Over the past year, many of you have been following my news about my client and friend Marc Warnke, who has had the vision and commitment to make the journey from hatching an idea, to creating a manuscript, to becoming a published author. The journey reaches its culmination today, folks – the book is now available on Amazon!

It’s called ONO, Options not Obligations.  The subtitle is, Enrich Your Personal Life by Rethinking Your Financial Life. ONO promotes Family First Entrepreneurism and teaches a lifestyle that will help create financial options rather than obligations.  The launch of ONO is today–April 22^nd. You can read excerpts and testimonials, as well as see and interact with Marc live on the 22^nd at www.ONOBook.com.

Marc did so many things right on this project. He engaged a great team of professionals to help with every phase, including a kick-ass editor (!) along with the amazing Maryanna Young to mastermind the launch and smooth the way with Marc’s publisher, Morgan James.

Marc is a shining example to aspiring authors everywhere!

ShareThis

I got to hear Greg Mortensen speak at the Morrison Center last night. One of the many amazing stories from his amazing journey was about the struggle with his publishers at Penguin over the exact wording of the subtitle for his book, Three Cups of Tea.

The publishers insisted on “One man’s mission to fight terrorism … one school at a time.” Mortensen did his best to convince them to change it to “One man’s mission to promote peace … one school at a time.”

Notice the profound difference just two words can make? He explained it simply and eloquently, saying, “Fighting terrorism is based on fear. Promoting peace is based on hope.”

The pros at Penguin very understandably assumed that “fighting terrorism” would sell more books—even though Mortensen’s mission is education, not militarism—and they prevailed. On the first round, anyway. Mortensen relented on condition that if the hardcover version of the book didn’t do well, the paperback version to follow would feature the “promoting peace” subtitle.

As for how it turned out—the hardcover edition only sold about 20,000 or so copies. The subtitle was changed, and the paperback edition with “promote peace” on the cover shot to the top of the New York Times best-seller list and has stayed there for 95 weeks as of today.

ShareThis

I’m loving it. The feeling reminds of the time I had tried to cut fats from my diet for about a month and then fell off the wagon for a slice of Lucky 13 pesto pizza just dripping with olive oil. What a blessed relief! Fat! Rapture!

I won’t give up my quest to perfect the art of writing lean when I’m writing copy, of course. A big book serves a completely different function than say, a web page or an elevator pitch. I open up The Ominvore’s Dilemma when I’m ready to curl up in a comfy chair for long stretches. Nobody ever curls up with a good trifold brochure.

So, while eye-grabbing headlines and bullet lists of benefits have their place in the world of word mongering, it’s heartening to find Pollan and to be reassured that beautiful, intricate, thought-inducing prose still resonates with people and still sells lots of books.

Good writing feeds the soul, and I’m glad to be reminded of the importance of enjoying a varied diet. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to read about the mysteries of mycorrhizal fungi and marvel at the wild mushroom’s talent for decomposing and recycling organic matter into digestive enzymes that support all life on earth.

ShareThis

At the meeting, we were discussing business writing and the importance of putting yourself in the reader’s position to check for things that could be misunderstood. One of the analysts told the story of a client of hers who is a short-term disability expert. The client habitually refers to her field as “STD” and recently sent out a customer sales letter touting the benefits of STD, talking about how everyone needs STD, etc.

In this client’s mind, STD means short-term disability coverage. But to the rest of the world, the first thing that comes to mind when we see STD is “s**ually transmitted diseases.”The moral of the story? Get a second opinion about what you’ve written before sending out any important piece of communication.

It is especially helpful if your reviewer/proofreader/editor is NOT in your field or your profession, because they’ll be more likely to catch any terms or concepts that only insiders are familiar with.

It’s very difficult to imagine how it feels not to know the things one knows well. That’s why so many how-to books do such a poor job of explaining how to do something. Being able to work from a beginner’s mind, even though you are an expert, is the secret to being a good communicator, a good teacher, even a good business analyst. One of the best ways to find out whether you’re succeeding is to get feedback, whether from your target audience, a friend, or a professional communicator.

The other example the group gave me was a joke (with special thanks to Jane Francis!):

A truck driver has penguins in his truck and is on his way to deliver them to the zoo. His truck breaks down. He flags down another trucker and says,“I’ll pay you $500 to take these penguins to the zoo.”“OK, I’ll be happy to do that,” says the second trucker.

Hours later, the first trucker is in town and sees the second trucker in a crosswalk with the penguins following behind him. “Hey, I thought I told you to take the penguins to the zoo.”

“Right,” trucker two replies. “We went to the zoo and had money left over so now we’re going to the movies.”

As George Bernard Shaw once said: “The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.”

ShareThis

Many thanks to the alert subscriber who pointed out that the link in my earlier post wasn’t working! I fixed it there, too.

ShareThis

I’ve given this talk numerous times, and I typically customize it to have either a marketing, or technical, or formal slant depending on the audience. But the core material is always built around what I consider the three commandments of communication: Know your audience, know your purpose, and keep it simple. I didn’t invent this message, obviously they’re widely available from many knowledgeable sources, but I certainly delight in passing it on, partly as a way of paying back all the wise souls who enlightened me.

It’s amazing how easy it is to make things much harder than they actually are, especially in the middle of a project with the deadline looming and the pressure turned up, but coming back to those three key concepts can put everything back into perspective. Audience, purpose, and K.I.S.S. Can’t you feel your blood pressure easing down just reading that? Doesn’t it make you want to explore the ins and outs of better business writing at the very first opportunity? I know I’m excited about it, in fact I could go on and on at some length — but I promise to keep the presentation under 90 minutes.

ShareThis

Whether you call it a tagline, a magnetic introduction, a sixty-second commercial, an elevator pitch, or something else — we all need one. I’ve recently had a great time helping a few clients develop new pitches that are working well for them. In the process, I began to realize how important it is to practice and test whichever words you use. Even if you hire a brilliant writer to write a captivating script for you, you’re still the one who’ll have to believe in it and deliver it. It’s like learning to snowplow when you’re skiing downhill: until you try it and have the experience of it actually working, you’re scared to death of crashing or careening out of control.

I’ve also discovered how much fun it is to get two or more clients together to try out their new pitches. The client is usually self-conscious and reluctant to have faith in the new phrase, and they can’t totally trust my opinion because I wrote it. But having other people around to provide an immediate non-verbal reaction really does the trick.

In fact, maybe I should take my own medicine for a change and get a few peers together to help me work on a pitch for myself? I’ll have to get around to that one of these days.

ShareThis

• Make time.
• Have fun.
• Follow up.

How can you not love that? As a writer, of course I also love it that she also used parallel construction and made each step a declarative, two-word sentence. Very nicely done—in only six words, she made a point more effectively than some books I’ve read on the subject.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the rush of ideas. Diving deep into the details of planning, messaging, branding, strategy, and so on is important, of course. But so is coming up for air. Marketing is about connecting with people, and ideas that don’t surface don’t reach anybody.

Like many of my clients and most of my colleagues, I can get easily carried away and need to remember not to make things harder than they are. It’s that old K.I.S.S. thing. Pam’s message is a welcome reminder that the most important step in marketing is to keep doing it.

ShareThis