A few years ago, I was at an event where special guests from Google talked about marketing on the internet (yes, actual Google people – not just experts). One of the Google gurus commented how content on the internet would be 80% video within the next 2-3 years. As a writer, I found this a […]
When I was a copywriter, almost every company that approached me to write for them would tell me they are different? Yet when I ask how they differ, most would pour out the same boring drivel as everyone else. The irony was that they genuinely believed they were unique, but their expression of it said […]
You must have heard stories about carpenters whose shelves are falling down, the chef who orders takeaway meals four nights a week, or the dentist with black holes and bad breath? Often professional people are so busy doing their thing for other people they have little time to apply their expertise to themselves. Or maybe, […]
The uninformed would have you believe poker is a game of luck and gambling a game for mugs. While I would agree with the second part of that statement, I am equally of the opinion that there is no more luck associated with playing poker than with any other game. Think about it for a […]
I wonder if it ever occurred to Dickens, as he wrote the first line of his first novel, that his words would gain immortality and have such a profound effect on generations of readers? Would Chaucer have changed the tone of his tales if he had seen their modern similitudes evolve and take on such […]
Good enough is good enough for business writing Over the last fifteen years, I’ve listened to hundreds of entrepreneurial experts share their muse, read shelf-loads of business books and enjoyed a wealth of wise and witty one-liners. I’ve started with why, learned the seven secrets to everything, built my business in ninety minutes a day […]
Stories deliver in diametrically different ways to sales-orientated marketing. And the key benefit is that people actually want to read stories. Good stories appeal to our primal, curious, human spirit, and when we find one that connects personally, we struggle to let go before we discover how it ends. That is why you sometimes can’t […]
We all know what P.S. stands for but do you know what it means? Derived from the Latin’ post scriptum’, it translates as ‘written after’ and pre-empts a transcribed afterthought. Used well, however, the P.S becomes a potent marketing weapon. Think how Colombo, after questioning a suspect and opening the door to leave, turns […]
People love stories. Every civilization and culture that ever left its mark on history was built upon and fuelled by the telling and sharing of stories. Look at the most popular social media, movie, sports or musical icons that surround our lives today, and you will see stories. It is far more than their performance […]
I’ve been listening to Adele’s version of The Cure’s classic ‘Love Song’. And it got me thinking about the power of beautiful words, an absorbing melody and the rich, passionate tones of an awesome voice flowing like water over pebbles in a stream. There is no doubt the delivery, namely the music and the wonderful […]
