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A few months ago I sat down with all of my highlighted books, notes, seminar handouts, favorite quotations, classic one-liners and all other priceless pieces of business advice that have accumulated over the past 5 years. Originally, it started out as a brainstorming exercise in which I wrote 100 pieces of business advice on 100 Post It Notes as a “Wall of Motivation.” I ended up liking it so…

The latest word of mouth marketing book, Grapevine, by Dave Balter & John Butman, has some awesome stuff. Check it out: “Everybody talks about products and services, and they talk about them all the time. Word of mouth is NOT about identifying a small subgroup of highly influential or well-connected people to talk up a product or service. It’s not about mavens or bees or celebrities or people with…

In late 2002 my website went live. My webmaster, Chad Kouse, asked me an important question: do you want to include a counter at the bottom of each page? And I thought, “Does anyone really care how many thousands of people have viewed my site?” Probably not. But then I thought about McDonald’s. You see, when I was a kid, every Sunday my Grampa would take my brother, cousins…

I’ve only had this nametag tattoo for a month. (Compliments of Joe Reinke from Iron Age Studio.) But I’ve been keeping record of the reactions from people. Interestingly enough, just like the reactions from wearing my regular nametag, the tattooed nametag elicits several types of responses: Laughter Most people just start cracking up. They tend to be friends of mine who’ve heard about the tattoo, known me for years,…

Every year I return to my alma matter, Green Trails Elementary School, to speak at their annual Book Fair. For an entire week they bring in local authors, athletes and educators to talk about the importance of reading and writing. It was a riot. First I gave all the kids nametags. Then I read one of my favorite children’s books, Yay, You. I also spent some time talking about…

In the middle of dinner last night, an old friend from high school stopped by my table to say hello. After we caught up for a few minutes Adam said, “You know Scott, I was just reading about you the other day.” “Really?” I said. “What were you reading?” “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not.” “What?! Ripley’s? Get the hell outta here!” “Oh yeah, it’s in there. I just bought…

On the way up to my mastermind meeting at The Hughes Groupthis morning, I noticed something unique in the elevator. There were 18 floor buttons, but one of them didn’t have a number on it. Rather, it simply said: HUGHES. (Good thing, because I’d completely spaced out on the floor of my meeting!) Later on the way out, my friend Andy Masters made a comment about how the labeled…

Which of these sentences sounds more credible? They say Xbox 360’s are selling like hotcakes I read an article on CNN.com this morning that said Microsoft planned to sell 3 million Xbox 360’s within 90 days of today’s launch. Here’s the link. There’s a simple reason #2 is the obvious choice: credibility comes from specificity. And when people fail to be specific in their communication – both interpersonally and…

I started writing HELLO, my name is Scott during my senior year of college at Miami University. And since I was a marketing major, I like to think I applied some of my knowledge… So, as graduation drew close, I began collecting emails. LOTS of emails. And not just the addresses of my close friends with whom I wanted to stay in touch, but every classmate, casual acquaintance, radio…

In Al Ries’s famous book, 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, he explains that if you want to build a brand, you must “focus your branding efforts on owning a word in the prospect’s mind. A word that nobody else owns.” I couldn’t agree more. But it wasn’t until October 20th that it all came full circle: “Yes, Mr. Ginsberg, I’m one of the editors of Cosmopolitan Magazine. I’d like…