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Black and White Television

I am old enough to remember watching a black and white television as a kid. No, I am not talking about black and white movies on a color television, I am referring to a television with no color. When I grew up, color television was not groundbreaking, but it was still an upgrade from the […]

Greater Taters

Saturday afternoon. Approved list in hand, dad (me) is off to the grocery to get the family some food for the week. Fruit – check. Milk – check. Bread – check. Ooo – look at that!  The product that will make dad the hero of dinner time to my wife and kids – Tater Tots […]

Sharpen The Saw

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw Sharpen the saw is the last of Covey’s 7 habits.  (There actually is an 8th Habit, but that is another book, and perhaps another post.)  Sharpen the Saw is the habit of personal renewal.  The metaphor of “sharpening the saw” is simple –  It is counterproductive to spend all of […]

Synergize

Habit 6: Synergize Synergy is where all of the previous habits come together.  It is the payoff.  To quote Stephen Covey “Synergy is the highest activity in all of life.”  “The essence of synergy is to value the differences.”  By doing so, the human gift of creativity can be levered to produce new and exciting […]

Seek First to Understand

Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood Habit 5, Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood, is a continuation of Habit 4, Think Win/Win.  It is the idea that to truly think win/win, one must start with listening.  Thus the idea that one should seek first to understand, then to be […]

Orville Wright Did Not Have A Pilot’s License

I recently read Gordon MacKenzie’s Orbiting The Giant Hairball, an excellent book about cultivating personal creativity – particularly how to do so in the workplace. It is a brilliant book, chronicling the author’s experiences as an employee at Hallmark.  The book is filled with doodles, sketches, stories, and anecdotes chronicling ways in which Gordon managed to […]

The Amazing Pizza Box Video?

Yes, I said "The Amazing Pizza Box Video."  it is not a typo. Need proof that the opportunity to innovate is all around us?  Check out this 45 second video from Eco Incorporated, a company who is "saving the environment one pizza box at a time."   This is such an awesome concept for so many […]

Marketing or Litter?

If early tomorrow morning I drove past your home and threw a bag full of dirty paper in your driveway before you woke up, would that be alright?  What if I did it twice next week?  What if I did it twice every week… forever?  At what point would my “free trial” of the bag […]

5 Reasons to Join Dayton Marketing Community

If you are a marketing professional living or working in the Dayton, Ohio area, I want to encourage you to join a social network I created – Dayton Marketing Community. The site is constantly evolving, and new members are joining every day.  There are so many reasons why you should join.  Here are 5: Find […]

The Physics of Marketing – Fraunhofer Diffraction

Joseph von Fraunhofer lived a short, difficult life, but that did not stop him from becoming one of the world’s most talented makers of optical glass and an expert on the dispersion of light.  According to Wikipedia, he was orphaned at age 11.  Fraunhofer then went to work as an apprentice for a glass maker.  […]