A light blue twinkle permeates my vision. A whoosh of air signals that I am no longer standing at the entrance to a “shuttle simulator” ride in Las Vegas’s Star Trek: The Experience. I’ve been transported to the USS Enterprise-D’s transporter room. Starfleet officers stare back at me, visibly relieved that I materialized in one piece. I am not hallucinating. I am not plastered. This is real life. To […]
Almost every morning since Ryland was born, I’ve had breakfast with him and my wife before I start my work day and before he goes to bed, my wife and I read him stories. As another revolution around the sun is coming to a close, consider: rituals and routines are not the same thing. Routines are largely unconscious […]
This month’s Word Carnival is all about Jekyll and Hyde business decisions. That is: perfectly valid yet diametrically opposed views of how businesses should conduct their day to day activities. My beef is with how most small businesses use social media. Experts say small businesses MUST be on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and on and on and on. Here’s […]
For a long while, I was adamantly opposed to anything that cost WTF Marketing money. Seriously. I was all Scrooge McDuck up in this joint, sans the giant swimming pool full of money and tophat. Even when I started up my first business banking account and had a ridiculously awesome bank card that said “WTF […]
WTF Marketing just turned 5. At the start, I was broke, tired, and having the time of my life. When I first started WTF Marketing in 2009, I was fashioning websites for $350. I knew that $350 wasn’t gonna cut it for long – I was barely making ends meet only two years after I […]
This month’s Word Carnival topic is Price vs Value and my post comes in two parts. First: the marketing 101 bit about how you figure out your value. Second: the “everybody talks about price vs value the same way, so let’s turn it on its head” discussion (where you, the smartest kid in class, and your […]
I have a quirk that pisses a lot of people off: I hate the phone. Unless you’re my wife, you may not get a call back – ever. Sometimes even clients I like will get the cold-shoulder. I used to have a 10-minute bullshit limit on phone calls, now I’ve totally banned unplanned phone calls. This is a quirk […]
Three separate local politicians asked me this month what I’d do to market a political campaign. Aside from the obvious: “keep your promises and try not to be an utter dick”, I do have some useful advice that could help. See, for the last few years I’ve thought about what it would take to run […]
I was in one of those conversations the other day. You know, the kind where you drift off into your own version of 127 Hours and have total clarity about what you’d do? (As in: you’d rather cut off your own arm to escape this than stay around for one moment longer). Taking the masochist […]
I’m a strong believer in coopitition. What’s coopitition? One of my favorite mentors – a counselor – Fred Fuller (who is turning 69 this year, Happy Birthday Fred!) told me that he often helped out his “competitors” (a word he says with actual air quotes) by teaching them his sales techniques and sending them customers he […]
