Category: Storytelling

Don’t be intimidated by other business’ content. Keep doing it.

It’s an easy slope to go down.

You think you’re doing a good job creating content for your small business or startup.

You are blogging once a month, let’s say. Every now and then you post a short video just to make sure you’re present on platforms like YouTube.

Facebook? Well, that’s easy because you’re on there all day, anyway.

Still, when you look at the giants in your industry – or even the smaller business right up the street from you – they blow you away.

I can’t say this more directly: Don’t stop producing content.

Continue reading “Don’t be intimidated by other business’ content. Keep doing it.” →
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Offer executive access and 2 more tips for pitching a reporter

Some PR advice but first, my story.

Six years ago in October I moved my life from Des Moines, Iowa, to Orlando, Fla.

The job at the Tribune company-owned Sentinel was a pathway back to my home Chicago.

Instead, I got hooked and have made a life (and started a blog and website) in Orlando.

This wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen. In the immortal words of Dr. Ian Malcolm: “Life (dramatic pause) finds a way.”

I spent 11 years as a journalist. In that time, there were a handful of pitches that stand out.

Continue reading “Offer executive access and 2 more tips for pitching a reporter” →
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The military has gotten best at telling its story. Learn from them.

I am not sure if you think storytelling when you think of the U.S. military.

But the Department of Defense seems to have found a groove when it comes to using the Internet to its advantage and business owners should take lessons from its effort.

In a regular feature that posts on its blog, the department highlights its personnel through multimedia packages that include videos, stories and pictures.

Continue reading “The military has gotten best at telling its story. Learn from them.” →
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A simple exercise to update your business blog

NOTE: I am sharing a blog I posted on my LinkedIn page, which you can FIND HERE, about how you can update your business’ blog very easily today.

What I love about storytelling is that it is visceral.

For example, if I tell a story about my mother, who has worked a graveyard shift for more than 30 years, helped keep our family together even after my dad died more than 20 years ago and for the last 10 years has kept active by mowing the lawn, pulling weeds and just doing general maintenance and upkeep on my childhood home in Chicago, it could touch off memories of your own mother’s sacrifices.

Maybe your father was the one who worked the graveyard shift.

Or perhaps your own home was overrun with weeds and it reminded you of that one day when you were out cleaning up with your sister.

The point is that the best stories have ties to an emotional connection.

Continue reading “A simple exercise to update your business blog” →
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Vet your PR firm. Please.

For most of my nearly 10 years as a professional journalist, I have written about young companies and, more specifically, tech startups.

It wasn’t that long after I began doing so that I developed an appreciation for the hard work that it takes to build a new company.

While you spend most of your energy on building a success, external factors team up to push against you.

One of those factors can be a public relations company that doesn’t know how to pitch a reporter.

Continue reading “Vet your PR firm. Please.” →
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