Even if you are factually right, you have to understand that most people hate to be told that they’re wrong. After all, no one enjoys being wrong – at best people look at being wrong as lessons to learn from, but I’m not sure anyone really enjoys it. So how […]
Category: marketing
Weekends
When I worked in retail, I never got the allure of weekends. After all, these were the most busy days of the week, and if I was looking for a break, it would usually be on a Monday or something. I often work with global teams, meaning that my mornings […]
Enrollment
Changing someone’s mind is incredibly difficult if they’re not already open to changing it. We often try brute-force intellectual attacks with a barrage of facts, and when that doesn’t work, we start humiliating them when it is exposed that they’re not probably operating off of truth. While giving people the […]
The Worst Piece in Your Portfolio
In the visual art world, there’s a saying that you’ll get hired by the worst piece in your portfolio. What this means is not that the person hiring is going to fall in love with your worst piece – it means that you’re going to be judged by the weakest […]
Level Setting
I like to think of skill acquisition and progression like levels in a video game. If you’re a level ten at something, you’re in the best of the world, and you’re likely celebrated and/or paid for it. If you’re a level one, you’re just starting out and have very little […]
First Impressions
When I was teaching career skills at a private art university, I would often show a photo of a man in a orange jumpsuit with tattoos on his face, and a photo of another man in a surgical ward wearing scrubs. I’d ask which one of these two men they’d […]
The Power of Emotion
We’d like to think that we’re all rational creatures. However, most buying decisions are initially emotional decisions, and we often don’t act rationally, even when faced with facts. Don’t believe me? Go take an eating utensil. Dip it into your toilet. Wash it. Now put it in your mouth. Rationally, […]
Who is Tim Ferriss?
In the work I do, almost everyone knows who Tim Ferriss is. However, when I go talk to my friends from college, almost none of them know who he is. In the work my wife does, everyone knows who Nathan Fowkes is. However, when I talk to anyone who doesn’t […]
Meow, Meow, Meow
If you were to ask someone what sound a cat would make, chances are they’d respond with something that sounds similar to “meow.” One might argue that it’s because the way that cats vocalize is an observable phenomena that we can interpret slightly differently, but generally can come to a […]
Thirst Traps
Thirst traps work for people who sell desire because the marketing matches what’s being sold. If you’re looking for love or sexual fulfillment and that’s what’s on display it all makes sense. Sexy models hawking enterprise software probably doesn’t make any sense at all given most circumstances, but that allure […]