Journey to the Past
When Dr. Ruth Allan asked me during a podcast interview to, ātell us about an embarrassing thing that happened to you,ā I didnāt hesitate. Iāve 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…
Major League Baseball opening dayā¦ ā¦makes me think of Yogi Berraā¦ ā¦and something he once said: āIf people donāt want to come to the ballpark, how are you gonna stop them?ā Yogi was a Hall-of-Fame catcher for the New York Yankees ā not a marketing genius. But those words are loaded with profound marketing wisdom. …
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: āWe 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…
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.…
Want to turn an enemy into an ally? Hereās a story I got from chapter 18 of āYes!ā by Robert Cialdini ā this monthās selection in theĀ Mastermind Book ClubĀ (more on that below).Ā Back in colonial times, long before he graced the $100-bill, Benjamin Franklin was running for reelection as an officer for a literary and…
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 ā at least in William Shakespeareās version of the story. At first, Hamlet thought…
I love it when high-quality people call B.S. on meā¦ ā¦hold me accountableā¦ ā¦get me out of my rutā¦ ā¦share a perspective I hadnāt consideredā¦ ā¦inspire me to implement, not dawdleā¦ ā¦encourage me to be my bestā¦ ā¦and then guide me to be even better. And I love to offer peers all of the above. …
In case it slipped your mind, a reminder: Today is National Spaghetti Day Yes, today! You didnāt 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 firstā¦ ā¦in honor of the big day, Iād like to…
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 ā 15 degrees above normal. Rain was falling. The wind was beginning to whip. Joyce, her husband Jim, and their daughter Shannon…
Soon after I began the shelter-from-home thing back in 2020, a friend invited me to join Clubhouse. It was a new app that allowed people to converse in audio chat rooms. He said it was THE NEXT BIG THING. I didnāt sign up right away. But I kept hearing the Clubhouse BUZZ… ….The usual stuff…