If you’re going to raffle anything off, or have a contest of some sort, when you’re running it, there will be temptation to give it to your best customer, or someone you know will sing your praises to the rooftop. Whether you’re trying to cement a long-term contract or are […]
Category: marketing
Exclusion
Generally, being excluded can feel terrible. But as a leader and/or creative, you need to exclude people. Whatever it is you’re building needs to be for someone. By necessity, it’s not going to be for some other people, since there is nothing that people like universally. By choosing who it’s […]
The Boogey Man
Decisions we make are often determined by fear. How do we not lose our job? What if I get ‘canceled’ if I say something with nuance? How can I avoid being targeted by my boss? We all have monsters in our closet that drives us to act from a defensive […]
Scary Stories
Given the state of the world and the monetization of clicks, scary stories live all around us. Reading the news or looking at social media can easily provoke that fear response and then send us into doom-scrolling.
I’d like to talk about a different kind of scary story – the kind that introduce each episode of my new podcast – The Inner Monster Podcast.
Hot Food
I almost refuse to heat my leftovers up in the microwave. Sixty seconds feels like too long when I could be eating something right now. I think hot, delicious food is great, but especially for a snack or for lunch, I’d rather eat quickly (even if the food is cold) so […]
Bloody Stool Flowers
Shakespeare, in Romeo and Juliet, asks “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Romeo might still be as handsome in Juliet’s eyes if his name was Romulus the Hideous, and I think a rose would still smell like a […]
Asking for What You Want
How often do we honestly ask for what we want or need? I think there’s a cultural flaw that asking for help or even for what we want is a weakness. I don’t get it. When you’re clear about what you need and want, you can not only more clearly […]
Becoming a Curator
Making art requires curation. When you’re painting, by choosing a subject, you’re also choosing what NOT to paint. If you’re painting a portrait, you’re not painting a landscape. If you put a figure into a landscape, you’re not painting the figures that you don’t put into the landscape, or the […]
Slime Time
I’ve been really creatively inspired by Retroband’s most recent toy drop (which, I’m disappointed to say, sold out while I was entering in my credit card info), and while I’m thinking about creating my own slime toy, I started thinking back to all my slime toys as a kid. Teenage […]
Making yourself valuable 101, part 2
How much is a cup of coffee worth to you? Say, a cup of Starbucks coffee, the medium size (I obviously don’t drink coffee), but they’re out of cream and sugar. How much would you pay for this cup of coffee right now? How about at 1am if you’re trying […]