American retailers learned some interesting things last year. Although consumer confidence was higher during Christmas 2013 than it was during Christmas 2010, ShopperTrak tells us that in-store, holiday foot traffic declined by almost half during those three years. But don’t assume sales volume declined by half for those retailers or that half their customers bought […]
Michael participates in our monthly Wizard of Ads LIVE webinar. Last week, Michael asked for a method that would let him create fewer leads, but better leads. I responded by telling Michael that broad targeting can be done geographically by zip code, financially by income, demographically by age and gender, or psychographically by targeting specific […]
Her plan was obviously brilliant, so why wasn’t it working? Susan was as confused as a termite in a yo-yo. I was about to suggest an answer when she said it herself; “Culture eats strategy for lunch.” Every experienced consultant knows that a third-best plan that will be executed is better than the first or […]
1. Bring positive and negative into close proximity. 2. Resist the temptation to clad them in insulation. 3. Witness the flow of electricity as it leaps between the two. Speaking in 1980 of his songwriting experience with Paul McCartney, John Lennon said, “He provided a lightness, an optimism, while I would always go for the […]
Institutions of higher education offer a degree path, a specific series of classes that will prepare you for the journey you’re about to take. Wizard Academy’s board of directors is preparing a similar map for those happy adventurers who come here for refreshment, instruction and advice. Dr. Oz Jaxxon and space shuttle scientist Mark […]
Cedric Yau is one of a handful of geniuses I know. In our most recent conversation, Cedric opened my eyes to a truth I had not previously encountered, but it reinforced everything I know about ad campaigns and it’s about to make Cedric a billion dollars. I’m not exaggerating. You’ve seen long lines of ants […]
Have you ever gone shopping only to come home with something entirely different than what you had planned to buy? Of course you have. We all have. “Physicists like to think that all you have to do is say, ‘these are the conditions, now what happens next?'” – Richard Feynman, (winner of the 1965 Nobel […]
When Jacqueline Bouvier married JFK she became “Mrs. Kennedy.” She was the Princess Di of her generation. Following her husband’s assassination, Jacqueline’s voice was almost never again heard in public. She quickly became the most mysterious and glamorous woman on earth. When she married Aristotle Onassis, the world’s richest man, she became forever thereafter, “Jackie ‘O’.” […]
Dean Rotbart says you are three different people. The first of the three is the person you see when you look in the mirror; the person you believe yourself to be. The second is the person other people see when they look at you; the person they believe you to be. The third is […]
The next time someone tells you an advertising success story, especially if that success was online, ask to see the ad – the content – that triggered it. Here’s a Really Big Tip for you. You might want to write this down: “The media doesn’t make the ad work. The ad makes the media work.” […]
Do you have code words and phrases whose meanings are known only to the people closest to you? I laughed a little when I realized the absurdity of some of the communication abbreviations that Pennie and I have developed over the years. Every couple has code phrases, I suppose, and there is doubtless a story […]
You can do it. I don’t know how long it will take or what you will have to go through, but you can most definitely do it. 1. See your objective clearly in your mind. You must see it before you can seize it. It takes courage to focus on your objective. Reach for the courage […]
Of all the things that drive men to sea, the most common disaster, I’ve come to learn, is women. I borrowed that sentence from Charles Johnson, a storyteller who begins his tale, Middle Passage, with that line. I chose not to enclose it in quotation marks because I didn’t want to alert you to the […]
Retailers are asking, “Why do people buy from my competitors without even giving us a chance?” And I reply, “They gave you a chance. They just didn’t physically come to your store.” Customers carry instant access to all the knowledge of the world in their pockets. They no longer have to visit your store to […]
“Cream rises to the top” is what we tell talented people who are frightened. It’s a lie, of course, but it makes them feel like they have a chance. Confidence and courage are not the same thing. Confidence is trust in your ability. Courage is to have such security in your identity that you’re […]
I should begin with an apology, I suppose, because the secret of great advertising, the secret to great wealth, the secret of status and stature and your name on the lips of all the beautiful people is actually a wee bit disappointing. Yes, it’s a sadly disappointing big secret. The reason the big secret is […]
When Ann Richards was Governor of Texas, she said, “Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.” Governor Richards was slightly militant in her feminism, as was common 20 years ago when she made her piercingly witty statement. But the once-edgy voice of feminism has softened in […]
Nine Voices, Nine Movies Each of us speaks and writes without thinking. This is why so much of what we say is predictable. Do you want to be more interesting? Choose an unusual perspective and verb tense. A movie begins in the mind of the listener every time you speak or write. At whom is […]
Today we call it Data but we used to call it Statistics. Statistics are boring. That’s why a clever boy in Silicon Valley gave them a new and better name. A scientist is willing to change a belief when presented with data, facts and logic. But very few customers are scientists. This is why you […]
People will direct their attention to whatever gives them a sense of identity, purpose and adventure. You must always remember this when crafting advertising. The fans of a sports team are the members of a club. Their team gives them identity, purpose and adventure. Political parties, too, give their members identity, purpose and adventure. Religious […]
It’s Friday morning, September 7, 1951. John Steinbeck emerges from deep in his writing of East of Eden to scribble a note to his friend, Pat Covici: “This week has been a hard one. I have put the forces of evil against a potential good. Yesterday I wrote the outward thing of what happened. Today […]
I look in the mirror and see the person I believe myself to be. You look at me and see the person you believe me to be. We don’t see the same person. Businesses, too, see themselves differently than their customers do. A flatterer disguised as a branding consultant will help you create an idealized self-portrait and […]
A cafe owner, famous for his soup, was told by his accountant that he could boost his profit significantly if he would add just 5 percent more water to the recipe. The accountant was right. The water was added and no one noticed. Months later, the cafe added 5 percent more water and still no […]
Contrary to what my headline might suggest, this is actually an upbeat message. Guilt is about what you have done. Shame is about who you are. Failure in business has no connection to either of these. Failures are footlights along the dark pathway to success. One of the defining characteristics of Wizard Academy alumni […]
“Once, there were 3 kittens named Murry, Furry and Wurry…” I’ll admit to fabricating Murry and Furry, but you and I both know that Wurry is often pampered and protected like a cherished pet. We talk about our Wurry and cuddle it. We share our Wurry with others, hoping they will choose to love our […]
We could call this memo, “The Poodle and The Vamp, Part Two,” but we won’t. No one likes the sequel quite so much as they liked the original. Talent isn’t rare. Our world overflows with worthy talent that continues day-to-day unrecognized. I’ll wager that you possess such talent. There is something you’re capable of doing, I’ll […]
Type “business plan” into Google and you’ll see an impressive array of articles from BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal, Inc., Forbes, Entrepreneur and SBA.gov. Everyone has a business plan. Almost no one has an advertising plan. And we are coming to a critical fork in the road. I want you to choose your fork consciously […]
“Normalization” begins with an idealized norm of conduct – for example, the way a soldier should ideally stand, march, and present arms, with each of these actions defined in minute detail. Individuals are then rewarded for conforming to this ideal or punished for deviating from it. Normalization allows a leader to exert maximum social control […]
This is the dangerous gang that learned How to Write Direct Response Ads last week. Really smart marketers screw up badly when they move from “Metrics are Good” to “Metrics are God.” Dan doesn’t do this. Dan came to Wizard Academy in 2001, determined to build an online business. He was 22 years old. A […]
The Eye of the Storm is what we call the classroom in the tower at Wizard Academy. This name is doubly appropriate; not only is The Eye of the Storm a momentary escape from the buffeting winds of business, it was funded by Tim Storm, a wildly successful entrepreneur. It was the third day […]
The official wedding count for Chapel Dulcinea in 2013 was 824 weddings. When I talk about the number of weddings performed each year at Chapel Dulcinea I usually say, “more than a thousand,” but it’s not because I’m lying. I’m just telling the truth prematurely. We’ll soon be at 1,000+ per year. I’m certain […]
I admire John the Beloved and Abraham Lincoln. These were quietly determined and reliable men, full of love and compassion, unwilling to leave anyone behind. But if I am honest, I must admit that I’m actually more similar to Simon Peter and Teddy Roosevelt; blustering and thundering, quick toward combat, often causing more pain than […]
Sarah says if you rely solely upon reason, your actions will be based upon what you believe to be possible. You’ll not likely attempt the impossible. She goes on to say, “Quixotism is the passionate pursuit of an ideal which may not be attainable. It is the belief that an individual can alter reality […]
You have within you an idea, a possibility, a thought that has never quite gone away. You tell yourself it’s a childish fantasy. Perhaps it is. And that’s precisely why you should rescue it from the shivering shadows. Let your child live in the light. You’re strong enough now to watch over it and […]
This ocean adventure called life is most easily navigated when we have a guiding light. The winds and waves of circumstance push at all of us. 1. We can passively go with the flow. 2. We can choose the badge of the victim. 3. We can loose ourselves in pleasure. 4. We can harness the […]
Fifty-one times a year I write things I believe you’ll find to be useful. Once a year I turn the mirror toward myself. This is that time. I hope you don’t mind. I’ve enjoyed 8 distinct advantages in life for which I can take no credit. I am thankful for 6 of these advantages, […]
Give a mundane product an evocative name and you will dramatically increase its appeal. Humans are uniquely gifted to attach complex meanings to sounds. Some of these sounds are musical; pitch, key, tempo, rhythm, interval and contour. But much more specific in their meanings are phonemes, the building blocks of words. Cat and Kite begin […]
A spoonful of Entertainment helps the medicine go down, medicine go dowwwwn, medicine go down. The public will give you their time if you offer them entertainment. They will give you their money if you offer them hope. But don’t ever call it hope. Don’t accuse your customer of being hopeless. Just let them […]
David sees a giant and says, “I will defeat him.” Everyone else sees a giant, as well. David walks toward the giant with his sling and BANG, David is king. That’s a favorite story everywhere. Here’s another. Don Quixote sees a giant and says, “I will defeat him.” His companion sees only a windmill. […]
The following press release will soon be received by the media in Midland, Texas. Diamonds to be Cut in Midland (MIDLAND, TEXAS – October 29, 2013)[Name of Diamond Cutter] is coming to Midland to cut diamonds on Saturday, November 16th and the public is invited. “It’s one of the Christmas gifts we’re giving the city,” […]
One of the books I’ll write someday is a collection of true stories gathered from extremely successful people. My business as an advertising consultant and seminar speaker has put me face-to-face with many of the brightest stars in the entrepreneurial sky. And rarely do I miss the opportunity to ask them, “Can you recall that […]
“Dangling like this from his leg, his upside-down perspective made him giddy. If this were to be his last moment he would die happy, but it would not. Instead, he’d soon be singing karaoke with a group of Korean tourists. But first, the roller coaster.”? – Christina Gressianu, opening lines of an unwritten novel Anton […]
My friend Jeffrey and I were talking one day about this and that when he said, as much to himself as to me, I think, “What is it that separates confidence from hubris?” I replied, “The outcome.” “That’s it!” Jeff gasped through his laughter, his head thrown back as tears began to inch toward his […]
Do not confuse pleasure with happiness. Unhappy people can have pleasure. And uninterrupted pleasures are not happiness. Happiness is the result of knowing who you are, why you are here, and what you should do. We need identity, purpose, and adventure. Identity – Who am I? Purpose – Why am I here? Adventure – What […]
I’m 21 years old but my thinning hair makes me look about 30. I consider this to be my greatest asset. I walk the retail sidewalks, looking in windows, deciding if I will go in. A peddler goes door to door unthinkingly, playing the odds, tossing his pitch to anyone who will catch it like […]
I hate that I’m good at writing direct-response ads. You know the ads I’m talking about. The ones that sell you something you don’t really want or need. Twenty years ago Woody and I bought Melrose necklaces at 11 dollars and sold them by the wheelbarrow load at 99 dollars apiece. You couldn’t comparison shop […]
Unifying Principles are those guiding thoughts around which all your actions revolve. When you hold them in plain sight, you always know what to do next. Brilliant people stumble when they focus on the parts and neglect to see the webs of connections between those parts. This is what causes medical doctors to treat each […]
Headlines often tell the truth more powerfully than is completely accurate, a disturbing trend in this day of sound-bite news. The mental image conjured in the mind by the headline, “Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Agrees With Wizard Academy,” is one in which the Nobel Laureate (1.) is aware of Wizard Academy and (2.) makes a statement […]
The perfect customer is like a beautiful woman, distant and desirable and pursued by countless competitors. An appropriate metaphor, don’t you think? Most advertisers want ads that equate to a magical pickup line. “Tell me what to say to this beautiful woman so that she’ll rip off her clothes and jump into bed with me.” […]
Commentators say that people today have a shorter attention span than in the past, but Jerry Seinfeld and I don’t believe this is true. “There is no such thing as an attention span. There is only the quality of what you are viewing. This whole idea of an attention span is, I think, a misnomer. […]
We tend to think of imitation as the opposite of innovation but I don’t believe this is true. “Opposite” indicates opposed positions, left and right. But my observation is that innovation and imitation are usually the second and third positions in a continuing circle that has improvisation as its starting point. Here’s how that circle […]
When you find your mind wandering, ask yourself these two questions: What am I thinking? Why am I thinking this? And when you’re busy, ask these three: What am I doing? What do I hope to gain by it? Why does this matter to me? Ask these questions and you’ll sidestep the bullet Socrates fired […]
Wal-Mart is the biggest company in America, followed by 3 oil companies and then Warren Buffett’s Berkshire-Hathaway, Apple Computers, General Motors, and General Electric. Yep. Apple today is bigger than both General Motors and G.E. “Yippee, Skippy, call the press. Oh, you did already? And the press said Nash-Finch is number 500? Who the hell […]
Every employee has opinions about the advertising that represents their company. This is natural I suppose because those ads, by extension, represent the employee as well. And so they tell the boss what they think, “and all of our customers think that, too.” But if the development of successful advertising were as instinctive as most […]
“So there I was, first time in Iraq, officer in charge, first time under fire. I had been studying at the Air Force Academy for 4 years. I had a master’s degree in leadership. And I was scared. You know, the first time I heard the BOOMs, the sirens. And I was hunkered down by […]
You and I are aware of the superficial motives we have for the things we do, but only rarely do we consider the deeper motives that hide behind the superficial ones. Pennie and I have been discussing the future and how it revolves around you. Yes, you. Today, July 8, 2013, is the vortex […]
I’ve had a handful of memorable moments.Among them is a meeting with Zig Ziglar in 1986. Zig stood at a whiteboard and smiled at the 20 of us staring back at him with big eyes. Zig had written several bestselling books and created America’s most popular sales training program. The 20 of us were neophyte […]
In the world of bricks-and-mortar, 1. a spectacular building, 2. good signage and 3. an excellent location are the best advertising money can buy. In the binary world where Ones are bricks and Zeroes are mortar, 1. your website is your building, 2. your masthead is your signage and 3. your domain name is […]
A person capable of creating is happiest when they are creating. Artists create visual and auditory artifacts that affect our thoughts, moods and attitudes. Riddle-solvers perform feats of engineering and invention. Teachers create new understanding in the minds of their students. Entrepreneurs create businesses that offer us new and different experiences. Communicators create stories and […]
A radio commercial begins, “I’m Ronald Watersdown, and I’m here to tell you about a very important opportunity that I’m sure you won’t want to miss. It’s an incredible chance for you to…” What did those twenty-nine words make you see in your mind? Not much, right? But what about these? “Owl was neither wise […]
Laid side-by-side, a stick and a rope of the same length share a similar appearance. Likewise, rules and principles look alike even though they have virtually nothing in common. Rules are like sticks. You can prod people with them. You can threaten people with them. You can beat people with them. But you cannot lead […]
The principal benefit of creative thought is hope. New possibilities are electric, and hope is the light that shines from them. Creativity is the source of hope even when your hope is in God: “I don’t see a way out of this, but I’m betting that He does.” We depend upon God’s creative thoughts to […]
The smartest thing I ever did was drop out of college on the second day. What I wanted to learn, they couldn’t teach me, so I left to figure it out on my own. That was 37 years ago. A number of years later I wrote a series of New York Times and Wall Street […]
Radio Ink magazine, published by Eric Rhoads, is the principal trade publication of the radio industry. Today we examine a feature article I wrote for that magazine recently. In it, I speak directly to the frustrations of the account executives – the salespeople – employed by America’s 10,000+ commercial radio stations and the many hundreds […]
Quixote sees the turning of the windmill as the flailing arms of a giant that must be defeated. Peter Pan will remain young only if he can escape a tick-tocking crocodile that has swallowed a clock. In 1904, old Mrs. Snow spoke of her late husband to author J.M. Barrie on the opening night of […]
The Da Vinci Code was published in 2003, exactly 10 years ago. The book has been denounced as an attack on the Catholic church and sharply criticized for its historical and scientific inaccuracies, but that hasn’t keep it from selling more than 80 million copies in 44 languages. The story is fiction, marketed as fiction, […]
Fear is the bullet that eliminates happiness. Fear is the bullet that kills the dream. Fear is the assassin of success. Why not become bulletproof in 2 easy steps? 1. Make peace with the possibility of failure. 2. Amputate your sense of shame. “Failure is not an option” is the platitude of people who have […]
If you’re not being criticized today, then no one was listening when you spoke. Welcome to the time of the witch-hunt. This is that time when angry cyber-terrorists post incendiary online reviews and pretend their only motive is to protect the public. This is that time when corporate assassins take pleasure in shooting elephants from […]
I’ve never seen a business fail due to “reaching the wrong people.” So why does every business owner instinctively believe that “reaching the right people” is the key to successful advertising? Who, exactly, do you not want to know about you? Who isn’t qualified to repeat the good things they’ve heard about you? And when […]
Chandler Canterbury is a child actor with a dazzling future. Immediately following the world premiere of When Angels Sing, a not-yet-released movie young Canterbury made with Willie Nelson, Connie Britton, Lyle Lovett, Fionnula Flanagan, Kris Kristofferson and Harry Connick, Jr., Harry grabbed a microphone and told a funny story about his first encounter with Chandler. […]
If I had any sense, if I had half the brains God gave an aardvark, I’d talk about politics or religion and fewer people would be annoyed. But aardvarks look at me with pity because I’m foolish. My social filter is so misaligned that I’m going to share with you my thoughts about planning. “Plan your […]
Jeff says I have a confirmation bias, a strong attraction to information that reinforces my convictions and helps me prove my point. That makes sense. I’m an ad writer. Does anyone really want their ad writer to be unbiased? The job of the ad writer is to: 1. discover a persuasive perspective, and 2. develop […]
Is it wise to protect the ones we love from the hardships that taught us all we know? Hardship is the undisputed School of the Masters, but very few students seek admission. Education begins with memorization. Having learned all the theories, steps and rules, we parry and thrust against the light in a kind of […]
I think there should be something in science called the ‘reindeer effect.’ I don’t know what it would be, but I think it’d be good to hear someone say, ‘Gentlemen, what we have here is a terrifying example of the reindeer effect.’– Jack Handey The Reindeer Effect isn’t real. The Ikea Effect, however, is real […]
Things depend on how you look at them.Through what lenses do you examine possibilities? The first 2 lenses are intellect and emotion. Sometimes you use one, sometimes the other. This is normal. Intellect employs hard facts and cold logic. Emotion relies on soft intuition and warm connections. Will the first impression be made in the […]
Nothing sounds appealing. Have you ever had that feeling? You’re sort of hungry, but nothing sounds good. You want to have fun, but nothing sounds fun. So you drive to the bookstore but none of the books – not a single one of them – whispers for you to carry it to the cashier. You […]
A mirage is not a hallucination, but a misinterpretation.We see the sky reflected from the ground and we assume it to be water. But it isn’t. That reflection is caused by light passing through cold air that sits on a thin layer of hot air, heated by sun-soaked sand. 1. FaceBook, for business, is a […]
Wizard Academy exists to educate, equip and encourage small business owners, little people with dreams who face giant corporations with big bank accounts. Like the windmills of Quixote, these giants are often unaware and unfeeling of their challengers. Don Quixote was an average man, distinguished only by his beautiful dream. He called this creation of […]
A rich knowledge of history is better than creativity. Let me qualify that. A rich knowledge of history is better than creativity if your goal is to make money. The most profitable form of creativity is to repurpose the proven. Do you want to put together a group of colors that create a powerful effect? […]
We have, for the most part, the feelings we choose to have. Please don’t be angry with me if you prefer to be tragic. I do not deny you this choice. I deny only that you have no escape. Our feelings in the first moment are triggered by our circumstances. Happy news. Sad news. News […]
Use half as many words and they’ll hit twice as hard. Every writer knows it. Salespeople need to learn it. A few weeks ago I invested a day of training in the telephone staff of a client of mine and doubled their close rate as a result. “You’re working way too hard at it,” […]
When your friend says something interesting, write it down. Better yet, post it online and give your friend eternal life. I was whining to Rich Mann over a plate of sushi one day when he reminded me to shut up and be happy. Rich didn’t even look up when he said it. He just mumbled, […]
Today I’m going to tell you 3 new things you need to know about. My enthusiasm will probably make it sound like I’m giving you a sales pitch. Sorry about that. If you’re not in the mood, the tiniest motion of a finger will take you to a new and different place… You decided to […]
I recently spent a day with two lawyers who practice the same legal specialty. We’ll call them Nick and Ralph. They live on opposite sides of the country. They met at a conference and became friends. Nick read my books, attended Wizard Academy, and decided to go fishing for customers with a net. He put […]
Most of the choices we make have effects we did not anticipate. This is due to the Law of Unintended Consequences. “Economists and other social scientists have heeded its power for centuries; for just as long, politicians and popular opinion have largely ignored it.”– Rob Norton, author of The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics Here’s an […]
Voltaire is often quoted as having said it, but he never did. It was actually Pierre de Beaumarchais in 1775, just a few months before Thomas and George and Ben and the boys wrote their scathing letter to England’s king. Beaumarchais was working on the second scene in the first act of The Barber of […]
An auction house is an island of cast-offs and misfits where the rejected and broken feel finally at home. I am speaking of the merchandise, of course, not of the people. Perhaps I am speaking of the people, as well. From the age of 18, Pennie and I have searched for buried treasure in auction […]
A hardback copy of Pendulum sent to the 12 addresses of your choice for just $96. Shipping and handling included; 12 books, 12 deliveries, the works. Wow. You’ve got at least a dozen friends worth eight bucks apiece, right? Michael Drew, co-author of Pendulum, is making this offer in celebration of his invitation to return […]
A wise man sees both sides of a matter. The fool sees only one. The origin of the word “wizard” is wise-ard. It means wise man. Nothing more. The wise-ards of the Christmas Story followed a star, had an adventure, made a discovery and leaped onto the pages of history. What did they talk about […]
We can listen much faster than we speak. Consequently, a listener’s mind will wander when we take too long to make a point. This isn’t new. What is new, however, is the current trend toward voluntary, rapid distraction. Defenders of this practice call it ‘multi-tasking.’ But brain-imaging studies reveal that ‘multi-tasking’ is merely the switching […]
Everyone wants to make the same three things,” the Princess said, “money, a name, and a difference. But our actions are dictated by the one we want most.” You can make a name for yourself – become famous – or you can make a lot of money in complete obscurity. Either way, people will consider […]
Most people believe in The Way Things Ought to Be. Others embrace The Way Things Are. Arguments, terrorism and war happen at the intersection of these Ways. “Here’s what you ought to do.” “That’s just not going to happen.” “Okay, then we’ll fight.” An even weirder, three-way intersection happens at The Way I Remember It, […]
Pennie and I were at the airport in San Francisco about to board a flight for home. I needed a book to read. I’d been thinking about the halfway points in Pendulum theory as well as pondering a phenomenon I’ve decided to call Information Saturation. Both are heady topics. I needed to take a break. […]
The pervasive fantasy in business today is that you can tweak your way to success. Tweakers believe you need only “monitor your metrics” to ratchet your way to the top of the mountain. “Hold your position, then make a tiny change and click up to the next level.” Tweakers find comfort in numbers, decimal points, […]
Travel agencies were eliminated as a business category when the Digital Age arrived. Likewise, encyclopedias found they were no longer needed. Soon we were opening the newspaper each morning to read headlines we already knew about. Newspaper doubled over in pain and fell to its knees. The Yellow Pages got dusty and catalogues quit arriving […]
More than 1,000 businesses will be featured in this book. Each will have fewer than 100 employees. On average, they’ll have been operating for at least 20 years. We’re going to ask them about their advertising. Research tells you what ought to work.We’re going to ask these businesses what actually worked.Actual experience is the highest […]
A schmuck falls off the balcony on the 30th floor. A putz is the guy he lands on. A putz is passively stupid; ridiculously unlucky. Could a company succeed with a name like Putzmeister? Could a company win if its logo was indistinctive and boring and literally gray? Putzmeister was founded by Karl Schlecht in […]
I am, by profession, a communications consultant. I craft strategies, write ads and buy media. My clients ask for my advice. They even pay me for it. Advice is dangerous to give. If you are thinking, “Yes, it’s dangerous to give advice because your advice might be wrong,” you probably haven’t worked full-time in a […]
Every “Me” cycle in society begins with: 1. a beautiful dream of freedom from restraint 2. a hunger for self-expression 3. a search for individuality Our last “Me” cycle began in 1963 and reached its zenith in 1983 when freedom from restraint had evolved into conspicuous consumption and individuality was being “self-expressed” through costumes, big […]
You wrestle with lions daily. Lions are powers outside yourself: circumstance and serendipity, fate and phenomenon, bad luck and good. A lion can oppose or assist you. It can be your enemy or friend. A gang of lions is called a pride. Interesting. Unlike lions, tigers are solitary. Your tiger is your own, inner ferocity: Determination. […]
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