MY APPROACH

When I sit down with clients, I offer my expertise, professional energy and fresh ideas. Most important, I like to keep learning and share what I discover.

If you were my client, I might counsel you to…

Say it with meaning
You provide reams of information for your clients, stakeholders and customers. Along its journey through the mail, across desks, past eyeballs, and into the recycle bin, is it saying anything meaningful or new? Will it drive your readers to action?

I can help. My job is to mine your information for meaning. I will ask you over and over again what you are really trying to say. Then I will help you say it with impact and style.

Capture attention in a media-rich world
Most people don’t read. They skim. I challenge you to find a customer who actually sat down and read your last article, brochure, or report from cover to cover, start to finish.

Did you know that 70 percent of people surf the Web, read newspapers or watch TV while using other media? (from BIGresearch's Simultaneous Media Usage Study).

So how are you planning to capture these skimmers and multi-taskers?

I help clients organize publications so they are highly readable (for those who actually jump in and read) and highly skim-able (for those who don’t).

Try the power of storytelling
People everywhere love a good story. You should tell them one. It’s a technique that brings the vitality of people, places and events to a project.

Storytelling is especially useful—and familiar— in annual reports, newsletters, messages to donors, and case studies. Yet successful companies know that storytelling has a powerful place in all kinds of business communications. It draws in readers in and leaves them wanting more. Isn’t that right where you want them?

Learn from the best
I’m not a complete original, and I don’t know everything there is to know about writing and communication management. However I do pay attention—devotedly if not slavishly— to pros who are better at this business than I’ll ever be.

I take their seminars, read their books, or subscribe to their newsletters. Then I bring what I have learned back to my clients. They appreciate the trends and insights that I pass on from experts like these:

William Zinsser whose manual and style guide “On Writing Well” is now in 25th anniversary release. I have never found its rival.

Ann Wylie helps me banish gobbledygook, businessese, technobabble, jargon and other gibberish from copy I create for my clients.

Les Potter is a Fellow of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), an organization to which I also belong. His manual, "The Communication Plan: The Heart of Strategic Communication," is an indispensable resource. I hosted him here in Olympia for a seminar a few years back, and he really knows his stuff.

Jared Spool and User Interface Engineering I love these guys because they speak so well to the technical and communication challenges of working with Web content. WARNING: will unleash your inner geek.

Tom Peters! The human espresso shot. His series on reinventing work, especially “The Brand You 50,” inspired me to find my own path—and renewed passion for what I do.