The 7th Sense (it's not what you think)

REBECCA RAUSCH
1 day ago
3 min read

Invite your audience into a moment they can feel.

Use the seven senses—not as a gimmick, but as a bridge to connection:

Note each "sense" in the following story:

Sight
Sound
Touch
Smell
Taste
Emotion
Authenticity

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True Story:

Every morning, I’d drive toward the desert sunrise to park behind the flat-roofed brick building, tucked in the palm trees and dirt off Roosevelt Avenue in South Phoenix. When I arrived, I turned the engine off and, for a moment, held my breath as I stepped out of my beat-up black Honda.

This neighborhood made me walk fast, eyes alert, head on a swivel...sidestepping needles glinting in the dawn light near the door. I needed to unlock and get in quickly in case anyone was sleeping beside the building.

Every day, it was just me… my boss and his Cheshire-grinning son. My boss would stride in around 10 am, bark orders without looking up, then slam his office door. I’d refresh my coffee and return to my desk to slowly sip the warm liquid as I concentrated on the day’s designs.

Through the door of the offices, I’d hear his son laugh and chat with his friends, and my boss pitch our “marketing agency” like we had a floor full of creatives and strategists.

In reality? It was just me—answering calls, calming frustrated clients, designing every piece, and wrestling those ancient print machines that rattled like ghosts in the walls while the two of them "played agency."

At lunch, the boss and his son would vanish—off to “meet clients”—and return hours later, breath thick with alcohol, leaving me to hold the whole thing together on a salary barely above gas money.

What upset me wasn’t the work. It was the dishonesty.

The extravagant broken promises.

The performative confidence.

The stress of trying to keep it all together and the upset that inevitably followed.

I knew our clients deserved better. And deep down, I knew I could do better.

So one day—like so many founders before me—I said "enough."

Leaving felt like stepping off the edge of the Grand Canyon.

No safety net. No team. Just belief—in myself, and in the idea that marketing shouldn’t be smoke and mirrors. It should be told truthfully, beautifully, and with strategy.

I built Neon Lizard Creative on one conviction: Every business has a story worth telling—not because of flashy claims, but because of the real human journey behind it.

Your product. Your service. Your mission. It’s not just what you do—it’s why it matters, who it helps, and how it changes lives. It was true then, and it is true now.

Your story is the story AI can't touch.

That’s the story NLC is here to tell. Not with hype. Not with exaggeration. But with clarity, care, and craft.

We want to tell your story through impactful content and stellar visuals. You’ve been in the trenches; you deserve to succeed, and we want to be your champion.

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When your brand speaks this way—specific, sensory, vulnerable—it stops feeling like marketing. It feels like recognition.

And that’s the magic: If someone relives a moment with you, they’ll never forget what you said. You experienced it together. It's authentic.

That’s the vision for this blog, Insights + Epiphanies.

At Neon Lizard Creative, we want to be more than simply tips and tactics. We’re sharing real stories, human struggles, and actionable wisdom—from DIY frameworks to insights inspired by the world’s best communicators, all filtered through the human lens of what actually connects.