🚄 What a bullet train taught me about smarter marketing

f you've been checking in lately, you'll know I just returned from a few weeks in Japan. It was every bit as amazing as I had expected (see more posts and pics on my socials here).

But one of the best adventures we had was spur of the moment. 

I wasn’t planning on heading to the snow. Other than the fact it was spring, and snow season had already passed, it was a long way away from where we'd be ... and I've never skied or snowboarded in my life. 

But there I was—standing at the transport office in Japan—when a little sign caught my eye.

A bullet train could take me from the city to the mountains in less than an hour. Plus the resort had a huge snow play area, just for people who wanted to experience snow without needing to ski. Sold. 

It sounded too good to be true, but here’s the kicker: it wasn’t just fast.
It was easy.
Buy a ticket.
Reserve a seat.

Even when the staff member at the ticket booth gave me a firm "Iie" (no in Japanese) when I asked him in broken high school level Japanese if he spoke English, the process was simple. A few quick clicks and gestures and we had reserved seats. 

The tickets told us the platform and the carriage door to board through. Signs showed us to the platform and more signs showed us exactly where to stand and wait - even with cute footprints in a row to indicate where to line up. 

When the train pulled in, the doors lined up perfectly with the little markers on the ground.

No confusion. No scrambling. No "is this our train?" panic.
Just clean, simple, ridiculously efficient systems that made the whole experience seamless.

Not because people were working harder.
Because the systems and tools were doing the heavy lifting.

Not only was it one of the best days of our whole trip - and the first time my son had seen snow... it got me thinking about nonprofits.

Most organisations I work with? They’re stuck on the slow train.

Doing everything manually. Wasting hours on content, admin, marketing, comms.

Running on good intentions, duct tape, and sheer passionate determination. 

But in today's world—with the right tools (especially AI)—you could be on the bullet train instead.

 Imagine whipping up a month’s worth of social media posts in a couple of hours instead of days.
 Building email newsletters that actually get opened—without pulling an all-nighter.
 Creating fundraising campaigns that feel like you have a full creative agency behind you (without the agency price tag).

Right now, I feel like AI is the magic wand you're all looking for, but most of you aren't using it (or not using it right). If you've been scared to do it - now is the glowing permission sign telling you to make the time.

It can save hours every week on content creation, help you (ironically) make your content sound more human, help you plan ahead and get more strategic, write better stories that actually move people to donate, volunteer or support you and make data-driven decisions without needing a PhD in analytics.

...and that’s just scraping the surface.

When you work smarter, you don’t just save time—you create opportunities.

More reach.
More donations.
More impact.
More breathing space for your team to do the work that actually matters.

Right now, I’m working behind the scenes on some brand-new programs to help nonprofits finally hop off the exhausting hamster wheel—and onto the bullet train of smarter marketing.

Because working harder isn’t heroic anymore.
Working smarter is.

More on that very soon but in the meantime - I want to leave you with a piece of advice inspired by the shinkansen (bullet train). It's time to work smarter and let tools do your heavy lifting. You don't have to be working as hard as you are now. 

Talk soon,
Alecia