My wife and I recently moved into a new house. The yard is basically a miniature rainforest. Roughly one wild acre of grass, reeds, ferns, rocks, a black bear, a trillion birds, three two fairly domesticated deer, and one far less domesticated mountain lion. If I don’t keep on top of things the yard will soon swallow our house. Then the town. Then the entire west coast. So every couple weeks I get out there with a mower and weed-whacker and take care of business for 5 or 6 hours. The net...
8 months ago • 2 min read
During the pandemic, a client of mine woke up to find she'd been blacklisted. She'd been "naughty" you see. Said something absolutely ridiculous like getting out for some sun and vitamin D might be good for one's health. The Administration at the time said, "Ah hell nah. Not on my watch." Next morning... Her Instagram account...gone. Facebook account...gone. YouTube account...gone. She lost 2.5 million people from her audience overnight. (Her husband lost his stuff as well via association.)...
9 months ago • 1 min read
A few years back I found myself sitting at an elegant table. In front of me on a pristine white tablecloth are three gorgeous little mini cakes. One white, one pink, one almost black. My friends were getting married soon and had enlisted my help sampling dessert options. The lucky day had come. I'm about to eat cake. I pick the dark one first because obviously it's chocolate and I neeeeed it in me. "Ohh muh gohh thash good," I mumble. I bite into the white one next thinking vanilla will be a...
9 months ago • 1 min read
About 15 years ago I'm walking around downtown Seattle. I'm chilling with some friends drinking coffee. In the distance I hear some faint music. I mostly ignore it because...Seattle. But it gets louder. And louder. And louder. We all stop because we have to see where this music is coming from. Soon it arrives... It's a car. But not just any car. It's a big ol' classic Cadillac. I couldn't tell you what color it was because I couldn't see the paint. The car was covered – and I mean COVERED –...
9 months ago • 1 min read
Remember Goldilocks? That picky home invader? Guilty of breaking-and-entering and eating the bears' porridge? Turns out she didn’t just have boundary issues. There’s something we can learn from her about getting customers to buy from us. Some case studies... The Too-Hot Product Recently, I worked with a client who...well... she overdid it. She created what we’ll call a “comprehensive business transformation system.” I don’t remember the exact contents but it was vibes like: 24 modules 112...
10 months ago • 1 min read
It’s February 5th, 2014. I’m standing on the sidewalk in downtown Seattle. The sun’s out but I’m shivering down to my you-know-whats. Three days earlier the Seahawks had won the Super Bowl and today’s parade day. If you’ve never witnessed a Super Bowl parade in person let me tell you… It’s electric, man. E. Lec. Tric! ⚡⚡⚡ Hundreds of thousands of people standing shoulder to shoulder. Screaming, laughing, crying. People on every inch of the sidewalk and spilling into the streets. Faces filling...
11 months ago • 2 min read
For most of us – when we hear the beginning of a joke – we gotta know the punchline. Consider us hooked, right? Now I’m gonna finish this joke in just a second (don’t worry it’s a good clean one) but first… We need to talk about what all this has to do with your website. Because there’s one particular section that – if you screw it up – you can say goodbye to your leads, conversions, & sales. Of course I’m talking about the Above-the-Fold section. (The very top portion of your site that’s...
12 months ago • 2 min read
Cats love laser pointers. (Although I'm convinced laser pointers were built more for humans than for cats.) But the cat never catches that red dot, do they? So after a while it always ends the same: The cat lays down to lick its feet with that mighty attitude of "Well I wasn't really trying that hard anyway." And the human with the laser gets bored. That's internet marketing strategy these days: "Just do everything. Be everywhere. Chase the dots. Eventually something will work out." Yeah...
12 months ago • 2 min read
I'm about 12 years old and I'm on my back on the floor of a huge gymnasium.My eyes are watering. I feel blood trickling down my cheek.It was my first martial arts tournament and I'd just been punched square in the nose. I'm sure the kid who hit me was just a normal boy. But in my memory's eye he looks like he'd grown up wrestling grizzlies and eating 24oz. ribeyes with a shot of bourbon. I'm staring up at the blinding lights on the ceiling as the referee's head comes into view. A silhouette...
12 months ago • 1 min read