7 Marketing Articles Worth Reading

This week on The Lede …
Why Jason Fried’s Business Hero is His Cleaning Lady
What Twitter Teaches Us About Writing Well
How Mundane Routines Fuel Creativity
The Surprising Secret to Selling Yourself
The Myth of Talent
Stories are How We Understand the World
Jay Leno on Hard Work
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Why Jason Fried’s Business Hero is His Cleaning Lady
Jason Fried is a master of making seemingly random, obvious, and incredibly useful connective lessons between business and life. Here, he tells Fast Company magazine that entreprenuers should build slow companies, illustrating his argument by praising the business acumen of his cleaning lady. Sometimes I think Mr. Fried should step down as CEO of his company and write full-time.
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What Twitter Teaches Us About Writing Well
I am a thoroughly laconic writer who never quite understood the common complaint of “it is often harder to write short than it is to write long.” This might explain my love of Twitter, of the beautiful constraints it has placed on our culture-at-large (I never read an aphorism I didn’t read). Ms. Tenore highlights some of the better writing she’s found on The Little Blue Bird recently …
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How Mundane Routines Fuel Creativity
Some Great American Writer once said something along the lines of “the more boring the life, the better the work.” This advice had to do with living an ordered life, a life that does not distract, a life spent writing instead of stressing out over unpaid bills, bad relationships, and nights in jail. The good news is, ordered or unordered, all of life is grist for the mill. A writer can turn even the worst of circumstances to gold on the page. But, as an amateur recluse, I prefer mundanity. Ordinary time. Solitude. Structure. My faithful bathrobe. Mr. McGuinness has validated the path I’ve chosen, whether he likes it or not.
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The Surprising Secret to Selling Yourself
Are you talking openly about your past accomplishments, or are you telling the stories of what’s possible? Are human beings attracted to a track record of success, or to the potential of what may come? Ms. Halvorson suggests a different approach to selling yourself, your company, your product, or your idea.
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The Myth of Talent
Mr. D’Souza offers us a short and practical guide to getting good. You used to be an artist, why did you quit? The answer to that question leads to the realization that talent — though we believe it to be exclusively inborn — can be acquired through practice.
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Stories are How We Understand the World
As if you needed to hear it again, here lies the essence — the core — of all great marketing. Ignore it at your own entrepreneurial peril …
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Jay Leno on Hard Work
Though Mr. Leno obviously lies on the far end of the work/life balance spectrum, this breakdown of a recent interview (and the interview itself) is fascinating. “He went from having no place to sleep to being on TV five nights a week. There were no tricks, no mirrors, no parents in the business. Just hard work.” Side note: if you’re not subscribed to Mr. Lefsetz’ email newsletter, do it right now, while you’re over there. You won’t regret it.
Miss anything on Copyblogger this week?
49 Ways to Gain the Trust and Loyalty of Your Audience
A 10-Point Plan for Connecting with Online Influencers (Without Turning into a Suck-Up)
Case Study: How an Audience Survey Fueled Real Business Growth
About the Author: Robert Bruce is VP of Marketing for Copyblogger Media, as well as its Resident Recluse. Get very short stories from Robert on Twitter and Google+.