I inhale business books, especially anything to do with marketing, influence, persuasion, branding, behavioral economics, advertising, positioning etc. Just finished The True Believer this morning, not exactly a “business book”, a scary but insightful treatise on the nature of fanaticism and the creation & life cycle of mass movements. [Thanks for the heads up Dan [...]

This ad ran once, almost 50 years ago in 1964 (and 3 more times on the news) and it affected the result of the US presidential election. As students of the art and science of influence, we have to ask ourselves, how far is too far in pursuit of the results we seek? Sold on [...]

I’m always suggesting that entrepreneurs who want to get known or get noticed start a movement. Like David Bach has done with his Debt Free for Life Bus Tour. Like Unilever has done with it’s Dove brand and the Campaign for Real Beauty. Well Unilever Canada has done it again with Hellmann’s Mayonnaise. They’ve started [...]

Ran into copywriter extraordinaire Michele PW for the 3rd time recently and found myself once again complimenting her on her powerful business card. So many business cards are SO lame. (I’d love to show you some as examples but don’t want to make anyone feel bad.) A business card can be the little piece of [...]

Milana Leshinsky is brilliant. A former music teacher who came to America and then became a web designer, Milana is an influential guide to the coaching profession. And she knows her market. Her “My Mommy is a Coach” spot is adorable and will certainly hit the mark with her flock of primarily female coaches. I’m [...]

A guy plays a violin outside a Washington DC subway for 45 minutes. Few people notice or stop to listen. Most rush off to work. He collects a few bucks. A couple of days earlier, the same violinist, world famous Joshua Bell, played the same 3.5 million dollar violin in a concert hall where attendees [...]

Share and Enjoy:

Robert Cialdini, Author of Influence: Science and Practice says that giving a reason, any reason, for your request, adds weight to the request, ie makes it more likely that your request will be granted. “May I please borrow your moped because I have blue hair?”, would be more likely to generate a positive response than [...]

One of the quickest ways to raise your status in the marketplace is to raise your price. Don’t believe me? Listen to this! Share and Enjoy:

On page 18-19 of Step Into The Spotlight!, I tell the story of how a client had recommended a book to me (Blink by Malcolm Gladwell), I hadn’t heard her and I ended up finding it myself and recommending it to her. Kinda happened again today. Out of the blue, I called a blogger to [...]