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We don’t even have to leave the house anymore. Next time we want to watch movies, play video games, check out a book, do some shopping, attend a seminar, conduct a meeting, take a class, get a job, find a date, do some research, cast our vote, get in shape, eat a snack, start a business, prospect for clients, send a package, join a club or tune into the…

Society flourishes when people think entrepreneurially. When a natural disaster devastates millions of people’s livelihoods, the stories that touch my heart the most are the ones involving courageous people who don’t need permission to take action, the ones who don’t wait around for the green light from above to help those in need. According to a recent article, The Red Hook Initiative was joined by about fifteen people from…

Social capital is built through the hundreds of little actions we take every day. Every encounter builds trust just a little bit more, contributes to our reserve of personal bonds, enables fellowship, enhances reciprocity, stimulates community, nurtures our connectedness and increases our supply of social opportunities. Of course, that’s face to face. What happens when digital enters the equation? A few years back, the Journal of Computer Mediated Communication…

Netflix popularized binge viewing. It’s a consumption model in which every episode of a show is released at once. Fans are encouraged to catch up on their favorite programs by completely immersing themselves in the universe of the characters, plowing through entire seasons in marathon sessions. It’s cheap, easy, satisfying and completely reinvents the viewing experience. And as a result, Netflix now accounts for more than thirty percent of…

God bless the app store. It’s fast to download, seamless to install, easy to use, convenient to have, fun to explore, simple to navigate and priceless to own. But what’s truly amazing, what most companies probably overlook, is that the app store has created nearly a half million new jobs since its inception. That’s a platform, not a product. And once more organizations accept that there’s no market for…

Storytelling isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. And you can buy all the books, read all the articles, go to all the seminars, take all the classes and hire all the coaches, but unless you tell a story that people enjoy believing, none of that matters. People enjoy believing a story that validates their worldview, makes them feel powerful and frees them from something. People enjoy believing a story…

Strategy is a series of moves to get what you want. It’s about approaching a task, project or situation in a logical, holistic, intelligent, creative and comprehensive way, understanding the why behind the what, taking into account all the relevant variables and asking tons of hard questions. It’s about working every possible angle like a train hobo with a chicken bone, taking the world apart and putting it back…

When an industry starts to become cannibalistic and incestuous, it might be a good time to walk away. We’ve seen it in a number of fields, from comedy to publishing to consulting to entertainment.  People start feeding off and breeding with their own kind, inhaling each other’s fumes, building business models around each other, sharing the same stories, being guests on each other’s shows, living in each other’s pockets,…

The best way to reach future customers is through existing customers. That’s the chain of influence. Now that people have replaced their trust in traditional authorities with trust in each other, they don’t want to hear from the companies who make the products, and certainly not the experts who review them, they want to hear from the amateurs, the real people, who actually use the products. Rotten Tomatoes, the…

Here’s a generosity experiment worth trying. Treat someone like a client, even before they become one. No need to break the bank, give away the intellectual farm or collapse your entire agenda on moment’s notice. You still have to rational and realistic. But just this once, just for fun, act as if the prospect you hope to land is already a paying client, someone who likes, trusts and believes…