LOVE, SIGNALS, NOISE
by Richard Pelletier
Great business writing is love, language, and commitment.
Many years ago, I fell in love. Early on I told my beloved, “I will not only anticipate your needs, I’ll exceed them. I’ll listen. I’ll work overtime to understand your goals. I will optimize my love for you. Here’s my promise: I will deliver, 24/7.”
“Get real,” Maria said. She raised one super thin, highly manicured eyebrow and took my measure. “Die, you annoying little man,” her eyebrow said.
As she slipped from my grasp, I doubled down. “Maria, my process is proven—attention, collaboration, immersion, romantification, creation. You and me. On time, on budget. All the way baby.”
She married some other guy—a DUI attorney from Vegas.
ARE THE WORDS YOU USE TOXIC ASSETS?
by Richard Pelletier
All across the financial world, there’s a mad scramble to get so-called “toxic assets” off the books. Toxic assets are usually described in obtuse, hard to understand language. Credit default swaps and derivatives are just two examples, and if you can explain either one of them, I would love to hear.
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CHOOSE AND WORK WITH THE BEST FREELANCE COPYWRITERS
by Richard Pelletier
I’ve lost track of the number of times clients have said to me, “I’ve never worked with a freelance copywriter before. How’s this work?” I’ve also heard, “We hired a freelance copywriter once before. It didn’t go too well.”
To the first, I usually say “It all depends.” And to the second, I say, “I’m sorry to hear that.”
How to work with copywriters is here>>
IS YOUR WEBSITE AS GOOD AS YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD BISTRO?
by Richard Pelletier
Just before the New Year, I was having lunch with my good friend, a restaurateur, who I will call Chef M. We were eating at one of Chef M’s two highly regarded, very successful neighborhood bistros in Portland, OR. My rockfish was a gorgeous plate of buttery, flaky goodness. Across the table, his duck confit looked scary delicious.
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THE EMPIRE WRITES BACK
by Richard Pelletier
This irresistible book with the charming title floats a simple answer to a difficult question. Your organization is struggling to emerge from an overcrowded marketplace and forge a separate and unique identity – to create an enduring and powerful brand. How do you do it? Simple, says the UK’s John Simmons. Write different.
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ROWHOUSE DREAMS
by Richard Pelletier
It’s just before eleven on an already hot Saturday morning. Eugene’s here to help me with a backyard fence I’m putting up behind our newly renovated 107 year-old rowhouse. But at this moment he’s in our kitchen heaping spoonfuls of sugar into the cup of coffee Linda has poured him. He’s wearing my reading glasses, and the morning paper is spread out before him. I love teasing Gene.
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ATTACHMENTS
The question rolled around in my head for months. “What the hell happened here?” A whim and a prayer had delivered my wife and me into a fixer, a rowhouse on Baltimore’s Union Square. Built in the mid 19th century, the Square was courtly and a little frayed, but it had aged well. Not so much gentrified as cared for. Quintessential Baltimore. For over sixty years H.L. Mencken had lived in a rowhouse on the square lending it considerable cachet. His house, once a museum, had gone quiet. But what on earth had happened to this place?
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