Productivity

Earlier this week, I asked a 6-figure business owner, “What’s holding you back?” His response: “Mainly just figuring out the best use of my time. There are so many options for promoting myself, all of which sound exciting and useful. I struggle with finding the ‘order of operations.’” Sound familiar? When it comes to business-building…

I have a new entry on my ever-growing list of “Stupid Marketing Tricks That Give Marketers a Bad Name” — Calendar Spam. It works like this… Tricky Marketer gets your email address. Maybe you opted in to Tricky’s list. Maybe not. Tricky schedules a public event — a workshop, webinar, whatever. Tricky puts that event…

“The phone’s not ringing.” That’s what my client told me when he said his email campaign wasn’t working. He’s a commercial real estate broker. He sent property notices to prospects. Each email linked to a flier and prospectus. It wasn’t generating warm prospects and sales. So, for him, it meant “email marketing doesn’t work.” Before…

On a typical day, Javier Yat changes four or five flat tires at his auto repair store in Brooklyn. Decent, steady business but nothing special. When the sun sets, the business magic begins. Most nights, Javier parks a van, loaded with tires, along the Belt Parkway, just down the road from a 12-inch-deep pothole. Nighttime…

Ripped from The Headlines… The Washington state Department of Licensing installed one of those automated phone trees (“Press 1 for… Press 2 for …”) and combined it with AI so Spanish speakers could get answers in their native language. A government license bureau + phone trees + early-adoption AI. What could go wrong?! Well… …when…

Once upon a time, I tried to change the oil in my car all by myself. It didn’t go well. My first mistake: Choosing a drain pan that was too small for the job. My second mistake: Trying to cap the drain while oil was pouring from it to prevent the too-small pan from spilling.…

If you host webinars, workshops, or other live events, here’s a great way to increase the attendance rate: Automatically email a calendar invitation to registrants so the event shows up in their calendar and they’re less likely to miss it. It’s easy to send such invitations when we create an event in Google, Outlook, or…

A few hours before my meeting with Tony, I visited his website to size up his business. I filled out the “join our email list” form in the site’s footer, and a message appeared where the form used to be: “Thanks for submitting your information.” That was it. No thank you page. No follow-up email.…

Some days, more than others, you’re just happy to be alive. Yesterday was one of those days. I was in seat 14B, Southwest Flight 1397 from Philadelphia to St. Louis, staring out the window as the Boeing 737 eased toward the ground for landing when… …suddenly the plane surged upward and turned hard to the…

Back in 2020, when COVID moved me from a commercial building to my home office, Melissa and I rebuilt our backyard. New pool deck, driveway, landscaping, and outdoor kitchen. My home office overlooked the construction site. And for five months, while construction happened, my productivity plummeted. Every time I heard an unexpected “bang!” or a…