Thursday, July 31, 2008

A Great Way to Get Expert Fast


I just finished a session with a client who develops advertising ideas and copy. He works for a second-tier ad agency but would like to move up.

I suggested he create a nugget file. That's simply a word-processing file in which he writes one-line nuggets, each describing a key tool or principle in great advertising. I suggested he find those nuggets by studying the advertising that recently won a national award. (I cautioned against going back to old ads, because the world has changed.) Because it's critical to apply learning right away, I then suggested he apply those nuggets to improving his own website, which will be the "ad" he'll use to sell himself to those big-time ad agencies. He said he loved the idea.

Yesterday, I suggested that another client start a nugget file. He's about to begin landscape architecture school at Cornell. His goal is to specialize in coastline landscape architecture. I suggested he create a nugget file on that specialization and that he gather the nuggets in three ways:

1. Do a Google search for on-target articles and an Amazon search for on-target books.

2. Ask your professor to let you to do assignments and term papers that focus on coastline landscape architecture.

3. During class sessions, listen for nuggets.

Like my ad writer client, he said he is excited about keeping a nugget file.

Should you keep a nugget file on some topic?

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