I grew up in a family of teachers…my Dad even became an elementary school principal later in his career…and what I have noticed over the years about the teachers inside and outside my family is that they are all supreme students as well. And I am sure you have all had the experience of ...

I first thought about writing this post as I waited on a very long line at the post office last December, behind a guy with shoebox full of Christmas cards stamped and ready to go. But I wanted to wait a bit so we would be far enough away from Christmas so I could ...

Of all the “Hallmark holidays” I love Valentine’s Day the best. It takes the “gratefulness” from Thanksgiving and adds in “all love, all the time.” And rumor has it that sex may be part of the deal too…but this is a “G-Rated blog…” I started writing this blog February 14, 2014, in honor and ...

If you thought the full subject line above could have been: “The next million dollar copywriter…could be YOU,” it’s not…because the world is changing in this area…and quickly. In fact, I will maintain that the next “million dollar copywriters” will be working under a completely new paradigm…one that I believe all copywriters AND marketers ...

Once upon a time, back in the dark ages called the 1990’s, one of the greatest copywriters of all time, Gary Bencivenga, wrote a lucrative front end promotion (for Boardroom’s newsletter Bottom Line/Personal) which we called “the survey package.” Today I want to tell you two stories. I’ll start with how we killed the ...

I like attorneys…some of my best friends are attorneys…and I also know many “recovering attorneys” as well who I like a lot too. This is not a post about bashing attorneys–far from it–but it is a post about how to rise above the litigious society we live in and not “go legal” as your ...

I have spent the last month interviewing dozens of entrepreneurs for my new “Titans Mastermind” group…all amazing marketers…and after talking about where their businesses are at the present time and where they want to go in the future, I asked:  “What is holding you back in the growth of your business?” Almost all of ...

I was recently corresponding with someone about one of my favorite topics: The eternal truths of direct marketing I was surprised that when we got into a conversation about swipe files of the greatest promotions of all time and presentations by direct marketing icons, the response was more about “that’s the stuff that used ...

As we watch in horror at the gridlock in Washington–while our partisan politicians fight more than create–I am reminded of a dinner I attended in the early 1990’s in our nation’s capital. Even folks on this list outside of the U.S. who probably live in countries with perfect governments will enjoy it. Here goes… ...

After sending out over 5,000 e-mails to my “friends and family” letting them know of my departure from Boardroom and my forwarding address, the question that came up more often than I expected was: “So, Brian, are you retiring?” Well…it depends how you define “retirement.” According to Dan Sullivan, the most prolific coach for ...

I’ve mentioned multiple times in previous posts that I am NOT a copywriter… I even went as far as calling myself a “copywriter wannabe…” As I discussed in The Control is Your Enemy, if I could have figured out how to write killer promotions like Gary Bencivenga and Gene Schwartz, I might have had an easier ...

Those of you who read last week’s post, “From Intrapreneur to Entrepreneur”, are aware that I will be leaving Boardroom, the company I helped build over the last 34 years. Today is the day. I am sad but also very excited. Something tells me I’ve got lots more to share…and I will. 34 years is a ...

On March 30, 1981, Ronald Reagan and I both got very lucky. Some of you may recall…or you can look it up…that on that day outside of the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C., the then President of the United States Ronald Reagan narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. By all accounts, he literally and figuratively ...

One of the most important lessons I learned from Dick Benson, maybe the smartest man who ever lived about the science (and art) of direct mail, was to spend more time on lists. And to this day, I teach about the importance of list research and segmentation as a cornerstone to direct response marketing ...

The most important thing I want to do for my last post of 2014 is to wish you a happy and healthy New Year…one filled with love all around you…one that has endless opportunities for you to learn and grow…and a year where you will never put gratefulness on a back burner. Whether you ...

We lost one of the great copywriters of all time last week, Jim Rutz. I don’t mean to be disrespectful when I say that organized religion owes its success, at least partially, to great copy. No matter how many times I will brag about Boardroom selling three million copies of The Book of Inside Information in the ...

I like receiving cards and e-mails around Thanksgiving more than any other holiday. (And for those of you from outside of the United States, you don’t have to celebrate Thanksgiving to understand this post…not to worry) It’s a time of year when everyone seems to take inventory of what’s important in their lives; and ...

If you are a serial direct marketer like me, marketing terms like “branding,” “public relations,” and “publicity” give us the creeps, right? Our favorite question: How are you going to measure THAT? And I think I recall a case of hives early in my career when an advertising sales guy suggested I try some ...

I had the privilege last week to speak to over 400 direct response copywriters at the American Writers and Artists Inc. (AWAI) conference in Florida. There were many beginners plus some experienced writers…and the topic I was asked to speak about was: “What it takes to write for the Big Dogs” I wasn’t all ...