“We have always said that advertising is just the icing on the cake. It is not the cake.” – Meg Whitman, Born Aug. 4, 1956. I love this metaphor. The product experience itself is the cake. It needs to be delicious even without icing. The icing just makes it that much more appealing, and when
No One Compliments the Icing on a Dirty Dog Poo Flavored Cake Read More »
“A lot of life is dealing with your curse, dealing with the cards you were given that aren’t so nice. Does it make you into a monster, or can you temper it in some way, or accept it and go in some other direction?” – Wes Craven, Born Aug. 2, 1939. You know what
What Makes You “Strange” Also Makes You Powerful Read More »
“I wish I had invented blue jeans. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity – all I hope for in my clothes.” – Yves Saint Laurent, Born Aug. 1, 1936. You ever suffer from making things too damn complicated? Too specialized? Too refined and too hard to adapt? That can make it seem like you
Blue Jeans: The Secret of Replicability, Scalability, and Success Read More »
“When I was a young comic just starting out, I was very cautious, as I didn’t want to alienate people. George Carlin’s bravery became a benchmark. I became perfectly fine with alienating some people in the audience. That just comes with the territory.” – Paul Provenza, Born Jul. 31, 1957. So you want to
Do Not Fear to ACTIVELY Repel People Who Won’t Like You Anyway Read More »
“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.” – Henry Ford, Born Jul. 30, 1863. Everyone knows this. It seems like something Ford would have said as a throwaway, knowing he pioneered assembly line manufacturing. But don’t let this one slide by without considering it. Every big, ambitious project that you want
Build Your Fortune As You Build Your Business: Word by Word Read More »
“The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don’t need any rules.” – Gary Gygax, Born Jul. 27, 1938. Business is like this and art is like this: Just like a game. Role playing games in particular have a strong metaphorical correlation with the info-marketing guru-type professional internet celebrity “industry”. There
A Random Encounter with the SECRET of Winning the “Game” Read More »
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw, Born Jul. 26, 1856. The guy who gave me a career in copy (Andy Jenkins, RIP) was a big fan of this quote, and he used it a lot when I worked for him. Mostly in a
When Can a Non-Response Be Taken as a “NO”? (Almost Never) Read More »
“Joys divided are increased.” – Josiah Gilbert Holland, Born Jul. 24, 1819. If you want to make any offer of anything seem more appealing to whoever it is you’re offering it to… Start slicing it up. Every distinct piece of it is a separate component with its own intrinsic and inherent value. If you were
How to Pull Apart Any Product to Describe it Desirably Read More »
“A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.” – Raymond Chandler, Born Jul. 23, 1888. How many people think writers know exactly what they are going to write before it starts coming out of their fingers? We don’t. It would be boring if we did. Sure, you research and plan loosely. But
Creation Is Only Part One of the Process of Producing Quality Work Read More »
“One of the effects of living with electric information is that we live habitually in a state of information overload. There’s always more than you can cope with.” – Marshall McLuhan, Born Jul. 21, 1911. If you’re not someone who can be a creator of new information, your best bet to survive in the future
“Too Much Information” Equals “Untapped Opportunity Read More »
