Dating vs Online Advertising: Swipe Left or Right?

Recently I spent the weekend with a newly-single friend who, after 17 years of marriage, finds himself once again 'on the market'. Having not dated since the last century, he's getting a crash course in how much being single has changed, due to technology. If you've been 'off the market' ...

Marketing Is Training Turned Outward

My extended family includes a few psychologists, from whom I've picked up a few nuggets on the human condition. One of them goes like this: "Depression is anger turned inward." OK, not the most uplifting way to start a blog post, but stay with me a second. What's interesting is ...

Your Audience Demands Relevance. Will You Deliver?

Many things in this world are scarce. Content is not among those things. As content distribution costs have gone to zero, content has flooded the world. Which makes it hard to find exactly the content you need. Over-abundant content - User-generated, curated, "fake news", etc. - has simply created a ...

It's Graduation Time for Assessment Tools

In school, you always knew where you stood. But in the workforce, it's a lot less clear. As a student, your knowledge was checked on tests and quizzes multiple times per month, perhaps even a few times per week. You probably didn't love being tested; but along with grades, all ...

Media lost on Breadth. They can still win on Depth, if they act like teachers.

Part I: Media's Crisis and The Way Forward Media firms face a true existential crisis: What is their purpose ? Why do they exist? For about 150 years, Media businesses were the only way to get messages, both non-commercial (news) and commercial (ads), in front of large groups of specific ...

5 Signs That Your Brand Is A Terrible Teacher

Back in school, we spent our days listening to teachers. Now--consciously or not--we spend our days listening to brands. Is your brand just like that boring, ineffective teacher you used to have (and couldn't stand)? Here are 5 warning signs. Your Brand Lectures Endlessly. When Hollywood shows a terrible teacher, ...

How 'Soft Skills' Tests Could Create Opportunity for Millions

College degrees that impress employers are harder than ever to obtain and afford. Could innovations in testing level the playing field? Flashback to America in the late 1950's: A grandchild of immigrants, raised by working class parents, is bright and motivated. He studies hard and earns good grades. Despite his ...

The Webinar is Tired. Try Something New.

Marketers: It's time to ditch a marketing relic. Give your audience something far more engaging and powerful. "Sign up for our free webinar!" Do those six words make you feel excited? Intrigued? Doubtful. You probably feel some combination of bored, burdened and "Blech!" Why? Because like most people, you secretly ...

Generalists vs. Specialists: Who Owns The Future?

Who's more valuable to your organization: Someone who can 'wear multiple hats' or someone who's very talented at one thing? How would you advise a student looking at college options: Pursue a degree that exposed her to a range of disciplines and taught her to think critically in different contexts, ...

Featured in Forbes.com

Delighted to be featured in Forbes.com this month, for my thoughts on how to create great content that teaches people. Can't re-post the article here yet, but here's the link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2014/09/02/5-essentials-for-creating-powerful-content-that-earns-money-while-educating-others/ Hope you enjoy! - Lev

'Test' is NOT a four-letter word

Your palms moisten with sweat. You cast furtive glances at others around you, to confirm you're not the only nervous one. The clock tells you it's almost 'go' time. Your heartbeat rises in your chest as you try to squelch a voice inside your head saying, "This could be baaaad..." ...

Startup/Yoga Parallels

The following post authored by Lev Kaye originally appeared here in Entrepreneur Magazine on May 29th, 2014. It is reprinted here with permission. Startups and yoga are two cultural phenomena that have become mainstream over the past decade. There's a 20 percent chance you've tried a startup, a 40 percent ...

The World's Leading Expert (In Something)

My late grandfather, Saul Kaye, was among the millions of Brooklyn kids raised by hardworking immigrant parents. He came of age during the Depression, studied hard, served in the U.S. Army during World War II, and spent his postwar years doing his part to build America into a powerhouse, while ...

Test-Driven Career Development

Working on a startup is the new graduate school--you learn a lot, and you hope it will pay off someday. I've learned a ton from my startup experiences, but I'd like to share one of the most important concepts to which our software engineers recently introduced me. It's called Test-Driven ...

Fracking For Talent

The Concept of 'Tight Talent' You're probably familiar with the term "fracking," shorthand for hydraulic fracturing. It involves extracting oil and gas that's locked inside rock formations, and it's the biggest innovation in the energy sector of the past twenty years. Though the practice is controversial, the fracking process contains ...

How Do You Know What I Know?

Imagine you're considering hiring me. Does it matter to you what I know? (I'm guessing it does.) So, how do you know what I know? Think about that one for 4 seconds. You can look at my degrees and academic transcript, but how do you know what I actually learned ...