Goldmine Marketing

Here’s what I’m up to…

  • What’s the best ad *ever* in your market?

    Imagine yourself wearing a top hat on the balcony of a private rail car…

    10:40pm
    Saint Paul



    Wednesday I watched a conversation between Mike Ward, legendary copywriter, and Porter Stansberry, founder of Stansberry Research, the powerhouse behind “The Railroad Across America” (promoting Internet infrastructure) and other winning financial packages.

    Porter said he built his multi-zillion dollar financial publishing business on the back of:

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  • “It’s the experience, stupid”

    11:43am
    East of the Mississippi



    Back from Orlando!

    And one thing that stood out is the importance of the experience.

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  • No sense in being needy

    2:29pm
    Saint Paul



    Growing up we had a desktop device that would answer our home phone after 5 rings, play a prerecorded greeting, and then record whatever message the caller wanted to leave.

    Voicemail, yes, but the device had a name that I can’t remember.

    UPDATE: It was named Code-a-Phone

    Anyway, once –– when I was like 8? –– my mom and I recorded a “funny” message before we left town on vacation.

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  • Iran or Amazon, who hates me more?

    2:11pm
    East of the Mississippi


    Denny Hatch just called.

    Amazon isn’t displaying our book for sale in the U.S.

    And I don’t know why.

    Maybe it’s due to the AWS data center attacks due to the Iran stuff?

    Maybe Amazon decided to kill our book?

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  • Sí problemo.

    2:33pm
    Saint Paul



    You won’t believe how this Spring Break trip is working out.

    Hint: it’s not the best.

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  • Your Gain comes from their Pain

    2:34pm
    East of the Mississippi


    I finished reading The Odyssey last night.

    And read The Illiad earlier in February.

    That’s two books down on my list of Great Books.

    And while I’m excited for my next pick –– Saint Augustine’s Confessions –– I currently have something else on the pile to get through first:

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  • Tiny minority driving everyone’s anxiety

    Crazy to think that 0.01% of people use AI.


    2:19pm
    Saint Paul

    I saw a stat that 0.01% of people use AI.

    If you spend any time on LinkedIn, it seems to be everywhere.

    And it has a lot of people scared that AI is coming for their job.

    And hell, it might be, I don’t know.

    It does get better every day…

    …when it’s not erasing people’s emails and suggesting we launch the nukes #truestory

    But I do know that FEAR is a huge motivator.

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  • Reading makes you Classist

    The dumb generation is here. And they’re my kids.

    2:50pm
    East of the Mississippi


    Maybe you saw the headline:

    “Neuroscientist warns Gen Z first generation less cognitively capable than their parents”

    Apparently all that social media and video gaming is taking it’s toll.

    But don’t worry, AI and universal basic income will save us all!!1!

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  • The 80/20 Rule

    Are you “stealing smart” today?

    11:04am
    East of the Mississippi


    You probably know the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle:

    80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers.

    Or the inverse:

    20% of the population earns ~80% of a nation’s income.

    While it’s not always exactly 80/20 (and they don’t need to add to 100), it’s a remarkably common distribution across many domains:

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  • Is AI the Curse of the Course?

    Have you seen it too?

    4:15pm
    East of the Mississippi


    Fellow marketer John Bejakovic recently wrote about a drop in marketing and copywriting courses being sold.

    Like, people ain’t buyin’.

    (I don’t think that’s entirely my doing, when I said I was going to focus on re-running through those valuable info nuggets I’ve already bought over the years.

    Surely, someone else out there was keeping these guys afloat!)

    Now, I don’t offer courses.

    I offer solutions.

    But I am on a lot of lists, and I’ve seen a decline in the number of courses being offered.

    Is AI to blame?

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