Author / Jim Cota

Posts by Jim Cota

Jim lives in Indianapolis with his wife and four kids and feels lucky to work with the fine folks at Rare Bird. An occasional writer, tweeter, and shooter. If you need to know anything else about me, this should do it...

Frustrated With Marketing? Put Email to Work…

Why Email? Good question; with compelling answers. If you’re like most people running a business, there’s a good chance you’ve been a little frustrated with marketing. You’ve spent time and money on ads here and there, but the results were unpredictable — or worse — questionable. You’re in the phone book because you feel like you have to be, and it seems like the cost goes up year after year. Word of mouth works, but it’s just too slow. Direct mail works, but it’s just too expensive. Radio and TV are difficult to do well and nearly impossible to track for results.

I talked with a CEO recently who was complaining that his radio and television ads produced no measurable results. When he complained to his ad agency, they suggested he spend more money to buy more spots. Is that really the answer, when all you want is some accountability, measurable results, and control? Email gives you all three, with one added benefit: it’s affordable.

[Read the rest]

Maybe It Was Too Soon for Star Wars


Tonight, Jack decided that he wanted to read his “Dark Bader stories” before bed. Knowing he didn’t have any Darth Vader stories, I asked him to show me his book. He proudly held up the one pictured at right.

Not exactly sure what to make of this.

As I’m also not sure what to make of the fact that Darth Vader is his favorite Star Wars character. Let’s see… we have multiple characters on the side of “good,” many of which displaying plenty of human foibles to add to their charm. And we have Darth Vader, second only to the Emporer himself as “evil incarnate.” And Jack picks Vader.

Perhaps it was a little too soon, after all.

Heard Around the House

Jack had hives the other day and Lily said, “Dad, Jack has chicken pops.”

We’re in the car, driving home, and Jack says, “Dad, did you know that Jesus has the whole world in his hands?”

Yesterday, playing hide and seek in the house, I jumped out and scared Jack. He said, “Dad, you scared the chickens out of me!”

Sitting at the kitchen table, Abby sneezed. I heard Grace say, from the other room, “Bless you!”

Flying Lesson by Julia Kasdorf

I heard this poem while listening to The Writer’s Almanac on NPR a few weeks ago. I don’t know if it was the mood I was in or something else entirely, but I distinctly remembered feeling like this as a young college student on my own “merciless Midwestern plain.” I was, at once, feeling the familiar feelings of euphoria that ride along with the unknown and a new foreboding and trepidation, knowing that my own darlings will one day feel this way… Who will be there to offer them a timely flying lesson?

Flying Lesson

Over a tray of spent plates, I confessed
to the college president my plans to go East,
to New York, which I’d not really seen,
though it seemed the right place
for a sophomore as sullen and restless
as I had become on that merciless
Midwestern plain. He slowly stroked
a thick cup and described the nights
when, a theology teacher in Boston, he’d fly
a tiny plane alone out over the ocean,
each time pressing farther into the dark
until the last moment, when he’d turn
toward the coast’s bright spine, how he loved
the way the city glittered beneath him
as he glided gracefully toward it,
engine gasping, fuel needle dead on empty,
the way sweat dampened the back of his neck
when he climbed from the cockpit, giddy.
Buttoned up in my cardigan, young, willing
to lose everything, how could I see generosity
or warning? But now that I’m out here,
his advice comes so clear: fling yourself
farther, and a bit farther each time,
but darling, don’t drop.

from Eve’s Striptease
© University of Pittsburg Press.

Abby and the Nebulizer

That sounds like a Richard Scary book… Abby came down with a fairly nasty case of RSV a couple of weeks ago. Well, actually, as far as RSV goes it was pretty mild: we were able to avoid a trip to the hospital and we’re grateful for that. Her cough was fairly severe, however, so she had to have breathing treatments every 3-4 hours with the nebulizer. She was such a good sport about it, I couldn’t help taking a photo…