Creating a content portfolio is becoming the gold standard for branded content creators.  Instead of trying to make one piece of content “go viral”, the smartest brands are focusing on creating as much quality content as possible.  If you create medium to large size pools of content, some pieces will see viral lift and some will not, but over the [...]

Being early is the new being late. When I entered the workforce 15 years ago, important people had long meetings that ran late, and they kept you waiting. Today, I think it’s the inverse. We hear stories of effective leaders who do meetings standing up, limit them to 7 or 15 minutes, and end with concise action items. I love [...]

Content Gifts are the new ads because there are well documented principles of gift giving that make this an effective form of value exchange.  A content gift is some information or entertainment that a brand provides to a consumer in exchange for earning the right and engagement to issue a call to action. Ideally the “content gift” is shareable and [...]

There are two professions that I keep in mind when working with clients: home decoration and medicine. When you’re hired as a decorator the client trusts and values your judgement, or else they wouldn’t have hired you, but ultimately it’s their home. The decorator needs to advise and recommend, but also respect that the client is the one paying and [...]

I make phones call when things are important. I just pick up the phone and dial.  It’s the modern day equivalent of showing up on someone’s doorstep.  When emails fail to resolve something, when things linger, or when the issue can be quickly sorted out with rapid back and forth and tone, I just dial.  Getting phone calls can be [...]

[A shorter version of this post ran on Digiday] Roughly ten years ago, while in business school, I decided that I wanted to be a professor of economics. My senior thesis (see page 43) had a some discusion of behavioral economics, and I was intent on writing, researching, and teaching on the subject. Behavioral economics holds that rational economic models [...]

Jill gave this amazing interview to The Forward I couldn’t be more proud to call her my wife.  She discusses her deeply personal choices in an effort to get out the word about the importance of BRCA1 testing for high risk women, such as herself.  I’ve blogged about this before and so has Jill, but the video is beautifully shot and [...]