2022 has pretty well given us all it’s going to give. As the kids say, “two more sleeps” and it will be 2023. So our thoughts turn to New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve been around long enough to know that New Year’s Resolutions are strong in concept but fragile in delivery. More often than not I…
I won’t name names, but many readers will know exactly who I’m talking about. I hope those who recognize him will take a moment to thank him. My friend and I have much in common, including four wonderful adult children, three girls and one boy each. His son is the youngest, mine is the oldest,…
You hate the stuff, don’t you? 99.999% of the junk mail in your letterbox goes straight to garbage. Ditto for the junk mail in your e-mail inbox. And yet… … it keeps coming… So you have to ask yourself “Why?” Well, the simple answer is that it works. “Works?” you ask, “Don’t be silly, Norm….
(First in a three-part series) Your ideal client is one whose Needs are exactly what your Giftings are suited to answer. Red Adair’s talents extinguishing oil well fires, for example, are not of much use if the client is in need of a birthday cake, but critically important if their petroleum field is a raging…
(Second in a three-part series) There are two main reasons why many professionals don’t have their ideal clients. The first is that they don’t even know what to look for, the second is that they don’t understand the process of finding, cultivating, and retaining them. As we’ve already seen, the ideal client is defined as…
(Third in a three-part series) Finding, cultivating and retaining ideal clients is central to the happy and successful life of the professional. Finding the ideal client has been the subject of previous Briefings, but by way of review and in simple terms, the trick is in the application of the Law of Professional Attraction, that…
I’m a great fan of spontaneity and creativity in language, but there are limits. At least if you want to be taken seriously. Notwithstanding its idiosyncrasies and myriad exceptions to every rule, the English language does have rules. Following the rules reduces your chances of being misunderstood, or worse, being taken for a rube. “Me…
Most professionals and serious writers have in their arsenal a bagful of twenty-dollar words. Even some hundred-dollar words. Such marvels as “deleterious”, “eponymous” and “labyrinthine” are wonderful in their places, but when used in all but a few narrow situations can make you sound pompous. The trick is to know when, and when not, to…
This article has little to do with Hitler. Or aliens. But you opened it, didn’t you, and that’s the point I want to make. Donald Trump’s friend, the aptly named David Pecker, made himself very, very wealthy producing trashy tabloids for the checkout trade. Knowing he would have lineups of bored shoppers with nothing else…
Umar bin Yusuf, being old and full of years, died quietly in his sleep. The old Bedouin left his camels to be divided amongst his three sons. One half to his eldest, Amir, one quarter to his second, Asad, and one sixth to his youngest, the wild Ali. The problem, of course, is that the…