You and Your Business: An Ongoing Romance
“The day I don’t find romance in a loaf of bread, I’m going to quit.” – John Uhler Lemmon, Jr. In one of his last interviews, Jack Lemmon told the story of how he arrived in New York, determined to become a working actor. Lemmon was born and raised in a well-to-do Boston suburb. […]
Ideas Alone Don’t Make Meaning
“The guy who invented the first wheel was an idiot. The guy who invented the other three, he was a genius.” – Sid Caesar Having an idea is great. I hope you have many ideas. May they be brilliant. May they be lame. It doesn’t matter, as long as you have them. Just […]
16 Quotes That Demonstrate The Medium is Still the Message
Marshall McLuhan would have been 103 today. These days, if you aren’t a heady intellectual, student of the effects of media on the human condition, or remember that quirky cameo in Annie Hall where he tells a pompous professor ‘You know nothing of my work,’ he’s merely a name. Some of us may know him […]
What Do You Really Sell?
Unless you’ve created the best thing since sliced bread, the electric light bulb, telephone or iPad, chances are whatever you’re selling is pretty much the same as what everyone else in your business is selling. I know a lot of people who sell the same thing. Some complain about needing to drum up more […]
What Bill Cosby Taught Me About Business: 15 Quotes and a Chicken Heart
The goal of all comedians is to make people laugh, and we all like a good laugh. So why is it that some are so bad we want to cringe, while others absolutely nail it and we become fans for life? Good comedians, like good businesses make it a point of knowing their market […]
How to Help Your Customers Get Over Analysis Paralysis
Sometimes too much of a good thing can make even the simplest decisions difficult. A friend of mine shared a story the other day. She and her husband had one of those kitchen multi-timers. It was simple, reliable, easy to use and worked like a charm for years – until one day it didn’t. […]
Doing What’s Unexpected
“Customer service isn’t about telling people how awesome you are, it’s about creating stories that do the talking for you.” – Peter Shankman I went to the bank the other day. I was greeted by name as I stepped through the door. (How do people have such good memories)? Same thing at […]
A Brand Called America
Happy Birthday to us. 238 years old and still growing. Amazing isn’t it? We were a nation of immigrants then and we’re a nation of immigrants now, and yet we’ve managed to become the most powerful brand in the world. Why? Because we’re merchants of hope and freedom. We deal in the […]
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Work Harder at Working Smarter: There’s a Little Lucy in All of Us
We all try to cut corners at times to get a leg up on the work that seems to come at us like an out of control conveyor belt. But the work never stops. As a matter of fact. most of the time we work at a frantic pace and are just barely keeping up. When that […]
Don’t Get Stuck on How: Focus on Why
The biggest questions a business has is ‘How are we going to get customers in the door, how do we get them to buy, and how do we keep them coming back.’ I’m not talking about having a fire sale every week or giving away a free lunch to people you’ll never see again. […]