This newsletter goes out to more than 20,000 subscribers on Monday mornings. Subscribe here, it’s free. 

The Evangelist Marketing Minute is a weekly thinking launch point that is always short enough to read in about 60 seconds. It covers marketing, branding, positioning, language, and public relations. Your email address is never shared, with anybody, for any reason.

I don’t know how to write about marketing after what happened last week in Connecticut, which shook me and my family to the core. As a father of two very young children, the tragedy painfully crystallized what’s important. Among the many powerful personal and professional truths that rose to the surface for me, here are three related to our work:

* Be in the moment. Be engaged. The Internet, the blogosphere, the news media, make it all too easy to lose sight of the moment. We must manage that.

* We’re not here long enough to spend time dwelling on the past. If there’s something to be learned from what’s bothering us, we must find it, learn it, then move. If it pops up again, we must remember the lesson (that’s the value of the experience). I’m still working on this myself.

* We must help people every day. Teach. Ideally, altruistically. If there’s ulterior motive, people can tell.

What’s important — really, deeply important —  to you? Will you focus on it?

“Everyone here has the sense that right now is one of those moments when we are influencing the future.” — Steve Jobs.

Sign up here to receive The Evangelist Marketing Minute.

Event-Defining Speeches: Overview | Topics | Sample video clip

The Evangelist Marketing Master Class: A year of powerful learning & development

Coaching for Small Businesses: Create evangelists for your growing company