Know Your Market
I was talking the other day to a great marketer whose wife loves to go on adventures in the woods… …hikes on backcountry trails where, as he told her… …people have died. “Hikes in the woods? No thanks,” he said. “Remind me not to invite you to our next backcountry fishing adventure,” I said And…
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A true story about Jesse James. 149 years ago today, 125 miles from where I sit… …the James-Younger gang rode into Gads Hill, Missouri, robbed the general store, and held the townspeople hostage. Then they waited for The Arkansas Express to roll into town. They lit a bonfire on the tracks, hopped aboard the train…
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I met yesterday with a friend who’s feeling down in the dumps. His business is struggling and so is he. And even though he’s a brilliant mindset coach, he now questions everything he’s doing – including all things marketing. “I don’t like marketing,” he told me. “It’s the use of psychology to deceive people into…
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A few months ago, I met with an employment coach who helps unhappy workers find a job to fit their passions and skills. When they come to her, they’re scared. They’re frustrated. They’re anxious. They’re unfocused. They’re unsure of themselves. She works with clients to TRANSFORM… From scared to courageous. Frustrated to satisfied. Anxious to…
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I just returned from a week in southern Wyoming where I gathered with high school buddies for some R&R and fishing. The first day on the North Platte River I stood knee-deep in the icy water. The only sounds: The rolling river, the occasional screech of a red-tailed hawk, and the “chirp-chirp” of grasshoppers… …and…
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I crossed paths the other day with a struggling marketer who said, “I’m having trouble distinguishing B2B copy from B2C copy and I feel so dumb.” No need to feel dumb, I thought. That’s a common question. How does marketing and copy change when selling to businesses (B2B) versus consumers (B2C)? Another marketer chimed in…
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In a recent Monday Mash-Up, I told you about the author Cheryl Strayed and the advice columns she wrote under the pen name “Sugar.” Her friend and fellow author Steve Almond described Strayed’s Sugar columns as “radical empathy.” I can’t get that phrase out of my mind. Radical empathy. Powerful business storytelling is all about radical…
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After his book The 4-Hour Workweek became an international bestseller, Tim Ferriss told an interviewer he wanted to name the book The 3-Hour Workweek… …But, Ferriss quipped, “My publisher thought ‘3-Hour Workweek’ was unrealistic.” Ha! I’ve read the The 4-Hour Workweek a few times. It’s loaded with valuable lessons. But the most valuable lesson is one not even in the…
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Here’s a fun fact that could win you a bar bet: Mississippi was the one-and-only state to continue prohibiting alcohol after the 18th Amendment repealed federal prohibition in 1933. Prohibition continued in “The Magnolia State” until 1966. Another fun fact: A guy named Noah “Soggy” Sweat (you can’t make this stuff up) delivered the most…
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This is a story about how hardcore, ultra-conservatives found common ground with a bunch of hippies. I know that seems unlikely these days, but it happened not that long ago. And this happening is loaded with business lessons. Our story begins soon after the turn of the millennium, in 2002, when the Internet was just…
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