Author: sethmsparks

One of Those Days

By sethmsparks

I’m not a big complainer, but sometimes there are just those days when everything goes the wrong way. My day today? 1) Wife got rear-ended in a hit and run on the way to work. That means phone calls, $500 out of our pocket for an insurance deductible, scheduling a service and figuring our alternate…

Why Businesses are Starting to Act Like Non-Profits

By sethmsparks

              <summary> Membership organizations are commonly built to help individuals support a cause they care about or a discipline they connect with. In business, marketing has evolved in include a satisfaction element to the consumer transaction, which has heightened the importance of branding. Branding led to the permeation of…

Where Small Businesses Fail with Gen Y

By sethmsparks

I’m in a Unique Position I’m not special. But I do recognize that I’m a demographic outlier. I was born in 1982, one of the very first Millennials. I’m an elderly enough Gen Yer to have an established, well-enough paying job that I have a little discretionary income. But even though I’m a Millennial on…

Rebooting with Mitch Joel’s new book, Ctrl Alt Delete

By sethmsparks

I’d like to start by sharing a bio on Mitch, but there’s entirely too much to list. If you’d like some background and context on his experience and qualifications head over to the Google. There you can find his blog, books, HBR posts, podcast, previous speaking engagements, AdAge Power 150 Ranking, and lots of other…

How “Cutting the Cord” Cut Me Back

By sethmsparks

Getting Out the Wire Cutters In January, I suspended my DirecTV service. If you’re with DirecTV, you can actually turn off your service while maintaining your account. You don’t pay any bills for the selected duration (max of 6 months), you keep all of your equipment, and when the service comes back on it’s like…

Did I Just Get Social Media “Script Raped”?

By sethmsparks

I spent some time chatting with my ISP yesterday about their services. I had a fairly simple question about available packages, and how I could increase my monthly data allowance (which I didn’t know existed until last weekend – more on that later). Evidently their rules, and the systems and social media policies that are…

Being Productive

By sethmsparks

I’m a regular listener of the new(ish) podcast The Work Talk Show, hosted by Nick Westergaard and DJ Waldow. If you haven’t checked it out, go back and listen to a couple (iOS link). Nick and DJ approach their podcast from a different angle than most marketing professionals, by interviewing “wicked smart” guests like Seth…

Netflix Won’t Replace “the cord” Until It Does This

By sethmsparks

I turned off DirecTV in January. So far, six weeks in we’ve gotten pretty used to antenna TV and Netflix. But there’s something that I’ve noticed that I miss with Netflix. You know that feeling on a late Saturday afternoon when you turn on the TV without a specific purpose? There’s no new episodes of…

Clever or Deceptive Email Trick from JCP?

By sethmsparks

I received an email from JCP Rewards moments ago that caught me off-guard. Just by opening the email I “opted in” to their rewards program. Is that deceptive, or streamlined? Note: There was an easily accessible opt-out in the body text.