The Ahmed Mohammed case struck a chord with me not just because of his ethnicity, but for something more personal. The kid is a nerd. A tinkerer. A maker. When I was 9, I nearly killed myself with a clock, because I had the bright idea to disassemble one – while it was still plugged…
Once upon a time, the word figurehead was not a pejorative, as it tends to be today. Today, we refer to someone as a figurehead if they’re highly visible but relatively powerless, like the Vice President of the United States or the British royal family. Once upon a time, however, a figurehead was not only…
One of the perennial questions I’ve gotten as a veteran podcaster is, “What is the best microphone for podcasting?”. There are three answers to this question. Answer 1: Like the best camera, the best microphone is the one you have with you when you want to record some audio. In the era of nearly ubiquitous…
The opening keynote of INBOUND15 was none other than Seth Godin. In 16 tweets, here’s what he had to say: "Our job as marketers is to amplify things, to double them. That's what we do." – Seth Godin #inbound15 pic.twitter.com/8ThA4bjiUi — Christopher Penn (@cspenn) September 8, 2015 A concise summation of marketing’s role. "Who do…
For many digital marketers, this is the week they come to Boston to be a part of INBOUND15, Hubspot’s annual user conference. This year promises to be bigger in every way, so here are some basic survival tips for the show and Boston in general. First and foremost: do not attempt, for any reason, to…
Tamsen Webster recently asked about my workflow for publishing books using the Scrivener book publishing software. In this short 6 minute video, I walk through the creation of a book outline using the mind mapping software of your choice (assuming it can export to OPML), Scrivener, and then the Kindle app.
Why do marketing strategies fail? Is it because we don’t have the right tools? Perhaps. Do we not have the right people? Maybe. Do we have a bad strategy? This is most likely. What is a failing marketing strategy? Recall the definition of strategy that we put forth in Marketing Blue Belt: Strategy, succinctly put,…
When I sat down to breakfast one morning in Honolulu, I noticed that the salt shaker’s cap was very loose. Ah, I thought to myself, something in the world that needs a bit of fixing; I put the cap on correctly. A minor triumph to start the day, restoring order to the universe. A moment…
