By Hezekiah McCaskill, Director of Brand Strategy

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Everyone says the future is uncertain. I disagree.

The future leaves signals everywhere—quiet ones, bold ones, strange ones—if you know how to look.  

Netflix saw one. Nike saw one. Napster definitely saw one. The question is: Do you?

Most people believe the past defines the present. We use yesterday’s results to set tomorrow’s goals.  To me, that’s the wrong way to look at things.

Organizational psychologist Dr. Benjamin Hardy argues that it’s not the past that shapes our present—it’s the future we choose to envision. If you let the past define you, your growth will always be incremental.  

Breakthroughs happen when you act today based on the world you want to create, not the one you’ve already lived through.

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Learn from the future

This is not just the job of strategy, but creativity as a whole: to see the unseen. To declare a future before anyone else believes it and then build the present to make it real.

Growing up, I had a burning desire to leave my hometown of St. Louis, so I left for Atlanta the moment I graduated. I had no clear job title, no blueprint for my career, no “plan.” But what I did have was curiosity—and proximity to a bubbling hip-hop scene. I was in the epicenter of rap’s new generation. This enclave of young artists chased big breaks, but did not yet have access to the resources needed to turn their vision into something sustainable.  

But the truth is, they didn’t need it. To most, they were just young rappers and producers hoping for their big break. But if you looked closer, you could see something else: these weren’t just artists—they were brands. And their fans wanted more than just tracks.They wanted access to their entire world: the style, language, and perspective that made them, them.  

There was a gap between where the world was at the time and the world these artists saw for themselves. I saw that gap and jumped right into it—assembling creative teams, building campaigns, and helping artists craft experiences that pulled audiences into their orbit.

Without realizing it at the time, I was practicing the strategist’s craft: spotting what was missing, seeing potential others ignored, and turning it into something real.

That same curiosity eventually took me to New York—this time, into the world of advertising. The art of seeing the unseen became the foundation of my work as a strategist: uncovering hidden truths that unlock creative impact.

For example, when Beats by Dre launched the Powerbeats Pro 2 headphones, the challenge was to unite three seemingly different icons—LeBron James, Lionel Messi, and Shohei Ohtani. Their unique connection wasn’t their fame or their stats, but something deeper, and more unseen: the heart. The campaign revealed that what makes heroes extraordinary isn’t just what we see on the field, but the unseen drive within them.

Three techniques to spot the unseen

Over the years, I’ve realized this isn’t luck. Seeing the unseen is a discipline. The best strategists, creatives, and leaders train themselves to see what others can’t. Here’s how:

1. Spot the Tension

Where do words and actions diverge? Where do cultural contradictions live? Nike saw it with Colin Kaepernick. What looked like a risk to many was, in reality, a powerful alignment with values that deepened loyalty among the audiences that mattered most.

2. Find the White Space

Markets crowd quickly. Netflix didn’t grow by fighting cable—it grew by spotting white space in convenience, personalization, and access long before streaming became the norm. The unseen is often hiding in plain sight, ignored because everyone else is chasing the obvious.

3. Hunt for Joy

We spend too much time asking, “What do people need?” and not enough time asking, “What do people love?” TikTok didn’t invent short-form video, but it created joy through simplicity, discovery, and cultural participation. The brand realized that joy, over anything else, drew people to create, share, and engage with one another.

The art of seeing the unseen has always moved culture forward.

Hip-hop, often misread as a genre stuck in the past, is actually radical futurism. Artists don’t just sample—they reframe, creating tomorrow’s sound from yesterday’s fragments.

The Black Panther Party envisioned a future of self-determination for Black people, unseen in mainstream America at the time. Marcus Garvey imagined a global Black nation built on economic independence and cultural pride. These were not incremental steps forward; they were unseen futures worth fighting for.

That’s the strategist’s responsibility: not to react to what’s been, but to declare what could be, and to shape the present around it.  

Businesses are no different. Slow-growing companies let past performance dictate their next goals. Transformative ones envision the future they want—and then act as if it’s inevitable.

When Nike signed Michael Jordan, they co-created an entirely new category at the intersection of sports, fashion, and culture. Napster saw the inevitability of digital sharing and acted on it without asking permission.  

The throughline? Leaders don’t just predict the future. They declare it and then build the present to make it real.

Permission slip: Think of something new today

Seeing the unseen is the strategist’s craft. It’s how we create meaning, growth, and joy where others only see limits.

Now that we’ve discussed the value of creating new ideas, it’s time to go out and make it happen. Start by asking yourself:

• What signals are you ignoring because they feel too small or might contradict “best practices”?

• What tensions are you overlooking because they’re uncomfortable?

• What future could you help create if you had the courage to believe in it now?

Because when you learn to see the unseen, you stop reacting to change—and start shaping it.