“Why should I hire a publicist?” is one of the top questions I’ve been asked by authors, film makers and whatsit creators. When I started out, I’d cite what I’d heard others before me throw out, the main thing being this: Publicists have a strong list of contacts that authors don’t often have themselves. These days, when I’m asked, my answer is: You might not need a publicist. My follow-up questions for the first timers: Are you in this for the long-term or is this a one-time project? Is this the only book or film or whatsit that you plan…

I don’t want to get up. This thought hits me at about 4:30 AM every morning. It comes in the voice of the animated devil sitting on my shoulder, a la the old Tom and Jerry cartoons. The little angel on the other shoulder always responds by climbing into my head and yelling, get up, lazy—almost as annoying as a soccer stadium filled with four-year olds going to town with vuvuzelas. For the most part, the devil doesn’t say much. I rarely hear his voice. He just sits around grinning. The angel is the vocal one because she’s the key…

Do you know Sally Carrol Happer? She lives in the sleepy southern summers of Tarleton, GA, bathed in golden light and “freckling shadows.” She was brought up on “memories instead of money” and raised within F. Scott Fitgerald’s mind. She rests within his “Ice Palace.” She exists in a world free of 4G ads telling us to get up to speed, of apps for all that, of gadgets and gizmos a plenty. Her story is one of the North and South, city and country, men and women, “canines and felines,” new and old, and entrepreneurs and good old boys looking…

I used to hang out with Customer Service’s evil twin Customer Hell. You might know him. He deflects problems like Roger Federer does tennis balls—he sends them in directions you aren’t expecting, until  you waste hours of time, scrambling to sort things out. After years of being around him—whether at the phone company, the TV company, with home contractors (he gets around)—I picked up a few fleas. When things didn’t go right, I raised my voice, gave curt, sarcastic answers, belittled.  It was the only way I knew how to deal with Customer Hell. And then I screwed up and…

Are there any words of encouragement that you can give to a beginning comedien? Bob Hope: Yeah. Forget it. We’ve got enough. And stay out of our racquet. I can’t get enough of old classic radio—especially comedy. I laugh at Bob Hope’s jokes about as hard as his Pepsodent and Swann audiences did over 50 years ago. His material works just as well today as it did then. This is Bob “Washington, D.C.” Hope. I’ve been here two days and nearly starved to death. I went to a chicken dinner last night and didn’t even get a wing. I sat…

Wednesday, Steve did an interview with Chris Brogan. When we scheduled the time with Chris, the idea was that this would be an interview on why Steve isn’t doing Turning Pro-related interviews.

Shoulder harness down. Seat belt locked. Loose items secured in cubbies next to the ride. Anticipation. Waiting for those magic words to blare through the speakers: Heeeere weee goooo! Nervous laugh. Gut tumble. Biting bottom lip. You know what comes next. We’re off, climbing higher, anticipating the rush to come, and then . . .

The hard part of sharing is ensuring that what you’ve said is what is heard. Experience is a factor. At baseball games, my four-year-old sings “Take me out to the ball game . . . buy me some peanuts and Apple Jacks . . . ” She’s had the cereal more often than the snack, so her understanding of the lyrics is infused with personal experience.

My best friend lives hundreds of miles away. I call her those nights when the moon is full, sitting low and large in the sky, as if George Bailey lassoed it in for a better view. Always, I ask: “Does the moon look the same to you?” I want to know: “Are we sharing the same thing, so far apart?” *** April 20, 2011, The Domino Project released Steve’s book Do the Work and we were gearing up for the releases of The Warrior Ethos and The Profession.

Best Buy and Five Star in China Last week I caught the tail-end of the CNBC show “Best Buy: The Big Box Strikes Back.” According to the show, Best Buy “closed its nine American style stores in 2011.” In China, Best Buy had become the Brick portion of the “Brick and Click” method of buying. Consumers went into the stores to see the product, to research it, but then they “go back home to buy the product online or they go next store to the local competition because it was a lot cheaper.”