I recently had a great opportunity to present a four-hour business communications session to a group of accounting/finance professionals. When I started planning the outline with my client, I questioned whether I'd be able to fill the four hours — and more importantly, would those four hours be valuable? In a room of 70-plus professionals [...]
Active Voice Communications recently received two Copper Quill Awards from IABC Phoenix. The first was an Award of Excellence, which recognizes strategic communications. And the second was the President's Award, which I'm honored to have received for my service on the board of IABC Phoenix. While I'm stepping back from the board after three years, [...]
In January, I vowed to blog more. I also promised myself to run more, read more and craft more (those scrapbooks aren’t going to create themselves!). I failed on all fronts. And I would consider these failures devastating if not for what I accomplished — and what I learned — over the past four months. [...]
Happy New Year! For 2013, I've vowed to recommit to this blog – for a number of reasons. If you work in marketing or sales, you probably already know that blogging helps bring traffic to your website. But I was recently reminded of the intangible reasons. Earlier this month, I started teaching newswriting to a [...]
If you're a regular reader of this blog ... well, that's not possible, because I haven't posted much ... er, anything ... in the past several months. A couple of friends/colleagues have asked me why. It's really quite simple. I've been blessed to work with great organizations and people — and their marketing and communications [...]
As marketers, we delight in having many channels to reach potential consumers. But sometimes we forget that we, too, are consumers. And beyond goods and services, we are consumers of information. I enjoy using Twitter to learn interesting tidbits, Facebook to keep up with my friends, family and favorite brands and Google Reader to keep [...]
Have you started your holiday cards yet? Are you laughing at the mere suggestion? I'm proud to say that my business holiday cards have been concepted and written — and are currently in layout. I'll print them by Aug. 1. It's all part of Active Voice Communications' annual plan. Last year, I was a little [...]
When you're facing the costs of starting a business or enhancing your marketing efforts, it's natural to look for places to trim. You start asking yourself questions about what you can do yourself and what you have to contract out. You consider which marketing vehicles can wait. "Do I really need a website?" you ask [...]
My dad is a smart guy. Throughout my life, he's been right a lot. But most of the time, he wasn't trying to be right. He was trying to teach me something. One piece of advice my dad gave me was foundational. And I guess I thought all parents passed down this truism to their [...]
You're staring at the computer. The Word document in front of you is blank. You type three words, then delete them. You go get a glass of water, hoping that when you return, the words will flow. But they don't. Whether your job requires you to write on a regular basis or you write in [...]