Blog

It’s hard to get people to listen, for like, longer than two seconds. It really is. Even when it’s their job to pay attention. Ever read Oren Klaff’s “Pitch Anything?” He made it so clear to me why we miss the mark: It’s because we assume that the moment we pitch (what we think is…

I was on a first date last summer when I decided to play the game again: I asked this man if he had had a dog growing up. All I knew was that he was raised in Missouri, the youngest of three boys. “Yes, I did, actually.” I could almost see the dog in my…

I’ve never had a client who didn’t want to help people. What I say to them (gently, of course) is that while of course I believe them, their good intentions do not constitute a brand. Because everyone in their own way wants to help. It’s truth, but not identity. That we need to get past…

There’s nothing more disappointing than getting exactly what you want: the pink bike with the banana seat; a Cabbage Patch Doll; praline ice cream cake. The equation makes no sense: Ask for thing, get thing should equal pure joy. And there was joy, of course. But then, a kind of ache, after. It doesn’t change,…

Every time you step out that door some sonofabitch is shootin at ya. That’s what my grandfather always said. He wasn’t paranoid; he was a state policeman in Hazleton, PA. It’s not a negative worldview, though it may seem that way; it’s realistic, and it doesn’t mean you don’t go out there, but when you…