Behavior Change
What The Inner Game of Tennis Can Teach You About Copywriting
We recently moved to a new city in which I have approximately two IRL friends. Those two friends thought it would be fun to play tennis. I did not. I do not play tennis nor am I interested in learning tennis. At my spouse’s urging to invest in new relationships (also peer pressure) I accepted (…)
Toddler Book Teardown (Also My Yom Kippur Sermon on Forgiveness)
My kid has this book about making mistakes called, “It’s Ok To Make Mistakes.” It’s cute and means well, but there is one page that drives me nuts. There is an elephant standing on a diving board over a pool who clearly does not want to jump off that diving board into that pool. And the copy (…)
How To Write Cold Emails That Get Opened
The latest bro marketing trend, which you will recognize from your spam folder, is offering business owners a “chance to be featured” in a bogus media outlet for the low low price of $2,500. That pitch isn’t the problem. It’s not my cup of tea, but I’m willing to bet there is a market for (…)
Think Deeper
Forty hours. It took me 40. freaking. hours to write (and re-write and edit) the piece that led me to my first “viral” moment. For every “viral” moment I’ve had since, it’s taken about the same amount of work. Quality, for me, takes time. Time, patience, and so.much.editing. Those three ingredients feel diametrically opposed to (…)
The “I’m Better Than This” Phenomenon
“I SENT ONE EMAIL AND NOTHING HAPPENED.” I was older and more experienced than I care to admit in public when I had the above reaction to what-I-deemed-was a failed launch. I’d drank the online business Koolaid and believed that I should have arrived by now at the point where you “make sales while you (…)
See You On The Other Side
Few years ago Robert Cialdini wrote the book Influence that outlines the ways in which you can persuade people. [cue ethical debate here] We’ll talk ethics another time because today I want to talk consistency. It’s been a while since I read that book, but the chapter on commitment and consistency stands out as the (…)
There Are Eight Planets In The Solar System
The song goes like this: There are 8 planets 8 planets In the solar system It’s a terrible song and it plays on repeat in my house because I have a toddler who enjoys <strike> torturing me </strike> learning things on YouTube. I remember when Pluto was demoted from “planet” to “dwarf planet” in 2006. (…)
How To Invent The Future
One of my favorite quotes comes from the infamous Cindy Gallop who said, “You cannot invent the future if you care too much what the Old World Order thinks.” I lived according to this doctrine as a giant hypocrite, caring pretty much only about what the Old World Order thought. Especially when the Old World Order was (…)