“I do a lot of things for effect, which is not to say I am superficial, but that I know how to put ideas across.” – Sebastian Horsley, Born Aug. 8, 1962. Our job is to put ideas across. And to that end, we need to be deliberate about our use of every possible aspect […]
On Presentation: Be Deliberate, Never Accidental Read More »
“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 »
“Whether you’re a programmer or a seamstress, it’s all about new techniques, simplifying old techniques, and consolidating steps. Making things go faster – but not worse.” – Martha Stewart, Born Aug. 3, 1941. Whatever it is you do more than once, you should always be looking for efficiencies and tricks to make that task easier
Never Do Anything The Hard Way Twice – Simplify It the Second Time Through 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 »
“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 »
“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 »
“Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.” – Karl A. Menninger, Born Jul. 22, 1893. Wouldn’t it be nice if we, as writers could listen to our
On Creating the Illusion of Two-Way Conversation, and Why It’s Valuable Read More »
“It is all very well to copy what one sees, but it is far better to draw what one now only sees in one’s memory. That is a transformation in which imagination collaborates with memory.” – Edgar Degas, Born Jul. 19, 1834. “They” say you should take old winning sales letters by the greats,
Why Hand Copying Old Sales Material Is a Big Dumb Waste of Time Read More »
“Simple ingredients, treated with respect… put them together and you will always have a great dish.” – José Andrés, Born Jul. 13, 1969. We aren’t talking about cooking here – not presently, anyway. We write. And like a good dish, a good piece of writing consists of simple ingredients that are treated with RESPECT. That
Do You RESPECT the Ingredients of Your Writing Work? Read More »
“Cover the canvas at the first go, then work at it until you see nothing more to add.” – Camille Pissarro, Born Jul. 10, 1830. This is also the way you should be doing client writing work. One of the reasons I did my client work from templates is so that I knew I could
A Method For Writing Copy Faster And Easier, Every Single Time Read More »
