Tom Ruwitch
So… I intended to email you yesterday. But I spent most of the day curled in the fetal position… …when I wasn’t rushing to the bathroom… …again and again and again. (Stuck inside of Mexico with belly blues again). I was supposed to hop a plane yesterday morning from Leon, MX to Dallas and then…
Recommended ReadingResources to Be a Better Noticer In last week’s Mash-Up, I shared Bill Keaggy’s excellent TED talk, How to Find Attention, Mindfulness, and Creativity in the Ordinary.  Here’s a great post from Austin Kleon that breaks down the talk and cites other recourses to help you become a better noticer. Why do I keep sharing stuff about noticing? Great storytellers…
I bumped into a business owner this week who refuses to market with email… …because she doesn’t like getting email. “I have 74 million marketing emails in my inbox,” she said. “I can’t stand it.” Yeah, I get lots of emails I can’t stand, too. But I still send emails — lots of them… …because…
A story about the making of The Godfather… When Francis Ford Coppola created the film,his first cut was more than 2.5 hours long. Paramount bean counters demanded he chop it down to under 2 hours. Audiences wouldn’t sit through a movie longer than 2 hours, they argued. And a longer movie meant fewer screenings per day……
Here’s a quick tip to help with email deliveries: Ask people on your email list to reply to an email and say, “I got it” (or something like that). That tiny interaction can keep your messages out of that folder where emails go to die. Not foolproof, but it can’t hurt. (By the way, why…
Someone asked me recently which superhero I like best. No contest, I said. It’s Batman. Here’s why… He didn’t drop in from planet Krypton with the power to leap tall buildings in a single bound. He wasn’t bitten by a radioactive spider. He’s merely a man named Bruce Wayne… …who mourned the murder of his…
It’s the first Friday in February which means just one thing… It’s Work Naked Day! Really. It is. I wouldn’t make this up. I don’t partake. So I asked my rented copywriting robot, “B-9?” to advise those in the holiday spirit. Me: Do you have any tips for people who choose to work naked? B-9?:You can…
Here’s a story oozing with irony… …about robotic marketing gone wrong. In December, I hosted a LinkedIn event called “Human vs. Machine Marketing.” One of the lessons we promised in the event description: “Why set-it-and-forget it robotic marketing backfires.” Fast forward to yesterday when – two months after the event ended – a LinkedIn member…
A priceless story and lesson from marketing legend Dan Kennedy… When he broke in as a speaker, he loaded his speeches with as much information as time allowed. He bragged he delivered more “meat per minute” than other speakers. He said so in advertisements. And then he learned better. Says Dan in his book, Make ‘Em…
A true story about Jesse James. 149 years ago today, 125 miles from where I sit… …the James-Younger gang rode into Gads Hill, Missouri, robbed the general store, and held the townspeople hostage. Then they waited for The Arkansas Express to roll into town. They lit a bonfire on the tracks, hopped aboard the train…