“If you have one good idea, people will lend you twenty.” – Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Born Sep. 13, 1830. One of the best things about operating via conversations with your audience is that you almost never need to be creative. Plant a seed, and people will grow it into a crop of their their troubles…. Read More →
No Message Stands Alone – All Communication is CONVERSATION
“An artist carries on throughout his life a mysterious, uninterrupted conversation with his public.” – Maurice Chevalier, Born Sep. 12, 1888. A business has a conversation with the market, and with its prospects, and with its customers. That’s what marketing and advertising and selling IS: a conversation. Social media and Internet-based marketing in general has… Read More →
How to Limit Yourself to Turn “Too Many Good Ideas” Into Actual Output
“The river flows at its own sweet will, but the flood is bound in the two banks. If it were not thus bound, its freedom would be wasted.” – Vinoba Bhave, Born Sep. 11, 1895. You’re creative. You’re smart. You’re talented. You’re skilled. So what? Who cares? What does that DO for anyone? You or… Read More →
Worry Less About Being Unique, Just Focus on Being Good (By Just Doing Good)
“Don’t try to be different. Just be good. To be good is different enough.” – Arthur Freed, Born Sept. 9, 1894. I don’t know that I agree exactly with this. Being different can definitely be valuable. But I don’t think you have to worry about being unique or special in that way when you’re starting… Read More →
How To Talk to People So They Feel Like You’re Instantly Friends (And Then Sell Them Stuff)
“Candor is a compliment; it implies equality. It’s how true friends talk.” – Peggy Noonan, Born Sep. 7, 1950. In times past, social interaction required a facade of formality. Especially in a business context. Gentlemen wore suits of clothes, and exchanged handshakes and cards and engaged in small talk, followed by queries and responses about… Read More →
You Already Have a Built-in USP – You’re Just Suffocating It
“I have a different constitution. I have a different brain; I have a different heart; I got tiger blood, man.” – Charlie Sheen, Born Sep. 3, 1965. How are you different from every other boring jerk out there? What makes you unique? Your history? Your style? Your point of view? You need to know. Because… Read More →
Use That Big Beautiful Brain to Build Your Business (Because Almost No One Else Does)
“If thinking men are few, they are for that reason all the more powerful. Let no man imagine that he has no influence. Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power.” – Henry George, Born Sep. 2, 1839. Most people hate to think…. Read More →
Make Them Believe You Would Tell Them All Your Secrets, And They Will Love You
“Folks don’t like to have somebody around knowing more than they do.” – Harper Lee, Born Apr. 28, 1926. When you’re trying to position yourself as a trusted advisor, your audience can’t ever feel like you are holding out on them. They can’t feel like you’re keeping secrets or withholding valuable knowledge for yourself. Countering… Read More →
Infinite Ideas To Write About When You Need Them (Preparation Hack)
“Ideally, one should have more material than one can possibly cope with.” – Frank Auerbach, Born Apr. 19, 1931. “I can’t think of anything to write about.” Some people say that. Bitch-baby writers do. Not me. I am a bottomless wellspring of material. I didn’t used to be. But I endeavored a little to make… Read More →
Everything Old is New Again – If You Just Try a Little Bit
“The secret of good writing is to say an old thing in a new way or to say a new thing in an old way.” – Richard Harding Davis, Born Apr. 18, 1864. I wouldn’t say it’s THE secret… But it IS a great trick. Can’t think of something to write? 1. Take some old… Read More →