2:13pm
Saint Paul
Heading to my parents’ for Sunday dinner last night when just ONE WORD made me pull a u-turn and whip out my wallet.
(more…)Category: Opinion
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This ONE Word Sold Me
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Unwelcome Guest
7:40am
Saint PaulBang bang bang!
Bark bark bark!
“What kind of dog is that?” the rooftop solar salesman asked through the door.
Bark bark bark!
Sigh.
“Hi, good evening,” I said. “We’ve discussed solar panels. We’re not interested.” (Bark bark bark!) “Can’t talk, I’m in the middle of my kids’ bedtime…”
Bark bark bark!
“What kind of dog is that?”
Bark bark bark!
Sigh…
Dan Kennedy–marketer extraordinaire–has this story of him working, head down, getting things done…
When there’s a loud banging on his door that just won’t quit.
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Beware: Mark Twain’s Spider LOVES A Quiet Business
7:02pm
Saint PaulBusiness Owner, beware of the lesson in this quote from author and advertiser-for-hire, Mark Twain:
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Uber, Elon, and Branding Bad Ideas
10:15pm
Saint PaulEver been hoodwinked by Uber?
Thought you were getting a BMW… but a Honda showed up?
Yep, that happened to my friend Chuck (who really exists, guys, I promise!)
But I have as different experience, and one that ties into marketing.
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This Dog Ate My Brain
2:34pm
Saint PaulWhen I was 12 the neighbor’s dog bit my brother.
We never had a dog of our own.
Goldfish, yes. A cat. A parakeet. A skink. A snake. Even a “grow a frog” that escaped its water tank… and a week later, hopped across the kitchen floor.
So I was never much of a dog person.
In fact I told myself I was afraid of them. The dog bite and all, you understand.
And any time I saw a dog, this fear consumed my brain.
But years ago I decided that was silly.
So I simply reprogrammed my brain.
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AI: What Tools?
3:03pm
Saint PaulI kick myself for not getting into online marketing when I was 12.
I laugh at myself for selling my fraction of a bitcoin.
And I still wonder why I didn’t invest more in the stocks of companies that have performed well.
Hindsight, huh.
So when I see these “jump on the AI SaaS bandwagon and get rich!” posts, I wonder…
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Bad travel’s the best travel
2:59pm
Saint PaulWhen we married, my wife’s friend gave us a map of the world, with pushpins to mark where we’re going, where we’ve been, and where we’d like to go.
We still use the map, nearly 18 years later.
It’s fun to remember good experiences: The chef who cooked our fresh fish catch. Old-world architecture. Back-of-the-Pepsi-truck hitchhiked rides.
But it’s more memorable, and therefore more fun, when not-fun-in-the-moment things happen…
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What business are you in?
3:11pm
Saint PaulI saw this fascinating fact on LinkedIn, in Feb 2025:
“More than half of job seekers have been on the hunt for six months — if not longer.”
Now, I’m not super active on Social Media. (Connect with me here on X, or here on LinkedIn now!)
But, don’t you think some of this “job hunt” blame goes to LinkedIn?
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…and THAT’s why Carthage must fall!
2:38pm
Saint PaulHere’s a 2,171-year-old marketing fact about today, February 5:
Feb 5 was the end of the third Punic war in 146 BC, marking the destruction of the city-state Carthage by the city-state Rome.
Why did Rome destroy Carthage?
And what’s this have to do with marketing?
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The Best Direct Response Ideas… for Just 10 Bucks!
3:02pm
Saint PaulWhen I spoke at a marketing conference last year, I asked if people were familiar with Dan Kennedy.
Not a single person in my audience raised their hand.
Which only sorta surprised me.
Kennedy is a direct response marketer, through and through. He’s got a ton of business ideas, too–many of which go against the grain of modern business and marketing.
That’s attractive to me.
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