May 26, 2013

Posts Comments

You are here: Home

How to make your writing more distinctive

May 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Distinctiveness is as important to your personal or corporate brand as design or presentation, yet the skill of written distinctivenss is widely ignored. I have a solution for you.

This month’s – soon to be released – podcast will cover the question of distinctiveness in some detail. In the meantime, here’s a Slidshare presentation on how to make your writing more distinctive.

Transcript

The transcript on Slideshare is a bit jumbled, so here it is:

1. How to make your writing distinctive.

2. Distinctiveness is essential across all aspects of your personal brand: From your design and image, to your ideas and the way you approach your content…

3.… Read the rest

    Filed Under: Writing, Writing techniques Tagged With: , , , ,

    Vary your sentence length to make your writing more interesting

    May 1, 2013 By Leave a Comment

    I want to show you a remarkable writing technique that connects Jack Black with Alexander the Great. It comes with an example from one of America’s finest writers - Saul Bellow.

    But let’s look first at a way to guarantee that your writing is dull, monotonous, and guaranteed to go unread. Here’s the easiest way how:

       Make every sentence the same length.

    Good writers know that varying the length and patterns of their sentences makes the writing more musical, easier to read. That’s what I want you to see.  So, by the time you finish this post, you should be able to apply the technique.… Read the rest

      Filed Under: Writing techniques Tagged With: , , ,

      Writing techniques: Episode #1

      April 10, 2013 By 8 Comments

      Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

      SmallerIn this first podcast on remarkable writing techniques, I look at 4 things:

      1. (Begins at 4:00 mins.) A simple but powerful technique that gets people to read and keep reading anything you write: How to create anticipation and suspense in your writing.

      2. (Begins at 18:00 mins.) Why writing in recent years has become a very big deal. In the connected economy the opportunities for those who can write are astonishing. Never before have we seen these types of opportunities.

      3. (Begins at 29: mins.)  ’How to be an extremist.’ These are a few ideas from my upcoming course on writing like Seth Godin.… Read the rest

        Filed Under: Podcast, Writing, Writing techniques Tagged With: ,

        A different way to learn writing

        November 19, 2012 By 3 Comments

        I’m here to help you make quick progress in your writing skills through an approach that I call remarkable writing.

        Remarkable writing is the product of 25 years of language teaching and of entrepreneurship.

        I understand the obstacles that exist for the busy individual but I see the impact that good writing can have on real life.

        In response, I’ve developed an approach to help you make real progress in a dramatic way and through a unique method.

         

        Return on your time investment

        I know that you are a man/woman of action. I know you want a good return on your time investment.… Read the rest

          Filed Under: Writing techniques

          Get updates

          November 14, 2012 By 1 Comment

          I release videos, blog posts, and podcasts on a regular basis. Sign up here and receive notification of these remarkable writing technique updates.

          Subscribe to our mailing list

          * indicates required

            … Read the rest

              Filed Under: General

              Why I left China

              November 7, 2012 By 9 Comments

              At the end of 2009, I left China in something of a hurry. Let me outline why.

              One of the companies I’d founded – a chain of language schools, called Kai En – was going bankrupt. The problem came about after the US economy went south and the language school’s client-base dried up. There were big changes in the market.

              I hadn’t actually worked at the language schools since 2005 but I still had shares in them. (I worked at ChinesePod between 2005-9.)

              But three years of heavy losses drained myself and the other shareholders financially. From 2007 – 2009 our efforts to keep it alive cost us pretty much everything we had.… Read the rest

                Filed Under: General

                From self-belief to self-direction

                October 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

                 In a sense, leaders are in the empowerment business. If you lead a team, you should spend a great deal of your time doing things that empower them.

                Why? Because people consistently underestimate their capacity to make things happen. They defer instead, to people, events, feelings, or some other excuses. Then, not much happens.

                The most potent form of empowerment comes when you instill self-belief into people. If they believe in themselves and feel assured that their gifts have a home in your team or organization, they get really loyal and really motivated. They are empowered, self-directed, and likely to do great things.… Read the rest

                  Filed Under: General Tagged With: , ,

                  You and your friends and your monkey minds

                  September 28, 2011 By 2 Comments

                  You have a monkey mind and so does your sister. And your boss. And your neighbor. All of you. Monkey minds.

                  But don’t feel bad. You can’t help it. It’s human nature. Our minds naturally flit from one thing to another, often for no apparent reason. This effect has been compared by wise individuals to an ape hopping from branch to branch. They call it the monkey mind.Mental quickness is a good thing. It allows us to turn our attention to threats or emergencies in a split second. But the monkey mind means also that we’re as alive to distraction as we are to danger.… Read the rest

                    Filed Under: General Tagged With: ,

                    Knowing people

                    September 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

                     Leaders and managers have to become better students of people and of human nature. We spend our time understanding processes and things rather than on understanding people.

                    ‘People’ is obviously a big subject, but you can narrow it down and start with the things that are relevant to what you want to achieve.

                    So, what do you want to achieve? What do you need to know about people to do it? Are you failing to connect? Do you struggle to understand people’s motivations? Are there reasons why you don’t trust them or won’t delegate to them? Find the focus for your learning.

                    Investing in people knowledge and human understanding will give you a competitive advantage.… Read the rest

                      Filed Under: General Tagged With: , ,

                      Self-direction versus fate

                      September 1, 2011 By 3 Comments

                       Most people believe in fate. But with time, the belief submerges and works on them from below the surface. And so, they suffer the destructive consequences without ever realizing it.

                      You can spot a fatalistic worldview. People give up quickly, or never start in the first place. They lack energy and enthusiasm and they wait for life to happen. They tell themselves they were never ‘meant’ for anything beyond the ordinary. Then, sadly, and ironically, it all comes true.

                      No start-up, no project, no endeavor of any significance ever worked without a great deal of risk, effort, and optimism. But it’s easy to quit or let yourself off the hook when you believe that the outcome is pre-ordained, that the extra effort may be pointless.… Read the rest

                        Filed Under: General Tagged With: ,
                        « Older Posts