Lost in Transmission
You're writing your content as if someone's going to read it. And that's the wrong approach.
Huh? Here's why...
The Marketing Holy Grail
The Parable of the Fisher King, and How It Applies to Your Messaging
One of my all-time favorite movies was Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King, staring Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges and Mercedes Ruehl. The movie’s key lesson — as told through a parable — is one that I think applies to much more than just life and love. The parable of The Fisher King and the movie from which it is taken provide a useful allegory for effective messaging, positioning and branding.
In a key moment in the movie, Robin Williams’s character tells the story to Jeff Bridges’s character:
Words As Music
Why?
Marketing: For All Intents and Purposes
Why?
It's a simple question. So why do so many ignore it?
The Power of Why is no longer just a clever title for an impactful TEDTalk delivered by Simon Sinek...it's an obligation.
Curtis Hays and I dive deep into the importance of "intent" this week on the Bullhorns and Bullseyes #podcast — both from a messaging standpoint but, importantly, also from a search engine perspective.
So, if you've been ignoring my pleas to "LEAD WITH THE WHY" up until now, that is no longer just evasive procrastination...it's putting you behind your competitors in the all-important search engine competition.
Podcasting: Your 2024 New Year's Resolution
If you are producing a podcast to grow your business—and not be the next internet celebrity—you don’t need to appeal to everybody. You only need to serve a very distinct and defined core audience. Unless you’re the next Joe Rogan or Howard Stern, you’re not going to amass an audience of millions. But that’s not the point.
Here’s how business owners and professional service providers can take advantage of the fastest-growing form of media out there today…and have a little fun doing it.
Announcement: New Book Release
I am proud to share the news that my second fiction novel, The Fatal Flaw, has been released and is now available on Amazon.com.
What is Teamlancing?
The Un-Agency Model of Marketing Professional Services
Ever since the announcement a couple of weeks ago that the Creative Mill has joined the Collideascope “teamlance” model, I've received a lot of questions about what it is and how it works. Curtis Hays, one of my co-collaborators, has a pretty good explainer at the collideascope blog, which I’ll link to here and excerpt below:
Announcing My Teamlance
The Un-Agency Model of Delivering Marketing and Advertising Services
Brian Clark calls it the “teamlance” model.
As with just about everything in life, the old model is being democratized and decentralized in the world of marketing and advertising. While the big-agency model is still the right fit for many, others are discovering a new way of client service that offers the best of all possible worlds: experience, bandwidth, resources, flexibility and affordability.
Today we are announcing that we have entered into an informal (and even undocumented) partnership of the teamlance model with a long-time collaborator, Curtis Hays and his team at Collideascope. Meet the rest of the team here.
Brands can turn to teamlancing to maximize the flexibility of their operations with self-managing creative resources that are specialized, right-sized, and timed to their changing needs, whether project-based or for the long term.
The Write Path to Better Thinking
Guest Writer: Trudi Roth
The following originally appeared in the Further newsletter, which I highly endorse and what remains one of few things I read each and every week. Do yourself a favor and subscribe.
Written by the outstanding Trudi Roth, this piece captures my own thinking about the future and purpose of writing better than I ever could. With her permission, I reprint it in its entirety here.
As someone who makes her living by writing, you might think I’m petrified that AI will decimate my career.
Honestly, machines don’t scare me. It’s the foolish humans who are okay with completely abdicating their ability to think, communicate, and solve problems that I find alarming.
