What a year! We are almost there. We can see the finish line to the calendar year just beyond our outstretched finger tips. While the world won’t automatically return to its axis on Jan. 1, 2021, there’s something rejuvenating about starting a new year with a blank canvas and possibilities. Happy holidays.
You would think every company would prefer to communicate in a way that connects with people. After all, before segmenting the target audience, we know the objective is to reach people. Yet, business writing often comes off as mechanical and even stiff. Do you want the narrative to sound like it comes from an actual …more
Vince Lombardi, the famous football coach for the Green Bay Packers, had a saying, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” So it’s been for international companies this year as the pandemic and a volatile political climate force executives to navigate a communications environment unlike any in history. One topic that’s worth putting …more
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
Whoever said there’s no such thing as “bad PR” never held a press conference at the Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia. No matter how much Republicans try to change the narrative —Hey, we thought it was time for something less formal — Trump’s chronology of tweets tells the story (source: @sissenberg). Noah …more
Tuesday’s list covered considerable ground. The rest of the Top 10 storytelling posts in 2020 kicks off with musings on post 1,087 (but who’s counting?). . 6) I Wrote 1,087 Blog Posts, and All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt Before anyone shouts,“fake news,” yes, I dusted off the post that commemorated …more
What a weird year. Being the mug-is-half-full type, I believe 2021 will (eventually) bring us some semblance of normalcy. As for the past year, I could have devoted every post to the antics from the White House. Exercising restraint that would have made my mom proud, I found plenty of other topics to parachute into. …more
I first touted the virtues of the “word visual” in 2014. For those not familiar with this technique, the idea is to use the words (or typography) to drive the action while minimizing the need for design expertise. The image above borrowing the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld falls in the “word visual” category. Most “word …more
Remember when October was winding down and everyone was thinking, “Only a few more days and this madness will be over”? I never expected the man to go quietly in the night or day. I did expect his surrounding advisors — you know, the “sane” human beings like Jared Kushner and Lindsay Graham — to …more
