The Turner Rule in Marketing and Branding
Over the years I have met many alumni of the Turner Empire (CNN/Turner Broadcasting/Turner Enterprises/WCW/TBS/Braves/Hawks, etc) and most of them have told me some version of the following story. [Setup – In the early days of CNN and Turner Broadcasting Ted Turner would prowl his office building and drop in unannounced into random meetings. One day […]
Startup Atlanta – April Edition
Last night I attended the StartUp Atlanta April event (on the web at StartUpAtlanta.org, @StartupAtlanta on Twitter) where 40 or so members of the Startup community mixed, mingled, and listened to 6 presentations by Atlanta Startups. Mike Shinkel and Jenny Trautman (the organizers) focused this meetup on the Real Estate industry. I did not see […]
Another Stronico marketing idea – for phase II anyway
While reading this Seth Godin post about the iPad release I was struck by how great an idea this was Give the tribe a badge. The cool thing about marketing the iPad is that it’s a visible symbol, a uniform. If you have one in the office on Monday, you were announcing your membership. And […]
New Business Adage: The Lemansky Rule
In the television show about corrupt cops The Shield, Curtis Lemansky, one of the main characters, once said “Why can’t we just do our jobs, and stop?“. That quote came back to me while reading Jason Friend’s book Rework. Rework is A) about doing the bare minimum, B) starting now, and C) completing the work […]
Why you should never complain about anything – with anecdotal proof!
My new commandment: Never complain about anything. Ever. If you feel the need to complain to pressure someone else to make something happen, then be honest and call it manipulation. I realized this while at a client meeting; we were talking about problems with a botched sales program and the staff had a litany of […]
Ten great books for American business
After writing yesterday’s post on lessons learned from eight years in business, I thought I would come up with my listing of great books that have helped me starting out. I follow Tyler Cowen’s notion that if you you finish every book you start you’re wasting time on crap. On average I finish less than […]
Lessons learned from eight years in business
Yesterday a friend of mine told me he was considering starting his own small business/consultancy which led me to thinking about my eight years in the solo operator field, and now in the web startup field. Here are a few of the lessons I’ve learned over the years.
Thursday link roundup
Here is what I’ve been reading lately, recorded here for posterity Do Geniuses Need Alone Time More Than Ever? – yes we do. Ultimate guide to table UI patterns Handy Tools and Tips for E-Commerce Websites Useful things about health and fitness 5 Useful Coding Solutions For Designers And Developers 50 Useful Coding Techniques (CSS […]
Ways to be smarter – I’ll be testing some of these soon
Via some Twitter link I can no longer find, I stumbled across these two posts. Nootropics: their effects, their risks, and where to get them – I think I’ll be picking up some Thiamine and sticking with that, as the others seem a bit scary. It is a fascinating bit of research though. Nootropics are […]
New feature ideas for Stronico – display edition
I just had two random display ideas for Stronico, and I thought I would share them here: All contact display photos and icons would initially be in black and white, and as more detail got filled out for that person, the color would gradually return. One possible problem with this idea is a contact having […]