Innovators: identify your audience, ignore everyone else

Broad based appeal isn’t always the answer, especially for innovators. A marketing agency I’ve written for for several years started including me in their own positioning discussions to help with their messaging strategy. Their owner is a serial innovator. He loves integrating new technology into marketing. He’s got a gift for it. As a result,[…]

The long shot: taking the time to stand out in word and deed

In writing, briefer is often better, but there’s only so much you can leave out, before, in fact, you’ve left out everything. Like the truth of your life story, for example. Or the guts and glory of a real competitive advantage you hold in the marketplace. Not everything worth saying can be collapsed into a[…]

The inaccurate insult: how politics makes for idiotic word choices

During a break between observing focus groups for an unrelated project, with nothing but M&Ms for sustenance, I started researching an essay I was writing about former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano. The client happened to walk up, and, bored as I was, he glanced at my screen. “Janet Napolitano,” he said, “what an idiot.” “Hold[…]

Two stories within one: ghost writing that reveals both sides

Good book writing reveals that a story is never just about one thing. Ted Turner’s autobiography Call Me Ted tells a lot about Turner’s expansive business career. But the writing is personal enough to also convey the restlessness born out of aleniation from his hard-driving, alcoholic father. So while Amazon lists it as a business[…]

Books and boredom in Las Vegas

If art is about invention, why are so many artists inventing themselves into a corner, where they have few options to thrive and particularly to earn? I recently attended the Las Vegas Book Fair, a weirdly sinless event for that city. An MFA student from UNLV read a short piece to an audience of about four,[…]