When the phone rang on October 18, 1998, two guys were in their basement wondering how to tell the homeowner that his Eisenhower-era furnace was beyond repair. As he contemplated their predicament and watched his kindergartner, Grace, play with a friend, Chris Bohjalian answered the call that changed his life. It was none other than Oprah Winfrey, who announced she had just selected “Midwives,” his already-bestselling novel, for her book club. ...

Among the many jaw-dropping moments in Ken Burns’ riveting documentary on the Vietnam War is the recording of Richard Nixon boasting to Henry Kissinger that he should “win an Academy Award” for the blatant lies he offered the American people during a primetime address about the war. Nixon’s now oxymoronic war tagline “Peace with Honor” is a classic case of telling people what they want to hear and ...

Slow to housebreaking and quick to bite my pant legs, after two months of frustration I declared, much to my wife’s shock, our new puppy Louie was my “worst dog ever!” Blinded by memories of his practically perfect predecessor Pinky, I simply couldn’t see the potential within our whirlwind of fur and teeth.  Three months later, I’m happy to report ...

In the classic movie “Used Cars,” cynical salespeople compete to see who can close a deal the fastest. Using a dollar bill on a fishing line to literally reel in a prospect, Kurt Russell greets one unsuspecting man with the infamous line, “So, can we write it up?” This hard sell approach bemused audiences in 1980 and now seems like a quaint glimpse of a bygone era.

Today, ...

In truth, even though I only had 24 hours to prepare, I was delighted when one of the panelists canceled. Suddenly I had the opportunity to share my disdain for what passes as brand storytelling and put some of my years of research on the topic to good use. Taking the stage like a pinch hitter stepping into the batter’s box with the game on the line I was ...

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but in truth, nary a marketer — let alone one of the renegade variety — succeeded without a deeply inquisitive nature. It’s not enough for us to know that something worked; we must know why, when, where and how. But even we inquisitors can suffer from confirmation bias, seeking answers to prove our hypotheses and thus avoiding genuine insights. To fix this, we need ...

If it wasn’t the least fun job I ever had, it was certainly a close second. While selling encyclopedias door to door the summer after my freshman year in college was taxing, it also provided an unlikely foundation for future renegade thinking. Among the most basic of learnings was the math of sales. “Knock on one hundred doors, and you’ll get at least two ...