Category: 101 words of advice

101 words of advice – embracing change

the story of nature itself, ever-inventive, making one thing out of another and one thing into another, and nothing lasts and nothing’s lost, and nothing ever perishes, and things can always change, because things will always change, and things will always be different, because things can always be different.

Ali Smith in Girl Meets Boy, a joyful, rushing roar of a book, which was hugely comforting at 3.15am, in the midst of a sleepless night.  Read it. It’s wonderful.

(Actually that was 80 words but who’s counting? The book is a hymn to the power of evading expectations.  Now it’s 101)

 

101 words of advice – find out if you’re talking to yourself

“The biggest single problem in communications is the illusion that it has taken place.”  Read that last week and cheered.

The notion that the simple act of delivering a press release or conference speech means “communication” can be struck off the To Do list is as common as it’s deadly.  It’s why outputs (number of releases/ size of events) are often used to measure success when it’s outcomes (changing behaviour/ converting enquiries into sales) which matter.  I’ve written before about how difficult proper evaluation is, but without it you don’t know if you’re actually communicating or just talking to yourself.

101 words of advice – resisting vanity projects

Countless wild-goose chases start with a CEO saying: “I’m not a comms expert, but I think we need a video (or a new microsite, or a leaflet, or an event).”  This translates as: “I’ve had an idea worth sharing with the world.  Make it so.”

Unless it is a good idea and you’re resisting out of pique because you didn’t think of it, refuse.  Firmly.

It won’t fit the strategy, will generate work, deplete your budget and be forgotten by everyone – including the CEO – within a week.  Tell them straight (maybe not the last bit).  You are the comms expert.  They should listen.

101 words of advice – what Star Wars teaches copywriters

Discussing the shortcomings of the Star Wars films over breakfast (we’re a cultured family) my husband claimed that Harrison Ford once waved his script at George Lucas snarling: “you know George, you can type this stuff, but you sure as hell can’t say it.”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is as good a definition of bad writing as I’ve heard.  It’s stuff you can’t say when you read it out.  Dense and knotty, sprouting jargon in every dangling clause, bad writing defeats good actors and casual readers alike.

Write it.  Cut it.  Cut it again.  Read it aloud.  You’ll be amazed.

101 words of advice: how to handle debt

From  recent personal experience – as the disgruntled supplier – I suggest:

If they owe you

  • Be reasonable.  Times are tough, people generally do the decent thing.  Anyway hitting hurricane force immediately leaves nowhere to go.
  • Be persistent.
  • Know your rights.

If you owe them:

  • Don’t hide.  Ignoring email, phone messages or carrier pigeons sent to chase the debt won’t work.  Like Arnie, they’ll be back.  Keeping people in the dark  infuriates them.  There’s good advice here.
  • Be honest, explain, offer to pay a bit at a time to show good will.
  • Get  help.
  • Remember, no-one believes “the cheque’s in the post”.