The Winter Olympics are unhinged (positive connotation)

Every Friday, we share strategies to help you level up your sales, marketing, and lead gen.

This week, Maddie attempts the impossible… relating Olympic figure skating, uphill skiing, and Norwegian relationship drama to your B2B strategy.

Enjoy 👇

If you know me even a little bit, you already know this:

When the Olympics are on, I lose all ability to act like a functioning adult.

I will derail conversations.
I will interrupt meetings with, “sorry but have you seen Quinn Hughes seeing ghosts at the Olympics content?”
I will somehow connect curling, speed skating, or downhill skiing to marketing strategy, whether anyone asks or HR is present.

This is not a phase.
This is not new.
This is a documented personality trait.

I also know I’m going to have a great day when I wake up, and the first video on my feed is an aggressively electric USA Hockey edit.
That’s not superstition.
That’s data.

So yes, the Winter Olympics are back, and no, I physically cannot stop talking about them.

Because once you get past the ice, the speed suits, and commentators calmly narrating what looks like a near-death experience, the Olympics are basically one giant masterclass in positioning, consistency, and results that only look “overnight” if you ignore the last ten years of work.

Watching Ilia Malinin casually land seven quads in a row like it’s a light warm-up should not be legal.

It’s very:
“Anyway, here’s something no one has ever done before.”

That’s not iteration.
That’s not optimization.
That’s category creation.

Which is what every B2B brand says they’re doing right before launching a slightly improved version of the same thing.

He didn’t need a rebrand.
He didn’t need a messaging framework.
He didn’t need a LinkedIn post explaining his “why.”

He just did something undeniable.

Results beat messaging.
Proof beats promises.
And sometimes the strongest positioning is simply doing something no one else can replicate without years of effort, obsession, and emotional damage.

Like Haley Winn’s brothers becoming accidental Olympic side characters.

You tune in for elite athletic performance from actual Olympians, and suddenly, you’re more invested in what three guys in the stands are wearing.

They’re just hilarious. Supportive. And most importantly, committed to the bit.

And somehow, I now look forward to their outfits as much as the actual competition.

Which is a reminder that people don’t just connect to excellence.
They connect to people around excellence.

Which, again, B2B hates to hear, but it’s true.

We need to talk about the man who skied uphill, on purpose, and casually posted a sub–six-minute mile like it was a recovery workout.

That’s not content.
That’s intimidation.

And from a marketing perspective, it’s a reminder that when something is truly impressive, you don’t need to overexplain it.

You just show the clip.
And let the internet do the rest.

Because the Olympics can never just be excellence.
They must also be chaos.

Like a Norwegian athlete casually admitting to cheating on his girlfriend in a post-race interview.

Not leaked.
Not uncovered.
Just… volunteered.

No PR buffer.
No crisis comms doc.
No “we’ll circle back.”

Just honesty. And terrible timing. On a global stage.

Bold.

Also, a great reminder that being elite at your job does not make you elite at judgment.

Transparency will show up whether you planned for it or not.
And if you don’t control your narrative, someone else absolutely will.

Usually louder.
Usually online.
Usually immediately.

The Olympic moments people can’t stop talking about aren’t complicated.

They aren’t trying to do five things at once.
They’re trying to do one thing perfectly, under impossible pressure, on global TV.

That’s it.

And somehow, that’s exactly what most B2B brands refuse to do.

The Olympics reward obsession.
Repetition.
Doing the same thing thousands of times until it looks effortless.

Which is inconvenient advice.
Not very flashy.
And wildly effective.

Meanwhile, the forgettable moments?
They try to be impressive instead of clear.

Same trap B2B falls into all the time.

The Olympics don’t win attention by explaining themselves.
They win it by being impossible to ignore.

Anyway.

I will continue forcing Olympic metaphors into professional settings.
I will not be stopping.
And next week, I will almost certainly compare someone’s go-to-market strategy to curling.

You’ve been warned.

P.S. If anyone needs me, I’ll be consuming an ungodly amount of Olympic content and pretending it’s “research.”

–Maddie