Until putting this newsletter together, I had never heard of Nipsey Hussle (aka Ermias Joseph Asghedom). Shame on me. I found that Nipsey wasn’t just an amazing rapper, but a strategic entrepreneur. Among other things, he opened one of his “Marathon Clothing” stores in the Crenshaw commercial district because he wanted to invest in his […]
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Hope Is Not a Strategy
In the early 2000s I worked at a business media company called Penton Media in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. For about a two-year stint, I reported to Mr. Bill Donohue. Bill was both a salesperson and entrepreneur. He snagged a nice exit when his magazines were purchased by Penton. Once acquired, he was given the title […]
Continue ReadingTwo Forms of Consistency and the Facebook Problem
In an interview last week, there was a question about consistency. For years, I’ve talked about consistency in frequency as being the most important thing to building a content-first business. For example, this enewsletter goes out every other Thursday and has for almost two years now. But in actuality, there are two parts of consistency. […]
Continue ReadingIt’s About the Relationship, Not the Product
I began my publishing career in 2000, reporting to a 30+ year publishing wizard named Jim McDermott. Jim taught me an incredible amount, both about publishing and about navigating internal politics. A few years later Jim was promoted to a new position. Before he left, he gave me an assignment. “Go see Don Schultz,” he […]
Continue Reading4 Creative Content and Marketing Examples (you won’t be disappointed)
It’s easy to be negative about things. Since March, our world has been turned upside down (to say the least). Let’s change it up a bit. I present to you, the 100% positive issue of The Random Newsletter. I’ve been in the marketing/publishing world for over 20 years now. Over that time, it’s always been […]
Continue ReadingStop Trying to Be Original. Recombine.
When Content Marketing Institute (CMI), the company my wife and I started in 2007, began to take off in 2011, we received a lot of credit for its originality. Except, that the entire concept wasn’t even close to being original. I’ll come back to this example in a second. But, for now, let’s talk about […]
Continue ReadingAdvertising Is Killing Society. It Doesn’t Have To
I grew up in the magazine business back in 2000. At that time, most of our revenues came from print advertising, later evolving into digital advertising and sponsorships. Regardless, the idea was the same…companies were paying us to get in front of our audiences. It all seems fine and good, right? Well, only until you […]
Continue ReadingQueen and Audience-Building Strategies that Work
I love Queen. I remember the first time I heard Another One Bites the Dust. I was seven-years-old and my life was changed. Then I listened to Bohemian Rhapsody. Wow. Queen could, arguably, be the greatest Rock band of all time. But how did they do it? Earlier this week I watched The Show Must […]
Continue ReadingConsistency and The Hook. Do You Have These?
First…Consistency New York Times Journalist Brent Staples, a Pulitzer Prize winner for his coverage on race relations, has been writing about U.S. Military base names for years. Two days before George Floyd was killed, Staples published another editorial piece on the military issue, entitled, Why Does the U.S. Military Celebrate White Supremacy? In it, Staples […]
Continue ReadingYou Need a Subscriber Plan…Stat!
I started my publishing career in 2000. Over the next seven years I worked with over 30 different media brands from a dozen different industries, welding to restaurants to HVAC. Maybe more than anything, I learned about the power of the subscriber. It was well known information inside the company that loyal subscribers were more […]
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