“I am certainly of opinion that genius can be acquired, or, in the alternative, that it is an almost universal possession.” — Aleister Crowley One of the handful of things I spend an excessive amount of time thinking about is, “what is smart?” I’m not sure anyone really knows. Is it academic achievement? No, I’ve …
“As a writer, I’m more interested in what people tell themselves happened rather than what actually happened.” — Kazuo Ishiguro I had a lawyer tell me once that there are three sides to every story: the plaintiff’s story, the respondent’s story, and what actually happened. You customers and followers are similarly living a triple life: …
“My shoes are special shoes for discerning feet.” — Manolo Blahnik One mistake a lot of Thought Leaders (or would-be Thought Leaders) make is that they focus on the “thought” part to the exclusion of “leader.” One of the key ingredients for building a sustainable, compliant following is the affinity and pride of membership of …
“If thinking men are few, they are for that reason all the more powerful. Let no man imagine that he has no influence. Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power.” — Henry George Now hear me out on this one. I’m not …
“If you have a secret, people will sit a little bit closer.” — Rob Corddry Do you know how to get people to pay very close attention to you? I do. And it’s easy. Doesn’t cost you a dime, either. And no matter what, people cannot resist it. But I won’t explain it. Certainly not …
“I was a pretty good imitator of Roy Acuff, but then I found out they already had a Roy Acuff, so I started singin’ like myself.” — Hank Williams There are a few dimensions to this one, so buckle up… Let’s get this out there on the table first: the world needs you to be …
“There is sublime thieving in all giving. Someone gives us all he has and we are his.” — Eric Hoffer Back in my marketing agency days, I used to lead webinars that taught small business owners how to do marketing to grow their businesses. The webinars would be sixty to ninety minutes, and at the …
“Emotions are the fire of human motivation, the combustible force that secretly drives most decisions to buy.” — Gary Bencivenga Ever notice that people aren’t as logical as they tend to think they are? It’s a “rookie marketer” mistake, and one that frequently causes people to fail to either predict or change human behavior. Humans …
“People aren’t interested in you. They’re interested in themselves.” — Dale Carnegie As a thought leader, you’ve probably already been told that you need to tell your story to connect with your audience. There’s certainly no shortage of “marketing experts” to show up and tell you that your story sells. That is both true and …
“A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.” — Raymond Chandler What is your story? You do have one, don’t you? Well, in fact, you should probably have at least three. And they better be written out, polished, and perfected. Distilled from your life experiences. Your first story is your origin story. …