Los Angeles, California
Notes from the work
Marketing, partnerships, interpreting. Choose the topic that concerns you.
When Your Product Is the First Thing They Have Ever Sold
A shop that has never sold anything does not need a pitch. It needs to know how this works.
A Trade Show Is Three Weeks, Not Three Days
The floor is where you meet people. The work is before and after.
Before You Hire a Rep, Walk Into Three Stores Yourself
The script you hand a rep has to come from somewhere.
You Have to Be Able to Say It Out Loud
A tool can write the analysis. It cannot answer the question that follows.
Buy the Best in a Small Category
Your budget decides the category. It should not decide the tier.
Assume You Are Understood
In a room with two languages, more people understand than you think.
Hand It Over in a Cup
The work is the coffee. How it reaches the client is the cup.
Being Straight Is Also a Test
What people do with your honesty tells you what kind of partner they will be.
Don’t Intimidate Yourself
The shop was never the barrier.
The Handover Point
What it means to finish a piece of work, and how to tell when you have.
At Some Point, Stop Interpreting
A rehearsed introduction should be said by one person, not relayed by two.
The Order Only Exists in Your Head
Three options when work is not being done your way, and the one that is not an option.
A Business Grows at the Speed Its Owner Can Hear
Why the same suggestion is adopted in one shop and resented in the next.
The Cost of Being Clever
Five small maneuvers from one jeweler, and the customer they cost.
It Costs Them Nothing
What a free venue actually costs, and who quietly paid for it.
Everyone Has Read the Same Book
Why negotiation tactics now tell the other side more about you than about the deal.
Someone Else Is Open at Your Old Address
What happens when a domain lapses, and the one thing to do first.
Talk to Them, Not to Me
Where you look decides who the room thinks you are speaking to.
Nobody Adopts What Cannot Be Bought
Why the obvious customers turned down a good product, and what it took to fix it.
A Small Yes Is Not an Opening
What happens when a discount turns into a sales tactic.
The Details Are the Proposal
Who brings what, who pays, what time you arrive, and why saying all of it in the first message is not pushy.
A Deal Nobody Can Count
How to recognize a partnership worth turning down, and how to turn it down well.
The Shelf Is Still Your Job
A shop can give you the space. Nothing in that says anybody is going to sell it.
The Advantage of Being Small
How a two-person company gets a large organization to say yes.
Who Is Standing Next to Your Customer
The partners nobody in your category has thought to ask.
What an Interpreter Brings to the Room
Notes, interruptions, and saying out loud that you got it wrong.
The Partner Should Only Meet You Once
What happens when two people from the same team call the same company.
The Most Dangerous Word in a Second Language
Interpreting is not about words. It is about what the room believes when everyone stands up.
Every Partnership Needs Two Reasons
Yours is obvious to you. Theirs is the one you have to find, and it is often not a trade at all.
A No That Comes With a Name
The most useful reply to an outreach message is often a referral. A no with a name attached is not a rejection — it is a shortcut given to you by someone who knows the terrain.
The Room Is the Campaign
Two ways to run an event in person, and what makes either one work. An in-person event gives you what no ad can: for a few minutes you have someone’s whole attention.
The Photos on Your Website Tell People the Date
A visitor lands on your site in December and the banner is a summer picnic. Nothing is wrong with the photograph — but it has already said something: nobody has been here in a while.
Segmenting a Market Starts With Why People Buy
Most businesses have two or three customers, and one offer cannot reach all of them. Segmentation is usually taught as age, income and zip code — for a small business that is the least useful cut.
A Blog Is the Inside Knowledge You Choose to Share
Every business owner carries knowledge that took years to earn, and almost none of it is written down. A blog is where that knowledge stops disappearing and starts reaching the people who would buy from you.
How to Choose a Prize
A prize does several jobs at once. It decides how many people enter, it tells everyone what your product is worth, and it decides who comes through the door.
How to Run an Online Contest
What to ask for, what to give away, and what to do when it ends. Most contests put every ounce of thought into the prize and none into the entry form — and the entry step is the only part that reaches anyone who is not already following you.
Everybody Wins a Prize
Some raffles create one happy person and a hundred quiet disappointments, and that feeling sticks to the brand that ran it. Here is a different design: everyone wins, and the spin only decides which prize you get.
You Win the Answers
A raffle where everyone wins costs you a box of small gifts. What it buys is the kind of customer survey a company would otherwise hire a research firm to run.
Which Social Media Platform Actually Fits Your Business
You don't need to be everywhere. One platform done well beats five done tiredly — here is how to pick the one.
From a name on a list to a meeting on the calendar
A partnership starts as a name. The distance between that name and a meeting on the calendar is where the work happens, and almost none of it is charm.
What changes when the interpreter sits beside you
A booth is for conferences. For a negotiation, a factory floor or a parent meeting, sitting at the table is the job.