Hey👋,
I'm Giacomo

Sunday thoughts: are you willing to die to win?

Last week, an 18-year-old skier died during training in France.

Just a few months ago, another athlete, only 20, suffered the same fate in Italy.

Even Federica Brignone, this year’s champion, got injured in the worst possible way, just weeks after claiming the World Cup title.

It’s a worsening trend, despite more advanced safety devices.

So why this is still happening!

Simple, athletes go faster and take bigger risks than ever before.

The competetive level is so high that risking your life is literally what it takes to win.

Skiing is my favourite sport so these stories hit hard. I wasn’t spared either, I once got a free helicopter ride off the slopes (too bad I was unconscious and missed the view 😅).

I feel the same principle applies to our careers.

Competition is so strong that grinding until burn out seems to be the only way to succeed.

Is it even worth it?

Depends.
If your goal is to win, this is the only path. And many people like to win.
Although many more get injured on the way.

But maybe there’s another path.

One where sport values health and fun over extreme competition.

One where “winning” isn’t the only measure of success.

One where professional relationships are human-relationships first and not a mean to “win” the next promotion, the next role etc.

One where hard quality work is more valued than winning at all costs.

But I guess the idea of winning is so embedded in our society that we rather see another 18-year-old die than changing our perspective.

SEO in the age of AI

Make your About section an FAQ.

That’s what I did on my new website.
It describes me in the third person, just like a chatbot would.

That's the experience I want to replicate: a conversation between the user and an AI assistant.

Even the UI looks similar to a ChatGPT thread.

Next step: structured data markup, to make it even easier for machines to read it.

We have to face the reality we’re not marketing to humans anymore.
We're marketing to machines.

Any SEO experts here who want to share their opinion?

Spotify = Spot - ify

as in, "spot ify" my music, "add spots (ads) to my music".

Never thought about it! so smart :)

Still very true in 2025, when Spotify is pushing ads like never before, by creating their own SSP, ad manager etc.

Credits Max Ciociola

This is what happens when ChatGPT knows you too well…

Over the weekend, I had a very unfortunate adventure:

- 10 hours standing still on the motorway.
- Car broke down right after.

The last thing I wanted was to get stuck again.
So I did what any AI person would do:

I asked ChatGPT to troubleshoot my car 😅

(Un)surprisingly, GPT was extremely helpful.
Thanks to its suggestions, I managed to crawl the remaining 200km to my destination.

But this is what surprised me the most:

Mid-conversation, GPT casually suggested that this adventure is also a "personal brand win", perfect content for LinkedIn!

Now imagine me, after 10 hours in traffic, sitting in a half-dead car, thinking:
Yeah, let me definitely open LinkedIn right now. 😂

And yet, here I am haha
GPT knows me too well!

In the end, I made it to my destination but the car didn’t go much further.
Maybe its advice wasn’t that good after all 😅.

Navigating LinkedIn posts is frustrating as hell.

So I vibe coded my way out of it.

On my new website, you can easily browse and search through all my LinkedIn posts. I wish every creator had one!

I came up with the idea about 3 years ago, when I started posting consistently on LinkedIn.

I tried different no-code solutions, but none really worked.

Then OpenAI released its first reasoning model: o1.
That changed everything!

o1 reasoned through the problem to find practical options tailored to my situation.

It didn't just help write code, but it guided me choosing tools, shaping the overall structure, setting everything up.

For sure it didn’t turn me into a developer. This isn’t some complex app after all.

But it did allow me to ship a complete solution to a problem I had for years.
I didn’t just “play” with AI, I built something real with zero coding experience.

So AI won’t replace developers, but it will turn more people into one, only when needed. And this is key!

Here’s the result:
👉 https://lnkd.in/em3vcjSJ

Have a look, would love your feedback!

I finally did it!

I vibe-coded my new website. 🎉

And yes, it does vibe 😎

LinkedIn is amazing for content discovery.
But it’s terrible for content re-discovery.

So many creators are publishing blog-level content here, which I love and deliver great value to the platform.

But after a few days the posts are gone!
Buried under the algorithm’s next dopamine hit.

There is no easy way to search, filter and organise posts.

FRUSTRATING AS HELL!

So I built my own solution👇

You can now browse, search, and filter all my posts!
(almost all, my script doesn't like retroactive vibes, so there are some gaps I'm still filling manually. But hey, respect the vibes 🏖️ )
https://lnkd.in/ep9dshhH

The UI is intentionally clean, but I’m considering adding date range filters and possibly post categories. What do you think?

Check it out, enjoy and tell me what you think,
I’d love your feedback!

Everyone: “Ai will take our jobs!”

Marketing people:
Sure, let it try juggling 10 custom requests, endless back-and-forths, fake “emergencies,” and your CEO who can’t find the ads on Google 😂

Reality is,

Ai thrives on linear, consistent, and predictable tasks.

That’s why it's already disrupting jobs for:

✍️ Writers
💻 Developers

As this Financial Times research shows, these are the most impacted roles so far.

On the other hand, "low-skills" jobs like assistants, travel agents and similar are barely touched, for now.

Why?

Because Ai (still) sucks at navigating human relations, irrational behaviour, and chaotic calendars.

I often say marketing is one of the most Ai-impacted industries.
And it’s true, but not in the way people think.

Unlike in coding, where Ai is easily replacing freelancers and contractors, in marketing Ai still cannot handle the "mess" of juggling between different projects, stakeholder expectations etc.

As someone smarter than me once said:
"everyone has an opinion about marketing, even though they know nothing about it".

Marketers might not like this, but they still have to handle all different opinions, the "mess". Something Ai is proving not good at.

Rather, AI is augmenting marketing work by increasing productivity and decreasing costs.

So paradoxically, Ai might actually increase the relevance of marketing inside orgs, driving more hires, not fewer.

Meanwhile, the tech crowd is facing the irony of their own efficiency:
“workflow optimisation made tech roles more, not less, fragile.”

link to the article in comments.

Studying with a view 😊

Ai isn’t just a technological revolution.
It’s an organisational and productivity revolution.

For the past couple of years, most of us have just played with it.
But playtime is over.

Especially in marketing.

Unlike IT, where processes are often structured and gated, marketing is full of creativity, opinions, and unclear processes.

So while it’s easy to experiment with Ai here, it's incredibly hard to deploy it across professional workflows.

But it doesn't have to be:
💡 First simple step: get your company on ChatGPT Enterprise.

Every employee can include GPT in their daily workflow, in a secure manner.

→ Marketing teams can create CustomGPTs for generating visuals and copy that always follow brand guidelines.

→ Global companies can build CustomGPTs for consistent translations across markets.

And now, Google is rolling out the AI Function for Google Sheets.
Meaning Ai becomes as seamless as writing a formula.

The end goal should be higher productivity, which means:
→ More done in less time

As simple as that.

Ai is transforming marketing in 2 big ways:

1. Increasing marketers productivity.
2. Shaping consumer behaviour.

If you're in marketing, you must ride both waves.

1️⃣ Ai is not replacing marketers. Quite the opposite!
It’s making them more productive and more valuable to their bosses.

In-house marketers using Ai tools can now:

→ Design visuals and videos without agencies.
→ Write high-performing, multi-language copy.
→ Analyse data like a full-blown data scientist.

10x the output!

2️⃣ Consumers are also changing.
They’re searching with Ai tools, not just Google.

Your brand must be found there!

Plus, Ai agents will go even further, completing full purchases on our behalf.

Think fo the prompt:
“Buy me the best running shoes between €100–150.”

What brand does the agent pick?
What site does it trust?
Which product wins?

Welcome to the marketing questions of 2025!

Let's talk numbers...

▶ The S&P500 drop was the 5th worst since WWII.

▶ After peaking in 2022, US inflation was back under control, only to increase again in 2025.

▶ US consumers now expect the same level of unemployment as during the financial crisis.

▶ Business confidence in the US dropped again, after increasing in 2024.

▶ Weekly bankruptcy filings in the US reached the same levels of 2020, and almost the same level of 2009, at the peak of the financial crisis.

▶ There's now recession probability of 45%.

Not too bad 😅