As you think about the allocation of your marketing budget, consider the immense ROI (return-on-investment) of a piece earned media coverage. I have been helping companies, including major global corporations, businesses headquartered abroad and countless U.S.-based companies of all sizes, earn great media coverage for more than 30 years. The ROI is tough to beat. [ Read More ]
Thoughts
SpaceX Wants Us to Become an Interplanetary Species
Over the weekend, I watched all five episodes of “Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space” on Netflix. If you haven’t heard by now, it is a series on the recent SpaceX “Inspiration4” spaceflight which carried four non-astronaut civilians and no one else. I enjoyed the series mainly for the insights it gave me, however varnished, of SpaceX. It was also great to see 27-year-old women in high roles within the company including leading training of the civilians, mission communications with the capsule and quality control immediately prior to the flight. [ Read More ]
What’s it Like to Fly Now?
You ask, “What’s it like to fly now?” I recently escaped the wildfire-smoke-filled air of Seattle to fly cross country to find out. Since travel is one of my practice areas, I wanted to experience air travel during the pandemic firsthand. I used airline miles, stayed with good friends and brought my laptop so I could work from there. [ Read More ]
Celebrate Your Successes in 2019
We are almost at the close of 2019. Many would agree it has been an odd year in a variety of ways. Our country has felt unstable with its current leadership and that has created all kinds of bizarre undercurrents. I encourage you to look back on all of the positive things that happened in your life this year, all of your accomplishments in all facets of your life. [ Read More ]
Reinventing Marketing: My Musings
I love the hot summer months and all the daylight. It gives me time to think aimlessly about life, my business and the industry I am in. There is a lot of talk these days about the evolution of marketing and I started to ponder it at random times. Below is a collection of my thoughts, both about what changed over the last several years and what to expect in the future. [ Read More ]
Pedaling with a Purpose
These past few summers, I have been cycling with a team called “Spin.” “Pedal with Purpose” is the heartfelt slogan of our team, which is currently more than 75 people strong. We are all about supporting causes around the area, including Bike Works, the Rivkin Center, the CF Ride, the MS Ride and Cycle the Wave. Since its inception seven or eight years ago, the Spin team has raised a total of more than half a million dollars for these causes, and we also donate our time. [ Read More ]
Hello Amsterdam
I recently returned from a 10-day trip to Amsterdam. What a lovely city! I mainly went there for work – to check out the design influences, understand their impressive city rebranding campaign, talk to a robotics company and a variety of other business-related pursuits. I saw Banksy and Icy & Sot at Moco, their modern art museum, and Fukase at Foam, their main photography museum. And I saw the big “I Amsterdam” sign (more on that later) in front of the famous Rijksmuseum. [ Read More ]
Are You Smarter than a Chimpanzee on Basic World Facts?
I recently finished reading a great book called Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think written by the late Hans Rosling. I knew it would be good when Bill Gates called it one of his favorite books of 2018 and “one of the most important” he has ever read. It is all about our perceptions of the world, how wrong they are and why our instincts are so off. The book is also strangely uplifting. [ Read More ]
Fabulous Portugal, Disappointing Airlines
One of many gorgeous beaches near the southwest corner of Portugal. So many people have been asking about my recent Portugal trip, I decided to write about the highlights as well as some travel issues I encountered so you might learn from them. Portugal itself was lovely, but the journey was a lesson in resilience. As someone who has been to more than 40 countries and traveled more than 99.9% of the people I meet, I can say with some authority that customer service levels of the airlines and rental car companies (in this case Icelandair, TAP Air Portugal and Hertz) have gone way down. [ Read More ]
From World Travel to Nuance in Communications
I am an avid world traveler, 40 plus countries and counting. All of it for fun. I was reading some of my travel journals recently and came across a gem that I wrote. More on that in a bit, but first some context. [ Read More ]