It’s a simple enough question. It’s a great starter. It begs for deeper interaction. It has the potential to bring emotion and fact together into an amazing experience.

Every time I get the opportunity to chat with an elderly person, I love to hear their stories. My wife’s grandpa was probably my favorite person to just sit and talk to about his life experiences. His eyes would light up as he told stories of WWII or Florida or gardening. And because he was so engaged in the telling of the story, I remember many of his stories as if they were mine.

It’s why I love to chat with business owners. Hearing the story of how the business started, grew, evolved, struggled, changed, adjusted, adapted, kept growing – it’s always unique and always amazing. And ALWAYS backed with a ton of passion. [Read more…]

You are nearing the end of the project, it’s looking great. Then someone asks that one critical question that immediately means the re-work now begins. Or that one thing that affects that other thing is wrong.

Bring on the pain.

Recently I heard about a concept called a premortem. Many people have heard of the concept of holding a postmortem when a project ends where you can analyze the good/bad, what worked/didn’t, how to not make those same mistakes in the future, etc. The concept of a premortem is about the same, it just happens to be while there is still time to do something about it. [Read more…]

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

One of the greatest challenges in a multi-channel online marketing world (think Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.) is having enough of a base within those channels to actually make a splash. As the network grows, as the base expands, your value increases.

The opposite is also true.  [Read more…]

You’ve probably heard the expression ‘If you aim at nothing you’ll hit it every time’ and this could not be more true than in the world of marketing, digital or otherwise.

The mission of your company or organization must be firmly established and clearly defined before any marketing efforts can be even thought up.  Not the mission of the marketing efforts or campaigns, but the actual mission of the group.  Why do you exist?  Why are you here?  Making money is not an answer, by the way. [Read more…]