Not One More Thing
During my first six years of leading executive peer groups, several themes have consistently arisen. One frequent theme I hear from CEOs, business owners owners and key executives: I'm working too much, jeopardizing my family, my health, my health and — ironically...
A Nutritious News Diet
How do you get a truly balanced view of the world? Some friends say that they sample news from both ends of the political spectrum, so that they have a balanced news diet. But, I am finding, the Left/Right Diet doesn't have the intended effect. This is true no matter...
Brown’s Job is still the best
What is your favorite advertisement? I fell in love with "Brown's Job" the first time I read it. I read it 100 times during my advertising career to renew my inspiration for the work. I taught it to students of advertising to inspire them. It makes a great retirement...
Verbal Tics
Since I'm trying to talk less and listen more, I'm deleting the cheapest words I say. "Actually." I've stopped saying "actually." It doesn't actually mean anything. It doesn't actually mean anything when I say it and -- sorry -- it means even less when you say it....
Welcome to Net Cotton Content
Perhaps this is a "Re-Welcome." If you are a longtime reader of Net Cotton Content, welcome anew. You are receiving this message because I relaunched my website (my entire online presence) on a new online platform during May 2017. The relaunch results in two...
Fear Not
"This is going to be so long, I won't be able to finish it in a day." That's what I told Matt Slaybaugh. Matt is my writing partner on occasional Sundays, often at the Roosevelt Coffeehouse. As I dove into this piece, I felt I needed to warn him that I wouldn't be...
What’s Your Next Product or Service?
I always have two questions in my pocket: "How Do I..." — What don't you know? What are you trying to solve? What do you want to learn? "What's Next?" — What is the product or service that you plan to introduce during the coming 12...
We Are Surrounded
Greetings from Washington, D.C. Inauguration Day 2017 Each of us is surrounded. And we are surrounded by the people we choose to surround us. Recently, a Master Chair, David Belden invited me to speak to one of his Vistage groups. At the end of a wonderful morning...
Breaking the Glass Floor
It depends on your perspective. It might depend on your expression of gender. Are you held down by a glass ceiling? You can see the leaders above you, but some invisible force keeps you from rising. Are you standing on a glass floor? You earn more for the...
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
There is injustice. There is murder. There are leaders that ignorantly and intentionally incite the worst nature of others. It can be all so disheartening. And, after glimpses of progress -- two steps forward -- there is regression -- one step...