Late last night I flew in from a mastermind meeting in Buffalo. Three times a year I meet with some of the sharpest marketing minds who get “our type of marketing”.

I just returned from a four night cruise with my girlfriend and kids. I resisted the urge to eat their signature chocolate dessert each night.

When I was in seventh grade, my buddies and I loved roller derby. It came on every Sunday night and was the equivalent of wrestling on skates. The Fabulous Thunderbirds were the star team.

The world is truly getting smaller. As a kid, a night out for Italian was a trip to Shoney’s for spaghetti and meat sauce.

Late Saturday night I flew back fromCleveland. I was attending Dan Kennedy’s Direct Mail Conference and walked away with an incredibly simple technique to increase the effectiveness of direct mail I’d like to share with you.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be Richie Rich. I could read comic book after comic book of his adventures. Being the “poorest friend” my friends had left a taste for the finer things as displayed by Richie’s over the top wealth.

I guess the highest form of flattery is when your former competitor invites you to speak to a room full of his franchisees, and you piss him off. That’s exactly what happened yesterday here inNashville.

Imagine you woke up tomorrow complaining of chest pain, dizziness and faintness of breath. You call 911 and get rushed into the ER. They strap you to all these machines and determine you have had a heart attack.

Short of a seven year old fawning over the prize in a Happy Meal, not too many people go to McDonald’s because they serve the “best” hamburgers.

I take my kids to school each morning, but about three times a week I head to the gym before work. Immediately after my workout, I walk across the parking lot to Publix and grab a granny smith apple to eat on my way home.