Two weekends ago, I sat in a convention center packed with cheerleaders, hairspray, and shared air.
My daughter’s team competed. They were incredible.
And then… half the athletes got sick.
Then parents.
Then siblings.
Then me.
Thankfully, I had gotten my flu shot, so my case felt like the “lite” version compared to what others experienced. But it still meant a few days in bed trying not to cough up a lung.
And what did I do?
I binge watched all three of my comfort shows:
My family teases me because these shows are almost always on in the background while I work or cook. But I love the characters. I love the arcs. I love the predictability wrapped in just enough chaos.
But what really fascinates me?
The logistics.
Nearly every few episodes, there’s a crossover.
A fire leads to the hospital.
A hospital case becomes a police investigation.
A suspect shows up in all three storylines.
Different writers. Different directors. Different production teams.
And yet the details align.
The timeline makes sense.
The character motivations stay consistent.
The injuries match the medical storyline.
The legal storyline tracks with the police investigation.
The amount of behind-the-scenes planning required to make that seamless is staggering.
It’s not accidental.
It’s not improvised.
It’s coordinated.
And that’s the part that geeks me out.
Here’s what hit me while I was on Day Three of flu recovery:
Most brands want Chicago-level storytelling… but they operate like three separate shows that never talk to each other.
Social is doing one thing.
Influencer is doing another.
PR has its own calendar.
Reviews are being collected somewhere in the background.
Retail teams are asking different questions entirely.
No shared arc.
No coordinated crossover.
No master timeline.
And then we wonder why it feels disjointed.
At TLG, especially in hardware and home improvement, we’re constantly orchestrating crossover moments:
An influencer campaign drives retail traffic.
Retail traffic drives reviews.
Reviews fuel PDP content.
PDP content improves conversion.
Conversion data informs paid media.
It’s all connected.
But only if someone is actually managing the storyline.
What makes those Chicago shows work is not the fire truck or the operating room drama.
It’s the infrastructure.
The shared writers’ room.
The production calendar.
The character bible.
The communication between teams.
In marketing, that looks like:
Not just activity… architecture.
The flu knocked me down for a few days.
But it also gave me forced stillness.
And sometimes, stepping out of the noise reminds you what you actually love about this work.
I love the creativity.
But I really love the coordination.
Anyone can post.
Anyone can hire an influencer.
Anyone can run an ad.
But building a system where everything talks to everything else?
That’s the crossover episode.
