It’s time to take this show on the road. I’ll be tearing up the Public Relations Society of America Conference with a talk on this Sunday, October 23 at 2:45 PM (room “White River E”). Given all the press releases I’ve ripped apart on this blog and my recent exhortation to give them up, this should…
Here’s what you need to know about authors: they spend a lot of time on their books, care about them, and think that they and their books are special. If you respect what they created, they’ll be happy to talk to you about anything reasonable. If not . . . well, they’re very witty smartasses,…
Today, I deconstruct Hillary Clinton’s convention speech, just as I did last week with Donald Trump. Clinton is much more about hope, compared to Trump, who emphasized fear. And her speech featured more real policy, but not by much. One thing I’ve learned from this exercise is how challenging it is to understand a political…
Donald Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention was only 8% specific policy promises. On the other hand, by my word-for-word calculation, 20% of it was criticism of Trump’s opponents, 21% was fearmongering, and the rest was mostly vague generalities and cheerleading. Based on this speech, you really can’t identify what you’ll be getting if…
Parts of Melania Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention are strikingly similar to Michelle Obama’s speech from eight years ago. How does this happen? Plagiarism at this level is typically the result of sloppiness, not outright theft. If you don’t want this to happen to you, then you need to change how you work. What…
This time last year I was just scheming. Now I’m rolling. Thanks to all of you, I’m on my way to something new. Here’s a recap of what happened in 2015 and what I expect in 2016. 2015 milestones March 2: Escape. I leave Forrester Research after 19 years 10 months. I’ve reveal my scheme…
When you’re listening to a good speech, your mind is engaged. The speech ends and the audience claps. Now raise your hand and ask the first question. I first learned this on December 7, 1995. The buzz around Web browsers had become deafening. My Forrester colleagues felt the browser was a threat to Windows and the desktop (and…
My first public appearance since going independent. I’ll be talking about mission statements and customer experience along with an all-star lineup from HubSpot, BrightCove, and Akamai. Sign up here.