A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. *** In a year when nearly every marketer is being asked to Do More With Less and in a year with one extra day on February 29… my friend Jeffrey Rohrs had a crazy-inspired idea: What about a 24-hour continuous virtual event? What if it was global, with 125 speakers and attendees from all around the world? What if it played with the Leap Day concept of how we can #MakeMoreTime in 2024 with technology, strategy ..read more

Source: Wiley A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. * * * One of the things I love about writing is that you’re never done improving. One of the things I hate about writing is that you’re never done improving. It’s both, isn’t it? There’s always room to grow. (Frustratingly, awesomely.) There’s never a point where you check the box or punch the clock or consider the task (BOOM!) finished. It’s like a lot of things in life, I guess. Public speaking. Personal re ..read more

Source: Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. * * * My friend Paul shared his out-of-office email with me. ChatGPT4 had written it. The prompt Paul gave ChatGPT4: “Write me a clever out-of-office email that explains I’m going to be slow to reply to emails because I’m traveling for a series of talks about artificial intelligence.” The output read, in part: “I am out of the office attending and speaking at a series of AI conferenc ..read more

A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. * * * Above is a screenshot of a video I posted recently on LinkedIn announcing earliest-bird pricing for the MarketingProfs B2B Forum. The captions you see below my face are robo-generated. What I actually said in the video: “Year-end budgeting” What the robot heard me say: “??” (Lolz.) LinkedIn gives you the option when you post a video: “Do you want to edit the captions?” Always say: HECK YES I DO. It’s a ..read more

Source: Grosset & Dunlap A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. * * * That’s a quote from Paulo Coelho, Buddha, or The Little Engine That Could, the classic children’s tale of a small train that persevered in pulling a heavy load over a mountain after bigger, lazier engines tapped out. Or maybe the quote is from all three…? (LOL) About 18 months ago I started manually tracking a specific metric for this newsletter. Today a version of that metric is inc ..read more

A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. * * * This is a story about AI Writing and typewriters. Over the holiday break I lifted a curious grimy, gray case up off the cruddy floor of an even cruddier secondhand shop. It was heavy and bulky, big enough to house… what? A small motor? A human head? I don’t know why I scared myself with the head thing. But once I thought of it, I couldn’t not think of it. So crouching on that gross floor, working the latche ..read more

Actual footage from the party tent. A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. * * * One of the things I love about the explosive chatter around AI writing is how overnight the conversation shifted from this: Yo! No One Reads. Writing Doesn’t Matter Anymore! To this: Writing Is the Most Important Thing We Do! Writing Matters! Dukes Up! I Will Fight You If You Disagree! Of course you and I have always been in that second, Dukes Up camp. That’s why I wrote ..read more

‘E’ supply chain issues? A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. * * * Above ^^ is a sign I read in a hospital waiting room a few days ago. It’s one of the top hospitals in the country, and they can’t afford Es? The DIY sign reminded me of a message I saw earlier that day in a public restroom. It was taped inside the stall: PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE THE TOILET BY FLUSHING ANYTHING THAT SHOULD NOT BE FLUSHED HERE Set aside that violate for a moment (a word that feels ..read more

A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. * * * “Be brave enough to suck at something new.” The quote is attributed to business book author Jon Acuff, the great Greek god Pinterest, or that Etsy shop that printed it on a baby onesie. As near as I can tell, anyway… after inching my way along a very deep research rabbit hole, one useless click at a time. But that quote <clicks to new site> belongs <leads to another reference> to no one <backtracks to ..read more

Let’s talk about how you can create a smarter Go To Market approach… in four steps. Here’s my advice on the questions you need to ask/answer to create a smarter GTM approach: * * * Do your sales and marketing teams ask themselves four fundamental questions before they send a single email or post a single update to LinkedIn? My friends at DemandBase released a digital comic book all about smarter GTM approaches. They gave a bunch of sales and marketing leaders makeovers as superheroes. I became Superhero Ann… fighting the foe of frighteningly lousy marketing….! <insert epic voiceover echo h ..read more