- January 2, 2019 -

Doesn't matter that the Steelers had a six-game mid-season winning streak.

Doesn't matter that they have the NFL's passing leader.

Doesn't matter that Le'Veon Bell was out for the season.

Doesn't matter that they might have been dangerous in the playoffs.

What matters is that they were a half-game shy of a fifth straight postseason.

They didn't do their job because of...

...turnovers, and not the good kind.

...a 16-point home lead down the toilet.

...off-the-field drama. Yeah, that would be Brown.

...erratic, penalty-ridden special teams.

In short, lost opportunities.

Woulda. Coulda. Shoulda...

First off, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Time with [...]

- December 18, 2018 -

Pokémon GO.

Cool mobile reboot for the digital age of the original Nintendo Game Boy sensation.

So what does Pokémon GO have to do with marketing?

All shall be revealed...

I've always been a firm believer in direct mail marketing. Cut my teeth on it over 25 years ago (thanks, Dan Kennedy) and continue to use it primarily with our property investment biz.

But I don't only do direct mail marketing. Just dropped 2K in Facebook Lead Ads recently.

Can't say the same for a lot of business owners I talk to...quite a few only rely on Facebook.

I feel a Paul Simon [...]

- December 18, 2018 -

Who didn't grow up with Kermit, Miss Piggy...and my personal favorites Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem.

Come on, you had to love Lips on trumpet and Animal on drums!

And you thought the Beatles and Rolling Stones had it goin' on!

The Electric Mayhem covered everything from classical to jazz to country.

In a world of Kardashian doppelgangers and movie reboots...take a cue from Jim Henson and make a break from the herd of monkey-see-monkey-do marketers.

Puppets have been around for 3,000 years but Henson broke the mold.

...he used foam and rubber instead of wood to craft his Muppets.

...he used [...]

- December 17, 2018 -

Häagen-Dazs or Ben & Jerry's?

My freezer is stocked with the ice cream from two Vermont hippies who had the chutzpah to take on the big bad giant in the grocery-store-pint market.

Here's why:

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield grew up on Long Island and met in Junior High running around the track in gym class. Ben says they were the two fattest, slowest kids in the class.

They each thought the other was funny (you remember how it was in junior high) and became fast friends.

"When we were seniors in high school, we used to drive around in our [...]

- December 13, 2018 -

Toll roads.

Nobody likes paying to drive on them, but sometimes they're the only option.

If you've been getting my Contrarian emails for a while, you know that Cheryl has "issues" with traffic violations.

Lots of issues.

Just when I think we've got the speeding problem under control, she finds a new way to be cited.

Most recently, not paying the toll after getting off the Pa Turnpike.

(In her defense, I've done the same thing at the same spot - but let's keep that between you and me.)

What happens is that you get a nasty Violation Notice that makes it sound [...]

- December 12, 2018 -

I've been hinting at an offer...so without a bunch of b.s. here it is:

...a 1 hour (although they normally last about 1 hr 30 mins) deep dive discovery session about your business: where you currently are and what your end game is.

...with about four of our team (including our partner and 1-2 business coaches)

...a followup session where we lay out a full-out strategic plan of action to get you where you want to go.

...if you like the plan of action, we continue talking.

...if you don't like the plan of action, we'll go back to the drawing [...]

- December 10, 2018 -

This is too good to not share.

I promise there is a point to it - but for the next minute or so just enjoy!

---------------------

MARITAL MISUNDERSTANDING??

How men and women record things in their diaries.

(No way do I have or will ever have an actual diary, but in my mind...this is how it would go.)

Wife's Diary:

Tonight, I thought my husband was acting weird. We had made plans to meet at a nice restaurant for dinner.

I was shopping with my friends all day long so I thought he was upset at the fact that I was a bit late, [...]

- December 7, 2018 -

It's your distraction inaction.

It's your fear of lie-awake-mistakes.

It's your muddled mind cluttered with cliques and click-bait.

It's your information inebriation...which has lead to your stuckification.

Yep...I feel a rant coming on.

The amount of worthless catalogs (that I'll never buy from) that jam up my mailbox (and get delivered to my office) every day during November and December is mind-blowing!

No wonder they up their prices every year...to pay for their "marketing."

So every day you're forced to do one of two things:

- December 5, 2018 -

About ten years ago, Google shut down my Adwords account without any warning. Total wipe-out.

Suddenly my traffic evaporated...POOF.

Just like that. And just like a ton of other Internet marketers.

So I scrambled to get more traffic from other places until I got my account back in good standing…and got certified with Google Adwords as an expert.

Being out of the loop has never been a place I like to be.

But…the #1 most important thing I did (has nothing to do with Adwords) was to do a far better job of using my existing email list.

That major tweak worked [...]

- December 3, 2018 -

They'd rather run from fights than be involved in a shootout.

They were the perfect pair of opposites.

...the male counterpoint to Thelma and Louise.

You know they're outlaws who couldn't resist an easy score...but you just can't help rooting for the lovable renegades.

And you know fate will catch up with them in the end, but you don't want to see the inevitable happen.

So you don't...the movie ends with a hail of gun shots heard but the frame is frozen.

They were Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Rebels who went down in a blaze of glory.

But man, what a ride [...]