ENCORE – see also the current e-zine
delighting in all things communication,
2-minute touchpoints courtesy of wordsmith, Sandy Ross ♦ London, ON
(3) from 2011, on...
brevity in communication ♦ When Gab's No Gift
the value of face-to-face ♦ Back-to-Word Legislation
authenticity in communication ♦ Male Order Bribes
+ 2010 below (Un-cola Communicating / Take My Strife, Please / Gender Offender)
When gift-of-gab needs less-is-more
My late father was an entrepreneur. He likely sensed that was my path, but didn't live to see Word's Worth launch. In its two decades since, I often wonder what he'd advise, or what bang-on opinion he'd have of some peer's reputation yet unknown to me. Luckily, having worked for him in my teens, many moments of Dad's business (and life) wisdom were gifted to me.One lesson came as I worked the till. That's hitting cash register keys, for you barcode babies. Sometimes, not even a register, but a crank-lever adding machine on top of a cash box. Well, I had a habit of chatting up customers as they paid. Not long banter (hey, I was mentally tallying tax to add and change to give), but enough to catch Dad's ear. And it caught my small talk about some item I was ringing in: how I'd had one, ways you might use it, other colours it comes in... At day's end, I was gently told the less-is-more mastery of sales communication (in this case, point-of-sale). Basically: keep talking, and you'll talk yourself right out of the sale.
What?! No enthused embellishment? No (albeit friendly) over-thinking, overkill conversation? So that's why he never gave me a Chatty Cathy doll back when: she'd set a precedent. No matter. All that Dad did give is immeasurable. Even still, his sage practicality helps curb my inclination, leading me to questions more than commentary. Like: "How may I help? If I do XYZ, might that fit your need?" And the moment a prospect agrees to invest in my support: "Terrific, thanks" [stop]. Remember, Dad echoes... "you've already sold it once".
back to top, 2011
Back-to-Word Legislation
I'll bet, as postal delivery resumes, we've been thinking of how many ways we stay in touch. Yes, writing is one. And, while it's odd to hear this from a writer... it's not the only way. Joan Rivers did a whole schtick on another: can we talk? Oral storytelling came long before the first scribe picked up a quill (or rock and chisel). Jump to 2011 and, maybe especially now as it's overflowing high tech, talk may need a boost.Who's with me? Less Facebook, more face-to-face. Do biz over a cuppa, not just a keyboard. Visit personally, not virtually. Be glad we're 'having words' – it means we're speaking, sharing. Conversation for our nation!
Sadly, I doubt our protest will impact. They'll call us dinosaurs, all because we recall there was a time, before chat was online, it was at the clothesline. We remember when an actual meeting – not media – was social. Connection was a sense of rapport, not the speed of a modem. And engagement was the reason I have a hope chest.
Even as I rally our cause, I'm conflicted. I value free speech. I know we can't legislate how we 'conversate'. But at least simplify its systems. The telephone. Can we dial it down a bit, techno-wise? I don't suggest two tin cans and a string, but do we truly need a portable device the size of a credit card to have enough graphical apps to produce an off-Broadway show? Granted, maybe I'm the wrong age demographic. (Or are there others out there who have likewise been known to hear a ringing phone and answer the TV clicker?)
Finally, please know, the irony's not lost on me that this to-heck-with-tech rant comes via email. Look, I don't advocate we decimate digital. Let's simply incite an occasional return to talk. Embrace together this practical alternative: feel free to phone (I'll try not to answer the remote). As for those yet devoted to the virtual, viral, or Ashton's latest blog... trust that they'll join us in their own tweet time.
back to top, 2011
Male order bribes
What royal wedding nuptials... genuflecting, genuine. As the bishop spoke to William and Kate about helping each other be their "deepest, truest selves", I wondered what other romantic rituals can teach us about authenticity in communication, as well as in our being.Say, pre-wedding attraction stage: any truth (in advertising) then? Or do we adapt sales jargon to jazz ourselves up as proposal prospects? And what of arranged unions? Sure, you take what you get, but at least you get a penpal phase first to make your pitch. Translation: to write yourself as better than that truest self. Well, hopefully not. But, words can/do win hearts.
Nowadays, the Internet brokers romance. It's a fiance buffet where meet markets online intersect with slimy commercialization and voila: the hunt for husbands goes viral. Oh, yes. Brides aren't the only marriage material promoting on the Web. Grooms hit the links, too. So, this chick clicks (just for research) to one website's photo gallery of bachelors that Mum may call 'a motley crew'. The hats alone are choice... some dude under a dusty, old John Deere peak, a fella in a fez, or (kid you not) a chap in a twinkle-star sleeping cap. It's like the tooth fairy went kinky. Enough visual branding: on to wordsmithing.
As a communicator who advises business to embrace a storytelling style, I'm aghast at the anecdotal tact this bunch takes. Imagine the backstory! One gent's looking for a Julie to match his new tattoo. Another is looking for a gal who can "keep up with me and knows how to dress... a wound". A "classic romantic" sporting Charles Manson's coif wants a woman with insurance and a car for trips to Mexico to pick up 'souvenirs'. One just 17 years young assures he'll be legal tender by the time you're acquainted, and prefers women with a "lot of money" since his parents will kick him out in December. A final one says he'll start a new life soon and, while away for 18 months, is glad to write and notes parole as the dangling carrot that he may be available sooner. Incentive marketing.
Wow. That PR could use my professional tweak (and a hint of believability), but I'll keep my quill to myself this time... and hold out for Mr. Write in realtime. Even if the Web is a buyers' market for male order bribes, I'm not byting.
back to top, 2011
wordsmith@
519.472.5322
www.sandyross.ca
get the word out and
get your Word's Worth
ENCORE – see also the current e-zine
delighting in all things communication,
2-minute touchpoints courtesy of wordsmith, Sandy Ross ♦ London, ON
(3) from 2010, on...
the power of saying what it's not ♦ Un-cola Communicating
communicating sensitive issues ♦ Take My Strife, Please
gender-neutral language ♦ Gender Offender: Say 'No!' to Politically-Correct Nouns
+ 2011 above (When Gab's No Gift / Back-to-Word Legislation / Male Order Bribes)
Un-cola communicating
A marketing tagline or promo can also boast what a product isn't. "Unlike other widgets..." sets a point of differentiation, much like the PR for that clear soda pop; the un-cola. Some may call it lazy writing: sponging off a competitor by simply putting a 180 spin on brand distinction s/he paid marketing strategists big bucks for. Maybe, but it sure plays the percentages. All the things your product isn't offers you infinite choice, so pick one and, voila... a slogan, or at least distinction.I'm reminded of a Halloween years ago. The lad from next door knocked (as a pirate, I recall), and I greeted him with my amused smile and his name. "You look terrific, Armand," as I put a few extras in his empty pillowcase. An hour later, he rang again, but with a wardrobe 'malfunction'. He had altered his costume slightly (a different shirt?), and now had a cardboard sign around his neck: 'Not Armand'. OK, hardly the poster boy for truth in advertising, but it did reap return on investment. His market (me) paid up – milk chocolate motherload – and, more pointedly to the business lesson here, his message is remembered still.
back to top, 2010 – or – top of whole page (2011)
Take my strife... please
'We are not amused' was Queen V's historic retort and, with disease and pestilence hard sells for any court jester ('take my strife, please'), you just know Her Majesty made some wordsmith's head roll. Or if not off with a head, at least off to bed without supp (darn, it was meadloaf night).Her rebuke begs question, though: are some topics simply un-funny? Long after Victoria, delicate issues still exist. Misfortune lives among abundance; loss alongside success. Tough crowd. Yet often, untouchable topics must be touched on. Might some sensitively worded levity help; and how? Humour – a great hook – can be a merciful messenger, and make a point memorable. It can reframe a 'victim' as the hero of a solution. It shows respect by noting harsh reality, yes, if it includes what-to-do's. It knows hope trumps tragedy, and it can get results. Such was the case – action, and awareness – for an article by Sandy [pdf], received as "one of the best messages on seizures I've ever read", with another reader's "thanks for insight and humour on this. I laughed a lot and am now wearing purple" (for awareness).
So then, is nothing off limits? Taxes: un-funny. And death? Surely no smile there. Well, consider a funeral mood lovingly lifted by Monty Python's comedy troupe, eulogizing their own Graham Chapman, singing him to his rest with 'always look on the bright side of life'. Then, believe – humour can indeed be merciful, memorable. I like to think it had Graham laughing his ashes off.
back to top, 2010 – or – top of whole page (2011)
Gender offender: just say 'no!' to politically-correct nouns
Words are my life, or at least my heart. That's why I'm so pithed at how political correctness insinuated itself into our words, demanding gender neutrality in language. Even a decade ago, we gals could brag of promotions to chairman. Now: chairperson. Why the need to neuter titles? Even if CEO ranks are male-skewed, ever see the portraits in most headquarters? More gentlemen's club than roughhouse Rambo; surely no threat to madame chairperson. And the inanimate title, chair – hardly electric.
If we insist on postal carrier, then take homonyms hostage, too. Refuse to call it mail. And make the film academy redo awards, with Oscar nods to: The Postal Carrier Always Rings Twice. (The statue can stay as is, though. Haven't we physique tweaked the poor eunuch enough already?)
And closer than Hollywood: Quebec, where communiques rely on gender, le or la. Fine. Let them print it twice, once each way; see how they like it. And on the western affront: Ms. Okay, I get it, equality, but I like Miss Ross. I sound like a fun teacher or nanny, adored by her wee charges. (Plus, if dating, it pays to advertise.)
So, as we ban the 'far out, man' of the 70s for today's pop culture clichés, at least 'yo dawg' won't gender offend politically correct-ors. Nope. Let's agitate animal lovers instead.
back to top, 2010 – or – top of whole page (2011)
wordsmith@
519.472.5322
www.sandyross.ca
get the word out and
get your Word's Worth