Well, it’s been quite a week for social media. Once Twitter and Facebook announced the banning of Donald Trump on their platforms, the dominos fell. Just about every major social media platform has put a ban on Mr. Trump for “violating their terms of service.” If you’ve been on Twitter or Facebook recently, a number […]
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The 12 Best Articles of 2020
What a crazy year! For me, it started out amazing. After publishing six marketing/business books, I released my first novel in March of this year. The book launch party (March 9, 2020) for The Will to Die was my last public appearance. The next week nearly everything shut down. The book did well. Hit a few […]
Continue Reading9 Success Strategies for 2021
For obvious reasons, I’ve been thinking a lot about 2021. My expectation is that 2021 will be my best year on earth, but I generally feel that way about every upcoming year. On Monday I watched the Beastie Boys documentary on Apple TV+. I was 13 years old when “Fight for Your Right…” was released. […]
Continue ReadingBitcoin Bonanza
Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, just hit its all-time high price on Monday. My wife and I have owned Bitcoin since early 2017 and have added to our position over time. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, here are a few key notes about Bitcoin. Bitcoin is […]
Continue ReadingTwo Creative Strategies from John Cleese
I first met actor, writer and comedian John Cleese when he keynoted Content Marketing World 2015 (see image above). First off, the man is tall. I mean extremely tall. I felt like a small child standing next to him. Second, he’s brilliant. Last week my friend JK gave me John Cleese’s new book Creativity: a […]
Continue ReadingNetflix and the Best Failed Exit Strategy Ever
As you know, I’m big on exit strategies. I found an excellent example of one in the Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer book, No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention. Except this time, it was a failed exit strategy that made Netflix successful. In the year 2000, Netflix was a tiny two-year-old startup […]
Continue ReadingContent Marketing: How Long to Get to Five-Million-Dollars?
Last week I turned in the final manuscript for Content Inc. (version two). I’m really excited about it, mostly because the interviews were amazing and I feel the model is correct now (I thought the last one was correct as well…this one is just better). Also, The Wall Street Journal found that there are more […]
Continue ReadingYou Need an Exit Strategy…Pronto
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 […]
Continue ReadingHope 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. […]
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