“Do just once what others say you can’t do, and you will never pay attention to their limitations again.” – James Cook, Born Oct. 27, 1728. We often let the voices of others – real or imagined – set the outer borders of what we are capable of. Naysayers. Haters. Well-meaning people concerned for our… Read More →
Expertise Is Relative and You Should Aim Your Work Accordingly
“In the country of the blind the one eyed man is king.” – Desiderius Erasmus, Born Oct. 26, 1466. One of the eternal worries of most freelancers is what they call “impostor syndrome”. It’s the deep seated fear that you’re a phony. That you’ll get called out as a fraud. That you’re not worth what… Read More →
Distill Your Offer Down To Its Essence (By Boiling Away The Unnecessary)
“Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.” – Pablo Picasso, Born Oct. 25, 1881. We can all use a little more of Pablo’s kind of art in our lives and businesses. Are you getting bogged down on a project because of how you imagine it has to be? Look at it. Break it into a… Read More →
The Only Three Ingredients to Every Successful Human Endeavor In History (GUARANTEED)
“The tragedy of bold, forthright, industrious people is that they act so continuously without much thinking, that it becomes dry and empty.” – Brenda Ueland, Born Oct. 24, 1891. I’m so bored of the public positioning of “hustle” as a virtue, which one MUST pursue to find success. Success, to me, is a combination of… Read More →
Destroy Your Writing Rituals to Set Your Skill Free
“I’ve written in every imaginable location; a repurposed closet, the kitchen table, the bleachers while my kids had basketball practice, the front seat of the car when they were at soccer. In airports. On trains. In the break room when I was supposed to be wolfing down dinner. In the back of classrooms when I… Read More →
The Secret of Making Sales Without Selling (Is To Distract People From Realizing You’ve Sold Them)
“I always aspire to that, where it feels like the film was made by the characters as opposed to the filmmakers. I try to be invisible.” – Spike Jonze, Born Oct. 22, 1969. When you create marketing messages for clients, it should be this way, too. You’re creating a message from the client to their… Read More →
Salesmen Know What Copywriters Don’t: When to Shut Up
“It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play.” – John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie, Born Oct. 21, 1917. In persuasion, saying too much is a mistake. You need to say exactly enough, and no more. You want the mark’s memory and imagination and desire to do all the heavy lifting. Because their… Read More →
How We Can Provide “Blood” AND “Meat” to Feed Our Hungry Prospects
“Television has a real problem. They have no page two.” – Art Buchwald, Born Oct. 20, 1925. What Art was talking about is how TV can only give you the page one stuff. Deeper commentary and lengthier coverage, or less prominent stories get passed over. Or a least, they did. That was the nature of… Read More →
Copy THEN Experiment With What You’ve Swiped…
“You can’t make experimental work by copying past work.” – Trey Parker, Born Oct. 19, 1969. This is probably a lesson better suited to “advanced” practitioners of the persuasive arts, but it may well be useful to the intrepid beginner among the readers of these words. It’s becoming increasingly important to find and publish as… Read More →
The True Face Beneath Every Person’s Public Mask
“People just need to be confident in their own skin and be proud of themselves.” – Bristol Palin, Born Oct. 18, 1990. Yeah. That’s right. Malign the source if you must. But wisdom is found in the interpretation… And the fact is, this is every single person that buys any old thing, hoping that thing… Read More →
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