I am proud to share the news that my second fiction novel, The Fatal Flaw, has been released and is now available on Amazon.com.
Announcement: New Book Release
What is Teamlancing?
The Un-Agency Model of Marketing Professional Services
Ever since the announcement a couple of weeks ago that the Creative Mill has joined the Collideascope “teamlance” model, I've received a lot of questions about what it is and how it works. Curtis Hays, one of my co-collaborators, has a pretty good explainer at the collideascope blog, which I’ll link to here and excerpt below:
Announcing My Teamlance
The Un-Agency Model of Delivering Marketing and Advertising Services
Brian Clark calls it the “teamlance” model.
As with just about everything in life, the old model is being democratized and decentralized in the world of marketing and advertising. While the big-agency model is still the right fit for many, others are discovering a new way of client service that offers the best of all possible worlds: experience, bandwidth, resources, flexibility and affordability.
Today we are announcing that we have entered into an informal (and even undocumented) partnership of the teamlance model with a long-time collaborator, Curtis Hays and his team at Collideascope. Meet the rest of the team here.
Brands can turn to teamlancing to maximize the flexibility of their operations with self-managing creative resources that are specialized, right-sized, and timed to their changing needs, whether project-based or for the long term.
The Write Path to Better Thinking
Guest Writer: Trudi Roth
The following originally appeared in the Further newsletter, which I highly endorse and what remains one of few things I read each and every week. Do yourself a favor and subscribe.
Written by the outstanding Trudi Roth, this piece captures my own thinking about the future and purpose of writing better than I ever could. With her permission, I reprint it in its entirety here.
As someone who makes her living by writing, you might think I’m petrified that AI will decimate my career.
Honestly, machines don’t scare me. It’s the foolish humans who are okay with completely abdicating their ability to think, communicate, and solve problems that I find alarming.
The Next Chapter
Seasons Greetings, from the Content Elves at Creative Mill
Know Your Value. Then Sell It.
Follow your passion?
Maybe. But I’ve always found that to come off as a bit hokey. It’s easy to say if you’re one of the 0.1% of people who hit it big, strike it rich, or achieve fame and fortune. “Follow your passion. That’s what I did, and now look at me!”
But you know who else followed their passions? The 99.9% of people who you’ve never heard of. Following a passion wasn’t enough for them. Most who pursue stardom fail, then move on to something else as Plan B.
That something else is known as “the real world” by many. Myself included.
Here’s what Kenny Loggins suggests…
Who's the Hero in Your Story?
Too often, the language we tend to use in marketing and advertising puts ourselves as the hero in the journey — the one coming to the rescue of the client or customer.
When, in reality, the client, customer or prospect truly only cares about his or her own journey…their own challenges, aspirations and coveted conquests.
Continue reading to see how this story can have a happy ending for you and your marketing efforts…
To Sell a Story, You Must Tell a Story
What’s more convincing: If I told you how many times I’ve helped a client out of given problem, or if I told you a story about the person I helped yesterday?
Too often, we litter our marketing copy with statistics—facts, figures, bullet points, specs, product lists, empty promises—when we should be telling stories. Stories are magical tools that convince people that what you claim to be true is actually rooted in reality. Stories make people feel. They make people care.
There is an old quote, often misattributed, that is taken from a work of fiction: “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic.” Here’s how you can apply that logic to your marketing messaging…
Show Me, Don't Tell Me
“Show me, don’t tell me.”
Those were the words a younger, deflated Tom Nixon read written in red atop his recently submitted creative writing assignment. The admonishment, coming from my sixth-grade teacher, would be a recurring theme in my life.
The lesson that first I learned in grade school, and kept relearning throughout life, would become a valuable asset in career as a content creator for businesses and professional services firms.