Annecdote

A gratitude inventory (even without Taylor Swift tickets)

A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. * * * Hi, bezzie. A close friend had a birthday this week. In gratitude for the texts and messages that modern birthdays serve up… she wrote on Instagram: “I have… a wonderful husband, sparkling kids, cherished friends, fulfilling career, Taylor Swift tics….” (LOL on that last one. But also… I’m a little salty. Because I do not have Taylor Swift tickets.) My friend ended with “I matter to the world I have created for myself.” I loved that subtle reframing. What do we have in the world we’ve created for ourselves? It’s Thanksgiving week here in the U.S., a time of gratitude and reflection. I suppose that’s why this issue is a little more introspective than most. This issue is also less […]

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7 of the Best Book Gifts for Writers, Marketers, Creators

A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. * * * Hi! Annta Claus here with an important message: Books make the best presents. Let’s check the list for reasons why… A book is personal. It’s chosen with someone specifically, squarely in your mind. A book has no expiration date. A book can be used/reused as many times as you want. (You can’t ever use it up!) And each time, it’s a slightly different experience. You can write in it. (You should write in it!) Books don’t require double-A batteries or USB chargers or adapters. You can mail books in the US mail at the lower “book rate” (AKA Media Mail).* * Trivia to toss out at the holiday table: In the 1930s, President Roosevelt created that preferred rate as a way to encourage literacy. Books are a

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Should You Ungate Your Content?

An excerpt from Everybody Writes 2: Your New and Improved Go-To Guide to Ridiculously Good Content. Get a copy; you’ll love it. * * * Last week I walked by a storefront. From the outside, I liked the vibe of the place. The products on the shelves looked… promising. As I stepped just inside the door, a foot-tall robot jumped out of nowhere: “HI WANT TO CHAT? I’M HERE TO HELP YOU FIND YOUR WAY.” I kicked him aside. I browsed the aisles. Something caught my eye. As I reached out to look closer, a salesperson slid directly in front of me. “TONY,” his name tag read. He had a tattoo of an onion on his neck. “Not so fast, sister,” TONY said. “You want to touch it? Look closer? See if it’s right for you? Give me your email address first.” His neck veins bulged. The onion pulsed. Before

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How to Write for Instagram

A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. * * * Last week, my girl Kerry Gorgone and I gave a talk at the Social Pulse Summit titled Blending the Personal and Professional on Instagram (Without Getting Into Trouble or Being a Jackhole). Kerry is the Amy Poehler to my Tina Fey. Kerry also has a JD, so her part was mostly about how Not to Get Into Trouble. I am not a lawyer. So my part was mostly about Avoiding Jackholish-ness. I shared about how I blend the personal and professional on the ‘gram—my favorite social network. Have you ever committed to something and then had immediate regrets? That was me with this talk. In that process, I moved through these stages: Seven Stages of a Creative Project

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How to Write a First Draft of Anything

A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. * * * I re-posted the image above on Instagram a few days ago. Don’t we go into any new project (or year) with a vision in our heads that often doesn’t quite mirror the mess that ultimately spills out? We might have a vision for a totally jacked stallion, lead-penciled rippling muscles capable of leaping straight at your face if they wanted to. We try our best to pull out what’s in our head and shape it into something that could run wet and sweaty off the page. And then—oof—what we end up with in first draft is something a not very talented preschooler might produce. My own first drafts are like that: littered with typos and half-written phrases, like I’m

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How This Marketing Program Cleaned Up: A Case Study in B2B Storytelling

A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it. * * * Pop quiz time: You run Marketing at a B2B company that sells industrial floor-cleaning equipment. You want to amp up awareness and demand with your audience of commercial and municipal facilities managers. But it’s… well, industrial, floor, and cleaning. What would you do as a tactic in your 2020 content strategy? Pick one: Point a camera at your CEO in a regular fireside chat to demonstrate how the brand is there for you in these trying times Hire an Instagram influencer and their family to literally eat off a scrubbed, sparkling, Covid-free floor Launch an old-school, year-long essay contest to find stories about janitors If you’re Tennant Company… you go all-in on #3. And I love it. It speaks

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A Writer’s Hierarchy of Needs: How to Do Our Best Work

A version of this story appeared in Total Annarchy, my fortnightly newsletter that helps you be a better writer, storyteller, marketer. Get it in your inbox; you’ll love it.   Where to Do Your Best Work Yesterday, I disturbed the spider ecosystem thriving on Tiny Porch (TP), the official name of the screened porch of my backyard Tiny House Office (THO). My THO is a small office I built in my backyard; it’s where I do my best work. (You can read the back story on it here.) I’d been meaning to take care of that spider situation all summer. But I’d been avoiding it, instead breezing by it with blinders on. Kidding myself about the growing number of feathery webs. Ignoring the small, growing piles of spider trash on the floor—the chewier parts of a fly, the undigested husk of a beetle. Spiders can be real pigs. Then I started

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4 Important Writing Tips from Warren Buffett’s Letter to Shareholders

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 and commentators and journalists were all over it. Here’s a hilarious thing: Yahoo can’t seem to get its email client right. But even before the letter’s official release, Yahoo had produced a video highlight reel with Warren’s letter’s best quotes. And by “hilarious” I mean funny-eyeroll. Not funny-ha-ha. Let that sink in for a minute: A letter gets its own trailer. Yes, the letter is written by the world’s most famous investor. But still. Warren doesn’t care about any of them, though. Not the New York Times or MarketWatch or Yahoo’s letter-trailer. He writes his

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