Blogs

There’s a common saying that timing is everything. I tend to agree. After all, who am I to argue with a sage pop philosopher like Alanis Morissette who wrote about the irony of bad timing in her iconic hit “Ironic” in 1995. In it, she sings that “an old man turned ninety-eight. He won the…

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! By now you’ve probably got plans for the weekend—maybe the beach, a cook out, a hike in the mountains, or some kind of get-together with family and friends before you top it all off with a fireworks extravaganza. Also by now, you and your employees are probably thinking more about…

We entrepreneurs like to think we can do it all. It’s what drives us. It’s what makes us successful in the first place. It’s what makes us think we can do more and have more . . . always. I’m sure you’ve heard the well-known story of the professor and his seemingly “full” jar that…

Do you value market intelligence, or do you just assume you know your marketplace and customer motivations? Far too often, this King Monkey has seen the gathering of market intelligence relegated to the “nice to have but not necessary” portion of marketing budgets. At a recent brainstorming session with my team to discuss strategies and tactics…

The King Monkey (aka me, Paul June) is on the road this week to the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California with Kim Merrill of Merrill Marketing/Communications, a full-service public relations agency specializing in branding, marketing, and communications consulting. The Sea Otter Classic is “A Celebration of Cycling” for families, cycling enthusiasts, racers, and everything…

Writer, broadcaster, and “man of the arts” Arnold Edinborough once wrote, “Curiosity is the very basis of education and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say only the cat died nobly.” Personally, I don’t believe curiosity killed the cat. I believe curiosity is good for us, whether we’re feline, simian, or…

Whether or not the design elements of cheerleader uniforms can be copyrighted might, at first glance, seem a bit inconsequential. After all, except for certain graphics, school/team colors, or stitch patterns, cheerleader outfits are all pretty much the same, aren’t they? Not so, says the United States Supreme Court, which recently ruled on a case…

Scope creep—the tendency of a project to grow beyond its original parameters—can happen to the best of us, often despite the best intentions of all involved. Scope creep can rear its head in virtually any aspect of our home or work lives: You stop off at the grocery store for “only” a couple of items…

People are inundated with emails, tweets, likes, shares, posts, and more every minute of every hour of every day. Terabytes and petabytes of information course continuously through the arteries of the Internet. What comes after a petabyte (a million gigabytes), I don’t know, but I am sure we’ll all find out soon enough. With all…

Your brand is the way consumers experience your business. It’s the story of who you are and how you show up in the hearts and minds of consumers and your customers, encompassing everything from your logo and your product or service’s “look and feel,” to the way you interact with customers. What happens when your…

As I write this, Oroville Dam in northern California is still in crisis mode, but hasn’t been breached. Hopefully it will not  . . . and prayers go out to all in the potential path of destruction. As I’ve been watching the news and catching updates on my favorite feeds the last few days, it’s…

“Strategic” is one of those words that has become increasingly popular in the business vernacular. I wonder, though, if most of us know what it truly means, or if it’s nearing status as one of those throwaway words or phrases such as “engagement” or “high quality.” It’s not just enough to use “strategic” as a…