Cautionary Tales
A few nights ago, I visited a brew pub with Melissa and two out-of-town guests to grab a bite and some beer. Along with our meal, we got a lesson in customer service — or lack thereof. I saddled up to the bar first. The bartender spotted me. But she didn’t greet me. She was…
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I bumped into a bummed out marketer this week who hollered for help in an online forum. His AI-powered marketing failed to generate sales for his software… …which uses AI to write marketing messages. So he asked the humans on Reddit for help. He told us humans he sent a mountain of AI-generated, cold emails…
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A cautionary tale about missed opportunities… I recently met a fitness trainer who wrote a bestselling book. On his website, he offers a .pdf copy of the book for free (good). I filled out the form to get the book and jumped to a confirmation page with this message: 🥱 🥱 🥱 That’s missed opportunity…
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Happy Birthday to the Model T. The first one came off the assembly line on this day (Sept. 27) in 1908. Time to trot out the tired tales about Henry Ford’s genius… …or not. Tired tale: Henry Ford invented — or at least perfected — the assembly line. The truth, as stated by his colleague…
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A cautionary tale about enlisting AI as your ghost writer… My friends Greg and Danielle are residential real estate brokers in Alaska. A few months ago, they began to use ChatGPT to write their listings. They figured the AI copywriting robot would save time and might generate better listings. Here’s what they found instead… Their…
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Alfred Hitchcock couldn’t have dreamt up this one… …another ripped-from-the-headlines cautionary tale about how NOT to get away with murder: A rapper was arrested in Las Vegas last month after police said he “confessed to the murder in his (song) lyrics.” Kenjuan McDaniel was already a suspect in the shooting death of Randall Wallace in…
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Ripped from the headlines… …a cautionary tale about choosing the wrong tool for the job. Police in Orlando Beach arrested a Florida woman named Nichole this month for allegedly killing her roommate, Michael. The cops found Michael dead in his bedroom. Stab wounds galore. They found Nichole at a bar down the street. She was…
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Once upon a time, there lived a man named Brown who ran a dairy farm. Farmer Brown owned 100 cows, all with udders full of milk. But no one was buying Farmer Brown’s milk, and he was going broke. When he first bought the farm, Brown hired a helper who didn’t know how to milk…
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A cautionary tale about email marketing gone wrong… In February, I met an executive coach who asked me to sign up for his email list. I visited his site, found the “Subscribe for Email Updates” form buried at the bottom of the homepage, and entered my name and address. I instantly received a confirmation email……
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How’s this for ironic… Last week, a guy pitching marketing services for pest control companies began bugging me on LinkedIn. He first buzzed by on Wednesday: : “Hey Tom, let’s connect! – I’ve worked with a lot of folks in pest control and thought maybe I could be of help to you.” Pest control?!? This guy was…
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