Good Examples
I had a rough day yesterday. One of those days when everything feels hard. When I’m up against it like that, I think about my great-great-grandfather, Joseph Ruwitch. It usually makes me feel better. Stronger. Ready to face whatever’s in front of me. Here’s his story. Joseph was born in 1852, in a place we’d…
When I begin a discovery call with a prospect, I always open with a question like this: “{First Name}, tell me what’s going on with you and your business that made this hour feel worth it.” Then I shut up and listen. Part of the inspiration and strategy for this comes from Jay Abraham and…
Ripped from the headlines: Last week, courts cleared the way for a wave of lawsuits against Meta, Google, and TikTok. The most popular social platforms are under siege. The ground is shifting. Will your go-to platform be here in two years? Work the same? Cost the same? Nobody knows. And that’s the problem. Because you…
Legend has it Ernest Hemingway was having lunch in the 1920s with a few of his literary pals when he boasted he could write a complete, emotionally powerful story with just six words. His lunch mates bet he couldn’t, and they each put $10 on the table to back the wager. Hemingway grabbed a cocktail…
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…