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How a Hotel Discovered the Story to Skyrocket Sales

By Tom Ruwitch

I heard a great story the other day about a hotel owner who raked in more revenue by thinking differently about what he sells.   This story is not just for bigwigs with hotels on Boardwalk and Park Place.   This applies to YOU and me and anyone else who wants to…  …delight customers…  ….forge stronger relationships…

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How Meg Ryan’s Most Famous Scene Can Help You Sell

By Tom Ruwitch

Remember the famous, “I can tell if she’s faking…” scene in When Harry Met Sally?   Harry (Billy Crystal) insists his partners have never…ummm…faked it.   Sally (Meg Ryan) says women fake it all the time.   Harry’s not buying it.   So Sally proves the point by…  …putting down her turkey sandwich and…  …well…  …faking it…  …enthusiastically…  …right there…

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A Fan, A Hall of Famer, and A Wink… Business Lessons from the Ballpark

By Tom Ruwitch

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…

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How to Know Exactly What Prospects Want — Without Hocus Pocus

By Tom Ruwitch

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…

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Cartoon of John Lennon thinking Imagine

John Lennon’s Song for Social Media

By Tom Ruwitch

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…

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Why Nicole Kidman Did This for Tom Cruise…

By Tom Ruwitch

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…

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A Less Complicated Way to Power up Business Growth

By Tom Ruwitch

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…

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Why This Superpower Skirmish Could Kill Your Biz…

By Tom Ruwitch

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…

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Here’s Why Google Outage Didn’t Crush My Spirit…

By Tom Ruwitch

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. …

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The #1 Quality That All Great Marketers Have

By Tom Ruwitch

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…

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