Business Tips Archives - Page 7 of 9

Betsy Ross, Quarterback Incompletions, and the Real Secret Behind How to Communicate Successfully

By Chris Carosa on July 9, 2019

It’s July and that means training camp and double sessions aren’t far behind. This makes it a great time to offer a metaphor that may just help you be a better communicator.

How many times have you been watching a football game and see a quarterback throw a perfect spiral to… no one but an empty piece of turf? He had all day to throw, was under no pressure, and seemed incredibly self-assured as he released the ball. Despite all these things going in his favor, he completely missed the nearest receiver by more than a mile.

“Stupid quarterback,” you mumble if he’s on your team.

“Ha! Ha!” you laugh if he’s not.

No matter which colors you’re wearing that day, you might be wrong. It’s very possible Continue Reading “Betsy Ross, Quarterback Incompletions, and the Real Secret Behind How to Communicate Successfully”

Should You Go Wide or Go Deep?

By Chris Carosa on May 7, 2019

Remember a couple months back when I said I discovered a way to add more hours to my day? (If you don’t, here it is: “That Time I Discovered ‘Idle Time’ Doesn’t Really Exist,” Mendon-Honeoye Falls-Lima Sentinel, March 14, 2019). With all that rediscovered time I was able to explore a dusty section of unread books in my expansive library. (And by expansive, I mean… Wait. Forget it. It only gets Betsy mad.)

I began this new venture by perusing an entire series of books from the pens of the greatest copywriters. These books defined the advertising industry as it emerged from the 19^th century into the 20^th. They represent the primordial tracks from which Madison Avenue men evolved. They spawned a persuasive style that combined art and science into an effective (sometimes too effective) tool.

By “art” I refer to the words that effectively captivate and motivate the reader. But how do the words work as intended?

That’s where the “science” comes in. Today we call it “market research.” Claude C. Hopkins, acknowledged as perhaps the greatest copywriter, called it “scientific advertising.” His book by the same name (published in 1923) shows how an ad means nothing unless it stimulates its audience to act. He not only wrote the ads, he studied how Continue Reading “Should You Go Wide or Go Deep?”

Posted in Business Tips, Gray Matter Musings, Great Writing Tips Tagged Advertising, Albert Lasker, American Cancer Society, Black Sox, Chicago Cubs, Claude C. Hopkins, copywriting, Jr., Lasker Award, Mad Men, Madison Avenue, market research, marketing, My Life in Advertising, penetration, Planned Parenthood, Rosser Reeves, Scientific Advertising, Soap Opera, The Lasker Story As He Told It, Unique Selling Propostion, usuage pull, Warren G. Harding, William Wrigley

“Can I Do This?”

By Chris Carosa on April 23, 2019

Just under two minutes away from the fields, the car’s audio system thundered that ever-familiar “Thud– Thud–CLAP!” bass beat. I knew what it was. The kids didn’t. I could use this. They needed it.

All I said to them was, “Boys, listen to this. It’s an omen.” It’s good to have been an AM disc jockey (back in the days when they used to play music).

“Thud– Thud–CLAP!”

It captivated the boys. They couldn’t turn away from its allure. The a cappella voices meant Continue Reading ““Can I Do This?””

Posted in Business Tips, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged 1967 Boston Red Sox, baseball, Championship, confidence, Don Quixote, fear, Frank Sinatra, My Way, Queen, The Impossible Dream, The Man of La Mancha, We Are The Champions, We Will Rock You, winning

Mechanical or Intuitive: Which Approach Works Best for You? – A Real-World Lesson (Part II)

By Chris Carosa on April 2, 2019

The Conclusion of: “Style or Substance? A Real-World Lesson – A Real-World Lesson (Part I)”

“Yes, you may hit the right notes more often than Chris,” she began, “but your intuitive desire to physically search for the perfect note interferes with the broader tempo of the entire piece. Chris is mechanical. To him, keeping that tempo is more important than finding the perfect pitch. The concertmaster’s job is to lead the entire orchestra in maintaining this tempo.”

The answer shocked me. I never thought of myself as a mere machine. But there it was. The teacher had just said so. I was mechanical, not intuitive.

This didn’t sound right. How could a machine find the joy in playing the way I did? Wasn’t a machine dispassionate? Doesn’t a machine work precisely because it has Continue Reading “Mechanical or Intuitive: Which Approach Works Best for You? – A Real-World Lesson (Part II)”

Posted in Business Tips, Gray Matter Musings, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged concertmaster, Gates Chili, high school, John Cage, orchestra, violin

Style or Substance? A Real-World Lesson (Part I)

By Chris Carosa on March 28, 2019

I never had someone so mad at me. And for no reason. We were both in tenth grade. Except for orchestra, we shared no other classes. We did share an Italian-American heritage. And she was mad in a way only an Italian-American can get mad. I’d seen it all before. In my extended family. In my neighborhood. In the dark alleys of the most obscure hallways within the school.

I just didn’t get it. I didn’t even know what a concertmaster was. Yet, there I was. Her, me, and the violin teacher.

But I get ahead of myself. Let’s go back to the beginning of the story…Continue Reading “Style or Substance? A Real-World Lesson (Part I)”

Posted in Business Tips, Gray Matter Musings, Great Speaking Tips, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged A Tune A Day, Arkansas Traveler, concertmaster, Happy Birthday song, math, orchestra, Pop Goes the Weasel, Santa Lucia, The Irish Washerwoman, Three Stooges, violin

The Decade the Music Died

By Chris Carosa on January 29, 2019

We’re a few days away from February 3^rd. It’s a day that forever lives in Rock and Roll infamy.

It was on a cold winter’s night precisely sixty years ago – February 3, 1959 – that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson boarded a Beechcraft Bonanza and found Rock and Roll heaven in a barren cornfield outside of Clear Lake, Iowa.

Much has been written about this, including two film biopics (The Buddy Holly Story in 1978 starring Gary Busey and La Bamba in 1987 starring Lou Diamond Phillips). Perhaps the seminal tribute, though, remains Don McLean’s 1971 hit “American Pie.” It was his song that first used the phrase “the day the music died” to describe the plane crash that took the lives of those young rock stars.

I’m not going to add to the litany of previously published thoughts on “the day the music died.” Rather, I’m going to share with you a conversation I had with a reporter. We sat at a high table in The Menches Brothers Restaurant in Green, Ohio (between Akron and Canton, for those using a GPS). I sipped my Diet Pepsi as the reporter asked me questions about what inspired me to write Hamburger Dreams (my latest book that looks at the evidence refuting and supporting the various hamburger origin stories).

At one point, he asked if I had written any other “food” books. I mentioned A Pizza The Action (albeit it’s more about business than food). Then I added that I had penned a short article on my grandfather’s pizzeria, mapping its beginning to the emergence of Rock and Roll.

That’s when the fun started. Little did I know this reporter, though nearly my age, still Continue Reading “The Decade the Music Died”

Posted in Business Tips, Gray Matter Musings, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged 8-track, A Pizza The Action, Akron, album, American Pie, Apple Music, ASCAP/BMI, baseball cards, Bing Crosby, Boy Bands, Buddy Holly, Canton, cassette tape, CD, coins, comic books, Disco, Don McLean, Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Gary Busey, Grunge, Hamburger Dreams, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Hip Hop, iTunes, J.P. Richardson, Lou Diamond Phillips, Madison Avenue, New Wave, Pandora, pizzeria, Pop Rock, Ritchie Valens, Rock and Roll, Salvator's Pizzeria, Soft Rock, Spotify, stamps, The Beatles, The Big Bopper, The Menches Brothers, vinyl

The Aging Curse

By Chris Carosa on January 8, 2019

I sit here watching as Rob Lowe tells us in so many words of the highs and lows of the decade of the 1980s. As I view old news clips of thin ties and big bouncing perms with their constant fluttering curls, I sadly lament the innocence lost, the people lost, the dreams lost. I see in those once thin and optimistic faces the images of people I have known. Not all of them, but far too many.

In those faces I saw the hope for the future, a future that would never be. I lament those souls of time past. Perhaps it’s the Continue Reading “The Aging Curse”

Posted in Business Tips, Gray Matter Musings, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged 1950s, 1960s, 1980's, Allen Saunders, catharsis, Greed is Good, hoi polloi, immediate gratification, Kerry Drake, Lifetime Dream, Madison Avenue, Mary Worth, materialism, National Geographic Channel, organization man, Reader's Digest, Rob Lowe, Steve Roper, success, to do list, Wlliam Whyte

Uncertainty Breeds Opportunity

By Chris Carosa on January 1, 2019

Uncertainty creates anxiety. It doesn’t have to be that way. For gamblers, warriors, and investors, uncertainty signals opportunity.

Your opponents sitting across the card table from you don’t know the hand you’re holding. Skilled players learn to take advantage of this uncertainty by bluffing their way to higher jackpots. These players accomplish this by both encouraging those with lesser hands to call their bets and intimidating those with better hands to fold. Expert poker players study how to marshall, disguise, and portray their emotions in ways to fool their opponents. That’s how gamblers win.

Similarly, seasoned generals understand the fog of war offers the opportunity to mask Continue Reading “Uncertainty Breeds Opportunity”

Posted in Business Tips, Gray Matter Musings

Why 7-15-60 is the Winning Combination of Every Group that Wants Lasting Influence

By Chris Carosa on July 10, 2018

Civic associations represent the backbone of a vibrant democracy. They have fueled American Exceptionalism since the very beginning of our country. But don’t take my word. Read what one of history’s most quoted experts had to say on this very subject.

“Among democratic nations, on the contrary, all the citizens are independent and feeble; they can do hardly anything by themselves, and none of them can oblige his fellow men to lend him their assistance. They all, therefore, become powerless if they do not learn voluntarily to help one another. …if they never acquired the habit of forming associations in ordinary life, civilization itself would be endangered.”

“Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions constantly form associations… The Americans make associations to give entertainments, to found seminaries, to build inns, to construct churches, to diffuse books, to send missionaries to the antipodes; in this manner they found hospitals, prisons, and schools… Wherever at the head of some new undertaking you see the government in France, or a man of rank in England, in the United States you will be sure to find an association.”

Continue Reading “Why 7-15-60 is the Winning Combination of Every Group that Wants Lasting Influence”

Posted in Business Tips, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries Tagged Alexis de Tocqueville, civic association, Democracy in America, Dunbar's Number, George Miller, group dynamics, group psychology, Miller's Law, psychology, Robin Dunbar, social psychology

Graduates: How to Let Your Passion Become Your Talent

By Chris Carosa on June 19, 2018

It’s a perfectly acceptable question: How does a trained astrophysicist become a nationally recognized newspaper columnist? The answer, obviously, is by spending three decades working as a registered investment adviser.

OK, OK, maybe this requires some explaining.

Let me begin, however, by talking about you. You and I are very similar. We both want things we can’t have, we’re not “supposed” to have, and we aren’t even at the right station in life to come close to having. And there’s nothing wrong with desiring more – more renown, more wealth, more satisfaction. Don’t ever let someone tell you “You can’t do that.” Dream. Dream big. Never stop dreaming big.

Why?

Because such dreams spur you to far greater heights than you can imagine. They possess these three critical components for consistent success: Continue Reading “Graduates: How to Let Your Passion Become Your Talent”

Posted in Business Tips, Gray Matter Musings, Memoir of a Real Life, The Compleat Carosa Commentaries