PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE THE TOILET BY FLUSHING ANYTHING THAT SHOULD NOT BE FLUSHED HERE
Set aside that violate for a moment (a word that feels unnecessarily charged… time-sharing as it does half its letters with violent).
Unclog Your Copy With This Easy Four-Step Framework Read More »
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. * * * How do you write about Difficult Topics? How do you message to an audience about the Hard Stuff? At a time everything is wildly in flux for everyone literally everywhere? If there were an awards show for Top Issues that have challenged all of us in Marketing and Communications these past few pandemicked years… I’d nominate “How to Message Hard Stuff When We Haven’t the Foggiest Idea What to Say” to take home the Golden Globe. There is no one right way to message the Hard Stuff. But I liked an approach I saw last week. It comes in the form of a 125-word intro to an email from Kristina Halvorson, CEO of Brain Traffic, in Minneapolis. I’m going
Addressing the Elephant In the Room: 6 Strategies for Writing About the Hard Stuff Read More »
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. * * * <Hand over heart; eyes to the heavens.> This year, you resolve to…. 1. WRITE THE FIRST DRAFT AS FAST AS YOU CAN. Get it out of your head. Get it onto the page. It’ll be lousy. It’ll be ugly. GOOD FOR YOU. You did it! Have a snack. ➡️ How to create that first draft: “Rework the horse.” 2. NEVER PUBLISH THE FIRST DRAFT. Rewriting sounds about as much fun as recovering from a Moderna booster. But please-please-please do it! Even if what you are going to publish is “just” an email. “Only” a LinkedIn post. “Merely” a marketing article. The difference between mediocre and not-mediocre is one more round of revisions. The difference between something you make excuses
How to Get Better at Writing: 10 Ideas to Ignite Your Best Work This Year Read More »
Normally I celebrate standout marketing writing. But this week I’m sharing a line from a novel I’m reading. It’s simple. It’s compact. And it’s perfect: “His skin was not just clammy but the color and consistency of actual clams.” —Ann Patchett, Bel Canto Ann is describing a Bel Canto character—a Russian bureaucrat named Fyodorov. I read that line Monday night and I literally LOLed. That sentence is now in my head. (It’s moved in. Possibly vacationing there.) I keep remembering it at odd moments (in line at the checkout, in the middle of a meeting). And I laugh suddenly and quietly. Yesterday I was picking out grapes in the supermarket when I thought of it and smiled. A woman across the produce aisle looked at me and then at the grapes, like the grapes had said something funny. Anyhoo… Let’s break down the science of why this sentence from Ann
Specific Writing Is More Relatable Writing: Standout Sentences #1 Read More »
Years ago I hired a public speaking coach to help me improve my on-stage presence. Yikes that sentence is lifeless. Let’s try it again, mmkay? Years ago I hired a public speaking coach to help me keep my heart rate in a normal range instead of flitting close to a cardiac episode every time I stepped on stage. Nerves are part of public speaking. The trick, I learned, is to use them to your advantage. Your heart rate increases and your breathing comes more quickly because you care so very, very much. So that near-cardio episode isn’t because you’re terrified; it’s because you’re fired up and raring to go. Viewing your perceived weaknesses as strengths. The reframing helped me enormously. That alone was worth the big fat check I wrote the coach. * * * There were other lessons, too. I found my scribbled notes of them in my office
Public Speaking for Introverts (And Those Who Forget How to Be Around People) Read More »
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
Should You Ungate Your Content? Read More »
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. * * * Three years ago this week—in January 2018—I decided to start a newsletter. Why? I wanted connection—not one-to-many social media connection, but me-to-you direct connection. Three years ago, I also realized a fundamental truth: The most important part of the newsletter is the letter, not the news. There were other, secondary reasons I thought of later—some much later. I wanted the joy of making something that was 100% mine. I wanted to understand how to build momentum with an email list (and truly understand, from the inside-out, what works). I wanted to experiment, to play, to have fun. I wanted to feel a little more alive. Does that feel like a ridiculously tall order for an email ferpetesake? Especially
What I Learned in 3 Years of Writing a Newsletter Read More »
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. * * * It’s easy to nod along to the narrative that 2020 is a raging dumpster fire, the worst year ever—what with the pandemic and the near-daily googling of “Do I have Covid or is this always what my throat feels like?” See also: the wildfires in California and Australia. Social unrest. Racial tensions. Divisive US election. The Beirut explosion. International conflicts. Locusts. Genocide. The existential freight of it all feels like we’re wearing a snowsuit stuffed with sawdust. And we’re pedaling a bike. And the bike is under water. Which is why it’s so weird to think about holiday gifting right now. Or is it? Because if there’s anything we need to close out 2020 (and stay out!), it’s the
20 Ridiculously Useful Holiday Gifts for 2020 Read More »
How do you run a virtual program that has personality, joy, heart, humor, character, spirit, soul, magic? Can a virtual event be better than a physical, in-person event? Last Tuesday, I would have answered… I hope so (to the first question). And no (to the second)—not really, anyway. Maybe I was just exhausted. (Aren’t we all.) Maybe I was just uninspired. (Same.) Maybe it’s just been *A WEEK*. Then last Wednesday and Thursday we at MarketingProfs hosted our annual B2B Forum, for the first time ever online, using the virtual event platform BigMarker. And we realized a few things about how virtual events can be better than in-person. At least… in some ways. Here are some thoughts inspired by last week’s B2B Forum. My colleague Jen Smith is publishing a piece that echoes some of these ideas and introduces others. Even if you don’t run full-blown events, our advice applies
Can Your Virtual Event Be Better Than Your In-Person Event? Read More »
