There’s an old line in the classic car business worth thinking about: “Don’t buy the car, buy the seller.” Its meaning should be obvious. And it is only becoming more important now thanks to emerging technologies and the Covid crisis. People are buying collector cars sight unseen over the Internet. Of course, back in the ...
People used to sit on the porch or in the parlor and play musical instruments. Today we just hit the “play” button on Apple Music or Spotify and listen to anything we want. People used to grow seasonally-appropriate fruits and vegetables in window boxes and backyard gardens. Today we pick any fruits or vegetables we ...
Years ago a good friend of mine was invited to speak at one of those big motivational speaker events. You know the kind – the ones that advertise celebrity speakers such as George W. Bush, Mr. T, and some famous Southern college football coach. They set the admission price really low to fill the venue ...
Friends invited us to join them for dinner at their sailing club the other night. Thanks to Coronavirus, the restaurant isn’t open but they’re allowed to bring in food. So we were able to sit by the water and enjoy delicious take-out Thai food while we watched the boats and the pelicans and enjoyed some ...
I like it when I see a collection of political candidate signs clustered together on someone’s yard. Especially when the assortment includes a sign for their preferred presidential candidate. That’s because as much as I try to stay up-to-date with local and regional politics, I often don’t know about a specific commissioner, judge, or state ...
My father was a general contractor on Miami Beach in the 1960s. As innovative as my dad was, the business was still a rather analog affair. Supplies were delivered on flatbeds, building materials were inventoried on a clipboard, boards were nailed together by hand, and job sites were cleaned up by laborers with shovels, push ...
Gloria and I were watching some music awards show where Bruno Mars was performing Amy Winehouse’s song Valerie. During the performance, the horn players were doing a little dance when all of a sudden they jumped up and did a coordinated dance move. Of course they did it at precisely the same time. If you ...
Not very long ago – sometime in early to mid-April – it seemed as if almost everyone I know was calling and telling me they were how concerned they were. Covid. Unrest. Lockdown. Politics. The economy. Despite their concerns, the common word they all seemed to use was “uncertainty.” After hearing different versions of the ...
Do you think you’re smarter or more talented than the people around you? More to the point, do you think you’re smarter or more talented than you really are? If so, you’re not alone. The Dunning-Kruger Effect describes a specific cognitive bias that causes people to overestimate their knowledge or ability. Simply put, it explains ...
There are at least 301 words with 11 or fewer letters in the English language that contain the word SHIP. How do I know? I went to www.WordFind.com, typed in S H I P, and added up the results. Sure, you can probably come up with another one or two – I’m not suggesting this ...
You know the old joke: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, man, practice. Here’s today’s version: How do you write a book? Write, man, write. At least once a week someone asks my advice about writing a book. The conversation usually goes something like this: Potential author: “Hey Bruce… you’ve published a bunch ...
Recently all of these storied brands have come under protest and scrutiny for being offensive: Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben’s, Mrs. Butterworth’s, Eskimo Pie, Barbie, GI Joe, the Washington Redskins, the Cleveland Indians, the Atlanta Braves. How about all of those Disney movies you grew up with? Jungle Book, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Or ...
Back in 1996 I was browsing the shelves of a bookstore (remember them?) when I happened across Caleb Carr’s novel The Alienist. I was already a big fan of historical fiction, especially concerning the Victorian age, and the book became an instant favor of mine. My memory of it was so strong that when I ...
What is an interrobang? Go ahead, I’ll give you a minute to rummage around in the dusty, musty recesses of your brain. Need a clue? Here’s what it’s not… An interrobang is not a new military interrogation technique. It’s not the definition of the whole process of an explosion. And it’s most definitely not a ...
We’ve all heard the old saying, “If you build a better mousetrap the world will build a path to your door.” Trouble is, that’s not true. If you build a better mousetrap, the world WON’T beat a path to your door. You will just wind up with a bunch of dead mice. The history of ...
Berry Gordy Jr., founder of Motown Records, was a notoriously mercurial and mercenary businessman. Although Gordy was responsible for some of the most powerful, popular, and passionate R&B and soul music ever created, the stories of him making musical decisions based on finances instead of aesthetics are legion. What’s more, Gordy insisted on ironclad creative ...
It’s time to be honest with yourself. You know all the things you’ve been meaning to do but just didn’t have the time? Organize your closets maybe, weed the garden or write that book you’ve always been meaning to write? Here’s a newsflash – if you haven’t started these things during the three months of ...
When my kids were little and we’d go on road trips, sooner or later the whining would begin. “Are we there yet?” “I’m hungry.” “She touched me.” “I have to go to the bathroom.” No matter what I tried, I couldn’t get them to stop. Until one day we hit on an alternative solution. Instead ...
Each of us is coping with our reactions to the Coronavirus Crisis in different ways. Our opinions and reactions are based on our own circumstances — how our health and businesses are faring, how much money we have in the bank, where we are sheltering-in-place and whom we are sheltering with, how our loved ones ...
Coronavirus and the Tyranny of Seamlessness. Ironically enough, one of the most important aspects to shooting good video is the audio. I’ve learned that viewers will put up with fuzzy shots or shaky images, but if the sound is bad or hard to hear, they’ll sign off almost immediately. Because of that, I’m always fretting ...
Don’t Watch That, Watch This. Marketing in the Days of Coronavirus. We think the movie Babe did it. Because when our daughter Ali was only eight-years old she announced that she wouldn’t eat anything if it meant killing animals. And at sixteen she became a committed vegan and upped the ante. Ali hasn’t violated her ...
I’ve had the great fortune to spend the last few weeks touring Argentina and Chile. Together Gloria and I explored fascinating sites, ate wonderful meals, enjoyed spectacular wines, and met very gracious and hospitable people. Not only did we try great wines, but we visited wineries in both countries and saw how the wines are ...
While it may be intimidating to look at well-established brands and wonder how you’ll ever create such notoriety, it’s not nearly as difficult if you break down the scary whole into lots of manageable little bits.
The Ice Bucket Challenge? By now everyone who’s not living under a rock knows about the Ice Bucket Challenge. It’s a brilliant viral stunt that combines coerced altruism, mild sadism, mischief, social media, and a good dose of revenge to get people to donate to the ALS Association. The Ice Bucket Challenge is working spectacularly well. The explanation on ...
What goes next in the following sequence? Skywriting, Calendar, Pen, T-Shirt, Super Bowl, Side Of A Barn, ____________ . Give up? Don’t be too hard on yourself; even that smart kid in high school (you know the one I’m talking about) doesn’t know the answer. Let’s review our fundamental understanding of advertising and branding and ...
When I was in high school one of my part-time jobs was working as a bagboy at the local supermarket. Even though the walls were plastered with signs that said, “Carry-out is a Publix service. No tipping please,” we bagboys stuffed our pockets with the single dollar bills the neighborhood housewives slipped us for wheeling ...
Spending time with people we agree with is a good way to avoid conflict. Watching news shows slanted towards our point of view is a good way to keep from getting too agitated. And reading books that explore the positions and opinions that mirror our own is a mighty fine way to reinforce our beliefs. But ...
There’s an old story about the pessimist father who wanted to teach his optimist son a lesson. The only thing the kid wanted for his birthday was a pony. So on his birthday, when the kid was away at school, his dad called the local feed store and had his son’s bedroom filled from floor-to-ceiling ...
Every day I get emails from salesmen asking me to forward their note to the “proper person in my office” who handles whatever it is that they’re selling. I’ll bet you do too. Do they think we’re going to drop what we’re doing and bird-dog their sales leads for them? You and I get electronic ...
Last year I was at the National Speakers Association meeting in Anaheim, CA. Brian Walter interviewed me for their magazine and CD/radio show and was nice enough to post the interview on Facebook. You can listen to it by clicking HERE.
Creative designer David Kustin was sitting comfortably behind a steaming cup of coffee at our conference table. He was starting to tell me about his background and how he got into the branding business. “I’m a South Florida native,” he said. (I’m a South Florida native too, I thought. Wonder where he was born.) “…went ...
Last Thursday I gave the worst presentation of my life. I wish I were exaggerating for the sake of this blog, but I’m not. I was truly awful. I was showing work I’m proud of and talking about new concepts we’re excited about but I wasn’t scoring any points with the people sitting across the ...
Usually when I speak at corporate conferences and ask “who wants to get on stage?” I need to volunteer people. After all, few corporate types think they’re paid to enjoy themselves and have a good time. But when I spoke to my first faith-based group at Collinson Media’s Rejuvenate Marketplace in Louisville, the same request ...
The power of euphemisms is something that most people don’t think about at all but we marketers obsess over. I was in a board meeting and discussing new ideas when the guy at the head of the table commented on the concepts. He started with, “You know, it’s interesting…” I think he said, “it’s interesting” ...
It’s funny. Almost everywhere I read and listen, people are talking about the passive income that can be earned selling books and e-books online. Speakers at the National Speakers Association meetings speak about it; magazines such as FastCompany and Wired write about it, and Tim Ferris even wrote a New York Times Bestseller — The ...
Do you know how to read musical notation? If you do, you know that when you’re reading music you’re actually reading at least two things simultaneously. Written music tells you what note to play and when to play it. Written language, on the other hand, only tells you one thing – what letter to pronounce. ...
Everybody wants more time but what's the best thing to do when you get it? [TO READ COMPLETE ARTICLE, PLEASE CLICK ON TITLE]
