writing

Adam Smith | March 22, 2017 | Leave a Comment

Here’s Why Pre-orders Matter

My book releases on May 30th, so not too much more of this book promotion stuff. I know I keep talking about my book, but it’s for good reason. I spent the last two years writing it, and before that, I was coming up with the idea and also researching the publishing process. So, of course, I’m proud of this book. I put the work in and I believe it’s a great product. Actually, here’s what the past few years have looked like: [Read more…] about Here’s Why Pre-orders Matter

Erik Tyler | July 23, 2015 | 14 Comments

How to Remember Things PART 1: Tricky Spelling – Erik Tyler

In my first official post here, back in June, I talked about the real magic involved in communication. I trust you were sufficiently convinced that a growing mastery of language is essential for success as a leader. In my second post, I made this statement: “Becoming an effective communicator is a lifelong process that requires continual investment.” And that is absolutely true.

But it occurred to me that not everyone has a great memory, and less so for academic information since the days of classrooms and teachers and report cards ended. Maybe you’ve just given up on becoming a better speller, relying on spell-check to cover for you in your adult life. Maybe you’ve tried in the past to increase your vocabulary; but you just never seemed to remember the new words after a day or so, so you threw in the towel.

Well, I’m here to tell you that you can improve your memory. In fact, I have spent decades teaching students – even the cynical ones – this very thing: how to remember stuff. If you’ll give me a chance, I’ll prove that even you can learn how to remember things without hurting your brain or spending hours drilling boring lists and the like. Imagine finally being able to remember those tricky words you’re always spelling incorrectly, or looking at any new word and remembering its meaning forever.

It can be done.

Erik Tyler | July 9, 2015 | 6 Comments

Big Fat Lie # 2: How To Say What You Didn’t Actually Say – Erik Tyler

In my last post, I called you a liar. That is because you are one. And I trust you were challenged to become an even better liar after having read the aforementioned post – that you were inspired to incorporate strong idioms and figures of speech to vary your language approach, make your message more clear, and improve both your oral and written communication through clear voice and tone.

Today’s Big Lie is all about skillful slips of tongue. We’ll also cover how to approximate those linguistic loopholes in writing, which is both tricky – and, at times, immensely useful.

SETTING THE STAGE

As before, I’m going to ask you to stop in a moment and consider something before continuing to read: to answer a question to yourself (or, better yet, in writing), as part of the exploration and learning process. You may think you don’t need that step; and, as most anything else in life, the choice is yours. But carefully considering what you already know or believe about a topic before learning more will significantly increase the impact and “stickiness” of the new information.