Business Archives - Bob Cargill

08Mar 2026 by Bob Cargill No Comments

Ceding Control of Your Communications

Advertising, Branding, Business, Marketing, Social Media

[embed]https://youtube.com/shorts/g2_1WcFEb0g?si=ztl3g7HKC9kY27wf[/embed] Back in the day, for many years, businesses controlled the message. Top-down. One-way. Interruptive. “We talk. You listen.” Then the internet showed up. Then social media. Now AI. And suddenly? Everyone has a voice. We are all publishers. We are all broadcasters. We are all creators. We all have the opportunity to respond, remix, critique, amplify. For better or worse. That’s not chaos. That’s democratization. And it makes some organizations uncomfortable. “What if someone criticizes us?” “What if we lose control of the narrative?” But here’s the truth. You don’t control the conversation anymore. You can participate in it. You can influence it. You can earn trust within it. But control? That belongs to the community. The brands that thrive today aren’t the ones who hold the mic the…

20Feb 2026 by Bob Cargill No Comments

The Next Bob Cargill’s Marketing Road Show is Coming Soon

Advertising, Boston, Branding, Business, Communications, Direct Marketing, Education, Marketing, networking, Social Media, Special Event

[yotuwp type="videos" id="JxknCAigNVI" ] The next Bob Cargill's Marketing Road Show is in the works. One full day of 20+ speakers on the latest in marketing, social media, AI and business in general. You'll be educated and entertained. You'll learn and you'll laugh. Food and entertainment included. Networking opportunities galore. A conference like no other. Friday, April 10 at Hult International Business School in Cambridge, MA. Tickets available now here.

04Jan 2026 by Bob Cargill

Higher Ed, Career Development, Leadership, AI and More with Dr. Suela Papagelis

Business, Education, Marketing

[yotuwp type="videos" id="yb2081pkEWY" ] In this engaging conversation, Bob Cargill speaks with Dr. Suela Papagelis about her educational journey, teaching philosophy and the importance of creating a safe learning environment. They discuss the significance of competing with oneself, embracing change, and the role of technology and AI in education. Dr. Papagelis shares her insights on critical thinking, cultural awareness, and the importance of passion in career choices, ultimately emphasizing the need for personal growth and motivation in both teaching and learning. Takeaways Compete with yourself, not others. Creating a safe environment is crucial for learning. Passion drives success in any profession. Embrace change to avoid stagnation. Critical thinking is essential in education. AI should complement, not replace, human thinking. Cultural awareness enhances teamwork. Mistakes are lessons, not failures. Long-term planning…

11Nov 2025 by Bob Cargill

Be Like Mike’s Pastry

Advertising, Boston, Branding, Business, Marketing, Restaurants

[embed]https://youtube.com/shorts/LA2g1OipyzQ?si=KuZCCL2zkaOSNB4D[/embed] Barbara and I were walking down Hanover Street in the North End of Boston recently when we passed Mike's Pastry. You know the scene... the long line out the door, the white box with the blue lettering and that signature string tied neatly around it. People walk around town carrying those little boxes of delicious Italian pastries and desserts like they just won a prize. Because in a way, well, they did. 😊 That’s branding. That’s marketing. That's sales. That’s a reputation built over years of showing up, delivering high quality, being raved about and becoming a big part of the culture. When you see that box, you don’t even have to open it to know what’s inside. You just know it’s something special, it's something irresistibly good, it's something…

06Jan 2025 by Bob Cargill

The Audiobook Version of the Book about My Career

Advertising, Branding, Business, Direct Marketing, Marketing, Social Media

In June of 2022, I published my professional autobiography, 20 Jobs, 20 Lessons - a Long, Strange Career in Marketing, from Junk Mail to Social Media. In January of 2025, I'm publishing the audiobook version of this book, recorded by my professional voice clone created by ElevenLabs. I can't tell you how excited I am to put this audiobook out there, which ironically, goes a long way towards reinforcing my point about Lesson 12 in my book, "Embrace Technology Now." When I spent about two years or so writing this book, I never could have imagined I would be able to create a recorded version of it in only about two weeks. But thanks to advances in #AI, specifically ElevenLabs' founding in 2022, here I am able to drop an…

30Dec 2024 by Bob Cargill

Episode 194 of Bob Cargill’s Marketing Show (Podcast) – Teaching, Running, ElevenLabs, Rustic Marlin and More

Boston, Branding, Business, Marketing, Social Media

In this episode of my podcast, Bob Cargill's Marketing Show, I catch you up on some of what I've been doing the last few months, including teaching marketing at two universities in Boston, hosting the Bob Cargill's Marketing Road Show conference in Boston in early November, using AI (ElevenLabs) to record an audio version of my book, Twenty Jobs, Twenty Lessons - a Long, Strange Career in Marketing, from Junk Mail to Social Media and more. I also share a couple of good marketing-related stories, one about seeing this ridiculously awesome "selfie station" in front of a store, Rustic Marlin, at Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston, and another about an ad I heard recently that inspired me with the words, "The World Revolves Around You."

19Nov 2024 by Bob Cargill

Does Your Business Have Its Own Selfie Station?

Advertising, Boston, Branding, Business, Marketing, Selfies, Social Media

You might call it a chair. Or a bench. In 2024, when it's right in front of a store, I would call it a selfie station. I would call it brilliant. I would call it an opportunity for this store, Rustic Marlin, to attract more prospective customers into their store and perhaps increase their sales. It's a great idea. Especially with all the stickers, in this case, emblazoned on it that say, #Boston. It's something a lot of different brands and businesses could take advantage of themselves. Think about it. This bench is located in a crowded tourist destination in Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Lots of people are walking by on a regular basis. They might want to sit down and relax. They might need to take a break for a…

13Aug 2024 by Bob Cargill

A Great Sign for Lyrik Back Bay in Boston

Advertising, Boston, Branding, Business, Marketing

I have no idea how many new commercial developments are built in Boston every year, and I hardly know the names of any of them, but I know quite a bit about this big, new office, hotel and retail development. Lyrik Back Bay. Sure, it's situated on Massachusetts Avenue between Boylston and Newbury Streets over the Mass Pike in the Back Bay neighborhood, so it's hard to ignore. But it's some of the street-level signage that really caught my eye, not necessarily the unique location punctuated by two tall buildings that will house a citizenM hotel, the LEGO Group's new US headquarters and CarGurus. Seeing a line - er, a lyric, I should say - from the Led Zeppelin classic, Stairway to Heaven, especially caught my attention, admittedly because I'm…

29Jan 2024 by Bob Cargill

Are You a Social Media Double Threat?

Branding, Business, Marketing, Social Media

It's one thing to have the skills to navigate your way around the digital world, to utilize social media effectively behind the scenes. It's another thing - and it's a big thing, too - to be able to be in front of the camera, behind the microphone, to be a content creator as a personal brand, either representing yourself as an individual or on behalf of your employer, a brand, business, etc. That's a double threat. Yes, if you can do both, if you can be both behind the scenes and in front of the camera, you would be considered a double threat, an invaluable asset to the organization for which you work. So I encourage all my students, all my clients to have both the skills to manage social…

Category: Business