Okay, so maybe I’m biased. After all, I do love to travel. And I just got back from another great trip. This time I spent 2 weeks in Egypt and Jordan with two friends.

But I have always thought that the best marketers are able to put themselves in other people’s shoes, and traveling is a great opportunity to practice that. When you are exposed to how people in different cultures live and work and eat and shop, it can help you look more objectively at your own customer and consumer behavior back home.

Now that I’m home, while reflecting on the trip, I realized that there are 10 things I try to do to better experience a country while I’m there

10 Tips for Maximizing Your Marketing Skills Through Travel Read More -›

I read an article recently in National Geographic Adventure magazine (link below) about how a team of climbers helped with an archeological expedition in one of my favorite parts of the world, Nepal.

The gist of the story is that for years, local residents of Mustang have “reported seeing old manuscripts fluttering out of [an inaccessible] cave, but they never had the means to explore it.” So National Geographic got an expedition together to use expert mountaineers to climb up and into the caves. One of the climbers said something which has really stuck with me: “It was the first time in my career that I got to use climbing techniques for something other than mountaineering.”

There’s a great parallel to the business world here. Read More -›

This month, my friend Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media Studios is kindly letting me repurpose a post he wrote for his own blog a few months ago. I think he offers some great advice here, and I often refer my clients to it.

From Andy:
Full disclosure: I sell websites. Every day, I meet with companies who are looking for a web-design firm, and naturally, I’d like some of them to choose us. But I’ve also noticed something during these conversations: typically, people don’t ask the most important questions.

In 5 minutes, these 5 questions will tell you more than any hour-long presentation could: Read More -›