Why Story Power
A Fan, A Hall of Famer, and A Wink… Business Lessons from the Ballpark
Marketing master Gary Vaynerchuk shared a story on LinkedIn the other day that I have to share with you. He describes going to his first baseball game with his mom and uncle in 1985 when he was a kid. Superstar outfielder Rickey Henderson catches a fly ball to end an inning and (Gary V takes…
Read MoreHow to Know Exactly What Prospects Want — Without Hocus Pocus
Remember that movie with Mel Gibson playing a male chauvinist pig who magically acquires the superpower to “hear” women’s thoughts? I just heard a real-life version of that story. Both the real-life and Hollywood versions reveal a ton about marketing. The real-life story features a marketing guy named Ben Settle who, like Gibson’s character, has…
Read MoreJohn Lennon’s Song for Social Media
Imagine there’s no Facebook. It’s easy if you try. No tweets……or REtweets. Pinterest? Say goodbye. You may say I’m a dreamer. But… …Really… …Imagine a world without social media. Then what? What would you do next? How would you connect with prospects? What would you say? Without memes… …without some pithy <280-character comment… …without likes and shares? What if…
Read MoreWhy Nicole Kidman Did This for Tom Cruise…
Back in the 1990s, Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise were Hollywood’s IT couple. A fairy-tale marriage. Three movies together — including a really creepy one called “Eyes Wide Shut” and this: When their love was shining brightly, Nicole dished out a few dozen bucks to the International Star Registry. She chose a twinkly little star…
Read MoreA less complicated way to power up business growth
Happy National Screenwriters Day. (Yeah, that’s a thing). Last night, to get into the holiday spirit, I picked up my copy of “Story – Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting” by Robert McKee. Great book — especially if you want to be a screenwriter. Marketers swear by it, too… …especially ones who understand…
Read MoreWhy this superpower skirmish could kill your biz…
The war between the Superpowers has begun. Not a traditional war with guns and tanks and airplanes, mind you. This is a war between two digital Superpowers — Facebook and Apple. Apple fired the first shot when it announced recently that iPhone owners will soon have to give explicit permission before apps can track their…
Read MoreHere’s why Google outage didn’t crush my spirit…
I woke yesterday at 5 a.m. because I had to finish a proposal that I’d promised to send to a prospect by start-of-business Monday. I was knocking it out steadily when… …Google broke. You probably heard the news: Around 5:30 a.m. CST, Google suffered a worldwide outage. Google Drive stalled. Gmail gave out. YouTube tanked. …
Read MoreThe #1 Quality That All Great Marketers Have
My business is growing so I’m hiring. Last night I posted a job opening for a software developer to assist with several projects. I described the projects, but only in vague terms. Applications flooded my inbox. Most applicants told me they had EVERYTHING it takes to tackle the projects. One applicant, Noah, said this: “Let’s discuss more…
Read MoreBeware of These Make-Me-Gag Marketing Pitches…
I was eating breakfast the other morning and nearly choked. It wasn’t the spinach and salsa omelette that did it (although that jalapeno salsa made me sweat a little). No, it was the email that landed in my inbox… …with yet another breathless, over-hyped, meaningless statistic… …about yet another can’t-miss digital marketing channel. Here’s the…
Read MoreHow to Attract Attention – The Jesus Way
Here’s a parable about parables… …with a lesson that can help you attract attention for your marketing messages and inspire people to act. In the Bible’s Gospel of Luke, someone asks Jesus, “…who is my neighbor?” Jesus answers with the story of a “certain man” who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and “fell among…
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