“I’ll Never Be a Writer”
lies we tell ourselves &
why Communication trumps talent

Who Am I?

You don’t get paid to drive...

As humans, we are taught
and capable of being
excellent at many things.
We chose to specialize out
of the basics.

So what?

Interpersonal
Communication
Before large and small brands
succeed in it, we each must first
re-learn how to communicate with
each other personally. Then, we’ll
see and understand the shift in
marketing that ‘gurus’ have
prophesied to us for years.

Purposes of Writing
• Reporting (facts)
• Story-telling
• Information gathering

Benefits of Writing Better
• Better understanding...faster
• Ideas approved
• Persuasion
• Agenda setting
• Trust
• Advancement

Back to the Basics
8 Simple Rules for Interpersonal Writing

Writing. What, like it’s hard?
What?! Like it’s hard!

Rule 1: Know Your Audience
• Who are you writing to?
• How do they read?
• What do they want?
• How do they want it?

Most Readers:
• Want it brief
• Want it simple
• Want it honest
• Want it easy
• Want to be reminded

Who has the Power?

5 Types of Social Power
• Reward power - perceived ability to give
positive consequences (remove negatives)
• Coercive power - perceived ability to punish
the nonconforming
• Legitimate power - organizational authority
• Referent power - gained through association
with others with power
• Expert power - have distinct knowledge/skills

Writing without Power
• Qualify your directives/suggestions:
• “I think...”
• “I believe...”
• “I feel...”
• Ask for recipient’s thoughts/suggestions
• Provide reasoning/explanation
• Use ‘hedges’ (communicate degree of accuracy)
• ex: “I’m not at an expert, but...”

Rule 2: Soften Your Info

Gossip = Storytelling
• People really do love/listen/
remember gossip
• Present hard info as though it’s
soft
• Turn data into insights
• Make facts seem fascinating

Do me a Favor:
Send a Tweet to
@brendanbkbk
that I’m praising
HUGE ;)

Movie Rec

Rule 3: Spellcheck & Proofread
• Does it make sense to you?
• Misspellings:
• Disrupt message absorption
• Can change meaning
• Take more time from the reader

Rule 4: Know the Language
• Know the connection between
language, thought, and perception
• Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
• linguistic determinism
• linguistic relativity

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
Each company has their own
language. Organizationally,
their thoughts and perspective
on clients, trends, and their
industry are shaped largely by
their language.

Rule 5: Think Like a Teacher
• Use active voice
where possible.
• Parallelism in
bullets & lists.
• Cut out two-fers
• Punctuation
matters

Rule 6: Reduce Uncertainty
• Uncertainty Reduction Theory
• Clarity vs. Sincerity

Rule 7: Look Beyond Yourself
• Use insight into personality & previous
behavior
• Predict their stance/disposition
• Persuade wisely & with their benefits in
mind

Facial Expressions
• S - sadness
• A - anger
• D - disgust
• F - fear
• I - interest
• S - surprise
• H - happiness

Schlitz Beer

Rule 8: Know Thyself
• Know your motivations/needs
• Know how others perceive you
• Know when (not) to be the ________

Have an Alter Ego

Wrap-Up
• Know your audience.
• Soften your info.
• Spellcheck and proofread.
• Know the language.
• Think like a teacher.
• Reduce uncertainty.
• Look beyond yourself.
• Know yourself.

Holla
chrisjpitre@gmail.com | chris@chaione.com | twitter.com/chrispitre