Public relations as an industry undervalues interviewing skills. You can find training session after training session on how to pitch a journalist and to not follow up with a “did you get my email?” Same goes for writing. Show, don’t tell. Stay away from chest-thumping adjectives like “revolutionary” and “breakthrough.” Yet, most mass communications curricula …more
You periodically hear that someone is “good TV.” Bill Hader is good TV (looking forward to binging “Barry” on my next overseas flight). Tina Fey is good TV. Sometimes an event or a product like an Apple iPhone launch is mentioned as good TV. Semiconductors are NOT good TV. The technical nature of a semiconductor …more
I collect examples of dreadful communications. Every large company at some point drives off the communications road of common sense and ends up as a piñata on social media. When United Airlines baggage handlers “mishandled” a guitar back in 2008 and United refused to reimburse the passenger, the company had no clue that the …more
Our 2019 mantra “The story is always there” points to the importance of the discovery process in business communications. Anyone can sit down with Apple’s Tim Cook after Elizabeth Warren has made her case for greater regulation of the tech industry and come away with a story that triggers clicks. It takes much …more
You periodically hear that someone is “good TV.” Bill Hader is good TV (looking forward to binging “Barry” on my next overseas flight). Tina Fey is good TV. Sometimes an event or a product like an Apple iPhone launch is mentioned as good TV. Semiconductors are NOT good TV. The technical nature of a semiconductor …more
This headline serves as our mantra for 2019. Every company, even those who fancy “math is fun” buttons, has something interesting to share with the outside world. But these stories rarely sit on a desk with a label that reads “good story with killer anecdote inside.” Instead, it’s up to us as communicators to poke …more
What does a shovel have to do with storytelling? Everything. Many of our clients come from the B2B tech world where hearts race from inventing a way to increase the spin-torque efficiency of a memory device. While these types of stories hold great importance to the people who use a given technology, they typically aren’t …more
That’s the question posed by friend and colleague Peter Lewis after asking him to share his perspective on the state of storytelling to mark my blog hitting the big one-oh. Before jumping into the answer, a few back stories (naturally). I’ve known Pete for some time, going back to his days laying the groundwork for …more
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
