Life is a journey on water. We spend our lives floating between the sunlit scenery of the conscious mind and the shadowy depths of the unconscious below. Dr. Richard D. Grant tells us our relationship to the unconscious is exactly our relationship to water. 1. We need it by the cupful to survive.2. A […]
There’s not a lot you can learn from the Road Runner, but the Coyote knows the secret of wealth. In September, 1949, the Coyote – Carnivorous vulgaris – built a catapult. But instead of launching him toward the Road Runner, it launched him straight up into a stone outcropping. The Coyote crawled out of the […]
Picasso and Lump. In the foreground is Picasso’s famous drawing of him. I concluded a recent Monday Morning Memo entitled “Melvin the Lion” by saying, “We won the game when we picked the wiener dogs. This is the dirty little secret of advertising: you determine the success of the campaign when you pick what […]
John Steinbeck began writing a novel in the summer of 1957 and abandoned it the day after Christmas. I was born 93 days later. Those two events were unconnected before today. Steinbeck wrote the first 114 pages of his novel before setting it aside. He had already completed 25 novels, including The Grapes of Wrath, […]
“Bitter arguments often result from a lack of definition of terms.” This is one of the first lessons the Cognoscenti are taught in the Magical Worlds Communications Workshop. Cognoscenti Skip Moen – an Oxford scholar – gave me a tragic example of this during his most recent visit to Wizard Academy. “It is not good […]
A couple of weeks ago Sean Taylor attended a high-class function to receive the Melvin Jones Award on my behalf. Melvin Jones founded the Lions Club International and his award is the highest honor the club can bestow. You can’t win the MJ Award unless you’re a Lion – which I’m not – so the […]
CLOCKWISE: Henry Ford, Kary Mullis, Genrich Altshuller, Sam Walton I was explaining to my apprentices the difference between cost-based accounting and customer-based accounting. “Cars in 1908 sold for about $2,500 apiece. Nearly 2,000 entrepreneurs became car builders between 1886 and 1908 and each of them began with the question, ‘How can I build a stronger, […]
Last week I spent long hours preparing nine ad-writing apprentices for what lies ahead. Strangely, each of them signed up for this excruciating 7-week adventure for the same reason; they wanted to escape the handcuffs of specialization. None of them are new to marketing. The first 4 are full-time advertising professionals with deep experience in: […]
A Chinese proverb extols the strength of the written word: “The palest ink is better than the best memory.” “Ah, yes, Xiao,” (Shee Ow, ‘Little One,’) “but the written word has no meaning until it has been translated into the spoken word it represents.” The second chapter of the book of Genesis tells […]
Marty Markowitz. Know the name? I thought not. Marty is the borough president of Brooklyn, one of New York City’s five municipal corporations. His domain stretches nine miles by eight. Marty’s not even a mayor, yet more people live under his authority than lived in the whole of America in 1776.* Mathematics would argue that […]
Ignorant people aren’t stupid but merely uninformed; a marvelous advantage when you need a perspective from “outside the box.” The truly naïve are so thoroughly “outside” they’re not even sure what you mean by “the box.” When you consult specialists within your industry, you’re talking to the builders of the box, the guardians of the […]
The Secret of Self Definition Corporate mission statements all sound alike because companies stand for pretty much the same things: “We believe in honesty, quality products, a positive work environment and a fair profit.” Yawn. You and I write mission statements because we want people to like us. Our pattern-recognizing, touchy-feely right brains see a […]
“Well, it’s a non-stop blitz of advertising messages. Everywhere we turn we’re saturated with advertising messages trying to get our attention… We’ve gone from being exposed to about 500 ads a day 40 years ago to about 5,000 a day today… It seems like the goal of most marketers and advertisers nowadays is to cover every blank […]
We’re staring into the face of a trend. I told you in Dec. 2003 that we were moving into an era of “working together for the common good” and that the transition would take 6 years. Thousands of you from Stockholm to Sydney to Las Vegas to South Carolina slipped into the hour-and-a-half multimedia […]
“The best radio ads entertain the public and generate favorable comments.” That kind of thinking is why most radio ads don’t work as well as they should. I know it’s counterintuitive and disconcerting but the ads we hate often work better than the ads we love. What are you trying to make happen with your […]
“Most of one’s life… is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself thinking.”– Aldous Huxley, 1894-1963 “Our minds are lazier than our bodies.”– Francois, Duc de La Rochefouchauld, 1613-1680 You probably have a limiting factor in your life that’s holding you back. A limiting factor may be a habit, a preferred chemical or an attitude […]
I detest the Positive Thinking cult. Yes, you read that correctly. But I am supremely optimistic. I see the Positive Thinking cult as the religion of Hubris; man worshipping himself. “I am my own god. I control my own destiny. There is nothing I can’t be, nothing I can’t do, nothing I can’t accomplish. I […]
People don’t really change their minds. They simply make new decisions based on new information. In the absence of new information, there will be no new decision. Give a person the same information you’ve given them in the past and they’ll make the same decision they’ve made in the past. Want a new decision? Provide […]
Art is the language of relevance. Science is the language of credibility. Art is interpreted by feelings. Science is what’s left when feelings are gone. Art is the language of the brain’s right hemisphere; science is the language of the left. And the tug-of-war between the two gives us a funny, dual consciousness; the heart […]
Relevance and credibility are the matches and gunpowder of advertising. Relevance is a glowing promise that can ignite the flame of desire. Credibility is quiet power: Details. Facts. Proof. The flame of relevance without the gunpowder of credibility is empty, glittering hype; fluffy and without substance. We see a hollow promise, the brief light […]
I’ve been thinking a lot about aging. Now I’m a cliché for sure: a middle-aged man contemplating all the things in his life that will likely remain undone. The weirdest triggers send us off on these melancholy journeys. By “us” I mean pampered American men. Today’s introspective journey was triggered when Dale Betts asked me […]
“Hello ladies. Look at your man. Now back to me. Now back at your man. Now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me. But if he stopped using lady-scented body wash and switched to Old Spice, he could smell like he’s me. Look down. Back up. Where are you? You’re on a boat with the […]
A fortress protects you and makes you feel safe. A strongly held belief is a fortress. It protects your view of reality. You defend your fortress when you feel it’s under attack. But is every strongly held belief true? The sincerity of the believer does not determine the truth of the belief. Don’t panic, I’m […]
I’m always stunned, slack-jawed, big-eyed and stupid when a person chooses to do what obviously won’t work. I stand there in a daze, awed by the fact that Jesus can love such idiots as the human race. Maybe I overreact. My first big-eyed moment happened when I was 21 years old. I was a sales […]
Violent crime in America declined each year from 1993 to 2004. Then just about the time the iPod became popular in 2005, violent crime began trending upward. CONCLUSION: iPods cause violent crime. Or at least that was the conclusion of a 2007 report published by The Urban Institute, a research organization based in Washington. (I […]
Moses was 40 years old when he tried to lead Israel out of Egypt by the strength of his own arm. He failed, then ran from the anger of Pharaoh like a little girl. But who can blame him for trying? He was, after all, the only Israelite who lived in the palace under the […]
Christian Jürgensen Thomsen was a young man interested in archaeology so when the Danish government of 1816 needed someone to climb into the attic of Copenhagen’s Trinitatis Church and sort through the rubble that had collected there, Thomsen was their man. Upon entering the attic, Thomsen reported random items in “dust and disorganized disarray, hidden […]
I became an advertising salesman so I could buy groceries. A college dropout with no financial safety net, I installed aluminum guttering on houses during the day and changed reel-to-reel tapes in an automated radio station at night. Our format was radio preachers who needed your money to pay for the airtime we sold them. […]
January 27, 2010: It’s weird when you think about it: Apple releases the iPad just as Salinger breathes his last. It feels like the ending of a play. J.D. Salinger and Jack Kerouac were the tortured voices that led us into forbidden places in our minds. We followed them, spellbound, as they sauntered into dark […]
In 1969, spending time with your friends meant piling into a car and driving around. Every town had a strip called “the drag,” a place to see and be seen as you cruised back and forth at 20 miles an hour. It's how you made contact. And when you and your friends weren’t in your […]
If you knew it was there, they wouldn’t call it a blind spot. Hidden within your blind spot is your limiting factor, the thing that holds you back and limits your success. Find your blind spot and stare your limiting factor in the face. Acknowledge the reality of it. Then decide whether or not you […]
Transactions can be immediate or transactions can happen over time. The purchase of a “Flashing Blue Light Special” is an immediate transaction. I give you something. You give me something. Now we’re done. Transactions like these indicate an Exchange Market where customers are in Transactional shopping mode. Make no mistake about it: Big things can […]
You’re about to begin seeing The Full Plate Diet everywhere you look; bookstores, grocery stores, airports, wholesale clubs… everywhere. This is an interesting story. I think you’ll enjoy it. Especially since you’re a big part of it. Read on. Ray Bard served as the first chairman of Wizard Academy, a 501c3 nonprofit educational organization […]
It’s entirely possible that today’s memo will make you think less of me. Maybe not. We’ll see. People fall into 4 categories in my mind: 1. People I owe.2. People I know.3. People Invisible.4. People I must fight. If you object to people being put in categories, please keep in mind I said we’re talking […]
The Las Vegas Hilton, 2003: The stagehand said, “This is the stage where Elvis appeared when he played Vegas.” He was helping me set up to speak to the managers of all the local, county and state fairs in the English-speaking world. When my stage buddy said we were good to go, the floor attendants […]
Most businesses target an imaginary customer because someone – probably an advertising salesman – once asked, “Who is your customer?” Ask any businessperson, “Who is your customer?” and he or she will likely answer with a singular customer profile. Something like, “My customer is a career woman between 28 and 44 years old, college educated, […]
It’s hard to read the label when you’re inside the bottle. Sometimes you need to get away from it all, step outside your surroundings and make some new decisions. To help you do that, we\'ve built you a business school. Some people think of Wizard Academy as a retreat center. Others see it as a […]
Romulus Whitaker is saving the rainforest in Tamil Nadu, and with it, dozens of species of animals. The problem is complex, but so is Romulus Whitaker. Tim Bauer is fighting air pollution in the Philippines with a 2-stroke cylinder head that reduces hydrocarbon emissions by 89 percent. Thousands of engines must be retrofitted. The […]
They say you can never go home again, just like you can’t step into the same river twice. Things change. Have you ever been to a class reunion? “Cigars had burned low, and we were beginning to sample the disillusionment that usually afflicts old school friends who have met again as men and found themselves […]
Tom Hennen has a line in his poem, The Life of a Day, that says, “We examine each day before us with barely a glance and say, ‘no, this isn’t one I’ve been looking for,’ and wait in a bored sort of way for the next, when we are convinced, our lives will start for […]
Ads are often written under the assumption that we can get people to care about things they don’t really care about. But this approach rarely succeeds. Traditional ad-think says: 1. Target the right people2. Leverage the right media (visual media for visual products, etc.)3. Use creativity in delivering your message. But nontraditional ad-think gets far […]
My son’s cell phone rang. He answered, “Hello?” “I’d like to speak to Booty Williams, please.” “This is Booty.” [long pause] “Is your name really Booty Williams?” “That’s right. Booty Call Williams.” “That’s awesome.” The call was from a telemarketing firm that had purchased my son’s contact information from a magazine to which he had […]
Slide 210 from The 40 Year Pendulum, a Dec. 2003 presentation of the Wizard of Ads Back when I was an advertising salesman, business owners would often dismiss me by saying, “I believe in word-of-mouth.” Then with a smug, self-satisfied look, they’d say it again, as though the words made them feel fine and righteous. […]
In 1869, Monet was painting at La Grenouillere when he realized that the color of an object is modified: 1. by the light in which it is seen, 2. by reflections from other objects, and 3. by contrast with juxtaposed colors. Monet translated his observations into the glowing phenomenon we know as French Impressionism. Remember: […]
Business midgets focus on profit margin, “I can sell these for double my cost!” But business giants focus on turn, “How many more would I sell if I lowered my price?” Retailers call it “inventory turn.” Restaurateurs call it “table turn.” Either way, it’s a measurement of how efficiently a business uses its assets. […]
Every life has a scoreboard and how you choose to keep score is up to you. How are you measuring success? I’ve known men and women who measure success by their ability to attract the opposite sex. You’ve met these people, too, haven’t you? Some people measure success by their ability to inflict pain […]
If it takes money to make money, how does one make money when he has no money at the start? A person without capital has nothing to leverage but his or her time. This is why millions of Americans wear the handcuffs of hourly wages. When I was 14, my life sold for $1.60 an […]
Did you recently – finally – begin to receive the Monday Morning Memo after having subscribed some time ago? We’ve been trying to get it to you, really we have, but the internet gods have not been kind to us. We've known for 4 years that thousands of you have been unable to receive the […]
When I was a boy, I noticed that people often remember things as having been better – or worse – than they really were. I would listen to friends and family and think, “That’s not what happened at all. I was there.” Call me jaded, but I came to believe that the average American is […]
Few people are as tiresome as the person who lives life in a minor key. Pessimistic people remind me of Eeyore the donkey: “I don’t think we can do it.” “This idea will never work.” “It’s probably going to rain.” On the other hand, few people are as terrifying as Eeyore’s opposite. Have you […]
The warm-up band is leaving the stage amidst thunderous applause, bowing and waving to the crowd, throwing kisses, fists pumping into the air. Now it’s time for the headliner, the living legends, the singers you came to see. A drummer takes the stage and launches into a repeating musical figure. He’s joined by five […]
“Give a product away, and it can go viral. Charge a single cent for it and you’re in an entirely different business… ‘Free’ has the power to create a consumer stampede.”– Chris Anderson, Free: The Future of a Radical Price A few weeks ago I announced that Bard Press – America’s most successful publisher […]
We've invented a machine that lets you select your mood. This astounding device can be adjusted to make you feel however you’d like to feel. It’s called a radio. The distinct advantage of humans is our ability to attach complex meanings to sound. The most important sounds are called words. NOTE: The written word […]
A group of students from the University of Texas recently asked Corrine Taylor to set up an interview with me on the subject of leadership. My schedule hasn’t allowed me to do that interview yet, but their request did trigger some thoughts on the subject. Maybe I’m splitting semantic hairs, but businesspeople who say “leadership” […]
Magellan was a misfit, a visionary with a better idea, a curious explorer of things unknown. He would have fit right in at Wizard Academy. But a similar outlook on life isn’t the only thing that connects us to Magellan. There’s a tangible connection as well. More about that later. Magellan was 13 years old […]
The Full Plate Diet is an incredibly cool book. And because you’re a friend of Wizard Academy, you can have a no-charge advance copy. That’s right. No charge. Nada. Zero. Zip. The publisher – Wizard Academy board member Ray Bard of Bard Press – is giving away 20,000 pre-release copies to trigger a nationwide buzz. […]
A close friend told me last week why his wife doesn’t like me: having seen me speak before a crowd, she is convinced I lack humility. I am a boastful man, arrogant and unprincipled, merciless and cold. She’s not the first to have said these things. I see her point and I make no […]
Did you know I’ve been writing these Monday Morning Memos for 15 years now? And in all that time: 1. There’s never been a Monday when I didn’t send a Memo. 2. I’ve never repeated a Memo that had been previously sent. I’m going to break that second rule today because I think it’s what […]
“It [the Cheshire Cat] vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.” – Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) I never ask the graduates of Wizard Academy, “What could we have done differently? How might we improve?” To […]
Maybe it’s because I was a young adult in the Dress-for-Success, go-go 80’s and retain vivid memories of those hollow days. Maybe it’s because Pennie and I had close friends who stepped on the landmines of “Get Rich in Real Estate With No Money Down,” “How To Make Millions Selling Soap,” and other glistening schemes […]
Portals create intrigue in paintings, photographs, literature and movies. Architects use them to lengthen the time we spend in landmark stores and theme parks. Portals say, “Come on in. Stay awhile.” Dr. Nick Grant, a close friend, was examining a group of photographs in my Accidental Magic collection when he said, “Oh! You’re a portal […]
I write today with some hesitation, the same hesitation I felt 2 weeks ago when I wrote about the romance of shadows and the piercing of horizontal planes. You may recall that I asked, “Was this stuff interesting for you or did it go over your head?” Three hundred and ninety-one responded with variations of […]
The keeper of my calendar told me a few weeks ago that David Rehr had called to schedule a day with me in Austin. I scratched my head and wondered why. David served as a congessonal aide on Capitol Hill when he was young, then he took a broken-down trade group, The National Beer Wholesalers […]
Illumination and Proximity are 2 of the 12 languages of the mind. Your feelings about an item are affected by the way it’s illuminated. Feelings of romance, intimacy, prestige and adventure are triggered by the hot spots and shadows of a campfire, a fireplace or a candle in a dimly lit room. Hot […]
The Tinkerbell Effect describes things that exist only because people believe in them. Remember Tinkerbell, the fairy in Peter Pan who is revived from near death by the belief of the audience? [Tinkerbell has drunk the poison meant for Peter Pan.] PETER PAN: Her light is growing faint, and if it goes out, that means […]
A year before the birth of Barack Obama, John Steinbeck bought a pickup truck, named it “Rocinante” and went looking for America. His final book, Travels with Charley (1962,) is a journal of his thoughts and memories as he drove that pickup 10,000 miles across 38 states looking back across the years of a lifetime. […]
As you know, I’ve been trying to get one of my favorite business authors to the Academy to host a 2-day event. Today I’m pleased to announce that July 28-29 you can meet and be mentored by the great Jon Spoelstra. Jon is going to teach you how to thrill the public and rock your […]
Your unconscious writing style is how you write when you’re simply being yourself. You also have a formal style and you might even have a whimsical style. But three styles is usually as good as it gets. Language, however, is extraordinarily plastic. You can make it do anything you want. With a little conscious effort, […]
Minor key life is the mournful echo of a hollowed-out gourd, bleached in the sun, hard and empty. Life should be lived in a major key, drenched in the colors of nature, quivering with energy, throbbing with purpose. Last week I showed you how to extract liquid color pallettes from famous paintings. This week I’ll […]
We learned last week that numbers are a language. Things communicated in numbers can be spoken in no other language. And because numbers are language, numbers can lie. Color, too, is a language. We use the language of color to reinforce – and contradict – statements made in the languages of shape and symbol, illumination […]
The key to Activity-Based Accounting is never to separate the numbers from the activities of the people represented by the numbers. When numbers in a business lose their connection to people and their actions, the numbers are no longer trustworthy. Never forget these 3 things: 1. Not all facts are helpful.2. You lose sight of […]
I spoke to a small auditorium full of business school grad students at the University of Texas last month. They were fascinated by my case study of Transactional vs. Relational customers. I saw their eyes widen and their heads move up and down slowly as I explained how the Relational shopping mode is the foundation […]
1. Never promise everything you plan to deliver.Leave something to become the delight factor. That unexpected, extra bit you deliver “because we love you” will go a long way toward helping the customer forgive and forget any areas where you may have fallen short. Great ads are written in three steps: (1.) How to End. […]
I am reminded of what Michel Eyquem De Montaigne said with tongue in cheek during the French Renaissance 450 years ago, “My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened.” As expected, we received a firestorm of email 2 weeks ago as a result of the Monday Morning Memo of March […]
The rocks of Gobekli Tepe (pronounced Go-beckly Tepp-ay) are a curiosity, and curiosity rocks. Travel with me to that ancient land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in southeastern Turkey. A shepherd wandering on the hillside where grows a solitary Mulberry tree, spies the top of an oblong rock that appears to have been […]
My staff can hardly get any work done. It seems the whole world is calling to ask what I think will happen with our economy. The President of the United States made a primetime speech last week. The press is an interesting animal. The Chicago Tribune predicted the president’s speech would “live among the annals […]
Ten years ago I taught you how to create relational ads that target the right hemisphere of the customer’s brain. Advertisers who learned this technique made a lot of money. Five years ago I taught you that 2008 would be the final year in a series of 40-year cycles and that the position and direction […]
It was exactly 10 years ago. I was on the telephone with an 87 year-old man I had been hunting for several weeks. I needed this man’s permission to publish a private letter he had written to America’s Chief of Naval Operations back in 1963. The man’s name was William Lederer. “Where you calling from […]
America, I think, is not a place. If another people lived here, the geography would be the same but it would not be our nation. America, I think, is not a government. Our pendulum swings from one extreme to the other and our politics are not unique. America, I think, is not an economy. Free […]
“If you say that there are elephants flying in the sky, people are not going to believe you. But if you say that there are four hundred and twenty-five elephants flying in the sky, people will probably believe you.” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez,winner of the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature Ah, the power of details. […]
A new generation of entrepreneurs is emerging from the shadows. None of these is well funded but they are focused, relevant, and in step with the public. Some of them will grow to become business icons by mid-2012. (Three and a half years from now I’ll give you a hyperlink back to this column so […]
We’re living in a time of tumultuous change. A misinformed president declares a war. The value of homes – which were never supposed to fall – fell. The SEC can’t make Wall Street color between the lines and 700 billion dollars goes missing. A 50 billion-dollar Ponzi scheme is perpetrated by one of the most […]
TRIZ is the Russian acronym for a string of words that mean “Theory of Inventive Problem Solving,” an innovation matrix of the late Genrich Altshuller, a Soviet scientist who proved:1. there are only about 1,500 basic problems in life and 2. implementing one or more of 40 archetypal answers can solve each of these problems. […]
A successful consultant uses small indicators to make big decisions. If he explains his methods to data-worshippers, he sounds like an idiot. When it later turns out that he was right, the doubters claim he was lucky, saying, “You can’t possibly extrapolate that outcome from that data.” Consider the following: A large group of 4-year […]
Albert Schweitzer. In background, clockwise from lower left: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ann Radcliffe, Horace Mann, J.M. Barrie, Marian Wright Edelman, Anne Frank Albert Schweitzer was a musician and physician who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. This is the message he left for us when he died: “I don't know what your destiny will […]
First it gets dark, then the air slaps you from every direction and the ocean falls from the sky. Laws of gravity have been repealed. Your thoughts reach up like flowers for sunlight but the sun cannot be found. I am darkness. I am the storm. And the witch rides her broomstick across my sky […]
Run the following ad in any newspaper:2006 Honda Civic DX 4dr, White, 63,000 miles, $8,100. Call 555-1212 These are the questions you’ll be asked by nearly half your callers:“What year is that Honda Civic? Is it a 2-door or 4-door? What color? How many miles on it? How much are you asking?” I know this […]
The coming year will be fun, adventure-filled and profitable for people who have their wits about them. A number of small business owners are positioning themselves to overtake their much larger rivals. Will one of these companies be yours? Not many years ago, General Motors and Circuit City were the dominant players in their categories. […]
Chapter six in John’s story about the life of Jesus tells us how he fed 5,000 people with 5 loaves and 2 small fishes. I have no problem reconciling God and science, so the miracle bit doesn’t stumble me in the least. The thing that fascinates me – the piece I woke up thinking about […]
Tom Wanek believes credibility can be “purchased” by risking one or more of six currencies. The more you put at risk, the more believable your message. Currencies that Buy Credibility: 1. Material WealthOf the six currencies, we see material wealth risked most frequently in money-back guarantees and statements like, “Find a lower price anywhere and […]
Most women can tell at least one funny story about a tragic first date. In most of these stories, a misguided man spends the entire evening saying, “Here's an example of how wonderful I am…”“Let me tell you what I can do…”“…and that's what makes me special.” Although we’re rarely drawn to people who begin […]
Peter Wenders chooses stories and illustrations for children’s books. It’s 1954, and today is a day like any other; Wenders sits innocently in his office, believing that people are who they claim to be. And he assumes they’ll do what they say they’ll do. But today a man with round glasses and a large […]
Americans have always treasured independence and achievement. We’ve seen ourselves as fighters who stood tall after every victory, chin up, chest out, shoulders back. And to the victor go the spoils, right? Big houses, big cars, lavish vacations; these were the American dream. But we recently learned that America is not an only child. There […]
“The brain has three natural roadblocks that stand in the way of truly innovative thinking: 1. flawed perception2. fear of failure3. the inability to persuade others.”– Dr. Gregory Berns, neuroscientist, psychiatrist, and Distinguished Chair of Neuroeconomics at Emory University. Need a fresh perspective? Want to alter your perception, think new thoughts, create a whole new […]
On January 19, 1998, I wrote a Monday Morning Memo titled, Creativity is an Inert Gas. It was published as chapter 89 in The Wizard of Ads. These are a few of its paragraphs: Moments of emotional recovery are the best times to think about problems you have not been able to solve. Great, […]
I recently had dinner with a young friend who has been married for about a year. When he said that he and his wife were hoping to have a child, I knew it was time for The Talk. An older friend gave me The Talk twenty-eight years ago when Pennie was pregnant with Rex, our […]
Greg Farrell, bottom left, with Bill Aberman, Jeff Sexton, and the rest of the class known as The Midnight Revellers at Wizard Academy in June, 2004 I met Greg Farrell in 1999 while on a book tour promoting Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads. We shared a bottle of red wine at the Waldorf-Astoria’s […]
I recently asked a group of 14 men to share a snapshot from their photo albums of random memory, a vivid image, unfaded, a moment inexplicable, captured forever by a long-ago click of that camera in the brain. Here’s what they handed me on scraps of paper: “Trish’s laugh as she walked out of the […]
Elizabeth was a young Quaker girl who fell happily in love and got married in 1929. “Morgan Vining, my husband, swept my little boat out of the shallows into the sunlit depths of life’s stream and we had almost five years together before, in a single moment, he was gone.” Car wrecks happen quickly. Elizabeth […]
Real estate is a business involving mountains of money. It’s also a business in crisis. Put these together and it means ka-ching if you know how to make the phone ring for realtors. You ought not be surprised that I know how to make phones ring. What should surprise you is that I’m willing to […]
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