Somebody Please Steal “Public Skate” Before I Start a Creative Agency Out of Spite

Hi, it’s Ash—and welcome to Ashtronomical! Every Wednesday, you’re going to get 5 original marketing ideas your competitors will wish they'd thought of first. 💀 Maybe there’ll be one in here for you???

Steal these brand ideas.

• BRANDTR | Creative Agency

  • Brand + banter = brandtr. PLEASE SOMEBODY RUN WITH THIS.

• PUBLIC SKATE | Creative Agency

  • 🌐 🛼 🎶 “The Rink” — that’s the Slack group

    💑 “Couples Skate” — optional pair-ups for accountability + editing partners

    🐢 “Slow Skates” — meetings for coworking, help, reflection, and regrouping
    🕺 ”All Skate” — group coaching sessions
    🎤 ”Mic Check” — feedback grounds
    👟 ”Rentals” — template library, plug ‘n play scripts, docs, tools
    🍿 “Concession Stand” — low-key snackable content on your socials
    👾 ”Arcade Mode” - creative challenges, mini contests, or wild prompts to spark new ideas, e.g. 72-hour design sprints, rebranding weird objects, or invent-a-product games.
    🚫 ”Skate at Your Own Risk” — An R&D-style lab for big ideas, experimental projects, or wild branding concepts you’re testing out.

• NEON SOAKED FEVER DREAM | Creative Agency

  • Couldn’t you see this being the coolest punk rock website agency, or copywriting agency specializing in edgy copy & big voices???

• PRESS PLAY | Podcasting or Video Editing Agency

  • Hot tip: if you’re looking for a brand name, stop and think about the actions you want your people to take. You might find some hidden inspo there, e.g. “Press Play!”

• VELCRO | Marketing or Sales Psychology Agency

  • Literally nothing is more interesting than the psychology of sales. NOTHINGGGGGGGGGG. And, if you want an idea to stick, a name like “Velcro” would crush it. 💪

• DUST | Business / Life Coach Brand

  • e.g. “Leave the haters in the dust.” Sounds so much more cool & modern than “Jane Doe’s Coaching.” Has big brand vibes. And big brand vibes = big money vibes.

• TECHNICALLY | Tech Agency / Digital Transformation Agency

  • “Technically” has the words “tech” plus “ally” — and ALSO happens to mean “tech speak.” Wouldn’t this be so fun if you were to start an agency specializing in helping Gen X get their tech game on in their business? You could specialize in digital transformations and it would be GRAND.

P.S. These are totally for you to steal—first come, first serve, so make sure you open this email fast every week if you want to register some of these domains before someone else! (Like NeonSoakedFeverDream.com is totally available.) But, they’re also purely creative suggestions—they haven't been vetted for trademarks, intellectual property conflicts, or legal availability. If you fall in love with any of them, you'll need to do your own homework to make sure they're fair game. 🤓

Steal this sales idea.

Okay so I LOVED this pop-up—and who loves pop-ups?!?!?!?—because it feels TIMELY & RELEVANT. 🌱

Most people make pop-ups and then just leave ‘em there year round. We have no idea if anyone’s runnin’ this thing. Most websites just sit there, and could have been made 3 years ago and never touched again. (This is why so many indie hotels have trouble getting direct bookings: we’re worried it’s not going to work. No one’s going to get our booking. We’ll show up and the place has been demolished.)

This pop-up, however, was just created the other day, and it made me feel sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo (!!!) comfortable booking, because I know they’re on it. I know this business is active. I know that someone will take care of me. I trust them because of something so simple.

TLDR: change your pop-ups every week and watch your subscribers & sales 🚀.

(The whole “UNTIL THE MIDDLE OF BLINKING AUGUST” line was a fun bonus, too! Humanity is the hottest sales tool of the future, after all.)

Steal this marketing idea.

I clicked on this so hard—AND I DON’T OPT IN TO THINGS. (Because most opt-ins don’t lead with a strong, irresistible promise.)

But, a monthly giveaway—as Kevin from Epic Gardening does here—is irresistable because:

• He knows what his audience would freakin’ die for
• It’s a dead simple proposition
• I don’t feel like I’m going to have “work” to do in order to get the benefit of it (which is why so many of the “Enter your email to get my 300 page PDF” can sometimes fall flat—despite it seeming valuable to the creator, the objection in my brain is, “ugh, that’s going to be so much to read through, just tell me the answers.”)
• Anything with the words “Dream Kit” are instant 🍆🍆🍆

Steal this copy idea.

Two things:

1. “You’re supporting an independent business.” This immediately felt good, didn’t it? Gone are the days where you had to pretend to be BIGGER. (Remember that? Still doing that?) I used to get so many questions about whether or not you should say “I” or “we” on your website. Well, guess what: it’s the era of the personal brand. Big corporations are sus. ROCK BEING AN INDEPENDENT BUSINESS. (I love this phrasing too, btw.)
2. “Having trouble deciding?” This also immediately felt good, because it acknowledged me where I’m at. It acknowledges that we have very real anxiety and spending decisions can be hard. This feels so soothing! Like a hug. Use it. (And the articles they link you up to are gold. 🏆 Adds considerable trust factor.)

Steal this business idea.

Derek Sivers is still selling ebooks on his website—through him.

Remember that? When you uploaded a PDF and just…sold your writing? That’s how I got my start.

Somewhere along the way, self-published ebooks started to feel juvenile. You had to be published by a major publisher. But, why? Why not make things for the fun of the making?

Sometimes keeping it simple is the most awesome thing you can do.

(A few companies that can help: Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, Book Baby, Blurb, or hey—just make it with Canva & sell it yourself with Kit! 💪)

Love you, the end.

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