before important messages:

Mindset: What value am I leading with?

Message: What’s the one thing people must remember?

Medium: Is this best said live, in writing, or both?

Mechanisms: What rituals will reinforce this (cadence, Q&A, feedback routes)?

Membership: Who must have voice before/after this message?

Measurement: How will I know the message landed (salience, sentiment, behavior)?

If you can’t answer these quickly, you’re not ready to present the information.

Global vs. local tone

Empathy and safety travel. Tone norms don’t.

What reads as open and warm in one culture can feel intrusive in another. Globally, design for safety with systems (anonymous feedback, structured retros, manager toolkits) and let local leaders tune the tone. Locally, rely more on presence and relationship.

Here are some additional ideas:

Ban euphemisms for bad news. Call a layoff a layoff.

Set update cadences in advance (e.g., every Friday at 3 p.m.).

Stop after-hours email from leaders unless truly urgent; schedule send.

In meetings, pause the over-talker and invite the quiet expert.

Keep a public “decisions log” with the value that guided each call.

These are small moves with outsized cultural effects.

Thought leadership begins at home

If your public thought leadership says “people first,” but your internal tone is opaque or punitive, you are eroding brand equity from the inside out. Align the external story with the internal experience. The most credible external voice is a leader whose team nods when they read it.

A 15-minute tone workout this week

Here are several ways to practice with tone:

Rewrite one major update using the five-move pattern above.

Run a “tone audit” of your last three all-hands: where did you invite dissent, and where did you rush it?

Ask your team privately: “What’s one thing I could do in meetings that would make it safer to disagree with me?” Then implement it and close the loop.

Your people are listening—and cataloging—every town hall, 1:1, side comment, and press quote. Tone, like power, is always in play. The question isn’t whether you have a tone; it’s whether you’re using it to create clarity, safety, and trust.

Are you thinking about tone when you communicate—or only when you’re being communicated to?

Tone, like power, is always in play. The question isn’t whether you have a tone; it’s whether you’re using it to create clarity, safety, and trust.

For many executives, authorship transforms the conversation from "What do you do?" to "How can we work together?"

Pride. Legacy. Authority. Fulfillment. People choose to write books for many reasons.

The primary aspiration I have been discussing with business leaders and executives recently is to carve out a space in thought leadership. Digging a little deeper, some leaders want to share their unique ideas and others have a specific topic they want to explore with other experts.

What I tell them...and I'll explain more here...is that one truth is timeless -- a great book is the most durable asset in an executive's brand portfolio. Authorship (the actual ideas, research, writing, and more to bringing the book to life) converts expertise into proof. No one can erase that or take it away.

Enduring Power of Books

Books endure. Regardless of how pretty your PPTs are or your wizardry with Excel, those things quickly fade away. A book, though, carries your ideas into rooms (and minds) you haven't entered. For many executives, authorship transforms the conversation from "What do you do?" to "How can we work together?"

Writing forces deep reflection, self-actualization, and strategic clarity. These impulses run the gamut:

What problem do you solve?

For whom?

Why now?

How do you solve challenges unlike -- or better -- than others?

The answers become the spine of your thought-leadership persona, which includes your point of view, language, and narrative arcs. The ideas at the heart of your book also aligns your messaging. Leaders who write books open a new world of possibilities; raise awareness for their personal brands; and demonstrate judgment, coherence, and the courage to stand behind a thesis.

A book also operationalizes and extends influence. I have repeated over and over again the deep content power of authorship and content creation. When you work on a book, you build a content mine that you can tap long into the future, from keynote presentations to bylined articles an internal communications pieces.

As part of a deliberate (strategic) content platform -- owned media, public relations, webinars, branding/visuals, and social media -- you transform your ideas into a steady stream of high-value assets. This is the kind of powerful content that will drive AI summaries, human response, and long-term influence.

Words of Advice

Executives and other successful leaders often want a large dollop of science with their art. Well, here it is: Treat authorship like any growth initiative and measure it accordingly. But, you have to have a complete go-to-market plan that accompanies your effort.

What can you do? Track pipeline quality and cycle time on deals influenced by the book. Monitor speaking demand and media outreach. Watch talent attraction and leadership recruiting lift as candidates pre-read your principles. Track reputation signals (influence, network expansion) triggered after you publish.

The payoff? ROI may be revenue from the book itself, but the real power is relevance, including business expansion, leads generated, conversations launched, and career expansion/transformation. And, of course there are countless "real-world" consequences...but the other...that is priceless -- trust!

Of course there are countless "real-world" consequences when you write a book...but the other...that is priceless -- trust!

Many leaders express frustration because they don't know where or how to begin. Hmmm, you're reading this because I am expert in the entire process. So...I wouldn't expect any executive or leader to tackle this big a project cold.

Instead, put together a great team -- just like you would if you were addressing any pressing business objective. Strategy sessions translate business objectives into a table of contents. Interviews and voice memos become chapters through a disciplined editorial process. Ghostwriters and editors ensure the manuscript captures your voice. Is this outsourcing or finding a path to scale your ideas with professionals who are as expert in their work as you are in yours?

Is this outsourcing or finding a path to scale your ideas with professionals who are as expert in their work as you are in yours?

The risk is not writing or being stifled into inertia. Silence lets competitors, markets, and algorithms define (or redefine) your leadership story. Trust yourself and trust your story. Leaders who do the authorship work accrue advantage: trust, mindshare, and authority that compounds over time.

Don't wait for permission or the perfect time to begin. Launch your author journey today: a couple notes here, some anecdotes there, or imagine what that cover or table of contents looks like. Your story has value and your stakeholders want to trust you.

So, no matter the reason -- putting your stake in the ground or providing the full picture of your career journey -- get started today. For more information from EY Entrepreneur of the Year honoree Donald Thompson and I, watch the recent livestream we recorded at https://youtu.be/tGiNRqWGh4Q?si=1wOaFvbLm4dV2KBe

I have spent thousands of hours writing books and decades leading communications teams, while testing ideas in the “real world.” That long life of learning and leading has taught me something many miss in today’s AI debates: a tool only becomes powerful when real expertise is already in place.

I use AI every day. Not as a shortcut, but as a partner. It helps me scan information quickly, test narrative angles, and surface new possibilities. Those outputs matter only because I already know how to judge, refine, and shape ideas into something meaningful.

Without that background, AI is just noise.

This is why the hand-wringing over “AI plagiarism” in universities is so revealing. Students who lean on AI to produce work they can’t create themselves (by themselves or with the guidance of caring, professional faculty members) undercut their own education. They get the appearance of knowledge, not the substance. Professors are right to worry: when novices outsource the struggle, they graduate with hollow skills.

So when I hear, “AI makes people lazy” or “AI kills creativity,” I push back. Bad writing and shallow research existed long before machine learning. The problem is not the technology, but rather how unprepared people are to use it well (or properly).

The real question is: what happens when AI is in the hands of people who already bring discipline, judgment, and creativity? This is where the true frontier lies. It should unsettle us, because the threat is not AI. We suffer from our failure to cultivate and reward mastery in the first place.

The leadership industry’s paradox

We spend staggering sums on leadership programs, books, and degrees—yet far too many people still dread their manager, distrust their executives, and disengage from their work. I have watched this pattern across sectors for years as a Marketing and Communications executive and a ghostwriter working with senior leaders.

The core problem isn’t a shortage of content. We face a capacity problem—leaders who can translate values into everyday communication behaviors that people actually experience as trustworthy, humane, and useful. That’s the heartbeat of my book, The Authentic Leader, which argues that authenticity isn’t a slogan, rather authentic leadership is a practice people can feel in the room, on video, and in the words one writes. Authenticity serves as a North Star, guiding a culture that brings out the best in teams and colleagues.

What young leaders actually need

When I work with emerging leaders, I see similar gaps in their development: an instinct to “sound leaderly” rather than being leaders and a habit of polishing messages, while avoiding difficult truths. Early-career leaders don’t need more pep talks. They need a short list of observable behaviors. Here’s mine: start with the human stakes, explain your logic plainly, set an update cadence, and close the loop publicly. In The Authentic Leader, I lay out three initial steps: embrace your story, practice radical transparency, and lead with empathy—each framed as action, not attitude.

Start with authenticity (and make it observable)

Authenticity begins with self-knowledge, but it shows up as what people can see you do:

How you open a message

How you acknowledge impact

How you respond to a tough question

As I explain, “Authenticity is more than being true to yourself… an authentic leader is also attuned to the needs and emotions of others.” In other words, focus on actively listening, reflecting back what you’ve heard, and making support visible. These behaviors help create psychological safety and deeper engagement, rather than performative “openness.”

Transparency is the second pillar. Young leaders often ask, “How transparent is too transparent?” My answer: default to clarity about what you know, what you don’t, and when you’ll update. Authentic leaders don’t hide behind a veil of secrecy…transparency builds trust. Direct communication—even about sensitive issues—isn’t cruelty; it’s respect. I profile leaders who “address the elephants in the room,” modeling candor as a cultural norm.

“Authentic leaders don’t hide behind a veil of secrecy… transparency builds trust.”

Empathy is the third pillar. Leaders who name the burden on others, provide resources, and stay present reduce stress and raise engagement. In my resilience writing, we show how authentic communication and empathy foster trust and psychological safety, particularly during uncertainty—conditions under which teams don’t merely endure; they improve.

Train for communication behaviors, not performances

If we want fewer bad bosses, we have to stop training leaders to perform persona and start training them to practice presence. That shift is concrete:

Open with a value sentence (“We’re prioritizing quality over speed to protect customer safety”)

Acknowledge human impact before directives

Explain why in plain language: state what’s known/unknown and the next update time

Invite dissent on purpose; thank the first tough question

Close loops in public: what changed (or didn’t) because of feedback

These are teachable moves that convert empathy and integrity into felt experience. The result is creation of a culture people can trust.

Two simple mental models (not another 300-slide deck)

When I train young leaders, I give them two scaffolds they can remember under pressure:

The EAT Model (Engage → Adapt → Transform) is a process lens: first win attention and belief (Engage), then iterate message/channel/rituals from real feedback, both for yourself as a leader and audiences/people you engage with (Adapt), and finally prove change with policies, cadences, and evidence (Transform). I developed EAT initially to explain how culture works—not as a “thing,” but as a process people experience and reshape. That verb-like quality helps leaders design communication people actually ingest and use.

The 6-M Communication Model (Mindset, Message, Medium, Mechanisms, Membership, Measurement) is a design checklist. Mindset puts values and ethics first; Message clarifies framing and story; Medium matches channel to intent; Mechanisms turn words into repeatable routines; Membership ensures real voice and dissent; Measurement shows salience, sentiment, behavior, and trust. Use it every time there’s a stake. It prevents “clever-but-unethical” campaigns, message theater without follow-through, and “change” with no proof.

Together, these models keep young leaders from improvising charisma and instead coach them to sequence change and design communication so people experience respect, clarity, and steadiness.

Why so many programs fail (and how to build ones that don’t)

We create toxic managers when we reward optics over outcomes and charisma over care. Many curricula skip the part where leaders have to show up consistently and make support tangible. In our leadership development at Workplace Options, we emphasized that safety and engagement require cadence, boundaries, and human connection—not slogans. Leaders who model clarity, encourage balance, and keep conversation channels open cultivate resilience rather than burnout.

We create toxic managers when we reward optics over outcomes and charisma over care.

For young leaders, the path forward is clear: treat authenticity as a daily discipline. Write the value sentence first. Be honest about uncertainty. Make empathy visible. Discuss and publicize what changed because people spoke up. Do these things, repeatedly, and the culture will begin to mirror the leader.

A better beginning

The future doesn’t need more boss-shaped performances. We need leaders who communicate with courage, clarity, and care. If you’re training the next generation—or becoming it—start with the practices I outline here and in The Authentic Leader. We want to help leaders develop skills that are short on theatrics and long on results: Lead with empathy…actively listen…create a safe space for authenticity to flourish.

The future doesn’t need more boss-shaped performances; it needs leaders who communicate with courage, clarity, and care.

If this resonates, consider picking up a copy of The Authentic Leader. And, if you want to put these ideas into action, pick one communication this week and run it through these behaviors, particularly the EAT Model and the 6-M checklist. Remember: the only leadership that works is the kind people can feel.

...Because You Didn’t Hire Enough Humanities Graduates...

Critical and contextual thinking are the new superpowers!

Walk the halls of any failing organization in 2030 and you will see the same patterns: brilliant engineers with no sense of context; marketing departments drowning in dashboards, but blind to meaning; and leaders who can’t connect decisions to human experience.

The tragedy isn’t lack of intelligence...but lack of perspective.

For years, executives doubled down on “hard skills.” They thought: “Hire more coders. Scale the analysts. Push productivity through process.” And yet, here we are: disengaged employees, customers who don’t feel understood or valued, and cultures that suffocate innovation.

What organizations (and their leaders) missed is that human beings drive business, not algorithms or workflows. And human beings are messy, contradictory, and infinitely complex. To make sense of that complexity requires something more than efficiency metrics. It requires context, empathy, narrative, and the ability to hold multiple truths at once.

“Complex problems need people who are energized by tackling big, complex challenges.”

— Bob Batchelor

This is precisely what the Humanities teach. Graduates who have wrestled with history, philosophy, literature, creative writing, or art bring more than cultural awareness. They bring tools for thinking systemically, questioning assumptions, and connecting disparate dots. They can spot patterns across centuries, frame ethical dilemmas in ways that unlock better strategy, and articulate meaning when others only see noise.

The Authentic Leader argues that leadership is ultimately about one question: Are we helping people? Leaders who can’t answer that—who can’t even see it—build organizations that crumble when faced with complexity. Humanities graduates, by training, are equipped to keep asking that question, even when the numbers look good on the quarterly report.

This is not an argument against technology, finance, or engineering talent. Rather, it is a call for balance. If you want to future-proof your business, you need people who can code and people who can contextualize. People who can design systems and people who can challenge their consequences. Professionals who can solve problems and people who can imagine futures worth solving for.

Ignore this at your peril.

The companies that thrive in 2030 won’t be those with the most data. Instead, think of a future in which leaders and teams know what the data means for human lives. Complex problems need people who are energized by tackling big, complex challenges.

The EAT Model created by Bob Batchelor

Bob Batchelor is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication, Media, & Culture at Coastal Carolina University. He is a critically-acclaimed, bestselling cultural historian and biographer. He has published widely on American cultural history and literature, including Stan Lee: A Life and books on The Doors, Bob Dylan, The Great Gatsby, Mad Men, and John Updike. Batchelor earned his doctorate in English Literature from the University of South Florida.

In my recent conversation with Donald Thompson for WRAL TechWire, we explored the profound role of psychological safety in today’s workplace. For me, the discussion reinforced just how vital this idea is—not just as a feel-good concept, but as a business imperative. In the EAT Model—Engage, Adapt, Transform—psychological safety is not an afterthought. It is a core driver of how leaders create resilient, innovative, and high-performing cultures.

Donald noted that, in a time when trust in institutions has eroded, employees often trust their employers more than they trust media or government. That’s a remarkable shift—and a responsibility. Leaders have become stewards of trust, which means our ability to create a safe environment for ideas, questions, and even dissent is directly tied to business performance.

That’s Engage—the first pillar of the EAT Model. Engagement here is more than “communication” in the corporate sense. Rather, it is focused on creating authentic, human connections that give employees permission to share their perspective without fear of retribution. Without that foundation, psychological safety can’t take root.

But psychological safety isn’t static. This is where Adapt comes into play. Too often, adaptation is seen as something purely external—adjusting to market shifts, competitive pressures, or new technologies. In the EAT Model, adaptation is both external and internal. Leaders must continuously recalibrate their own behaviors, language, and even emotional intelligence to reinforce safety.

But how do leaders operationalize this idea?

Responding constructively to mistakes

Actively seeking feedback on how safe people feel

Making visible changes in response

Don’t forget, though, the organization’s role in creating psychological safety. Organizations must evolve policies and practices to reflect new realities, thereby shifting from one-way communication to genuine dialogue, for example, or embedding inclusive decision-making into daily routines.

When leaders commit to engagement and adaptation over time, transformation occurs. This is the third pillar of the EAT Model: cultural change that becomes part of an organization’s DNA. In practice, transformation looks like higher retention, more innovation, and stronger collaboration. But at a deeper level, it’s about creating an enduring culture of trust and learning. Then, psychological safety becomes a cultural safety net when the organization needs resilience, like weathering economic downturns, facing competitive disruption, or even experiences societal crises. As Donald pointed out, psychological safety is not only the right thing to do, it’s a competitive advantage.

From my perspective, applying the EAT Model to psychological safety gives leaders a clear roadmap:

Engage with empathy and authenticity

Adapt with both structural and personal change

Transform by embedding safety into the culture

The result is a workplace where people feel safe to speak up and are motivated to contribute their best thinking. This is an important outcome. In an era where the quality of ideas can determine the survival of an organization, that’s more than a nice-to-have. It’s a necessity.

The Leadership Value Proposition

The beauty of applying the EAT Model to psychological safety is its scalability. It works in small teams, global corporations, and even cross-cultural contexts where trust and open dialogue are harder to build. For leaders in marketing, communications, and digital industries—where creativity, speed, and collaboration are paramount—the EAT Model offers a lens for diagnosing cultural barriers and a roadmap for removing them. The return on investment is tangible: stronger employee retention, better decision-making, and a workforce that innovates faster than the competition.

Leaders who want to operationalize psychological safety—and reap its competitive benefits—should explore how the EAT Model can be integrated into their leadership practice. By focusing on engagement, adaptation, and transformation, you don’t just create safer workplaces—you create stronger, more resilient organizations.

In an age where markets shift overnight and attention spans shrink by the second, success in marketing and communications demands more than clever campaigns. Success requires a framework for lasting impact.

This is where the EAT Model -- Engage, Adapt, Transform -- comes in.

I initially created the EAT Model to study culture shifts and history, but have been adapting it as a mental model to help professionals in Marketing, Communications, Public Relations, Writing/Editing, and others understand the underlying forces that drive messages.

🚀 Engage: Connecting deeply with audiences through relevant stories, authentic voice, and a clear value exchange.
🚀 Adapt: Responding — not just to market trends, but also recalibrating internally, such as revisiting strategy, brand positioning, and even team thinking to stay ahead of change.
🚀 Transform: Creating lasting shifts in perception and behavior that position your brand as indispensable in the customer's world.

Applied to marketing and communications, EAT becomes a strategic filter. It helps leaders diagnose why messages aren't landing, identify where brand narratives are lagging, and design campaigns that not only win attention, but sustain momentum. By rooting decisions in EAT, organizations can move from reactive tactics to intentional, measurable transformation.

Applied to real-world marketing and communications challenges, the EAT Model helps professionals think more strategically, analyze campaigns with deeper insight, and ensure initiatives evolve in sync with audience expectations and business goals. The strength of the tool is that it provides a critical thinking lens for why and how to do it—producing communications that are both creative and commercially effective. By embedding EAT into planning, leaders gain a competitive advantage: they can craft campaigns that resonate more deeply, adapt faster than competitors, and deliver transformation that moves the needle for both brand and business.

Culture is not a noun — it’s a verb. Something that happens to us, and that we, in turn, help create.

When I began studying American culture decades ago, I noticed something: most scholars and cultural commentators described popular culture as if it were an object. A thing you could hold up and label — a Picasso painting, a baseball card, a Marvel comic book.

While this approach had value for cataloging and analysis, it missed the spark. The real action of culture is not static; it’s dynamic. Popular culture is not just the object itself — it’s the rush of feeling when you hear a song for the first time, the charge of energy in a crowded theater as the lights dim, or the sense of belonging when you put on your favorite team’s jersey.

Culture is not a noun — it’s a verb. Something that happens to us, and that we, in turn, help create.

This shift in perspective — from static to dynamic — led me to develop the EAT Model: Engage, Adapt, Transform. Initially born from my work as a cultural historian, the model captures how culture is lived and experienced, and how brands — particularly celebrity brands — generate lasting meaning.

The EAT model captures how culture is lived and experienced, and how brands — particularly celebrity brands — generate lasting meaning.

Engage: Creating the Spark

Every enduring celebrity brand begins with Engage. Engagement is the spark — that first connection that makes someone stop, look, and feel something.

This isn’t simply visibility. True engagement hits on an emotional frequency. Think about Robert Downey Jr.’s emergence as Iron Man. He wasn’t just another actor in a superhero role. His personal story of struggle, redemption, and charisma aligned perfectly with the Marvel cinematic moment. Fans weren’t just buying tickets for Iron Man; they were buying into the Downey comeback narrative.

Starbucks achieved something similar when it became more than a coffee company. In my research with Kaitlin Krister Schrock, we coined the term radical sociodrama to describe how Starbucks acts as a stage where customers perform aspects of their identity. The company went far beyond selling coffee. Starbucks created a lifestyle cue, a way to project taste, refinement, and belonging.

Engagement, then, is more than grabbing attention. The focus is on connecting in a way that makes the audience feel seen and understood — the necessary ignition point for everything that follows.

Adapt: The Bridge Between Engagement and Transformation

Most people think “adapt” means simply react to change — adjust your schedule, update your branding, follow a trend because it’s gaining attention. That’s part of it. However, in the EAT Model, Adapt is much richer and more integrated.

Adapt is the bridge between engagement and transformation. It’s where what you have connected with externally meets the shifts happening internally — in your mindset, values, and identity — and the two reshape each other.

This is the visible, situational adjustment:

A musician evolves their sound to reflect changing cultural tastes.

A company updates its messaging in response to a social shift.

A public figure refines their tone after a major life change or cultural event.

This kind of adaptation is responsive, but rooted in what came before — the surface expression of something deeper.

This is where Adapt becomes transformational in its own right:

Reframing perspectives — The change outside prompts a shift in how you see the world.

Integrating new meaning — You update your internal “why” to align with new realities.

Evolving identity — You absorb external input in a way that reshapes who you are and how you’ll approach the future.

Robert Downey Jr.’s post-Iron Man career illustrates both. Externally, he capitalized on the Marvel platform with smart role choices. Internally, he reframed his public identity from “Hollywood cautionary tale” to “creative force and philanthropist,” weaving his hard-earned credibility into every project.

Starbucks, too, has continually adapted both externally and internally. It didn’t just localize menus overseas; it rethought what “the Starbucks experience” meant in cultures with different coffee traditions, integrating those insights back into the brand’s global identity.

Adapt is not “bend so you don’t break.” It’s “absorb, integrate, and evolve,” so that the transformation that follows is authentic, sustainable, and resonant.

Transform: Moving From Brand to Cultural Force

The third stage — Transform — is where a brand transcends category and becomes part of the cultural fabric. This is where a celebrity or brand moves beyond selling products or performances to influencing values, beliefs, and identity.

For example, Oprah Winfrey transformed from talk-show host to cultural institution by consistently connecting her brand to personal growth, empathy, and shared experience. LeBron James transformed from basketball superstar to social advocate and education innovator.

But transformation has a double edge. When celebrity branding becomes about visibility for its own sake, it can erode trust, polarize communities, and hollow out the very connections it set out to build. The EAT Model challenges us to ask: What are we transforming into? Are we creating deeper connection and shared meaning, or reinforcing division and performance over substance?

Why the EAT Model Matters in a Celebrity-Obsessed Age

In today’s world, celebrity branding is not limited to entertainers or athletes. Social media has turned “being a brand” into a cultural expectation. CEOs, educators, nonprofit leaders, and even students are urged to curate their personal brand.

There are benefits to this — clarity, connection, and influence — but also costs, including self-censorship, constant performance, and the pressure to measure worth in clicks and likes.

The EAT Model offers a roadmap for navigating this landscape. It’s not a checklist, but turns thinking about branding and thought leadership into a mindset that recognizes cultural connection as a living, participatory process.

Applying the EAT Model

Whether you’re a celebrity, an emerging entrepreneur, or someone simply looking to build a meaningful personal presence, the EAT Model offers three clear imperatives:

Engage — Spark emotional connection that makes people feel seen.

Adapt — Balance external responsiveness with internal recalibration, so your evolution is both strategic and authentic.

Transform — Create meaning that lasts, shaping not just transactions, but the cultural conversations people care about.

When applied with intention, this framework can help avoid the traps of superficial branding and focus instead on the power of authentic cultural influence.

The Cultural Historian’s Edge

Why approach celebrity branding through a historian’s eyes? Because history reveals the patterns: the way branding has evolved from product marks to cultural symbols, and how engagement, adaptation, and transformation have driven that evolution.

History reveals the patterns: the way branding has evolved from product marks to cultural symbols, and how engagement, adaptation, and transformation have driven that evolution.

From the rise of early consumer icons to global mega-brands, the same cultural mechanics repeat. Understanding these changes allows you to see where branding is going next, not just where it has been.

The EAT Model is my way of translating decades of cultural insight into a tool for today’s world — one that helps us connect, evolve, and lead without losing sight of the values that make connection meaningful in the first place.

For more on the EAT Model and celebrity branding, listen to “Theories of Celebrity Branding” wherever you like to listen to podcasts. Tune in here.