Your website may be beautiful, easy to navigate, and position you as a trustworthy provider of high-level services, but it’s also a disaster from a marketing perspective because everyone else in your industry has something equally attractive and professional. Learn how to stand out from your competitors. Great news about your website—it’s beautiful, easy to navigate, and positions you as a trustworthy provider of high-level services. Here’s the bad news: I could say the exact same thing about everyone else in your industry. Their websites are just as attractive, just as professional, and from a marketing perspective, just as disastrous. How could a beautifully designed website be a disaster from a marketing perspective? It’s because most website designers follow the same concepts about what makes a website look appealing and up-to-date. You spent a lot on yours but so did your competitors. And the result is that everyone has something…
Have you ever thought about sharing your life story with the world? A memoir is more than just a book—it’s a legacy, a way to inspire others, and a chance to reflect on the journey that has shaped you. If 2025 is the year you’re ready to move from reflection to action, here’s how you can turn your story into a compelling memoir. Memoir Writing 101 Why Write a Memoir? Leave a Legacy: Your story is unique, and documenting it ensures that future generations can learn from your experiences. Inspire Others: Whether you’ve overcome challenges, achieved remarkable success, or learned valuable life lessons, sharing your journey can motivate and guide others. Personal Growth: Writing a memoir allows you to process your life’s milestones, triumphs, and tribulations in a meaningful way. Getting Started: The Reflection Phase Before you begin writing, take time to reflect on your life. Here are some tips…
Why the End of the Year Is the Perfect Time to Start Your Biography As the end of the year rolls around, there’s nothing more natural than reflecting on the past twelve months and pondering the decisions you made, the events that played out, and the lessons you learned. But what if you took it a step further, and instead of just reflecting on the last year, you reflected on the last 30, 40, or 50 years? If you’ve been considering writing a memoir, this is the perfect time to take advantage of that natural introspection and start getting your story down on paper. A Season for Reflection There’s something about holidays and significant events that turns us to the past. I’m reminded of a time I witnessed just that while at a Bar Mitzvah. My cousin was holding it for his grandson, and this was no ordinary cousin or…
Your extraordinary life has been full of ups and downs, triumphs and failures, joys and sorrows. It was an incredible ride for you, but now you’re facing a question: what inspiration, insights, and lessons could your life story offer to others? Whether you’re an entrepreneur, a thought leader, or someone who has overcome immense challenges, writing a book allows you to preserve your journey and share it with the world. Of course, writing isn’t always easy. That’s why we offer our professional ghostwriting services to help you transform your life’s work and experiences into a lasting legacy. Why Write a Legacy Book? As one of our favorite authors of (fictional) life stories said, “Every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.” (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities). But the time comes to everyone, sooner or later, when they want to de-mystify their…
Best seller lists may seem impressive, but the reality is that many titles buy their way onto them, making these accolades less about sales and more about strategy. We’ve all seen the labels: Amazon best seller. National best seller. New York Times best seller. Wall Street Journal best seller. But are best sellers really selling that many copies? Maybe not. The shocking truth is that far more “best sellers” bought that status than actually achieved it through legitimate sales of books. You might be asking, how could that be possible? How could authors possibly claim that their nonfiction books, novels, memoirs, or cookbooks were best sellers if that is not the case? Here is the secret the publishing industry would rather you didn’t know: you can buy your way onto practically any best seller list, and you can cheat your way into Amazon best seller status. Here’s How it Works…
Explore how first-time authors can balance personal anecdotes and professional insights to engage readers effectively. One of the biggest challenges first time authors face is the question of just how much they should talk about themselves in their own book. So let’s talk about the common pitfalls that many first-time authors run into, so that you can avoid them. First you have got Mr. Bloated Ego. He finds himself so fascinating that he can’t imagine a paragraph of the book failing to remind the reader of how smart, successful, and good looking he is. Bor-ing! Then you have got Mr. Reticent, whose genuine humility prevents him from saying even a few words about who he is or what he does. Bewildering! Then you have got folks who don’t have swollen egos or overarching humility. They simply aren’t sure how much they should say about themselves. The uncertainty about this issue…
New stars, same thrills. Why the US Open still captivates. Here comes the US Open, the fourth and final tennis Grand Slam event for the year, starting Monday, August 26 at Flushing Meadow in New York. Of the Big Three who’ve dominated the sport for decades, Roger Federer has retired, Rafael Nadal is injured and may be done, and only Novak Djokovic remains. On the women’s side, the Williams sisters have left the building and no American women have come close to replacing them. And yet, the sport is more popular than ever and the U.S. National Tennis Center will be jam packed with tennis-loving funs for three weeks (including Fan Fest, already underway). Why the popularity without an array of transcendent stars? To put it simply, winning a major tennis tournament is one of the hardest accomplishments in sports. And watching people accomplish that goal is consistently thrilling, even…
A century and a half ago, a Swedish saddle maker fell in love and moved to the town of Köping where his beloved resided, and re-established his saddlery there. Back then, your customers were your neighbors, so you had to deliver the highest level of mastery and quality if your business was to thrive. Around the turn of the century, that saddler’s son recognized that horses were going out and cars were coming in. So, he took the skills that went into saddlery and started to make extraordinarily high-quality beds. A century later, the Hästen brand stands for the same thing that the founder stood for a century and a half ago—mastery, quality, and a sense that they are making products not for strangers but for friends around the world. Hästens is famous for its Grand Vivitus bed, which retails for more than $750,000 and is a favorite of celebrities…
As globalization marches on, more and more companies want to appeal to broader markets, domestic and foreign. It sounds easy enough, right? You’ve got a successful brand or ad campaign here in the United States, why can’t you just translate it to other countries and other cultures and watch your profits soar? Not so fast, Valerie Romley counsels her clients, as well as her readers, in Beyond Translation, which I had the privilege to edit. She points out that you can’t just sell to people whose ethnicity or nation of origin is different from your own. You have got to understand who they really are, and how they differ culturally from the markets you have traditionally favored. She brings a few hilarious examples of American companies that got it dead wrong when they tried to take their brands or ad campaigns to Mexico. Remember the Chevy Nova? Nova might sound…
Gary came to me almost 20 years ago with a plan for a consultancy that would serve dentists, a group Gary had identified as being in deep need of better professional guidance. Many dentists were floundering, and their businesses were failing. While they might have been great chair side, they had little idea of how to run a dental practice as a thriving business. He came to me and said, “I want to get five dentists to pay me $120,000 each to consult with their practices for a year. I’m going to promise them dollar-for-dollar returns, so they are not risking a penny. This way, I will make $600,000 a year, and only five people will have my cell phone number.” So, we set about writing Million Dollar Dentistry, which has now sold more than 60,000 copies. After the book came out, one of the three leading providers of dental…