Tom Ruwitch
On Monday I promised you a story and a link. Hereās both. My friend Kim Krause Schwalm has been threatening to retire for years. Iād believe it for a week. Then sheād land another control, launch another training, or mentor another copywriter to a breakout year. The retirement talk would quietly disappear. This time itās…
Remember that scene in Ghostbusters when a “focused, non-terminal, repeating phantasm” (a.k.a. “a class-five full-roaming vapor”) slimes Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray)? That’s how I felt — like Peter Venkman — when I stepped outside of the well air-conditioned Orlando International Airport yesterday evening. The heat (90 degrees) and humidity (85%) slimed me (SPLAT!) I…
The first thing Thomas Edison patented was a total flop. It was an “electric vote-recorder,” designed to speed up vote-counting in legislative halls. It worked like this: Each legislator had a switch at their desk to cast a “yes” or “no” vote. The votes were transmitted to a central device that recorded results immediately and…
Breaking News Legendary Copywriter Plans to Open Her Vault My friend Kim Schwalm is one of the best direct-response copywriters alive. She has beaten the legends. She has written controls that ran for a decade. She has quietly helped generate close to a billion dollars for the companies smart enough to hire her. And after…
Last night, Melissa and I heard novelist Virginia Hume talk about her new book Liberty Island (which I highly recommend). She said something every business owner needs to hear. The novel is set in 1910 America when contractions weren’t were not common. If she wanted to be historically accurate, Virginia would have written dialog with…
Here’s the big idea in Joey Coleman’s book Never Lose a Customer Again: “The typical business does a great job of getting the attention of the customer and persuading them to buy, but then does very little to create a meaningful or remarkable experience for them after the sale. “There are many reasons why customers leave,…
I had the displeasure of traveling to and fro on a US airline this week. The thing that struck me most: How miserable all the employees seemed. From the check-in clerk to the flight attendants, not one seemed happy to serve us. Their rotten morale didn’t make my journeys worse. But those grumpy employees didn’t…
Here’s a stat that got my attention: A 5 percent improvement in customer retention rates will yield a 25 to 100 percent increase in profits. So says Joey Coleman in his book Never Lose a Customer Again. Most business owners understand the idea. But very few have systems designed to delight and retain customers. That’s…
The Meaning of This Holiday Memorial Day: Honoring the Fallen This short video from The Wounded Warriors Project describes what Memorial Day is all about. Recommended Event The No BS Ai Summit If you haven’t done it already, you can still register for the No BS AI Summit. They just announced the fourth speaker: Alicia…
Greetings from the Methow Valley. North-Central Washington on the eastern slope of the North Cascades mountain range. My office chair this morning is a comfy Adirondack on the back porch, facing south, overlooking the valley. Hillsides covered with sagebrush and dotted with ponderosa pines fall below, infinite shades of green and gold lit up by…