#but as a pr person i predict his team will draw attention to this now so i imagine he wont wear it again

[ashzukerman]

Ash on the SAG-AFTRA picketline

[anika-ann]

What I’d Never Say or Do (Had I Been in My Right Mind) - Pt.1

We Both Break Free (…if We Make It on Top)

Type: series, soulmate AU series  (part 1, part 2, part 3)  

Pairing: Steve Rogers x reader    Word count (Ch1): 2050

Series summary: A story in which you officially come back from the dead, Tony with Natasha decide to take the blame for the whole mess and organize a party with unexpected party crashers and Bucky should consider thinking before speaking.

Fic title applicable to Tony, Natasha, Steve and his soulmate (aka the Reader), Bucky and his sort-of-buddy Matt Murdock and possibly few more.

Ch.1 summary.: In which Natasha and Tony go mad.

A/N: This series will be just a smaller thing, snippets set around The Age of Ultron (and later, Endgame). Later will be referred to as WINSoD because the title is a monster.

Warnings (ch1): mention of death and resurrection, mention of superntural creatures (see Errare Humanum Est), language, fluff

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Tony Stark was a ridiculously theatrical person.

While that was no news to anyone who knew as much as his name at least, but he still managed to outlive the legend, the reputation that preceded him.

He left you standing by the door, walked in to gain the undivided attention of the person inside the office and wanted you to reveal yourself in the exact right moment – a moment he trusted you to recognize.

Well. You assumed with a revelation like yours, it was rather hard to keep the drama away. But leave it to Tony Stark that he would blow it to proportion just to have fun.

“Tamara, darling!” the billionaire howled, the door opened only for a crack, so you could hear the reaction. You rolled your eyes, sighed and nervously looked around. The department was empty safe for the woman in the office, but it still made you feel uneasy; probably the effect of having to hide for the past weeks to avoid detection that could lead to a major scandal.

“Oh god, what happened?” Tamara asked, sounding as horrified as annoyed.

“Why do you assume— okay, that’s fair. How’s you hubby doing?”

“Alright,” the poor woman answered, clearly suspicious. “I more or less cleaned up the latest mess, so I’ve been coming home early…”

“Yeeeeah, about that. I have good news and bad news. Which would you like to hear first?” Tony offered cheerily.

“Bad news. Always. Let me just sit down-- no, no, don’t let me sit down, I have a feeling I’ll wanna pace irritably.”

That caused the corners of your lips to turn up. You were starting to like this woman already.

“I’m gonna need you to deal with a major scandal worthy of your skills.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere and I assumed as much.” Now you officially loved her – and you saw why Tony did too. Sass and snark; Tony’s language. “So, care to elaborate?”

“Nah, I’ll give you the good news. You’re gonna get some help. I brought reinforcements. She doesn’t have much experience with PR-” Try none. “-but I’m pretty sure she’ll be the one all the questions will be aimed at.”

“Oh my god, Anthony, did you get a woman pregnant?!” the woman hissed, not bothering lowering her voice. She sounded… kinda pissed. Which was reasonable, given the fact Tony Stark was happily-not-single with one amazing Pepper Potts.

“What? No! I have Pepper!” he opposed her, having the nerve to be offended. You smirked, hoping Jarvis caught that one line too. “This is all on Capsicle-“

“Captain Rogers got a woman pregnant?! What the-“

You felt like this was the moment.

“No, Mrs…. Tamara,” you said it the end, realizing Tony never told you the poor woman’s last name, and entered the room. “But his soulmate sort of came back from the death.”

Tamara was a middle-aged woman, with blonde medium-length hair and huge majestic glasses, business suit in a bloody-red colour and lips perfectly shaped in an “O” as you demonstrated the problem at hand.

“Holy. Shit.”

Leave it to Tony Stark he would flee the moment an actual explanation was needed, letting the others deal with the aftermath of his dramatic tendencies. To be fair, this was more of your drama, so…

“Good. Looks like introductions are not needed. I’ll send you the necessary data. Have fun.”

He strode through the door, winking over his shoulder at you and sending an air kiss to Tamara and you nervously smiled at the woman, your awkward side showing when you raised your hand to a reluctant wave before you could realize a handshake would be more appropriate.

“Uhm. Hi…”

The blonde blinked several times, shook her head with an incredulous chuckle and stuck out her hand.

“Hi. I’m Tamara, Antony Stark’s cleaning service. What can I do for you?”

Oh yeah. You’d get along just fine.

…

The story was simple and yet enough to make at least two Avengers very much hated.

Tony and Natasha, perhaps from some residual guilt of which you weren’t sure where was coming from, were determined to be thrown to the wolves of public.

Apparently, it had been all their idea – to have Steve and you kidnapped in the first place by the bomb enthusiast psycho. They had caught something fishy, been aware of it for a long time and opted for drawing the something rotten within SHIELD and company out by leaking early info on where you and Steve would be going to dates for several nights in a row without your or Steve’s knowledge. Perfect bait with nearly perfect surveillance background and safety measures.

Predictably, it had gone to shit and while you had never been blown up to death, which was something Steve had had zero clue about, you had been recovering from your life-threatening injuries for weeks in a hidden facility of top-secret location with way too much security. Still without Captain America’s knowledge.

Admittedly, this tale was a PR nightmare in making, not to mention a complete bullshit. Yet, the Avengers (sans Steve so far) unanimously approved of it. Tony and Natasha would be the first to blame, while the rest would reluctantly admit they knew as well and they had all kept it from Steve.

“You can’t be serious,” was all you managed to come up with, Steve sitting on the couch next to you while the rest of the team, the part that was momentarily on Earth, gathered around you to break you the news. This was what they came up with? “People will hate you.”

“And their hearts would still bleed for their golden boy, who would forgive us in time, especially since we offered his girl a job and an apartment she can’t quite refuse.”

“Wait, what kind of a job?!” Steve snapped, waking up from the deep thoughts he had fallen into with this stupid talk.

“The non-dangerous kind, Steve, calm down, please,” Natasha cooled him off flatly, but you could see her sincere gaze when it met with Steve’s. We wouldn’t endanger her, not again, it whispered. Steve’s shoulders slumped.

“What kind of a job?” you echoed, still worried. You assumed the apartment Tony mentioned was a place in the Tower, not bothering to ask about that part.

“PR. Unless you want to deal with your old job of which I have no doubt your best buddy would give back. I’d just like to remind you how the public reacted to you dying.”

Right. You wouldn’t mind a little privacy and safe space. You liked your old job, but it didn’t seem like an option now. Except… this was crazy.

“But they will still hate you. It makes you guys terrible friends and teammates. Frankly, it makes you kind of… terrible people,” you said slowly, taking time to examine everyone’s face.

“She’s got a point,” Steve agreed, wheels in his head clearly turning in a lightning speed.

“Meh. You should know what Fury’s up to during his ‘the end justifies the means’ periods – which is non-stop. I wouldn’t worry about that,” Natasha shrugged it off, pursing her lips a bit.

“Wasn’t it you who said you weren’t sure how to get her back to the world without having to explain she was literally led by an angel from Heaven?” Clint reacted to Steve, who sighed.

“Yes, of course, but this-“

“-is perfectly believable,” Natasha interrupted him, raising an eyebrow before beckoning to Tony and herself. “Me and Tony came up with the operation – a spy and a billionaire with questionable conscience. We pulled the rest of the team into the charade. This can work.”

“I can’t say I’ll enjoy this,” Bruce entered the conversation for the first time, surprising everyone. “However, it will allow you to walk the streets freely – with uncomfortable questions, yes, but it is a reasonable deal for us.”

“Steve? Thoughts?” the spy turned to him again.

Your soulmate observed his team for a long time, just like you, watching each of them individually, trying to read them as he himself was conflicted and undecisive. Finally, his eyes settled on you, a hint of an encouraging smile on his lips.

“Doll? How do you feel about that?”

The softness of his voice, the actual freedom he gave you when it came to this decision warmed your heart and made you shudder at the same time. You had no doubt he had come to a decision; but the final step was on you and you only. He would be affected too, of course, but this was your life that could turn upside down for like… what, the third time since you had met him?

You worried your teeth over your lower lip. “I mean… I’d really appreciate not having to hide in here all the time, but… I don’t want people to hate you, guys. I feel like I caused enough problems-“

“No, doll,” Steve whispered, his hand covering yours and squeezing firmly as he locked his gaze with yours and didn’t let go. “I’m not asking about them. I’m asking about you. They are clearly willing to do this.”

“Are you?” you questioned despite being confident about his answer.

“Do I love you?”

That caught you off guard. “Huh? That’s not what I-…?”

What did that even mean? Did he love— come again? How was this about his feelings towards you all of sudden? Was it time to question them? God, you hoped NOT.

“That the newest version of asking whether the sky is blue, doll,” he explained with a lop-sided smile and you released a breath you didn’t realize you had been holding.

Idiot. Sap. Sweet-talker.

“You’re such a sap.”

“You love it,” he hummed confidently. You smiled despite your better judgement. You loved him. And yeah, you loved this silliness too.

“I do.”

“So… are we doing this? Together?” His smiled grew a little wider, the twinkle you adored appearing in his eyes and you couldn’t but squeeze his hand back.

“Yeah. Together.”

“Jarvis, send Dum-E with some insulin shots,” Tony cleared his throat and you felt your cheek dust with a blush, roughly pulled out of the haze Steve managed to put you in once again. “We’re all having unhealthy sugar rush.”

The captain rolled his eyes. “Har, har, Stark. Are you guys really okay with this?”

Clint huffed. “It’s not like people will start planning our assassination more than they do already.”

“Tamara might,” Natasha opposed, amused.

“Ah, poor Tamara, I better bring a wine with me when asking…” Tony mused, scratching his goatee.

You turned to the red-head spy, not happy about being out of the loop.

“Who’s Tamara?”

Tamara, the head of the PR department for Tony (and sometimes for the Avengers too, because those two clients, so to speak, often came as a package deal), was currently starring at you speechless when you told her the tale of what actually happened and what lie they had decided to feed the public.

The silence lasted long enough for you to start worrying.

“Are you alri-“

“Angels are real?!” she burst out, nearly making you jump out of your skin with the sudden exclaim. You placed your palm over your chest to keep your racing heart inside your ribcage.

“…yes. But so are demons, shapeshifters, witches and so on, so…”

“Not a good thing to go public with. Got it. I understand the cover-up now. Though people being able to be resurrected would be enough on its own even without the… creatures. My my… we have a lot of work to do.”

“I’d imagine,” you agreed, not having a clue how to do this and where to start.

The woman looked at you over the rim of her glasses, her smile kind, in the Stark contrast to her loud cry only few second ago.

“…you don’t have any experience with PR at all, do you?”

“Nope,” you admitted, accenting the P and looking away, ashamed that Tony threw you into this without giving you anything helpful.

Now Tamara had to deal with the scandal and with you trying to help. That woman was worthy of some serious pay raise (though you had no doubt Tony paid her enough for her to own a villa or something, exactly as much as she deserved for dealing with his shit).

“I’m gonna kill Anthony, I swear…. Okay,  let’s get this shit on the road. Also, Jarvis? Tell Antony to get the freakin’ wine ASAP.”

Oh yeah. You would actually adore Tamara, you were sure of it.

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Part 2

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Here we go! The final part of the series. Admittedly, I’m not sure about quality of this thing, but I’m trying.

Chapter titles are taken from the chorus of Les Friction’s What You Need

Thank you for reading ♥

(I’ll be tagging my Errare Humanum Est taggies, if you don’t want ot be taggged anymore, let me know)

[imagining-supernatural]

The First Article

Part 11 of Seventy Percent

Series Summary: When you left on your trip to Vegas, you’d planned on letting loose for one last weekend before heading back to reality and getting your affairs in order so your best friend wouldn’t be left cleaning up your mess when your cancer finally ended your life. What you hadn’t counted on was waking up married to a celebrity who has a knight-in-shining-armor complex, connections with an oncologist, and amazing insurance…

Chapter Summary: You wake up after the big fight with Sebastian

Word Count: 1941

When you woke up, the first thing you noticed was a new glass of water, your morning pills, and a banana on the bedside table.

You’d been so caught up in your fight that you hadn’t realized you’d forgotten to take your medicine. Sebastian, apparently, had noticed. And if he laid them out for you, it would seem he wanted you to continue your treatment.

Because he was a decent person. Because it was his fault you were here. Because he pitied you. As soon as people found out you had cancer, they immediately pitied you.

But that’s all it was.

Pity.

As soon as the treatment failed, or succeeded and you were recovered from surgery, he was sure to drop the divorce papers in your lap, give you a one way plane ticket to Salt Lake City, and tell you he hopes you have a good life.

It’s what any sane person would do.

It’s more than you deserved, to be honest. After everything you’d done in your life…

As you stared at the pills, you debated with yourself.

On one hand, you promised to fight. You promised to see this to the end.

But on the other hand… you knew your track record in life. If you were being honest with yourself, you knew how this would end. And it wasn’t going to end with surgery. It wasn’t going to end with you being cancer free. It wouldn’t even end in remission.

So who were you fucking kidding?

Carefully, you swung your legs out of the bed, ignored the pills, and quietly exited the room. Your bladder was insistent, and, much as you wanted to, you couldn’t hide out in the guest room all day.

As you washed your hands, you stared at yourself in the mirror.

You look like hell, he’d said. And he was right. You lost so much weight that your cheeks were sunken. Sure, cheekbones were sexy, but not like this.

You looked like death. That’s what he should have said. It would have been more accurate. More predictive.

Walking out of the bathroom, you wondered if you should start packing up your shit. Maybe when you told the nurses that you would see them on Monday, that would be the last lie you’d ever tell. From now on, you could tell the truth. You wouldn’t be around long enough to see the fallout that blunt truth would have.

“Hey,” Sebastian greeted, startling you. He was sitting on the guest bed. “You take your medicine yet?”

“No,” you stated, beginning your new truth-telling life. Besides, he could very well see you hadn’t taken the pills, since they were untouched on the bedside table.

He swept the pills into his hand, grabbed the glass of water, and walked over to where you’d frozen in the doorway. “Take ‘em. I grabbed some takeout. It might need to be heated up a bit, but I thought it’d be easy on your stomach.”

“Seb—”

“And I’ll give you my lawyer’s number so he can help you draw up whatever papers you need to give you peace of mind that I can’t be responsible for your debt. That way you can focus on your treatment.” He shoved the glass of water in your right hand and dumped the pills in your left.

“Seb—”

“I’m not arguing with you, Y/N. Take your medicine.”

His eyes were unrelenting, so you huffed a deep sigh and downed the pills.

“Sorry for jumping on you this morning,” he said quietly.

“You don’t—”

“Shut up and let me apologize, Y/N. You were right. I didn’t really understand what I signed up for, but I don’t regret anything. I should have tried to talk to you before I yelled. I shouldn’t have made assumptions.”

“It’s okay,” you murmured.

“No, it’s not. I was wrong, Y/N. I just… When I saw all that, I got scared, okay? And I took it out on you. It wasn’t fair of me.”

What could you say to that? You nodded, hoping he’d accept that response.

Luckily, he did. You let him lead you out to the kitchen and sat on a stool while he set to work heating up the takeout.

“There’s something else we need to talk about,” he hedged.

“Okay,” you whispered.

You’d expected him to explain, but he didn’t say another word until your food was in front of you. Even then, he gave you an expectant look and waited until you took a bite. Once you swallowed, he was satisfied enough to pull out his phone and click around for a bit. “I’m surprised we’ve kept it a secret for so long, but word’s out. Someone saw us in Vegas and took a picture.”

He slid his phone across the counter to you. Right there on Entertainment Weekly’s website was a grainy picture of you, Sebastian, and Elvis in what was unmistakably a Vegas wedding.

“At least they didn’t get a picture of your face, so no one knows who you are.”

“Yet.”

“Yet,” he agreed.

Sebastian reached across the island and tucked your hair behind your ear before cupping your cheek with his hand. When he nudged your face up to look at him, he offered a small, genuine smile. “I’ll get you through this, okay? I’ll take care of the media and whatever shit comes our way from that. You just focus on the treatment.”

All week long, the only time anyone else touched you was when the nurses hooked you up to the machines. So, to feel Sebastian’s hand on your cheek was jarring in a way. It felt good.

You covered his hand with yours and gave him a weak smile.

With a decisive nod, he withdrew his hand and pushed your food closer towards you. “Good. Now eat.”

Your first mistake was telling Sebastian you felt better than you had all week.

It was a mistake because he had interpreted that as I’m definitely feeling up to leaving the apartment on a Saturday night.

And that was how you found yourself sitting in a booth at his favorite diner. No one asked any questions when he asked to be seated at the booth in the back. It was the one that had the most privacy.

As your waitress, Selena took your orders and made small talk, you kept second guessing everything you’d ever said to her. With how often you and Sebastian came here, you’d spoken with the employees here quite a bit. Outside of the hospital staff and Sebastian, they were the people you interacted with the most.

What did they know about you? What had you told them? What could they tell the media, if asked? What details about you did they remember?

“Hey, Y/N.” Sebastian waved his hand in front of your face. “Where’d you go?”

From across the diner, Selena’s laugh drew your attention momentarily.

A quick look around assured you that no one could overhear you, but you still kept your voice low. “Selena has a two year old son who had a cold two weeks ago, which is why she missed work on Wednesday and Thursday. His dad is a slime bag who bolted as soon as Selena found out she was pregnant and she works over 60 hours a week just to give her son, Timothy, what he needs. Timothy likes to be called Tim and his favorite animal right now is the elephant.”

Sebastian raised an eyebrow, clearly not expecting you to say that. “Okay?”

“If I remember all of that about her, what does she remember about me? What could she tell someone else about me? Especially someone who knows how to dig into people’s pasts? I’ve talked to so many people here, and what if they remember something that helps someone figure out who I am—who I was. I know you said you’d take care of the media, but I can’t stop worrying. I’ve told you I have a shitty past and I really don’t want it to ruin your career because trust me, if the gossip in my hometown is anything to go by, people won’t understand what I did.”

Hell, people didn’t even know half of what you did.

Just as he opened his mouth to respond after a moment of considering your words, Selena came back with your food. Besides your orders, she placed two slices of pie on the table. “On the house. Gwen says you look like you need some more meat on your bones and if you don’t want the pie, tough shit.”

Sebastian laughed, and you forced a smile on your face as well. Gwen was the owner of the diner and she was a charming old lady. In the few weeks you’d been here, you realized quickly that she considered Seb like her own family and was very generous towards him. And, by extension, you.

“We wouldn’t dream of saying no to Gwen,” you said, trying not to sound as weak or anxious as you were.

“Good. I don’t want to see her come over and give y’all a piece of her mind along with that pie.” With a wink, Selena turned to take care of her only other table of the night.

When she was out of earshot, Sebastian motioned to your plate and you took a bite of your salad while rolling your eyes. You’d nearly forgotten about his insistence that you eat while he was gone.

“Marvel’s got a great PR team, Y/N. Whatever the media vultures dredge up, they’ll spin it in a good way. When I told you not to worry about the press, I meant it. And if you want to take preemptive action, we can let the PR team know what might come up and they can have a plan in place if people do dig that deep.”

As you fixed your baked potato and took a bite, you considered his words. It made sense. Didn’t mean you wouldn’t worry, though. “I’ll think about it.”

He was curious, you could tell. But you appreciated that he didn’t ask you to tell him what you were so scared of in your past. Maybe he would bring it up again when you were home, in private, but for right now, he changed the subject.

Dinner passed quickly, and when Selena came by to grab the payment, her face was more serious than you’d seen her before. “Thought I’d warn you there are some cameras out front. Brett just came back from his break and said the back way is clear if you wanna avoid them.”

Seb’s eyes darted to yours and you saw his brain turning over as he thought of the best course of action.

“I’ll run your card and be back. Let me know what you wanna do then and we’ll make it work for you.”

She left and Sebastian leaned forward. “What do you think?”

You scraped the last of the apple pie filling from the plate. While your first instinct was to consider every variable and come up with a course of action, you made the conscious effort to push down those thoughts. “You told me not to worry about the press. That’s your job, so I’m going to leave it up to you.”

In the end, you did end up sneaking out the back. Sebastian kept his arm around your shoulder as you walked through the back alley to where Sean was waiting with the car on a side street. As you got into the car, you noticed a camera flash on the other side of the street.

So they patched things up... but can this shaky relationship stand up against the media? And what is she so worried about the media finding in her past? 

Chapter 12: The Second Check-In

[theopinionoftheredheads]

We knew about the Scotland photos and lily being there AGAIN Chris was not with her...everyone move on. He was there for work...his hotel was literally shut down during his stay for filming. What does that tell you

Everything is up in the air for this CE and LJ stunt. I think they are dating. Its just my opinion. I think CE went their to meet up with her which was a stupid move. CE talks a big game about politics and philosophy but honestly that man has no common sense! *************** We knew about the Scotland photos and lily being there AGAIN Chris was not with her...everyone move on. He was there for work...his hotel was literally shut down during his stay for filming. What does that tell you *************** on the topic of chris announcing he was single, dont you think he just said that so fans would not pry into his personal life. like i dont care if he and lily are dating but isn’t it a possibility he just said that until he and lily are ready to confirm it (assuming they are more than friends). they could be dating but not officially a couple & that would make him single still *************** I don’t know what to think of this LJ and CE thing that’s happening anymore. Are they actually dating and a real couple or was everything they did for PR? But why was the hotel following both LJ and CE? And CE just liked a pic that LJ posted on ig. Was that to draw attention to both of them again? But why would he need to like that pic if people already knew he was in London with her supposedly. Was that like a confirmation that they are dating? I’m so confused... hope this makes sense! *************** Chris and Lily left the hotel to travel to scotland with Lily's friends Dom and Gemma Chris also followed Dom that weekend on IG. *************** After all this trolls today, I'm very excited about what's happening next and if someone was right 🤣 I just binged Young Sheldon. But I wait for a new criminal TV show as all of my favorites were completed or stopped. *************** Lily's just added to her stories in IG haven't a clue what it's about *************** Just saying but is it just me or anybody else too think that CE and LJ met through Douglas Booth and Bel powley . Remember Chris was in a cab with BP and DB last year on fourth of July. And Douglas and Lily are good friends and Chris is too friends with Douglas and also worked together with Bel. And when he was in London he followed Bel , Douglas and Gemma on Insta. *************** No! The Pursuit of Love hasn’t been filmed in Ireland and,for what we know, it will not be filming there. The locations are Bristol and Badminton *************** Ok I'm curious now. What were the titles of the embargoed pics? I would have looked through them myself but have no desire to see those obviously posed pics again. *************** yesterday an anon wrote "Now that this hotel anon said they were together in the hotel, went away a weekend and then came back to the hotel" Could you explain what the hotel anon said, and when this happened? Thanks in advance *************** Dear anon that constantly ships CE and LJ: LJ posted a story from her bathtub drinking wine. Let’s NOT think, they are in the tub together drinking wine please. Let’s also NOT analyze the bathroom faucets. Let’s also NOT think she is in Boston with CE please!!!! *************** Daily Mail writes an article every time LJ posts a new picture on IG. And since July, they always mention Chris in those articles even though the pics posted have no connection to him! I wonder if her team is commissioning these articles or if it's all solely Daily Fail's doing to get clicks. *************** I know LJ fans following this blog so maybe they can answer this: why Lily post pictures on her instagram stories and then delete them after couple minutes after? Attention seeker? *************** Is anyone going to be shocked if lily was seen with Matt or something else who not chris if that happens I will die of laughter if that ever happen *************** That DM article was so irrelevant! What was the point of that article? What a waste of time! *************** "LJ is ridiculous, just my opinion (and it hasn't to do with drugs" SAME ☝️ *************** Sorry, but back to the topic of LJ&CE..Can't believe that his arrival at the place near she is being filmed is a coincidence! Why are they so hidden now, if two months ago, on the contrary, they did everything to be noticed? Also note her recent stories (song called "miss you"). Is this such a well-thought-out PR move? Who could have predicted in advance that fans would find his exact location just by looking at the wall from the ASP video? It's hard to accept, but they're probably just a couple *************** Chris probably associates PR with the name Lily by now. Also isn’t Chris usually silent when he has nothing coming up, maybe will see soon to get the hype for his next interviews. And I mean like a selfie or a something like that. *************** I still think you can interpret everything as you want to 😂 especially shippers and non shippers find a way to interpret the same thing as something totally different. Maybe LJ sents hints, but maybe she just posts sth she wants to. Miss you? Maybe she misses CE? Maybe MS? Maybe her mother? Maybe her granny? If the recent DM article and the picture was about the death of her father, maybe she just misses him???? Who knows? There are a million options. Same with any follows and likes. *************** “I don’t think CE is someone who wants privacy. He says that shit but I don’t believe it anymore.” My response to the anon: Clearly LJ isn’t one of them!!!! BBBBBUUUUURRRRRNNNNNN!!!!!🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 *************** CE could be protecting LJ with that I’m single comment, in my dreams!!! If he wanted to protect they wouldn’t have done those pap walk to begin with! That was a hook up that got caught! *************** It’s been like what 3 months maybe 4 months since the paparazzi walk and still then we haven’t gotten anything especially the second time chris was in the UK we got nothing also this whole following situation it’s just what it is a following nothing important about it also what makes me made is when people think Chris lying about saying he single like Chris volunteer himself to say he single nobody told him and Bill Maher never mention it either all this lily and Chris shit is still nothing *************** Chris isn’t going to follow his friends private page for fans can go crazy and start following them he not that stupid ALSO he if he didn’t follow lily private page when she follow them months ago he won’t follow her back ***************

Since Lily is such a well loved topic on this blog, here is another post dedicated to her. 

Do we have any updates on her and Chris? NO

Do we think they are sending us secret messages? NO

Do we think she is relevant? NO 

Are we still going to answer every ask about her? Probably not. This is a blog mainly dedicated to Chris. Since we don’t see any relevant connections between them since the previous month, we would appreciate not getting our inbox full of asks about her. Thank you in advance. 

Red & Ginger 

[ramialkarmi]

AOL cofounder Steve Case is betting $150 million that the future of startups isn't in Silicon Valley or New York, but the money isn't what's making his prediction come true

AOL's billionaire cofounder Steve Case runs the DC-based venture capital firm Revolution.

Case is convinced that the future of American startups lies outside of Silicon Valley, New York City, and Boston, which receive 75% of all venture capital in the US.

Since 2014, he has gone on seven "Rise of the Rest" bus tours to encourage entrepreneurship across the country, for a total of 38 cities outside of the three main VC centers.

Late last year, he launched the $150 million Rise of the Rest Seed Fund and put "Hillbilly Elegy" author and former Valley investor JD Vance in charge. It includes limited partners like Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Bridgewater's Ray Dalio.

While the investments are considerable, the factor that's making the biggest impact on entrepreneurs in smaller cities is the relationships Case facilitates.

This article is part of Business Insider's ongoing series on Better Capitalism.

At 9:50 on a Friday morning in May, I was on a bright red bus with a billionaire investor, a celebrity author, and the governor of Kentucky.

I had joined Steve Case and his venture capital firm, Revolution, for a 12-hour day of touring Louisville, culminating in a pitch contest that's was like a condensed, and significantly kinder, version of "Shark Tank" with a $100,000 prize.

Case, 59, is the billionaire cofounder and former CEO of AOL. Since 2005, he's led more than $1 billion in startup investments through Washington, DC-based Revolution. He's always been primarily interested in investing outside of the three main entrepreneurial centers — Silicon Valley, New York City, and Boston — but in the past four years he's defined and concentrated his efforts on what he calls the "Rise of the Rest."

As the person behind the first iconic internet company, Case is now attempting to become a power broker of the next major wave of innovation in the United States, and he's already made significant progress.

Case has used his DC location to its potential, lobbying for startup-friendly laws like the JOBS Act of 2012 and working on President Barack Obama's jobs council in 2011. It was around this time that he became convinced the modern world was approaching a massive technological and societal shift, and that if the US didn't get ahead of it, its citizens and economy would fall behind. The entrepreneurial hegemony of the Valley was a construct whose purpose was wearing thin.

It was time for other cities across the country, many only just emerging from depressed or stagnant economies, to take advantage of the so-called "Internet of Things" becoming the "Internet of Everything;" the shift from novelties like app-controlled light bulbs to industry-transforming developments like new methods of collecting livestock and crop data.

Case decided that he was not only going to bet his money on this upcoming shift, he was going to do whatever he could to usher it in. He would show Americans that startup culture shouldn't be reserved for the coastal elites, and he'd do it in a way that grabbed the public's attention.

Case and his team rented a luxury coach bus, wrapped it in a custom full-body sticker with "Rise of the Rest" logos, and kicked off a four-day tour from Detroit in 2014. Case made use of his connections and clout to include the mayor, governor, and his friend Dan Gilbert, CEO of Quicken Loans and major real estate developer. The day included visits to new startups in the "rising" city and ended with a startup pitch contest with a $100,000 prize from Case's pocket. The day received local coverage and provided a rough idea of what could work, but it was fairly lowkey relative to what it would become.

When I was in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Louisville, Kentucky this past May for the final two stops on the seventh Rise of the Rest tour, upwards of 600 members of the public attended each of the pitch competitions. Despite the lighthearted fanfare, the tours were treated with the utmost seriousness. Local political leadership and entrepreneurs alike were not only advocating for specific companies, but were using the day to explain to a bus-load of influential investors why their hometown deserved as much respect and recognition as any of the big three VC markets.

It was also the first tour to draw from the $150 million Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. Instead of using only his personal wealth, Case was now working with a sum gathered from almost 40 of the most prominent investors in the country, including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio. He put JD Vance, a former Valley investor best known for his hugely successful memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy," in charge of the fund.

I had known of the influence Case had as an investor and that his portfolio proved he truly believed in this notion of the "Rise of the Rest," but I was still skeptical about the bus tours. I wondered if they were anything more than a vanity project, a collection of photos and videos with a decent check attached, but not one that was going to uplift a community.

After spending two days on the bus tour and talking with dozens of locals in both cities I visited, it became clear that Case is tapping into something with a lot of momentum. A decked-out bus and a camera crew is a spectacle, sure, but that's the point. These bus tours and pitch contests aren't going to magically transform cities overnight, but they're giving these communities a publicity boost to ride out, and, more importantly, a network that now includes 38 cities across 26 states, and contains some of the most influential business people, politicians, and academics in the country.

It remains to be seen if this seed fund is going to yield the big returns Case and his team are looking for. The first three years of the Rise of the Rest, where Case used his own money, were somewhat of a beta test for this larger initiative which, in addition to the bus tours, will also include a total of 20 annual investments.

Regardless of how the fund performs, Case and his team have already convinced thousands of Americans that their startups and their cities can thrive, and that's leading to them build things they never would have otherwise.

Bringing the bus to town

That morning in May, when I was on the bus in Louisville, Case was uncharacteristically quiet, checking his itinerary and notes as conversation swirled around him. Normally, he speaks in a low register at an energetic pace, his sentences often bleeding into each other. In the time I spent on the tour, he seemed inexhaustible, despite the week's relentless schedule.

But right then, he was overshadowed by Vance, who was leaning across the aisle to chat with Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin.

Vance, who built his public image on overcoming struggles with poverty while growing up in Ohio and Kentucky, helps bring attention to the Rise of the Rest initiative through the star power he gained from his massive bestseller — I even saw Bevin ask for his autograph. Vance lights up in one-on-one conversations, and throughout the tour, I saw guests approach Vance to tell him about their projects.

Case, Vance, and the team start their tour days on tour at around 7 a.m. and go for 12 hours. That morning, we were leaving behind an outdoor breakfast at the Angel's Envy distillery, where Bevin, Mayor Greg Fischer, and Senator Rand Paul spoke about the need to accelerate entrepreneurship in Louisville (and, in the case of Paul, announce he would vote against confirming Gina Haspel to lead the CIA). Case believes strongly that alliances with state, local, and federal government will be essential for the growth of rising startup communities over the next few decades, and Revolution has consistently initiated these conversations in each of its Rise of the Rest stops.

From there, we drove around the city, meeting seasoned entrepreneurs with fast-growing companies, novice founders with new startups, and local power brokers.

Case and Vance often split up at these stops, each taking about half of the bus group. Each visit has elements for the cameras — in Louisville, we visited an axe-throwing facility that provided plenty of photo ops — but the Revolution investors, like the guests they invite, are constantly taking notes on potential new investments or partnerships. 

A day earlier, as we toured Branch Technology's robotics factory in Chattanooga, I noticed Rise of the Rest partner Mary Grove grab Case's attention and quietly chat as they closely watched a 3D printer create a complex grid. Later, I asked Case what he and Grove were discussing. He said that at each stop, he and his team make sure to highlight great businesses and initiatives for local and national media, but they're also looking for the best company to put their money in. Case believed that Branch was good enough to represent its city in the press, but he and Grove needed to know if it would fit in the Rise of the Rest portfolio. Case told me this approach to impact investing is like "building a model home."

"We want great returns for the fund but we also want to showcase the companies to others," he said, explaining that they want the companies they invest in to symbolize the unique opportunities in that specific region.

In Louisville, our last stop was at the Speed Museum's auditorium, a beautiful glass-encased space where several hundred people arrived for conversations about their city and a competition.

And in the same way that the 12-hour day is the result of four months of planning by Revolution partner Anna Mason, the series of seven or eight four-minute pitches the team deliberated for about 15 minutes each at that night's pitch contest came after careful due diligence done prior to the tour.

One of Louisville's predominant industries is healthcare, and the medical device company InScope Medical took home the prize. The previous night in Chattanooga, the winner was FreightWaves, a data analytics and media company for freight trucking that takes advantage of its founder and CEO Craig Fuller's family connection to Chattanooga's robust freight industry, one of the biggest in the country.

A few days after winning, Fuller announced on FreightWaves' site the $100,000 would go toward educational grants or relocation fees for new talent, depending on what was needed. "An investment of that size is not going to move the needle for the city unless it's directly invested in encouraging job and economic growth in the region," Fuller wrote, noting that his goal is to make FreightWaves — which expects $13 million in revenue this year and, following the tour, closed a $15.75 million Series A round — Tennessee's first company worth $1 billion.

Although not every city's winner so neatly links the city's tradition with a startup moving it into the future, it was not at all a coincidence that both of these companies represented that.

"I see what's going on in the next wave of innovation, the next wave of technological change, as really depending on things that places like Chattanooga are good at, as opposed to the things that Silicon Valley are good at," Vance told the audience at the Chattanooga breakfast event. It's about changing a community's perception of itself, so that it can both play to its strengths and retain young talent that would otherwise flee. He said he and Mason passionately agree that "folks should not try to brand themselves as the Silicon 'X' of their particular area." What makes these Rise of the Rest cities great, he explained, is that they're building on a legacy of connections and expertise in areas the Valley simply can't.  

The country is bigger than three states

After just two days with the Revolution team, I had memorized Case's talking points that he brings to every speech. They explain the reason he's doing all of this in the first place.

A full 75% of venture capital in the United States goes to three states: California, New York, and Massachusetts. Half of all venture capital goes to Silicon Valley alone. That's data gathered by CB Insights, which also found that a minuscule 1% of all this VC money goes to black entrepreneurs. And regardless of race, the vast majority of founders funded are male. If the US wants to remain the most entrepreneurial nation in the world, and it should want to, says Case, then these figures must change.

Fostering these diverse startup communities, he continues, will then drive job growth that will benefit entire cities. Case cites a 2014 Kauffman Foundation report that says startups account for a full half of all new job creation in the US.

Case details his vision further in his 2016 book, "The Third Wave," using two borrowed phrases he's reinterpreted. The title is one of those phrases, coming from futurist Alvin Toffler's identically titled book from 1980 about how the shift to the "Information Age" is the third most significant transformation in all human history. Case uses it specifically to refer to the third wave of the internet, which has just begun.

The first wave, he argues, lasted from 1985 to the popping of the online bubble in 1999, and was about establishing a foundation based around PCs. It's the environment in which his company AOL thrived. The second wave lasted from 2000-2015 and was about developing search, social media, and ecommerce. It led to the ubiquity of the smartphone. The third wave began just a couple years ago, and is about "the internet of everything," where virtually every aspect of our life will have an online component, to the point where internet connectivity will no longer be seen as a perk. 

This is where "the rise of the rest" fits in. That, by the way, is borrowed from the subtitle of journalist Fareed Zakaria's 2008 book "The Post-American World." Zakaria was referring to China and India, but Case uses it to represent cities that aren't New York City, Boston, or in the Bay Area.

Case argues that the companies that will thrive in the Third Wave will not benefit from being in a tech ecosystem, despite using cutting-edge technology. These companies will be in industries that are often highly regulated, like healthcare and agriculture, and will not be scrappy startups setting out to disrupt industries from the outside; rather, they will succeed through partnerships with established leaders and institutions.

"It may make sense, for example, for a company that wants to revolutionize the agricultural industry to settle in the Midwest, where the right supply chains already exist and the culture of farmers is best understood," Case wrote in his book. "A company that wants to disrupt the healthcare industry might find that doing it in Nashville or Baltimore, both of which have developed vibrant healthcare sectors, might make more sense than doing it from Palo Alto or New York City."

These "rising" cities Case identifies typically have young startup scenes, and some, like the one in Chattanooga, emerged after years of economic struggle began to fade. He saw firsthand the power of startups on communities when AOL sparked the creation of a previously barren tech corridor in northern Virginia.

So far, Case has invested about $3.5 million across the seven Rise of the Rest bus tours. Until this past tour, Case invested from his personal wealth. Nine additional investments across the country were made ahead of the last tour, with an additional one after it.

Revolution would not disclose indicators of performance for its fund. However, Amazon purchased Partpic (for an undisclosed amount) a year after it won a 2015 competition in Atlanta, and Omaha winner LifeLoop told Silicon Prairie News last December it had grown its customer reach fivefold in the year since its Rise of the Rest investment to serving 100 communities across 20 states. As shown by the Chattanooga and Louisville examples, some of the Rise of the Rest investments are just starting to build momentum, while others, like FreightWaves, are already scaling.

The Rise of the Rest Seed Fund is one of three funds at Revolution, and Case and his team don't see it as operating in a vacuum.

"So $150 million in the great scheme of things is not a huge fund — we get that," Case told me earlier this year. "But if we, in fact, are on average doing 10% of rounds, we're really helping catalyze, mobilize, more like $1.5 billion of capital. And then if we have this group of investors who are well-positioned to write $50 million checks down the road, hopefully it ends up being many billions of capital that gets unleashed here." 

Megan Smith, President Barack Obama's former CTO and the founder and CEO of startup accelerator Shift7, joined the fund as an LP in February and was in Chattanooga. She told me that her work in the White House proved to her that Case's thesis is correct, and that not only are Case and his team well-respected among investors, "They're doing the leg work for them," by discovering and cultivating talent in markets that could potentially benefit their portfolios and corporations. She's most excited by the way both the entrepreneurs and investors can leverage the Rise of the Rest network, and, as an MIT board member, she connected Branch Technologies to the MIT Media Lab, even though it didn't take home the 100 grand the day it competed.

"These are national scale, maybe even global scale companies," Case told me, referring to highlights of the last tour, even beyond those in the competitions. "They just happen to be in Louisville, they happen to be in Chattanooga, so they shouldn't just have regional ambitions. They can go the distance."

Setting out in 1804

In June of 2016, Case spent a day in Louisville in a hybrid book tour-bus tour trip arranged by Chuck Denny, the regional president of PNC who oversees Greater Louisville and is in charge of developing the market and establishing his bank's visibility. Denny, who got his bachelor's degree from the University of Louisville in 1975 and his MBA from there in 1980, has made it part of his mission at the bank to improve his beloved hometown as much as possible. Denny had actually been a guest for the Nashville day of the first bus tour, back in 2014.

Denny accompanied Case to the tarmac where Case's private jet was parked, and the Revolution founder's words were so inspirational and the scene so dramatic that Denny kept a photograph of it in his office for inspiration.

"You have one of everything here," Case told Denny. "But it's scattered. It needs to be in one place to be easier for the entrepreneurs to access, and to have this density." Case explained that Louisville would benefit greatly from an entrepreneur center like the one they have in Nashville.

"I called it my John Wayne moment," Denny told me, laughing. "He imparts this wisdom on us, and then he rides off."

Just over a year later, the 1804 entrepreneurship center opened, named after the year Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out from Louisville on their famous expedition.

It ended up being a key stop on the 2018 bus tour, concluding a chapter in a story that captures the effectiveness of the Rise of the Rest tours: how relationships can enact significant change.

Denny first invited Case to Louisville in 2016 because he was on the first bus tour, at the invitation of Michael Burcham, the founder and CEO of the Nashville Entrepreneur Center (the same one 1804 is modeled on). From that visit came the advice that built 1804, which then led to Denny mobilizing his network to successfully lobby for Louisville to be the first Rise of the Rest city to get a second bus tour. Now, that second tour is already helping 1804 grow.

Brit Fitzpatrick, who runs 1804's business development, told me that she and the rest of 1804's leadership are focused on fostering diversity in greater Louisville's entrepreneur community and opening up access to capital by educating founders about taking investments and connecting them to investors.

The Rise of the Rest tour, even though it lasted just 12 hours, already helped move both of those agendas forward in a significant way, Fitzpatrick told me.

Case said that he and the Rise of the Rest team deliberately find diverse candidates for the pitch competitions, and work with local leaders to invite organizations specifically empowering groups like female entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs of color to be part of the tour. He told a story at 1804 about how in one of the tour's earliest stops, there was an event where only white men were in attendance, and he's avoided having that happen again. 

Fitzpatrick said that the day in Louisville helped "bring people to the conversation who weren't typically there."

She told me this networking element was by far the most valuable aspect of the tour. And while she said she's not yet at liberty to share details, she's already working on partnerships started from conversations she had on the bus that will launch later this year.

"If there's nothing else I've learned from entrepreneurship, and probably business in general, it's that it all comes down to relationships," Fitzpatrick said, "and I don't know of any experience that facilitates those more strategically than the Revolution team."

SEE ALSO: AOL founder Steve Case is traveling the US investing in local businesses through his $150 million seed fund — here are the 5 most recent entrepreneurs to get $100,000 each

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Scenario planning for marketers

Marketers should plan for every scenario, rather than only the most likely one

2016 is behind us. Marketers have their eyes set firmly on the year ahead, and will be currently drawing up their marketing plans and strategy documents for 2017. However, the vast majority of these plans will actually only plan for 1 scenario: business as usual.

It makes sense to plan for business as usual, after all, it’s impossible to predict the future so it wouldn’t make sense to base ones marketing plan around an event which may or may not happen.

Consider the following:

- The future is not pre-determined or predictable

- If it were, there would be no point taking action today, because it would have no effect on the future.

- Full information about the future is never available

But precisely because the future cannot be predicted, you shouldn’t only plan for one scenario (businesses as usual), but rather should have strategies in place ready to deal with all manner of possible scenarios, some of which may involve crises.

‘don’t wait till your in a crisis to come up with a crisis plan’ – Dr Phil

Download Expert Member resource – Forecasting for marketing plans guide

Marketing plans should help businesses compete in the future, yet the future is unknown since it is shaped by both long-term trends and one off events. This guide will show you some of the best techniques available for creating forecasts for modern marketing plans, and so will help you create more accurate plans..

Access the Marketing Forecasting techniques for marketing planning guide

Different types of future

The future is a murky world. A good way to make sense of it and give structure your thinking towards planning for different eventualities is to think about different scenarios and divide them into the 4 p’s. Not the 7 p’s of marketing, but rather the 4 p’s of the future:

Possible – Anything that might happen.

Plausible – Could feasibly happen, but unlikely.

Probable – Likely to happen.

Preferable – What you want to happen.

Thinking of different possibilities and then categorising them this way can help you concentrate of a set of key scenarios, which you need to plan for.

Brainstorm as many possibilities you can think of, and categorise them this way. Discard any that won’t significantly affect the marketing department or are so unlikely to happen it doesn’t even bear thinking about (think meteor strike). What you are left with is a map of possible futures for your business. These should be planned for so you have a process in place if and when they happen.

Possible scenarios:

What scenarios are likely to affect the working of your marketing department? Some are obvious. A PR disaster arising from an exec mincing his words and coming out with an un-PC gaff might blow up on social media. Your website might be hacked, leading to customer details being leaked, creating a storm of bad PR and recriminations flying around the IT department.

Bad PR can come in a flash, as the Singapore-based ecommerce store ‘SuperGurl’ discovered when the ad director failed to review his graphic designers work and the brand ended up having this horrific call to action button on their home page this Black Friday.

Others may be less obvious because they are not what springs to mind when you think of crises. If you work for a publicly listed company, have you consider how your brand may be affected if a larger rival started buying you out? How could the brand be protected in this scenario?

The scenarios don’t have to be crises either; they could be positive developments that you weren’t expecting. Global news might focus attention on your brand in an unexpected way. Perhaps you are a small business selling sustainably sourced kidney beans. How would you capitalise on a new research report published in the BMJ that links Kidney Bean consumption to lower rates of bowel diseases?

Crisis Management

Many of the potential scenarios you will come up with will involve some form of crisis, which you will need to plan for. If you don’t have a plan in place for these scenarios, when one does inevitably occur it you will be unprepared and team members will be unaware of their responsibilities.

The different scenarios will vary wildly, and thus the responses will need to be very different. However, the crisis management plan, which you should have in place, will always contain a key set of principles.

Anticipate – Anticipating the crisis is the first step towards planning for it, and possibly avoiding it. Think about the possible ways the crisis could begin or unfold. This can often help ideas for how to prevent the crisis from emerging in the first place.

Identify - the team members responsible for handling the situation – Detailing responsibility is crucial as it allows your team to respond effectively to a crisis, rather than people running around not knowing who is responsible for what. With a clear structure of responsibility and accountability, staff can get straight down to their roles in solving the crisis. Make sure this plan can still function if certain team members are away from the office. If a certain problem crops up whilst the marketing manager is on holiday, your plan needs a clear back up in place so someone knows its up to them to step up to the plate and take charge of the response.

Training- Once you’ve identified who is responsible for what in the given crisis scenario, various skills gaps may well become apparent. It may be wise to train up some staff in the basics of certain skills so they can provide a back up in the case of a certain specialist being ill on a day where they are needed. It may also be wise make everyone aware of certain processes or rules which are designed to prevent crises emerging in the first place. For example making sure all staff are aware of social media guidelines may prevent PR gaffs.

Plan to capitalise

“Only a crisis - actual or perceived - produces real change” – Milton Friedman

One of the few things which is certain is that 2016 will bring big changes for a vast range of businesses. Many of these changes could present massive opportunities for your business. The problem with a marketing plan that deals only with the ‘business as usual scenario’ is that it is inevitably unable to best exploit new opportunities that may arise for marketing your business from events that cannot be expected.

If you don’t have a plan in place to make the most of it, an opportunity to grab some fantastic PR off the back of a favourable news story may pass you buy, or an opportunity to market yourself off something as simple as a freak weather event that makes your service more relevant may not give you same boost in sales as it could if you had planned for it.

If you are a B2C business, make sure to have agreements in place with suppliers to cope with sudden spikes in demand, less you be left sold out if an unprecedented event causes a massive surge in sales.

Always be monitoring your social streams and those of your competitors to spot trends that your business may be able to capitalise on. There’s nothing wrong with pointing out your own virtues if your competitor has done something sinister and is in a spot of trouble because of it. The controversial / much despised ‘Are you beach body ready?’ campaign by Protein World got a fantastic set of spins off by other brands who were practising their Real-time marketing, which pointed to the fact that they weren’t forcing unrealistic beauty standards on women.

Are you overdue being disrupted?

One thing the last few years have taught us is that industries can be disrupted quickly. Before 2012, no one outside of San Francisco had heard of Uber, and now it's worth over $60 billion and has totally revolutionised how people get about in cities, much to the anger of established taxi companies. Before Uber no one had considered taxis a business that was particularly likely to be disrupted, expect perhaps by the coming of driverless cars that are still several years away.

The same may be true for your industry. This year may be the year a new app totally revolutionises the real estate industry, banking or legal services. Think it won’t happen to you? Look a the way AirBnB totally disrupted the hotel industry, something which one would have thought could never have moved away from bricks and mortar model. Disruption doesn’t mean doom, it just means you have to position what you offer to sell it in a way that stresses its advantages over what the disruptor is offering. AirBnB may be the world's biggest accommodation provider, but there will always be a market for luxury hotels. They’re not going away anytime soon. Your plan for this scenario must thus address how you would change your offering in response to disruption and how you would stress your USP.

Conclusion

We all know the overused maxim ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’ (personally I prefer the more alliterative ‘Piss poor planning leads to piss poor performance'). Well failing to plan for a failure is even worse. It is times of crisis where you need a well thought out plan to turn to more than anything. Similarly, if your plan doesn’t take into account scenario’s which can’t be predicted but could allow you to get great marketing results, then you’ll loose out. The best way it to consider all possible scenarios, map them out according to the 4 p’s and then create plans for the scenarios that could have a major effect on your marketing department.

Nothing is certain, least of all in the fast-paced world of marketing. But if there is one thing I can predict 100% for 2016, it’s that something you didn’t think would happen will. It’ll help if you have a plan.

from Blog – Smart Insights http://www.smartinsights.com/managing-digital-marketing/planning-budgeting/scenario-planning-marketers/