Recommended Resources
R.I.P. Ozzy Osbourne. You were one of a kind. The Blizzard of Ozz. The Godfather of Heavy Metal. The Prince of Darkness. The Marketing Maniac. I coined that last one. No one called him that — until now. But Ozzy was a maniac… …and he knew how to market himself. Evidence: In 1982, he was…
Recommended Reading 📝 “Notes to Myself” by Seth Godin 65 of ’em. Short, but powerful. So many are rules I live by. Others have me thinking. A few of my favorites: 5. Reliability is a superpower 12. Ship the work 21. Easy to measure doesn’t make it important 55. Generous doesn’t mean free Sixty one more: here.…
The weather around here is getting on my nerves. Two months ago, a tornado tore the roof off my house and leveled my backyard. As if that’s not bad enough… This month, the forecast calls for corn sweat. This is not a drill, people. This is real. The weatherman on the local news told me…
Remember Thomas the Tank Engine? You know, the locomotive from the children’s book with the round face, big black eyes, and rosy cheeks who says, “I think I can. I think I can.” Yesterday, I met an alternative-reality Thomas in an old Far Side cartoon. Thomas sits on a city sidewalk. People walk by barely…
I bumped into a stuck marketer named James on Reddit this morning who asked: “Curious to know how email marketing pros overcome writers block? I’ve spent too much time time staring at blank pages in the past, and usually I just need some kind of inspo to get me started.” Ahhh… A tale as old…
Recommended Reading 🤖 1 delightfully human sentence to help you become a killer writer If you want to be a more effective writer who stands out as a human (not a robotic imitation of a human), read this. Ann Handley is a great writer and teacher who understands AI’s power but also understands the need to for human…
Recommended Reading 🤖 ‘I’m being paid to fix issues caused by AI’ If you’re planning to use AI to create content for you, this is a must-read. The big takeaway: You still need human editors to clean up the messes AI can create. My take: That’s not an argument against using AI; that’s an argument for using AI…
After enjoying one of my never-boring emails, a happy subscriber emailed me to ask: “Where do you come up with this stuff?” I sent her an excerpt from The Story Power Profit-Pack, pointer #36: Places I Find Stories – A partial list… Movies. Books (fiction and nonfiction). Television shows. The news. My life. My loved ones’ lives.…
Last night I watched an old episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm — the one where Larry gets caught in a thank you sprial. Larry and Cheryl go to a wedding and give a nice gift to the newlyweds. The couple sends a thank you note to Larry. Larry leaves a voicemail for the couple thanking them for…
Today is International Joke Day, and I’m in the holiday spirit. Here’s one Zig Zigler used to tell from stage: A man asks his neighbor to housesit while he goes on vacation. While away, he calls to check in. “How’s everything going?” the man asks. “Well,” says the neighbor, “your cat died.” The man is…