An offensive lineman who ran a sub-five minute mile
I inhabit two bodies. The first is 6’ 4” of aging muscle that once topped the scales at 289 lbs. The second is 5’ 10”, 166 lbs and pretty fast. Both are writers.
Each occupies my ego. When necessary, the little guy can outrun the big guy, but the giant can wrestle the runner into submission at will. He won the contest of what to call my company.
The rockets? I’ve loved them since I was four feet tall.
Seven of the following thirty-one statements are true. Try to guess which ones.
Artist studios are usually and necessarily spartan and chaotic — at the same time. White walls, grey floors and plenty of storage. Tools organized and disorganized.
Created using a provocative image, this page is designed to see how the time visitors spend with my writing compares to time spent with the word “sex”.
Google Analytics. Let the games begin.
—
Review portfolio and a list of services
—
Photo by Darcy Delia from Pexels
From the creation of an advertising campaign that filled Madison Square Garden to the management of a nationwide sales force purveying medical device repairs, I’ve positioned companies to realize hundreds of millions in new revenue.
Having reawakened media properties, launched consumer brands, educated physicians and designed product packaging that moved marketers toward a very profitable retail checkout, I’ve started a business writing for business.
—
From the creation of an advertising campaign that filled Madison Square Garden to the management of a nationwide sales force purveying medical device repairs, I’ve positioned companies to realize tens of millions in new revenue.
Having re-awakened media properties, launched consumer brands, educated physicians and designed product packaging that moved marketers toward a very profitable retail checkout, I’ve started a business writing for business.
A short list of career advertising clients:
Madison Square Garden
TV Guide Magazine
Hearst Entertainment
Maier’s Bakers
Sunbeam Bread
Premier Dental Products
Avis
—
Affordable. Strategic. Informative. Promotional. Accessible. Anticipated. A bevy of bite-sized chunks of your business, sent bi-weekly.
—
Get strong backlinks. Create great content.
Google love backlinks. Among the critical factors driving organic page ranking, backlinks were once incredibly expensive and very hard to find, until now.
Building a community of content developers and shrewd online marketers, Backlink Swap makes a seemingly impossible task easy.
—
A short list of collateral clients:
HarperCollins Publishers
Universal Studios
Pfizer Animal Health
AstraZeneca
Ibanez Guitars
—
Invisibuyer.com: Startup B-to-B launch promotion driving service usage, lead generation and list generation
SilkDharma.com: Monthly contest driving driving product sales, lead generation and list generation
BacklinkSwap.com: Startup B-to-B launch promotion driving service usage, lead generation and list generation
GiantCopywriter.com: Startup B-to-B launch promotion driving service usage, lead generation and list generation
—
I can write with some authority in each of the industry verticals shown here and if, after thirty minutes of free research, you’re not confident in my ability to solve your communication problem, I’ll help find a writer who will.
—
Writing, editing and project management
—
I’ve never written a grant proposal, but I can write anything. In my opinion, writing a winning grant proposal is no different than writing a business plan — and I have one of those under my belt.
Let’s help each other out. The first client whose grant proposal project delivers equal benefit to both our businesses gets one for free.
—
A short list of collateral clients:
HarperCollins Publishers
Universal Studios
Pfizer Animal Health
AstraZeneca
Ibanez Guitars
—
—
For whom the bell trolls
When I posted this series of images on Twitter, I included the original image of the photo alongside the scribbled version. Each person shown performed at the top of their chosen field despite not being a household name, with the exception of Albert Einstein, Ernest Hemingway and the Ramones.
A woman in Missouri responded to my scribbled Hemingway photo by asking me what I had against Santa Claus.
The bell trolls for thee my dear.
>
I created this series for fun. It was a hot Tuesday night in July, the baseball All-Star game was on television and I was bored. When I was finished, I liked the work.
—
Mookie’s dookie
When direct mail was still a thing, I used to submit false names in online warranty and magazine forms for entertainment. In addition to giggles, my goal was to see who was selling my information.
Mookie Swizzlestick was the alter-ego for whom I had the greatest affection. Two weeks after releasing this hell hound into the marketing jungle, he began to receive offers for credit cards, high interest loans and time-share real estate. A few boiler room stock brokers picked up the phone too.
Seeing Mookie’s name peeking through the cellophane address window on a piece of mail brought joy. Having an aggressive New York stock broker call to ask for Mookie was sublime.
Nom de plume
I’ve had a few distinct illustration styles over the course of my career — each dramatically different. When I developed the style shown here, I needed a unique brand to associate with the technique and, while this style was created after I’d thrown a dozen more different silly names into the direct marketing universe, I reached into the past to name the illustrator after a beloved friend who I thought had been lost to history: Mookie Swizzlestick.
I was an illustrator back then. Sometimes I still am.
Sometimes.
—
Strategic planning, audience segmentation, campaign development, content creation, list development and project management
My son lives with type 1 diabetes. Diagnosed when he was twelve, the required shift in his life, and the lives of those who love him, was substantial. Everything changes: food, sleep, activities, friendships, schooling.
Initially, fear is omnipresent. The learning curve is incredibly steep. Death is expected to arrive without notice due to dangerous swings in blood glucose. And, while the child’s health status has changed dramatically, it is the entire family that has been diagnosed.
The disease is common enough that almost everyone knows a friend, colleague or neighbor who lives with type 1. The disease, however, is rare enough that support groups are hard to find. Time, distance, age, gender, philosophy and medical direction conspire to create a wall that is impossible to climb. The internet solved this problem.
Type 1 Moms
Most mothers and fathers handle the diagnosis differently. Fathers analyze and internalize. Mothers often bear the brunt of the daily responsibilities. This observation is a generalization of course but, if one joins an online support group for the parents of children with type 1 diabetes, upwards of ninety percent of the members are mothers. I joined a Facebook group.
Watching my wife changed my life as much as watching my son. The stress she experienced was enormous. Her loneliness was overwhelming. I suggested she join the Facebook group.
Among the central benefits of the group was community. Among the drawbacks was the negativity and oppressive viewpoints. Anger and fear bring out the worst in people. Then, I was approached by a videographer with whom I worked. Her nephew had type 1.
The idea
At the time, I was working for a public television station. Workdays surrounded me with cameramen, sound engineers and storytellers. YouTube was just starting to take off. Mary, the videographer, wanted to interview the mothers of children who live with type 1 diabetes and edit the interviews into dozens of digestible one minute videos that provided information, hope and community. We called the project Type1Moms.
The goal was to find mothers between New York City and Washington DC, interview them and edit the content down into one minute, ultra-healthy snack-sized bites.
I developed social content that could promote the videos. Still learning about blogs and social promotion, I began by writing headlines.
These headlines.
The reaction was staggering to the posts on our Facebook feed in preparation for launch was overwhelming. Mothers laughed, cried, lashed out, fought and thanked us. What more can be asked of a writer?
—
The project never made it into full production, in part because the family demands placed on Mary and I by the disease were simply too much at the time. Perhaps we’ll return to the project one day. Until then, I have the promotional content on this page.
—
Friends say my website has too much content. Maybe, but you get what you see: diversity, curiosity, energy, quirkiness, 70,000 hours of practice — and a completely unique viewpoint.
Love me or hate me — just don’t tell me the website is nice.
—
—
