Stacy's Blog | tips for writers, speakers and marketers

Barack Obama nailed it. As a curious Canadian, I watched his paid advertisement last night. With his numerous friends in Hollywood, he could have dazzled us a million different ways in his 30-minutes of prime time television. But Obama didn’t impress us with his fancy friends, instead he reached out to us with vivid stories from the common American. References to Joe the plumber and soccer moms are now replaced with real stories and dramatic images. I woke up this morning still seeing a mom standing in front of her open fridge, finding creative ways to stretch out her groceries. I’m remembering a woman’s crooked, arthritic fingers and her husband getting dressed for a job he never meant to have in his retirement years. I watched a senior man, trying not to cry, as he talked about his monthly pension payment that falls hundreds of dollars short of what was promised. A while ago, I attended an excellent webinar on “Marketing Through Storytelling” by Andrea Learned . Learned talks about s

Like many Canadians, I curiously watched the broadcast of the vice-presidential debate between Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Gov. Sarah Palin last Thursday night. While I was watching, I was wishing that I could give Governor Palin one tiny bit of advice. I would like to delete one word from Palin ’s vocabulary. No, it’s not the word betcha, a word with a dropped g (like goin ' or somethin ') or the term maverick. I would tell Palin to stop using the word also . Palin says also approximately 50 times during the course of the debate, and approximately 50 times the word is unnecessary. This filler word weakens her key statements. Take a closer look at the debate transcript and you'll see what I mean. Even though Palin probably has access to some of the best speechwriters in the world and is well-coached on her key messages -- the best writers cannot prevent her from sneaking filler words into her spoken delivery. We all use filler words or verbal pauses in our langua