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Loglines are fascinating to me. If you’re not familiar with this term, it’s a brief summary of a television program, film, or book that states the central conflict of the story, synopsis of the plot, not to mention a titillating emotional hook to stimulate interest. Jaws, for example, has the following logline: A police chief, with a phobia for open water, battles a gigantic shark with an appetite for…

One of my friends has an interesting family boundary. No phone calls with mom at the house. Turns out, his mother is an alcoholic and very difficult to engage with, so that’s the rule he made for himself. She doesn’t even know about it, nor does she mind, apparently. It’s nothing dramatic, unkind or vindictive. This boundary comes from a place of love. For my friend, his home is…

ConEdison, one of the largest energy companies in the country, recently launched a sustainability initiative that’s quite the turn on. Residents in family households within eligible neighborhoods can schedule to receive a free lightbulb installation that reduces lighting related energy costs by up to ninety percent. Customers simply schedule their installation, and then a representative contacts them to confirm the date and time of their appointment. Within days, they’ll…

Here’s the type of online review that breaks my heart: They can afford not to care. Have you ever been a customer at this kind of establishment? Whether it’s a retail shop, boutique hotel or large apathetic global monolith, few things make people feel more frustrated and helpless than dealing with a business that’s in some kind of monopoly position.  Because for whatever reason, that company is not incentivized…

Here’s a common reaction people have to my social experiment. You’ve been wearing a nametag every day for twenty years? I don’t think I’ve done anything for twenty years. It always gives me a good laugh, since it’s patently absurd that over half of my life has been lived as a labeled man. But you have to admit, that’s one hell of a run. And in fact, streak psychology…

Do you love food, but don’t like waiting around for it to cook? Omni, the outdoor appliance company, recently launched an amazing portable pizza oven. It’s capable of heating up to nine hundred degrees, almost double the capability of conventional ovens. With its revolutionary gas powered technology, this appliance can cook a small neopolitan pizza in sixty seconds. Only sixty seconds! This is great news for the restaurant world….

My mentor used to joke that he was going to write a personal development book that only contained one sentence. You know what you need to do, you just need to do it. Guaranteed to become a bestseller by the holidays. But looking back, his insight might have been inaccurate. Because for so many of us, myself included, the issue isn’t a matter of knowing or not knowing. The…

Holiday marketing campaigns used to be centered around joy, gratitude, appreciation and love. Now the universal sentiment that companies use to coerce customers is some version of: Just don’t screw it up. The message they’re sending is, love it or resent it, this special holiday is about covering your ass. This is the wrong kind of pressure to put on people. It comes from a narrow place of fear,…

Are you the kind of person who always felt a disharmony between how the industry works and how you work? You’re not alone. Many professionals feel this way. We’re not agreeable to having our pride and joy changed from beginning to end by producers, mangers, committees and other horsemen of the creative apocalypse. This is our art, damnit! The question we have to ask ourselves is: Can we find a…

Life has not cheated you. Because in order for it to have cheated you, it first needed to promise you something. But nothing was promised, and so no fraud was committed. It’s very hard for us to wrap our minds around this cold truth. Maybe because we enjoy being the victim of betrayal. Maybe because it reinforces our view of the world as an atrocious carnival of horrors that’s…