Nick Morgan, founder of Public Words, Inc., is a former Fellow of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and one of America’s top communication and speech coaches. He’s penned a new manifesto with for keys for turning any public speaking engagement into an opportunity to change the world. (After all, isn’t that the point?) Morgan thinks […]
Blog
Since 1998, we have been reflecting on marketing, design, code, and much more.
How David beats Goliath (more often than you think)
Underdogs win a lot more often than you think. Malcolm Gladwell explains how. We’re all familiar with the story of David and Goliath, where David stood before the giant of the Philistines and survived to tell about it. For forty days, Goliath had been dispensing soldiers with relative ease, until David came along. David rose […]
Ducks Quack, Eagles Soar
It’s been an interesting week. I had the opportunity to have a heart to heart with a friend and longtime client yesterday who asked for a little more… A little more attention, a little more time, a little more responsiveness. Our conversation reminded me how difficult it can be to manage growth and expectations at […]
Focus on the message to survive the recession
“Cutting your marketing budget to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.” Charlie Williams As my old boss used to say, “cutting your marketing budget to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.” It seems to be common knowledge among both business owners and marketers that a recession is […]
The Big Picture Puts Life in Focus
I’ve often thought that words could be just as powerful as pictures, especially when used by someone with effective linguistic skills. But honestly, occasionally it just isn’t true…Sometimes, only a picture will do. This rang true for me recently when I found myself gazing at a photo blog (essentially, a periodic posting of photos with […]
Succeed in business: get the equation right
“I now get as much satisfaction from the challenges of keeping my restaurant fresh and exciting as I did from cooking. It is now more than twice as busy as it was and growing at 20% a year–teeming daily with regulars and newcomers.” Jonathan Rapp There are enough gems in this short two-page article to […]
How to communicate (even if it’s bad news)
“It doesn’t matter if you’re running a Fortune 100 company, a newly minted startup, or a photoblog that just happens to be seen by millions. This is how you communicate.” As a little sneak peek, I’m intending to write a web review article for the Indianapolis Business Journal on The Big Picture soon, but they […]
Does Google have a problem with Coupon Mountain?
“We added the link on July 24. Within a few days, organic traffic from Google dropped more than 80%” While there doesn’t seem to be any official word that I can find, the evidence strongly suggests that Google has a serious problem with Coupon Mountain, on online repository of promotion codes used by several national […]
What is the value of design?
We often field questions and have conversations around justifying the investment in good design. Traditionally, it’s been very difficult to quantify the ROI of design. In some ways, the internet is helping to change that. We’ve recently had the opportunity to accurately measure the impact of design for DRG, one of our clients in the […]
Daring Greatly: Rare Bird at 10 Years
In a few days, we’ll be celebrating the 10th anniversary of starting Rare Bird. I woke up this morning with the words of Teddy Roosevelt on my mind, which I first encountered years ago in “The Norman Shield,” the pledge training manual of Sigma Chi. “It is not the critic who counts: not the man […]
The World is Flat (and Free)
“Oh, and I forgot to mention, we’re trying to sell a lot of books.” How Jeff Seroy, Senior Vice President of marketing and publicity at Farrar, Straus and Giroux sounds in my head. My latest “Change This!” update included a notice that the publishers of “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman are offering the […]
Etsy Lets Artists Create a Living
Ah, the idealism of youth… There’s something truly refreshing (and yes, at times, frustrating) about the effervescent optimism on display by young people. They look at the world, see a problem (perceived or real) and set out to change things. Of course, most of their efforts end up on the pile of broken dreams, but […]
