August 7, 2025 Jamie Michelson

The Case for a Little Mess

My wife and I have an ongoing debate: should you thoroughly rinse dishes before loading them into the dishwasher?

She says yes. I say, “Why have a dishwasher if I have to do all the work upfront?”

This domestic stalemate got me thinking about our business. How often do we over-rinse our ideas—scrubbing them so clean they become bland by the time they hit the world?

Sometimes, we over-edit, overthink, and over-polish, losing the grit, charm, and original spark that made an idea interesting in the first place.

Of course, strategy and execution matter. But sometimes, a little mess makes something memorable. And when we nail a memorable core idea, we let it shine across all channels—social, linear, digital. You might say we let it … Cascade.