Rob Biesenbach 
Seven months ago I acted in a corporate video that was creative, evocative and inspiring. Six months ago I acted in a second version of the video based on a revised script. Yesterday I acted in version three. Not surprisingly, the video did not get better with each iteration. It got more wordy, more specific, … Read more
There’s a critical scene in one of my favorite movies, The Fugitive. Dr. Richard Kimble (played by Harrison Ford) is the man wrongly accused of killing his wife. Tommy Lee Jones is the federal marshal sworn to bring him to justice. When they have their big confrontation down in the bowels of that giant hydroelectric … Read more
I went to an industry event today where there was a guest speaker. I thinkthere was some value to the substance of his presentation, but it was very hard to tell because I was so turned off by the style, which was forecast by three things he did at the very top: He announced that … Read more
We put together an index and I consider it as much a part of the marketing as the cover. I think thumbing through it reveals a potentially very different, pretty fun book. Here is a condensed version of the 200 or so entries: Allen, Woody approval process audience: connecting with Austin Powers Bachelor, The body … Read more
I swear I learned a concept in high school psychology called “spatial filling.” I can’t find it on the Internet (or at least not in the way I thought I knew it), but here’s how I recall it. Spatial filling is the tendency for our mind to fill in missing details that we expect to … Read more
In the book I give some tips for using humor in a business situation — speeches, videos, emails. I talk about the fact that comedy is derived from truth. It should happen naturally and organically — just like it does over the dinner table when you’re out with friends. The #1 Rule for using humor? … Read more
I used to do crosswords all the time. Then I got a smartphone. Now I just kill time browsing the Internet. But I always take one or two aboard a plane, because there are long stretches where you can’t use electronic devices, and everything, including my books, are on electronic devices. Anyway, I was on … Read more
I hadn’t heard of the “logical punctuation” movement. I’m not really disturbed so much by the continued evolution of language to a looser, more informal style. But to learn that there has long been debate over where to put punctuation marks in relation to quotation marks? I’ve always thought that was ironclad. Periods, commas, question … Read more
This weekend we shot a series of web videos to accompany the book, and it reinforced several important lessons: Keep your videos SHORT. One minute is great, two minutes is okay if it’s good. Longer than that? How do you plan to keep people watching? Right now I have nine tabs open in my web … Read more
With the iPod, iPhone and iPad — not to mention MacBook and iMac — Apple has been on an almost decade-long roll. But in a rare stumble, the company encountered multiple setbacks that delayed introduction of the heavily anticipated white iPhone for almost a year. When at long last the company unveiled the device a … Read more