“I waited in traffic for 2 hours!” That was a comment on a Facebook post highlighting a crash on the highway. I understand the woman’s frustration. But, when you see the images of the crash–the rear end of an SUV smashed into the front seat–the woman’s anger pails in comparison. Compared to the pain of the people in the accident. Compa...

Building in public is scary. It's like being an animal in a zoo. While it feels like you're in your environment, half of your arena is open (glass) for people to view. They can critique your every movement, and there's little you can do. But, they can also see your struggle, cheer you on, and support you when they feel it's needed. Whi...

This might seem like common sense, but I'm gonna say it anyway: Think first, write second. Many times, we jump right to the writing. By getting to the writing ASAP, we think we will produce better work than waiting. While it "works," aka it gets something written down, I don't believe it leads to our best work. It's merely a heuristic ...

Usually, my ad rewrites are for "bad" ads. But this week is different. Today's ad executes on principles I routinely preach, making it a great ad. I think there is a lot to learn from the good as well as from the bad. And I'll have a few changes to improve it by 1%. What I like about this ad: • Specificity is key. (i.e., 100+ journalis...

While I believe human resources, technology, and management are changing, marketing is changing more quickly. If you continue hiring as you did in 2000, you could have "okay" success. But if you're still doing marketing as you did in 2000, it's over. It's less about changing methods or tactics. It's more about a radical shift in thinki...

How was your week? My week in one (or two) words was peacefully-productive. I got a lot done at work and home. I didn't do it through working crazy hours but through focus and efficiency. I hope your week went well and that you're having a relaxing weekend. Top learnings 1. Life's suffering can be mitigated by reframing Shit happens. T...

Why do we do things that we know have the potential to destroy us? I’m not talking about cheating on your spouse or doing drugs. I’m talking about something we all do: Loving someone. Some people–that we love–are in our lives, and we don’t have much choice over it (i.e., parents or siblings). But others we intentionally choose to open ...

Imagine you go out to coffee with someone you've never met before. You met this person on Instagram, and from their profile, they seem like a cool person. You order a caramel macchiato and a muffin. They order a dark roast with no cream. Hmm, that's a little sus. But you push that out of the way and keep an open perspective on this per...

What’s better? To arrive early and realize you are at the wrong restaurant? Or arrive late but make it to the correct diner? I’m going with the latter. But many of us subconsciously picked the first. We overvalue action without thinking. We rush things just to achieve our artificial goals or deadlines. While never actually figuring out...

WIIFM? Do you know that acronym? WIIFM = What's in it for me? It's the question I ask myself consistently when writing or marketing, not for myself, but for my customer. You need to address that question and be specific about what's in it for the reader or customer. Today's ad shows us what it looks like when you fail to answer this qu...

Happy Monday, friend 👋🏼 Today’s email has two objectives: 1. Share an open position we are hiring for, and if you know anyone who would be interested, please share with them 2. How I refined the job ad from “good” to “kick-ass” (at least in my opinion, lol) MyTalentPlanner is making its second hire, looking for a Customer Success Speci...

One thing I don't do enough is reflection. I put so much focus on achieving the next thing and moving forward that I miss out on looking back, thinking about what happened, and learning from it. The truth is, the more one reflects, the more learnings one has to move forward faster. So, every Saturday, I will share with you a "lookback"...

“"Always remember that to argue, and win, is to break down the reality of the person you are arguing against. It is painful to lose your reality, so be kind, even if you are right." — Haruki Murakami.” It was Christmas Eve, and I gave my brother a ride to the bank to get quarters for laundry. Our conversation started light and cheery. ...

Carl Ally. A few months back, I shared an ad he wrote in response to Avis' 2nd place ads (Click here to read). This week I bring more gold from his treasure chest. In today's ad, he is selling a car from Saab. Selling cars through salesmanship or marketing is a challenge. So let's observe how he sold this "revolutionary" car. Finding #...

Marketing takes time. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. Sure, you could run some FB ads and try to get a quick profit, but it's not that easy. There's so much behind having success with paid media. This fact of marketing being a slow burn was brought up in Rob Fitzpatrick's community. Rob shares a story that contains some import...

What better way to bring back ad rewrites than to use one from a subscriber. This is a first, which makes me even more excited. Lucas, a realtor, reached out to me to get my brief thoughts on an ad he is running in his local market. I'm excited to share my thoughts and see what you think and learn. Who: Multi State Realty is Lucas' com...

Last week I wrote how speed is the key to improving anything: more reps = more competence (Click here to read). And one of you beautiful people responded with a great question I felt compelled to answer. Here’s the Q: “How would you define the difference between speed and consistency? Is speed the same thing as frequency and repetition...

Life sucks. It can be challenging to put a smile on at times. Maybe today it slips on quickly, but other days, it's hard to find it. One simple thing you can do to instill more happiness (and hopefully, a smile follows) is to write down daily what you're grateful for. I do this first thing in the morning and right before bed. You may t...

How do you feel about content series? Some examples: • A 3-part series on creating a content plan • A 5-part series on filing your taxes • A 4-part series on go-to-market strategy Do you find them helpful? Before I share my answer (because you asked), let me share a notional example. Let's say you need to learn how to shit. You spent y...

I believe EQ is one skill that every profession demands. I find having high EQ essential to thinking clearly and making good decisions in marketing. Without it, you allow your emotions to cloud your vision, and you cannot produce good marketing. Also, by growing in EQ, you will grow in your appreciation for emotions and their role. Thi...

Speed is critical to improving. Suppose you want to get better at anything, speed matters. A friend who shared a blog titled Speed Matters brought this to my attention. James Somers wrote the blog post seven years ago, but it couldn’t be more accurate today. ““The prescription must be that if there’s something you want to do a lot of a...

How do you get others to do talk about you? Many people have this as a marketing goal, whether to spread your category or your new service offering. So, they go about it through earned channels. They reach out to industry magazines, influencers, or PR to get on media outlets. Sadly, this thinking is backward. While I am not against ear...

Spilling coffee is not the end of the world. I realize this. But then why did I almost completely break down when Katie spilled hers? Let me first share the story: Katie and I visited Mayo hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, for her MS. It was the second day of our stay. We had gone for a run first thing in the morning, and then I went t...

I’ve made a critical mistake. I’ve had a loose vision for this email for the past year. My loose vision is to build an audience while improving my writing and marketing acumen. But I need a more definitive vision. I need to put in concrete terms what I want for this email. Why is that? For a few reasons: Reason 1: A significant way to ...

She's gone. We'll never be able to hold her, kiss her, or see her again. It all happened so quickly. We had been gone for a few days, but she was acting normal when we returned. Both of our cats were happy to see us. Then everything changed. The next day, Evee, our youngest cat that we got in July of 2021, was acting differently. She w...

“I don’t like that.” While personal preferences are “good,” I find that we allow them to impact our decisions too much. Let’s say you HATE podcasts. “Who has time to listen to someone ramble for 50 minutes?” You may—most likely will–let this impact what type of content you produce. But what if your audience loves them? Then you made a ...

Everything is NOT trackable. With marketing, there is a clear balancing act going: Doing and measuring things for immediate ROI and also realizing there is no way to measure some stuff for their direct impact. Essentially it is brand marketing vs. performance marketing. Which camp are you in? Personally, I think both have their place. ...

I judge myself too much. How about you? I frequently compare myself to others and usually end up disappointed. If I had a friend who treated me the way I treat myself, I would have ended the friendship a long time ago. There’s no way I would have put up with the criticism and judgment. So why then do I deal with my inner critic? Why do...

What’s your company’s moat? In software, the need to answer this question is critical. Anyone can duplicate your features and code, so you need something else (your moat) that provides distance from them “catching up to you.” But for every business having a moat is essential. Your moat could be your brand, a true differentiation (i.e.,...

No one likes to suck at anything. But, at times, we all will, especially when we start something new. The reason I write my daily email is to help those just starting or making the switch into marketing. To help them suck less with marketing. This book accomplishes the same thing. For those early in their marketing journey or just star...