Marilyn Monroe had an IQ of 168. Despite being typecast as the quintessential “dumb blonde,” she was highly intelligent and had a deep love for literature. She owned over 400 books, including works by Dostoevsky, Freud, and Hemingway, and even took literature courses at UCLA. “Sure we all knew Miss Monroe. She’d come in here […]

  Unlike most experts, Mike Kelley believes that leadership begins with leading yourself. Every investment you make in personal growth will pay dividends at home, at work, and in your community. Mike led the executives at Michelin and Macy’s for more than 20 years before he launched out to coach others on how to grow guide their […]

  TRANSCRIPT OF “History of the Code: Part 1: The Alphabet’s Big Bang” 1. Dr. Frank Moore Cross, Professor of Ancient Languages, Harvard: (00:02): I would put the invention of the alphabet amongthe absolute cardinal inventions of all human history. 2. Dr. Leonard Shlain, Author ”The Alphabet vs. The Goddess” (00:14): The first forms of […]

Computer scientist and 2024 Nobel laureate Geoffrey Hinton predicted artificial intelligence will spark a surge in unemployment and profits as companies replace workers with AI.  “What’s actually going to happen is rich people are going to use AI to replace workers,” Hinton said. “It’s going to create massive unemployment and a huge rise in profits. […]

Morning Glory Cold-hearted orb that rules the night,Removes the colors from our sight.Red is grey, and yellow, white.But we decide which is right.And which is an illusion. Pinprick holes in a colorless sky,Let insipid figures of light pass by,The mighty light of ten thousand suns,Challenges infinity and is soon gone.Nighttime, to some, a brief interlude.To […]

Late Lament Breathe deep the gathering gloom.Watch lights fade from every room.Bedsitter people look back and lament Another day’s useless energy is spent. Impassioned lovers wrestle as one.Lonely man cries for love and has none.New mother picks up and suckles her son.Senior citizens wish they were young. Cold-hearted orb that rules the nightRemoves the colors […]

ATTRACTION TO THE ICONIC Icons, myths, and archetypes every with every generation. An icon is an artifact that represents an idea bigger than itself. Religious artifacts… Lifestyle artifacts: Tetris, Pong, and Pac-Man were the iconic video games in the early arcade era. They stood side-by-side with pinball machines. Societal artifacts…Marilyn Monroe, Raquel Welch, and Farah […]

  “The master computer could not act wisely without the help of the Keeper; it had to act wisely in order to get to the Keeper. What now? What now? I need wisdom, and yet who can guide me? I have vastly more knowledge than any human can hope to muster, and yet I have […]

Paintings like this one cause us to instinctively assume it’s just one more of those idealized, romanticized memories of a time that never was. But this is the real thing. “Where Past Meets Present” was painted in 1917 when that car was brand new. The artist, Maynard Dixon, was born in Fresno, California in 1875, […]

Who in the world would hire an ad writer who says you shouldn’t expect your ads to start working right away? The smartest business owners in America, that’s who. Mick Torbay is a wildly successful maverick marketer, one of the elite Wizard of Ads partners. He says the biggest problem in advertising is the business […]

Do you remember the ad I told you about in last week’s rabbit hole? This is it: LORI: When you see a woman with an extremely attractive, very distinctive engagement ring, WES: you can safely assume that it’s a custom-designed, one-of-a-kind ring made by the goldsmiths at Ramseys. BOBBY: Bob Ramsey was a famous goldsmith […]

LORI:  I’m Lori Ramsey. My brother Robert and I are the son and daughter of a New Orleans jewelry designer. ROBERT: Looking at the diamond jewelry of Bob Ramsey was like looking at fireworks on the 4th of July. LORI:  Our Dad told us, “We create diamond jewelry as a gift of love.” ROBERT: “Our […]

  If you were going to write an ad using that opening line from Ray Bradbury, this is the simplest, easiest, most obvious bridge that could take you into an ad for any business in any category: “The electrical fireflies were hovering above Mother’s dark hair to light her path. I’ll never forget that night. […]

  This is the opening line: “The electrical fireflies were hovering above Mother’s dark hair to light her path.” Later, we read: “We talked. We did not talk of rockets or space, but we talked of Mexico, where we had driven once in an ancient car, and of the butterflies we had caught in the […]

This still clears as one of the greatest moments ever caught on film. I actually can’t fathom it sometimes. – Elliot Roberts Below is the finished song, performed on a rooftop. You will notice that John is wearing the same fur coat.And look at all the old people in the background,watching from the rooftop next […]

“Nighthawks”, painted in 1942, shows an all-night diner on a city corner. Three customers and a counterman exist together, but apart, each seemingly absorbed in their own thoughts as the empty street wraps around them. Nighthawks is often interpreted as a depiction of wartime anxiety or urban alienation, but Hopper denied any specific narrative, saying […]

“So much of every art is an expression of the subconscious that it seems to me that most of the important qualities [in the art] are put there unconsciously, and little of importance [is put there] by the conscious intellect.”– Edward Hopper He painted his last work in 1966 – “Two Comedians” – himself and […]

  “Even his sunniest pictures touch us where we are most vulnerable, and have a suggestion of melancholy being enacted.” In 1956, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1961, Jacqueline Kennedy chose one of Hopper’s paintings to decorate the White House. He even appeared on the cover of Time […]

    “Getting old is like climbing a mountain; you get a little out of breath, but the view is much better!” – Ingrid Bergman

  How Muscular is Your Business? Trevor Bower owns a single brick-and-mortar store with a website in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. More than 80% of Trevor’s customers reorder products from him within 30 days. That’s an enviable achievement for any business. In a brutally competitive retail environment, Trevor has overcome the odds — not with gimmicks or […]

“Media does not report ‘news,’ it creates it. An event happens when it goes on TV and becomes a myth… TV time goes to those with the most guts and imagination. I never understood the radical who comes on TV in a suit and tie. Turn off the sound and he could be the mayor! […]

“Why is it that so many ghosts prefer to travel the halls of night? Ask the living and they will tell you that these spirits either have some unquenched desire or an unaddressed grievance that stirs them from their sleep and sends them out into the world in search of solace. But the living are […]

Do you know the way to San Jose?I’ve been away so long I may go wrong and lose my way. Do you know the way to San Jose?I’m going back to find some peace of mind in San Jose. L.A. is a great big freeway.Put a hundred down and buy a car.In a week, maybe […]

When I was growing up, parents would whack their kids on the ass if they didn’t obey. No one thought anything about it. But if you hit your kid with your fist, you were going to jail. Not cool. In the classic ass-whack, the Dad would grab his kid’s left forearm with his left hand, […]

Bianca D’Alessio is the  #1 real estate agent in New York City and New York State. Her residential and commercial portfolio exceeds 10 billion dollars. She is also one of the stars of HBO Max’s TV show, Selling the Hamptons. Bianca earned her success the hard way. She had to overcome a crippling series of early […]

The Reason History Repeats Itself The advantage of being an old man is that you can remember the past. This gives you a different perspective on current events. But if that old man is foolish enough to share his thoughts, the average person will smile tolerantly and pat him on his head and tell him […]

L.A. proved too much for the man.So he’s leaving the life he’s come to know.He said he’s going back to findwhat’s left of his world,The world he left behindnot so long ago. He’s leaving on that midnight train to Georgia.Said he’s going back to a simpler place and time.And I’ll be with himon that midnight train to […]

Batman, Superman and Jeff Bezos Ryan Deiss taught a spectacular class at Wizard Academy last week and everyone raved about it. Raved. Like crazy people. And then Ryan wrote something to all of his friends that made me understand the kinds of insights I missed when I missed that 2-day class. This is what Ryan […]

  “The editorial decision to include Tito’s quote in its entirety was genius, but closing with ‘a baby alligator’ is what truly made it Pulitzer-worthy.” – Ryan Deiss

Sensei Gary Engels gives business people the discipline and a sequence of steps that always lead to lasting success. His wisdom was not gained in business school but was forged from decades of success on the karate mats. “Sensei Gary” is a successful entrepreneur, an app creator, and a fourth-degree black belt. Having witnessed his […]

Additional Notes About the Ad Copy: Born, celebrates, waiting, undying… “Natural diamonds are rare and wonderful.   Especially when they are perfectly proportioned.”1. I suggested Earthborn Diamonds as a name to consider because:      (A) the name clearly indicate that these are natural diamonds.      (B) anything that is “born” is alive.       (C) Your engagement ring […]

Additional Notes About the Ad Copy: Born, celebrates, waiting, undying… “Natural diamonds are rare and wonderful.   Especially when they are perfectly proportioned.”1. I suggested Earthborn Diamonds as a name to consider because:       (A) the name clearly indicate that these are natural diamonds.      (B) anything that is “born” is alive.       (C) Your engagement […]

Natural diamonds are rare and wonderful. Especially when they are perfectly proportioned. If you are going to ask a rare and wonderful woman to marry you, be sure that her engagement ring celebratesa rare and wonderful, perfectly proportioned, Earthborn® natural diamond. This diamond was born when the earth was formed.It has been waiting millions of […]

Marcy Syms became the youngest female president of a publicly traded company in 1983. Her company sold brand-name fashions at discount prices, generating $350 million a year in stores across 13 states. Marcy’s father, Sy Syms, founded that company on an idea that quickly became an iconic slogan. “An educated consumer is our best customer.” […]

“It’s good to have an uncouth friend or two in your clubhouse. A wild, uncivilized rascal who doesn’t play by the rules. It keeps you connected to your own innate bit of wild & crazy that lurks inside every man. More importantly, it gives you someone for your wife to compare you to.”– Tom Grimes, […]

        “Who was the grandfather of Jesus?”      It depends on who you ask. “What do you mean?”      According to Elton John,      ‘Levon wears his war wound like a crown.     He calls his child Jesus.’ “So if Levon was the father of Jesus,who was the father […]

You definitely want to read the profile of Chris Torbay.

Damon Lembi and his crew have served over 14,000 for-profit and non-profit organizations containing 1.25 million employees. Damon’s company competes with corporate giants hundreds of times his size and Damon usually wins. Do you want to have the mindset to thrive in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace? Join roving reporter Rotbart and his deputy Maxwell as Damon […]

If you read the poem (above) from top to bottom, it feels as though it was woven as a single piece. But the first half was written in 1838. The second half was written 80 years later. And those two famous writers never met each other. This image of Indy and the poem was sent […]

These are the steps for making better online ads: 1. Open big by using short words that project clear images into the mind. 2. Use colors, shapes, and the names of familiar things when you write. 3. Use simple verbs that describe actions that are easy to visualize. 4. Close big by returning to your […]

  “More agile than a turtle! Stronger than a mouse! Nobler than a head of lettuce! His shield is his Heart! It’s… El CHAPULIN COLORADO!” El Chapulín Colorado – The Red Grasshopper – was a Spanish-speaking television star loved by hundreds of millions of people around the world. Whenever a ghost, a bandit, or any […]

  Okay, let’s take a look below at how Joe Cocker took “that arm thing” of Jamie Lyons to the next level with a little help from my Tulsa homeboy friend, Leon Russell…   And the Jagger Swagger is still a thing! Check out Jimmy Fallon with 80-year old  Mick Jagger. Fallon is funny and […]

“Television rarely covers sports with aggressive, independent reporting. After all, television is in business with the various professional sports leagues and the National Collegiate Athletic Association. It pays vast sums for the rights to broadcast the games. Serious reporting runs counter to what TV viewers – to say nothing of advertisers – are thought to […]

Ken Banta believes there are times for “short-term thinking” and right now is one of those times. In this week’s conversation with roving reporter Rotbart, Ken explains why it is a mistake to create a corporate plan that projects three, five, or ten years into the future. Ken Banta believes that leaders should focus on […]

“Story is the most natural way of enlarging and deepening our sense of reality, and then enlisting us as participants in it. Stories open doors to areas or aspects of life that we didn’t know were there, or had quit noticing out of over-familiarity, or supposed were out-of-bounds to us. They then welcome us in. […]

“Display” refers to visually-focused digital ads that appear on websites, apps, and other digital platforms. These images are designed to attract user attention and drive specific actions, such as clicks, website visits, or purchases.  OOH – “Out Of Home” – is a term that usually means “billboards,” although that only part of this broad category. […]

Travis Jacobs is the Bob Dylan of our generation. “Before his 💜 was purple,before skies turned grey, before an entire lifetime changed in a single day.” “I promised I’d finish this someday. When I originally made the promise, it was a poem called “Warrior Come Home”. Over the last 8 years teaching writing classes, I’ve […]

Who do you call when you need your people to cooperate, innovate, and create? Meta, Google, Salesforce, and other big companies call a woman who has a golden reputation for legendary results. Her methods are unorthodox, unconventional, and irresistible. And her credentials are unique: she is an improv entertainer who trained to be a dancer […]

  The power of social media lies within the power of the content you post. Do you want to see how social media can become a vehicle for customer acquisition? Watch this video. It’s all about Time + Place + Character + Emotion. The 200+ employee-owners at Kesslers have agreed on a universal policy to […]

  The pencil scratched the yellow legal pad like a violin bow on catgut.
No pictures, no props, no smiling actors—just words. Words and time.
 Ever tried to hold someone’s attention for sixty seconds using only sound?
It’s like juggling knives in a wind tunnel. Radio is the rodeo of writing.
You ride the bull or you eat […]

  “I can teach a monkey how to write TV ads and social media bits and website copy IF THAT MONKEY IS ALREADY A WORLD-CLASS RADIO WRITER.  You and I know that radio scripts are the towering high-dive of the Writing Olympics; radio scripts separate the true magicians from the con-men, the astronauts from the […]

Would you like to read what the Encyclopedia Britannica has to say about it? Would you like to read what WIKIPEDIA has to say about it?

  Clarity and Brevity are the highest creativity. But “clear and brief” does not mean simple and predictable. One the most talented writers of advertising in the world would be surprised to hear me call him that. Jonathan Edward Durham is a novelist. He recently posted this random thought. “‘Why am I so sad today?’ […]

The New York artist Katherine Bradford is known for her luminously colored paintings of people in outdoor settings, often swimmers. Canoe Carry, from‌ 2007, shows two figures whose heads are hidden by the boat they are carrying. They appear to be on a riverbank, with long shadows and red flecks on the water suggesting a sunrise […]

  Vi Wickam, a Wizard of Ads partner, sent this to us “From a men’s room in an encampment in Wyoming.” He added, “I don’t know how old it is, but they really nailed it on the head. Wyoming had some good copywriting.” We agree, Vi. Thanks for sending this! – Indy Beagle,Emperor of the […]

Time, why you punish me?Like a wave crashing into the shoreYou wash away my dreams. Time, why you walk away?Like a friend with somewhere to goYou left me crying.   Can you teach me ’bout tomorrowAnd all the pain and sorrow running free?‘Cause tomorrow’s just another dayAnd I don’t believe in time. Time I don’t […]

    Mitch Weisburgh can help youtrain your brain to1. recognize impulsive reactions, 2. set them calmly aside, and 3. deliver far more effective responses. Find out how, right now.All you have to do is click play. 🙂

“Adam Forcing Eve to Eat an Apple”by Françoise Gilot  (1946)

In 2021, Professor John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute introduced the 95:5 Rule, a simple but  powerful concept that challenged conventional thinking in B2B marketing. In his research, John showed that up to 95% of buyers are not in the market in any one time (and perhaps won’t be for months or years).  As he put it: […]

January 18, 1604: King James announces that he will commission an English translation of the Bible. January 16, 1605: Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote is published. It is considered to be the first modern novel. Every sophisticated storytelling device in use today made its initial debut in Don Quixote. February 28, 1605: A 41-year-old man […]

Wizard of Ads partner Zac Smith sent me a delightful comedy sketch this week. He attached a note that said, “What’s really incredible in this clip is that this is what it looks like when your characters are fully alive in your mind.” I think he might have been referencing the June 16, 2025 MondayMorningMemo, “What is Creativity, Really?” Do you […]

“Do it before you die.” Those five words sum up Carl Barney’s advice to wealthy individuals who want to experience a deeper level of satisfaction. “He who gives while he lives knows where it goes.” Barney believes in “pre-questing” meaningful gifts to individuals and institutions while you can still witness the impact of your generosity. Just this […]

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Outliers are Interesting, But They Rarely Matter Outliers are interesting, but they rarely matter. Does that statement trouble you? Are you already thinking of exceptions that would disprove it? Thank you for continuing to read. When we hear an unexpected statement such as, “Outliers are interesting, but they rarely matter,” there is something within each […]

“If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance with his instincts, he will accept it even on […]