For several years I attended every home football game at Western Connecticut State University so that I could network with faculty, donors and other friends. The president’s box, where I did my thing, was adjacent to the press box, where student journalists and coaches sat. One day, immediately following an […]
All writers have a set of rules or, more precisely, broad ideas that guide them in their craft. You could also characterize these rules as pet peeves, good ideas they picked up somewhere and tricks that work for them. I presented my list recently at a Chamber of Commerce gathering […]
Social and electronic media are so important in today’s communication plans that it is easy to forget the vital role human touch still plays. Together, they are very powerful. I worked recently with Tara Alemany to promote her new publishing business, Emerald Lake Books, which focuses on helping entrepreneurs bring […]
Tom Szaky likes to brag about his “negative cost marketing department.” Szazky is one of the group of Ivy League drop-outs who started successful companies. He is no Mark Zuckerberg – he dropped out of Princeton, not Harvard — but his business, TerraCycle, is growing, profitable and a player in […]
Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, demonstrate that any communication problem we have can be overcome.
Steven Brill, the blustery founder of American Lawyer and Court TV, said something smart in an article published in Bloomberg BNA’s Big Law Business. He was talking about how to earn publicity. “The effective law firms that get a lot of good publicity have the lead partners out there talking […]
Abraham Lincoln supposedly said that “Most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be,” which is good to think about when the temperature is 10 degrees, the wind is gusting to 50 mph, and the air is filled with snow. It’s a matter of keeping things […]
I have personally known a couple of meteorologists over the years and I can tell you that they are the same in person as they are on television: They never apologize for getting the weather forecast wrong. In the latest case, the Blizzard of ’15 that was to smother all […]
We have unofficially reached the limit on news about the under-inflated balls used by the New England Patriots in their game against the Indianapolis Colts. By unofficially, I mean we can’t stand hearing any more about it. The morning and evening television news shows have led with the story since […]
When I teach a college writing class I ask the student to see details in their daily lives and record them. As I read the sentences out loud in class, I am trying to teach the importance of the small things that can illuminate understanding and help readers […]
