September 16, 2026

One surefire way to “get the word out”

Story time...

Back in the 90s, I was in a rock band. We spent all our time and (limited) money on random tactics trying to get the attention of the local music press in Boston.

Unfortunately, we were a bunch of self-absorbed idiot musicians without a shred of marketing instinct, so of course, nothing worked.

Fast forward to 2011.

I was doing mobile strategy consulting for Fortune 500 companies. I had a crazy idea about the way the mobile payment system at Starbucks worked and shared my Starbucks card online to test it.

(Google “Jonathan’s Card” for details)

Within a week, I was on the front page of CNN, was interviewed live on MSNBC, and had over a million people visit my website.

My takeaway?

If you want to get attention, TACTICS DON’T MATTER!

The only thing that matters is that you DO SOMETHING REMARKABLE, in the literal sense of the word:

Something worth remarking about.

Of course, Seth Godin has been saying this for 30 years (and Zig Ziglar and Alice Cooper and PT Barnum and tons of others before Seth).

Here’s the thing...

Want more people talking about you?

Do something worth talking about.

Yours,

—J

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