Red Lime Media

09/05/2026

Is marketing on your mind?

09/05/2026

08/26/2026

Working from Medellín feels different.

The laptop is open, deadlines are still real, and the work still has to get done. But when I look up, there are mountains behind the buildings, trees filling the space below, and a city moving all around me.

A good view does more than give you something pretty to look at. It clears a little room in your head. Ideas come differently here.

This may be my office for the day, but Medellín keeps reminding me to look beyond the screen.

08/21/2026

Medellín may be one of the best case studies I have seen in what vision, positioning and cultural change can do. I say that as someone who has spent years in marketing and growth and traveled there to experience the city firsthand.

When you ride the Metro and Metrocable, visit the libraries and public spaces, and see how people use them, the transformation feels far more tangible than it does in a case study.

Most people think of marketing as promotion: ads, social media, websites and messaging.

But real marketing starts earlier. It begins with deciding what you want people to believe, how you want them to behave and what experience you will build around that belief.

Medellín had a much bigger problem than branding. During the height of narco violence, entire neighborhoods were shaped by poverty, crime, fear and limited opportunity. Criminal networks offered young men what the legitimate system often did not: money, status, belonging and a future they could see.

The city made a different bet. Instead of focusing only on fighting crime, leaders redesigned the environment through Metro and Metrocable access, libraries, parks, sports facilities, education, public spaces and youth programs. The strategy became known as social urbanism.

The city did not simply announce, “We want a healthier, safer Medellín.” It built the proof.

The facilities became the message. The Metro became the message. The libraries became the message. The public spaces became the message.

Every time a child entered a sports facility or a family visited a library, the new vision of Medellín became more believable.

Traveling through the city made the lesson clear: positioning is not just what you say about a place, company or product. It is what people repeatedly experience.

A CEO transforming a company faces a smaller version of the same challenge. You cannot say the culture has changed while rewarding the same behavior, claim customers come first while maintaining painful systems, or announce innovation while punishing people who try something new.

Vision and leadership matter, but the environment, systems and incentives must support them. People need repeated evidence that leadership means what it says.

Medellín did not change because of a clever slogan. It changed because leaders made thousands of decisions pointing in the same direction.

That is marketing at its most powerful: not convincing people that something has changed, but building something so consistently that people believe it, then behave differently because of it.

08/19/2026

Medellín keeps surprising me with where people work.

I’ve seen a coworking space inside a grocery store.

Another one sitting above a car garage.

And today, I walked through one of the largest malls in Medellín and found small coworking areas scattered throughout the entire place.

Tables. Chairs. Wi-Fi. Outlets. People working.

And they’re free.

I’m used to thinking of coworking as a building you join, pay for and deliberately go to. Here, I’m seeing workspaces built right into everyday life.

Need groceries? You can work.

Getting your car serviced? You can work.

Walking through the mall? Apparently, you can work there too.

I would have never thought about bringing my laptop to the mall, but I’m going back tomorrow to do exactly that.

Medellín has a way of making me rethink things I thought I already understood — even something as simple as where an office can be.

08/18/2026

Most marketing problems are not really marketing problems.

The business may be good. The service may be strong. The opportunity may already exist. But there is often a gap between the business and the people who need it.

That gap might be visibility.
It might be trust.
It might be weak follow-up.
It might be a website that does not explain the value.
It might be leads coming in with no real system behind them.

Marketing is the bridge between where your business is and where your next customer is standing.

Before you add another campaign, another platform, another piece of software or another tactic, make sure the bridge is actually built. This is where growth begins.

08/17/2026

One of the things I notice when I travel is how businesses communicate before you ever walk through the door.

This sign at Valentina Bakery in Medellín does a lot with very little.

You immediately know they are open. You know what they serve. You know the hours. The menu is one scan away. Their Instagram is right there.

No clutter. No guessing. No hunting for information.

Good marketing is often less about saying more and more about removing friction.

A customer standing outside your business should not have to work to figure out what you do, when you’re open, what you sell, or how to learn more.

Sometimes the smartest marketing strategy is sitting right outside the front door.

08/15/2026

This is good information.

08/14/2026

I’m in Medellín, Colombia, working on Google Business Profiles—and my workstation looks like an ad for a new computer.

Most people think setting up a Google Business Profile means adding a picture, listing a few services and calling it done. There is much more behind that little box you see in search results.

Eligibility. Verification. Categories. Service areas. Reviews. Support issues. Suspensions. And the careful work required to help the right customers find the business.

I’m writing a blog that explains what goes into creating and managing a profile properly. Be on the lookout for it on my website.

For now, I have a laptop, a mountain view and work that can travel with me.