Here’s the best writing I read all week. It’s 170 words tucked into a belly of a 7,000-word article. And yes… it’s about stink bugs. Stay with me. Because those of us writers who write about B2B “solutions” or other boring or complex things can learn a lot from the vivid description of these […]

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” — e.e. cummings In one of my first assignments from the Boston Globe, editor Dick Powers sent me to cover a fire in the Boston suburbs that had destroyed much of a couple’s antique colonial home. It was a straightforward task, from a […]

As slow As Possible (AsAP) is the counterintuitive way to thrive in a fast-paced world. The key is slowing down at the right moments. Because that’s what will deliver faster, more sustainable results in the end. Sounds weird, right? But it’s true: AsAP Is the Key to Less Stress, More Success, Real Results. But what’s […]

I’ve been talking about the benefits of long-form storytelling for a while. And lately, I’ve noticed a bunch of new examples crop up. “Gradually, and then suddenly,” as Hemingway once wrote. That’s long-form storytelling and longer content pieces. Right now. We marketers are always experimenting with new content formats and new vehicles. And lately, the […]

For all the stories of gutted newsrooms and struggling newspapers, there’s still an awful lot of innovation coming out of journalism. Staffed as they are with storytellers, writers, and illustrators, newsrooms can offer marketers and content creators a lot of storytelling inspiration. Here are two of my recent favorites. I The Boston Globe‘s Metro section […]

  I started on Twitter in 2007 as @MarketingProfs, sharing headlines from the site and representing the brand there. Then 5 years later I resuscitated @AnnHandley on Twitter as a personal ID—a handle I’d been squatting on for years but never used. Why the second account? I guess the easiest answer is that it seemed… […]

This post on empathy and marketing is an expanded version of the intro to my forthnightly newsletter, which features a letter from me to you along with ideas worth sharing and a healthy dose of fun. Not on the list? You can subscribe right here. I moderated a panel about Empathy and Marketing last week […]

Ronald Clark’s father worked as a custodian of a New York Public Library branch in an era when library caretakers and their families lived on site. A few of these apartments are still around, although now there are no people living in them. Ronald’s dad kept the NYPL Washington Heights branch clean and tended the […]

This post is an expanded version of my biweekly newsletter content, which features a letter from me to you along with ideas worth sharing and a healthy dose of fun. Not on the list? You can subscribe right here. Nothing ignites fire in the gut of righteous grammar geeks more than the serial—aka Oxford—comma. Why […]

We want everything fast, don’t we? In marketing, we want more leads, more pipeline, more brand awareness… and more fans, followers, and friends. We want more content. We more content marketing programs and more channels (more ways to reach our customers). But, ironically, the companies that have the biggest, most sustainable business wins won’t get […]

Recently my friend Ben Opsahl sent me a note. He had subscribed here in early 2017 expecting a regular newsletter, and then noticed that he didn’t hear from me much. He had four emails from me last year, he pointed out. Four? Yep: F–O–U–R. Because that’s how often I wrote here and how often I […]

My favorite book is always the one I’m reading now. I get vested in the story, in the characters, in the voice of the writer. The last few pages can feel like a kind of death (a sense of foreboding, a final ending), which is why I often sequentially, and (sometimes) obsessively, read the works […]