I am revising a company's website copy - repositioning them in the market - and I keep running into qualifiers. Qualifiers are those words or phrases that kneecap a success by making it "not-so-great."
"It's the best show featuring a monkey."
"It's the direct-to-video hit comedy."
Notice how in both those statements the phrases take "the win" down a peg? You don't ever want to do that. Ever.
Because people are out there who are going to (try and) take you down a peg anyway.
Why help them out?
When you're pitching, remove the qualifiers...
[It's this little movie we did...]
When you're writing, remove the qualifiers...
[He kind of loves her...]
When you're designing your key art, remove the qualifiers...
[If I see another grey, formless piece of crap key art I'm gonna kill the slowest of the bunch of ya]
Because when you apply qualifiers to your work it says you don't believe in your work, it says that it's half-ass work and it says you're half-ass. NOT to be taken seriously.
Life's too short to be half-assed. Especially in this business.
Showing posts with label pitching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pitching. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
And Here's the Pitch!
Everyone has a story - their story - that makes them unique amidst their peers. When you hear them tell their story you become involved and caring and understanding - it affects how you feel about that person...or even that company...or that product.
Two very smart screenwriters, Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman figured out that everyone has a unique story to tell and if everyone "discovered their story," and learned to tell it effectively, then it would affect how people perceived them. In other words:
Maxwell and Dickman brought the art of the pitch to the boardroom and to business.
The two have written down their experiences and analyses of pitching in an amazing book called THE ELEMENTS OF PERSUASION (Harper Collins publishers) . It is a book I recommend not only to writers, but to career-minded people of all sorts. Inside are real world examples and concepts of how story affected someone's business in both a positive and negative manner. You'll learn how a story is constructed, and take a simpler look at the must-have elements of any good story.
By using the exercises in this book you'll learn your unique story and how to pitch it to everyone you meet. You'll be able to brand yourself in their minds and be that memorable guy who really held everyone's interest instead of that great writer who was kind of shy and sad.
Buy it.
Read it.
Use it.
End of story.
Two very smart screenwriters, Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman figured out that everyone has a unique story to tell and if everyone "discovered their story," and learned to tell it effectively, then it would affect how people perceived them. In other words:
Maxwell and Dickman brought the art of the pitch to the boardroom and to business.
The two have written down their experiences and analyses of pitching in an amazing book called THE ELEMENTS OF PERSUASION (Harper Collins publishers) . It is a book I recommend not only to writers, but to career-minded people of all sorts. Inside are real world examples and concepts of how story affected someone's business in both a positive and negative manner. You'll learn how a story is constructed, and take a simpler look at the must-have elements of any good story.
By using the exercises in this book you'll learn your unique story and how to pitch it to everyone you meet. You'll be able to brand yourself in their minds and be that memorable guy who really held everyone's interest instead of that great writer who was kind of shy and sad.
Buy it.
Read it.
Use it.
End of story.
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