What is your writer publishing under your name?

Full disclosure: I’m a ghostwriter. I write books, articles, blogs and more that are published under my clients’ names. Using a ghostwriter is a smart move for busy executives, professionals and subject matter experts who need to publish material but don’t have the time and/or writing skills to do it themselves. One caveat: If you decide to hire a ghostwriter, be sure you know and approve what...

Are Your Press Releases Worth It – Or a Waste of Time?

Press releases can be a powerful weapon in your marketing and public relations arsenal. Just be sure you don’t shoot yourself in the foot with them. I can’t count the number of press releases I’ve written over the years in my career as a business writer–and it’s almost as hard to count the number of times I’ve had to explain to my clients why it’s critical for their releases to be well-written,...

9 Tips to Be a Great Guest Speaker – and Get Results!

Have you decided to hit the speaking circuit to promote your product or service? Congratulations! Giving talks is a powerful, effective way to enhance your reputation and grow your business. Once you’re booked, these tips will help you be a speaker who is applauded, referred and invited back: 1. Provide appropriate promotional materials in advance. Find out if the host organization has a newsletter, when it goes...

What Language is Spoken in Your Company?

No, this isn’t a rant about English-only or bilingual workplaces — it’s a rant about corporate jargon sparked when I read an article by Laura Vanderkam, “Why you should cool it with the corporate jargon.” I understand how internal jargon develops and why using acronyms can save time if everybody understands the code — but that’s a big if. When people don’t speak the...

Communicate with Your Customers on their Terms

How many ways can your customers communicate with you? Recently a friend of mine was evaluating two companies who were vying to provide a service to her church. One had a product with a pricing and service package that was clearly superior. But that salesperson would only communicate by phone — he didn’t use email or text messaging. I suspect he probably didn’t even know what video conferencing is. The...