Over my long career, working closely with my mentor and friend Marty Edelston, whenever we sat down to meet he would often start the conversation with the following question: “Who did you give up your right arm to today, Brian?” Marty wasn’t asking me this to be mean…he was asking out of care and ...

When I decided to be the possibility of “contribution” many years ago, I had no idea about the depth of that declaration. And when I stood on the stage on Day Two of “The Titans of Direct Response” in front of 350 of the most influential direct marketers on the planet and declared, “I ...

“The Titans of Direct Response” event begins in less than a week…and when people ask me how the final stages of our planning is going, I have come up with one line that sums it up:“I am completely stressed…but totally blessed” First, on the stress: I certainly bit off a lot here…no, NOT more than I ...

With the upcoming “Titans of Direct Response” event only two weeks away, so many people have asked to be added to this list…I assume in search of direct marketing wisdom…or maybe they were just being polite…:-) But today I want to expand on something I’ve written about in the past…not directly related to direct marketing success but ...

I hope I got your attention with that subject line…and no, it is NOT an exaggeration… As you can tell if you read my weekly propaganda, mentors are quite important to me…and I have stressed how important they should be to you too. One of my mentors may not be as well known to ...

Sorry if that subject line felt like a bit of a downer…but I wanted to share two of the most important quotes from my 30+ year career…and it’s all about “launching” properly…By the way, the word “launch” was NOT invented by an online marketer (although my buddy Jeff Walker certainly owns it now)!But after ...

I was on the phone earlier this week with copywriting legend John Carlton and we were ranting about all sorts of things…and he made the brilliant observation that the next “big things” in marketing may not be in the areas of whiz bang technology but rather in the blocking and tackling that we career direct marketers ...

“Networking” may be the most overused term in the business world today…and with social media, the idea of creating a network is often in the hands of amateurs. Simply accepting anyone and everyone who sends you a friend request on Facebook, LinkedIn etc. is far from the gold standard…and I would like to share ...

The subject line for this week refers to the question: “What do you call the person who graduates last in the class at Harvard Medical School?” Answer: “Doctor” I was thinking about this in relation to the upcoming “Titans” event that I am hosting in September… Specifically, when I was planning the event, my ...

Don’t let Gary Bencivenga fool you into thinking that he’s simply the nicest man in the world (which he is).He is warm, charming, smart and a joy to be around.And when he said he would speak at my “Titans of Direct Response” conference after saying some years ago that he would never speak again ...

For the past year, I have had the privilege of being a member in “Strategic Coach,” the company founded by the top coach for entrepreneurs in the world, Dan Sullivan. Dan has a knack of creating life-changing frameworks, worksheets, exercises and mindsets to make sure we live in a world of abundance, not scarcity; and a ...

Believe it or not, the Titan I want to talk about this week is NOT a direct marketer! And while he’s pretty far removed from the usual folks I talk about in this space, I think about him often because I believe that without his decisive actions, none of us would be pursuing our dreams, ...

  I was blessed to know Gene Schwartz…and not just casually, either. Gene was my friend, mentor and business partner…and I learned so many lessons from him. Those of you who don’t know who I am talking about, Eugene “Gene” Schwartz was one of the most successful and prolific direct response copywriters who ever ...

The phrase “I’ll meet you halfway” hasn’t existed for me for most of my adult life…and I can thank the lameness of some people I love as much as anyone in the world for that… I have a group of ten buddies from high school who are like brothers to me. However, we all ...

Your foreign correspondent is at it again…this time from Paris…my first time in this amazing city.And my thoughts turn to romance, crepes…and of course e-mail marketing… One of our first tourist stops was the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris…an amazing edifice…home to a guy who is more hunchback than me! I worked off ...

Those of you who have been regular readers of my weekly e-mails…and maybe some of you who are new…know that I lost my mentor (and direct marketing hero) Marty Edelston last October.One of the posts where I talked about our special relationship was titled “The Myth of Work-Life Balance.” I think you will get a better picture ...

One evening almost 20 years ago, when I was leaving the office very late, I walked passed Marty Edelston’s office…Marty is the founder of my beloved company Boardroom and he’s my lifelong mentor, friend and business partner.It was probably 8:00 p.m.–he and I were the only people in the office–and he was playing with some ...

One of my favorite books is by the great baseball writer Tom Boswell…it’s called “How Life Imitates the World Series.” I think I want my first e-book to be “How Life Imitates Direct Marketing”…but that’s a topic for a different day. But today’s post is about baseball…and direct marketing…what else is there? If you ...

OK…I know what you are thinking after reading that subject line…Brian is once again trying to justify his existence as a serial direct marketer by making it sound like everything he does is for the good of society…blah…blah…blah… But those of you who know me know that I have no shame around the fact ...