Stories as Business Strategy

By Tim Berry

Stories are the oldest and probably the best way to communicate ideas, truth, and beliefs. Stories as business strategy can be extremely powerful. Think of the key stories that are foundational in the great religions. Or think about the stories behind the phrases “sour grapes,” “the fox in the henhouse,” and “the emperor’s new clothes.”... Read More »

social media earthquake

Social Media Marketing Earthquake, Content Tsunami

By Tim Berry

(My latest column in the Eugene Register Guard. Click here for the original. Reposted here with permission) Social media marketing earthquake The social media marketing earthquake is already here. And, in keeping with the forecast theme in this month’s blue chip, here’s a prediction: content marketing tsunami. The shaking started as social media took off... Read More »

How to Use Silence to Stay Focused

By Tim Berry

Today I’m recommending another in John Jantsch’s Recover You series: How to Use Silence to Stay Focused. Everybody should read it. I love reading John on how to live better. In his case, it’s a natural extension of his brand on business advice. Do yourself a favor. Read this. Think about it. Do it. Read More »

A Marketing Expert’s Must-Read Advice on Living Better

By Tim Berry

I’m proud to say John Jantsch, the world’s number one expert on small business marketing,  is a friend of mine. I’ve worked with him for years and I’ve learned a lot from him. For example, I still use his definition of marketing (“getting people to know, like, and trust you”) almost daily. His wisdom has... Read More »

10 Tips For Starting a Service Business

By Tim Berry

You can see the request here on the right, posted to me on Twitter. I decided it’s a good subject for a blog post here, and I went on my own first as a service business and survived that way for 12 years before Palo Alto Software finally established itself as a product company.  So... Read More »

What Kind of Advertising for a Startup

By Tim Berry

I revised my timberry.com website a couple of months ago and one of the additions was the ask me page where I offering to answer questions people ask. This question came to me from that page and I think it might be a useful answer for this blog. Question: I just started a small business... Read More »

5 Good Posts for Friday April 22

By Tim Berry

It is now fixed so I haven’t lost my last two weeks of blogging, and all of your comments, from yesterday’s Amazon Cloud server failure. In the meantime, life goes on. These are some posts I’ve collected this week, posts I want to recommend: Little Bets Can Make a Big Difference: Dan Schawbel’s review of... Read More »

A Few Good Posts for a Friday

By Tim Berry

These are some posts I recommended reading this week. My absolute favorite this week was Mark Suster’s 9 Women Can’t Make a Baby in a Month, on TechCrunch. Mark’s Both Sides of the Table is a great blog, by the way. And this is the thought at the heart of that post: Over funding often... Read More »

10 Blogging Tips. My 1,000th Post on This Blog

By Tim Berry

Last night I was halfway through a draft post patting myself on the back, illustrated with champagne glasses, when my youngest daughter, Megan, called from San Francisco, where she lives now. That’s @MeganBerry to you, blogger and social media expert, marketing manager of Klout.com. So I asked her this: “What do I do with my... Read More »

Build A Referral Engine Right

By Tim Berry

I love this paragraph: There are three ingredients necessary for a rewarding and successful business experience: You must enjoy what you do and feel a sense of purpose; you must be good at what you do; and you must be able to convince other people to pay you for what you do. That’s from John... Read More »