In the last post, we discussed a basic tactic for determining what you should and shouldn’t give away in your content marketing strategy. Let’s look at a more advanced strategy that’s derived from the old ninja clans of ancient Japan. In the lore of the ninja, one of the most prized items held by the…
Sun Tzu said in the Art of War, “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb…
Finding mentors and teachers today is both easier and harder than ever. It is easier because the digital age permits us nearly unlimited access to information and people. Paradoxically, it is also much harder for this very reason – finding the correct teacher is incredibly difficult amidst much noise. One of the most important aspects…
Over the weekend, I did one of my least favorite seasonal things: climbing up onto the roof of the house and cleaning out the gutters. The reason why this task is among my least favorite isn’t because it’s cleaning (which is admittedly boring most of the time), but because it requires me to face one…
At a recent seminar at the Boston Martial Arts Center, my teacher Mark Davis was talking about one of the oldest and most valuable skills that the ninja had, the ability to perceive and capture information rapidly and accurately. Contrary to popular belief, the ninja were not assassins so much as information gatherers. Much more…
For the last 15 years, I have been packing up and taking off early from work on the first Friday of October to head out to the woods of Sudbury, Massachusetts for New England Warrior Camp (NEWC). This year, I’m not. Why? New England Warrior Camp retired last year, after an amazing 15 year run.…
A master practitioner is someone who can practice and demonstrate their abilities at the highest levels, from martial artists who can handle multiple armed attackers to Olympians who can defy world records and our imaginations at their feats of strength and speed. We admire these master practitioners for their skills that transcend technical competence to…
A few people have, in the wake of the unfortunate events recently, asked for some general advice about keeping safe in unsafe and uncertain times and places. I’m going to assume that you haven’t clocked 20+ years in a dojo with these ABCDEFG basics. Avoid being alone. Travel with a friend in potentially dangerous areas…
I was recently asked what, in my opinion, the best martial art was. This is an incredibly common question, and it’s a question that often provokes vigorous, if sometimes juvenile, answers from the martial arts community. The real answer is that martial arts instruction varies so wildly that the style of martial art you practice…
Here’s a fun exercise to try at your next in-person marketing event. The difficulty of this exercise scales with how centered on your product, service, or business you are, and its value scales inversely to that self-centeredness. The more you can lose yourself, the more you’ll gain from the exercise. This trick is also an…
