People like us – small professional service providers and independents – live in a word-of-mouth world. Much of our marketing occurs informally and without warning as we move throughout the day. Which means, as today's newsletter takes way too long getting around to explaining, you always need to be ready.

Do you use much automation in your work? Me too. It's pretty much a necessity for small firms and solos. But at some point, too much of it defeats the purpose. Today's newsletter explains.

Who's your perfect client? If you said "everyone," today's newsletter is for you.

I never raise my fees. Really? Okay, no, not exactly. But sort of. Read on for more. Read off for less.

This is issue #600. Only 400 more to go and you have my permission to unsubscribe. Speaking of which, if you publish a newsletter, you've probably noticed the statistics made available by your email marketing vendor (MailChimp, etc.).

These can be fun to look at and, since they drop nicely into a spreadsheet, easy to take at face value.  Today's newsletter explains why that's not a good idea and largely beside the point anyway.

Here's a little marketing secret for us small professional service providers and solos: Consistency matters more than perfection. And yet, lots (lots) of individuals and even small firms pause their marketing when things get busy.

We humans do many things that seemingly serve little practical purpose (insert your own Congress joke here). And yet, since that's a big part of what makes us human in the first place, taking deliberate steps to incorporate this kind of thing into your marketing it not a bad idea. Today's newsletter explains.

Today's newsletter takes a look at a question that has plagued the working person since the beginning of time: Will they know I am lying if I take Friday as a sick day?

Ha, ha, I am kidding. They will definitely know.

Rather, I am speaking of this question: Should I stay in my job or go off and work for myself? 

It may seem logical to copy "the big guys" when putting together your own marketing approach. 

After all, they are big and successful; they must know what they are doing, right?

Well, yes... but. What works for them doesn't usually work for us. Today's newsletter explains...

Today's newsletter is about AI and the negative impact it is having on our collective ability to think and communicate. Granted, it's a bit longer than usual. So if you want to be ironic, feel free to copy and paste it into ChatGPT for a summary.