Below The Waterline
Posts
Work On This Skill To Be Your Most Powerful Self ✍️

Work On This Skill To Be Your Most Powerful Self ✍️

They Really Are Mightier Than The Sword

Harvey Lee
April 07, 2024

The use of words is a skill most people are not working on.

Words can change minds and alter beliefs, for good or bad.

You have the power to bring someone from the slums of life and make a successful person out of them. Or destroy someone's happiness using only your words.

Seems too good to be true?

Mohammed Qahtani, 2015 Toastmaster Champion, helps us understand this better.

He tells us that you can have a wonderful thing to say. But say it in the wrong words, and the wonderful thing is gone.

He has a four-year-old son who has this bad habit of writing on the walls with crayons. One evening, he walked into his room, and his son was writing, drawing, etc., on the walls.

And Mohammed said:

"Hey! Are you stupid? Don't you ever do that again."

And what happened? He did it again. Nobody likes to be threatened or intimidated, but his pride would not allow it.

He did it again, just out of spite.

A week later, Mohammed walked into his room, and again, he was going at it with the crayons. And this time, he was even looking at his Dad straight in the eye as he was doing it! 🖍️👀

Mohammed came down to his level and said in a caring tone:

"Don't do that. You're a big boy now."

And he never did it again. Because his pride wants him to be 'the big boy.' 👦🏻

We have all experienced the power of words, for good or bad, and seen beliefs alter.

Meanwhile, Back At Your Desk

The Remote/Hybrid Era is the gift that keeps on giving. However celebrated, this structural change in the world of work has posed some tough challenges.

Put yourself in your manager's chair. According to data from Harvard, managers now spend 25 hours a week reading for business.

Think about that.

Five hours a day, from an eight-hour work day, is spent just reading. Emails, Slacks, Texts, Articles, Reports. Add in a few Zoom calls, and your day will be over.

What work did you get done?

You likely feel the same as your manager.

We can't influence the amount we have to read; we can influence what we write.

This week’s newsletter is brought to you by the PMA Book Club…oh, wait! It’s me appearing 🤣

I’m extending a warm invitation for you to join me live at the PMA Book Club on 10th April.

Here's what to expect:

⛔️ No frameworks
⛔️ No buyer journeys
⛔️ No talk about features

Only inspiration for your career and a few laughs along the way.

I'll cover:

🤘 Why I wrote this book
🤘 How I wrote this book
🤘 What you'll learn from reading this book
🤘 How I helped AC/DC in their hour of need
🤘 How I moved across five categories in my career

💡 I might even do a live reading of the 'Turkey Run' story from chapter two.

Whether you've read the book or not, please join me and ask me anything!

Your Greatest Challenge Is Not What You Think It Is

It's communication.

A survey of 10,000 high performers and L&D professionals by Section School lays this out bare.

Regarding skills in the modern workplace, they agree on only one thing.

Communication is the most significant gap, and words are at its heart. Just look at the summarised list:

Employees	L&D Leaders
Presentation and Conversation	Crucial Conversations
Writing for Impact	Storytelling

Now, when we consider that we're all staring at screens and reading all day, it becomes obvious why words in the written and spoken form need more prioritisation.

In order for you to progress in your career, you need to upgrade your words.

Get ready for YOU 2.0 🦾

The Things Marketers Write Will Surprise You

We take emails, shortform messages, and the like for granted. Heck, I used to get 200 emails a day during my time at Microsoft and think it was normal!

Getting 200 emails a day is not normal or healthy

2,000+ if I was on annual leave, of which only 5% were actionable. That really shows you how valuable this amount of communication is! 🤦

But that's just the day-to-day; we often don't consider the actual work we do, using words.

Seems marketers write a bunch! Thanks to WSJ Best-Seller author Ann Handley, she's spelt it out for us in her book, Everybody Writes:

TLDR? Here are the 20 things marketers write:

The new ideal length for every piece of content Size doesn’t matter. It’s the quality that counts	Writing direct response email “Personalisation” means “I care.” Don’t sound like a marketer. Sound like a person
Why you need an email newsletter There is no third-party platform calling the shots. You own the data	Writing an email newsletter Set up a schedule, whether once a week or once a month. Just stick to it
Writing a Home page Make your visitors feel as comfortable as possible	Writing the About Us page This is definitely not about you. Rather who you are in relation to your customer
Writing landing pages Less is more. Keep things simple	Writing headlines Keep it 90% clear and concise, 10% clever
Writing infographics The best of them have both a hypothesis and narrative within them	Writing for video Keep the mystery alive. Delay your reveal
Writing for social media This is all about dialogue, not monologue	Writing image captions Here, you should write your audience into your story using the 1-1-1 principle
Writing with hashtags Use those that are relevant to your brand	Writing your LinkedIn profile Diversify yourself. Avoid buzzwords like passionate, leadership, motivated, strategic and expert
Writing for LinkedIn Remember to include rich media. They result in a much higher comment rate	Writing about hard stuff Make sure the subject line delivers on the promise
Writing a bolder boilerplate Go bold or go home	Writing speech descriptions Focus on the audience, not the speaker
Writing a sales letter Think hard about how you can help people. Then convey that	Ghostwriting Remember to leave your ego behind. You’re writing for someone else, in their voice. Not your own

That’s A Wrap

In sum, words can lift you up, put you down or alter beliefs. Words have power and a massive impact.

Yet, the Remote/Hybrid Era poses a huge communication challenge that no one is actively addressing.

You have an opportunity to make your impact felt; I urge you to take it.

Take stock of how much you actually write, and commit to learning and practising your written communications. Maybe one day you’ll write a multi-award winning book? 🤘

Keep on rockin!

Harvey

Top Tips To Be A Better Writer:

Take a writing course:

How to start writing (free)
List of 15 copywriting courses (free)
Ship 30 for 30 (paid cohort-based but worth it)

Better writing comes from better reading:

Everybody Writes (Buy UK | US)
Snow Leopard (Buy UK | US)
Backstage Pass (Buy UK | US)

Tools:

Grammarly (free and paid)
Hemingway Editor (free and paid)
AI for Busy Writers (free - brilliant for emails!)

How to Work With Me

I recently opened my book of business, and I’m delighted to welcome four new clients this month.

I’d love to hear how I can help you meet your objectives. Here are some of the areas I work in:

Fractional or consulting [Learn More]

Career Coaching [Learn More]

Speaking [Learn More]

Read my book [Learn More]