Philip Glass:

“A new language requires a new technique. If what you’re saying doesn’t require a new language, then what you’re saying probably isn’t new.”

Marcel Proust:

“Every writer is obliged to create his own language, as every violinist is obliged to create his own ‘tone’…. I don’t mean to say that I like original writers who write badly. I prefer — and perhaps it’s a weakness — those who write well. But they begin to write well only on condition that they’re original, that they create their own language. Correctness, perfection of style do exist, but on the other side of originality, after having gone through all the faults, not this side. Correctness this side — ‘discreet emotion,’ ’smiling good nature,’ ‘most abominable of all years’ — doesn’t exist. The only way to defend language is to attack it.”

INSIGHT: Let’s face it…insurance isn’t the most exciting industry around. And in the complex risk arena, the major players have been in an arms race to showcase how professional, serious, efficient, and, well, major they are. The end result is mega-firms who’ve ditched good old-fashioned service and personal connection for process, red tape, and stuffy advertising. Sounds like an opportunity for a smaller firm with the flexibility and passion to play a different game.

SOLUTION: Remind people that offices around the world don’t mean anything if no one will return your call. Whether you do $1 million or $1 billion in sales, great service still comes down to real people taking the time to listen to what you have to say. A crazy idea. (Oh, and let’s have a little fun, too. ReSource might be in the insurance business, but they still love coming to work every morning.)

So with a rare free hour, I built a site to catalog my librolfactory adventures. I hope you enjoy. And let me know if you smell any good books.

**********

Here’s a sample…

Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Book: Night Flight
History: Personal collection, 1974 paperback via the Fort Collins Public Library
Smell: Empty manilla envelopes in a well-swept, tiled storeroom

That’s alright.

Testimonials and demonstrations always beat copy. Trusted word of mouth trumps everything.

That doesn’t mean the quality of your copy can’t make or break your business. You still have to drive them to those testimonials. You still have to walk them through the sales process. You still have to communicate value.

But it is good to know which levers have the most impact on your marketing.

That’s why it’s so great to earn a solid testimonial. I ask for one from every client – you can never have too many testimonials at your disposal – but my favorite are the spontaneous ones. Praise given off the cuff, usually in surprise that the work’s that good. They’re fresh, often funny, and genuine.

For example:

“Ryan, your writing is so good that I’ve been struggling to find a way to express how awed I am by what you sent me. It’s amazing.” – Andrew Warner, Mixergy

“This is really great. Very, very good… I expected to rip your first one to shreds, but I am very impressed.” – Ramit Sethi, I Will Teach You To Be Rich

Those quotes make me smile.

And remind me that good testimonials serve another purpose beyond boosting sales. When you’re thick in the work and losing your perspective, they remind you a real person waits at the other end, eager to see what you’ve been doing, hoping you’ll deliver something that makes them say to their friends, “Hey, this is cool. Check it out.”

You know those RSA Animate video summaries of popular business books?

Great stuff.

But why limit them to business books?

I’d love to see those for fiction. Imaging the possibilities…animated CliffsNotes!

I know that sounds blasphemous, but there are so many classic and contemporary novels that I’d love to read but just don’t have the time for. (I’m looking at you Moby Dick.)

I may be in the minority on this daydream, but it’s still a good idea just for the impact it could have on story education in this country.

Students would love these videos. Kids don’t want to read, and while they’re much shorter than a full-length novel, CliffsNotes and Wikipedia summaries are still reading. If teachers had snappy videos that could catch their attention, more students might actually pick up the book. Having a 10 minute overview of the book sprinkled with helpful commentary could also make some books more accessible. (I’m looking at you Sound and the Fury.)

The best place to start?

Shakespeare, the Bible and Greek mythology.

There’s so much wisdom and heritage in those works that’s fading away because the original texts and stories aren’t easy to read and understand. We shouldn’t get rid of these canonical stories, but we do need to prime the pump for students. (And let’s admit it, adults, too.)

What book would you like to see animated in this style?

**********************************************************************

FOCUS IS YOUR SHORTCUT

As I explained in my last coaching post, focus is the aspiring writer’s key to success. Everyone has to learn the same lessons. There’s no shortcut around practice, practice, (deliberate) practice.

BUT…and this is the key…focus allows you to learn those lessons as quickly as possible. And focus turns average, only-so-helpful practice into the deliberate practice that will truly make you a better writer.

This is why some casual writers spend decades writing and never get better, while other hyper-focused writers spend what seems like barely any time and quickly rise to the professional level. It’s the difference between studying for a test while texting and watching TV vs. studying for a test in a quiet room at the library. Not all studying is equal. And not all practice is equal.

Once you get your focus training underway, you’ll be ready to look at the three different types of focus…

1. FOCUS IS ENDURANCE

When most people consider increasing their focus, they think about staying on task for a longer period of time. When you’re really busy, do you put your head down and barrel through a marathon of work? Are you consistently, truly productive when you do this? How do you feel when you’re done? And the next day?

See, endurance is important, but it’s not only factor in success. Pushing too hard on your endurance can actually be counter-productive.

As Tony Schwartz and Jim Loehr outline in The Power of Full Engagement, our bodies and minds aren’t meant to run non-stop at full-capacity. Constantly pushing yourself to do more (focus on writing) with less (energy and attention) will lead to burnout.

A better approach is to work with your body’s natural rhythms. Most people’s energy (and thus their ability to stay focused) cycles on a 90-120 minute schedule. You should be able to focus for about the length of a movie, but then you need a break to rest and recharge. It doesn’t need to be a three-hour nap, but a genuine break will give you the energy you need to focus for another 90-120 minute cycle.

Most people don’t have the ability to really focus for more than two 90-120 minute cycles a day. We fill the rest of our working time with admin, distractions, meetings and half-assed work. If you can work with your natural rhythms instead of against them and exercise your ability to focus, you should be able to add an additional 90-120 minute cycle to your day. That gives you a huge advantage when it comes to productivity.

2. FOCUS IS DEPTH

Even more important than how long your focus is how deep you focus.

Shallow focus is hardly focus at all. 60 minutes of scattered writing might only add up to a few minutes of genuine work. And it likely won’t include any practice deliberate enough to truly improve your writing ability. In the end, shallow focus is pretty much a waste of time.

Compare this to deep focus. So deep that you’re 100% absorbed in your work. Oblivious to time and space. This state is called flow, and you’ll recognize it as some of your happiest times writing. When you’re in flow, you’re giving your work everything you have. You’re also probably working at your peak productivity.

Many writers have experienced a state of flow and come out hours later with a completed story or fully-formed scene that seems better than anything they’d written before.

Note that flow is not the same thing as deliberate practice. You can flow during deliberate practice, but being in a state of flow by itself will not make you a better writer. But it will make you a more productive and happier one. Combine flow and deliberate practice and you can really accelerate your progress.

3. FOCUS IS ACCELERATION

How fast can you go from completely distracted to completely focused? Does it take you 15 minutes to settle down and start writing? 30 minutes? 60 minutes? All day?

Consider this: If you have 90 minutes a day, 5 days a week, to write, and it takes you 45 minutes to really buckle down and start working, you’re wasting half of your precious writing time! If you can reduce your start-up time to 15 minutes, you’ll add 2.5 hours of writing a week. Over the course of the year, that adds up to over 125 hours. That’s like adding a three-week writing retreat to your schedule every year!

As a busy aspiring writer, your ability to focus when you need to is where you’ll find the biggest wins in your efforts to master the craft.

ENDURANCE + DEPTH + ACCELERATION = INCREDIBLE PROGRESS

Let’s recap…

If you want to improve the quality and quantity of your writing, you can:

1. Write for longer periods of time
2. Concentrate more when you do write
3. Waste less time getting in the mindset to write

Those three are listed from easiest to hardest. They’re also in order of smallest to largest gains for the aspiring writer.

Each of these by themselves will make a real difference on your writing. If you can improve your focus in more than one of these areas, that’s huge. Imagine adding 30 minutes of deep focus to the start of every writing session. Or adding another 90 minutes of good writing time a few days a week. The difference is huge, and the results compound.

Next week, we’ll look at tactics you can use to build your focus endurance, depth and acceleration.

Until then, which type of focus training do you think would have the biggest impact on your writing?

Businesses have a terrible time admitting they messed up, saying they’re sorry and making amends. I’m not sure how they came to believe that doing so was a sign of weakness. Maybe most businesses worry it opens them up to liability. Which is silly. Either they messed up or they didn’t, and the first step to rebuilding brand trust is admitting their mistake and saying they’re sorry.

A Good Example

I’m not quite sure how I came to be subscribed to Anne Holland’s WhichTestWon newsletter (the result of some “free” information, no doubt), but a few weeks ago, Anne started emailing me. I didn’t pay much attention until I received an email with the subject line “Webinar from H-II … So sorry guys”. Everybody looks at a train wreck…

Anne wrote:

Everyone who's ever done webinars has their war stories.  
 The one where the slides got stuck.  The one where the
 presenter failed to show.  The one with the broken poll.

 This afternoon we plummeted to new depths, and wound up
 presenting our Awards Webinar of the Year ... entirely
 without sound.

 Natalie and I were going crazy behind the scenes trying to
 fix things.  Between us, we've done something like 2,000
 webinars in our time.  But this time we failed.

 Finally I moved the slides along in what our co-presenter
 the gallant Len Shneyder of Unica called a "Charlie Chaplin
 Silent Film" mainly so the nominees could see what they'd
 won.

 So, here's the deal. If you were signed up for the webinar,
 you should have just now gotten an all-new invite with link
 for a repeat performance -- ONLY WITH SOUND THIS TIME --
 next Tuesday at 2pm ET/11am PT.  You do not have to sign
 up again, you're all set.

 PLUS - we are going to post a Case Study with creative
 samples and results data for each winning test (all 36 of them)
 on WhichTestWon.com in a "hall of fame" by this Wednesday.

 So, next week, instead of our regular "Test of the Week"
 you will be getting 36 Case Studies of award-winning tests!

 Mea culpa. I fall on my sword.  This no-sound thing has
 never happened before to us.  Thanks for sticking with us
 while we sort it out and try to make amends.

 Anne

 Anne Holland
 Publisher & Culprit - WhichTestWon.com

An excellent email

Frank, sincere, personal. She admitted her mistake, righted the wrong (rescheduled the webinar) and helped make it up to her subscribers by sending them extra material. A class act.

I wasn’t paying attention to Anne before, but now I am.

Businesses take note: a real apology can be the best sales letter you ever write.

Often the best way to solve a problem is to have a conversation with your future self. How do you do this without bending the space-time continuum? It’s simple, really. Have a seat in your favorite chair and close your eyes. Now imagine walking into a bare room, with plain white walls with a small table and two folding chairs facing across from each other. Sit down in the chair closest to you. Now, in walks your future self 10 years from now. S/he sits across from you and explains that s/he’s there to answer whatever questions you have about the problems you’re facing. Go ahead and begin firing. Ask him/her whatever you want and take advantage of a more experienced version of you.

A clever, handy technique that probably stems from Neuro-Linguistic Programming. I originally classified this as a personal development tool. Which it is, but it may also be a great writing tool in disguise…

How Would _____ Write This?

How would a more experienced version of yourself write this? (This being whatever ad or announcement or scene or headline you’re trying to craft.)

This may sound like a silly exercise, but if you approach it earnestly and give it time you’ll find that our minds are a lot more powerful than we think. As with freewriting, novel approaches to brainstorming can produce novel results. A large part of creativity may simply be getting out of our own way and letting our subconscious run wild. In this case, simply asking a “better” version of yourself to solve the problem may be enough.

Of course, our future self may not be the only resource at our disposal. Given enough familiarity, we may be able to ask other writers.

I’ve read a biography of John Steinbeck and a handful of his novels, letters and journals. I’m confident I could conjure up a young Steinbeck if I wanted to.

Same for Seth Godin. I’ve read his blog faithfully for years, read many of his books and listened to at least a dozen presentations he’s given (now available on the web). That’s not to say I’m as smart as Seth Godin. But that’s not the point, either. What matters is using my knowledge of him to produce work that’s better than what I could do “on my own”.

Of course, even if you use this technique, the work you produce is still your own. And if the work is better, that’s quite the confidence boost. “Look what you wrote. You did this once; you can do it again.” Sometimes a little time travel is all it takes.

Who would you consult?

We know the solutions. Single task, single touch, to do lists and so on. But sometimes it’s a challenge just getting to the point you can use these hacks. How can you skip from sitting down right to working without losing 5 to 10 to 20 minutes a pop checking in and clicking around? (That time really adds up.)

There’s willpower. But that’s a limited resource. (And pushing yourself through a productive day might mean an evening full of raids on the fridge. You don’t want to rob Peter to pay Paul.)

A more helpful approach, oddly enough, is to slow down. Put a list of focusing questions between you and your work. I’ve found this works best if I keep a stack of 3×5 cards on my desk, right in my way so I’ll be sure to see them every time I sit down.

How it works

1. When you sit down to work, take a card. Write your TASK at the top. Keep it simple. This might be “Ad” or “Brochure” or “Brainstorm”. Just a little note to point you in the right direction.

2. Next, write GOAL and add what you’d like to accomplish. Actually write “GOAL”, then whatever you goal is. For example: “GOAL: Outline site map for intranet.” or “GOAL: Brainstorm ad headlines.”

3. Next, note your DEADLINE. Include both the time you’ll stop working (e.g “3:15 pm”) and the length of time (2 hours). And be realistic. Your mind and body naturally flow in 90-120 minute rhythms. You can sandwich multiple work sessions around mini-breaks, but keeping your units of measurement under two hours helps keep your work manageable and your spirits up.

4. Next, write VALUE and clarify exactly how this work will benefit you. Putting this in writing is a powerful way to energize yourself, especially on difficult, mundane or lengthy projects. Maybe the work is its own reward. Maybe the work is dull but helps someone else. Maybe it’s good for your career. Maybe it’s a good way to build your skills. Tap into the why.

5. Next, decide how you’re going to PUSH yourself. Life is too short to coast. Find a way to improve your skills each time you sit down. That could mean digging deeper for more creative solutions to an ad. Or trying to humanize your copy. Or working to craft funnier dialogue. Or if the work is rote, at least try to work faster so you can finish earlier and focus on something you do enjoy.

6. Finally, decide what you’re going to do on your BREAK. Write it down. Pick something you’ll actually enjoy. It’s easier to focus and push yourself when you know you have a break coming at a set time and you’ll be doing something fun.

Now start working.

Try it

Altogether, this activity only takes a minute or two. And while it’s not necessary, that minute or two helps you start working faster, better and happier. And by tapping both your rational and emotional side, you can boost your productivity without sapping your willpower.

Not bad for a 3×5 card.

My wife proposed that we brainstorm and share a list of 101 goals we wanted to accomplish over the next 1,001 days. And we did. We pledged ourselves to 10 shared goals and an additional 45 individual goals. Ambitious, exciting and fun.

But while I’ve accomplished some big things, I recently noticed that I’ve only been able to cross off about a third of my 45 personal goals. Most of the goals, which would only take a day or two to complete, have slipped through the cracks.

Why is that? Why have so many fun, motivating and generally easy tasks remained undone?

Last year…

I was committed to crossing more items off my list. I drew up a strategic plan for all of the goals I wanted to accomplish in 2010. I started with 2-3 major areas I wanted to focus on (my writing chops, my writing career and my fitness). Then I found 5-6 metrics by which I would measure my success (outlines written, new clients signed, pounds lost, etc.). From there I came up with strategic and tactical objectives to reach those metrics.

And I did alright. I didn’t accomplish everything on the list and some plans morphed during the year, but 2010 was easily my most productive and professionally satisfying year yet. Still, a lot of goals, especially the smaller ones, slipped through the cracks.

Why is that?

A New Approach

My 101 Goals in 1,001 Days list is a motivational strategic plan, but strategy without action is fluff. Last year I boosted my gains by bringing the strategy down to the tactical level, but that didn’t optimize my results.

The solution?

This year, I’m bringing the strategy all the way down to the operational level. This isn’t as complicated as it sounds. For example, I want to create 12 spec ads for 12 major brands. Great. That’s one a month. What days will I work on those? I want to add 20 pounds of muscle. Great. That’s about 1.6 pounds per month. What days will I go to the gym? What day will I design a training regime for bulking up? I want to stay more in touch with some of my old friends. Great. I can do that with two phone calls a month. Whom will I call on which days? I want to boulder at Vedauwoo with my brother. Great. Pick a date and mark the calendar.

Big life goals can be overwhelming, but when you bring them down to the operational level, they feel almost easy. Adding 20 pounds of muscle sounds daunting. Adding 1.6 is no problem. Staying in touch sounds like a hassle. Making two phone calls a month is a pleasure.

Will I complete everything on my list? Probably not. Life has a way of throwing curve balls.

Will I complete more than if I just waited for the ideal time to act? Certainly.

Life is like writing.

You can’t wait for your muse to show up. You have to chase her down.