Brand Voice and the Power of Words: Syntax

There’s an old joke email that’s gone ’round the web about a zillion times (the kind of thing your quirky uncle — or in my case, my quirky father-in-law — still forwards you daily) that asks the question, “Why did the chicken cross the road?” and gives the answers of many favorite authors.  My favorite was always Ernest Hemingway:

Why did the chicken cross the road?
To die. In the rain.

Maybe I only think it’s funny because I had to do an excruciating term paper in high school English comparing …

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expert authority

How to Become a Trusted Authority

In the nascent stages of my first business, I attended a business conference here in Denver, led by a woman who would eventually become my de facto business coach (I say that because, while I’ve never participated in her high-end mastermind program, I go to all her conferences, and have used several of her infoproducts).

One of the keynote speakers was her accountability partner, a beautiful woman with a Southern drawl who spoke a bit like a revival preacher—probably because she is a business coach to spiritual leaders; in other words, she teaches …

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Be the Change You Want to See (In Your Readers) With a Character Arc

What do Star Wars and blogging have in common?  A lot, actually!

In fiction and screenwriting, there’s an important storytelling concept called the character arc.

Think back to any great book you’ve read or movie you’ve seen and ask yourself this: How did the main character change from the beginning of the story to the end?

Sometimes the change is subtle, sometimes it’s groundbreaking.

Think about Luke Skywalker.  He starts out a whiney, spoiled kid and three movies later is an older-and-wiser Jedi master.  Major character change happening there.  Han Solo changes, too, from …

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