Let’s Put the “Ex” in Expert*

Let’s Put the “Ex” in Expert*

Someone once told me an expert is anyone paid to travel more than 50 miles to tell someone else what to do. Thanks to the blogosphere, the opinionsphere, and the ponitifisphere, the definition of expert has morphed a bit. An expert now is someone self-evidently...
Do-It-Yourself Marketing

Do-It-Yourself Marketing

I have four dental crowns cemented into my noggin. I’m completely familiar with every step of the procedure for getting them in there: the prepping of the tooth; the creation and application of the temporary crown; the molding of the permanent one; and the implanting...
The Ten Commandments of Leadership

The Ten Commandments of Leadership

I’ve been carrying these on a laminated card in my wallet for as long as I can remember. They need to be shared: People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good...
Make the Logo Bigger

Make the Logo Bigger

If you do a Google search for dreaded words in business, you’ll get millions of hits. That’s a lot of dread. And it’s a reminder that dread is contextual. Edward G. Brown thinks the most dreaded words in business are Got a minute? Shell Haffner...
Marketing Double-Talk

Marketing Double-Talk

I left my last corporate job 20 years ago. Even then, I was aware of a phenomenon that continues to become more prevalent: Kleptus vocabularus — the stealing of a lexicon germane to one context for the purpose of deliberately misleading in another context. More...
Best of What Breed?

Best of What Breed?

In the good old days (when were those?), companies differentiated themselves by purporting to be the best at what they did. One specialization. One concentration. One reliable deliverable or set thereof. That was then. This is now. Can a company that did one thing...