Journey to the Past
Every so often, my buddy Adam sends me a link with a challenge to “email this.” Sometimes it’s a link to a crazy discussion thread on Reddit. Often, it’s a random, funny news story. My favorite “email this” challenge was a news story about status-hungry Chinese big-shots and strippers (more on that in a moment). …
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When Dr. Ruth Allan asked me during a podcast interview to, “tell us about an embarrassing thing that happened to you,” I didn’t hesitate. I’ve deposited piles of embarrassments in my memory bank. But Ruth was interviewing me during the first week in May, so I had to trot out the story of… My humiliating Cinco…
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Major League Baseball opening day… …makes me think of Yogi Berra… …and something he once said: “If people don’t want to come to the ballpark, how are you gonna stop them?” Yogi was a Hall-of-Fame catcher for the New York Yankees – not a marketing genius. But those words are loaded with profound marketing wisdom. …
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On March 8, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared on video before the British House of Commons. He delivered a defiant, confident speech that included these words: “We will not give up, and we will not lose. We will fight to the end, at sea, in the air, we will continue fighting for our land, whatever…
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We lost a legend this week — Joe Sugarman, a copywriting great, who taught me (and countless others) tons about marketing. He wrote many great books, including The Adweek Copywriting Handbook. I pulled that book from my shelf yesterday and flung it open to the place I dog-eared long ago: Page 178. The section about storytelling.…
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Want to turn an enemy into an ally? Here’s a story I got from chapter 18 of “Yes!” by Robert Cialdini – this month’s selection in the Mastermind Book Club (more on that below). Back in colonial times, long before he graced the $100-bill, Benjamin Franklin was running for reelection as an officer for a literary and…
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Picture this: Your dad, the King, is sleeping in the castle garden. His brother creeps into the garden, kills Dad by pouring poison in his ear, marries the Queen, and takes the throne. So it went for Prince Hamlet of Denmark – at least in William Shakespeare’s version of the story. At first, Hamlet thought…
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I love it when high-quality people call B.S. on me… …hold me accountable… …get me out of my rut… …share a perspective I hadn’t considered… …inspire me to implement, not dawdle… …encourage me to be my best… …and then guide me to be even better. And I love to offer peers all of the above. …
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In case it slipped your mind, a reminder: Today is National Spaghetti Day Yes, today! You didn’t know? Me neither, until I consulted HolidaysCalendar.com. Because of that site, I never miss a big holiday like this one. More on that in a moment, but first… …in honor of the big day, I’d like to…
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Just before the twister hit, Joyce walked out to her pickup truck to roll up the windows. It was November 15, 1988, and the high temperature in Davisville, MO was 70F that day – 15 degrees above normal. Rain was falling. The wind was beginning to whip. Joyce, her husband Jim, and their daughter Shannon…
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