BULL GARLINGTON | UNPLUGGED
Reclaiming What's Real
in an Unreal World
Analog strategies against AI skill erosion,
digital overwhelm, and the
death of creativity.
BURNED OUT, CHECKED OUT, & FREAKED OUT.
Productivity culture is killing you.
The grind is voracious. The crashing wave of your inbox looms like a tsunami. You’re using AI to ask AI if there’s a better way to use AI to figure out how to implement AI. You’re exhausted. You’re barely there. You’ve misplaced your mojo.
You have to wonder if there’s a way to push back. Is there a way to defend your career against AI skill erosion, corporate burnout, inbox overwhelm paralysis, and the firehose blast of contemporary maladies that come with a frictionless virtual workspace?
Can management motivate workers whose creativity is being consumed by AI? Can they ensure a through-line from today’s known workflow to the unknown workflows in the future? And can they do that while ensuring they don’t fall prey to quiet quitting, to digital apathy, or to creative surrender?
I believe there is. I’ve been writing about it for the last ten years at Analog Attorney. There’s a quiet, low-key professional revolution bringing old school tools into the digital workspace. In this emerging hybrid space, thought leadership isn’t scraped off websites—it’s developed slowly, by hand, on paper.
workplace culture
Finding My Purpose in a Lazy River at a Disney Resort
In telling the hilarious, heartwarming story of discovering his own purpose late in life while floating in a lazy river at a Disney resort, Bull illustrates why such an endeavor is vital to living a fulfilled life, to eradicating depression, and is an antidote to fragility. By anchoring deep existential philosophy into practical, everyday action, Bull shows audiences how a clarified purpose functions as the ultimate resilience strategy, driving measurable increases in personal output, professional longevity, and collaborative success.
ROI: fulfilled staff, interior richness, high level intangible asset improvement, easy confidence that’s real, burn-out proof, longer vision,
digital wellness
The analog professional
How do you stand out in a client management chain or a sales funnel that’s a firehose of AI generated garbage? Have you tried going full boomer? There’s a distinct charm in mid-century methods of reaching out through the USPS. There’s a huge reward when a client opens an unexpected envelope and inside is a simple letterhead card with “Great job!” scrawled over your signature. It’s real. It’s tactile. It’s luxurious and it speaks volumes about your investment. Learn how to think on paper, how to use an Eisenhower Box to prioritize the fires you’re putting out, how doodling in a meeting is actually a deep listening superpower, how writing by hand develops enduring executive facility, and how it is the surest and most effective way to practice and develop your use of reason, critical thinking, and creativity.
ROI: executives who send cards to clients, thereby making themselves and the firm stand out from the digital scrum; resilience from journaling; creative and efficient decision making; depth; intangible asset development.
strategic thinking
Writing is thinking
How do we think more clearly and develop the fluid ideation required to lead our industries? We write it down. Putting pen to paper briefly removes an executive from the reactive chain of execution, providing the cognitive space necessary to pivot from daily fire-fighting to proactive strategic planning. The biological business returns of this manual pause are massive: sharpened executive function, heightened creative output, and absolute cognitive ease. Ultimately, this session delivers an immediate operational ROI by reducing decision fatigue, lowering the costly toll of burnout, and transforming distracted employees into high-impact, self-motivated strategists.
ROI: Executives with depth, emerging and original thought leadership, innovation, creative problem solving, authenticity, content for executive marketing, confident, patient leadership
No slides. No notes. No problem
Bull Garlington is an award-winning B2B writer, author, and professional keynote speaker with over 20 years of experience delivering high-performing content for corporate audiences. As a solo worker for two decades and the author of the decade-long column Analog Attorney for Attorney at Work, Bull has established deep authority on overcoming digital overwhelm, mastering communication, and reclaiming professional focus.
Best known for his sharp wit and off-the-cuff storytelling, he has authored multiple books, including the travel narrative Fat in Paris, and has delivered high-impact keynotes for major financial services client appreciation dinners. Bull brings a refreshing, completely unplugged approach to corporate events across the Great Lakes region—proving that the most magnetic communication requires zero slides and no safety nets.
Signature Keynote Programs & Speaking Topics
- The Analog Architecture: Reclaiming focus, relieving digital fatigue, and boosting operational efficiency using tactical analog tools.
- Oxford-Level Executive Communication: Stripping away corporate-speak, mastering concise writing, and conquering the fear of the first word.
- No Notes. No Net. No Problem: A proprietary method for building and delivering powerful, extemporaneous speeches using just a pen and a piece of paper.