The Three Month Vacation Podcast

If you're a big company like Amazon, YouTube and Apple, should you bother to send out e-mail newsletters?

Can't you just spend loads of money on publicity and advertising? Why do these billion-dollar companies still work with e-mail?

The answer is remarkably simple.

If you don't keep in touch, someone else takes your place. However, that's not the only reason why you should start and sustain an e-mail newsletter—even in a world where we get too much e-mail.

Find out in this podcast just why you should send out an email and what you should avoid as well.

Next Step: Listen or read:

Dread Writing Your Newsletters? How To Overcome That Frustration In Four Easy Steps

Direct download: 28_May-The_Unsettling_Logic_of_Email_Frequency_002_wav.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:00pm NZDT

How do most of our stories end?

Usually, it's a fairy tale ending. Or maybe it ends in chaos, sadness or even disaster. We believe that an ending is crucial for any story. And there is no doubt that endings are needed for stories, but they're almost always irrelevant when you're using a story for an article.

The story is there to make a point, not end with "happily ever after".

Learn why a fairy tale ending is something you want to avoid almost all the time.

Once you finish listening to this episode:


Listen or read:
How to Stop Clients In Their Tracks With Riveting Business Storytelling


It's not unusual to approach an edit with a machete. We see a mass of words and want to hack through them to make the story more interesting. The problem is, that we don't know what to throw away and what to keep.

That's why "relevance" is more important to a story than just adding or removing words and sentences.

Let's use the power of "relevance" to make a quick, precise edit.


Next Step: Once you finish listening to this episode, don't miss:

How To Craft Interesting Stories and Analogies (For Articles and Sales Letters)

Direct download: 14_May-How_to_edit_a_story_wav.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00am NZDT

We often believe that stories have a sequence.

First, this happens, then that happens and then something else shows up. And while that belief is generally true, the heart of the story is the "stuck point".

You know it's powerful because the audience sits up upright. If you were to stop or even pause long enough, they'd be asking, "What happened next?"

Do you get the "What happened next" with your stories?

To get a consistent "what happened next" we need the power of the "stuck point". Let's find out more in this podcast.

Next Step: Read or listen to:
Three Unknown Secrets of Riveting Story Telling

Direct download: 7_May-Getting_Stuck_Storytelling.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:00pm NZDT

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