Max Bernstein
Generate more revenue by blending traditional marketing wisdom with automation and AI.
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Me and my Dad have a running joke to watch out for the lurkers. The lurkers are the people who see your content but never engage with it. It's a bigger pool than you think. We both create content (he's 74 and does a way better job than me), and we get a steady stream of side comments like "I loved your post about X" or "that's so cool you're doing Y," about things that could only have been discovered by reading our stuff. People we had zero clue were paying attention. It's become our mini-mantra and a reminder to keep pushing forward even when the comments on the posts themselves aren't quite as...abundant....as we'd like. I have a fun story that illustrates this on steroids. "Selling the Invisible" is one of my favorite books that I first read when I started my job as a brand manager in pet healthcare. Harry Beckwith, the author, stays under the radar in most circles I run in, but he's brilliant. In another book, "What Clients Love," he tells this story: In 1988 I wrote my first article on marketing and learned a dramatic marketing lesson. Relying on my experience as an attorney and marketer, I wrote "Is Legal Advertising Different?" for the magazine Minnesota Law & Politics. That October, a Minneapolis law firm associate noticed the article. The byline seized her attention. She knew me.
To impress her boss, Cliff Greene, the firm's partner in charge of marketing, she stopped by his office with a photocopy of the article. "Excellent piece," her Post-it read. "I know the author and think he could help us." Greene read the article and called me—and cracked open the safe. For years his firm used my counsel and convinced other firms to use it, too. Business flourished. But nothing like it was about to. In 1994, Greene also was serving on the strategic planning committee at his temple and felt frustrated. Temple Israel planned like most organizations: glacially. "Before this," Greene said, "I thought only the universe was infinite."
Greene asked how I coped with this process. I raced in several directions, mentioned the minefields in planning and how he might avoid them. My response inspired Greene and made him hopeful— especially if I would talk to his group. I agreed.
I spent several days writing down ideas for the presentation, then wrote and printed out the speech. It went well. The committee felt they could complete their plan quickly.
Then another twist, this one accidental. A week after the presentation, a nationally known art director, Sue Crolick, asked me to critique one of her presentations. Sometimes frugal, I wrote my critique on the back of my draft of the temple speech. The next morning, Sue knocked and almost flew through my door. What was that on the back of my notes? she asked. A speech on planning, I told her. "Get it published!" she said.
Her plea soon resulted in the article "Why Plans Fail" in Twin Cities Business Monthly. Editor Jay Novak loved the article and, later, his readers' many responses to it, and soon invited me to lunch. "Any other article ideas?" he asked. I had one about marketing service businesses and popped out with a title: "Selling the Invisible." Novak loved the title. "Do it!" he said, without hearing what might actually follow the title.
I did. Life changed. Calls came, letters came, business came. All because one day years before, I'd written an article that a Minneapolis attorney liked.
One little magazine article. One ordinary call. One stunning result.
Publish. Anything can happen. Look at who the lurker was in that story. That associate at the law firm never told Beckwith she existed. She just read his byline, remembered it, and one day put it on a Post-it note that ended up changing his career. So...what's the thing you've been sitting on publishing because it feels like it's going into a void? Like my guy Harry says: Stay Curious, Got one more minute? I just got home from Iowa, visiting a client for 2-days doing business and AI strategy sessions. When I thought about it, this client came from publishing without knowing what would happen... Almost two years ago, I sent out a message to see if anyone would be interested in a workshop to "Extract offers out of your transcripts". --> That workshop ended up transforming into my Cognitive Fingerprint methodology. --> That methodology attracted another client who I've gotten to know really well over the years. --> That client referred me to this one who I've worked with since February. I'm tellin ya, this "small stuff" works. Click below to discover your Cognitive Fingerprint. |
Max Bernstein
Generate more revenue by blending traditional marketing wisdom with automation and AI.