A senior executive I work with recently said, “I’m tired of sharing these same messages and stories.” My response: “YES! That’s what we want, because it says you’re being consistent with your messages across audiences.” It’s crucial to look at your communications as a process of repetition. Leaders who haven’t realized the benefits of effective […]

We pride ourselves, as agencies, on knowing the customer better than anyone. The ‘voice of the consumer’, the home of ‘customer-centric’ design, the experts in real insight into real people. Yet it seems we’re increasingly out of touch with what our own clients need and want. Dentsu Creative’s annual survey of over 500 CMOs from […]

Live, this week only: This week, we’re hosting a free training on how to make your book ideas better. Choose a time and sign up here. I’m a firm believer in Halloween. But I know all the gore and scary movies aren’t for everyone, especially little kids. Halloween is for everyone, though! There’s so much more […]

It came as no surprise to anyone when Collins dictionary announced that it’s word of the year for 2022 was ‘permacrisis’. With the UK on its third prime minister this year, plus a cost of living crisis, war in Ukraine, the climate disaster, and the knock-on effects of Brexit, it’s hardly been a year to […]

When I first started writing my memoir, Crowdsourcing Paris, about a real-life adventure I experienced with my wife and ten-month-old son, I thought it was going to be easy. After all, by that point in my career, I had already written four books, two of which became bestsellers. I’ve got this, I thought. Simple. It […]

Across the world this week, writers began spinning stories and obsessively checking their word counts, all in pursuit of that magic number: 50,000 words. Every year, I tell myself I don’t have time to do NaNoWriMo, and every year, I end up participating anyway. But a couple years ago, I decided to break the rules […]

If you want to improve your writing, it doesn’t hurt to master some English grammar skills. One of the questions a lot of writers asks is how to use the word maybe: specifically, when to use maybe vs. may be. Don’t worry. You’re not alone in thinking that the English language can have some difficult […]

I dream of a day when I can wake up, sip my coffee, write some morning pages, and then work on my latest novel until dinner. Unfortunately for me, and for many of you, that day is not today. I’ve got kids and a house and bills, so I have to work full-time. Even so, […]

Live, this week only: This week, we’re hosting a free training on how to make your book ideas better. Choose a time and sign up here. Fall is here and for me that means nostalgia over back-to-school time. The idea of seeing friends, new clothes, and especially new school supplies always made me giddy. Oh, the […]

You want to write a book. Maybe you have a great story idea. Maybe you have a big idea you want to share with the world. Maybe people have told you, “Your life should be made into a book!” But first, you have to learn how to write a book. The problem for the first-time […]