- June 14, 2018 -

You're an investor - and you invest in a lotta stuff:

...your family. 100% ROI.

...your business. Necessary but comes with great cost.

...your health. Kind of the kingpin.

...your hobbies. Hmm...we all plead the fifth on this one.

Traders invest in commodities. Hard assets like wheat, oil, gold, silver, electricity, even coffee.

I'm not a stock broker anymore, but the interest in following the hottest commodities is in my blood.

Still holding onto a big chunk of stock (oil and gas) that I bought years ago...

I think of it as a "futures" trade. Sometime in the far future, it'll pan out.

But as [...]

- June 13, 2018 -

We consume a lot of coffee in our office.

...a very caffeinated bunch we are.

Everyone has their favorites so Keurig with their K-Cups fits the bill.

...and a hefty monthly bill it is.

But that's ok because everyone is chipper and everyone stays awake 🙂

So when Keurig is running a promotion, Cheryl's all over it.

Today...and today only (time-expiring offers do work, people) they were offering a 20% discount when you bought their Large Quantity Packs of K-Cups.

Cool beans. <literally>

Anytime the price of a K-Cup is below $.50/cup...it's a good deal!

Everyone's favorite flavors got added to the order...except for one particular [...]

- June 12, 2018 -

Remember this one?

(Aesop might not like my spin on his classic fable...but oh, well.)

A big old black Crow was gettin' real tired of the dry spell and thinking it may be a good time to start planning his retirement.

And move from Arizona to say...Seattle.

He was about ready to die from thirst and just happened to came upon a Pitcher.

"This is the answer to my prayers! And just in the nick of time or I'd have been a goner for sure," the Crow shrilled while doing his own cocky version of a happy dance.

The Pitcher had clearly [...]

- June 11, 2018 -

Two senseless, devastating deaths by suicide in less than two weeks...

Anthony Bourdain. Celebrity chef, author, host of CNN's Parts Unknown, father to a young daughter.

Kate Spade. Fashion designer, known for women's handbags, mother to a young daughter.

They both had "everything" if everything means money, acclaim, prestige.

We thought we knew them.

They chose to give up.

And that is disheartening.

Which brings me to a bit of advice I hear passed on by coaches and marketers that is equally disheartening...

Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade couldn't fake it anymore. They needed help.

And yes, the actions they [...]

- June 7, 2018 -

Put a business decision in front of me...and I can push the red or green button without thinking much about it.

But hit me with a decision that's going to change my life...and my Libran indecisiveness kicks in.

For example, I've been sitting on prime real estate property on a golf course in North Carolina for the past 25 years.

Paid cash for it. Haven't built on it...yet.

My golfing buddies are there in their nice retirement homes asking when I'm coming.

I go back and forth in my head...

Golf year round! Can life get any better?

No winter! Hmm, but I [...]

- June 6, 2018 -

Once again...you guys had my back. In yesterday's email, I misspelled "NBA Finals" and typed "NBS Finals" instead.

Thanks for ALL the replies! Lol

(Feel free to go back and read the email if you haven't already...a real blast from the past.)

If I was a sports writer for the Associated Press, the memo on my desk this morning would have been:

ART, YOU'RE FIRED!

And I would have deserved it.

I'd venture to say that a large percentage of business owners have been on the receiving end of those two sad words at least once.

Why? Because...

...we don't like to be put [...]

- June 5, 2018 -

So how 'bout those NBA Finals?

After butting heads for four consecutive years, the rivalry between the Warriors and the Cavs makes for riveting tv.

But then rivalries are what makes the sport great.

Remember the epic matchups between the Celtics and the Lakers of the '80s the "golden era" of the NBA?

Larry Bird and Magic Johnson's legendary love-hate relationship even inspired the movie "Best of Enemies."

And then you've got the rivalry between the Chicago Bulls' Michael Jordan and the Bad Boys of the Detroit Pistons putting the screws to the Bulls with the Jordan Rules in the late [...]

- June 4, 2018 -

Remember when "content was king"?

It still is for digital marketers who live and die by their content calendars.

But when I look around, here's what I see:

...fiddling with ClickFunnels no one visits

...writing blog posts no one reads

...shooting and uploading videos to YouTube that no one watches

...recording podcasts no one tunes in to

...paying for a branding redo no one notices

...kissing influencer a** but getting no referrals

...creating membership courses that no one logs into and completes

...Tweeting, Snapping, going Live, posting to Instagram

Spending an obscene amount of time creating stuff BUT not making a whole lot of money.

Yeah, value is [...]

- May 31, 2018 -

Gary Vaynerchuk. You're either a fan or you're not.

The guy who as a wine critic grew his family’s wine business from $3 million to $60 million...

I could hang with him.

The guy who built his personal brand by being the loudest, crudest voice in the room...

I've been known to drop some 4-letter words so no judgement on that.

But shock value has a short life span.

The guy who takes digital marketing to a level of hyper frenetic posting, tweeting, vlogging blah blah blah...

I'd freaking pull the rest of my hair out!

Gary Vee is a really smart dude - [...]

- May 30, 2018 -

Forensics science, the process of solving crimes by using science, is kinda creepy but has always fascinated me.

Probably why I enjoyed the TV show "Quincy M.E." so much.

It was a classic! A forensic crime drama that ran for eight seasons in the late '70's and early '80's.

It starred Jack Klugman as L.A. Medical Examiner Dr. Quincy who often took an unusually active role in police investigations as he untangled the twisted web of the criminal mind.

His nose for sniffing out crime and his skill as a coroner combined to help solve the most mysterious of deaths.

Quincy [...]