Close-up gif of letters that spell out CURIOUS, in a mix of shiny metallic, pink fuzzy, blue plastic, grassy green and black and white illustrated styles.

Curious

A positive guide to serious change. Curious is our substack exploring ideas, insights, and prompts across culture, creativity, and change. Each piece is written to help brand leaders cut through the noise, think long-term, and move from reacting to shaping.

Action Not Apathy
Futures Caitlin Mayance Futures Caitlin Mayance

Action Not Apathy

It’s easy to get stuck, wheels-spinning just critiquing broken systems forever, but real progress and forward action comes from imagining alternatives…and building them. Messy, imperfect and bit by bit as they are.

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Change is Always Possible
Futures Caitlin Mayance Futures Caitlin Mayance

Change is Always Possible

Change feels impossible until it isn’t.

Lately exploring why pessimism isn’t realism, how culture is craving competence and intention, and why imagining better futures is still a strategic act.

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Hope Actually
Futures Caitlin Mayance Futures Caitlin Mayance

Hope Actually

We’re often told “hope isn’t a strategy,” but what if it could be? In this internal memo, we explore how curiosity and imagination can transform hope from a fluffy ideal into a practical force for change. Because maybe the most strategic thing we can do for the future—is believe it’s still worth building.

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Better Futures vs. Future Burnout
Futures Caitlin Mayance Futures Caitlin Mayance

Better Futures vs. Future Burnout

Q4 chaos doesn’t have to mean burnout. Let’s explore how brand leaders can reframe year-end pressure into opportunity by setting boundaries, making space for futures thinking, and turning the busiest season into a more intentional start to 2026.

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Stranger than Friction
Playbooks Caitlin Mayance Playbooks Caitlin Mayance

Stranger than Friction

Friction is neither the silver bullet nor the enemy, just as an easy, frictionless future might not be the utopia we can make it sound like. Intentionality. It’s what we crave.

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Beyond the Bait
Futures Caitlin Mayance Futures Caitlin Mayance

Beyond the Bait

The question for brand leaders is pretty simple: will you be an early adopter and lead the shift away from addiction-based engagement, or a laggard clinging to a failing model until it completely collapses?

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Unknown Unknowns
Playbooks Caitlin Mayance Playbooks Caitlin Mayance

Unknown Unknowns

“…there are known knowns; there are things we know we know…there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know.”

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What About Trust?
Futures Caitlin Mayance Futures Caitlin Mayance

What About Trust?

What comes to mind when you hear about declining levels of institutional trust? Is it numbness? Overwhelm? Paralysis? A general sense of “well obviously, but what exactly can I do about it?”

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A Guide to Being Solution-Oriented
Playbooks Caitlin Mayance Playbooks Caitlin Mayance

A Guide to Being Solution-Oriented

Be less shit and more solution-oriented and we can start to right some wrongs. Think big by starting small. And it’s never too late to start.

The problems aren’t for posting, they’re the work to be done.

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The End of Escapism
Futures Caitlin Mayance Futures Caitlin Mayance

The End of Escapism

There’s real opportunity in designing systems people can connect and benefit from within, instead of just consuming from. That can look like circular supply chains, mutual aid models, or shared ownership platforms.

It will feel messy. It will take time. And best to start small. But it’s something we can build - together.

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The Power of Quiet Influence
Playbooks Caitlin Mayance Playbooks Caitlin Mayance

The Power of Quiet Influence

After over a decade of desperately seeking virality, we’ve reached a point where there are entire agencies promising it by design. To which I ask: if anyone can buy virality, why bother?

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Literacy is in Decline. Here’s how we Revive it.
Playbooks Caitlin Mayance Playbooks Caitlin Mayance

Literacy is in Decline. Here’s how we Revive it.

Seeing such a data set can feel shocking and overwhelming, but change is a constant and we can always turn things around. That’s not to say it can be reversed overnight, afterall, the decline itself was over the course of a decade. It will take some time and effort. But we also can’t sit back and wait for policies or schemes to come into effect. We can’t let literacy become a luxury.

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Case in Point

Real-world examples of change in action. Where strategic thinking meets creative doing — stories of how brands turn uncertainty into opportunity.

Get in Touch

Change starts with a conversation. Let’s talk about what’s next for you.