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The Myth of "Personal Branding"

Richard Laermer | Posted 11.03.2009 | Business

Read More: Michael Jackson, Fame Quotient, Laermer.com, Business News, How to Fame, Personal Branding, Making Money, Faming, The New Fame, Money vs. Happiness, Me 2.0, Business News

"Personal Branding" is a term that gets bandied about at every cocktail party despite not having any real discernible meaning.

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Have Balls; Mortgage Will Follow!

Richard Laermer | Posted 09.22.2009 | Business

Read More: Bad Pitch Blog, Meetings, Ballsiness, Kanye West, Taking Risks, Laermer.com, Messaging, PR in Harsh Times, Balls, Punk Marketing, Sally Hogshead, Buy In, Cya, Office Politics, Recession-Beating Tips, Slow Business Period, Business News

Hey everyone; guess what! The chips have now fallen ... so go get some off the floor.

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"Kidlessness" or, It's Not About the Children

Richard Laermer | Posted 09.03.2009 | Living

Read More: Kidlessness, Richard Laermer, Childless, Being With Child, Laermer.com, Friendship, Birthday Parties, Having Babies, Dick Cavett, Children, Raising Children, Living News

As you know, unruly children make the kidless nuts! Pals complain about their messy homes all the time. I tell them: "I didn't tell you to have them."

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Gay, Gay, More Gay: Can't We All Just Get It Straight?

Richard Laermer | Posted 08.24.2009 | Politics

Read More: Bill Clinton, Doma, Laermer.com, Full-Faith-and-Credit-Clause, Martha Coakley, Kenneth Cole, Constitution, Massachusetts, Gay Marriage, Barack Obama, Being Gay in America, States Rights, Brutal Honesty, Gay, Gay Rights, Gay Issues, Politics News

A state that recognizes same-sex marriage is entitled to have its "public act, record, and judicial proceeding" (and marriage is arguably all three) respected by all the other states.

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Tell The Truth: You're a Real Storyteller

Richard Laermer | Posted 08.21.2009 | Media

Read More: Literature, Limerick, Books, Laermer.com, American Literature, Pulitzer Prize, Angela's Ashes, Frank Mccourt, Autobiograhies, Ireland, Prospective Customer Acquisition, Customers, Reading, Truth Commission, Media News

The success of Angela's Ashes taught us that the most popular stories that seem to resonate with readers and spur new and positive changes are often the true ones.

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Much Ado About So Little It Hurts

Richard Laermer | Posted 08.16.2009 | Media

Read More: Supreme Court, Law, Supreme Court Justices, Cnn, Sonia Sotomayor, Laermer.com, Cable News, Lindsey Graham, Constitution, Barack Obama, Obama Supreme Court Nominee, Media News

The issue before the Senate is simple: Is the nominee qualified to sit on the Court? The answer: Yes. All the kvetching about how a nominee's race shaped her worldview is for the cameras, baby.

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Dramamine & "American Idol": Whose Country's Making Me Sick Now?

Richard Laermer | Posted 06.21.2009 | Entertainment

Read More: Adam Lambert, Laermer.com, Media, Music, American Idol, Kris Allen, Tv, Entertainment News

I am sick of all this idle chatter. And then.... Last night millions (100? 50? Does it matter?) watched the annual crowning of their Idol on FOX. Ye...

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Celebrity Athletes: Could the Marketing Game Be Played Out?

Richard Laermer | Posted 06.12.2009 | Entertainment

Read More: Steroids, Endorsements, Moneyball, Baseball, Football, Laermer.com, Marketing, Basketball, Celebrities, Entertainment News

Being famous means being memorable, never forget. Big corporations want characters. Buzz is about who talks about whom. That will never change.

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The Coming Newspaper Renaissance: Instructions for Survival

Richard Laermer | Posted 06.11.2009 | Media

Read More: Laermer.com, Warren Buffett, Media News, Editorials, Newspaper Death Knoll, Newspaper Renaissance, Womens News Columnists, Death of Old Media, Gutenberg, Washington Post, Pulitzer Prize, Media News

From whence will the Newspaper Renaissance hail? It will start with papers moving away from their belly-buttons and instead examining their core businesses.

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Why We're Gadget Freaks (It's Not as Simple as You Think)

Richard Laermer | Posted 06.10.2009 | Style

Read More: Style News, Gadgets, Consumer Magazine, The Perfect World, Laermer.com, Pdas, Nose Hair Trimmers, Restlessness, Ebay, Dr. Seuss, Style News

We can't perfect our lives and our world is far from it, but we can perfect the perfect PDA. Or nose hair trimmer. Or card shuffler (note to self: time to get one of those).

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Amazon Failure, the Future of the Corporation and "Crisis Communications 101"

Richard Laermer | Posted 05.28.2009 | Business

Read More: Captive Consumerism, Laermer.com, Business News, Entrepreneurial Spirit, Future of the Company, American Dream, #Amazonfail, Business News

Amazon moved gay, lesbian, and transgendered books to their Adult section. They say it was a re-categorization error which would have been a plausible excuse if they corrected it immediately.

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Spitzer, Spitzer, Spitzer: A Cautionary Tale Of No

Richard Laermer | Posted 05.23.2009 | Politics

Read More: Laermer.com, Breaking News, Scandals, Bad PR, Image Consulting, Boring Celebrities, Newsweek, Eliot Spitzer, Politics News

Whoever did the training for Spitzer should go back to selling shoes -- it's that simple.

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"Punk Marketing" In a Recession

Richard Laermer | Posted 05.21.2009 | Business

Read More: Creativity, Pop Culture, Business News, Laermer.com, Branding, Recession, Trendiness, Old Advertising, Punk Marketing, Advertising, Business News

Chances are things are going to get bad before they get better. This is where you earn your stripes as a marketing pro.

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Gumby Is My Mascot

Richard Laermer | Posted 05.20.2009 | Living

Read More: Creativity, Laermer.com, Claymation, Gumby, Flexibility, 2011: Trendspotting, Well-Being, Living News

Those who "have Gumby" participate. Not ones to sit idly by and watch from the sidelines, these are the folks who jump in and use their wits and intellect to get the job done.

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The Problem With Captive Consumerism

Richard Laermer | Posted 05.16.2009 | Business

Read More: Target, Consumerism, Research, Wal-Mart, Best Businesses, Laermer.com, Punk Marketing, Captive Consumers, Business News

Good customer service can't be a Band-Aid brand bandage for poor products or dishonest words. The whole package, man! Give an integrated engaging experience that makes people love you all.

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My Twitter Love Affair with Jane Fonda

Richard Laermer | Posted 05.10.2009 | Media

Read More: Laermer.com, PR Scams, Jane Fonda, Fake Twitterers, Nicole Richie, Twitterverse, Twitter, Tweet, Media News

Stars cannot just show up online and expect to succeed. It takes work! Social media means getting to know someone -- not hiring someone to fake it like celebrities always do.

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Publishing Is Dead [Part 2]: Can We Make It About Writers For A Change?

Richard Laermer | Posted 05.01.2009 | Media

Read More: Publishing, Writers, Tolstoy, Vanity Press, Death of Publishing, Laermer.com, Trendspotting, Book Business, Reading, Literature, Books, Media News

Write your masterpiece, put it on Amazon or in the back of your van, take it to the willing with spare cash at a state fair. If it's good it'll sell. You just got to make them open it up.

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Well Hello There, Generation WTF

Richard Laermer | Posted 04.25.2009 | Media

Read More: Laermer.com, SXSW 2009, Generation X, Growing Up, Generation Wtf, Reverence, Wikipedia, Austin, Tumblr, Gen Y, Tumblr., Media News

In the rush to instant expertise, WTFers often forget that the inventors of the stuff they use every single day were born in my time. Ahem.

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Introducing a New Holiday: "Totally Honest with Yourself Week"

Richard Laermer | Posted 04.11.2009 | Living

Read More: Holiday, Celebrate, Honesty, Laermer.com, Trendspotting, New You, Good News, Betterment, Relationships, Economy, Fat, Jobs, Sex, Celebrations, Bad Diets, Holidays, Feeling Better, Ho, Thwyw, Living News

Ah, spring. A time to clean your house, but in my own way of thinking: Let's start to celebrate a new holiday this year in honor of what I'm dubbing Spring Cleaning for Our Souls: So it's Totally Honest with Yourself Week!

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The Week That Was

Richard Laermer | Posted 03.12.2009 | Business

Read More: Laermer.com, Hype, Punisher War Zone, Anheuser-Busch Purchase, Porn Industry, Pr, Business News

It's cold in this country. You can't blame George W. Bush either. I bring you The Bleak Economic Report: Surprisingly un-spared by effects of the recession is -- tada! -- The Porn Industry.

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Bandwagoning: The Lazy Man's Guide to Success

Richard Laermer | Posted 12.25.2008 | Business

Read More: Laermer.com, Trendspotting, New World Order, Laziness, Bandwagoning, Jobs, Innovation, Lazy Business, Business News

Maybe we can live better, saner, even more successful lives by jumping on the bandwagon, not sitting at the reins trying to blaze the trail ourselves. I call it bandwagoning.

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It's The Bad News Bores: Celebratory Nature of News

Richard Laermer | Posted 11.20.2008 | Media

Read More: First-Movers, News Junkies, Bad News, Laermer.com, Trendspotting, 9/11, Laermer, Media News

Welcome to news observation as a sport. It's based on how often and how fast we can celebrate (typically bad) news with each other, and we all want to win as often as possible.

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Get Ready, Kids; Time For Musical Chairs

Richard Laermer | Posted 11.05.2008 | Business

Read More: Laermer.com, Job Searches, Stupidity, Economic Downturn, 2011: Trendspotting, Hiring Woes, Laermer, Business News

A thousand years ago, back in 1999, zillions of young people came to cities like New York and ran around looking for jobs even though they had one waiting for them -- at work. It was so much fun to look and change and jump; to job-hop at will.

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Getting or Finding? Sad Truth About Shopping (Replete With Gerunds Galore)

Richard Laermer | Posted 10.17.2008 | Living

Read More: Laermer.com, Trendspotting, Online Shopping, European Currency, Web Searching, Living News

I was in London visiting a pal, walking through Piccadilly and thinking this place is so old-fashioned! There are bookstores, record stores (yes, rec...

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