Writing for Business Owners
Two Decades of Insights (And Still Going)
Though we grew up poor, my dad bought us a typewriter and made us learn how to touch-type. He said we’d appreciate it someday in the future when everyone used computers. He wasn’t wrong.
I’ve written more than a hundred articles about business, marketing, branding, and design for publications like Inc. Magazine and others, as well as for my own various blogs and websites.
“James consistently amazes me with his insights on design, marketing, and business process.”
—Troy Busot (Founder & CEO, Athlinks)
Articles
Customers Want to Know: Are You Friend or Foe?
To understand what's going on in your customers' heads, sometimes you have to get back to basic human psychology. Let's skip all the high-concept marketing talk, and get back to basics for a few minutes here. Branding and marketing isn't about fluff, or trickery, or...
What Dystopian Sci-Fi Taught Me About Great Customer Experiences
Fictional views of a dehumanized future reveal a lot of insights into the frustrations your customers are experiencing every day. One of the most common themes in popular science fiction is the feeling of technology and/or corporations squeezing the humanity out of...
20 Words You Can Drop From Your Core Values Right Now
Trying to convince customers you have the best quality, integrity, or customer service may be a losing battle. Here's an alternative to consider. As part of our branding practice, we often work with clients to identify (or overhaul) their company's core values. The...
What We’ve Learned about Agile Design
The birth of Agile In February of 2001, seventeen software developers with an interest in lightweight development methods gathered at a resort in the Rocky Mountains in Utah. As they talked, they discovered some recurring themes and ideas, which they eventually...
The World’s Best Project Management System
In our line of work, effective project management is absolutely essential. At any given time we have 15-20 projects going on, all with dozens (if not hundreds) of individual tasks involved. We’ve tried countless project management applications, trying to find one that...
What Makes Videos Go Viral
The basic elements of highly successful online videos are really just fundamental principles of human interaction, and you can apply to nearly any form of communication (especially marketing). While there's no way to guarantee that anything will "go viral," studying...
Understanding the Humans Behind the Demographics
When people talk about their company’s target audience, you typically hear things like “individuals between the ages of 13 and 25 who enjoy playing video games and have a mobile phone,” or “active consumers between the ages of 25 and 45 who like to hike and rock...
Let Them Smell What You’re All About
Are profits and productivity hiding right under your nose? Here's how to take advantage of scent marketing.Regardless of your work environment, it's usually obvious that its appearance (lighting, paint colors, etc.) and sound (background music, noise, etc.) can have...
This is Why Your Customers Aren’t Sticking Around
When a company isn't catching enough fish (especially in a tough economy), the CEO's instinct is often to cast a wider net, hire more people to cast nets, or simply cast the net more frequently. Unfortunately, they seldom consider the most obvious solution: mending...
The Zombie Guide to Human Resources
If your team was the last surviving band of humans in a city overrun by zombies, you wouldn’t let just anybody through the door would you?