Category Archives: Communication

The Secrets of Steve Jobs

Communications coach Carmine Gallo watched hours of Steve Jobs’ keynotes and identified the five elements of every presentation by the Apple CEO 1. A headline 2. A villain 3. A simple slide 4. A demo 5. A holy smokes moment One more thing…sell dreams. For more of Job’s techniques, flip through this slide show. Then [...]

Good writers

Good writers have two things in common: they prefer to be understood rather than admired; and they do not write for knowing and over-acurate readers. Friedrich Nietzche

Martin Luther King—A dream is had by me!

Forty three years ago Martin Luther King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and proclaimed: “I have a dream!” Imagine if instead he had said: “A dream is had by me.” Same meaning. Different impact. If you want impact as a writer or speaker you had better spend the rest of your life [...]

Orwell on writing

Few people are aware that George Orwell not only wrote the novels Animal Farm and 1984 but also spent some time as a Bible translator. Not out of religious devotion but out of a devotion to good communication. This is what he wrote: I am going to translate a passage of good English into modern [...]