Tom Ruwitch
When he was just 13 years old, chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen nearly defeated former world champion Gary Kasparov during a tournament in Iceland. The Norwegian kid rattled the Russian with an unconventional opening, but the old guy recovered to salvage a draw. I recommend the 2016 documentary about Carlsen. Here’s theĀ trailer: When author Patrick Bet-David…
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I dozed off during a Zoom meeting yesterday. I couldn’t help it. I was tired, and the speaker was BO-ring. Thankfully, my camera wasn’t on so no one caught me. In olden days in Great Britain, they might have called me a “sluggard.” (That’s a fancy English word for “lazy person.”) In the 18th-century, British…
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RememberĀ this sceneĀ in “Meet the Parents” when Gaylord Focker (Ben Stiller) wants to board a plane, but a power-hungry gate agent makes him wait? Funny when you watch it. But not so funny when — like me — you live through something like it. It happened Sunday at the Philadelphia International Airport. Melissa and I arrived…
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Herb Kelleher on Leadership and Service Yesterday, I flew from Philadelphia to St. Louis on Southwest Airlines. Before I boarded, I had the WORST customer (dis)service experience I’ve ever had with Southwest. It made me think of the airline’s founder, Herb Kelleher, and how he built Southwest on great customer service. He must have been…
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In yesterday’s email, I told you about the little kerfuffle I’ve got going with the content cops at Facebook. More specifically, the new AI-powered robots that review content and decide whether it complies with Big Social’s “policies.” Big Social’s robot pressed pause on some videos and ads I launched. So that campaign is in limbo.…
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I’m feuding with Facebook, and I’m not alone. Earlier this month I recorded a few videos designed to promote my businesses — Story Power Marketing and Implementum. Here’s one of them (it’s all about how to transform your technology from a paralyzing migraine to a walk in the park)… I hired a team of Facebook…
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My upcoming book is in the hands of the publisher — getting final copy edits and page design before hitting the streets soon (exact date TBA). My editor, Judy, emailed yesterday to share a note from the proofreader who liked it; she really liked it. Here’s what the proofreader said: āThis was a delight to…
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This is a tale of customer gone wrong… …with a happy ending. It was 97 degrees the day the a/c crapped out in Melissa’s Volvo. She loves that car — except for the problems with the heating and cooling systems. We paid $400 to “recharge” the a/c — only to have the thing fail again…
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I’m Back… …from the wilds of Wyoming (no thanks to United Airlines which deposited me in St. Louis more than three hours later than promised). There’s nothing like a week off the grid to rejuvenate the spirit and clear the cobwebs. So let’s get back to business. Recommended Listening š”John Jantsch: (Un)Limiting Beliefs I love…
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If you’ve spent much time in my world, you know I’m fond of Eugene Schwartz. He’s among the great copywriters of the 20th century, and he wrote a book called “Breakthrough Advertising” which I reread every couple of years. At the beginning of Chapter Seven, Schwartz writesā¦ āā¦Advertising is the literature of desire. It is…
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