Slate Spark

05/08/2026

LinkedIn has quietly become one of the most psychologically complicated platforms online.

Not because politics suddenly appeared there, but because business, identity, reputation, and public opinion are now colliding in ways they did not a decade ago.

For professionals, founders, executives, and creators, the question is no longer simply whether politics belongs on LinkedIn.

The harder question is what happens to your professional identity when political identity starts leading the conversation.

Slate Spark's founder Christine Merser breaks down the different lanes people are choosing, the tradeoffs attached to each, and why intentionality matters more than ever.

What makes LinkedIn complicated now is that politics is no longer sitting politely outside the business world. Politics affects tariffs, DEI policies, healthcare, immigration, university funding, AI regulation, women’s rights, labor, media, advertising, international trade, and corporate risk. Pre...

03/08/2026

One year after Target's controversy: what brand leaders did right, what they didn't, and the lessons every marketer should study. A short, sharp read on crisis response and brand management from Christine Merser. Read more: https://wix.to/tC5iMaq

When Enron was collapsing, I was brought in as a strategist around the topic; should they change their name during the fall out. “Huh? No, you can run, but you can’t hide, was my take.” I love watching brands when something catastrophic occurs, and who keeps their s**t together, and who doesn....

01/08/2026

Alysa Liu is the kind of woman we should all be paying attention to.

She was at the top of her sport in figure skating at 14. National titles. Global attention. Olympic trajectory. And then she walked away. No apology. No explanation tour. She chose to live a teenage life, fully and deliberately.

At 18, she put her skates back on, not to chase medals, but because she missed the feeling. The internal rush. The joy. On her own, without counsel, she decided she wanted to compete again. She went to the two coaches she wanted and set the terms. She would choose the music. She would shape the training. She would determine the routine. They would collaborate. She would not be directed the way she had been as a child. Eventually, they said yes.

Then she went to her father, who had his children through surrogacy, and told him he would not be involved this time. And then she trained.

In the upcoming 60 Minutes piece, you hear her repeat the same phrase while she skates. “Just one more time.” Over and over. Not because someone is pushing her, but because she is driven from within.

She went on to win the World Championship and secure her place at the Olympics. A comeback that, by most standards, should not exist.

When asked about the pressure of being the favorite going into the 2026 Olympics, she said, “I don’t feel any pressure at all. I just want to make people feel something. Good or bad.”

I think she means it.

She also made something else clear. No one would tell her what to eat. No one would comment on her weight. She has an athletic, powerful, beautiful body and she owns it. And she smiles. A lot.

My takeaways.

She is motivated from the inside. She knows how to find her own ignition.

She loves the audience. But she does not need them.

She does the work. Just one more time.

She built her own circle of collaboration, chose the right team, and set clear boundaries. They are proud of their work and visibly in awe of hers.

This is not the only thing in her life. I have never heard her say she wants to be number one in the world. Or even that she wants to win.

She charts her own course, not impulsively, but through experimentation and growing commitment. When told that what she was attempting might not be possible, she simply did not care.

Let this be the woman of the future.

Best of luck to her in February.

Watch her skating. Watch the interview. You will learn more than any workshop can teach you.

​Welcome. Slate Spark is our new home for ideas, strategy, and the moments that spark possibility. We are adding content every day and hope you will visit often, sign up for updates, and share any thoughts or topics you would like us to explore. This is a growing space and your feedback will hel...

01/07/2026

The Oil Companies and Venezuela Merger. That's what it is.

Corporations have always had influence in government. They are now running it from inside. Very different.

“For corporate leaders, this moment demands something deeper than opportunism. It requires honesty about the environment they now inhabit. The central question is no longer only where expansion is possible. The question becomes who will define the conditions under which expansion happens, and whether that power is accountable to anyone beyond itself.” - Christine Merser

CEO's need to consider this new paradigm.

If governments can create markets through force and then invite corporations in to run what follows, we may be entering a new era where the line between state power and corporate expansion simply fades.

What does that mean for leadership, strategy, risk, reputation, and growth?

I explore it in Slate Spark’s newsletter today. Link in comments.

12/27/2025

We have changed our name, vision, and mission this year. But I came across the first video year and review we ever did for social media in 2010, as Blue Shoe Strategy. My things were different than.
Out with 2025 and in with 2026. - Christine Merser

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17qUPvcjRz/?mibextid=wwXIfr

12/07/2025

Michael Dell once told a room full of his executives that in five years a company none of them had ever heard of would arrive and do everything they did, only better, with more imagination and passion. Unless Dell became that company, they would be out of business. His point was simple. When you are at the top, the natural instinct is to keep doing what you are doing and to believe that yesterday will predict tomorrow. It never does.

A lot of people have asked me why, after thirty years of success in marketing and strategy, I shut down the company I built and opened Slate Spark. Why close a business that worked. Why start again at this moment in time.

Long before I heard Dell’s story, I already felt the warning in my bones. I knew that if I stayed who I had been, I would not be able to stand in the center of this moment. Too much of the company’s strength lived in its past. And the past is not the direction of the future.

These are extraordinary times with extraordinary possibility. Before the year closes ask yourself a simple question. If you set everything aside today and rebuilt from scratch, what would you create?

2026 is weeks away. Take the time now to decide how you want to be seen, what you want to offer, and how you want to serve the circles you collaborate with. It will be time well spent.

11/08/2025

This is the last post for Blue 2 Media. Announcing our next step shortly.

(and the first step toward Slate Spark)

09/23/2025

“To collaborate well, you must not only be a good partner but also a generous witness to the success of others.” - Christine Merser

From Harper Lee and Truman Capote to Shonda Rhimes and Hoda Kotb, this essay explores the hidden challenge of collaboration — learning to celebrate someone else’s success without diminishing your own.

Read Christine's full article to see how their stories reveal what it really takes to grow, succeed, and keep relationships strong.

Harper Lee and Truman Capote were best friends growing up in Monroeville, Alabama. She was steady and watchful, he was flamboyant and fragile, and together they found in each other a partner for the imagination that sustained them both. As children they sharpened their voices side by side, inventing...

06/20/2025

"Eventually, I realized that my best moments, my most effective, creative, energizing moments, aren’t about leading from the front or falling in line behind someone else. They’re about sitting in a circle. Collaborating. Co-creating. That’s where I come alive. That’s where I see others shine as well." -

That’s the vision Blue 2 Media's Christine Merser brings to life in her new book, Circles of Collaboration.

Years in the making, this book challenges traditional leadership models and offers a new blueprint—one built not from the top down, but side by side. Preorders are now open.

Links in bio to Christine's piece and to preorder the book.