“Fundamentally, all writing is about the same thing; it’s about dying, about the brief flicker of time we have here, and the frustration that it creates.” – Mordecai Richler, Born. Jan. 27, 1931. We sellers of stuff, our products and services all directly or indirectly relate to death. Evading it. Escaping it. Thwarting it. Making […]
Copywriting isn’t “Life or Death” Except When It Is. (And It Always Is.) Read More »
“Impatience translates itself into a desire to have something immediate done about it all, and, as is generally the case with impatience, resolves itself in the easiest way that lies ready to hand.” – Edward Sapir, Born Jan. 26, 1884. Patience may be a virtue – but the patient are always very difficult to entice
You Want It Now? Too Bad. You Have to Wait… Read More »
“Bias and prejudice are attitudes to be kept in hand, not attitudes to be avoided.” – Charles Curtis, Born Jan. 25, 1860. BIAS! PREJUDICE! Those are bad words, right? In general, in one’s personal interactions with other people you don’t necessarily want to APPLY bias and prejudices if you aim to be a fair and
Bias and Prejudice are the Persuader’s Friend Read More »
“All writers are liars. They twist events to suit themselves. They make use of their own tragedies to make a better story… They are terrible people.” – Nina Bawden, Born Jan. 19, 1925. You ain’t no journalist. You ain’t no oracle. We are making shit up to manipulate people’s emotions, and thereby their behavior. That
Let’s Be Honest. You and I Are Both Liars. Read More »
“People don’t mind being mean; but they never want to be ridiculous.” – Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, aka Moliere, Born Jan. 15, 1622. To make people into allies, make them an accomplice. If you can get them to indulge in complaint and insult (even in private) against their enemies, you create a kinship. Paint those enemies as
This Blog Post is +2 Against Ridicule and Embarassment Read More »
“Agitate! Agitate! Ought to be the motto of every reformer. Agitation is the opposite of stagnation – the one is life, the other death.” – Ernestine Rose, Born Jan. 13, 1810. One of the best tricks I know for starting a “push” conversation in the mind of a stranger is to acknowledge their frustrations, and
Stagnation is the Mind Killer, the Little Death Read More »
“Movies are full of leading men, most of whom aren’t working. It’s much harder to find a good villain.” – Lee Van Cleef, Born Jan. 9, 1925. The secret of creating a powerful persona in your marketplace is to help your prospects find good villains to add a little adversarial psychological opposition to their lives.
Sometimes a Villain is What the People Need Read More »
“The man who interprets Nature is always held in great honor.” – Zora Neale Hurston, Born Jan. 7, 1891. If you want to be the guru/expert/wizard in your chosen fields of expertise, you must become an interpreter of nature, as it occurs in that field. You are the wise man. The oracle. A wizard of
The Wise Man of the Wasteland Reveals His One Weird Trick Read More »
“I’m 48 years old, not a kid anymore by any definition, but here is a universal truth that every adult at some point will realize: We are all always 17 years old, waiting for our lives to begin.” – Harlan Coben, Born Jan. 4, 1962. You can write pretty persuasively for people of any age
People Are Seventeen Forever on the Inside Read More »
“The second principle of magic: things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other at a distance after the physical contact has been severed.” – James G. Frazer, Born Jan. 1, 1854. It goes this way with the sharing of ideas, too. Contact with the mental machinery of
The Second Principle of Magic (And How To Use It to Guide the Decisions of Others…) Read More »
