By Peter Lyle DeHaan, Ph.D. In the last issue, I wrote about the importance of embracing social media. Regardless how you feel about it, social media is an increasingly important business enabler that should be part of your overall business strategy – whether for profit or nonprofit organizations and regardless of size. In general, social […]
I once attended a lecture by a writer I admired and followed. He said he’d hang out afterward, during the break. I bought his latest book and returned to have him sign it; I hoped we might talk a bit. He was gone. I waited. Nothing. Then I roamed the building but couldn’t find him. […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD For years, a reoccurring line from the movie Blues Brothers has puzzled me. I’m not sure if I should be offended or amused with the protagonist’s assertion, “We’re on a mission from God.” The “mission” of this critically disparaged, yet once popular film, might be to simply levy mayhem upon […]
I understand a slight majority of all people are introverted. And based on my interaction with other writers, I’d say, as a group, we’re decidedly introverted. If you’re introverted, read on. This post is for you. And if you’re not introverted, read on anyway to better understand us. Introversion Isn’t Bad: In a world that […]
There are three facets of book publishing: writing the book, producing the book, and promoting the book. This final step of marketing is one that most authors would just as soon skip. But if people are to read what we write, we must promote our work. Here are some articles about marketing to help with […]
By Peter Lyle DeHaan, PhD Does your call center make the caller and patient a priority? I expect it does. In fact, I suspect the phrase “quality service” is in your mission or vision statement, or even on your bulletin board. But do you actually provide quality customer service or just talk about it? Has […]
My friend, an auto-mechanic, shared a story about his co-worker who was assigned a difficult repair that should have taken twenty-two hours, but it took him much longer. The next time the same job came in, he volunteered for it, this time finishing it quicker. Soon, every one of these repairs went to him. Each […]
Grammar is my weakness. It seems I switched schools at the wrong time and missed foundational instruction. I never did catch up, struggling with it to this day. As such, Grammarly, the online grammar checker, has intrigued me. Finally, I made time to check it out. According to the site, “Grammarly is an automated proofreader […]
Last year I took an online writing course from Jeff Goins. It’s called Tribe Writers. It was the most significant thing I did all year to grow as a writer. I enjoyed it so much, I took the class again to make sure I didn’t miss a thing. Then I took it a third time. […]
I remember a substitute teacher in second grade. She was determined to instruct us, not merely maintain order, as the usual goal of our fill-in educators. She asked what letters were vowels. “A, E, I, O, and U” we shouted in unison. “And sometimes…?” she encouraged us. “Y” we called out. She repeated her last […]