Striking a Balance
I try to make rational decisions around 90% of the time. There’s always room for a bit of emotion and impulse. So I give myself a bit of leeway when they pop up. But I try to make kind decisions 100% of the time. There’s never room for cruelty or brutality.
From First Impressions to Long-Term Success
Monday: pending deliverables for three new skeptical clients. I can SAY that they’ll receive drafts in their voice and with accurate treatments of complex financial topics. I can PROMISE that first drafts are more than 95% of the way to final. But do they really BELIEVE it? They say yes to a project, but they […]
Fostering a Culture of Compassionate Intelligence
Cruel and stupid are everywhere. That’s a big part of why I created my business—to create a safe little island of kind and smart for myself, my team, and my clients. And I don’t (only) mean the usual cast of bullies and bigots. What’s more insidious are the cruel and stupid forces that creep into […]
The Value of Expert Language
In specialized industries like institutional finance and fintech, beware of writers and content professionals with knee-jerk reactions related to jargon, simplicity, and clarity. Those reactions are often biased and self-serving. Saying “it might be confusing” often just means “I don’t understand.” In other words, watch out for generic conventional wisdom that doesn’t apply. Don’t let […]
Why Smaller is Better
Better things are happening in private communities than the big public social networks. I’m experiencing constructive dialogue, meaningful insights, deeper affinity, and higher resonance in places like invite-only Slack channels, mastermind or other learning groups on Mighty Networks etc., newsletters, and even Telegram or WhatsApp groups. What I like best: It becomes harder and harder […]
From Order-Takers to Strategic Partners
Marketers in complex industries like institutional finance have many inner demons to wrestle. Here’s what I mean. The conventional expectation is that marketers need to straddle the line between the client and the industry. They aspire to bring relevant trends, client insights, and industry knowledge to the table. But the reality is more nuanced than […]
Writing for the World You Want
Are you serious enough about thought leadership to take your topic seriously? Once upon a time, writing gurus used to say we should write for people at a 10th-grade reading level. Then it went down to 8th. Then 6th-grade reading became the threshold. Recently, I’ve seen people seriously proposing 5th and even 3rd-grade reading levels […]
Ensuring Your Startup’s Voice is Heard
Startup founders have to be careful not to use “build mode” to hide from “communicate mode.” Here’s what happens. Many founders, especially for complex B2B products, are engineers, not advocates. They pour their heart and soul into development, but shy away from the spotlight. But if you innovate in silence, you’re missing out. You need […]
Trust Over Traffic
One thing B2B marketers often get wrong—they use generic, mass-market tactics for small-to-mid-sized businesses when their buyers are large enterprises. They put traffic ahead of trust. This mistake seems more common among smaller and newer providers, but it happens elsewhere, too. The thing is, the buying decision for a high-stakes, high-ticket purchase doesn’t work like […]
One Week to Mastery
Become a better fintech leader/marketer/writer in just one week. Three steps. Here’s how.