You're not lost. You're distracted.
Distraction addiction is killing your creativity. Inspired by The Habit that Forces your Brain to Stop Consuming. Read to the end to find the link that inspired this newsletter.
Marketing Focused Newsletter | Issue 1 | June 15, 2025
Bonus: Read to the end to find the link that inspired this newsletter.
This newsletter is my experiment and challenge to master focus, and therefore, transform myself and my readers from a crippling, anxious, overachieving mindset into that of a conscious, intellectual creator by rejecting the practices of mindless consumerism that plague modern storytellers in this digital era.
As the goat of marketing, Seth Godin states in his book All Marketers Tell Stories, “Great stories make a promise.”
My promise to you, as a reader, is to keep this newsletter valuable to your mind, heart, and body by personally writing every issue and using AI only for deep research to help me provide factual data and check grammar. AI alone will not be the future. Humans using AI to enhance their workflows will be the future playbook for successful marketers.
I will reflect on my journey and highlight 1 insightful story (Clarity Key) or news article, 1 inspiring quote (Conscious Quote), and 1 intentional action (Confidence Challenge) for the week.
This framework will work to ensure that you can follow me along my journey to creative mastery and aid you in your quest to keep your mind sharp, heart attuned, and body challenged with the goal of staying inspired to tell stories.
As a marketer, creator, and human, stories are the fuel of our conscious mind. It is how we learn, grow, and relate to one another.
My vision for Marketing Focused is to tell personal and compelling stories that provide value to you as the subscriber.
Reflections from a distracted mind
Photo by Todd Trapani on Unsplash
This week, as I was planning my Sunday, I told myself I would love to start with a good workout. I thought about the usual options:
Go for a run, hit some weights, or do some light stretching.
Instead, I found myself on YouTube, scrolling through the endless feed of despair. Even though I've deleted most social media apps from my phone, I still have the habit of logging into YouTube from my iPhone browser and consuming a video or two when I'm bored, anxious, or doing anything mindless.
As I've exited my twenties and entered my early thirties, I have reflected on an evolution that honestly makes me sad.
See, the thing is, I used to consider myself a creative artist.
I used to play in a band and write poems and songs weekly. This was in my prime, those peak early twenties when life and stress were manageable, and even though social media existed, the brain rot combined with the increasing stressors of life and work had not yet fully consumed me.
Today, during my morning scroll (that was supposed to be a stroll), I stumbled upon a video that made me feel concerned, then seen, then inspired to write this letter. What follows is the clarity, inspiration, and challenge that emerged from a distracted mind moving one step closer to a focused marketer. Enjoy!
Clarity Key of the week
Distraction addiction is killing your creativity.
The worst-kept secret in the modern digital era is that the attention economy is working against you. It’s no surprise that smartphones and apps are designed to keep you hooked like an alcoholic at a Vegas slot machine.
The infinite scroll and dynamic doses of dopamine-infused short-form content— endless loops of doom are contributing to scary statistics that are no doubt hurting your ability to create your ideal future and tell compelling stories.
Aspiring creators and storytellers continue reading at your discretion:
Scary stat #1: The average person spends over 2 hours and 20 minutes on social media per day
Scary stat #2: The average American checks their devices over +150 times per day
Scary stat #3: 46% of Americans say they watch more user-generated content (UGC) on social media than films and TV on streaming apps
Source: ExplodingTopics.com
These stats paint a daunting picture of the future facing the next generation of artists and storytellers and their ability to stay creative. Our mental energy is consumed by digital noise and external voices, and this addiction is working against our ability to create and tell compelling stories. Awareness is the first step towards clarity. Let’s work together to break the cycle.
Conscious Quotes of the week
“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Peter Drucker (Often attributed to Drucker)
The quote, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”, was my screensaver for many years in my early days as a marketing generalist. This was when the origin of my burning desire to obtain the title of Marketing Director was born.
This quote by Drucker inspired me to take ownership of my future by empowering me with the ability to turn my thoughts into my reality.
This frame of mind shaped me to think like a leader and stuck with me on my path to becoming a Director of Marketing Strategy, which I achieved in February 2025.
Bonus Quote:
“Life is short, but art is long.” On the Shortness of Life, Seneca.
The quote, “Life is short, but art is long,” is from a book I read in 2024 called On the Shortness of Life by the Stoic philosopher Seneca.
Seneca’s words will be encouraging to readers who are hungry for purpose and meaning but struggling to break through the mental doubt and cut through the noise of life.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in digestible and relatable wisdom from Stoic philosophy.
These are a couple of my favorite quotes of all time. They are a constant reminder that the simplest answer to most of life’s problems and anxieties is to find presence and purpose in creating.
At last, when all else fails, create. - Justin Cruz, The Focused Marketer
Conscious Challenge of the week
Every time you feel the urge to mindlessly scroll this week, create instead.
All credit goes to the inspirational video of the week for this challenge, but I am taking this on personally and passing it on to you.
Create a log of how much time you spent creating this week and compare it with your screentime.
The goal of this challenge is to slowly shift from the mindless consumer to the conscious creator.
Document the process for 7 days and share the results on LinkedIn with the following hashtag:
#FocusedMarketer
Let’s conntect on LinkedIn here.
See the reference video link below that served as the inspirational spark for this week’s newsletter: