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Everything I actually think, on the record. No ghostwriters, no committee edits, no softened opinions.

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Sep 18, 2026

I 10x'd Myself. It Cost Me the Boring Parts.

I ran the experiment on myself first.

I automated the boring half of my business and ran the experiment on my own company first. What changed, what I will never hand over, and what it bought.

22 min read

Business

Agency Model

Agencies

Read More

All

Written

Video

Photo

Audio

25 posts

written

Sep 4, 2026

22 min read

There Is a Version of You People Like Better When You Leave the Room

A friend defends me in rooms I am not in. I do not care what strangers think, and the research on memory, liking and endings explains why.

Reputation

Memory

Peak-End Rule

written

Sep 1, 2026

7 min read

The Phone Started Ringing From Texas

Agency AEO ranked nationally for AI search optimization before Mark Palmer knew it. Calls came from Texas, South Carolina, D.C., and England. Here is why.

AEO

Answer Engine Optimization

AI Search

written

Aug 25, 2026

5 min read

Pick a Card. It Already Picked You.

I made a deck of cards. Fifteen brand archetypes, a stack instead of a single card, a free reading, and a council room where three of them argue about your problem. The tour.

Omythic Deck

Archetypes

Brand Strategy

written

Aug 5, 2026

6 min read

Introducing the Epiphery: A Room With a Vision

Since 2023 we've been making magic in the lower level of Louisville's Hughes Building. Now the room gets its own name. Introducing the Epiphery at epiphery.com. Doors open 11.11.2026.

The Epiphery

Louisville

Omythic

written

Jul 31, 2026

9 min read

The Suit Is the Occasion (and the Excuse)

People keep asking what the occasion is. Wrong question. An essay on suits, champagne, bourbon hostages, and why waiting for permission to enjoy your own life is the only real fashion crime.

Essays

Life and Philosophy

Suits

written

Jul 24, 2026

5 min read

The Lost Art of Sitting in a Room Doing Absolutely Nothing

Everybody can scroll. Almost nobody can sit still. A guide to doing nothing on purpose, learned fifty years late from a porch in the West End.

Essays

Doing Nothing

Attention

written

Jul 21, 2026

8 min read

Stop. Put the Website Contract Down and Back Away Slowly.

The other day I made a post that ruffled some feathers. Good. Feathers exist to be ruffled. The post said this: if you are thinking about hiring a professional agency to build your website right now, or you already signed the paperwork, stop and talk to me first.

Branding

Business

Web Design

written

Jul 20, 2026

8 min read

Taste Cannot Be Delegated

Somewhere in the last decade, taste got rebranded as a bottleneck. The industry decided the fix was to distribute the deciding. You cannot distribute the deciding.

Creative Process

Branding

Taste

written

Jul 18, 2026

5 min read

56

Today I turn 56, and I am supposed to have thoughts about it. The culture has a script for this. I have read the script. I am declining the role.

Life and Philosophy

Birthday

56

written

Jul 11, 2026

7 min read

The Requiem Nobody Asked For

I wrote a requiem in E-flat minor. Nobody commissioned it. Nobody was waiting for it. No client brief, no deadline, no stakeholder review, no invoice at the end.

Creative Process

Life and Philosophy

Requiem

written

Jul 4, 2026

6 min read

Velum: On the Naming of a Cocktail and Why Everything Deserves a Name That Means Something

I named a cocktail once. Not branded. Named. These are different acts, and the difference is the entire subject of this article, so let us begin there.

Branding

Life and Philosophy

Creative Process

written

Jun 27, 2026

6 min read

Everyone Is Building a Personal Brand. Almost Nobody Is Building a Person.

There is a specific kind of person the internet has been mass-producing for about fifteen years now, and you know them the moment they appear in your feed.

Life and Philosophy

Branding

Personal Brand

written

Jun 20, 2026

6 min read

Authenticity Is the Most Overused Word in Branding and Almost Nobody Saying It Can Define It

Sit in enough brand strategy meetings and you will eventually witness a ritual as predictable as it is meaningless. Someone, usually someone with excellent glasses, will lean forward and say the word.

Branding

Business

Authenticity

written

Mar 31, 2026

12 min read

The Art of the Apology

Let us begin with the most useless sentence in the English language. "I'm sorry you feel that way." Read that again. Slowly. Notice what it does.

Life and Philosophy

Apology

Accountability

written

Mar 5, 2026

15 min read

Why Mythology Matters More Now Than It Ever Has and What Happens to a Culture That Stops Making It

I was eight or nine years old, sitting alone in the Spalding University library in Louisville while my mother attended nursing school classes somewhere else in the building. I found the mythology section. I have essentially never left.

Mythology

Joseph Campbell

Plato

written

Mar 17, 2026

8 min read

The Most Dangerous Thing You Can Do for Your Career Is Be Reasonable

Every time you sand down a strong idea to make a room more comfortable, you are making a deposit into an account called invisible. The returns are reliable and they are terrible.

Entrepreneurship

Creative Process

Contrarian

written

Mar 14, 2026

7 min read

What Working Alone at 2 AM Taught Me That a Room Full of People Never Could

There is a version of productivity that looks good in a calendar. This is not about that version. This is about the kind of work that shows up when it wants to, which is often late, often inconvenient, and often brilliant.

Night Work

Solitude

Creative Process

written

Mar 9, 2026

7 min read

I Have 26 Unfinished Paintings and I'm Not Sorry About Any of Them

Right now, in my studio, there are 26 unfinished paintings. I know the exact number because I counted them recently, not out of guilt, but out of curiosity about what that number actually means.

Creative Process

Life and Philosophy

Unfinished Work

written

Feb 28, 2026

18 min read

The Death of the Agency Model (And What Replaces It)

The traditional agency is not dying. It is already dead. Most agency leaders just have not told the staff yet.

Branding

Business

Entrepreneurship

written

Feb 14, 2026

6 min read

Why Your Brand Doesn't Need a Rebrand: It Needs a Reckoning

Stop redesigning logos and start redesigning your relationship with your audience. The problem isn't your brand mark.

Branding

Strategy

Identity

photo

Jan 15, 2026

4 min read

The Bourbon Sessions: Creativity After Midnight

A photo essay exploring the intersection of craft spirits and creative process. Shot over 30 nights in the studio.

Photography

Bourbon

Creativity

written

Dec 20, 2025

10 min read

AI Won't Replace Creatives. But Creatives Who Use AI Will.

The real conversation about artificial intelligence in creative work isn't about replacement. It's about amplification.

AI

Creativity

Technology

written

Nov 18, 2025

7 min read

Design Is Not Decoration. It's Decision-Making Made Visible.

Every pixel is a decision. Every layout is an argument. If your design doesn't have an opinion, it's not design. It's wallpaper.

Design

Philosophy

Creative Direction

written

Oct 15, 2025

5 min read

The Art of Saying No: How Selectivity Became Our Competitive Advantage

Omythic turns away more business than it takes. Here's why that's not arrogance. It's the strategy.

Business

Strategy

Omythic

written

Sep 28, 2025

6 min read

The Loneliness of Creative Leadership

Nobody tells you about the isolation that comes with building something from nothing. Here's what they should have said.

Leadership

Entrepreneurship

Mental Health

The Next Move Is Yours

Your Move.

The brands that last twenty years start with one conversation.
This is that conversation.

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© 2026 Mark Andrew Palmer

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