This is the Handley Ridiculously Useful Holiday Gift Guide for marketers and writers, updated for 2019. Here are my picks for ridiculously useful gifts to help marketers become better, more confident communicators now and in the new year. Some are useful. Some are ridiculous. Some are both. Which are which? Well, that’s up to you. […]

A friend asked me to look at a few chapters of a book he’s writing. It’s a strong book with a strong premise. But he’s struggling with making the writing equally buff. So together let’s live-edit a single paragraph right here, right now. Because the writing takeaway is a solid one you can apply to […]

  Big Word Day is a day that encourages people to use king-sized words just to impress others. I love words. Sometimes I like big words. (And I cannot lie!) But using big words for the sake of using big words…? So. Dumb. The point of writing is to connect with other people. To be […]

The brand voice you use in your marketing is potentially a huge differentiator. It’s also vastly ignored by most companies—especially business-to-business companies. That spells plenty of opportunity for you and your company. “Back up,” you’re thinking. “What’s ‘tone of voice’? That thing I studied in Humanities?” Yes. And also no. Brand voice is how our […]

The other night, I stayed up way too late reading Jonathan Franzen’s The Discomfort Zone, a book I devoured and savored at once. Devoured: I wanted to stuff myself silly. Savored: I wanted to take small bites to make it last. I loved each small flavor and the way they worked together to create something […]

In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, Oracle + GirlGeekX asked me to share a story of a woman who’s inspired me as part of their #HerStoryContest. So I did in this video. If you’re thinking it *has* to be Tina Fey (because TINA!)… well, NOPE. I dug deeper to tell *this* story… […]

Warren Buffett published his much-celebrated annual Letter to Shareholders yesterday. I noticed it was out while I was on a flight home from LA, just as JetBlue and I were 30,000 feet over Nebraska. Nebraska. Buffett. Me. Coincidence? I. THINK. NOT. (To quote The Incredibles‘ Bernie Kropp.) By the time I landed in Boston, analysts […]

 Image source: Gratisography I talk a lot about thinking BIGGER in your marketing: sharing a bigger story to put your company in the larger context of what people care about. But today, I’m focusing not on big… but on small. I’m focusing on the need to tell the smallest story possible. Small stories are specific. […]

The Ignosaurus (Latin: Ignosaurus Status Quo) is a beast that lurks in the shadow of Marketing. Some say it doesn’t exist. That it died out millions of years ago along with the other dinosaurs. Some say it never existed. But insiders know the dirty secret… that the Ignosaurus is very much *ALiVe* in marketing. It […]

  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 […]