The Art of Conversations
Marketing is a monologue. Sales is a dialogue. Most of the time…
The Importance of Sharing Your Vision
Aaaaand, we’re back… Spend time this year looking deeply at what you think and what you are choosing to commit to. And then tell people about it! Doing so benefits individuals, teams, and entire companies. Moreover, it directs those benefits outwards so that you are actively working on making a world better. That world doesn’t […]
The Dark Side of AI in Lead Generation
One reason you receive incessant messages from lead generation services is that there are seemingly uncountable numbers of lead generation agencies with processes and automations that allow them to send nearly infinite pitches. AI will make it worse by raising the potential supply to another level of near infinity while lowering demand to near zero. […]
When Convenience Leads to Poor Judgment
I messed something up. Made a bad judgment call. And now, I’m quite pissed at myself. Although I (hope) I learned a few things. Here’s what I did: I used a tool that sends canned messages to people letting them know about my newsletter. I wrote the content, and it did the work. If you […]
A Manifesto for Innovation and Impact
Ready for a manifesto? Because we’re making our channels into sewers. it really is time to change how we talk about marketing just as much as how we market what we talk about. For the sake of our souls For the sake of innovation For the sake of making high-stakes decisions And for the sake […]
The Unseen Decay of Content Marketing
Content marketing is dead. I got an email this week that PROVES it. Look! The race to the bottom is unwinnable, but plenty of providers are trying to do so anyway. This email reminds me of the moment that I knew crypto was over. Months before conventional wisdom pronounced crypto dead, I was waiting in […]
A Call to End Digital Pollution
The environment… Human rights… Democratic values… Content… They have one thing in common. They’re collapsing. And it’s our collective fault. I wish I had better answers for the first three. But even if I did, no one is asking me to be emperor. What people ARE asking me is to help with “better” content. They’re […]
A Plea for Better Video Conversations
I know… we are somehow “supposed to” do video now, but seriously…if you have to, please stop chewing your camera. I don’t want to sit here watching you come at me like I’m a ghost and you’re a Pac-Man that just ate power pellets. No chomping, no chasing. Just conversation. Relax. Tell me something good. […]
The Anti-Intellectual Cult of Writing Advice
Too much writing advice is just good old-fashioned tent-revival anti-intellectual crap. Writing experts intone their points with the cynical piety of anyone who broadcasts truisms—cynical because it positions those experts as having the solution to redeem people from their doomed attempts at thinking. I’m old enough to remember when dogma dictated we should write for […]
Balancing Innovation and Advocacy
Startups in B2B are justifiably very focused on being in “build mode.” But they shouldn’t lose sight of how to be in “communicate mode” as well. Many founders are not even naturally inclined to be vocal advocates. But when you’re innovating, you also have to be a clear voice on why the problem you are […]