Reading Time: 2 minI was talking to a friend a few weeks ago that was working with a new company. That company had been outsourcing their SEO (Search Engine Optimization) work to another firm for a few thousand dollars a month, but it was unclear exactly what that other firm was doing. When asked for details on what […]
Trust
Do your own research?
Reading Time: 2 minThe phrase “do your own research” has exploded in popularity in recent years, as you’ve likely noticed. Here is a chart showing the popularity of the phrase on Google over the last 15 years: At first glance it’s seemingly a good thing, and ultimately it can be. However, there are a few major problems with […]
Information asymmetry no longer exists
Reading Time: < 1 minOver the last 20 years, most jobs based on being a gatekeeper have disappeared, as shared a few days ago in Tell Your Story Yourself. Access to information is similar – if you try to hide information because you think you can, you’re only lowering the degree to which you’ll be seen as an expert. […]
Marketing is not interrupting people
Reading Time: < 1 minMarketing is about building and promoting a brand that attracts people to what you do. It’s everything your company does and how the world views you. Advertising is about interrupting people at expected times. Running TV commercials or Facebook ads are great ways to spend some money to interrupt people when they are expecting it. […]
Visceral responses matter
Reading Time: 2 minGenerally speaking, I’m not a fan of AI. There are some great things coming from it, but I generally prefer the old way of doing things, and wish that all creativity came directly from human minds. However, it’s not something I can control so I’m digging in deeply to understand AI as well as I […]
Yes, that’s spam
Reading Time: 2 minAs time goes on, my definition of spam has gotten larger and larger. If you’re thinking about sending something and wonder “would this be considered spam?”, yes, it probably would be. My definition of spam has grown to simply include any cold contact. A cold email, a cold LinkedIn message, a cold phone call — […]
Respect includes clear criticism
Reading Time: < 1 minI mentioned a few weeks ago that feedback such as “make it darker” isn’t helpful or acceptable, but it can go a bit further than that. On a recent episode of Brian Koppelman’s “The Moment” podcast, he had Seth Godin on as a guest. Seth takes feedback very seriously, and takes the thoughts from “helpful […]
Confident answers can be problematic
Reading Time: < 1 minConfidence is a good thing. If you can be confident in what you believe, what you know, and who you trust, that’s fantastic. However, if you have to project fake confidence as a way to avoid being seen as vulnerable, that quickly becomes a big problem. In David Clark’s excellent book “Tao of Charlie Munger“, […]
Thought leaders are everywhere
Reading Time: 2 minDepending on your marketing goals, one approach might be to reach “thought leaders” so that they can spread the word about your product to their audience. It sounds good in theory, but determining who a thought leader is can be nearly impossible. There are well-known authors and celebrities, for sure, but the people that others […]
Sell the customer as little as possible
Reading Time: < 1 minIt sounds counter-intuitive, but some of the best companies in the world work hard to sell as little as possible to each of their customers. I first shared this a few years ago when talking about how “if you don’t say no, your yes is meaningless“, where the companies I trust most often push to […]