Tag: PR storytelling

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You Call That Innovation?

That was the headline in a Wall Street Journal article back in 2012. The piece made the point that the word “innovation” (and its derivatives) was being used so much by companies to tout incremental improvement — or worse — that the word lost meaning. Raking through earnings calls from the previous 12 months, The Journal …more

The Downside of Experience in Leadership

We tend to correlate experience with stronger leadership. The common Steve Jobs narrative swings from impetuous youth to lessons learned. It stands to reason that people who have been tested when things didn’t go according to plan expand their leadership game. Yet, there’s a downside to experience when it comes to leadership. We can gain …more

PR Tips For Interviewing Sources to Find the Good Stuff

I’ve said this before and continue to believe it. The PR profession under-appreciates interviewing expertise. It starts in college. Try to find a curriculum for mass communications or PR that offers a class on interviewing. Good luck. Every journalism program in the country tackles the art of the interview. But PR curricula ignore the topic. …more

Visual Rendition of the Story Is Always There

I came across author and illustrator Ella Frances Sanders in 2015 after she published her first book, “Lost in Translation.” She has a gift for marrying words and visuals, like the one above. To probe the “how,” she agreed to an interview which covered topics ranging from Bill Murray and the Yiddish word “meshugah”   …more

Visual Rendition of the Story Is Always There

I came across author and illustrator Ella Frances Sanders in 2015 after she published her first book, “Lost in Translation.” She has a gift for marrying words and visuals, like the one above. To probe the “how,” she agreed to an interview which covered topics ranging from Bill Murray and the Yiddish word “meshugah”   …more

Storytelling Wisdom from Bestselling Author

I interviewed author Ella Frances Sanders in 2015 after her book “Lost in Translation” had caused quite a sensation and landed on the NY Times bestselling list for four months. I remember thinking how improbable that a single blog post, “11 Untranslatable Words from Other Cultures” could morph into a bestseller. Thanks to over 2 …more

Analysis of Beatles Lyrics — No AI Deployed — Turns Up Connection to PR

The San Francisco Giants paid tribute to the Beatles a few weeks ago. It reminded me that deciphering the inner meaning of Beatles lyrics was a public sport during the band’s heyday. Those over 50 will remember playing the White Album backward and supposedly hearing “Paul is dead.” Rather than play all the albums backward, …more

Best Storytelling Posts for the First Half of 2018

I’m tardy in pulling together a curated list of the best posts in H1 of this year. I suppose the big one-oh distracted me. As always, I start with the caveat that these posts don’t necessarily represent the most popular posts — the ones that got most clicks. It’s me, not the Google Analytics dashboard, …more

Ten Takes on the State of Storytelling in Business

  Today marks the day, the 10-year anniversary of Ishmael’s Corner. In the spirit of taking a step back, I reached out to a mix of individuals I respect for their perspectives on that elixir for communications we call storytelling. The backgrounds vary from journalists to storytelling gurus to authors and everything in between. As …more