People love lists. Some like lists for the sake of celebrity, others like them so they know who to avoid.

Moms keep lists for their houses. Kids keep lists for collections. Marketers keep lists for messaging and segmentation. I keep lists because I’m a space cadet.

The Government, on the other hand, not so nice lists. First, there’s the secretive Terrorist watch list. Then there’s the politically exposed persons list.

What about one of the worst lists to be on? The list of detainee’s held at Gitmo.

Yikes, I don’t like those lists.

As a marketer, I am constantly collecting lists. I have lists of sites, lists of people, lists of peoples favorite things, lists of favorite peoples list of things, and more.

Unfortunately for those wanting to be delisted, lists will always be part of the world and work. So we learn to live with and utilize the lists.

Just having a list isn’t really much, but it usually helps. The real magic is in  curating our lists, protecting our lists, and learning to use our lists.

Direct response people segment their lists. Actually, they segment the shit out of their lists. They live by their lists, listed with numbers.

Branders just casually talk to their lists, using them as guides for what to say and how to say it.

And there’s shitty marketers, they just sell their lists, and sometimes yours.

I know what I do with my lists. I write everything on em’. Plans, process, procedures, purchases, and more. Then I put checks on my lists.

Some of my lists I pivot and table. Some of them I read and forget.

Then there are those I’ve wu-li mastered. As in, I Kung-Fu Chickened my list.