The Write Rainmaker

Technology And Our Careers

If you had told me ten years ago that I'd be walking around with a cell phone that was also a computer, a camera, an iPod, a calculator, GPS, a timer, etc. I would have laughed. The iPhone was inconceivable to me, although now it's just a part of life.

Technology changes our lives every day.

I read a terrific piece by Mark Herrmann Why Driverless Cars Will Wreck Your Legal Practice and I thought wow, what a thought-provoking article. Driverless cars are now being tested. We may soon live in a world where drivers are not needed. How will this change the world?

Do you teach at a driving instruction school? Work for the government in a driver’s license department? These careers may soon go the way of the sundial, the high-wheeled bicycle, and the instruction manual to the computer you used six months ago.

If you are an attorney and your practice centers on auto accident litigation cases, you may need to think about diversifying.

A couple of years ago I thought it was important to get a GPS, because I have a tendency to get lost a lot -- even in a parking garage once, which my children found hilarious -- and so I got a GPS. I was never really comfortable with it.

Now I use the GPS on my phone. It's easy to use, and I never worry about getting lost any more.

My son lives in a world now where everyone has a GPS and nobody knows how to go anywhere without it. He referred to I-85 yesterday as "that big road that goes up to the mall."

How will a world of driverless cars be? Taxi drivers and chauffeurs will be out of a job.

My mother has a friend who went to college in the 1940's to be a writer -- for radio. The invention of television saw an end to that career, or at least a drastic change to it.

Technology changes our lives every day.

This is the part of Herrmann's article I found most interesting:

You’re in for a breathtaking change. Many families now own more than one car, to satisfy the needs of two working spouses and a teenager or two. When a single car can drop one person off at work, and then drive home to drop off the next person, and then shuttle the kids to school and after-school events, and then pick up the parents at the end of the day, demand for cars may plummet. One car may provide ample transportation for not just one family, but several.

So it behooves everyone with a small business to pay attention to technology. We must adapt in order to survive, as Darwin famously said.

However, I don't think of this as a bad thing. Maybe one day there will be a profession called Instructor for New Technology -- a person who comes to your home once a month and tells you how to use all the new stuff that's just out.

I hope one day my son has that job, and I get a family discount...

Marketing Yourself 24/7

If you are the owner of a small business, you are always marketing, every time you leave your house.You need to determine if there are opportunities to get new customers or clients that YOU ARE MISSING.

Let me explain.

I have seen successful client interactions at odd places like grocery stores and kids' soccer games.

I have also seen small business owners totally ignore opportunities to pick up new clients because they aren't prepared or they are in a bad mood.

My 80 year old mother doesn't go out in public much any more, but when she does, she always wears bright red lipstick, and she smiles a lot. She says hello to total strangers as though they are old friends. Guess what? 98% of the time, she gets a positive response. I have heard this phrase countless times from friends, neighbors, and even just casual aquaintances: "I just LOVE your Mother!"

She could've run for governor and won. She is always smiling and friendly, no matter what else is going on. She is that way when her arthritis bothers her. She didn't lose her friendliness even when she was widowed. She was that way when her only son was serving in the Army in Iraq. She is kind to all, even when she is blue. She just radiates benevolence and approachability.

Do you? If not, you should work on it.

These are a few items to consider, if you are really interested in marketing yourself:

• When you are away from home, do you always have business cards?
• When you are waiting for a train, or in line at the bank, or at the car wash, do you realize that smiling and chatting are a great way to get to know someone and possibly get a new client?
• Do you have a good "resting face"? That's how you appear when you are not talking to someone. If you don't appear calm and friendly, you need to work on that.

If you own a small business or you are a sole practitioner attorney, you are selling yourself, and your personality, as much as your goods or services.

Give it some thought.

my mom, Miss Elva, 80 years young

Forget Everything You Learned in Law School About How to Write

I have read probably thousands of pages of briefs and motions in my 28 years in the legal profession and in all that time, I’ve had to drink a lot of caffeinated beverages to avoid falling asleep. (Well… except for the cases regarding accusations of sexual harassment. Those briefs were usually pretty interesting.)

Attorneys learn in law school that it’s important to argue the merits of a case with the latest case law cites, using clear and cogent arguments, and being as dry and factual as possible. Nobody wins by making the judge laugh, usually.

However, writing for a website or for the internet means that an attorney has to appeal to a wider audience. (If all of your clients are other attorneys, or all your cases are referred by other attorneys, you can stop reading now, thanks.)

The main rule for persuasive writing is: Know your audience.

Your website needs to be considered one long piece of persuasive writing, because it is – it’s supposed to persuade potential clients to pick up the phone and call you.

Since I started writing for attorney websites several years ago, I have encountered a lot of resistance to the notion that attorneys need to alter their writing style to appeal to more folks. I have worked around attorneys for years and speak Legalese, but I spend most of my free time with non-attorneys, so this seemed crystal clear to me.

I was working for an attorney a few years ago who really didn’t believe me when I told him he needed to cut the legalese and write for normal people, when it came to his website. I think he didn’t even understand my use of the word “normal” because his normal was so different from mine. He was married to an attorney. He socialized with attorney friends. He talked to attorneys, paralegals, and legal secretaries all day in the office. He spent very little time conversing with or writing to non-legal professionals. He had forgotten that there is a huge world out there filled with people who do not understand attorney-speak, a/k/a Legalese.

I worked at a newspaper years ago and I will always remember the Managing Editor telling me that most newspapers are written for a fifth grade reading level. That's because they want to appeal to the widest possible readership.

There is an aphorism I like a lot and it goes like this: People will forget what you say. They will forget what you do. They will never forget how you make them feel. If your website is full of long sentences, long paragraphs, and big words, you run the risk of making people feel stupid.

To be more precise: if a non-lawyer reads your website or blog and the main emotions they feel are negative, they will stop reading. If they have to read a very long sentence with 3 dependent clauses and a lot of multi-syllable words they are going to feel frustrated and/or angry about having to grab a dictionary or stop and Google the long words. They may have to read the sentence twice, slowly, to grasp the actual meaning.

Also, if your paragraph has more than 6 sentences and looks like a big block of words, many readers will not even attempt it.

So… if you make people feel that they must wade into a bunch of words, and really work intellectually to grasp the meaning, they usually won’t. They will go back to their Google search and go to the next lawyer website, and see if that one makes them feel intelligent or if it makes them feel stupid.

Writing online is not formal. You can have a paragraph with one sentence.

You can use italics to make a point.

Unlike a pleading, you can stick in photos in the middle of your article - and you should.

And you can start a sentence with AND. You can write sentence fragments, to make a point. Just don’t go too far off the reservation.

A website with grammatical or usage errors - which are all too common – looks bad. This is a sentence I pulled off an attorney website:

As your cases progresses, it will be presented to the team as new issues arise and critical events occur.

Awkward? Yep. There is also a noun/verb agreement error, “cases… it.” But that’s just one example of stupid errors I’ve seen on the first page of a law firm website. Here’s another one.

If an attorney leaves who is a name partner, fix the entire website. For instance, your firm is called Smith Johnson & Harrison. Mr. Harrison leaves. The firm becomes Smith & Johnson. Yet, all the website articles refer to “Smith Johnson & Harrison.” For instance: “At Smith Johnson & Harrison we are dedicated to helping you get the compensation you deserve.” A potential client will read that and think, where is this Mr. Harrison? It looks sloppy and unprofessional.

 

The optimum way to write for your website or blog is to make sure you know your audience, and write for them, in a clear and appealing way.

Since the first page of your firm website is that first impression most potential clients get, it’s super important that the main emotions you evoke in the reader are not puzzlement or annoyance. How to know what emotions are evoked? Easy. You don’t have to hire a marketing firm to help you with this. Just ask 5 friends who are not attorneys [and not your employees] to take a look at your website and tell you their impressions, in an honest and constructive way. You may be surprised by what you hear.

You need to periodically check and re-check your website copy and your blogs to make sure you are not using Legalese and you are writing clean, concise, easily understood prose. Make sure the keywords don’t make the prose sound twisted. Correct any grammar, punctuation, or usage errors.

These steps will pay off in the long run.

Make Friends With Social Media

I have worked for a lot of attorneys over the years and I have not seen one attorney in recent years who didn’t use their computer heavily. Sometimes, the computer takes over an attorney’s life.

I remember some years ago when Blackberries were the newest thing and a young attorney in my office dubbed his the “Crackberry.” He didn’t want to miss any messages from his supervising attorney because he wanted to make partner asap.

If you are old enough to have a child past the age of 12 you probably have heard yourself saying “No, you can’t sit at the dinner table with your phone next to your plate. Put it away.” (I have a 17 year old son, so I say this fairly often, unfortunately.)

My point is simply this: if you’re checking messages and emails and on the computer [iPad, iPhone. Etc.] all the time anyway, why can’t you post something on the firm Facebook page, or Tweet, or post on LinkedIn, every couple of days?

Let’s say you are in a small firm and your firm has a Facebook page. After you invite all your friends and your partners invite all their friends to “Like” the page, then what?

Learn to think in terms of Twitter and Facebook and what is going on in the firm and in the world outside. Read a couple of online newspapers every day. Be aware of what’s happening not just with your cases, but in the firm at large.

Look for articles that touch on what your firm does, and post links to the articles on the Facebook page and your Twitter feed.

For instance, if you do family law, post a link to a story about celebrity divorce.

Here are some more ideas: Somebody’s assistant had a baby? Post “Welcome to the world Barney Xavier Smith!” and a photo (with permission, of course).

New carpet in the conference room? Post a photo of it and a comment like “Love the new red carpet and it matches my eyes!”

Just won a big case? Post a brief synopsis and how much the jury awarded.

Make your Facebook page interesting and/or FUN. Yes, even if you do only wills and estates, it is possible to make your page fun.

Example: My dad was a trust banker who did estate planning. He would come home and tell us about his oddball customers all the time. One time, he had a customer who wouldn’t answer her phone, so he got concerned and went to her apartment, only to find she had been dead for several days. In summer. If he had had a Twitter account he could’ve tweeted “Good day to not eat anything else. I need to lose a few lbs. anyway.”

Another time, he had a man come into the bank and say his father had passed away and left a fortune but nobody could find it, or the will. Dad got in the car and drove up to the old shack where the man lived, way out in the country, and found the man’s money, in cash, under the mattress. Dad grew up in a tiny rural town and knew how country folks generally felt about bankers. If Facebook had existed in 1978 he could’ve posted an entry on Facebook like this:

Five Reasons My Bank is a Better Place to Store Money Than Your Mattress

1. Your mattress doesn’t pay interest.
2. There are no pretty tellers anywhere near your mattress.
3. In the bank, nobody will have to use a box cutter to get to your money.
4. No bedbugs in our bank vault, promise.
5. Your crazy uncle Jedediah can’t get to your money when it’s in our vault.

 

There is nothing wrong with using humor to attract attention. Attorneys aren’t generally known as being comedians, but think about it: you want your clients to like you and recommend you to their friends? Then lighten up.

True story: when I worked at my first paralegal job we had a partner who was in his 70’s. One day I was in the breakroom laughing, and he came in and said “This is a LAW FIRM. We don’t LAUGH here.” He was totally serious. Of course, all his clients were insurance companies. You get the picture.

Let’s say you are a real estate attorney. Go volunteer at Habitat for Humanity and actually build a house. Write about the experience. That’s worth a blog post, and a Facebook mention. Maybe even a few Tweets, i.e. “Just learned that a screwdriver is also a tool, not just a drink. Good to know. Didn’t bring any orange juice anyway.”

Charity events like that, or like a 5K Fun Run, are excellent ways to network. Wear a firm tee shirt to the event. Don’t have a firm tee shirt? Get one. Stick some business cards in your pocket.

Get an Instagram account and make photos of yourself at the charity events. Post those on Facebook and Twitter, too.

This is a link to Buzzfeed. There are a million interesting/funny/silly stories on there. Post links to Buzzfeed stories.

Are you a sole practitioner? Post a funny photo of yourself from your younger years. It will make you seem more human and approachable. [Just don't post that one of you passed out at a frat party...]

Still wary of Facebook and Twitter? Ask your teenager how to use those sites. Or borrow the neighbor’s teenager. They can show you everything practical you need to know in 10 minutes.

My point is simply this: there is no need to feel like Facebook and/or Twitter are the enemy. Get your name and your firm name on the internet as much as possible, and watch your rankings in the search engines go up.

...and just to make you feel better, here's my geeky self as a teenager - don'tcha LOVE the glasses?! I could never get my hair to do the 70's side flip either...

Attorney Popularity on the Worldwide Web

Years ago, when attorneys weren’t allowed to advertise, their main form of “client development” was socializing with potential clients, which included time on the golf course. Any associate who didn’t play golf had to learn, or be left behind by the “old boys club.”

Mini golf didn’t count. (That fact alone explains why I never went to law school.)

I know this because I’ve been working in law offices as a paralegal since 1985. I remember being puzzled by the fact that lawyers couldn’t advertise.

The world has changed a lot since I started work in a bad 80’s perm, wearing a dress with linebacker shoulder pads.

When I started as a paralegal I didn’t even have a computer on my desk.  In my last regular paralegal job [before becoming a full-time writer] I had a computer with two widescreen monitors and my own scanner.

The world has changed a bit in the last 28 years.

Whether your potential client is a small business owner or an individual, they are likely on the web, every day. They are Facebooking, and Tweeting, and Instagramming. They are all about LinkedIn and Pinterest.

You may leave work and avoid the computer like the plague the rest of the day, but your typical client probably doesn’t.

Your potential client gets t-boned on Peachtree Street, guess what they do?

They grab their iPhone or their iPad and they Google phrases like “Atlanta lawyer car accident” or “accident attorney.”

What if they need another type of attorney? They still turn to Google or Bing, if they don’t know any attorneys. They may type:

“I need a real estate lawyer in Cumming”

“bankruptcy help”

“Alpharetta divorce lawyer”

“Atlanta attorneys + CHEAP”

Now, who do you think it going to come up first in that type of search? Here’s a hint: if your law firm’s website went live three years ago and hasn’t been touched since, it won’t be your firm popping up first.

Marketing is something most lawyers do only grudgingly.  Let’s say you are a typical lawyer. You pose for a professional photo for the website, and write a brief bio that doesn’t mention anything interesting like the fact you have a bigger TV than anyone on your street, or you can make the best chili in Decatur, nope. It likely says you went to school and graduated 6^th in your class and you have represented blah blah and blah…

Your office manager sends the website guy your photo and bio, and you think whew, glad that’s done. Now I can get back to practicing law.

What most attorneys don’t realize, though, is the fact that they need to market not just their firms, but themselves. They need to be known in the cyber community.

The internet is constantly changing. New websites, new articles, new content is being added all the time, all day and all night.

The attorney who is going to come up first in that Google search? That will be the attorney who has taken the time to study ways to make sure they land at the top of the search heap.

There are lots of ways to make that happen.

Putting up a website and never adding new content is a huge mistake.  Ignoring SEO [search engine optimization] is worse.

SEO = Search Engine Optimization

SEO is critical to being found quickly on Google. Make sure whoever designed your website understands how to put in keywords – “car accident attorney” or “probate litigation specialists” or whatever – on page 1, and in the url, metadata, and page titles. Hire someone who really knows how to do that. Read the site before it goes live, though, and be sure the keywords don’t look awkward or stilted.

Your firm needs to be on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter, and any listings of firms in your area.  Don’t know what to put on there?  How about this: Sit down and make a list of ten reasons why your firm is the best source of legal help for your clients. Tweet one reason every couple of days.

Do you read online legal publications? Why not comment on a story? Most commenters on blogs and websites are given the opportunity to put a url for their website.

What about your local newspaper, online? Most newspapers allow comments. Comment as an attorney and be sure to mention your firm. (I would avoid something too blatant like “Yeah, I saw this car on fire and thought WOW! That guy needs an attorney! Call me today at Dewey Cheatam and Howe.”)

Facebook is easy. For instance: you represent people injured in car accidents. Time Magazine runs a cover story on the newest safety equipment on cars and how it saves lives in an accident. Post a link to that story on your firm website, and say something about it.

The more your name is on the web, and the more the name of your firm is on the web, the better you will do in keyword searches.

Spending some time every week online, marketing, may not be as much fun as playing 9 holes and having a few beers afterwards. However, it can really pay off in the long run. Spend an hour online, Tweeting and Facebooking and commenting, then reward yourself with a round of golf.

The Art of Being A Wordsmith

I am always amazed and dismayed by folks who don't value good writing. Being a writer is not something that anyone can do, not unless they really make an effort. It is a very doable skill, though, for those willing to try.

I've been pondering how one would go about teaching someone to write. If you are trying to make a point quickly, which is the essence of most blogging and internet writing, you have to grasp the basic tenets of good writing. If you are needing to do more serious writing, this is aimed at you, too.

Here are some tips. These should simply be a starting point.

1. Before you start to write, imagine your audience. A teacher? A reader of online articles? A friend. Think about their possible reaction to your topic.

2. Why are you writing? Are you trying to inform, persuade, amuse? What is the point? You need to know why in order to best choose your words and structure your sentences. You might even use the "why" to help you brainstorm. For instance, if you are blogging because you want to persuade someone to use your services, you might start off by linking to an article, for instance:

[link] Explosion in cupcake factory results in some cupcakes containing bits of iron and bug parts

[your points - why you are different]

1. I bake cupcakes in a new facility

2. My place is regularly inspected for safety.

3. My shop is sprayed for bugs on a regular basis.

3. Brainstorm what you want to say, generally, and just put down your thoughts. Don't worry about spelling or grammar or mechanics. Getting the ideas down is most important. This is your first draft. You might even want to put a star by the most important points, and then your thoughts just below. For example:

The real estate market in Myrtle Beach has slowed down in recent years.

my houses are better built / my houses are closer to the ocean / I offer discounts to senior citizens

4. Go back and re-read your ideas. Decide what each paragraph will do, and make a rough outline. Don't let the word "outline" scare you. It can be in any form that works to help you organize your thoughts.

5. Do a second draft. Craft each paragraph. Make sure, if you're doing formal writing, that it has a topic sentences, 3-5 supporting sentences, and a conclusion. If you're simply blogging or writing informally, you can isolate particular sentences for emphasis. For instance:

The were many houses on the road. All were imposting. All had families living there.

Only one house contained a monster.

6. Proofread. There are two types of proofreading; one time over fixing sentences and making sure everything is grammatical and properly punctuated.Even if you hated English in school, you should know if a sentence has a subject and a verb, and if it ends with the correct mark - a period, question mark, or exclamation mark.

The second time is to see if the work accomplishes what you set out to do.  Try to read it objectively. Go back to the WHY - did it accomplish that?

7. Put it away. If possible, try to build in time to put away your writing for a few hours or a day or a week. Going back after time has passed will help you see the work again with fresh eyes.

8. Ask for help. If you read what you wrote and it doesn't seem to have accomplished the goal, ask for help from an Editor. That person can be a friend, teacher, mentor, co-worker, etc.

9. Make sure everything is spelled correctly. Spellcheck doesn't catch everything.

10.  Get feedback. After some time has passed, ask the recipient of what you wrote their response, if possible. If they have constructive criticism, listen to it.

 

As with any skill, practice is crucial. I am a good writer because I write every.single.day - anywhere from a couple hundred words to several thousand words. The more you do it, the easier it gets.

There are tons of resources for writers, but this is just a quick way to get to thinking about it. If you really want to be a better writer, WRITE.

Also, READ. Always be reading a book. That will help you know how to write better.

If you are really serious, STUDY. Take a class at a local college, or look up videos on YouTube, or consider getting a degree in writing.

Tweeting is Easy

There seems to be popular thought among small business owners and lawyers that figuring out what to say on Twitter is difficult. It's not.

You have to remember, it's a blip, a sound byte, an hors d'ouvre. You don't have to be Walt Whitman, or Stephen Covey. You don't have to write a coherent paragraph - that's for a more distinguished and formal space, Facebook...

Let's say you have a small business and you want to promote it on Twitter. First, go sign up for Twitter. It's easy. Then, Tweet.

Here are 5 suggestions:

1. Come in on Tuesday, when everything is 10% off!

2. Follow our business on Twitter and we will follow YOU!

3.  Read this story in the local paper and thought ____________.

4. It's Monday AGAIN?! They keep popping up so regularly. They are a real buzzkill.

5. I blogged! Check it out: [insert link]

Of course, not all of these would be appropriate for, say, a law firm.

Now, attorneys are notorious for being wary of social media. I know there are visions dancing in their heads of them being in court on malpractice charges: "Is it true that you posted a Tweet saying you were in deposition and actually you were at your kid's soccer game?! Hmm?!?"

I link every single blog I do to Twitter. That's worth a Tweet a day for me. Sometimes more than one.

You can also present facts and figures:

"Our firm won 100% of our cases that went to trial last month!" [you can omit the fact that none of your cases went to trial]

"Last year our average case settled for $498,ooo!"

"Our staff turnover rate is .06%!"

Or report the news around the office:

"We welcome a new associate onboard, Ernest Biller!"

"Birthday cake in the breakroom from Piece of Cake. Yum!"

Or go for humor:

"Hey, we not be on the sides of the bus, but we keep marketing budgets low and pass the savings on to YOU!"

"Check out the news story here [insert url] strippers sue for wage and hours issue!"

************************************************************************

Here are some actual Tweets I saw tonight:

"My soundtrack: ♫ "The Kiss" by The Cure" [my friend Scott]

"Working on a reboot of "The Crucible" starring Richie Incognito." [Dennis Miller]

If you ever wondered what it was like to live in Utah: http://dooce.com/2013/11/07/living-in-utah/ … http://fb.me/6l0ABJ9vh [Heather Armstrong a/k/a Dooce]

"True or False: Zombies can't see you if you don't move. My daughter and I are having a huge (and highly worthwhile) argument about this." [Ree Drummond a/k/a Pioneer Woman]

"Spent the day w/ koalas & now my eye is swollen. Can you get eye chlamydia? Or is it more likely a spider has laid eggs?" [The Bloggess]

Giant Burrito To Solve All Of Area Man’s Problems For 6 Precious Minutes http://onion.com/HBbzsp [The Onion]

// As you can see, my Twitter taste runs to comedy...

So go TWEET TODAY!

If you want to follow me on Twitter, I Tweet as Crabmama...

Using Social Media To Your Advantage

When most attorneys or other small business owners think of marketing, they don't even consider bloggers.They wonder if THEY need to write a blog. They don't stop to think about all their friends and neighbors who blog, get on Facebook or Twitter, or use other social media sites.

I've been in the blogging world since 2005. That world has expanded. Now the worlds of Twitter and Facebook and Pinterest are also huge. If you are a business owner and you're not thinking about promoting yourself with those outlets, you are missing out on potentially a huge chunk of the market.

Now, I would've said a year ago that nobody in my age group [40-60] used social media very much. That's not true, though.

According to Brafton, in late 2012 "Twitter saw a 79 percent increase in users aged 55 to 64."

Another source, Search Engine Watch, says Pew researchers found that social media site use is up over 70% in recent years, and that includes all age groups and ethnicities.

I work part-time for an attorney who does wills and estates, Kristy Seidenberg. I was able to blog about her because of our business association, but I could just as easily have blogged about her organizing parties at our neighborhood pool, and linked to her professional website. Here's what that might look like:

Kudos to Kristy Seidenberg for making last week's firepit cookout at the pool a truly fun event! She's great at making potato salad, AND she can draft an airtight will!

Yeah, I know it sounds goofy but hey, that mention might be seen by 976 people and two of them might start thinking about needing a will and call her. You never know.

Kristy was featured in a local magazine months ago and she is still getting calls from new clients who read the article.

So the bottom line here is, think about social media not just in terms of what YOU do with it, but what your neighbor does, or your Sunday School teacher, or your child's tennis coach. They may have Twitter feeds, Pinterest boards, Facebook pages, etc. and they might link to your site there. The more links to your site on different social media outlets, the more Google likes you.

Telling Stories

There was once a young man who was highly intelligent and had a master's degree in business, but he made less than his wife, who was a schoolteacher. He was trying to sell life insurance.

One day his wife pointed out something very obvious, at least to her. "You really don't like selling life insurance, do you?" she said.

"Well, no. If people don't really need it, I don't want to sell it to them," he admitted.

"So, find a job where you can sell something you like," was her suggestion.

So he got hired on by a bank in the management training program. He retired from banking 35 years later.

That young man was my father. He had a very successful career selling banking services because it was a product he really believed in. He wanted people to make wills, and to protect their assets with good estate planning. He wholeheartedly believed that those were ways to help people have better lives, and he was successful because he believed what he was selling.

I believe in the power of STORYTELLING. [I wrote about it in more depth actually, over at my personal blog The Crab Chronicles].

This morning, I was reading an interview of author Stephen King, and he talked about how he taught his own children the power of storytelling. Two of his three kids became writers.

Stories are powerful things.

I like this article, The Science of Storytelling: Why Telling a Story is the Most Powerful Way to Activate Our Brains.

The article suggests that humans are hard-wired to love stories, and we actually need stories if we are going to learn.

For the purposes of website writing or blogging, this is the part of the article I found most meaningful:

Write more persuasively—bring in stories from yourself or an expert

This is something that took me a long time to understand. If you start out writing, it's only natural to think "I don't have a lot of experience with this, how can I make my post believable if I use personal stories?" The best way to get around this is by simply exchanging stories with those of experts. When this blog used to be a social media blog, I would ask for quotes from the top folks in the industry or simply find great passages they had written online. It's a great way to add credibility and at the same time, tell a story.

The simple story is more successful than the complicated one

When we think of stories, it is often easy to convince ourselves that they have to be complex and detailed to be interesting. The truth is however, that the simpler a story, the more likely it will stick. Using simple language as well as low complexity is the best way to activate the brain regions that make us truly relate to the happenings of a story. This is a similar reason why multitasking is so hard for us. Try for example to reduce the number of adjectives or complicated nouns in a presentation or article and exchange them with more simple, yet heartfelt language.

 

So if you want someone to buy your cupcakes, or houses on your real estate website, or legal services, or whatever you're trying to sell, you need writing that tells a story, and connects with an audience.

Don't worry about dazzling folks with your language. Worry about connecting. Worry about engaging their brains and imaginations. A good blog is a good story, at its heart.

Website for The Write Rainmaker

I have designed a website for The Write Rainmaker and although it's still a work in progress, I am pleased with it so far. Check it out here.

Writing is my strength, not website design, so don't think this is the type of thing I would design for a client.

My friend Michael Hasty over at Inkhaus is a brilliant designer, and one day I will let him do a whole new website for me.

As the business grows I also plan on getting my friend Tom Branch, who is an amazing photographer and videographer over at Lava Post to make me some videos.

In the meantime, check out the new site and let me know your thoughts.