Now Christmas is a distant memory, how sad does winter look without the pretty lights and decoration?  At the height of the holidays, you barely notice the inclement weather. Now, without the [...]

J.R.R. Tolkien had a big problem. He loved the ancient, epic tales. He began writing his own (see The Silmarillion). But he quickly discovered that these ancient worlds of honor and vengeance, [...]

In Blake Snyder’s useful screenwriting how-to book, Save The Cat, he talks about two scenes you must have in your movie. An opening image. And a closing image. And one more thing: They should be [...]

You know the game is on when B.A. grabs the welding torch. I’m talking about the scene late in an A-TEAM episode when the gang needs to build something superfast to save the day. Usually involves [...]

Han Solo. Gilderoy Lockhart. Benjamin Grimm. These names of fictional characters are easy to remember. Why? For one thing, they are all examples of “sympathetic naming”. That’s where you name a [...]

If you only sell to people who know the value of your product or service you’ll quickly run out of new customers, doomed to forever be a small fish flopping around in a shallow pool of revenue. [...]

If you had to tell me your story right this second, would you be able to do it … or would you choke? You’d think it’s easy explaining who you are and why people should care. But if this were [...]

When I feel stressed out at the end of the day, and I need to relax, I’ve got something better than single malt scotch. I tune in to an artist with a big ‘fro named Bob Ross, and step in his [...]

June 2017 marks 50 years since David Bowie released his first album. The title of this landmark record? Somewhat unimaginatively, it was called: David Bowie. Ironic, because nothing else in [...]

Got a “productivity hack” for you today. Especially for all you procrastinators out there, as you sit down in consternation at your vintage Corona-Smith typewriter. (If you’re a hipster or an [...]

Before I became a copywriter, I spent 29 years working with brands. The power of those brands allowed me to create multi-million dollar businesses around the globe. That’s a nice piece of change. [...]

  Can you establish credibility while lying your ass off? Yep. Novelists and other storytellers do it all the time. And when you tell true stories as a marketer, you can copy their technique [...]

  I loved watching SNL as a kid. My favorite player? Dana Carvey. You might remember some of his best characters … The very special Church Lady. The dependable Garth. And, of course, the [...]

  I’ve been watching this for a while and wondering if others have noticed it too. The modern-day consumer is more aware and conscious than ever before. For us as marketers, copywriters and [...]

How do you measure whether your voice is a success? Here’s a quick test. Try reading this out loud: It’s impossible not to read it in Liam Neeson’s voice. If you’ve nailed voice, that’s exactly [...]

You will lose sales unless you hook your customer’s attention with the very first sentence. But what do you say? Well, to figure that out, let’s look at what not to do. And then just do the [...]

It’s one of the most notorious openings to any novel… Shocking, gruesome… …and so very, very vivid. From Stephen King’s epic 1986 tale, IT: “A small boy in a yellow slicker and red galoshes [...]

Sell on emotion, justify with logic? Yes, but … Stories teach us that emotions have a logic of their own. We may be irrational, unknowable creatures … But at least in stories, emotions must [...]

I remember when I first deadlifted a barbell. Before that moment, I hesitated to pick up the 12.5lb dumbbells at bootcamp classes. So when I heard the barbell is 20kg (44.4 pounds) without plates [...]

So the other day I was reading a book to my 4-year-old and I realized something strange: I want to know how this story ends. The storyteller had sunk his hook into me. So when it came time to [...]

As an entrepreneur in the self-improvement world, you’re pouring a ton of blood, sweat and tears into your business on a daily basis… You’re creating life-changing products and [...]

Many blockbuster campaigns are built on the shoulders of the “Big Idea”. But before your customer will buy your product, she has to buy into that idea. How do you win her belief? You don’t want [...]

In this short article, I am going to show you how to use a few basic principles from the opening scene of The Lion King, “The Circle Of Life”, to create a VSL that influences and converts your [...]

“I think it was a dud man, nothing is happening,” said Brett. Brett is the founder of Territory Run Co., an online retail company in the running/outdoor space. We had just pressed GO on his [...]

My nephew recently asked me how The Flash got his super-speed powers. My answer: “Barry Allen was struck by lightning while standing in front of a shelf of chemicals. The combination of the [...]

“You’ve got to stop buying into your own bullshit.” With that line, he built a deeper connection and showed he could help me. I was on the phone with a productivity coach. We were talking about [...]

A few years back I followed my buddy to a multilevel marketing event for a health supplements company. It was a big event, designed to bring curious seekers into the fold. Presenters talked up [...]

You can ramp up the intensity of the stories you tell when you insert one basic theme. My friend Michael Hauge revealed this to me recently. According to him, nearly all stories in the world [...]

Walt Disney failed for years. Until he overcome a fatal weakness. First, he tried desperately to draw comic strips for newspapers. Rejected. Then he attempted to bluff his way into a job on a [...]

There I am innocently perusing Facebook and then…  woah! Good copy alert. Yes, I’m a nerd, buuuuuut… Check it: So I did what completely normal people do (right?)… and [...]

The 60 Second Sales Hook can ignite a timid prospect into action. Or it can freeze ‘em faster than the Ice Bucket Challenge – if you’re telling the wrong story. In a sec, I’ll give you a simple [...]

In his book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, author Greg McKeown recalls his days as a first year law student in England. On a trip to the U.S., an executive mentioned casually, [...]