Good Examples
Jon Benson told me something about AI yesterday that blew my mind. In case you don’t know, Jon is a marketing legend. He’s the guy who invented the “VSL” (the video sales letter). And he built BNSN, an AI platform trained only on VSLs and other content that generated millions in sales. I interviewed Jon…
Greetings from the wild blue yonder, 35,000 feet above flyover country, en route from St. Louis to Boston. I’m sitting in seat 2C pondering these riddles: Is hotdog-eating a sport? Is Joey Chestnut an athlete? In case you missed the headlines this weekend, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut won another July 4th hotdog eating contest on Coney…
I got an email this morning from a guy pitching website development that opened like this: “Hi [First Name]” Not “Hi Tom.” Not “Hi.” The email actually said “Hi [First Name]” That, boys and girls, is personalization gone wrong. It’s a total turn-off. Here’s a simple fix to keep your emails from turning off prospects:…
Fun fact about Lady Liberty… After she sailed across the ocean from France to America, she lived for several months in a dark warehouse, collecting dust because she didn’t have a foundation to stand on. This was the day (June 17) in 1885 when the Statue of Liberty arrived in New York Harbor — all…
My friend and client Bill landed a big client for his legal practice last week. The client came from a referral. Bill said the referral came “out of the blue.” Turns out the guy who made the referral met Bill seven years ago and has been on Bill’s email list ever since. Bill sends weekly…
David Hockney, my favorite modern artist, died yesterday at his home in France. He was 88. I love his paintings, especially the ones from his days in California — bright, sun-splashed, colorful (VERY colorful) canvases, like this one: Mulholland Drive by David Hockney But my favorite Hockney story isn’t about a painting he made. It’s…
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…
I was 11 the first time I saw Steve Martin, and I thought he was like a wild and crazy comet who came out of nowhere to light up Saturday Night Live’s stage. Most of America — including me — had never seen this guy before. He went from unknown on Friday to a sensation…
In a world where everyone looks and sounds the same, how do you stand out as unique and better so others notice and choose you? Every business owner I know ponders that riddle. As does every artist. So when I see someone who consistently finds a way to stand out, be unique, and create something…
“Contrast creates clarity.” That’s one of “The Four Concepts of the Silver Bullet” in Neil Gordon’s book The Most Powerful Sentence of All Time. It’s a simple idea. And most business leaders ignore it completely. Here’s what I mean. A financial advisor says, “We help you build wealth and plan for retirement.” OK. So does…