“If we all tried to make other people’s paths easy, our own feet would have a smooth even place to walk on.” – Myrtle Reed, Born Sep. 27, 1874. This really is the fastest and easiest way I know to get into business – especially online. Find or create an audience, and serve them what… Read More →
It’s Easy to Stand Out When Everyone Else is a Copycat of Some Long-Dead “Guru”
“Is it not dangerous to have students study together for years, copying the same models and approximately the same path?” – Theodore Gericault, Born Sep. 26, 1791. People who study marketing WITHOUT doing much ACTUAL marketing will all learn the same way. They read the same books. They copy the same winning ads. They learn… Read More →
Stuff You Choose Today Must Bear Fruit in the Future (Or Else Don’t Waste Time)
“I started doing ’30 Rock’ and started writing ‘Mystery Team’ at the beginning of that. While I was doing ‘Mystery Team,’ I started practicing stand-up. While I was doing stand up, I got ‘Community.’ It’s like I planted trees six years ago, and now they have fruit.” – Donald Glover, Born Sep. 25, 1983. Here… Read More →
Actually Caring About Customers and Showing It In Writing Are Two Different Things
“If you really don’t care what an audience thinks, make a home movie and show it on your wall.” – Ned Tanen, Born Sep. 20, 1931. Maybe some kind of artist types can get away with not caring what an audience thinks of their work. But most artists care. And business people definitely should care…. Read More →
Why We Buy: To Forget We Will Die
“We’re living in primate heaven. We’re warm, dry, we’re not hungry, we don’t have fleas and ticks and infections. So why are we so miserable?” – Steven Pinker, Born Sep. 18, 1954. Why not, Steve? Because we are all damned with the inescapable knowledge of our own eventual demise. It’s a pants-shitting fear that constantly… Read More →
Become Yourself By Imitating All Your Heroes At Once
“I was a pretty good imitator of Roy Acuff, but then I found out they already had a Roy Acuff, so I started singin’ like myself.” – Hank Williams, Born Sep. 17, 1923. When you get started in a field you want to pursue, it’s completely valid to begin as an imitator of the most… Read More →
The Difference Between Worthless Information and Valuable Knowledge Is…
“The two words ‘information’ and ‘communication’ are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through.” – Sydney J. Harris, Born Sep. 14, 1917. A lot of people who market things on the internet care about having a “content strategy” as a way to draw prospective customers… Read More →
How to Never Have to Come Up With Your Own Ideas of Stuff to Sell
“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 →